The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) today seized four-dozen domains that sold “booter” or “stresser” services — businesses that make it easy and cheap for even non-technical users to launch powerful Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks designed knock targets offline. The DOJ also charged six U.S. men with computer crimes related to their alleged […]
Microsoft has released its final monthly batch of security updates for 2022, fixing more than four dozen security holes in its various Windows operating systems and related software. The most pressing patches include a zero-day in a Windows feature that tries to flag malicious files from the Web, a critical bug in PowerShell, and a […]
InfraGard, a program run by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to build cyber and physical threat information sharing partnerships with the private sector, this week saw its database of contact information on more than 80,000 members go up for sale on an English-language cybercrime forum. Meanwhile, the hackers responsible are communicating directly with […]
Now that I’ve almost entirely removed myself from Twitter, I’m looking around at how to…well, do whatever it is I want to do now. I’m definitely going to stick to Mastodon for awhile, and now I’m playing around with adding this old blog to ActivityPub and auto-posting to my Mastodon when I write here. I’m […]
Ransomware groups are constantly devising new methods for infecting victims and convincing them to pay up, but a couple of strategies tested recently seem especially devious. The first centers on targeting healthcare organizations that offer consultations over the Internet and sending them booby-trapped medical records for the “patient.” The other involves carefully editing email inboxes […]
After a year of unprecedented challenges and impressive successes, it’s time to celebrate the resilience of librarians. This holiday season, focus on gifts that highlight goodwill, inclusivity, and the joy of books. We’ve rounded up a list of presents that are fun, thoughtful, and affordable—most items are less than $40. And while you’re shopping, don’t […]
In December 2021, Google filed a civil lawsuit against two Russian men thought to be responsible for operating Glupteba, one of the Internet’s largest and oldest botnets. The defendants, who initially pursued a strategy of counter suing Google for interfering in their sprawling cybercrime business, later brazenly offered to dismantle the botnet in exchange for […]
ConnectWise, which offers a self-hosted, remote desktop software application that is widely used by Managed Service Providers (MSPs), is warning about an unusually sophisticated phishing attack that can let attackers take remote control over user systems when recipients click the included link. The warning comes just weeks after the company quietly patched a vulnerability that […]
In this week’s post, The Daring Librarian, Gwyneth A. Jones, shares her tips on how you can set up a makerspace at your library or school, for very little or no costs at all! This post originally appeared on Gwyneth’s own blog. You can find the original article here: https://www.thedaringlibrarian.com/2019/04/makerspace-for-little-or-nothing.html Makerspace for Little or Nothing You […]
This is a guest blog post by digitization lab assistant Abigail Watson, who has been with Stanford Libraries’ Digital Production Group since March 2021. Content warning: this blog contains mentions of the Holocaust, death, and trauma. My name is Abigail, and I have been working in digitization with the Digital Production Group at Stanford Libraries […]
A recent scoop by Reuters revealed that mobile apps for the U.S. Army and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were integrating software that sends visitor data to a Russian company called Pushwoosh, which claims to be based in the United States. But that story omitted an important historical detail about Pushwoosh: In 2013, […]
Every year, voters from small towns and big cities alike decide on ballot measures that affect libraries. This year was no different—and as in past years, American Libraries and the Public Library Association have partnered to look at some of the wins and losses across the country. While libraries notched notable victories in 2022, some […]
On November 17, I was able to attend most of an amazing book talk sponsored by Library Futures. It was with the authors of two timely books, Chokepoint Capitalism (Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow), and Data Cartels (Sarah Lamdan). You can, and should, watch the entire recording! In Chokepoint Capitalism, “by analyzing book publishing and […]
Peter is an IT manager for a technology manufacturer that got hit with a Russian ransomware strain called “Zeppelin” in May 2020. He’d been on the job less than six months, and because of the way his predecessor architected things, the company’s data backups also were encrypted by Zeppelin. After two weeks of stalling their […]
In this week’s Princh Library Blog post, guest writer Glory Odochi Okeagu shares her insights of the everyday life of public libraries in Nigeria, discussing their challenges, duties, how the community perceives them, and some examples of initiatives established by Nigerian libraries. Are you curious what Princh can offer for your library and your patrons? […]
A financial cybercrime group calling itself the Disneyland Team has been making liberal use of visually confusing phishing domains that spoof popular bank brands using Punycode, an Internet standard that allows web browsers to render domain names with non-Latin alphabets like Cyrillic. The Disneyland Team’s Web interface, which allows them to interact with malware victims […]
Vyacheslav “Tank” Penchukov, the accused 40-year-old Ukrainian leader of a prolific cybercriminal group that stole tens of millions of dollars from small to mid-sized businesses in the United States and Europe, has been arrested in Switzerland, according to multiple sources. Wanted Ukrainian cybercrime suspect Vyacheslav “Tank” Penchukov (right) was arrested in Geneva, Switzerland. Tank was […]
The other day, Lifehacker posted that Windows Has a New Tool for Simultaneously Recording Your Screen and Webcam. That tool is Clipchamp, and I am impressed! Oh, and it’s free. MPOW has blocked the Microsoft Store, so I wasn’t able to install the desktop version, but I was able to run the web version. I […]
When I first saw the article, How Open Is the U15? A Preliminary Analysis of Open Access Publishing in Canadian Academic Libraries, of course I had to see how MPOW, the University of Calgary, stacked up. We’ve long been a proponent of open access; we had the first open access author’s fund in Canada, established […]
A nonprofit organization is suing the state of Massachusetts on behalf of thousands of low-income families who were collectively robbed of more than a $1 million in food assistance benefits by card skimming devices secretly installed at cash machines and grocery store checkout lanes across the state. Federal law bars states from replacing these benefits […]
