Tag Archive for: east

CleanMyMac – Review 2023 – PCMag Middle East

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Most antivirus companies that publish macOS antivirus tools started with Windows security products. Not Kyiv-based MacPaw, which makes CleanMyMac. CleanMyMac is thoroughly Mac-focused, combining antivirus protection with a broad range of features to clean and tune your Mac. The cleanup features are effective and truly useful. The core antivirus visibly does its job, but it lacks some standard features and doesn’t have any lab test results.

By contrast, Bitdefender Antivirus for Mac and Norton 360 Deluxe for Mac hold perfect scores from AV-Test, and Bitdefender adds a perfect score from AV-Comparatives. Norton is a cross-platform security suite that includes a no-limits VPN and 50GB of storage for your (Windows) online backups. Bitdefender also packs a VPN, ransomware protection, and a few other bonuses. Neither does as much to clean up and speed up your Mac as CleanMyMac does, but these two are our Editors’ Choice antivirus picks for the Mac.

Note that CleanMyMac’s online description clearly states that it “fights off malware, adware, ransomware, and all other ‘wares’ specific to macOS.” I’m evaluating this program as an antivirus utility for Macs, one that happens to have a big collection of bonus tools to clean and tune your Mac. A review focused on the cleanup side might well take a different approach.

How Much Does CleanMyMac Cost?

A one-year one-Mac subscription for CleanMyMac costs $39.95, the same (or nearly so) as Bitdefender, ESET, Trend Micro Antivirus for Mac, and Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus for Mac. After that, it gets confusing. The list price for a two-device CleanMyMac subscription is $79.90, and for five devices it goes up to a whopping $199.75. But those prices are cut by a volume discount (always active) and a daily coupon discount. Ignoring the coupon discount, you pay $59.95 for two licenses after the volume discount, about the same as F-Secure Safe for Mac. A five-device subscription will run you $89.95. Once you get past the discount confusion, CleanMyMac’s pricing is in line with the competition.

Avast, Avira, and AVG are free, which is handy if you didn’t budget for Mac antivirus. At the other end of the price spectrum, Norton lists…

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China-Aligned “Operation Tainted Love” Targets Middle East Telecom Providers

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A Chinese cyber-espionage actor likely connected with the “Operation Soft Cell” campaign has been targeting Middle East telecom providers since the beginning of 2023.

The new series of attacks are part of what SentinelOne researchers described as “Operation Tainted Love,” a cyber-espionage campaign exhibiting “a well-maintained, versioned credential theft capability” and a new dropper mechanism.

“The initial attack phase involves infiltrating internet-facing Microsoft Exchange servers to deploy web shells used for command execution,” wrote SentinelOne senior threat researcher Aleksandar Milenkoski in an advisory published earlier today. “Once a foothold is established, the attackers conduct a variety of reconnaissance, credential theft, lateral movement and data exfiltration activities.”

Milenkoski highlighted that the deployment of custom credential theft malware is the main novelty of the new campaign, which relies on malware incorporating modifications to the code of the Mimikatz post-exploitation tool.

Read more on threat actors using Mimikatz here: ShadowPad-Associated Hackers Targeted Asian Governments

A particular sample of the malware (dubbed mim221 by SentinelOne) also featured upgraded anti-detection features.

“The use of special-purpose modules that implement a range of advanced techniques shows the threat actors’ dedication to advancing its toolset towards maximum stealth,” Milenkoski explained.

The security researcher also clarified that while links to Operation Soft Cell are evident, the team could not directly link the campaign to a specific threat actor.

“That campaign has been publicly associated with Gallium, and possible connections to APT41 have been suggested by the use of a common code signing certificate and tooling that shares code similarities. APT41 is also known to target telecommunication providers.”

Either way, Milenkoski said the threat actors behind Operation Tainted Love would likely continue upgrading their malware and targeting organizations in the Middle East.

“These threat actors will almost certainly continue exploring and upgrading their tools with new techniques for evading detection, including…

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Is there an end in sight for Oakland’s ransomware crisis? – East Bay Times

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OAKLAND — A ransomware attack against Oakland that has affected city services and exposed reams of sensitive personnel data is creating a nightmare for city officials who aren’t sure what it will take to resolve the crisis.

While there is much still unknown about the full extent of the attack that has unfolded over the last month, experts in cybercrime say the resolution is not likely to be a happy one for those affected.

“This is a really devastating cyberattack for sure,” said Sarah Powazek, the director of a cybersecurity academic program at UC Berkeley. “It’s a big deal, and it’s really unfortunate how poorly prepared folks are for dealing with this. And I’m not blaming the city at all — it’s sad that cities are supposed to be prepared and know what to do with what is an international cyber attack.”

The attack was carried out by hackers associated with the ransomware group Play, also known as PlayCrypt, that has targeted municipalities around the globe, including the small city Cordoba in Argentina, as well as hotels in Brazil and other private businesses.

The city has released few details about the attack, and has not revealed how its data was compromised or the dollar amount sought by the hackers.

As the frequency of ransomware attacks has increased, public entities like Oakland have found themselves more vulnerable, and with fewer resources to defend themselves. Other victims of such attacks in the Bay Area include Bay Area Rapid Transit and Contra Costa County.

Over the past weekend, the Play hackers released about 11 gigabytes of data from the Oakland attack to the dark web, including home addresses and social security numbers of numerous city employees — including the current mayor, and her predecessor — as well as police files and other city data, according to multiple city sources who reviewed the data.

The city has offered one year of free credit protection to employees whose data may have been compromised.

Ransomware attacks in recent years have become more frequent, reaching what some experts call epidemic levels since 2019. Earlier this month, President Joe Biden declared ransomware attacks a national security threat, and a report on…

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Jihadi groups’ strategic objectives amid political crisis in the Middle East Region

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 The Middle East and the geopolitical and economic importance of this region

The Middle East, which is a geopolitical region of about 17 countries and eight islands, which the these countries included such as: Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. In addition, if the independence of North Cyprus gets international recognition, then North Cyprus will be the 18th country in the Middle East, and even now in some writings and research reports, North Cyprus is called the Middle East country. However, North Cyprus is still recognized by the United Nations as a part of the island of Cyprus. The largest country in the Middle East in terms of area is Saudi Arabia, and the most populous countries in the Middle East are Egypt, Iran and Turkey.

The eight islands of the Middle East are Arabia, Asia Minor, Eastern Thrace, Egypt, Iran, Levant, Mesopotamia, and the Socotra Islands. Geopolitical and economic importance of the Middle East: The Middle East is a bridge between the three major continents because the Middle East is a connecting tissue between Europe, Africa and Asia. The Middle East has gained geopolitical importance by having some of the world’s most important trade routes, important canals such as the Suez Canal, the Turkish Straits, the Straits of Hormuz and the Straits of Gibraltar, and military strategic checkpoints.

The vast oil resources of the Middle East, strategic trade routes, Middle Eastern territory, and ideas have given strategic importance to the geography of the Middle East. Oil and petroleum are the most widely available resources in the Middle East and the economies of many Asian, European and Western countries rely on the oil reserves of the Middle East. The Middle East produces almost 31 percent of the world’s oil because five of the ten countries that produce the most oil in the world are located in the Middle East, and besides oil, the Middle East produces 41 percent of the world’s natural gas.

In addition to having vast and inexhaustible natural oil reserves, sea trade routes and canals play an important role in…

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