Hi, My Name is Bernie

Fun fact: Not all malicious "Hacking" incidents involves actual hacking actiities.  In fact, a large perceentage of so-called "hacking" victims in fact does not involve any computer hacking whatsoever. Before I continue, let me first define what hacking really is. Hacking is a series of activities including surveying target systems and identifying and exploiting any vulnerabilites identified on the target system.  Sounds rather exciting but actual hacking activities invloves a lot of patience and a little bit of luck to be successful.  Depending on the implemented security of the system that is targetted for a hack, the activity will take at least a few hours up to a couple of days even weeks!  Imagine taking weeks in order to compromise accounts. That being said, we can safely say that hacking is not an easy thing to pull off in order to be "profitable". The easier way to steal enough information to compromise accounts.  This is where "Social Eng...

In my previous post, I mentioned the dangers posed by "malware".  What is "malware" and do we really need to worry about it? Malware is a portmanteau of "Malicious" and "Software".  it is a piece of computer code that is written specifically to perform malicious actions.  Computer virus , trojan horses , ransomware , keyloggers , etc. are all considered Malware. With that in mind, are we all in danger from Malware?  The short answer is a resounding YES.  Can we do anything to protect ourselves from Malware?  Another short answer to this is another resounding YES. Given this, how do we protect ourselves from the dangers posed by Malware? Preventing damage done by Malware infection can either be simple or complex.  Here are some simple steps from protect ourselves from Malware: Keep your devices updated as much as possible, as soon as possible.  Malware easily penetrate devices (computers, laptops, tablets and cellphones).  Do n...

In my last article, I discussed how wonderful it is to live in a time when technology gives us an unprecedented access to information and services right at the comfort of our homes and even at the palm of our hands. I also discussed how most of this technology becomes accessible to almost everyone. It is no longer a novelty seeing a sidewalk vendor playing mobile games on a smartphone or a security guard watching a videostream of his favorite NBA team. Teenagers often share their OOTDs, foodography and other activities on social media. Busy people often do their banking using the mobile banking application on their cellphones. Free wifi on malls and other public places are a godsend for people who do not have data plans on their mobile devices because it allows them to do all these at virtually no cost at all. As mundane as those activity may appear, each one of them poses a risk to both the users and the device that is in use.  I will enumerate the risks that a person opens ...

We live in such wonderful times.  More and more people are exposed to technology that, years ago, were too expensive a few years ago.  Information is now available to a lot more people thanks to the high adoption rate of smartphones, tablets and laptops.  Students never had it so good because I still remember having to commute to different libraries in order to write research papers. People who need to do banking can do a lot of financial transactions simply by downloading and using the mobile banking applications of their respective banks.  Mobile payment platforms are slowly replacing the need to carry cash in order to pay for their groceries, medicines, monthly bills etc. However, with all these conveniences, comes danger.  Hackers and fraudsters are taking advantage of this to take advantage of people who are not-too-savvy with technology to steal information and even money.  Text messages purporting to come from government agencies, dubious ...