Ransomware attacks are a growing concern for Cincinnati businesses. These attacks involve malware that encrypts a company's data and demands payment in exchange for the decryption key. In some cases, the attackers will also threaten to publicly release sensitive information if the ransom is not paid.
Phishing is a serious concern for businesses in Cincinnati, as it is a common form of cybercrime that can lead to financial losses and damage to a company's reputation. A phishing attack involves tricking individuals into giving away sensitive information, such as login credentials or financial information.
Did you notice the power's out? As of the publication of this post, roughly 31 thousand people in Butler and Hamilton counties are without power, according to WCPO. That's a small fraction of the total 166 thousand people who have gone without power over the past 24 hours.
Imagine being able to walk into a shop and then pay for your things without ever taking out cash or a card. You may soon be able to accomplish this with MasterCard's new payment system. As reported in CNBC, this newly piloted payment processor would be able to run transactions using data connected to a person's body: "At checkout, users will be able to authenticate their payment by showing their face or the palm of their hand instead of swiping their card.
"We all know the feeling. You're scrolling through your phone, and there it is. An ad that you can tie back to a recent conversation with a friend." Thus begins a recent article from Kim Komando, a radio show host who focuses on technology. Advertisers have used user meta-data for a long time to market their products, but they're not the only ones who may be tracking you.
We begin our post today with some grim local news. WCPO reported today that Goshen Local School District's school board president has resigned after video surfaced of him attempting to meet up with an 11-year old girl. You can click the link above to get the details of the story; it wouldn't be responsible for us to belabor it here.
Yesterday, Wired magazine published an article about a potentially game changing development in cybersecurity. Dubbed Pipedream by cybersecurity firm Dragos, this new threat is a malware program designed to attack oil refineries, power grids, water systems and other forms of major infrastructure.
On March 29th, USA Today published a story, which was later reprinted in The Cincinnati Enquirer, about Verizon Wireless customers receiving spam from their own numbers. "Verizon said it is working to block spam texts some customers say they have received from their own numbers," Brett Molina reports.
On Tuesday, we discussed the importance of protecting your proprietary source code. A group called Lapsus$ recently attacked Samsung and Nvidia's source codes. It seems they've struck again, this time against Microsoft's.
Microsoft published a summary of the incident on their security blog on March 22nd.
Note: copy edits made 02/10/22 at 12:33 pm
In 2019, WCPO ran a story about a special event that took place just outside of the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal. Sponsored by Proctor & Gamble, the event drew female STEM students from schools around the tri-state to compete in a rocketry competition.