In Other Tales of Terror

As frightening as the recent Amex phishing scam was, it wasn’t the only monster-related cybersecurity incident to come to light during the past few weeks. Here are a few of the headliners:

• On September 22, Yahoo revealed that data from at least 500 million user accounts might have been stolen in one of the largest cybersecurity breaches ever. The actual breach occurred in 2014, and information that may have been stolen includes names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, passwords and some encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers.
• According to Akamai Research, as reported by the Wall Street Journal on Oct. 12, hackers are hijacking millions of DVRs, satellite dish antennas, smartphones and networking devices as they test stolen passwords and lay the groundwork for more illegal activity.
• A new report suggests more than 5,000 online stores are infected with card data-stealing malware. The estimate is that online “skimming” of credit card information has increased by 69% over the past year, since is much easier stealing card numbers in the “real” world.
• Adobe has finally fixed 30-odd vulnerabilities in their Flash Player software that could have been exploited to install malware on computers, bypassing security features or allowing devices to be remotely controlled by ill-intentioned parties.

Though this story reports on some threats being laid to rest, we know about movie sequels with monsters that never die. Scary huh? We don’t mean to give you nightmares, but be warned. The monsters are out there and they really do want to hurt you. Fortunately, The SynchroNet Way offers the best path for safely and effectively utilizing today’s most worthwhile technology.