Top 10 Stories

Google troublemaker Tavis Ormandy, whose credits include turning up security vuln in popular antivirus products, reckons he's identified an active market in antivirus exploits. In June, the Google Project Zero security bod found trivial bugs in the ESET tool, and earlier this month, he served a similar dish to Kaspersky. In his latest post, Ormandy details more work on Kaspersky products (noting that the Russian outfit is already at work on patches). From the vuln side, he identifies bugs in...

Many NHS-accredited Smartphone health apps leak data that could be used for ID theft and fraud, a study has found. The apps are included in NHS England's Health Apps Library, which tests programs to ensure they meet standards of clinical and data safety. But the study by researchers in London discovered that, despite the vetting, some apps flouted privacy standards and sent data without encrypting it. The apps that leaked the most data have now...

The email attachment would tempt anyone following the diplomatic standoff between China and other countries in the South China Sea. The Microsoft Word document contained text and photos depicting Thai naval personnel capturing Vietnamese fishermen and forcing them to kneel at gunpoint. But the attachment was a decoy: Anyone who opened it inadvertently downloaded software that searched their computers for sensitive information and sent it to an obscure corner of the Internet. Manning that corner,...

The experts over at United States Navy are busy in the development of a cyber-protection system, codenamed RHIMES (the Resilient Hull, Mechanical, and Electrical Security), to enhance cyber security and to protect the Naval’s shipboard electrical and mechanical control systems from the cyber attacks, according to the Office of Naval Research. When the term cybersecurity appears on the Internet, most of the readers will conclude that the system is being developed to protect the data...

The US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has admitted that 5.6 million people are now estimated to have had their fingerprint information stolen—which could have a big impact on future biometric security initiatives. The federal government’s main employment body turns out to have significantly undershot its estimates as to how many people were affected by the breach that was uncovered in the summer. The number of people whose prints were lifted, so to speak, was...

A security flaw has been discovered in Apple’s mobile software iOS 9 that lets strangers exploit Siri in order to bypass lock screen on the latest Apple’s mobile operating system and gain access to contacts and photos stored in the device within 30 seconds. Apple iOS is believed to be one of the most secure and advanced mobile operating systems on the market. However, this recently discovered security flaw found within the newly released version of iOS,...

The healthcare sector is four times more likely to be affected by advanced malware than other industries, according to new research from Raytheon Websense Security Labs. "With advanced malware, we're talking about anything that tries to hide itself or tries to manipulate a sandbox type of environment - or anything that changes in order to hide itself," security expert Robert Slocum of Raytheon Websense says in an interview with Information Security Media Group. One in every 600 cyberattacks in...

United States Air Force at the Air and Space conference held in Maryland, has unveiled a specifically designed aircraft named EC-130H Compass Call that is, apart from its air combating proficiencies, capable enough to hack targeted enemy networks wirelessly and directly from the aircraft. US Air Force used C-130 airframe to design and develop a highly modified version of their latest air combat aircraft EC-130H Compass Call, an inventive in-flight hacking platform. It has been precisely configured...

Hi-tech firms are banding together to make sure "internet of things" smart devices are safe to use. More than 30 firms, including BT, Intel, and Vodafone, are creating an industry body to vet internet-connected devices for vulnerabilities and flaws. It will encourage firms making smart gadgets to think about security as the hardware is being developed. Consumers could be at risk unless the industry gets better at securing hardware, say experts. "We need to be...

The government has warned that 90% of major businesses have faced a cyber attack in the past year, with 74% of small businesses also victims of cyber crime. Launched in 2014, the government's Cyber Essentials Scheme (CES) outlined a set of security criteria businesses need to meet to protect their digital assets from attack by cyber criminals. The initiative aims to protect businesses against the most common online threats. Speaking at the Financial Times Cyber Security...