Profile of Jai Vijayan

Contributing Writer

News & Commentary Posts: 936

Jai Vijayan is a seasoned technology reporter with over 20 years of experience in IT trade journalism. He was most recently a Senior Editor at Computerworld, where he covered information security and data privacy issues for the publication. Over the course of his 20-year career at Computerworld, Jai also covered a variety of other technology topics including Big Data, Hadoop, Internet of Things, E-voting and data analytics. Prior to Computerworld, Jai covered technology issues for The Economic Times in Bangalore, India. Jai has a Master's degree in Statistics and lives in Naperville, IL.

Articles by Jai Vijayan

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Mobile App Fraud Jumped in Q1 as Attackers Pivot from Browsers

7/10/2020
RSA data reveals a continued shift away from browser-based fraud as attackers target mobile apps.
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'Joker' Android Malware Pulls Another Trick to Land on Google's Play Store

7/9/2020
Authors of the malware, which signs up mobile users for premium services, are repeatedly finding ways to bypass app review checks.
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Study Finds 15 Billion Stolen, Exposed Credentials in Criminal Markets

7/8/2020
Data is fueling account takeover attacks in a big way, Digital Shadows says.
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Microsoft Seizes Domains Used in COVID-19-Themed Attacks

7/7/2020
Court grants company's bid to shut down infrastructure used in recent campaigns against Office 365 users.
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North Korea's Lazarus Group Diversifies Into Card Skimming

7/6/2020
Since at least May 2019, the state-sponsored threat actor has stolen card data from dozens of retailers, including major US firms.
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Attackers Compromised Dozens of News Websites as Part of Ransomware Campaign

7/1/2020
Malware used to download WastedLocker on target networks was hosted on legit websites belonging to one parent company, Symantec says.
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FCC Designates Huawei & ZTE as National Security Threats

6/30/2020
Backdoors in 5G network equipment from these vendors could enable espionage and malicious activity, agency says.
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3 Years After NotPetya, Many Organizations Still in Danger of Similar Attacks

6/30/2020
The same gaps that enabled ransomware to spread remain in patching, network segmentation, backup practices, security experts say.
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Major US Companies Targeted in New Ransomware Campaign

6/26/2020
Evil Corp. group hit at least 31 customers in campaign to deploy WastedLocker malware, according to Symantec.
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Criminals Turn to IM Platforms to Avoid Law Enforcement Scrutiny

6/25/2020
Researchers from IntSights observed a sharp increase in the use of popular instant messaging apps over the past year among threat groups.
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7 Tips for Effective Deception

6/25/2020
The right decoys can frustrate attackers and help detect threats more quickly.
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Attackers Scanning for PoS Software in New Sodinokibi Ransomware Campaign

6/23/2020
Making extra money from victims appears to be the goal, Symantec says.
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Cisco Patches Flaw in Webex Videoconferencing App

6/18/2020
Vulnerability would have allowed an attacker to gain access to sensitive information on a system, Trustwave's SpiderLabs says.
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Lazarus Group May Have Been Behind 2019 Attacks on European Targets

6/17/2020
Telemetry hints that the North Korean actor was behind major cyber-espionage campaign focused on military and aerospace companies, ESET says.
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83% of Forbes 2000 Companies' Web Domains Are Poorly Protected

6/16/2020
Only a handful have controls against domain-name hijacking, DNS modifications, and other threats, a new CSC study finds.
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Intel Tackles Malware Related to Memory Security at Hardware Level

6/15/2020
New control-flow enforcement technology will become available with upcoming Tiger Lake mobile processor, chipmaker says.
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15 Individuals Plead Guilty to Multimillion-Dollar Online Auction Fraud Scheme

6/12/2020
Members of Romanian gang used fraudulent ads for nonexistent products to extract money from US Internet users, DoJ says.
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FBI Says Sudden Increase in Mobile Banking Is Heightening Risks For Users

6/11/2020
Mobile malware and fake apps purporting to be legitimate banking software are big risks, law enforcement agency says.
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Rate of Ransomware Attacks in Healthcare Slows in H1 2020

6/10/2020
But lull is unlikely to continue for long, some security experts say.
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Vulnerability in Plug-and-Play Protocol Puts Billions of Devices at Risk

6/9/2020
"CallStranger" flaw in UPnP allows attackers to launch DDoS attacks and scan internal ports, security researcher says.
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DARPA Launches Bug Bounty Program

6/8/2020
Unlike most crowdsourced vulnerability-hunting projects, this one is targeted at hardware defenses.
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Q&A: Eugene Spafford on the Risks of Internet Voting

6/5/2020
Allowing people to cast their ballots online to circumvent coronavirus-related health concerns introduces problems that we simply don't know how to manage, says the Purdue University professor and security leader.
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Kaspersky IDs Sophisticated New Malware Targeted at Air-Gapped Systems

6/3/2020
'USBCulprit' is one of several tools that suggest previously known Cycldek group is more dangerous than previous assumed, security vendor says.
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Mobile Phishing Attacks Increase Sharply

6/2/2020
Organizations need to include smartphones and tablets in their phishing mitigation strategies, a new report suggests.
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Data on Indian Mobile Payments App Reportedly Exposed via Open S3 Bucket

6/1/2020
Over 7 million records exposed, according to vpnMentor, but app maker says there is no sign of malicious use.
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Researchers ID Hacktivist Who Defaced Nearly 5,000 Websites

5/28/2020
Opsec mistakes lead a Check Point researcher to an individual in Brazil who was behind a longtime hacking campaign.
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Netwalker Ransomware Tools Reveal Attacker Tactics and Techniques

5/27/2020
Malware and related files show that ransomware operators don't need a cutting-edge arsenal to be effective.
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Turla Backdoor Adds Gmail Web Interface for Command-and-Control

5/26/2020
The latest version of ComRAT is another sign of the threat actor's continued focus on targets in the government, military, and other sectors.
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Q&A: Eugene Kaspersky on Tourism, the Pandemic, and Cybersecurity

5/26/2020
The CEO and co-founder of eponymously named security vendor has launched a new travel accelerator program amid the COVID-19 crisis.
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Web Scrapers Have Bigger-Than-Perceived Impact on Digital Businesses

5/21/2020
The economic impact of bot traffic can be unexpectedly substantial, a PerimeterX-commissioned study finds.
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Most Bluetooth Devices Vulnerable to Impersonation Attacks

5/21/2020
Vulnerabilities in the Bluetooth authentication process give attackers a way to insert rogue devices between two securely paired devices, academic researchers find.
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Magecart Plants Card Skimmers via Old Magento Plugin Flaw

5/19/2020
The FBI has warned ecommerce sites about attacks targeting a more than three-year-old flaw in the Magmi mass importer.
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Hackers Hit Food Supply Company

5/19/2020
The attackers behind the REvil ransomware family has also threatened to release personal data on Madonna and other celebrities to the highest bidders.
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UK Supercomputing Service ARCHER Still Offline After Monday Attack

5/15/2020
Incident comes amid US warnings about Chinese cybergroups targeting organizations involved in COVID-19-related research.
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Microsoft Patch for Reverse RDP Flaw Leaves Room for Other Attacks

5/14/2020
Fix released in February is Microsoft's second pass at fully addressing issue that Check Point first disclosed at Black Hat USA last summer.
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Organizations Conduct App Penetration Tests More Frequently - and Broadly

5/13/2020
Compliance is no longer the primary motivator. AppSec is, Cobalt.io says.
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Website Attacks Become Quieter & More Persistent

5/12/2020
Threat actors have pivoted from noisy attacks to intrusions where stealth and ROI are primary goals, new report says.
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6 Free Cybersecurity Training and Awareness Courses

5/12/2020
Most are designed to help organizations address teleworking risks related to COVID-19 scams.
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Data Breaches Declined in Q1 2020 Over Q1 2019 -- Or Did They?

5/11/2020
Numbers are down, but that may only be because organizations have been too busy fighting COVID-19-related cyberthreats to notice compromises, Risk Based Security says.
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Attacks on WordPress Sites Surge

5/6/2020
Defiant says it observed a 30-fold increase in attacks in just the past few days.
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Instacart Patches Security Bug That Would Have Let Attackers Spoof SMS Messages

5/5/2020
Attackers could have exploited the issue to lead online shoppers to malicious websites or to get them to download malware, Tenable says.
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Attackers Exploit SaltStack Flaws to Compromise Open Source OS & Blogging Platform

5/4/2020
Intruders gained access to core systems at the Android-based LineageOS project and the Ghost platform.
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Fake Microsoft Teams Emails Phish for Credentials

5/1/2020
Employees belonging to organizations in industries such as energy, retail, and hospitality have been recipients, Abnormal Security says.
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Average Ransomware Payments Soared in the First Quarter

4/29/2020
Criminals extorting large amounts of money from big enterprises pulled up the overall average significantly compared with the fourth quarter of 2019, Coveware says.
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Continued Use of Python 2 Will Heighten Security Risks

4/28/2020
With support for the programming language no longer available, organizations should port to Python 3, security researches say.
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Microsoft Patches Dangerous Teams Vulnerability

4/27/2020
CyberArk says issue would have allowed attackers to take over Teams accounts using a malicious GIF.
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WHO Confirms Email Credentials Leak

4/24/2020
Washington Post had identified the group as one among several whose passwords and emails were dumped online and abused.
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Apple Downplays Threat Posed by Newly Disclosed Zero-Days in iOS

4/24/2020
Bugs don't pose an immediate threat, and there is no evidence they were exploited, as ZecOps claimed earlier this week, Apple says.
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Apple iOS Zero-Day Vulnerabilities Exploited in Targeted Attacks

4/22/2020
One of the flaws is remotely exploitable with no user interaction needed, ZecOps says.
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Domain Registrars Under Pressure to Combat COVID-19-Related Scams

4/22/2020
A huge increase in malicious website registrations has prompted concern from US lawmakers.
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Microsoft Proposes Privacy Controls for COVID-19 Contact Tracking, Tracing

4/21/2020
As governments broaden use of digital technologies to stem pandemic, sensitive health and location data need to be protected, company says.
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Pen-Test Results Hint at Improvements in Enterprise Security

4/17/2020
Though many problems remain, organizations are making attackers work harder.
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Massive Bot-Enabled Ad Fraud Campaign Targeted Connected TVs

4/16/2020
ICEBUCKET operation is the largest ever to attempt to steal from advertisers by using bots to impersonate human smart-TV viewers, White Ops says.
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New Malware Family Assembles IoT Botnet

4/15/2020
'Mozi' combines code from three previously known IoT malware.
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Insecure Home Office Networks Heighten Work-at-Home Risks

4/14/2020
Nearly one in two organizations has one or more devices accessing its corporate network from a home network with at least one malware infection, BitSight says.
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Pandemic Could Make Schools Bigger Targets of Ransomware Attacks

4/13/2020
Most have had to implement distance learning, making them much more vulnerable, Armor says.
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Emails Impersonating Trump, White House Seek to Exploit Pandemic Fears

4/9/2020
The phishing campaign is only the latest among many related to COVID-19, INKY says.
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'Unkillable' Android Malware App Continues to Infect Devices Worldwide

4/8/2020
The xHelper Trojan has compromised over 55,000 devices so far, Kaspersky says.
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Chinese APT Groups Targeted Enterprise Linux Systems in Decade-Long Data Theft Campaign

4/7/2020
Organizations across multiple industries compromised in a systematic effort to steal IP and other sensitive business data, BlackBerry says.
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More Attackers Have Begun Using Zero-Day Exploits

4/6/2020
Vendors of offensive cyber tools have made it easy for any threat group with the right funds to leverage unpatched bugs, FireEye says.
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Phishers Try 'Text Direction Deception' Technique to Bypass Email Filters

4/2/2020
With COVID-19 concerns running high, attackers are trying new tactics to get to users.
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Attackers Leverage Excel File Encryption to Deliver Malware

4/1/2020
Technique involves saving malicious Excel file as "read-only" and tricking users into opening it, Mimecast says.
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Researchers Uncover Unsophisticated - But Creative - Watering-Hole Attack

3/31/2020
Holy Water campaign is targeting users of a specific religious and ethnic group in Asia, Kaspersky says.
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Researchers Spot Sharp Increase in Zoom-Themed Domain Registrations

3/30/2020
Attackers are attempting to take advantage of the surge in teleworking prompted by COVID-19, Check Point says.
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Cyber Version of 'Justice League' Launches to Fight COVID-19 Related Hacks

3/26/2020
Goal is to help organizations — especially healthcare entities — protect against cybercriminals trying to take advantage of the pandemic.
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China-Based Threat Group Launches Widespread Malicious Campaign

3/26/2020
The motives behind the attacks remain unclear, but likely triggers include the ongoing trade war between the US and China and the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic.
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Automated Tools Make Cyberattacks Easier to Pull Off

3/24/2020
Gone are the days when threat actors had to actually spend time and effort planning and developing an attack on their own, Recorded Future says.
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Attack Surface, Vulnerabilities Increase as Orgs Respond to COVID-19 Crisis

3/20/2020
In typical fashion, attackers are gearing up to take advantage of the surge in teleworking prompted by the pandemic.
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Skimmer May Have Put NutriBullet Customers' Card Data at Risk for Nearly a Month

3/18/2020
Blender maker is the latest victim of Magecart.
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Many Ransomware Attacks Can be Stopped Before They Begin

3/17/2020
The tendency by many attackers to wait for the right time to strike gives defenders an opening, FireEye says.
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Russia-Based Turla APT Group's Infrastructure, Activity Traceable

3/12/2020
Threat actor's practice of using known malware and tactics gives an opening for defenders, says Recorded Future.
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Microsoft Discloses New Remote Execution Flaw in SMBv3

3/11/2020
A patch for the flaw is not yet available, but there are no known exploits -- so far.
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Researchers Develop New Side-Channel Attacks on Intel CPUs

3/10/2020
Load Value Injection (LVI) takes advantage of speculative execution processes just like Meltdown and Spectre, say security researchers from Bitdefender and several universities.
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New Ransomware Variant Developed Entirely as Shellcode

3/6/2020
PwndLocker is harder to detect than other crypto-malware, Crypsis Group says.
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Attackers Distributing Malware Under Guise of Security Certificate Updates

3/5/2020
Approach is a twist to the old method of using fake software, browser updates, Kaspersky says.
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Let's Encrypt Revokes Over 3 Million of Its Digital Certs

3/4/2020
Domain validation glitch prompts an abrupt decision.
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Why Threat Intelligence Gathering Can Be a Legal Minefield

3/2/2020
In new guidance, the Department of Justice says security researchers and organizations run real risks when gathering threat intelligence or dealing with criminals in underground online marketplaces.
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6 Truths About Disinformation Campaigns

2/28/2020
Disinformation goes far beyond just influencing election outcomes. Here's what security pros need to know.
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Report: Shadow IoT Emerging as New Enterprise Security Problem

2/25/2020
Much of the traffic egressing enterprise networks are from poorly protected Internet-connected consumer devices, a Zscaler study finds.
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Researchers Fool Smart Car Camera with a 2-Inch Piece of Electrical Tape

2/19/2020
McAfee researchers say they were able to get a Tesla to autonomously accelerate by tricking its camera platform into misreading a speed-limit sign.
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The Trouble with Free and Open Source Software

2/18/2020
Insecure developer accounts, legacy software, and nonstandard naming schemes are major problems, Linux Foundation and Harvard study concludes.
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Phishing Campaign Targets Mobile Banking Users

2/14/2020
Consumers in dozens of countries were targeted, Lookout says.
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Architectural Analysis IDs 78 Specific Risks in Machine-Learning Systems

2/13/2020
The new threat model hones in on ML security at the design state.
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Third-Party Breaches — and the Number of Records Exposed — Increased Sharply in 2019

2/12/2020
Each breach exposed an average of 13 million records, Risk Based Security found.
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Researchers Reveal How Smart Lightbulbs Can Be Hacked to Attack

2/6/2020
New exploit builds on previous research involving Philips Hue Smart Bulbs.
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Majority of Network, App-Layer DDoS Attacks in 2019 Were Small

2/5/2020
Attacks turned to cheaper, shorter attacks to try and disrupt targets, Imperva analysis shows.
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8 of the 10 Most Exploited Bugs Last Year Involved Microsoft Products

2/4/2020
Six of them were the same as from the previous year, according to new Recorded Future analysis.
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Attackers Actively Targeting Flaw in Door-Access Controllers

2/3/2020
There's been a sharp increase in scans for vulnerable Nortek Linear Emerge E3 systems, SonicWall says.
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Android Malware for Mobile Ad Fraud Spiked Sharply in 2019

1/30/2020
Some 93% of all mobile transactions across 20 countries were blocked as fraudulent, Upstream says.
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Number of Botnet Command & Control Servers Soared in 2019

1/29/2020
Servers worldwide that were used to control malware-infected systems jumped more than 71% compared to 2018, Spamhaus says.
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Emerging Long-Range WAN Networks Vulnerable to Hacking, Compromise

1/28/2020
The root keys used to protect communication on LoRaWAN infrastructure can be easily obtained, IOActive says.
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Average Ransomware Payments More Than Doubled in Q4 2019

1/27/2020
Ransomware attackers collected an average of around $84,000 from victim organizations, up from $41,000 in Q3 of 2018, Coveware says.
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The Annoying MacOS Threat That Won't Go Away

1/23/2020
In two years, the adware-dropping Shlayer Trojan has spread to infect one in 10 MacOS systems, Kaspersky says.
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To Avoid Disruption, Ransomware Victims Continue to Pay Up

1/23/2020
For all the cautions against doing so, one-third of organizations in a Proofpoint survey said they paid their attackers after getting infected with ransomware.
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China-Based Cyber Espionage Group Reportedly Behind Breach at Mitsubishi Electric

1/21/2020
Personal data on over 8,100 individuals and confidential business information likely exposed in June 2019 incident.
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New Attack Campaigns Suggest Emotet Threat Is Far From Over

1/16/2020
Malware described by the DHS as among the worst ever continues to evolve and grow, researchers from Cisco Talos, Cofense, and Check Point Software say.
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2017 Data Breach Will Cost Equifax at Least $1.38 Billion

1/15/2020
Company agrees to set aside a minimum of $380.5 million as breach compensation and spend another $1 billion on transforming its information security over the next five years. The 147 million US consumers affected by the breach have one week from today to file a claim.
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Cloud Adoption & Technology Change Create Gaps in Enterprise Security

1/14/2020
Many companies are struggling to get a handle on risk exposure because of visibility issues, Radware survey shows.
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Exploits Released for As-Yet Unpatched Critical Citrix Flaw

1/13/2020
Organizations need to apply mitigations for vulnerability in Citrix Application Delivery Controller and Citrix Gateway ASAP, security researchers say.
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