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The German BSI has warned against the use of Kaspersky antivirus security products as the company is headquartered in Russia. The BSI suggested moving away from any Kaspersky product to another vendor, as the company may be forced to carry out offensive cyber operations by the Russian state. The BBC translated the BSI announcement: "A Russian IT manufacturer can carry out offensive operations itself, be forced against its will to attack target systems, or be...

Many organisations have been considering a network transformation initiative to support the adoption of SaaS, cloud-based applications, and an increasingly remote workforce. Given the connectivity needs of a remote workforce - and knowing a hybrid workforce is here to stay - many IT teams have had to make sudden changes in the way workers connect to corporate systems that could introduce new cyber risks and vulnerabilities.   When developing a security strategy for supporting a hybrid...

Research by ReasonLabs suggests that hackers will return their focus to consumers in 2022. The detailed report claims that a number of factors have led to consumers being a more lucrative target for hackers when compared to large companies. One of these factors is the continued shift to remote working and bigger budgets for on-site cybersecurity. This means that for threat actors, remote employees act as a path of least resistance.

The UK government has announced plans to provide free cyber skills training secondary school pupils. The program, dubbed Cyber Explorers, intends to educate 30,000 11 to 14-year-olds on many cybersecurity concepts, including open-source intelligence, digital forensics and social engineering. Students will use a new online learning platform to explore a range of scenarios, collecting virtual badges for making smarter choices online. The platform includes characters, quizzes and activities, demonstrating how digital, computing and cyber skills...

The UK’s Secretary of State for Defence has reportedly warned Russia that they will retaliate with cyber attacks if the Kremlin targets British networks. The House of Commons statement from Ben Wallace follows President Putin's order to Russian troops to invade the separatist Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine. “I’m a soldier – I was always taught the best part of defence is offense,” Wallace is reported to have said in the Commons. The statement comes...

US taxpayers signing up for an online account now have the option of a live interview to verify their identity instead of using ID.me facial recognition. Following discomfort surrounding their collection of biometric data, the IRS has offered the interviews as a short term solution for this year's filing system. The agency previously required taxpayers to authenticate their identity by providing a selfie. Following an $86 million contract  with ID.me, the IRS used their software to...

Next week, UK Research and Innovation's Digital Security by Design (DSbD) challenge's Four Nations Roadshow begins. The roadshow will journey across England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland and will feature talks from multiple speakers highlighting the developments in computing across the decades, the state of computing in the present day, and how we can move towards a safer, more secure future. DSbD is an initiative supported by the UK government to transform digital technology and create...

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has released a report revealing that Baltimore city was tricked out of hundreds of thousands of dollars last year by a cyber-criminal posing as a vendor. After receiving information from Baltimore's Bureau of Accounting and Payroll Services (BAPS) in regards to a suspected fraudulent Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), the OIG launched the investigation that uncovered the scam. Suspicions arose when a contractor received funds from the Mayor's Office...

Emil Frey, a Swiss car dealer have released a statement confirming that they were hit with a ransomware attack last month. The company, which is ranked as the number 1 car dealership in Europe, showed up on the list of victims for the Hive ransomware on February 1 later confirming that they were attacked in January. "We have restored and restarted our commercial activity already days after the incident on January 11, 2022," a spokesperson...

A disaster recovery plan (DRP) is an important component of any business continuity strategy.  An organisation's disaster recovery plan (DRP) is a formal document that gives clear instructions on how the business should deal with and respond to unanticipated, unexpected events that could be disruptive to them such as natural disasters, technology issues, fraudulent activity, and power cuts. The plan includes methods for limiting the consequences of a disaster so that the business can well...