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Showing posts with the label cyber security

Wallet Developers Express Security Concerns Over BitPay’s Payment Protocol Policy

Bitpay  On December 14, 2017, BitPay  announced  a first step toward enforcing the payment protocol: All orders of the  BitPay Card  will require payments from Payment Protocol-compatible wallets, such as BitPay’s own wallet and a few others. This announcement came after an initial notice in November 2017, when BitPay first  announced  that BitPay invoices would soon require payments from wallets compatible with the  Bitcoin Payment Protocol . BitPay’s move has since been met with resistance by some wallet developers that don’t support the Bitcoin Payment Protocol; some are suggesting that BitPay is abusing its leading position in the payment processing space and putting user security at risk. “We absolutely do not support BitPay in aggressively using their dominant position of market share to bully wallet providers into supporting their business plans or bully users into a system that degrades their privacy and the fungibility of bitcoin as a whole,” stated bitcoin wallet  Sam

Bitcoin Price Roller Coaster Makes Ransomware Cybercriminals Queasy

Bitcoin  Bitcoin has done what regulators haven’t been able to accomplish — getting cybercriminals to lay off of cryptocurrencies as the ransom payment du jour in malware attacks. Bitcoin’s price swings over the past few days — from below $10,000 24 hours ago to more than $11,500 today — have stoked emotions ranging from fear of a bubble bursting to euphoria for a buying opportunity. But recent volatility has also unearthed an unlikely trend, causing cybercriminals to forego the sci-fi effect in ransomware demands and name their price in local currency rather than bitcoin. It’s not that bad actors have stopped developing malware, but due to an inability to properly value the cryptocurrency amid the wild ride between Q4 2017 and this week, they’re increasingly turning to more stable fiat money instead to protect their bottom line,  according to a Proofpoint report . The below chart reflects activity for the 90-day period leading up to mid-December. While i

How Users Can Now Secure Their Online Identities with Civic

CIVIC Blockchain-driven digital identity fraud firm Civic has partnered up with  wikiHow​  ​to provide its user base with login security. The partnership will mean that around 150 million monthly wikiHow users will now able to use Civic’s identity platform to log in securely with a verified identity, without needing a username and password. Vinny Lingham, CEO of Civic, said in a statement: “We are pleased to officially welcome wikiHow to Civic’s Partner Network. This collaboration illustrates our continuing, strong momentum in building our ecosystem for on-demand, secure and low-cost access to identity verification services.” Civic says it will help improve wikiHow’s user experience, providing users with a more secure account creation and login process. WikiHow is an open source online “how-to” platform that operates in 87 different languages. Its focus is on “teaching anyone in the world how to do anything” in a collaborative, shared-learning environment. The advantage for wiki