Top 10 Stories

The chronic shortage of women in the cyber security is starting to being addressed with a new training scheme devised by Protection Group International (PGI), supported by Hawker Chase, a specialist cyber recruitment consultant. The cyber gap, the difference between the demand for cyber security professionals and their supply, is projected to reach 1.8million by 2022, with women currently only make up 20% of the industry’s workforce. Women in Cyber, the Department of Culture, Media and...

A group of computer science researchers has proposed a way to overcome the security risk posed by speculative execution, the data processing technique behind the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities. In a paper distributed this week through the ArXiv preprint server, "SafeSpec: Banishing the Spectre of a Meltdown with Leakage-Free Speculation," computer scientists from University of California, Riverside, College of William and Mary and Binghamton University describe a way to isolate the artifacts produced by speculative execution so...

PageUp has confirmed that some data held on its clients may be at risk, after revealing earlier this month it had fallen victim to a malware attack. "Forensic investigations have confirmed that an unauthorised person gained access to PageUp systems," the company wrote at the weekend. "Although the incident has been contained and PageUp is safe to use, we sincerely regret some data may be at risk." The HR firm said that some personal data for...

New research from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) suggests crime against business is on the rise. It also suggests cybercrime is the top form of crime against Irish businesses, and is twice as prevalent here as the international average. In its Irish Economic Crime and Fraud report, PwC finds that almost half of the 77 companies surveyed have experienced some form of crime over the last two years since it last conducted the survey, up from 34 per cent in 2016. Of...

A cybersecurity expert has warned firms must recognise cyber attacks as a “clear and present danger”, as the Central Bank fined an asset management company after it lost €650,000 of a client’s funds in an online scam. Chief executive of Smarttech247, Ronan Murphy said companies had to accept cybersecurity as an essential part of modern business, as Appian Asset Management was fined €443,000 and reprimanded by the regulator for admitting “significant breaches across client asset,...

Among the subjects President Donald Trump apparently didn’t discuss with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore – the regime’s human rights abuses, its exports of missile technology and its mistreatment of US prisoners – there’s one more: its long record of dangerous cyberattacks against sensitive targets in the US and allied nations. Experts warn that the country’s hacking skills have become increasingly sophisticated and dangerous in recent years. North Korean exploits have included the...

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) has unplugged a biometric identification project. The ACIC cited project delays as the reason it's terminated its contract with NEC Australia. NEC won the contract in 2016 from the ACIC's predecessor organisation, CrimTrac, and it was supposed to be operational in 2017, with the company also expected to provide years of management services. The project's original budget was $46 million, with the Sydney Morning Herald citing a PwC report saying it...

Liberty Holdings CEO David Munro told reporters on Sunday evening that it was in control of its technology and data infrastructure and was working with authorities to get to the bottom of a data breach which occurred on Thursday evening. He maintained that no clients suffered any financial loss as a result of the data breach. The company alerted clients of the data breach on Saturday evening via text messaging. Munro said the company alerted the...

For all crypto traders, here comes yet another malware threat!. A new malware campaign monitors victim computer clipboards for your Bitcoin and Ethereum addresses to steal coins. The robust malware named ClipboardWalletHijacker has infected around 300,000 computers within one week. Researchers from the 360 Security Center have discovered a new malware targeting Bitcoin and Ethereum users. The Trojan named ‘ClipboardWalletHijacker’ literally hijacks a victim computer’s clipboard to hunt for Bitcoin and Ethereum wallet addresses. It then replaces...

Android users are being warned about a dangerous virus that combines the worst features of smartphone malware. Dubbed MysteryBot, the malware includes features from bank trojans, keyloggers and ransomware that can attack a device on many different fronts and could be used to steal passwords and banking data. Discovered by security firm Threat Fabric, Mystery Bot is thought to be related to the dangerous Lokibot banking trojan that is known to attack Android smartphones and...