Web application security

This Christmas, Covid-19 heightens retail security risks for everyone

Do you think it’s only retailers and consumers who need to consider cyber security when shopping online during the holidays? You’re dead wrong. This year, the Covid-19 pandemic and the shift to remote working has thrown a spanner in the works Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Nominet introduces new resources for cyber scam victims

Domain name registrar is working with law enforcement to provide new information, guidance and resources for potential victims of online scams Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

NCSC issues retail security alert ahead of Black Friday sales

National Cyber Security Centre issues refreshed guidance as cyber criminals turn their eyes to the holiday shopping season Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

CW APAC: Expert advice on zero-trust security

Zero trust is a security model that eliminates the traditional perimeter and assumes that no user or device can be trusted until proven otherwise. In this handbook, Computer Weekly looks at how enterprises can take a zero-trust approach to securing their network, devices and workforce. Continue Reading

Human error blamed in Welsh Covid-19 patient data leak

Public Health Wales accepts recommendations of independent probe into data breach that saw PII on 18,105 coronavirus patients leaked Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

DDoS mitigation strategies needed to maintain availability during pandemic

The growing prevalence of DDoS attacks combined with the increased reliance on internet connectivity during the pandemic means enterprises can no longer afford to ignore the threat of DDoS attacks. Computer Weekly explores organisations’ perceptions of the risks and best practice for mitigation Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Microsoft drops fix for serious zero-day among 112 Patch Tuesday updates

November’s Patch Tuesday contains fixes for 112 bugs, including a potentially serious zero-day exploit that malicious actors are already taking advantage of Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Zoom rapped over historic security practices

The US Federal Trade Commission rules that Zoom’s practices undermined the security of its users Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

IT Priorities 2020: After Covid-19, security goes back to basics

This year’s transition to remote working highlighted big gaps in the fundamentals of security, as updated TechTarget/Computer Weekly data reveals Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

EU moves closer to encryption ban after Austria, France attacks

Draft resolution document setting up an EU-wide ban on end-to-end encryption is set to be waved through this week Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

ICO sued over ‘failure’ to address ad industry practices

Privacy campaigner the Open Rights Group claims the advertising technology industry is systematically breaching the GDPR, and the ICO is doing nothing about it Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Microsoft to support next generation of security startups

Tech giant lends its support to the NCSC Cyber Accelerator scheme, which is seeking its seventh cohort of startups Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Trump supporters targeted by cryptocurrency scammers

The successful breach of Donald Trump’s official website shows up lax security on his campaign team and is yet another timely warning that nobody is immune to cyber crime Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Barracuda eyes Indochina markets

Barracuda is looking to expand its local presence and headcount in fast-growing emerging markets of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, Informa TechTarget

Protecting remote workers an opportunity to do security better

Securing the fully remote workforce has been a challenge for IT teams, but it presents an opportunity to commit to a higher standard of cyber security, according to a Cisco report Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

NSA’s top CVE list a timely reminder to patch

Many of the CVEs detailed on the NSA’s top 25 chart are golden oldies Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Trump and Biden campaign apps easy targets for cyber criminals

You don’t need a stellar IQ to exploit the dangerous StrandHogg Android vulnerability, and users of both Donald Trump’s and Joe Biden’s mobile apps are at risk of falling victim to it Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Customer loyalty accounts in danger from cyber criminals

Billions of credential stuffing attacks are harvesting valuable customer data for the dark web economy Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Police given access to self-isolation data

NHS Test and Trace self-isolation data will be made available to police after new guidance changes data-sharing rules Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Microsoft fixes 87 bugs in October 2020 Patch Tuesday

Smaller October Patch Tuesday update includes fixes for critical bugs in Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019 Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Suppliers neglecting virtual appliance security, putting users at risk

Software suppliers are often distributing their products on virtual appliances that contain known vulnerabilities or are running outdated or unsupported operating systems, according to a report Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Five Eyes spy group again demands access to private messages

Spooks are once again calling for the tech industry to break end-to-end encryption in messaging platforms Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Cyber security skills ad branded ‘crass’ by minister

Security skills campaign advert depicting a ballet dancer comes in for criticism as the arts sector struggles in the pandemic Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Magecart strikes website of school payments service Wisepay

Magecart credit card skimmer harvested financial data of users of Wisepay’s platform over a two-day period Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

NCSC relaunches SME security guide with home working focus

The NCSC is issuing an updated version of its guide to security for SMEs, reflecting the long-lasting changes to the world of work seen in 2020 Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Fake news tops list of online concerns worldwide

Receiving false information is a greater worry than other online risks such as cyber bullying and fraud, says the Lloyd’s Register Foundation Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Picking Your Way Through The SASE Minefield

After the best part of two decades of gradual change in the world of the networking infrastructure, WiFi and mobile notwithstanding, the past few years have seen more upheaval than at any time ... Continue Reading

By

• Steve Broadhead, Broadband Testing

Find and fix your Adobe Flash dependencies, says NCSC

As Adobe’s Flash Player approaches end-of-life, the National Cyber Security Centre is urging organisations to fix their Flash dependencies Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

GitHub makes code vulnerability scanning feature public

Code-scanning service is now out of beta and generally available, helping teams to bake security into their code at the development stage Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

NCSC expands schools programme to north-east England and Northern Ireland

Following an initial roll-out in Gloucestershire and Wales, the NCSC’s CyberFirst Schools programme is being extended to north-east England and Northern Ireland Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

NatWest offers online banking customers free security services

Bank responds to a surge in cyber crime targeting users of online banking services Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Remote working world reveals cloud/SaaS security concerns

Research reveals pivotal moment when the cloud is playing a more important role than ever to support mass remote working, with CISO concerns over cloud security remaining stubbornly high Continue Reading

By

• Joe O’Halloran, Computer Weekly

TikTok ban stayed after last-minute court case

TikTok’s lawyers have staved off an imminent ban for the time being, after successfully arguing that it infringed rights guaranteed under the Constitution of the United States Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Security now main driving force behind digital transformation

Organisations are urgently remodelling their core technology stack in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic, and this is pushing security to the top of the agenda Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Covid-19 has changed how we think about cyber security forever

Six months into the global pandemic, the true impact on the future of cyber security is beginning to look clearer, says Microsoft’s Ann Johnson Continue Reading

By

• Ann Johnson, Microsoft

Third-party code bug left Instagram users at risk of account takeover

A critical vulnerability in Instagram’s image processing could have allowed attackers to take over not just their victim’s account, but their entire device Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Government blasted over ‘reckless’ contact-tracing security

The Open Rights Group and Big Brother Watch accuse the government of endangering public health with a reckless attitude to contact-tracing data security Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Race to patch as Microsoft confirms Zerologon attacks in the wild

Don’t be the organisation that made the headlines because it failed to patch. Microsoft says it is seeing cyber attacks ramping up around the Zerologon CVE-2020-1472 bug Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Video gamers barraged with cyber attacks

From credential stuffing to SQL injection and DDoS, video game producers and players are seeing massive volumes of cyber attacks Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Scam mobile apps spreading via rogue TikTok accounts

Malicious TikTok accounts are promoting a number of adware scam mobile apps Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Big questions to be answered over TikTok and WeChat reprieve

TikTok and WeChat seem to have received a stay of execution, but big questions and contradictions remain Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

SASE Is Not Just A Sassy Fashion – It’s Here To Stay So Convert That Attic Now

Earlier in the year, in this space I talked about SASE – Secure Access Service Edge – pronounced “sassy” as being one of the most relevant new Gartner definitions to explore and understand. And I ... Continue Reading

By

• Steve Broadhead, Broadband Testing

Congressman offered Julian Assange a ‘win-win’ deal that would help President Trump

Details have emerged of US congressman Dana Rohrabacher’s offer of a pardon to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in a ‘win-win deal that would benefit US President Donald Trump Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

US government deplatforms TikTok and WeChat

The Commerce Department of the US government has banned new downloads of TikTok and WeChat in the US, and announced new prohibitions on doing business with them Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Rampant Kitten spent six years hacking Iranian dissidents

Details emerge of an ongoing campaign by Tehran-backed threat actors targeting dissidents and activists Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Saudi Arabia sees cyber security boom as coronavirus bites

Saudi Arabian CIOs have been forced to increase their security posture as the Covid-19 pandemic transforms working methods Continue Reading

By

• Alicia Buller

Assange revelations among most important in US history, says Daniel Ellsberg

Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked highly classified documents that changed the course of the Vietnam War in the 1970s, says WikiLeaks exposed a serious pattern of US war crimes Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Retailers urged to get to grips with Magento as attacks spike

A huge spike in online retailers being hacked with Magecart credit card skimmers is being blamed on unsupported versions of Adobe Magento Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Lorca security scaleups to get Splunk data expertise

Lorca inducts Splunk onto its co-marketing programme, giving security scaleups access to new data expertise Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Risky development practice leaves company access keys exposed

Database stores, cloud storage and myriad other services are being put at risk by the accidental exposure of company access keys during development Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

TikTok-Oracle partnership moves forward for consideration

Joint venture proposal could create thousands of jobs and secure TikTok’s future outside China Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Data of every Welsh Covid-19 patient leaked online

Data on all 18,105 people in Wales who have received positive tests for the coronavirus was uploaded to a public-facing web server in error Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Microsoft drops out of TikTok talks, paves way for Oracle partnership

Microsoft confirms it is dropping out of the running to acquire the US operations of TikTok, leaving the way clear for an imminent partnership deal with Oracle Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Travel industry websites are laughably insecure, claims Which?

The travel industry is failing to take the data security of its customers seriously, according to a Which? investigation Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Lorca security scaleups hit funding milestone

£153m of investment has been raised by Lorca cohort companies in just two years, almost four times the original target Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Government launches £500k healthcare security plan

A £500,000 funding pot from the government aims to help support small and mid-sized healthcare firms during the pandemic Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Assange prosecution would put journalists around the world at risk

Trevor Timm, co-founder of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, tells a court that if the US prosecutes WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, every reporter who receives a secret document will be criminalised Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

September’s Patch Tuesday heavy on RCE vulnerabilities

Microsoft’s September update contains patches for 129 common vulnerabilities and exposures, including a high number of remote code execution issues Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Why predictive threat intelligence is key

Threat intelligence startup Cyfirma is using virtual agents to gather intelligence on potential cyber attacks that are being coordinated in underground forums before they occur Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, Informa TechTarget

Northumbria University suffers major disruption after cyber attack

Some exams cancelled as university appoints external specialists to investigate incident Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Machine learning wards off threats at TV studio Bunim Murray

TV studio behind reality hits including The Real World and Keeping Up With The Kardashians turned to Darktrace’s Antigena email protection service to keep its people safe from Covid-19 threats Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Benefit fraud: Underground trade in stolen identities revealed

A roaring underground trade in stolen identities is undermining the Universal Credit system and could potentially defraud it out of millions of pounds Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

TikTok CEO clocks off

TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer has resigned from the firm after just three months Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

TikTok takes Trump to court

Under-fire video app TikTok files a formal complaint in the federal courts challenging the Trump administration’s attempt to ban it in the US Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

When algorithms don’t play fair

In this week’s Computer Weekly, we report on the auditing of algorithms to countervail bias. We examine what CISOs can learn from Covid-19. And in our buyer’s guide to modern software development, we assess how competent artificial intelligence is at building applications that deliver the best possible customer experience. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

TikTok’s GDPR compliance probed amid accusations of data misuse

Dutch privacy organisation SOMI claims TikTok falls short in protecting young users, and that it is likely violating GDPR Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Social media data leak highlights murky world of data scraping

A data brokerage left its database of 235 million Instagram, TikTok and YouTube profiles exposed to anybody who cared to access it Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Reports Oracle to enter TikTok bidding war

Oracle may be about to make a bid to acquire the US operations of TikTok from its Chinese parent ByteDance, according to the FT Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Oracle and Salesforce sued over online ad tracking

Class action lawsuits filed in Amsterdam and London will accuse Oracle and Salesforce of breaching GDPR in their processing and sharing of personal data to sell online advertising Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Microsoft patches two zero-days with active exploits

Microsoft drops another major Patch Tuesday update, including fixes for two zero-day exploits that are already being exploited by cyber criminals Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

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 Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Citrix users urged to patch five XenMobile CVEs

Patches are available for CVEs 2020-8208 through 8212 and should be installed as soon as possible Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

French data protection authorities to probe TikTok as suitors circle

France’s CNIL has confirmed a new investigation into TikTok’s data protection practices Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Hospitality sector is failing on contact-tracing obligations

Cyber security experts urge the government to do more to help small hospitality businesses improve their contact-tracing data-handling practices Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

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 Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Virgin Media customers targeted in Twitter phish

Customers seeking help from the ISP are being targeted by a scam Twitter account Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

TikTok to be banned in US in 45 days

Trump says his Executive Orders against Chinese mobile apps are in the interests of dealing with a national emergency Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Don’t believe the hype: AI is no silver bullet

We want to believe AI will revolutionise cyber security, and we’re not necessarily wrong, but it’s time for a reality check Continue Reading

By

• Mike Lloyd, RedSeal

New foundation to bolster security of open source software

The Open Source Security Foundation will bring together key open source security initiatives across the industry to improve and support the security of open source software Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, Informa TechTarget

Microsoft offers way out of TikTok impasse

Microsoft offers to buy TikTok from its Chinese parent to ease security fears in the US Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

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 Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Majority of organisations at risk of cloud data exposure

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

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

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 Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

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 Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

NCSC inducts six security startups to Cyber Accelerator

10-week programme will guide some of the UK’s most innovative security startups as they scale their businesses for future growth Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

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 Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Businesses underestimate negative impact of bot traffic

Research from Netacea finds that although awareness of malicious bot activity is high, many are underestimating its true impact Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

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 Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

CW APAC: Trend Watch – security

It wasn’t that long ago when DevSecOps was little more than a mispronunciation of DevOps. Fast forward to today, the notion of embedding security into the development process is not only accepted, but increasingly championed. In this handbook, Computer Weekly looks at what organisations in the Asia-Pacific region are doing to secure their systems, from adopting a DevSecOps approach, to preparing for cyber attacks and ensuring the privacy of Covid-19 contact-tracing app users. Continue Reading

CW ANZ: Expert advice on security

Supply chain risks are invisible to many organisations, which means they are often not prioritised from an IT security perspective, partly because supply chain risk management is often seen as a procurement issue. In this handbook, Computer Weekly looks at how organisations in Australia and New Zealand can better protect themselves against supply chain attacks and other evolving cyber threats. Continue Reading

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 Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

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 Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, Informa TechTarget

Patch Tuesday: Microsoft fixes 123 bugs in July 2020 update

The bugs start coming and they don’t stop coming; Microsoft has issued yet another bumper Patch Tuesday update Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

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 Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

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 Continue Reading

By

• Aaron Tan, Informa TechTarget

Zoom zero-day a reminder to stop using Windows 7

Researchers have disclosed a newly discovered zero-day vulnerability to videoconferencing service Zoom, which only affects users of Windows 7 systems Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

HSBC customers targeted in new smishing scam

SMS phishing scam is targeting HSBC customers in the UK to trick them into handing over their bank account details Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

More Joker malware apps chucked off Google Play Store

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

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Pubs and restaurants failing on cyber fraud protection

Virtually all of the UK’s most popular restaurant and pub brands are failing to proactively block fraudulent emails from reaching their targets Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

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 Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor