Cyber incidents are fast moving and increasing in number and severity. When a cyber incident occurs, the attacked enterprise responds with a set of predetermined actions. Get trending information on exploits, and vulnerabilities every week to help your organisation to be better equipped to avoid being victim of cybercrimes. Anglo African brings you the weekly cyber-attack news wrap-up and remedy tips to support your business to defend against hackers.
The radical transparency website WikiLeaks suffered a suspicious outage on December 1 for 4 hours, and many social media users quickly speculated that this situation could have been the result of another distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) cyber strike, which has been very known this year after it attacked major websites as Twitter, Spotify and GitHub. This situation -which comes after the organization posted the release of 60,000 emails from the U.S. government contractor HBGary- started at 4:00am (GMT) and finished by 9:00am (GMT) when the website was fully restored.
Hundreds of thousands of TalkTalk and Post Office broadband users were knocked off the internet by cyber-attack seizing control of their routers. The attack affected 100,000 Post Office customers on Sunday and up to 360,000 TalkTalk customers across the UK today. It used a piece of malware known as the Mirai worm, which is spread via compromised computers and works by taking control of devices running the Linux operating system and using them to knock services offline.
The video website Dailymotion has been hit by a massive hack attack which has leaked the passwords and private information of up to 85 million people. Experts from the security firm LeakedSource claimed 85.2 million usernames and email addresses were stolen on October 20 as well as 18 million passwords. Luckily, these passwords were scrambled so hackers will find it very difficult to use them to access accounts.
Millions of internet users visiting popular news sites over the past few months may have been exposed to a malicious malvertising campaign. The cybercriminals behind the campaign are distributing malicious ads, which redirect users to the Stegano exploit kit. Security researchers uncovered that the Stegano malvertising campaign, exploited several Flash vulnerabilities.
Good Practices When Using A Digital Wallet
Digital wallets have become a trend in mobile payment platforms. They are hugely popular, convenient, localised, and completely digital. Consumers seem excited to have these new digital wallets available and have rapidly adopted them.
Just like a physical wallet, no one wants his digital wallet stolen. As consumers, we should remember that a digital wallet functions like a mini bank account, and we should make sure to protect it from thieves. Consider the following tips for securing your digital wallet from cyber thieves:
- Good Password Protection Goes A Long Way. A strong, unique password provides the best line of defense against brute force hacks. Strong passwords incorporate upper and lowercase letters, symbols and numbers and are 12-20 characters long.
- Install Apps From Sources You Trust. Apps are not always what they appear to be. In fact, you could be getting more than you bargained for. A free game might not be just a game, but an app designed to illicitly collect personal data from you. Reading the user ratings and reviews can provide some clues about the integrity of the app.
- Have different usernames and passwords for different accounts.Refrain from recycling usernames and passwords across different online and digital accounts. Your best strategy for protecting yourself from hackers includes having a unique username and password for each and every account you have.
- Update the digital wallet software when updates become available.When developers identify vulnerabilities in apps and other software, they provide users with software patches to fix those vulnerabilities. Keeping your software up-to-date will make it more difficult for hackers to take your money.
- Keep your digital wallet with you.Like a physical wallet, your digital wallet is best protected with you. If you access your digital wallet through your smartphone or tablet, make sure that you know the whereabouts of your digital device is at all times, and keep the password protected.
- Identify Who To Contact If There Are Issues, Before One Arises: Ensure that you understand the quickest way to resolve any issues that arise and who is responsible for any fraudulent activity on your account. Some common scenarios to consider – your phone is lost or stolen, an individual card stored in the wallet is lost, your account has been or may have been hacked.
Intrusions happen, threats emerge and your security operation needs to be at its peak efficiency. Anglo African solutions can quickly intercept threats and thus help in avoiding data breaches. For more information about cyber security kindly contact Anglo African on 2331636 or by e-mail at contact@infosystems.mu
