cybercrime threats – Page 3

Equifax data breach: 143 million records exposed but senior executives not told immediately?

Sep 12 2017

By Cameron Abbott and Olivia Coburn

Equifax has joined Yahoo on the podium for the award no one wants: suffering one of the largest data breaches in history.

Equifax, one of the three largest US credit reporting agencies, announced last week that it suffered a cybersecurity incident potentially impacting 143 million US consumers – a figure comprising of roughly 55 per cent of Americans aged 18 years or older. Some UK and Canadian residents are also affected.

Security incidents high, confidence to manage them low. Really? We did see this coming – why aren’t we better prepared?

Aug 31 2017

By Cameron Abbott and Olivia Coburn

RiskIQ, a US-based cyber security company, has reported that 40% of businesses surveyed in the US and the UK have experienced 5 or more significant security incidents in the past 12 months. Significant incidents include malware, targeted attacks, mobile exposures, rogue mobile apps, website or brand abuse, phishing and social impersonation.

RiskIQ, through IDG Connect, also surveyed the confidence of corporate decision-makers in their ability to handle and mitigate cyber threats. Their report, 2017 State of Enterprise Digital Defense Report, reveals that nearly two-thirds of respondents had no to modest confidence in their ability to manage digital threats.

Gartner: Worldwide spending on information security to reach $93 billion in 2018

Aug 24 2017

By Cameron Abbott and Olivia Coburn

Global spending on information security products and services will reach $86.4 billion this year, according to US-based technology research and advisory firm Gartner, Inc.

This figure is an increase of 7 per cent over 2016, and is expected to grow to $93 billion in 2018.

Together we are stronger – Australia and Singapore partner up on cybersecurity

Jun 06 2017

By Cameron Abbott and Allison Wallace

A freshly inked Memorandum of Understanding between Australia and Singapore will see the two countries strengthen their cybersecurity through a joint effort to build a secure and resilient cyber space.

The two-year partnership which was signed last week, will see Singapore’s Cyber Security Agency work with the Australian government to conduct regular information exchanges on cyber threats, share best practices to promote innovation in cyber security, and build cyber security capabilities. Read More

Cyber-attacks: a problem in 2016, still a problem in 2017

Jan 11 2017

By Cameron Abbott and Allison Wallace

A survey of nearly 600 organisations across a variety of industries globally has revealed 98% of these organisations experienced some form of cyber-attack in 2016. (We are left wondering if the other 2% just didn’t notice?)

The survey, conducted by cyber-security company Radware, also found that many organisations are still not prepared to face the threat landscape including that 40% of organisations do not have an incident response plan in place.

Respondents indicated that ransom was the top motivation behind cyber-attacks (41%), followed by insider threats (27%), political hacktivism (26%) and competition (26%).

Radware’s Vice President of Security Solutions, Carl Herberger, says that money is the top motivator in today’s threat landscape. He says “attackers employ an ever-increasing number of tactics to steal valuable information, from ransom attacks that can lock up a company’s data, to DDoS attacks that act as a smoke screen for information theft, to direct brute force or injection attacks that grant direct access to internal data”.

Radware predicts that in 2017, we will see an increase in the use of IoT botnets, cyber ransom, telephony DoS, permanent denial of service for data centre and IoT operations, and public transport being held hostage.

Not the most positive outlook for 2017, but it would be a brave person to suggest they are wrong with those predictions.

Hackers to take the blame for Census?

Aug 10 2016

By Cameron Abbott and Rebecca Murray

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) says that the 2016 online census form was subject to “four Denial of Service attacks,” which prompted the ABS to shut down its Census website as a security precaution on Tuesday night. Read the ABS’s media release here.

While the ABS maintains that 2 million forms were successfully submitted and safely stored, thousands of Australians were prevented from taking part in the Census due to the website crash. The ABS has revealed that it believes that the attacks came from overseas and were a deliberate attempt to sabotage the census. However, we are wondering if the entire Australian population accessing the website at the same time might look like a Denial of Service attack in its own right! If ever a system should have been robust enough to cope with such an attack it was this one.

Attorney-General George Brandis has stated that the security measures in place were “more than sufficient to protect individual privacy” and that “the cyber security operations centre has been engaged overnight…and is investigating the matter.”

The biggest cyber security threats experienced by Australian organisations

Mar 31 2016

By Jim Bulling and Michelle Chasser

The Australian Government Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) has released its 2015 Cyber Security Survey: Major Australian Businesses. 149 organisations across a number of sectors, including banking and finance, defence and energy, responded to the survey which provides some interesting insights into cyber security activity and concerns for the future.

According to the survey the top 10 cyber security incidents experienced by respondents on their networks in the previous 12 months were:

ransomware (72%)
malware (66%)
targeted malicious emails (59%)
virus or worm infection (30%)
theft of mobile devices and laptops (30%)
trojan (27%)
remote access trojans (20%)
unauthorised access (25%)
theft or breach of confidential information (23%)
unauthorised access to information from an outsider (17%)

It’s official and, it’s personal – Gemalto’s 2015 results reveal scary cybercrime stats

Feb 29 2016

By Cameron Abbott and Meg Aitken

Never mind your credit card details, let’s worry about cybercriminals stealing your identity.

The latest Breach Level Index released by Gemalto has revealed that identity theft was the primary target of hackers in 2015, with stolen personal information accounting for 53% of all data breaches.

It’s a worry, you see, because while your credit card has inbuilt security defences and merchant protection mechanisms, your valuable personal information is probably stored in multiple locations, across a number of interfaces, in a variety of forms, exposing it to substantial risk of theft.

Not only is the massive volume of personal information that is available to be stolen a cause for alarm, but what cybercriminals can potentially do with that information is the major concern.

So who is to blame? Well, malicious outsiders were the leading source of data breaches in 2015, accounting for 58%, accidental loss of data was next and then came malicious insiders, who accounted for 14% of all data breaches.

Clearly, companies need to recognise that today’s cyber environment demands robust security strategies that not only protect networks from external attacks and accidental data loss, but also keep an eye on insiders too.

To secure against a data breach, Gemalto recommends that organisations commit to the encryption of all sensitive information, secure storage and management of data and encryption keys, and controlled access and authentication of users.

Access the Gemalto 2015 Breach Level Index Report here.

Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) 2015 Threat Report

Jul 31 2015

By Cameron Abbott and Melanie Long

On 29 July 2015, ACSC released its first unclassified ‘Threat Report’ (Report). The Report highlights the increasing number, type and sophistication of cyber security threats in Australia, and is a timely reminder to organisations to re-assess the level of their cyber security.

The key takeaway messages from the Report include:

even organisations that may not think that they hold valuable information, or that they would be of interest to cyber adversaries, could be a target for malicious cyber activities
ensuring a resilient, cyber-secure Australia requires coordination between government and the private sector, with organisations and their users taking greater responsibility for the security of their networks and information.

Reports and Surveys Updates

Feb 15 2015

by Jim Bulling and Julia Baldi

The Emergence of Cybersecurity Law Report
The Emergence of Cybersecurity Law report released by Hanover Research outlines trends and strategies in respect of in house counsel’s involvement in companies’ cybersecurity efforts.

See the report here.

Eurobarometer report on cybersecurity
European Commissions publishes special Eurobarometer report on cyber ecurity which shows EU citizens have significant concerns about cybercrime threats.

See the report here.

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