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Cybersecurity's Crucial Role Amidst Escalating Financial Crime Risks

In an era of escalating financial crimes, the spotlight shines brightly on the rising concerns in the realm of cybersecurity. According to a recent survey, a staggering 68% of UK risk experts anticipate a surge in financial crime risks over the next year. These apprehensions echo globally, with 69% of executives and risk professionals worldwide...
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LinkedIn under attack, malicious hackers seize accounts

Security researchers have identified that a widespread LinkedIn malicious hacking campaign has seen many users locked out of their accounts worldwide. Some users who have had their access to their LinkedIn accounts blocked by the cybercriminals changing their passwords have been pressured into paying a ransom, according to a report from Cyberint, and...
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Rhysida ransomware - what you need to know

What is Rhysida? Rhysida is a Windows-based ransomware operation that has come to prominence since May 2023, after being linked to a series of high profile cyber attacks in Western Europe, North and South America, and Australia. The group appears to have links to the notorious Vice Society ransomware gang. What kind of organisations has Rhysida been...
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Ransomware attacks cost manufacturing sector $46 billion in downtime since 2018, report claims

Newly-released research reveals the eye-watering costs that the manufacturing sector has suffered in recent years at the hands of ransomware. The analysis, by Comparitech, looked at 478 confirmed ransomware attacks on manufacturing companies between 2018 and July 2023, in an attempt to determine their true cost. Whereas many of the headlines connected...
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Tech support scammers trick victims into old-school offline money transfer

We're all familiar with tech support scams - where the unwary are tricked into granting remote access to their computers by fraudsters, in the belief that the "tech support person" will fix a non-existent "problem" (such as a "virus infection") or make a refund after claiming that there has been fraudulent activity detected on an account. It's not...
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Former contractor accused of remotely accessing town's water treatment facility

A federal grand jury has indicted a former employee of a contractor operating a California town's wastewater treatment facility, alleging that he remotely turned off critical systems and could have endangered public health and safety. 53-year-old Rambler Gallor of Tracy, California, held a full-time position at a Massachusetts company that was...
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The Thin Line Between User Behavioral Analytics and Privacy Violation

Technology has supercharged marketing. The vast data at marketers' disposal provides unparalleled insight into what customers want, why they want it, and how they use products and services. Behavioral analytics benefits businesses and consumers; it allows companies to drive sales and increase conversion rates while providing customers services tailored...
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Decryption tool for Akira ransomware available for free

There's good news for any business which has fallen victim to the Akira ransomware. Security researchers at anti-virus company Avast have developed a free decryption tool for files that have been encrypted since the Akira ransomware first emerged in March 2023. The ransomware has been blamed for a number of high profile attacks - including ones...
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What is the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA)?

The Gramm-Leach Bliley Act (GLBA or GLB Act), or financial modernization act, is a bi-partisan federal regulation passed in 1999 to modernize the financial industry. It repealed vast swathes of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 and the Bank Holding Act of 1956, allowing commercial banks to offer financial services such as investments or insurance. It also...
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BlackLotus bootkit patch may bring "false sense of security", warns NSA

The NSA has published a guide about how to mitigate against attacks involving the BlackLotus bootkit malware, amid fears that system administrators may not be adequately protected against the threat. The BlackLotus UEFI bootkit made a name for itself in October 2022, when it was seen being sold on cybercrime underground forums for $5,000. The news...
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US charges two men with Mt. Gox heist, the world's largest cryptocurrency hack

More than ten years after the hack of the now-defunct Mt. Gox cryptocurrency exchange, the US Department of Justice says it has identified and charged two men it alleges stole customers' funds and the exchange's private keys. Two Russians, 43-year-old Alexey Bilyuchenko, and Aleksandr Verner, 29, are charged with conspiring to launder 647,000 Bitcoins ...
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Malware menaces Minecraft mods

If you, or your kids, are fans of Minecraft - you might be wise not to download any new mods of plugins for a while. Computer security researchers say that they have uncovered that cybercriminals have succeeded in embedding malware named "Fracturizer" within packages and plugins used to modify the behaviour and appearance of the phenomenally popular...
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Rogue IT security worker failed to cover his tracks

Bad enough for your company to be held to ransom after a cyber attack. Worse still to then have one of your own employees exploit the attack in an attempt to steal the ransom for themselves. That's the situation gene and cell therapy firm Oxford BioMedica found itself in. On 27 February 2018, the Oxford-based firm discovered that it had suffered a...
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Akira ransomware - what you need to know

What is Akira? Akira is a new family of ransomware, first used in cybercrime attacks in March 2023. Akira? Haven't we heard of that before? Maybe you're thinking of the cyberpunk Manga comic books and movie that came out in the 1980s. Or perhaps you're thinking of an unrelated ransomware of the same name which emerged in 2017. Maybe that's it. So...
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Patch now! The Mirai IoT botnet is exploiting TP-Link routers

Businesses should patch their TP-Link routers as soon as possible, after the revelation that a legendary IoT botnet is targeting them for recruitment. The notorious Mirai botnet, which hijacks control of vulnerable IoT devices, is now exploiting TP-Link Archer AX21 routers to launch distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. The warning comes from...
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US charges three men with six million dollar business email compromise plot

Three Nigerian nationals face charges in a US federal court related to a business email compromise (BEC) scam that is said to have stolen more than US $6 million from victims. 29-year-old Kosi Goodness Simon-Ebo was extradited from Canada to the United States earlier this month, according to a Department of Justice press release, and will appear before...