Top 10 Stories

The European Commission is working with the United States on the final details of a commercial data-sharing deal that was put up for renegotiation following leaks two years ago that exposed U.S. mass surveillance practices, a document seen by Reuters showed. The European Commission, the EU executive, has been negotiating with the United States since January 2014 to reform an existing agreement allowing companies to transfer data easily between the two areas, known as "Safe...

Hackers have figured out how to persuade iPhone users to install malicious apps on their iPhones without their knowledge. The apps may look and perform like the real thing, but they're controlled by hackers. The installations occur when users unwittingly click on web links that trigger the downloads. Bogus apps include malware versions of Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp. FireEye global technical lead Simon Mullis reported the “Masque” attack in an interview with Business Insider. “The most recent...

The elusive head of one of the world's most successful online criminal gangs wanted by the FBI was quietly using the Gameover Zeus banking trojan for political espionage inline with Russian interests and may have the protection of Moscow, researchers contend. Evgeniy Mikhailovich Bogachev, better known online as Slavik, has evaded arrest despite a $US3 million bounty set by the FBI. Bogachev is thought to be the co-head of a six-member highly-secretive criminal circle calling...

If you think Apple’s Mac computers are much more secure than Windows-powered systems, you need to think again. This isn’t true, and security researchers have finally proved it. Two security researchers have developed a proof-of-concept computer worm for the first time that can spread automatically between MacBooks, without any need for them to be networked. Dubbed Thunderstrike 2, the new proof-of-concept firmware attack is inspired by previously developed proof-of-concept firmware called Thunderstrike. Thunderstrike Attack, developed by...

The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) in the US issued an alert on Friday about extortion campaigns that threaten businesses with a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack unless a ransom is paid. The threat typically comes through an email, and the ransoms vary in sums demanded, although they're usually demanded in Bitcoin, the IC3 announcement states. If victims don't pay the ransom they will receive another email claiming that the amount due will increase. If a DDoS attack...

The Sri Lankan prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has his office website hacked by a hacktivist who hacks for #ForSyria. A hacker going with the handle of Dr.MwNs has hacked and defaced the official website of Prime Minister’s Office Sri Lanka earlier today. The hacker left a deface page along with a “Hacked by Dr.MwNs” note on the homepage of the PM’s website. Those visiting the site can also hear Maher Zain’s Thank You Allah song in the background. View...

Intelligence agencies' secretive techniques for spying on mobile phones are seldom made public. But a UK security firm has shown the BBC how one tool, sold around the world to spooks, actually works. It allows spies to take secret pictures with a phone's camera and record conversations with the microphone, without the phone owner knowing. Hacking Team's software was recently stolen from the company by hackers and published on the web. Almost any data on a phone, tablet...

Paranoid wild man of infosec John McAfee was arrested in the US state of Tennessee over the weekend – and charged with driving under the influence, and possession of a handgun while intoxicated. The charismatic ex-boss of security software biz McAfee can be seen grinning for his police mugshot. McAfee the man, or one of his team, told El Reg via email on Tuesday evening: "Yes, I was arrested while under the influence of Xanax....

Antivirus firms BitDefender has been hacked and data belonging to its customer have been leaked online. Hackers requested a $15,000 ransomware. Hackers are raising the bar, one of the most popular Antivirus firms BitDefender has been hacked and data belonging to its customer have been leaked online. The data breach highlighted serious security issues in the way the company managed customer’s data, the incident for sure will have a serious impact on the reputation of the...

An Indiana medical software company has reported the private information of 3.9 million people nationwide was exposed when its networks were hacked earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said Monday. Medical Informatics Engineering reported the number of people affected by the hack to the federal agency on July 23. The Fort Wayne company announced June 10 that the attack on its main network and its NoMoreClipboard network began May 7...