A phishing attack will strike you. It is not a question of IF, but a question of WHEN
With the massive rise in phishing attacks, 2019 is the year for organizations to realize the concept of becoming a victim is an issue of when and no longer if.
According to Malwarebyte’s 2019 State of Malware report, there is pretty much no industry that is unaffected by malware. And phishing attacks remain an effective means of tricking users. In Healthcare alone, nearly one-half of orgs citing a 1-10% click rate when interacting with mock-phishing emails to test user response, and another one-quarter of organizations seeing click rates of 11-30%.
These numbers clearly indicate that organizations simply aren’t prepared for phishing attacks.
What you can do
What’s needed is an anti-phishing plan in place that helps to ... Read More
Malware found in Office Depot malware scans...not really
Office Depot and its tech partner tricked customers into buying unneeded tech support services by offering PC scans that gave fake results, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Consumers paid up to $300 each for unnecessary services.
The FTC yesterday announced that Office Depot and its software supplier, Support.com, have agreed to pay a total of $35 million in settlements with the agency. Office Depot agreed to pay $25 million while Support.com will pay the other $10 million. The FTC said it intends to use the money to provide refunds to wronged consumers.
Office Depot caught claiming out-of-box PCs showed “symptoms of malware”
Between 2009 and 2016, Office Depot and OfficeMax offered computer scans inside their stores using a "PC Health Check" ... Read More
Oath fined $4.95 Million for violating Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”)
In December, 2018, the New York State Attorney General announced a $4.95 million settlement with Oath Inc., the result of an investigation into Oath's violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”).
The NYAG found that Oath’s ad exchanges transferred persistent identifiers and geolocation from website users to DSP bidders in its automated auction process. While that may be fine for websites directed to grown-up audiences, COPPA includes persistent identifiers and geolocation in its definition of “personal information.” And under the law, companies must obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting or using children’s personal information.
But instead of seeking verifiable parental consent, Oath treated all websites (and therefore all user information) the same, despite knowledge that some ... Read More
COVID-19 private health information will no longer be private
A recent update on both iPhones and Droid phones allows our phones to publish our COVID-19 private health information (PII). Some of us may not even know this is happening. Here’s how to find out if your phone is.
On an iPhone, choose Settings > Privacy > Health and you get a screen with COVID-19 Exposure Logging near the top.
COVID-19 Exposure Logging is currently off. “Why the worry Mark,” you may ask. The worry is because I did not intentionally add this functionality. It appeared one day. I do not have an app to transmit data yet. However, I am nervous that a future iOS update will include a surprise app that will transmit this information and worse, ... Read More
Coronavirus coverage increases ratings
Coronavirus dominates our lives and our consciousness. So much so that we stop what we are doing to watch network news every day. It has returned to being a mandatory part of our lives. A local TV news station anchor began the broadcast with “And now the latest Coronavirus news.” It seems we cannot get enough news, even when the news is not really news anymore. It is just an update of what we already know.
Higher ratings
The news networks are benefiting from Coronavirus. They are enjoying increased viewership, which in turn produces higher ratings which in turn generates increased advertising revenue. I’m sure you get the picture. For the second quarter of 2020, all major news networks saw increased ratings. https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/cable-news-networks-tucker-carlson-tv-ratings-1234694846/ says ... Read More
Covid-19 coverage increases ratings
Covid-19 dominates our lives and our consciousness. So much so that we stop what we are doing to watch network news every day. It has returned to being a mandatory part of our lives. A local TV news station anchor began the broadcast with “And now the latest Covid-19 news.” It seems we cannot get enough news, even when the news is not really news anymore. It is just an update of what we already know.
Higher ratings
The news networks are benefiting from Covid-19. They are enjoying increased viewership, which in turn produces higher ratings which in turn generates increased advertising revenue. I’m sure you get the picture. For the second quarter of 2020, all major news networks saw increased ratings. https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/cable-news-networks-tucker-carlson-tv-ratings-1234694846/ says ... Read More