cybersecurity
Yahoo has confirmed that hackers stole information from at least 500 million user accounts in what it describes as a “state-sponsored” attack. In a statement released Thursday, Yahoo’s Chief Information Security Officer Bob Lord said that the information was stolen from the company’s network in late 2014.
What is a secure technology environment in K-12 schools? It is a teaching and learning environment where students and teachers have access to the tools they need, yet adequately protects them from threats and things that could possibly harm them, such as accessing inappropriate content, online predators, cyberbullying, data and identity theft, viruses and malware, and copyright infringement.
The FBI has uncovered evidence that foreign hackers penetrated two state election databases in recent weeks, prompting the bureau to warn election officials across the country to take new steps to enhance the security of their computer systems, according to federal and state law enforcement officials.
This week (starting August 15), the immediate risk to our lives through cyberblitzkrieg has suddenly risen dramatically, due to new events in cyberspace. If a cyberblitzkrieg on electric power and other critical infrastructure does occur, the level of damage would be comparable in general to the kind of damage we feared at the height of the Cold War, when something like half the world could be lost suddenly and the rest in a cascade of events.
Security researchers have identified a complex malware dubbed “ProjectSauron” that hid, undetected, within a number of organizations for five years. Cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab described ProjectSauron as an extremely sophisticated platform for cyber-espionage Monday. The malware, it added, is designed to conduct “long-term campaigns through stealthy survival mechanisms.”
The Obama administration is preparing to elevate the stature of the Pentagon’s Cyber Command, signaling more emphasis on developing cyber weapons to deter attacks, punish intruders into U.S. networks and tackle adversaries such as Islamic State, current and former officials told Reuters. Under the plan being considered at the White House, the officials said, U.S. Cyber Command would become what the military calls a "unified command" equal to combat branches of the military such as the Central and Pacific Commands.
Many of the large payment card breaches that hit retail and hospitality businesses in recent years were the result of attackers infecting point-of-sale systems with memory-scraping malware. But there are easier ways to steal this sort of data, due to a lack of authentication and encryption between card readers and the POS payment applications.
With the theft and leaking of Democratic National Committee data, dramatic headlines are filling the pages of our newspapers. Calls for action are heard daily. Whatever we might do in direct response, though, the best reaction over the long term might simply be quiet and sustained investment in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) education.
This week, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump openly speculated that this election would be “rigged.” Last month, Russia decided to take an active role in our election. There’s no basis for questioning the results of a vote that’s still months away. But the interference and aspersions do merit a fresh look at the woeful state of our outdated, insecure electronic voting machines.
Over the years there have been two distinct varieties of ransomware which remain consistent: crypto and locker based. Crypto-ransomware is ransomware variants that actually encrypt files and folders, hard drives, etc. Whereas Locker-ransomware only locks users out of their devices, most often seen with Android based ransomware.