Profile of Jai Vijayan

Freelance writer News & Commentary Posts: 666

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.

High Stress Levels Impacting CISOs Physically, Mentally

2/14/2019
Some have even turned to alcohol and medication to cope with pressure.
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2018 Was Second-Most Active Year for Data Breaches

2/13/2019
Hacking by external actors caused most breaches, but Web intrusions and exposures compromised more records, according to Risk Based Security.
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Devastating Cyberattack on Email Provider Destroys 18 Years of Data

2/12/2019
All data belonging to US users—including backup copies—have been deleted in catastrophe, VMEmail says.
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Experian: US Suffers the Most Online Fraud

2/11/2019
New data from the credit reporting firm shows the sheer scale of online activity in the US also has made businesses and consumers there prime targets.
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US Law Enforcement Busts Romanian Online Crime Operation

2/8/2019
Twelve members of 20-person group extradited to US to face charges related to theft of millions via fake ads other scams.
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Ransomware Attack Via MSP Locks Customers Out of Systems

2/7/2019
Vulnerable plugin for a remote management tool gave attackers a way to encrypt systems belonging to all customers of a US-based MSP.
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Some Airline Flight Online Check-in Links Expose Passenger Data

2/6/2019
Several airlines send unencrypted links to passengers for flight check-in that could be intercepted by attackers to view passenger and other data, researchers found.
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7 Tips for Communicating with the Board

2/6/2019
The key? Rather than getting bogged down in the technical details, focus on how a security program is addressing business risk.
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Cybercriminals Exploit Gmail Feature to Scale Up Attacks

2/5/2019
Criminals are taking advantage of Gmail's 'dots don't matter' feature to set up multiple fraudulent accounts on websites, using variations of the same email address, Agari says.
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Massive DDoS Attack Generates 500 Million Packets per Second

1/30/2019
January 10 torrent involved nearly four times as many packets as last year's huge attack on GitHub, says Imperva.
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Microsoft Exchange Vuln Enables Attackers to Gain Domain Admin Privileges

1/29/2019
Anyone with access to an Exchange mailbox can take control of domain, security researcher says.
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US Law Enforcement Shuts Down Massive Marketplace for Compromised Servers

1/28/2019
At its peak, xDedic listed over 70,000 owned servers that buyers could purchase for prices starting as low as $6 each.
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Database of 24 Million Mortgage, Loan Records Left Exposed Online

1/24/2019
Breach latest example of how misconfigurations, human errors undermine security in a big way, experts say.
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'Anatova' Emerges as Potentially Major New Ransomware Threat

1/23/2019
Modular design, ability to infect network shares make the malware dangerous, McAfee says.
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Stealthy New DDoS Attacks Target Internet Service Providers

1/22/2019
Adversaries took advantage of the large attack surface of large communications networks to spread small volumes of junk traffic across hundreds of IP prefixes in Q3 2018, Nexusguard says.
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VC Investments in Cybersecurity Hit Record Highs in 2018

1/18/2019
But rate of funding appears unsustainable, according to Strategic Cyber Ventures.
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773 Million Email Addresses, 21 Million Passwords For Sale on Hacker Forum

1/17/2019
Data appears to be from multiple breaches over past few years, says researcher who discovered it.
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BEC Groups Ramp Up Payroll Diversion Attacks

1/16/2019
Criminals are increasingly trying to defraud businesses by diverting payrolls of CEOs, other senior executives, Agari says.
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Cryptomining Continues to Be Top Malware Threat

1/14/2019
Tools for illegally mining Coinhive, Monero, and other cryptocurrency dominate list of most prevalent malware in December 2018.
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DNS Hijacking Campaign Targets Organizations Globally

1/10/2019
A group believed to be operating out of Iran has manipulated DNS records belonging to dozens of firms in an apparent cyber espionage campaign, FireEye says.
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Kaspersky Lab Helped US Nab NSA Data Thief: Report

1/9/2019
But this new development unlikely to do much to clear government suspicions about security vendor's ties to Russian intelligence, analyst says.
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20-Year-Old Student Admits to Massive Data Leak in Germany

1/8/2019
Hack was not politically motivated; no sign of third-party involvement, authorities say.
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Data on Hundreds of German Politicians Published Online in Massive Compromise

1/4/2019
Authorities are investigating if breach resulted from a leak or a cyberattack.
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Ex-NSA Contractor Was a Suspect In Shadow Brokers Leak

1/2/2019
New court document shows law enforcement suspected possible involvement of Harold Martin in Shadow Brokers' release of classified NSA hacking tools.
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APT10 Indictments Show Expansion of MSP Targeting, Cloud Hopper Campaign

12/21/2018
US brings more indictments against the APT10 cyber espionage group operating in China for its Operation Cloud Hopper campaign against managed service providers, but what will those indictments accomplish?
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NASA Investigating Breach That Exposed PII on Employees, Ex-Workers

12/19/2018
Incident is latest manifestation of continuing security challenges at agency, where over 3,000 security incidents have been reported in recent years.
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Memes on Twitter Used to Communicate With Malware

12/18/2018
Steganography via tweet images gave attackers a way to pass on malicious instructions to Trojan, researchers say.
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Disk-Wiping 'Shamoon' Malware Resurfaces With File-Erasing Malware in Tow

12/17/2018
As with previous attacks, organizations in the Middle East appear to be main targets, Symantec says.
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Despite Breaches, Many Organizations Struggle to Quantify Cyber-Risks to Business

12/13/2018
Enterprises are struggling with familiar old security challenges as a result, new survey shows.
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U.S. Defense, Critical Infrastructure Companies Targeted in New Threat Campaign

12/12/2018
McAfee finds malware associated with 'Operation Sharpshooter' on systems belonging to at least 87 organizations.
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Attackers Using New Exploit Kit to Hijack Home & Small Office Routers

12/11/2018
Goal is to steal banking credentials by redirecting users to phishing sites.
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Satan Ransomware Variant Exploits 10 Server-Side Flaws

12/10/2018
Windows, Linux systems vulnerable to self-propagating 'Lucky' malware, security researchers say.
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Criminals Use Locally Connected Devices to Attack, Loot Banks

12/7/2018
Tens of millions of dollars stolen from at least eight banks in East Europe, Kasperksy Lab says.
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7 Common Breach Disclosure Mistakes

12/6/2018
How you report a data breach can have a big impact on its fallout.
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Symantec Intros USB Scanning Tool for ICS Operators

12/5/2018
ICSP Neural is designed to address USB-borne malware threats.
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Overall Volume of Thanksgiving Weekend Malware Attacks Lower This Year

11/29/2018
But ransomware attacks go through the roof, new threat data from SonicWall shows.
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Dell Forces Password Reset for Online Customers Following Data Breach

11/29/2018
Move prompts questions about scope of intrusion and strength of company's password hashing.
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Incorrect Assessments of Data Value Putting Organizations at Risk

11/28/2018
Information security groups often underestimate or overestimate the true value of data assets, making it harder to prioritize controls.
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New Hacker Group Behind 'DNSpionage' Attacks in Middle East

11/27/2018
Motives are not fully clear, though data exfiltration is one possibility, Cisco Talos says.
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Mirai Evolves From IoT Devices to Linux Servers

11/21/2018
Netscout says it has observed at least one dozen Mirai variants attempting to exploit a recently disclosed flaw in Hadoop YARN on Intel servers.
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Russia Linked Group Resurfaces With Large-Scale Phishing Campaign

11/20/2018
APT29/Cozy Bear is targeting individuals in military, government, and other sectors via email purporting to be from US State Department.
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Securities Markets at High Risk of Cyberattack

11/19/2018
A report by BAE Systems and SWIFT shows that financial market areas such as equities trading, bonds, and derivatives face more threats than banking, forex, and trade finance.
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Congress Passes Bill to Create New Federal Cybersecurity Agency

11/15/2018
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act now headed to President Trump for signing into law.
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Small-Time Cybercriminals Landing Steady Low Blows

11/14/2018
High-end crime groups are acquiring the sorts of sophisticated capabilities only nation-states once had, while low-tier criminals maintain a steady stream of malicious activity, from cryptomining to PoS malware.
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2018 on Track to Be One of the Worst Ever for Data Breaches

11/12/2018
A total of 3,676 breaches involving over 3.6 billion records were reported in the first nine months of this year alone.
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Symantec Uncovers North Korean Group's ATM Attack Malware

11/8/2018
Lazarus Group has been using FastCash Trojan on obsolete AIX servers to empty tens of millions of dollars from ATMs.
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Crytpocurrency Exchange Targeted Via Attack on Web Traffic Analysis Firm

11/7/2018
"Island-hopping" attackers breached StatCounter so they could get to users of gate.io.
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20 Cybersecurity Firms to Watch

11/7/2018
A look at some of the more interesting investments, acquisitions, and strategic moves in the security sector over the past year.
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Critical Encryption Bypass Flaws in Popular SSDs Compromise Data Security

11/6/2018
Vulnerabilities in Samsung, Crucial storage devices enable data recovery without a password or decryption key, researchers reveal.
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Ex-Employees Allegedly Steal Micron Trade Secrets Valued At Over $400 Million

11/2/2018
Three individuals who worked for DRAM maker's Taiwan subsidiary stole Micron IP to benefit company controlled by China's government, US says in indictment.
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Destructive Cyberattacks Spiked in Q3

10/30/2018
Instead of simply fleeing when discovered, adversaries are actively engaging with incident response teams, a new Carbon Black study finds.
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Security Implications of IBM-Red Hat Merger Unclear

10/29/2018
But enterprises and open source community likely have little to be concerned about, industry experts say.
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County Election Websites Can Be Easily Spoofed to Spread Misinformation

10/25/2018
Majority of county sites in 20 key swing states have non-.gov domains and don't enforce use of SSL, McAfee researchers found.
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ICS Networks Continue to be Soft Targets For Cyberattacks

10/24/2018
CyberX study shows that many industrial control system environments are riddled with vulnerabilities.
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Russian Research Institute Was Actively Involved In TRITON ICS Attack Activity

10/23/2018
Data shows with a high degree of confidence that Moscow-based Central Scientific Research Institute of Chemistry and Mechanics helped develop and refine malware, FireEye says.
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Facebook Rumored to Be Hunting for Major Cybersecurity Acquisition

10/22/2018
Goal appears both a bid to bolster its own security and its tattered reputation for privacy, according to reporting by The Information.
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Cyber Espionage Campaign Reuses Code from China's APT1

10/18/2018
US, Canadian organizations in crosshairs of group with apparent links to a Chinese military hacking unit that wreaked havoc several years ago.
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3 Years After Attacks on Ukraine Power Grid, BlackEnergy Successor Poses Growing Threat

10/17/2018
In what could be a precursor to future attacks, GreyEnergy is targeting critical infrastructure organizations in Central and Eastern Europe.
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FICO & US Chamber of Commerce Score Cyber-Risk Across 10 Sectors

10/16/2018
Media, telecom, and technology firms are far more likely to experience a data breach in the near future than organizations in sectors including energy, construction, and transportation.
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Chinese Intelligence Officer Under Arrest for Trade Secret Theft

10/11/2018
Yanjun Xu attempted to steal data on advanced aviation technology that GE Aviation, among others, had spent billions developing.
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New Threat Group Conducts Malwareless Cyber Espionage

10/10/2018
Gallmaker group is relying exclusively on legitimate tools and living-off-the-land tactics to make detection very difficult.
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Lesser Skilled Cybercriminals Adopt Nation-State Hacking Methods

10/9/2018
The trend underscores the need for organizations of all sizes to be prepared to detect and respond to threats faster, CrowdStrike says.
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US Indicts 7 Russian Intel Officers for Hacking Anti-Doping Organizations

10/4/2018
Netherlands expels four of the suspects trying to break into an organization investigating a chemical used in the recent attack on a former Russian spy in Britain.
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Malware Outbreak Causes Disruptions, Closures at Canadian Restaurant Chain

10/3/2018
But Recipe Unlimited denies it was the victim of a ransomware attack, as some have reported.
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100,000-Plus Home Routers Hijacked in Campaign to Steal Banking Credentials

10/3/2018
The GhostDNS campaign, which has been mainly targeting consumers in Brazil, has exploded in scope since August.
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Financial Sector Data Breaches Soar Despite Heavy Security Spending

10/2/2018
Banks and other financial firms have disclosed three times as many breaches so far this year than they did in 2016, Bitglass says.
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'Torii' Breaks New Ground For IoT Malware

9/28/2018
Stealth, persistence mechanism and ability to infect a wide swath of devices make malware dangerous and very different from the usual Mirai knockoffs, Avast says.
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Russia's Sednit Deploys First Firmware-Level Rootkit in the Wild

9/27/2018
The advanced persistent threat group's LoJax can install malware capable of surviving both OS reinstallation and hard disk replacement.
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Google to Let Users Disable Automatic Login to Chrome

9/27/2018
The decision comes days after security researcher had blasted company for jeopardizing user privacy with browser update.
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Critical Linux Kernel Flaw Gives Root Access to Attackers

9/26/2018
All versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS vulnerable to 'Mutagen Astronomy' flaw, according to Qualys.
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Mirai Authors Escape Jail Time – But Here Are 7 Other Criminal Hackers Who Didn't

9/26/2018
Courts are getting tougher on the cybercrooks than some might realize.
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In Quiet Change, Google Now Automatically Logging Users Into Chrome

9/24/2018
The change is a complete departure from Google's previous practice of keeping sign-in for Chrome separate from sign-ins to any Google service.
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Retail Sector Second-Worst Performer on Application Security

9/20/2018
A "point-in-time" approach to PCI compliance could be one reason why so many retailers appear to be having a hard time.
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Internet-Connected CCTV Cameras Vulnerable to 'Peekaboo' Hack

9/18/2018
Zero-day flaw in China-based NUUO's video recorder technology still unfixed three months after vendor was alerted.
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New Xbash Malware a Cocktail of Malicious Functions

9/17/2018
The new malware tool targeting Windows and Linux systems combines cryptomining, ransomware, botnet, and self-propagation capabilities.
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2 Billion Bluetooth Devices Remain Exposed to Airborne Attack Vulnerabilities

9/13/2018
One year after Armis disclosed 'BlueBorne,' a large number of Android, Linux, and iOS devices remain unpatched.
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Creators of Tools for Building Malicious Office Docs Ditch Old Exploits

9/12/2018
In their place is a collection of new exploits for more recently disclosed — and therefore not likely widely patched — vulnerabilities.
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Apple (Finally) Removes MacOS App Caught Stealing User Browser Histories

9/7/2018
The fact that the app likely has been exfiltrating data for years is "rather f#@&'d" up, says the security researcher who reported the issue to Apple one month ago.
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The Best Way To Secure US Elections? Paper Ballots

9/6/2018
Voting machines that do not provide a paper trail or cannot be independently audited should immediately be removed, concludes a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
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Silence Group Quietly Emerges as New Threat to Banks

9/5/2018
Though only two members strong, hackers pose a credible threat to banks in Russia and multiple countries.
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Attackers Employ Social Engineering to Distribute New Banking Trojan

9/4/2018
CamuBot malware, which disguises itself as a required security module, is targeting business customers of major Brazilian banks.
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Botnets Serving Up More Multipurpose Malware

8/30/2018
Attackers increasingly are distributing malware that can be used for a variety of different tasks, Kaspersky Lab says.
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North Korean Hacking Group Steals $13.5 Million From Indian Bank

8/27/2018
Tactics that Lazarus Group used to siphon money from India's Cosmos Bank were highly sophisticated, Securonix says.
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Modular Downloaders Could Pose New Threat for Enterprises

8/24/2018
Proofpoint says it has recently discovered two downloaders that let attackers modify malware after it has been installed on a system.
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Turla Threat Group Uses Email PDF Attachments to Control Stealthy Backdoor

8/23/2018
The Russian-speaking group's latest tactic is the only known case of malware that's completely controllable via email, researchers at ESET say.
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Wickr Adds New Censorship Circumvention Feature to its Encrypted App

8/23/2018
Secure Open Access addresses void created by Google, Amazon decision to disallow domain fronting, company says.
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Attackers Using 'Legitimate' Remote Admin Tool in Multiple Threat Campaigns

8/22/2018
Researchers from Cisco Talos say Breaking Security's Remcos software allows attackers to fully control and monitor any Windows system from XP onward.
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Oracle: Apply Out-of-Band Patch for Database Flaw ASAP

8/14/2018
Flaw in the Java VM component of Oracle's Database Server is easily exploitable, security experts warn.
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Vulnerability Disclosures in 2018 So Far Outpacing Previous Years'

8/13/2018
Nearly 17% of 10,644 vulnerabilities disclosed so far this year have been critical, according to new report from Risk Based Security.
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Vulnerable Smart City Devices Can Be Exploited To Cause Panic, Chaos

8/10/2018
False alerts about floods, radiation levels are just some of the ways attackers can abuse weakly protected IoT devices, researchers warn.
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Weakness in WhatsApp Enables Large-Scale Social Engineering

8/9/2018
Problem lies in WhatsApp's validation of message parameters and cannot be currently mitigated, Check Point researchers say.
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Even 'Regular Cybercriminals' Are After ICS Networks

8/7/2018
A Cybereason honeypot project shows that ordinary cybercriminals are also targeting weakly secured environments.
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Industrial Sector Targeted in Highly Personalized Spear-Phishing Campaign

8/2/2018
At least 400 companies in Russia have been in the bullseye of new, sophisticated spear-phishing attacks, Kaspersky Lab says.
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Feds Indict Three Ukrainians For Cyberattacks on 100+ Companies

8/1/2018
Dmytro Fedorov, Fedir Hladyr, and Andrii Kolpakov are senior members of the notorious FIN7 cybercrime group, aka the Carbanak Group.
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DHS Establishes Center For Defense of Critical Infrastructure

7/31/2018
Center foundational to new government-led 'collective defense' strategy for sharing and responding to cyberthreats, DHS secretary says.
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Russian National Sentenced to 70 Months For $4 Million Debit Card Fraud

7/30/2018
Mikhail Malykhin's actions drove one company out business.
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Kronos Banking Trojan Resurfaces

7/26/2018
Re-emergence of malware consistent with overall surge in banking malware activity this year, Proofpoint says.
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Iranian Hacker Group Waging Widespread Espionage Campaign in Middle East

7/25/2018
Unlike other threat actors that have a narrow set of targets, Leafminer has over 800 organizations in its sights, Symantec says.
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Trend Micro Launches Targeted Server-Side Bug Bounty Program

7/24/2018
Targeted Incentive Program will pay anywhere from $25,000 to $200,000 to researchers who are first to demonstrate exploitable vulnerabilities.
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Singapore Health Services Data Breach Exposes Info on 1.5 Million People

7/20/2018
Attackers, repeatedly and specifically, targeted Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's medication data.
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