Not only are they burning through cash as they pivot toward the metaverse, but their struggles with data privacy are an ongoing issue. In many ways, Facebook/Meta’s data privacy troubles began in 2018, with revelations that a data-marketing firm had illegally collected the personal details of more than 80 million Facebook users. However, despite promises of improvements and changes in corporate...

Did you know that gift card scams are among the most popular cyber threats? The same things that make gift cards popular with consumers—convenience and ease of use—also make them attractive to scammers as a vehicle for fraud. Gift cards, also known as gift certificates or vouchers, have topped the list of reported fraud payment methods every year since 2018, according to the Federal Trade...

On November 1st, 2022, Dropbox became the victim of a cyber attack where source code repositories, as well as names and emails of their employees, were unauthorizedly accessed. It is not yet clear how the unauthorized access took place, but Dropbox has said that they are investigating the matter. The company is urging all users to change their passwords as a precautionary measure. This breach...

On September 15, the Hive ransomware group claimed to have launched an attack against Bell Technology Solutions on August 20, 2022. The compromised information contained approximately 1.9 million active email addresses, 1,700 names, and active phone numbers. Bell Technology Solutions is a subsidiary of Bell Canada, a leading communications company and communications provider for over 140 years...

Whether deployed as a cloud service or on-premises, email security—and especially email security gateways—is of growing importance to organizations of all sizes, particularly given the upheavals to the working world over the last several years. It is estimated that in the post-pandemic world, one quarter of the workforce will choose to permanently work remote. In some sectors, such as technology...

Restaurant menus worldwide have been replaced by QR codes stuck to the table during the COVID-19 pandemic. Physical menus were judged too difficult to clean and could act as infection vectors. Since everyone has a smartphone nowadays, QR codes were attractive alternatives instead of asking clients to type in the restaurant’s URL on their phones. Before, QR codes were mainly used for advertising...

At the start of April, hackers leaked the data of 533 million Facebook users from 106 countries in an online hacking forum. The leaked data included the private information of Facebook users like full names, phone numbers, email addresses, locations, Facebook IDs, and biographical data. While hackers obtained the information in 2019, there are serious concerns over how cyber criminals could use...

With Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Thanksgiving, and the Christmas holidays fast approaching, cyber criminals are working round the clock to create new scams, such as the shipping notification scam , to phish for private information and commit identity fraud. As many employees will be shopping online during working hours, cyber security leaders need to educate employees on phishing threats and teach...

The holiday shopping season presents a target-rich environment for cybercriminals. In fact, as per the 2020 Trustwave Global Security Report , the retail industry is the most targeted sector for cyber attacks for the third year running. An increasing shift to a digital environment—a change due in no small part to the COVID-19 pandemic—isn’t making data protection easier for retailers either...

In mid-August, cybercriminals targeted the Canada Revenue Agency with two credential stuffing attacks, obtaining the usernames and passwords of 9,041 GCKey accounts, and 5,500 CRA accounts. The fraudsters then used the stolen login credentials to apply for the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB). In response to the attack, a statement released by the Office of the Chief Information Officer...

The consumerization of IT is when employees use their own personal mobile devices, such as laptop computers, tablets, smart phones, etc. at work, referred to as BYOD (bring your own device). This use is becoming increasingly common and exposes companies to a variety of risks, including the protection of personal information. Canadian businesses appear to be leading the world in IT consumerization...

What is the value of the information stored on your computer equipment or paper documents? What would the impacts be if your personal or confidential information fell into the wrong hands (e.g. financial loss, loss of image / reputation, regulatory or legal non-compliance)? Can you be certain that a proper destruction method was used on the information (whether in digital or paper form) to ensure...