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The Swedish data breach attack and fraud trial

Swedish prosecutors initiated a huge trial after a number of private and public organisations were hacked. Eight people are reportedly standing on trial for the criminal charges that saw at least 40 million Swedish kronor (£3.6 million) stolen or mishandled.

If convicted, the alleged perpetrators could face eight years in jail for their criminal conduct. The exact number of victims has not been confirmed.

The criminal hacker group reportedly hijacked computers and set up social engineering attacks to steal money from a number of organisations and individuals. The Swedish Prison and Probation Service was hit by a breach, along with 20 companies, four banks, a number of law firms, and private individuals also.
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Emergency services upgrade to tougher Samsung smartphones

The British government have struck a £210 million deal with South Korean technology giant, Samsung, to arm its emergency services with custom toughened smartphones.

Britain’s police, paramedics and fire crews will be supplied with Samsung smartphones to carry out their jobs more easily and efficiently. For £210 million, Samsung will provide the services with 250,000 smartphones on a three-year deal. These devices are said to be water-resistant and will be connected to 4G internet.
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Despite data breaches spike most U.K. businesses are confident in preparedness of a breach

This year has seen some of the biggest data breaches and hacks ever seen. Only this summer we witnessed NHS computers attacked by malware demanding a ransom, forcing many hospitals and surgeries to practically shut down across the U.K.

The business sector has also suffered their fair amount of data breaches this year as well. Experts are forever telling us that cybercriminals continue to evolve their techniques, but despite these warnings, businesses are reportedly “gravely optimistic about their ability to deter and cope with malicious attacks.”

Its hardly convincing, is it?
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HBO to produce multiple endings for Game of Thrones series to throw off leakers

Is this what we have to do nowadays to prevent the problems caused by leaks and hacks? Is this really what we need to stoop to?

It seems so…

The popular HBO network was recently hacked and had an incredible 1.5 terabytes of unreleased footage, scripts and other sensitive documents leaked. In a bid to prevent spoilers from being released, HBO are reportedly creating multiple endings to the popular TV show, Game of Thrones; and who can blame them, I guess?
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HBO files stolen in colossal cyberattack

On 27^th July 2017, cybercriminals reportedly hacked their way into HBO’s database, stealing a gigantic 1.5 terabytes of data.

HBO (full name The Home Box Office) produces some of the world’s best known and critically acclaimed TV ‘series, documentaries, movies, sporting events’ and more. The stolen data includes video footage, internal documents and emails.

So far, no ransom has been demanded for the safe return of the data, leading the company to fear the worst: leaks.
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Cyber threats: are they being taken seriously?

Cybercrime is no longer a high-tech fantasy phenomenon exclusive to science-fiction movies; it’s real and it needs to be dealt with!

Cyber-attacks can cause an incredible amount of damage that extends far and wide with no tangible end. Unlike a broken window that can be fixed, or stolen money that can be recovered in one way or another, stolen data from a malicious hacking can cause an insurmountable list of problems. Since it’s not tangible, the information can be copied and spread around the world at a click of a button.
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Avanti self-service food vending kiosks hacked

U.S. payment kiosk vendor, Avanti Markets, recently fell victim to a malware scam. The U.S. kiosk vendor’s innovation is to take away counter services and replace them with an all-serving vending machine that covers whole sandwiches, fruit, drinks and junk food with one payment system.
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Boomerang Video Ltd fined £60,000 by the ICO for compromising user data over a cyberattack

Boomerang Video Ltd owns and controls an online website where customers can rent or buy video games through their payment web application. Users log in and have a choice of video games for various consoles that are physically sent to them and then returned to their warehouse after the customer has finished playing the game.

The online platform requires certain information for a customer to sign up to their services, including a username, password and bank details to pay the monthly subscription fee.

Unfortunately, their app was targeted in a cyberattack and was successfully hacked in December of 2014.
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Is “military-grade” cyber-security required to combat data breaches?

Data breaches are at an ‘all-time high’. In this modern world where most things are done electronically and are connected to the internet, without sufficient cyber-security, our data is exposed to cybercriminals who can steal our money, spread our personal information around, and wreak havoc with our identities.

Whilst many encourage development of new applications and innovative software to help us share information at a click of a button, and pay our bills with a swipe of a finger, cyber-security is falling behind.

With the growing trend of breaches, what can we do to fully protect ourselves? Do we all need “military-grade” protection like our armed forced and government intelligence agencies do?
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Gloucester City Council fined £100,000 for “allowing” Heartbleed cyber-attack

Gloucester City Council have let down employees after cyber-attackers accessed their personal details. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has imposed a monetary penalty of £100,000 for their reportedly lax attitude.

On 7^th April 2014, there was the vulnerability known as ‘Heartbleed’ which gathered huge media attention. The vulnerability was quickly addressed as the affected software (‘OpenSSL’) was released which fixed the vulnerability. Unfortunately, the vulnerability was overlooked as Gloucester City Council was in the process of outsourcing its IT services to a third party company on 1^st May 2014.
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