How to NOT Join My Army When I Become a Botmaster

If I became a botmaster I would buy an exploit kit from the dark net. I would use that exploit kit to infect your computer, or other intelligent device, with my special malware. My malware would call out from your system
to my command and control server. Saying “Bot soldier #12599 reporting for duty. I will await are your orders.” It would hide on your computer and you wouldn’t even know it was there. Your computer would
slow down a little, but you probably wouldn’t notice.

Once your device was in my army, I could use it for a variety of things. I could have it deliver spam, deliver malware, capture personal information,
or recruit bot soldiers. I could also use my army to overload a website, making it unavailable on the internet. Your computer may slow to a crawl during the attack, but recover after.

Experts say that if
you have internet access, your computer likely is, has been, or will be, a botnet soldier. Botmasters like me are working to stay under the radar and find new ways to take over your computer. You can mitigate the
risk:

1. Practice safe computing: Avoid phishing and phaming attacks.  Don’t visit questionable web sites, click on popups you don’t know are safe, or open attachments you’re not expecting.
2. Keep all software up to date. Regularly install updates for all your software and subscribe to automatic updates wherever possible.
3. Use antivirus software and keep it up to date. The software that runs a bot army is malware. Advanced threat protection or zero-day software may detect new strains faster.
4. Use strong passwords. Often botNets use default or commonly used passwords when breaking into systems to recruit soldiers.
5. Get behind a firewall and never turn it off. If your firewall is off for a minute my botNet can infect your computer.

Take these steps to reduce the likelihood of being in a bot army. Getting out if you are in, and defending yourself against an all-out attack are subjects for another day.

See How do I stop my computer from being a zombie?,
by Leo Notenboom, Ask Leo, askleo.com
or How to better protect your PC from botnets and malware, by Microsoft
Safety & Security Center, microsoft.com

6 Parts of The Attack That Will Target Your Business

“This article describes how attackers will gather intelligence and choose a point of entry. Once they are in, they will send instructions to the machines they have compromised. They
will move laterally, usually using legitimate system administration tools, to compromise other machines. They will maintain the compromised machines to make sure they remain compromised and to prevent others attackers
from exploiting the same vulnerabilities they did. Finally, they will copy the data that was the reason for the attack out of the target network.”

See Understanding Targeted Attacks: Six Components of Targeted Attacks, by Security
News, trendmicro.com

Why Your Smartphone Is a Massive Threat to Your Company’s Security

“The rattle bag of devices–smartphones, tablets and personal computers–people bring to work and use to access the network and an organization’s sensitive data almost guarantee trouble.
With so many ways to get “got,” BYOD makes keeping the bad guys out an absurd proposition.”

See Why Your Smartphone Is a Massive Threat to Your Company’s Security,
by Adam Levin, Inc., inc.com

To sign in, tap “Yes” on the msg we send to your phone.

This help post shows how to set up a Yahoo account key. Once it is set up you can access your Yahoo sites or apps without a password. When you go to log in, it sends a message to your phone.
If you respond to the message it lets you in.

It lets you get rid of passwords for any app that uses it, but anyone who has your phone can get in to your accounts. It’s true that if you lose your phone, you’re
gonna know it, but will you remember all the things it gave you access too? It’s another in a series of attempts to get rid of passwords. I wonder how it will pan out.

See Set up Yahoo Account Key to stop using passwords,
by Yahoo HELP, help.yahoo.com

Will Your Boss Love Facebook at Work?

“Some more details are coming through on Facebook at Work, the social network’s big effort to move into enterprise communication services with a business version
of its popular platform.”

“Facebook at Work competes against a host of other enterprise collaboration and communication products, ranging from Microsoft’s Yammer and Salesforce’s
Chatter through to HipChat and Slack.”

Will Facebook’s social media popularity make up for its late start in enterprise communications?

See Facebook at Work will launch on October 10 in London,
by Ingrid Lunden, TC, techcrunch.com

This Game Will Make Your System Vulnerable to Attack

“Gamers who own a copy of Street Fighter V may want to hold off on installing Thursday afternoon’s update. CAPCOM (the game’s developer) announced that the update includes
a new anti-crack solution to help combat cheating. The anti-crack solution however goes too far, to the point of compromising the system’s security.”

See Street Fighter V System Privilege Escalation,
by Marc Laliberte, Secplicity, secplicity.org

4 Tips to Stay Safe When Using Social Media On Vacation

We came across this article when Joseph tweeted about it. He cautions about oversharing (his word). After all, by sharing flight details or photos of exotic destinations you are telling
the world that you’re not home. They’re gonna know that your house may be empty and your stolen car won’t be missed till you get back.

He recommends sharing all the news once you’re safely back home.

See Stay Safe When Using Social Media While On Vacation,
by Joseph Steinberg, simplilearn, simplilearn.com