Avalanche Botnet Comes Tumbling Down In Largest-Ever Sinkholing Operation

The Avalanche botnet – linked to many of the world’s most troublesome ransomware, RATs, and banking Trojans – has been dealt a critical blow in what Europol called today the “largest-ever use of sinkholing to combat botnet infrastructures.” Five individuals were arrested and 800,000 domains seized, sinkholed, or blocked in an international takedown operation that…

McAfee Labs predicts 14 security developments for 2017

Intel Security released its McAfee Labs 2017 Threats Predictions Report, which identifies 14 threat trends to watch in 2017. “To change the rules of the game between attackers and defenders, we need to neutralize our adversaries’ greatest advantages,” said Vincent Weafer, vice president of Intel Security’s McAfee Labs. “As a new defensive technique is developed,…

Tips to shop safely on Cyber Monday

As consumers gear up for Cyber Monday, the largest online shopping day of the year, cybercriminals are also preparing to take advantage of deal-seekers. IBM X-Force researchers are monitoring malicious activity closely to help organizations and consumers stay safe during the holiday shopping season. Researchers have already seen cybercriminals actively masking malicious malware in emails…

How security collaboration will prove vital in 2017

The escalation of high-profile hacking and data dumps recently has underscored the increasing boldness of digital threat actors, culminating in July’s Democratic National Committee email leak and its ripple effect through American politics. The group behind the hack and its attack patterns were known, and yet the attack was not thwarted, leaving many questions as…

As Deadline Looms, 35 Percent Of Web Sites Still Rely On SHA-1

Over 60 million web sites are relying on a hashing algorithm that will be blocked by major browsers starting Jan 1. A surprising 35 percent of websites around the world are still using SHA-1 though barely 45 days remain before some of the major browsers stop trusting certificates signed with the hash algorithm altogether.