Security Awareness Training by Abhay Verma

Have you ever ordered from India Domino’s using website or mobile app? Then your personal data might be compromised. From the last few months, India’s servers are becoming a juicy target for the hackers and which is constantly being rising. After the data leak of MobiKwik, Upstox, BigBasket and number of other companies, it is now  Domino’s India that recently faced a massive data breach. According to Alon Gal , CTO of Hudson Rock, a hacker on the dark web claimed to hacked Domino’s India and stole 13 TB of customers’ data along with 250 of its employees. Threat actor claiming to have hacked Domino's India ( @dominos ) and stealing 13TB worth of data. Information includes 180,000,000 order details containing names, phone numbers, emails, addresses, payment details, and a whopping 1,000,000 credit cards. pic.twitter.com/1yefKim24A — Alon Gal (Under the Breach) (@UnderTheBreach) April 18, 2021   Also, as per the hacker’s post on dark web, s(he) has collected da...

After the massive Facebook Data Leak, here is another data leak, this time we have LinkedIn. A report by CyberNews, an archive containing data of about 500 million LinkedIn users has been scraped and put on sale on popular hacker forum.  Source: CyberNews Another 2 million records are leaked as a sample proof that make certain the possession of real data. The user’s data contained: LinkedIn IDs Full names Email addresses Phone numbers Gender Links to LinkedIn profiles Links to other social media profiles Workplace information Job Titles, and might be something more… The sample data can be viewed for about $2 worth of forum credits, and the threat actor appears to be selling the much-larger 500 million users database for the price in 4-digit sum ($$$$), in bitcoin. Leaked Sample (Source: CyberNews) Possible Outcomes? Users whose data is leaked might face some phishing attacks which are specifically targeted and could trick them into the fraud. The email-ids & phone n...

A cybersecurity expert, Alon Gal, discovered the massive Facebook data leak of 2021, that includes that data of about 533 million users from 106 countries, including over 32 million records from USA, 11 million records from UK, and about 6 million user records from India, in which not only included phone numbers, but also: Facebook Account ID Location Full Name Gender Relationship status Home address and birth location Workplace   Source: m.facebook.com Read More: PII and Identity Theft An interesting thing to note is that, the phone number of Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg is among the personal information leaked online . Multiple outlets reported the claims that Zuckerberg’s leaked information includes his name, location, marriage details, birth date, ID, according to The Sun . Cybersecurity researcher Dave Walker said Zuckerberg, as well as Facebook cofounders Chris Hughes and Dustin Moskovitz, were among the 533 million users who had personal data posted on ...

Identity theft is the act of unlawfully obtaining someone’s personal information without the permission. The Personally Identifiable Information (PII) includes name, phone number, address, bank account details, Aadhaar and other document numbers, card details and every other information that helps to identify a person is considered as PII. Identity theft is simply stealing these information and using them for illegal activities. Also Read: Social Media Exposing our Personal Data. As per the report on The Economic Times , 4 in 10 Indians have experienced identity theft, and after knowing this we must not overlook the fact that how much dangerous could it be? Identity theft can lead to a number of effects as the stolen information by the criminal can help him/her to personify him/herself as you and can: Gain access to your bank account Apply for loans on your cards or open insurance account File a tax refund in your name and get your refund Obtain a driver’s license, pa...

On January 04, 2021 WhatsApp has released new updated privacy policy which has been a talk among the mass, as their chats now are not private anymore . Also Read: Is Your WhatsApp Really Secure? While opening WhatsApp, you might have noticed that it shows a pop-up which states the WhatsApp new policies and ask you to agree. If you agree to the policies before Feb 08, 2021 you will be able to use WhatsApp, else it states that you can also delete your account. It’s a clear set of options WhatsApp provided, either to accept policies or to stop using the service. Basically, the users are left with no choice. The new policies as stated focus majorly on three points: “WhatsApp’s service and how we process your data” “How businesses can use Facebook hosted services to store and manage their WhatsApp chat” “How we partner with Facebook to offer integration across Facebook Company Products” Overall of these policies, WhatsApp will officially collect data to provide better experience...

Following the previous two blogs, this blog is now addressing the content settings of the browsers which includes Cookies, JavaScript, Flash, Sound, Pop-Ups, etc. I’ll cover each topic in depth and will let you know the potential vulnerable source from each of the setting.  If you haven't read my previous blog of the series, you can read them here:  Browser Security Part 1 Browser Security Part 2 So, let’s start…

C ontinuing with the previous blog, where I snitched you some practices to secure your browser by configuring the auto-save and auto-fill built-in features of the web browser. In my new blog, I will share some more practice for site settings that you need to monitor to prevent websites accessing your resources and collecting your information.  Read Previous Blog Here... Site settings controls what information and content websites can show you and what resources, information and content it can use as you browse the web. On any web browser, you can easily find Site Settings under Privacy and Security tab. The site settings include permissions like Location, Camera, Microphone, Handlers, Motion Sensors, etc. and content like cookies, JavaScript, Pop-ups, Sound, etc. These settings play a vital role in the maintaining your privacy and security of your data.   Where to look for the settings? It doesn't matter which web browser you are using, you need to always configure i...

INTERNET has become a proliferated part of our daily life and we cannot deny the fact that we aren't secure in this cyber world. India, being on the top 3 countries which has maximum number of internet users after USA and China, facing increasing number of cyber attacks as well. Majority of these attacks get successful due to human error, or say, due to our negligence. We all love spending time on internet. From chatting on WhatsApp to watching videos on YouTube, from taking online classes to ordering food, everything is done on internet. Must Read: Check if you are doing something Illegal Online. Since we all are very experienced in using internet for various purposes, but still HOW MUCH OF US KNOW HOW TO USE INTERNET SAFELY? We perform multiple acts daily over the internet, but we do not know whether they are to be performed or not.  I will be sharing with you all some cyber ethics that you, me and each one of us has to follow who are using internet for any purpose. Als...

Mobile devices are the number one most used gadget by any person, and mobile phone has some apps installed in it. Some are pre-installed, while you install some of them. Apps like gaming, production, entertainment, and many more, are mostly preferred ones and these only have the maximum number of FAKE APPS. Image Source: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcRrfPdtSy0ySE6REP0y2W_aM-W0-OFzcMRNgQ&usqp=CAU Fake apps are the apps that appear legitimate and looks to be well functioning but actually aren’t. These are generally designed to harm the users’ devices by stealing information, installing malware, and even jail root your device for full control. Once you download and install these apps, they start performing their malicious actions. Some may show you endless advertisements to generate revenue, while some collects your confidential information via key-logger or screen recorder. Most of the people finds it difficult to differentiate between real and fake apps...