Entries by Robert Siciliano

10 Ways you may get Hacked this Summer

Can you name 10 ways you can get hacked this summer? I can. Hotel Hacking Those hotel electronic card locks for doors aren’t as secure as you think. A criminal attaches a little electronic gizmo beneath the lock, and presto, he’s in your room. You can’t stop this, but you can make the burglary worthless…

10 Tips to Protect Yourself on Social Networks

With the prevalence of mobile devices, more than ever, it’s easy for us to share our lives with the world. And yes, social networks are all about staying in touch with friends and family, and sharing events in your life, but perhaps it’s too easy to share information? With just a few clicks, posts and…

HHS provides Healthcare Providers Risk Assessment Tools

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Security Rule requires that covered entities conduct a risk assessment of their healthcare organization. A risk assessment helps your organization ensure it is compliant with HIPAA’s administrative, physical, and technical safeguards. A risk assessment also helps reveal areas where your organization’s protected health information (PHI) could be at risk. Watch the Security…

Security is about Layers and Attitude

Installing a home security system and keeping doors and windows locked is not the end of your crime prevention regimen; it’s only the beginning. And the beginning is YOU. You are your greatest weapon against crime, wherever you are located at any given moment. Unfortunately, that “mama bear” or “papa bear” mentality has been driven…

The “Heartbleed” Bug has not been exterminated

Though the breaking news of the Heartbleed vulnerability is a month old, this doesn’t mean that this “bug” has been squashed. There still remain about 318,000 servers that are vulnerable to this OpenSSL bug, according to security researchers, though this figure is about half of what it was a month ago. The Errata Security blog…

10 Ways to Help Protect Yourself from Identity Theft

No one wants to be a victim of identity theft (at least not that I’m aware of). But even though we may say this, our actions don’t always indicate this—and actions speak louder than words. Some of this information may seem basic or like common sense, but these are still tactics that identity thieves utilize…

Change Your Password. World Password Day

We also say we want to be safe online. Yet sometimes our actions betray our words—especially if we’re using simple, short passwords for our online sites. Passwords with less than eight characters are the easiest to crack, especially if they include a proper noun or a word that’s in a dictionary. Hackers especially love passwords…

7 Ways we leak our Private Data

Smartphone apps. There are apps wanting your location when they do not need it. Are there any apps requesting your location? You should deny them this information unless it’s absolutely necessary. Another way your phone knows where you are in terms of location is through the data of a photo. Put up lots of photos…

Malware at all time High

Malware is everywhere and isn’t about to disappear. The latest PandaLabs report says that last year alone, of all the malware that ever existed, cyber crooks created and distributed 20 percent of that. Malware comes in the form of Trojans, worms, viruses, adware/spyware and miscellaneous, with Trojans leading the pack. Ransomware seems to be gunning…