Data Breaches Faced by Indian Internet Consumers

Safaricom

Over the last few years, India has been making headlines with a steady stream of data breaches  ranging from the Aadhaar scandal and Quora row, to the muck-up between Facebook and Cambridge Analytica. In fact, data breaches cost Indian organisations ₹12.8 crores on an average between July 2018 to April 2019, making the country the second-most cyber affected region in the world. The first half of 2019 witnessed a 22% jump in cyber attacks due to the increased deployment of IoT. With industries like healthcare, financial institutions and other businesses getting breached regularly,…

Hackers breach National Bank systems making off with Ksh 29m

Hackers have breached the National Bank of Kenya systems making away with Ksh 29 million. Confirming the incident through a statement on their twitter handle, @National_Bank,  National Bank confirmed the incident stating that indeed there was an attempt fraud in normal course of business on 17th January but the bank’s monitoring and security resources frustrated the attempt “The amount of attempted fraud is about Ksh 29 million and we are confident we will recover most of that money,” read the statement. The bank also confirmed that security are in pursuit…

Millions caught in virtual keyboard app data breach

Digitization

Security researchers claim to have found the personal data of 31 million Android users of the keyboard app Ai.type after finding an open database online. The app offers themed keyboards for phones and tablets.The researchers claimed data left visible included names, phone numbers, locations and Google queries. The boss of the Israeli company behind the app admitted the breach but said most of the data was not sensitive. Bob Diachenko, from the Kromtech Security Centre, part of security company Mackeeper, said the amount of data required by the app at…

Verizon to buy Yahoo for $250m less as deal to go ahead despite data breaches

verizon

Verizon will press ahead with plans to buy Yahoo despite the two historic data breaches the internet giant revealed it had suffered last year. The US telecoms giant Verizon has renegotiated its $4.8bn (£3.85bn) deal to buy Yahoo to pay around $250m less in the wake of the record-breaking cyber attacks, according to Bloomberg. The sale, which was due to go ahead in the first three months of 2017, was delayed and almost derailed after Yahoo revealed hackers had stolen details from around 1.5bn accounts in two separate attacks back in 2013 and…

Massive data breach hits 500 million Yahoo accounts

Information from at least 500 million Yahoo accounts was stolen from the company in 2014, the company said Thursday, indicating it believes a state-sponsored actor was behind the hack the Sunnyvale, California-based company confirmed. The theft may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, and in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers, Yahoo said. Even in an Internet-dependent population accustomed to the regular occurrence of massive data breaches, the size of this one —  thought to be the largest ever in terms of user accounts — is attention-grabbing. And the possibility that another…

The 2016 Verizon Data Breach Investigative Report (DBIR) Is Out

10 African countries featured including Kenya and South Africa The 2016 DBIR by Verizon has been released. The report has revealed that there has been a 16% increase in ransomware attacks over the last 12 months, ItNewsAfrica reports. According to the DBIR, 89% of attacks involved financial or espionage motivations. Financial motivations were a clear catalyst. Because of the organizations that are being targeted and how prevalent ransomware has become, ransomware is a hot topic. Businesses have a higher degree of risk attached to them even though every individual is susceptible to…

Hackers Breach Top Wall Street Law Firms, Including Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP, Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP

Hackers Breach Top Wall Street Law Firms, Including Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP

Reuters: Hackers broke into the computer networks of some big U.S. law firms, including Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP and Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. Federal investigators are looking to see if confidential information was stolen for insider trading, as these law firms represented Wall Street banks and big companies, the Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter. Other law firms were also targeted, but the probe has not amounted to any clear information on what details have been stolen, the newspaper…

Apple fights FBI in Court order to break iPhone encryption with breach prone ‘back door’

It’s set to be the greatest battle of 2016. On one end, we have Apple, a leading technology firm trying its best to stand by its customers by ensuring their privacy. On the other end, we have FBI, backed by the US Government, trying to carry out an investigation trying to ensure justice is meted out. Politicians have taken the obvious side; Tech CEOs have also sided with their own. Who will win the battle? Or will it escalate into a full blown war? This long standing dispute was reignited…

ICANN Hacked! Resets encrypted passwords after user profile database breach

ICANN Was Hacked

The overseer of the Internet’s addressing system said Wednesday that someone obtained information related to user accounts for its public website, although no financial information was divulged. ICANN, short for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, said user names, email addresses, encrypted passwords and other data, such as bios, interests and newsletter subscriptions, were contained in the accounts. Despite the breach, the accounts as well as internal ICANN systems do not appear to have been accessed, the organization said in a post on its website. Although an investigation…

U.S. Senators introduce DHS Cybersecurity Bill to Protect ‘Dot-Gov’ Domain after breach

Liquid Telecom

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced legislation on Wednesday to give the Department of Homeland Security more authority to protect government Internet addresses in Cybersecurity bid. The goal is to prevent more cyberattacks like recent massive breaches at the government’s hiring office. Hacks targeting the Office of Personnel Management put the personal data of some 22 million Americans at risk and prompted the resignation of OPM chief Katherine Archuleta earlier this month. The cyberattacks prompted calls in Congress for huge improvements in monitoring and protection of government systems. Reports…