Information Security Forum

For those very new to this area, please google SIM SWAP and discover a very nasty security issue with all phones we use today. At first glance the new security researcher might think I'm exaggerating. Do your own research and tell me you don't find this to be one of the most foul, nasty exploits I've seen in years. This exploit was recently used to highjack a writer's phone at https://www.zdnet.com/article/sim-swap-horror-story-ive-lost-decades-of-data-and-google-wont-lift-a-finger/ His case is still developing with loss of accounts, tax returns he stored on the Clouds, and a 25,000USD Bitcoin purchase. And we're not talking thousands of dollars in …

Businesses all over the world are trying to figure out how to make the most of their digital marketing campaigns. The rise of influencer marketing is quite significant, and many celebrities that charge hundreds of thousands of dollars per Instagram post. However, many companies are already interested in figuring out how to use augmented reality (AR) for their future marketing and advertising campaigns. While augmented reality might not be as prevalent as some have predicted, there are still powerful corporations interested in utilizing it to their advantage. Of course, this doesn’t mean that consumers will start purchasing products and/or services …

I have a question for those who are looking for bugs and vulnerabilities for money. How are you looking for customers? Is it freelance or a permanent job or a hobby? I found one blockchain project that offers to find vulnerabilities for money. I will post the text of their proposal, if the administration does not mind: *In order to improve the security of the program code, we announce the beginning of bug-hunting. Anyone who finds a new critical bug (vulnerability) will get 100 000 TERA. Bug should be reported confidentially to progr76@gmail.com or telegram @progr76 TERA Foundation: https://terafoundation.org* What …

Living in California, I periodically need to log into my computer that's back in my home in New York. Not that often, typically just a couple times a year. But today, when attempting to connect, I got an error message saying, "The remote TeamViewer is running an old version which is out of date. Therefore, you cannot connect ot this Version anymore." Soooo, firstly, why is TeamViewer not backwards compatible?! Secondly, I haven't updated TeamViewer on my local computer either anytime recently, so both local and remote computers should be running versions of TeamViewer that were released roughly at the …

A survey of attendees at Infosecurity Europe earlier this month showed 70 percent in favour of the dictionary definition (in this case the Cambridge Dictionary) of a hacker being amended. The amendment in question being to remove 'illegality' from the definition. The current definition of a hacker is "a person who is skilled in the use of computer systems, often one who illegally obtains access to private computer systems". So what do you reckon, DaniWebbers? Is it time that hacker was reclaimed entirely (rather than relying upon black and white labels) and if so what word should replace it as …

In the modern world, it’s easy to understand that data is absolutely essential to many corporations and organizations. There is an ever-growing need to understand the needs and desires of your customer base, so that you may tailor your products/services/platform as much as possible to meet these particular needs. However, we also are coming to a point where human beings are beginning to realize that the way that their data is being used can be quite harmful. One of the most obvious examples is the [Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/technology/facebook-cambridge-analytica-explained.html), in which data from Facebook’s user base was used to influence a …

Let me share how I began to understand Microsoft: A long time back when I went to Microsoft Redmond's campus for a seminar. I had two things I wanted to share since I thought Microsoft would want to look into this. 1. A CD that when put into the PC would cause the PC to lock up. I didn't know why, I just thought it showed a bug. 2. A jpeg file that when copied to the desktop would render that user's account dead. Even in safe mode until the file was deleted. I waited my turn to meet with …

Hello guys, Recently my site was infected with malware, which caused me a lot of problems. In particular, many spam links have been created and indexed. I managed to get a lot out of them with Google search console, but it still appears in some key searches. Is there any chance of blocking the link prefix in robots.txt to deleting itself from google? <snip> I want somehow to block indexing all links I know i can block like this: User-agent: * Disallow: /product/categories But this one is different, its not like a parent page/category. I would appreciate very much if …

One of the mantras of computing and just about anything data related is "**We only lose what we don't backup**" but some are taking offense that this is still the current state of computing today. Recently some owners call this out as "blaming the user", "you're holding it wrong" or snobby. Everyone I know will try their best to help you get your machine back in working order even if people say such things. They've lost it all and upset that they can't get their stuff back. Last week's example was another smart phone, forgot their password, unlock code and …

Greetings everyone, I've been away from this forum for a long time, must be more than 10 years since my last post. That's how long I've been pretty much trouble free, as far as the Internet and data safety was concerned. Back then I was experimenting all too often with the free anti-spyware and anti-virus programs (Avast, AVG, etc.), getting in trouble in the process, as those freebies would often interfere with each other cause all sorts of headaches, mainly because those conflicts produced a breeding ground for some real nasty Internet threat. I can still remember the friendly atmosphere …