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Kaspersky Antivirus Flaw Exposed Users to Cross-Site Tracking Online

Kaspersky Antivirus Flaw Exposed Users to Cross-Site Tracking Online

Aug 15, 2019
In this digital era, the success of almost every marketing, advertising, and analytics company drives through tracking users across the Internet to identify them and learn their interests to provide targeted ads. Most of these solutions rely on 3rd-party cookies, a cookie set on a domain other than the one you are browsing, which allows companies including Google and Facebook to fingerprint you in order to track your every move across multiple sites. However, if you're using Kaspersky Antivirus, a vulnerability in the security software had exposed a unique identifier associated with you to every website you visited in the past 4 years, which might have allowed those sites and other third-party services to track you across the web even if you have blocked or erased third-party cookies timely. The vulnerability, identified as CVE-2019-8286 and discovered by independent security researcher Ronald Eikenberg, resides in the way a URL scanning module integrated into the antivir
Firefox Web Browser Now Blocks Third-Party Tracking Cookies By Default

Firefox Web Browser Now Blocks Third-Party Tracking Cookies By Default

Jun 04, 2019
As promised, Mozilla has finally enabled "Enhanced Tracking Protection" feature on its Firefox browser by default, which from now onwards would automatically block all third-party tracking cookies that allow advertisers and websites to track you across the web. Tracking cookies, also known as third-party cookies, allows advertisers to monitor your online behavior and interests, using which they display relevant advertisements, content, and promotions on the websites you visit. Which makes sense as no one likes to waste time in watching advertisements and offers that are not of one's interest. However, since tracking cookies gather way more information without requiring users' explicit permissions and there is no control over how companies would use it, the technique also poses a massive threat to users' online privacy. To limit this extensive tracking, Mozilla included the "Enhanced Tracking Protection" option as an experimental feature in Octo
5 Actionable Steps to Prevent GenAI Data Leaks Without Fully Blocking AI Usage

5 Actionable Steps to Prevent GenAI Data Leaks Without Fully Blocking AI Usage

Oct 01, 2024Generative AI / Data Protection
Since its emergence, Generative AI has revolutionized enterprise productivity. GenAI tools enable faster and more effective software development, financial analysis, business planning, and customer engagement. However, this business agility comes with significant risks, particularly the potential for sensitive data leakage. As organizations attempt to balance productivity gains with security concerns, many have been forced to choose between unrestricted GenAI usage to banning it altogether. A new e-guide by LayerX titled 5 Actionable Measures to Prevent Data Leakage Through Generative AI Tools is designed to help organizations navigate the challenges of GenAI usage in the workplace. The guide offers practical steps for security managers to protect sensitive corporate data while still reaping the productivity benefits of GenAI tools like ChatGPT. This approach is intended to allow companies to strike the right balance between innovation and security. Why Worry About ChatGPT? The e
Verizon to pre-install a 'Spyware' app on its Android phones to collect user data

Verizon to pre-install a 'Spyware' app on its Android phones to collect user data

Mar 30, 2017
If the death of online privacy rules wasn't enough for Internet Service Providers and advertisers to celebrate, Verizon has planned to pre-install spyware on customers' Android devices in order to collect their personal data. The telecom giant has partnered with Evie Launcher to bring a new application called ' AppFlash ' — a universal search bar that will come pre-installed on the home screens of all Verizon Android handsets for quickly finding apps and web content. AppFlash is simply a Google search bar replacement, but instead of collecting and sending telemetry data including what you search, handset, apps and other online activities to Google, it will send to Verizon. What's worse? Just like other pre-installed bloatware apps, Android users can't uninstall AppFlash quickly, unless they have rooted their phone. AppFlash allows you to search inside apps or browse through listings of nearby restaurants and entertainment. The built-in Google Search
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2024 State of SaaS Security Report eBook

websiteWing SecuritySaaS Security / Insider Threat
A research report featuring astonishing statistics on the security risks of third-party SaaS applications.
WhatsApp to Share Your Data with Facebook — You have 30 Days to Stop It

WhatsApp to Share Your Data with Facebook — You have 30 Days to Stop It

Aug 25, 2016
Nothing comes for Free, as "Free" is just a relative term used by companies to develop a strong user base and then use it for their own benefits. The same has been done by the secure messaging app WhatsApp, which has now made it crystal clear that the popular messaging service will begin sharing its users' data with its parent company, Facebook. However, WhatsApp is offering a partial opt-out for Facebook targeted ads and product related purposes, which I will let you know later in this article, but completely opting out of the data-sharing does not seem to be possible. Let's know what the company has decided to do with your data. Of course, Facebook is willing to use your data to sell more targeted advertisements. WhatsApp introduced some significant changes to its privacy policy and T&Cs today which, if accepted once, gives it permission to connect users' Facebook accounts to WhatsApp accounts for the first time, giving Facebook more data about us
Beware! Advertisers Are Tracking You via Phone's Battery Status

Beware! Advertisers Are Tracking You via Phone's Battery Status

Aug 02, 2016
Is my smartphone battery leaking details about me? Unfortunately, YES! Forget about supercookies, apps, and malware; your smartphone battery status is enough to monitor your online activity, according to a new report. In 2015, researchers from Stanford University demonstrated a way to track users' locations – with up to 90 percent accuracy – by measuring the battery usage of the phone over a certain time. The latest threat is much worse. Two security researchers, Steve Engelhard and Arvind Narayanan, from Princeton University, have published a paper describing how phone's battery status has already been used to track users across different websites. The issue is due to the Battery Status API (application programming interface). How Does Battery Status API Help Advertisers Track You? The battery status API was first introduced in HTML5 and had already shipped in browsers including Firefox, Chrome, and Opera by August last year. The API is intended to allo
France Orders Facebook To Stop Tracking Non-Users or Face Fines

France Orders Facebook To Stop Tracking Non-Users or Face Fines

Feb 09, 2016
8th February 2016 would be considered as a cursed day in the history of Facebook. You might have known that just yesterday India bans Facebook's Free Basic Internet in the country. Now, Zuckerberg had got another bombshell in the form of a French Order from the European Data Protection Authority, who ordered Facebook to stop tracking non-users' online activity and to stop data transfers of personal data to the US servers. Facebook Is Following You Everywhere Do you know: Facebook can still track you, even if you log out, with the help of its tracking cookies and plugins ( like, share buttons ) placed on any 3rd-party website. Facebook knows what sites you are visiting, and by " you ," I mean specifically your account, not an anonymous Facebook user . As per the French Order, Facebook is not legalized to track the web browsing habits of all European citizens, even those without a Facebook account. The French Government had also provided a tim
Malicious Advertisements Found on Java.com, Other High-Profile Sites

Malicious Advertisements Found on Java.com, Other High-Profile Sites

Aug 29, 2014
A New York-based online ad network company AppNexus, that provides a platform specializing in real-time online advertising, has again been spotted as the origin of a recent "malvertising" campaign that makes use of the Angler Exploit Kit to redirect visitors to malicious websites hosting the Asprox malware. AppNexus servers process 16 billion ad buys per day, making it the biggest reach on the open web after Google. Back in May, AppNexus was serving malicious ads targeting Microsoft's Silverlight platform. The world's largest Internet Video Subscription service Netflix runs on Silverlight, and because of its popularity, hackers have been loading exploit kits with Silverlight. As part of this campaign, users of several high-profile websites including Java.com, Deviantart.com, TMZ.com, Photobucket.com, IBTimes.com, eBay.ie, Kapaza.be and TVgids.nl , last week were redirected to websites serving malicious advertisements that infected visitors by installing botnet ma
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