1. Use Strong, Unique Passwords

One of the simplest yet most effective security measures is creating strong, unique passwords for each of your accounts. Avoid common passwords like “password123” or “admin,” as these are easy targets for hackers. Instead, use a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. Consider using a password manager to generate and store complex passwords securely. This way, you won’t have to remember them all — just one master password.

2. Enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)

Adding an extra layer of security with two-factor authentication is a game-changer. With 2FA, even if hackers get hold of your password, they’ll need a second form of verification—like a code sent to your phone or fingerprint scan—to gain access. Many popular services like Gmail, Facebook, and banking apps support 2FA, so enable it wherever possible.

3. Keep Software Up to Date

Software developers frequently release updates to fix security vulnerabilities. Failing to install these updates leaves your devices open to attacks. Turn on automatic updates on your operating system, browsers, and apps to ensure you’re protected against the latest threats.

4. Be Wary of Phishing Attacks

Phishing scams are emails or messages designed to trick you into revealing sensitive information. They often appear legitimate, mimicking trusted brands or contacts. Always scrutinize emails for signs of fraud, such as suspicious sender addresses, grammatical errors, or unusual requests. Never click on suspicious links or share personal data unless you are certain of the sender’s identity.

5. Secure Your Wi-Fi Network

Your home Wi-Fi network is a gateway to all your connected devices. Secure it with a strong password and WPA3 encryption. Change the default router credentials and disable remote management features. Consider setting up a separate guest network for visitors to prevent access to your main devices.

6. Backup Your Data Regularly

Data loss can occur due to malware attacks, hardware failure, or accidental deletion. Protect yourself by regularly backing up important files to an external drive or cloud storage service. In case of an attack, having recent backups ensures you can restore your data quickly.

7. Use Antivirus and Anti-Malware Software

Installing reputable antivirus and anti-malware programs adds a vital layer of defense. These tools can detect and remove malicious software before it causes harm. Keep your security software updated and run regular scans.

8. Limit Personal Information Sharing

Be cautious about how much personal information you share online, especially on social media. Details like your address, phone number, or travel plans can be exploited by hackers for identity theft or targeted attacks. Keep your privacy settings tight and share information only with trusted contacts.

9. Be Vigilant on Public Wi-Fi

Public Wi-Fi networks are convenient but often insecure. Avoid accessing sensitive accounts or conducting financial transactions on public networks. If necessary, use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to encrypt your internet connection and protect your data from prying eyes.

10. Educate Yourself and Stay Informed

Cyber threats evolve constantly. Stay informed about the latest scams, security tools, and best practices. Regularly educate yourself about online safety and encourage your friends and family to do the same.

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Speed is essential. There is no denying that a quick, nimble web page trumps a slow site. Both users and search engines know that. Website load time statistics from numerous studies clearly show that if the average page load time exceeds 3 seconds, the abandonment rates soar. High bounce rates telegraph to search engines that visitors don’t find the website useful, which affects the ranking directly.

The most remarkable 1-second stats:

• 1 second delay reduces page views by 11%
• 1 second delay decreases customer satisfaction by 16%
• 1 second delay eats away 7% of the coveted conversion rate
• On annual basis, 1 second delay can lead to $2.5 million in missed revenue if your shop generates $100,000 per day

What Is a Good Page Load Speed?

Quick pages are the standard. 2-3 seconds load time is tolerable, anything beyond the fourth already compromises the end user experience. Like it or not, a whopping 79% of online shoppers state that any performance hiccup will make them stay away from an online store. Worse yet, 44% would share the negative impression with friends online. As is the case with so many other things, the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is spot on about the velocity of bad news.

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Cybersecurity will be a hot topic for as long as we are using computers and the internet. With the massive expansion of IoT devices, mobile, and technology in general, we can only expect to see this industry growing in the years to come to keep us safe from online thefts and data breaches.

Let’s review some of the most common types of cyber attacks. You’ll be surprised when you see the stats and learn that this issue is much more serious than you probably thought.

A Glance at the Statistics

Botnets
Robot networks or botnets are groups of computers acting much like an army with the aim of attacking one specific computer or groups of computers.

Think in terms of the inverse proportion examples you saw in school. If you have one hacker trying to target a network, it may take her a year or more. If you have hundreds of computers sending multiple attacks, it will take much less time. Experts from TechJury contend that botnet use rose to 34% in Q1 of 2018.

Facebook Attacks
If you use social media, then the chances are you use Facebook. By Q4 of 2018 alone, it had around 2.32 billion users. The sheer number of users is a huge call for online hackers. In September 2018, about 50,000,000 accounts were affected by an attack.

Financial Statistics
Estimates peg the cost of malware and phishing attacks as well as virus attacks on households at about $4.55. That is more than the GDP of a number of small countries.

Although that is a lot of money, the amount shouldn’t be too surprising because some of that cost comes from charges you only catch after a transaction. In a survey conducted in 2016, three years ago, 48% of participants actually responded that they had seen charges on their bank accounts that they weren’t privy to.

In the first half of 2018 alone, it is estimated that 15% of the attacks were to gain financial access be it through a virus, malware, ransomware and so on and so forth. Just take a look at the infographic below that reveals some pretty startling statistics.

What’s Next?
An integral part in solving any type of problem is knowing the root cause of the issue because that allows us to set up actions to combat the problem at hand. That is the absolute basic starting point of problem-solving.

What the statistics show are the areas where we are most vulnerable or have become more vulnerable. For example, the 33% increase in mobile ransomware in 2018 tells us that mobile attacks are definitely an area we need to continue to look at.

Overall diligence, an understanding of vulnerability and continuing to search for better security protocols are strategies that look to be necessary for the long haul.

cybersecurity 2019

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Netflix is one of the best resources for entertaining content today, as it offers a subscription to one of the largest libraries of movies and series. Everybody wants to watch Netflix, everybody wants to get the newest and the best content and enjoy their winter evenings with the favorite series characters. However, not everything is so simple. 

Netflix offers their services in a range of countries, and citizens of both Europe, America, and other places enjoy this resource. But the company has contracts with the relevant authorities in each country, and promotes only certain content to users. In other words, in addition to some universal content available via Netflix, the users are offered specific movies and series created by the country they are located in. It means that users from other states cannot watch a local series sometimes, or local users cannot watch a series of a different state. For these cases, VPN for Netflix is a solution.

Netflix is a cool resource, but the limitation it puts on content by the geographical principle makes many users mad. To manage this problem, you can find more info on what software is the best to unlock Netflix for you. Since the world becomes more globalized, it is weird that an entertainment resource limits access from different countries to local content. Therefore, to enjoy Netflix to its fullest, download and use VPN solution. 

When you travel abroad and one evening decide to have a good time with a glass of wine and new episode of your favorite series that you have waited for a whole week, even a more stupid situation can occur. Since you are not in your home country, your Netflix subscription may not work the way to expected, and you cannot reach the local content of your home country from a different country! So, your evening is spoiled and you end up watching something random on YouTube. To avoid such fails, check Bestvpnrating.com for software that suits you, and enjoy your Netflix wherever you travel. 

source: https://latesthackingnews.com

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As people are leaning more and more towards the digital world, cybercrime is becoming an issue that cannot be ignored. Although many individuals and businesses are doing all they can to prevent such attacks, a big risk of them still persists. There are various types of attacks that could occur and for many reasons, but one thing is certain – you don’t want to be the victim of cybercrime.

The more creative cyber criminals get – the more resources are spent on cyber security. It is estimated that, by 2020, around $101.6 billion will be spent on cybersecurity software, services and, hardware.

In case you run a small or middle-sized business – the most common recommendations are:

1. Organize cyber security awareness trainings for employees.
2. Keep computer and operating system software up-to-date.
3. Use spam filtering for your mail accounts.
4. Create backups of your data.
5. Limit access to corporate information.
6. Organize cyber security awareness trainings for employees

source: https://www.everycloudtech.com/awesome-cyber-security-facts

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Blockchain technology is probably one of the most impactful discoveries in the recent history. After all, it has a massive potential to change how we handle online transactions. Despite some skeptics, the majority of experts agree that blockchain has the potential to disrupt the banking and financial industry, and many other ones!

But what is this technology exactly? We will try to explain that in Layman’s terms, as well as provide you with insights into how different industries can benefit from blockchain.

To put it simply, blockchain enables decentralized transactions across a P2P network. There is no need for a middleman, resulting in almost instantaneous operations and most importantly, low fees. Plus, transactions carried out through a blockchain are much more secure, transparent, and private.

As mentioned earlier, different industries will have different benefits from implementing blockchain technology, and that is what this infographic is all about. For example, the banking sector will get faster transactions, lower costs, improved security, and better record keeping. Also, the blockchain technology can improve electronic voting systems. With this technology integrated into a voting system, governments won’t be able to tamper with votes because blockchain creates publicly viewable and singed transaction that can’t be changed or rewritten.

This infographic will help you understand how the blockchain technology can and will improve 16 different industries, from music to government. So, read on and find out what their future will look like.

source: https://bitfortune.net

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Everybody will remember 2017 as the year when cryptocurrencies skyrocketed in value, especially Bitcoin. While Bitcoin was slowly rising since its creation, 2017 was the year when its value went from around $1.000 to almost $20.000, making some of the skeptics rethink their stance on cryptocurrencies.

Even though cryptocurrencies faced a lot of backlash in their early years, today almost everyone is on the Bitcoin bandwagon. Of course, some countries are still resisting, but the vast majority have embraced it. In a relatively short time, Bitcoin went from being an obscure currency on the internet to a payment method of the future used by big-name brands in hundreds of countries.

Now, companies like Shopify, Subway, and Tesla have fully accepted Bitcoin payments, and you can pay for any of their products or services with them. However, even if a company doesn’t support Bitcoin, there are some creative ways to buy their best products with it. For example, Gyft.com will help you buy Nike shoes with Bitcoin, while Expedia has embraced this cryptocurrency altogether.

If you are interested in learning what other companies are accepting Bitcoin, then this infographic is tailor-made for you. Just scroll down and prepare to be amazed at how many of them are there.

source: https://www.16best.net

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Say, you have 10,000 bitcoins.

What’s the best thing you can buy?

Will you spend them on pizza, for instance?

This is what a bloke did less than eight years ago. Back then, his 10,000 bitcoins were sufficient to get him a couple of pizzas. Imagine having that amount of coins in your Bitcoin poker account right now. With the current price of the cryptocurrency, you could clean up the whole casino easily!

BTC rose from obscurity to mainstream recognition largely thanks to the insane surge in value it saw in 2017. Soon after, big-name brands started accepting it, Bitcoin gambling platforms became more popular, people began investing money in this cryptocurrency, and the general interest for Bitcoin reached an all-time high. Then, somewhat unsurprisingly, the price went down, sparking yet another heated discussion about the volatile unpredictability of the bitcoin.

Now, debates are all dandy as long as the participants know what they are talking about and the audience has at least some grasp of the matter. Neither of the above is true! The vast majority of experts are as clueless about the intricacies of the crypto markets as is the general audience.

The infographic below will not make you a marketing guru. However, it will give you a much better understanding of the driving forces behind the world’s first cryptocurrency, how it came to be, who embraced it first, and how governments handle it.

Read through it and you will be better equipped to talk about bitcoin than 90% of the pundits, who are spewing wild predictions left and right.

source: https://bitcoinplay.net

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As a society, we cherish our right to privacy probably more than anything else. Sharing is great, and we all enjoy it, but there is always that other side, the untold story, the personal, the secret. Now, let’s extrapolate this to a societal level. How many information is out there, purposely being concealed for the sake of greater good, for the sake of our own safety? The number is probably unfathomable. Today, when everything is online, and our lives are intertwined with a world most of us know nothing about, privacy and safety become an issue of epic proportions.

That is why we need to talk about cybercrime and utilize the very best VPNs. However, instead of writing a tract of tedious length, here is an infographic that outlines the most important cybercrime facts all of us should be aware of in 2018.

source: https://bestvpns.co.uk

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There is lots of information circulating about the new Meltdown and Spectre exploits of computer chips from Intel and others announced in the past few days. Some of it has been accurate, and some has been sensationalist and overblown. There is much technical information with high level of details available for both Meltdown and Spectre, so I won’t get into a lot of technical detail here. Rather, I’ll focus on the higher-level issues affecting business and personal computer users.

First, to be clear, these exploits affect all the major computer chip architectures. The major chip makers — AMD, ARM and Intel — have decided to work together to mitigate the potential effects of a common enemy that affects most modern computer chips — a good sign for future industry collaboration. And all the major software vendors of Linux, Microsoft for Windows, Apple for macOS, and virtualization software suppliers such as VMware and Citrix have all collaborated to mitigate this threat.

But what are the threats? There are potentially three different threats exposed in the disclosure, collectively described by Meltdown and Spectre.

Meltdown and Spectre are not exactly the same, but they are related and use a similar exploit mechanism to gain access to computer data. Nearly all modern chip architectures from the major suppliers (Intel, AMD, ARM) are affected, and this includes nearly all modern computer systems from data center to PC to smartphones. The problem affects nearly all operating systems, such as Windows, Linux, macOS and even Android, as well as virtualized environments such as VMware and Citrix. But it doesn’t affect lower-level or real-time operating systems (like QNX) that don’t use this particular feature, nor in lower-level controller chips used for the Internet of Things (IoT).

Basically, the exploit involves reading memory locations that are supposed to be protected and reserved for use by the computer kernel. It exploits an architectural technique known as “speculative execution” which is a key feature of things such as look-ahead instructions and data, which significantly improves computer performance.

With a potential to read kernel data, what’s the real threat level behind Meltdown and Spectre? Let’s look at what it is, what it’s not, and what you should do about it.

What are Meltdown and Spectre

• Meltdown and Spectre are exploits, not chip design flaws, operating against computer architecture that’s been designed into chips for decades. They access protected areas of memory to potentially decode and read. While this may contain sensitive information such as passwords, it also may simply be variable instructions and data from application processes that are not of much value.
• They have the potential to read protected memory locations used by the device and applications (including browsers) that store information in the kernel memory, including potentially sensitive data. They do not read memory in mass storage devices such as disk drives. But it may not be possible to even read the captured data in real time, as it requires understanding the relationship between data locations, which are highly variable and actual data content, and requires a good amount of processing/decoding.
• They must be run locally on the machine and must be loaded through some form of application. Therefore, it’s not easy to do this via a “drive by attack” that does not launch a machine-specific application targeted at this vulnerability.

What they aren’t

• They do not allow takeover or modification of machines and operating systems, so it is not a traditional malware actor. This is important, as it does not expose the machine to any modifications of its operations or “hijacking.”
• It is not an easy thing to do, as some have suggested. It takes a good deal of effort to access and discover the actual content of memory and make it meaningful, as mentioned earlier. For this reason, this is likely not a “high volume” approach to malware like more traditional approaches that take over the operation of the machine for nefarious purposes.
• They do not allow data access and retrieval of stored data sets on disk drives, (e.g., databases) like many normal malware attacks would, nor do they allow machine takeovers for DDoS attacks. So, the actual risks to corporate or personal data are much more limited than typical of malware attacks that capture full content of mass storage systems.
• These aren’t things smaller-scale computers, like PCs and smartphones, need to worry much about, as the amount of effort involved would highly favor exploitation at large data center machines rather than personal machines. It’s about “bang for the buck” for the hacker.

What’s the risk?

To date there are no known uses of the exploits in the wild. And it’s not as easy to deliver a payload to a machine to use these exploits, as it is with more common malware that’s sent via an email or errant application download.

Further, all of the major OS vendors are patching their software to dramatically limit the ability of these exploits to cause harm, and firmware is being updated by the chip and machine vendors. So, while there is a potential real risk, in my opinion, it’s not as great as many of the more traditional malware attacks we’ve seen in the recent past.

What should you do?

All the major OS and cloud companies are working on fixes for this vulnerability and have, or are in process of, providing software updates. It may be impossible to eliminate all risk without turning off some of the fundamental features of modern computers, such as look-ahead functions, which isn’t practical.

Even with the software patches, most users won’t see a major impact on their programs, as they affect only memory access to the kernel system, and many apps use that feature only occasionally. Speculation that the patches will cause a 30 percent decline in performance is, in my opinion, highly overstated. I estimate for the average user on a PC, the performance degradation may not even be noticeable or will likely be in the 3 to 5 percent range.

For large data centers where there are many operations to the kernel memory, the impact may be somewhat greater, but I still estimate it will be well under 10 percent. Although for very large data sets, that may be negatively impactful.

Bottom line 

While these new exploits are troublesome, as are all potential security risks, users and organizations affected should not panic. Many of the fixes are already being implemented as software/firmware upgrades and should mitigate the vast majority of any potential exploitation.

Future chips will also incorporate more protections against these exploits. But as with all major current and future architectures enhancements, there is no guarantee that everything will be 100 percent secure even though the chip, OS and app vendors do all they can to protect systems.

source: https://www.networkworld.com

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