Cyber Bites

A new study on a worker’s susceptibility to being successfully phished found those working in the construction industry the most likely to fall for an attack, however, with the proper training this weakness can be almost entirely weeded out. Source: SC Magazine

Vulnerable open source software components are posing a security threat to UK firms, according to a report that also shows how best practice, including automation, can reduce the risk.  The average UK enterprise downloaded more than 21,000 open source software components with a known vulnerability in the past year alone, data from Sonatype shows. Source: Computer Weekly

Two UK universities have been added to the growing list of Academic Centres of Excellence in Cyber Security Research (ACEs-CSR), further enhancing the UK’s leading position in cyber security research. The two new centres at De Montfort University and Northumbria University have been recognised by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) as having first rate research capabilities. Source: Gov.uk

Survey of security professionals reveals that almost two thirds have considered leaving their jobs or the industry all together. So who will fill the gap? Cybersecurity professionals are overworked and stressed out to such an extent that it threatens to provide hackers and cybercriminals with a better chance of conducting cyberattacks against the enterprise. A study by Goldsmiths, University of London and cybersecurity company Symantec surveyed over 3,000 CISOs and senior cybersecurity decision makers across...

Hackers have broken into the systems of more than a dozen global telecoms companies and taken large amounts of personal and corporate data, researchers from a cyber security company said on Tuesday, identifying links to previous Chinese cyber-espionage campaigns. Investigators at U.S.-Israeli cyber security firm Cybereason said the attackers compromised companies in more than 30 countries and aimed to gather information on individuals in government, law-enforcement and politics. Source: Reuters

50 roles shifted off to India . DXC Technology is sending hundreds of security personnel from the America's division down the redundancy chute and offshoring some of those roles to low-cost centres, insiders are telling us. https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/06/24/driving_xtreme_cuts_dxc_technology_turns_on_meat_grinder_for_security_division/

Enterprise Internet of Things (IoT) devices can make company operations more efficient and productive, especially if they help cut down on manual steps and human error. But when company leaders think about the benefits of IoT devices — which are undeniably numerous — they often forget to simultaneously assess the risks of data breaches associated with those devices. https://www.information-age.com/iot-and-data-breaches-123483531/

A resurgence of scam campaigns that pretend to be Bitcoin and Ethereum giveaways from Tesla, Elon Musk, and John McAfee are underway. These scams rise in popularity as cryptocurrency prices increase. BleepingComputer was told by security researcher Frost that there has been a resurgence of cryptocurrency giveaway scams being promoted on Twitter. These scams state that if a person sends between .05 to 5 Bitcoins or .5 to 50 Ethereum to the listed address, the...

The US launched a cyber-attack on Iranian weapons systems on Thursday as President Trump pulled out of air strikes on the country, US reports say. The cyber-attack disabled computer systems controlling rocket and missile launchers, the Washington Post said. It was in retaliation for the shooting down of a US drone as well as attacks on oil tankers that the US has blamed Iran for, the New York Times said. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-48735097

Police have suspended work with Eurofins, their largest private forensic analysis partner, after a June 2 ransomware attack compromised the company's systems. On June 3, the National Police Chiefs’ Council says, Eurofins was instructed to return all work that it had not already begun. Outstanding DNA analysis, toxicology, ballistics and computer forensics work is being redistributed to other partner firms, but cases are expected to be delayed as a result. https://www.wired.co.uk/article/wired-awake-240619