Top 10 Stories

United Airlines has rolled out a series of updates to its Web site that the company claims will help beef up the security of customer accounts. But at first glance, the core changes — moving from a 4-digit PINs to password and requiring customers to pick five different security questions and answers — may seem like a security playbook copied from Yahoo.com, circa 2009. Here’s a closer look at what’s changed in how United authenticates...

U.S. banking regulators said on Wednesday they are focused on cyber security risks and controls for U.S. financial institutions after attacks earlier this year involving the global financial network known as SWIFT. In a letter responding to questions from Representative Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat from New York, the regulators also said the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency was drafting guidance on interbank messaging and wholesale payment systems. View full story...

The war against cyber bullying continues, with plenty of Hollywood A listers coming to the defence of fellow actor Leslie Jones. On Wednesday, Jones’ website was hacked and filled with personal photos and information that were taken from her iCloud account. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the hackers attacked on Wednesday morning, but that site has since gone offline. However, the damage was done and the hackers were able to publicly share Jones’ driver’s licence,...

A meeting this week between the interior ministers of France and Germany has focused on the issue of encryption and its potential impact on security. In the lead-up to the meeting and in subsequent public comments from the ministers, they both made repeated mention of the issue of data encryption, even calling out the app Telegram as an example of a problem they wish to find a solution to. French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve even...

Many Asian organisations are badly defended against cyber-attacks, a year-long investigation by US security company Mandiant indicates. The median time between a breach and its discovery was 520 days, it says. That is three times the global average. Asia was also 80% more likely to be targeted by hackers than other parts of the world, the report said. View full story ORIGINAL SOURCE: BBC

The Ashley Madison dating site had "inadequate" security systems and used fake icons to make people think it was safe, reveals a report. The Toronto-based firm's security systems were investigated by privacy watchdogs in Canada and Australia. The attack on Ashley Madison in July 2015 took data on millions of users. View full story ORIGINAL SOURCE: BBC

Details for nearly 200,000 Grand Theft Auto fan site users have been traded on the digital underground. GTAGaming.com, which posts news, screenshots, and other information about theGrand Theft Auto video game series, was breached earlier this month. A source provided Motherboard with the data after finding it on a hacking forum, and it contains email addresses, hashed passwords, dates of birth, and IP addresses. The hacking forum has since shut down. View full story ORIGINAL...

Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks have increased by a whopping 220% in the last year "with no signs of abating", fuelled by DDoS-for-hire services and the use of "hit-and-run" tactics, new data shows. According to cybersecurity firm Imperva's annual "DDoS Threat Landscape Report", DDoS attacks rose by 221% between April 2015 and March 2016, with the UK becoming the second most popular target in the world. DDoS attacks occur when a threat actor persistently...

Blizzard, the game developer behind World of Warcraft and Overwatch, was hit by another DDoS attack on Tuesday. The assault coincides with the final day of its Overwatch Summer Games event. In an update to an official Twitter account, Blizzard admitted the assault was affecting its ability to deliver services. "We continue to actively monitor an ongoing DDOS attack against network providers, affecting latency/connections to our games," it said. View full story ORIGINAL SOURCE: The...

Universities and NHS trusts in England have been hit hard by ransomware in the last year, according to Freedom of Information requests carried out by two cybersecurity firms. Bournemouth University, which boasts a cybersecurity centre, has been hit 21 times in the last 12 months. Twenty-eight NHS Trusts said they had been affected. Ransomware is a form of computer malware which encrypts files and then demands a ransom for their release. View full story ORIGINAL...