Names like Locky and CryptoLocker are familiar due to numerous news reports, but if you haven’t heard of the growing threat of ransomware, here’s a quick summary: Ransomware is a type of malware that locks you out of your devices by encrypting your files. In return for access with the decryption key, it demands a payment, typically in bitcoin. In many cases, victims of ransomware cannot recover their files, so a backup is essential.
I fell for it the first time I answered a call. A friendly female voice hesitated, then giggled the line, “Can you hear me?” After I answered, “Yes”, it took me a few seconds to realize I had been fooled. It wasn’t a silly girl with a bad connection calling me on behalf of Disney Vacations – I had just been targeted by a robocaller. By then it was too late.
When we moved the Prague headquarters of Avast to the beautiful new Enterprise Office Center in January 2016, we strived to create a Silicon Valley-style working environment. Popular design ideas, conceived to foster collaboration among individuals and teams, were built into the 15,000 square meter office space. At the opening of the new building, Avast CEO, Vince Steckler said, "Avast has chosen a building that reflects its open, innovative, and inspirational company culture.”
Out of all the cybercrimes from malware to social engineering, the creepiest has to be a stranger watching your child through a webcam or baby monitor in their room. As this year’s Mobile World Congress starts in Barcelona, Avast researchers reveal that half a million smart devices in the city, including webcams and baby monitors, are currently vulnerable to cyber attack.
That little black home router with the funny antennae and shiny lights could be part of an army of devices conscripted to take down the internet. It sounds dramatic, but regular people’s internet-enabled devices – routers, webcams, printers, and so on – were used in a massive online attack that shut down a huge part of the internet for hours one Friday morning last October. With the number of connected devices estimated to reach 50 billion by 2020, you can be guaranteed that cybercriminals will attempt it again.
Like most of us, you probably got the router you use in your home from your internet service provider. Like most of us, you probably have not changed the password. And like most of us, you probably didn’t even know there was a password to be changed, much less how to access it.
Avast is full of dog lovers, and as such, we aspire to “…to be the person my dog thinks I am.” This inspirational quote, attributed to Victorian author Mary Ann Evans, who went by the pen name George Eliot (Silas Marner and Middlemarch), speaks to our best friend’s unconditional love and non-judgmental acceptance.
During Black Friday and the weeks leading up to Christmas, tech savvy shoppers visit brick-and-mortar stores to see the items they want to buy, but they use price comparison apps on their phones to check for the best deal. This is called “showrooming”. Shopping apps do things like scan barcodes for price comparisons between your local retailer and online stores, send alerts when the price drops, find money-saving coupons, and even tell which stores in the mall have a particular item on sale.
