JPMorgan Chase Data Breach Affects 76 Million Households
A massive cyberattack against JPMorgan Chase over the summer compromised account information of 76 million households and 7 million small businesses. The company said that names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses were stolen from customers who use the websites Chase.com and JPMorganOnline, as well as the ChaseMobile and JPMorgan Mobile apps.
On a positive note, JPMorgan Chase said “there is no evidence that account information for such affected customers – account numbers, passwords, user IDs, dates of birth or Social Security Numbers – was compromised during the attack.” The bank stated in a post on its Chase.com website that it doesn’t believe customers need to change their password or account information.
Customers however should carefully be on the lookout for unsolicited scam phone calls and emails from people posing as bank representatives. If you need to contact your bank, always initiate contact by using the phone number listed on you bank statement, never respond to a request for information via an inbound phone call or email.
For more info check out the following news article by USATODAY.
~Ted Eiler
Microsoft To End Support for Old Versions of Internet Explorer
After January 12, 2016, Microsoft will only release important updates for the most current version of Internet Explorer available on a supported operating system.
For users of Windows Vista, you must be running Internet Explorer 9 to continue receiving updates, for Windows 7 and 8 you must be running Internet Explorer 11. Internet Explorer 11 is installed with Windows 8.1 by default.
Support for Internet Explorer 8 will drop off entirely. Currently over 20 percent of computers running a desktop OS are still using this old version according to data from netmarketshare.com.
As security holes are continually being discovered and patched in Internet Explorer via Windows Update, it is highly recommended that you are running a supported version to stay as up to date and secure as possible going forward.
For more details, check out the following article from ZDNet.com.
~Ted Eiler
Can a USB flash drive “wear out”?
The short answer is yes, the flash memory cells in a USB thumbdrive can be written to a limited number of times before they lose their ability to retain data correctly. The number of write operations a memory cell can handle over its lifetime generally ranges between 10,000 to 100,000, depending on the quality of the product. Once the limit is reached, stored data can become corrupted and totally lost.
It is a good idea to have a copy of your data on at least two different storage devices for safety and backup purposes. If you are accessing and working with a file on a usb flash drive, it is best to first copy the file to your computer’s internal hard drive, open it and work with it there, then after saving changes, copy the file back to the flash drive, overwriting the old version. Working with your files this way can greatly reduce the number of write operations to the flash drive and extend its life.
For a lengthier, more detailed answer to this question, check out the following article on Ask Leo!
~Ted Eiler
You’ve fallen for a scam! Now what? | PCWorld
Scammers and information phishers are as pervasive as ever on internet, employing techniques and tactics to trick you into thinking you’re dealing with a legitimate organization.
This PCWorld Answer Line article gives some basic rule of thumb pointers to protect yourself if you find that you have mistakenly given away any personal sensitive information to an illegitimate source.
~Ted Eiler
Security Alert: Please Update Your Adobe Flash Player Immediately
A security update for Adobe Flash Player was released July 8, 2014, containing fixes for critical vulnerabilities allowing an attacker to take control of an affected system, as well as steal log-on credentials to websites.
Users of Internet Explorer 10 and 11, as well as Google Chrome need not worry, as the embedded Flash Player is updated automatically. However, users of Internet Explorer 9 and earlier, as well as Firefox and Safari, should update Adobe Flash Player immediately.
You can install the latest version here:
http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/
~Ted Eiler
