Our weekly cybersecurity roundups gather the most important headlines in the industry from the last seven days. If you want the weekly roundup delivered straight to your inbox, sign up to the IRM newsletter.
Reddit blocks “large group of accounts”
As part of a security incident, the social media platform, Reddit, has blocked access for some accounts.
Speculators think that the incident may be linked to “password recycling”. This is where hackers rely on the likelihood that users re-use their passwords which have already been leaked on the internet. Cybercriminals can then use techniques such as “credential stuffing” to access sites like Reddit.
You can read more here.
GCHQ launches all-female cyber training
In an attempt to address “serious skills shortages”, GCHQ are offering 600 free places on all-female CyberFirst Defenders courses in April and May this year.
Locations include Nottingham, Lancaster, Edinburgh and Oxfordshire. The agency hopes the training classes will help get more teenage girls involved in the cyber industry. Additionally, teaching cyber skills to males and females separately is thought to complement their different styles of learning.
You can read more here.
Chinese CVs leaked on cloud server
A database of more than 200 million CVs has been exposed online in China. The personal documents were thought to be lacking “basic security protection”.
The data revealed includes names, mobile numbers, email addresses and education history – all the usual elements that a candidate would include on the resume to apply for a job.
Rather than the data coming from one source, it is thought that it’s been linked from a third party who scraped the data from several CV websites.
You can read more here.
Coast Capital members victim to money theft cyber-attack
140 members of Coast Capital Savings have had money stolen from their accounts during a cyber-fraud attack in November and December 2018. It is estimated each member has lost around $3,000-$6,000.
An investigation has shown that the cybercriminals gained access via either a phishing attack (emailing and texting members for their legitimate security information) or a brute force attack (a computer program to “guess” account passwords).
A third tactic was used, where scammers called customers via telephone to gain vital information. Coast Capital states that the event was not a breach or hack, as the criminals didn’t gain unauthorised access to their systems.
You can read more here.
Quick fire updates
£20m cybersecurity R&D base unveiled – Thales, the French-owned technology company, has set up a R&D centre in South Wales worth £20m. The centre will focus on testing digital security innovations to increase cybersecurity capabilities in the region. Read more here.
Average cost of a cyber attack climbs to $1.1m – The 2018-2019 Global Application and Network Security Report highlight the increase to $1.1 million after surveying 790 IT executives. Only 7% of respondents claimed not to have experienced a cyber-attack at all. Read more here.
Cyber-attacks underway in West African banks since 2017 – According to Symantec, attacks across West Africa including Cameroon, Congo and the Ivory Coast, have been underway since mid-2017. Four distinct attack campaigns have been observed. Tools used include NanaCore (commodity malware) and malicious PowerShell scripts. Read more here.
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If you have any questions about this week’s roundup, or want to understand how you can improve your cybersecurity strategy, get in touch with IRM.