A new password-free option for iPhone users will soon be available, but beware of being an early adopter. Apple’s new iOS update is attempting to make iPhones the most secure device so far. First announced in June at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, iOS 16 launched this month and is making a splash with its passkey […]
The purpose of the CISO Update was—and continues to be—to highlight incidents in the world of cybersecurity that are interesting to the FIT community because they are applicable to higher education, dangerous, or particularly quirky. All of this is to raise interest and awareness, to help our community protect itself at work and at home, […]
This is our 50th CISO Update. Each month over the last four years, we’ve published installments in this series of articles, sometimes to educate, sometimes to amuse, but always to underscore the importance of cybersecurity and to give the FIT community concrete examples of steps they can take to be more cybersafe. In the wild, […]
This series of monthly updates has touched on the Internet of Things (IoT) many times. The IoT consists of all those non-computer devices, from smart speakers to thermostats, that exist on the internet. A few years ago we did a piece on how hackers in England had broken into the remote control systems of hot tubs to […]
One of the recurring themes in these CISO newsletter updates is that hackers are not lone wolves, but instead are often affiliated with and supported by well-organized gangs or state actors. So, a recent New York State Intelligence Center Bulletin about how “Ransomware groups continue to innovate and find new ways to monetize their illegal […]
Here’s a story about a malicious application that almost seems like it needs to be an April Fools’ Day joke, but unfortunately it’s all too real. Security researchers have uncovered a strain of Android malware that can secretly intercept your phone calls. Disguised as a mobile app from popular South Korean banks, KB (Kookmin Bank) […]
It sounds like a monster movie from the 1940s, maybe Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman. (In that one, by the way, Bela Lugosi played Frankenstein’s monster rather than Dracula. Who knew?) In our 2022 version we find two major themes in cybersecurity coming together: attacks against critical infrastructure and attacks against IoT devices. Since it’s been […]
Many of us depend increasingly on our phones to do all kinds of things, from keeping in touch with friends to executing financial transactions. Cyberattackers follow the crowd, so if we spend more time on our phones, they will find more scams that target phone users. This month we will focus on a scam that […]
One of the coolest gadgets to emerge in recent years and may have even been on your Christmas list is the small Bluetooth tracker fob. The device, about the size of a scrabble tile, can be attached to almost anything and then the item can be tracked by a smartphone app. Versions of these trackers […]
Over the last several months you may have heard about disruptions caused by cyberattacks on critical infrastructure. In May, an attack shut down Colonial Pipeline, causing gasoline shortages across the east coast of the United States. By the way, the attack vector was a VPN account that didn’t use two-factor authentication (2FA), a control that we […]