Category: Security & Privacy

Phishing is a constant battle and problem on today’s Internet. While it is easy to spot most phishing attacks, if you are experienced, many Internet users fall for these attacks.

The use of AI in attacks helps attackers, even though AI is also used by the developers of security solutions. It is an arms race that has been going on for a long time.

I stumbled upon a new phishing post on LinkedIN recently. It showed a phishing email that looked like it came from noreply@microsoft.com. Upon closer inspection, it came from noreply@rnicrosoft.com.

You may spot the difference easily, but depending on the mail client that you are using, it may not be as easy to figure out that the phishing email does not come from the microsoft.com domain, as the m has been replaced by the two letters r and n.

It is simple, but very effective, especially in an age where everyone seems to be in a hurry.

This goes to show that threat actors do not always have to come up with new sophisticated schemes for their attacks. Sometimes, it is enough to register lookalike-domains by replacing just one or two characters in a domain name.

This goes hand in hand with registering domain names that look like the real deal, but are not, like microsoft-support.com.

What is the best line of defense in those cases? Never, ever, click on links in emails. Also, do not call, text, or interact with anything else in emails. Instead, verify, if you are unsure.

For instance, if you do get a password reset email, but did not request a password reset, it is very likely that this is fake. You could visit the website directly and sign-in to your account to find out, or contact support, if there is any.

Have another tip regarding the threat of phishing? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Do fridges, toasters and other household appliances may come with “smart functionality” or wireless connectivity these days. In the case of some, TVs for instance, the functionality may also be used to display advertisement to users and collect data about users.

Samsung recently announced that its smart fridges would start showing ads. A software update introduced the feature and first reactions of customers are not exactly glowing.

The company introduced the change for some of its Family Hub refrigerators in the United States. This turned the screen of the device into a vehicle for ads. And who does not love ads, especially for items that cost thousands of Dollars?

Techspot reports that the update introduced new Terms of Service and a Privacy Notice that covers the addition of advertisement. Samsung’s smart fridge displays the ads on the fridge’s screen. It appears when the screen is idle, which likely means most of the time and only if users have selected certain themes, including weather, daily board, or color.

Users may enable certain themes to avoid ads for now. If the cover screen is set to art mode, which displays photos, then no ads are shown. A setting to fully disable ads is not provided, but users may block certain ads from reappearing.

You could disconnect the fridge from the network, but might not be able to use most of its functions in that case.

Samsung says that the advertisements “are designed to enhance value for owners”. I’m pretty certain that most owners would beg to differ.

Maybe next time, it would be better to buy a “dumb” fridge or other items, especially if the provided functionality is not adding value or has the chance of being turned into something that is highly annoying or invasive.

Proton AG has been quite busy lately. It launched Proton Authenticator, a free open-source two-factor authentication app, and the privacy-friendly AI Lumo in the past month.

Today, the company announced a new feature for paid members. Emergency Access is designed to provide a way into a user’s account under certain circumstances, such as injury or death.

Proton writes in a new blog post:

With our new Emergency Access feature, you can grant permission to trusted contacts to securely access your Proton Account after a set period of time, ensuring nothing important is lost if you’re unable to enter your account due to death or illness.

Proton users may select up to five trusted contacts who may access a user’s account either immediately or after a select wait time that they may set in advance. For this to work, the trusted contacts do need a Proton Account of their own.

When a trusted contact requests access, one of two things happens: if the user set up a wait time, they may approve or deny the request in that period. Once the wait time is over, the request is granted automatically and the trusted contact gains access to the entire account.

For instance, if you set the wait time to four weeks, you have four weeks to allow or deny the request.

Emergency access can be disabled at any time by the account owner. Furthermore, Proton notes that it is applying to the entire Proton account of the user and not just a single application.

Proton users may set up the feature under Recovery > Add emergency contact. There they may add email addresses of their trusted contacts. Proton notes that the emails need to be associated with a Proton account.

Trusted contacts may request emergency access under Settings > Recovery.

Now You: do you have set up emergency options for accounts that support it? Feel free to leave a comment down below.