Ransomware is a significant problem, there's no doubt about that. Time and time again, companies and individuals fall foul of malware that encrypts their data files and demands a ransom be paid for the elusive decryption key. But sometimes, just sometimes, the ransomware authors make mistakes. Because sometimes, ways are found to undo the damage done by...

2016 was an exciting year in information security. There were mega-breaches, tons of new malware strains, inventive phishing attacks, and laws dealing with digital security and privacy. Each of these instances brought the security community to where we are now: on the cusp of 2017. Even so, everything that happened in 2016 wasn't equally significant....

In January 2017, note-taking app Evernote is set to introduce a new privacy policy that introduces machine learning features. The privacy policy has got many users hot under the collar, fearful that some Evernote employees will be able to read their notes. There is no option to opt-out. While we think...

Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) has told members of its Colonel's Club to change their passwords following an attack against its website. The fast food giant confirmed that the attack affected only Colonel's Club users. The loyalty program allows its 1.2 million registered members to collect Chicken Stamps and exchange them for rewards like meals. KFC...

If you have a Sony network-connected CCTV camera, you may have a security problem. Researchers at SEC Consult uncovered a backdoor in Sony IP cameras that could allow a hacker to remotely execute malicious code, spy on users, brick devices, or recruit them into a DDoS botnet. As the vandal-resistant Sony IPELA Engine IP cameras at the centre of the...

Once again, researchers have uncovered security flaws that could allow malicious hackers to attack implanted medical devices, such as heart pacemakers and cardiac defibrillators, with the potential to deliver fatal shocks. In a newly-published paper, "On the (in)security of the Latest Generation Implantable Cardiac Defibrillators and How to Secure Them"...

San Francisco's transport system, known as Muni, was hit hard by a ransomware attack this weekend that forced the network to offer free rides to passengers. More than 2000 systems at the public transport agency are believed to have been hit, including Windows workstations, servers and ticketing machines. The first many users would have known that their...

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has had extraordinary success at building a social network that has attracted over a billion users. But that's not to say that he's had such luck in every other area of IT. Take securing his online accounts from attack, for instance. To misquote Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of being Earnest": "To lose control of one...

What has happened? The AdultFriendFinder website appears to have been hacked, exposing the personal information of hundreds of millions of user accounts. What is AdultFriendFinder? I don't want to be indelicate, so I'll just tell you it's strapline: "Hookup, Find Sex or Meet Someone Hot Now". Oh! So like Ashley Madison? Yes, very much so. And we all...

In late September, when Apple released iOS 10, it also took a dramatic step back in at least one aspect of iPhone and iPad security. Russian firm Elcomsoft discovered that local password-protected iTunes backups made of iPhones and iPads running iOS 10 were an astonishing 2500 times faster to crack than iOS 9. ...

According to new research published by Microsoft last month, one in three users fell victim to a tech support scam in the last year. One in five followed up on a suspicious interaction by downloading software or visiting a fraudulent website, while nearly one in ten lost money. The classic scam The traditional form of a tech support scam has been...

Macro malware arrived with a bang 21 years ago, and it's still causing problems. Concept, the first ever virus to spread by infecting Microsoft Office files, turned the anti-virus world on its head overnight when it was shipped by Microsoft on a CD ROM in August 1995. Up until then the main thing computer users had to worry about was malware hiding in ...

Android users are being reminded to only install apps from the official Google Play store or trusted third parties, after new research has revealed an alarming number of devices continue to be infected by a notorious family of malware. Security researchers at Cheetah Mobile Security claim that it is responsible for most of the Android infections seen,...

At least 58 million people have had their personal information published on the internet - including their names, dates of birth, email and postal addresses, job titles, phone numbers, vehicle data, and IP addresses - after a hacker stole a massive unsecured database. And, if you think that sounds bad, there may be yet more hacked data still to be...

Oh dear. It may very well be National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, but a new study suggests that many of the general public have thrown in the towel and given up. The detailed study, from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), suggests that the public is suffering from "security fatigue" and a feeling of helplessness when it comes...

A Syrian national affiliated with the notorious Syrian Electronic Army hacking group has pleaded guilty in a US court to charges of conspiring to hack into computers and extort money. 37-year-old Peter Romar, who was extradited to the United States from his home in Waltershausen, Germany, appears to have played an important role in the operations of the...

Money makes the world go around, and SWIFT - the worldwide inter-bank communication network - is the system that allows banks to send money to each other. So when online criminals find a way to exploit SWIFT, they can transfer huge amounts of money to bank accounts under their control. As we have previously...

Australian police is advising people to be on the lookout for unmarked, malware-laden USB sticks that someone is dropping into their mailboxes. On 21 September, the Victoria Police published a statement revealing that residents of the suburb of Pakenham in Victoria's capital Melbourne are discovering unmarked USB drives in their mailboxes. Here's a...

A Congressional investigation into the devastating hack of the US government's Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has detailed shortcomings in the organisation's security and made recommendations for other federal departments to prevent the same from happening to them. The hefty 227-page report doesn't pull its punches about the seriousness of the...

One of the world's leading wire and cable manufacturers, Leoni AG, has been swindled out of a jaw-dropping 40 million Euros (approximately US $44 million) after it was targeted by an email scammer. As Softpedia reports, a young woman working in the finance department of Leoni's factory in Bistrita, Romania, received an email in mid-August claiming to...