Fraudulent Payments Are Hurting Venmo And Its Users

The mobile payment platform Venmo (owned by Paypal) has a fraud problem.  That’s not exactly new.  The company has struggled with fraud issues for a long time, but recently, things have gotten out of control.  According to the Wall Street Journal, the company reported losses of $40 million in just …

You Should Be Worried About Cryptocurrency Mining Malware

In the world of data security, cryptocurrency mining software is often overlooked or discounted as a threat because it doesn’t do serious harm to the infected system. It bleeds off computing resources, putting them to work for the miners who control the software, working for them to solve complex cryptographic …

Microsoft Fixes October Windows 10 Update

As you probably heard, Microsoft’s October update of Windows 10 was a bit of a disaster.  Sure, it updated your OS, but unfortunately for many users, it also deleted a variety of files. This prompted outrage from the company’s massive user base. Things would have been bad enough if the …

Officials Want To Know If Wireless Carriers Are Throttling Video

Remember earlier this year when net neutrality got killed off and everybody said it wouldn’t matter? Well, it seems it might have mattered after all. Recently, three US Senators sent letters of inquiry to four wireless carriers. They are investigating allegations that the carriers have been throttling (slowing down) video …

FCC Increasing Wireless Spectrum For More Bandwidth Options

The wheels of government bureaucracy turn slowly, but they do turn. Currently, the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) is slowly pressing forward with an expansion of the available spectrum, on a quest to increase bandwidth for connected devices. Given the explosion of smart devices that has seen the Internet of Things …

Target’s Twitter Gets Hacked And Hackers Post A Scam Tweet

Target is the latest company to fall victim to a simple but effective Twitter-Bitcoin scam.  The scam is about as straightforward as it gets:  A tweet gets sent out by a well-respected brand or prominent individual.  It contains a link which is likely to be clicked on, given that it’s …

Two More Companies Just Had Customer Data Breached

How long does it take from when hackers steal credit card data from a given company until it appears for sale on the Dark Web? The answer varies from one hacker to the next, but the short answer is ‘not very long.’  The more precise answer, at least in the …

Dark Mode On Android Phones Extends Battery Life

Google recently confirmed that “Dark Mode” on Android phones uses less power and thus, helps to boost battery life. Most websites and OS screens do all they can to make it easier to see them on the diminutive screens of our smartphones.  That means bright white backgrounds and bright colors …

Researchers Have Found A New Security Issue With Bluetooth

Researchers from the Israeli security firm Armis have discovered a new security flaw in BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) chips that expose millions of access points and networking devices around the world. This opened the door to a new hack. The flaw has been dubbed “BleedingBit” and is actually two separate …

Data Breach Hits Radisson Hotel Group

The Radisson Hotel Group joins the ranks of globally-recognized brands to be on the receiving end of a successful hack.  According to the company, a small percentage of their loyalty club members had some of their personal information accessed by an unauthorized and as yet unknown third party. The company …