Articles about Security

Google responds to Gmail privacy concerns: 'we're not reading your emails'

Gmail icon with notification

Another day, another privacy concern. Following a Wall Street Journal story about the access third party apps have to Gmail data, we wrote about how to stop it. While the WSJ did not really make any major new revelations, it did manage to reignite the conversation about privacy, and Google has responded to storm that has built up around it.

The company has used a blog post to respond to the concerns raised by the Wall Street Journal, insisting that it carefully vets any third party that has access to sensitive data. The task has been left to Suzanne Frey -- director of security, trust and privacy at Google Cloud -- to limit the damage caused by the article.

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77 percent of industrial organizations worried about cybersecurity incidents

Industrial internet of things

Information technology and operational technology are gradually moving closer together thanks to wider connectivity of OT with external networks, and the growing number of industrial IoT devices.

While this boosts the efficiency of industrial processes, it also presents new risks and vulnerabilities according to a new report from Kaspersky Lab.

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aLTEr: Hackers can spy on your 4G browsing sessions thanks to LTE flaws

3D LTE logo

Vulnerabilities have been discovered in LTE that would make it possible for an attacker to tap into 4G networks for the purposes of spying on and hijacking 4G browsing sessions.

Security researchers from Ruhr-Universität, Bochum and New York University, Abu Dhabi show how three different attacks can be launched on the second layer of LTE -- also known as the data link layer. Two passive attacks allow for identity mapping and website fingerprinting, while the active cryptographic aLTEr attack allows for DNS spoofing and network connection redirection.

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Adidas data breach may have exposed personal data of American customers

Adidas shopping bag

Sportswear company Adidas has warned US customers about a security breach that took place earlier this week.

The firm says that on Tuesday it was made aware that "an unauthorized party claims to have acquired limited data associated with certain Adidas consumers". Two days later, the company started to notify its customers that personal data -- including contact information and usernames -- may have been compromised.

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Over 90 percent of endpoint security incidents involve legitimate binaries

unknown threat

Cybercriminals use a variety of tactics to cloak their activity and that includes using trusted tools, like PowerShell, to retrieve and execute malicious code from remote sources.

A new report from eSentire reveals that 91 percent of endpoint incidents detected in Q1 2018 involved known, legitimate binaries.

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Gentoo Linux Github Organization hacked and repo code compromised

Gentoo Linux

A hacker managed to take control of the Github account for Gentoo Linux, going as far as inserting malicious code into the distros. The malware was designed to delete user data.

Although the situation is now under control, an investigation is underway to determine what happened. Anyone who has downloaded a Gentoo distro or other files recently, is warned to "refrain from using code from the Gentoo Github Organization" for the time being.

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Comodo CA launches IoT security platform

IoT links

Certificate authority Comodo CA is expanding out of its traditional area to launch a new platform designed to secure Internet of Things devices.

Hackers increasingly target IoT devices that have no security embedded and exposed vulnerabilities. The new Comodo CA IoT unified portal directly addresses this problem by enabling trusted, third-party, mutual authentication of devices to networks.

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One in every 17 mobile devices is used to conduct bad bot attacks

Bot net

Cybercriminals are using mobile devices to avoid detection and execute a number of nefarious acts, according to a new report.

The study from bot mitigation specialist Distil Networks finds 5.8 percent -- around one in 17 -- of all mobile devices across six major cellular networks are used in such automated attacks and represent eight percent of all bad bot traffic.

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70 percent would leave a job if their digital activity was secretly monitored

digital monitoring

A new Harris Poll commissioned by insider threat detection company Dtex Systems looks at employee attitudes towards the monitoring of their digital activities.

Carried out in the wake of data collection, monitoring and privacy scandals at Facebook and elsewhere, it shows that 45 percent of Americans believe it is at least sometimes acceptable for employers to monitor employees' digital activities to protect against security threats and data breaches.

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Dashlane launches scanning tool to help you protect online accounts

Login screen

We all sign up to online accounts for various things but over time it can become hard to remember which address you used for each site, what password you used or indeed whether you’ve previously signed up to a site at all.

Password management specialist Dashlane is launching a new feature for mobile users of its password manager called Inbox Security Scan, to give people an insight into the current state of their online accounts.

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Coin mining malware grows by over 600 percent as criminals 'infect and collect'

Cryptocurrency

A new report from McAfee Labs has seen coin mining malware grow by 629 percent in the first quarter 2018 as criminals seek to cash in on cryptocurrency trends.

On average the company has seen five new threat samples every second, including growth in cryptojacking and other cryptocurrency mining malware, and notable campaigns demonstrating a deliberate drive to technically improve on the most sophisticated, established attacks of 2017.

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Boards focus on security awareness post WannaCry

Boardroom

Awareness of cybersecurity at board level is growing as last year's WannaCry attack has highlighted the need to guard against attacks.

The research, conducted by Vanson Bourne, as part of an international survey of 500 businesses in the UK, France, Germany and the USA, was commissioned by endpoint protection specialist SentinelOne.

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Cisco Talos releases free decryptor for Thanatos ransomware -- ThanatosDecryptor

Hacker in a hoodie

Getting hit by a ransomware attack is bad enough; it means that your files have been encrypted and you'll be asked to pay a fee in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or Ethereum to unlock them. The problem is that paying the ransom is in no way a guarantee that your files will be decrypted -- the ransomware was created by criminals, after all.

If you've been struck by the Thanatos ransomware, however, there's good news from Cisco Talos. The company has analyzed the malware and developed a free decryption tool that will enable you to get your files back without having to part with any money.

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New portal offers greater visibility into security gaps

open digital lock

It can be difficult for security teams to identify the weak spots in their organization's controls that put the security of the business at risk.

Managed security services provider Proficio is addressing this by launching a new version of its ProView Plus consumer portal that includes ThreatInsight risk scoring.

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SMBs are underprepared for cyberattacks

Attack protection

No business is immune from cyber attack, and smaller companies are often targeted as they lack the resources to put into first class protection.

A new survey by cybersecurity company Webroot of 600 IT decision makers (ITDMs) at small- to medium-sized businesses, finds that the attacks organizations believed themselves to be most susceptible to in 2017 are rapidly shifting in 2018, while businesses still feel underprepared.

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