Category: Miscellaneous

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Miscellaneous

Which Browser is Best for Your Needs?

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There are a variety of web browsers out there, and that variety is much larger than most people think. While most can list off the main ones: Chrome, Safari, Edge, and Firefox, there are many more to consider. However, the real question remains: which one is best for you?

In a Nutshell: Probably Chrome…
The most used browser today is Chrome, with about 60 percent of the market share going to it. This isn’t an accident, as Chrome has historically prioritized the two things that Internet users want most – options and speed.

Chrome has always been fast, and despite some other browsers reaching comparable speeds, they just can’t match Chrome’s consistency in that arena. It also doesn’t hurt that Chrome has a remarkably simple interface that hides a massive amount of functionality, only supplemented by a huge extensions list.

However, Mozilla’s Firefox option has also exploded in popularity with its release of Quantum, which allows it to give Chrome a run for its money where speed is concerned. With additional security features and other useful elements, Mozilla is another tempting option.

Microsoft’s Edge browser is another option for many, especially if they prioritize the ability to easily share web pages through either email or assorted social networks, or to take notes on web pages and save them. Furthermore, as it was developed by Microsoft, the same company that develops Windows itself, Edge and Windows integrate quite well with each other.

…But It Depends
Of course, if your browsing tends to have a specific purpose or need, there are other browsers that may lend themselves better to your given objective. For instance, Opera has a feature called Opera Turbo, which can help make slow broadband speeds less of an issue.

Another option is Vivaldi, which would be ideal for those who want a customizable browsing experience. This browser lets a user create their own keyboard shortcuts and mouse gestures, as well as provides far more options that effectively allow the user to customize their own browser. Those who are particularly concerned about their online privacy might prefer the inherent features found in the Brave Browser or in the Tor Browser, and those who frequently download things from torrents might prefer Torch Browser.

At the end of the day, your choice will depend on your preferences. COMPANYNAME can help you weigh your options and make the best choice for you and your business. Give us a call at PHONENUMBER today.

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Miscellaneous

Tip of the Week: Netflix Now Lets You Download Videos for Offline Viewing

b2ap3_thumbnail_netflix_downloads_400.jpg The development of Netflix was revolutionary for its time, allowing users to stream a plethora of great television shows and movies on a whim. Nowadays, Netflix continues to innovate and create ways for users to take their services to places where they never thought possible. One example is taking Netflix on a flight, where the Wi-Fi is either completely unavailable, or too slow or expensive to be worth using. Netflix now allows users to download videos for offline viewing via its mobile app.

Keep in mind that this will only work if you have the official Netflix mobile app installed on your device. You can’t just download videos through the web browser on your smartphone or tablet. Also, keep in mind that not every video is immediately available for download, but the library is likely so large that you might not even notice. First, you’ll need to download the app.

If you want to filter the videos you see by availability to download, just tap or click the button in the top-left side of the screen. Next, select Available for Download. For the videos that are available for doing so, you’ll see the word Download.

If you just want to view the videos that you’ve downloaded in the Netflix app, click the menu and select My Downloads. Selecting this option will give you all of the details about the files, including how much space they take up on your device. This is important to know, especially since you’ll have limited storage space and you never know what you might run into while out of the office.

Deleting a video from your downloads is also quite simple. All you have to do is select the show and click the Downloaded button. This will present to you a window that lets you Delete Downloads. Once you’ve found it, you select the videos that you no longer want by checking the boxes in their corners. To finish the process, click on the trash can and delete your selected videos.

Where will you take advantage of Netflix’s download feature? Where else could you use this feature to save yourself from boredom? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to subscribe to our blog.

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Miscellaneous

How Vizio Got Busted for Spying on Its Customers

b2ap3_thumbnail_vizio_smart_tv_spying_400.jpg What have you watched on TV lately? Actually, never mind; if you don’t want to tell us, we can just ask Vizio. Relax–we’re not actually going through with this, but the fact remains that 11 million owners of Vizio televisions had their viewing habits tracked by the manufacturer. Were you one of them?

A fine by the Federal Trade Commission, totalling $2.2 million, was issued to Vizio following its actions of collecting data on users. This data included what the televisions were displaying, regardless of what the input was; whether it was smart TV apps, DVD players, air broadcasts, the TV’s IP addresses, or cable boxes. Whatever the TV had on it, Vizio could gather the data and do with it as it pleased. A federal court ordered Vizio to delete any data that they collected before March 2016 because their customers were not told of the company’s data sharing practices.

To remedy this, Vizio now makes its data collection practices available through the TV’s settings. Also part of their settlement, Vizio now sends notifications directly to the user’s screen. Jerry Huang, Vizio’s General Counsel, issued a statement regarding the incident: “Instead, as the complaint notes, the practices challenged by the government related only to the use of viewing data in the ‘aggregate’ to create summary reports measuring viewing audiences or behaviors. Today, the FTC has made clear that all smart TV makers should get people’s consent before collecting and sharing television viewing information and Vizio now is leading the way.”

Of course, the question of what Vizio did with all of that data needs to be asked. Perhaps the company used the data to understand how customers were using its hardware, such as how frequently it was used and what kinds of devices were used in conjunction with it. This way, Vizio could use the data to better their products and make them more useful. Of course, that’s an optimistic view.

Another way that Vizio could have used this data is by collecting it to distribute to paying partners for marketing purposes. This type of data collection would be very lucrative for Vizio, a practice that could be difficult to ignore.

Was this collection of data a clear violation of generally-accepted ethics? That’s debatable, but the truth of the matter is that Vizio would have had a better time of it if they gave their customers the choice of being involved these data collection practices. If anything, it should make you consider how you’re using your own Internet-connected devices. You never know if and how they might be spying on you.

What are your thoughts on this development? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to subscribe to our blog.

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Miscellaneous

Hack a Hospital and Get Blacklisted By Other Hackers

b2ap3_thumbnail_ethics_of_hackers_400.jpg Hackers are notorious for committing cybercrimes and exploiting what seems like everybody and anybody. Yet, just as there exists honor among thieves, there’s an unwritten rule within the hacking community: leave hospitals alone.

Of course, if you’re familiar with the activity of hackers, then you’ve perhaps heard of stories of hospitals and healthcare institutions getting hacked. To be sure, any organization handling healthcare records makes for a tempting target to a hacker. These records contain very personal and sensitive information that can be sold for big bucks on the black market (this is one reason why protection laws such as HIPAA are put into place). However, if a hacker chooses to act on this impulse, they do so at the risk of being shunned by their own.

While it’s one thing to stealthily steal files from a hospital server unit, it’s even more of a dastardly deed for a hacker to unleash a ransomware attack on a hospital network. This is due to the fact that attacks like ransomware will disable a computer until a ransom is paid to the hackers. As you can imagine, if a hospital were to have any of its equipment taken offline, then patients in critical condition would be unable to receive the care they need until the system is back online. Potentially, a move like this could result in death.

What could motivate a hacker to attempt a hack where human life is on the line? For the hacker attempting such a hack, it’s perhaps because the crisis it creates makes for a higher chance of a payout. Compared to hacking a business that’s prepared for a ransomware attack and can afford to brush it off and lose a few hours or a few days-worth of data (depending on when the last backup was made), hospitals must act as quickly as possible to get their system back online, which very well could mean paying the hacker.

What’s worse, even if a hospital pays a hacker’s ransom, there’s still no guarantee that they will regain control of their system, which could translate to a significant loss of life. Given the possibility of such a sad situation, it’s easy to see why hackers will blacklist any of their peers known for going after hospitals. After all, where do the hackers go when they get sick? That’s right, the hospital.

To give you a hacker’s perspective on the matter, ZDNet references a forum where hackers discuss, get this, the ethics of hacking. “Yes, this is pretty sad and a new low. These ransom attacks are bad enough, but if someone were to die or be injured because of this it is just plain wrong.”

While these words may be somewhat comforting for a hospital administrator to hear, keep in mind that there are some hackers who disregard any form of ethics altogether, so the risk is still there. Also, for the average SMB not associated with healthcare, there’s likely no “hacker’s code” protecting your organization from being targeted. In fact, regarding the typical SMB, hackers can build a pretty solid case on why they should pull the trigger on a hack attack.

Therefore, whether your business is in the crosshairs of hackers or not, every organization needs to be prepared and have a security solution in place that can withstand such attacks. This defense plan must include a way to defend against even ransomware, which means backing up your data with BDR and having a means to restore your backed up copy as quickly as possible so that downtime is at a minimum.

To make sure that your business is prepared for anything that a hacker throws at you, call COMPANYNAME today at PHONENUMBER.

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Miscellaneous

This Hacker Messed With the Wrong Transportation Agency

b2ap3_thumbnail_san_francisco_transportation_hack_400.jpg While San Francisco residents might not be happy that they’ll again have to pay fares to ride the city’s rail system, the reason they again have to do so is understandable. Plus, it provides an excellent example of the importance of maintaining a backup and using complex passwords.

A hacker or group of hackers, operating under the moniker Andy Saolis, managed to halt the collection of fares by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (or Muni) by hacking their station computer system and introducing a strain of ransomware into it. As a result, Muni employees were unable to access their workstations and some of the agency’s systems were disabled.

However, the hacker claimed to have accomplished more, as ticketing kiosks across the city would only display “you hacked. ALL data encrypted.” The ransom demand for the decryption key was approximately $73,000 in Bitcoin. Despite the hacker’s apparent confidence in their accomplishment, Muni elected to not pay the ransom, deciding instead to restore their systems from a backup and allowing cybersecurity experts to strike back against the hacker, not just once, but twice.

Two independent vigilante hackers managed to access the email account of “Andy Saolis” to collect information that helped to stop the attack, both by correctly guessing the answer to the account’s security question. It would seem that the hacker(s) known as Andy Saolis had been active for a while, but had never before targeted anything other than private companies, which very well may have led to their downfall.

Once the attack was thwarted it came to light that seemingly no data, including that from Muni’s customer payment systems, had been accessed, despite the attack affecting 25 percent of Muni’s network. Saolis, unsurprisingly, gave a considerably different account online.

Claiming to have stolen data from the payment kiosks, as well as 30 gigabytes of data from Muni’s system on their employees, customers, and technical matters, Saolis wasn’t shy about casting himself (or themselves) in the light of the vigilante against an unjust system.

According to an email sent through Russian service Yandex.com, “They give Your Money and everyday Rich more! But they don’t Pay for IT Security and using very old system’s !”

Shortly after the attack ended, security experts were also able to establish that the emailer was based in Iran, and had gained access to the hacker’s servers.

Though Muni never had to pay a ransom for their data, this attack wasn’t cheap, costing them the combined total of the free rides they granted to commuters as their systems were compromised. However, this total would certainly be less than the actual cost of the Bitcoin ransom, and so a good general rule to follow is to never give in to a hacker’s possibly insincere demands.

On the topic of the hacker, whose password was guessed by two separate strangers, how weak must this password have been? While nobody should ever complain about a hacker being foiled, it goes to show how a complete stranger could find their way into your accounts if you aren’t being careful..

This case is far from over, as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are still investigating the matter, which provides proof that public systems are still unable to be fully trusted.

There is a lot for SMBs to learn from this story. How confident are you in your IT security? If you feel it’s time for a security audit in order to determine how protected your business is from all kinds of threats, reach out to COMPANYNAME at PHONENUMBER.