Articles about Security

95 percent of parents worry about the risks children face from online games

Child gamer

Although a large majority of parents (95 percent) say they’re concerned about the risks online gaming poses, they admit to allowing games to entertain their offspring.

A new study by McAfee finds 92 percent of parents allow their children to play at least one hour of video games every day, with eight percent admitting that they allow their children to play more than five hours a day. On average, children play video games for 2.13 hours a day or nearly 15 hours a week.

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Dixons Carphone suffers two major security breaches exposing customers' bank card details and personal information

Currys PC World

Another week, another cyberattack. This time around, it's the Dixons Carphone group which says it has fallen victim to not one but two major breaches.

The bank card details of 5.9 million customers have been accessed by hackers in the first breach. In the second, the personal records of 1.2 million people have been exposed.

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Google doubles down on Chrome extension security by blocking inline installations

Closeup of Chrome logo

At the moment there are a couple of ways to install Chrome extensions -- either via the Chrome Web Store as Google would prefer, or via an inline installation from any website.

Aware that this latter option opens up the possibility of people installing malicious extensions, Google is clamping down. Starting today, all newly-published extensions can only be installed via the Chrome Web Store, and this restriction will extend to existing extensions over the remainder of the year.

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New solution helps secure infrastructure across OT and IT environments

Industrial internet of things

Historically, infrastructure systems and operational technology (OT) were designed to work in isolation from IT. But in the modern world these environments are increasingly converged and that can open up new attack routes.

Cyber exposure specialist Tenable is launching a new solution to manage Cyber Exposure holistically across IT and OT systems. This is based on enhancements to the Tenable.io platform and Industrial Security, an asset discovery and vulnerability detection solution for OT systems, delivered in partnership with Siemens.

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USB fans gifted to reporters at Trump-Kim summit spark security fears

Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un

Reporters covering the historic meeting between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un in Singapore have been given a gift bag that has security experts concerned.

In addition to bottled water and a local guidebook, the gift bag also contained a USB fan. While on the face of it this would seem to offer a way to combat the Singaporean heat, the fan also sparked warnings that it could be laced with malware.

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Media and entertainment companies have riskier mobile apps

Mobile apps

As the world increasingly turns to mobile devices to access the internet and conduct business, so firms are eager to put out their own apps.

But new research from security ratings company BitSight reveals that many companies may be rushing out apps that have vulnerabilities which could lead to data leakage, privilege abuse, unencrypted personally identifiable information (PII), and credential theft.

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Bitcoin plummets after hackers steal $37 million from South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Coinrail

Holding Bitcoin

Bitcoin has once again demonstrated its volatility, dropping in value by 10 percent following news of an attack and theft from the South Korean exchange Coinrail.

Coinrail has confirmed that it suffered a "cyber intrusion" and while it did not specify the value of the coins stolen, local news outlet Yonhap News estimated it to be $37.28 million based on a loss of about 30 percent of the coins traded on the exchange.

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Fix on the way for OnePlus 6 bootloader security flaw

OnePlus 6 with Never Settle slogan

A security researcher has discovered a vulnerability in the OnePlus 6 bootloader. The flaw makes it possible for someone to boot arbitrary or modified images -- even if the bootloader is locked.

Exploiting the vulnerability requires someone to have physical access to the phone, and after this it is a relatively simple task to restart the handset in fastboot mode. From here is would be possible to load a modified boot image, including one that has root access.

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Cryptomining still tops the malware charts for May

mining-bitcoin

Currency miners continue to top the malware charts according to Check Point Software's latest Global Threat Index.

May 2018 marks the fifth consecutive month where cryptomining malware has dominated Check Point's index. The Coinhive cryptominer impacted 22 percent of organizations globally during May -- up from 16 percent in April, an increase of nearly 50 percent.

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Ticketfly says hack exposed private data of 27 million accounts

Ticketfly logo

Last week event ticketing company Ticketfly suffered a cyberattack which saw the site taken offline for a number of days. The site is now back up and running, and Ticketfly has revealed the extent and impact of the hack.

The company says that data from 27 million Ticketfly accounts was accessed, including names, addresses, email addresses and phone numbers. Customers are assured that passwords and credit card details remain safe.

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71 percent of IT pros believe they can hack any organization

Hacking

Using one of four common attack vectors, 71 percent of surveyed IT professionals believe they could successfully hack any organization.

Based on a survey carried out among attendees to the RSA Conference in April 2018 by vulnerability management specialist Outpost24, 34 percent say that they would use social engineering, 23 percent say they would enter via insecure web applications, 21 percent via mobile devices, while a further 21 percent say they would enter via a public cloud.

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Cryptocurrencies spark cybercrime gold rush

cryptocurrency mining

Cybercriminals are increasingly using the dark web to facilitate cryptocurrency theft on a large scale, according to cybersecurity company Carbon Black.

The company’s research has uncovered a total of $1.1 billion in cryptocurrency-related thefts during the past six months and finds there are currently an estimated 12,000 dark web marketplaces selling approximately 34,000 offerings related to crypto theft.

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Keeping your data safe while traveling

Unhappy laptop user on beach

As we enter the summer people start to go away on vacations and visit sporting events like this year's World Cup in Russia, potentially exposing their digital devices and data to extra risks.

VPN advice service vpnMentor has produced a report looking at the particular risks travelers face and how they can protect themselves.

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VPNFilter malware infection is much worse than first thought -- is your router affected?

VPNFilter

It's just a couple of weeks since we first heard about the VPNFilter malware. Linked to Russia, the malware hit 500,000 routers around the world, but now Cisco's Talos security researchers are warning that the problem is much worse than anyone thought.

Initially thought to only affect SOHO routers and storage devices from Linksys, MikroTik, Netgear, TP-Link, and QNAP , the at-risk list has been extended to include consumer-grade routers from Linksys, MikroTik, Netgear and TP-Link. Researchers have also discovered that the malware is more powerful than initial assessments suggested -- it is now known to be able to bypass SSL encryption and perform man-in-the-middle attacks.

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The challenges of securing mobile devices

Mobile security

Mobile devices now account for around half of web traffic and inevitably that makes them more attractive to hackers who see new attack routes via mobile apps.

The Information Security Forum is launching a new paper, Securing Mobile Apps: Embracing Mobile, Balancing Control, describing the security challenges associated with acquiring, using and operating mobile apps, and suggesting actions to manage those challenges, while maintaining the business benefits.

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