On December 29, 2016, President Obama issued a new executive order that expands the authority of the US Secretary of Treasury to impose sanctions on individuals and entities for cyber-attacks to maintain cybersecurity reports the Business Advisor. This action marks the first-time sanctions have been imposed under the Cybersecurity Sanctions Program established on April 1, 2015, with the designation of nine entities and individuals. The new executive order specifically sanctioned five entities and four individuals in Russia for cyber operations aimed at the US election. The State Department announced that…
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Banks remains top cybercrime targets globally
As digital technology develops, the business organizations continue to experience more transformations and disruptions exposing themselves to more opportunities and threats. Attacks against the finance industry are becoming increasingly sophisticated and highly targeted. The economic crime has as well gone digital as every sector of commerce digitalizes. According to a U.S. cybersecurity report released by IBM, the financial-services industry ranked third in number of cyberattacks in 2015, after health care and manufacturing. Reports also indicate that there were 2.46 million cyber incidents and 2.11 million victims of cyber crime in…
Read MoreU.S. tech look to Africa for developers
Tech companies founded in the United States are setting up software development centers in Nigeria and Kenya, where a number of young developers has led to growing tech communities. Microsoft has launched its Microsoft 4 Afrika initiative, aiming to help empower African youth, entrepreneurs, developers and others to make their ideas a reality. Steve Case, the AOL founder, and his wife Jean, Generation Investment Management and Sir Richard Branson have provided $19 million to Kenyan pay-as-you-go energy start-up M-KOPA Solar. Andela, which has attracted $24 million of funding from a scheme led by…
Read MoreEuropean Union privacy officials asks Facebook told to stop exploiting WhatsApp data
European Union privacy chiefs said Facebook must stop processing user data from its WhatsApp messaging service while they are investigating the privacy policy changes the company announced in August. The Article 29 Working Party, made up of privacy chiefs from across the 28-nation EU, told Facebook it had “serious concerns” about the sharing of WhatsApp users’ data for purposes that were not included in the terms of service and privacy policy when existing users signed up to the service, according to a statement e-mailed on Friday. European privacy watchdogs don’t…
Read MoreU.S. Federal bank regulators outline new cyber security standards to stem attacks
U.S. bank regulators on Wednesday outlined cyber security standards meant to protect financial markets and consumers from online attacks against the nation’s leading financial firms. Leading banks will be expected to use the most sophisticated anti-hacking tools on the market and to be able to recover from any attack within two hours, said officials briefing reporters on the plan. The rules, which will be finalized after industry input, is meant to raise cyber security to a top priority for corporate executives and boards, according to the banking agencies. Banks with…
Read MoreInterview: Hootsuite’s CEO Lessons from Getting Hacked on Social Media
“Hey, it’s OurMine Team, we are just testing your security, please send us a message.” Earlier this summer, that message was blasted out to my followers on Twitter… only I didn’t send it. I had been hacked. It was embarrassing. I run Hootsuite, a social media management company that prides itself on world-class security for our customers. How could this happen? What did I do wrong? In the following days, I learned that Ev Williams, the co-founder of Twitter, had fallen victim to the same hackers. And not long before that,…
Read MoreAfrica’s banking security in Africa is reaching a tipping point for growing cybercrime risk
Africa’s relative lack of infrastructure is both a blessing and a curse for banks. While access to traditional services is still a challenge, innovation in technology can offer big opportunities. Mobile has become the de facto means of banking in many parts of Africa and, as mobile penetration – particularly smartphone penetration – increases, this is allowing banks to connect with more of the population than ever before, and to do so in a more targeted, personal way. A study looking at trends in banking in sub-Saharan Africa, released in…
Read MoreCyber Crime Predicted To Reach $2 Trillion By 2019
During the last ten years, our lives have changed. The increased usage of the Internet made blurred some lines between the virtual and the real world making some processes faster. Ordinary people are enjoying this change, as life is becoming much easier for them. Large companies and enterprises experience some negative sides of such changes, though. They are preparing for a huge increase in cyber crime. General Crime Numbers Ginni Rometty, the Chairman of IBM Corp, mentioned in his recent interview that cyber crime wave, as they named it couple…
Read More31pc of employees consider themselves the biggest threat to cyber security
Both companies and employees are aware of the damage cyber-attacks can make, and know that employees are the weakest link in a company’s security chain. Those are the results of two separate studies conducted by security firm WinMagic. During the Cloud Security Expo, it released the studies in which it asked 250 IT managers and 1,000 employees about the importance of IT security in the workplace. The data shows that businesses have taken actions to protect themselves following high-profile data breaches, such as the one which happened to TalkTalk. Almost…
Read MoreAndroid app Malware steals two-factor SMS codes, hijacks big Australian banks systems
Millions of customers of Australia’s largest banks are the target of a sophisticated Android attack which steals banking details and thwarts two-factor authentication security. Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, National Australia Bank and ANZ Bank customers are all at risk from the malware which hides on infected devices waiting until users open legitimate banking apps. The malware then superimposes a fake login screen over the top in order to capture usernames and passwords. The malware is designed to mimic 20 mobile banking apps from Australia, New Zealand and Turkey, as well as…
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