Daughter of late Republican gerrymandering mastermind exposes his personal files
Image source: Youtube screenshot Should the privacy of a person's data be preserved post mortem? This curious case illustrates the best case scenario when the answer is - no. The estranged daughter of late Republican political strategist and gerrymandering mastermind, Thomas Hofeller, made thou
Ransomware payments quadrupled in 2019 – Survey
A recent survey found that 15% of those that suffered a ransomware attack in 2019 paid the attackers. The figure quadrupled from the previous year when only 4% of ransomware victims paid the ransom. Although the overall number of attacks is down from 12% in 2018 to 10% last year, the Dark Rea
Homeland security warns of possible Iranian cyberattacks
US authorities are on heightened alert for cyberattacks amid fears Tehran may target government institutions and businesses to avenge the killing of top Iranain commander Qasem Soleimani. Iran vowed retaliation over the assasiation of Soleimani, who was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad la
Hacker who tried to blackmail Apple sentenced, spared jail time
A 22-year-old would-be hacker from North London has been sentenced following an unsuccessful attempt to blackmail Apple out of $100,000 worth of iTunes gift cards. Kerem Albayrak was given a suspended two-year jail term, community service and an electronic curfew after pleading guilty to blackmai
Would you fall for this phishing scam? 61% of Americans would
A recent survey revealed that the majority of Americans are at risk of falling victim to phishing scams. Conducted by cybersecurity firm Avast, the survey showed respondents two screenshots of the Amazon.com login page. Although seemingly identical, one was a screen capture of the actual login pa
Energy grid gets improved cyber protection with new legislation
Legislation designed to safeguard the US energy grid from cyberattacks has been adopted by the country’s lawmakers. The Securing Energy Infrastructure Act falls under the provisions of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, which passed the House on December 13 and the Senate three days
Police raid NGINX Moscow office
Russian police raided the Moscow office of the US-owned web server company NGINX and detained a number of employees on Thursday. Among those arrested were NGINX cofounders Igor Sysoev and Maxim Konovalov. The raid comes after Russia’s search engine giant Rambler filed a copyright infringemen
Facebook & Apple under pressure over encryption plans
Tech giants are coming under mounting pressure from US lawmakers to make private customer data accessible to law enforcement. In a rare show of unity, both Republicans and Democrats grilled Apple and Facebook executives during a US Senate Judiciary Committee hearing earlier this week.
Video surveillance in U.S. described as on par with China
Research analysis conducted by London-based information provider IHS Markit found that video surveillance in the US is “nearly on par” with China. According to the IHS Markit report, China had 349 million cameras last year, which translates into one camera for every 4.1 of its citizens. Mea
Romanian hacker duo jailed
Members of the infamous Bayrob Group have been locked up after being found guilty by an Ohio court on 21 charges related to cybercrimes. The two Romanian nationals, Bogdan Nicolescu and Radu Miclaus, ran the cybercrime ring out of Bucharest, infecting 400,000 computers with malware, and swindel
A degree won’t get you better pay in cybersecurity, survey shows
A recent survey revealed that a degree doesn't guarantee higher compensation when it comes to careers in cybersecurity. The 2020 Cyber Security Salary Survey showed that salary ranges were similar regardless of whether employees had a degree in computer science or a related field. More than 1
Evolving technology leaves users, companies vulnerable
Deepfake video technology, the Internet of Things, and new ransomware schemes are poised to wreak maximum damage on companies and individuals in 2020. That’s the assessment of Forrester, which has prepared an analysis of upcoming cyberthreats for ZDNet. Forrester believes deepfake technology