A leading internet activist has tricked Swedish security and defense experts into joining an open Wi-Fi network he set up to challenge digital surveillance. He discovered some of them were using Skype and looking at eBay while working.
The hacker created the Wi-Fi network at a conference earlier this week. Given the network was not encrypted, he managed to monitor the sites people visited, along with emails and text messages of up to 100 delegates, politicians, journalists and security experts among them. The security establishment was in Sälen pushing for more surveillance, but then leading figures go and log on to an unsecure Wi-Fi network.
Read moreIt was written about the dangers that public Wi-Fi hotspots pose to users time and time again, but today let's talk about threats that come specifically from home wireless networks. Many wireless router users do not consider them to be threatening, but we are here to shed some light on this unfortunate reality.
This guide is by no means complete, but several of these great tips can help you improve your home network security. One of the most serious mistakes often made is using the default, out-of-box, admin password. Combined with some non-critical remote vulnerability or an open wireless connection, this might give criminals full control over the router.
Read moreInternet-connected households in the United Kingdom are at risk of getting attacked through their wireless router. Unsecured routers create an easy entry point for hackers to attack millions of home networks in the UK.
The vast majority of home routers aren’t secure. If a router is not properly secured, cybercriminals can easily gain access to an individual’s personal information, including financial information, user names and passwords, photos, and browsing history. One of the biggest risks on any Wi-Fi network is DNS hijacking. Malware is used to exploit vulnerabilities in a user’s unprotected router and surreptitiously redirects the user from a known site.
Read moreData released from a consumer security risks survey found that nearly a third of participants are casual when making online transactions. This action leads to security vulnerability of financial data at risk and poses problems for banks and e-payment systems if they have to refund their clients’ losses.
The study was conducted through an online survey from May to June this year with users from 23 countries. Though users are worried about cyber threats, they still do little to protect themselves. Shocking data shows that children are the most vulnerable Internet users, which poses as a danger for parents.
Read moreCyberespionage is the weapon of choice in the 21st century. Even a seemingly harmless mobile app is able to find out quite a few secrets that a careless user might reveal, let alone full-scale surveillance campaigns specifically targeted at representatives of major businesses and government organizations.
This autumn’s newest revelation is the discovery of a spy network, dubbed ‘Darkhotel’, which had been active for seven years in a number of Asian hotels. Furthermore, smart and professional spies involved in this long-running operation created a comprehensive toolkit consisting of various methods that can be used to break into victims’ computers.
Read moreComputers housing the world’s most sensitive data are usually isolated from the internet. They’re also not connected to other systems that are internet-connected, and their Bluetooth feature is disabled, too. Sometimes, workers are not even allowed to bring mobile phones within range of the computers.
All of this is done to keep important data out of the hands of remote hackers. But these security measures may be futile in the face of a new technique researchers in Israel have developed for stealthily extracting sensitive data from isolated machines — using radio frequency signals and a mobile phone. The attack recalls a method the NSA has been secretly using for at least six years to siphon data in a similar manner.
Read moreDo you know the weakest link in the security chain that protects your personal data, banking files and other kinds of critical information? It’s you. For years there was one great threat that no security system could truly stand against: the human factor.
Nowadays, IT pros from security departments answer the question of what to allow and disallow: prohibit too much and employees will start to ignore rules or they will not be able to work efficiently. Give them too much freedom and you risk critical corporate information and their precious personal files draining away at data signaling speed. There will never be a balance until we learn that we are responsible for the data leakages that we cause.
Read moreImagine being able to download a full HD movie in less than three second, or back your entire computer up in less than a minute without the need for any cables. Samsung has announced that it has made a breakthrough in Wi-Fi technology which will allow a 1GB file to be downloaded in less than three seconds.
Samsung claims it is able to eliminate a problem where too many signals from different smartphones, tablets or computers cause interference, which hampers speed. It’s worth noting though, that this new breakthrough doesn’t suddenly mean you will have faster internet, your internet service provider controls that. This simply means faster connections in your internal network between devices.
Read moreThere is an exclusive story on what many are stating to be the largest series of hacks ever. While the reactions among the security industry are mixed, the story does bring to the public’s attention the necessity of online security policies for all aspects of the connected life.
As our researchers have shown in the past, gathering a collection of username and passwords can be easier than many think, with many scraping programs being sold on the deep-web market to the highest bidders. And while some companies are offering paid solutions to help monitor if their accounts have been breached, this does not change the fact that the first layer of security begins at the user.
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