Data Breaches

11 top XDR tools and how to evaluate them

Little in the modern IT world lends itself to manual or siloed management, and this is doubly true in the security realm. The scale of modern enterprise computing and modern application stack architecture requires security tools that can bring visibility into the security posture of modern IT components and integrate tightly to bring real-time threat detection, possibly even automating aspects of threat mitigation. This need has given rise to extended detection and response (XDR) tools.…

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IOTW: Almost 50,000 UK government workers vulnerable to cyber attacks

A large number of UK government ministers and civil servants have been warned that they are vulnerable to hackers after their personal information was posted online and remained visible for months. The personal information for more than 45,000 civil servants was available until March 2020 via the Government Communication Service (GCS) website. The information included names, email addresses, phone numbers and job titles as well as links to social media profiles including Twitter and LinkedIn.…

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14 UK schools suffer cyberattack, highly confidential documents leaked

More than a dozen schools in the UK have suffered a cyberattack which has led to highly confidential documents being leaked online by cybercriminals. That’s according to a report from the BBC which claimed that children’s SEN information, child passport scans, staff pay scales and contract details have been stolen by notorious cybercrime group Vice Society, known for disproportionately targeting the education sector with ransomware attacks in the UK and other countries. Passport, contract data…

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Twitter’s mushrooming data breach crisis could prove costly

Since Elon Musk purchased Twitter in late October, non-stop turmoil and controversy have dogged the company, from massive staff firings and resignations to reputational damage from Musk’s careless and often bizarre tweets. Now, mushrooming concern around a possible data breach stemming from a now-fixed Twitter flaw is poised to drive the company further down unless Twitter takes quick action. Even as regulators in Europe begin to probe what appears to be a massive Twitter data…

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Attackers create 130K fake accounts to abuse limited-time cloud computing resources

A group of attackers is running a cryptomining operation that leverages the free or trial-based cloud computing resources and platforms offered by several service providers including GitHub,  Heroku, and Togglebox. The operation is highly automated using CI/CD processes and involves the creation of tens of thousands of fake accounts and the use of stolen or fake credit cards to activate time-limited trials. Researchers from Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 have dubbed the group Automated Libra…

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IOTW: Almost 50,000 UK government ministers vulnerable to cyber attacks

A large number of UK government ministers and civil servants have been warned that they are vulnerable to hackers after their personal information was posted online and remained visible for months. The personal information for more than 45,000 civil servants was available until March 2020 via the Government Communication Service (GCS) website. The information included names, email addresses, phone numbers and job titles as well as links to social media profiles including Twitter and LinkedIn.…

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NATO tests AI’s ability to protect critical infrastructure against cyberattacks

Autonomous intelligence, artificial intelligence (AI) that can act without human intervention, can help identify critical infrastructure cyberattack patterns and network activity, and detect malware to enable enhanced decision-making about defensive responses. That’s according to the preliminary findings of an international experiment of AI’s ability to secure and defend systems, power grids and other critical assets by cyber experts at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) Cyber Coalition 2022 event late last year. The simulated experiment…

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The BISO: bringing security to business and business to security

Throughout her career in IT security, Irina Singh has thrived on difficult projects. With a bachelor of science degree in management of information systems and a minor in international business, she now manages a team of business information security liaisons serving four foundational business units at medical device company Medtronic. “One of my slogans is that we bring business to security and security to the business,” she says. Singh calls herself a business information security partner, but…

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How to foster secure and efficient data practices

Companies rely on data transfers to communicate between departments and with clients. When transferring data between different people, however, there are several risks if these data transfers are insecure. If insecure file transfer methods such as unencrypted email or cloud services are used, companies can open themselves up to potential exploitation by malicious actors. These actors could look to utilize methods including poisoning uploads with malware or intercepting files to gain access to confidential data.…

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Attackers use stolen banking data as phishing lure to deploy BitRAT

In a case that highlights how attackers can leverage information from data breaches to enhance their attacks, a group of attackers is using customer information stolen from a Colombian bank in phishing attacks with malicious documents, researchers report. The group, which might have been responsible for the data breach in the first place, is distributing an off-the-shelf Trojan program called ​​BitRAT that has been sold on the underground market since February 2021. Stolen data used…

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