Cyber Bites

After 23 years of being a civil servant and the head of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), Ciaran Martin is stepping down and passing the reins onto Lindy Cameron. The NCSC, a band of GCHQ was created to help protect and prevent hackers, from the likes of Russia and China infiltrating our infrastructures. Martin states that “In the six-and-a-half years that I was at GCHQ, Russia was the operational constant. It was a very...

Experian recently experienced a data breach, which they claim has been contained, but it appears that it has not been. The breach exposed the personal information of 24 million South Africans, 800,000 business, and the bank accounts of 25,000 firms. The credit information company claim to have seized and deleted all data, but it appears that on the contrary to this, the lost data has actually been enriched as ID numbers have been linked to...

The University of Tasmania has realised an official apology after an email bugle released around 20,000 students personal details to the universities entire faculty. The information was made public from Microsoft Office365's SharePoint platform, which was used by the institution to store, share and access files. The information was accessible to all users who had access to a utas.edu.au email address.   It appears that the incident showed no association with any malicious activity, according to...

Back at the beginning of the month, computers containing highly sensitive information about government officials and national security were compromised due to a breach at the National Informatics Centre, according to Delhi Police. The computers contained data regarding Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The National Informatics Centre (NIC) organises and supports government communications, technologies and security. According to a source from the Delhi Police, the attack came through in an email. When the employee who...

Business owners in the UK have been targetted by a phishing scam which captured sensitive information, such as passwords and payment details. The scam impersonated Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), as reported by accountancy firm Lanop Outsourcing. Business owners were targetted through emails supposedly from HMRC which claimed that the recipient's VAT deferral application had been rejected. This was in relation to the UK government's initiative which allowed struggling business to defect VAT payments...

An attack on the Newhall District in Valencia is one of the many ransomware attacks targeting the education sector in America. As children head back to school and learning moves online it seems that schools are becoming a major target for ransomware attacks. This most recent attack of Californian schools targetted 10 different elementary schools, affecting around 6,000 students, according to Valencia's city officials. The attack took place on Sunday night and ran into Monday...

After an increase of cyber attacks on the education sector, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has issued a new warning for schools, colleges and universities. Over the last few months, cybercriminals have attacked schools and universities with ransomware as they prepare to bring students back safely after the long pause due to the pandemic. The latest victim, Newcastle University was hit with a ransomware attack just last week. The NCSC is offering new guidance...

A hacker has managed to gain access to former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's passport and phone number. The hacker, Alex Hope was able to find this information through a picture of Mr Abbotts's boarding pass he posted on Instagram back in March 2020. Using the reference number on the boarding pass, Hope was able to log into Mr Abbott's booking page. Then through using the page's HTML code, Hope could identify Abbott's personal information...

Google has 'formally' banned any stalkerware apps from their Play Store, but large loopholes have been left which allow stalkerware to be uploaded as child-tracking apps onto the Play Store. Stalkerware apps track a user's movement, listen to calls, view messages and record other app's activity on the user's device. They are typically advertised as a way to track children to keep them safe online or to track cheating partners. They are installed and run...

The social networking site was hacked by a researcher who had identified a flaw on MobileIron’s Mobile Device Management (MDM) used by an employee. In this case, the vulnerability was not entirely Facebook's fault as the weakness in a third-party service created a ripple effect which negatively impacted users security.  However, this highlights how important it is for companies to monitor not only their own security but also the security of partnered vendors. The researcher...