Did Your New High Tech Device Come with Pre-Installed Malware? The Rise of Firmware Attacks

Firmware can be thought of as software installed in hardware. It often comes pre-installed on your computer or smartphone and is responsible for getting your device up and running when it comes out of the box. Components like your monitor, USB ports, and your camera work on firmware. Although firmware can be updated, it is …

How to Hack Air-gapped Computers

Once upon a time, all computers were air-gapped. Even malware did not exist. Then, one day, the first computer virus was invented. However, since there was no internet, at least no internet as we know it today, the only way the virus could get onto a computer was through someone inserting an infected floppy disk. …

The IRS Breach Worsens as More Taxpayers Learn Their Tax Information Has Been Stolen

Next year, when you go to file your tax return, you may be surprised to learn that it has already been filed for you. That’s because the number of taxpayers who may have been compromised by the May IRS breach has been revised upwards. The IRS first reported that 100,000 tax payers may have been …

Days of Past Future: Ads that Determine Your Emotional State to Design Themselves

When I visited the Museum of Future Technology in Japan, I expected to be amazed. Instead, I found that many of the exhibits were past their sell-by dates. What may have seemed futuristic when the museum was built had become somewhat routine. That’s the problem with technology nowadays. It just moves too fast. I experienced …

Surviving the Windows 10 Upgrade: Some Tips and Observations Based on My Personal Trials

I hate upgrades. They never seem to work for me. More often than not, I finish an upgrade only to find that the programs I like most don’t work like they did in the old system. I, then, spend a long time trying to get everything back to the way it was and cursing my …

Has the Defense Department Network been Breached… Again?

On Sunday, the leak site, Cryptome, released a document purportedly from the hacker group known as the “Remember Emad crew”. The letter, addressed to the Pentagon, claimed, “we are responsible for the attack to your computers. the results of the attack can be categorized as below : - deals with contractors - products being discussed …