Opinions & Analysis

The majority of the UK’s SMEs are not prioritising better online security in the next 12 months, despite the impending impact of the EU’s new data protection legislation, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which was adopted in April 2016 and takes effect within two years. Notwithstanding the EU referendum result, the Information Commissioner’s Office has confirmed that, ‘if the UK wants to trade with the single market on equal terms we would have to prove...

ThreatConnect reassesses what could happen next in light of recent public statements by Guccifer 2.0.  We described the current state of the Guccifer 2.0 purported disclosures as leaking documents of minimal intelligence value for possible political points in the U.S. and reinforcing Kremlin themes to a Russian audience about the failings of democracy and the West. Here, we outline a couple of different trajectories for the Guccifer 2.0 persona and identify some of the indicators that...

DDoS Attacks show no sign of slowing down Attack Activity Increases 111 Percent Year-Over-Year Despite increased security protections, there is a rise in the number, frequency and complexity of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. In fact, no industry has been spared, and as these attacks become more sophisticated, we have seen an increasing number of organisations struggling to cope with the aftermath and negative impact these attacks can have to their revenue and corporate...

Professional social networking site LinkedIn has proven to be a valuable business tool, bringing together professionals from all over the world. But few corporations grasp the security risks that the use of LinkedIn represents. The main problem is not with the LinkedIn website’s own digital security but with a widespread corporate ignorance of the way the organised criminal gangs (OCGs) who make billions, sometimes tens of billions of dollars, from cyber crime work. The hackers...

Research from Corero Network Security has found that 80% of European IT security professionals expect DDoS ransom attacks to target their business within the next 12 months. A poll of experts at the InfoSecurity Europe conference made evident the fears of cyber extortion attempts in the UK and Europe. Furthermore, warnings were issued by the City of London Police in May this year following risks identified from warnings by Lizard Squad, who were threatening charges...

By Dave Worrall, CTO at Secure Cloudlink  The explosion of businesses transacting online, social media sites, mobile devices and applications in the workplace has led to each of us being faced with the challenge of needing to remember more usernames and passwords than ever before. Add to this the complexity of new cloud based applications, the rise of Shadow IT as well as BYOD, and the world of the IT manager suddenly becomes one of...

Browser privacy and security has become mired in a battle over the future of Internet publishing As if life wasn’t already hard enough for online publishers it has recently been getting a lot tougher thanks to adblockers. Loaded as free extensions to desktop and mobile browsers, up to a third of Internet users now run them which spells big trouble for the swathe of big websites that depend almost completely on serving ads to make...

The world has changed. With more users accessing data outside the corporate firewall and from mobile devices, businesses can now allow for more flexible work environments. But this increased access has also brought an upsurge in the risk of data breaches and threats from hackers. Recent high-profile breaches have heightened overall market awareness of security, not just within the CSO community, but among CEOs and boards of directors as well. Protecting the sensitive data within...

Join AppRiver’s experts Troy Gill, Fred Touchette and Jon French for another close-up on the findings of their Global Security Report. This week, we’re analysing what companies have actually been paying in light of cyber attacks. It turns out the answer is a LOT. Rsearch shows potentially billions of dollars has been lost through wire transfer fraud, ransom payments and other extortion and fraud techniques. How do these scams work? Listen to AppRiver's advice and...

Flashpoint, the global leader in Deep & Dark Web data and intelligence, today released the findings from a five-month study of an organized Russian ransomware campaign. The new research report, Inside an Organized Russian Ransomware Campaign delves into the details of how cybercriminals are using Ransomware as a Service (RaaS) to successfully target victims, with the healthcare industry being identified as a priority target.  The report reveals ransomware campaign key metrics, including average salaries for...