Introduction Do you use AI? Do you understand what it is…or how it works…or anything about it beyond the buzz?Even if you don’t seek out artificial intelligence engines, there are more than 4.2B WiFi-connected devices that use AI for their “virtual assistants.”Our society is embracing artificial intelligence in more and more aspects of daily life!…

Introduction Are you familiar with the ancestry and biotechnology service, 23andMe? More than 14M people around the world use their website!In December 2023, 23andMe confirmed a data breach that affected 6.9 million users. Hackers accessed data including names, birth years, relationship labels, DNA shared percentages, ancestry reports, and self-reported locations. This means for over half…

Introduction How often has a friend, coworker or family member introduced you to something for the first time…only for it to show up on your Instagram and Facebook feeds next time you log in?It’s a popular theory that smart phones are covertly listening in on our conversations to target ads and personalize our online experiences.…

Introduction Imagine a busy restaurant suddenly bombarded with fake reservations, overwhelming the staff and leaving real customers waiting outside. That’s essentially what a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack does to websites and online services.A DDoS attack is a cyberattack that aims to flood a website or service with fake traffic, making it unavailable to legitimate users.…

Introduction Sick of getting spam emails? Tired of almost falling for scams?Cybercriminals have only gotten smarter, and therefore more adept at tricking regular, and even security-aware, people into falling for their tactics.Thankfully, technology has developed alongside cyber-threats to help protect our data. For example, did you know that you can actually add spam tags to…

Introduction Did you know? The dark web packages and sells ransomware-as-a-service, known commonly as RaaS. The so-called “ransomware kits” include everything that the buyer needs to perpetuate an attack: from the ransomware code, ready to launch, down to the websites and forums they can use to publish stolen data.Motivated individuals don’t have to invent malicious…