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.
Anonymous hackers have reportedly hit Thailand government websites with targeted DDoS attacks in retaliation for the passage of a bill which is feared to impose considerable restrictions on internet freedom. The bill introduced amendments to the country’s computer crime law and was unanimously passed by the military-appointed legislature on 16 December, according to reports
This year delivered a chilling warning as we witnessed distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on a scale that few thought possible. These attacks – where massive volumes of data are thrown at online systems so they can no longer deal with legitimate requests – underwent a step change this year as attackers learned to harness vulnerable devices that constitute parts of the so-called internet of things (IoT).
The Netflix US Twitter account – with 2.5m followers – has been compromised by a hacker group. The group, OurMine, posted tweets promoting its own website and services. However, the tweets were removed about an hour after the first one appeared. OurMine has hacked several high-profile Twitter accounts this year, including those of Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and Google chief executive Sundar Pichai.
In November 2016, Europol and Trend Micro discovered a new breed of malware that targets ATMs and enables crooks with physical access to the machine’s ports to make an ATM spit out cash. Nicknamed Alice based on the name given to the malware’s binary by its creator (Project Alice), researchers found evidence that this malware has been going around since 2014.
Learn how to maintain the security of IoT devices.
Consumers need to protect their IoT devices the same way they would their smartphones, tablets and home computers. Look for ways to set strong passwords, reading the manuals for instructions on how to lock down these devices.
- Clean out old apps.Many of us tend to keep apps indefinitely, even if we don’t use them. Check your devices periodically and delete apps you no longer use.
- Own your online presence.Understand what information your devices collect and how they it is managed and stored.
- Do your research.Before you purchase an IoT device, do a search to see if it has had security problems with it and if it can be easily hacked.
- Change the default setting on the home router.This is worth reiterating: Strong passwords on home routers can prevent DDoS attacks.
