General Interest

Amazon Removing Music Storage Service At End Of April

April 11, 2018 by Joseph Martin

If you use Amazon’s Cloud MP3 Locker to store your music online, now is the time to start looking for a new home for it. Last year, the company announced that they were ending the service, but didn’t provide a firm date. April 30, 2018 will be the last day you’ll be able to access your music if you don’t take action.

Back in December, the company stopped allowing users to upload new tracks to their music storage system, which users were formerly allowed to store up to 250 songs for free.

In the company’s most recent announcement about the coming changes, they made two important clarifications. First, there is a back-end way you can keep access to your existing music files, but it requires action on your part. You’ll need to log in, go to your Music Settings and click the “Keep My Songs” button. Failing to take this step will result in your music being deleted.

Second, the company stresses that these changes do not apply to music purchased through Amazon Prime, or Amazon’s digital music streaming service. Those files will still be available, with no action needed on your part.

While it’s a sad development, it’s not surprising in the least. Increasingly, companies that provide cloud-based storage are streamlining or scaling their services back. Amazon isn’t the first, and they certainly won’t be the last. Last year, both DropBox and Microsoft Onedrive (two prominent players in the cloud storage ecosystem) announced scalebacks to the amount of storage offered in their free accounts.

While it’s true that storage has become increasingly low cost, it’s also true that the growth in popularity of cloud storage has exploded. Companies offering the service have had to scale back, lest they become completely overwhelmed.

In any case, there’s still time to move or preserve your files, but you’ll want to take action sooner rather than later.

Joseph Martin

President & CEO
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Facebook Post Removals May Soon Get An Appeals Process

April 10, 2018 by Joseph Martin

There are some big changes coming to Facebook, which may have some serious unintended consequences.

In a recent interview, Mark Zuckerberg indicated that he’s considering allowing users to independently appeal to the content moderation team if their posts get taken down for violating various community policies.

On the surface of it, this seems like it would be a good thing. Zuckerberg said that the move is designed to give people in the Facebook communities what they want, rather than reflecting short-term, profit-driven wishes of the shareholders.

It’s a significant change because as of right now, Facebook only allows for appeals if content was removed for violation of copyright laws. In addition, the appeal must be made via a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) notification, which makes it a somewhat daunting process.

Zuckerberg describes the new approach as follows: “So maybe the folks at Facebook make the first decision based on the community standards that are outlined, and then people can get a second opinion. You can imagine some sort of structure, almost like a Supreme Court, that is made up of independent folks who don’t work for Facebook, who ultimately make the final judgement call on what should be acceptable speech in a community that reflects the social norms and values of people all around the world….I think we can build that internally as a first step.”

All of that looks good on paper, but there are some major problems with this approach.

First, the company will struggle to find enough volunteers to monitor content and appeals to keep pace with demand. Given the size of Facebook’s footprint on the web, that’s a very real concern. The new, easier appeal policy is certain to cause the number of appeals to explode.

Second, if not done with great care and forethought, it could further polarize the platform. It could lead to the development of more estranged “information silos,” which runs counter to what the company ultimately wants its global network to be. In addition to that, it could easily lead to a massive backlash against the company.

Time will tell, but the coming months should be interesting indeed.

Joseph Martin

MyFitnessPal User Information Data Breach Affects 150 Million

April 9, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Another week, another high-profile data breach. This time, it’s Under Armour in the hot seat. Under Armour acquired the MyFitnessPal app back in February 2015, and the company recently announced that their new acquisition was hacked in late February 2018.

So far, the company is taking all steps we’ve come to see as usual in these circumstances. They’ve notified their user base about the scope and scale of the attack, which impacted a hefty 150 million users. In conjunction with the announcement of the event itself, they assured their users that the theft of data was limited to user names, email addresses and encrypted passwords.

Although the stolen passwords are encrypted with bcrypt (which is a highly secure solution), the company is still recommending that all of the app’s users change their passwords immediately, just to be safe. Under Armour also assures its MyFitnessPal users that no credit card information was exposed.

In a departure from the routine we’ve come to expect in situations like these, the company is also warning users to be aware that since their emails were stolen, they may be subject to phishing scams in an attempt to get more of their personal information.

That announcement, in part, reads as follows:

“Please note that the email from MyFitnessPal about this issue does not ask you to click on any links or contain attachments and does not request your personal data. If the email you received about this issue prompts you to click on a link, suggests you download an attachment, or asks you for information, the email was not sent by MyFitnessPal and may be an attempt to steal your personal data. Avoid clicking on links or downloading attachments from such suspicious emails.”

While Under Armour’s handling of the incident has been solid so far, one has to wonder how many more of these incidents we’ll see before companies start taking data security more seriously.

Joseph Martin

Huge Spike in Malware With Mining Capabilities

April 9, 2018 by Joseph Martin

There’s a new type of hacking attack to be concerned with, and it’s growing by leaps and bounds. Called “Crypto-Jacking,” it’s a process by which malicious code is placed on websites. When the sites are visited, the code secretly siphons off a portion of the affected user’s PC, laptop, or smartphone’s processing power and uses it to mine for various cryptocurrencies so that the hackers can profit from it.

Kevin Haley, the Director of Symantec’s Security Response Team, had this to say about the issue:

“Cryptojacking just came out of nowhere. I think what we’re going to learn in the year to come is when people see the opportunity to take money, they’re going to come up with some really wild ways to do that.”

Based on the statistics the company has been collecting, cryptojacking increased a whopping 8500 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017 alone. As the prices of various cryptocurrencies continue to rise, we can expect to see even more of this because it provides the hackers with a hands-free method of gaining tremendous profits with almost no risk or exposure.

Mike Fey, the President and COO of Symantec adds, “Cryptojacking is a rising threat to cyber and personal security. The massive profit incentive puts people, devices and organizations at risk of unauthorized coin miners siphoning resources from their systems, further motivating criminals to infiltrate everything from home PCs to giant data centers.”

Perhaps the most insidious aspect of this new attack vector is how easy it is to pull off. Even a low-skill hacker with a very limited toolset can manage to insert the handful of lines of code needed to begin siphoning resources.

Unlike most other forms of attack, however, no company data is directly at risk. What you can expect to see though, are serious performance hit as more of your equipment becomes infected. It’s not a happy situation given the importance of speed in today’s fast-paced business environment.

Joseph Martin

Another Google Service Is Going Away

April 6, 2018 by Joseph Martin

If you are a fan of, and regularly use Goo.gl (the URL shortener service), brace for impact. The company has announced that as of March 30, 2019, the service will be shut down for good. Long before then, beginning April 18th of this year, only existing users will be able to shorten links via goo.gl. No new signups will be allowed.

The company had this to say about the recent announcement:

“The URL Shortener has been a great tool that we’ve been proud to have built. As we look towards the future, we’re excited about the possibilities of Firebase Dynamic Links, particularly when it comes to dynamic platform detection and links that survive the app installation process….FDLs are smart URLs that allow you to send existing and potential users to any location within an iOS, Android or web app.”

Fortunately, we’re not actually losing a service as much as we’re seeing one swapped out for something better and arguably next generation. It is worth mentioning that Google does not have any plans to auto-migrate goo.gl links to Firebase Dynamic Links. If you opt to use the new system, you’ll have to export your short links and then import them manually into Firebase.

Given this, it’s expected that at least some percentage of goo.gl users will simply opt to shift to other URL shortening services such as Bit.ly or Ow.ly.

Although Google is not ending support for the service to make life more difficult for hackers and spammers, that’s one of the unintended consequences of the move. Both spammers and malware authors regularly make use of goo.gl. Sadly, legions of Marketing departments and other legitimate users do too, and many aren’t thrilled that although Google is offering an ostensibly better and more robust alternative, they’re not offering any means of auto-migration to the new platform.

Joseph Martin

Remote Desktop Flaw Affects Every Windows Version

April 5, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Researchers at Preempt Security recently discovered a critical flaw in Microsoft’s Credential Security Support Provider protocol (CredSSP for short) that impacts every version of Windows in existence. It could allow a hacker to remotely exploit Windows Remote Desktop to execute malicious code and steal any data stored on the machine.

The flaw, logged as CVE-2018-0886 would allow a hacker to execute a man in the middle attack, (provided that they had Wi-Fi or physical access to the machine) and steal authentication data via a Remote Procedure Call attack.

Yaron Zinar, a lead researcher at Preempt, had this to say about the flaw:

“An attacker which has stolen a session from a user with sufficient privileges could run different commands with local admin privileges. This is especially critical in case of domain controllers, where most Remote Procedure Calls (DCE/RPC) are enabled by default. This could leave enterprises vulnerable to a variety of threats from attackers including lateral movement and infection on critical servers or domain controllers.”

This is a big deal because Windows Desktop is hands-down the most popular means of performing remote logins. In addition, business of all shapes and sizes make regular use of RDP for a variety of purposes, making them vulnerable until the flaw is patched.

Microsoft released a fix for the issue as part of their March 2018 Patch Tuesday, but security professionals close to the issue warned that simply applying the patch is not enough to provide protection. You’ll also need to instruct your staff to make a few configuration changes (explained in the documentation surrounding the issue), including limiting your use of privileged accounts as much as possible and use non-privileged accounts whenever possible.

The March 2018 patch release was a hefty one, and included patches for a number of products including Core ChakraCore, PowerShell, Microsoft Office, Windows (OS), and both the Edge browser and Internet Explorer.

Joseph Martin

RottenSys Malware Has Infected 5M Android Devices Since 2016

April 4, 2018 by Joseph Martin

There’s a new threat on the horizon, according to security researchers from Check Point. A group of hackers in China are busy building a massive botnet that so far, totals almost five million Android smartphones. The hackers are quietly taking control of these devices using a strain of malware known as “RottenSys.”

While the malware is flexible and can be adapted to any number of purposes, in its present incarnation, it’s being used to display copious numbers of advertisements. This generates a healthy revenue stream for the hackers, but that could be just the beginning. The researchers have found evidence that the hackers are gearing up for a campaign that could be much more far-reaching and damaging. According to Check Point: “This botnet will have extensive capabilities, including silently installing additional apps and UI automation.”

RottenSys is fairly new to the malware ecosystem, first appearing in September 2016. So far, the hackers have spent most of their time simply spreading their creation to more devices. At current count, the number of infected Android phones stands at 4,964,460, and it grows by the day.

It wasn’t until last month that RottenSys got an update that gave its owners the ability to take direct control of all the devices. Prior to that, they were happy to simply rake in ad revenue, which is estimated to exceed $350,000 a month.

Currently, the malware hasn’t spread beyond the confines of China, but that could easily change as the hackers seek to add an increasing number of devices to their already massive botnet.

What makes RottenSys notable is the fact that it has managed to spread to so many devices in such a short period of time. As it turns out, the secret to the hackers’ success has to do with the code it’s built around, which includes both “Small”, (an open source virtualization framework) and “MarsDaemon”, which is a library that keeps apps “undead,” which ensures that the malware’s processes continue to operate even after users close them. This ensures that the ad-injection capacity cannot be disabled.

Only time will tell what the hackers have planned, but it can’t be anything good. They’ll have a formidable botnet to do damage with. Stay tuned.

Joseph Martin

Google Changing Name Of Android Wear Without Updates

April 3, 2018 by Joseph Martin

Wearable computing devices from smart watches to glasses are struggling to find an audience, and Google’s Android Wear operating system hasn’t gotten much love in recent years. It has weakened as major players in the tech space have struggled to find a market for these products. On the face of it, these products would seem to be wildly popular, but still haven’t quite captured the imaginations of a critical mass of the consuming public.

Google’s recent announcement that it was rebranding Android Wear to “Wear OS,” is the most significant move we’ve seen in over a year. However, without significant updates, simply changing the name isn’t going to improve the OS’s visibility or viability.

The name change was driven by the fact that when the OS was first released, it appeared only on smart watches, but the company later added iPhone compatibility, which made the name less than perfectly applicable. In a blog post related to the rebranding effort, Google referred to Wear OS as “a wearables operating system for everyone.”

It’s hard to make a convincing argument that Google is all that interested in wearables. One needs only to compare the company’s handling of Wear OS with the way Apple handles wearable products and OS’s.

We had to wait two and a half years between the version 1.0 and version 2.0 of Wear OS. Android Wear was released more than 13 years ago, and since its release, the company hasn’t made any updates or announcements except for the recent blog post announcing its rebranding.

There are some signs that Google has long term plans for the floundering operating system, though. The company has been recruiting high-profile brands including Tommy Hilfiger, Michael Kors, Hugo Boss, Guess, Gc, Fossil and others to make and sell Android watches. It will be interesting to see what the company does in coming months.

Joseph Martin

Intel Taking Additional Steps To Prevent Security Flaws

April 2, 2018 by Joseph Martin

By now, you’ve almost certainly heard of “Spectre,” one of two recently discovered security flaws that impact every chip made by Intel in the last ten years.

The story of Spectre, and Intel’s response to it has been an interesting one. In response to the flaw’s discovery, Intel rushed a firmware patch, but quickly had to take it back and recommend that users not install it, because it created as many problems as it solved.

Intel has since released a better, more stable patch, but hasn’t stopped there. The company recently revealed that it is introducing various hardware protections against Spectre-like vulnerabilities that may be detected in the future.

According to Intel’s CEO, Brian Krzanich, “(We have) redesigned parts of the processor to introduce new levels of protection through partitioning. As we bring these new products to market, ensuring that they deliver the performance improvements people expect from us is critical. Our goal is to offer not only the best performance, but also the best secure performance.”

While that is welcome news for people planning to make purchases in the near future, owners of existing Intel-powered equipment will still have to have to rely on firmware updates for Spectre protection. This unfortunately comes with the tradeoff of a hit to CPU performance.

In tandem with that update, the company also announced that as of now, they have firmware updates available for all of its products launched within the last five years. This coupled with their recent partnership with Microsoft to help deliver Spectre updates to their legions of impacted customers should provide peace of mind, even with the expected hits to system performance.

Unfortunately, with new variants of Spectre and Meltdown being discovered on a regular basis, this is likely not the last we’ll hear about this issue.

Joseph Martin

Massive Malware Attack Stemmed From Bittorent App

April 2, 2018 by Joseph Martin

According to a Microsoft security researcher, a massive malware attack attempted to install a cryptocurrency mining software on more than 400,000 computers in less than twelve hours. The failed campaign is noteworthy because of the attack vector used. It was a supply chain attack implemented by compromising Bittorrent, a highly popular program used to share and download files.

Until recently, security professionals discounted the very possibility of supply chain attacks, regarding them as highly improbable occurrences. The sad truth, however, is that they’re becoming increasingly common. Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen a growing number of them, including CCleaner, which is a popular disk-maintenance program. A poisoned version of it was delivered to more than two million of the software’s users.

In another supply chain attack, M.E. Doc (a tax and accounting application which is widely used in the Ukraine) was tainted and contained the NotPetya wiper worm, and shut down computers all over the world just last year.

Then there was a collection of Android apps that came preinstalled on phones from not one, but two different manufacturers that allowed hackers unfettered access to the data on those phones. In fact, this is actually the second time Bittorrent has been hijajcked. Last year, a tainted version of the client installed ransomware on Macintosh computers around the world.

Fortunately, this latest attack was not successful, although Microsoft researcher reported that Windows Defender blocked more than 400,000 attempts to infect computers between March 1st and March 6th , with the actual Bittorrent infection occurring sometime between February 12 and February 19. In this instance, the threat was regional, with most of the computers being located in Russia, Turkey, and the Ukraine.

While this was the latest supply chain attack, it certainly won’t be the last. Worst of all, these kinds of attacks are notoriously hard to prevent because updates coming from trusted sources are often installed without question.

Joseph Martin

Amazon Removing Music Storage Service At End Of April

MyFitnessPal User Information Data Breach Affects 150 Million

Huge Spike in Malware With Mining Capabilities

Another Google Service Is Going Away

Remote Desktop Flaw Affects Every Windows Version

RottenSys Malware Has Infected 5M Android Devices Since 2016

Google Changing Name Of Android Wear Without Updates

Intel Taking Additional Steps To Prevent Security Flaws

Massive Malware Attack Stemmed From Bittorent App

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