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AJ Nettles wants to work at Apple one day after meeting CEO Tim Cook. The second-year student attending the University of Alabama at Birmingham has affirmed his journey in cybersecurity, one that began at an early age tinkering with computers while living in the small town of Monroeville, AL. “Our family had our first computer near when I was 5, and I really had fun interacting and playing around with it, learning about the internet and things like that,” Nettles told AFROTECH™. “Then I like to play games, so that kind of helped feed back into learning about technology overall, like computer science, and thinking about how it works and stuff. I was first exposed to it when I was young.” By the time Nettles reached the end of his time at Monroe County High School, he gained robotics experience and became more interested in learning about computer science and building technologies. “I had a bunch of different accounts for everything to play my games and email and all that. And I used...
If you’re tired of creating fake email addresses to take advantage of Netflix’s free 30-day trial period, Popeye’s will create one for you. The Louisiana style fast-food restaurant has launched its new “Fried Chicken ‘n Chill” campaign. The first 1,000 Twitter users to post a photo of them eating a Popeyes meal with the hashtag #ThatPasswordFromPopeyes will receive a Netflix username and password. Popeyes released their campaign video via Twitter where they explain because of their southern roots, everyone is treated like family. Therefore, sharing Netflix passwords is the right thing to do. #SelfQuarantined at home and slowly losing your mind? We got you Popeyes Fam. With a streaming service password. Limitations apply. #ThatPasswordFromPopeyes pic.twitter.com/Gbce7rLffm — Popeyes (@Popeyes) March 22, 2020 According to The Takeout , Popeyes saw over 35 percent growth in sales in 2019 after its chicken sandwich went viral causing mayhem among chicken lovers. The increase in sales...
A music-streaming site is probably one of the last places you’d expect hackers to hit. Sadly, you may have expected wrong. On Thursday, Spotify notified an unspecified amount of users that the company reset their passwords — but didn’t clarify why. The most detail Spotify gave users were telling them that their passwords were reset “due to detected suspicious activity,” as TechCrunch reported . Some Spotify users took to Twitter to express their confusion. “Huh. Unexpected email from Spotify due to some ‘suspicious activity’. My password is randomly generated and long so makes me wonder what happened there,” one user tweeted. https://twitter.com/x00/status/1131580774770192390 Although Spotify didn’t elaborate on what’s happening, it’s possible that this is an example of a “credential stuffing attack.” That’s where hackers scrape lists of usernames and passwords from hacked sites. Then, they use that information to get into other sites. “As part of our ongoing maintenance efforts to...
When storing passwords, companies will encrypt them in some way so that they’re secure. Apparently, that isn’t the case for Google, who recently discovered a bug that left some users unprotected. On Tuesday, Google published a blog post disclosing that a portion of its G Suite users had their passwords left in plain text. The bug started around 2005, but Google says it hasn’t seen any sign of improper access or misuse of the affected passwords. “We take the security of our enterprise customers extremely seriously, and pride ourselves in advancing the industry’s best practices for account security,” Suzanne Frey, Vice President of Engineering, wrote. “Here we did not live up to our own standards, nor those of our customers. We apologize to our users and will do better.” G Suite is the corporate version of Gmail and other Google apps. This issue does not impact any regular Gmail accounts. The bug was implemented when Google created tools to set and recover passwords for G Suite...
Facebook is no stranger to security blunders. Last month, the company confirmed it had stored millions of Facebook passwords in plain text. However, Facebook assured people that only “tens of thousands” of Instagram users were affected. Now, Facebook is changing its tune. On Thursday, the company updated the blog post where it had originally confirmed the breach, writing: ( Update on April 18, 2019 at 7AM PT: Since this post was published, we discovered additional logs of Instagram passwords being stored in a readable format. We now estimate that this issue impacted millions of Instagram users. We will be notifying these users as we did the others. Our investigation has determined that these stored passwords were not internally abused or improperly accessed). Going from the original “tens of thousands” to “millions” is not a small leap. According to the Krebs on Security report that first exposed Facebook’s error, the passwords were accessible to over 20,000 Facebook employees....
Facebook isn’t exactly well known for having the best security practices and now, another blunder has surfaced. On Thursday, a report from Krebs on Security revealed the company had stored hundreds of millions of users’ passwords for Facebook, Facebook Lite, and Instagram in plain text, making user passwords accessible to thousands of Facebook employees. Usually, passwords are encrypted when they’re stored through a process called hashing , but Facebook had a “series of security failures” that left people’s password information wide open, according to the Krebs report. Pedro Canahuati, Facebook’sVP of Engineering, Security, and Privacy, confirmed the breach in a blog titled “Keeping Passwords Secure”, writing, “As part of a routine security review in January, we found that some user passwords were being stored in a readable format within our internal data storage systems.” This may not seem like a big deal, because the company said there’s no sign that the passwords were visible to...
The days of sharing Netflix and Hulu passwords could soon be coming to a end. At the annual CES convention in Las Vegas, software company Synamedia revealed its artificial intelligence tracker that helps streaming services find users who are sharing account information. The company is using AI to geo-locate users who could be sharing passwords. The technology analyzes whether one account is being used in multiple locations at the same time and flags the streaming service. According to a report from CNBC , 35 percent of millennials share passwords, which could be causing streaming companies to miss out on millions of dollars. For Gen X and Baby Boomers, password sharing rates are estimated at 19 percent and 13, respectively. CNBC also reported that Netflix announced it is increasing its prices by 13 to 18 percent. It is unclear whether the pricing has been impacted by product costs or users sharing passwords. According to The Verge , the software is already being tested in a number...
Apple is on the lookout for bright developers. The tech giant will soon be jumpstarting its 2025 Swift Student Challenge, which was created to empower rising developers, creators, and entrepreneurs. Its website mentions they will be tasked with scaling their ideas into an application leveraging tools that include Swift Playgrounds and Xcode. Previous winners include Keitaro Kawahara of Japan (PuzzlePix), Ruoshan Li of China (Deep Blue Tangram), and University of Alabama at Birmingham student AJ Nettles, who submitted an application named CryptOh. As AFROTECH™ previously told you, his app includes an interactive guide that explains the importance of password security and serves as a password manager and generator. “I wanted to make it easier for people to store their passwords and not have them on a random sticky note on the edge of their computer,” he told AFROTECH™. Nettles was among the 50 Distinctive Winners out of 350 winners of the challenge in 2024, and he was able to meet...
A security breach has put many social security numbers at risk. Bloomberg reports that background check company Jerico Pictures Inc., doing business as National Public Data, revealed sensitive information for nearly 3 billion people in April 2024. Hacking group USDoD reportedly stole and released that data on the dark web under “National Public Data.” This was brought forward in a class-action lawsuit filed in April 2024 in the U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale, FL, which also mentioned the information had been up for grabs for $3.5 million, according to Bloomberg. Per the complaint, this data includes sensitive information such as Social Security numbers, complete names, family information, and addresses that date back several decades . According to U.S. Public Information Research Group Consumer Watchdog Director Teresa Murray, the compromise could now leave many at risk of crimes such as identity theft and fraud, The Los Angeles Times reports. “If this, in fact, is pretty...
Claudette McGowan has raised significant funding to address cybersecurity concerns. Protexxa McGowan founded Protexxa, a Canada-based cybersecurity firm launched in 2021. It uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help companies and individuals resolve cyber issues or attacks faster. Examples of this include detecting exposed passwords, taking down online images, and developing response plans for customers in the event of an attack, a press release mentioned. With human error accounting for 90% of cyber attacks, the company’s solutions focus on improving personal cybersecurity hygiene to reduce business risk, per the press release. “People aren’t prepared for the reality of this risk, plus AI is helping attackers to scale, every device is connected, and there’s a shortage in cybersecurity talent to help reduce these risks,” McGowan told TechCrunch. “Using simple passwords, not using MFA [multi-factor authentication], ignoring privacy settings or over-sharing are all ways humans play a...
The days of getting your family member or friend to share their Netflix password seem to be numbered. Forbes reports that the streaming giant is locking down on a new way to charge users for giving their account information out to people who are outside of their households. To bring the plan to direct action, Netflix is currently testing a password-sharing fee in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru.
Two days ago, I minted my first NFT. I’ve been increasingly enamored with the idea of both, collecting digital art, and the concept and implications of smart contracts over this past year. After doing a ton of research over the last couple of months, I decided I wasn’t going to really learn by sitting on the sidelines, I needed to get in. Either I was going to buy some NFTs, or I was going to make some. I could even do both! What kept me apprehensive about buying NFTs was the hype surrounding some of the ones we’ve all probably heard of, CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club . While learning, I found it difficult to decipher signal from noise as I both explored what I wanted to invest in, and learned how to actually buy something I wanted. I knew the Punks and Apes had value, but they were also tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars to secure. There were cool things I found in price ranges I didn’t mind investing in, but being a newbie, I didn’t feel comfortable yet...
When Megan Thee Stallion isn’t being a superstar on stage, she’s signing a business deal and the latest just rung our favorite “H-Town Hottie” in as a franchise owner! Popeyes announced today their new extensive deal with the rapper, Adweek reports. The news comes in as Megan’s biggest deal so far in her career. Courtesy of CNW Group/Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, Inc. “I’m appreciative of Popeyes commitment to empowering Black women and look forward to opening Popeyes Restaurants,” said Megan Thee Stallion in a statement. “Teaming up with Popeyes is such a milestone in my journey and evolution as an entrepreneur. I’ve always been a fan of the Popeyes brand and I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to join the brand and help create the new Megan Thee Stallion Hottie Sauce for their line-up.” Megan becoming the fast-food chain’s newest franchise owner is unlike your typical restaurant-celebrity partnership. It also appears that the partnership won’t be short-term. “Popeyes one-of-a-kind...
Just two years after a previous incident where his home was also raided, Bill Omar Carrasquillo — commonly known as “Omi in a Hellcat” on YouTube — received an abrupt awakening from federal authorities. On the morning of Sept. 21, the YouTuber was placed in handcuffs and indicted for an ongoing internet piracy scheme in his New Jersey mansion. Carrasquillo — a YouTuber who once boasted about his 790,000 subscribers on the social platform — has flashed his lavish lifestyle over the years, which includes millions of dollars in assets, 52 properties, and 57 vehicles, according to CBSPhilly. A large portion of the YouTuber’s wealth is said to be illegal — coming from the Internet protocol television service, (IPTV) Reboot, Gears TV, Reloaded and Gears Reloaded. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Omar Carrasquillo (@omi_in_a_hellcat) “I don’t think I ever did anything wrong. I was running businesses wide open in the public. So now we just gotta see. We are going to have our...
Do you remember the time when working from home was considered a luxury? Now, workers across the world have transitioned to working remotely due to the unprecedented impact of COVID-19. Remote work has become a necessity in today’s world. However, the sudden transition to remote work has left many gaps in security strategies and protocols. More companies are considering making the transition to remote work long-term, but this will require making changes to the security protocols and strategies to ensure protection against identity theft, data breaches, and other cyberattacks. What security measures does your business have in place to ensure your remote workers are protected? Tip #1: Invest in the right antivirus software One of the most effective resources available to your business is antivirus software . A cyber attack can result in significant financial and reputational damage to a business. There is a strong chance the numbers will rise as more cyber criminals look to obtain...