DDoS attacks are seeing a major rise as hackers seek more diverse threats, according to new research.

The latest State of the Internet/Security Report from Akamai reveals that the number of DDoS attacks increased by 28 percent in the second quarter of 2017, following three consecutive quarters of activity decline, as attacks from the PBot malware hit a new high.

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Businesses are increasingly turning to digital transformation to accelerate their online presence, to enrich products, deepen customer relationships, and boost their brand.

But the bad guys have gone digital too, taking advantage of the digital ecosystem and user trust to make more sophisticated attacks. A new study sponsored by digital threat management company RiskIQ finds that for many businesses digital transformation and the changing external threat landscape are outpacing enterprise security capacity.

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Data breaches arising from misuse of credentials can often be made worse by users having excessive or inappropriate entitlements.

A new solution from One Identity allows companies to analyze and compare user entitlements, and pinpoint situations where they deviate from the norm and thus pose an elevated risk.

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British firms are putting themselves at risk of being hit by major cyber-attacks such as the WannaCry ransomware due to a lack of proper security skills and awareness, a new government report has warned.

Over two thirds (68 percent) of board members at FTSE 350 businesses have not been trained to deal with major cyber security attacks, according to the latest government cyber health check report, revealed today.

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One of the ways developers can boost the popularity of their mobile apps is via pay-per-click advertising. But this leaves them open to fraud where bots can be used to generate large numbers of hits.

Mobile advertising technology firm AppLift is launching a new Fraud Buster tool, which combats app install fraud in real time to ensure users are genuine and deliver increased return on advertising spending.

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CEOs across the UK are increasingly seeing cyber-security not as a burden, but rather an investment opportunity, a new study has claimed.

The KPMG CEO Outlook 2017 report, based on a poll of 150 CEOs in the UK, found that 70 percent considered investing in cyber-security an opportunity to find new streams of revenue.

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Hackers could disable a modern car's airbags and other safety systems, putting the driver and the passengers at grave risk, according to a new warning.

Researchers from security firm Trend Micro have revealed a flaw that could allow the controlling network of a connected car to be overloaded, allowing possible hackers to compromise key systems in the vehicle, including safety aspects.

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Cyber crime continues to be a major problem globally and companies are seeking new ways of combating it.

However, there are some older technologies that remain an effective defense. One of these is network segmentation, and network security specialist Tufin Technologies has produced an infographic explaining how segmentation works and how it can help keep organizations secure from today’s sophisticated cyber attacks.

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A supplier of US voting machines has confirmed a major data leak that has seen the details of more than 1.8 million voters in the state of Illinois exposed.

The leaked data includes full names, addresses, dates of birth, social security numbers (albeit partial), as well as party affiliations. In some cases even ID numbers and driver license numbers were exposed.

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A few days ago, HBO's latest humiliation was to have its social media accounts taken over by hackers, and the bad news just keeps on coming for the network. The "Mr Smith group" behind the huge data breach that has seen endless Game of Thrones leaks contacted Mashable with the login details for many HBO social media accounts.

On top of this, the group is also threatening to release Game of Thrones S07E07 -- but considering the number of episodes that have leaked from this season, this was to be expected.

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New research has revealed that software developers are not receiving the training necessary to be successful at DevOps in their current positions.

According to the 2017 DevSecOps Global Skills Survey sponsored by Veracode and DevOps.com, 65 percent of DevOps professionals believe that knowledge of DevOps is essential when starting a career in IT. However, 70 percent believe that they did not receive the necessary training through formal education to be successful in today's DevSecOps world, which integrates security into the development and testing of software.

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In a time when people are more concerned about privacy than ever, security tools such as VPNs are proving increasingly popular. Kaspersky Lab recently released a VPN tool for Android, and reviewers are voicing concerns about the permissions required by the app.

Kaspersky Secure Connection: VPN service has a reasonable overall review score at time of writing, but the lower scores are highly critical of what are seen as privacy-invading permission requirements.

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For a vestige of the past, the password has managed to hold on and remain alive -- even though some of the top people in computing said that it had already died over a decade ago. In one of his more famous predictions, Microsoft founder Bill Gates said that passwords were on the way out already in 2004. Problem is that Gates, for all his wisdom, didn’t tell us what to use to replace passwords.

"There is no doubt that over time, people are going to rely less and less on passwords," Gates said at the RSA conference in 2004. "People use the same password on different systems, they write them down and they just don't meet the challenge for anything you really want to secure." How prescient he was, it turns out. There were hackers back in 2004, but hacking was nothing like the major international industry it is today -- responsible for tens of billions in losses every year, and endangering businesses large and small.

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The percentage of ransomware attacks almost doubled in the first half of 2017 compared to the first half of 2016, from an average of 26 percent to an average of 48 percent of the main attack categories worldwide.

This is according to a mid-year cyber attack trends report from threat prevention company Check Point. It also finds that 23.5 percent of organizations were impacted by the RoughTed malvertising campaign, and 19.7 percent of organizations were impacted by the Fireball malware over the same period.

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Researchers have discovered that cyber attackers are exploiting a vulnerability that allows them to elude antivirus software to deliver malware via Microsoft PowerPoint.

The flaw itself exists in the Windows Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) interface and attackers have previously used it to deliver infected Rich Text File (.RTF) documents. Trend Micro's researchers noticed that attackers have now infected PowerPoint files to deliver malicious code.

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