Top 10 Stories

A recently published exploit for the Safari browser demonstrates a URL spoofing mechanism which might convince users they are visiting a legitimate website, when they are actually visiting another site which may be phishing their details. View full story

Extortion malware was on the rise late last year, according to a report from F-Secure. The company's Threat Report found that the Koler & Slocker ransomware families, which first appeared in the first half of 2014, grew rapidly during the second half of the year. View full story

A nifty feature designed by Apple to maintain security on the Watch without sacrificing convenience may have actually ended up sacrificing security instead, allowing thieves to continue using Apple Pay on a stolen Watch without having to input the owner’s PIN code to confirm purchases. View full story

Yorkshire tearoom chain Bettys has admitted that it was hit by a data breach that has affected some 120,000 customers who use its website to order items. The company blamed the breach on an “industry-wide software weakness” that was used by the hackers to “illegally gain access to our customer data”. The breach has seen customer names, email addresses and encrypted passwords stolen, although the company said that no financial data was affected View full...

A new encryption attack has emerged over the Internet that allows attackers to read and modify the sensitive data passing through encrypted connections, potentially affecting hundreds of thousands of HTTPS-protected sites, mail servers, and other widely used Internet services. View full story

Researchers have created a system that bolsters data security by fooling hackers with fake cracked passwords. The system, dubbed ErsatzPasswords, is detailed in a research paper submitted to the 2015 Annual Computer Security Applications Conference, due to take place in Los Angeles in December. The system is designed to trick hackers who want to to “crack” passwords, according to one of the paper’s authors, Mohammed H. Almeshekah, a doctoral student at Purdue University in Indiana....

The company says that it has recently determined that in June 2014 hackers were able to gain unauthorised access to a database, used to collect details entered by members and other individuals on CareFirst’s websites and online services. On this occasion, the corporate victim warning 1.1 million customers that an attack has occurred is CareFirst, a major health insurer. View full story

Korean m-payments  specialist Interpay has signed up to use Intercede's MyTAM to protect third party payment and banking apps running on the Android platform. The service allows Interpay to utilise the Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) to ensure sensitive consumer data is isolated from potential threats on the main operating system. Interpay’s TZ OTP application uses two factor authentication and signing to secure m-commerce and banking transactions made through a range of third party applications. Intercede’s...

US banks and law enforcement agencies are calling on consumers to be alert to an emerging scam, dubbed 'card cracking, which has so far cost the industry $11.6 million in stolen funds. Card cracking is a form of fraud where consumers respond to an online solicitation for 'easy money' and provide a debit card for withdrawal of fake cheque deposits. View full story  

Hands-free car entry systems, which typically unlock car doors without requiring the pushing of any buttons when owners are close to their vehicles, provide great convenience. Unfortunately, however, people have begun marketing for sale devices that allow criminals to exploit a technological vulnerability in these systems, and crooks have been seen using “mystery devices” to open cars equipped with hands-free car entry systems. View full story