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Online scams are rife, here’s how you can stay safe when shopping online

Online shopping and e-commerce are on the rise and are here to stay even after the pandemic. However, the threat landscape is also constantly evolving with cybercriminals becoming more elusive and subtle with their scams. According to a consumer survey conducted amongst 11,200 internet users earlier this year, around 67% in APAC came across various online scams in the past 12 months, with the most common types being online shopping (21%), social media (18%) and investment (15%) scams. Figure 1 Of those who fell victim to online shopping scams, 32% said it involved tech gadgets such as cameras while 27% said it was related to apparel. More worryingly, the survey also revealed that around 15% of respondents will continue to shop with an online retailer even if they have suffered an online breach, regardless of whether additional safeguards have been put in place. More vigilance and cyber hygiene are needed while shopping online using mobile devices Many respondents from ESET’s survey, especially from Indonesia (89%), Thailand (79%), India (74%) and Singapore (74%) primarily shop online using their mobiles phones instead of tablets or laptops. Despite this, only about 23% of respondents across APAC said they use antivirus or mobile security app on their smartphone. The lack of cybersecurity measures on smartphones is worrying because they are now primarily used for online shopping and would naturally contain sensitive financial data such as credit card information. Over the past year, malware targeting financial data on mobile devices has become increasingly common. For instance, Android banking malware saw a continued increase of 49% between May to August 2021 after rising by an incredible 158.7% in the first four months of the year. Figure 2 The rise in e-commerce has inevitably led to more opportunities for online scammers to strike. As people continue digitalising their lives, consumers need to take care of their data as cybercriminals are using more sophisticated methods to penetrate the systems of users and steal their money. Furthermore, around 10% of respondents across APAC said they found fraudulent charges in their bank accounts, mobile wallets or mobile payment apps last year. Consumers cannot be complacent and need to take an active role in cyber hygiene to stay protected. There are far reaching consequences if consumers do not pay close attention to possible threats. Here are some essential tips to bear in mind when you shop online:
  1. If an offer seems too good to be true, it probably is. Cybercriminals often use great discounts to lure unsuspecting victims.
  2. Ensure that the shopping site or app you are using is legitimate. Bookmark shopping sites that have been verified and use that link for future purchases. While it is a good idea to ensure that a website that you are shopping on uses encryption (HTTPS), do note that even malicious phishing sites can now show a padlock icon and https, which could mislead people into thinking it is a legitimate site. Always download mobile shopping apps from the official app store.
  3. Refrain from using public Wi-Fi when making purchases. Cyberattackers can exploit inconsistent or lax public Wi-Fi security to infiltrate a poorly secured network to monitor the victims’ traffic and redirect them to fraudulent login pages. Another threat is posed by “evil twin” attacks, wherein the attacker creates a malicious Wi-Fi network that carries a similar name to the public network to dupe victims into providing direct access to the devices and sensitive data.
  4. Check your card or bank statements regularly for unauthorised transactions. You should also look out for small amounts as cybercriminals might ‘test’ your card before placing a larger transaction. Another good idea is to enable security alerts for financial or card transactions on your account.
  5. Use a cybersecurity solution on your devices. A good cybersecurity solution such as ESET Internet Security and ESET Mobile Security for Android have a payment protection feature that is designed to protect your financial data during online transactions.
  6. Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) on your most important online accounts. MFA is an authentication method that requires the user to provide two or more verification factors to gain access and helps add an additional layer of security.
  7. Do not share or divulge your PIN codes or online banking passwords when making a payment online. Your PIN should only be used at ATMs and physical, point-of-sale terminals, such as supermarket check-outs.

About Version 2 Limited
Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.

Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

About ESET
For 30 years, ESET® has been developing industry-leading IT security software and services for businesses and consumers worldwide. With solutions ranging from endpoint security to encryption and two-factor authentication, ESET’s high-performing, easy-to-use products give individuals and businesses the peace of mind to enjoy the full potential of their technology. ESET unobtrusively protects and monitors 24/7, updating defenses in real time to keep users safe and businesses running without interruption. Evolving threats require an evolving IT security company. Backed by R&D facilities worldwide, ESET became the first IT security company to earn 100 Virus Bulletin VB100 awards, identifying every single “in-the-wild” malware without interruption since 2003.

Do you know what BYOD, BYOA, BYOT are? No? You lack experience!

We apologize in advance for this extremely freaky reference: If in the well-known science fiction saga Foundation there was a duty to collect all the information of the galaxy to save it, at Pandora FMS we have assigned ourselves the task of making a glossary worthy enough with all the “What are” and the “What is” of technology. And today, without further delay or freakiness, it’s time to define the acronyms: BYOD, BYOA, BYOT.

* Warning to (very) lost sailors: This “Byo-” has NOTHING to do with that other prefix element, “Bio”. Thank you. Get back to your beloved diet

Do you already know what BYOD is? And BYOA? Nor what is BYOT?

BYOT (Bring your own technology)

That means indeed: “Bring your own tech from home, kid”. This is what BYOT means. A policy that allows employees to bring their own electronic devices, personal ones, from home to work.

This has advantages even if you don’t imagine it. And the top companies each give their distinctive approach to implementing such a policy. Some offer employees remuneration to purchase such technology. Other companies think better of it and expect their employees to put up with half or all of the expenses. Some even spend the money but then they demand for employees to pay for some services separately, such as phone service or data…

In any case, no matter how you buy your new devices or whoever pays for the Internet that month, if the device is connected to a corporate network, a highly professional IT department must secure and manage the device.

BYOD (Bring your own device)

Correct. You have translated well: “Use your own device from home, kid”. This term refers again, although on a different scale, to the tendency of employees to use personal devices to work and connect to their company’s networks, access their systems or relevant data.  You know what we mean when we talk about “personal devices”… your smartphone, your laptop, your tablet or, I don’t know, your 4-gigabyte USB.

The truth is that this rings a bell, companies, and especially since this terrible pandemic, now support teleworking. BYOD is here, more and more, working from home, maintaining a flexible schedule, including trips and urgent departures, in the middle of the morning, to get a Coke or to pick up your kid from school.

As it could not be otherwise, for the directives of your company the security of your BYOD is a crucial issue. Because for you it can be a whole morale boost, even on productivity, the fact of working with your trustworthy device, but if the IT department does not take care of checking it before, the access of your personal devices to the company network can raise serious security concerns.

The best thing in this case is to establish a policy where it is decided whether the IT department is going to protect personal devices and, if so, how it is going to determine the access levels. Approving types of devices, defining security policies and data ownership, calculating the levels of IT support granted to BYOD…  Then informing and educating employees on how to use their devices without ultimately compromising company data or networks. Those would be the steps to follow.

Studies show that there is higher productivity for employees using BYOD. Nothing less than a 16% increase in productivity in a normal workweek, for those who work forty hours. It also increases job satisfaction and the fact that new hires decide to stay through a flexible work arrangement. Employee efficiency is higher due to the comfort and confidence they have in their own devices. Technologies are integrated without the need to spend on new hardware, software licenses or device maintenance…

Everything looks wonderful, although there are also certain disadvantages as usual. Data breaches are more likely due to theft or loss of personal devices, as well as employee dismissal or departure. Mismanagement of firewalls or antivirus on devices by employees. Increased IT costs, and possible Internet failures.

BYOA (Bring your own application)

And what’s that? BYOA is basically the tendency of employees to use third-party applications and Cloud services at work.

As we know, mobile devices, owned by employees, have personal-use applications installed. However, they access these applications and different services through the corporate network. Well, this is the aforementioned BYOA.

There are benefits, of course. All those who may be listening to Spotify or using your own Google Drive without paying directly for the Internet. However, the higher the BYOA, like the higher BYOD and BYOT, the bigger the security holes in your organization. No one suffers more than a company’s IT department when it comes to thinking about how vulnerable corporate data can be. Especially when they are stored in the Cloud.

Conclusions

BYOT, BYOD, BYOA solutions are very efficient in the way an employee works. High morals, high practicity, and high productivity. However, well, they do pose certain cracks in the corporate network. Sensitive data and unsupported/unsecured personal devices, sometimes are not the best combination.

“BYO” products have advantages but they need a seasoned, conscious, proactive IT department, always protected by management policies of BYOT, BYOD, BYOA.

If you have to monitor more than 100 devices, you may also enjoy a FREE 30-day Pandora FMS Enterprise TRIAL. Installation in Cloud or On-Premise, you choose !! Get it here.


Last but not least, remember that if you have a reduced number of devices to monitor, you can use the Pandora FMS OpenSource version. Find more information here.


Do not hesitate to send us your questions. Pandora FMS team will be happy to help you!

About Version 2 Limited
Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.

Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

About PandoraFMS
Pandora FMS is a flexible monitoring system, capable of monitoring devices, infrastructures, applications, services and business processes.
Of course, one of the things that Pandora FMS can control is the hard disks of your computers.

A SCADAfence Update Regarding The Log4Shell Vulnerability

December 10, 2021, will always be remembered by the security community as the day when a highly critical zero‑day vulnerability was found in the very popular logging library for Java applications, log4j and identified as CVE-2021-44228. Not long after identified the name “Log4Shell” was coined for the exploit and every organization, no matter their size, including every security vendor, quickly rushed to mitigate the zero-day vulnerability within their applications. This patching marathon is still a work in process as we speak.  

Continue reading

ESET Research: Latin American banking trojans spread to Europe at the height of activity

  • Latin American banking trojans are an ongoing, evolving threat and ESET has recently seen some of their biggest campaigns to date.
  • They target mainly Brazil, Spain, and Mexico.
  • Mekotio and Grandoreiro expanded to Europe, mainly targeting Spain but also Italy, France and Belgium.
  • There are at least eight different malware families still active.
  • In June this year, Spanish law enforcement arrested 16 people related to Mekotio and Grandoreiro.
  • The vast majority (90%) are distributed via spam.

 

BRATISLAVA, PRAGUE — December 15, 2021 — ESET Research is concluding today its blogpost series dedicated to demystifying Latin American banking trojans started in August 2019. Since then, it has covered the most active ones, namely Amavaldo, Casbaneiro,Mispadu, Guildma, Grandoreiro, Mekotio, Vadokrist, Ousaban and Numando. Latin American banking trojans share a lot of common characteristics and behavior. Altogether, ESET has identified a dozen different malware families, most of which remain active to this day. The most significant discovery during the course of this investigation is the expansion of Mekotio and Grandoreiro to Europe, mainly Spain. ESET researchers have also observed occasional small campaigns targeting Italy, France and Belgium. Since Latin American banking trojans expanded to Europe, they have been getting more attention from both researchers and police forces. In the last few months, ESET has seen some of their biggest campaigns to date.

ESET telemetry shows a surprisingly large increase in the reach of Ousaban, Grandoreiro and Casbaneiro in recent months, leading to the conclusion that the threat actors behind these malware families are determined to continue their nefarious actions against users in targeted countries.

The campaigns we see always come in waves and more than 90% of them are distributed through spam, usually leading to a ZIP archive or an MSI installer. One campaign usually lasts for a week at most.

“Brazil is still the most targeted country, followed by Spain and Mexico. Since 2020, Grandoreiro and Mekotio expanded to Europe – mainly Spain. What started as several minor campaigns, likely to test the new territory, evolved into something much bigger. In fact, in August and September 2021, Grandoreiro launched its largest campaign so far and it targeted Spain,” says ESET researcher Jakub Souček, who leads the investigation into Latin American banking trojans.

In June this year, Spanish law enforcement arrested 16 people related to Mekotio and Grandoreiro. In the report, police state that almost €300,000 were stolen and they were able to block the transfer of a total of €3.5 million. Correlating this arrest with Latin American banking trojan activity in Spain, Mekotio seems to have taken a much larger hit than Grandoreiro, leading ESET to believe that the arrested people were more connected to Mekotio. Even though Mekotio went very quiet for almost two months after the arrest, ESET continues to see new campaigns distributing Mekotio.

Latin American banking trojans used to change rapidly. In the early days of ESET’s tracking, some of them were adding to or modifying their core features even several times a month. Nowadays they still change very often, but the core seems to remain mostly untouched. Due to the partially stabilized development, we believe the operators are now focusing on improving distribution.

“Latin American banking trojans require a lot of conditions to attack successfully,” explains Souček. “Potential victims need to follow steps required to install the malware on their machines; they need to visit a targeted website and log into their accounts. On the other side, operators need to react to this situation by manually commanding the malware to display the fake pop-up window and take control of the victim’s machine.”

During the course of this research series, several Latin American banking trojans became inactive, namely, Krachulka, Lokorrito and Zumanek. ESET researchers also discovered Janeleiro, a new Latin American banking trojan. In the future, ESET expects we may see some of these banking trojans expanding to the Android platform.

For more technical details about these Latin American banking trojans, read the blogpost “The dirty dozen of Latin America: From Amavaldo to Zumanek” on WeLiveSecurity. Make sure to follow ESET Research on Twitter for the latest news from ESET Research.

 Top three countries most affected by Latin American banking trojans

Latin American banking trojan activity worldwide

About Version 2 Limited
Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.

Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

About ESET
For 30 years, ESET® has been developing industry-leading IT security software and services for businesses and consumers worldwide. With solutions ranging from endpoint security to encryption and two-factor authentication, ESET’s high-performing, easy-to-use products give individuals and businesses the peace of mind to enjoy the full potential of their technology. ESET unobtrusively protects and monitors 24/7, updating defenses in real time to keep users safe and businesses running without interruption. Evolving threats require an evolving IT security company. Backed by R&D facilities worldwide, ESET became the first IT security company to earn 100 Virus Bulletin VB100 awards, identifying every single “in-the-wild” malware without interruption since 2003.

An Overview of Saudi Arabia’s Personal Data Protection Act (PDPL)

Saudi Arabia’s Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL) was implemented by Royal Decree M/19 of 9/2/1443H (September 16, 2021), which approved Resolution No. 98 of 7/2/1443 H (September 14, 2021). It was published in the Republic Journal on September 24, 2021.

The Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) will oversee the implementation of the new legislation for the first two years, after which a transfer of oversight to the National Data Management Office (NDMO) will be considered. The NDMO is the regulatory arm of SDAIA and had already published interim data governance regulations in 2020, which have now been superseded by the PDPL with regard to the protection of personal data.

According to the SDAIA announcement, the PDPL is intended to ensure the privacy of personal data, regulate data sharing and prevent abuse of personal data in line with the goals of the Saudi Vision 2030 to develop digital infrastructure and support the innovation to grow a digital economy.

PDPL Enforcement Scope

The Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL), as well as other legislation on the subject, is designed to protect personal data, that is, any information, in any form, through which a person can be directly or indirectly identified. This expressly includes an individual’s name, identification number, addresses and contact numbers, pictures, and video recordings of the person.

The PDPL applies to any personal data processing by companies or public entities carried out in Saudi Arabia by any means, including the processing of personal data of Saudi residents by entities located outside the Kingdom.

The PDPL does not apply to the processing of personal data for personal and family use.

The PDPL Pillars

Many of the features of the Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL) are consistent with the concepts and principles contained in other international data protection laws, such as:

  • Data Subject Rights: Individuals (data subjects) shall, with some exceptions, have the right to be informed about the processing of personal data and the legal basis for such processing, the right to access their personal data (including to obtain a free copy thereof), the right to correct or update their personal data, and the right to request their destruction if they are no longer necessary. Data subjects can also file complaints related to the PDPL enforcement with the regulatory authority.
  • Registration of Controllers: Organizations that collect personal data and determine the purpose for which they are used and the method of processing (controllers) must register with an electronic portal that will form a national register of controllers. There will be an annual fee payable for registration, to be determined in executive regulations (which will be issued in due course).
  • Controller Obligations: Controllers will be obliged to ensure the accuracy, integrity, and relevance of personal data before processing them, to keep a record of the processing for a period that will be defined by the executive regulations, and to ensure their team is properly trained in the PDPL and data protection principles.
  • Consent: Data subjects may withdraw their consent to the processing of personal data at any time, and consent shall not be a prerequisite for the controller to offer a service or benefit (unless the service or benefit is specifically related to the processing activity for which consent is obtained).
  • Processing not Based on Consent: Notwithstanding the provisions on withdrawal of consent, the PDPL makes it clear that data processing does not always require consent from the data subject. Consent is not required if processing achieves a clear benefit and it is impossible or impractical to contact the data subject, if required by law or prior agreement to which the data subject is a party, or if the controller is an entity and processing is required for security or legal purposes.
  • Privacy Policy: Controllers must implement a privacy policy and make it available to data subjects before the collection of their personal data. The Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL) establishes the minimum information that must be included in the privacy policy, including when personal data is collected directly from the data subject.
  • Purpose Limitation and Data Minimization: Organizations must make clear the purpose for which personal data is collected and used. Personal data must also be relevant and controllers must limit collection to the minimum necessary to achieve the intended purpose.
  • Impact Assessments: Controllers must assess the impact of processing personal data and, if personal data is no longer needed to achieve the intended purpose, the controller must stop collecting such data.
  • Marketing: Personal data may not be used for marketing purposes without the recipient’s consent or the use of opt-out mechanisms.
  • Breach Notification: Data breaches, leaks, or unauthorized access to personal data must be notified to the supervisory authority, and incidents that cause material damage to the data subject must be notified to the data subjects.

About Version 2 Limited
Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.

Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

About Segura®
Segura® strive to ensure the sovereignty of companies over actions and privileged information. To this end, we work against data theft through traceability of administrator actions on networks, servers, databases and a multitude of devices. In addition, we pursue compliance with auditing requirements and the most demanding standards, including PCI DSS, Sarbanes-Oxley, ISO 27001 and HIPAA.

GREYCORTEX Releases Security Update to Patch Apache Log4j Vulnerability

GREYCORTEX is actively responding to the reported high severity vulnerability (CVE-2021 – 44228) that was found in the Apache Log4j library. All Mendel installations deployed in the last few years are vulnerable to this vulnerability. The new version, 3.8.0, which will be released in the upcoming days, is not affected and current versions 3.7.x and 3.6.x have now been covered with security updates.

Background

A high severity vulnerability (CVE-2021 – 44228) impacting multiple versions of the Apache Log4j 2 utility was disclosed publicly via the project’s GitHub on December 9, 2021. The vulnerability impacts Apache Log4j 2 versions 2.0 to 2.14.1.

Log4j is used as a component of our GREYCORTEX Mendel product. More information on the vulnerability can be found in the links below.

CVE-2021 – 44228 Detail (NIST)

CVE-2021 – 44228 vulnerability in Apache Log4j library (SecureList)

Is my Mendel deployment vulnerable? 

All Mendel installations deployed in the last few years are affected by this vulnerability but the vulnerable part of the Mendel deployment is NOT exposed to a direct Internet connection.

What can I do to mitigate and resolve this issue?

GREYCORTEX has actively responded to the reported remote code execution vulnerability in the Apache Log4j 2 Java library, dubbed Log4Shell (or LogJam). We have investigated and taken action regarding our product GREYCORTEX Mendel. The new version 3.8.0, which will be released in the upcoming days, is not affected and current versions 3.7.x and 3.6.x are now covered with security updates, which are automatically distributed through the update server.

Older systems will not be patched, customers who are using older versions are strongly advised to upgrade.

Mitigations: if you are not able to upgrade to the newer version or your Mendel instance does not have access to the update server, then please restrict access to Mendel via your firewall settings. It is recommended to restrict access only to a trustworthy IP address range, also for normal operations.

How can I find out if my Mendel system or other systems of our customers have been compromised?

Mendel includes a set of detection rules that can detect whether a vulnerability in the Apache Log4j logging framework has been exploited to attack the Mendel system itself or other systems in your infrastructure. These rules are automatically available through the GREYCORTEX update server. If your Mendel instance or your customer instance is online, these signatures will be added to it automatically.

Scale Computing Customer Edge Data Center Project Named a Finalist in 2021 DCD>Awards

INDIANAPOLIS – December 7, 2021 – Scale Computing, a market leader in edge computing, virtualization, and hyperconverged solutions, today announced that Data Center Dynamics has named the company’s work with Ahold Delhaize NV and Econocom Products & Solutions as a finalist in the 2021 DCD>Awards, in the Edge Data Center Project of the Year category.

According to DCD, the edge is now moving from the era of promise to the era of delivery. Driven by higher standards of connectivity and increasing sophistication of systems and hardware, the Edge Data Center Project of the Year award category seeks to feature how edge is evolving and diversifying while redefining the opportunities that technology can represent.

Ahold Delhaize, a world-leading food retailer with 6,700 stores worldwide, needed a complete infrastructure refresh to replace aging hardware. They wanted a simple, cost effective edge computing solution with easy deployment. At phase one, Delhaize implemented Scale Computing HC3 Edge platform on Lenovo ThinkSystem SR250 and Scale Computing HE150 servers in their 800 stores in Belgium and Luxembourg. By doing so, Delhaize reduced management time by 75% and improved recovery time by 99.9%. Scale Computing HC3 Edge provides a comprehensive system that automates the overall IT management, saving organizations time, money, and resources. Delhaize experienced no downtime in any store where HC3 Edge is implemented.

Alongside simplified management, Scale Computing’s HC3 also offers a comprehensive range of recovery and Data Protection features which have enabled Delhaize to improve disaster recovery. With snapshots, replication and regular back up testing, the HC3 Edge platform also offers business continuity.

Technology is everywhere, and it’s increasingly important that edge computing be able to support applications anytime, anywhere

“Technology is everywhere, and it’s increasingly important that edge computing be able to support applications anytime, anywhere,” said Jeff Ready, CEO and co-founder of Scale Computing. “Edge computing plays a critical role in the retail industry’s IT innovation and digital transformation strategies. Made for the IT infrastructure demands of retail stores, HC3 Edge is a powerful, all-in-one software platform designed for running applications at the edge, and we’re thrilled that our work with Delhaize was named a finalist in the DCD Awards.”

This announcement comes on the heels of other recent industry recognition, including:

  • Scale Computing’s HC3 Video Surveillance named a winner for the 2021 CRN Tech Innovator Awards in the Edge Computing category.

  • Scale Computing named on CRN’s 2021 Edge Computing 100 list.

  • Winner in both the Edge Computing category and the Converged/ HyperConverged Infrastructure category, of the 2021 CRN Annual Report Card (ARC) Awards. This is the third consecutive year Scale Computing has been recognized as a CRN ARC Award winner.

  • Scale Computing HC3 received two TrustRadius 2021 Top Rated Awards, in Hyperconverged Infrastructure and Server Virtualization.

  • Scale Computing received a 5-Star rating in CRN’s 2021 Partner Program Guide.

  • Scale Computing’s HE150 was named to SearchStorage’s 2020 Storage Products of the Year.

An independent panel of judges reviewed hundreds of entries submitted from 35 different countries across 6 continents. Winners will be announced on December 8 at the 15th annual awards ceremony in London and broadcast live worldwide.

CyberLink’s facial recognition engine FaceMe® to power LILIN’s connected devices, providing businesses with contactless access control management and visitor analytics

TAIPEI, TAIWAN – July 28 2020 – CyberLink Corp. (5203.TW), a pioneer in AI and facial recognition technologies, today announced it has formed a partnership with surveillance solution provider LILIN, leveraging new facial recognition technologies to create comprehensive smart security and retail solutions. CyberLink will license its FaceMe® facial recognition engine to LILIN, powering its NAV Facial Recognition Recorder, creating an all-in-one smart security, data analysis and warning solution.

With the combined technologies, LILIN’s connected video devices can provide businesses with a series of contactless solutions, such as granting verified personnel access to restricted areas within offices, factories or residential buildings through an opt-in photo identification system. The new offering can also provide retailers and hospitality operators with anonymized customer demographics to better understand their customer experience, such as identifying trending emotions patrons may feel when engaged in specific activities or visiting certain areas of a venue.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to develop across the globe, CyberLink’s and LILIN’s joint facial recognition system uniquely provides businesses seeking contactless solutions the underlying technology to reduce the need for people to touch highly shared surfaces by replacing key cards or PIN passwords with biometric data.

“If there was ever a field worthy of continued research and innovation, it’s security,” said Dr. Jau Huang, CEO of CyberLink. “Without a doubt, LILIN is a global leader and manufacturer of IoT devices, and CyberLink is a worldwide pioneer developing facial recognition applications for connected devices. Together, we are setting a new standard for what makes a place secure by bringing to market new technologies that make our customers safer, and our businesses smarter.”

“LILIN has many years of smart security experience, providing insight into the market’s needs for creating a comprehensive intelligent security solution. LILIN is pleased to partner with CyberLink and integrates FaceMe® into our facial recognition system to strengthen smart retail, smart healthcare, smart factory, and smart business applications. Through continued efforts, I believe that LILIN will provide the most advanced total security solution for global customers.” said Mr. C.C. Hsu, LILIN’s President.

CyberLink and LILIN will host a webinar titled “Facial Recognition x Smart Security

Empowering Smart AIoT Applications”” on August 13, 2020 from 14:00-15:00 (GMT+8/Taipei time), further describing the many use cases enabled through the new product offering. For detailed event information and a registration link, please visit: https://is.gd/SfXQ7l

FaceMe’s® edge-based architecture empowers powerful, efficient processing, and higher levels of security compared to Cloud-based solutions. It supports more than 10 operating systems, including Windows, Android, iOS, and various Linux distributions such as Ubuntu x86, Ubuntu ARM, RedHat, CentOS, Yocto, Debian and JetPack. FaceMe’s® high accuracy, flexibility and security makes it the leading facial recognition engine available on the market today, and it is one of the world’s most accurate engines as deemed by the global standard NIST Facial Recognition Vendor Test.

About Version 2 Limited
Version 2 Limited is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company develops and distributes IT products for Internet and IP-based networks, including communication systems, Internet software, security, network, and media products. Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 Limited offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

About CyberLink
Founded in 1996, CyberLink Corp. (5203.TW) is the world leader in multimedia software and AI facial recognition technology. CyberLink addresses the demands of consumer, commercial and education markets through a wide range of solutions, covering digital content creation, multimedia playback, video conferencing, live casting, mobile applications and AI facial recognition.  CyberLink has shipped several hundred million copies of its multimedia software and apps, including the award-winning PowerDirector, PhotoDirector, and PowerDVD.  With years of research in the fields of artificial intelligence and facial recognition, CyberLink has developed the FaceMe® Facial Recognition Engine. Powered by deep learning algorithms, FaceMe® delivers the reliable, high-precision, and real-time facial recognition that is critical to AIoT applications such as smart retail, smart security, and surveillance, smart city and smart home. For more information about CyberLink, please visit the official website at www.cyberlink.com

You are a sinner (of data management)!

Let’s get to the point about data management: Businesses need data, but accumulating too much can be detrimental. Data overcrowding can corrupt IT professionals, turning them into greedy hoarders. Being indigestible with excessive repeated, outdated or banal information, the so-called ROT data, is bad. Companies of the world! The Devil tempts you with Big Data! Something that, if too much, could be harmful! We tell you all about it in this article.

The five mistakes we make in data management

The Liturgical Department of Pandora FMS, because yes, we have a Liturgical Department, right next to the Communication Department, has counted these past weeks the most despicable and sinful faults within data management. We counted up to five sins. Relax, they are not normally committed by a single offender, they are usually mini-points accumulated, over time, by several members of a team. However, we are going to list these vices so that you can count the ones you carry on your own. The scale is this:

  • One fault committed: Sinner.
  • Two faults committed: Great sinner.
  • Three faults committed: Excessive sinner.
  • Four: On the doorway to hell.
  • Five: You will burn in hell as the Great Grimoire points its tridents at you. 

First offense:

You and your company have an ungovernable desire for data. You end up collecting an immensity of them in the hope of achieving the greatest possible advance. However, unfortunately, finding something worthwhile among such a wealth of information is like finding the broom in a student flat: a very difficult task.

Second offense:

Do you know when you have had the lunch of your life in the trendiest burger joint and despite being full, you order the dessert menu to see what cheese cake they have? Well, data excess, and the consumption of all the data you may swallow without a planned purpose, is comparable.  That’s right, without a narrow archiving process, a company’s eager urge to fagotize data ends up in a bundle of unnecessary, outdated, and useless data.

Third offense:

Greed overcomes you! And you start hoarding and hoarding, carried away by greed. In the end, this leads to spending money on more hardware, the most cutting-edge on the market, to process and store all that mass of data you accumulate. You do that instead of finding a reliable process to classify, archive, and remove junk data.

Fourth offense:

Due to the massive amount of data that you have, you are lazily and slowly carrying out your queries and your processes. Indeed, the more data you accumulate, you and your company, the more time it will take to process it and make, for example, backups.

Fifth offense:

A company can feel more secure and stable the more data it has, however, the truth is different, the more data it has, the higher the concern. Having the barrel of data completely full does not mean anything if in fact those data are not used correctly.

Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO)

How many faults/sins have you accumulated from this list? Have you raised your hand many times yelling “Yes, I am guilty”? Well, before you burn in hell, I want to tell you that there is a plan to escape its cauldrons: find and set a recovery point objective (RPO) and a recovery time objective (RTO). Yes, sir, that’s the first step! The RPO defines a tolerable amount of data loss before a company cannot recover. And the RTO, on the other hand, marks the time that data professionals need to recover the data without getting the business in an irreparable state. To give you an idea, one of the ways to expand the RPO is to backup data logs. However, large amounts of data can make backup times too long, putting our company in a bind again. That is why there is no need to accumulate so much useless data.

Do not mistake a recovery plan with a backup plan. You should first create a recovery plan and then prepare your backup plan. The backup plan will nuance your RTO and RPO goals, while the recovery plan will address disaster recovery and high availability objectives.

Conclusions

Today in this blog we learned that data excess can be an indication of a failed business plan and we have exposed the five mistakes that usually cause the increase of this unnecessary data. From everything we have concluded that the best thing is to have a purpose to reach with that data and to have a manageable amount of it, thus allowing professionals to operate in a simpler way.

Money is not the answer, paying for new hardware always seems like the solution but sometimes it is just a sign that your company is not competent enough. Knowing about these problems and finding a solution can save time and money.

About Version 2 Limited
Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.

Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

About PandoraFMS
Pandora FMS is a flexible monitoring system, capable of monitoring devices, infrastructures, applications, services and business processes.
Of course, one of the things that Pandora FMS can control is the hard disks of your computers.

Simplifying Cyber Security for the Mining Industry

 

The COVID-19 pandemic has been detrimental to the world economy while flattening many industries. The mining industry was fortunate to be one of the very few industries to deliver exceptional growth throughout this period. Yet this growth has marked the mining industry out as a lucrative target for cybercriminals.

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The 5 Biggest Data Leaks of 2021

During the pandemic, cyberattacks grew more than ever. Theft, hijacks, and data leaks are increasingly popular practices in cybercrime. The lock and hijack for ransom (ransomware) category has stood out a lot, as data is a highly valuable resource and most companies do not refuse to pay the million-dollar amounts charged to rescue their data. 

Moving to remote work models has caused more people to occupy virtual environments, which increases the chances of digital attacks. In addition, home office work, where business systems are accessed from home and through personal devices, has increased the attack surface in information security. 

In other words, the global destabilization generated by the pandemic has been a fertile field of vulnerabilities to be exploited by cybercrime.

This wave of attacks has been spreading around the world, reaching government agencies and companies from different sectors. One of the biggest risks for companies is having their data leaked, which can be one of the consequences of non-payment of ransomware, for example. 

Another potential leak occurs when attackers make the data available for sale on specific deep web forums.

The year is not over yet and we already have a generous list of this kind of cyberattacks. Check out the biggest data leaks that occurred in 2021 in Brazil and worldwide. 

Brazil: 223 million Brazilians’ Data Leaked 

The most recent case of data leak in Brazil has 223 million personal information about Brazilians, including names, dates of birth, gender, individual taxpayer numbers, corporate taxpayer numbers, vehicle information, addresses, face pictures, education, registration in retirement benefits, data from public officers, debt score, among others. 

That is pretty much all the data a person can have. If the Brazilian population is 212 million, data from almost all Brazilians would be included in this list, but the leak also contains information on deceased people and data from previous leaks.

The data package was posted on a forum to be marketed. The suspects responsible for putting the information up for sale have already been caught by the police. One of them is called Marcos Correia da Silva, known as Vandathegod. The second involved, Yuri Batista Novaes, known as JustBR, was arrested in the act in Petrolina and seized with 4 terabytes of data in his home.

Brazil has been one of the main targets of cybercriminals. In 2019, the country reached second place in the world in ransomware attacks. In 2020, in the second quarter alone, there was an increase of 350%, reaching both companies and governments, according to data from Kaspersky. 

The numbers do not stop growing, even in the first half of 2021 the world already has numerous cases of cyberattacks, and at least eight of these incidents occurred in Brazil, which corresponds to about one attack per week.

RockYou2021: Historical Leak of 8.4 billion Passwords

Considered the biggest leak in history, the attack makes reference to RockYou, a large leak that released 32 million passwords from users of the social network RockYou. This time, the leak involved 8.4 billion access passwords disclosed in a hacker forum. 

It is still not possible to say how these data were compiled and their source. But some experts believe the data has been accumulated over the years and merged with previous leaks.

This type of leak raises an alert, as these cybercriminals may use password matching techniques on multiple online accounts or build an access dictionary to facilitate attacks. The users’ neglect only makes the situation worse, as the common habit of reusing passwords, for convenience, can further increase the damage.

Facebook: 533 million Facebook Users’ Data Leaked

 553 million people from 106 countries had their personal data published free of charge on a hacker forum. Information includes name, address, telephone number, date of birth, and email accounts. Tests performed by experts confirmed the legitimacy of the data and that it can still be used for future attacks.

When taking a stand on the case, Facebook stated it is a leak with data already violated in 2019. At that time, the attacker found a vulnerability in the platform that allowed the import of user data, linking phone numbers to specific users. “We found and fixed this issue in August 2019,” said a Facebook spokesperson.

Facebook has already been the target of speculation about data leaks and misuse since the case involving Cambridge Analytics, when it used data from 80 million users to interfere in the course of the 2016 elections in the United States.

About Version 2 Limited
Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.

Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

About Segura®
Segura® strive to ensure the sovereignty of companies over actions and privileged information. To this end, we work against data theft through traceability of administrator actions on networks, servers, databases and a multitude of devices. In addition, we pursue compliance with auditing requirements and the most demanding standards, including PCI DSS, Sarbanes-Oxley, ISO 27001 and HIPAA.