Archive for July 30, 2019

Adastra Corporation: A Microsoft IMPACT winner

Posted in Commentary with tags on July 30, 2019 by itnerd

Adastra Corporation, a global leader in Data Management and Analytics, has been awarded the Commercial Enterprise Partner of the Year Award and the Application Innovation Award – Manufacturing, at the Microsoft 2019 IMPACT awards.

Adastra, a GTA-based data analytics firm, is one of the fastest growing Azure Data & AI Partners in Canada, growing Azure consumption by 900 per cent year-over-year in FY19. Alongside this growth, Adastra’s strategy has secured it as Microsoft’s go-to Data and AI partner in Canada for co-sell engagements, enriching its connection to large enterprise clients such as BMO, Magna, Finastra, Rogers and Just Energy as well as corporate clients such as Fleet Complete, Kik and Empire Life.

In addition to Data and AI, Adastra supports clients in their full Digital Transformation journey. Its expertise in user experience and design have reinforced Azure-based solutions ranging from the remediation of Power BI architecture to the development of end-to-end cloud solutions.

While the advanced Azure ecosystem, market presence and partner network are important aspects of the alliance, the secret ingredient is the genuine and mutual interest for joint success between Adastra and Microsoft as well as their customers. The technological opportunities are endless when values and business goals align.

The momentum of Adastra’s growing Microsoft relation is just the beginning. Its success has created a set of best practices, leveraged by its 2,200 Data and AI professionals across the globe. Seeking to use its Canadian success as a blueprint for expansion in the United States and Germany, Adastra is set to deliver staggering results as Microsoft’s preferred Data and AI partner, worldwide.

Companies can learn more about how Adastra can unlock the secrets behind their data and kick off their Digital Transformation at www.adastracorp.com.

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Trend Micro Study Reveals Criminal Abuses Of Twitter

Posted in Commentary with tags on July 30, 2019 by itnerd

Trend Micro Incorporated today announced a new study revealing how cybercriminals are abusing Twitter via tech support scams, command-and-control (C&C) operations and data exfiltration.

Trend Micro researchers analyzed a large volume of Twitter data to identify relationships between various entities to spot anomalies and uncover key insights.

Criminals were found using fake Twitter accounts to spoof those of legitimate vendors for credible tech support scams. Users call the fake phone number provided, believing they are speaking with the intended company’s help desk, which results in the caller either sharing credit card information or installing malicious content on their computer.

This is often part of a multi-platform strategy along with YouTube, Facebook, Telegram and other channels to improve SEO for fake tech support websites linked to the Twitter accounts, boosting their search rankings.

While criminals are using the social network for bad, threat researchers can leverage the power of social media for good. Most notably, Twitter is used for monitoring vulnerability disclosures to inform patch prioritization, and scanning for indicators of compromise, threat detection rules, and other contextual information to boost threat intelligence.

Trend Micro recommends users confirm the validity of a Twitter account by checking the company’s website directly, rather than through the account. It is also important for security teams to validate Twitter data when leveraging it for investigations or threat intelligence.

To read the full report, please visit:  https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/news/cybercrime-and-digital-threats/hunting-threats-on-twitter.

 

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Waze Is Helping Canadian Travelers Get To Their Summer Destinations

Posted in Commentary with tags on July 30, 2019 by itnerd
Travelling to the cottage is a favourite summer pastime for Canadians, but getting there is usually time consuming, stressful and challenging because of cottage country traffic — leaving less time to unwind at the lake.
Waze, the community-based, people-powered navigation app, makes summer driving easier with features that power users find essential, but other Wazers may not be familiar with. Here are just a few of the features in the driving app that can help make your summer travels more fun:
 
Listen to music without missing your directions: Waze integrates with audio apps like Spotify, Deezer, iHeartRadio, NPR, Scribd, Stitcher and Tunin so you can jam to summer tunes within Waze, with directions cutting in seamlessly.
 
Plan your drive: Want to know how early you should leave to get to the cottage by 1 p.m.? Wherever you are planning to go, Waze can tell you what time you need to leave based on traffic. Just enter your destination, select “Later” and the time you want to arrive. Waze will indicate the time you should leave to make it with enough time to enjoy your summer getaway.
 
Find restaurants and gas stations along your journey and add them to your route:Waze can help you make detours to fuel up – either your car or yourself – without missing a beat.
 
Roadside assistance: Connect quickly to emergency and professional services without needing to fumble to find contact information, whether you need a tow truck or have a medical emergency. Simply tap on Reports within Waze to pull up the menu for Roadside Help.
 
Share your drive: If someone is expecting you or you’re in a group driving together, you can share your drive so they can keep tabs on your journey. Waze lets you share a link — via e-mail, text and other options — so anyone with the link can see your drive on the map. (You can stop sharing your drive at any time.)
 
Change the voice Waze speaks with: A new voice in the car might be just what you need to stay alert during a long drive. You can even record your own voice or that of a loved one to tell you where to go. The voice options are always changing, and sometimes include celebs (such as, most recently, DJ Khaled).
Not only is summer a great time to drive — it’s a time when Canadians are in their cars more often! Waze has found its users have different driving behaviours in the summer compared to the rest of the year as they go on vacation, driving further and visiting gas stations and restaurants more often during their journeys. In fact, in July and August they are 270 per cent more likely to navigate to a cottage/cabin, and 100 per cent more likely to navigate to a gas station, convenience store or restaurant.
Wazers also drive more in general during July and August: 14 per cent more than the rest of the year. Last August in particular, one in three Canadian Waze users traveled outside of their home city. In Canada, 71 per cent of Wazers will go on a summer vacation and 62 per cent will use their car to go on vacation.
More than just a map, Waze is truly dedicated to drivers and helps the get to their getaways quickly and safely.

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If You Haven’t Updated To iOS 12.4 Yet, Here’s SIX Reasons Why You Should

Posted in Commentary with tags on July 30, 2019 by itnerd

iOS 12.4 has been on the streets for about a week now, and it’s now coming to light that there are six very good reasons to upgrade to it if you haven’t already. There are apparently six “zero interaction” vulnerabilities in iOS. Meaning that an attacker doesn’t need your help to take over your iDevice. Now of those six vulnerabilities, five are fixed outright in iOS 12.4. But the sixth is only partially closed. Here are the details from ZDNet:

According to the researcher, four of the six security bugs can lead to the execution of malicious code on a remote iOS device, with no user interaction needed. All an attacker needs to do is to send a malformed message to a victim’s phone, and the malicious code will execute once the user opens and views the received item.

The four bugs are CVE-2019-8641 (details kept private), CVE-2019-8647, CVE-2019-8660, and CVE-2019-8662. The linked bug reports contain technical details about each bug, but also proof-of-concept code that can be used to craft exploits.

The fifth and sixth bugs, CVE-2019-8624 and CVE-2019-8646, can allow an attacker to leak data from a device’s memory and read files off a remote device –also with no user interaction.

Seeing as you can reduce your potential threat surface from six to one simply by installing iOS 12.4, you should install it right now if you haven’t already. Especially now that proof of concept code is out there for these five vulnerabilities. And when Apple comes out with an iOS 12.4.1 to close the sixth vulnerability, you should install that right away as well.

Now, here’s another why installing iOS 12.4 is important:

Until today, no-user-interaction iOS bugs were usually found in the arsenal of exploit vendors and makers of legal intercept tools and surveillance software. Such vulnerabilities are the holy grail of any attacker, allowing them to hack into victims’ devices undetected.

Thus if you don’t want to be that person who gets their device taken over, you should install iOS 12.4 now. As in right the hell now.

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