Editor's News

Barclays has been named as the first major organisation to gain the new Government Cyber Essentials certification.   Certified for its Digital Banking services, including MyBarclays, BMB and Pingit, to demonstrate basic cyber hygiene and reach Cyber Essentials certification, Barclays Digital Banking had to complete the Cyber Essentials Questionnaire.   An external perimeter vulnerability scan was also carried out, which is an additional requirement for Cyber Essentials certification that is mandated by CREST.   The...

After the sinkholing exercise of earlier this week, No-IP has said that that all of the 23 domains that were “seized by Microsoft” on June 30th were now back in its control.   In an updated blog, No-IP said that it may take time for the DNS to fully propagate, but everything should be fully functioning within the next day. “We are so sorry for the inconvenience that this takedown has caused our customers,” it said....

Microsoft will release six bulletins next week, two of which are rated as critical and patch flaws in Windows and Internet Explorer.   According to its advance notification, the two critical patches are for remote code execution flaws. The remaining four patches will cover flaws in Windows and Microsoft Server Software, and are all rated as important.   Russ Ernst, director of product management at Lumension, said: “Data centre administrators shouldn’t plan to be away...

IT Security Guru has launched a new page exclusively for product reviews.   Starting with a look at AppRiver’s CipherPost Pro, IT Security Guru is delighted to be working with esteemed review guru Dave Mitchell, former reviews editor for SC Magazine. We are welcoming other opportunities to review your products, so please contact the team by emailing [email protected]   Editor Dan Raywood, said: “There are few places that review business security technology these days and...

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the NSA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).   In an effort to gain access to documents showing how intelligence agencies choose whether to disclose zero day flaws, the movement comes a year after Edward Snowden’s revelations, and mark a time when online freedom advocates are taking their fight to legal cases.   In this case,...

The University of Surrey has announced the launch of the Surrey Centre for Cyber Security (SCCS).   Offering a means for academia and industry to work together on research, Michael Kearney, vice president of research and innovation at University of Surrey, called it an “an important initiative in its own right”.   He said that it will be supported with investment and staff, and this fitted within the wider realm of security as a generic...

GCHQ and the National Crime Agency are to partner with the Cyber Security Challenge and Infosec Skills to prepare exams to train recruits for BCS exams.   The first competition of the fifth annual competition will see the Chartered Institute of IT and BCS training partner Infosec Skills issue a series of assessments that will test contestants knowledge and aptitude in data governance and information assurance architecture.   The Infosec Skills ISM Skills Draft is based on real...

Texan baseball team the Houston Astros suffered a data breach where internal communications on trades were leaked.   According to Yahoo Sports, hackers accessed the Astro’s internal communications database and released ten months' worth of notes about trade talks between the Astros and other MLB teams. This included high demands, counter offers and scenarios that never took place.   The documents were leaked in two parts to a site called Anonbin with one part dealing...

Cyber security and data protection have been ranked third in a list of boardroom priorities.   According to a survey released today by KPMG of 498 C-level executives from UK businesses, under-investment has left many businesses acknowledging the need to increase spend on secure technology.  Despite this, one in three executives questioned the need to invest in people skills, with 19 per cent also more focused on plant or machinery purchases.   When it comes...

Microsoft has announced that it is to close its security mailing list temporarily for two days.   According to the Register, the 12 year-old email list offers news of security updates, and recipients will get their news from an RSS feed instead. An email said: “As of July 1, 2014, due to changing governmental policies concerning the issuance of automated electronic messaging, Microsoft is suspending the use of email notifications that announce .”   The...