Hacking has long been thought of as a sort of black magic whose incantations are made using keyboards . That is , until 2016 , when the John Podesta email hack made big enough news that hackers ’ dirty secret got out : many breaches have less to do with coding skills and much more to do with classic trickery , albeit in digital form . Web users simply get duped Attack.Phishing into entering their username and passwords onto fake websites . With that information , it doesn ’ t take any special cleverness to hack a system . The attacker has the keys . The chief tool hackers use to lure Attack.Phishing unsuspecting people to these phony websites is email . When the victim works at a company of some kind , those credentials might provide cyber-criminals with access to more than just email . The same credentials might also provide access to intranets , servers and sensitive data . Executives are looking hard for ways to protect their operations today without cramping employee productivity . One method many might be looking at is virtual machines , workspaces that run software on the cloud but looks to the user just like a normal desktop . As counter-measures go , muckraking news outlet The Intercept has sung its praises . As it happens , Amazon Web Services announced a new offer on its blog Thursday—40 hours of virtual machinery free to users and companies that might want to try it out . Windows 7 and Windows 10 experiences are available . Working inside a window into the cloud protects physical devices from evil code a user might get tricked into initializing . Called WorkSpaces , it can give staff access to all of a company ’ s data and tools from anywhere . If an employee is working from home and gets hit Attack.Ransom by ransomware , it encrypts everything on the hard drive and demands payment Attack.Ransom in bitcoin to set data free . If the ransomware got run on the employee ’ s actual machine , all the music , photos and personal documents stored there would be locked up too . On a virtual machine , though , only the virtual device gets hit . All that personal data stays safe . If a user clicks on a link in a malicious email and accepts a prompt to enter their user name and password on a phony website , there is nothing about a virtual machine that will prevent that information from getting lost . That ’ s why it ’ s good for companies to have more robust sign-ons , such as using two-factor authentication . More sophisticated hackers might try to get specific credentials for high level employees in order to impersonate them digitally . For example , an attacker could send Attack.Phishing an email from an executive ’ s email address , Jakobsson explained , directing bookkeepers to wire money to a specific account for phony services , Jakobsson explained . The FBI has estimated that such scams have cost companies $ 5 billion over the last few years . A virtual machine can ’ t prevent that trick . Carbon Black delivers security services over the crowd , spotting attacks and detecting intruders . “ The majority of leading cybersecurity researchers are not yet ready to give all the power to the machines just yet , ” Rick McElroy , a security strategist there wrote the Observer , via a spokesperson . “ User awareness and education continue to major best practices when it comes to defending against phishing attacks Attack.Phishing . Computers will help , but not yet replace , human decision making. ” Desktop-as-a-service systems like WorkSpaces can turn clunky computers into lean , mean , totally updated machines . They might even be digital Sir Lancelot ’ s , protecting companies ’ IT castles well , but one knight won ’ t be enough—firms will still need a full roundtable .

A NEW DVLA car tax scam Attack.Phishing is doing the rounds online which could see motorists duped Attack.Phishing into entering sensitive information and being ripped off by criminals . Here ’ s what to do if you receive this message . DVLA car tax scam are not a new thing and every couple of months a new one does the rounds . Criminals pose as Attack.Phishing the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency in a bid to extort motorists of their cash by requesting this bank details . These crooks usually try to achieve this by threatening a monetary punishment of some sort or in other cases by stating that the driver is entitled to a refund . The problem for some motorists could fall Attack.Phishing for the fraudulent messages especially as they often look fairly professional and can even contain the logo of the DVLA Motorists Jason Price , however , was not fooled Attack.Phishing by the latest attempt by fraudsters trying to get him to hand over his details . Mr Price tweeted a link to the email that he received Attack.Phishing from the criminal pretending to be Attack.Phishing the DVLA . The subject of the email is “ You are not up-to-date with your vehicle tax ” followed by a bogus item reference number , which presumably is to , in some way , make the email seem more legitimate . The contents of the email claim that the driver is not up to date with their vehicle tax and states that this is their ‘ last chance ’ to pay the remainder of the fee . It reads : “ Our records show that you are not up-to-date with your vehicle tax . “ This is a reminder ( V11 ) and a ‘ last chance ’ warning letter from us . “ Tax your car , motorcycle or other vehicle today to avoid unpleasant consequences . “ You must tax your vehicle even if you don ’ t have to pay anything , for example if you ’ re exempt because you ’ re disabled . “ You ’ ll need to meet all the legal obligations for drivers before you can drive. ” It also states that “ You can be fined up to £1,000 if you do not renew your car tax ” The DVLA has issued numerous warnings to customers in the past about how it will never contact the motorist in this way . “ # SCAM WARNING : We 're reminding customers that the only official place to find our services and information is on http : //GOV.UK “ Cyber scams are common so we want to help our customers to spot fraudulent activity. ” If you receive an email or message like this you should either report it or instantly delete it and not click the link in the message . If you ’ re unsure on the validity of a message then you can ring the licensing agency .