Late last week, Walmart alerted the public to an email-based scam that used the company’s name (misspelled as “Wallmart”) to illegally gather information about users. The email sported the title “Thanks for your Walmart.com order,” and after confused users clicked on links within the emails, their Walmart accounts were charged. While local police departments and Read more…
Tags: email scams, McAfee LiveSafe, phishing, Walmart
Last week during his keynote speech at the Interop IT conference, PayPal’s Chief Information Security Officer Michael Barrett pointed to a slide depicting a tombstone for passwords with the dates 1961-2013. According to Barrett, while passwords are still required for so many applications and services, they have simply outlived their usefulness. Barrett predicted that we Read more…
Tags: biometrics, digital security, McAfee LiveSafe, passwords
To celebrate Password Day, I wanted to share some new research that takes a look at how secure social media accounts are. As you may have read in my blog from yesterday, the Associated Press was recently the target of a Twitter account hack. The account was recovered, but not before hackers managed to send Read more…
Tags: mcafee all access, McAfee SafeKey, Password Day, password security, social media passwords
It has become increasingly common for personal and professional social media accounts to become ‘hacked’, or taken over by someone who doesn’t own the account. Twitter’s help center points out that this occurs from weak passwords, a pre-existing password-collecting virus on your computer or by entrusting your login credentials to malicious third-party websites and applications. Read more…
Tags: #ChatSTC, hacking, intel, mcafee all access, password security, SafeKey, social media passwords, twitter
As you may recall from earlier posts in my blog, a denial-of-service (DDoS) attack occurs when hackers flood a target website with large amounts of traffic. This traffic is often generated through the hacker’s botnet, or network of infected computers. Usually, when a cybercriminal launches a DDoS attack on a website, there isn’t much for Read more…
Tags: botnet, DDoS, malware, mcafee all access
New research has concluded that despite best efforts to keep search results clean, Google and Bing often serve malware-infected sites among their top search results. This malware (or malicious software) can include sites infected with viruses, Trojans, computer worms, and more, making it extremely important for consumers to pay close attention to what they click. Read more…
Tags: Bing, google, Safe search, Search engine optimization, SEO, Yahoo!
According to a recent survey, nearly half of all consumers believe that their smartphones and other mobile devices are less secure than their laptop or desktop computers. In the same survey, only 36% of respondents said they trust online retail sites to keep their personal data safe. Still, holiday shopping from mobile phones increased by Read more…
Tags: eCommerce, HTPPS, mcafee all access, McAfee SiteAdvisor, mobile security, online shopping
Do you use the same smartphone at home and at work? Whether your company allows employees to bring in personal devices or issues office-specific phones and laptops, those devices likely contain sensitive corporate and personal information. Unfortunately, many people use these devices in ways that can jeopardize the security not only of your personal data Read more…
Tags: app security, byod, mcafee all access, McAfee Mobile Security, McAfee SafeKey, password security
Fans of the epic fantasy series Game of Thrones were understandably eager for the season premier earlier this month. After all, we’d waited since mid-2012 to renew our shared hatred for the most abhorrent monarch in television history, King Joffrey. But while the show’s popularity is good news for creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, Read more…
Tags: bittorrent, game of thrones, malware, P2P, peer-to-peer file sharing networks
Bitcoin, a new form of electronic money, nabbed global attention yesterday after a hack attack forced a dramatic fall in its value. After trading as high as $147 just a few days prior, the hack knocked an entire bitcoin service offline “indefinitely,” crippling others as the exchanges fought off hack-related trading lags. Wait – What Read more…
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