Online dating and romance scams continue to lure in Australians with figures this week showing people have lost more than A$23 million this year alone, with average individual losses at A$21,000 – three…
The world is already short of computer security experts, but by 2017 that shortfall is going to have reached about two million. Criminal hackers cause damage running to billions of pounds every year…
The recent cyber attack on Sony Pictures was so extensive there were notices placed on the entrance doors telling staff not to log in to the company’s network when they reached their desks. Sony’s entire…
Shoppers have launched into the holiday buying season and retailers are looking forward to year-end sales that make up almost 20% of their annual receipts. But as you check out at a store or click “purchase…
An ever-increasing number of our consumer electronics is internet-connected. We’re living at the dawn of the age of the Internet of Things. Appliances ranging from light switches and door locks, to cars…
If cyber-crime is the tier one (most serious) threat that we are told it is, and we are experiencing upwards of 2-3 million cyber-threats each year, then why have we only had 350 or so prosecutions under…
A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Computer security relies on a great number of links, hardware, software and something else altogether: you. The greatest threat to information security is…
JPMorgan Chase early last month disclosed that cyber thieves pilfered account data on 76 million households and seven million small businesses over the summer, one of the biggest breaches ever and only…
At the recent Information Security Solutions Europe conference, former White House cybersecurity adviser Howard Schmidt claimed that most security threats may be persistent, but are not as “advanced” as…
How safe is Microsoft Windows? After all, the list of malware that has caused major headaches worldwide over the last 15 years is long – viruses, worms and Trojans have forced computers to shut down, knocked…
Criminals have always done their best to use new technology to their advantage and the rapid development of new digital technologies and online markets has provided the criminal entrepreneur with as much…
Imagine if UK banks decided to send out new credit cards to all their customers, but they were all “lost in the post” and the details ended up for sale on some dubious website. The recently discovered…
Jamie Shea, London School of Economics and Political Science
Late one Saturday evening in March, NATO’s Headquarters experienced a large-scale cyber-attack at the hands of a group calling itself Anonymous Bierkut from Ukraine. Non-classified networks were targeted…
Never mind the celebrities; let’s say you and I had naked photos of ourselves (selfie-steams) floating in Apple’s iCloud. If somehow those photos were exposed, we would have little recourse under Australia’s…
Google’s new Project Zero team adds some welcome muscle in the fight against cybercrime and could also lead to better privacy for all, making it harder for intelligence agencies to spy. The team will be…
As rival football teams have been battling it out in this year’s World Cup, cyber criminals have had their eye on a different goal – to cash in on this global distraction at any opportunity. Among the…
Google’s Android now dominates 80% of the smart phone market. Of the major phone operating systems, Android is the most vulnerable to security breaches and yet perceptions haven’t caught up with reality…
There are many tales in literature over millennia about people selling their soul to a malevolent deity for the right price. But at least it’s usually a good price. Recent research has discovered that…
Computer system administrators around the world are groaning again as six new security problems have been found in the OpenSSL security library. OpenSSL is a security tool that provides facilities to other…
It’s little wonder that computer experts are warning that computer users could be experiencing “notification fatigue” after the past few weeks. But even if you’re feeling overwhelmed following the Heartbleed…