Top 10 Stories

If evidence is correct that the intrusive surveillance spyware FinFisher may be in use by several members of the Freedom Online Coalition, it should rightly raise serious concerns around the world.   According to a statement by the EFF, these intrusive tools have in the past been used by Bahraini and Ethiopian governments to spy on human rights activists. Unchecked by strong legal and technical safeguards protecting against unnecessary or disproportionate surveillance, the use of such software...

Boeing has opened a Cyber Analytics Center in Singapore in a bid to help protect its customers from advanced cyber threats in Asia.   According to V3, the centre is Boeing's first outside of the US and is designed to help train and equip cyber security professionals operating in the region. The centre's opening will see Boeing hire and train cyber security professionals in Singapore to staff the centre.   Once operational it will work...

A US House of Representatives committee has approved new legislation designed to make it easier for firms to protect their intellectual property from theft, including cyber espionage.   According Infosecurity, the House Judiciary Committee approved H.R. 5233, the Trade Secrets Protection Act of 2014,on Wednesday. The bipartisan legislation seeks to amend the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 to create a federal civil remedy for the misappropriation of trade secrets. This means that firms can now seek civil penalties if they...

Sheplers, a western-wear retailer based in Texas, says the company's payment systems have been breached by hackers.   According to Data Breach Today, hackers gained access to some of its customers' payment card information. The breach potentially impacts customers who used payment cards at Sheplers' retail locations between June 11th and September 4th, the company says.   So far, it's not believed that the breach affected Sheplers' online web store. In addition, there's no evidence that debit...

Advocates with the web application security consortium OWASP published the latest iteration of its Testing Guide this week.   Marking its 10th anniversary this year, the fourth version (v4) of the guide builds onto the last one, published in 2008, in three ways.   For v4 the group combined its Developers Guide and the Code Review Guide into one, upped the number of test cases it includes and perhaps most importantly, challenges its users to share their findings...

According to the Management Consultancies Association (MCA), there is a boom in cyber and digital security: a quarter of all management consultancy in the UK now involves digital work — and firms are redeploying their consultants to meet the demand.   PwC, one of the big four auditors, is placing large bets on cybersecurity. It now has about 100 professionals specialising in this area in the UK — 80 of whom have been recruited since...

Microsoft has disbanded its Trustworthy Computing unit.   The group that was responsible for the pioneering work that helped reverse the company’s security reputation and make Windows a much more secure and reliable computing platform, the end of the TwC group comes as Microsoft is in the middle of a major shift.   The company announced on Thursday it was laying off 2,100 employees and also that it was closing its research facility in Silicon Valley....

Karaoke entertainment operator K Box may have to brace itself for regulatory action after analysts said that it might have fallen foul of the national Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA).   A group calling themselves The Knowns sent an email containing links to a database purportedly containing the personal details of more than 317,000 members to several media outlets, including MediaCorp. The list includes names of K Box members as well as their contact numbers, email...

Citrix has acquired stealth start-up Virtual, the only provider of a cloud-based virtualisation platform for iOS and Android.   The technology and team, including founder and CEO Chris Wade, will accelerate innovation across the Citrix mobile workspace apps and delivery infrastructure to help simplify IT security management for applications, data, endpoints and networks, and support the core Citrix vision for providing people with new ways to work.   Future enhancements to the Citrix mobile workspace delivery platform...

Egress Software Technologies, has been named as one of the first suppliers under the Cyber Security Supplier to Government Scheme.   Administered by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the scheme is designed to clearly identify and recognise key suppliers to UK Government. The scheme enables companies to advertise the fact that they supply a cyber-security product or service to the UK Government; use the Government’s logo in marketing material and appear (if...