Top 10 Stories

Large firms are vulnerable to targeted hack attacks because they do little to strip data from files on their websites, suggests research. The data gets added as employees create documents, images and other files as they maintain and update websites. The research found user names, employee IDs, software versions and unique IDs for internal computers in the files. Attackers could use it to craft attacks aimed at senior staff, said security firm Glasswall which did...

Sweden's government has confirmed the massive data leak that is now considered to be the largest of its kind in history. The incident involved the Swedish government's transportation agency accidentally leaking vast amounts of data, exposing personal and sensitive information of nearly every citizen. Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Löfven sees the cybersecurity slip-up as "a disaster." "What has happened is a complete failure. It is very serious. It was in breach of the law and...

The caller who rang Valerie Sobel's cellphone had a horrifying message: "We have Simone's finger. Do you want to see the rest of her in a body bag?" Then came the sound of her daughter, screaming in terror. "She called me Mum (and said) 'I'm terrified, please help,' " Sobel recalled. In the hours that followed, the kidnappers talked her into wiring $4,000 (£3,069) for ransom. Only later did she find out there had been...

Kylie Jenner’s Snapchat account got hacked on July 23, with the attackers, who got control of her account, threatening to post nude photos online.Messages posted on her Snapchat account after the breach called for followers of the 19-year-old scion of the Kardashian family to “RT for her nudes” and to “add for Kylie’s nudes,” though it’s not yet clear if the hacker is indeed in possession of any adult material. While at this point it’s...

Wells Fargo accidentally leaked thousands of sensitive documents of 50,000 clients to a former financial adviser who subpoenaed the bank as part of a defamation lawsuit against a bank employee. The New York Times reported on Friday (21 July) that Wells Fargo's lawyer inadvertently sent 1.4GB worth of files to former Wells Fargo employee Gary Sinderbrand's lawyer in a CD that contained troves of spreadsheets with customers' names, Social Security numbers, financial details such as...

Three Square Market (32M) is offering implanted chips to employees interested in being biohacked.The new scheme, which 32M emphasized as being voluntary, begins on 1 August. According to the firm, the RFID chip will be implanted into their hand to "make purchases in their break room micro market, open doors, login to computers, use the copy machine," and other work-related purposes. While optional, the marketing solutions provider expects over 50 employees to undergo the procedure....

UK government targets 14-18 year old’s to tackle security skills gapStudents across the UK are being encouraged to consider taking part in a £20 million cyber security schools programme being rolled out across the country in an attempt to tackle a growing skills shortage.The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)’s Cyber Schools Programme will seek to train the next generation of employees by giving them the chance to learn cutting-edge cyber security skills...

Sweden's government has exposed sensitive and personal data of millions, along with the nation's military secrets, in what is now considered to be one of the worst government IT disasters ever. The leak, which occurred in 2015, saw the names, photos and home addresses of millions exposed. Those affected include fighter pilots of Swedish air force, police suspects, people under the witness relocation programme, members of the military's most secretive units (equivalent to the SAS...

Foreign students looking to experience the stochastic joys of a year at Newcastle University in England are being warned that phishers are after their cash – using an unusually well-crafted attack. The raiders set up a very realistic-looking fake website proclaiming itself to be Newcastle International University, complete with pages of well-laid-out information. The URL isn't that of the actual university site, but if you're a student unfamiliar with the center of learning, it would be easy to...

Despite all the recent attention paid to ransomware, cybercriminals walked away with $5.3 billion from business email compromise (BEC) attacks compared with $1 billion for ransomware over a three-year stretch, according to Cisco's 2017 Midyear Cybersecurity Report released today. Cybercriminals are increasingly taking a practical approach to their pilfering, going for the fastest method that they can steal a buck, or in this case, billions, says Steve Martino, Cisco's chief information security officer. "What we are...