New York City Computer Repair & Cyber Security Blog
Hackers Target Websites with Fresh WordPress Installs.
Within recent months SonicWall Threat Research Labs recently received reports of attackers targeting newly installed WordPress sites. Attackers search for the following phrases:
- WordPress
- Setup Configuration File
If both phrases exist, then it is possible that the site has WordPress installed but has not been configured properly. In fact, doing a Google search for the above, results in many vulnerable sites.
Once the attacker has control over the WordPress website running in the target server, the attacker can do any of the following:
- Use the WordPress website for hosting malware, exploit kits, etc.
- Use the WordPress website as a launching pad to attempt control of the server. This can be done by executing specially crafted PHP scripts.
If an attacker finds your fresh install, they can easily click through the first two steps and then enter their own database server information in this final step. Their database can be on their own server, and it doesn’t have to contain any data – it can simply be an empty database. They just need to get a working WordPress installation running on your site that they have admin access to.
Once this step is complete, WordPress confirms that it can communicate with the database – in this case, the attacker’s database:
Read more: Hackers Target Websites with Fresh WordPress Installs
Nonsense Facebook Messenger is not listening to or tracking our every move.
Did you know that the Facebook mobile app has access to your smartphone microphone? And recently, a conspiracy theory that the mobile app listens to your conversations for advertising purposes went viral so Facebook had to issue a statement denying that claim.
“Facebook does not use microphone audio to inform advertising or News Feed stories in any way. Businesses are able to serve relevant ads based on people’s interests and other demographic information, but not through audio collection,” said Facebook in a recent blog post. "We only access your microphone if you have given our app permission and if you are actively using a specific feature that requires audio. This might include recording a video or using an optional feature we introduced two years ago to include music or other audio in your status updates." Facebook also requires microphone access to record and share live video for the Facebook Live feature.
Read more: Nonsense Facebook Messenger is not listening to or tracking our every move.
Consumer Reports Original Ransomware Interview With Short Circuited Consumer Services Owner Raul Glasgow Circa 2016
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Ransomware is a form of malware, or malicious software that is a lot more complicated that typical malware. Ransomware can present itself in a few ways, two forms described below:
- Locker ransomware encrypts the whole hard drive of the computer, essentially locking the user out of the entire system.
- Crypto ransomware will only encrypt specific, seemingly important files on the computer, such as word documents, PDFs and image files.
Ransomware does exactly what it sounds like – it presents users with an ultimatum: pay a fee to unlock and reclaim personal data, or don’t pay the fee and lose the data indefinitely.
Consumer Reports Article Raul Glasgow and Short Circuited Computer Services Referenced
By Raul Glasgow, Owner, Shortcircuited Computer Repair Services, Brooklyn, New York
I do info-tech consulting and computer repair. I’m basically the computer guy for a number of dental and medical offices. One day last summer I got up and checked on the server where I keep my website—and the site was just gone. The files were encrypted, and I saw a message appearing in a pop-up window.
This wasn’t the first time I’d encountered ransomware, so I knew what the message was going to say: To get the files back I’d have to pay the hackers in bitcoin, a digital currency.
I started seeing ransomware attacks targeting some of my clients two or three years ago, and since then it’s become more common.
The first time it was a dental office, and they were being told to pay about $2,000 in bitcoin to get their files back. But we were worried they could lose the money if the hackers didn’t actually restore the files—after all, we didn’t know who these guys were. We ended up wiping everything and starting fresh with a new computer. We could do that because everything was backed up.
Read more: My Files Were Locked Up By Ransomware Consumer Reports Article