Hawk Watch

As we all look forward to the sunshine and freedom of summer, it’s important to remember that not all elements of the school year disappear with the ringing of the final bell. In our increasingly digital age, cyberbullying has become a pervasive issue that can affect kids even during their summer break. This guide will help parents understand the issue, recognize the signs, and provide practical strategies to protect their kids from cyberbullies. The Reality of Summer Cyberbullying Summer break should be a time of fun-filled days, exploration, relaxation, and a break from the rigors of the school year. However, with the increase in leisureRead More →

In today’s world, most communication happens through the internet, facilitated by numerous applications. The web is a lively center filled with various activities such as news, videos, education, blogs, gaming, activism, and entertainment. Notably, social media apps have morphed into the digital meeting points for netizens. Our society is undeniably superbly interconnected, and our digital persona is greatly treasured. However, this isn’t always beneficial, especially for teenagers who may be overwhelmed by the deluge of information, leading to stress. Stress is a common part of our daily lives, emerging from our education, employment, relationships, and surroundings. A similar situation transpires online. In fact, we tendRead More →

Video Why keeping software up to date is a crucial security practice that should be followed by everyone from individual users to SMBs and large enterprises 13 Oct 2023 This week, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added five new vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) Catalog, citing solid evidence of active exploitation by attackers. The vulnerabilities, for which patches are available, affect Adobe Acrobat and Reader. One of them can be misused to achieve remote code execution with the privileges of the current user. Meanwhile, Microsoft released security updates for 103 vulnerabilities for its products as part of its regular PatchRead More →

Spyware, a name that cunningly blends “spying” and “software,” is a dangerous class of invasive programs that stealthily operate on your computer. They monitor and record your activities, thus posing a significant threat to your digital privacy, security, and identity. Spyware can lead to identity theft if your personal or financial data falls into the wrong hands. This guide provides in-depth information about spyware, how it works, and how to prevent it from infecting your computer system. What Is Spyware? Spyware is a type of malicious software that collects information about users without their knowledge. It can track every action, from keystrokes to browsing habits,Read More →

A hacker claims to have hijacked profile information of “millions” of users from the popular genetic testing site 23andMe.com.   What’s at risk? Some of the most personal info possible. The profile info varies by user, which plans and services they’ve selected, and how the hacker accessed it. Yet it potentially includes personal info like name, sex, birth year, current location, and some details about genetic ancestry and health results.  23andMe continues to keep its users informed of the hijacked accounts on its blog. As of October 9, they shared the following:  “While we are continuing to investigate this matter, we believe threat actors were ableRead More →

Video The importance of understanding – and prioritizing – the privacy and security implications of large language models like ChatGPT cannot be overstated 28 Apr 2023 Thousands of security professionals descended on San Francisco this week to attend RSA Conference, the world’s leading gathering of the security community. What was the hottest topic at the event? You guessed it – ChatGPT and large language models (LLMs) as such. But while these emerging technologies may have many benefits, they also represent a privacy and security threat. Here’s what you should know about the implications that the use of LLMs has for the security and privacy ofRead More →

Business Security How CISOs and their peers can better engage with boards to get long-term buy-in for strategic initiatives 11 Oct 2023  •  , 4 min. read Building a safer digital world requires action on several fronts. Initiatives like Cybersecurity Awareness Month (CSAM) are great opportunities to remind the general public of important best practices for password management, vulnerability patching and more. But while this can help make life tougher for cybercriminals targeting consumers, it’s still opportunity for bringing cyber-risks to the attention of business leaders. In the US, there was a 114% quarterly increase in publicly reported data breaches in Q2 2023, putting theRead More →

As part of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, CISA has published a list of the top 10 network security misconfigurations found during red and blue team assessments and in actual incident responses. To make sure application security doesn’t get left out, we’ve decided to follow up with our own list of common application security misconfigurations – but since top 10 lists have received some bad press for being little more than clickbait, we’ll stick to just five of the most important categories. In broad terms, an application security misconfiguration is any security flaw directly caused by the way an application or its environment is set up, notRead More →

Cybercrime Security researchers, global organizations, law enforcement and other government agencies need to have the right conversations and test potential scenarios without the pressure of an actual attack 11 Oct 2023  •  , 3 min. read Squashing malware groups involves imposing steep costs on small ad hoc groups. But those actions are slowly ebbing in favor of going after much more organized actor groups aligned in support of nation-state-aligned ideals. Doing that is slowly changing the face of the defenders, and making what were often solitary operators play nice together in order to achieve the goal of shutting down adversaries. Sort of. Turns out itRead More →

Digital Security Late nights at VB2023 featured intriguing interactions between security experts and the somewhat enigmatic world of grayware purveyors 10 Oct 2023  •  , 3 min. read Late night at VB2023 is when the goblins come out – crafted visages of carefully-played fans cum lures foisted by the industry of potentially unwanted application (PUA) vendors, sponsored- and pay-per-click application installers, and other download monetizers that form up a multibillion dollar ecosystem. And in case you are wondering what they want, it is to entice the unblocking of borderline – really borderline – creepy software that they want reputable security software vendors to ignore andRead More →