PALM BEACH - Earlier this week, it was reported that one of the country's largest titles companies, First American Financial Corp (NYSE: FAF), unknowingly exposed up to 885 million files related to real estate title insurance records dating from 2003 to 2019. Anyone with a URL for a valid document could view other documents by modifying a single digit in the URL. The records exposed by the website included critical financial information and documents such … [Read more...]
Personal Info of 500 Million Guests Exposed in Marriott’s Starwood Reservation System
NEW YORK, NY - One of the world's leading global hotel groups disclosed that a guest reservation database, which covers a number of major hotel brands, suffered a large data breach. An internal investigation showed that unauthorized access had been occuring since 2014. The intrusion went unnoticed for four years by Starwood, which was acquired by Marriott in 2016 for $13.6 billion. It was uncovered in early September, when a security tool alerted Marriott officials to an … [Read more...]
“Global Internet Crash” Diverted As ICANN Implements DNS Security Enhancements
NEW YORK, NY – Early last month, The Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which is responsible for maintaining the registry of domain names and IP addresses, was preparing to implement the very first change to the “cryptographic keys” which help protect the Domain Name System (DNS) - the Internet's address book. The change had been delayed for over a year as ICANN reviewed last-minute data about the change and accessed any potential risk to the … [Read more...]
Two New Alternative URLs Hit Superhighway
NEW YORK, NY – If you’re looking around for a few good ways to confuse new prospective customers, you’ve got two new great opportunities to completely derail even your best marketing efforts; .LUXE and .PAGE new gTLDs have just worked their way into the mix. Minds + Machines, the company behind .LUXE domain names, which are intended to serve the Ethereum, blockchain and security industry, has released the .LUXE domain which opens for general availability on November 6, … [Read more...]
Gargiulo Reiterates Necessity for .COM in New Forbes Domain and Branding Article
NEW YORK, NY - Michael Gargiulo, owner of VPN.com, a group of virtual private network consultants, is also part of what Forbes Magazine calls its “Forbes Technology Council”, an invitation only community for senior technology executives. Gargiulo, who I have begun to follow for his ‘straight-shooter’ domain advice, writes periodically for Forbes Magazine and certainly believes in the value of a great domain name, indicated by his decision in 2017 to purchase VPN.com for … [Read more...]
New Facebook Data Breach Effecting 50 Million Accounts; Doubling Security Staff
NEW YORK, NY - On Friday, September 28, 2018 Facebook said that an attack on its computer network had affected the personal information of nearly 50 million users. The attackers exploited the "View As" feature that allows users to see their Facebook page the way someone else would. This could allow the attackers to take over Facebook accounts. Facebook has fixed this issue and informed law enforcement. They also do not know if the affected accounts were misused or if user … [Read more...]
The Politics of Facebook: Zuckerberg to Testify Before Congressional Lawmakers
NEW YORK – You have to admit that it an amazing time in history when a computer programming entrepreneur must face the United States Government due to his innovative social network becoming one of the most powerful influencer tools in the World. Beginning tomorrow, Tuesday April 10, 2018, Facebook Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Marc Zuckerberg will testify before lawmakers in what is expected to be a two-day heavy-hitter grilling on the very serious privacy and … [Read more...]
Bad News: Beware and “Be Aware” of “Meltdown” and “Spectre” Vulnerabilities
NEW YORK, NY - As the title suggests, you should both Beware, and "Be Aware" of these new security vulnerabilities that effect pretty much every Intel processor since 1995. I say "Be Aware" because although their patches available, there is not much that can be done to fully mitigate this issue until all or most computer hardware is redesigned. This is bad news because everyone is effected, and all computers are going to need to be replaced, it seems. Meltdown and Spectre … [Read more...]
Misfortune Anyone? This Dangerous Vulnerability Could Be Lurking In Your Network Router
NEW YORK, NY - Misfortune Anyone? Today, WordFence [I really love these people], a company whom distributes a popular security plugin for WordPress websites, released a great article about a vulnerability on computer networks that is being exploited. With the article they also included a simple button which you can use to scan your network's vulnerability, so that if you are vulnerable to this Internet router exploit, you will know about it ASAP and can begin hounding … [Read more...]
New York Releases Tips to Avoid Falling Victim to Cybercrime; Commemorates National Data Privacy Day
NEW YORK, NY - A host of New York State government agencies today announced important tips consumers and businesses can follow to protect their online privacy and information from unscrupulous scammers. These helpful steps and reminders from the Department of State, Office of Information Technology Services, Department of Taxation and Finance, Department of Financial Services and the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services help commemorate National Data Privacy … [Read more...]
Protect Your Domains: No More Procrastinating on Two Factor Authenticating
There is one thing that can come between you and your business regardless of whom you are and how safe you feel your security procedures might be and that’s theft – especially in the domain business. There is a lot that can go wrong in the Internet business as it is, but likely nothing would be as bad as someone stealing your entire Internet address. Poof, all the sudden your entire business is gone. In a brick-and-motor business, it’s not likely that someone will come along … [Read more...]
Google’s Eric Schmidt and the Government; It’s Like Public Relations, Just Different
NEW YORK, NY - A number of years ago Google's then Chief Executive Officer, Eric Schmidt, began visiting the White House, often. I believe the talks were originally about cyber-security and it was around the time where the failed Obamacare website was falling apart. Also, around the same time there were lots of issues with Google being sued and investigated, issues such as the PRISM spying leaks and all sorts of anti-competitive and privacy lawsuits being launched against … [Read more...]
Cybersecurity Legislation Fails: Persistence is Key; Ignorance is Bliss
Most people are familiar with the news that surrounded the major FBI raid on file-sharing site Megaupload. This was probably one of the biggest take-down stories of the year as the site had over one hundred and eighty million (180,000,000) registered members that visited over fifty million (50,000,000) times per day before it was shut down on January 19 2012. The sites founder, dubbed a file-sharing kingpin, Kim Dotcom, was indicted and charged with criminal copyright … [Read more...]
Sudden House Passage of CISPA Legislation Sparks Hullabaloo
The rapid approval of new cybersecurity legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday has caught opponents off guard. The controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011 (CISPA) would grant law enforcement and national-security agencies broad powers to monitor private electronic communications. The 248 to 168 margin was especially galling to critics who had harshly denounced the bill as even more expansive than either the Stop Online Piracy … [Read more...]
