PossibleThreat Articles

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Independent

ComputerWorld Independent 

Enterprise resilience: Backup and management tips for iOS, Mac

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Credit to Author: Jonny Evans| Date: Fri, 06 Mar 2020 06:30:00 -0800

Apple’s solutions are seeing increasing use across the enterprise, but do you have a business resilience strategy in place in case things go wrong?

If you’re one of the estimated 73% of SMBs that have not yet made such preparation, now might be a good time to start.

Your data is your business

It’s challenging enough when a consumer user suffers data loss as precious memories and valuable information go up in the digital smoke. Natural disasters, technology and infrastructure problems or human-made problems such as burglary, cyberattacks or civil unrest can all impact the sanctity of your systems, whatever platform you use. It matters because in today’s connected world, your data is your business.

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ComputerWorld Independent 

Apple, the FIDO Alliance and the future of passwords

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Apple is the latest firm to join the FIDO Alliance, an industry standards group developing more secure ways to log in to online accounts and apps using multi-factor authentication (MFA), biometric authentication and physical security keys. Computerworld's Lucas Mearian joins Ken Mingis and Juliet Beauchamp to discuss the Apple move, how different forms of authentication work and how far away we are from a password-less world.

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ComputerWorld Independent 

FIDO Alliance and the future of passwords

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Credit to Author: Ken Mingis, Juliet Beauchamp, Lucas Mearian| Date: Tue, 03 Mar 2020 10:30:00 -0800

Apple is the latest company to join the FIDO Alliance, an industry standards group committed to finding more secure ways to log in to online accounts and apps. The FIDO Alliance pushes for multi-factor authentication (MFA) deployment, from biometric authentication to physical security keys. Computerworld’s Lucas Mearian joins Ken and Juliet to discuss why Apple joined the FIDO Alliance, how different forms of authentication work and how far away we are from a password-less world.

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ComputerWorld Independent 

Mitigate your risk of getting hacked with help from with this online academy

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Credit to Author: DealPost Team| Date: Tue, 03 Mar 2020 09:57:00 -0800

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Independent Krebs Security 

The Case for Limiting Your Browser Extensions

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Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Tue, 03 Mar 2020 15:39:53 +0000

Last week, KrebsOnSecurity reported to health insurance provider Blue Shield of California that its Web site was flagged by multiple security products as serving malicious content. Blue Shield quickly removed the unauthorized code. An investigation determined it was injected by a browser extension installed on the computer of a Blue Shield employee who’d edited the Web site in the past month. The incident is a reminder that browser extensions — however useful or fun they may seem when you install them — typically have a great deal of power and can effectively read and/or write all data in your browsing sessions. And as we’ll see, it’s not uncommon for extension makers to sell or lease their user base to shady advertising firms, or in some cases abandon them to outright cybercriminals.

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ComputerWorld Independent 

Verizon: Companies will sacrifice mobile security for profitability, convenience

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Credit to Author: Lucas Mearian| Date: Tue, 03 Mar 2020 03:00:00 -0800

Despite an increase in the number of companies hit by mobile attacks that led to compromises, four in 10 businesses sacrificed security to meet profit goals or avoid “cumbersome” security processes, according to Verizon’s third annual Mobile Security Index 2020.

It showed that 43% of organizations sacrificed security. More typical reasons for companies exposing themselves to risk, such as lack of budget and IT expertise, trailed “way behind” things such as expediency (62%), convenience (52%) and  profitability targets (46%). Lack of budget and IT expertise were only cited by 27% and 26% of respondents, respectively.

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ComputerWorld Independent 

Will pay by palm be a thing? Should it be?

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Credit to Author: Evan Schuman| Date: Tue, 03 Mar 2020 03:00:00 -0800

Amazon is experimenting with a way to allow shoppers to use a palm-print biometric to authenticate payments and to do so in physical stores far beyond Amazon-owned brick-and-mortars, (Whole Foods, AmazonGo, AmazonBooks, Amazon 4-Star and Amazon Pop-Up). Amazon is reportedly looking at QSRs (quick-service restaurants), especially coffee shops.

Palm prints have several advantages over more popular mobile biometric methods, such as fingerprint (prescription drugs, cleaning chemicals, burns and various other things can interfere with fingerprint readings) and facial recognition (finicky method that requires the face to be a precise distance from the scanner — not an inch too close or too far — and can suffer from hair growth, lighting, cosmetic changes, some sunglasses, as well as giving false positives to close relatives). And unlike my favorite biometric for security (retina scan), it’s far less invasive. It’s fairly accurate, convenient and (other than forcing customers to remove gloves, which could be a problem with outdoor shops in the winter) should be well-received.

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Independent Krebs Security 

French Firms Rocked by Kasbah Hacker?

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Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Mon, 02 Mar 2020 18:07:16 +0000

A large number of French critical infrastructure firms were hacked as part of an extended malware campaign that appears to have been orchestrated by at least one attacker based in Morocco, KrebsOnSecurity has learned. The individual thought to be involved has earned accolades from the likes of Apple, Dell, and Microsoft for helping to find and fix security vulnerabilities in their products.

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ComputerWorld Independent 

Memory-Lane Monday: The cruelest password

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Credit to Author: Sharky| Date: Mon, 02 Mar 2020 03:00:00 -0800

After a network manager unexpectedly tightens up the rules for passwords and forces the expiration of all user passwords on the main application system, calls flood into the help desk, reports a pilot fish on the scene. They’re having trouble because of the new complexity rules.

One of the calls:

User: I can’t seem to change my password.

Help desk tech: Your new password needs to contain letters, numbers and punctuation. Do not use any words such as you’d find in a dictionary.

User: OK. (Pause.) No, it still won’t let me change it.

Tech: What is the password you are trying to use?

User: April.

Tech: “April” is a word.

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Independent Krebs Security 

FCC Proposes to Fine Wireless Carriers $200M for Selling Customer Location Data

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Credit to Author: BrianKrebs| Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2020 22:12:10 +0000

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today proposed fines of more than $200 million against the nation’s four largest wireless carriers for selling access to their customers’ location information without taking adequate precautions to prevent unauthorized access to that data. While the fines would be among the largest the FCC has ever levied, critics say the penalties don’t go far enough to deter wireless carriers from continuing to sell customer location data.

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