Petronella Technology Blog

Subscribe
Visit Blog
By: Petronella Cybersecurity and Digital Forensics

Blog Authors

Craig Petronella

Latest from Petronella Technology Blog

DO YOU WANT TO GET HACKED? This is NOT a drill! In a huge week for Hackers’ News, this is still huge.  On Monday it was announced that BILLIONS of passwords and other sensitive information was leaked on the dark web via a 100GB text file almost 8-and-a-half billion passwords. It’s being called “RockYou2020.” <font face=”Sarcasm”>Cute.</font> While it’s likely that this is a massive conglomeration of stolen credentials throughout the decades, it is still, well……
In Hackers’ News that NOBODY expected, hacked pipeline giant, Colonial Pipeline, might be getting back a good portion of the almost $5 million ransom they paid last month to the Russian cyberterrorist group, DarkSide. Turns out that notifying the FBI early on in the matter might just have been the right step to take, as US investigators were able to recover millions in bitcoins. Not much is currently known, but one thing is for sure……
Remember simpler times when our biggest concern was being “juice jack” hacked at a public charging station, rather than worrying about whether we could leave our home or not without catching the plague?  In case you were too busy enjoying maskless merry-making to remember the craze from a couple of years ago, “juice jacking,” in hackers news, was when you would plug your phone into a public charging station and your data would get hacked…
If this isn’t a cautionary tale about the importance of cybersecurity, then we aren’t sure what is. It was reported that Colonial Pipeline, who was the victim of DarkSide, a new-ish Russian ransomware group, paid the $5 million dollar ransom on Friday, the day before they shut down their 5,500-mile pipeline.  Paying a ransom, while not illegal, is generally recommended against by the FBI because paying the ransom just encourages the groups to target more…
https-petronellatech-com-blog-wp-content-uploads-2021-02-protect-150x150-jpg
It’s been almost a year now, since the pandemic seemingly turned our worlds upside-down in what was seemingly an instant.  Many workers who had never worked remotely began doing so on a regular basis.  And while that was immensely helpful in curtailing the spread of the physical virus, e-viruses have flourished, as anyone with even a grain of cybersecurity knowledge accurately predicted. So, while we tried to warn folks, we knew we’d have our work…
https-petronellatech-com-blog-wp-content-uploads-2021-01-brad-pouncey-0katrswvoje-unsplash-150x150-jpg
Today, Apple offered emergency security patches for the iOS 14.4 and iPad OS 14.4 platforms, warning users that they found three separate security vulnerabilities… Vulnerabilities that hackers might already be in the process of exploiting. READ: DO NOT DELAY UPDATING YOUR iPHONE OR OTHER APPLE DEVICE!!! While Apple declined to provide in-depth vulnerability details, here is what we do know? CVE-2021-1782: Kernel vulnerability Impact: A malicious application may be able to elevate privileges. Apple is…
https-petronellatech-com-blog-wp-content-uploads-2021-01-marcus-dall-col-grg6-dnjuau-unsplash-150x150-jpg
Waves are everywhere, even if you don’t see them. In fact, you can’t see them until you observe them- hence the very weird “double-slit” experiment. As patterns go, they extend for what appears to be forever. Don’t believe us? Just ask the fractal (rapidly expanding) universe. Talk about a bad case of entropy! Surprisingly, these patterns apply to the stock market as well, which is why, as with everything else, three words apply: data, data,…
https-petronellatech-com-blog-wp-content-uploads-2021-01-download-png
It was a dark week in US politics last week, ranging from the storming of the Capitol Building on January 6 to impeachment papers being drafted on the president, for inciting said act. But it’s turning out to be a dark week for others, as well. Take John Matze, for example.  He is the CEO of Parler, which is an alternative social media outlet that prides itself on its “free speech” policies. As you may…
https-petronellatech-com-blog-wp-content-uploads-2021-01-pawel-janiak-uih8963wyho-unsplash-150x150-jpg
With only 8 days in, 2021 boasts a smorgasbord of choices for “Breaking News” headlines. Our favorite?  Bitcoin. The flagship cryptocurrency has hit record milestones, making believers out of many. From Forbes: “The bitcoin price has added a staggering 400% over the last 12 months, climbing as institutional investors warm to the cryptocurrency and payments giants such as PayPal add their support. Now, with retail investors increasingly eyeing bitcoin in light of its recent…
https-petronellatech-com-blog-wp-content-uploads-2021-01-pelosi-office-1024x576-jpg
The breach of the Capitol building this week was both shocking and scary, but what is clear from the pictures that are emerging is that it was not only the physical structure that was violated that day. What we have seen since Wednesday is that the MAGA rioters were able to not only able to break into the offices of congresspeople, but they were able to remain there long enough to snap pictures of themselves…