Author name: Jenny Nicole

Recommended cities to visit
Travel - New

The Ultimate Eastern Europe Travel Guide

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Western Europe has been a traveler’s delight for a great part of modern travel. Ever since air travel allowed people to effortlessly hop continents, Western Europe and the western part of the globe have been every tourist’s preferred destination. Whether it is the sprawling and bustling city of London, the historically rich Rome, or the ever romantic Paris, Western Europe has it all. East of Germany however, where the Iron Curtain once stood, Europe still expands. A Europe still unbeknownst to the majority of the world. Some fewer people speak English there, fewer sights like palaces, towers, castles, and colosseums, but for the traveler on a budget, a world of beauty and history yet to explore. Eastern Europe – A Brief Introduction Western Europe has the big names we’ve heard all our lives. The UK, Scandinavia, Spain, France, and Italy. Been there, done that. But you’ll learn very quickly just how vast and diverse Eastern Europe is. Ukraine, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia are just some of the names of countries you can travel to on a budget. While these countries are western-leaning democracies, some have yet to shed the trauma of their former Soviet past and continue to struggle economically and democratically. This makes them superb candidates to brush up on your history knowledge. A few things to keep in mind before visiting is that while most of the countries mentioned earlier are in the European Union and Schengen Visa-Free Zone, Serbia and Ukraine are exceptions and need separate visa applications to visit. Plan to see if your passport requires a visa in advance, a visa on arrival, or no visa whatsoever. Also, considering the present Russia-Ukraine war that’s ongoing, travelling to Ukraine is off the cards for many people. Additional security measures, and the immigrations of Ukrainian nationals into neighboring states may also hamper free roaming in many bordering cities. Costs to Travel Eastern Europe Eastern Europe can be surprisingly light on the wallet. A large local craft beer costs $2 and the same for a coffee. A piping hot meal with healthy servings of meat, bread, and potatoes would cost USD 7–9. This is the average across most countries but Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, and Ukraine can be a lot cheaper still. Prague and Budapest (high on tourism) can be a burden on the wallet if you don’t book a hotel in advance, and peak seasons (May to August) can be especially costly. Try not to visit shady or underground bars and nightclubs and if you do, hold on to your purses as scams are prevalent. All in all, you’re looking at an estimate of $30-50 USD/day. This includes accommodation, travel, beer, and attractions. Traveling and Transport Rail passes, and Oyster cards are recommended for the UK and Western Europe. In the East, they’re less necessary. Train travel can cost just $20 for any journey you’d be making. For international journeys, it’s always best to consider overnight buses and trains. This will help cut down on the night’s accommodation. Always book in advance as last-minute bookings can be 4 times the price. Where to Stay Booking an Airbnb is always an option, but can be on the expensive side. Thankfully, Krakow in Poland and Budapest in Hungary has a lot of hostels for young travelers. You’ll meet all sorts of tourists in these accommodations and can have drinking buddies for the night. Booking.com can also offer short-term rentals on the cheap. But always check TripAdvisor for a nice hotel. A 4- or 5-star luxury hotel can cost as little as $50 a night if you’re clever. The Best Time to Go The peak months are May to August and everything from local cuisine to hotel rates all skyrocket in the anticipation of foreign visitors. You could visit in the winter months but be prepared for sub-zero temperatures across Eastern Europe. Spending Christmas here is a joy with Christmas markets littered across towns and cities, and the entire landscape blanketed in thick white snow. We recommend visiting in September when temperatures are still comfortably warm, and most of the tourists have all gone home. Makes exploring a lot more personal and fun. What to Do After Scotland, Prague has the most number of castles anywhere in Europe. These can be visited for cheap (and sometimes free), and they all have a beautifully haunting Transylvania ambiance to them. Major city centers also have museums that document history as you’ve never seen before, and hills, beaches, and mountains are plenty depending on the country of your preference. Croatia, in particular, has some of the most beautiful city centers. Dubrovnik and Zagreb are famous for their compact ocean-side designs.  If you’re a football fan, try visiting the FC Shakhtar Donetsk or Dynamo Kyiv stadiums in Ukraine, and catch a Champion’s League game on the cheap. Tips to Keep in Mind Eastern European trips can be a wonderful solo adventure, but can quickly go awry if you’re scammed out of your money on the streets of Warsaw or Budapest. Scammers are wary of tourists and have clever scams to con you out of your money. Pickpockets are relatively common too, and always ensure you have all of your belongings on your person at all times. You can even invest in an app to track a cell phone location for additional security of your electronic devices. The Xnspy cell phone location tracker app, for instance, can be used to locate your phone or tablet in case of theft or loss. Xnspy can also provide precise reporting for a third party that has been assigned control of your phone. It can regularly check your location status and have turn-by-turn updates of your trip. Invest in cell phone location trackers like Xnspy before heading out on your tour. Always convert your money into local currency before heading out to the country. Do not use ATMs to withdraw money and only do so if you’re strapped

Infographic

Cybercrime Visualized – All the Stats in One Place

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The influx of technological devices has seen the world struggle to adapt at times. The pace of development is far too quick to keep up with. This is especially the case for security professionals and enterprises that are tasked with keeping cybercrime and cyberattacks to a minimum. Or at least, minimize the damage they will inevitably create. We’ve got the stats for you on the subject, find out how big of a problem it really is.

Family camping tips
Travel - New

The Dos and Don’ts of Camping with your Family

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Camping is a great way to spend quality time with your family. However, there are plenty of ways to get off on the wrong foot and ruin your trip before it’s even started. It is why I’ve decided to share things I’ve learned from my own camping experiences in the wild. This article will teach you all the dos and don’ts of camping with your family. Don’t leave unannounced: It is a recipe for disaster and a surefire way of getting lost. Whenever you’re in the woods or any camping site, the last thing you want to do is leave without telling your friends and family. Your family will have a hard time tracking you down because chances are it’s a new place for all of you. Luckily, they can make use of a cell phone tracking app. XNSPY is a mobile phone tracker app for Android that can use a device’s geolocation to track down its user. It can be beneficial in situations where you might split up from your camping group and become lost. You just have to install the app on a user’s smartphone and it can remotely upload the phone’s real-time location data back to you. Don’t be unprepared: It is crucial to be prepared for the worse when planning a camping trip with the family. Pack a first aid kit containing fever medicine, pain killers, anti-allergy medication, bandages, and plasters. First aid kits are essential on every camping trip and should not be left out. Aside from first aid kits, pack all essentials such as soap, toothpaste, warm and cool clothes, a camping tent, and sleeping bags. By doing so, you will always stay prepared for any unforeseen circumstances that may hamper your camping experience. Do follow local traditions: When you’re out camping, you’re in for new experiences and cultures. So always keep an open mind and participate in local celebrations and cultures. Whether it’s their local traditional cuisine, dance rituals, or clothes, you have to participate in them and try them out to your heart’s content. It is a good way to break the mold and open yourself to new experiences. It will be a unique and life-changing experience that you must try when you’re camping with your family in a new place. Don’t leave too late: Don’t arrive too late at the camping spot because pitching a tent can be a massive pain during nighttime hours. It gets particularly difficult when it’s pitch-black outside, and you don’t have experience setting up camp. Plus, you will be exposed to harsh terrain and dirt that you might not notice unless it was daytime. Also, it is easy to become lost during the night if you don’t have a guide with you, so plan your trip accordingly and leave early. Do your research: Research is vital to any walk of life and it is especially true when you’re planning your first family camping trip. Just a few minutes of online research can be all the difference between a decent camping trip and a phenomenal one. You need to research the great camping spots that you can easily access while hiking. Research the trail, the local weather, close food spots, and nearby emergency places. You will also need to research the equipment you will need and read their reviews. Sometimes you will need more than just tents and sleeping bags, depending on the camping trip you are going on. For example, you might need a water heater if it’s a multi-day backcountry backpacking trip. You might need only bare essentials if it’s a family camping excursion in developed campgrounds. This way, you minimize things going wrong during your camping trip. Don’t waste your food: Food should never be left unattended. Clean up your campsite before you go hiking for the day or retire to sleep. To avoid undesired animal encounters, follow posted signs or contact the camp ranger or campsite attendant about basic food safety. Some campgrounds have bear lockers where you may store your food while there to minimize your carbon waste. Being environmentally conscious is as enjoyable as communing with nature. The most important thing you can do is leave with everything you brought, including your trash. Bring an extra trash bag to gather any trash left behind by less-than-responsible campers. Pack up all your things, gather all the waste in an eco-friendly bag, and look for any recycling bins near you. If you don’t find any waste bins near you then carry the bags with you until you find a safe place to throw them away. Make sure you throw your trash away from clean land and water. Do get plenty of sleep: It is crucial to get plenty of rest the night before your camping trip. Otherwise, you will be completely exhausted, your immune system will get down, and you won’t have any energy for your camping trip. You will need all the energy your body can muster to trek, set up camp, find wood for fire and prepare camping meals for the family. Thus it is vital to get an early shut-eye. Take melatonin and a warm bath if you’re having trouble sleeping due to excitement or anxiety caused by planning for the trip. Don’t drink too much alcohol: You’ve been hiking on a long and draining trek all day, but you have finally reached your campsite. You just want to stretch your arms and legs and lie down. You don’t mind sharing a drink with your partner. A long glass of red wine sounds otherworldly right now. You pour yourself and your partner a glass, and you can finally relax. But be careful. It is easy to get carried away in these situations and drink overzealously. Remember you have to prepare breakfast for your family early. And you won’t be able to wake up in time for all the activities you planned for tomorrow. It won’t be possible if you’re hungover and dehydrated. So pace yourself and do not consume

Celebrity leaks and its prevention
How-To

Remember the Celebrity Leaks? Here’s How to Ensure it Never Happens Again

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Enterprise and corporate security breaches are persistent and very common today. Most businesses are already familiar with the constantly looming nuisance security breaches are. And these breaches can have devastating effects on everyday operations, too. Most security breaches are not highlighted on time either and are only reported once significant collateral is damaged or data is lost. Due to their ever-present threat and the fact that almost 26000 cyberattacks occur every day, businesses have had to evolve. Corporations have set up stricter defenses, and vital IT infrastructure consistently requires safeguarding. But while this leverage is available to companies in general, regular consumers have to fend for themselves most times. The other option is for consumers to rely on the companies that deploy cybersecurity measures when using their services or products. Most of the time, the latter strategy is employed. Technology consumers (like you and me) aren’t concerned with any additional security concerns, especially when purchasing a new smartphone or laptop. We entrust that the security aspect of the device is entrusted to the manufacturer or the operating system provider. But while this works fine most times, 2014 was a year that reminded all of us that our data isn’t safe, even with a trillion-dollar company like Apple manning the gates. The 2014 Celebrity Leaks At the end of August 2014, 500 private pictures and videos of multiple female celebrities made their way on 4chan boards. These pictures primarily contained nudity and exposed a lot of A-listers in ways no one would have ever predicted. Marilyn Monroe’s famous image standing on top of a subway grate in New York was the most controversial A-list celebrity picture until that point. Her wrestling with the dress, as it afforded paparazzi to photograph her with an upskirt, was the most candid moment tabloids had reported on until 2014. And after more than a decade, the celebrity leak was a multitude of times worse. As expected, the ensuing fallout and backlash from the Hollywood community were herculean. A flurry of legal proceedings and press releases followed, and for a brief moment, the glitter in Beverley Hills had alighted a fission reaction. One that spun to Silicon Valley and beyond. Initial reports of the massive hack suggested that the pictures and videos in circulation were collected via Apple’s iCloud services. Experts at the time showed a security flaw in the company’s cloud service (the iCloud API allowed users to make unlimited attempts at the victim’s passwords), the actual reason was soon clarified. Spear-phishing attacks were the primary suspects. Two more batches of leaked content followed the first, and the conversation around personal data security started to gain traction. What It Meant for Technology Companies Technology companies, and particularly Apple, were at the center stage when discussions of user data were trending in the media. The vast insecurity the 2014 Celebrity Leaks had caused still ripple to this day, and the initial seeds of distrust were sown in the general public. The primary reaction for technology firms globally was to ensure tighter security protocols and demand higher levels of personal security from their customers. Two-factor authentication was pushed strongly by Google on its services, and Apple and the rest followed suit. Today, it isn’t uncommon to find any application or digital service that does not include additional security layers for their consumers in the products. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, promised to add additional security alerts for the iCloud service to ensure similar attacks do not occur in the future. But as the leaks were supposedly through spear-phishing attacks, most companies have yet to install measures to deal with personalized threats to the public. Email spam filters have become very vigilant, but it is far from perfect. Couple that with the fact that there are still apps to monitor photos on Android devices available on the internet, and the chances of similar cyberattacks still loom large. Personal Security Measures Companies that take on the ISO 27001 certification and other similar cybersecurity training have instilled a sense of personal responsibility. It is especially true when it comes to online activities in their employees. As more people enter the workforce and the IT industry swells up, cybersecurity tactics would be more widespread than ever. But while this is true for the average working professional, most people affected by data leaks and cyberattacks aren’t in the IT industry. The age of social media influencers and celebrities has led to a rise in the number of people who use the internet for profit. It means a lot of their information is online too, and most (if not all) of their income is generated on various platforms as well. The same is true for people in other professional fields and students with an online presence. Monitoring applications can be one reliable method to ensure safety in the workplace and the home. Xnspy, for instance, is one of the leading names in the industry. Leveraging its services for mass deployment in the home can be an effective solution against personal data theft. Monitoring Apps a Solution Xnspy, and other brands like it, work in similar ways. They are apps for the Android platform that are side-loaded onto a phone or a tablet. These apps have a central control panel that manages all the information going in and out of the device. It is a clever way to combat cyberattacks: as any phishing emails and scam requests can be highlighted by anyone and be filtered out. Similarly, having access to multiple accounts in one location can ensure that your information is backed up to a secure server and is ready to download at a moment’s notice. Xnspy is also a favored tool in the workplace, where its deployment is perhaps the largest. Business owners and employers routinely install Xnspy on company devices and phones to monitor any unwarranted emails targeting the company servers. The app can also pinpoint bad actors within an organization that could be responsible, or are planning, a cyberattack at

Learning From Facebook's Whistleblower Incident
Business

What Tech Companies Can Learn From Facebook’s Whistleblower Incident?

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Facebook, the social media giant and beyond question the biggest Internet platform, is regularly in the news for its shady business practices. But the Frances Haugen whistleblower incident takes home the cake. In case you needed a recap, Frances Haugen, former Facebook product manager ventilated its affairs on live TV ahead of Congress. Her testimony confirmed what several folks suspected: Facebook does not care about its users, solely its information. Haugen, a widely known name in the Silicon Valley area, has held high positions at Yelp, Pinterest, and Google alleged that Facebook systematically took advantage of its users’ emotional insecurities for its profits. Haugen worked for Facebook for two years before resigning in April. She had become progressively skeptical of Facebook’s slippery ways. Haugen made it clear that the social network’s algorithm is meant in such a way to incite discourse and build an environment of toxicity. The whistleblower backed these claims via her leaked documents. The documents show Facebook’s information engineers raising concerns over the algorithms giving birth to “unhealthy aspect effects on necessary slices of public content, like politics and news.” Haugen is conjointly concerned reverting the changes and instead choosing unbiased, natural engagement on its platform. The company’s algorithm ranks content that is most likely to provoke a reaction from its users. It suggests participating content is typically contentious, upsetting, and even false or dishonest. But what does it all mean for other tech companies and the future of technology? There are four big takeaways for tech companies: Customers matter more than shareholders Employees have the power to inform proper authorities when they feel a company is misleading its customers A company’s reputation can change overnight The right and left can come together to govern major tech monopolies Let us see how each of these takeaways can shape the future of tech and what other companies can learn from Facebook’s fiasco. Customers matter more than shareholders According to Haugen, Facebook research revealed that 13.5 percent of U.K.’s young females said their suicide thoughts increased after they began using Instagram. According to another leaked survey, 17% of young females report their eating issues have worsened due to using Instagram. According to Facebook’s research, which was originally published by the Journal, roughly 32% of young females stated that when they felt horrible about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse. Haugen’s revelations made it clear that Facebook cared very little about its users and often chose profits over privacy. Michigan State University researchers discovered a substantial link between social media use and addictive behavior. Excessive Facebook usage is connected to addictive behavior comparable to heroin and cocaine abusers. According to a study published in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions titled “Excessive social media users display poor decision making in the Iowa Gambling Task.” The worst part is Facebook knows how addictive their platform is. It is designed this way on purpose. Facebook has been abusing its users for the best part of the last decade. Just look at the Cambridge Analytica scandal of 2018. Other tech companies need to be aware they are all easily replaceable, no matter how big of a company they are or how many users visit their platform daily. A business is as good as its customers, and loyalty can only go so far. Many Facebook users have started to reevaluate their dependency on social media platforms. The report shows as many as 40 percent of U.S. users have taken a break from checking the app for several weeks on end. 44 percent of younger users in the United States have deleted the app from their phones completely to make matters worse for Facebook. Other tech companies must realize that competition is tough. The whole operation comes to a halt if the users start leaving in droves. Employees can and will inform the proper authorities Many governments have made laws protecting the anonymity and job security of whistleblowers. They consider whistleblowing a corner state of a democratic state. It is a fair and objective rule that is needed in a fair and just society. But employees, especially former employees, can abuse this system of trust. It is the reason why protecting corporate data when an employee resigns is so crucial. They can unfairly or superfluously blow the whistle as a matter to get even. Employees can leak the private workings of an organization or leak a business’s intellectual property on purpose. It can be devastating to the business’s inner operations and cause a lot of unnecessary financial losses and a burden on the shareholders. So businesses need to be responsible about what information they share with their employees. Employers also need to be wary about how many levels of access each employee has to the company’s internal data. It can spell an end for a business if such information falls into the wrong hands. XNSPY is a remote monitoring app made with keeping these employer concerns in mind. It can help businesses suspicious of their employees stealing personal information from them or wasting valuable company resources. Employers may use it to monitor their employees to ensure they are not engaging in criminal activities or sharing private, personal information with others without authorization. The email monitor from XNSPY also guarantees that workers are only using their emails for work-related objectives and are not browsing the web. Employers can also go through the emails to see whether their workers are selling intellectual property to competitors. XNSPY comes with a slew of features. SMS messages, phone calls, GPS, screen recording, social media, network traffic, and multimedia may all be displayed on the device. XNSPY may also manipulate the device remotely, such as turning on the microphone or a smartphone’s camera. It can remove or install applications as well as lock a device. Screen recording is a neat feature not implemented in most remote monitoring apps. Employers can use this functionality to see live screenshots of their employees’ phones as future references. It can be a sigh of

Rootkits as Biggest Nuisance
NEWS

How Rootkits are a Government’s Biggest Nuisance Today

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Believe it or not, a rootkit virus almost caused WW3 in 2010. Stuxnet—a malware allegedly developed by intelligence agencies in Israel and the United States—was found infecting 14 industrial plants in the Republic of Iran.  One of these 14 plants included a uranium enrichment facility. It is now commonly believed that the malware’s purpose was to sabotage Iran’s nuclear development program and destroy its infrastructure. It was, in short, an act of war. One that had taken five years to develop and implement. With the discovery of Stuxnet, the world opened its eyes to cybersecurity concerns and how a simple virus or rootkit could bring an entire country to its knees. Since then, computer security engineers have been on the front lines against an onslaught of similar cyber weapons. However, rootkits continue to have widespread use, even today. Positive Technologies, a cybersecurity firm, reviewed and analyzed known rootkit families from the past ten years. They found that 44% of all known rootkits specifically attacked government agencies and extracted data due to the valuable nature of such data. To prevent rootkit attacks, governments need to update and add security patches regularly and install programs only from trusted sources. Using employee surveillance software to track phone activity can also be useful in reducing gaps in the security system. Any cybersecurity network’s weakest link is always the human factor.  What is a Rootkit? A rootkit is a stealth computer program designed to provide continuous unauthorized access to privileged information on a computer system. The program accomplishes this goal while remaining completely undetected. The first rootkits worked only on Unix systems, but in 1999, the first rootkit developed for Windows OS appeared. Today, rootkits are packaged along with other forms of malware, such as viruses, worms and, trojans. The rootkit’s main purpose is to disguise the malicious software and avoid detection. Rootkits can be divided into categories, depending on the level of privileges they have in a system. There are five known types of rootkits, starting from the lowest level at firmware (with the highest level of privileges) and going all the way up to the highest level (user-mode).  User-mode rootkits enjoy the same privileges as most applications. They are much easier to write and develop, and as a result, are more commonly used in mass attacks. They made up 31% of the rootkits tested in the sample by Positive Technologies. Kernel-mode rootkits work at the kernel level, meaning they have the same privileges as the operating system. Such rootkits are difficult to develop and may cause the system to become unstable if incorrectly written. Therefore, they are prone to easy detection. According to the report, only 38% of the total number of rootkits operate at the kernel level. Hybrid rootkits are designed to work at both levels by combining both levels of operation. They also made up 31% of the sample. Bootkits are a version of kernel-level rootkits. They operate by replacing the legitimate boot loader with one that they can control. The subverted bootloader can then be used to intercept encrypted passwords and keys. Firmware and hardware rootkits are designed to hide under a malware image in hardware such as routers or hard drives. Since cybersecurity officials rarely check firmware for code integrity, it makes for a good hiding place. The Dark Web: A Rootkit Marketplace Given that the development of rootkits requires a deep knowledge of programming and is often time-consuming, the question arises as to why so many of them are available in the market today. The answer is simple: APT groups and the dark web. Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) groups are usually state-sponsored groups created to carry out cyberattacks to steal data and destroy infrastructure. These groups are generally created for cyber espionage purposes, but sometimes, they can also be financially motivated. With the amount of time and expertise required to develop rootkits, it is mostly these groups who have the resources to successfully create and sell rootkits.  In addition, there is a ton of information on how to create and deploy rootkits, especially on the dark web. Not only can you get access to reference data, but you can also purchase ready-made rootkits. Rootkits on the dark web can fetch anywhere from $45,000 to $100,000, making them an attractive project for developers. The cost usually depends on the target operating system, conditions of use, and any extra features. Most rootkits target Windows systems but some have multi-system support as well. How Rootkits Attack Government Agencies Information contained within the systems in government agencies is particularly valuable to hackers and APT groups. In the report published by Positive Technologies, 44% of all rootkit attacks were targeted at government agencies. There is also the possibility of cyber espionage by a foreign state-sponsored group. All these factors make government agencies a prime target. In the aforementioned case of the Stuxnet worm rootkit, findings by the Kaspersky Lab researchers showed that the malware was designed specifically to target operating systems in industrial machines. It even could cause centrifuges to spin out of control, damaging and destroying Iran’s nuclear plants. Stuxnet first showed up on the radar when a Belarusian company contacted Kaspersky Labs to find out why a customer’s computers were rebooting over and over again. Their discovery shocked the cybersecurity world. The malware was signed digitally with a forged signature that made it appear legitimate. A feat that worried cybersecurity officials to the point that they began to share information on forums. What was most impressive about Stuxnet was its use of zero-day exploits.  A zero-day exploit is a weakness or gap in a security system that the developer is either unaware of or has not fixed yet. These gaps can allow hackers to find a way into the system. Stuxnet not only took advantage of an unprecedented number of such exploits, but it also did so in a beautifully complementary way. The exceptionally written code and overall sophistication of the rootkit led researchers to believe it had to come

Infographic

All the Reasons Why Your Teenager Shouldn’t Be On Snapchat

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Snapchat is an incredibly popular social media platform today. The app has come into the limelight out of seemingly nowhere as it doesn’t share its roots with any of the big three: Google, Meta, or Apple. Still, it has revolutionized the way modern messaging takes place and has especially shaped the minds and expectations of one particular generation, Gen Z. The app is widely used among Gen Z and Millennials and the reason for its popularity is no accident. Snapchat was always marketed to them. But should your child or teenager fall into its marketing trap and install Snapchat on their devices?

Relevancy of Spyware
Everything Else - New

The Relevance of Spyware—When Spyware Works for You

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Spyware is any malicious software that enters your computer device intending to harvest information and data from you. The software then forwards the data to a third party without your consent or knowledge of the intrusion. Spyware has undergone development under the umbrella of various technology companies. Through them, it functions as legitimate software that collects user data to target and personalize advertisements. Despite its recent ethical turnaround, when people think of spyware, less legitimate and malicious uses come to mind, especially those where people sell data for profit. How Does Spyware Work? Avoiding detection is the primary feature of most spyware as it silently lurks in the background, collecting vital information like your login details, account credentials, bank and credit card information, and any online activity. This fact is especially true for internet spyware which is more secretive and doesn’t begin to show signs of invasion until it has infected your device completely. Some spyware can also jump from one device to another if the two connect, for example, connecting an insecure phone to an infected laptop. Its main objective is to remain hidden, continue monitoring everything, and report that information and data to third parties. Spyware can get into your devices in a myriad of ways. Some of them include: Web downloads This is perhaps the most common form of accidentally exposing your device to spyware. Spyware can be masked as a “.exe” or “executable” file for Windows online. They are rampant on B-list websites offering free downloads for software and programs. Once you download them, the file runs as any other software and embeds itself in the directory of your operating system. Online activity Unknown links and unnecessary tampering with your browser’s security settings can cause your browser to be susceptible to internet spyware. Pop-ups While not all pop-up advertisements are dangerous, most can be. By clicking on pop-ups with instructions or guides to follow, you put your device at risk of being exposed to spyware. What Makes Spyware so Dangerous? Spyware is synonymous with malware which is a category that includes trojan horses, various computer viruses, and botnets. With malware programs numbering over a billion, more users are in danger of being exposed to this software than ever before. The SonicWall Cyber Threat Report for 2021 showed an excess of 3.2 billion malware attacks cataloged on various devices in the first half of 2020. And the recent COVID-19 pandemic proving to be a haven for cybersecurity attackers, numbers are expected to grow for the following year and beyond. Remote working, in particular, has been a substantial catalyst when ushering in a greater focus on cybersecurity. Current estimations predict that around 47% of people fall victim to phishing scams when working from home, as was the case during the pandemic. Cyberattackers positioned their malware behind topics (usually news articles) centered around the COVID-19 virus, exploiting vulnerabilities when people clicked on them. Regardless of its implementation (ethical or malicious), spyware surveillance can leave users open to various data breaches and misuse. Spyware also has physical drawbacks as it can affect network and device performance which can slow down a user’s daily activities. To add insult to injury, third-party websites that collect data with spyware often sell or use your personal information to predict your activities. This data can be used to build a fake online interface or make you susceptible to a scam based on your usage patterns and browsing history. The Cyber Threat Landscape In the past two decades, people’s motivation for online cybercrime and system infiltration has shifted. This paradigm shift has given rise to a diverse cyber threat landscape. Today, spyware and other forms of malware can be traced from the following sources: Malicious employees that have been working in remote environments with fewer supervision guidelines and technical controls. They could be tempted to carry out fraud or other criminal activity. Cybercriminals who have recognized critical data security measures as being “unfit” or not sufficiently protected. They can orchestrate successful cyberattacks. Hacktivists (hackers lobbying for social and political issues) can be a potential cybersecurity threat. Junior hackers who test various cyberattack packages on organizations to help improve their hacking skills. Protecting Your Devices Against Spyware As effective as spyware is, there are still ways to counter their invasion on your devices. Some of the steps you can take include: Adjusting Browser Security Settings The default security settings your browser shipped with, won’t be enough to protect you from spyware. Adjust these to ensure all suspicious pop-ups, websites, and plugins are blocked. Read Terms & Conditions While they can be boring and incredibly long to read, it’s a good habit to skim past T&Cs when installing software on your devices. Software companies provide details on how they collect user data in this section, so it’s best to go over them beforehand. Update Your System Software updates for your operating systems and browsers usually roll out to fix vulnerabilities in their code. Be sure to keep them up to date with the latest versions. Don’t Download Suspicious Apps If an app has ads that show its functionality to be too good to be true, chances are, that’s exactly what it is. Download apps from trusted app stores like the Google Play Store or Apple App Store. Stay on Top of Emails Always check where the email is coming from. Look for spelling errors in the address and make sure the sender is genuine. This is especially true if you receive one from your bank. Don’t click on links that lead you to suspicious websites or paywalls. Are They All Created Equal? It’s safe to say that not all spyware is used for nefarious reasons. We briefly mentioned spyware that is developed under technology companies to harvest data for personalized ads. Strictly speaking, Google’s Display Network targeting can also be viewed as the most elaborate and functional version of spyware. It is accessed through the Google Chrome browser, Google’s OS (whether on the phone or laptop), and through their website and search engine and collects user

Penetration testing hacks
Business

How Successful Penetration Testing can safeguard you from Hacks

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Hackers are ever-present and determined as ever to breach even the most foolproof cybersecurity. One of the most effective ways of fighting back against them is to perform a penetration test. It is a realistic simulation where a skilled analyst or a team of professionals will attempt to hack a company’s network, aiming to bypass all security layers and cover their tracks. If the penetration test reveals and plugs those vulnerabilities in advance, you’re still safe and sound from external cyber threats. Cybersecurity is one of the challenges of this century as individuals, companies, and governments grapple with threats to their platforms and data. Penetration testing is one of the better tools that can safeguard you from attacks and hacks. It measures how strong your data network is against attacks by hackers. It reveals all those hidden vulnerabilities that may seem superficial but can be used by threat actors to hack or attack you. Penetration testing also helps you identify the places where your security is lacking so that you can take steps to secure them immediately. What is penetration testing? Penetration testing or pen testing is ethical hacking to uncover security flaws within a network. It is a white hat hacking technique carried out to highlight vulnerabilities within the system. The pen testers step into the hacker’s shoes to try and mimic their actions without causing real harm. Penetration testers investigate the IT infrastructure for security flaws. They try to discover methods a hacker could employ to attack an environment’s flaws. They use this knowledge to establish an effective vulnerability management program once the vulnerability assessment is complete. How does penetration testing help businesses? The penetration testing procedure aids in the discovery of weak points in the cybersecurity defenses that hackers can exploit. It not only aids in the improvement of your security posture but also helps you to prioritize vulnerabilities based on the potential threats they provide. Additionally, it guarantees that your testing framework meets the requirements of various security requirements. Establishes a business’ security requirements Penetration testing can assist you to link your organization’s security with compliance obligations if you have them. It is a proactive technique to detect and assess the weaknesses in your company’s IT infrastructure. It can also help establish cybersecurity compliance requirements if your organization hasn’t formed any. Because penetration testing is a simulated yet real-world activity, it also allows your team to practice incident response and, ideally, reduce future downtime caused by a breach. Before an actual cyberattack, pen-testing entails investigating all of your prospective system targets. It’s critical to run these tests frequently since penetration testing protects your organization from becoming a financial risk. This allows organizations to find and fix serious security problems before they become a liability. Helps uncover potential security flaws The best approach to keep an attacker out of your IT environment is to uncover their flaws before they do. Penetration testing does this by first discovering weaknesses and then devising methods to attack them, just like a hacker would. This allows you to protect your IT assets from potential threats. Pen tests identify key vulnerabilities that might jeopardize a business’ cybersecurity by analyzing its software, network connection, servers, and operating system. It not only improves the organization’s ability to discover security flaws but also reveals hidden loopholes, such as the ones caused by social engineering tactics on employees. And since most social engineering techniques propagate due to human involvement, it’s a safe bet to reduce the human element. Penetration hacking can even be done on employee cellphones that are part of the organization’s network since hackers specifically target cell phone hacking as their preferred method of attack. But pen testers can use the epidemic of hacking cell phones to their advantage. They can use phones running dummy data to create scenarios that hackers might utilize. They could use remote monitoring apps to carry out the testing phase to investigate how these apps are hacking into mobile phone conversations. XNSPY is one example of such an app that can monitor both Android and iOS devices. It allows a company to stay on top of all that transpires on its workers’ devices. It offers a wide range of remote employee monitoring features that can prove as useful test cases for the phone’s inner workings. Testers can utilize the algorithms to monitor how the communication data flows to external parties via the remote monitoring app. The app benefits employers equally, as they can ensure no intrusion occurs due to human error since they can monitor any suspicious links that may pop up in a message or email. Using the XNSPY app, you can block websites, set time limits, and remotely monitor employee activity and communications. XNSPY can monitor employees’ online accounts while enabling their online safety without interfering in their daily work. It’s achieved via the app’s stealth mode capabilities. Helps comply with cybersecurity standards Cybersecurity authorities enforce businesses to undertake audits regularly to guarantee compliance, and if a business doesn’t comply, it might face stiff penalties. By analyzing IT resources and ensuring the integrity of data storage methods, penetration testing assists you in adhering to the standards set by them. It would prevent hackers from accessing stored data and build an impenetrable network security system that meets regulatory requirements. Helps recover from future cyberattacks Pen testing determines the scope of a potential attack, allowing you to focus on recovery and repair. Testers discover strategies that help them create short- and long-term security plans for an organization. You won’t be oblivious to the effect and simplicity of exploiting your organization’s security flaws after a well-conducted penetration test. It would allow you to systematically address the most damaging weaknesses and direct your team, allowing you to be a more effective leader in your business. Helps improve security policy Security researchers discover various flaws in your security mechanisms and protocols while evaluating the IT infrastructure as a whole and as individual components. An overview of these can assist you in

Ransomware in 2022
Business

Ransomware on the Rise in 2022 – What Businesses Should Know

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Ransomware does not get recognized as a severe threat by most businesses. But it might be a good idea to reconsider that. Ransomware has been on the rise for the past decade, and there are increasing chances that it will be an issue. To bring things more into perspective, we’ll take you through global ransomware statistics and the risks of ransomware in this blog post. We have also talked about what businesses can do against malware attacks like ransomware in the years to come. What is ransomware? Ransomware is a form of software that infects systems and encrypts files before threatening to remove them unless a ransom gets paid. The hack might also make the data public, revealing the company’s internal workings and intellectual property. We’ve witnessed a frightening trend of threat actors targeting commonplace services like gas stations, hospitals, and even K-12 schools. Employees aware of the attack’s dangers are eight times less likely to be victims. That is why preventing ransomware attacks through education and training is a highly successful strategy. Ransomware gets frequently intended to propagate over a network and targets database and file servers, crippling entire businesses. Institutes and governing bodies haven’t found a way to deal with this ever-growing problem and face severe financial losses. Why does ransomware continue being a threat in 2022? Ransomware is one of the rapidly rising threats to cybersecurity. In 2021, specialists at Cybersecurity Ventures predicted that one assault will occur every 11 seconds. According to antivirus software manufacturer Emsisoft, the estimate for ransomware hacking charges in 2019 was $7.5 billion. It shows that ransomware attacks will continue growing exponentially in 2022. Ransomware techniques did not necessarily become more complex, per se, but they have become more frequent. Cybercriminals continue to exploit weak areas of an organization. They launch ransomware attacks, gain access to sensitive data and disrupt operations. They put lives at risk, using conventional — even basic — approaches like phishing or remote desktop protocol (RDP). Government organizations and healthcare remain the two topmost targeted industries. What ransomware techniques do hackers commonly use? RDP and phishing are two of the most common first ransomware attack channels, and the method of using them hasn’t altered much over time. RDP attacks are easy to carry out as the target is unaware of any security lapses. RDP is designed to allow authorized users to connect to and operate a system remotely. Such as when IT support wants to access an employee computer remotely to diagnose a problem or do routine maintenance. Unauthorized users may frequently get control of RDP by leaving it open on an outdated system that is unused. Hackers may also gain control of a system whose RDP interface gets linked directly to the internet with no security measures in place. Phishing assaults are more intricate since they rely on human interaction and focus on easy targets. People who get caught off-guard because they weren’t paying attention or unwittingly ensnared in a well-crafted attack. Hackers heavily rely on human error in this technique. Phishing attacks usually involve impersonating someone else and using that information to access a protected network. The data gets sourced from online forums and social media. They might even fool individuals by scamming them into handing out their personal information. It’s the same fundamental ruse as the age-old fraudulent email scam, which involves duping unsuspecting people into divulging sensitive information in exchange for a large bag of cash. The bag of cash that never existed in the first place. Why do businesses keep getting targeted? Most organizations can be dissuaded by the prevalence of ransomware attacks, thinking that it is inevitable. They do not implement industry-standard failsafes. Businesses must ensure that their security strategy is built from the ground up to protect themselves against these assaults. They should lay a foundation that tackles the weak points for data exfiltration, corruption, or destruction. Because if there were any defenses, the hackers would have just gone elsewhere. Cyber threats can originate from anywhere and can spread like wildfire without mercy. Businesses operate on a tight budget and function at a loss during their first year. So, implementing a cybersecurity strategy doesn’t become a part of the budget. Businesses must prepare themselves since ransomware remains a cybersecurity threat. Here are some precautions that businesses may take to protect themselves from cyberattacks. What precautions can businesses take against ransomware? Encrypt data Consumer protection laws, privacy laws, and increased punishment for hackers over the last few years are the silver lining for many businesses. These factors might be enough to motivate them to safeguard trade secrets. Data encryption is another way a business can protect its data from hackers as it can restrict data access. Passwords, username-level authorizations, and group policies on a network can limit unauthorized individuals. This added layer of protection can prevent malware, ransomware, spam, denial of service attacks, and data breaches. Firewalls, antivirus software, and cybersecurity suites have become beneficial in protecting against ransomware threats. Encrypting the most crucial data can be a lifesaver. If the threat actors gain access to the system, your files will be safely encrypted. Frequently backup your data Most hackers delete the files if their demands do not get met. Frequent data backups can be crucial as businesses still have access to their backup. The easiest approach to avoid getting locked out of your information is to keep backup copies of them on hand, preferably in the cloud and on an external hard drive. If you become infected with ransomware, you may wipe your computer or device clean and restore your contents from backup. It safeguards your data, and you do not get tempted to pay a ransom to the virus creators. Data backups do not stop ransomware from infecting your computer, but they can help you lessen the hazards. Make sure your backups are safe. Make sure your backup data isn’t accessible from the systems where it gets stored for alteration or deletion. Ransomware actors hunt for data backups. They

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