For 45 minutes on Monday morning, a variety of Google services were inaccessible across Europe and North America. Google Search, Gmail, and a variety of Drive programs were all down. Google’s physical devices also reported critical errors during the outage. Initial reports blamed this on an error in the service’s authentication system, but a new… Read more »
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Is Zoom Back in Business?
Work-from-home is the reality for so many of us during the coronavirus pandemic. Being out of the office has its challenges: interrupting kids, spotty internet, and endless miscommunications! However, online meetings have become the symbol of this new working environment, especially the virtual meeting app ‘Zoom’. Part of the app’s popularity was its security. Zoom… Read more »
Famous Ransomware Gang Gives Victims Keys to Access The Files They Stole.
Operators of the infamous ransomware Shade have decided to shut down and have released over 750,000 decryption keys to their victims who can now decrypt their files and hopefully regain access. The Shade explained on a message posted in the GitHub Repository that they have decided to publish all decryption keys back to their victims… Read more »
500 Google Chrome Extensions Caught Stealing Private Data From Millions of Users
Google was forced to remove 500 malicious Chrome extensions from its web store after it was discovered that many extensions carried malicious ads which siphoned off browsing data to servers being controlled by attackers. It’s been reported that the extensions were part of an Ad-fraud campaign that’s been operating since January 2019. However, some evidence… Read more »
This New Ransomware is Asking for Nude Photos Instead of Money
Last year businesses worldwide lost billions of dollars due to ransomware. This year, however, some ransomware criminals are looking to collect something other than money. Researchers at Emisoft have discovered a ransomware that demands payment of a different kind – nude photographs. The creator of the ransomware distorts the typical sextortion scam which is to… Read more »
What the new California Privacy Law Means for You
Background of the Law The CCPA (California Consumer Privacy ACT) is a new California law which allows residents of California to learn what data companies are collecting about them, as well as requiring companies to delete their data and not sell it, upon request. The Beginning Impact Although the full force of the new privacy… Read more »
Why End-users should not have administrator access
The Importance of Limiting Administrative Access In today’s day of cyber attacks, viruses, and ransomware, business owners and executives are always asking: What can we do to limit our exposure? An Industry Standard: Restrict Administrative Access One of the easiest recommendations we provide—and a widely recognized industry standard—is to never allow end-users to have administrative… Read more »
OptfinITy Recognized for Excellence in Managed IT Services
Springfield, VA, February 27, 2018 – OptfinITy, Washington, DC’s leading provider of IT Services, announced today that CRN®, a brand of The Channel Company, named OptfinITy to its 2018 Managed Service Provider (MSP) 500 list in the Pioneer 250 category. This annual list highlights North American solution providers who deliver cutting-edge approaches to managed services…. Read more »
Why You Should Archive Email
If you’re using a standard email provider like Google or Yahoo, and you delete an email, after a few days your email is gone forever. This is, of course, unless you’ve saved it in a separate folder or archived it. While this may suit your personal needs, there are many reasons why you, as a… Read more »
How a Single Email Stole $1.9 Million from Southern Oregon University
If you’re wondering why hackers are more prolific now than ever before, perhaps it’s because corporations paid out over $3 billion to fraudsters last year. This year, Southern Oregon University is just the latest victim adding to that rising total by succumbing to a business email compromise (BEC) attack; one of 78 to be exact…. Read more »
