Category Archives: Blog

Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

New Malware Appears To Be Android App For Free Netflix

If you have an Android device and you’re something of an app fanatic, you may have been tempted by an app called FlixOnline, which was available on the Google Play Store for a time. The app’s description promises a free trial subscription to Netflix, which naturally prompted many people to download it and give it a try. Unfortunately, instead of giving the promised free Netflix trial, it installed malware on the devices of everyone who decided to give the app a spin.

If you’re one of those, by all means, uninstall the app right away. On installation, the app asks for “Overlay,” “Notification” and “Battery Optimization Ignore” permissions. If you grant those, then it has everything it needs to serve up fake login overlays that lay atop legitimate apps and will invariably cause some people to give their login credentials to the people controlling the app.

If you also have WhatsApp installed, your problems will get even worse, based on research conducted by Check Point.

Here’s what they had to say about it:

“Check Point Research (CPR) recently discovered malware on Google Play hidden in a fake application that is capable of spreading itself via users’ WhatsApp messages. If the user downloaded the fake application and unwittingly granted the malware the appropriate permissions, the malware is capable of automatically replying to victim’s’ incoming WhatsApp messages with a payload received from a command-and-control (C&C) server. This unique method could have enabled threat actors to distribute phishing attacks, spread false information or steal credentials and data from users’ WhatsApp accounts, and more.”

Bottom line: If you’re a WhatsApp user and you also downloaded this app, you’re probably infecting all your contacts with the same malware, or worse.

If you want to double check your phone to make sure it’s not there and uninstall it if it is, just head to “Settings,” then “Apps and Notifications” and “App Info” to be sure you it is completely removed. As an added precaution, be sure you change the passwords of any apps you may have logged into since installing it on your device.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Details On Massive Facebook Data Leak Hack

As you’re probably aware, recently a vast trove of Facebook profiles totaling 533 million in all, wound up on a hacker forum. The company was initially silent about the issue, but the company has now released a statement about the matter. Unfortunately, that statement isn’t terribly reassuring.

The good news, if you can call it that, is that the company reassured its users and investors that it wasn’t hacked.

The bad and unsettling news is that Facebook says the hackers simply scraped the profile information from their website. The company stressed that the system itself was not breached, but rather, that the hackers used a large set of phone numbers linked to the profiles they ultimately made off with.

Based on a review of a sample of the data, nearly every record published to the hacking forum contained that user’s cell number, Facebook ID, name, and gender. While that’s not sufficient to outright steal someone’s identity, it represents and excellent start from a hacker’s perspective.

The company’s formal statement regarding the matter reads in part as follows:

“This is another example of the ongoing, adversarial relationship technology companies have with fraudsters who intentionally break platform policies to scrape internet services.” 

“As a result of the action we took, we are confident that the specific issue that allowed them to scrape this data in 2019 no longer exists.”

A deeper look into the matter reveals that the ‘specific issue’ in question that allowed the massive data leak was a feature called ‘Contact Importer’ that ostensibly made it easier for friends to find one another on the platform. As it turns out, hackers quickly learned they could abuse the feature and Facebook ultimately pulled the plug on it, but of course, not before the hackers made off with hundreds of millions of user profiles.

Independent security researchers around the world were less than impressed by the company’s delayed, and somewhat lackluster response. In trying to paint the issue as being old news, they completely miss the point. More than half a billion of their users saw their data compromised because of a feature the company itself introduced and then later deactivated, when its potential for abuse came to light. For a company as enormous as Facebook, it’s not a good look.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Firmware Attacks May Be The Next Big Security Issue

Most businesses are getting better at guarding against malware attacks.

We still hear about successful attacks far too often, but companies are undeniably getting better at defending against them.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of firmware attacks, which are growing increasingly common.

In fact, according to the first ever Security Signals report published by Microsoft in March of 2021, fully 80 percent of the businesses surveyed reported having been on the receiving end of a firmware attack in the last two years. However, less than one third of surveyed companies have money in their IT budgets specifically earmarked for the detection and prevention of such attacks.

Worse still, is the fact that firmware attacks are favored by State-sponsored hacking groups. They are well funded and even better organized, and they tend to be much trickier to deal with than conventional malware attacks.

Put these various pieces together and a disturbing picture begins to form. So many resources are being directed toward keeping existing software fully patched and up to date. Most of the rest are being aimed at detecting and preventing malicious software attacks, but little, if anything is left over to prevent firmware attacks. This creates a tremendous weak spot in the IT Security armor surrounding most companies these days.

Given that hackers generally target the weakest links in any security system, that’s setting businesses across a wide range of industries up for failure. That is because while firmware not currently the attack vector preferred by most hackers around the world, there’s nothing preventing them from shifting gears any time they want to.

All that to say, if you’re not currently paying much attention to firmware threats, you should probably start. If you don’t, you’re leaving yourself wide open to attack and unnecessarily vulnerable. It’s going to be a long year. Stay vigilant.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Windows 10 Updates Could Be Causing Printing Issues For Some

Last year, Microsoft seemed to struggle for a time with its monthly Windows 10 updates. We were treated to a whole series of updates that caused as many issues as they were designed to solve.

Some updates led to more than a few “Blue Screen of Death” crashes and howls of frustrations from the company’s massive user base.

The Redmond giant retrenched, revamped its process, and smoothed things back out for a time. Now though, it seems problems like that have crept back into the mix again. The company’s March update has once again caused Blue Screen crashes for some users. More recently, the company has also reported that some users are, or may experience issues with printing after installing the March update, including missing graphics, blank pages or labels, and a variety of print formatting issues.

If you’ve already installed the latest update and you haven’t experienced any of the above, you probably dodged the bullet and there’s nothing to do or worry about. If you have been experiencing those issues, the March update for Windows 10 is probably the culprit, and Microsoft is currently working on revised patches designed to address those issues.

So far, problems have been reported by users installing the following updates from Microsoft:

  • KB5000802 for Windows 10 2004/20H2 & Windows Server 2004/20H2
  • KB5000808 for Windows 10 1909 & Windows Server 1909
  • KB5000822 for Windows 10 1809 & Windows Server 2019
  • KB5000809 for Windows 10 1803 & Windows Server 1803

The company has gotten pretty good at resolving these types of issues fairly quickly, so it’s unlikely that this will be a problem for very long. Even so, that’s small consolation if you’re currently experiencing issues. Hang in there though, Microsoft has promised that a fix is on the way!

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

What Businesses Can Do To Minimize Phishing Emails

If you had to guess, worldwide, how many phishing emails would you estimate are sent out every day, what would you say?

If you guessed anything less than three billion, you’d be incorrect. Three billion a day, on average. That’s both terrifying and depressing.

On hearing that grim statistic, it’s natural to assume that there’s just not much you can do to reduce your exposure and not get as many phishing emails as you currently do, but surprisingly, there are things you can do.

Specifically, you can apply DMARC, which stands for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance). That’s a fancy way of saying that only authorized senders can send an email using a given domain, which not only helps to prevent spam, but also serves as a reporting tool.

Essentially DMARC enforcement virtually eliminates domain spoofing, which means that those emails simply never get delivered to begin with.

How effective is that approach? Well, based on the latest statistics, domains without DMARC applied are nearly five times as likely to be the targets of phishing emails compared to those that have it.

As the CEO of Valimail, Alexander Garcia-Tobar puts it:

“Privacy laws already exist in Europe and parts of the United States, and if a company does any business in those areas, a DMARC policy at enforcement is essential. By having valid email authentication in place, companies protect themselves and their customers from privacy violations. Without it, emails are sent without permission, fines are issued, confidential information is obtained and reputations sink.”

It’s a policy that just makes sense. If you’re not already applying DMARC to domains you control, you should consider doing so immediately. The more domains that do, the less effective phishing emails become, and that’s something that everyone but the hackers can agree is a very good thing.

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