Bad office habits increase the chance of a data breach
A new study of over 1000 US office workers finds that 99 percent of those surveyed admit to conducting at least one potentially dangerous security action, from sharing and storing login credentials to sending work documents to personal email accounts.
The survey by cloud business solutions provider Intermedia finds that 24 percent of office workers reuse the same login credentials for their work and personal accounts.
Poor USB security leaves enterprises at risk
Security polices for USB devices are frequently outdated and inadequate, and enterprises are often failing to monitor their use, according to a new survey.
The study by encrypted drive specialist Apricorn reveals that while nine out of 10 employees rely on USB devices today, only 20 percent of them are using encryption on those devices. Eight out of 10 employees use non-encrypted USBs, such as those received for free at conferences, trade events or business meetings.
Malicious mobile apps fool consumers by imitating leading brands
By impersonating brands and fooling consumers, malicious mobile apps are on the increase, according to digital threat management leader RiskIQ in its latest Q3 mobile threat landscape report.
Apps available outside of official stores are most likely to be malicious. Google’s percentage of malicious apps decreased to a low of four percent in Q3 after reaching a high of eight percent in Q2. However, one of the most prolific creators of malicious apps worked exclusively in the Play store.
70 percent of UK consumers have not heard of GDPR
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is set to extensively change data privacy rules in the EU in May, yet a new survey from compliance solution PORT.im shows 70 percent of consumers are completely unaware of their new rights and haven't even heard of the legislation.
The study also finds that 78 percent of consumers have recently had unsolicited contact from UK-based businesses.
World's biggest botnet delivers new ransomware threat
The latest Global Threat Index from cyber security specialist Check Point reveals that the Necurs spam botnet -- reckoned to be the largest in the world -- is being used to distribute one of the latest ransomware threats.
During the Thanksgiving holiday in the US, Necurs sent over 12 million emails in just one morning, distributing the relatively new Scarab ransomware, first seen in June 2017.
'New Mafia' cyber attacks on businesses up 23 percent in 2017
A new report from anti-malware specialist Malwarebytes says that the volume and sophistication of cyber attacks is growing thanks to an increase in organized cyber crime it dubs the 'New Mafia'.
Ransomware attacks up to the end of October have surpassed total figures for 2016 by 62 percent. In addition, there has been an almost 2,000 percent increase in ransomware detections since 2015 -- rising to hundreds of thousands in September 2017 from less than 16,000 in September 2015.
Three quarters of retail organizations lack a breach response plan
As online retailers gear up for their busiest period of the year, how prepared are they to face the threat of cyber attacks?
A new study from cyber security company Tripwire reveals that just 28 percent of respondents say they have a fully tested plan in place in the event of a security breach.
Financial services organizations fail to properly secure SSH keys
Secure Shell (SSH) provides a secure channel for communication over unsecured networks and is therefore a popular technology in the financial services sector.
But a new study for machine identity protection company Venafi shows that even though SSH keys provide the highest levels of administrative access, they are routinely untracked, unmanaged and poorly secured.
'Doppelgänging' attack hides malware from security tools
Endpoint protection company enSilo has used this week's Black Hat Europe conference in London to reveal how Microsoft Windows features can be used to slip malicious ransomware and other threats past most updated, market-leading AV products.
enSilo researchers demonstrated how, by manipulating how Windows handles file transactions, they could pass off malicious actions as benign, legitimate processes, even if they use known malicious code.
Organizations not in control of their public cloud spending
Companies don't have an understanding of their public cloud spend, with 75 percent either overspending relative to their budget, or simply not knowing how much they are spending.
A study by cloud optimization service Densify shows while the majority of organizations have budgeted spend for public cloud, most don't know how much their company spends monthly on these services.
Low code platforms lead to a rise in 'citizen developers'
The introduction of low code platforms has led to more and more applications being developed outside of the IT department.
A new report from development platform company Kintone reveals that one in five executives say more than 50 percent of their applications were developed outside their IT department.
60 percent of organizations aren't ready for GDPR
With the deadline of May 2018 looming closer, a new survey shows 60 percent of respondents in the EU and 50 percent in the US say they face some serious challenges in being GDPR compliant.
The study by data protection specialist Varonis polled 500 cyber security professionals in organizations with over 1000 employees in the UK, Germany, France and the US and finds more than half (57 percent) of professionals are concerned about compliance with the standard.
New tools speed up enterprise DevOps adoption
Many businesses are turning to DevOps to speed up application deployment, but it's easy to become overwhelmed by the new tools, specialized skills, and cultural shifts needed to make it work.
Customer engagement specialist Pegasystems is tackling this with the launch of a new tool allowing organizations to jump start their stalled DevOps initiatives to reduce time to market.
How cyber crime could be improving the internet
War always sparks innovation, and over the years conflict has led to improvements in technology and the acceleration of development in things like radar and the jet engine.
So, is the war against cyber crime driving technologies that will improve the internet? Security education site Cyber Security Degrees thinks so and has produced an infographic to prove it.
New tool offers an affordable anti-ransomware solution for enterprises
Over the last year attacks like WannaCry and Petya have brought ransomware into the public eye like never before.
Security intelligence platform CyberSight is launching a new solution to predict, detect and stop ransomware attacks.
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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