How to manage a cyber attack
Given the rising frequency of increasingly malicious and innovative cyber-attacks organizations have to be prepared and proactive. It is no longer a question of if but when your organization will have to deal with a cyber-attack. The cost of a cybersecurity breach is significant -- in terms of money, business disruption and reputation. Depending on the magnitude of the attack, a cyber incident can potentially put you out of business.
According to UK government research, two-thirds of UK big businesses have been hit by a cyber-attack in the past year. UK telecoms group TalkTalk suffered a high profile attack in October 2015 when hackers stole personal data from customers. According to TalkTalk, the cyber-attack it suffered wiped £15 million off trading revenue as well as forcing it to book exceptional costs of £40m - £45m, and losing it up to 101,000 customers.
43 million Last.fm account details leaked after 2012 hack
It seems that serious data breaches are all but an everyday occurrence at the moment. At the same time, there have also been instances of historical hacks suddenly coming to light such as the 2012 breach of Dropbox.
But Dropbox was not the only company to suffer an attack in 2012 -- so did music site Last.fm. Now, four years after the hack, details of 43 million accounts have been leaked.
OurMine hacks Variety, spams subscribers
OurMine is a hacking collective that gets its jollies by causing havoc in the name of security. For instance, the group often takes over Twitter accounts, causing distress to the handle owner. Heck, just last month it hacked TechCrunch. Ultimately, OurMine never seems to cause real damage -- its antics are an inconvenience more than anything.
Today, OurMine hacks Variety.com and takes its mischief to a new level. You see, the hackers not only infiltrated the company's newsletter database, but OurMine sent spam to the contained subscriber email addresses too. Apparently it was not just one spam email, but many.
UK businesses report 88 percent more breaches
It's not that there are less data breaches lately -- it's that they're not being disclosed. That's basically what Huntsman Security is saying, after it requested data about error and breaches in security through the Freedom of Information Act. Between April 2015, and March 2016, a total of 2,048 incidents were reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
This represents a jump of 88 percent, as the year before, there were a total of 1,089 reported incidents.
Kaspersky launches cloud security for smaller businesses
Although there are many different security solutions on the market, smaller businesses often struggle to find a solution that's affordable and easy to implement.
Kaspersky Lab is targeting this SMB market with its new Endpoint Security Cloud. It's a software-as-a-service solution offers advanced functionality and proven protection but can be managed easily via simple cloud-based console with an intuitive and user-friendly interface.
End users struggle to identify security threats and put enterprises at risk
There's a reason why cyber attacks use social engineering techniques, it's because the person sitting in front of the screen is usually the weakest link in the security chain.
This is confirmed by the findings of a new report from Wombat Security Technologies which shows that in the last year, the number of organizations that reported being a victim of phishing has increased 13 percent, and 60 percent of enterprises say the rate of phishing attacks has increased overall.
Dropbox 2012 hack exposes 68 million accounts
Remember how Dropbox asked all those that haven't changed their passwords since 2012 to do so now? Remember how they said they did it for no particular reason, just as a precaution? Turns out, it was much more than that.
As a matter of fact, back in 2012, more than 68 million accounts were hacked.
Why encryption is essential for everyone [Q&A]
If your laptop or smartphone gets lost or stolen, there’s the danger of its contents being accessed, which could prove a nightmare. If the device is encrypted, however, you can rest easy… Or can you?
Ebba Blitz, CEO of laptop encryption company Alertsec (and former host of Sweden's Shark Tank), chatted with me about the benefits and potential pitfalls of encryption, and revealed her top tips for keeping your data secure.
Most websites have security vulnerabilities
Dangerous vulnerabilities are present in a large number of today's websites, and the percentage is only going to keep on growing, according to a new report by Acunetix.
The automated web application security software company released its annual Web Application Vulnerability Report 2016, based on 45,000 website and network scans, done on 5,700 websites over the past year. The results are worrying.
Forty percent of enterprise networks show evidence of DNS tunneling
DNS tunneling is a significant security threat that can enable cybercriminals to insert malware or pass stolen information into DNS queries, creating a covert communication channel that bypasses most firewalls.
A new report released by network control company Infoblox reveals that 40 percent of the enterprise files it tested in the second quarter of this year show evidence of DNS tunneling.
It's a team effort: The new cybersecurity stack
Last week marked the end of the 2016 Summer Olympics and this year we witnessed several impressive moments. The image of Usain Bolt, giant smile and legs a-blur, is hard to forget. But equally memorable are the times that team efforts outshone those of any individual. This concept of building a cohesive, top-performing team that is more than the sum of its parts is echoed in an emerging security trend: the new cybersecurity stack.
Like the Olympics, the security industry is a highly-visible playing field, with all the fanfare and expectations and often failed dreams. Security hopes are pinned on New Gen "superstars" that are highly hyped yet don’t deliver the promised gold. However, the failure isn’t necessarily the product, but the expectation that one solution can keep endpoints secure.
New service allows secure connection to APIs
The rate of change required for business software has increased dramatically in recent years. In order to keep up many firms rely on APIs but these introduce their own problems, especially in regard to security.
Identity and device management company Okta is launching a new service that secures the connections between applications, services and APIs.
Passwords are dead
If someone told you passwords were a thing of the past, you might well laugh in disbelief.
Undoubtedly, passwords have been the cornerstone of digital security for a long time. As technology has improved, however, passwords have become increasingly easy to hack, forcing the IT community to search for new solutions. Most people regularly use weak passwords -- in fact we’re getting worse at this -- but with the constantly expanding list of websites and services, the demand for us to remember unique usernames and passwords for is growing all the time.
Security experts want passwords to be put out to pasture
Russian internet giant Mail.ru has been hacked once again, and some 25 million accounts associated with forums run by the company have been compromised.
Among the data that was stolen are usernames, passwords (easily crackable, according to Secure CloudLink), email addresses, phone numbers, birthdays and IP addresses.
Iran starts to roll out its own 'domestic internet'
Iran, much like China, is not a country that has the best reputation when it comes to granting citizens unfettered access to the internet. Now, a new initiative is underway, which sees the roll out of its own 'domestic internet', dubbed the National Information Network.
The country is rolling out its own national internet in a bid to provide affordable internet access to people, but there are concerns that there will be severe limits placed on online activity. Iran already blocks access to the likes of Facebook and Twitter, and a government-controlled internet, it is feared, could lead to a further erosion of privacy and individual control.
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