| Cult of Mac

Prevent hacks to preserve your business’s valuable reputation

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A password manager like Dashlane can keep you from losing your business's good reputation.
A password manager like Dashlane can keep you from losing your business's good reputation.
Photo: Dashlane

This business cybersecurity post is brought to you by Dashlane.

The hard work you put into building your business and managing your business’s reputation should not be compromised by an avoidable hack.

Cyberattacks on businesses and other entities may seem inevitable, but many are avoidable. Given the importance of reputation — which amounts to everything anyone and everyone thinks or feels about your operation — preventing cybersecurity breaches is crucial to defending the overall perception of your business’s trustworthiness to consumers, clients and investors.

Implementing use of a password manager like Dashlane for you and your employees, whether they work remotely or onsite, is among the easiest and most effective ways to protect your business’s reputation, explains J.D. Sherman, CEO of Dashlane. Its web and mobile app simplifies password management for people and businesses.

Teen ‘mastermind’ gets arrested for massive Twitter attack

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If hackers dump your personal data onto the dark web, you need to know about it. Dashlane Dark Web Monitoring can sound the alarm.
Rather than state-sponsored hackers, the Twitter hacker is someone too young to vote.
Photo: sebastiaan stam/Pexels CC

In mid July, a hacker gained access to Apple’s Twitter account, along with those other corporations, high-profile politicians, and celebrities. At the time, there was speculation it was done by Russian hackers. Or perhaps they were Chinese. Some pointed fingers at international criminal gangs.

Nope. Turns out it was a 17-year-old kid from Tampa.

Hacker who shared Apple employee details on Twitter avoids jail

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hacker
Hacker's lawyer argued that they had been enticed by Apple's bug bounty.
Photo: Clint Patterson

An Australian hacker who pleaded guilty to accessing confidential employee information from Apple and sharing it on Twitter has avoided a jail sentence.

24-year-old Abe Crannaford’s lawyer had argued that, by offering a bug bounty for hackers able to find weaknesses in its software, Apple encourages people to dig into its products to find weaknesses. However, the magistrate did not entirely accept the argument.

YouTuber is giddy giving tour of iPhone battery factory

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Pisen battery factory in China
A lot of moving parts in this Strange Parts episode at an iPhone battery factory.
Screenshot: Strange Parts/YouTube

Watching an iPhone battery being made might sound interesting. But Scotty Allen was left over the moon after his tour of the Pisen factories in China that makes after-market lithium polymer batteries.

Allen’s exuberance is routinely felt in videos for his YouTube channel Strange Parts. Each component of an electronic device brings the joy of discovery to Allen, known for having built an iPhone from scratch by shopping for parts in the components markets of Shenzhen, China.

Alleged hacker tried to sell details of 319 million iCloud users for bitcoin

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Hacker who tried to extort Apple for $100k is spared prison
21-year-old Kerem Albayrak allegedly tried to hold up Apple for cyber-cash.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

An alleged hacker who reportedly threatened to sell the personal details of 319 million iCloud users is having his day in court. 21-year-old IT analyst Kerem Albayrak supposedly filmed himself accessing people’s accounts and posted footage showing this online.

He then asked Apple to pay him $174,000 worth of Bitcoin and $1,100 in iTunes vouchers to avoid doing anything with the accounts.

Hacker hacks iPhone hacking company’s secret hacks

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iphone
They say turnabout is fair play, but iPhone users are caught in the middle when iOS hacking tools are stolen.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Israel’s NSO Group makes a business of hacking iPhones and Android devices.  In a reversal of roles, it was hacked by one of its own employees and valuable intellectual property was stolen.

While its tempting to lean back an enjoy this company’s discomfiture, the stolen property was NSO’s phone hacking tools, which were then offered on the dark web.

‘Trustjacking’ is the dangerous new iPhone hack you’ve never heard of

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iphone
What’s on your wish list for a future iPhone?
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

You might want to think twice before plugging your iPhone into a friends laptop for a quick charge.

Security researchers have discovered an all-new type of iOS hack called “trustjacking” that uses one of a little-known WiFi feature to access a device’s data, even when the targeted device isn’t in the same location anymore.

There’s a serious security flaw in Wi-Fi and we’re all at risk

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KRACK Wi-Fi attack
Beware the KRACK attack.
Photo: Mathy Vanhoef

A major security flaw has been discovered in Wi-Fi and we’re all at risk.

Researchers discovered the weakness in WPA2, the protocol that secures all modern Wi-Fi networks. Any modern device with a wireless connection could be open to a KRACK attack that would expose information like credit card numbers, passwords, messages and more.

What to do if you were affected by the massive Equifax hack

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hack
143 million customers in the U.S. may have been impacted by the attack.
Photo: Colin / Wikimedia Commons

Credit report giant Equifax confirms a “cybersecurity incident” may have compromised the data of 143 million U.S. customers.

Criminals gained access to Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses, credit card numbers and more between mid-May and July of this year. It’s one of the biggest and most worrisome data breaches in history.

Here’s what to do if you’re one of the customers affected.