A number of Discord communities focused on cryptocurrency have been hacked this past month after their administrators were tricked into running malicious Javascript code disguised as a Web browser bookmark. This attack involves malicious Javascript that is added to one’s browser by dragging a component from a web page to one’s browser bookmarks. According to […]
The number of phishing websites tied to domain name registrar Freenom dropped precipitously in the months surrounding a recent lawsuit from social networking giant Meta, which alleged the free domain name provider has a long history of ignoring abuse complaints about phishing websites while monetizing traffic to those abusive domains. The volume of phishing websites […]
In this week’s Princh Library Blog post, we are going to cover the transformation of the Idsall School Library. The school was ‘made to empower young people to explore literature, expand their horizons and improve literacy‘, but their ‘cluttered’ and ‘outdated’ interior prevented staff from achieving this. Read on to see how the school transformed […]
Social networks are constantly battling inauthentic bot accounts that send direct messages to users promoting scam cryptocurrency investment platforms. What follows is an interview with a Russian hacker responsible for a series of aggressive crypto spam campaigns that recently prompted several large Mastodon communities to temporarily halt new registrations. According to the hacker, their spam […]
A rock garden stands tribute outside El Progreso Memorial Library in Uvalde, Texas. Well-wishers from around the world have sent painted rocks to memorialize the 19 children and two teachers who died at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde following a mass shooting on May 24, 2022. Photo: Nora Neus On a recent spring Saturday morning […]
A Russian man identified by KrebsOnSecurity in January 2022 as a prolific and vocal member of several top ransomware groups was the subject of two indictments unsealed by the Justice Department today. U.S. prosecutors say Mikhail Pavolovich Matveev, a.k.a. “Wazawaka” and “Boriselcin” worked with three different ransomware gangs that extorted hundreds of millions of dollars […]
Countless smartphones seized in arrests and searches by police forces across the United States are being auctioned online without first having the data on them erased, a practice that can lead to crime victims being re-victimized, a new study found. In response, the largest online marketplace for items seized in U.S. law enforcement investigations says […]
In this week’s Princh Library Blog post, recurring guest writer Edgardo Civallero reminds us where and how libraries started, and the long path they took until now. “Si hortum in bibliotheca habes, nihil deerit” This translates roughly to… If you have a garden and a library, you will not lack for anything. Marcus Tullius Cicero. […]
Microsoft today released software updates to fix at least four dozen security holes in its Windows operating systems and other software, including patches for two zero-day vulnerabilities that are already being exploited in active attacks. First up in May’s zero-day flaws is CVE-2023-29336, which is an “elevation of privilege” weakness in Windows which has a […]
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) this week seized 13 domain names connected to “booter” services that let paying customers launch crippling distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. Ten of the domains are reincarnations of DDoS-for-hire services the FBI seized in December 2022, when it charged six U.S. men with computer crimes for allegedly operating booters. […]
The U.S. government this week put a $10 million bounty on a Russian man who for the past 18 years operated Try2Check, one of the cybercrime underground’s most trusted services for checking the validity of stolen credit card data. U.S. authorities say 43-year-old Denis Kulkov‘s card-checking service made him at least $18 million, which he […]
A sprawling online company based in Georgia that has made tens of millions of dollars purporting to sell access to jobs at the United States Postal Service (USPS) has exposed its internal IT operations and database of nearly 900,000 customers. The leaked records indicate the network’s chief technology officer in Pakistan has been hacked for […]
This post was written by Mark Jefferson, Lab Assistant at Stanford’s Born-Digital Preservation Lab. We here at the Born Digital Preservation Lab (BDPL) receive a number of unique and interesting collections from donors. These collections are often contained within obsolete physical media formats such as 3.5/5.25” Floppies, Zip disks, CDs/DVDs, and actual hard […]
Illustration: ©Good Studio/Adobe Stock In recent years, business acquisitions have brought high-stakes changes to the library technology industry, creating seismic shifts in the balance of power. But other events in 2022—primarily advances in open source software—have even bigger implications for the market. Although proprietary products continue to dominate, open source alternatives are becoming increasingly competitive. […]
Ava Kirtley raised money to purchase books from frequently banned lists and gave them away to teens in Walla Walla, Washington. Ava Kirtley was a high school junior when she first learned about attempts to ban books at her school library in Walla Walla, Washington. In summer 2021, several parents and community members challenged a […]
Illustration: ©Alina.Alina/Adobe Stock When I have connected with public librarians about sharing sexual and reproductive health (SRH) information, a common refrain has been that patrons do not come to the reference desk for this information. This isn’t surprising. How comfortable would you be going up to a stranger and asking them a question about your […]
Certified ikebana instructor Huimei Lai (seated) provides feedback to a student during a February class for older adults at Scripps Miramar Ranch Library in San Diego.Photo: Meiling Yueh Ikebana—the ancient Japanese art of flower arranging—is finding new fans among library patrons. Through online and in-person workshops and exhibitions, many participants find that it brings them […]
In Oklahoma, Pioneer Library System’s Wi-Fi benches advertise library resources via QR codes. Photo: Pioneer Library System On a bright, sunny day in Norman, Oklahoma, patrons of Pioneer Library System (PLS) are browsing available titles, messaging friends and family, and powering up personal devices. The twist? Those patrons are doing this all outside while sitting […]
A pilot program at Banff (Alberta) Public Library offers fentanyl test strips to detect the presence of the potent synthetic opioid in drugs.Photo: Banff Public Library Opioid overdoses remain a significant health crisis not just in the US but also Canada. An estimated 32,630 Canadians died from an apparent opioid-related overdose between 2016 and 2022, […]
Photo: Imani Khayyam Soon after Angie Thomas released her debut young adult novel, The Hate U Give, in 2017, the book became a common target for challenges in schools and libraries across the US. But the novel also helped change the landscape of the publishing industry, at a time when authors and readers were calling […]
