Microsoft liberates two million PCs from $500m cybercrime botnet
Microsoft has said that it has “liberated” two million PCs worldwide from Citadel botnets after an action on June 5 which targeted 1,400 networks.
Cybercrime
Cyber attacks “erode world economic growth”, says former White House official
Cyber attacks are damaging the world economy, a former White House official has warned, and leading economies need to put aside political differences to deal with the threat.
Iranian election phishing campaigns thwarted by Google
Google claims to have spotted and disrupted several phishing campaigns in Iran - attempts to compromise tens of thousands of email accounts in the run-up to the country’s presidential elections this Friday.
Banks “ignore early warnings” of cyber attacks, says Australian security chief
Banks should look to spam emails and their own server errors as a source of information, says Nicholas Scott of National Australia Bank (NAB), speaking at the RSA Conference Asia-Pacific in Singapore.
British Prime Minister warned over Huawei security risks
British Prime Minister David Cameron has been warned that telecoms equipment made by Chinse firm Huawei should be tested by security services to protect against cyber attacks.
FBI and Microsoft break up $500 million Citadel botnet
Microsoft and the FBI have broken up a large portion of the Citadel botnet - a network which had stolen $500 million from bank accounts in 90 countries around the world by installing keylogger software on five million machines.
Silicon Valley “needs to lead” battle against cyber attacks, says ex‑Homeland Security chief
Silicon Valley technology firms should take the lead in defending the private sector against cyber attacks, says Paul Rosenzweig, a former Department of Homeland Security official, now founder of Red Branch Consulting.
Cybercriminals use photo‑sharing to snare victims in auction scams, FBI warns
Cybercriminals are using online car auctions and photo-sharing services to dupe victims into downloading malware, the FBI has warned. Once infected, the victims are led to fake websites to buy cars - and when they pay up, the criminals vanish.
Drupal.org resets passwords after hack exposes usernames, email addresses
The free open-source content management system Drupal has reset all Drupal.org passwords after unknown attackers gained access to user account data including usernames, email addresses and hashed passwords.
Intellectual property protection and good badware
As an earlier article here noted, the recent report from the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property shows a great deal of concern about the “scale of international theft of American intellectual property” which it estimates to be “hundreds of billions of dollars per year.” However, there’s also been a certain amount of
Phishing: the click of death
Recently we realized that from time to time when people find a live link in one of our blogs, they click on it to see where it goes, even though the context might suggest that the link could be malicious. So we thought it might be a good idea to set up a link so
Charges against cybercrime’s “bank of choice” for laundering $6 billion
U.S. prosecutors allege that virtual currency company Liberty Reserve processed 55 million transactions since 2006, becoming “the bank of choice” for cyber criminals.
Advanced U.S. weapons system designs are “compromised by hackers”
Designs for more than two dozen advanced weapons systems have been compromised by hackers, according to a report prepared for the Pentagon. The hackers are said to be Chinese.
Sky TV app users worry after broadcaster Google Play “hack”
Users of British broadcaster Sky’s Android apps were left worried after hackers defaced the company’s Google Play page, and simultaneously sent out a warning via a company Twitter account that the apps had been “hacked and replaced”.
“Stronger action” urged in face of IP theft from American companies
American companies are facing an “unprecedented” onslaught of data theft, costing “hundreds of billions”, according to a report by a private group headed by high-ranking ex-government officials.
Electrical grids “woefully prepared” for cyber attacks, warns analyst
Electrical grids worldwide have become more susceptible to cyber attacks, due to the use of industrial control systems, according to market analysts ABI Research.
Twitter beefs up security after wave of attacks on media sites
Twitter has introduced a new two-factor security system - an optional "extra layer" of security which should help to prevent unauthorised access to accounts.
Small business cybercrime costs $6,000 a year, says British group
Cybercrime is costing small businesses an average of £4,000 ($6000) a year, according to the British Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). A report by the group found that 41 per cent of the FSB’s membership have been a victim of cybercrime in the past year. The most common threat is virus infections, with 20% of small businesses falling victim - while 8% have been victims of hacking and 5% have suffered security breaches.
Cyber attacks on America “will get worse”, warns NSA director
Cyber attacks on America will continue to escalate, according to National Security Director Keith Alexander, speaking to the Reuters Cybersecurity Summit in Washington. “Disruptive and destructive attacks on our country will get worse," said Alexander, the leading U.S. general in charge of the nation’s cybersecurity. "Mark my words, it will get worse."
FBI shares information on cyber attacks with US banks
The FBI has offered temporary security clearances to security officers from U.S. banks in order to share information into repeated cyber attacks which have disrupted online banking websites in recent months.