Top 10 Stories

The rapid development of technology and growth of IT enabled devices, the vulnerability of personal data and a demand for better cyber security hygiene are trends driving global security. These are issues that require concerted, collective and consistent action at the highest level of governments and multi-national corporations. According to Frost & Sullivan’s senior consultant Anthony Leather, complex changing global dynamics are forcing security stakeholders, that’s everyone, to re-evaluate resources and operational requirements to protect citizens...

MI5 has secretly been collecting vast amounts of data about UK phone calls to search for terrorist connections, the BBC has learned. The programme has been running for 10 years under a law described as "vague" by the government's terror watchdog. It emerged as Home Secretary Theresa May unveiled a draft bill governing online spying by the authorities. It would mean the internet activity of everyone in Britain had to be stored for a year by service providers....

Apps in both Google Play and the Apple App Store frequently send users' highly personal information to third parties, often with little or no notice, according to recently published research that studied 110 apps. The researchers analysed 55 of the most popular apps from each market and found that a significant percentage of them regularly provided Google, Apple, and other third parties with user e-mail addresses, names, and physical locations. On average, Android apps sent potentially...

Britain unveiled plans on Wednesday for sweeping new surveillance powers, including the right to find out which websites people visit, measures ministers say are vital to keep the country safe but which critics denounce as an assault on freedoms. Across the West, debate about how to protect privacy while helping agencies operate in the digital age has raged since former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden leaked details of mass surveillance by British and U.S. spies in...

Apple is facing growing challenges keeping suspicious mobile applications out of its App Store marketplace. Wireless network engineers, network admins, and network security pros can expect above-average pay. Over the last two months, researchers have found thousands of apps that could have potentially stolen data from iOS devices. While the apps were not stealing data, security experts said it would have been trivial for attackers to configure them to do so. View full story ORIGINAL SOURCE: Network World

Russian financial institutions are the latest victims of the infamous Tinba banking Trojan, including its largest banks and two large Russian payment service providers, researchers at Dell SecureWorks have found. Tinba, named for its small file size as a "tiny banking Trojan" that's 10 times smaller than other such malware, in August was seen targeting banks in Romania. Researchers at IBM X-Force at the time pointed out that it was rare to see Romania, which is...

British police have made a fourth arrest in connection with a cyber attack on telecoms company TalkTalk (TALK.L) in which the company said bank details of more than 20,000 customers were hacked. A 16-year-old boy from Norwich in eastern England was in custody and his address was being searched, London police said in a statement on Tuesday. On Saturday, a 20-year-old man from Staffordshire, central England, was arrested, following the arrests of a 16-year-old boy in west...

Developers of the vBulletin software package for website forums released a security patch Monday night, just hours after reports surfaced that a hack on the developers' site leaked password data and other sensitive information belonging to almost 480,000 subscribers. vBulletin officials have put in place a mandatory password reset for all users after discovering it was subjected to a hack attack. They went on to warn that the attacker "may have accessed customer IDs and encrypted...

Mining social media to protect your brand is a great idea, unless the tool you use becomes an attack vector. That's the slightly embarrassing bug Cisco's just reported in its SocialMiner 10.0(1) product: its WeChat page is open to cross-site scripting. It means some unfortunate support staffer who's not paying close attention to what they're receiving could get tricked into clicking a malicious link. View full story ORIGINAL SOURCE: The Register

Internet firms will have to store details of people's online activity for 12 months under a new surveillance law. The requirement is included in the government's draft Investigatory Powers Bill, to be published later. The government is promising strict safeguards including a ban on councils accessing people's internet records and a new offence of misuse of the data. Ministers are also facing calls for judges to sign warrants to access the content of digital records. View full story...