Web User - UK (2019-10-02)

THIS ISSUE’S EXPERT:

David Emm, Principal

SecurityResearcher

at Kaspersky Lab

(www.kaspersky.co.uk)

12 2 - 15 October 2019 Email us your security questions [email protected]

Q

How worryingis

it that smart TVs

share our data

with Netflix (bit.ly/

smarttv485)?

Paul Giddings, Facebook

A

Manyhousehold

devices –from

kitchen appliances

tohome-entertainment

technology– are becoming

inter-connected, sothe lack

LastPass fixes password-

leaking flaw

LastPass has

patcheda

vulnerability that

could haveledto

usersexposing the

login details they

used on the last site they visited.

A flaw in the popular password

manager’s browserextension

rendered the service susceptible

tocybercriminals launching

‘clickjacking’attacks.Tofall victim,

a LastPass userwould havehadto

enter their details on awebsite,then

visit acompromised sitebybeing

tricked into clicking the page link

several times.

This vulnerability affected the

LastPassweb extensionfor Chrome

and Opera, thecompanyconfirmed.

The bugwas discovered byGoogle’s

ProjectZero researchteam, which

disclosed the vulnerabilityto

ofunderstanding about how

theyharvest andmanageour

personal dataisconcerning.

The newsthatsmart TVs

anddigital assistants are

leaking sensitive datatothird

parties suchasNetflix and

Facebook will comeasa

great surprise tomany

consumers andraises

pressing questions: howfar

doesthisacqusitionof

private information

undermine consumertrustin

major technologycompanies

andtowhatextentdoesit

comeatthe expense of

consumerprivacy?

The government mustset

standardsthatlimit the

power oforganisationsto

harvest personal information

without the knowledge and

consent of their customers,

andestablish security

practices for Internetof

Thingsdevices.

It iscrucial thatweare

made aware of the

repercussionsofhaving

connecteddevices inour

homes,and havea say in

whether our dataisshared.

Q

Are biometric

login methods

more secure than

usingpasswords?

Gary Jeffries, Facebook

A

The combination

ofsecurity

breaches and poor

passwordchoicemakes

thema weakformof

authentication. They’re also

anextra hurdletojumpto

gainaccesstoa service,

whereasbiometricsare

more orlessfrictionless.

However, biometricsare

best usedtoreplace

usernames, not passwords,

andthe established advice

about using multi-factor

authenticationtosecure

youraccountsstillstands.

News about the latest threats and advice from securityexperts

Stay Safe Online

SECURITY ALERT! |What’s been bothering us this fortnight

Security Helpdesk|Your questions answered by security specialists

LastPass afewweeks before the flaw

was made public.

LastPasswarned userstobeawareof

the scale of phishingattacksroutinely

launched against them,touse both

anti-malware and antivirus software and

toenable multi-factor authentication on

all services where possible.

bit.ly/lastpass

Security fearsover deepfake

ransomware

Deepfakeransomwareis one of the most

fearedforms ofcyberattack, according

toTrend Micro’s future threat

researchers.The securitycompany

believes that this type ofransomware,

which involves anattacker takinga

selection of images that individuals post

online and using themtocreatean

embarassing or scandalous video such as

pornography or violent behaviour,could

starttospread inyearsto come.

The researchers believethe threat

could be more damaging than current

‘sextortion’ scams because, witha

deepfake,the act doesn’t actually have

totake place.Few people botherto

fact-check, so once the deepfake is out

there,the damage is done.

Theyalsovoiced theirfears that

deepfake scamscould spur an increase

inteenage suicide, soawareness of

these types of scams is important so

wecanremain sceptical if and when

they arise.

See ourFAQ on page 38toread

more about theworrying rise of

deepfake videos.

bit.ly/deepfake

The government must limit the power

of organisations to harvest personal data

without knowledge andconsent