Petya or NoPetya: a ransomware deadlier than WannaCry
Another "ransomware-as-a-service" nightmare - a growing concern that potentially opens up crime to non-technical audiences and opportunists The world is suffering another ransomware nightmare today, with pharmaceutical companies, Chernobyl radiation detection systems, the Kiev metro, an airport, and banks all affected. One U.S. hospital also appears to have become a victim. Worse is expected to come, thanks to some pernicious features in the ransomware sample. The malware wid
Cyberattackers targeting Canadian businesses (through phishing email scams and social engineering)
A group of cyberattackers that has been targeting Canadian businesses in financially-motivated hacks since at least 2013 has been identified in a new report. Cybersecurity firm FireEye has dubbed the group of attackers as “FIN10” in a report titled “FIN10 Anatomy of a Cyber Extortion Operation” released on Friday morning. FIN10 operates in North America with a predominant focus on Canadian organizations, particularly casinos and mining companies. FireEye believes the group is
The Coolest Cybersecurity Software You've Ever Seen
This Startup Recruited a Hollywood Designer to Create the Coolest Cybersecurity Software You've Ever Seen. Thanks to virtual reality, Denver-based ProtectWise is changing what security looks like. Cybersecurity is perhaps more important than ever, yet its aesthetic hasn't changed much over the past two decades. That inspired Scott Chasin, the former CTO of security software firm McAfee, to start a new company. "Most cybersecurity systems have the same interface as the cable m
Beyond phishing: Hackers now hiding cyber attacks in social media messages
It took only one attempt for Russian hackers to get into the computer of a Pentagon official. But the attack did not come through an e-mail or a file buried within a seemingly innocuous document. A link, attached to a Twitter post put out by a robot account, promised a family-friendly vacation package for the summer. It was the kind of thing anyone might click on, according to the official hit by the attack, who was not authorised to speak publicly about it. That is exactly t
Another large-scale cyberattack underway: experts
Another large-scale, stealthy cyberattack is underway on a scale that could dwarf last week's assault on computers worldwide, a global cybersecurity firm told AFP on Wednesday. The new attack targets the same vulnerabilities the WannaCry ransomware worm exploited but, rather than freeze files, uses the hundreds of thousands of computers believed to have been infected to mine virtual currency. Following the detection of the WannaCry attack on Friday, "researchers at Proofpoint
Cryptographers Demonstrate Collision in Popular SHA-1 Algorithm
On February 23rd, a joint team from the CWI Amsterdam and Google announced that they had generated the first ever collision in the SHA-1 cryptographic hashing algorithm. SHA-1 has long been considered theoretically insecure by cryptanalysts due to weaknesses in the algorithm design, but this marks the first time researchers were actually able to demonstrate a real-world example of the insecurity. In addition to being a powerful Proof of Concept (POC), the computing power th
Our connected devices: the greatest privacy threat of all?
Smart-television maker Vizio agreed to pay a penalty this month for spying on 11 million customers. According to the Federal Trade Commission, the company captured second-by-second information on what customers viewed, combined it with their gender, age and income, and sold it to third parties. How much was the fine for Vizio, which has sales in excess of $3 billion? It was $2.2 million — barely a slap on the wrist. These kinds of privacy breaches are increasingly common as
Is the Self-Driving Car the New Big Brother?
If Data and Privacy issues related to Autonomous Cars are not handled properly, they could kill the business. An interesting article first published in Open Mind: The starting gun has already fired in the race for the development of the autonomous car. Running full speed down the track are the big technology companies (Google, Uber or Apple) and the automobile companies (Tesla, Mercedes or General Motors). No firm wants to be left behind. Experts have announced that by 2020 t
Healthcare Innovation: Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, IoT May Change Healthcare in 2017
Big data technologies, like artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things, are likely to have a major impact on healthcare delivery and investment in 2017. September 21, 2016 - Artificial intelligence programs, the Internet of Things, and next-level big data analytics tools are likely to start producing a significant impact on healthcare delivery as early as 2017, say participants in a new Silicon Valley Bank survey. The poll, which includes responses from 122 health IT
