mcafee

October 13, 2020

Microsoft Patch Tuesday, October 2020 Edition

This post was originally published on this siteIt’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month! In keeping with that theme, if you (ab)use Microsoft Windows computers you should be aware the company shipped a bevy of software updates today to fix at least 87 security problems in Windows and programs that run on top of the operating system. That means it’s once again time to backup and patch up. Eleven of the vulnerabilities earned Microsoft’s most-dire “critical” rating, which means bad guys or malware could use them to gain complete control over an unpatched system with little or no help from users. Worst in […]
November 17, 2020

Be Very Sparing in Allowing Site Notifications

This post was originally published on this siteAn increasing number of websites are asking visitors to approve “notifications,” browser modifications that periodically display messages on the user’s mobile or desktop device. In many cases these notifications are benign, but several dodgy firms are paying site owners to install their notification scripts and then selling that communications pathway to scammers and online hucksters. Notification prompts in Firefox (left) and Google Chrome. When a website you visit asks permission to send notifications and you approve the request, the resulting messages that pop up appear outside of the browser. For example, on Microsoft […]
April 29, 2021

Task Force Seeks to Disrupt Ransomware Payments

This post was originally published on this siteSome of the world’s top tech firms are backing a new industry task force focused on disrupting cybercriminal ransomware gangs by limiting their ability to get paid, and targeting the individuals and finances of the organized thieves behind these crimes. In a 50-page report delivered to the Biden administration this week, top executives from Amazon, Cisco, FireEye, McAfee, Microsoft and dozens of other firms joined the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Europol and the U.K. National Crime Agency in calling for an international coalition to combat ransomware criminals, and for a global network […]
November 2, 2021

The ‘Groove’ Ransomware Gang Was a Hoax

This post was originally published on this siteA number of publications in September warned about the emergence of “Groove,” a new ransomware group that called on competing extortion gangs to unite in attacking U.S. government interests online. It now appears that Groove was all a big hoax designed to toy with security firms and journalists. “An appeal to business brothers!” reads the Oct. 22 post from Groove calling for attacks on the United States government sector. Groove was first announced Aug. 22 on RAMP, a new and fairly exclusive Russian-language darknet cybercrime forum. “GROOVE is first and foremost an aggressive […]