Hackers

A-Z Guide on Removing Unwanted Ads and Apps from Your Mac

September 1, 2020 by admin Leave a Comment

Using a Mac has always been associated with advanced security and intactness to viruses, all kinds of malware, and cyber-crime. But times change, and Mac users increasingly face a variety of malicious threats and data theft cases. Nobody is immune to cyber-crime in the 21^st century, with hackers preying on your sensitive data and funds. Thus, it is imperative for every computer user to know more about malware, to learn how to scan their devices for viruses, and to find out how to remove ads on Mac (as they can also contain malicious code). Here we present an A-Z guide for everyone wishing to advance their Mac security. Read on to get the cutting-edge knowledge and skills for securing your devices and data.

Why Is Your Computer Showing Too Many Ads?

We live in the era of pop-up ads that attack mobile phone and desktop users alike. These notifications can take the form of commercials, special offers, alerts, notifications of winning a prize or lottery, etc. Many of them are phishing attacks on your browser organized by third-party ad providers, while some ads are a healthy response of your browser to your search preferences. So, when does getting ads become too much or too annoying?

· You visited too many shopping websites and clicked “Allow” on the bar asking for sending you pop-up notifications.

· You have some unwanted software or adware installed on the browser.

In the first case, you need to go to Settings and block the pop-up notifications from merchants. In the second case, your browser has been hijacked, and you need to take action to restore its healthy functioning.

Blocking Adware in Safari

Once you realize that the ads are getting too annoying, it’s high time to install an ad blocker. It is a program removing most types of ads from your browser and blocking dubious pop-up notices. To choose an ad blocker suiting your goals, consider either standalone software covering all ads on your computer or a customized add-on to your computer browser. Besides, there is a built-in ad blocker function in the Safari browser on Macs. Let’s consider each of the options in more detail.

Safari Ad Blocker

To block all incoming ads in your Safari browser, go to the “Security” settings in the section of “Safari preferences.” There, you should indicate that you want to block pop-ups and fraud warnings. Mac security settings allow getting alerts of visiting fraudulent websites, locking pop-up windows, and specifying the plug-in installation preferences. Another option is to double-check the “Extensions” section where the illicit adware may reside.

Standalone Software

If you’re using a third-party ad blocker program, first install it on your Mac and run it on the computer. By following the app’s instructions, you can customize the ad blocking preferences, indicating which ads you would like to receive, and which should be blocked.

Are Ads only Bothersome or Really Dangerous?

Internet commercials have long been considered the “necessary evil” as they help web resource creators sustain a regular revenue stream from advertisers, thus allowing them to provide valuable content to users for free. You can also enjoy some free resources online by only watching several ads, so is that bad?

Overall, there is nothing criminal about ads as such; the problem may be suspected if you see too many pop-up ads that worsen your browsing experience and distract you from the critical browser use goals. Besides, the red flag of something going wrong is seeing much irrelevant, even obscene advertising content, such as adult toys, dubious websites, etc. In such cases, you should suspect having some malicious adware on your Mac, which requires action.

Ad Blockers: A New Word in Mac Security?

There is no unanimous opinion about whether using an ad blocker to achieve complete blocking of ads is a good decision. On the one hand, you can avoid viewing distractive commercials, which speeds up and improves the browsing experience, at the same time securing you from the accidental installation of viruses and malware hiding in malicious ads. On the other hand, with so much shopping conducted online these days, you deprive yourself of an opportunity to receive customized suggestions based on intelligent analysis of your purchase intentions and preferences.

Besides, seeing no ads on free websites minimizes your support for website creators who earn from ads to deliver content to users for free. A tendency to block ads may soon transform into paid, subscription-based content access. Thus, it’s up to you to decide whether to spend a couple of minutes watching a short ad or paying for online content in other ways.

7 Chrome Extensions to Help You Protect Your Online Safety and Privacy

September 25, 2019 by admin 1 Comment

There are thousands of different extensions for Chrome. Some of them are designed specifically to make your browsing experience more secure and private. If this is something you are looking for, keep on reading, as we’re about to unveil the top cybersecurity extensions that are worth looking into. That being said, let’s cover the basics first.

These extensions will customize your browsing experience and unlock new functionalities

Some of the extensions are limited to improving the looks and other cosmetic elements of your browser. Others, however, will unlock the kind of functionality that’s not available in its vanilla version. Like a character counter for your emails or a built-in to-do list, for example. Of course, these can be enabled or disabled at any time you see fit, so you’re by no means tied to your choices.

In the world of cybersecurity, you can never be safe enough

It’s important to keep a tight grip on cybersecurity essentials, like cookie management, browsing history, password storage, etc. But thanks to the Chrome extensions, there’s no need to do it manually. You can even set it to lock all of your passwords under one master key, effectively doing away with the need to remember every single piece by heart. There’s also a plugin that disables the scripts that you don’t want to run (like those annoying ads, for example).

With that out of the way, what are the top cybersecurity extensions for Chrome?

1. Adblock Plus

Malware that gets distributed through ads, also known as malvertising, can wreak havoc on your device. Adblock not only stops them from ever loading up in the first place but also brings all the unsolicited website tracking to an end.

2. Blur

One of the best extensions for privacy. Organizing your passwords, hiding your traffic, encrypting your data – all in one little extension. If you’re not a fan of companies collecting your data for marketing purposes, this is one of the answers. In addition to that, certain social media like Facebook are known to track you even during the time when you’re not logged in, which is another thing Blur prevents from happening.

3. Click&Clean

When browsing, your device gets cluttered over time with things like cookies, temporary files, etc. This extension declutters it at the click of a button. In the end, you want to keep your browser running smoothly and get rid of any unwanted baggage – it’s also a matter of keeping your privacy protected.

4. NordVPN

In this day and age, whenever you go online, a VPN is a must. Having one available straight from your browser always comes in handy. Whether it’s government censorship you’re trying to bypass or merely caring for the safety of your sensitive data that you transfer over the web, this should be a part of every modern online surfer’s repertoire.

5. Sneekr

Your browsing history should remain a private matter, and you must do your best to protect it in the same manner you’d protect the privacy of your own home. This particular extension places everything behind a password-only screen so that no one can see it but you. Plus, it gives you the option of accessing it from anywhere you want (and even wipe it if deemed necessary).

6. DuckDuckGo

Protecting your privacy at all costs is the motto behind this extension’s design. Their search engine is known as presenting a viable alternative to Google’s search query tracking. But their Chrome extension does wonders in terms of decoding privacy policies and escaping advertiser tracking. Also, it forces encryption when you’re surfing the web, which helps you stay safe from those prying eyes some ISPs are notorious for.

7. LastPass

Too many users resort to keeping their passwords simple and easy to guess, just for the sake of convenience. Worse yet, some are re-using the same passwords over and over again, so they don’t have to remember what password goes where. Guess what? The hackers are smiling, because you’ve made their job easier this way. LastPass is a solution to the problem; by using one master password, you’ll be free to design your passwords to be as complex and impenetrable as possible without having to remember them all.

Conclusion

The extensions we’ve mentioned are by no means the end of the list, but they make for a good start. At the very least, this should be enough to get you thinking about how these can bolster your cybersecurity defenses and help protect your online safety and privacy at all times.

An expert guide to online gaming security

July 8, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

With roughly 2.3 billion gamers across the globe, video gaming is now the largest entertainment industry in the world. But while online gaming is a fun, highly popular pastime, it can also present a number of cyber security risks to unsuspecting users.

From personal and financial data to in-game items and cryptocurrency, there are a range of assets that can fetch significant real-world prices for cybercriminals – and online gamers often trust as much of their personal information to gaming platforms as they do when online shopping. A moderator for RuneScape recently stole billions in virtual money from players, with a real-world value of $100,000.

To help, the experts at ESET have put together a list of 10 tips for staying safe when online gaming:

1. Keep your authentication game strong

Password reuse is a common issue in online game, as gamers often need to manage accounts for multiple platforms, like Steam and Origin, and for individual games themselves. This can result in the use of duplicate, or easy to remember but weak, passwords that are easy for hackers to breach.

To prevent this from happening, ensure you choose a strong password. If the platform or game has a two-factor authentication option, enable that for your account and create a password of at least 12 characters. If two-factor authentication is not available, or you choose not to use it, choose a password of at least 16 characters.

In either case, choosing a phrase consisting of several words (that aren’t too common) like a book or song title, song lyrics or similar, will make your password easier to remember. Finally, ensure you have a different password for every account or game. If you’re worried you won’t remember them all, consider using a password managing service to help.

2. Be careful what you click on

From unofficial cheat codes to unfamiliar links, be wary of downloading anything from an unknown source. These are unlikely to work and may contain some form of malware. Likewise, only download official upgrades and levels. Phishing campaigns are frequently targeted towards online gamers using popular games, and can even pose as a friend in an attempt to send malicious links via chat platforms.

3. Guard your personal data

Often player accounts are most valuable to the cybercriminal, and hence the most highly targeted. From geotargeting to monthly payment subscriptions, online and mobile games can collect large quantities of data about their users. This provides hackers with a wealth of opportunities to steal personal information such as your location, online activity, and financial details.

Avoid providing too many personal details where possible, and make sure you verify the legitimacy of any platform or game you engage with. Delete all personal details from consoles and PCs when you pass them on to others, are using a public device, or are throwing your device away.

4. Protect your email

You might not think your email is as important as your bank details, but it can still be used by cybercriminals to attempt a breach. Be sure to protect your contact details such as email, phone number or social media accounts as carefully as possible. Never give away your email address to unauthorised sources, as you might then receive spam or emails that contain malware.

5. Keep your real name under lock and key

Online gaming can expose you to a wide range of strangers, and you can’t always verify if everyone you interact with is trustworthy. Beware of who you talk to and what you say to other game players. Never reveal any personal information such as your full name, email, school or workplace, and choose a username that is completely different to your real name. In addition, never put a clue to your date of birth in a username or add personal details to your online profile or avatar.

6. Secure your mobile devices

Many online gamers now use mobile apps to play – giving hackers the opportunity to breach vulnerable mobile devices. Unwanted or infected applications might cause harm by exploiting your phone’s data or functions. However, there are many kinds of mobile security solutions, such as antivirus, anti-phishing and proactive anti-theft protection, with options for both Android and Apple.

7. Make the most of multi-factor authentication

Many games and platforms offer options for two-factor authentication. This will add an extra step to the login process, sending a code to either a registered email or phone number, or a predetermined code, to ensure you remain protected in the event someone obtains or guesses your password.

8. Watch out for bad behaviour

Report any inappropriate behaviour, bullying or abuse you see online to game administrators or software makers through their official reporting procedures (which they should always have). See if the game can block abusive players directly, and take steps to remove yourself from any unpleasant situations.

9. Ensure extra security for children

If you are a parent, guardian, or teacher, it’s highly important to establish appropriate parental controls to prevent children from entering unknown pages or links. You should also educate children about basic rules and tips of cyber security to suit their age, and carefully monitor what young children in your care are accessing on the internet, so you can ensure they’re staying safe at all times. Some cyber security solutions even provide parental controls as part of their service.

Never allow your children to meet up with people they have met only online.

10. Keep your devices updated

Whatever device you use for online gaming, outdated software can provide an array of vulnerabilities for cyber criminals to attack. To avoid a breach, it’s vital to ensure all your devices’ operating systems, antivirus software and critical applications are properly installed and kept fully up-to-date.

Play safe and have fun

Online gaming should be a fun, safe pastime you and your family can enjoy worry-free. A comprehensive, multi-device security solution such as ESET’s Smart Security Premium is a great way to stay protected against malicious online activity, ensure the apps you download are safe, and unmask potentially unwanted applications.

3 Ways to Secure Your Company Accounts

October 20, 2016 by admin Leave a Comment

Accounts of companies, especially big-budget ones, getting hacked, are all over the news. That’s why you can never take your company’s security for granted. The minute you do is all the invitation criminal elements need to come out and play. Here are three ways you could keep your company accounts safe and protected from hackers and leaks.

Audits

These audits help protect your interests, says the Business News Daily. An audit can turn up any suspicious activity involving your assets. That way, they can launch an investigation to find out what the root cause of the problem or issue is. Simply got your account code wrong? They can fix that easily enough so you won’t have to. With regular audits, you can ensure your data is accurate and that you’re keeping your accounts well away from hackers.

Go on the cloud

More and more companies are putting their trust—and information—on the cloud. So should you. As cloud storage becomes the go-to option for many businesses—it’s easy to scale and a much more cost-effective option than upgrading tons of costly hardware—moving your information to the cloud is going to happen sooner rather than later. By doing it now, you can stay competitive with the rest of the companies doing the same thing, count on the same advantages and pass on those advantages, those cost-savings, to your customers. So don’t get left behind. Make sure your company knows how leverage current technologies to help you keep your data secure.

Encrypt and back it up

Don’t forget to have your data encrypted. That helps keep anyone out of your data. There are plenty of programs you can check out for this so look them up. Make sure you know how to protect your data well within the legal limits so you won’t have to worry about compliancy issues that could put your team and company in hot water. With encrypted video communications like BlueJeans—one of the leaders in video solutions—you can easily keep your data secure and out of reach. Also, make sure you back up every important piece of information. This way, even if a device is lost or gets compromised, your data would be safe. Just make sure you create a backup on a different device. That way, you can easily access any data or information you need.

Other important tips

While those three tips are essential to keeping your data safe, here are other tips you might find handy as well:

· Get an anti-malware. This is a must for every security system. An effective anti-malware will keep sneaky scammers out of your system. No need to worry about your emails picking up an infection at some point and compromising your entire system.

· Make your hard drives unreadable. If there are any old data or information you don’t need, you can have all those disks shredded. Destroy old backups. That way, no one would ever have a chance to access any old data from your company’s old hard drives.

· Use a password. This might seem like a cliché but it’s the first step to ensuring your system is protected. So take that extra step. Lock your network with a password. This will make it more secure so you can easily work without any worries. However, in a bid to make sure it’s even more secure, go for passphrases instead of just single-word passwords. That gives another layer of difficulty for scammers in order help keep them out of your system. Also, don’t forget to regularly change your passphrases. This will make it even more difficult for scammers to get into your system and get up to some trouble.

· Use a firewall. This is a must-have for your online security, says the Entrepreneur. Firewalls block out dangerous programs along with viruses and spyware before they get into your network and wreak havoc in your system. However, make sure you’re setting up your communication infrastructure inside your firewall and not outside of it. The best one won’t be able to do anything if you set it up outside. Also, scammers and hackers will find it pretty easy to infiltrate your system. So don’t fall for that mistake. Be sure you’re setting it up inside your firewall.

· Always check the privacy settings. Any time you download or install a new program or software update, never fail to check out the privacy settings for each one. That way, you know what you and your team have to work with. This also helps you set any changes or adjust your setting in any way you want so you get the best results possible.

These are just some tips on how you could keep your company’s data safe. So if you want your data safe, start by putting these tips to good use.

Defence-in-depth – protecting us from ourselves

August 28, 2016 by admin Leave a Comment

It really is astonishing how many cyber-attacks we hear about in the media. How can these companies that have become household names be so vulnerable to attack?

It’s a little bit disillusioning, in a lot of ways like finding out that a superhero isn’t real. We waggle our finger and chastise, but sometimes it’s worth taking a step back and looking at our own cyber hygiene. The tech industry is booming, and for a long time the mantra has been “how easy can we make this for the consumer?”. At the end of the day, this has done the average computer user a tremendous disservice. It’s all of our responsibilities to follow secure practices, and the best way to do that is to practice what the security community refers to as “defense-in-depth”.

By making sure that we follow secure practices every step of the way, we can protect ourselves from one or even many failing. Some of the biggest offenders might surprise you, and some you might have been aware of but never had it hit home exactly how this can be exploited. This article aims to take a practical approach at how failing to follow safe practices can easily be manipulated.

Thinking HTTP is okay on your local network:

Gone are the days where we can trust your local network. Each piece of equipment should be configured such that it believes every other piece of equipment is potentially malicious. BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) has become a very popular paradigm for corporations, but it means that someone might bring an infected device onto the network. It’s absolutely trivial for say, malware to put the infected user’s NIC into promiscuous mode and sniff specifically for authentication over HTTP. Then, your credentials get stolen and possibly used to log into a machine that allows RDP access for all domain members (any machine).

Numerous privilege escalation attacks exist allowing the attacker to then simply monitor main memory (RAM) for juicier credentials. Always use https, for all of your communications, and ideally only allow ECDHE ciphers to allow for Perfect Forward Secrecy.

Not treating your private keys like a valuable:

As you should all know by now, SSL/TLS functions by establishing a shared session key (symmetric encryption) by forging a temporary secure channel via public key cryptography (asymmetric encryption). This relies on generating a public/private keypair.

The private key is known only to the secure web endpoint, and the public key is your certificate which must be signed by a trusted third party (a CA, like SSLTrust.AU) for browsers to mark it as safe to visit. What happens if you’re lax with the private key though? Well, it depends. If communication is over SSL/TLS with a cipher that utilized Diffie-Hellman with large enough parameters, you’re still safe.

This kind of cipher guarantees that even if the private key is compromised, the communication remains illegible by use of constantly changing session keys. Without this special kind of cipher though, an attacker could have been sitting on your communication for months, waiting for you to do something insecure like generating the keypair on your laptop and then leaving it in the open. Then, the attacker merely needs to open up wire shark, provide it with the private key, and can read the communication – passwords and all! Protect your private keys – they are passwords.

The best way to store these certificates is in an HSM – a hardware module that makes absolutely sure the key can never leave the device. They’re expensive, but if you can afford one they’re well worth it. Did you know that even if you mark a private key as non-exportable in Windows that it can still be easily exported?

Blindly trusting certificates, or worse, root certificates:

How many times has it happened to you? “Just click past the SSL/TLS warning. Trust the cert.” This one boggles my mind how many professionals don’t realize this – a self-signed cert is its own root certificate. They’re not inherently dangerous, in that if you take proper precautions you’re limiting your exposure, but how many of you realize that every time you add a self-signed cert to your root certificate store that that route certificate can now be used in conjunction with manipulating your routing in order to pose as legitimate for any site or service?

With an SSL/TLS intercepting forward proxy, an attacker can sit between you and any legitimate service, inspecting all traffic in the clear. All they have to do is control any hop before you get to the internet, and they can route through their own malicious service. If they can run an executable on your machine with an administrative user’s context, they can also poison your static route table and accomplish the same thing. If this happens, the only thing protecting you from sure ruin is that your browser does not trust the SSL/TLS cert of their malicious endpoint!

If you ever hop onto a free Wi-Fi hotspot, and it wants you to install something on your computer before you connect, it’s game over. That’s both protections from your traffic being decrypted transparently being stripped in one fell swoop. Make sure you don’t reuse keys between different services if it’s not needed, however tempting!

Not using Extended Validation certs for your business:

Hear me out on this one. I know that they’re more expensive and that we have a vested interest in selling them to you, but they really do make a difference. The extra verification procedures protect the end user against a lot of shenanigans – time and time again people are able to game automated systems that use a poor algorithm for choosing administrative contact email addresses for verification. Having to revoke a certificate, especially a wildcard certificate, that your clients trust can do a lot of harm to your reputation.

Conversely, extended validation certificates can help bring in security conscious clients who see that you’ve gone the extra mile for them to conduct business with you safely. They can’t see the measures you’ve got behind the scenes. They need to accept on blind faith that you hash and salt their credentials correctly. This is something they can see, and it does make a difference.

Security for your websites should definitely be a priority for your privacy and your users privacy, and while taking measures to minimize breaches make it more secure, there is no fool proof way to 100% secure a website.

As they say “Prepare for Disaster: Recover Faster”

Paul Baka is an Account Manager for Website Security Solutions, SSLTrust [https://www.ssltrust.com.au] Specialising in Website and Server Security for small to medium sized businesses and educational institutions, SSLTrust has fast become Australia’s #1 source for SSL Certificates, Code Signing Certificates, Security Scanners and Cyber Security Support.

Paul specialises in industry leading brands including Symantec, GeoTrust, Thawte and Comodo. He guides customers through the process of selecting and installing the optimal solution for their needs.

How to prevent a DDoS attack

October 19, 2014 by admin Leave a Comment

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For many years now the internet has enabled businesses to reach a much broader audience with their products and services and ultimately boost their revenue as a result. But the internet is not without its pitfalls and dangers. One of the major problems comes from hackers and it seems that we now hear about cyber-attacks occurring on an almost weekly, if not daily basis.

Network Security Priority and attacks

However, one of the most prevalent types of cyber-attack nowadays actually doesn’t seek to steal any information or exploit security vulnerabilities. In fact, DDoS attacks, as they’re known, are designed to cause disruption, damage reputations and basically be a real nuisance to businesses who have an online presence.

A perfect example of how DDoS attacks can cripple websites can be seen in this International Business Times article from last month. The massively popular Eve Online video game was taken offline for more than 12 hours because of a focused DDoS attack on one of its server clusters.

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But with DDoS attacks emerging as one of the biggest threats harbored by the internet today, what can you do to ensure your business is in the best possible shape to prevent one?

Know your ‘normal’ loads

How will you ever know if your business is experiencing a DDoS attack if you don’t know your ‘normal’ hardware loads? It is essential to instrument your key infrastructure, such as network switches and servers, during normal operation to record their ‘normal’ query loads. Failure to do this will leave you completely in the dark further down the line when faced with a possible DDoS attack. You won’t know if it’s just a slightly abnormal load or a potentially devastating cyber-attack.

A great way to reduce server load is by implementing an email archiving solution. This will allow all of your company’s historic emails to be relocated to a separate storage device, thus freeing up your primary server resources. Mimecast cloud storage email archiving is one such solution that will ensure your important business emails are securely archived in a cloud environment.

Secure all externally-facing hardware

With your normal operating loads recorded, it’s time to start securing all of your externally-facing business hardware. Network switches, routers and servers all need to have the latest security patches and updates installed, as well as proven security protocols implemented such as anti-virus.

Furthermore, your technical architecture team should analyze your infrastructure map to identify any potential bottlenecks and single points of failure. This is vital as it will allow you to eliminate any potential areas that could, if compromised, affect your entire business.

Brief key individuals

If a DDoS attack rears its ugly head then it’s crucial that your key IT staff is fully briefed and know what to do. Server teams, network engineers service desk managers and staff all need to know their role.

A quick response will inevitably minimise the effects of the attack and ensure that any disrupted services are brought back online as soon as possible. Just remember to allow for staff holidays and sickness by briefing various backup teams.

Planning ahead to mitigate a DDoS attack is essential for your company’s online welfare. After all, a cyber-attack can literally come completely out of the blue. This article in the Guardian last month shows how quickly a DDoS attack can be orchestrated and also emphasizes that the reasons behind them are often trivial.