While Middle East e-commerce is booming during the December gift season, customers need to better protect their online identity, according to an e-security expert.
SophosLabs’ trends to watch in 2014
Major technology developments over the last year—and a series of revelations about the National Security Agency that shook the international security community—made 2013 an interesting year. In highlighting the past year’s security events, we’ve considered some emerging trends we are likely to see in the coming year.
Kaspersky Lab: global internet threat up 6.9 percent in 2013
The overall global Internet threat level grew by 6.9 percentage points in 2013, with 41.6 percent of user computers being attacked at least once, according to Kaspersky Lab.
Dell SecureWorks: Cryptolocker ransom Trojan infected 250,000 PCs
The feared Cryptolocker ransom Trojan has infected at least a quarter of a million PCs worldwide, a success rate probably generating somewhere in the low millions of dollars in ransom payments, a new analysis by Dell SecureWorks has estimated.
Cybercriminals clone pirate versions of top Android and iOS apps
Cybercriminals are using third-party app sites to peddle reverse-engineered or ‘pirate’ versions of almost all the most popular paid apps available on the Google Play and Apple App Stores, software firm Arxan has discovered.
Microsoft: bogus antivirus programme uses a dozen stolen signing certificates
A fake antivirus programme in circulation uses at least a dozen stolen digital code-signing certificates, indicating cybercriminals are increasingly breaching the networks of software developers, Microsoft wrote on Sunday.
Cyber-crime will not stop for Christmas
Threats lurk within networks, endpoints or devices, often hidden in poorly configured settings or permissions, ineffective data governance, access management and usage policies. These unseen threats come from all perimeters of the organisation and major trends such as BYOD, big data, cloud, and mobile apps have increased the challenge faced by IT leaders.
U.S. hacker who sold documents to FBI jailed for 18 months
A Pennsylvania man who hacked into multiple corporate, university and government computer networks and tried to sell access to them, including supercomputers from a U.S. national security laboratory, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Trend Micro reveals 2014 security forecast
Trend Micro has outlined its security predictions for 2014, and it has forecast that one major data breach will occur every month next year.
FireEye: Syria-themed emails infiltrated European ministries before G20
Hackers infiltrated computers belonging to the foreign affairs ministries of five unnamed European countries ahead of the G20 Summit in September, according to security researchers at FireEye.
What’s stopping Bitcoin from hitting the mass market
As Bitcoin’s popularity grows, so does talk about its standing as legal tender, but there are lingering issues that need to be sorted out before people start using Bitcoin to buy everyday things, experts said on Monday.
Syria & Lebanon channelling Russian bulletproof hosting
A Russian-speaking group is advertising “bulletproof” hosting for cybercriminals from data centres in Syria and Lebanon, an apparent effort to place new services in locales where Western law enforcement has little influence.
13 suspected cybercriminals arrested in Russia along with Blackhole creator
Thirteen people, including the creator of Blackhole, a popular exploit tool used to infect computers with malware, were arrested and charged in Russia with creating and participating in a criminal organisation.
Reseller Hot 50 honours channel icons
The stakeholders of the channel gathered together for the second edition of Reseller Hot 50 Awards, which was held at H Hotel in Dubai.
The Way Forward
When it comes to security, it seems everyone’s in a state of perpetual panic. Whether it’s mobile malware, BYOD or hacktivism, over the course of 2013 the issue of protecting valuable information and resisting attack has inspired a dizzying and persistent challenge.
Botnet ‘Pony’ software steals Facebook, Google, ADP payroll processor logins
Two million logins and passwords from services such as Facebook, Google and Twitter have been found on a Netherlands-based server, part of a large botnet using controller software nicknamed “Pony.”
The Business Side of Cyber Security
Balancing security priorities with business flexibility and agility is a tough challenge, says Anthony Perridge, EMEA Channel Director, Sourcefire.
New Windows privilege escalation flaw exploited in active attacks
Attackers are exploiting a new and unpatched vulnerability in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 that allows them to execute code with higher privileges than they have access to.
Kaspersky: trojan programme ‘Neverquest’ new threat to online banking
A new Trojan programme that targets users of online financial services has the potential to spread very quickly over the next few months, security researchers warn.
Insight: top signs that you’ve been breached
Because data is often the most valuable corporate asset – especially when customer information is concerned – staying alert for potential compromise is a critical IT job. Unfortunately, looking into a potential data breach is not easy.