A botnet attack is one where a hacker compromises one or more of your devices, takes control and uses the devices for their nefarious purposes such as attacking companies and governments and making it look like the attack came from your device. In 2016, baby monitors, cameras and home routers were taken over by hackers to bring down a large portion of the internet. Freely available attack tools help hackers create new botnets easily. There are lots of botnet attack tools including the popular Great Cannon of China and the Low Orbit Ion Cannon, both of which are designed to create botnets that cripple internet servers with high volumes of traffic.
READ ABOUT THE ATTACK
Install your patches people! Install them when they are released. Install them automatically! Software is everywhere - in our laptops, smart phones, smart TVs and even our wearable devices such as pacemakers. Where there is software, there are vulnerabilities. Where there are vulnerabilities, there is an opportunity for bad guys to take advantage. This could be a life or death situation!
CARDIAC PACEMAKERS CAN BE ATTACKED: The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a warning about Medtronic Pacemakers that can be made to execute remote code. The good news is that Medtronic identified the problem and issued a patch.
READ THE CISA ALERT
ZERO DAY VULNERABILITIES: A zero day is a vulnerability in an app or device that even the manufacturer was not aware of but hackers identified and exploited. Apple issued a patch to resolve a new zero day that was identified on their devices. Always stay tuned to updates from vendors of your apps and devices.
APPLE'S NEWEST ZERO DAY
Pictures sure do speak a thousand words. A simple digital photo can reveal your exact location (which could be your home address), the date and time the picture was taken, the exact kind of device it was taken on and who were the people with you (including any strangers). With outdoor photos that have shadows in them, it is possible to figure out exact location with just date and time using tools like SunCalc. This information is embedded in what is called EXIF data within photos. Even digitally altered photos might still have the original photo thumbnail in them. Read about EXIF data and learn how to remove the data before sharing your photos.
KNOW YOUR EXIFTwo apps on the Google Play Store, File Recovery & Data Recovery and File Manager, both of which have more than 1.5 million downloads have been found to be sending data to servers in China. Apps have been reported to Google but still not taken down.
Dark Patterns are used to manipulate us online by companies and hackers. Get familiar with 5 common types of dark patterns and protect yourself. Based on where you live, Dark Patterns may also be illegal. Know your rights!
The US is on track for a record number of cyber breaches this year with over 1393 reported breaches. Most breaches go unreported. Healthcare and financial services companies breached the most in both Q1 and Q2 2023.
