These top level numbers summarize the cybersecurity industry over the past year and indicate what’s in store for the next five years. 1. Cyber crime damage costs to hit $6 trillion annually by 2021. It all begins and ends with cyber crime. Without it, there’s nothing to cyber-defend. The cybersecurity community and major media have largely concurred on the prediction that cyber crime damages will cost the...
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The advent of mobile point-of-sale (MPOS) systems has been a boon for consumers and retailers of modest means, but the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council’s security wonks worried that they can’t adhere to the strict hardware standards that merchants’ credit card merchant terminals. Hence the announcement [PDF] of a new standard that aims to advise merchants on how they can let you pay with a PIN...
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Researchers at NewSky Security say the hacker behind a Mirai malware variant called Satori, also known as Mirai Okiru, is the same hacker behind two new Mirai variants called Masuta and PureMasuta. Based on source code for Masuta malware recently found on the dark web, researchers at NewSky Security said they were able to connect the dots between Satori and Masuta. The hacker is identified...
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Google’s parent company Alphabet has announced its entry into the lucrative enterprise cybersecurity market through Chronicle, a company started in early 2016 as a project at X, Alphabet’s “moonshot factory.” Chronicle has now “graduated” to the status of an independent company within Alphabet, and is lead by Stephen Gillett, formerly an executive-in-residence at Google Ventures and Chief Operating Officer of Symantec. VirusTotal, a malware intelligence service...
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An Android app component meant to provide inter-user chatting capabilities has been opening websites and clicking on ads in phones’ background. According to a report published last week, this malicious component is part of a software development kit (SDK) offered by a Chinese company named 呀呀云 (Ya Ya Yun). Android app developers use the Ya Ya Yun SDK to add an instant messaging (chat) feature to...
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