Tag: security
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Google Will Automatically Delete Your (Worthless) Data
A little while ago, Google introduced the ability to automatically delete some of the data that it knows about you. While that seems like Google turning over a new more privacy-focused leaf, it might not be quite as meaningful as it first appeared. The setting, which you can find on Google’s Activity Controls Page, allows…
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Monitor Password Breaches with Firefox Monitor
If you’ve been on the internet for more than a few months, you’ve probably heard about a large number of data breaches that have been happening recently. The website HaveIBeenPwned is a great resource that lets a visitor put in an email address and see whether or not that email address has been part of…
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Google Calendar Spam is 2019’s Junk Mail
Junk mail, spam email, robocalls, and now…spam Google calendar events. I had the delightful experience of getting some of this spam about 2 weeks ago. Basically I just saw a repeating event for “Win a new iPhone” every day at 6-9pm that endlessly repeated. While this is definitely an annoying thing to have happen, resist…
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Open-source Dangers: Supply Chain Infection
For software security, many people prefer open-source software. It’s usually functional and inexpensive, although it’s not always pretty. It also (generally) has a reputation for being more secure than closed-source software. But a rash of supply chain attacks have infected many popular open-source projects. Oftentimes the infected code is small and innocuous. As part of…
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Understanding Email Headers
One of the most popular ways for people to get infected by malware is through email. One of my first online jobs was working for a company that is involved in email spam filtering. I still work for that company occasionally, and while it’s true that the technology to filter email has gotten more advanced,…
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The Quest to Cripple Encryption
It shouldn’t come as a surprise, but it looks like the Attorney General (as well as law enforcement in general) doesn’t understand how encryption works. At a cybersecurity conference at Fordham University in late July Barr lamented the expanding presence of encryption. In the speech, Barr is trying to play consumers (that use and benefit…
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Facebook Study: New Name, Old Violations
Facebook Study is a new (Android-only) way for Facebook to worm its way into your phone.
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Forget Floods and Earthquakes – Ransomware Takes Out Cities
The newest danger for cities isn’t natural disasters, it’s outdated software.
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Facebook: Dumb or Evil?
There’s been lots of pretty negative news coming out of Facebook over the past few years. I’ve only touched on a couple of things (smartphone privacy, social engineering), but it’s looking more and more like Facebook is either grossly incompetant or a bad actor when it comes to respecting their customers information and privacy. The…