{"id":3942,"date":"2014-09-03T12:30:52","date_gmt":"2014-09-03T16:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/?p=3942"},"modified":"2022-05-05T11:00:24","modified_gmt":"2022-05-05T07:00:24","slug":"augustroundup2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/augustroundup2014\/3942\/","title":{"rendered":"August Monthly Roundup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In August, Kaspersky Lab brought you even more relevant reads and vital security news stories. From testing your brain power, to hacking your home, we kept you in the know! If you missed any of our popular August posts the first time around, now is your chance to catch up!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/media.kasperskydaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2014\/09\/05111622\/monthly_aug-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5909\" src=\"https:\/\/media.kasperskydaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2014\/09\/05111622\/monthly_aug-1.png\" alt=\"monthly_aug\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/10-mistakes-cost-career\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><strong>10 computer-related mistakes that can cost a <\/strong><strong>career<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>You\u2019re fired! Two words you don\u2019t want to risk hearing because of a mistake you made on your work computer. Regardless of stringent security instructions signed by employees as part of the recruiting process, those are neither followed nor considered, never embracing the paramount impact of consequences the violation may carry. So, what are these no-go use cases for a work PC or laptop?<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Using USB sticks to transfer data. <\/strong>One might lose the drive containing important corporate or confidential data, or even unintentionally infect all PCs in the office via a wayward virus.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Chatting in social networks. <\/strong>It is important to mind the sensitivity of the data and information that you are sharing.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Improper tone of voice <\/strong>when talking to clients or partners publically (social networks), as damaging your employer\u2019s reputation is likely to mean <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/news\/fired-because-of-facebook\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">dismissal with immediate effect<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Resending work emails via personal email. <\/strong>If compromised, your mail service data may end up in the hands of cyber criminals.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Sending encrypted personal information <\/strong>from the office computer could mean the end of your career.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Using unauthorized third-party software at work, especially on laptops. <\/strong>Irrelevant software wastes company resources. Don\u2019t forget your PC is likely monitored remotely so security professionals can see what you\u2019re up to.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Deliberate or accidental policy violation, i.e. password disclosure. <\/strong>It can cost one a career to blatantly disclose, or risk disclosing, company passwords.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Downloading irrelevant content <\/strong>may seem harmless, but people forget that they are being monitored, and can be penalized for these actions.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Mobile communications <\/strong>can lead to many mistakes such as confusing a corporate phone with a personal one, or exceeding traffic limits. All above rules are application to mobile devices, not just laptops.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The last but not least<\/strong>,don\u2019t forget that everything you say (and write) online can and shall be used to support or ruin your career.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/1-2-bln-password-leak\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><strong>What to do, if someone really stole 1.2 BILLION password<\/strong><strong>s?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Allegedly a criminal group gained access to, and stole, 1.2 billion passwords and usernames from various web sites. The public was ill informed about exact details, including what sites were targeted as well as any technical details, thus leaving a lot of security experts scratching their heads. So what actions should one take if their credentials are stolen? An alleged theft such as this might mean it is a good time to switch from incoherent password policies to more secure approaches. For example, one can minimize the danger and damage of a breach by making sure a unique password is used for each account. Unique passwords will prevent a hacker from using one password to open up the door to other important accounts. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/managing-password-databases\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Password managers<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/password-check\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">password checkers<\/a> are great tools to ease this process!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/global_think_test\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><strong>Test Your Brain Power in the Global Think <\/strong><strong>Test<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>On September 6, the best of the best brains will compete in the Global Think Test in hopes of winning the grand prize of $25,000. Leading up to the one-day event, you can test your brain-power at the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/globalthinktest.com\/finalversion\/brain-training-zone.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Brain Training Zone<\/a>, which will get your brain in tip-top shape. It is simple: the more you play, the more points you earn, the more chances you have to win one of the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/globalthinktest.com\/FinalVersion\/Prizes.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">awesome prizes<\/a>. Kaspersky Lab has teamed up with the Mensa Organization, Ferrari and cricket player Sachin Tendulkar to bring you specialized puzzles and prizes. For example, the Mensa Challenges were specifically designed to help challenge intellect and test problem solving skills. The Ferrari Challenges include Ferrari-related games, puzzles and video teasers to test your Ferrari knowledge. Legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar has joined the Global Think Test to challenge your cicketing brainpower. Not to mention, Sachin and Ferrari are contributing some great prizes. Haven\u2019t registered yet but you think you have what it takes? You can register to be a part of the Global Think Test at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/globalthinktest.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">GlobalThinkTest.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/fakeid-scanner\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><strong>How to seal the \u201cback door\u201d in Android <\/strong><strong>OS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A not-so-fun-fact: according to Kaspersky Lab, more than 99% of mobile malware is Android-oriented. Google is vigilant in its security measures, implementing a number of protective measures in the Android OS itself. Unfortunately, these measures are not perfect and malware has had a good opportunity to get into the smartphone by a back door, i.e. several flaws in Android protection mechanisms. A malicious application can penetrate the smartphone by disguising itself as a popular and trusted service, or by \u201cpiggybacking\u201d\u00a0the legitimate application, i.e. adding itself into the installation package. The vulnerabilities called\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/threatpost.com\/second-android-master-key-attack-surfaces\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Master Key<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/threatpost.com\/critical-android-fakeid-bug-allows-attackers-to-impersonate-trusted-apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">FakeID<\/a>\u00a0are presented in most modern Android smartphones. They are a little bit less famous than renowned <a href=\"https:\/\/threatpost.com\/difficulty-of-detecting-openssl-heartbleed-attacks-adds-to-problem\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Heartbleed<\/a> (Android smartphones are also subjected to it partly), but it is very important to remove them.\u00a0To get rid of the vulnerability without any assistance is not easy, but you can minimize associated risks for your devices. Here are the steps to do that:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Check for the vulnerabilities mentioned by using the <a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/apps\/details?id=com.kaspersky.lightscanner\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">free scanner from Kaspersky Lab<\/a>, which is available on Google Play.<\/li>\n<li>If your device is vulnerable, check if firmware updates are available.<\/li>\n<li>If the vulnerability hasn\u2019t been addressed yet, you could fix it yourself, but this is not suggested.<\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t throw away your smartphone over unpatched vulnerability. Instead, just be vigilant to avoid loss of money or data by using only large and official applications stores, downloading only popular apps, controlling the permissions of the application, and using a <a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/apps\/details?id=com.kms.free\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">reliable android security<\/a> software<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/how-i-hacked-my-home\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><strong>How I hacked my home<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Did you know that a typical modern home can have around five devices connected to the local network which aren\u2019t computers, tablets or cellphones? Think of a smart TV, printer, game console, network storage device and some kind of media player\/satellite receiver. We ask: does this make your home hackable? Well, first off, in order to consider a hack successful one of the following things should be achieved: obtaining access to the device; obtaining administrative access to the device; or being able to transform\/modify the device for personal interest. Researching the network storage devices in a home experiment, uncovered a number of vulnerabilities that would allow an attacker to remotely be able to execute system commands with the highest administrative privileges. Some devices did not just have a vulnerable web interface, but the local security on the devices was also very poor. Weak passwords on devices appeared to be a common theme. Furthermore a lack of authentication or encryption on some devices left them susceptible to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/man-in-the-middle-attack\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">man-in-the-middle<\/a> attacks. Ultimately, we need to assume that our devices can be, or are already, compromised. We need to start assuming that products are vulnerable and that attackers can and will gain access to them. Understanding the risks associated with household devices and some best practices to keeping them safe, will be beneficial to your household\u2019s security.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-pullquote\"><p>Read highlights from our top #security news posts in August.<\/p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fkas.pr%2F2VDs&amp;text=Read+highlights+from+our+top+%23security+news+posts+in+August.\" class=\"btn btn-twhite\" data-lang=\"en\" data-count=\"0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Tweet<\/a><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Read highlights from our top posts in August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2706,"featured_media":3943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[282,218,445],"class_list":{"0":"post-3942","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-cybersecurity","9":"tag-mobile-security","10":"tag-security-news"},"hreflang":[{"hreflang":"en-ae","url":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/augustroundup2014\/3942\/"},{"hreflang":"en-in","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.in\/blog\/augustroundup2014\/4039\/"},{"hreflang":"en-us","url":"https:\/\/usa.kaspersky.com\/blog\/augustroundup2014\/4422\/"},{"hreflang":"en-gb","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.uk\/blog\/augustroundup2014\/4681\/"},{"hreflang":"ru","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.ru\/blog\/augustroundup2014\/5084\/"},{"hreflang":"x-default","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/augustroundup2014\/5908\/"},{"hreflang":"ja","url":"https:\/\/blog.kaspersky.co.jp\/augustroundup2014\/4667\/"},{"hreflang":"ru-kz","url":"https:\/\/blog.kaspersky.kz\/augustroundup2014\/5084\/"},{"hreflang":"en-au","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/augustroundup2014\/5908\/"},{"hreflang":"en-za","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.za\/blog\/augustroundup2014\/5908\/"}],"acf":[],"banners":"","maintag":{"url":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/tag\/cybersecurity\/","name":"Cybersecurity"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2706"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3942"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15906,"href":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3942\/revisions\/15906"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}