U.S. Blocks China Mobile, Citing National Security
The Federal Communications Commission said that because of China Mobile USA’s ownership and control by the Chinese government, allowing it into the US market “would raise substantial and serious national security and law enforcement risks.” The decision brings the Chinese telecoms giant’s eight-year effort to crack the US market to an end, but was not…
Feds seek to up their cybersecurity game
The idea that the U.S. federal government could play a dominant and effective role in protecting the nation from malicious cyberattacks on everything from Internet of Things (IoT) devices to critical infrastructure to election voting systems might strike some people as absurd. Its catastrophic security failures are well known. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM)…
A casual approach to workplace communications presents major security risks
Workers are comfortable sharing personal, sensitive and confidential information over chat platforms. They practice risky digital habits, and don’t care if their communications are leaked. Symphony Communication Services Workplace Confidential Survey, which polled over 1,500 workers in the U.S. and U.K., examined the growth of new collaboration tools and platforms entering the workplace. The findings…
How to build an effective vulnerability management program
The concept of vulnerability management has undergone a number of changes in the last few years. It is no longer simply a synonym for vulnerability assessment, but has grown to include vulnerability prioritization, remediation and reporting. It has also grown in scope: vulnerabilities don’t just affect IT networks and databases, but also applications, cloud infrastructures,…
Worldwide spending on security solutions expected to continue growing
Worldwide spending on security-related hardware, software, and services is forecast to reach $103.1 billion in 2019, an increase of 9.4% over 2017. This pace of growth is expected to continue for the next several years as industries invest heavily in security solutions to meet a wide range of threats and requirements. $133.8 billion by 2022…
90% of consumers value additional security measures to verify mobile-based transactions
A strong majority of US adults value additional security measures for mobile transactions, with 90% reporting they would want the ability to approve some or all mobile device transactions before the transaction is completed, and 71% interested in approving all such transactions. One in five (19%) would prefer only to approve some transactions, such as…
IoT devices using CoAP increasingly used in DDoS attacks
IoT devices in synchronised attacks on targets represent a growing part of global Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) weapon arsenals. There is a significant potential for attackers to use an IoT-related protocol, the Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP), deployed on IoT devices to marshal attacks. The A10 Networks report on the state of DDoS weapons in…
Social media-enabled cybercrime is generating $3.25 billion a year
Social media-enabled cybercrime is generating at least $3.25B in global revenue annually, according to an extensive six-month academic study undertaken by Dr. Mike McGuire, Senior Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Surrey. Key insights One in five organizations have been infected with malware distributed via social media Reports of cybercrime involving social media grew…
92% of organizations rank users as their primary security concern
Cybercrime continues to evolve and become more sophisticated. AI and machine learning are leveraged by many criminal organizations to help them better understand how to improve their attacks and they are now targeting specific industry verticals, organizations and even individuals. Increases in the frequency of ransomware, phishing and crypto jacking attacks were experienced by businesses…
Is 2019 the year national privacy law is established in the US?
Data breaches and privacy violations are now commonplace. Unfortunately, the consequences for US companies involved can be complicated. A company’s obligation to a person affected by a data breach depends in part on the laws of the state where the person resides. A person may be entitled to free credit monitoring for a specified period…