Top 10 Stories

Seagate employees in the US have had their social security numbers, salaries, work and home addresses, and other data stolen in a phishing attack. An employee, most likely high up in the chain of command in HR at the company, was duped by a bogus email requesting W-2 forms of Seagate employees. On March 1, the conned employee acquiesced the request for W-2 forms in an email purportedly from CEO Stephen Luczo, who said he wanted...

Citing ongoing security concerns, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has suspended a service offered via its Web site that allowed taxpayers to retrieve so-called IP Protection PINs (IP PINs), codes that the IRS has mailed to some 2.7 million taxpayers to help prevent those individuals from becoming victims of tax refund fraud two years in a row. The move comes just days after KrebsOnSecurity first exposed how ID thieves were abusing the service to revisit tax refund on...

The U.S. Justice Department on Monday sought to overturn a ruling which protects Apple (AAPL.O) from unlocking an iPhone in a New York drug case. A magistrate judge in Brooklyn last week ruled that the Justice Department could not compel the tech giant to unlock the phone. The government on Monday resubmitted its arguments to a higher judge overseeing the matter. Prosecutors are relying on the same law in its fight against Apple in a...

Now more than ever, organisations are likely to evaluate cyber security risk in their annual audit plans. According to Protiviti's 2016 Internal Audit Capabilities and Needs Survey report, 73 percent of organisations now include cyber-security risk in their internal audits, an increase of 20 percent year-over-year. Over 1,300 internal audit professionals from virtually all industry sectors around the globe participated in the survey. More than half (57 percent) of respondents have received inquiries from customers, clients and/or insurance...

Researchers at threat defense company Skycure have uncovered an Android proof of concept malware that uses accessibility services to allow attackers to spy on and even control a device. It can monitor all of a victim's activity and allow attackers to read, and possibly compose, corporate emails and documents via the victim's device, as well as elevating their permissions to remotely encrypt or even wipe the device. View full story ORIGINAL SOURCE: Beta News

A high profile Indian diplomat, the Ambassador to Afghanistan, was recently the target of a security attack. The malware was reportedly delivered via an email that was crafted and spoofed to look like it was sent by Manohar Parrikar, Defence Minister of India. The attack was initiated on December 24, 2015, reports security firm Palo Alto Networks, which obtained a copy of the email. The imposter congratulated the Ambassador to Afghanistan for efficiently spearheading various development projects in...

Security firm Kaspersky has found a Trojan that poses a risk to some 60 percent of Android devices. Anyone running Android 4.4.4 and earlier is at risk as the malware was created by "very professional cyber criminals" and can allow in-app purchase theft and all the problems that come with privilege escalation, Kaspersky warned. "Triada is as complex as any malware for Windows, which marks a kind of Rubicon in the evolution of threats targeting Android," the...

RSA 2016 Researchers have shown off a new way to evade the security mechanisms in Android and iOS – by using social networks as command and control servers. The team, from Israeli security firm Skycure, said Google and Apple have made great strides in keeping malware out of their official software stores by scanning submitted code for malware and bad practices. Part of the scanning operation checks which backend systems the app contacts. Applications that reach out...

ITV today claimed it was benefitting from "growing concerns" about digital advertising and malware and insisted it can outperform the TV ad market in 2016, despite lagging the market in a flat first quarter. Adam Crozier, the chief executive, said the "phasing" of the year was different because of its coverage of the Euro 2016 football tournament in the summer and he expects ad growth over the year. January was down 1 per cent, February...

"The first cyber bug bounty program in the history of the federal government! was launched yesterday, as the US Department of Defense has invited hackers to test the cybersecurity capabilities of the department's network. The Hack the Pentagon initiative is effectively a crowdsourced vulnerability finder, and hackers from all over are not invited to have a nosey round and see if there are flaws on the DoD's webpages - a total of 448 websites are supposedly managed...