News

Data breach incident management and recovery

• August 13, 2020 13 Aug'20

  APAC consumers do not feel responsible for data security

  Just one in four consumers believe they should protect their own data, underscoring the tightrope between security and convenience that organisations have been walking on

• August 12, 2020 12 Aug'20

  How Dharma ransomware became an effective services business

  New research looks under the bonnet of a Dharma ransomware attack, with the ransomware's ease of use being particularly dangerous for small to medium-sized enterprises

• August 12, 2020 12 Aug'20

  Security training body Sans Institute hit by data breach

  Around 28,000 items of personally identifiable data were lost in a phishing attack on Sans, proving that even the professionals can be caught out

• August 11, 2020 11 Aug'20

  NHS hit by thousands of malicious emails at height of pandemic

  The NHS received nearly 30,000 malicious emails at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in March and April

• August 11, 2020 11 Aug'20

  Coronavirus: Phishing lures pivot to exploit vaccine hopes

  Phishing emails are increasingly luring in victims with subject lines relating to the development of a vaccine for Covid-19

• August 10, 2020 10 Aug'20

  Retailer Monsoon allegedly exposing data via Pulse Connect server

  A researcher has found a critically insecure Pulse Connect Secure VPN version belonging to UK retailer Monsoon Accessorize, but claims the firm is ignoring his disclosures

• August 07, 2020 07 Aug'20

  Capital One hit with $80m fine by US regulators over 2019 data breach

  US regulator imposes fine over data breach that affected 106 million Capital One customers in the US and Canada

• August 06, 2020 06 Aug'20

  Canon said to be latest Maze ransomware victim

  Canon may have had up to 10TB of its data exfiltrated by the Maze ransomware gang

• August 05, 2020 05 Aug'20

  Second wave of Covid-19 cyber attacks locked in

  More cyber attacks exploiting the pandemic seem likely, says Interpol

• August 04, 2020 04 Aug'20

  Five signs you’re about to get hit with ransomware

  A series of Sophos reports on the ransomware threat landscape shows how security professionals can sniff out a potential ransomware attack before it happens

• August 04, 2020 04 Aug'20

  Liam Fox hack raises questions over government security

  The hack of a former cabinet minister’s emails casts doubt over the effectiveness of safeguards and security training processes at the highest levels of the British government

• August 02, 2020 02 Aug'20

  More data breaches from ransomware attacks in Australia

  The number of data breaches caused by ransomware rose to 33 in the first half of 2020 from 13 in the previous six-month period, according to the latest report from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner

• July 31, 2020 31 Jul'20

  Labour Party is latest victim of Blackbaud ransomware attack

  Widening Blackbaud data breach ensnares the Labour Party as the cloud software firm continues to duck questions about its behaviour

• July 31, 2020 31 Jul'20

  Twitter confirms it was hit by targeted spearphishing attack

  Investigation into 15 July 2020 hack of a number of high-profile accounts by cryptocurrency scammers has found evidence of a targeted spearphishing incident

• July 31, 2020 31 Jul'20

  EU sanctions China and Russia over cyber attacks

  The EU is applying restrictive measure to six individuals and three entities accused of conducting disruptive cyber attacks in Europe, including the Russian GRU

• July 30, 2020 30 Jul'20

  List of Blackbaud breach victims tops 120

  More than 120 education and third-sector organisations may have had their data compromised through the breach of Blackbaud’s cloud platform

• July 29, 2020 29 Jul'20

  Majority of organisations at risk of cloud data exposure

  Report casts doubt on the effectiveness of the shared responsibility model of cloud security

• July 29, 2020 29 Jul'20

  Cosmetics firm Avon faces new cyber security incident

  Technical information relating to Avon’s web and mobile sites was inadvertently left exposed on an unsecured Microsoft Azure server

• July 28, 2020 28 Jul'20

  De Montfort, KCL, Newcastle universities join list of Blackbaud victims

  Embattled cloud services provider now has big questions to answer over its handling of data belonging to UK universities and charities

• July 28, 2020 28 Jul'20

  Garmin may have paid hackers ransom, reports suggest

  Garmin’s services are coming back online, but the company remains tight-lipped about what exactly happened to it

• July 28, 2020 28 Jul'20

  NCSC names national security expert Lindy Cameron as new CEO

  New National Cyber Security Centre head joins from the Northern Ireland Office and has spent 20 years in government at home and abroad

• July 26, 2020 26 Jul'20

  Australia issues new cloud computing guidelines

  The new guidance, which comes after the expiry of the government’s cloud services certification programme, will help to bolster Australia’s cyber security resilience

• July 24, 2020 24 Jul'20

  Garmin outage prompts ransomware attack speculation

  Details are thin on the ground following a major service outage at Garmin, prompting industry speculation that the firm has fallen victim to a ransomware attack

• July 24, 2020 24 Jul'20

  A question of trust: University and supplier on the hook for data breach

  Data on students at the University of York was stolen in a ransomware attack on a supplier two months ago, and the response of both parties raises serious questions

• July 22, 2020 22 Jul'20

  NCSC reveals scale of cyber attacks on UK sports industry

  The UK’s sports industry is under near constant cyber attack, according to new statistics from the National Cyber Security Centre

• July 22, 2020 22 Jul'20

  No let-up in cyber attacks as lockdown eases

  Cyber attacks are up by one-third as the coalescence of cyber activity and nation state-linked threats around the pandemic bears fruit for bad actors

• July 22, 2020 22 Jul'20

  US charges Chinese nationals with Covid-19 research hacking

  The two hackers allegedly worked with the Chinese Ministry of State Security, targeting intellectual property and confidential business information

• July 21, 2020 21 Jul'20

  Russia Report reveals long-running cyber warfare campaign against UK

  Russia has been hacking the UK for years and the British government has also known about it for years, according to the Intelligence and Security Committee’s report

• July 21, 2020 21 Jul'20

  Australian industry panel calls for ‘clear consequences’ of cyber attacks

  A government-appointed panel recommends strong deterrence and other measures to be implemented in Australia’s next cyber security strategy

• July 20, 2020 20 Jul'20

  Test and Trace programme unlawful, admits government

  The Department of Health and Social Care failed in its legal obligation to complete a mandatory Data Protection Impact Assessment

• July 17, 2020 17 Jul'20

  Twitter hack fallout: Investigators on trail of cyber criminals

  Investigators are hunting the cyber criminals who broke into Twitter’s systems to hijack prominent accounts, amid concerns that more attacks may come

• July 16, 2020 16 Jul'20

  Russian state hackers attacking Covid-19 researchers

  Kremlin-linked APT29 group, also known as Cozy Bear, is conducting a campaign against Covid-19 researchers around the world

• July 16, 2020 16 Jul'20

  Cryptocurrency scammers attack Twitter in insider breach

  Apparent insider breach at Twitter saw so-called “blue tick” accounts of business people, politicians and celebrities hijacked to promote a Bitcoin scam

• July 16, 2020 16 Jul'20

  Coronavirus shines spotlight on cyber security

  Programme committee chair of this year's RSA Conference Asia-Pacific and Japan talks up the challenges that IT security professionals in APAC are facing to mitigate security risks amid the Covid-19 pandemic

• July 15, 2020 15 Jul'20

  Video providers slammed by credential stuffing attacks

  Attacks on the media sector are spiking as cyber criminals try to gain access to valuable consumer accounts

• July 14, 2020 14 Jul'20

  Recon vulnerability puts thousands of SAP customers at risk

  Users of multiple SAP products including S4/HANA should apply the security update as soon as possible to protect their systems

• July 14, 2020 14 Jul'20

  ‘Name-and-shame’ ransomware attacks increasing in prevalence

  Since emerging at the tail-end of 2019, double extortion, or exfiltration and encryption, ransomware attacks have become highly popular, and now account for a significant number of incidents, according to Emsisoft research

• July 14, 2020 14 Jul'20

  Australian enterprises facing more cyber attacks

  The volume of cyber attacks in Australia jumped from 90% in October 2019 and 81% in February 2019, underscoring the worsening threat landscape in the country

• July 13, 2020 13 Jul'20

  NCSC launches pen testing service for remote workers

  An expansion to the successful Exercise in a Box toolkit will enable SMEs to probe the cyber security defences of remote workers

• July 09, 2020 09 Jul'20

  Clearview AI faces ICO investigation over facial recognition

  Controversial company that scraped data from the public internet to build its facial recognition algorithm faces a joint UK-Australian investigation into its practices

• July 09, 2020 09 Jul'20

  Most finance firms are multicloud, but many are unprepared for public cloud cyber attacks

  Financial services firms are moving to the cloud at pace, but many are uncertain whether they could cope with an attack on an application based in the public cloud

• July 09, 2020 09 Jul'20

  More Joker malware apps chucked off Google Play Store

  Infamous Joker billing fraud malware continues to sneak past Google’s security controls

• July 08, 2020 08 Jul'20

  Over 15 billion credentials for sale on dark web

  Research by Digital Shadows reveals the scale of the security threat facing consumers as it uncovers 15 billion usernames and passwords stolen in more than 100,000 different data breaches

• July 07, 2020 07 Jul'20

  Cyber4Summer scheme to divert young people from cyber crime

  Cyber4Summer platform will offer 100 different tracks covering a range of security skills to divert them from falling into a life of cyber crime

• July 07, 2020 07 Jul'20

  MSP Xchanging attacked in ransomware incident

  Specialist managed services provider is restoring customer access to systems after an unspecified ransomware incident

• July 06, 2020 06 Jul'20

  Lorca scale-ups bring diverse security to the fore

  London Office for Rapid Cybersecurity Advancement announces the cyber security scale-ups that will make up its fifth cohort

• July 06, 2020 06 Jul'20

  North Korea behind spate of Magecart attacks

  The Magecart credit card skimmer found on the website of retailer Claire’s Accessories was likely put there by the Lazarus or Hidden Cobra North Korean APT group, reports Sansec

• July 02, 2020 02 Jul'20

  Cops take out encrypted comms to disrupt organised crime

  The UK’s National Crime Agency, alongside other law enforcement agencies in France and the Netherlands, have busted illicit arms and drugs rings after disabling an encrypted comms platform

• July 02, 2020 02 Jul'20

  Locked-down teens flock to NCSC CyberFirst training scheme

  A record number of 14 to 17-year-olds have signed up to the National Cyber Security Centre’s CyberFirst summer school

• July 02, 2020 02 Jul'20

  Sodinokibi gang begins dark web celebrity data auctions

  Group claims to be auctioning confidential legal data on pop stars Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj and basketball player LeBron James

• July 01, 2020 01 Jul'20

  UK’s unsung cyber security heroes sought

  Nominations have opened for the fifth annual Security Serious Unsung Heroes Awards

• June 30, 2020 30 Jun'20

  Australia to invest a record A$1.35bn in cyber security

  The Australian government is making its largest ever investment in cyber security over the next decade to identify cyber threats, disrupt foreign cyber criminals and build new capabilities

• June 30, 2020 30 Jun'20

  ReversingLabs makes over 100 Yara rules publicly available

  Threat intelligence specialist is making its IP available on GitHub to support malware hunters in their work

• June 30, 2020 30 Jun'20

  BNP Paribas uses biometrics to increase contactless payment limit

  French bank BNP Paribas is enabling customers to make higher value contactless payments through fingerprint-recognition technology

• June 29, 2020 29 Jun'20

  Phishing back in vogue as ransomware vector

  Researchers have observed an increase in phishing as a means to deliver ransomware payloads – and organisations don’t appear to be prepared

• June 29, 2020 29 Jun'20

  Evil Corp’s latest ransomware project spreading fast

  A new ransomware strain dubbed WastedLocker is spreading rapidly and targeting major corporations

• June 29, 2020 29 Jun'20

  Making the case for cloud-based security

  Cloud-based security tools can hasten threat detection and response, but adoption will depend on where an enterprise is on the cloud readiness scale

• June 29, 2020 29 Jun'20

  Out of date security laws leave UK plc at risk during pandemic

  The CyberUp coalition has written to Boris Johnson to urge him to reform the UK’s 30 year-old cyber crime laws

• June 24, 2020 24 Jun'20

  Brits will sell their personal data for pennies

  Surprising findings from an Okta report on digital identity suggest Brits would be willing to part with valuable personal data for a surprisingly low amount

• June 23, 2020 23 Jun'20

  Neurodiversity on the rise among career hackers

  More diverse hackers enhance the ability of both traditional and cutting-edge cyber security solutions to find and fix vulnerabilities, according to a new report from Bugcrowd

• June 23, 2020 23 Jun'20

  Twitter contacts business users over data exposure

  Issue relates to how web browsers cached confidential data entered in Twitter’s ads and analytics services, but is unlikely to have resulted in compromise

• June 21, 2020 21 Jun'20

  APAC still hotbed for cyber attacks

  Individuals and organisations in APAC are encountering malware more frequently than the rest of the world, study finds

• June 19, 2020 19 Jun'20

  Australian prime minister confirms country is suffering repeated nation-state cyber attacks

  Concern over critical national infrastructure as cyber attackers repeatedly try to gain access to network of organisations operating in multiple sectors

• June 17, 2020 17 Jun'20

  Cosmetics company Avon offline after cyber attack

  Representatives left unable to place orders after company’s back-end systems went offline over a week ago

• June 15, 2020 15 Jun'20

  Accessories store Claire’s hit by Magecart credit card fraudsters

  Attackers gained access to retailer’s website as long ago as March

• June 14, 2020 14 Jun'20

  Coronavirus: Enterprise VPN adoption in India set to rise

  Advancement in cloud technologies and secured remote access to applications will significantly contribute to the overall growth of India’s VPN market, says GlobalData

• June 12, 2020 12 Jun'20

  NHS email service users ensnared in phishing attack

  More than 100 accounts on the NHSmail service were affected by attack, but health service says no patient data was accessed

• June 12, 2020 12 Jun'20

  100,000 cheap wireless cameras vulnerable to hacking

  Active devices built by Chinese firm HiChip have been sold in the UK as webcams and connected baby monitors

• June 10, 2020 10 Jun'20

  Unsecured Elasticsearch server breached in eight hours flat

  Comparitech’s Bob Diachenko wanted to find out how long it would take for hackers to find and attack an unsecured, public internet-facing database, so he set up a honeypot

• June 10, 2020 10 Jun'20

  Virtual GP practice accidentally exposes patient video calls

  A small number of users of Babylon’s GP at Hand service were briefly able to view other patients’ video GP consultations thanks to a bug in a new software feature

• June 10, 2020 10 Jun'20

  How Australian firms can defend against supply chain attacks

  Supply chain security risks can wreak havoc if measures are not taken to deter cyber attackers from exploiting a supplier’s security gaps to target another firm

• June 09, 2020 09 Jun'20

  Honda investigates suspected Snake ransomware attack

  Attack disrupts global operations at carmaker, with assembly lines falling silent and sales suspended

• June 09, 2020 09 Jun'20

  Poorly-secured AWS buckets used to launch Magecart attacks

  Cyber criminals are exploiting misconfigured AWS S3 buckets to run credit card fraud and malvertising campaigns, according to new data

• June 04, 2020 04 Jun'20

  Dutch organisations invest heavily in compliance – but in vain

  Despite the fact that companies in the Netherlands have invested heavily to comply with GDPR legislation introduced two years ago, 90% of them are still discovering fundamental weaknesses in their IT environment

• June 04, 2020 04 Jun'20

  Data privacy groups pile in on UK contact-tracing app

  UK-based digital privacy and free speech campaigning organisation files complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office about contact-tracing app

• June 03, 2020 03 Jun'20

  Sodinokibi data auctions highlight changing criminal tactics

  The operators of the Sodinokibi ransomware strain are auctioning off swathes of stolen data in an apparent bid to raise cash. What is motivating this new tactic?

• June 01, 2020 01 Jun'20

  How managed threat hunting helps bust malicious insiders

  Managed threat hunting services can help take some of the pressure off security operations centres and help ensure potential breaches don’t escalate into something far worse. We explore one such case with a happy ending

• May 29, 2020 29 May'20

  Test and Trace has not passed data protection impact assessment

  Public Health England failed to complete the required impact assessment before launching the Covid-19 Test and Trace programme

• May 29, 2020 29 May'20

  Singapore’s contact-tracing app tops privacy study

  Singapore’s TraceTogether is least intrusive in terms of privacy communications compared with similar apps in the region, study finds

• May 25, 2020 25 May'20

  Coronavirus: Australia calls for stronger defences amid cyber attacks

  The Australian Cyber Security Centre offers guidance for critical infrastructure operators to guard against cyber attacks which have already hit the healthcare sector

• May 22, 2020 22 May'20

  EasyJet to be sued over customer data breach

  If successful, airline’s potential liability for the loss of millions of customer records could be as high as £18bn

• May 20, 2020 20 May'20

  Serco exposes contact tracers’ data in email error

  Error saw almost 300 coronavirus contact tracers’ email addresses made visible to other recipients of the message

• May 20, 2020 20 May'20

  Personal devices putting Singapore employers at risk

  More than half of Singapore respondents to a CrowdStrike-commissioned survey believe their devices are only somewhat secure against advanced cyber threats

• May 19, 2020 19 May'20

  Cancelled NCSC CyberUK event gets green light for 2021

  The NCSC’s popular CyberUK event has been rescheduled to next year, and will again take place in Newport in south Wales

• May 19, 2020 19 May'20

  GDPR wholly inappropriate to govern contact-tracing data

  Human Rights Committee Chair Harriet Harman says current data protection law is not up to the job of governing the data collected by the Covid-19 contact-tracing app

• May 19, 2020 19 May'20

  Doubts mount over effectiveness of UK contact-tracing app

  Studies from BCS and Anomali reveal that a significant proportion of the UK population is not prepared to download the Covid-19 contact-tracing app

• May 19, 2020 19 May'20

  Nine million EasyJet customer details lost in data breach

  Cyber attack on EasyJet’s systems originated from a highly sophisticated source, says the airline

• May 19, 2020 19 May'20

  Sodinokibi cyber criminals plot to ‘auction’ Madonna data

  The cyber criminal gang behind a recent attack on a New York law firm is planning to auction off its client data, one person at a time

• May 19, 2020 19 May'20

  Vast majority of cyber attacks are easy to stop, says Verizon

  Almost 90% of data breaches are motivated by the prospect of financial gain, but cyber criminals have clearly defined breach pathways, giving the good guys an advantage if they care to use it

• May 15, 2020 15 May'20

  Questions raised after UK’s electrical grid shrugs off cyber attack

  Attack on Elexon was resolved within hours with no impact on the national electricity supply, but it could have been much worse

• May 15, 2020 15 May'20

  Law firm hackers threaten to release dirt on Trump

  A new ransom demand of $42m has been made against New York law firm Grubman, Shire, Meiselas and Sacks, and it may be the largest ever, say security experts

• May 14, 2020 14 May'20

  China targeting Covid-19 researchers through IT suppliers, claims US

  The US CISA says it is seeing targeting and attempted network compromise of Covid-19 research centres by China

• May 13, 2020 13 May'20

  Report reveals inadequate cyber security at Schiphol Airport

  A report has revealed problems with critical security systems in Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport

• May 13, 2020 13 May'20

  Nation state APT groups prefer old, unpatched vulnerabilities

  The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the FBI have published details of the most commonly exploited vulnerabilities of recent years, and there are some “classics” on the list

• May 13, 2020 13 May'20

  Can Lady Gaga and Madonna get people to take security seriously?

  What does it take to get people to pay attention to cyber security? A celebrity law firm hack may hold some answers

• May 12, 2020 12 May'20

  Draft Covid-19 contact tracing legislation proposes formal oversight

  Human Rights Committee chair Harriet Harman has outlined a proposed bill to guarantee the security and privacy of data generated by the UK’s Covid-19 contact tracing app

• May 12, 2020 12 May'20

  Pay the ransom and double your recovery costs, report warns

  Paying cyber criminals a ransom to recover your data adds over half a million dollars to the cost of organisational recovery, says Sophos

• May 12, 2020 12 May'20

  APAC firms still coming to grips with data protection

  More governments in Asia are implementing data protection regimes, but challenges such as checkbox compliance and the lack of effective staff training remain

• May 12, 2020 12 May'20

  Maze ransomware attack will cost Cognizant at least $50m to $70m

  Cognizant’s clients cut off the IT supplier’s access to their networks to contain a Maze ransomware attack – effectively putting projects on hold

• May 12, 2020 12 May'20

  How Australian firms can plug data protection gaps

  Australian organisations can address data protection challenges by creating roles such as a data governance lead, classifying data and improving employee awareness of cyber hygiene