Cyber Crime
Malware Based Credit Card Breach at Kmart: Sears Holding Co. late Friday said it recently discovered that point-of-sale registers at its Kmart stores were compromised by malicious software that stole customer credit and debit card information. The company says it has removed the malware from store registers and contained the breach, but that the investigation is ongoing. KrebsOnSecurity, October 10, 2014
Dairy Queen Latest to Suffer Customer Card Hack: Ice cream and fast food chain Dairy Queen is the latest retailer to reveal a hack of its customer data. ABC News, October 9, 2014
Hackers’ Attack Cracked 10 Financial Firms in Major Assault: The huge cyberattack on JPMorgan Chase that touched more than 83 million households and businesses was one of the most serious computer intrusions into an American corporation. But it could have been much worse. The New York Times, October 3, 2014
Cyber Privacy
1,000 a day ask Google to scrub web: Google is being swamped with requests from Europeans trying to erase unflattering links to their past from the world’s dominant internet search engine. Independent.ie, October 10, 2014
Thousands of Snapchat images may have been hacked via a third-party image-saving service: The database of a Snapchat image-saving service — not associated with Snapchat itself — has allegedly been hacked, and the hackers have claimed on 4chan that they will make hundreds of thousands of Snapchat users’ private images and videos available in a searchable database. GigaOm, October 10, 2014
We Want Privacy, but Can’t Stop Sharing: IMAGINE a world suddenly devoid of doors. None in your home, on dressing rooms, on the entrance to the local pub or even on restroom stalls at concert halls. The controlling authorities say if you aren’t doing anything wrong, then you shouldn’t mind. The New York Times, October 4, 2014
Financial Cyber Securty
Cash machine hackers have made ‘millions’ with Tyupkin malware: Criminals have made millions of dollars by physically installing malware on cash machines across the world, Interpol and security company Kaspersky have warned. The Guardian, October 8, 2014
Obama Had Security Fears on JPMorgan Data Breach: President Obama and his top national security advisers began receiving periodic briefings on the huge cyberattack at JPMorgan Chase and other financial institutions this summer, part of a new effort to keep security officials as updated on major cyberattacks as they are on Russian incursions into Ukraine or attacks by the Islamic State. The New York Times, October 8, 2014
Identity Theft
AT&T Customers Information Security Breach: Offers Apology and One Year’s worth of Free Credit Monitoring Services to Customers: AT&T the telecommunications company is in the news for security breach of its customers. An employee working in the company was the cause for this illegal act putting the company in a tight spot. However, AT&T has come forward with an apology to its customers and is also offering one year’s free credit monitoring services to those who may have been victims of this illegal act. An insider had illegally accessed personal information of its subscribers which include account information along with their social security numbers and driver’s license information. An unspecified number of AT&T accounts were believed to have been affected by this offence. This incident occurred in the month of August 2014. International Business Times, October 8, 2014
Huge Data Leak at Largest U.S. Bond Insurer: On Monday, KrebsOnSecurity notified MBIA Inc. — the nation’s largest bond insurer — that a misconfiguration in a company Web server had exposed countless customer account numbers, balances and other sensitive data. Much of the information had been indexed by search engines, including a page listing administrative credentials that attackers could use to access data that wasn’t already accessible via a simple Web search. KrebsOnSecurity, October 7, 2014
Ways to Protect Yourself After the JPMorgan Hacking: The numbers are shocking: Personal information from 76 million households may have been compromised as part of the cyberattack on JPMorgan Chase. That is the equivalent of two out of every three households in the United States, though a small portion of those affected may be overseas. The New York Times, October 3, 2014
Cyber Warning
‘iWorm’ malware controls Macs via Reddit, more than 17K affected: Security researchers recently discovered that more than 17,000 Macs around the world have been infected by a new OS X malware threat called “iWorm,” which at one point used Reddit.com as a go-between to cull user data, perform various system actions and execute Lua scripts. AppleInsider, October 3, 2014
National Cyber Security
What The United States Can Learn From Israel About Cybersecurity: Two weeks ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the creation of a new cyber defense authority to defend Israel’s civilian networks. This is the latest in a series of steps taken by Israel’s government to bridge the public-private cyber divide and bolster the country’s position as a global leader in cybersecurity. Forbes, October 7, 2014
Cyber Underworld
Only 100 cybercrime brains worldwide says Europol boss: There are only “around 100” cybercriminal kingpins behind global cybercrime, according to the head of Europol’s Cybercrime Centre. BBC, October 10, 2014
Cyber Misc
Signed Malware = Expensive “Oops” for HP: Computer and software industry maker HP is in the process of notifying customers about a seemingly harmless security incident in 2010 that nevertheless could prove expensive for the company to fix and present unique support problems for users of its older products. KrebsOnSecurity, October 9, 2014
Cyber crime: First online murder will happen by end of year, warns US firm: Governments are ill-prepared to combat the looming threat of “online murder” as cyber criminals exploit internet technology to target victims, the European policing agency warned. In its most alarming assessment of the physical danger posed by online crime, Europol said it expected a rise in “injury and possible deaths” caused by computer attacks on critical safety equipment. The Independent, October 5, 2014