In worst-case scenarios, some vulnerabilities could even allow attackers to take control over the central units and all peripheral devices connected to them

The post Serious flaws found in multiple smart home hubs: Is your device among them? appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

Security is not a game, but learning about it could be – here’s why adding the fun factor can help employees become more cyber-aware

The post How gamification can boost your cybersecurity training appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

In 2015, we launched our Vulnerability Research Grant program, which allows us to recognize the time and efforts of security researchers, including the situations where they don’t find any vulnerabilities. To support our community of security researchers and to help protect our users around the world during COVID-19, we are announcing a temporary expansion of our Vulnerability Research Grant efforts.

In light of new challenges caused by the coronavirus outbreak, we are expanding this initiative by  creating a COVID-19 grant fund. As of today, every Google VRP Bug Hunter who submitted at least two remunerated reports from 2018 through April 2020 will be eligible for a $1,337 research grant. We are dedicating these grants to support our researchers during this time. We are committed to protecting our users and we want to encourage the research community to help us identify threats and to prevent potential vulnerabilities in our products.

We understand the individual challenges COVID-19 has placed on the research community are different for everyone and we hope that these grants will allow us to support our Bug Hunters during these uncertain times. Even though our grants are intended to recognize the efforts of our frequent researchers regardless of their results, as always, bugs found during the grant are eligible for regular rewards per the Vulnerability Reward Program (VRP) rules. We are aware that some of our partners might not be interested in monetary grants. In such cases, we will offer the option to donate the grant to an established COVID-19 related charity and within our discretion, will monetarily match these charitable donations.

For those of you who recently joined us or are planning to start, it’s never too late. We are committed to continue the Vulnerability Research Grant program throughout 2020, so stay tuned for future announcements and follow us on @GoogleVRP!

Being at your beck and call is central to the “personality” of your digital friend, but there are situations when the device could use some time off

The post Work from home: Should your digital assistant be on or off? appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

Can someone take control of your WhatsApp account by just knowing your phone number? We ran a small test to find out.

The post Hey there! Are you using WhatsApp? Your account may be hackable appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

Sextortion-meets-coronavirus scams – The financial loss from coronavirus-themed fraud in America – Is the time ripe for one global set of data privacy rules?

The post Week in security with Tony Anscombe appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

Scams demanding bitcoin on pain of infecting you with the coronavirus gain their fair share of shine among schemes with a thin veneer of plausibility

The post Scams, lies, and coronavirus appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

The tool, which comes after a similar effort by Google, looks at how people’s traveling behavior has changed since the start of the pandemic

The post Apple releases mobility data to help combat COVID‑19 appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

Even accounts belonging to banks and educational institutions were found on lists plastered across various hacker forums

The post Half a million Zoom accounts for sale on the dark web appeared first on WeLiveSecurity

The median loss to fraudulent schemes that exploit the global health crisis is almost US$600

The post Americans report US$13 million in losses from coronavirus scams appeared first on WeLiveSecurity