Today’s consumers are “overconfident in their security prowess,” which has resulted in a record year for cyberattacks, according to the “2017 Norton Cyber Security Insights Report.” The Symantec report found that 978 million people across 20 countries were impacted last year by cybercrime, and 44 percent of consumers were affected in the last 12 months. “As a result,” notes the report, “consumers who were victims of cybercrime globally lost $172 billion — an average of $142 per victim — and nearly 24 hours globally (or almost three full work days) dealing with the aftermath.” Continue reading Symantec Publishes Global Security Findings in Latest Report

Before the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) goes into effect on May 25, Facebook plans to debut a new privacy center that will be a hub for all its privacy settings. The company also published its “privacy principles” for the first time, with details of how it handles user information. Chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg says the result will be a “good foundation” for meeting GDPR’s requirements. The GDPR limits how technology companies collect, store and utilize users’ personal information. Continue reading Facebook Lists its Privacy Principles as EU’s Data Laws Loom

Amazon just pulled the plug on its Unlimited Everything plan, which allowed users to keep as much as they wanted in their private Amazon cloud “locker” for a mere $60 per year. That figure is at least half of the industry standard of $10 per month for 1TB of space. Although Unlimited Everything, which launched in 2015, has come to an end, Amazon’s new offering is still relatively inexpensive, at that same $60 per year for 1TB and an extra $60 for every additional terabyte up to 30TB. Continue reading Comparing Major Cloud Storage Services by Price, Features

At a CES CyberSecurity Forum, journalist/author Wayne Rash led a discussion on the various ways that companies are failing to protect their intellectual property and remain vulnerable to malicious code and ransomware. According to Yubico chief executive Stina Ehrensvard, 70 percent of hacks are related to passwords. “The password is the weak link,” agrees Authentic8 chief executive Scott Petry. “Reusing passwords is a problem. If you use your Yahoo password for other sites, you’re in trouble.” Continue reading Cybersecurity and How to Build Speed Bumps Against Hackers

Apple introduced security measures in the wake of high-profile celebrity images being hacked from personal iCloud accounts. Apple now alerts users when their iCloud data is downloaded to a new device, and the company has added a two-factor authentication option. Users of anonymous image board Anon-IB, one of the forums hackers used for stealing and sharing photos, are reportedly angry. They are complaining that the leaked celebrity images have exposed their secret hacking techniques. Continue reading Apple is Taking Steps to Protect iCloud Users from Hackers

Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed that the hackers responsible for recently leaking nude photos of celebrities were able to break into the celebrities’ iCloud accounts. The company plans to add additional security alerts to help prevent future security breaches. In the next two weeks, Apple users will start receiving notifications when someone tries to change an account password, restore iCloud data to a new device, or when a new device logs onto the account for the first time. Continue reading Apple to Add Security Alerts Following Celebrity Photo Leaks