Making your website live is like unlocking the door to your premises with your office and safe open: Most of the people who visit your physical building will never even know that all of your data is there to discover just by walking in. Occasionally you will find someone with malicious intent who will walk…

Throughout past history, civilian commercial entities have not been the primary targets of warfare and have even been avoided as targets. In the earliest days when such groups existed, they did not make feasible targets in and of themselves. Such organizations existed within the physical boundaries of nation-states, such that attacks upon them could only…

A significant percentage of IT systems are cloud-based, according to a CompTIA survey of 502 U.S companies. The cloud is a key enabler for emerging technology, suggests the poll, which was conducted last month. Cloud computing was one of four trends respondents expected to feature heavily in IT conversations over the next 12 to 18 months, CompTIA…

A file named myheritage discovered on an outside private server contained the email addresses and hashed passwords of more than 92 million MyHeritage customers, the genealogy and DNA testing company’s CISO said. “Immediately upon receipt of the file, MyHeritage’s Information Security Team analyzed the file and began an investigation to determine how its contents were…

Buffalo Wild Wings apologized for a series of racist and vulgar tweets sent from its Twitter account which appears to have been hacked Friday night. Around 7:30 pm ET an unknown hacker managed to send six tweets from the company’s verified account including one referencing Wendy’s and a bigoted attack toward media personality Tariq Nasheed…

Hoping to thwart a sophisticated malware system linked to Russia that has infected hundreds of thousands of internet routers, the F.B.I. has made an urgent request to anybody with one of the devices: Turn it off, and then turn it back on. The malware is capable of blocking web traffic, collecting information that passes through…

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is probing potential obstruction of justice including a March 2017 meeting at Mar-a-Lago during which President Trump allegedly asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to reverse his decision to recuse himself from the investigation of Russia’s interference with the presidential election and possible collusion with members of the Trump campaign. But Trump…

Once a vulnerability is announced, the average attacker has a seven-day window of opportunity to exploit the flaw before a defender is even aware they are vulnerable, according to report from Tenable. Researchers looked at the difference in time between when an exploit is publicly available for a given vulnerability and the first time that…

NEWARK N.J. – A Georgia man was sentenced today to 27 months in prison for using fake driver’s licenses in order to obtain checks issued in response to false statements and representations, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced. Abdulrasheed Yusuf, 30, of Lilburn, Georgia, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Katharine S. Hayden to an…

Vendor plans to integrate Binisoft’s Windows Firewall Control into the Malwarebytes endpoint protection platform. Malwarebytes is acquiring Binisoft, a privately held Romanian company, to strengthen its endpoint protection platform. Binisoft is behind Windows Firewall Control, designed to improve firewall management, and USB Flash Drives Control, which regulates the use of USB drives. Windows Firewall Control…

Most people paying attention would expect that the cost of cybercrime has gone up in recent years. But a new report has put a number on it: Worldwide cybercrime costs an estimated $600 billion USD a year. That’s up from $500 billion USD in 2014, the last time security vendor McAfee and think tank the Center for…

A newfound flaw in email clients that use PGP and S/MIME to encrypt messages can be exploited to expose the plain text of the missives, according to a paper published Monday. By injecting malicious snippets of text into encrypted messages, attackers can use the flaw to make the email client exfiltrate decrypted copies of the emails, explained…

Identity theft is the fastest-growing crime in the United States. In 2013, someone became a victim of identity fraud every two minutes, totaling 13.1 million people. The cost of cleanup is, on average, $500 per person. Amy Krebs describes what it feels like to become a victim. Is it okay to publish your name? Yes. You might think, ‘She’s…

A Loyola Blakefield student squinted at his laptop screen and scrolled slowly through rows of computer code. One classmate typed deliberately beside him; another clicked between a few open windows. Over the loudspeaker, someone issued a warning: Remember to use your library voices. “It’s about as exciting as watching paint dry,” joked Bernie Skoch, the…

Highlights • Cybersecurity is a public concern receiving insufficient awareness. • Cybersecurity is complex, intangible and hard to grasp. • Paradoxes are identified complicating policy-making. • Evidence-based framing can result in societal and political awareness. • Framing strategies for creating societal and political awareness are presented. Cybersecurity is a global phenomenon representing a complex socio-technical…

Your credit-card data is out there. And criminals are buying and selling it in bulk. Credit-card data theft is exploding, increasing 50% from 2005 to 2010, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Department of Justice. Millions of card numbers are for sale. A single number might go for $10 to $50; a no-limit American Express…

The Iranian government on Saturday said hackers attacked networks in multiple countries– including data centers in Iran– where they left the image of an American flag along with a warning “Don’t mess with our elections.” IRNA, Iran’s official news agency, said the attack apparently affected 200,000 router switches across the world, including 3,500 in Iran, Reuters reported.…

A North Branford man arrested earlier this year by federal authorities has admitted to hacking into the accounts of prominent female celebrities and sending their nude photos to sites across the internet in a breach known as “Celebgate.” George Garofano, 26, entered a guilty plea on cybercrime charges stemming from the breach during a court…

Atlanta Suffers Massive Ransomware Attack. Atlanta Paralyzed for More Than a Week by Cyber Attack. Atlanta Cyber Attack Puts Other Cities on Notice. With Paper and Phones, Atlanta Struggles to Recover from Cyber Attack. The Seemingly Random and Definitely Worrisome Cyberattack on Atlanta. A Cyberattack Hobbles Atlanta. Atlanta Officials Still ‘Working Around the Clock’ to Resolve Ransomware Attack. The City…

Today, smartphones and other mobile devices are playing a major role in how people are entertained, communicate, network, work, bank, and shop. The number of smart mobile devices in the world has increased dramatically in recent years, and so has the challenge to find ways to secure those mobile devices. While security software is commonly…

The Internal Revenue Service‘s online tax filing systems failed widely on Tax Day because of a hardware “glitch” in the part of the agency’s operating system that houses taxpayers’ personal tax records, according to the tax collection agency. The malfunctioning of IRS’s “master file” was discovered around 4 a.m. Tuesday, the biggest tax-filing day of the…

Back in December, after a series of homophobic posts on her defunct, decade-old blog resurfaced on social media, the MSNBC host Joy Reid apologized for them. But this week, when Ms. Reid was confronted with a new batch of homophobic writings from that same period, she said she had been the victim of hackers. That…

The personal payment platform Zelle is flourishing. But so are fraudsters, who are exploiting weaknesses in the banks’ security. Big banks are making it easy to zap money to your friends. Maybe too easy. Zelle, a service that allows bank customers to instantly send money to their acquaintances, is booming. Thousands of new users sign…

Devious code is sending people to fraudulent quiz and contest pages, so ignore that “lucky winner” notice and run a security scan. ImagePop-ups claiming to offer prizes to Amazon customers are part of a surge in malicious advertising.CreditThe New York Times By J. D. Biersdorfer April 23, 2018 Q. I keep getting these “Congratulations!” messages about winning…

Delta Air Lines said Thursday that it has launched a website for customers who may have been affected by a cyber breach that could have left their credit card information vulnerable to hackers. Airline officials said that payment information from several hundred thousand customers could have been compromised. The airline said it is notifying customers…

Australian union officials who ran fake Black Lives Matter Facebook page fired National Union of Workers ‘deeply distressed and appalled’ about sham site, which had twice as many followers as official page  Ian Mackay who was an Australian union official from the National Union of Workers has been stood down amid claims he was involved…

As technology advances at warp speed, companies should consider how their M&A programs can take advantage of big data to make better and faster decisions. Watch the video below to hear from Mitch Berlin and Sid Khosla, about how big data, analytics, cybersecurity, cloud computing, and social media play a role in developing a strategic…

It’s common for terms such as cyber threats, vulnerabilities and risks to be conflated and confused. This post aims to define each term, highlight how they differ and how they are related to one-another. Cyber Threats Cyber threats, or simply, threats refer to circumstances or events with the potential to cause harm by way of their outcome. A few examples of…

The higher-education landscape has become a fertile field for growing crypto-mining revenue. College students are crypto-mining from their dorm rooms, while outside actors are targeting their online activities for web-based attacks. According to Vectra’s 2018 RSA Conference Edition of its Attacker Behavior Industry Report, higher education is a prime arena given that students are usually not…

Warnings issued to change passwords. Northern Ireland Assembly has issued warnings to staff following cyber-attacks on its IT system, according to reports by the Belfast Telegraph. Northern Ireland Assembly has issued warnings to staff following cyber-attacks on its IT system, according to reports by the Belfast Telegraph. The publication revealed that attacks from an external…

No business, small or large, can afford to ignore cyber security. According to a recent Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, 60 percent of cyber-attacks target SMBs, largely because they are easier targets. But you don’t have to be passive. Here are five tools and services which small and medium business can use to protect themselves. 1. Get…

LISBON, Portugal — Police in Spain have captured a cybercrime gang made up of Ukrainians and Russians that allegedly stole more than $1.24 billion from financial institutions worldwide in a five-year spree, authorities said Monday. The gang’s alleged mastermind, identified as a Ukrainian and named only as “Denis K.,” was arrested in the coastal city…

An international band of cyber crooks that worked its way into dozens of banks has experts warning of a “new era” of cyber crime where criminals steal directly from banks instead of their customers. And the problem could soon spread to other industries, experts warn. On Monday, Moscow-based security firm Kaspersky Lab released a report…

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg finally commented publicly on March 21 on his Facebook page about the Cambridge Analytica controversy, in which he admitted “mistakes” were made, and acknowledged his company’s “responsibility to protect your data,” and that a “breach of trust” occurred regarding that role. Zuckerberg pointed to a “breach of trust” between Cambridge University researcher Aleksandr Kogan (who developed a Facebook quiz app in 2013), Cambridge Analytica and Facebook. “I’ve been working to understand exactly what happened and how to…

Adrian Lamo, the man who dropped a dime on Chelsea Manning, died this month in Kansas. The 36-year-old hacker, who had more recently lived as a drifter and who previously was convicted for hacking Microsoft and the New York Times, was approached by then U.S. Army Private Bradley Manning who ended up pilfering and leaking a…

The Shadow Brokers, a hacking group known for releasing exploits and vulnerabilities allegedly used by the National Security Agency (NSA), published a cache of tools over a month ago on April 14th. This release had initially caused panic within the security industry as it was believed at the time that some of the exploits were…

1. Corporate Security Breaches The majority of these corporate security breaches occur when hackers exploit employees through social engineering and scams. With advancements in technology, hackers are becoming more skilled at finding holes and cracks in corporate security systems and can gain access to protected files and data, posing a significant cybersecurity threat. Unfortunately, 2012…

Cyber security is increasingly recognised to be a people issue as much as a technical one. Boards now understand that their own employees may be the weak link in an organisation’s cyber defences. This article provides a self-assessment matrix to help organisations understand how effectively they are mitigating cyber insider risk and thus enable them…

Over the last 10 years, we have witnessed massive changes in the embedded Industrial Control Systems (ICS), Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), DCS and Physical Security (CCTV, access controls and alarms) sectors, with the adoption of IP-capable technologies through the Internet of Things (IoT) and now the Internet of Everything (IoE). However, the mindset…

Some small e-commerce website operators may think their relative obscurity offers protection, but the fact is that SMBs are especially vulnerable to cyberattacks and malware. “Very often small businesses don’t feel vulnerable to cyberthreats because they assume cybercriminals prefer to launch attacks on large companies,” said Stephanie Weagle, VP of Corero. “On the contrary, cybercriminals have…

With dozens of breaches and millions left violated, 2017 has witnessed a historic amount of hacking. This year has been stained with numerous hacking incidents, including WannaCry, Petya and Cloudbleed. Of these many cases, the Equifax data breach can be crowned the most significant hack of the year, having exposed the personal data of nearly…

Cyber Warfare Cyberwarfare is computer- or network-based conflict involving politically motivated attacks by a nation-state on another nation-state. In these types of attacks, nation-state actors attempt to disrupt the activities of organizations or nation-states, especially for strategic or military purposes and cyberespionage. Although cyberwarfare generally refers to cyberattacks perpetrated by one nation-state on another, it…

Many of today’s cyber criminals have their sights set on money. And they essentially take three approaches to achieving their goal. They conduct surveillance operations to systematically obtain valuable information from companies, they steal customer and credit-card data, and they blackmail companies by threatening to disrupt their business operations. Research results, for example, can be…

Tens of millions of fake accounts infest the world’s social media platforms. Is one of those fake accounts impersonating you? In a recent article, The New York Times detailed a global black market in stolen social identities. These stolen identities — names, pictures, hometowns, and other personal information ripped from real peoples’ social media profiles — are…

Hackers are constantly finding new targets and refining the tools they use to break through cyberdefenses. The following are some significant threats to look out for this year. More huge data breaches The cyberattack on the Equifax credit reporting agency in 2017, which led to the theft of Social Security numbers, birth dates, and other…

Identity theft occurs when someone gains unauthorized access to your personally identifying information – such as your name, Social Security Number (SSN), or bank account information – and uses it to commit fraud or other crimes. The crimes that an identity thief is able to commit with your personal information range from applying for a…

A new study from The Internet Society shows what influencers around the world expect (and fear) about the future social, business and regulatory impact on cyber security. The world is changing, and with it so is the internet. Or perhaps it’s the other way around. The internet continues to create new business and social opportunities…

Identity theft is the fastest-growing crime in the United States. In 2013, someone became a victim of identity fraud every two minutes, totaling 13.1 million people. The cost of cleanup is, on average, $500 per person. Amy Krebs describes what it feels like to become a victim. Is it okay to publish your name? Yes. You might think, ‘She’s…

Abstract Cyber threats are becoming more sophisticated with the blending of once distinct types of attack into more damaging forms. Increased variety and volume of attacks is inevitable given the desire of financially and criminally-motivated actors to obtain personal and confidential information, as highlighted in this paper. We describe how the Routine Activity Theory can…

The US and UK governments have said North Korea was responsible for the WannaCry malware attack affecting hospitals, businesses and banks across the world earlier this year. The attack is said to have hit more than 300,000 computers in 150 nations, causing billions of dollars of damage. It is the first time the US and…

Millions of Social Security numbers have been compromised due to a data breach at the credit reporting firm Equifax. And once your number has been viewed by potential identity thieves, there’s no way for your Social Security number to be secret again. However, there are things you can do to keep your Social Security number…

Ramon Polanco wanted to get married, but there was one hitch — someone using his identity had already exchanged vows with three women over a 12-year span. Now, after more than a year of jumping through hoops with the City Clerk’s Office, a judge has allowed the 77-year-old to walk the aisle — thanks, in…

What Do Thieves Do With Your Information? Once identity thieves have your personal information, they can drain your bank account, run up charges on your credit cards, open new utility accounts, or get medical treatment on your health insurance. An identity thief can file a tax refund in your name and get your refund. In…

The list of this year’s 25 “worst” passwords says a lot about us. “Starwars” (No. 16) reflects a resurgent force in popular culture. “Whatever” (No. 23) and “letmein” (No. 7) seem to speak to an exasperation with online security itself. And “password” (No. 2) speaks to our collective lack of creativity. They are among the…

Protect your enterprise and fortify cybersecurity with actionable threat intelligence Identify and disrupt your cyber threats Rapidly uncover time-sensitive insights about your cyber threat actors and their motivations so you can disrupt current threats and enhance security measures against future ones. IBM helps cyber analysts conduct cyber threat hunting by turning disparate data sets into…

A method for scrambling data to protect it from the super powerful computers of the future has received a speed boost from a team of researchers from Duke and Ohio State universities and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The method uses quantum key distribution to guard data from prying eyes, wrote Nurul T. Islam, Charles…

Cyberattacks against healthcare organizations are evolving in many ways, including new schemes to steal credentials as well as assaults by low-skilled hackers using ransomware-as-a-service products, says Eric Rydberg of Sophos. See Also: Addressing the Identity Risk Factor in the Age of ‘Need It Now’ In a video interview at Information Security Media Group’s recent Healthcare…

Employees using weak passwords could be putting your company at risk more than previously thought, new research has claimed. A report from LastPass claims that the sheer number of passwords being used by employees even within an average-sized business means that it is increasingly tricky to keep tabs on which are used for certain accounts…

If your smart devices are smart enough to make your life easier, then their smart behaviour could also be exploited by hackers to invade your privacy or spy on you, if not secured properly. Recent research conducted by security researchers at threat prevention firm Check Point highlights privacy concern surrounding smart home devices manufactured by…

  While scrolling on Facebook how you decide which link/article should be clicked or opened? Facebook timeline and Messenger display title, description, thumbnail image and URL of every shared-link, and this information are enough to decide if the content is of your interest or not. Since Facebook is full of spam, clickbait and fake news…

Government agencies, journalists, and businesses trading in some parts of the world may find themselves at greater risk of being spied upon than others. You only have to keep a vague eye on the security headlines to recognise that organisations have had information stolen from them, or their computers compromised, when their staff have visited…