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If you are in Kazakhstan and unable to access the Internet service without installing a certificate, you're not alone. The Kazakhstan government has once again issued an advisory to all major local Internet Service Providers (ISPs) asking them to make it mandatory for all their customers to install government-issued root certificates on their devices in order to regain access to the Internet services. The root certificate in question, labeled as " trusted certificate " or " national security certificate ," if installed, allows ISPs to intercept and monitor users' encrypted HTTPS and TLS connections, helping the government spy on its citizens and censor content. In other words, the government is essentially launching a "man in the middle" attack on every resident of the country. But how installing a "root certificate" allow ISPs to decrypt HTTPS connection? For those unaware, your device and web browsers automatically trust digi

Net neutrality is DEAD —3 out of 5 federal regulators voted Thursday to hand control of the future of the Internet to cable and telecommunication companies, giving them powers to speed up service for websites they favor or slow down others. As proposed this summer, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has rolled back Net Neutrality rules that require Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to treat all services and websites on the Internet equally and prohibit them from blocking sites or charging for higher-quality service. This action repeals the FCC's 2015 Open Internet Order decision taken during the Obama administration. What is Net Neutrality and Why Is It Important? Net Neutrality is simply Internet Freedom—Free, Fast and Open Internet for all. In other words, Net Neutrality is the principle that governs ISPs to give consumers access to all and every content on an equal basis, treating all Internet traffic equally. Today, if there's something that ma

The need for vCISO services is growing. SMBs and SMEs are dealing with more third-party risks, tightening regulatory demands and stringent cyber insurance requirements than ever before. However, they often lack the resources and expertise to hire an in-house security executive team. By outsourcing security and compliance leadership to a vCISO, these organizations can more easily obtain cybersecurity expertise specialized for their industry and strengthen their cybersecurity posture. MSPs and MSSPs looking to meet this growing vCISO demand are often faced with the same challenge. The demand for cybersecurity talent far exceeds the supply. This has led to a competitive market where the costs of hiring and retaining skilled professionals can be prohibitive for MSSPs/MSPs as well. The need to maintain expertise of both security and compliance further exacerbates this challenge. Cynomi, the first AI-driven vCISO platform , can help. Cynomi enables you - MSPs, MSSPs and consulting firms

The ISPs can now sell certain sensitive data like your browsing history without permission, thanks to the US Senate. The US Senate on Wednesday voted, with 50 Republicans for it and 48 Democrats against, to roll back a set of broadband privacy regulations passed by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) last year when it was under Democratic leadership. In October, the Federal Communications Commission ruled that ISPs would need to get consumers' explicit consent before being allowed to sell their web browsing data to the advertisers or other big data companies. Before the new rules could take effect on March 2, the President Trump's newly appointed FCC chairman Ajit Pai temporarily put a hold on these new privacy rules. Ajit Pai argued that the rules, which are regulated by FTC, unfairly favored companies like Google, Twitter, and Facebook, who have the ability to collect more data than ISPs and thus dominate digital advertising. "All actors in the online

Bad News for privacy concerned people! It will be once again easier for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to sell your personal data for marketing or advertisement purposes without taking your permission. Last October, the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) passed a set of privacy rules on ISPs that restrict them from sharing your online data with third parties without your consent and require them to adopt "reasonable measures" to protect consumers' data from hackers. However, now the FCC suspended privacy rules before they came into effect. The reason? President Donald Trump's newly appointed FCC chairman Ajit Pai, a Republican and ex-Verizon lawyer. Ajit Pai, who has openly expressed his views against net neutrality in the past, just last week said during a speech at Mobile World Congress that Net Neutrality was "a mistake" and indicated that the Commission is now moving back to internet regulations. Now, Pai suspends p

Good News for privacy concerned people! Now, your online data will not be marketed for business; at least by your Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Yes, it's time for your ISPs to ask your permission in order to share your sensitive data for marketing or advertisement purposes, the FCC rules. On Thursday, the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has imposed new privacy rules on Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that restrict them from sharing your online history with third parties without your consent. In a 3-2 vote, the FCC approved the new rules by which many privacy advocates seem pleased, while some of them wanted the Commission to even apply the same rules to web-based services like Google and Facebook as well. Initially proposed earlier this year, the new rule says : "ISPs are required to obtain affirmative 'opt-in' consent from consumers to use and share sensitive information." What does 'sensitive' information mean h

The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) has put forward a proposal that aims to protect Internet user's privacy. The proposal [ pdf] will regulate the amount of customers' online data the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are able to collect and sell to the advertising companies. Currently, there is no particular rule by law covering broadband providers and customer privacy, and if adopted, this would be the first privacy rule for ISPs. The FCC already governs how phone companies can use and resell customer data, and the Chairman Tom Wheeler believes similar rules should be applied to ISPs. Is Your ISP Tracking Your Web Surfing and Selling Data to Advertisers? Your complete Internet traffic passes through your Internet Service Provider, which gives it the ability to access to vast and potentially lucrative amount of your web-browsing activity. If you are using a mobile phone, your ISP can also track your physical location throughout the day in real time. ISPs

China has gained a considerable global attention when it comes to their Internet policies in the past years; whether it's introducing its own search engine dubbed " Baidu ," Great Firewall of China , its homebrew China Operating System (COP) and many more. Along with the developments, China has long been criticized for suspected backdoors in its products: Xiaomi and Star N9500 smartphones are top examples. Now, Chinese Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have been caught red-handed for injecting Advertisements as well as Malware through their network traffic. Three Israeli researchers uncovered that the major Chinese-based ISPs named China Telecom and China Unicom , two of Asia's largest network operators, have been engaged in an illegal practice of content injection in network traffic. Chinese ISPs had set up many proxy servers to pollute the client's network traffic not only with insignificant advertisements but also malware links, in s

TalkTalk , one of the biggest UK-based phone and Internet service provider with more than 4 Million customers, has been hacked again, the company announced late Thursday. TalkTalk is informing its 4 million customers that it has fallen victim to a "significant and sustained cyber attack" and it is possible that sensitive data including bank details have been stolen. In February, TalkTalk suffered a major data breach in which its customer details were stolen and misused by scammers to access additional information as well as steal considerable amount of money. What data might have been Exposed? According to the company, potentially all of its 4 Million customers could be affected by the data breach. However, TalkTalk hasn't specified exactly what kind of data was stolen from its servers, but says that the systems accessed by hackers contained information including: Credit card details and/or bank details Full names Postal addresses Dates

While many of us are battling with the slow data access and still awaiting the roll-out of 4G Networks, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is already looking forward to the next generation of telecommunication network technology. Yes folks, we are talking about the future 5G standard for mobile networking . Since 5G standard is currently in the definition stage, the ITU has announced a timeline for a name, demonstration, and distribution. During a conference held in San Diego from June 10th to 18th, 12 member delegation sat to draw up the specifications to be established for the upcoming 5G network standard and to set a roadmap as to how the objective will be achieved. What's the Standard Data Speed for 5G Network? When I talk about data speed, the ITU has decided that 5G compliant networks will have to provide a peak data speed of up to 20Gbps , which means it's 20 times faster than the peak speed specification (1Gbps) of 4G LTE network

After facing much criticism for violation of Net Neutrality, Facebook has opened up its new Internet.org platform to developers for creating their apps and services in India and other countries. Facebook's Internet.org aims at offering free Internet access to " the next 5 billion " impoverished people around the world who currently don't have it. This current move now would potentially allow any website to be accessed for free via the Internet.org service, but only in the case, if the website ditches the encrypted communications (HTTPS), JavaScript, and other important things. Internet for All: Facebook offers free mobile Internet access to people in India , Zambia , Colombia, Tanzania, Kenya, Ghana, Philippines and Indonesia . However, in order to access the free Internet, users must have special Android apps, Internet.org's website, the Opera Mini web browser or Facebook's Android app. Until now, the Internet.org scheme had been

TalkTalk , one of the biggest UK-based phone, TV and Internet service provider with 4 million customers, has admitted it suffered a major Data Breach . TalkTalk said customer information was accessed after a breach at a third-party company, in which names, addresses, phone numbers and TalkTalk account numbers have been stolen. According to the report, TalkTalk customers began reporting problems on the TalkTalk forums late last year. Whereas, in some cases, hackers used customer details to scam bank information from the victims. TalkTalk has confirmed that " a small, but nonetheless significant " number of customers have had their account details compromised by hackers, claiming to be from TalkTalk in order to trick them into handing over their banking details. " At TalkTalk we take our customers' security very seriously and we take numerous measures to help keep our customers safe, " TalkTalk spokesperson said in a statement. " Yet sadly i

The Nation's largest telecom operator ' Verizon Wireless ' is tracking its customers' mobile internet traffic by adding a token to Web requests traveling over its network, in order to facilitate targeted advertising even if a user has opted out of their Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) options. The Precision Market Insights division of Verizon is collecting users' data from more than two years with the launch of the Unique Identifier Token Header (UIDH) under its Relevant Mobile Advertising program. The company also expanded its program to cover all Verizon Wireless subscribers. UIDH TRACKS CUSTOMERS' EVERY MOVE ON WEB When consumers visit certain websites or mobile apps, The Verizon network is adding cookie-like X-UIDH header tokens to Web requests traveling over its network with a unique value/identifier for every particular mobile device. This Verizon's solution is called the PrecisionID , which is being used to create a d

The UK High Court has ordered  BSkyB , BT , Virgin Media and three other UK broadband providers to block access to three music and movie file-sharing websites  Kickass Torrents , H33T and Fenopy. Judge Richard Arnold said   that t hese websites  infringed 10 music companies copyrights on an industrial scale. He  granted an order to 10 record labels including EMI, Sony and Universal against six UK internet service providers requiring them to take measures to block or at least impede access by their customers to these three file-sharing websites. " The orders are necessary and appropriate to protect the intellectual property rights of the claimants and other copyright owners. "  Judge said.  The ISPs have been given 15 working days to block access to the sites.  Each ISP will decide how to warn customers and subsequently attempt to curb alleged illegal file sharing activity. Verizon decided to send a series of warnings to Internet users and after the fif

According to the Center for Copyright Information, the controversial " Copyright Alert System " will hit the U.S. within weeks. A blog post by Jill Lesser, executive director of the Center for Copyright Information, revealed the long-awaited Copyright Alert System (CAS) will begin "in the coming weeks" and provided some details about the partnership with ISPs to deter subscribers from infringement over peer-to-peer networks. AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon are all participating, and will roll out their responses over the next two months. The so-called Copyright Alert System varies by ISP, but calls for gradually more severe responses to each infringement, starting with emailed warnings and escalating to throttled data speeds or temporary suspension of service. However, offenders can request a review of their network activity by paying a $35 billing fee. If the offender is found not guilty, the $35 will be refunded. The Cop