Archive for month: April, 2018

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10 Year Old Talks about Cyber Bullying

10-year-old Cassidy Warner says she has been bullied since the first grade and made a public plea on Facebook to put an end to it. In an interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo, she said that she is still being bullied.

How to Reset or Create a Password for OpenVas

The password to access OpenVas vulnerability scanner with username ‘admin’ is created during the initial setup.  At times you forget the password or want to reset it.  This can be accomplished by resetting the password using the following command:

To change admin password:
sudo openvasmd — –user=admin — –new-password=letmein

Then logon using admin for the username and letmein as the password

 

If you would like to create additional user accounts for user accountability, you can create additional usernames by using the following commands:

sudo openvasmd — –create-user [my-new-user]

and it would create the user with a generated password.

Did Cambridge Analytica access your Facebook information? How to check and protect yourself

Starting this past Monday, Facebook started to inform users if their data may have been shared with Cambridge Analytica.

The social media company is informing affected users at the top of “News Feeds.” The alert, titled “Protecting Your Information,” will be visible to users whose information was accessed by a third-party website and potentially shared with Cambridge Analytica. Facebook will direct those users to a “See How You’re Affected” tool.

Facebook will provide other users with a different link that identifies which apps are connected to their accounts. Users have the option of prohibiting apps from accessing their data.

Important Message Regarding MyFitnessPal Account Security

NOTICE OF DATA BREACH
To the MyFitnessPal Community:

We are writing to notify you about an issue that may involve your MyFitnessPal account information. We understand that you value your privacy and we take the protection of your information seriously.

What Happened?

On March 25, 2018, we became aware that during February of this year an unauthorized party acquired data associated with MyFitnessPal user accounts.

What Information Was Involved?

The affected information included usernames, email addresses, and hashed passwords – the majority with the hashing function called bcrypt used to secure passwords.

What We Are Doing

Once we became aware, we quickly took steps to determine the nature and scope of the issue. We are working with leading data security firms to assist in our investigation. We have also notified and are coordinating with law enforcement authorities.

We are taking steps to protect our community, including the following:

  • We are notifying MyFitnessPal users to provide information on how they can protect their data.
  • We will be requiring MyFitnessPal users to change their passwords and urge users to do so immediately.
  • We continue to monitor for suspicious activity and to coordinate with law enforcement authorities.
  • We continue to make enhancements to our systems to detect and prevent unauthorized access to user information.

What You Can Do

We take our obligation to safeguard your personal data very seriously and are alerting you about this issue so you can take steps to help protect your information. We recommend you:

  • Change your password for any other account on which you used the same or similar information used for your MyFitnessPal account.
  • Review your accounts for suspicious activity.
  • Be cautious of any unsolicited communications that ask for your personal data or refer you to a web page asking for personal data.
  • Avoid clicking on links or downloading attachments from suspicious emails.

For More Information

For more information, please go to https://content.myfitnesspal.com/security-information/FAQ.html.

Sincerely,

Paul Fipps
Chief Digital Officer

Baltimore becomes the third U.S. city in a week to be hacked

An article by Julius White at WEAA.org:

Ransomware. Privacy. User Data. Facebook. Hacked. Those words and phrases have been all over the news in the past couple of weeks. Just last week, the City of Atlanta’s computer network was hacked and those responsible demanded $58,000 in ransomware to allow the city to regain its systems. Computer repair expert William Allen, talks with WEAA’s Julius White about how not only to protect your computers, but your privacy on social media as well.

The City of Leeds, Alabama, a small community just outside of Birmingham, was hacked and the hackers demanded and were paid $12,000. In Baltimore, city officials say the 911 dispatch system was hacked over the weekend, prompting a temporary shutdown of automated dispatching.

In a statement released Wednesday, Frank Johnson, Baltimore Chief Information Officer, issued a statement about the weekend hack that prompted a temporary shutdown of the automated 911 dispatch system. “ [We] identified a limited breach of the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) Network over the weekend that supports the 911 and 311 Public Safety Emergency Communications Services due to “ransomware” perpetrators,” said Johnson. “We were able to successfully isolate the threat and ensure that no harm was done to other servers or systems across the City’s network. Once all systems were properly vetted, CAD was brought back online. No personal data of any citizen was compromised in this attack. The City continues to work with its federal partners to determine the source of the intrusion.” Johnson went on to assure all Baltimore city residents that [the City is] fully committed to safeguarding the integrity of the City’s IT infrastructure and assets.

So, how can you protect your home computers—your laptops, etc., from being hacked? What about safeguarding your privacy while social media, i.e., Facebook, Instagram, etc.? Computer repair expert William Allen has information for your social media peace of mind.

Read and Listen to more here.