Category Archives: Blog

Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Cox Communications Reports Recent Data Breach

Cox Communications is a major provider of cable, internet, and phone service in the United States.  The company is the latest in a seemingly unending parade of companies to fall victim to a hacking attack. In this case, the hacker gained access to company servers by impersonating a member of Cox Communication’s Customer Support team.  At this point details are sketchy as the investigation into the matter is ongoing.

The company’s breach notification statement reads:

“On October 11, 2021, Cox learned that an unknown person(s) had impersonated a Cox agent and gained access to a small number of customer accounts. We immediately launched an internal investigation, took steps to secure the affected customer accounts, and notified law enforcement of the incident.

After further investigation, we discover that the unknown person(s) may have viewed certain types of information that are maintained in your Cox customer account, including your name, address, telephone number, Cox account number, Cox.net email address, username, PIN code, account security question and answer, and/or the types of services that you receive from Cox.”

At this point the exact number of records the hacker gained access to is not known. However given the above if you are a Cox customer you should change your password and security question(s) at a minimum.

Although payment card information associated with impacted accounts was not specifically mentioned it pays to closely monitor whatever payment cards you have tied to your Cox account just to be safe.

It is also worth mentioning that the company is in the process of contacting impacted customers and has offered one free year of Experian Identity Works. The program can help monitor credit reports and detect signs of fraudulent activity.

We wish we could say that this will be the last major breach of the year but sadly it almost certainly won’t be.  Stay vigilant.  It’s dangerous out there.

0
Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Free Internet Access? Don’t fall for this one

Free Internet Access? Don’t fall for this one

One of the popular internet scams that has been doing the rounds since 2017 is the one about “Free Internet”. This scam seems to resurface and somehow manages to claim quite a few unsuspecting victims. Here’s how they catch you.
  • Ads are created on Google, Facebook, popular search engines and social media platforms advertising free internet hours.
  • The ads look professional and show up on general searches and on social media when surfing. This offers a sense of validity.
  • Once you click on the ad, you will be taken to their website, where you will be asked to perform an action, such as

    1. Filling out a form with your Personally Identifiable Information (PII)
    2. Sharing your credit card information, and though you will be promised that your card won’t be charged, you may end up signing up for something or subscribing to a service for which your card will be charged later.
    3. Sharing a few email IDs or phone numbers–basically contacts with whom you will be asked to share the message in return for free internet service.

How to stay safe?
As always, remember no one offers something for free. Whether it is free internet access or tickets to a concert, if it is something of value, then you will be expected to provide some value in return. Steer clear of offers that seem too good to be true. If you receive a message from someone you know and trust, please let them know that their link may be a problem. No matter what, don’t open a link from anyone if you aren’t entirely sure the links are valid.

0
Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Apple Rolls Out Digital Keys For Hotels With Partnership

Apple Wallet just got a powerful new feature that’s sure to make it more attractive to busy travelers.  Thanks to an agreement with Hyatt your Apple Wallet is now capable of serving as a digital hotel key.

This counts as a promise kept.  At the 2021 WWDC Apple promised that it would be adding digital hotel key functionality to its wallet app.

Although it took some time to hammer out the details of an agreement Hyatt is the first hotel to embrace the idea.

If your iPhone is running iOS 15 or later or if you’ve got an Apple Watch running WatchOS 8 or above you’ll be able to use it. You will select the key on your device hold it near the built-in sensor on the hotel room door and gain entry just as though you used a conventional room key card.

What’s even better is that keys can be added before your arrival at the hotel so all you’ll need to do is walk up to the front desk to get them activated. Best of all is the keys support alterations after the fact so if there was a problem with your reservation and you need a different room assignment all of that is easy to deal with.

At present the digital keys are only available at a limited number of Hyatt locations. However the company is excited to expand their portfolio and is hoping to develop a global digital key footprint in the months ahead.

Meanwhile Apple is busy making arrangements with other hotel chains and is currently working with a number of governmental agencies (starting in the US) to make digital government IDs a reality.

All of this is very good news that will radically expand the number of use cases for the Apple Wallet and that is fantastic news for anyone who’s a part of the massive Apple ecosystem.

0
Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

New Emotet Malware Found A New Way To Distribute

Emotet is one of the most feared malware strains circulating right now. The team behind it has managed to infect a staggering array of targets all around the globe. To say that it is a major threat would be an understatement. Recently the group behind Emotet just upped the ante even further. Researchers have recently discovered that the malware is now being distributed via a new channel.

The new channel is a malicious Windows App Installer that appears to be an innocuous Adobe PDF reader. Windows App Installer is a built-in feature of both Windows 10 and 11 and systems can be infected by “tricking” users to click attachments in emails which trigger the App Installer.

Emotet’s preferred methodology revolves around a “conversation in progress” approach.  An email is crafted that already has several replies. So at a glance it appears that the recipient and whomever sent this email have already been conversing about something. The “most recent” reply says some variation of “please see attached” and contains a PDF file.

When the recipient clicks the file the built in App Installer is triggered and the malware is installed. Note that this completely bypasses most malware and AV software because the recipient is making a conscious decision to open the file in question.

The campaign is amazingly well put together.  The attachment and subsequent prompts appear to be legitimate Adobe Acrobat components right down to sporting an official company icon and a certificate marking it as a trusted application. So there’s no reason for a user to think that there’s anything amiss unless they look more closely at the email containing the attachment.

That’s exactly what the hackers are counting on.  They know that people are busy and may only give the body of the email a cursory glance before clicking to see what all the fuss was about.

As ever vigilance and mindfulness are the keys to avoiding these types of shenanigans.

0
Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Microsoft Office Is Rolling Out A New User Interface

Microsoft is making a few UI changes across its entire product line in anticipation of rolling out Windows 11.  Early this year (2021) the company announced that they were updating the UI for Office 365 and Office 2021.

Over the summer small groups of users participated in an open beta and began playing with the updated versions of those app suites.

Now the company is ready for the big reveal and is rolling the new UI out to all Office 365 and Officer 2021 users. The changes don’t add anything in the way of new functionality but offer a different look and feel that brings the ubiquitous office suite into aesthetic alignment with what’s planned for Windows 11.

If you haven’t already started to see the changes you will soon. Primarily you’ll notice that icons and menu buttons have a softer more rounded appearance in keeping with the company’s slowly evolving aesthetic. Also note that the update will “remember” if you selected the light or dark theme you set inside Windows and your office suite will match that selection.

Users can toggle the new look on or off via the “megaphone” icon visible in the right-hand corner of Word Excel PowerPoint and OneNote. All Windows 11 users should see it the next time they open any of those apps.

Similar changes are planned for the Web and Mobile versions of the office suite. However, shifting those versions of the suite into alignment with what’s planned for Windows 11 is a significantly larger project that the company says will take at least another year to complete and possibly closer to two.

In the end though Windows will offer a single seamless aesthetic across its products which should improve and enhance the overall user experience and that’s good stuff.

0
1 … 62 63 64 65 66 … 236