News

Data breach incident management and recovery

• August 23, 2023 23 Aug'23

  St Helens Council in Merseyside hit by ransomware attack

  St Helens Borough Council is investigating a suspected ransomware incident targeting its systems, and is advising residents to be on the alert for follow-on phishing attacks

• August 23, 2023 23 Aug'23

  Cyber attacks in 2023 develop quicker as average dwell times plummet

  The median attacker dwell time shrunk from 10 to eight days in the first seven months of 2023, and in the case of ransomware attacks it is down to just five days

• August 22, 2023 22 Aug'23

  Singapore to bolster OT security capabilities

  Cyber Security Agency of Singapore teams up with Dragos and the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to bolster the country’s OT security capabilities

• August 22, 2023 22 Aug'23

  Clop’s MOVEit attacks drive ransomware volumes to record high

  Such has been the scope of Clop’s activity since May that ransomware attack volumes have more than doubled year on year, according to the latest data

• August 21, 2023 21 Aug'23

  Cyber attack on Aussie energy services firm may hit UK CNI

  Energy One, an Australia-based supplier of tech services to the energy sector, is investigating the possibility that some UK customers may have been caught up in an ongoing cyber attack on its systems

• August 18, 2023 18 Aug'23

  NatWest customer calls bank’s handling of breach of his data ‘disgusting’

  A second NatWest customer has contacted Computer Weekly after finding out from a whistleblower that his sensitive personal data has been in her home for 14 years

• August 16, 2023 16 Aug'23

  NCSC expands Cyber Incident Response service more widely

  The NCSC has added a level to its CIR programme to enable more cyber attack victims to take advantage of the service, which offers access to assured incident response specialists

• August 15, 2023 15 Aug'23

  Norfolk and Suffolk police hit by FoI-linked data breach

  Latest UK police data breach relates to crime suspects, victims and witnesses across East Anglia, and comes just days after a similar incident at the Northern Irish service

• August 15, 2023 15 Aug'23

  Online safety message failing to get through to women

  The security community could be doing a lot more to make its advice and guidance more accessible to women, according to a study

• August 14, 2023 14 Aug'23

  US Cyber Board to probe cloud security after latest Exchange hack

  CSRB review of cloud security comes in the wake of a major Chinese cyber attack on US government bodies orchestrated through Microsoft’s cloud services

• August 10, 2023 10 Aug'23

  PSNI investigating second breach after laptop stolen

  Just hours after accidentally disclosing the personal details of 10,000 personnel, the Police Service of Northern Ireland has notified a second data breach after a police issue laptop and documents were stolen from a parked car

• August 09, 2023 09 Aug'23

  Northern Irish police expose staff data in botched FoI response

  Human error is being blamed for the leak of personally identifiable information on all serving officers and civilian staff at the Police Service of Northern Ireland

• August 08, 2023 08 Aug'23

  UK voter data hacked in cyber attack on election watchdog

  An unknown threat actor who attacked the UK’s Electoral Commission had access to data on millions of UK voters for over a year, the watchdog has revealed

• August 08, 2023 08 Aug'23

  Black Basta, Hive and Royal ransomware gangs may share real-world connection

  At Black Hat USA, Sophos X-Ops researchers share data revealing potential connections between three active ransomware crews

• August 07, 2023 07 Aug'23

  Microsoft fixes Azure flaw that was subject of researcher criticism

  Microsoft has confirmed a potentially-dangerous flaw in the Azure platform has now been fully fixed, and moved to reassure customers that despite criticism it is committed to responsible disclosure and timely fixes

• August 04, 2023 04 Aug'23

  Log4Shell, ProxyShell still among most widely exploited flaws

  Statistics released by the collective Five Eyes cyber agencies reveals insight into the most exploited vulnerabilities of 2022, and unsurprisingly there are some old ‘friends’ on the list

• August 03, 2023 03 Aug'23

  Scottish NHS trust ducks fine after staff shared patient data via WhatsApp

  NHS Lanarkshire has been issued a formal reprimand by the ICO after staff members used WhatsApp to share patients’ personal data with one another

• August 03, 2023 03 Aug'23

  Cozy Bear hijacks SME Microsoft 365 tenants in latest campaign

  Microsoft shares intelligence on a newly observed Cozy Bear campaign that saw the APT take over genuine Microsoft 365 tenants and subvert them to try to phish its victims

• August 03, 2023 03 Aug'23

  Microsoft attacked over ‘grossly irresponsible’ security practice

  The CEO of Tenable has launched a scathing attack on Microsoft, asserting that the organisation is deliberately keeping its Azure cloud customers in the dark about dangerous vulnerabilities and accusing it of a culture of ‘toxic obfuscation’

• August 02, 2023 02 Aug'23

  Ivanti MDM users told to patch against two dangerous flaws

  Users of Ivanti’s mobile device management platform have been warned to act now to patch two vulnerabilities that were chained by a threat actor in a series of cyber attacks on the Norwegian government

• July 28, 2023 28 Jul'23

  Scottish university hit by Rhysida ransomware gang

  Data allegedly stolen from the University of Western Scotland has been put up for sale on the dark web by a ransomware gang going by the name Rhysida

• July 28, 2023 28 Jul'23

  How Indian organisations are keeping pace with cyber security

  Indian organisations are shoring up their defences to improve their cyber resilience amid intensifying cyber threats targeted at key sectors such as healthcare and logistics

• July 27, 2023 27 Jul'23

  Cyber criminals pivot away from ransomware encryption

  Cyber breaches that saw data theft and extortion without an encryption or ransomware component account for more and more incidents, in a possible indication that ransomware gangs are changing up their business models

• July 27, 2023 27 Jul'23

  US cyber breach reporting rules to have global impact

  Organisations that operate as Foreign Private Issuers in the US will have to get to grips with strict new cyber breach reporting regulations handed down by the SEC in Washington

• July 26, 2023 26 Jul'23

  Cyber attack on IT supplier hits two major ambulance trusts

  Ambulance trusts serving millions across southern England have been hamstrung for the past week after a cyber attack took down their hosted patient records system

• July 25, 2023 25 Jul'23

  Cisco, BT and others launch network security coalition

  Network Resilience Coalition focuses on bringing together global expertise to improve data and network security

• July 25, 2023 25 Jul'23

  Tetra radio users’ comms may have been exposed for years

  A number of flaws in the encryption algorithms used in the secure Tetra radio communications standard have potentially left users exposed to snooping

• July 24, 2023 24 Jul'23

  CIO interview: Sean Green, University of East Anglia

  In his role as director of digital and data at the University of East Anglia, Sean Green provides high-performance computing to researchers and manages the diverse needs of a campus with the characteristics of a small town, all while finding the ...

• July 24, 2023 24 Jul'23

  Citrix NetScaler users told to patch new zero-day urgently

  A vulnerability disclosed and patched last week by Citrix appears to be being exploited by China-backed threat actors as a zero-day, prompting warnings from government cyber bodies

• July 24, 2023 24 Jul'23

  Security AI and automation may reduce cost of data breaches

  Organisations that go all in on security AI and automation tend to incur lower financial costs when they experience a data breach incident, according to an IBM report

• July 24, 2023 24 Jul'23

  Why cyber security should be part of your ESG strategy

  The impact of data breaches and cyber threats on businesses, societies and the environment makes cyber security a key consideration in an environment, social and governance strategy

• July 20, 2023 20 Jul'23

  How the DSMA balances security and privacy with press freedom

  In a world of information sharing and 24-hour news cycles, the Defence and Security Media Advisory committee have to balance national security and data privacy with freedom of the press

• July 19, 2023 19 Jul'23

  BlackCat and Clop gangs both claim cyber attack on Estée Lauder

  Cosmetics conglomerate Estée Lauder is experiencing operational disruption in the wake of a cyber attack that seems to involve two different cyber crime gangs

• July 19, 2023 19 Jul'23

  Half of cyber pros engage in risky behaviour at work, report claims

  Approximately 55% of security professionals say they have engaged in behaviours they would more usually advise against in the workplace, according to a report

• July 13, 2023 13 Jul'23

  Microsoft issues new warning over Chinese cyber espionage

  A newly uncovered Chinese espionage campaign exploited forged authentication tokens to access its victims’ email accounts, says Microsoft

• July 13, 2023 13 Jul'23

  One month after MOVEit: New vulnerabilities found as more victims are named

  Five weeks after the mass MOVEit breach, new vulnerabilities in the file transfer tool are coming to light as the Clop cyber crime group continues to terrorise victims. But has the gang bitten off more than it can chew?

• July 12, 2023 12 Jul'23

  Cozy Bear lures victims with used BMW 5 Series

  A recent Cozy Bear campaign saw the Russian APT group pivot to exploiting an advert for a used car as it targeted diplomatic missions in Kyiv

• July 12, 2023 12 Jul'23

  Whistleblower contacts NatWest customers affected by a decade-old data breach

  Former worker says contacting the people affected by the data breach is her last resort after the bank and regulators appear satisfied that the sensitive data file is safe stored under her bed

• July 03, 2023 03 Jul'23

  Over half of ANZ organisations hit by ransomware

  Amid the rising ransomware threat, almost four in five organisations in ANZ expect to pay a ransom if they could recover data and business processes

• July 03, 2023 03 Jul'23

  BlackCat gang claims cyber attack on Barts NHS Trust

  Investigations continue into a claim by the ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware gang that it has stolen 7TB of data from Barts NHS Trust in London

• June 30, 2023 30 Jun'23

  NHS data stolen in Manchester Uni ransomware attack

  The ransomware gang behind the cyber attack on the University of Manchester appears to have got its hands on an NHS dataset being used by the university for research purposes

• June 29, 2023 29 Jun'23

  ‘Shadow’ AI use becoming a driver of insider cyber risk

  Off-the-books use of generative AI tools will inevitably lead to a costly, high-profile data breach for someone, but a little attention paid to appropriate data management policy can help mitigate the risk

• June 27, 2023 27 Jun'23

  A tenth of kids claim they could hack you

  More and more young people are at risk of being drawn into cyber criminality, and parents must shoulder some of the blame, according to a report

• June 23, 2023 23 Jun'23

  ICO under fire for taking limited action over serious data breaches

  The ICO has come under fire from lawyers and data protection specialists for just issuing written warnings to two public bodies over serious data breaches that placed people’s lives at risk

• June 23, 2023 23 Jun'23

  Phishing and ransomware dominate Singapore’s cyber threat landscape

  Phishing and ransomware attacks continued apace in Singapore last year amid signs of improving cyber hygiene

• June 22, 2023 22 Jun'23

  Manchester University students threatened by ransomware gang

  Students and staff members at the University of Manchester are being pressurised by an unnamed ransomware gang

• June 21, 2023 21 Jun'23

  Nearly quarter of a million malicious websites reported and removed through NCSC service

  A suspicious email and text message reporting service in the UK has directly led to a quarter of a million malicious websites being removed

• June 19, 2023 19 Jun'23

  Early June Microsoft outages were result of large-scale DDoS hit

  Investigations into recent outages on Microsoft Azure and Outlook services have turned up evidence of a massive distributed denial-of-service attack

• June 19, 2023 19 Jun'23

  Nakivo adds ransomware scanning and new restore options

  Backup maker adds malware scanning with big names in security to immutable backup copy functionality. “Tape’s not dead” either, with restore from the venerable medium now possible

• June 19, 2023 19 Jun'23

  UK to contribute up to £25m to Ukraine cyber defences

  Prime minister Rishi Sunak announces an expansion to the Ukraine Cyber Programme, with a cash boost of up to £25m over the next two years