Wifi hacker for windows 7

Kaspersky’s report on the impact of Covid-19 on SMEs in 2020 pointed out that as the pandemic has caused serious damage to businesses, many of them cut their budgets for information technology and information security solutions in 2021. Micro businesses and business households do not have enough money to hire workers in charge of information security.

Ransomware

Experts said ransomeware of different types ‘mushroomed’ in 2020, targeting more subjects and increasing the level of danger. They have targeted hospitals, medical and financial institutions, important agencies, factories and infrastructure items in order to increase the pressure and require ransoms.

Meanwhile, the level of awareness and vigilance of SMEs about the malware remains modest.

A report from Coveware showed that ransomware ‘favors’ SMEs with fewer than 100 officers with 55 percent of attacks targeting this group of businesses.

The majority of SMEs that are victims of ransomeware pay ransoms in exchange to get back for their important data.

A new characteristic of Ransomware 2.0 is that they not only encrypt data and require ransoms, but also blackmail victims in exchange for not making public the data.

Scamming via emails, mobile messages

Hackers exploit mistakes by officers and key personnel in enterprises and organizations to penetrate into their systems, and steal financial information and enterprises’ data.

Abnormal Security reported that the number of phishing emails disguised as invoices and payments has increased by 81 percent, causing a loss of $81,000 on average for every attack.

Experts found that it is easier to cheat people via mobile messages associated with links that people click on. This type of phishing has become favored by hackers.

Response

Ngo Tran Vu, CEO of NTS Security, said the Covid-19 pandemic has forcef SMEs to run a remote working regime, which is a high risk for businesses’ information safety.

“Officers working from a distance tend to be (careless) when accessing enterprises’ secret information. They may access businesses’ accounts from public wifi networks which can be hacked easily,” he said.

The devices they use, such as computers and smartphones, also cannot be protected well like devices at office which are protected by professional IT officers. Therefore, businesses need to set principles for information access to protect data.

“A plan for safe remote work and scenarios to respond to emergency cases are necessary for SMEs,” Vu said.

He went on to say that backup, both offline and online, on clouds will help reduce risks from ransomware.

Trong Dat

Ensuring information security for cloud computing a key national goal

The Ministry of Information and Communications has determined that the cloud computing platform is a key part of telecommunications infrastructure to focus on in the coming years.

Vietnamese team tops qualifying round of ASEAN information security contest

Pawsitive of the University of Engineering and Technology under the Vietnam National University, Hanoi excellently surpassed rivals to gain the first place at the ASEAN Student Contest on Information Security 2020’s qualifier on October 31.

Earlier this month, Ngo Minh Hieu published a long article on his personal page, sharing information about a cyber-safety software that took him “three nights to complete.”

Hieu doing such good, useful work is the stuff of Hollywood or Bollywood scripts about redemption of erstwhile criminals and/or convicts.

As a teen and a youth, from 2007 until 2013, Hieu stole personal data, including names, birth dates, social security numbers, and bank account information from online marketplaces, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. He sold the information for nearly $2 million, the department said.

On his release, Hieu said he regretted his action and hoped that he would land a cybersecurity job to make amends.

His hope has been realized. He returned to Vietnam in August and works currently for Vietnam’s National Cybersecurity Center (NCSC).

Hieu’s new initiative, “Chong Lua Dao” (Fighting scam), can be installed on Chrome, Coc Coc, Brave and Kiwi browsers. It will rate the safety level of websites and social media accounts. For instance, if a page is flagged as a phishing or otherwise unsuitable site, the software add-on will block the computer from accessing it. The software had more than 3,500 downloads a day after it was launched.

For real?

The anti-phishing article on Hieu’s personal account has received tens of thousands of comments and interactions, mostly of encouragement. But there were some who expressed doubts about an information security tool built by someone who used to be a hacker.

“I know that people won’t stop talking about at my past,” said Hieu. However, he has moved on and does not care about his history, Hieu said, he is focused on creating benefits for the community at large.

The idea of creating a software to protect users from phishing sites crossed his mind when he was serving his sentence in the U.S. and deployed after he returned to Vietnam.

He said that he has learned his lessons from past mistakes and now considers them “assets” that help him build a project against phishing.

“I understand the nature of the matter since I once was a hacker going around deceiving people and spreading malicious codes. So I want to contribute my understanding to help the community.”

In the anti-phishing development team, Hieu is responsible for evaluating the safety of a website. His previous experience helps him tell at just a glance if a site is a scam or not.

The anti-phishing tool is built on the idea of MyWOT – a tool that evaluates the reputation of websites with more than 6 million users around the world, sharing a similar working mechanism. The add-on evaluates the security of a website based on technical analysis, such as IP, URL length and SSL certificate, combined with user ratings, which are combined to create an overall rating on a 1 to 5 scale for each site.

However, the development team must review each report to avoid errors in their judgment, since there are safe websites getting bad reviews from competitors or malicious websites that get good reviews from people “with bad intentions.”

Thanks to Hieu’s experience as well as the contribution of two other security experts, the tool has added 1,000 websites to the “blacklist” after reviewing 1,400 reports from users just one day after its launch. Once it is blacklisted, a website will be “locked,” preventing users from accessing it. The browser displays warnings when certain users want to access such phishing websites.

‘Bamboo curtain’

The “Chong Lua Dao” add-on has been launched in the context of increasing instances of fraud in Vietnam’s internet environment.

Hieu said a phishing website is one that mimics a reputable page in order to attract traffic and takes advantage of the users’ personal information, spreads malicious codes or carries out direct scams for money.

With the rapid rise in internet and mobile users in Vietnam, cybercriminals are also using increasingly sophisticated tricks. For example, a hacker buys a domain name that is similar to that of an airline in order to impersonate it. For this, a professional interface is built and money spent on pushing the website up in the Google search results.

Recently, cybercriminals invested hundreds of millions of dong in equipment to fake a mobile broadcasting station and use the “brand message” to urge people to click on fraudulent websites.

“Cybercriminals in Vietnam are investing more and more money on upgrading their scamming tactics,” Hieu said.

The former hacker said new internet users with little knowledge about information technology are most likely to become victims of these scams.

“Even my parents regularly visit such websites,” Hieu said, adding that this motivates him and his team further in completing their projects.

“In the past, bamboo forests helped protect rural people from enemy attacks and natural disasters, now I want to build an anti-phishing barrier to protect everyone from internet fraud.”

The logo of the new software add-on has the image of a bamboo cluster forming a fence, protecting the “green” sides on the internet. Hieu’s nine member team want to see the small green bamboo icon on as many users’ browsers as possible.

Hieu admitted that the project was not perfect because, as a non-profit initiative, it faces human resource limitations. The team is advocating the application of artificial intelligence for faster and more accurate identification, incorporating the open source code of a tool specialized in phishing websites detection to give the best results for the Vietnamese market.

The larger the number of users, the more fake websites will be reported and the more accurate the tool becomes, thus reducing the amount of people needed to moderate internet traffic.

The Chong Lua Dao project plans to develop more applications on smartphones, adding the ability to prevent malicious YouTube and Facebook pages.

Hieu said he also plans to organize small competitions on using the tool in order to help users access security knowledge in newer ways.

He added: “This project is for the community and also develops through the community.”

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK — Government investigators warned of dangerous overcrowding at more migrant facilities on the southwest U.S. border, publishing photos on Tuesday of packed cells in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley where some children have no access to showers or hot meals.

A report issued by investigators for the Department of Homeland Security said supervisors raised concerns for the health and safety of detainees and agents, warning that the overcrowding represented a “ticking time bomb.”

The DHS watchdog issued the report after June visits to five U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency facilities in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) sector, the busiest area of the border for migrant arrests.

It came as President Donald Trump’s administration pushed back against criticism of its migrant detention centers on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Conditions at the centers have been a flashpoint since May when the watchdog warned of similar conditions at facilities in the El Paso, Texas sector, west of the Rio Grande Valley, with migrants held for weeks instead of days, and adults kept in cells with standing room only.

Security incidents among men at RGV facilities included detainees clogging toilets in order to be released from cells, migrants refusing to return to cells, and special operations teams brought in to show that Border Patrol was prepared to use force, the report on Tuesday said.

Migrants banged on cell windows and shouted when investigators visited. Most single adults had not had a shower despite several being held as long as a month. One photo showed a man in a cell with 88 men, that was built to hold 41, holding a message reading: “Help 40 Day(s) Here.”

The watchdog’s report recommended CBP accelerate transfer of single adults to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency responsible for long-term migrant detention.

Border Patrol stations have been overwhelmed after migrant apprehensions hit a 13-year high in May during a surge in Central American families.

Migrant flows have since dropped after Mexico deployed thousands of militarized police as part of a deal with the United States to avoid U.S. tariffs on Mexican goods.

Border-wide apprehensions fell 30% to 100,037 in June from 144,278 in May, including people who appeared at border crossings and were deemed inadmissible, the Mexican government said on Tuesday, citing U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

Drink out of toilets

Members of a congressional group visiting facilities in El Paso on Monday said migrants were being kept in deplorable conditions.

The delegation had been told to surrender its phones ahead of the tour, but Democratic U.S. Representative Joaquin Castro smuggled a device into a Border Patrol station and took video of women in a cramped cell.

Some said they had been held for 50 days, some separated from children, denied showers for up to 15 days and in some cases, medication, Castro tweeted.

According to Democratic U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, women were told to drink out of a toilet.

“I don’t know what Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is talking about,” White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said in an interview with Fox Business Network, calling members of CBP “some of the bravest men and women on the planet.”

“They provided three meals a day to people who are here illegally and unlawfully, two snacks in between,” Gidley said.

Trump has made a crackdown on illegal immigration a centerpiece of his domestic policy agenda and 2020 re-election bid. But his efforts to build a wall on the southern border have been blocked in Congress, and he was forced last year to backtrack after his “zero tolerance” border policy of separating migrant children from their parents provoked widespread outrage.

A federal judge in Seattle on Tuesday blocked a Trump administration policy that would have kept thousands of asylum seekers in custody while they pursued their cases.

The American Civil Liberties Union, and other immigrant rights groups, sued the government to stop the policy of denying bond hearings to asylum seekers.

U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman ruled that people detained after entering the country to seek asylum were entitled to such hearings.

In New York, several hundred people gathered on Tuesday to demonstrate against the Trump administration’s treatment of migrants, part of a planned nationwide day of protests by rights groups targeting members of the U.S. Congress.

The demonstrations were fueled by fears the Trump administration is preparing a roundup of immigrants who are in the country illegally. Trump last month delayed the raids by two weeks.

The People’s Committee of Lam Dong Province recently launched a contest to solicit solutions for the Da Lat City’s long-standing traffic issues.

Visitors to Da Lat during the Lunar New Year holiday season are likely to find themselves facing one of the city’s longest infrastructure issues: traffic.

While a slew of planned projects, including the constructions of belt roads, have yet to materialize, local authorities are mulling pleas for a traffic light system to manage the ever-growing congestion issues facing the locality.  

A ‘human traffic light’

Motorbike collisions are common at the intersection of Phan Chau Trinh, Tran Quy Cap, and Quang Trung Streets in Da Lat. Typically, drivers who find themselves in an accident will pull themselves up, hurl a few insults at anyone else involved, and be on their way without actually settling the dispute.

Locals say that such common occurrences could be totally avoided if the city would seriously consider a traffic light system in lieu of the current system of ‘human stop lights’ – traffic police officers mobilized throughout the city to attempt to regulate congestion.

“It takes a team of twelve to mediate traffic at Kim Cuc and Hai Thuong junctions during holidays. We’re out there all day. From 6:00 am and 9:00 pm,” said Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Van Hung, head of traffic police in Da Lat City.

“It’s very taxing for the team and there’s little we can do to actually help since all we have are whistles and batons. During peak seasons, we have to bring in ward-level police and provincial traffic forces to help us.”

According to Hung, the root of Da Lat’s traffic problems can be traced to a lack of coordination between vehicles, manpower, and technological systems.

Nguyen Dang Phuong Nguyen, a Da Lat native, said she once spent 90 minutes in a terrible traffic jam to traverse the 2-kilometer length from Prenn Pass to Xuan Huong Lake waterfront near Da Lat Market.

“I decided to avoid going outside for days after that. Our family now stays home during the peak tourism days. We only go out in off-peak periods to stock up on food,” Nguyen shared.

“I think city authorities need a solution to this issue so that they can develop tourism without disrupting the daily lives of locals,” she added.

Are traffic lights necessary?

“The sound application [of urban planning] is a way to preserve the merits of all cities, including Da Lat. A lack of problem-solving for our issues will eventually bring us down,” said Nguyen Huu Tranh, a writer and Da Lat expert, during a recent exchange on preserving the historical values of Da Lat in a contemporary context.

In reference to the city’s traffic problem, Tranh shared that “During the 1950s, we would be told off by police if we violated [road traffic] laws. There was no traffic light, but the town’s population was so low that police were only needed at a few junctions. Traffic has since evolved, as if it’s two different worlds.”

Truong Huu Hiep, director of Lam Dong Province’s Department of Transport, said that relevant authorities did suggest that installation of traffic lights at three important junctions of Da Lat City in the past, but the plan failed to gain traction.

Now, however, as senior officials in the city see that other locales have built traffic lights with success, those who did not support the plan in the past seem to have changed their minds.

The installation of traffic lights is crucial, but we still need to figure out where we’ll put them,” Hiep said.

The city’s authorities are currently devising a detailed plan for traffic light installation, which will be presented to city residents for feedback. The plan will be part of the smart city system that the city is currently envisioning.

According to Le Minh Chien, president of Da Lat University, the absence of traffic lights is hardly an issue for locals who know their way around the city. Instead, Chien said, tourists who visit the city without understanding of local traffic are the cause of the chaos.

An artist’s vantage point

Da Lat has long been referred to as ‘the city without traffic lights,’ a small quirk that adds to the eccentricity of the place, said Nguyen Trung Hien, founder and director of the Da Lat-based art residency program Pho Ben Doi, also an activist with involvement in art initiatives and architecture preservation projects in the central highland township.

As Hien indicated, development pressure can erase that quirk from the city, but it can also open the window for future unique characteristics.

“I’m talking about discrete traffic light post designs that depart from Vietnam’s uniform blueprint. It fits Da Lat’s orientation of becoming a cultural tourism destination,” Hien suggested, referring to references of traffic light posts in the likes of Paris and Venice.

Attention to the small design details of traffic lights and ornamental lamps will render Da Lat a much more charming place.

It will appease the yearning for traffic light peculiarity of city residents and tourists, while also ensuring traffic safety.

This initiative, however, will require deep research from relevant agencies so that the city can maintains its reputation as one of Vietnam’s six Cultural Cities as named by the British Council, and eventually achieve the Asia-level ‘City of art’ title.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!