You probably haven't heard of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Systems. They're a low-profile division of the Department of Health and Human Services responsible for administering the Affordable Care Act. Recently, the company announced that they detected anomalous activity in the systems related to the healthcare.gov website that brokers and insurance agents use to assist people who apply for healthcare coverage. The abnormal activity was detected in the Federally Facilitated … Read more
Latest Windows 10 Update Causing Audio Issues
Microsoft hasn't been terribly impressive lately when it comes to Windows 10 updates. In fact, it's fair to say that they've been a complete mess. Just recently, they've issued updates that have deleted user files and caused crashes after creating incompatibilities with keyboard drivers. Now, (courtesy of the most recent Windows 10 update), many users are reporting that they've got no sound due to corrupted or incompatible audio drivers. The company has made hasty corrections to their … Read more
New Encryption Will Help Secure Your Android Device
Google is taking additional steps to bolster user privacy and better secure the data of the company's legions of Android device owners. The company recently announced a change to the Android Backup Service that will encrypt all user backup data stored on its cloud servers, such that even Google itself can't read it. Google has long allowed Android users to back up their app data and phone settings to their Google account so when they upgrade their phones, the process of getting the new … Read more
Malicious Messages In PlayStation Can Cause It To Crash
Gamers take the games they play seriously. So seriously, in fact, that they're not above resorting to dirty tricks to score a win. Recently, social media has been abuzz with reports of a messaging app bug on Sony's PlayStation devices. Specifically, there's a bug in both the Android and iOS messaging apps that allow malicious gamers to send a poisoned character via group chat that will brick your gaming console. If you're in the middle of a tense death match, you lose by default, because … Read more
IP Spoofing Attacks Show Significant Increase
Gaming and Gambling are huge industries with a truly global footprint. It's no surprise then, that these industries have become an increasingly popular target for hackers. Interestingly, according to the latest report issued by ThreatMatrix, the attack vector of choice when it comes to these industries is IP Spoofing. It has increased by a staggering 257 percent since this time last year, making it far and away the fastest growing attack vector in the gambling and gaming industry. A … Read more
Some iOS Users Report Call Issues After Latest Update
This hasn't been a great month for two of the titans of tech. Both Apple and Microsoft have been plagued with bug-riddled updates to their operating systems. In Apple's case, their new iOS 12 had to be patched just three weeks after its release because of all the bugs the company's burgeoning user base discovered almost immediately after updating. Unfortunately, the 12.0.1 patch seems to have created almost as many issues as it solved for some users. In particular, some users are reporting … Read more
Another Data Breach, This Time At The Pentagon
As many as 30,000 people made up of a mix of both civilian and military personnel have had their personal and financial information exposed. This exposure is what has been reported as a major security breach of the Pentagon. This is proof positive that no organization is safe from watchful hackers scattered all around the world. The Associated Press report on the incident includes: "The department is continuing to gather additional information about the incident, which involves the … Read more
New Windows 10 Update Pulled For Unintended Data Deletion
Microsoft is having problems, and those problems are spilling out onto the company's massive user base. In a highly unusual move, the company pulled its latest Windows 10 update after receiving numerous complaints from users about missing files. Unfortunately, this isn't the first time the company has had problems with updates to their OS. Back in April, the company delayed a planned update because at the last minute, Blue Screen of Death issues were discovered. In another instance, they … Read more
Newest WiFi Version Will Be Called WiFi 6
Most people don't know what the latest version of WiFi is called. That's the fault of the Wi-Fi Alliance, the group that manages the implementation of WiFi. Since their earliest days, the group has insisted on a highly unconventional version numbering scheme. If you're curious, the current version is 802.11ac. The group's numbering system isn't very user friendly, which makes WiFi support fairly user un-friendly too. All that is changing, however. The next version of WiFi will simply be … Read more
Spectre Security Built Into New Intel Chip Hardware
By now, almost everyone has heard of the Spectre and Meltdown security flaws that have been making headlines for more than a year. They're serious flaws with dire implications for tens of millions of users around the world who have an intel-based PC. The saga surrounding the fixes for these issues has been a long one and filled with twists and turns. Intel originally attempted to push a software fix to protect its chips, but the patch they issued was so flawed that the company requested … Read more
