Sunday, July 3, 2016

Issue 71 - Week of June 27th


1.       Global terrorism database leaked: A massive database of terrorists and "heightened-risk individuals and entities" containing more than 2.2 Million records has reportedly leaked online. The leaked database contains records of people with suspected terrorist, organized crime, money laundering, bribery, corruption links, and other unsavory activities. The database is called World-Check and is run by Thomson Reuters. This is used by banks, governments, and intelligence agencies worldwide. The researcher who discovered this leak had in April discovered the leak of 90 Million Mexican Voter Database.

2.       Google CEO's Quora account hacked: Nobody is immune to being Hacked! After hacking Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter and Pinterest accounts, Hacking group OurMine has successfully found a vulnerability in Quora to hack the account of Google CEO and then cross-post to his Twitter account as they are linked. The group behind OurMine claims it is "testing security" of accounts and teaching people to secure their online accounts better - for a fee of up to $5,000 for a scan. Fear distracts and sometimes it sells but is not the best way forward. Move forward without fear.

3.       Oculus CEO's Twitter gets hacked; hacker declares himself new CEO: Twitter account of another high profile has been hacked! This time, it is Facebook-owned virtual reality company Oculus's CEO who had his Twitter account hacked last week. He is the latest in the list of technology chief executives to have had their social media accounts hacked in recent weeks. Recently, Google's CEO, Twitter's ex-CEO, and Facebook's CEO, have all fallen victim to similar hacks Most the cases it is 'Password reuse attacks'.

4.       IoT Botnet — CCTV cameras hacked to launch DDoS attack: IoTs pose a great threat due to the insecure implementations, these Internet-connected embedded devices, including Smart TVs, Refrigerators, Microwaves, Set-top boxes, Security Cameras and printers, are routinely being hacked and used as weapons in cyber-attacks. Cyber crooks are hacking CCTV cameras to form a massive botnet that can blow large websites off the Internet by launching Distributed Denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. Last week - hackers used 25000 CCTV cameras from 103 different countries to launch a DDoS attack on a commercial website to bring it down.

5.       More than 150,000 Android phones hacked in India: A notorious mobile Trojan called Hummer, stealthily installs malicious apps, games, or even porn apps onto victim's phones and yields its creators huge sums of money via pop-up ads. The Trojan roots the phone to gain admin privileges and is extremely difficult if not impossible to get rid of - even after a factory reset. Hummer spreads itself using a different number of domain names and third-party app stores, tricking users into downloading malicious apps or fake versions of popular apps like Facebook or Twitter. Indonesia, Turkey, China and Mexico are the other four in the top five countries where Hummer has made most of its victims, but the Trojan is also infecting Android users in the U.S. and Europe.

6.       Another banking heist - $10 Million stolen from Ukraine Bank: An unidentified bank in the Ukraine was allegedly hacked and $10 million stolen via the SWIFT network. The country’s ISACA branch, which is part of the probe, said several banks in Ukraine and Russia have been compromised and hundreds of millions of dollars stolen from them. Unconfirmed local media reports say the theft was via the SWIFT messaging system akin to the February $81-million Bangladesh Bank cyber heist. However, SWIFT has repeatedly rejected allegations that its system was compromised in the bank thefts and now warned that institutions with weak internal security may be suspended from its network.

7.       Noodles & Co reports possible data security incident: Fast-casual restaurant chain operator Noodles & Co said last week that a recent data security incident may have compromised the security of payment information of some its customers - who used debit or credit cards at some of its locations between Jan. 31 and June 2. Wendy's had a reported similar cyber-attack in January.

8.       How to see everything Google knows about you: It's no secret that Google knows a lot about its users. The tech giant collects tons of data about you, including your search history, location, and voice searches that help improve Google's services and provide relevant ads. Last week the company rolled out a new tool called "My Activity" that shows you almost everything you do online related to your Google account. From a security perspective, with millions of credentials available on the darkweb due to all the big hacks like Myspace and Linkedin, hackers can access your "My Activity" and misuse it. Time to change your passwords to avoid such Password reuse attacks.

9.       Free Wi-Fi connections are very risky: While travelling abroad it is indeed tempting and many a times necessary - to connect to any free Wi-Fi connection. A survey showed that for every 10 travelers - 8 of them connected to Free unsecured connections and 3 of them were hit by Cyber-crime. The reality is that there is a lack of understanding of the risks of cybersecurity on unsecured public Wi-Fi networks" and a fundamental lack of options for making secure connections. Enforcing use of VPNs and taking other security precautions definitely help.


10.   Nasty ransomware returns: After a huge decline in activity, instances of Locky malware, one of the most prolific forms of malicious software, have bounced back. The CryptXXX family of ransomware also has been discovered in the wild - this is a particularly nasty form of ransomware which not only encrypts files on the infected PC, but also attacks any files on connected storage devices. Ransomware is working, and the cyber-crooks know it. The success of ransomware means more and more cybercriminals are attempting to get in on the action. PPT approach to stop Ransomware - Trained People, Processes and Cutting edge Technology.

Image source: informationisbeautiful.net

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