Security researcher Cody Brocious has made a brave statement – apparently hotel key cards are insecure and open to be hacked.
Cody Brocious claims that he is able to unlock a hotel door simply by plugging a power cable into the lock with the other end attached to a custom portable programming device, built for around £30.
The reason behind this security flaw is due to the memory chip inside the locks; they are easily readable causing the exposure of the security codes inside.
The Stuxnet virus has been made redundant since Siemens – the developer of industrial software models, has officially updated it’s software to prevent Stuxnet from working.
Stuxnet was discovered in 2010, when industrial manufacturers in Iran were hit by a series of problems.
The problems were later identified as a virus, and whilst no-one knows exactly who created it security experts claim that only a sophisticated government would have the resources available to create such a powerful virus.
Whilst Iran claims that it’s nuclear programme has been affected by Stuxnet, spectators are thinking that this was the main purpose of the Stuxnet virus.
One of the main things to consider when using a computer is which Anti-Virus to purchase.
There are both free versions and paid versions – generally the paid versions have more features, such as Anti-Spam, Identity Theft Protection and Parental Controls, but do you really need these features from your Anti-Virus suite?
E-Mails – most people use providers such as Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo and similar online providers which already have this built-in.
Parental Controls – Do you have kids? If so this may be a good idea to have, but there are numerous free options to this such as OpenDNS.
Identity Theft Protection – To be honest, this doesn’t mean much. It may flag up phishing websites here and there but your Anti-Spam will block these from your E-Mails, and Internet Browsers such as FireFox, Internet Explorer and Google Chrome do this automatically based on large open-source databases.
The best free Anti-Virus software I would recommend is Microsoft Security Essentials. It doesn’t take up much of your computer resources and isn’t intrusive – it will only pop-up if it detects a virus, and with real-time scanning in the background you’re generally pretty safe.
If you’re interested in Tetrabyte Managed Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware, then click here – let us manage the security of your network to allow you to carry on without interruption or the stress of stolen information.
LinkedIn has reportedly been hacked by users of an online Russian forum – the database of passwords (encrypted and salted) has been forcibly exported from the site, along with the details along with the associated user accounts.
Tetrabyte Managed I.T. recommends that you login to LinkedIn and changed your password – ensure that you include capital letters and punctuation within your password so that it can’t be guessed as easily.
We would also recommend that you change your password on any other websites that use the same E-Mail address and password.
Whilst the passwords are encrypted in such a fashion that would be difficult to crack, the Russian forum community has invited users to attempt to crack these passwords.
Iran has found a cure to the malware known as ‘Flame’ – a sophisticated piece of malware designed to infiltrate any network it can and steal data.
The malware injects itself into a network, scans to see what ant-virus software there is on the network and then adjusts itself accordingly to be invisible to the anti-virus software.
Iran has developed tools which can detect Flame and remove the malware from infected machines.
The malware was discovered by a number of security firms working together after thousands of machines hard drives have been miraculously wiped across the Middle East.
The cybercrime mastermind who created the ‘Bredolab’ botnet has been sentenced to four years in jail.
Georgiy Avanesov of Russia has been sentenced in an Armenian court – the first time a cyber-criminal has been convicted in Armenia.
The botnet was sending out an estimated 3.0 billion E-Mails a day on behalf of scammers; this was all done using a network of standard everyday computers from all over the world.
The owner of the botnet has an income of about £80,000 a month for his efforts – at the cost of money from the people who were scammed.
In 2010 the police managed to corner the botnet and take control – releasing those computers which were infected and stopping the high volume of spam from being sent.
It has been announced that the Metropolitan Police are to be able to download and store the data from your mobile phone and keep it indefinitely.
If you are suspected to have used your mobile phone to commit a crime then they will confiscate it, download the data, browse through it and then store it even if you’re not charged.
This has already led to complaints about the police being in breach of Human Rights laws and that is a “disturbing expansion of police powers”.
It looks like the government are looking to expand their evidence against potential criminals, but I can’t agree with indefinite data retention on those who haven’t committed crimes.
Feel free to discuss below!
Ever since the Internet became a consumer accessible service there have been talks about which browser is the best.
At first there was NetScape which dominated the market, and then came along Internet Explorer; Microsoft’s flagship Internet browser.
When Mozilla FireFox entered the arena it stole a good proportion of the market share, but it took a few years until it became a real competitor and threat to Internet Explorer.
NetScape fell over night – people stopped using it when Internet Explorer and FireFox dominated.
In September 2008 Google announced their attempt to enter the market – with the promise of a lightweight browsing experience and the dominance of Google’s Search Engine, Google were able to deliver their browser to a fair share of the market.
Unfortunately, whilst Google is indeed a lightweight and pretty speedy browser it suffered from a fair few serious flaws. It has problems rendering certain code making it difficult for a web developer to make their websites compatible with it, it isn’t very extensible as there are few useful plug-ins for users to install and perhaps the most damning point – it loves to collect your data.
Google makes it’s money from using the data it obtains from it’s users. Chrome is no exception – it sends each and every website you visit to it’s servers in order to return back to Google whether or not the page is safe. Given Google’s history regarding user privacy, you can be sure they store this information to ‘improve’ their advertising.
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