Top 10 Stories

Enterprising internet users in China fear the tools they use to tunnel through the country's "Great Firewall" may soon disappear, as Beijing tightens its grip on the web. Tens of millions of people are estimated to use Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to bypass Chinese internet restrictions -- getting access to blocked websites such as Facebook and Twitter. Beijing has for years turned a blind eye to these holes in its Great Firewall, but recent events...

Cisco has admitted to losing some customers' data last week due to a Meraki cloud configuration data. The company revealed in an update on Friday that its engineering team made a configuration change on the North American object storage service that led to some of its customer data being deleted in the process. Meraki is a subsidiary of Cisco that offers cloud-managed information technologies for wireless, switching, security, EMM, communications and security cameras via its...

This time, hackers managed to take control of Ariana Grande’s Instagram account, and the attackers started posting racist and homophobic messages, while also threatening other American stars to breach their accounts. While no hacking group or individual claimed the attack, the Instagram account is believed to have been breached by a fan of Selena Gomez and Kylie Jenner, as reported by clevver. The main evidence pointing in this regard is some of the messages posted by...

British cyber-security researcher Marcus Hutchins will appear in court in Las Vegas later charged in a US cyber-crime case. The 23-year-old has been accused of involvement with Kronos - a piece of malware used to steal banking logins from victims' computers. Mr Hutchins, from Ilfracombe in Devon, came to prominence after he stalled the WannaCry cyber-attack which hit the NHS in May. The FBI arrested him on Wednesday. View Full Story ORIGINAL SOURCE: BBC News

National Intelligence Service says it mobilised cyberwarfare experts to ensure Park Geun-hye beat rival and now president Moon Jae-in South Korea’s spy agency has admitted it conducted an illicit campaign to influence the country’s 2012 presidential election, mobilising teams of experts in psychological warfare to ensure that the conservative candidate, Park Geun-hye, beat her liberal rival. View Full Story ORIGINAL SOURCE: The Guardian

For those of us living in New York City, taking the train this summer has been, let's just say, an interesting experience. Amid delays, 100-degree train cars, and weekend construction, New York's Gov. Andrew Cuomo even announced a state of emergency for the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) in June, and pumped an extra $1 billion into the problem. View Full Story ORIGINAL SOURCE: Motherboard

At least one computer hacker in Northern California is clearly not a fan of President Donald Trump. CBS 13 in Sacramento reported Wednesday evening that drivers along I-80 had to do double-takes after seeing a hacked sign that said TRUMP HAS HERPES. The first reports about the hacked sign started popping up on Twitter just before 11 p.m. View Full Story ORIGINAL SOURCE: CBS Local

High-profile cybercrime such as data theft, ransomware and computer hacks seem to be occurring more frequently and with higher costs, but cloud computing may provide the security that companies are searching for, experts suggest. "Cloud computing improves IT security and security professionals need as much help as possible," said Nick McQuire, vice president of enterprise research at CCS Insight. View Full Story ORIGINAL SOURCE: CNBC

The Pentagon has expanded a pilot program to allow some top officials to access documents with a ‘secret’ classification using 8-inch tablets. The move follows a similar program that gave some officials access to both ‘secret’ and ‘top secret’ classified documents on smartphones. With this program, the government hopes to make it easier for these individuals to access data when out of the office. View Full Story ORIGINAL SOURCE: Slash Gear

Instituting a vulnerability disclosure program (aka bug bounty program) that won’t blow up in the organization’s face can be a daunting task. Some will prefer to enlist outside experts to advise them on how to do it, and others will want to rely on their own IT or security department. For the latter, here’s some good news: the US Department of Justice has just released a guidance document for adopting a vulnerability disclosure program for...