News

Hackers and cybercrime prevention

• April 25, 2019 25 Apr'19

  UK up for cyber challenge but work to be done, says minister

  Lidington says National Cyber Security Strategy has “revolutionised the UK’s fight against cyber threats”

• April 25, 2019 25 Apr'19

  NCSC and ICO pledge to support data breach victims

  The UK’s cyber security agency and privacy watchdog have agreed to work together to improve support for data breach victims and enhance cyber guidance

• April 25, 2019 25 Apr'19

  No final decision taken on Huawei 5G ban, government claims

  Culture secretary tells MPs that a final decision on use of Huawei in UK 5G networks has not been taken, and says government is taking the leak of confidential discussions at the National Security Council very seriously

• April 25, 2019 25 Apr'19

  Cabinet Office addresses 5G security issue

  Cabinet Office uses NCSC conference to lay out government’s approach to the security of 5G networks, as controversy grows around using equipment from Chinese supplier Huawei

• April 25, 2019 25 Apr'19

  NCSC looks to industry to scale Active Cyber Defence

  The national cyber security agency is calling on wider government organisations as well as industry to help scale automated cyber attack blocking systems country-wide

• April 24, 2019 24 Apr'19

  NCSC to scale up intelligence sharing, says GCHQ director

  The GCHQ director has outlined the agency’s cyber security mission in the third decade of the internet age at CyberUK, promising to scale up the sharing of declassified cyber intelligence with industry

• April 23, 2019 23 Apr'19

  Global intelligence agencies share UK stage for first time

  Representatives of intelligence agencies from the Five Eyes alliance are to share a public platform in the UK for the first time at this year’s NCSC CyberUK conference

• April 23, 2019 23 Apr'19

  Casual collaboration comms pose security risk, survey shows

  UK employees have a worryingly casual attitude to workplace communications, underling the need for employers to take steps to counter related cyber attack vulnerabilities

• April 23, 2019 23 Apr'19

  WannaCry hero pleads guilty, urges others to stay on ‘good side’

  Briton hailed as WannaCry hero finally pleads guilty to charges of writing and distributing malware, but urges security researchers to stay away from the “dark side”

• April 20, 2019 20 Apr'19

  NCSC urges better online security practices

  UK cyber security agency is urging citizens to improve online safety and password security after research reveals most-hacked passwords and a survey exposes gaps in online security

• April 18, 2019 18 Apr'19

  20 firms join Tech Nation’s cyber security scale-up programme

  Tech Nation scale-up programme is designed to boost the UK’s cyber sector, accelerate the growth of its top companies and build a robust, cross-industry network

• April 18, 2019 18 Apr'19

  State-sponsored hackers are hijacking DNS, researchers warn

  A DNS-hijacking campaign targeting the Middle East and Africa may lead to actors more broadly attacking the global DNS system

• April 17, 2019 17 Apr'19

  Nearly a quarter of tech firms do not security check products

  Nearly a quarter of organisations polled do not run security checks on products, and nearly a third admitted to shipping products with known security vulnerabilities, a survey shows

• April 17, 2019 17 Apr'19

  TfL suspends Wi-Fi service as Extinction Rebellion spreads

  Transport for London has cut off its public Virgin Media Wi-Fi service to disrupt climate change protests

• April 17, 2019 17 Apr'19

  Wipro admits to potential breach to employee accounts by phishing attack

  Indian IT services company Wipro is investigating a phishing attack, which hit some staff email accounts and launched attacks on customer environments

• April 16, 2019 16 Apr'19

  Energy industry needs to up cyber defences, warns report 

  Cyber threat actors are advanced and persistent, but firms in the energy industry are using outdated systems and technology to save money, putting them at risk of cyber attacks, warns F-Secure report

• April 15, 2019 15 Apr'19

  How Palo Alto Networks fends off its cyber adversaries

  Palo Alto Networks CIO Naveen Zutshi talks up the company’s approach in keeping threat actors at bay

• April 15, 2019 15 Apr'19

  Zero trust is about more than products

  The zero trust security model is more than just products and network segmentation, it’s an architectural design principle with identity at its core that needs to be applied enterprise-wide, says KuppingerCole

• April 15, 2019 15 Apr'19

  Automation will bring job security, say most IT security pros

  Most security professionals believe that although automation can support humans, it will not result in a reduction in job opportunities, a study shows

• April 15, 2019 15 Apr'19

  NCSC seeks new breed of cyber security startups

  The UK intelligence community is seeking to promote a new breed of technology startup to help detect, respond to and facilitate rapid recoveries from cyber attacks on the UK

• April 12, 2019 12 Apr'19

  Police local cyber crime units get multimillion pound boost

  UK policing marks the completion of the local phase of a national cyber crime programme to complement regional and national response capabilities

• April 11, 2019 11 Apr'19

  Government breach data highlights cyber skills misconception

  Results of a government-sponsored survey highlight a dangerous misconception around cyber skills, according to a former GCHQ trainer

• April 11, 2019 11 Apr'19

  Most organisations still lack incident response plans

  Most companies lack incident response plans, others fail to test them and nearly half are not GDPR compliant, but some report improved security through automation, a study shows

• April 11, 2019 11 Apr'19

  Triton industrial malware group still active, researchers warn

  Security researchers have found traces of a Russian-linked cyber attack group in another critical infrastructure facility, prompting calls for increased diligence around industrial cyber security

• April 10, 2019 10 Apr'19

  A quarter of phishing emails bypass Office 365 security

  Cloud-based email is leaving enterprises vulnerable to phishing attacks capable of giving cyber criminals access to a wide range of critical data, warn security researchers

• April 09, 2019 09 Apr'19

  Digital doppelgangers for sale to defeat anti-fraud tech

  Security researchers have uncovered an online market selling digital identities to help cyber criminals to defeat anti-fraud technologies, as financial cyber crime becomes a bigger threat than ever before

• April 09, 2019 09 Apr'19

  UK councils team up to boost cyber security

  Three UK councils and data analysis firm Splunk have teamed up to improve cyber defence capabilities and maintain their security systems

• April 09, 2019 09 Apr'19

  GCHQ cyber courses for teens recognised by qualification board

  The Scottish Qualifications Authority has accredited courses pioneered by GCHQ’s National Cyber Security Centre to teach teenagers about cyber security

• April 08, 2019 08 Apr'19

  Ransomware getting more targeted, warns Flashpoint

  Ransomware attacks are becoming more targeted and designed to infect different sized organisations in specific industries and regions, say security researchers

• April 08, 2019 08 Apr'19

  UK plans for online safety laws not enough, says BCS

  Government plans for online safety laws need to be complemented with a national cyber safety programme in schools, according to IT and computer science professional and educational body

• April 05, 2019 05 Apr'19

  Critical infrastructure under relentless cyber attack

  A lack of visibility into the attack surface, inadequate security staffing and reliance on manual processes undermine operational technology security capabilities, a study reveals

• April 05, 2019 05 Apr'19

  European firms see value in ‘known good’ approach to security

  European data protection regulations are driving enterprise interest in an approach to security being championed by virtualisation software maker VMware, says the company’s security lead

• April 05, 2019 05 Apr'19

  Huawei ban will cost UK plc £6.8bn, delay 5G

  If the UK government decides to impose tighter restrictions, or an outright ban on the use of Huawei in national 5G networks, the country faces severe consequences, according to a report

• April 04, 2019 04 Apr'19

  Researchers uncover US-based malware distribution centre

  More than a dozen US-based web servers are operating as the malware equivalent of an Amazon fulfilment centre to target businesses, security researchers have found

• April 04, 2019 04 Apr'19

  Document-based malware on the rise, businesses warned

  Document-based malware spiked in the first quarter of the year, building on a gradual rise in the past year, warn researchers

• April 04, 2019 04 Apr'19

  Fresh approach needed to reap cloud security benefits

  Transitioning to cloud-based services offers businesses an opportunity to improve security capabilities, but only if they adopt a proactive cloud-native approach, says Palo Alto Networks cloud security expert

• April 03, 2019 03 Apr'19

  Government urges businesses and charities to up cyber security

  The UK government is urging businesses and charities to take action to prevent cyber attacks as the costs go up, despite an overall reduction in breaches, partly driven by new data protection laws

• April 02, 2019 02 Apr'19

  Akamai to open second traffic scrubbing centre in Australia

  New centre in Melbourne will meet growing demand for scrubbing services to mitigate the impact of distributed denial of service attacks in Australia

• April 02, 2019 02 Apr'19

  Women now almost a quarter of cyber security workforce

  Women in cyber security are younger, have achieved higher levels of education and are assuming leadership roles at higher rates than men, a study shows

• April 02, 2019 02 Apr'19

  Four in 10 leading banks failing on email fraud protection

  Top UK traditional and challenger banks risk exposing customers to email fraud, a study reveals

• April 02, 2019 02 Apr'19

  Cyber attacks increasingly exploiting supply chain weaknesses

  Cyber attacks are increasingly characterised by supply chain attacks, counter incident response and lateral movement, research reveals

• April 02, 2019 02 Apr'19

  Huawei reports record numbers despite tumultuous year

  Huawei has become one of the world’s largest technology companies by revenue, suggesting the accusations over its ties to the Chinese government are failing to have much impact

• April 02, 2019 02 Apr'19

  Thales completes acquisition of Gemalto

  Multi-billion-euro acquisition gives Thales a global leadership position in digital identity and security

• April 01, 2019 01 Apr'19

  Black Hat Asia 2019: Get ready for the cyber arms race

  The arms race is now squarely in the cyber realm as defence teams and threat actors arm themselves with AI tools

• April 01, 2019 01 Apr'19

  Rapidly multiplying IoT cyber attacks use well-known weaknesses

  Internet of things threats and attacks are increasing rapidly, but rely on well-known security weaknesses, security researchers discover

• April 01, 2019 01 Apr'19

  Singapore government to review data security in public sector

  A high-level committee comprising ministers and private sector security experts will review data security practices and recommend measures to better protect citizens’ data

• March 29, 2019 29 Mar'19

  Magento e-commerce sites urged to apply security update

  Security experts are urging companies using the Magento e-commerce site to apply security updates without delay to avoid a disastrous hacking campaign

• March 28, 2019 28 Mar'19

  Infosec pros slam government-mandated backdoors

  Government-mandated encryption backdoors increase vulnerability to nation-state attacks, according to the majority of cyber security professionals

• March 28, 2019 28 Mar'19

  Huawei making no progress on addressing security concerns

  Huawei has made no material progress on addressing the issues identified last year by the NCSC, according to the latest highly critical report from its HSCEC Oversight Board

• March 28, 2019 28 Mar'19

  Encryption adoption driven by new tech and compliance

  The adoption of encryption is at its highest level yet, driven by the need to protect data generated by new digital initiatives, but still less than half of organisations are applying it consistently across the enterprise

• March 27, 2019 27 Mar'19

  UK IoT research centre to tackle cyber risk

  A government-backed national IoT research centre has been launched as part of UK efforts to become a world leader in tackling cyber threats  

• March 27, 2019 27 Mar'19

  Cyber attacks targeting industrial control systems on the rise

  Malicious cyber activity increased to almost half of the industrial infrastructure protected by Kaspersky Lab in 2018, but the UK is among the most secure countries, the security firm reports

• March 27, 2019 27 Mar'19

  Norsk Hydro cyber attack cost estimates up to $41m

  Initial estimates have put the financial impact of last week’s ransomware attack on the Norwegian aluminium producer of up to nearly $41m, raising questions about cyber insurance coverage

• March 26, 2019 26 Mar'19

  Police make 61 arrests in global crackdown on dark web

  Law enforcement agencies from the US, Canada and Europe, including the UK, have joined forces to target suppliers and buyers of illegal goods on dark web marketplaces and warn buyers of risks

• March 26, 2019 26 Mar'19

  Europe passes controversial Copyright Directive

  The European Parliament has passed a new Copyright Directive, including a number of highly controversial articles

• March 26, 2019 26 Mar'19

  BT switches on quantum network link at Adastral Park

  BT has opened its quantum network link between its Adastral Park research base and the UK Quantum Network node at the University of Cambridge

• March 26, 2019 26 Mar'19

  Asus releases fix for supply chain cyber attack

  Asus has released a fix for a supply chain attack and downplayed the impact on customers while promising to contact all those affected as incident highlights code signing vulnerabilities

• March 26, 2019 26 Mar'19

  Nominet urges SMEs to register .uk domains to thwart squatters

  The automatic right of .co.uk domain name holders to register the shorter .uk domains ends in June

• March 26, 2019 26 Mar'19

  Firms urged to gear up for new malware and tactics as threats proliferate

  The volume of malware attacks reached a record level in 2018, with UK and India bucking global trend of increased ransomware attacks, a study shows

• March 26, 2019 26 Mar'19

  Geopolitical issues affecting cyber security

  Geopolitical issues are affecting business decisions, according to the majority of cyber security professionals, a survey shows

• March 25, 2019 25 Mar'19

  Security challenge is to move as fast as the business

  Adapting security to the pace at which the business is moving is one of the biggest challenges facing infosec professionals in the cloud era, says Palo Alto Networks

• March 25, 2019 25 Mar'19

  Lack of security skills exposing business to attack

  The cyber skills shortage is leaving businesses at increased risk of attack as organisations continue to struggle to fill security-related positions, a survey shows

• March 25, 2019 25 Mar'19

  Small businesses hit hardest by cyber crime costs

  Small businesses felt the biggest impact of the UK’s cyber crime bill in 2018, research shows

• March 22, 2019 22 Mar'19

  Digital Darwinism unkind to those who wait, says Palo Alto

  As business-driven digital transformation, including the move to cloud, continues apace, companies need to rethink their approach to how they deploy and consume security, or risk being left behind

• March 22, 2019 22 Mar'19

  UK government at odds over Huawei threat

  The chair of the Science and Technology Committee has criticised the government’s vague response to concerns about Huawei’s activities in the UK

• March 22, 2019 22 Mar'19

  Government cyber security strategy is ‘chaotic’

  Responding to potential threats at a national level is unfeasible given the time ministers are currently dedicating to Brexit negotiations, says shadow Cabinet Office minister

• March 21, 2019 21 Mar'19

  Russian cyber espionage groups targeting EU governments

  Two Russian cyber espionage groups are targeting EU governments ahead of European elections, say researchers

• March 20, 2019 20 Mar'19

  Spike in cyber attacks targeting Cisco Webex

  Cyber attacks targeting a leading web conference tool have increased dramatically and sextortion is becoming more popular with attackers, according to WatchGuard Technologies

• March 20, 2019 20 Mar'19

  Police investigate Norsk Hydro ransomware attack

  Ransomware attack on one of the world’s largest aluminium producers is under police investigation

• March 20, 2019 20 Mar'19

  UK cyber experts to support global company boards

  A consortium of UK cyber security experts and academics is to support multinational company boards to tackle online threats and protect against cyber crime

• March 20, 2019 20 Mar'19

  UK government organisations’ email security lagging

  Email security in UK government organisations is lagging far behind that of central government, analysis reveals, with less than a third implementing standard protection

• March 19, 2019 19 Mar'19

  Norsk Hydro confirms ransomware attack

  A Norwegian aluminium producer has confirmed a ransomware attack is affecting several areas of its business, forcing it to switch to manual operations

• March 19, 2019 19 Mar'19

  More than half of EU firms report cyber attack losses

  More than half of European firms admit business disruption and data loss due to cyber attacks in the past 24 months, with UK firms among the most targeted, a survey shows

• March 19, 2019 19 Mar'19

  Firms urged to protect against spear phishing

  Spear phishing attacks are sophisticated, targeted, costly and increasing in popularity among cyber attackers, a report warns

• March 19, 2019 19 Mar'19

  Norwegian aluminium producer hit by ‘extensive’ cyber attack

  A Norwegian aluminium producer has disclosed that it has come under cyber attack affecting several areas of its business as the firm faces claims of environmental damage

• March 18, 2019 18 Mar'19

  Build in trust, experts advise cyber innovators

  Trust will be increasingly important in the digital era, and is therefore a key component of new products and services, experts have told cyber security innovators

• March 18, 2019 18 Mar'19

  EU law enforcement agencies prepare for major cyber attacks

  Law enforcement agencies across the European Union are preparing for major cross-border cyber attacks, says Europol

• March 18, 2019 18 Mar'19

  CyLon announces latest cyber security accelerator cohort

  Swiss and Israeli cyber security startups join teams from the UK for CyLon’s ninth London accelerator cohort

• March 15, 2019 15 Mar'19

  Businesses failing to grasp DevSecOps

  UK and US businesses are being exposed to security risks by a failure to integrate security into DevOps programmes, research shows

• March 14, 2019 14 Mar'19

  National Cyber Security Programme at risk of missing targets

  The National Audit Office has sharply criticised the Cabinet Office over failings in how it set up the National Cyber Security Programme that mean it may struggle to meet its goals

• March 14, 2019 14 Mar'19

  Avoid infosec mistakes of the past, urges Robert Hannigan

  Technology innovators need to avoid security mistakes of the past by building in integrity so that products and services can be used with trust and confidence, says former GCHQ director

• March 14, 2019 14 Mar'19

  Met Police collaborated with US prosecutors in WikiLeaks investigation

  The Metropolitan Police has confirmed it exchanged information on WikiLeaks staff in the UK with the US Department of Justice, which is conducting criminal investigations into the organisation

• March 13, 2019 13 Mar'19

  IT Priorities 2019: ASEAN organisations lay digital foundations

  Organisations in Southeast Asia are planning to shore up their IT infrastructure to speed up application development and become more customer focused

• March 13, 2019 13 Mar'19

  Almost half UK firms hit by phishing attacks

  Almost half of UK organisations have been compromised in the past two years using phishing attacks, despite high levels of cyber awareness and training, research shows

• March 12, 2019 12 Mar'19

  Cyber attackers favouring stealthier attacks, says Darktrace

  Cyber attackers are moving away from ransomware to stealthier tactics, including banking Trojans and cryptojacking, an analysis of attack data reveals

• March 12, 2019 12 Mar'19

  Many firms unaware of data exfiltration threat

  Many firms are unaware that they are being targeted by cyber espionage and that data is being exfiltrated from their networks by overseas adversaries, a security firm warns

• March 12, 2019 12 Mar'19

  Despite failings, exec appetite for secure collaboration growing

  Top business decision makers are more reckless than ever with company data, but the appetite for secure collaboration tools is growing, survey reveals

• March 11, 2019 11 Mar'19

  Citrix breach once again highlights password weaknesses

  A reported breach of Citrix, which has potentially exposed data at hundreds of thousands of customer organisations, has once again highlighted the need for an alternative to passwords and the importance of supply chain security

• March 08, 2019 08 Mar'19

  Growing awareness of mobile security risk

  There is a growing awareness of mobile security risk among members of the information security community, but most admit accessing corporate data from personal devices or public Wi-Fi

• March 08, 2019 08 Mar'19

  Equifax defends against scathing Senate report

  Equifax chief says firm did take cyber security seriously in a response to a scathing Senate report on the credit rating agency’s 2017 data breach, which experts say highlights failings around open source software

• March 07, 2019 07 Mar'19

  Machine identities for sale on dark web, business warned

  Academics and security professionals are warning businesses that certificates used to establish trust and privacy on the internet are being weaponised and sold to cyber criminals bundled with other services

• March 07, 2019 07 Mar'19

  Zuckerberg commits to Facebook becoming privacy-focused

  After a storm of controversy and criticism over the way Facebook fails to protect users’ privacy, the company’s chief says he plans to transform it into a privacy-focused platform

• March 06, 2019 06 Mar'19

  Cyber espionage group behind SingHealth attack

  A cyber espionage group dubbed Whitefly has been identified as the perpetrators behind Singapore’s largest data breach to date

• March 06, 2019 06 Mar'19

  5G one of several security challenges to CNI

  5G technology is among the key security challenges facing critical national infrastructure and all other business organisations, according to the Information Security Forum

• March 04, 2019 04 Mar'19

  Cyber awareness of UK boards found wanting

  Boards of many of the UK’s biggest firms must do more to be cyber aware, according to a government report.

• March 04, 2019 04 Mar'19

  RSA Security bets on digital risk management

  RSA Security chief predicts that managing digital risk is set to become increasingly important to organisations as they complete their journeys to digital transformation

• March 04, 2019 04 Mar'19

  Clearer North Korean link to global infrastructure malware campaign

  Researchers have uncovered clearer links between a North Korean hacking group and a cyber espionage campaign targeting government, defence, nuclear, energy and financial organisations around the world

• March 04, 2019 04 Mar'19

  IT Priorities 2019: APAC keeping pace with digital transformation

  Digital transformation is well underway among APAC enterprises which are looking to spend more on refreshing their IT infrastructure and technologies that improve employee productivity

• March 01, 2019 01 Mar'19

  Teen becomes first millionaire through HackerOne bug bounties

  A self-taught teen hacker from Argentina has become the first bug bounty hacker to become a millionaire by hacking to create a safer internet

• February 28, 2019 28 Feb'19

  Supplier consolidation tops infosec goals for 2019

  Supplier consolidation, collaboration between networking and security teams, and security awareness are the top priorities for information security professionals trying to prepare for the unknown, annual benchmark study shows