Do you utilize a wireless keyboard at work or home? Do you type in passwords, credit card information, security answers, or other personal data? Possibly up to two thirds of all lower cost wireless keyboards are prone to hacker attacks. With “KeySniffer”, these hackers can have access to all data that is typed using the keyboard. Affected keyboards are made by eight companies: HP, Toshiba, Kensington, Insignia, Radio Shack, Anker, General Electric and EagleTec.

Higher end keyboards usually have encryption built into their products, so this hacking is not a problem. Additionally, Bluetooth keyboards are not susceptible because Bluetooth encrypts all data transmitted over the air.

So if you’re unsure of your keyboards safety, best to upgrade to a Bluetooth version if you need something wireless, or better yet, just stick to the old-fashioned wired keyboards. Want to ensure your safety until you can upgrade? Enable 2-step authentication when possible, avoid using the same password on multiple sites, and ensure security questions have answers only you would know.

Optfinity can provide you and your business with free assessments to check if all your equipment is as secure as possible. We pride ourselves in ensuring our client’s systems and data are fully secure and backed up in the event of a disaster.

Are you a Yahoo user or someone that once had an account and is also utilizing the same password for other websites? You may want to think about changing your password. A cybercriminal is advertising 200 million alleged Yahoo user credentials on the dark web. Yahoo says its aware of the claim, but has not confirmed nor denied this data breach.

There are many reasons why this threat may not be a serious as it seems, but to be safe, you should still take precautions to ensure your security and online safety. First and foremost, enable two-step verification. Also, do not reuse passwords across multiple sites. Finally, ensure that you change your current Yahoo password just in case your account was one of the 200 million that was accessed.

And as always, feel free to contact Optfinity if you’re still unsure of your full security or if you need assistance in accomplishing any of the suggestions we mention. Don’t forget, Optfinity also provides free assessments for businesses so you can be sure you’re safe company wide.

While you might want to limit your employees access to buy apps and games through the Windows 10 Store, Windows wants you and your employees to buy their products. Forcing you, the savvy business owner, to pay extra for Windows 10 Enterprise to have access to restrictive features preventing your employees from making these purchases.

You can’t blame Windows for this decision as most companies would do the same. What you can do, however, is install productivity-tracking solutions, or look into a web content filtering system that keeps employees from browsing dangerous or wasteful websites. The point is to keep your employees accountable for the time they spend in the office, whether they’re on the clock and working diligently, or wasting time to whittle away the workday.

If opting for the latter decision, contact Optfinity and we can help as this is something we currently do for many of our clients. Micromanaging is never a good thing, but ensuring a way to keep your employees accountable for their work day is always a win-win situation.

But if you’d like to kick start your iPhone to do the cleanup now instead of later, the trick is to “rent” a movie from the iTunes store. You must ensure that the movie you wish to rent has a larger file than the space available on your phone. This will prompt your iPhone to automatically clean up your storage and make more room to fit the movie file.

Read the full article for more details on this trick. For reference, we had one of our technicians here at Optfinity try it out on her iPhone. Her storage increased by over 1.3GB. (Note that it may take your phone a few minutes to fully clean up its storage) Contact Optfinity if you’re still having problems with storage space or you just have questions or concerns regarding any tech issue.

As per this advisory note United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), a large number of products made by Symantec are affected (24 products) across multiple platforms (OSX, Windows, and Linux), and the severity of these vulnerabilities (remote code execution at root or SYSTEM privilege) make this a very serious event. A remote, unauthenticated attacker may be able to run arbitrary code at root or SYSTEM privileges by taking advantage of these vulnerabilities. Some of the vulnerabilities require no user interaction and are network-aware, which could result in a wormable-event.

US-CERT encourages users and network administrators to patch Symantec or Norton antivirus products immediately. While there has been no evidence of exploitation, the ease of attack, widespread nature of the products, and severity of the exploit may make this vulnerability a popular target.

Exploitable security holes in security software are a serious problem. Malicious attackers know that you’re likely to be running popular security products, just like you’re likely to have Windows and Adobe Flash installed. That, combined with the fact that your anti-virus product is running at a low-level on your computer with powerful privileges, can make for a noxious cocktail.

So, patch your anti-virus software and – if you’re a security vendor – try to iron out any vulnerabilities in your software *before* a malicious hacker or a Google employee uncovers them.

Check out Symantec’s SYM16-008 and SYM16-010 security advisories for more details of the available patches.

When the leader of the social media universe and the director of the FBI both do something, perhaps you should too. Covering the camera and microphone on your laptop with tape is a very simple way of preventing a hacker from having insight into your personal life.

Think this can’t happen to you? The report which part of this article is based on states that these types of trojans account for some 70 percent of all malware. So there are a lot of people out there wanting access to your personal life.

There are many reasons besides voyeurism and blackmail for these hacks. They can also view personal information lying around within sight of the camera or listen to you on phone calls giving out passwords, codes, credit card information, etc. So take the simple step and protect yourself. Read the full article for more ways to secure your computer and contact Optfinity if you still have questions or if you want a free webcam cover of your own.

A common anti-phishing tactic might not protect you anymore. Spammers are getting craftier with how they can capture and steal your data. Fraudsters in these particular attacks are using JavaScript to send users to a legitimate PayPal site while sending their credentials to a different domain that hosts a phishing page:

“The javascript runs as soon as the page (HTML attachment) is loaded and intercepts all posts to PayPal.com and diverts them to the actual phishing page to accept all your details, if you are unwise enough to fall for this trick.”

So other than being fooled into clicking on what seems like a legitimate link, just go directly to the website and ensure you have two-step verification enabled. So far, this is your surest bet to not be sucked down the rabbit hole of a phisher.

Almost any web browser that you use will come pre-equipped with a property known as “incognito mode”, or “private browsing”. This option allows the user to hide their activities from other users on a shared computer.

Why is this helpful? You can ensure your privacy when utilizing a public computer at a library, café, or other public space; you can open multiple account websites that limit you to one registered account at a time, e.g. Google; you can outsmart paywalls on websites that limit the number of articles you can read for free in a given month.

Read the full article to learn exactly how to access this mode on whichever web browser you use. And remember, incognito does not mean true privacy. Websites can still capture your IP address, ISPs, and your actions can still be tracked. The article also teaches you how to truly go private if that is what you wish.

Still not sure you’re doing it right or are wanting to be as private as possible, especially at work? Time to contact Optfinity and we can help ensure everything you do is private, secure, and safe! Our advice and assessments are always free to clients and potential clients!