The IRS “Dirty Dozen” – Top Tax Season Scams to Steer Clear of This Year
Who loves tax season besides accountants? Scammers. Emotions can run high during tax time. Even if you’re pretty sure you did everything right, you may still have a few doubts kicking around. Did I file correctly? Did I claim the right deductions? Will I get audited? As it turns out, these are the very same […] more…KBOT: sometimes they come back
Although by force of habit many still refer to any malware as a virus, this once extremely common class of threats is gradually becoming a thing of the past. However, there are some interesting exceptions to this trend: we recently discovered malware that spread through injecting malicious code into Windows executable files; in other words, […] more…How to Help Kids Steer Clear of Digital Drama this School Year
Editor’s note: This is Part II of helping kids manage digital risks this new school year. Read Part I. The first few weeks back to school can be some of the most exciting yet turbulent times of the year for middle and high schoolers. So as brains and smartphones shift into overdrive, a parent’s ability […] more…How to Steer Clear of Tax Season Scams
It’s that time of year again – tax season! Whether you’ve already filed in the hopes of an early refund or have yet to start the process, one thing is for sure: cybercriminals will certainly use tax season as a means to get victims to give up their personal and financial information. This time of […] more…Don’t Take the Bait! How to Steer Clear of Tax Time Scams
For cybercriminals tax time is the most wonderful time of the year. They are in the shadows giddy, eager, and methodically setting a variety of digital traps knowing that enough taxpayers take the bait to render their efforts worthwhile. Indeed, with the frenzy of online tax filings, personal information (and money) moving through mailboxes, and […] more…How Google fought back against a crippling IoT-powered botnet and won
In September, KrebsOnSecurity—arguably the Internet’s most intrepid source of security news—was on the receiving end of some of the biggest distributed denial-of-service attacks ever recorded. The site soon went dark after Akamai said it would no longer provide the site with free protection, and no other DDoS mitigation services came forward to volunteer their services. […] more…CUTWAIL Spambot Leads to UPATRE-DYRE Infection
A new spam attack disguised as invoice message notifications was recently seen spreading the UPATRE malware, that ultimately downloads its final payload- a BANKER malware related to the DYREZA/DYRE banking malware. Background In early October we observed a surge of spammed messages sent by the botnet CUTWAIL/PUSHDO, totaling to more than 18,000 messages seen in a single day. CUTWAIL/PUSHDO has been in […] more…SINOWAL Attempts To Disable Rapport, Aid ZBOT
The year might be coming to a close but we’re still seeing our 2013 predictions come true. We encountered an attack that featured an old malware with new routines. This malware, detected as BKDR_SINOWAL.COP specifically attempts to disable the Rapport software from Trusteer. Figure 1. Code that looks for the Trusteer Rapport module Rapport is software […] more…How Safe is Your Android Pin Code? A New Robot Can Easily Break In
By now, many smartphone users know that a first step to securing their mobile data is to lock their phones with some sort of passcode, the most common method being the four-digit PIN. Admittedly, a PIN code seems pretty safe and practically impossible for a human to break—considering the time it would take to manually […] more…Helping Mom & Dad: Family Video Chats
Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series of articles about how we can help our elder parents get the most out of digital life—the ways we can help them look after their finances and health online, along with how they can use the internet to keep connected with friends and family, all safely […] more…The Big Reason Why You Should Update Your Browser (and How to Do It)
The humble internet browser. Dutifully taking you the places you want to go online, whether that’s the bank, the store, the movies, or even to work. All the more reason to make sure your browser gets every last bit of protection it can. It’s easy to fire up your browser without a second thought. Arguably, […] more…Helping Mom & Dad: Online Banking
Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of articles about how we can help our elder parents get the most out of digital life—the ways we can help them look after their finances and health online, along with how they can use the internet to keep connected with friends and family, all safely […] more…Spam and phishing in Q3 2021
Quarterly highlights Scamming championship: sports-related fraud This summer and early fall saw some major international sporting events. The delayed Euro 2020 soccer tournament was held in June and July, followed by the equally delayed Tokyo Olympics in August. Q3 2021 also featured several F1 Grand Prix races. There was no way that cybercriminals and profiteers could […] more…Great R packages for data import, wrangling, and visualization
The table below shows my favorite go-to R packages for data import, wrangling, visualization and analysis — plus a few miscellaneous tasks tossed in. The package names in the table are clickable if you want more information. To find out more about a package once you’ve installed it, type help(package = "packagename") in your R […] more…How to Spot Fake Login Pages
Have you ever come across a website that just didn’t look quite right? Perhaps the company logo looked slightly misshapen, or the font seemed off-brand. Odds are, you landed on a phony version of a legitimate corporation’s website—a tried and true tactic relied on by many cybercriminals. Fake Login Pages Explained A fake login page is essentially a knock-off of […] more…Younger, But Not Savvier: 3 Cybersecurity Threats Plaguing Millennials
Surprise! Just because you’re a Millennial or Gen Zer doesn’t mean you’re savvier when it comes to technology. Especially when it comes to cybersecurity. Turns out, Millennials aren’t quite as tight with their security as the older generations are. That’s according to one study about working from home that focused on younger adults and their older cohorts. It’s perhaps no surprise that nearly half of them said that […] more…More information
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