News

Security policy and user awareness

• July 19, 2021 19 Jul'21

  UK, US confirm Chinese state backed MS Exchange Server attacks

  UK and US governments, alongside the EU and Nato, have formally attributed the March 2021 Microsoft Exchange Server attacks to Chinese state-backed actors

• July 19, 2021 19 Jul'21

  Pegasus mobile RAT abused to monitor journalists and activists

  Israel-based surveillance specialist NSO Group is facing renewed pressure after it emerged its Pegasus mobile surveillance tool may be being widely abused by repressive regimes

• July 16, 2021 16 Jul'21

  Legacy SonicWall kit exploited in ransom campaign

  Users of older versions of SonicWall Secure Mobile Access 100 and Secure Remote Access products are at risk from a new ransomware campaign

• July 15, 2021 15 Jul'21

  Lawyers take EncroChat hacking operation to French supreme court

  Lawyers head to French supreme court after appeals court finds EnroChat inception legal under French law

• July 15, 2021 15 Jul'21

  Privacy Shield: US surveillance law reforms essential for EU-US data, says EU parliamentary study

  EU Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs study calls for major reforms of US spying laws to enable an EU-US data-sharing agreement to replace Privacy Shield

• July 15, 2021 15 Jul'21

  Singapore to invest S$50m in ‘digital trust’ capabilities

  The Singapore government is pumping in S$50m to bolster research in technologies that will foster digital trust in areas such as privacy protection and identity management

• July 14, 2021 14 Jul'21

  REvil ransomware crew drops offline, reasons murky

  The REvil ransomware operation appears to have gone dark, but claims about its demise are almost certainly exaggerated

• July 14, 2021 14 Jul'21

  Multiple Microsoft bugs being actively exploited

  Microsoft’s July Patch Tuesday update fixes 117 vulnerabilities, 13 rated as critical and four already being actively exploited

• July 13, 2021 13 Jul'21

  Regional cyber clusters score £700k of funding

  DCMS has awarded £700,000 of funding to a network of 20 regional cyber clusters

• July 13, 2021 13 Jul'21

  Modipwn vulnerability puts millions of building systems at risk

  Authentication bypass vulnerability in a Schneider Electric product could lead to device takeover

• July 13, 2021 13 Jul'21

  UK Cyber Security Council calls for new push on training

  Too many companies have cut back on security training and development during the pandemic, says UK Cyber Security Council

• July 13, 2021 13 Jul'21

  Met Police seize £180m worth of Bitcoin

  The largest ever seizure of cryptocurrency in the UK comes just weeks after a previous multi-million pound confiscation, as law enforcement clamps down on money laundering

• July 12, 2021 12 Jul'21

  Kaseya VSA services coming online after week-long outage

  Kaseya has successfully deployed a patch to its ransomware-hit VSA product as per a revised schedule, and customers are beginning to come back online

• July 09, 2021 09 Jul'21

  Ransomware gangs seek people skills for negotiations

  The process of negotiating a ransomware payment is delicate, hence cyber criminal organisations are prepared to offer good terms to those with the right skillsets

• July 08, 2021 08 Jul'21

  Kaseya apologises for extended downtime after ransom attack

  CEO of Kaseya apologises after pushing back the restoration of the firm’s VSA service following a REvil ransomware attack

• July 08, 2021 08 Jul'21

  PrintNightmare haunts Microsoft as patch may miss mark

  Microsoft dropped an out-of-band patch to fix PrintNightmare, but there are concerns it may not be totally effective. This does not mean it shouldn’t be applied

• July 07, 2021 07 Jul'21

  ICO to probe Hancock over private email use

  Former health secretary faces an investigation by the UK’s data protection watchdog over his use of private email to conduct government business

• July 07, 2021 07 Jul'21

  How the UK Cyber Security Council plans to professionalise security

  As chair of the new UK Cyber Security Council, Claudia Natanson is in a superb position to develop professional standards in IT security and she intends to fundamentally reimagine what a security job actually is

• July 06, 2021 06 Jul'21

  About 60 Kaseya customers hit by REvil

  Kaseya has revised upward the number of managed service providers compromised by the REvil ransomware gang in a supply chain attack at the weekend

• July 06, 2021 06 Jul'21

  Cyber insurance costs up by a third

  The frequency and severity of ransomware attacks is a leading factor behind a substantial increase in the cost of obtaining cyber security insurance

• July 05, 2021 05 Jul'21

  REvil crew wants $70m in Kaseya ransomware heist

  Two days after one of the largest ransomware attacks in history by the REvil/Sodinokibi gang, the security community is assessing its next moves, while over 1,000 victims remain in limbo

• July 03, 2021 03 Jul'21

  Berlin court finds EncroChat intercept evidence cannot be used in criminal trials

  In a major setback for police hacking operations, Berlin’s regional court has decided that intercepted data from the EncroChat phone network should not be used in criminal prosecutions

• July 02, 2021 02 Jul'21

  Should I be worried about PrintNightmare?

  The accidental publication of proof of concept code for a Windows vulnerability, and the reclassification of said bug from low to critical severity, has the cyber community concerned. Is it right to be?

• July 02, 2021 02 Jul'21

  Cyber attackers up the ante on embattled IT teams

  Opportunistic threat actors are pouncing on embattled IT teams that are under pressure to expand remote work arrangements

• July 01, 2021 01 Jul'21

  NCSC joins US authorities to expose Russian brute force campaign

  A joint attribution by the British and American authorities accuses Russia’s GRU intelligence services of conducting a campaign of brute force attacks on enterprise and cloud environments

• July 01, 2021 01 Jul'21

  US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency launches ransomware assessment tool

  Newly launched service will help US organisations understand how prepared they are to deal with a ransomware attack

• July 01, 2021 01 Jul'21

  NHS IT fraudster Barry Stannard sentenced to five years in prison

  Stannard used his position as head of unified communications at an Essex NHS Trust to cheat the taxpayer of more than £800,000

• July 01, 2021 01 Jul'21

  Nominations open for 2021 Security Serious Unsung Heroes Awards

  Nominations are now open for this year’s edition of the Unsung Heroes Awards for cyber professionals and educators

• June 30, 2021 30 Jun'21

  Half of mobile phones sold in the UK at risk of security issues

  Lengthy mobile phone contracts leave buyers at risk of their devices losing support for security updates

• June 30, 2021 30 Jun'21

  REvil affiliates offer hefty ransom discounts, data reveals

  REvil or Sodinokibi ransomware activity is higher than ever, but its success appears to be relative, with some affiliates prepared to dramatically cut their prices

• June 30, 2021 30 Jun'21

  LinkedIn denies exposure of 700 million user records is a data breach

  Data relating to 700 million users of the LinkedIn networking platform has appeared for sale, but the firm says it is the victim of data scraping, not a security breach

• June 29, 2021 29 Jun'21

  New Nobelium attacks a reminder to attend to cyber basics

  A new campaign from the same threat group that broke into SolarWinds serves as a reminder that cyber crime gangs will try to exploit any avenue they can, even if technically unsophisticated

• June 29, 2021 29 Jun'21

  UK Cyber Security Council launches inaugural initiatives

  Security association seeks to determine terms of reference for committees to oversee standards and ethics, and qualifications and careers in the cyber sector

• June 28, 2021 28 Jun'21

  UK’s FCA bans crypto exchange Binance as crackdown spreads

  Ban on Binance Markets comes amid a wider global crackdown on the largely unregulated global market for cryptocurrencies and related assets.

• June 28, 2021 28 Jun'21

  HMRC-branded phishing scams surge despite protections

  The number of HMRC-branded phishing scams surged 87% in the past 12 months, according to latest revealed figures

• June 25, 2021 25 Jun'21

  NCSC CEO: UK-Ireland collaboration crucial to stop cyber threats

  Speaking at a conference in Dublin, NCSC Lindy Cameron is highlighting the importance of continued collaboration between the UK and Ireland to protect shared interests and counter security threats

• June 25, 2021 25 Jun'21

  CMA to probe Amazon and Google over fake reviews

  The CMA has opened an investigation into Amazon and Google over possible breaches of consumer protection law

• June 25, 2021 25 Jun'21

  AWS launches bug-busting programme for developers

  Amazon Web Services is inviting customers to probe their code for software bugs and vulnerabilities using its CodeGuru console

• June 24, 2021 24 Jun'21

  Google hands third-party cookies a stay of execution

  Google’s proposed Privacy Sandbox initiative – which will see third-party cookies phased out in the Chrome web browser – has been pushed back to 2023

• June 24, 2021 24 Jun'21

  NCSC recognises cyber degree apprenticeships for the first time

  Addition of new cyber courses to National Cyber Security Centre’s accredited list will supposedly help students make better choices and help universities get more funding

• June 24, 2021 24 Jun'21

  Stalkerware apps becoming normalised among young people

  Data in a new report appears to show that dangerous stalkerware apps are becoming normalised in younger age groups

• June 24, 2021 24 Jun'21

  (ISC)² makes ransomware education course free through 31 July

  Cyber security association is making its Professional Development Institute course on ransomware free to the general public until the end of July

• June 24, 2021 24 Jun'21

  Make ransomware payments illegal, say 79% of cyber pros

  Report produced for MSSP Talion claims overwhelming support for the criminalisation of ransomware payments

• June 23, 2021 23 Jun'21

  City of York picks Barracuda Networks for data protection

  York Council needed to refresh its backup service to bring new security protections after it went ‘all-in’ on Microsoft Office 365

• June 23, 2021 23 Jun'21

  European Union to set up new cyber response unit

  Proposed Joint Cyber Unit will tackle a rising number of serious incidents impacting public services, businesses and citizens of the EU

• June 23, 2021 23 Jun'21

  UK councils reported over 700 data breaches to ICO in 2020

  Data disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act reveals an estimated 700 data breaches were reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office by local councils last year

• June 22, 2021 22 Jun'21

  SonicWall sees 226.3 million ransomware attack attempts this year

  SonicWall detected 226.3 million attempted ransomware attacks between January and May 2021, more than double the number seen in the same period last year

• June 22, 2021 22 Jun'21

  NSPCC, IWF help under-18s scrub their nude photos from the web

  Report Remove tool is designed to be used by under-18s to report nude images or videos of themselves that have appeared online

• June 22, 2021 22 Jun'21

  UK SMEs lack capacity to fend off cyber attacks

  Three-quarters of UK SME leaders would not have sufficient capacity or expertise to deal with a cyber attack, according to a report

• June 21, 2021 21 Jun'21

  Parliamentary devices left in taxis, buses, trains and pubs

  Nearly 100 devices belonging to parliamentary staffers, including MPs and peers, were lost or stolen over the course of 2019 and 2020