Computer Safety & News

Trend Labs shares techniques for spotting targeted attacks, which are highly specific and designed to blend into corporate email or other resource functions in a highly legitimate manner.  http://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/7-places-to-check-for-signs-of-a-targeted-attack-in-your-network/ http://about-threats.trendmicro.com/us/threat-intelligence/targeted-attacks/ QUOTE:  Targeted attacks are designed to circumvent existing policies and solutions within the target network, thus making their detection a big challenge. As we’ve stressed in our previous […]

As McAfee security shares, “Trust Is the Most Valuable Asset” in protecting information resources http://blogs.mcafee.com/mcafee-labs/trust-valuable-asset QUOTE: Traditionally, providing security has been primarily a task of the state, but who should be responsible for safeguarding cyberspace? Who will build trust in it? Most of digital infrastructure is owned and operated by the private sector. Moreover, the […]

This study shares that LONGER passwords are more protective than extensive use of special characters in shorter passwords.  Several additional key findings are also shared in this study. https://gsr.trustwave.com/topics/business-password-analysis/2014-business-password-analysis/ http://securitywatch.pcmag.com/hacking/326374-make-passwords-strong-and-long   An automated tool can crack a completely random eight-character password including all four character types such as “N^a&$1nG” much faster than a 28-character passphrase […]

Another excellent leadership article from John Maxwell’s blog http://www.johnmaxwell.com/blog/take-5   Leaders should quit agonizing over the wording of an abstract mission statement that almost no one will read and that will have almost zero impact on their people. Instead, they should concentrate their efforts on developing and following a “Rule of 5” for their company.  […]

Warnings have been issued for young people to avoid this dangerous new act, that is sometimes being promoted by their friends using social networking resources http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2014/08/05/deadly-choking-game-spreads-among-teens-on-social-media/   The “choking game” has sparked a social media craze with teenagers posting photos and videos of people choking themselves for a brief high that causes people to pass out […]

Microsoft Security Essentials improved from 22nd to 6th place in recent AV-Comparatives Prevalence testing.  The most common and prevalent threats were tested among different AV products and Microsoft scored well in this area.   http://securitywatch.pcmag.com/security-software/326487-microsoft-goes-from-cellar-to-stellar-in-new-antivirus-test http://www.av-comparatives.info/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/avc_prevalence_201403_en.pdf https://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/mmpc/shared/protection.aspx http://securitywatch.pcmag.com/security-software/317280-why-microsoft-doesn-t-need-independent-antivirus-lab-tests   Microsoft commissioned the well-known lab AV-Comparatives to re-evaluate a recent test taking prevalence of samples into account. This was […]

F-Secure is featuring an excellent series of articles during August 2014 related to dangers of ransomeware attacks   Ransomware Race (Part 1): CryptoWall ups the ante http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00002729.html   This summer has included the appearance of two strong new malware families onto the file encrypting Windows ransomware market: CryptoWall and CTB-Locker. Of these, CTB-Locker has been the more advanced […]

Approximately 4.5 million Community Health System patients appear to be impacted by major data breach recently reported: http://www.komando.com/happening-now/267459/hackers-steal-4-5-million-patient-hospital-records http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-28838661   Hackers got into the hospital’s systems and installed a virus that stole upwards of 4.5 million patient records. The information stolen includes names, Social Security numbers, patients’ home addresses, birthdays and telephone numbers. So far it seems […]