Wednesday Newsbytes: Update Chrome Now; FBI & IRS Issue Scam Warnings; Elderly Targeted by Phanton Hackers; If Your Password’s on This List – Change it… and more!
Wishing you and your family a very happy Holiday Season!
Every day we scan the tech world for interesting news in the world of technology and sometimes from outside the world of technology. Every Wednesday, we feature news articles that grabbed our attention over the past week. We hope you find this week’s ‘Wednesday Newsbytes’ informative and interesting!
Use Google Chrome? Update Your Browser Immediately
Google just patched a zero-day vulnerability that’s already being exploited by hackers.
Google released an emergency security update for the Chrome browser for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and all users are urged to install the update immediately.
As Bleeping Computer reports, the patch actually contains seven security fixes, but the most important one is CVE-2023-6345, which relates to an integer overflow problem in the Skia 2D graphics library used in Chrome, ChromeOS, Android, and Flutter among many other pieces of software.
Security researchers Benoît Sevens and Clément Lecigne, who form part of the Google Threat Analysis Group (TAG), discovered and reported the vulnerability on Nov. 24. Google acknowledged in its Chrome Releases support post that the vulnerability is already being exploited, hence the need for the emergency patch.
Manually updating Chrome is really easy to do. Simply follow these steps:
1. Open Chrome
2. Click More (three vertical dots)
3. Click Help > About Google Chrome
4. Click Relaunch
FBI and IRS Issue Urgent New Warnings on Holiday Scams and How to Avoid Them
Two top agencies want you to know that your money or personal information could be at risk.
The holiday season puts many of us in the sharing spirit. But if you’re looking to give back to your loved ones this winter, be careful that you’re not inadvertently giving to scammers, too. Con artists know that this is a good time to capitalize on people’s gifting and charitable efforts, and they’re not afraid to use your Christmas cheer against you. Now, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are both sharing urgent new warnings about holiday scams. Read on to discover how you can avoid becoming a victim.
In an interview with Fox 5 Atlanta, the city’s local FBI branch warned that rising scams could put people out of hundreds of dollars this winter.
“These are huge numbers that we are looking at,” Jenna Sellitto, a spokesperson for FBI Atlanta, said. “People need to be aware where they’re shopping, where they’re putting their credit cards in.”
In a separate interview with Atlanta News First, Sellitto said that many con artists will try to use gift cards to scam people over the holidays…
Elderly People are Being Targeted by Phantom Hackers; Here’s all you Need to Know About the Fraud
Dennis Shockey’s daily routine included logging onto his computer after breakfast, much like any other morning. Little did he know that this seemingly routine act would lead the 80-year-old retiree and his wife, Joy, on a harrowing journey, involving a month-long swindle targeting elderly people, that drained their lifetime savings worth $170,550.
Blowing the lid off the Phantom Hacker scam
The couple’s ordeal is linked to what the FBI has labeled the “Phantom Hacker scam,” a sophisticated and more layered iteration of the traditional tech support scam. This scam, the FBI warns, specifically targets elderly people and their hard-earned savings. Alarming statistics reveal that in the first half of the current year, the FBI received approximately 19,000 complaints related to tech support scams, collectively siphoning off more than $540 million.
For the Shockeys, the nightmare commenced when Dennis’s computer screen got locked, and a menacing warning message surfaced, displaying a phone number he believed was associated with Microsoft.
On the other end of the line was a woman who identified herself as Jessica, exuded kindness, appeared genuinely concerned, and proved to be highly persuasive. Over the next 30 days, Dennis found himself conversing with not one, but two imposters. First was Jessica, who posed as a Microsoft representative…
Passwords protect some of our most personal information from prying eyes, but despite their critical role, millions are still relying on lacklustre combinations to keep their data safe. And when we say “lacklustre”, we really mean it.
A list of the most common passwords of 2023 has been published and shockingly “123456” is in first place. The uncreative password was used over 4.5 million times by users online, researchers say, with the word “admin” a close second with 4 million uses worldwide.
Cybersecurity researchers worked with the team at NordPass – the password management software developed by the same minds as NordVPN – to put together the definitive list of the most common passwords of the year.
To do this, they scoured a database of 4.3TB (that’s a whopping 4,300,000MB) extracted from a number of high-profile password leaks on the Dark Web to find the passwords that people relied on more than any others. NordPass only received statistical information from the researchers, there was no personal data included in the findings sent to the password management team.
Hackers can break into accounts secured by passwords like “123456” and “admin” in under a second, researchers at NordPass confirmed. If you have any online accounts protected with one of these passwords, then it’s time to change to something new – and much more secure.
Numerical sequences crop up throughout the most common password list, with “123456”, “12345678”, “123456789”, and “1234” all making it into the top five. In fact, one-third of the top 10 consists of numbers alone.
Find the complete list of the 10 most common passwords at the bottom of this article…
Eating red meat and dairy could help fight cancer: ‘intriguing’ new study
If you’ve been waiting for an excuse to chow down on cheeseburgers and cheddar franks — relish this moment.
Scientists at the University of Chicago have discovered that a compound in red meat, dairy and other products might help your body’s immune cells fight off tumors.
The compound, known as trans-vaccenic acid or TVA, seems to activate the T cells in your body, which help your immune system fight germs and protect you from disease.
TVA is found in the meat of ruminants such as cows, sheep and other mammals, and their dairy products like milk, cheese, butter and yogurt.
Published Wednesday in the journal Nature, the study also finds that cancer patients who have higher levels of TVA in their blood had a better response to immunotherapy…
Read the rest at The New York Post.
Thanks for reading this week’s Wednesday Newbytes. We hope these articles were informative, interesting, fun, and helpful. Darcy & TC
Great information, as usual.