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RSSTech.Net is the new home site for Resource Systems Services, which has provided systems integration and related technical support for area Sole Proprietors and Mom 'n' Pop businesses since 2000.

ON TECH: TIPS, NEWS IN BRIEF

Browsers with Built-In VPN

Marriott Breach Sets Record

For added security, particularly when doing on-line commerce, use a virtual private network [VPN]. Five browsers support this, some by using an extension, others -- like Opera -- have the feature built-in. To use Opera's VPN, simply enable it from Settings -> Advanced -> Features -> VPN. It then adds the VPN option in the address bar from where you can easily toggle it on/off later. Available for Windows, Mac and Linux.
NOTE: Free VPN services are not as robust or as secure as the best of the paid services.

Leading Extortion Scam of 2018

The year 2018 was the year for online extortion attacks, and the criminals behind the scam have found it profitable. Sometimes called "sextortion," the extortioners send out emails asserting that they purportedly have captured you "pleasuring yourself" on a porn site and threaten to send the video to the contacts you have in your mail contact file or, alternately, your LinkedIn account ... unless you pay them 750, 3000 or 5000 Bitcoin dollars within a specified time period.
     To beef up their claim, they usually include a password of yours -- which is usually correct, albeit an old password, often from the victim's LinkedIn account.
   Think you are safe because you don't surf porn? They claim the damaging video is a split-frame file, which means that one frame is of your face (which they can capture by remotely enabling your webcam even if you never turned on your webcam). The other frame can be a porn video excerpt of their choosing.
     So, to play it safe, if you are not using Skype or FaceTime, tape over your webcam lens. These malefactors apparently have yet to distribute a threatened video file, but best to play it safe.
    This scam has proven successful, given that a recent three-month period collected a reported $4 million in BitCoin deposits. Curiously, however, respondents to reporting sites indicate that many people without webcams on their PCs, laptops or tablets have, nevertheless, received such threatening emails. So it seems that the scammers are attempting to frighten anyone whose email address or LinkedIn password they have obtained through previous data breaches.

Five hundred million Marriott customers have been exposed to a data breach that extends back to 2014.
     For about 327 million of the 500 million affected, the breached data includes names, mailing addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, passport numbers, Starwood Preferred Guest account information, date of birth, gender, arrival and departure information, reservation date, and communication preferences. In some cases, payment card numbers and expiration dates were also taken.
     Marriott has set up a website for consumers impacted by the hack as well as a call center.
     Of course, the EquiFax breach of 2017, while less than 200 million personal records, had a broader impact because its breach exposed the entire credit data of those millions. And EquiFax knew of the vulnerability much earlier and chose not to act by patching the servers' vulnerabilities.

Make Your Browsers More Secure

The easy-to-install HTTPS Everywhere browser extension is available for the Firefox web browser on your PC or Android, as well as for your PC's Google Chrome and Opera browsers.
       Why should you consider installing it?
       According to the Electronic Freedom Foundation, many sites on the web offer some limited support for encryption over HTTPS, but make it difficult to use. For instance, they may default to unencrypted HTTP, or fill encrypted pages with links that go back to the unencrypted site.
       The HTTPS Everywhere extension fixes these problems by using clever technology to rewrite requests to these sites to HTTPS.
       The foundation's website will install the extension for you at its HTTPS Everywhere page.

Has Your Email Account, Password Been Compromised?
Be it your LinkedIn account or one of your personal or business email accounts, you are well-advised to find out if any of yours have been hacked or otherwise compromised at this site set up exclusively for this purpose. The 2012 LinkedIn breach isn't the only issue that may have made one of your accounts vulnerable [see related story at left].

Small office and home office [SOHO] operations need support but usually cannot afford to have someone on staff to meet those needs. They also can't justify the cost of a large consultancy or service designed to support large corporate needs. Resource Systems Services exists solely to address the technical needs of the SOHO business."

More Tech Front Page News, Tips

Most ATMs are Vulnerable to Exploits. According to a report from Positive Technologies:

69% of ATMs are vulnerable to Black Box attacks.
85% of ATMs are poorly secured against network attacks such as spoofing the processing center.

The report detailed that most ATMs have no controls to stop connection of unknown hardware devices, key among the flaws that allow criminals to steal ATM cash and obtain card information.

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