COVID-19 contact tracing text message scams
There’s no question, contact tracing plays a vital role in helping to stop the spread of COVID-19. But scammers, pretending to be contact tracers and taking advantage of how the process works, are also sending text messages. But theirs are spam text messages that ask you to click a link. Check out the image below. Unlike a legitimate text message from a health department, which only wants to let you know they’ll be calling, this message includes a link to click. Don’t take the bait. Clicking on the link will download software onto your device, giving scammers access to your personal and financial information. Ignore and delete these scam messages.
Alleged Hacker Behind Massive ‘Collection 1’ Data Dump Arrested
A hacker accused of selling hundreds of millions of stolen credentials from last year’s “Collection 1” data dump on the dark web has been arrested in the Ukraine. The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) took into custody a threat actor known as “Sanix,” who they claim posted 773 million e-mail addresses and 21 million unique passwords on a hacker forum last year, according to a press release. The SSU said it worked with the Ukrainian cyber police and National Police on the investigation. Authorities did not release his real name.
‘Flight risk’ employees involved in 60% of insider cybersecurity incidents
Employees planning to leave their jobs are involved in 60% of insider cybersecurity incidents and data leaks, new research suggests.
According to the Securonix 2020 Insider Threat Report, published on Wednesday, “flight risk” employees, generally deemed to be individuals on the verge of resigning or otherwise leaving a job, often change their behavioral patterns from two months to two weeks before conducting an insider attack. Insider incidents are caused by individuals within an organization rather than external threat actors. Employees or contractors with privileged access to systems may cause damage, steal or sell data, or be the cause of a security failure — such as by uploading or moving confidential resources to third-party services without permission.
Apple just made it easier to unlock your phone without FaceID because so many people are wearing masks
The tweak included in iOS 13.5, which was released on Wednesday, is subtle. Users with up-to-date software will now see an opportunity to enter their passcode or password when they swipe up and FaceID doesn’t work. Previously, when Face ID couldn’t identify a face, it would try again before displaying the passcode screen, causing a slight delay. The new feature is a sign that Apple is aware that its FaceID software, which has been a key selling point for new iPhones since 2017, is significantly less useful when people are wearing masks. The software can’t identify a face if its mouth and nose are covered, and most recent iPhones don’t have a fingerprint sensor.
Face mask selfies are being used to retrain facial recognition systems
In our social media-driven world, it was inevitable that selfies and photos of people donning masks would soon flood popular platforms like Instagram and Facebook. That’s exactly what has happened and it’s apparently become quite the issue for facial recognition platforms. As CNET correctly highlights, masks cover a significant portion of your face when worn correctly including the nose, mouth and chin. With these valuable identifiers suddenly out of the equation, facial recognition companies are scrambling to retrain their algorithms to lean more heavily on other attributes and they’re reportedly using photos sourced from public social media accounts to do so.
