The malware emerged in 2007, making it almost an antique in the new service-led ransomware world, but the malware is still nimble and efficient, according to cybersecurity outfit DFIR’s analysis of a sample its researchers found in October. Qbot is known for reaching Windows PCs via phishing emails and exploiting bugs in key apps like Microsoft’s email client, Outlook. The malware recently gained a module that reads email threads to improve the message’s apparent legitimacy to victims....

A “phishing kit” is the various software or services designed to facilitate phishing attacks. In this case, the kit has been called ZooToday by Microsoft after some text used by the kit. Microsoft also described it as a ‘Franken-Phish’ because it is made up of different elements, some available for sale through publicly accessible scam sellers or reused and repackaged by other kit resellers. Microsoft said TodayZoo is using the WorkMail domain AwsApps[....

Connections tracks how often users talk to or interact with each other, providing more insights into your daily work habits. Connections are grouped into three different categories: close, familiar and distant. Each category takes into account how frequently a user interacts with others in meetings, messages, and calls. Users can select other members of the group to indicate they want to interact with that person more often. When viewing your Connections, you can see your current trends for individual contacts over recent days, weeks, and longer periods....

Budget-conscious digital nomads and other professionals who frequently travel understand how vital a lightweight laptop can be. The sweet spot usually lands under three pounds and has at least 8GB of memory and an SSD for fast boot times. The problem is that even laptops with these specs can be expensive, and experiencing damage, loss, or theft can be devastating. Fortunately, you can get a travel-friendly laptop on a tight budget during our Refurbished Event, running September 17 through 30....

The two organizations released a 40-page report about Tinder’s pricing practices, noting that the company was sued in California last year for $24 million due to its age-based pricing practices. Mozilla and Consumers International researchers said that in their examination of Tinder pricing on five continents, they discovered some people are charged up to five times more for the exact same service. In the Netherlands, prices ranged from $4.45 to $25....

Mesh Wi-Fi systems, compromised of a central hub and satellites, bridge the gap by diversifying connection requests away from just one centralized access point. If you’re looking to upgrade your existing router to a mesh setup, B&H has a great sale right now. The TP-Link Deco S4 AC1200, a three-pack mesh Wi-Fi kit, normally retails for $150, but is currently available for a discount of $40 (26%), bringing the cost down to $110....

The company, with nearly 61,000 employees and billions in annual revenue, sent a message to employees this week warning them not to click on a link titled “!RA!G!N!A!R!” according to KrebsonSecurity. The message indicates that the prolific Ragnar Locker ransomware group may have launched the attack or someone trying to impersonate them. TTEC told employees that it was having system outages and was working to remove the malicious “!RA!G!N!A!R!” file from its system....

The social media accounts, @lagal1990 and @shiftrows13, were suspended this month after “posing as security researchers,” according to Google Threat Analysis Group (TAG) analyst Adam Weidermann, who added that the profiles “leaned on the hype of 0-days to gain followers and build credibility.” As noted by Threatpost, another account, @lagal1990, was closed for the same reason in August. The campaign, believed to be the work of state-sponsored North Korean cyberattackers, has been tracked by the Google TAG team over the past year....

Kara Hinesley, Twitter Australia’s director for public policy, appeared before a Senate legal and constitutional affairs committee hearing on Tuesday afternoon to speak about its privacy concerns regarding the federal government’s anti-trolling Bill. The Bill, currently before Parliament, seeks to remove the liability held by owners of social media pages for any defamatory material posted on those pages. If passed, it would also create the requirement for social media companies to identify people if they post potentially defamatory material....

The company explained that the incident “was the result of a misconfiguration, that once identified, was quickly fixed, but made it possible for unauthorized individuals to access and possibly copy some personal player data.” Ubisoft did not respond to requests for comment about how many people were affected by the incident. “The data in question was limited to ’technical identifiers’ which include GamerTags, profile IDs, and Device IDs as well as Just Dance videos that were recorded and uploaded to be shared publicly with the in-game community and/or on your social media profiles,” the Just Dance team explained in a note on Ubisoft’s message board....

As the UK experiences a surge in inflation beyond 9%, the cost of fuel is perilously close to £2 a liter, and the overall cost of travel, goods, food and services continues to climb, the majority of UK citizens are feeling the sting. The cost of energy, in particular, is becoming a painful subject for many. Cornwall Insight predicts that the price cap – originally designed to protect consumers from short-term fluctuations in price – will be hiked by 65% to £3,240, an amount that few will be able to manage without help....

There is hope, however, on the horizon. This week, the Biden Administration unveiled an ambitious plan – a follow-up to the recently passed $550 billion bipartisan Infrastructure Deal – to develop and improve national EV charging infrastructure in the US. The deal has earmarked $5 billion to invest in EV chargers and over $17 billion to loan to technology companies that manufacture automobile batteries, among billions more for other key areas....

Federal officials have in the past imposed fines against virtual currency platforms for violating sanctions laws, but the new complaint “demonstrates that the civil liability is not the ceiling,” wrote US Magistrate Judge Zia M. Faruqui. “The Department of Justice can and will criminally prosecute individuals and entities for failure to comply with OFAC’s regulations, including as to virtual currency.” In the Justice Department’s complaint, government alleges that an unidentified US citizen conspired to operate an online payments platform based in a “comprehensively sanctioned country” – which could be Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, or Russia....

The private networks are custom-designed and managed by Verizon. They’re non-standalone, meaning they combine 5G Ultra Wideband small cells with the LTE packet core and radios of On Site LTE. With a non-standalone network, customers can leverage both 5G Ultra Wideband and 4G LTE capabilities. It also makes it easy for customers to upgrade to On Site 5G if they’re already using Verizon’s On Site LTE private networking. Private 5G networks will help organizations deploy applications that require high-speed, high-capacity, low-latency connectivity....

If you’re at least aware of your more grotesque inadequacies and hypocrisies, there’s hope that, somewhere deep inside, you may still have space for empathies. I did wonder the other night, though, whether self-deprecation can enjoy a somewhat damaging side. There I was watching a deeply pulsating NBA Finals game when up popped an ad I had to see twice in order to facilitate complete digestion. The ad began like this: “Hi....

Nexus is a software-defined networking technology that connects users to an entire network of servers before routing them to their chosen location. This is different from some other consumer VPNs, which connect users to a single VPN server. The purposes of Nexus is to improve online privacy by allowing users to change their IP address within a network without having to disconnect from a VPN, as well as speeding up and stabilising VPN connections both locally and internationally....

In a statement, Samsung said it was the company’s “largest mobile enterprise deal in the US” considering that almost half of Walmart’s US store population will get a smartphone by the end of the year. In conjunction with the announcement, Walmart unveiled a new app for their workers called Me@Walmart. In a blog post from Walmart senior vice president Drew Holler and vice president of products Kellie Romack, the company explained that the app will give Walmart workers a “convenient, secure location” for their needs and daily tasks....

The agency said in a statement that it “became aware of suspicious activity involving professional and occupational license data” during the week of January 24. The Professional Online Licensing and Regulatory Information System (POLARIS) system that was affected stores information ranging from social security numbers, dates of birth and driver license numbers to other personally identifying information. “We immediately began investigating with the assistance of the Washington Office of Cybersecurity....

That’s the prognosis of a recent survey of 872 IT managers, which finds eight in 10 companies employ open source software. However, using freely available and low-cost or no-cost licensed software only solves part of the problem – there is still the challenge of securing the software, as well as having the skills and support to maintain and run it effectively. More than 40% of technology managers say security and compliance are an issue with open source....

That’s a lot of iPhones. And Apple’s been selling a lot of iPhones for quite some time now. Pulling some estimates for the numbers of iPhones sold – Apple doesn’t disclose unit sales anymore – we can safely assume that over the course of the last five years, Apple has sold over a billion iPhones, give or take a few tens of millions. Let that sink in. A billion. And sales are on an upward trajectory, increasing yearly....