Iran's Military Response May Be 'Concluded,' but Cyberwarfare Threat Grows
Cybersecurity experts are seeing malicious activity from pro-Iranian forces, and warning that Iran has the capacity to do real damage to American computer systems.
WASHINGTON — Iran's declaration on Wednesday that a missile attack on Iraq had "concluded proportionate measures" against the United States in response to the killing of its most important general may amplify the Trump administration's attention on computer systems as the next battlefield in its showdown with Tehran.
Cybersecurity experts and government officials are already monitoring an uptick of malicious activity by pro-Iranian hackers and social media users that they believe are harbingers of more serious computer attacks from Tehran, including possible efforts aimed at destroying government databases.
Travelex hackers threaten to sell credit card data on dark web
Sodinokibi cyber gangsters have threatened to sell Travelex's customers' private data on a Russian underground cyber crime forum if it fails to pay a $6m ransom, but the foreign exchange company says there is no evidence customer data has been compromised.
Cyber gangsters have stepped up the pressure on Travelex to pay a $6m ransom to decrypt the company's data by issuing a new threat to sell personal data about its customers on the dark web.
The threat comes after a cyber crime group used sophisticated malware, known as Sodinokibi or REvil, to encrypt the currency exchange's computer files, forcing the company to switch off its worldwide computer network.
Don't become the next Travelex: Get ready for ransomware
With Travelex's IT still in disarray and banks and travellers left without access to funds more than a week after it was hit by a ransomware attack, we ask what others can learn from the foreign exchange services company's response to the incident.
When Computer Weekly first reported that the systems of foreign currency exchange services provider Travelex were down following a hack on Friday 3 January, it seemed like just another ransomware attack, distinctive merely for being the first of many that we will report on in 2020. It wasn't.
Over the weekend and into this week, it quickly became apparent that this was something more. Indeed, for Travelex, it has become the worst-case scenario. With retail banking customers shut out of the forex system, and thousands of business and leisure travellers unable to access funds, Travelex is haemorrhaging money and trashing its reputation.
Dixons Carphone Receives Maximum Fine for Major Breach
A major UK high street retailer has been fined the maximum amount under the pre-GDPR data protection regime for deficiencies which led to a breach affecting 14 million customers.
Privacy regulator the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) fined DSG Retail £500,000 under the 1998 Data Protection Act after POS malware was installed on 5390 tills.
The incident affected Currys PC World and Dixons Travel stores between July 2017 and April 2018, allowing hackers to harvest data including customer names, postcodes, email addresses and failed credit checks from internal servers, over a nine-month period.
US-government issued phones run 'Chinese malware'
Mobile phones offered to low-income families via a US government scheme come preloaded with Chinese malware, according to a security company.
Malwarebytes said it had received several complaints that pre-installed apps on the phone were malicious.
It had bought one to verify the claims and informed the company selling them, Assurance Wireless, of its findings but had not received a response, it said.
The Android-based phone – UMX U686CL – is made by a Chinese company.
Las Vegas Suffers Cyber-Attack
The city of Las Vegas is licking its wounds after suffering a cyber-attack on its computer network.
It is not yet known whether any sensitive information was compromised in the incident, which took place in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
City spokesperson David Riggleman said that it was likely that the threat actors gained access to the city's network via a malicious email.
Riggleman said that the city's IT department moved fast to counter the invasion and stated that "the city is taking extensive steps to protect its systems."
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