E-mail tips

Phishing attacks are on the rise: the Anti-Phishing Work Group’s April 2011 Global Phishing Survey (pdf) reports 67,677 phishing attempts in the second half of 2010, up from 48,244 in the first half of 2010, but down significantly from the 126,697 attacks recorded in the year-earlier period due to the Avalanche botnet.

Phishing attempts lasted an average of 73 hours in the last six months of 2010, up from 58 hours on average in the first half of the year, and from just under 32 hours in the second half of 2009.

When it comes to phishing prevention, the key is user education. First, because defending against online thieves is a cat-and-mouse game, and second, because even experienced and otherwise-cautious PC users have weak moments when they click a link they shouldn’t trust, or go on auto-pilot and click through a warning dialog.

Of course, … Read full post comments

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Ep. 136: Mac App Store shopping tips and the latest tech price cuts

ZocDoc co-founder and CEO Cyrus Massoumi talks about his company’s growth at its Manhattan headquarters last week.

(Credit:
Boonsri Dickinson/CNET)

New York start-up ZocDoc plans to expand its online booking service for doctor and dentist appointments to more cities with help from a $50 million Series C venture round from DST Global announced today.

DST Global, which has invested in Facebook, Twitter, Groupon, and Zynga, is also putting its money on ZocDoc, adding to the $20 million the company had previously received from Founders Fund and Khosla Ventures.

ZocDoc is adding about a city a month to its existing roster of urban markets, which include Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., ZocDoc co-founder and CEO Cyrus Massoumi told CNET last week before the funding round was announced. The plan, Massoumi added, is to roll out nationwide in the … Read full post comments

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