How to spend like a cyber criminal
We all know that there's money to be made from cyber crime, with even entry level hackers being able to make as much as $42,000 a year. But what do they do with that money?
An 11 month study by virtualization-based security specialist Bromium looks at what cyber criminals are earning, and what they spend it on.
IBM launches cloud ready 'skinny' mainframe
Despite changes brought about by the cloud, edge computing and distributed systems, the mainframe remains for many businesses, the most stable, secure and mature environment to support IT initiatives including the proliferation of blockchains.
IBM is launching its newest cloud ready mainframe -- the IBM z14 Model ZR1 and IBM LinuxONE Rockhopper II, the latest additions to its family of z14 mainframe technology announced in 2017.
New standard brings stronger authentication to browsers
In a move to bring simpler yet stronger web authentication to internet users, the FIDO Alliance and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) are launching a new standard called Web Authentication (WebAuthn).
WebAuthn enables online service providers to offer FIDO Authentication through web browsers. FIDO Authentication makes web access more secure because it uses unique encrypted credentials for each site, eliminating the risk that a password stolen from one site can be used on another.
Mobile phishing click rate increases 85 percent
A new report from mobile security specialist Lookout exposes the growing risk from phishing attacks on mobile devices, with an increase in the number of users clicking on URLs that bypass security controls.
The mobile phishing URL click rate has increased 85 percent year-on-year. 56 percent of Lookout users received and clicked on their mobile device a phishing URL that bypassed existing layers of phishing defense.
17 percent of employees fall for social engineering attacks
Employees are still falling for social engineering techniques leading them to download malicious files, click phishing links, correspond with hackers, and even share contact information for their colleagues.
Enterprise security specialist Positive Technologies imitated the actions of hackers by sending emails to employees with links to websites, password entry forms, and attachments.
Consumer cryptomining attacks increase 4,000 percent
We already know that cryptomining is currently flavor of the month among malware creators, but a new report released today by Malwarebytes puts some startling figures on the problem.
On consumer systems cryptomining detections were up a massive 4,000 percent in the last quarter, while ransomware detections fell 35 percent over the same period. For businesses cryptomining detections rose 27 percent this quarter and ransomware detections 28 percent. However, Spyware is still the cybercriminals' favourite choice, with over 80,000 detections in January alone.
Variant of Mirai botnet used to target financial sector in January
Researchers at Recorded Future believe that a Mirai botnet variant, possibly linked to the IoTroop or Reaper botnet, was utilized in attacks on at least one company, and probably more, in the financial sector in late January of this year.
The botnet targeted one company using at least 13,000 devices, each with a unique IP address, and generated traffic volumes up to 30Gb/s.
Cloud use and compliance drive enterprise encryption strategy
The need to protect sensitive data against cyber criminals, address complex compliance requirements, and guard against human error is driving enterprises to adopt encryption.
A new study by cyber security company Thales eSecurity, based on research by the Ponemon Institute, shows that 43 percent of respondents report that their organization has an encryption strategy applied consistently across their enterprise.
Retail sector leads in data breaches as criminals target corporate networks
The retail sector suffered the most breaches in 2017, accounting for 16.7 percent followed by the finance and insurance industry at 13.1 percent and hospitality at 11.9 percent.
Geographically, North America is in the lead with 43 percent of breaches, followed by the Asia Pacific region at 30 percent, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at 23 percent and Latin America at four percent.
21 percent of open source serverless applications have critical vulnerabilities
Serverless computing is increasingly popular because it eliminates infrastructure concerns. However, a new report raises worries about its security.
According to an audit by serverless security company PureSec, more than one in five serverless applications has critical security vulnerabilities.
Employees have too much access to sensitive data
Lax policies and a lack of control is giving far too many employees access to sensitive data according to the latest Global Data Risk Report from data security specialist Varonis.
The report, based on analysis of Data Risk Assessments conducted by Varonis in 2017 for customers and potential customers on their file systems, uncovers some startling figures, with 58 percent of organizations found to have more than 100,000 folders open to all employees.
Hiring gamers may be the answer to the cyber security skills gap
A new survey from McAfee says that IT security staff report needing to increase their workforces by 24 percent to adequately manage their organization's cyber threats.
Yet a skills crisis means 84 percent admit it's difficult to attract staff and 31 percent say they don't actively do anything to attract new talent. However, 72 percent of respondents say hiring experienced video gamers into the IT department seems like a good way to plug the cyber security skills gap.
New program helps companies meet cloud security goals
Infrastructure and development practices are changing as companies move towards cloud computing, DevOps, and on-demand SaaS delivery models.
This means security and operations teams must integrate their approach to securing systems. Cloud security company Threat Stack is launching a Cloud SecOps Program to help companies integrate security and operations initiatives and reduce risk.
Breakthrough in AI cuts battery drain of mobile voice UIs
We've become increasingly used to technology that uses 'wake words' like, "Hey, Cortana" to initiate interaction.
But this technology has, so far, failed to make a big impact in the mobile apps arena, the main reason being the battery drain created by having an app that's constantly listening. That could be about to change as Silicon Valley company Sensory is announcing a breakthrough in running its TrulyHandsfree wake word and speech recognition AI engine directly on Android and iOS smartphone applications at low-power.
New platform delivers improved data management across clouds
Businesses are increasingly using multiple cloud platforms and so need a means of managing all of their data assets wherever they're located.
Cloud development company JetStream Software is launching a new cross-cloud data management platform to give cloud service providers and enterprise cloud operations a better way to support workload migration, resource elasticity, and business continuity across multi-cloud and multi-data center set ups.
Ian's Bio
Ian spent almost 20 years working with computers before he discovered that writing about them was easier than fixing them. Since then he's written for a number of computer magazines and is a former editor of PC Utilities. Follow him on Mastodon
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