Tag Archives: General Interest

Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

DuckDuckGo Browser Blocks Microsoft Trackers

If you haven’t heard of DuckDuckGo, it’s a tiny browser that only gets a fraction of the traffic that Google does. If we’re being honest, it gets only a fraction of the web traffic that Bing does.  The search engine does have some pluck though and bills itself as the engine of choice for those who value their privacy.

In fact, blocking trackers is DuckDuckGo’s main selling point. It is the overriding reason that those who use the tiny search engine don’t simply go somewhere else.

That’s why when Jack Edwards discovered that DuckDuckGo did not stop data flows to Microsoft’s Linkedin domains or their Bing advertising domains, the company received fierce backlash from their user base, who felt betrayed.

The reason that DuckDuckGo was in the habit of letting Microsoft trackers through lies in the fact that they’re in an advertising partnership with the much larger company. To block all their trackers would be to cut off their own revenue streams and the company makes a big chunk of its revenue via Microsoft Advertising.

The backlash against the discovery, posted and widely shared on Twitter, prompted CEO Gabriel Weinberg to issue a statement.

Weinberg’s statement reads:

“Recently, I’ve heard from a number of users and understand that we didn’t meet their expectations around one of our browser’s web tracking protections.  So today we are announcing more privacy and transparency around DuckjDuckGo’s web tracking protections.”

The new policy can be summed up as follows:  DuckDuckGo will now block most of Microsoft’s trackers for most of the time.  They are making exceptions for trackers used by Microsoft Advertising, because without that, the company would be down a vital revenue stream.

Significantly, this means that all third-party trackers affiliated with Microsoft are now blocked, and while it’s not a perfect solution, it should be enough to mollify the engine’s user base.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

WordPress Plugin Leaves Sites Vulnerable

Researchers at Defiant authored the popular Wordfence security solution for WordPress users and they have detected a massive campaign that has seen hackers actively scanning for websites employing the Kaswara Modern WPBakery Page Builder plugin.

The plugin was recently abandoned by the creative team behind it before receiving a patch for a critical security flaw.

The flaw, tracked as CVE-2021-24284 would allow an attacker to inject a malicious Javascript into any site using any version of the plugin, which would allow the uploading and deletion of files that could easily lead to a complete takeover of the site targeted.

What makes this campaign so impressive is the fact that the hackers have scanned more than a million and a half sites so far, searching for vulnerable targets.  Fortunately, only a tiny percentage of sites scanned have been running the vulnerable plugin.

Based on the data collected, the campaign appears to have started on July 4th of 2022, and is ongoing to this day.  The attacks originate from more than ten thousand unique IP addresses, indicating a large, organized group of attackers. The identity of the group behind the campaign is not known at this time.

The bottom line here is simple.  If you are running this plugin, we recommend stopping immediately and uninstalling it. Since it has been abandoned by its authors, there’s no fix coming and no matter how helpful it may have been to you, it’s just not worth the risk.

Even if some other group adopts the plugin later, there’s no telling how long it might take for that to happen. Even if it did, there’s no way to know how long it might take them to develop a patch for it.  For now then, your best bet is to treat this plugin as toxic and steer clear of it.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Technology Advances With Speech-Recognition Via AI Technology

If you haven’t heard of the UK startup Speechmatics, it may come as a surprise to learn that the company may be on its way to becoming a globally recognized brand.

The company’s ambitious goal is to leapfrog over the progress made by America’s tech giants in speech recognition by using AI and machine learning.

If you own a Google Home device or have ever worked with Siri or Alexa, you are already familiar with the challenges associated with speech recognition.  The technology only works well for a tiny slice of the consuming public, with the tech giants focused firmly on their most valuable customers, naturally.

For everyone else, using speech recognition devices is a lesson in frustration. It can even be a problem  for some of the speakers for whom the tech has been optimized around, and it can still be frustrating.  If you doubt that, try sending a text message using just your voice.  It’s an uphill battle, even under ideal conditions.

Speechmatics raised eyebrows worldwide when they released a report which contained the following bit of information:

“Based on datasets used in Stanford’s ‘Racial Disparities in Speech Recognition’ study, Speechmatics recorded an overall accuracy of 82.8 percent for African American voices compared to Google (68.6 percent) and Amazon (68.6 percent). This level of accuracy equates to a 45 percent reduction in speech recognition errors – the equivalent of three words in an average sentence.”

That’s huge and game changing. That fact was one of the keys that enabled the tiny start up to secure more than sixty million USD in Series B funding.

So far, Speechmatic’s AI engine only understands 34 languages, which is a tiny slice of the more than 7,000 languages in use around the world. The company is absolutely determined though, and they’re aiming for the moon.

Their goal is functional speech recognition for everyone who speaks, planet wide, regardless of the language they’re using.  It’s a lofty goal, and we can hardly wait to chart their progress.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Windows 11 Apps Are Being Tested For Kiosk Mode

There’s interesting news in the world of Windows 11 development.  Microsoft recently began testing a new Kiosk feature that will enable IT administrators to limit which applications users can use while logged into their user profiles, blocking all other functionalities.

Even better is that the kiosk approach allows you to create multiple different apps and access configurations for different user classifications on a single device.

This approach also unlocks the door to use Windows 11 machines in a variety of ways, including but not limited to:

  • Selective blocking of pop-ups and toasts that lead to a cluttered UI and diminish the overall user experience
  • Locking down the Start Menu such that it only shows allowed applications
  • And limiting access to the Windows Settings menu to selected pages defined by the Admin

If the new feature piques your interest, you can start playing around with it right now by joining the Windows Insiders team and joining the Dev channel.

Once you do, you’ll have access to the detailed instructions on how to toggle the feature on and configure it.  All you’ll need to do is to install the latest build, which is Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25169.

Whatever your opinion is after testing it out, you can leave feedback by pressing WIN +F to access the Feedback Hub under Security and Privacy, then Device Lockdown.

Although this is the latest intriguing addition to Microsoft’s new and improved operating system, there have been a whole raft of additions like this in recent months. So if you decide you want in on the action, you’ll have all sorts of new features and capabilities to explore and play with, most of which will add value to your whole business.

The bottom line is Microsoft really seems to be trying to pull out all the stops here.  We think you’ll be impressed.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Skimmers Are Stealing Credit Card Information From US Restaurants

If you eat out or are in the habit of ordering take-out on a regular basis, be aware.

Recently, a large, well-organized web-skimming campaign has been uncovered that allowed hackers to swipe the payment card details for more than 300 restaurants, impacting more than 50,000 customers.

Web-skimmers are sometimes called Magecart malware and they are bits of JavaScript that collects credit card data when shoppers enter their card data on the checkout page on an online payment portal.

This latest campaign was brought to light by researchers at Recorded Future, who noticed suspicious activity on the ordering portals of InTouchPOS, Harbortouch, and MenuDrive.

There have been two distinct campaigns so far, with the first one beginning on January 18 of 2022 and impacting 80 different restaurants using MenuDrive and another 74 that were utilizing Harbortouch’s platform.

Big chains don’t typically use platforms like these, so most of the impacted restaurants were small, local operations widely scattered across the United States.  In both campaigns just mentioned, the web skimmer malware code was discovered on the restaurant’s web pages and its subdomain on the payment portal’s platform.

In the case of Harbortouch, a single malicious JavaScript was used, while two different scripts were deployed against MenuDrive users.

The second campaign targeted InTouchPOS beginning on November 12 of 2021, but most of the actual attacks occurred in January 2022.  Here, no details were stolen from the site itself but rather, the attackers overlaid a fake payment form on top of the legitimate one and harvested payment details that way.

Recorded Future reports that both campaigns appear to be ongoing, and the firm has alerted all impacted entities.  At the time this piece was written, they had not received a response back from anyone.

In any event, if you order online from a local eatery near you, keep a watchful eye on your account.  Your payment data may have been compromised.

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