Security

OPINION

Parsing the Clinton Email Scandal

I've been watching the Clinton email scandal closely, because I not only have been in and out of law enforcement and security for much of my early life, but also was an internal auditor for IBM and one of the leading email experts in the 1990s. I think this is the only time I've seen an investigator...

SPOTLIGHT ON SECURITY

Mobile Ransomware Has Mushroomed: Report

The number of mobile ransomware victims across the globe has increased fourfold compared to a year ago, suggests a Kaspersky Lab report released last week. Kaspersky software protected 136,532 users targeted by ransomware from April 2015 to March 2016 -- up from 35,413 in the year-ago period, the co...

More than 85 million Android devices worldwide have been taken over by the Yingmob, a group of China-based cybercriminals who created the HummingBad malware, according to a Check Point report released last week. HummingBad establishes a persistent rootkit on Android devices, generates fraudulent ad ...

Symantec last week confirmed that it had developed fixes for a series of eight vulnerabilities found in its portfolio of security products for enterprise and consumer customers, after an outside researcher identified the problem. A researcher from Google's Project Zero alerted the company, but there...

Hackers late Sunday broke into CEO Sundar Pichai's Quora account and through it accessed his Twitter followers, according to reports. The group taking credit for the breach, OurMine Security, previously hit other prominent high-tech figures, including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Spotify CEO Daniel...

SPOTLIGHT ON SECURITY

Study: Third-Party Apps Pose Risks for Enterprises

Since mobile computing put an end to the good old days when IT departments had absolute control over software deployed in the enterprise, there's been a rise in employees' use of third-party applications -- a rise that poses security risks to corporate environments. That is one of the findings in a ...

Google on Monday began rolling out a new two-step authentication feature, Google Prompt, targeting enterprise employees. The new option consists of a pop-up that displays a mobile user's name and profile image, and that specifies the location and device involved in the attempted sign-in. The device ...

SPOTLIGHT ON SECURITY

Crime Pays: Ransomware Bosses Make $90K Annually

If crime doesn't pay, Russian ransomware bosses wouldn't know it. The average Russian ransomware boss makes $90,000 a year -- or 13 times the average income for citizens in the country who stick to the "straight and narrow," according to a recent Flashpoint study. What does a ransomware honcho do fo...

Data stolen from more than 32 million Twitter users has been offered for sale on the dark web for 10 bitcoin, or around $5,800, LeakedSource reported Wednesday. LeakedSource has added the account and email information to its searchable repository of compromised credentials. The data set came from so...

Edward Snowden made a greater effort than originally believed to raise his concerns within the NSA before releasing thousands of classified documents detailing programs that allowed the agency to spy on U.S. citizens. The truth is more complex than the NSA let on, according to a report based on docu...

Facebook top dog Mark Zuckerberg had several of his social media accounts breached and defaced, according to reports that surfaced Sunday. Zuckerberg's Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest memberships were hacked, but evidence of the attacks quickly disappeared. In addition to requiring passwords, Twitte...

SPOTLIGHT ON SECURITY

Banking Trojans Take Backseat to Ransomware

The banking trojan -- a type of malware used to steal credentials for bank accounts -- has been a staple of cyberthieves for years. However, ransomware, which has proven both easy to use and highly successful, has started eroding its popularity. In a typical banking trojan attack, a robber mounts a ...

Myspace and Tumblr this week emerged as the latest in a string of mega breaches that resulted in the theft of millions of user IDs -- not just recently but years ago. "Over the period of this month, we've seen an interesting trend of data breaches," wrote security researcher Troy Hunt, operator of...

The digital media world was abuzz last week when news surfaced that billionaire Peter Thiel had provided financial backing for a defamation lawsuit against Gawker Media. The suit stemmed from Gawker's publication of a sex tape involving ex-WWE superstar Terry Bollea, better known as "Hulk Hogan." A ...

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