This year has proven to be one of continued personal and professional growth for many industry friends, colleagues and me. Yet, even with the positives faced this year, there have been some of those opposing negatives. No wonder, then, there are those among us who might be just about done with 2019. After all, cyberattackers kicked of…
I was going through some old boxes recently and found a copy of the March 1996 issue of Digital News & Review, a magazine where I served as editor-in-chief. One of my then-columnists, Rick Cook, wrote a story under the headline: How secure is Windows NT? Cook’s position was that focusing on security built into…
Despite spending many hours playing World of Tanks and World of Warships, it’s probably too late for me to take my admittedly substandard gaming skills and use them to become a cybersecurity professional. However, the younger generation of screen junkies and Twitch followers might be exactly who cybersecurity teams need to recruit to fill the…
I could not win PowerBall nor Mega Millions, but I did just find out I’m one of the 143 million who might have had their information compromised in the Equifax data breach. Woo-Hoo. D’Oh!. I found this out through a page Equifax has created a page where worried individuals can input their last name and…
In the days before the internet, television and radio spread information like wildfire, putting up a wanted poster was the only method law enforcement had to let the public know it was hunting for someone. This technique is still used today. The FBI retains and active Ten Most Wanted list along with another web page…
There is a common thread when it comes to why the bulk of cyberattacks launched against businesses and the population at large manage to be successful even though they are not new, or even particularly inventive. The glue that holds these together is a combination of sticking with what works, regardless of how dumb or…
Every election season, and sometimes in between when politicians need to boost their standing by “connecting with constituents,” they lay tired, old promises – that they have no hope of fulfilling – on hurting, but hopeful voters. Just last week Donald Trump repeated his campaign mantra to “put our miners back to work” and in…
The 2017 NCAA basketball tourney has already had its share of upsets helping winnow the field down to the Elite 8 this weekend, but in another, albeit not quite so well-known competition, an unexpected winner emerged as PayPal unseated Apple as reigning champion in Area 1’s Second Annual March Hackness 2017 tournament. Since March Hackness…
James Comey probably wishes he’d called in sick Monday. After weeks of speculation and dribs and drabs of teasers, in a jolting upbraid of a sitting president, and with clearance from the Justice Department, the FBI director broke with bureau protocol to reveal an investigation not only into Russia’s interference in the presidential election but…
The researchers at ESET put together a 10-point list that does not paint the smartphone industry, nor their users, in a very favorable light when it comes to cybersecurity. While one possibly should not blame cybercriminals for taking advantage of lax security measures, after all that’s what cybercriminals do for a living, the list indicates…
