Several browser apps good choices to elevate privacy

The area that gets a lot of attention is messaging. There are many good, private messaging options for you. We prefer Signal, because it has the best features.

It uses end-to-end encryption, which means that only the sender and recipient are able to see messages.

Ransomware demand

A decade ago, if a desktop computer got infected with malware the chief symptom was an intrusive browser toolbar of some kind. Five years ago you were more likely to get whacked by a banking Trojan that stole all your passwords and credit card numbers. If your mobile or desktop computer is infected with malicious software it locks your prized documents, songs and pictures with strong encryption and then requires you to pay for a key to unlock the files.

The average ransom demanded is approximately $722.00, according to experts. The majority of organizations that get infected by ransomware pay the ransom.

They also found three-quarters of companies which had not suffered a ransomware infection reported they would not pay up when presented with a data ransom demand. Pay up, or your files will be gone forever.

Stolen NSA hacking

tools for sale

The Shadow Brokers hacking group is now selling another package of hacking tools, which includes Windows exploits and antivirus bypass tools, stolen from the NSA-linked hacking unit, The Equation Group.

The Shadow Brokers is a notorious group of black- hat hackers who, in August 2016, leaked exploits, security vulnerabilities, and “powerful espionage tools” created by The Equation Group.

The Shadow Brokers posted a message on their website, announcing the sale of the entire “Windows Warez” collection for 750 Bitcoin (around US$678,630).

This collection contains many windows hacking tools, categorized as following:

Fuzzing tools (used to discover errors and security loopholes) Exploit Framework Network Implants The toolkit may have the ability to “evade/bypass personal security products.”

Hackers can steal personal information using autofill

Google Chrome and other major browsers offer an “Autofill” feature that automatically fills out web forms based on data you have previously entered in similar fields.

Attackers can use this autofill feature to gather private information for hackers.

Mozilla’s Firefox users do not need to worry about this particular attack as the browser currently, does not have a multi-box autofill system and forces users to select pre-fill data for each box manually.

Here’s how to turn autofill feature off

The simplest way to protect against such phishing attacks is to disable form autofill feature in your browser, password manager or extension settings.

Autofill feature is turned on by default. Here’s how to turn this feature off in Chrome:

Go to Settings Show Advanced Settings at the bottom, and under the Passwords and Forms section uncheck Enable Autofill box to fill out web forms with a single click.

In Opera, go to Settings Autofill and turn it off.

In Safari, go to Preferences and click on AutoFill to turn it off.

Don’t fall for this convincing phishing attack

Security researchers have discovered a new phishing campaign targeting Gmail users, which is so convincing and highly effective that even tech-savvy people have been tricked into giving away their Google credentials to hackers.

The attackers first compromise a victim’s Gmail account, and once they are in, they start rifling through inboxes to launch secondary attacks in order to pass on the attack.

What makes this attack so effective is that the phishing emails seem to come from someone the victim knows.

Reasons you shouldn’t upgrade to Windows 10

You may still be better off sticking with Win7 or Win8.1, given the wide range of ongoing Win10 tradeoffs and shortcomings

Many of you have thus far held off on upgrading to Windows 10, perhaps in part based on advice from various experts.

Privacy concerns

getting worse

Privacy was, and continues to be, a major concern for Windows 10 customers. Microsoft has not published a simple list of the data they collect as part of their ongoing “telemetry” efforts.

One drive doesn’t work right

The only way to see what files you have in One Drive is by going to the One Drive site on the web. Microsoft promises it’ll fix the problems one of these days.

Universal Windows apps

Several times every month we hear about companies pulling their apps from the Windows Store; Amazon, Tumblr, and PayPal are the most recent big defectors. Companies with Win10 “Universal Windows Program” apps don’t want to distribute schlock, but they don’t want to pour resources into spiffy new apps when their money’s better spent with Google or Apple.