Information

Red Cross Seeks ‘Digital Emblem’ to Protect Against Hacking

The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday it is seeking support to create a “digital red cross/red crescent emblem” that would make clear to military and other hackers that they have entered the computer systems of medical facilities or Red Cross offices. The Geneva-based humanitarian organization said it was calling on governments, Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, and IT experts to join forces in developing “concrete ways to protect medical and humanitarian…

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Hacker Charged With Extorting Online Psychotherapy Service

A 25-year-old Finnish man has been charged with extorting a once popular and now-bankrupt online psychotherapy company and its patients. Finnish authorities rarely name suspects in an investigation, but they were willing to make an exception for Julius “Zeekill” Kivimaki, a notorious hacker who — at the tender age of 17 — had been convicted of more than 50,000 cybercrimes, including data breaches, payment fraud, operating botnets, and calling in bomb threats. In late October…

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Is your personal data all over the internet? 7 steps to cleaning up your online presence

You may not be able to disappear completely from the internet, but you can minimize your digital footprint with a few simple steps Have you ever searched for yourself on Google? It may sound odd, but it is actually a great way to discover a tiny part of what the web knows about us. And, most importantly, it is the only way we have to know if we need to ask Google to remove relevant…

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What is doxing and how to protect yourself

Doxing can happen to anyone – here’s how you can reduce the odds that your personal information will be weaponized against you How harmful can it be to have your social media accounts set to public? Or to tag the restaurant where you’re having that delicious meal? Almost everyone does it! Let’s turn the questions around: Do you remember ever searching for someone you just met on social media to find out as much as…

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French hospital crippled by cyberattack – Week in security with Tony Anscombe

As another hospital falls victim to ransomware, Tony weighs in on the much-debated issue of banning ransomware payouts A major hospital near Paris has been hit by a ransomware attack that crippled its computer and medical systems and forced it to send patients to other healthcare facilities. The criminals demand $10 million from the hospital for restoring access to its systems, which the facility refused to pay. In this week’s video, Tony wonders if the…

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The OpenSSL security update story – how can you tell what needs fixing?

by Paul Ducklin Yesterday, we wrote about the waited-for-with-bated-breath OpenSSL update that attracted many column-kilometres of media attention last week. The OpenSSL team announced in advance, as it usually does, that a new version of its popular cryptographic library would soon be released. This notification stated that the update would patch against a security hole with a CRITICAL severity rating, the project’s highest. Unlike companies such as Apple, who deliberately announce forthcoming security patches simply…

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Fortinet Patches 6 High-Severity Vulnerabilities

Fortinet on Tuesday informed customers about 16 vulnerabilities discovered in the company’s products, including six flaws that have been assigned a ‘high’ severity rating. One of the high-severity issues affects FortiTester and it allows an authenticated attacker to execute commands via specially crafted arguments to existing commands. FortiSIEM is affected by a vulnerability that allows a local attacker with command-line access to perform operations on the Glassfish server directly via a hardcoded password. The remaining…

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TikShock: Don’t get caught out by these 5 TikTok scams

Are you aware of the perils of the world’s no. 1 social media? Do you know how to avoid scams and stay safe on TikTok? TikTok continues to shock us all by breaking records and widening its audience, yet unfortunately with such a broad reach, scammers inevitably remain not too far behind. In only six years it has become the dominant social media platform for sharing and viewing short videos and now boasts that viewers…

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How to take control over your digital legacy

Do you have a plan for what will happen to your digital self when you pass away? Here’s how to put your digital affairs in order on Facebook, Google, Twitter and other major online services. There’s no easy way to put it: We’re all going to die. And once dead, why would we care about our social media presence? Sounds like the least important thing to consider at that point. But in fact, it isn’t.…

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The spy who rented to me? Throwing the spotlight on hidden cameras in Airbnbs

Do you find reports of spy cams found in vacation rentals unsettling? Try these tips for spotting hidden cameras and put your worries to rest. Thanks to technology advances, travel has become faster, cheaper and more streamlined for many of us. We can book flights via smartphone apps, check in online, easily overcome language barriers and avoid getting lost. Finding somewhere to stay has also never been easier as technology has opened up a whole…

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