News

Hackers and cybercrime prevention

• December 19, 2018 19 Dec'18

  Lauri Love battles police for return of computers as NCA confirms live investigation

  The National Crime Agency (NCA) confirms there is a live investigation into Lauri Love in the UK, as Love brings legal action against UK police for the return of seized computer equipment

• December 18, 2018 18 Dec'18

  APAC cyber security landscape to be more tumultuous in 2019

  Amid growing cyber threats, the Asia-Pacific cyber security landscape will not get any rosier in 2019 unless organisations start shoring up their cyber hygiene

• December 18, 2018 18 Dec'18

  Mobile security needs a rethink for the 5G era

  A report released through the government’s 5G Testbeds and Trials programme has recommended the UK rethink its mobile security strategy

• December 18, 2018 18 Dec'18

  Broadband coverage improved through 2018, says Ofcom

  Ofcom’s annual Connected Nations report reveals that the number of people who cannot receive a 10Mbps broadband connection has halved

• December 14, 2018 14 Dec'18

  Iranian cyber espionage highlights human element

  State-backed hackers in Iran have reportedly upped efforts to compromise US officials’ email accounts using phishing scams

• December 14, 2018 14 Dec'18

  Australia passes controversial encryption law

  Arguments continue over law that requires companies to work with government agencies to ensure that encrypted communications can be read if a crime is suspected

• December 13, 2018 13 Dec'18

  Machine identity protection development gets funding boost

  Cyber security firm Venafi has launched a development fund aimed at accelerating the delivery of protection for machine identities

• December 13, 2018 13 Dec'18

  Social engineering at the heart of critical infrastructure attack

  Social engineering is the core technique used in a series of cyber attacks targeting government, defence, nuclear, energy and financial organisations around the world, which means people are key to defence

• December 13, 2018 13 Dec'18

  Most UK retailers plan to up cyber security

  The majority of UK retailers are planning to increase cyber security measures during the Christmas season, a survey reveals

• December 12, 2018 12 Dec'18

  Criminals act like nation-state attackers in Russian campaign

  Security researchers have uncovered evidence of a sustained effort targeting Russian state-owned critical infrastructure companies by financially motivated non-state actors

• December 11, 2018 11 Dec'18

  Mac malware makes debut in top 10 list

  Mac malware appears in the WatchGuard top 10 malware list for first time, and 6.8% of major websites still use an insecure SSL protocol, according to the firm’s latest internet security report

• December 11, 2018 11 Dec'18

  Large disparity in NHS cyber skills and training spend

  Despite government pledges to up cyber security spending across the NHS, there are still huge disparities in cyber security skills and spending on cyber security training, FoI requests reveal

• December 10, 2018 10 Dec'18

  UK businesses feel let down by government on cyber security

  Government needs to provide more support around cyber security issues in 2019, according to the majority of UK IT leaders polled

• December 07, 2018 07 Dec'18

  Half of business leaders unaware of BPC cyber attacks

  Half of management teams polled in 12 countries, including the UK, are unaware of business process compromise (BPC) attacks

• December 06, 2018 06 Dec'18

  Fileless malware surge, warns Malwarebytes report 

  Data from millions of consumers reveals an uptick in fileless malware and other new-generation malware that calls for a new cyber security approach, report reveals

• December 06, 2018 06 Dec'18

  China demands release of arrested Huawei CFO

  The Chinese government has called for the release of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, who was detained in Canada at the weekend

• December 06, 2018 06 Dec'18

  Adobe releases Flash patch for zero-day exploit

  Emergency security update released for zero-day vulnerability that is being exploited in the wild via a Microsoft Office document, according to researchers

• December 05, 2018 05 Dec'18

  Symantec unveils AI-based protection for critical infrastructure

  Cyber security firm has unveiled what it claims to be the industry’s first neural network to protect critical infrastructure from USB-borne malware attacks

• December 05, 2018 05 Dec'18

  Nominet brings security expertise and tech to market

  The .uk domain registry is to bring its DNS expertise and technology developed for the NCSC to market to address cyber security ‘blindspot’

• December 05, 2018 05 Dec'18

  Phishing at centre of cyber attack on Ukraine infrastructure

  Phishing is one of the key tools used by cyber attackers against critical national infrastructure (CNI), as highlighted by attacks on telecommunications in Ukraine

• December 04, 2018 04 Dec'18

  ‘Open-minded’ DVSA cuts cost of MOT testing

  Government agency harnesses customised open source platform to ensure data security while cutting costs and plans to extend its MOT testing capability to do the same for drivers’ theory tests

• December 04, 2018 04 Dec'18

  Financial institutions’ data at risk despite security spending

  Despite increased spending on cyber security, digital transformation and advanced attacks mean financial institutions’ data is still at risk, a report reveals

• December 04, 2018 04 Dec'18

  100 million Quora.com user details exposed

  Question-and-answer site is the latest organisation to admit a breach of users’ personal data, with industry commentators calling out credential theft as a top cause of such breaches

• December 03, 2018 03 Dec'18

  Liberty heads for judicial review over Investigatory Powers Act

  The UK's powers to conduct supsicionless bulk surveillance on individuals and organisations face a legal challenge in the high court next year

• December 03, 2018 03 Dec'18

  BT announces new head of security business

  BT has appointed a former law enforcement officer and BT investigator as the new head of its security business

• December 03, 2018 03 Dec'18

  Police investigations into cyber crime up 14% in a year

  Officers forced to follow up over 2,500 complaints of Instagram, Facebook, email and website hacking, and Bitcoin ransom, despite a rise in violent crime, report reveals

• November 30, 2018 30 Nov'18

  Cyber crime most significant harm in UK, says top cyber cop

  Cyber crime is the most significant harm in the UK, according to the cyber lead at the City of London Police, which is the national lead for online crime

• November 30, 2018 30 Nov'18

  Marriott data breach highlights basic failings

  A breach of a guest reservation database of the Starwood division of the Marriott International hotel group highlights basic personal data protection failures

• November 30, 2018 30 Nov'18

  WannaCry borderline national cyber emergency

  The May 2017 WannaCry attack, which disrupted services at one-third of NHS trusts and more than 600 primary care organisations is the closest the UK has come to a national cyber emergency, says the NCSC

• November 30, 2018 30 Nov'18

  E-commerce sites warned of heightened DDoS threat

  E-commerce sites are being urged to ensure that they have adequate DDoS protection ahead of the vital holiday trading season after attacks ramped up on Black Friday and Cyber Monday

• November 29, 2018 29 Nov'18

  UK cyber security strategy making ‘good progress’

  The National Cyber Security Strategy is making good progress, but there is much left to be done, according to a Cabinet Office official

• November 29, 2018 29 Nov'18

  120,000 police officers to receive cyber security training

  Cisco is partnering with UK police forces to offer cyber security training through the Cisco Networking Academy

• November 28, 2018 28 Nov'18

  Cyber resilience lacking due to apathy of UK leaders

  An unwillingness to accept that cyber is a real threat to critical national infrastructure by UK political and business leaders has resulted in a lack of resilience, says security industry veteran

• November 28, 2018 28 Nov'18

  FCA deeply concerned as no end in sight for IT failures in banking

  The FCA has reported a massive increase in the number of banking IT failures in the UK and admitted there is no end in sight

• November 27, 2018 27 Nov'18

  York teen crowned 2018 UK cyber security champion

  Teenager beat off competition from 41 other cyber security enthusiasts from across the UK, and six from Singapore, in the UK Cyber Security Challenge final

• November 27, 2018 27 Nov'18

  GDPR is encouraging UK IT directors to pay cyber ransoms

  As predicted ahead of the General Data Protection Regulation enforcement deadline, research shows that fear of fines under the new laws is making some firms more likely to pay cyber ransoms

• November 19, 2018 19 Nov'18

  Government lacks cyber resilience leadership, according to MPs

  The government lacks political leadership and urgency in dealing with cyber threats, according to Joint Committee on National Security Strategy, calling for a minister in charge of delivering cyber resilience

• November 17, 2018 17 Nov'18

  Credit card fraud in ANZ showing no signs of abating

  The value of fraudulent transactions more than doubled that of legitimate purchases during the third quarter this year

• November 16, 2018 16 Nov'18

  Three factors marginalising the CISO role

  Chief information security officers are typically marginalised due to three factors, and de-coupling the technical and managerial aspects of the job will enable empowerment, says consultant

• November 16, 2018 16 Nov'18

  UK firms in the dark around the impact of cyber attacks

  UK firms have a long way to go in building the business resilience required to withstand cyber threats and other major disruptions, a study shows

• November 15, 2018 15 Nov'18

  Enterprises lack capability against persistent cyber attacks

  A report urges organisations to strengthen their cyber defence capabilities to pre-empt, detect and respond to post-breach attacks

• November 14, 2018 14 Nov'18

  AI-enhanced security tools necessary for today’s threats

  Machine learning-enhanced tools are necessary to keep up with current threats, but are not perfect and will not solve the security skills gap problem, says KuppingerCole

• November 14, 2018 14 Nov'18

  Zero-trust security not an off-the-shelf product

  The zero-trust security model is a business enabler that needs to be supported by a strategy and security architecture, analyst warns cyber security leaders

• November 13, 2018 13 Nov'18

  User behaviour analytics adding new insight

  User behaviour analytics is helping to add new insights by providing the missing element in security event information management approaches, says Martin Kuppinger

• November 12, 2018 12 Nov'18

  Home Office to use smartphone ID for EU Exit scheme

  The Home Office will use smartphone digital identity verification to support applications for the government’s EU Exit Settlement Scheme  

• November 12, 2018 12 Nov'18

  Government considering dedicated internet regulator, says digital minister

  An upcoming white paper is likely to set out proposals for an internet regulator, a House of Lords committee has been told

• November 12, 2018 12 Nov'18

  Norway’s IT industry must tackle security vulnerabilities

  Report reveals growing threat posed by “hostile foreign actors” against Norway’s IT systems and critical national infrastructure

• November 12, 2018 12 Nov'18

  Firms lack responsible exec for cyber security

  Narrow gap between CEO, CIO and CISO roles means no single executive function is stepping up to take responsibility for cyber security, a study shows

• November 09, 2018 09 Nov'18

  Post-quantum cryptography a major challenge, says expert

  The crypto wars are just beginning and open systems are key to improved security in future, says cryptography expert

• November 08, 2018 08 Nov'18

  Researcher urges IoT security legislation

  Suppliers of internet connected devices are largely failing to improve the security of their products, exposing users to privacy risks, so there is no choice but to legislate in this area, says a researcher

• November 07, 2018 07 Nov'18

  Why the tech industry needs a moral compass

  Technology has unintended consequences, says Martha Lane Fox – but technologists have an opportunity to make a difference

• November 07, 2018 07 Nov'18

  Decentralised ID key to identity security

  Enterprises need to step up protections around identity-related compromises and look to decentralised identity in the longer term to improve security, says computer scientist

• November 07, 2018 07 Nov'18

  Cyber security high on European Commission agenda

  The European Commission is recognising the growing importance of cyber security to the digital economy and is increasing funding to support research, resilience and cooperation

• November 02, 2018 02 Nov'18

  DevSecOps not limited to coding, says analyst

  DevSecOps is seen as a way of ensuring application security, but security leaders must understand that embedding a security culture and taking the inter-dependencies of new development frameworks into account is key, says KuppingerCole

• November 02, 2018 02 Nov'18

  Facebook to appeal EU-US data transfer ruling in Irish Supreme Court

  Facebook will appeal a decision by the Irish High Court to refer questions over the legality of EU-US data transfers to the European Court of Justice in January, as the Dublin court rejects attempt by a UK IT expert to join the case

• November 02, 2018 02 Nov'18

  Government fails in first attempt to hire chief security officer

  The government’s initial recruitment campaign for the UK’s "biggest and most important security job” has been unsuccessful, Cabinet Office admits

• November 01, 2018 01 Nov'18

  Microsoft chief urges industry to focus on ethics and privacy

  Businesses must focus on GDPR and ethical AI if they are to become software firms, says Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella

• October 31, 2018 31 Oct'18

  Facebook emphasises security drive during third-quarter earnings call

  Social media giant admits it has a lot of work to do to keep on top of security as it looks to extend payment option to Messenger

• October 30, 2018 30 Oct'18

  Australia’s data breaches are a ‘sign of naiveté’

  McAfee executive attributes Australia’s poor cloud security record to the lack of data protection measures amid “new and confusing” cloud configurations

• October 30, 2018 30 Oct'18

  Aim for long-term customer identity relationship

  Consumer identity management can deliver competitive advantage, but only if businesses follow some golden rules, says KuppingerCole

• October 26, 2018 26 Oct'18

  British Airways data breach worse than thought

  British Airways has admitted that up to 185,000 more people than first thought may have had personal details compromised in August’s data breach

• October 26, 2018 26 Oct'18

  DNS attacks cost finance firms millions of pounds a year

  Average cost of recovering from a single DNS attack is $924,390 for a large financial services company, survey shows

• October 26, 2018 26 Oct'18

  IoT ecosystem needs to be investigated, say experts

  A conference of IoT experts convened by Enisa and Europol has made key recommendations to ensure security vulnerabilities do not overshadow benefits

• October 25, 2018 25 Oct'18

  GandCrab decryption tool released by No More Ransom

  Another decryption tool has been made available free of charge in the battle against ransomware to help victims avoid paying to release their data

• October 25, 2018 25 Oct'18

  Belgian startup makes a game of creating secure software code

  A global tech startup has placed its research and development centre in Belgium, taking advantage of regional financial support as well as cooperations with local educational organisations

• October 25, 2018 25 Oct'18

  Cathay Pacific under fire over breach affecting 9.4 million passengers

  Hong Kong-based airline reveals massive data breach of the most sensitive personal data of passengers five months after loss was confirmed

• October 25, 2018 25 Oct'18

  Becrypt security platform helps ease cloud adoption

  Becrypt’s secure operating system is driving a new service aimed at helping organisations reduce cost and increase agility in using cloud-based services and online applications

• October 24, 2018 24 Oct'18

  Choose security tools wisely to gain upper hand

  The cyber threat landscape is continually changing, but staying abreast of attacker and defender innovation can help business leaders gain the upper hand, says KuppingerCole

• October 24, 2018 24 Oct'18

  Sibos 2018: ‘Black swan’ cyber event is inevitable

  With security experts and bankers expecting a 9/11-style cyber event, deeper collaboration between companies and governments is necessary to identify emerging threats before they occur

• October 24, 2018 24 Oct'18

  Yahoo to pay at least $85m for data breach settlement

  Yahoo has agreed to a settlement in a class action lawsuit on behalf of 200 million consumers affected by a data breach in 2013

• October 23, 2018 23 Oct'18

  Interview: Steve Grobman, McAfee CTO shares his views on some burning security questions

  Cyber security technology innovator and veteran Steve Grobman shares his views on adversarial artificial intelligence, post-quantum cryptography and security for next-gen tech

• October 22, 2018 22 Oct'18

  McAfee CTO raises concerns about election cyber security

  The security industry needs to look at the security of election processes around the world as well as the security of voting and counting machines, says McAfee CTO

• October 19, 2018 19 Oct'18

  McAfee combining threat intel with AI

  Simulations show that threat intelligence and artificial intelligence is a powerful combination, according to McAfee’s technology head

• October 19, 2018 19 Oct'18

  Kaspersky advances plans to encourage women into cyber

  Cyber security provider Kaspersky Lab has partnered with several other organisations to try to encourage more women into cyber

• October 19, 2018 19 Oct'18

  Learn lessons from attacks, says McAfee investigations chief

  Organisations should use every cyber attack as an opportunity to learn, identify weaknesses and improve security posture, according to McAfee’s head of cyber investigations

• October 18, 2018 18 Oct'18

  McAfee researchers uncover ‘significant’ espionage campaign

  Researchers discover campaign targeting South Korea, the US and Canada with links to eight-year-old source code from a threat group that has been dormant for five years

• October 18, 2018 18 Oct'18

  Time to implement new cyber security protections, says McAfee CEO Chris Young

  Convergence of threats and technologies and an increasingly complex regulatory environment are driving the need to implement new cyber security protections, says McAfee chief

• October 16, 2018 16 Oct'18

  APAC security spending tipped to reach new highs

  Security services will be the largest and fastest-growing slice of the overall security pie in the Asia-Pacific region

• October 16, 2018 16 Oct'18

  Zero-trust security model gaining traction

  The zero-trust model of security is finally gaining traction as security professionals tap into new tools and executive buy-in to support this approach in an effort to improve security posture and practices

• October 16, 2018 16 Oct'18

  UK faces 10 cyber attacks a week as hostile states step up hacking, says NCSC

  The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre has thwarted more than 1,600 attacks over the past two years – many by hostile nation states

• October 15, 2018 15 Oct'18

  Cost of WannaCry attack to NHS set at £92m

  Department for Health and Social Care estimates the immediate cost of the May 2017 WannaCry attack on the NHS was £92m, and says it will have spent about £275m on improvements to its cyber security infrastructure by the end of 2021

• October 15, 2018 15 Oct'18

  IoT firms sign up to UK security code of practice

  Internet of things technology firms have begun signing up to a UK code of practice to strengthen the security of internet-connected devices. The code is expected to form the basis of an international standard

• October 15, 2018 15 Oct'18

  Apple challenges Australia’s proposed decryption law

  Tech giant Apple argued that the lack of judicial oversight could reduce customer trust and security, among other reservations over Australia’s draft decryption legislation

• October 12, 2018 12 Oct'18

  FS-ISAC awards cyber security scholarships in Europe

  Five women have been awarded cyber security scholarships at FS-ISAC’s 2018 EMEA Summit

• October 12, 2018 12 Oct'18

  Some 10% of user-reported emails malicious

  On average, 1 in 10 user-reported emails is identified as malicious, and more than half can be tied to credential phishing, a Cofense report reveals

• October 11, 2018 11 Oct'18

  Crypto-mining malware poses as Flash updates

  Cryptocurrency mining malware is posing as Flash updates that appear to be legitimate, Palo Alto Networks security researchers warn

• October 11, 2018 11 Oct'18

  RATs and Mimikatz among top publicly available hacking tools

  Remote access Trojans (RATs), web shells and Mimikatz among the top publicly available tools that are used in cyber attacks around the world, a five-nation cyber intelligence report reveals

• October 11, 2018 11 Oct'18

  Nato to be fully operational in cyber space by 2023

  Nato is aiming to achieve full operational readiness in cyber space within five years

• October 11, 2018 11 Oct'18

  MEPs urge Facebook to roll out election fraud prevention measures

  Facebook is coming under pressure from European lawmakers to do more to prevent its user data from being misappropriated during elections

• October 11, 2018 11 Oct'18

  Optus to acquire Hivint in cyber security deal

  The deal is expected to bolster the telco’s security pedigree in a market that is grappling with more data breaches and cyber incidents

• October 10, 2018 10 Oct'18

  Detail of Dutch reaction to Russian cyber attack made public deliberately

  Four Russian intelligence officials were expelled from the Netherlands after an attempted hack on the global chemical weapons watchdog. The Dutch government has been open about the detail

• October 10, 2018 10 Oct'18

  Bug bounties not a silver bullet, Katie Moussouris warns

  Targeted bug bounties have a role to play in cyber security, but they are not a "silver bullet", and run the risk of wiping out talent pipelines if poorly implemented, warns bug bounty pioneer

• October 10, 2018 10 Oct'18

  NCSC head says attribution of GRU attacks important

  The head of the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre has described the attribution of a wave of cyber attacks to Russia’s military intelligence service as “historically important” at a conference in Poland

• October 09, 2018 09 Oct'18

  Cooperation vital in cyber security, says former Estonian minister

  States acting alone cannot be efficient in cyber security and need to cooperate with others to build trust, says a former foreign minister of Estonia

• October 08, 2018 08 Oct'18

  NCSC head calls for technocratic partnership to fix cyber risks

  The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre is appealing for collaboration with the technology industry to remedy key vulnerabilities in current IT

• October 08, 2018 08 Oct'18

  Airbus secures European institutions against cyber threat

  Airbus CyberSecurity has partnered with Atos to help protect 17 European government institutes from cyber attacks

• October 08, 2018 08 Oct'18

  Google Safety Center goes live in the UK

  Google says its commitment to transparency is as strong as ever as its new Safety Center goes live in the UK to help keep businesses and consumers safe online

• October 05, 2018 05 Oct'18

  GDPR case work swamps Denmark’s data protection agency

  The agency investigating alleged breaches of GDPR in Denmark is recruiting additional resources to cope with the increase in work

• October 04, 2018 04 Oct'18

  Security Serious Unsung Heroes announced

  Awards celebrate the people of the cyber security industry on the front lines of organisations battling cyber threats

• October 04, 2018 04 Oct'18

  Business email compromise made easy for cyber criminals

  Poor security practices and access to hacking services are making it easy for cyber criminals to compromise business email, research reveals