Posting a privacy notice on your Facebook feed does nothing to keep your updates, photos, or videos private. You need to tweak the settings yourself. You may have noticed a legal-sounding statement being shared on people’s Facebook News Feed lately. As we explained in the blog, Posting a privacy notice on Facebook is useless, […]
An old hoax has been resurrected after Facebook made a recent announcement about its updated privacy policy. The copyright message claims to protect users’ pictures, information, and posts under UCC 1-308- 1 1 308-103 and the Rome Statute. It’s seems so official; it just must be true, right? Here is an example that I saw […]
Yesterday, we looked at two hot areas to be aware of regarding your online security: Data breaches and mobile security. Today, we’ll look at two more areas that haven’t caused as much trouble or damage as the other two, but are likely to grow in importance. Internet of (Every)Thing at risk The “smart” home has […]
At the end of September 2014, a new threat for the Linux operating system dubbed XOR.DDoS forming a botnet for distributed denial-of-service attacks was reported by the MalwareMustDie! group. The post mentioned the initial intrusion of SSH connection, static properties of related Linux executable and encryption methods used. Later, we realized that the installation process is […]
For a month now, I have been reading predictions for 2015. In the security field, something new and unexpected can always pop up – like the Point-of-Sale (PoS) breaches in early 2014 – but most likely what will happen is just a continuation, that is, a natural evolution, of what has already occurred. So let’s […]
In last night’s broadcast of the Sugar Bowl, a showdown of two power-house college football teams in the USA, Allstate Insurance, aired a series of brilliant commercials about the risk of over-sharing on social networks. The social media team at Avast has been preaching this message for a while now, so we were happy to […]
From our headquarters in Prague, Czech Republic to our offices in the USA, Germany, China, and South Korea, all of us at Avast Software wish you love, laughter, and peace in 2015. Looking back on 2014, we are grateful for the trust that our 220 million customers have placed in us. We thank you for […]
During the Christmas holidays, my mother received this email from a well-meaning friend. Since her daughter works for the most trusted security company in the world, she immediately asked me about the authenticity of the message. Here’s the email: Subject: VIRUS COMING ! Hi All, PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS! You […]
Earlier this month, as the Sony Entertainment breach was making headlines, Sony’s PlayStation Network (PSN) was knocked offline due to an alleged hacking attack. On Christmas morning, just as kids everywhere were unwrapping their new PlayStation and Xboxes, the PSN and Microsoft’s Xbox Live network were both disrupted leading to speculation that they were once […]
2014 has been an active year for cybercrime. Let’s start with the most recent and then take a look at some of the other important security events of the year. State-sponsored espionage We are ending the year with the most publicized and destructive hack of a major global company by another country – now identified […]