Privacy Blog

"Friends don’t let friends get spied on.' – Richard Stallman, President of the Free Software Foundation and longtime advocate of privacy in technology.

Viruses & Malware

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New ThiefQuest Ransomware Discovered Targeting macOS Users

Macs seem to have fewer problems with viruses, ransomware, and other forms of malware. However, the new ThiefQuest ransomware seems to be very bad and also very difficult to remove. You can read more in an article by Lily Hay Newman in the Wired web site at: https://www.wired.com/story/new-mac-ransomware-thiefquest-evilquest/. In the article, please note the statement “Though ThiefQuest is packed with menacing features, it’s unlikely to infect your Mac anytime soon […]

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Avoid Ransomware by Moving to the Cloud

Ransomware is one of the biggest threats to computer systems today. If you are not familiar with the word “ransomware,” read the description on Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ransomware. The Wikipedia article states, “Ransomware is a type of malware from cryptovirology that threatens to publish the victim’s data or perpetually block access to it unless a ransom is paid. Ransomware attacks are very common on Windows systems. Corporations, hospitals, governments, and individuals […]

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Attackers Exploit 0-day Vulnerability that gives Full Control of Android Phones

A limited number of Android phones are exposed to a very serious vulnerability. A member of Google’s Android team has stated the vulnerability will be patched—in Pixel devices, anyway—in the October Android security update, which is likely to become available in the next few days. The schedule for other devices to be patched wasn’t immediately clear. Pixel 3 and Pixel 3a devices aren’t affected. The phones affected include: Pixel 1 […]

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Want to Survive Ransomware? Here’s How to Protect Your PC

Ransomware is a huge problem these days for users of Windows computers. See https://duckduckgo.com/?q=ransomware&t=brave&ia=web to find hundreds of articles about ransomware. Once your files have been encrypted (or even deleted in some cases), you cannot get them back unless you pay a ransom, usually thousands of dollars. The sad part of all this is that ransomware problems are easily prevented, but only if you make preparations in advance. If you wait until […]

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Microsoft Confirms Update Warning For Windows 10, Windows 8.1 And Windows 7 Users

The latest Patch Tuesday update from Microsoft included several critical security fixes. Unfortunately, as Microsoft has now confirmed, it also borked some things. If you haven’t applied that August 13 update and are running on Windows 10, Windows 8.1 or Windows 7, you may want to read an article by Davey Winder in the Forbes web site before you do. Click here to read the article.

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If You Are Using Windows, Read This Now!

Microsoft has issued a ‘critical’ update warning to millions of Windows users. It describes a newly-discovered security bug that is one of the most dangerous bugs ever discovered in Windows. Even worse, none of today’s anti-virus and anti-malware products will detect the problem. (Hopefully, that will change soon.) Details may be found in an article by Gordon Kelly in the Forbes web site at: https://tinyurl.com/privacy190814a. The article states: “Windows users, […]

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Warning Issued For Apple’s 1.4 Billion iPad And iPhone Users

Security firm Check Point has revealed it has found a way to hack every iPhone and iPad running iOS 8 right up to betas of iOS 13. This spread covers eight years of devices (iOS 8 supports the 2011 iPhone 4S) and, with Tim Cook stating there are 1.4 billion (Yes, that’s BILLIONS!) active iPhone and iPad devices around the world, this is worrying news for the owners of pretty […]

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Baltimore’s Bill for Ransomware: Over $18 Million, So Far

The city of Baltimore had many of its Windows computers infected by Ransomware, a type of malware that threatens to publish the victim’s data or to perpetually block access to it unless a ransom is paid. When a ransomware computer is used, a message similar to the following is displayed on the screen: “The files on this computer have been encrypted. You have 96 hours to submit payment, otherwise your […]

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State Governments Warned of Malware-Laden CDs Sent Via Snail Mail from China

Brian Krebs is a well-known computer security expert who often writes about security issues in his excellent online column. He recently wrote about a CD-ROM being sent to various U.S. state and local government agencies. The CD reportedly contains several very vicious viruses and other malware (malevolent software) products. The CDs aere sent by old-fashioned snail mail from a return address in China. If you ever receive a CD-ROM disk […]

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