Sophos launches open AI developments to fight cyberattacks
Cybersecurity company Sophos is announcing four new open artificial intelligence developments with the aim of improving defenses and making the use of AI in cybersecurity more transparent.
Although in other industries it's become common to share AI methodologies and findings, cybersecurity has lagged which doesn't help understanding of how AI can protect against cyberthreats.
Practical tips and advice for personal IoT security
The consumer Internet of Things (IoT) has exploded into the connected world, making domestic life richer, easier and more entertaining. Consumer IoT comprises a set of connected devices that have a discrete function, enabled or supplemented by a data-gathering capability through on-board sensors. In any home or office environment an individual may come into contact with 'smart' appliances or devices such as coffee machines, cameras, heating systems, locks, lights, health trackers, refrigerators and TV’s, to name a few.
Criticism of IoT security, or lack-thereof, has highlighted serious deficiencies in both design and implementation of IoT devices. Unfortunately, consumers are critically dependent on device manufacturers for the security of their devices. With a rushed and greater rate of adoption, a number of risks have been introduced, attracting close attention from threat actors aiming to steal valuable information and disrupt services. However, all hope is not lost -- at a consumer level, there are still a few basic techniques that can be used to protect IoT devices from attacks.
New platform helps protect IoT devices
There are likely to be around 31 billion IoT devices by the end of this year and we already know that they can be vulnerable to attacks.
Israeli company Karamba Security is launching its XGuard Monitor platform aimed at managing the security of large numbers of IoT devices.
Spammers get better at pretending to be banks
As always, spammers and cybercriminals seek to take advantage of the peak online shopping season covering Black Friday and the Christmas holidays.
The Bitdefender Antispam Lab has identified a series of campaigns impersonating online banking and financial organizations. In October six in 10 emails (58.84 percent) relating to the banking industry were fraudulent.
DNS threats expected to surge over the holidays
With more people shopping online than ever before, 78 percent of cybersecurity professionals say they expect to see an increase in DNS-related security threats over the next month.
This is according to a new report from information services and technology company Neustar's International Security Council which also finds that 59 percent have altered their DNS security methods in the run up to the holiday season.
Number of 2020 vulnerabilities set to overtake last year
The latest report from Risk Based Security reveals that the number of vulnerability disclosures this year is back on track to reach or surpass 2019 after a decline in the first quarter.
Earlier in the year there had been a sharp decline of 19.2 percent in the number of vulnerabilities disclosed. But on the latest figures Risk Based Security's VulnDB team aggregated 17,129 vulnerabilities disclosed during the first three quarters of 2020, marking a mere 4.6 percent gap when compared to last year.
Insider threats now more common than external ones
A new report from Netwrix shows that cybersecurity risks related to insiders are now more common than external threat actors.
In fact, since organizations have increased remote working, four of the top six types of cybersecurity incidents they experienced have been caused by internal users. These are: accidental mistakes by admins (27 percent), accidental improper sharing of data by employees (26 percent), misconfiguration of cloud services (16 percent) and data theft by employees (14 percent).
Linux Foundation launches open source identity and access management platform
Verifying digital identity is fundamental to building trust in online security and conducting commercial and personal transactions safely. But it can also prove a performance headache for businesses.
Non-profit organization, The Linux Foundation, is today announcing the launch of the Janssen Project, a cloud native identity and access management software platform that prioritizes security and performance.
User experience wins out over security
While security is clearly a concern for IT professionals, providing the best application experience is more important, with 87 percent saying that security will need to better support the user experience.
This is among the findings of a new study of IT decision makers from Menlo Security, which shows slow access speeds (46 percent), poor connectivity (33 percent), no/ loss of access to resources (28 percent), downtime (27 percent) and decreased productivity due to increased security (27 percent) are all experience-related issues cited by respondents.
Open source developers spend less than three percent of their time on security
The latest FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) contributor survey from the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) and the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard shows respondents spend on average, just 2.27 percent of their total time on security and express little desire to increase that time.
The survey of almost 1,200 respondents working on FOSS software shows the majority of respondents (74.87 percent) are already employed full-time and more than half (51.65 percent) are specifically paid to develop FOSS.
ID fraud surges during pandemic as more people turn to crime
Over the past year the average identity document (ID) fraud rate has increased by 41 percent over the previous year and first-time fraudsters appear to be more prevalent.
A new report from identity verification and authentication provider Onfido shows activity peaked in July and August. But with large parts of Europe encountering a 'second wave' and re-entering lockdown, coupled with the spike in online activity for the holiday shopping season, Onfido predicts fraud rates will start to climb again as the year closes.
5G adoption brings new security risks
Most professionals say their organizations are concerned about cybersecurity risks related to 5G adoption according to a new poll from consulting firm Deloitte.
The findings show those at organizations planning to adopt 5G in the year ahead are slightly more worried (80.7 percent) than those currently using 5G (76.4 percent).
Education sector not prepared for cybersecurity in the age of COVID
New research from Malwarebytes reveals that 46.7 percent of IT decision-makers in schools say that no additional requirements have been introduced for students, faculty, or staff who connected to the school's network remotely during the pandemic.
In addition 50.7 percent of IT decision-makers surveyed say that no one was required to enroll in cybersecurity training before the new school year began
IBM discovers hackers targeting COVID vaccine supply chain
The recently announced COVID-19 vaccines require a 'cold chain' -- a temperature-controlled supply chain that maintains the desired temperature range throughout distribution.
New research from IBM Security X-Force reveals that this cold chain is being targeted in a precision phishing campaign.
Dashlane names the password 'worst offenders' of 2020
This year more than ever we've all been spending large amounts of time online and that often means relying on passwords to access systems and sites.
According to password management app company Dashlane the average internet user has over 200 digital accounts that require passwords, and that figure is projected to double in the next five years.
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