Cyber ransom demands up 200 percent in 2019
Requested amounts in ransomware attacks rose nearly 200 percent from 2018 to 2019, averaging $115,123 per attack last year.
A report from incident response, risk management and digital forensics firm Crypsis Group reveals that threat actors across a range of cyberattack types have significantly escalated their tactical approaches, becoming more targeted, conducting victim research and employing techniques that enable them to be more successful and extract higher payouts for their efforts.
Fake job applications used to steal banking credentials
During May, researchers at Check Point have seen a doubling in the number of malicious files sent by email claiming to be resumes or CVs from individuals, as hackers exploit the unemployment and remuneration schemes resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition they have noted that seven percent of domains registered containing the word 'employment' are malicious. There has also been a 16 percent increase in malware attacks overall, compared to March and April.
Tor Browser 9.5 arrives with the option to automatically switch to more secure Onion versions of sites
Increasing numbers of internet users are becoming aware of the privacy and security implications of being online, and it is for this reason that secure browsers such as Tor are growing in popularity. Now, with the release of Tor Browser 9.5, the browser features an option that can automatically switch to the secure .onion version of a site if one is available.
In short this means that sites are able to actively promote the fact that they have a secure .onion site available. Publishers now can advertise their onion service to Tor users by adding an HTTP header, so if someone visits the regular version of a website, a notification will appear informing them of the more secure option.
Securing SaaS applications for a remote workforce [Q&A]
The current shift to remote working looks likely to have a long-term impact on the way businesses operate in future. But this raises issues over security and ensuring that misconfigurations don't lead to data being exposed.
How big is the risk and what are the key issues enterprises face? We spoke to Brendan O'Connor, CEO of cloud security specialist AppOmni to find out.
Lenovo ThinkPad and ThinkStation computers get certified for Linux
Lenovo makes some great Enterprise computers — both its desktops and notebooks can be found in use by many businesses. With that said, the company’s Windows laptops and Chromebooks are used in many homes too. Unfortunately, Lenovo’s consumer PCs have varying degrees of quality — some models are good, while others are downright bad.
Today, Lenovo announces amazing news regarding some of its higher quality computers. You see, all of the company’s ThinkStation and ThinkPad P Series workstations are now certified for Linux, including Ubuntu LTS and RHEL. This is in addition to Lenovo’s previously announced plan to pre-install Fedora on some machines.
Microsoft releases Windows 10 Build 19640
The Windows 10 May 2020 Update is currently rolling out to users of compatible systems, although Microsoft is blocking it for some with a 'your device isn’t quite ready' message.
That’s not a problem for Insiders on the Fast ring though who today get another new build to play around with.
How to boost your privacy and remove unwanted features from Windows 10
Windows 10 comes with lots of features that you might not need, or want. These include Cortana, Bing in Windows Search, and the Game Bar. In addition, Microsoft’s operating system spies on you in a number of ways.
Thankfully, disabling unwanted features and locking down your privacy just got way easier.
Data breaches cost US organizations $1.8 trillion over the last two years
Cybercriminals exposed more than five billion records in 2019, costing over $1.2 trillion to US organizations. Added to the 2.8 billion records that were exposed in 2018, this means breaches over the last two years have cost US organizations over $1.8 trillion.
This is one of the findings of the latest Consumer Identity Breach Report from ForgeRock, which shows a dramatic increase in the number of breaches.
IBM fairness toolkit aims to eliminate bias in data sets
IBM is announcing changes to its AI Fairness 360 toolkit to increase its functionality and make it available to a wide range of developers.
AIF360 is an open source toolkit that contains over 70 fairness metrics and 11 state-of-the-art bias mitigation algorithms developed by the research community to help examine, report, and mitigate discrimination and bias in machine learning models throughout the AI application lifecycle.
Almost 80 percent of companies have had a cloud data breach in the past 18 months
A new survey finds that 79 percent of companies experienced at least one cloud data breach in the past 18 months, and close to half (43 percent) reported 10 or more breaches.
The study for cloud access risk security company Ermetic conducted by IDC covered 300 CISOs and finds that security misconfiguration (67 percent), lack of adequate visibility into access settings and activities (64 percent) and identity and access management (IAM) permission errors (61 percent) are the top concerns associated with cloud production environments.
How to disable Cortana in Windows 10 May 2020 Update -- or even uninstall it
With the release of Windows 10 May 2020 Update, Microsoft not only introduced a range of new features and options, but also took some away. One thing that has changed with Windows 10 version 2004 is that Cortana is now a standalone app rather than an integral part of the operating system.
Not that you would necessarily notice, that is. Although the digital assistant is now separate from Windows itself, it still automatically runs at startup – it is possible, however, to disable Cortana and stop it from running in this way, or remove it completely.
Achieving success during 'transparent moments'
There are certain moments throughout a businesses’ lifecycle where security leaders need to have a clear view into their cloud infrastructure. One example is during mergers and acquisitions processes, when it’s crucial teams not only understand their own organization’s security posture but also that of the company being acquired. Still, a recent Forescout survey of IT and business decision-makers found that 65 percent of respondents regretted an acquisition their company made because of an overlooked cybersecurity issue.
Marriott International’s 2016 acquisition of Starwood Hotels set the company up to become the world’s largest hotel chain. However, it later emerged that Starwood’s reservation system had allowed unauthorized access to cybercriminals since 2014, leading to a large-scale (and very expensive) data breach in 2018 -- a clear example of why transparency is key during M&A. If Marriott had known that Starwood’s IT infrastructure had been compromised, they could have sought ways to remediate or otherwise address the issue and revised the proposed transaction accordingly. Instead, they were penalized heavily by regulators and were hit with lawsuits from customers.
How CISOs can get their good days back
The recent reminder of the importance of basic hygiene has been glaring not only within the physical world, but also the cybersecurity one. Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) understand this more than most, given the sudden surge in remote work and additional threats this has brought to their organizations. Because so many people have started working from home, corporate perimeters have expanded in a way that many security professionals were not prepared to manage but must now understand in order to effectively safeguard their organizations.
With pundits anticipating a lasting impact on the way we work brought on by the pandemic, CISOs must consider all of the necessary steps to manage cyber risk in what could be the "new normal." And, like nearly anyone following social distancing guidelines right now, a good CISO understands that good security is built on a foundation of good, basic hygiene.
Plugable launches new line of USB-C adapters
Nowadays, many new laptops come with very few ports. In fact, some computers, such as Apple MacBook laptops, have no traditional USB-A ports, instead relying on USB-C exclusively. Sure, it looks clean and nice, but it limits functionality.
Thankfully, adding the needed connectivity to one of these USB-C only computers is just a dongle away. Today, Plugable releases a new line of USB-C adapters. This line is comprised of four dongles, three of which are for video out -- DisplayPort, HDMI, and VGA. The fourth is a Gigabit Ethernet adapter. They all feature flat cables and sleek bodies.
Debian-based MX Linux 19.2 now available for download
A couple days ago, we told you about a new version of a wonderful Linux distribution called Linux Lite. As great as that operating system is -- especially for those switching from Windows -- it isn't the only Linux distribution that is lightweight and easy to use. In fact, the Linux community probably has too many distributions from which to choose, but I digress.
Today, yet another great Linux-based operating system gets updated to a new version, this time it is MX Linux 19.2. It uses the lightweight -- yet pretty -- Xfce 4.14 for its desktop environment and MESA 18.3.6. It comes loaded with some great software, such as LibreOffice 6.1.5, Thunderbird 68.6.1, Firefox 76, GIMP 2.10.12, VLC 3.0.10, and Clementine 1.3.1.
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