Until now, the threat of ransomware consisted of encrypting the files of the infected computer to demand a ransom to release them or not filter them. A recent study by the Stairwell research team found that they now target data destruction to force payment.

The research team used the Exmatter detection tool for these threats, discovering progress towards a new form of ransomware, much more lethal for the owners of the attacked computers.

The threat of destroying the data in the encrypted files constitutes the highest level of cyberattack so far, so the alarms are already sounding in the digital environment.

Given the increasingly rapid and successful actions of cyberattack specialists to stop the actions of network pirates, the request for a ransom to decrypt files has lost strength.

Its reaction has been to advance a step in the level of possible damage, focusing on the possibility of completely destroying the files and thus ensuring the payment of a ransom.

Among Kaspersky’s recommendations to avoid falling into the trap of cybercriminals, it is mentioned to avoid entering unknown pages, verify that the address is expressed as “https”, avoid the temptations of advertising that is displayed unexpectedly, as well as update periodically antivirus programs and not providing personal data when called by untrusted sources.

M.Pino

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Source: ultimahora.es

La entrada Ransomware moves towards destruction of encrypted data apareció primero en Bitfinance.

WhatsApp is developing reactions to messages with emojis, it is a new beta update, secured by end-to-end encryption, for Android and iOS. This was reported by the WaBetaInfo portal through its Twitter account.

The media also pointed out that the emojis that will be part of the reactions of the instant messaging application are: “the thumbs up, the red heart, the smiling face, the surprised face, the sad face and the joined hands”.

The reaction with emojis was recently implemented by Telegram in its version 8.4, highlighting its innovation and creativity. However, the leadership of instant messaging is held by WhatsApp, although the platform, owned by Meta, has had no problem replicating those functions previously released by the blue platform.

In the published images you can see that the emojis are in the lower right part of the chat, it is also assumed that the operation will be similar to that of Instagram, which appears when pressing the received message. Nevertheless, there is still no date for when this update could come into operation in WhatsApp.

M. Rodríguez

Source: fayerwafer.com

La entrada WhatsApp works on message reaction with emojis apareció primero en Bitfinance.

Facebook Messenger has launched a new option that allows its users to make voice or video calls with end-to-end encryption, a security feature that only allows call participants to access data.

The messaging app has given more privacy controls to users, who already had end-to-end encryption in chat messages since 2016 and are now able to activate the function also in video calls, as announced in a statement by Facebook.

Call encryption is an optional feature that users can enable if they wish. It offers protection to users against hackers, so that calls are encrypted, except for the participants, nobody can know the keys in the process.

Likewise, Facebook Messenger has introduced updated controls for messages that disappear automatically, in which users can now choose more options, so that the content expires between five seconds and 24 hours.

Facebook has also announced other news that will come soon to Messenger. The app will begin testing end-to-end encryption in group chats, including voice and video calls. The new feature will be piloted in the coming weeks. It will be accompanied by controls to avoid unwanted interactions, such as selecting that only friends can send chat requests.

A new feature is the option to protect Instagram direct messages with end-to-end encryption, which works in a similar way to Messenger chats. This novelty will be tested among a limited group of adult users of the social network in some countries.

Source: dpa

La entrada Facebook Messenger launches voice and video calls apareció primero en Bitfinance.

WhatsApp has been working on the encryption of backups in the cloud for a long time, a function that it has just introduced in the beta version of the Android application and that will reach users in a future update.

The company has introduced version 2.21.10.2 of its Android application in the Google Play Beta program, in which it allows activating end-to-end encryption to protect backup copies in the cloud.

With this feature, both the message history and the multimedia files that the user saves in Google Drive will be protected from unauthorized access, as shown in the capture shared by the WABetaInfo portal.

When activating this feature, the application will ask the user to enter a password that will serve to “encrypt future copies”. When the user wants to use said copy on a new device, WhatsApp will ask again for the same password to decrypt it. The user will be able to modify the password as long as the function is active, or even deactivate the encryption whenever it deems appropriate.

Likewise, from the application they indicate that the password is private, which means that neither WhatsApp nor Facebook, nor any other person, can access it or the content of the protected backup copy. Precisely for this reason, if the user loses or forgets it, the company will not be able to help him recover it, although he can create a recovery key to avoid this problem.

Source: dpa

La entrada WhatsApp will protect backups saved on Google Drive apareció primero en Bitfinance.