Kirk was executive editor for security and technology for Information Security Media Group. Reporting from Sydney, Australia, he created "The Ransomware Files" podcast, which tells the harrowing stories of IT pros who have fought back against ransomware.
Google blames a bug in an API for its Google+ social networking service for exposing personal details of about 500,000 users' accounts, but says it doesn't believe the information was misused. The company was forced to acknowledge the March incident after it was reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Barriers to getting into the business email compromise - aka CEO fraud - game continue to fall, with security vendor Digital Shadows finding that compromised email accounts for a company's finance department can typically be purchased via the black market for just $150 to $500.
Did the Chinese government pull off one of the most secretive hardware hacks of all time? That's what information security experts are pondering after a Bloomberg report described an espionage operation that purportedly planted a tiny spying chip on widely distributed server motherboards.
The U.K.'s data protection regulator has fined Bupa Insurance Services £175,000 ($228,000) for failing to stop an employee from stealing 547,000 customer records, which were later offered for sale on the dark web. The ICO found that the health insurer's CRM system lacked adequate security controls.
An Australian man who as a teenager managed to infiltrate Apple's networks and do it again after the company expelled him - aided by a folder on his laptop storing his "Hacky Hack Hack Methods" - has been sentenced to serve eight months of probation, according to news reports.
In Australia, it can take as few as 15 minutes to steal someone's phone number, a type of attack known as SIM hijacking. Such attacks are rising, but mobile operators have no plans to change the authentication required around number porting, which can be set in motion online with minimal personal information.
Twitter has fixed a bug that sometimes sent a user's direct messages not only to the specified recipient, but also to unrelated external developers. The social networking service is notifying more than 3 million affected users and has requested that unintended recipients delete the messages.
Online retailer Newegg is investigating a malware attack that may have stolen customers' payment card details for more than a month. Security firms have traced the heist to Magecart, a loose affiliation of cybercrime gangs also tied to payment card data breaches at British Airways and Ticketmaster.
If you're going to hack, why not go for the gold? That appears to have been the impetus behind an unusual data breach at the government-owned Perth Mint in Western Australia, which says personal details for 3,200 customers stored in an old database were compromised.
Attack code known as EternalBlue, designed to exploit a Windows SMB flaw, continues to work for attackers despite Microsoft having issued patches more than a year ago. One major U.S. business was a recent victim as part of a cryptocurrency-mining malware campaign, a researcher reports.
Intel has had a challenging time lately on the vulnerability front. It has issued yet another patch for its Management Engine after a researcher was able to extract two types of encryption keys. The problem was a repeat of one that Intel patched just last year.
A web browser startup, Brave, has filed complaints in Europe alleging Google and other behavioral advertising companies are violating Europe's GDPR. Brave's complaints could set up one of the biggest battles so far over how personal data gets used - or abused - for targeted advertising.
Russian national Andrei Tyurin, who's been accused of hacking into JPMorgan Chase's network in 2014 and stealing personal information on more than 83 million customers, has been extradited to the U.S. He was allegedly part of a group that hacked into brokerages, news firms, a risk intelligence company and others.
U.S. prosecutors have accused a 34-year-old North Korean man of involvement in some of the most destructive and profitable cyberattacks ever seen, including the WannaCry ransomware outbreak, the Sony Pictures Entertainment breach and the theft of $81 million from Bangladesh Bank.
Unknown attackers are intercepting every piece of data handled by more than 7,500 routers made by MikroTik, while also using another 239,000 compromised routers to serve as proxies, researchers say. It's a continuation of a wave of attacks that exploit a vulnerability patched by MikroTik in April.
Our website uses cookies. Cookies enable us to provide the best experience possible and help us understand how visitors use our website. By browsing inforisktoday.com, you agree to our use of cookies.