Tag Archive for: damaging

FBI says Ottawa man indicted for alleged ransomware and malware attacks that included damaging a state of Alaska computer in 2018

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The FBI on Tuesday announced that 31-year-old Matthew Philbert of Ottawa has been indicted on several cybercrime offences including conspiring with others to attack computers with ransomware and malware, including the damaging of a state of Alaska computer in 2018. The announcement comes after a 23-month investigation into Canadian-based ransomware attacks on business, government and private personal data systems across North America.

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Microsoft’s Windows 10 push is effective, damaging, desirable, and deceptive

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Danger!

Offering Windows 10 as a free upgrade to non-enterprise users of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 was a sensible move on Microsoft’s part. Microsoft wants developers to create applications for the Universal Windows Platform and to do that, it has to ensure that there are many people using this platform. The company has told the developer community that it expects 1 billion Windows 10 systems within the first two-to-three years, putting an end to the usual chicken-and-egg situation surrounding new Windows releases: developers never use the latest and greatest features, because there’s nobody using the latest-and-greatest operating system; there’s no reason to use the latest-and-greatest operating system, because software runs just fine on the current one.

Knowing that few people will actively seek out a new operating system to upgrade their computers, Microsoft offered the Windows 10 upgrade through Windows Update. It also distributed updates that advertised the existence of the Windows 10 update to Windows 7 and 8.1 users. Initially, this merely allowed people to “reserve” their Windows 10 upgrade, but Microsoft has become progressively more aggressive. In the early days, this upgrade was found to be downloading the new operating system even before users opted in, and it was then accused of installing automatically.

In past weeks, the complaints have stepped up. Microsoft has been accused of changing the dialogs advertising the availability of the upgrade. Initially, pressing the X in the corner of the window canceled the upgrade; however, this was changed so that pressing the X merely delayed the upgrade.

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Technology Lab – Ars Technica

The most innovative and damaging hacks of 2015

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Not a week went by in 2015 without a major data breach, significant attack campaign, or serious vulnerability report. Many of the incidents were the result of disabled security controls, implementation errors, or other basic security mistakes, highlighting how far organizations have to go in nailing down IT security basics.

But looking beyond the garden-variety attacks and vulnerabilities lends great insight into the future of malicious activity and how to defend against it. And 2015 had its share of intriguing invasions, each of which highlighted the modified techniques that lead to new forms of breaches or pinpoint areas in need of new defenses. The past year saw cyber criminals adopting innovative approaches and state-sponsored actors becoming bolder. Motivations shifted, with financial gain no longer the sole reason for launching an attack. Inflicting physical damage, stealing trade secrets, hacking as a form of protest — 2015 was a year in which malicious activity served many ends.

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Network World Security

Snowden: Cyber war more damaging to US than any other nation – RT

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RT

Snowden: Cyber war more damaging to US than any other nation
RT
The United States has “more to lose than any other nation on Earth” when it comes to cyber warfare, former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden said in a recent interview. Speaking on PBS' NOVA Next program, the NSA whistleblower took a …
Snowden on Cyber Warfare: "We Really Started This Trend"FRONTLINE
In a rare interview, Snowden urges the US to play defense, not offense, in …PRI
Edward Snowden talks to NOVA about cyber warBetaBoston
USA TODAY –The Escapist
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