Security

6th January 2018

Meltdown and Spectre: Yes, your device is likely vulnerable

UPDATE: All Avast and AVG consumer and business products have been updated to accept the Microsoft patches (see ‘Fixing the Problems’ below). Details have emerged this week regarding two different—and both substantial—security flaws in almost every computer processor in use today. This affects Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS. It’s important to note that as of yet, no malware or cyberattack has been associated with these flaws, but now that the information is in the public domain, that could change. Either of the flaws could lead to your computer’s memory being compromised, which means sensitive data—passwords, photos, credit card details—can be accessed and stolen. Here’s a breakdown of the two vulnerabilities:

4th January 2018

Avast Mobile Security for Android gets a perfect score

AV-Test, the Independent IT-Security Institute, regularly conducts impartial studies on all leading cybersecurity products on the market. The purpose is to keep consumers aware of what’s performing as promised, and what’s not.

29th December 2017

Which IoT device scares me the most?

I was thinking about Jeff Weiner's question to identify a single product or feature that you cannot do without. For me, it is easy to pay that accolade to Tesla's self-driving autopilot. Every time I am stuck in Bay Area traffic, I allow the car to drive itself while I engage in creative thinking or relax with an audiobook. This is the perfect example of what technology should do—take on the monotonous work and do it better than a human being can.

21st December 2017

Mr. Robot Review: shutdown -r

The season finale of Mr. Robot season three aired last week and it was full with revelations, along with some gory and some heartfelt scenes. Unfortunately, the episode lacked hacks, but there are some hack-related things we can recap.

18th December 2017

A week in security (December 11–17)

Last week we explained what fast flux is and how it’s being abused, we showed you all kinds of Bitcoin-related scams, presented a video recording of a tech support scammer trying to sell free software, and pointed out some free software to keep an eye on your Internet traffic. We also informed you about an ad server found predominantly on adult websites, which has taken the lead in the number of URLs blocked by our web protection module. Other news South Korea is preparing a bill that will ban minors and foreigners from trading in cryptocurrencies or opening investment accounts for them within South Korea. (Source: Techspot) Security researchers have publicly disclosed an unpatched zero-day vulnerability in the firmware of AT&T DirecTV WVB kit after trying to get the device manufacturer to patch this flaw over the past few months. (Source: The Hacker News) Intel will implement a hardware lock on management engine equipped chips to defend against patch rollbacks. (Source: The Register)..