!!
  + 
 +1 (310) 820-5555  letschat@1mcybersecurity.com
 •••, , •0
# 1:M Cyber Security News 9/24/21
Happy Friday all,
I hope you have all been safe and well.
First and foremost, if you haven’t already please make sure to **patch your Windows operating system, ALL Apple devices, and Chrome & Firefox browsers** if you use them, as there have been some very *serious* vulnerabilities that have been patches in these in the past month. Please do this today, thank you.
As I love to periodically do, below are also some interesting things happening in the cyber security world, as well as new tips ’n tricks for you guys…
OK, lets jump right now:
=================
This is a bombshell: Microsoft has now done away with requiring passwords for **all of their apps,** and one can log into Office 365, Outlook, OneDrive etc using a fingerprint/face scan, a security key or a code sent to an email address or phone. Essentially they are saying you are more secure, ***by removing your password***, and making your 2nd factor become the 1st factor for logging in.
Simply put, it’s much easer for me, as a hacker, to guess your password of ‘FluffyBunny123’ than it is to steal your 2FA code on your phone, or the digital representation of your fingerprint or face.
* “To kill your Microsoft password forever, download the Microsoft Authenticator app and link it to your Microsoft account. Then go to account.microsoft.com, choose Sign In, and then Advanced Security Options. Under Additional Security look for Passwordless Account and tap Turn on. Follow the prompts and then approve the change from the Authenticator app.”
FYI Apple and Google are very close on this as well with requiring ONLY our 2FA to login. So passwordless logins are where all of us will eventually get to guys. But for now, if you dont use Windows or want to keep using your password, let’s continue to use good password hygiene such as passphrases & password managers. Stay tuned…
———–
Apple has updated their MacOS as well as mobile device operating systems. There are some very cool new privacy settings in them, specifically around **blocking email trackers & your device’s IP address** when you open emails and browse the web. I highly recommend you upgrade.
Speaking of email trackers: DuckDuckGo, one of our favorite search engines, also has a new offering that gives you a private **@duck.com email address** and hides your mail activity from trackers. “Our free email forwarding service removes email trackers and protects the privacy of your personal email address without asking you to change email services or apps.”
The new Apple iOS 15 has a **2FA code generator built into the phone**, so you can create 2FA codes for all your logins and not have to use LastPass, Google Authenticator, Authy etc. It also will fill in your 2FA code into the website you are logging into automatically if you’re using Safari.
According to some recent antivirus testing, Google Play Protect, their mobile threat protection solution ranked last out of 15 Android security apps tested, and only detected 2/3 of 20,000 infected apps the testing labs used.
Out of all mobile security apps tested, **Bitdefender, G DATA, McAfee, NortonLifeLock, and Trend Micro** were the ones that hit a perfect 100% detection rate.
So as beneficial it is to have Play Protect scanning your device daily, because it is not foolproof, it is a **good idea to use a 2nd security app,** maybe on of those mentioned above, to block malware slipping through Play Protect’s defenses.
It turns out the most effective way to kick out hackers from your mobile phones is to simple **reboot the device often**. They cannot remain hidden in the phone ion you keep doing that 🙂
**iVerify** is an awesome tool that both tells you **how to secure your phone**, but also **if a hacker has gained access** to it. Check it out:
The U.S. government has launched a new website to help public and private organizations protect themselves against the rise of ransomware cases. Very informative indeed:
Instagram has also published a new tool to help people gain access to their accounts that may have been hacked:
**#ClickGameOver**
0Shares
#### Leave a Reply 
You must be  to post a comment.
I’m Reza Zaheri, a cyber security professional with over 21 years of leadership and hands-on experience working cyber security with Fortune 100 companies. 
### Useful Links
### Contact Us
 +1 (310) 820-5555
 letschat@1mcybersecurity.com
2024 © 1:M Cyber Security. All Rights Reserved.
### Day
September 24, 2021 !24Sep
### 
### Text Widget
 Nulla vitae elit libero, a pharetra augue. Nulla vitae elit libero, a pharetra augue. Nulla vitae elit libero, a pharetra augue. Donec sed odio dui. Etiam porta sem malesuada magna mollis euismod.
### Recent Works
### Recent Comments
### Tag Cloud
July 16, 2021 !16Jul
May 17, 2021 !17May
March 16, 2021 !16Mar
# 1:M Cyber Security News 7/16/21
As always, I periodically send out some interesting things happening in the cyber security world, as well as new tips ’n tricks for you guys to check out.
OK cool, lets jump right now:
Make sure you set your Chrome browsers to “Continue where you left off” anytime you close your browser, so all your open tabs reopen. This is so handy so you don’t keep postponing security updates, because you happen to have many tabs open that you haven’t finished working through yet. “On Windows or Mac, click on the three dots ⋮ and then on Settings. Scroll down to On startup and make sure that Continue where you left off is selected.”
• <
Check it out! The same company that has brought us the Brave Browser, now has a private, independent, transparent search engine, similar to DuckDuckGo. As you can see, it is very possible to provide a search engine to us, and not monitor our every step of the way Google does with their search engine.
Microsoft is coming out with a new Windows 11 operating system soon, and a strict requirement for it to be installed is that everyone needs to have a secure hardware chip on the motherboard, commonly known as a TPM chip. Specifically your computer will only be able to run the new windows 11 if it has a TPM 2.0 chip installed. If you have bought your computer in the last five years or so, chances are you will have this chip already, but you will need to go into the BIOS settings and turn it on. This article explains how
<
Here’s an article that explains how to avoid scams on popular app stores such as Google Play and Apple’s App Store. It discusses how the bad guys try and game the system, and how you can spot these tactics easily
Apple’s new iOS 15 is coming out, and they have a bunch of new security and privacy features built-in, such as a built in Apple VPN which acts like Tor, anonymous Apple email addresses, and more:
How to set up your new Windows 10 computer in less than an hour, using some handy best practices:•
It is no secret that Amazon tracks us incessantly across the Internet, as well as when we are using its products. It is why it is so good at giving us what we need, but also why it is so good at spying on us and trying to sell us what it thinks we need as well. This article explains how to stop a lot of Amazon’s web tracking:
•<
The new Android 12 mobile operating system is making it much easier to review and decline excessive permissions in the apps that we use, similar to watch Apple’s iOS does today. They have a cool new Privacy Dashboard feature, where you can see all of the app permissions granted easily, and decide which ones to turn on and off:
#ClickGameOver
# 1:M Cyber Security News 4/17/21
Greetings everyone,
As I do periodically, I wanted to share some cool things happening in the cyber security world, as well as some really bad things to be worried about.
Alright, lets do this:
You guys know I keep sounding the alarm on **Deepfakes**, and how they could literally **make our civilizations crumble**. And no that is not an exaggerate. That is what I believe they have the power to do.
Well, now cyber security experts are warning that things are about to get really bad, as they have detected a major uptick in the bad guys researching and testing deep fake tools on the Dark Web. Think of their warning as the ‘**Quiet before the Storm**‘.
• 
Nation state sponsored hacking is becoming so bad, that the FBI has started using court-issued warrants to hack into US corporate servers and manually remove malicious code that has been placed there by malicious nation state hackers. This could have set a precedent now as government could be responsible for stepping in to maintain the security of private companies.
This attack uses some simple scripting to remove the “**this email was sent by an external contact**” message that many of us see on the top of emails that have come in from external sources.
This is just another reason why we need to pay very close attention to multiple red flags in these phishing emails that come in, and not rely on just one message banner to state if the email is safe
This is MAJOR news!
Please update your iOS devices ASAP to version 14.5. Apple is giving you the option of blocking apps from tracking you on your phone, with a new ‘**App Tracking Transparency**’ feature, and you can click “Ask App not to Track.” If you say no, the app can no longer use Apple’s unique identifier for you to share data about your activity with data brokers. This is bombshell news and I applaud them for this new feature.
Finally you have the option of telling apps to STOP tracking you across other websites and apps 🙂
You guys know how much I absolutely **LOVE** 2 Factor Authentication.
And you should too! It literally stops hackers in their tracks.
Well, now Google wants to push its billions of users to **enable 2FA by default.** Keep in mind, Google has pushed the Internet to use many web security features in the past e.g. browser auto-updates and sandboxing, to HTTPS web traffic encryption for the entire Internet. So where Google goes in web security, the rest of the industry most likely will follow. Awesome
This is a really cool website that gives you a ton of information about how to strengthen your privacy across various technologies you use
ZDNet has a nice article listing a bunch of different free antivirus solutions for you to use. Check it out!