Security news

Security

Police are probing apparent cyber vandalism on Wi-Fi networks at UK train stations

U.K. transport officials and police said Thursday they are investigating a "cyber-security incident" after users of public Wi-Fi networks at the country's biggest railway stations reported being shown anti-Muslim messages.

Security

AI is fueling a deepfake porn crisis in South Korea. What's behind it—and how can it be fixed?

It's difficult to talk about artificial intelligence without talking about deepfake porn—a harmful AI byproduct that has been used to target everyone from Taylor Swift to Australian school girls.

Security

How did they get my data? I uncovered the hidden web of networks behind telemarketers

Last year, I started getting a lot of unsolicited phone calls, mainly from people trying to sell me things. This came as a surprise because, as a data scientist, I am very careful about what personal information I let out ...

Business

Ukraine bans Telegram messenger app on state-issued devices because of Russian security threat

Ukraine has banned government officials, military personnel and other defense and critical infrastructure workers from installing the popular Telegram messaging app on state-issued devices, describing the move as necessary ...

Security

Encrypted 'Ghost' app: What we know

Police revealed Tuesday they had infiltrated and taken down an encrypted chat app called Ghost used by criminals across the world.

Security

'Good complexity' can make hospital networks more cybersecure

In May, a major cyberattack disabled clinical operations for nearly a month at Ascension, a health care provider that includes 140 hospitals across the U.S. Investigators tracked the problem to malicious ransomware that had ...

Security

New tools use AI 'fingerprints' to detect altered photos, videos

As artificial intelligence networks become more skilled and easier to access, digitally manipulated "deepfake" photos and videos are increasingly difficult to detect. New research led by Binghamton University, State University ...

Software

Usable data hacked from air-gapped computer

A team of software and information systems engineers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, in Israel, has demonstrated an ability to extract useful data from an air-gapped computer. The group has posted a paper to the arXiv ...

Security

Five notorious cyberattacks that targeted governments

Warfare is no longer confined to physical battlefields. In the digital age, a new front has emerged—cyberspace. Here, countries clash not with bullets and bombs, but with lines of code and sophisticated malware.

Security

US offers $10 mn bounty for DarkSide hackers

The United States announced a $10 million reward Thursday for help finding leaders of the high-profile ransomware gang DarkSide, authorities' latest try at combating spiking cyber-extortion attacks.

Security

Protecting US critical infrastructure from cyberattacks

Over the past year, there has been a sharp increase in cyberattacks using malware to target the systems of critical infrastructure such as utility companies, government agencies and organizations that provide services and ...

Security

US blacklists Israeli maker of Pegasus spyware

US authorities on Wednesday put the Israeli maker of the Pegasus spyware at the center of a scandal over surveillance of journalists and officials on a blacklist of restricted companies.

Security

How to trust your instincts to foil phishing attacks

An employee at MacEwan University got an email in 2017 from someone claiming to be a construction contractor asking to change the account number where almost $12 million in payments were sent. A week later the actual contractor ...

Security

Hackers release Israeli LGBTQ dating site details

Israel's justice ministry said Tuesday Google had blocked sites of a hacking group that leaked user details of an Israeli LGBTQ dating site, an attack some security experts blamed on Iran.

Security

Facial recognition in schools: Here are the risks to children

In conversation with my teenage daughter last week, I pointed out a news report which flagged concerns over the use of facial recognition technologies in several school canteens in North Ayrshire, Scotland. Nine schools in ...

Internet

How does 'normal' Internet browsing look today? Now we know

It's 7:15 am on a Friday morning, and Jordan wants to download an application to their laptop. They know the app by name, or so they think; they open a new tab in their Internet browser and mistype the app's name. The error ...

Security

150 people arrested in US-Europe darknet drug probe

Law enforcement officials in the U.S. and Europe have arrested 150 people and seized more than $31 million in an international drug trafficking investigation stemming from sales on the darknet, the Justice Department said ...

Security

Microsoft: Russian-backed hackers targeting cloud services

Microsoft said Monday the same Russia-backed hackers responsible for the 2020 SolarWinds breach continue to attack the global technology supply chain and have been relentlessly targeting cloud service companies and others ...

Security

US to curb hacking tool exports to Russia, China

US authorities unveiled Wednesday long-delayed new rules aimed at clamping down on export to nations like Russia and China of hacking technology amid a sharp uptick in cyberattacks globally.

Computer Sciences

Client-side scanning is like bugs in our pockets

Encryption provides a solution to security risks, but its flipside is that it can hinder law enforcement investigations. A new technology called client-side scanning (CSS) would enable targeted information to be revealed ...