Many organizations struggle with developing the right strategy to keep their business protected and also achieve a defense that is cyber resilient. This article has been indexed from blog.avast.com EN Read the original article: 10 blind spots in your SMB’s…
Tag: blog.avast.com EN
Defending digital freedom in times of cyberwar
From Austin to Paris, and then from Paris to Toronto, I joined Ondrej Vlcek, back then Avast’s CEO and today President at NortonLifeLock, at my third conference (and country) in three weeks. Speaking with Ondrej at Collision has become a…
SEO poisoning: Beware of suspicious links to avoid malware infections
Getting infected with malware isn’t just clicking on an errant file, but it usually occurs because an entire ecosystem is created by attackers to fool you into actually doing the click. This is the very technique behind something called SEO…
Avast commits to becoming a founder of the OpenWallet Foundation
Avast is publicly committing to becoming one of the founding supporters of the OpenWallet Foundation (OWF). The OWF is the inaugural project of the newly formed Linux Foundation Europe, an extension of the Linux Foundation, the world’s leading home for…
Scammers are most likely to pose as your friend — here’s why
I recently got a Facebook message that shook me. It was from an old roommate who I hadn’t spoken to in about 10 years. She told me she’d been in an abusive relationship and was trying to set up a…
Avast commits to becoming a founder of the OpenWallet Foundation
Avast is publicly committing to becoming one of the founding supporters of the OpenWallet Foundation (OWF). The OWF is the inaugural project of the newly formed Linux Foundation Europe, an extension of the Linux Foundation, the world’s leading home for…
Scammers are most likely to pose as your friend — here’s why
I recently got a Facebook message that shook me. It was from an old roommate who I hadn’t spoken to in about 10 years. She told me she’d been in an abusive relationship and was trying to set up a…
Netiquette: Is it OK to share pictures of someone else’s kids online?
Go to any children’s performance, birthday party, or even just a day at the beach and you’ll see a sea of cellphones snapping pics. And who can blame those snap-happy parents? Children, like pets, are perpetually adorable to the humans…
GTA 6: Massive footage leak
This week, in one of the biggest leaks in videogame history, a GTAForums user by the name of “teapotuberhacker” posted 90 videos from a test build of Grand Theft Auto 6. Gameplay scenes include a waffle shop robbery, some Vice…
How Uber was hacked — again
Last week, an 18-year old hacker used social engineering techniques to compromise Uber’s network. He compromised an employee’s Slack login and then used it to send a message to Uber employees announcing that it had suffered a data breach. Uber…
Is Free Wi-Fi Really Safe? | Avast
You’re on the move and you notice that you have no bars on your phone. You do a quick skim of your Wi-Fi choices and hook into whichever one seems open, free, and not shady. Voila — you now have…
How Uber was hacked — again
Last week, an 18-year old hacker used social engineering techniques to compromise Uber’s network. He compromised an employee’s Slack login and then used it to send a message to Uber employees announcing that it had suffered a data breach. Uber…
Out-of-date medical devices could be leaving you vulnerable
Last week, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center issued a public warning claiming that they have “identified an increasing number of vulnerabilities posed by unpatched medical devices.” They stated that these devices, such as insulin pumps and pacemakers, are running…
Is Free Wi-Fi Really Safe? | Avast
You’re on the move and you notice that you have no bars on your phone. You do a quick skim of your Wi-Fi choices and hook into whichever one seems open, free, and not shady. Voila — you now have…
Seesaw: Popular elementary school app used to distribute obscene image
Cassie,* a Vermont mother of four, woke up to a shock yesterday morning. When she went to check the Seesaw app — which she uses to communicate with her kids’ schools — she found that an obscene photo had been…
Autonomous stores could change the retail game
Chris Hartman, senior director of fuels, forecourt, advertising, and construction at convenience store chain Rutter’s believes that autonomous stores may be the next big thing in retail tech. Autonomous stores function without a human cashier and offer their customers easy…
Ransomware: 3 ways to protect your business
A string of recent articles has identified ransomware as the world’s greatest cybersecurity threat, especially with groups like Black Basta offering ransomware as a service. As of late June, Black Basta alone had struck nearly 50 victims with a strain…
Questions to Ask Yourself Before Sending Sexy Photo | Avast
Let’s be real: you’ve sexted. Your boo has sexted. Your mom has probably sexted! What’s more they have probably all sent a nude to someone. Pretty much everyone is doing it. Before the pandemic, Americans were sending 1.8 million nudes…
Misinformation and propaganda in the authoritarian internet
On my sixth birthday, my father gifted me a globe of the world. It is the best birthday present I have ever received. You see, I grew up in a cramped apartment in Baku, Azerbaijan. But even in our small…
Avast and NortonLifeLock merge to tackle new challenges in Cyber Safety
It’s been more than a year since Avast and NortonLifeLock announced our intention to merge. One of the main reasons was to be able to put even more resources and expertise into new products and customer experience, thereby moving the…
Is your phone Safe For Scrollers (SFS)?
Shan Boodram — certified sexologist, intimacy educator, podcast host, and all around sex education star — knows a thing or two about sending sexy selfies. With a touring musician for a partner, nudes have become an important part of her…
The latest privacy legal environment is getting interesting
California’s privacy laws have now been in effect for more than two years, and we are beginning to see the consequences. Earlier this month, the California Attorney General’s office released the situations where various businesses were cited and in some…
Back to school: Top tips and tricks
The teachers have started teaching, and the students have started learning. Another school year is launched, and this year, there are more education apps than ever before. This generation of students has gone from in-classroom teaching to online learning to…
The Most Hated Man on the Internet: Has the world changed?
Netflix’s recent hit documentary, The Most Hated Man on the Internet, focused on the story of Charlotte Laws, the mother of a young woman whose intimate photos were shared online without her consent. The images were on display on the…
Redline Stealer: Malware spread via hacked Facebook accounts
Avast researchers have discovered hacked Facebook business pages spreading a password stealer called Redline Stealer, which is capable of stealing passwords and downloading further malware. The malware is available for purchase on the dark web for about $100 to $150,…
Ransomware’s rise: What can be done about it
A new report by John Sakellariadis for the Atlantic Council takes a deeper dive into the rise of ransomware over the past decade and is worth reading by managers looking to understand this marketplace. This article has been indexed from…
French tax office uses AI to find swimming pools
Using an AI computer vision system in conjunction with Google’s cloud processing, the French tax office has identified 20,356 residential swimming pools that had previously gone undeclared. As a result, the tax office was able to bring in an additional…
Tech knowledge: Parents believe their children have overtaken them
We’ve recently conducted research that shows that over half of UK parents believe that their child is more digitally literate than them, with 55% expressing concern about this. Parents’ main concerns are about their children spending money without their knowledge,…
Enabling Global-Scale Digital Trust | Avast
Avast has joined the Trust Over IP Foundation (ToIP), Decentralized Identity Foundation (DIF), the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and the FIDO Alliance. These community-driven open standards organizations are developing the foundations for decentralized digital trust infrastructure. This article has…
Block YouTube On School Devices | Avast
I love YouTube. Whenever I need to learn how to fix something or want to learn to make something new in the kitchen, I turn to its endless videos. This article has been indexed from blog.avast.com EN Read the original…
Millennials and Online Scams | Avast
When you picture someone getting scammed online, who do you picture? Maybe a grandparent, like Phyllis, who was robbed of $20,000 via a tech support scam. And while elderly people are absolutely at risk of being targeted by scammers, a…
Apple flaws put company networks at risk
Last week, Apple found two zero-day vulnerabilities in both iOS 15.6.1 and iPadOS 15.6.1 that hackers may have actively exploited to gain access to corporate networks, according to at least one report. The first vulnerability enables a hacker to execute…
Vishing 101: What’s vishing and how can I protect myself?
The telephone has undergone a string of changes over the past several decades, starting with cords and now culminating in virtual options that sit on a device that can do far more than just allow you to have voice chats…
Businesses get a new layer of protection with Avast Ransomware Shield
Despite observing a decline in ransomware attacks in Q4 2021 and Q1 2022, ransomware attacks are increasing globally once again. Avast witnessed a 24% increase in ransomware attacks in Q2 2022 in comparison to Q1 2022. This article has been…
Scamdemic: We’re in the midst of one — here’s what to do about it
We’ve recently conducted research revealing the extent of the scamdemic currently facing New Zealanders and Australians. A quarter of Australians and a third of New Zealanders encounter scams on a weekly basis, and 3 in 4 Australians and 3 in…
Why are Millennials are more likely to engage in trolling?
Let’s face it: People can be jerks online. There’s something about the separation provided by a high-res screen and an internet connection that taps into that primal part of the human brain and says attack! You could open almost any…
Back to school shopping cybersecurity 101
Tablets, smartphones, laptops, adapters and Bluetooth devices weren’t always on back-to-school shopping lists. But there’s no way around the fact that technology is a much bigger part of our childrens’ lives than it was for most of us when we…
Fitbit’s having a bad summer
A string of technical trouble has been plaguing Fitbit – and more specifically, Fitbit users – throughout the summer. On Tuesday this week, Fitbit Charge 5 owners found it impossible to sync their devices to both Android and iOS systems due…
Back to school: Are your kids’ devices ready for school?
These days, kids are constantly finding new and technologically focused ways to learn. They are increasingly relying on tablets and Chromebooks to access school resources, have become wizards of Wi-Fi, and experts at using their phones to learn — and…
Online scams: The majority of Americans have been targeted
When you hear the word “con man,” you probably picture someone like Leonardo DiCaprio playing famed scammer Frank Abganale Jr. in the movie Catch Me If You Can. He’s smart. He’s debonair. He’s charming. He might be a sociopath, but…
Improve Your Middle Schooler’s Digital Literacy | Avast
New transitions sometimes bring new schools and friends. Enter middle school. Tweens are constantly navigating digital dilemmas. As your Middle Schooler becomes a more confident internet user, it’s important to continue having conversations about online safety and privacy. This article…
The most hated people on the internet: Where are they now?
Today’s zeitgeist is thick with true crime documentaries. People just cannot get enough of them. Why is that? Maybe we like to marvel at the loathsome, evil plans sociopaths can think up. Maybe we want to learn so that particular…
Sharing personal information online: Do young people overdo it?
We talk a lot about the differences between digital natives and older generations, who came of age way before the internet. That’s because it really can’t be overemphasized: Growing up with access to so much knowledge and so many forms…
Comparing Twilio and Slack breach responses
We recently learned about major security breaches at two tech companies, Twilio and Slack. The manner in which these two organizations responded is instructive, and since both of them published statements explaining what happened, it’s interesting to observe the differences…
Avoid the worst of the internet with cyber hygiene
Nearly everyone is concerned about their security and privacy, both online and offline. Ever since personal computing became a thing, people have become increasingly better at using PCs to be more productive, better informed, or entertained. This article has been…
Fake Elon Musk TeslaCoin investment scam costs victims at least $250
A crypto investment scam is circulating on Facebook and in people’s inboxes across Europe, Canada, and Australia. The scam encourages people to pay to create an account and invest into a fraudulent crypto investment platform. This article has been indexed…
Pay with just your palm at Whole Foods
Amazon is rolling out its Amazon One payment service to 65 Whole Foods stores in California. The service uses high-tech checkout devices that allow customers to pay simply by scanning their palms. Customers sign up for Amazon One by registering…
Digital milestones for elementary schoolers
The internet is a vital part of kids’ lives today. They see grown-ups and older kids going online with all kinds of devices and they want to be a part of that world, too. Whether it’s playing games or attending…
Dave Piscitello in the Fight Against Phishing | Avast
Dave Piscitello has been involved in the internet for more than four decades and has worked tirelessly toward improving overall security and operations, both as an independent consultant as well as a major figure in various organizations. His current work,…
Back to school: Managing your high schooler’s digital milestones
Just as you wouldn’t put your kid in a car at age 16 and say, “Drive, kid!” without ever talking to them about how to drive — and why speeding or driving intoxicated or looking at your phone while driving…
Why is device protection for kids valuable?
Out of the 7 million enterprise malware reports that Microsoft had in the last 30 days, over 81% came from education. The next closest industry is retail and consumer goods, at just 9%. This article has been indexed from blog.avast.com…
Phishing attack adds pressure with countdown clock
A new phishing attack tries to panic users into entering their company email login credentials by displaying a countdown clock that supposedly shows how much time remains before their account is deleted. When the time runs out, nothing actually happens,…
Small business growth in 2022: 7 effective strategies
Small businesses are the backbone of the economy. In fact, according to the Small Business Administration (SBA), they account for more than half of all private sector jobs in the United States. After weathering the storm of the pandemic, 2022…
Q&A with Siew Lau: Creativity, law, and bridging cultural differences
Today, the Avast Diversity & Inclusion team is shining a spotlight on Avast Legal Counsel Siew Lau, an active D&I champion and ambassador. Before Siew got into law, she obtained a degree in arts and journalism and worked as both…
Cyberbullying vs. trolling: Here’s how to differentiate between them
Perhaps more than anything else, the contemporary internet is a Place for Opinions. We’ve even come up with entirely new terminologies for the different ways you can argue online. Flame wars. Sealioning. Reply guys. And, of course, trolling. This article…
Avast One steps up home network protection, digital safety guidance
We’ve extended cross-platform support for Avast One, our award winning all-in-one digital protection service, by adding an Online Safety Score feature for both Mac and iOS. Previously available on Windows and Android, Online Safety Score helps people take control of…
Prepare for a Hacking Incident | Avast
The initial phases of a breach are often the most critical: The intruder is counting on your confusion, your lack of a plan or a clear chain of authority, and any early missteps. Given that it’s only a matter of…
NSO Pegasus Spyware Developments | Avast
Last summer, we wrote about a major international investigation of the NSO Group and its Pegasus spyware. We described how it works and what you can do to protect your phone. NSO has gone through some difficult times as a…
eIDAS 2.0 Developments | Avast
eIDAS (electronic Identification, Authentic and trust Services) 2.0 continues to move swiftly. Avast recently teamed up with the Intesi Group to co-host a webinar informing the public on the latest developments of the effort. This article has been indexed from…
Enough’s enough: 7 signs to put down your phone and walk away
Life online can be tricky. We have access to basically all the information in the world, right in our pockets. But while that’s arguably the most incredible thing that’s ever happened to humanity, it’s also really overwhelming! Studies have shown…
The SMB Guide to Cyber Resilience | Avast
Cybersecurity is a subject on the minds of many business owners these days. Stories of serious customer data breaches are becoming almost routine. This article has been indexed from blog.avast.com EN Read the original article: The SMB Guide to Cyber Resilience…
Candiru: Attack targeting journalists in the Middle East
Earlier this summer, Avast Threat Labs researchers discovered a zero-day vulnerability in Google Chrome when it was utilized in attacks on Avast users in the Middle East. The attacks were highly targeted and, in Lebanon, focused on journalists. The remainder…
‘Cancer Girl’ scam has stolen more than half a million dollars
The past decade has seen a rise in personal crowdfunding, with people raising money online for everything from school supplies to medical bills to funeral expenses. The appeals go out on social media, imploring friends, families, and acquaintances to help.…
New Magecart campaigns target online ordering sites
Magecart, the notorious credit card stealing cybercrime syndicate, is once again in the news. We last wrote about it last summer, where it compromises Magento shopping cart software pages to steal credit card information. That post had a long list…
AV-Comparatives’ Approved Business Product award: Avast Business takes home the prize
We’re excited to announce that Avast Ultimate Business Security has received the “Approved Business Product” award for July 2022 by AV-Comparatives! This article has been indexed from blog.avast.com EN Read the original article: AV-Comparatives’ Approved Business Product award: Avast Business…
Patching: Why it’s important for businesses
We’ve often made recommendations about patching your systems. Patching is a simple concept to explain: Keeping all your various digital components (hardware, software, and networking infrastructure) up to date with the most recent versions. However, it can be easier said…
Avast SecureLine VPN keeps Indian users safe, preserves privacy
Earlier this year, the Indian government announced new legislation which requires virtual private network (VPN) operators to store user data for a period of five years as part of a crackdown on digital privacy rights. Nonetheless, Avast continues to protect…
Malicious PDF attachments: Exploring the threats
The next time someone sends you an email with a PDF attachment, take a moment before clicking to open it. While most PDF files are benign, hackers have recently been using PDFs in new and very lethal ways. This article…
Lockdown Mode: Apple is shutting down spyware
Currently in beta and expected to ship in the fall, Apple’s new Lockdown Mode removes certain features and functionalities from iPhones, iPads, and other macOS-powered devices in order to neutralize zero-click exploits. The mode blocks incoming invitations and service requests,…
Digital break-up kit: Raising tech abuse awareness
Tech abuse involves much more than sharing passwords. It can be anything from unwanted messages, spyware or stalkerware being installed on devices, to controlling or harassing someone via home tech. This article has been indexed from blog.avast.com EN Read the…
Avast Pride 2022
June was Pride Month, and all month long we celebrated and honored the themes of diversity and inclusion. We kicked it off with our company-wide D&I Download newsletter, in which we reminded Avastians the month is not just a time…
Macro-based malware: A new way to fight it
Malware-infected Microsoft Office macros have been around for close to three decades. These exploits involve inserting code into a seemingly innocuous Word or Excel macro, which is then downloaded by an unsuspecting user by clicking on a phishing lure or…
How to Safely Make Online Friends | Avast
Over the past few years, classrooms have moved to kitchens and bedrooms and playgrounds have been replaced by online video games. The methods for making friends have forever been altered. Internet friendships are often more common than real-world relationships. And…
Medical scams: Educate yourself and your loved ones
We’ve covered the dangers and necessary defenses against various scams, including romance scams, supply chain scams, financial scams, lottery scams, and vishing scams, but now we turn our attention to what could be the most personal and invasive of scams…
DIDs approved to W3C recommendation
Yesterday was a major milestone in the evolution of the Web. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) announced it was overruling the objections of Apple, Google, and Mozilla and approving W3C Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) 1.0 as a W3C Recommendation. This…
Facial recognition in Oz
Despite concerns from privacy advocates, Australia is currently the only democracy in the world that uses facial recognition technology to aid Covid-19 containment procedures. Police ensure that Western Australian citizens are following the seven-day quarantine rule by sending periodic text…
If you were a queer girl in the 2000s, you were on LiveJournal
This article is part of a multi-article series celebrating Pride month and the role the internet has played in the history of the LGBTQIA+ community. I became a blue-haired, combat-boot wearing teenager with the Millennium, turning 13 three months after…
Deepfake video call: New effort discovered
Since I wrote about the creation and weaponization of deepfake videos back in October 2020, the situation has worsened. Earlier this month, several European mayors received video calls from Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv. These calls turned out to…
Malware-as-a-service is spreading among teens
Sometimes when you’re doing research, you stumble across something unexpected. That’s what happened to the Avast team when they were investigating ransomware. They found something that seemed like regular ransomware, but there were a few weird things that caught their…
Kids are forming hacking groups online. Here’s what to do about it.
When people hear the word “hacker,” they probably picture a man sitting alone in a dark room in front of a computer. He has a black screen with green computer code in front of him. Maybe he’s wearing a hoodie…
ToddyCat claws at Asian governments
Researchers are monitoring an advanced persistent threat (APT) codenamed ToddyCat that has been linked to attacks on government and military entities in Europe and Asia since at least December 2020. Using an unknown exploit to deploy the Chopper web shell,…
The secret gay history of the modern internet
David Bohnett was born 13 years before the Stonewall Revolution, which kicked off the modern day gay civil rights movement in 1969 – and his early life tragically mirrored the struggle. His first lover took his own life because he…
Vishing scams on the rise: How to protect yourself
Vishing scams have quickly become another major security threat for people around the globe. And although Interpol has cracked down in recent days, the risk of being targeted — and falling victim — to vishing scams has reached new heights.…
Money20/20: Talking digital identity and the rise of embedded finance
This article has been indexed from blog.avast.com EN When I first attended Money20/20, the conference’s name was a nod towards a vision of financial services in a future year. Ironically, when the year 2020 finally arrived, the conference organizers were…
Meta Bridges 2D And 3D With Crayta | Avast
This article has been indexed from blog.avast.com EN Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced last week that user-generated tools like Crayta will help bridge the 2D gaming experiences on Facebook with the 3D world of the metaverse. Meta acquired Crayta last…
eIDAS 2.0 Amendments | Avast
This article has been indexed from blog.avast.com EN Avast’s views and opinion on the Draft Report on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 as regards establishing a framework…
Russian Disinformation Evolving Across the Globe | Avast
This article has been indexed from blog.avast.com EN Authors: Sadia Afroz and Vibhor Sehgal. On February 24, a conspiracy theory emerged that Russia attacked Ukraine to destroy a clandestine U.S. weapons program. This narrative, started by a QAnon follower on…
Digital wellbeing: Do free countries have more of it?
This article has been indexed from blog.avast.com EN How are you all doing out there, Internet People? According to the first ever Avast Digital Wellbeing Report, it’s a mixed bag. We wanted to analyze the relationship between a country’s freedom…
Transgender women found and created community in the 1980s internet
This article has been indexed from blog.avast.com EN This article is part of a multi-article series celebrating Pride month and the role the internet has played in the history of the LGBTQIA+ community. The internet has played an outsized and…
Panel discussion at Consensus 2022: Is Web 3.0 more hype or reality?
This article has been indexed from blog.avast.com EN Earlier this month, Drummond Reed was one of the panelists at CoinDesk’s 2022 Consensus conference discussing “The Promise of Self-Sovereign Data and Web 3.0 Identity Solutions: Real or Mirage?” Reed, who heads…
Lottery scams: Don’t be fooled
This article has been indexed from blog.avast.com EN It’s everybody’s fantasy to win the lottery, or a sweepstakes, or a fun prize like an iPad, and scammers know this. They use it to their advantage in various ploys designed to…
Karakurt data extortion group: CISA issues alert
This article has been indexed from blog.avast.com EN In a joint Cybersecurity Advisory by the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the Department of Treasury, and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the four U.S. agencies warned businesses about…
Ease your kids into a hybrid play model with these tips
This article has been indexed from blog.avast.com EN As school children are released for the summer and some of the tighter Covid restrictions start to lift, pandemic-fatigued parents are ready to get their kids out of the house. But it…
Hacked Instagram accounts are scamming users
This article has been indexed from blog.avast.com EN Have a bunch of your friends on Instagram suddenly gotten really into crypto investing? I know mine have! It seems like everyone is out there getting rich quick — and they want…
Avast Ultimate Business Security upgrade for existing customers
This article has been indexed from blog.avast.com EN We have good news for existing Avast Business Antivirus Pro Plus customers, who are being upgraded to Avast Ultimate Business Security — free of charge — until the subscription’s expiration date. Avast…
FakeCrack: Crypto stealing campaign spread via fake cracked software
This article has been indexed from blog.avast.com EN Are you interested in downloading free, cracked software? If so, you should know what you’re getting into. When you accidentally download malicious cracked software, attackers can take everything you have on your…
How to prevent digital burnout
This article has been indexed from blog.avast.com EN Many of us have already come to know the perils of social media. We’ve previously written about the risks associated with heavy use of social media, diving into the effects that it…
Twitter fined $150M for selling user data
This article has been indexed from blog.avast.com EN According to a court complaint filed by the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ), “While Twitter represented to users that it collected their telephone numbers and email addresses to secure their accounts, Twitter…
SMSFactory Android Trojan producing high costs for victims
This article has been indexed from blog.avast.com EN Avast has been tracking a wide-spread malware campaign consisting of TrojanSMS malware, which we are calling SMSFactory. SMSFactory sneakily siphons money from victims around the world, including Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Turkey, Ukraine,…
Supply chain scams pull no punches
This article has been indexed from blog.avast.com EN From one perspective, the global supply chains our industries have built all around the world are beautiful and impressive. Some are more elaborate than others, but they all act as long-distance assembly…