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…

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Data Breaches: First half of 2015 saw venture firms invest $1.2 billion in cybersecurity startups

Data Breaches Boost Funding for Cybersecurity Startups Extract: In the 2015 first half, venture firms invested $1.2 billion in cybersecurity startups, according to researcher CB Insights. That is down slightly from $1.4 billion a year earlier but up sharply from $771 million in 2013’s first half. The shift is particularly notable at Andreessen Horowitz, which used to view security companies as necessary for Internet safety but less lucrative than other technology niches. One reason is that cybersecurity startups were often acquired prior to an initial public offering, says Scott Weiss,…

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Drill-Down Report Finds Global Financial Services Businesses 300% More Susceptible To Cybercrime

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Global financial services businesses encounter security incidents 300% more frequently than other industries, according to a report released on Tuesday by Raytheon | Websense, a company that helps protect organizations from cyber attacks and data theft. The 2015 Financial Services Drill-Down Report found “a high degree of specialization among criminals attacking financial services, a huge investment in the lure attack phase and the specific and anomalous Cybercrime attacks pointed at global targets dealing in finance.” “For years, this industry has been under attack by highly specialized groups of criminals,” said…

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Simple Website Security Flaw Exposes Data Of Charter Internet Customers

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A Website Security flaw discovered in the site of Charter Communications, a cable and Internet provider active in 28 states, may have exposed the personal account details of its customers. Security researcher Eric Taylor discovered the cable provider’s vulnerability as part of his research, and demonstrated how a simple header modification performed with a browser plug-in could reveal details about Charter’s Internet subscribers. After Fast Company notified Charter of the issue, the company said it had installed a fix within hours. The vulnerability could reveal personal information of “millions” of the…

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Big Market Research: Internet Security Market Expected to Grow Positively Despite a Rise in Hacks

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PORTLAND, Oregon, April 8, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — Big Market Research adds a report titled “Global Internet Security Market – Size, Industry Analysis, Trends, Opportunities, Growth and Forecast, 2013 – 2020.” The report states that the market would attain a value of $42.8 billion by 2020 with a CAGR of 8.1% during the year 2014 – 2020. As of now, software solution dominates the market. However it is mentioned in the report that the cloud based system would register more growth during the forecast period. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20141014/710132 ) The widespread application of…

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Why investors should be concerned about cybersecurity breaches

Liquid Telecom

Major security breaches continue to hit headlines, as businesses are forced to shift from focusing on the imminent nature of threats to calculating their potential financial impact. Companies are investing billions of dollars in cybersecurity, but the average return on spending for security technology is only 14%. Every year the cost of a data breach continues to rise. In spite of this, investors and shareholders don’t react strongly to news of a breach. Target’s stock fell 11% after it revealed it was the victim of one of the largest breaches ever to…

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Russians Implicated In White House Hack After Obama Makes Cybersecurity Executive Order

The same Russian hackers who breached the State Department system for months also gained access to an unclassifed White House computer system, according to a report from CNN. Although the system did not contain classified information, the Russians reportedly had access to the president’s private schedule. The connected cyberattack on the State Department in recent months has been characterized as the “worst ever” hack on a federal agency. The White House is no stranger to attacks from foreign spies. The Chinese have been implicated in several high profile attacks of White House unclassified systems and employee emails. News…

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Cybercriminals Are Misappropriating Businesses’ Web Addresses

As a Result, Customers Can’t Find the Real Companies on the Web Cybercriminals targeting businesses are stealing more than customer passwords and credit-card numbers these days. Some are misappropriating the very Web addresses—or domain names—of the businesses themselves. When Pablo Palatnik of Miami glanced at a Google analytics report showing Web traffic on his office TV monitor one day last month, he was alarmed to discover that traffic to his business website, Shadesdaddy.com, had plunged 80% from its usual level of as many as 10,000 visitors a day. At first,…

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Business spotlight on cybercrime

In the wake of the Sony email hacking case, business expert Rachel Bridge looks at cybercrime and how you can protect your business. Online cybercrime is not just the stuff of sci-fi movies and urban myth. It is very real and it can pose a huge threat to your business. What’s more, contrary to what many people think, cybercrime is just as likely to affect small firms as large ones. Indeed, a survey by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) found that over a 12-month period, 41 per cent of…

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White House: President Obama Announces New Cybersecurity Legislative Proposal and Other Cybersecurity Efforts

Obama unveils cybersecurity proposals: ‘Cyber threats are urgent and growing danger’ Proposed legislation will allow companies to share information with government agencies including NSA, with which White House admitted there were ‘overlapping issues’ “In this interconnected, digital world, there are going to be opportunities for hackers to engage in cyber assaults both in the private sector and the public sector.  Now, our first order of business is making sure that we do everything to harden sites and prevent those kinds of attacks from taking place…But even as we get better,…

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