Cybersecurity
You’ll never guess what the most common passwords are. Oh, wait, yes you will
Most of you still can't do better than 123456? 123456. admin. password. For years, the IT world has been reminding users not to rely on such predictable passwords. And yet here we are with another study finding that those sorts of quickly-guessable, universally-held-to-be-bad passwords are still the most…
SonicWall fingers state-backed cyber crew for September firewall breach
Spies, not crooks, were behind digital heist – damage stopped at the backups, says US cybersec biz SonicWall has blamed an unnamed, state-sponsored collective for the September break-in that saw cybercriminals rifle through a cache of firewall configuration backups.…
Malware-pwned laptop gifts cybercriminals Nikkei’s Slack
Stolen creds let miscreants waltz into 17K employees' chats, spilling info on staff and partners Japanese media behemoth Nikkei has admitted to a data breach after miscreants slipped into its internal Slack workspace, exposing the personal details of more than 17,000 employees and business partners.…
Why UK businesses are paying ICO millions for password mistakes you’re probably making right now
Strongly-worded emails to staff telling them to be more careful aren't going to cut it anymore Partner Content UK GDPR Article 32 mandates "appropriate security measures". The ICO has defined what that means: multi-million-pound fines for password failures. The violations that trigger them? Small, familiar, and happening in…
Google’s $32B deal for Wiz gets the all-clear from Uncle Sam
Second time's the charm for after Wiz rejected Google's $23B offer last year Google's second attempt to acquire cloud security firm Wiz is going a lot better than the first, with the Department of Justice clearing the $32 billion deal, which ranks as Google's largest-ever acquisition.…
AMD red-faced over random-number bug that kills cryptographic security
Local privileges required to exploit flaw in Ryzen and Epyc CPUs. Some patches available, more on the way AMD will issue a microcode patch for a high-severity vulnerability that could weaken cryptographic keys across Epyc and Ryzen CPUs.…
Attackers abuse Gemini AI to develop ‘Thinking Robot’ malware and data processing agent for spying purposes
Meanwhile, others tried to social-engineer the chatbot itself Nation-state goons and cybercrime rings are experimenting with Gemini to develop a "Thinking Robot" malware module that can rewrite its own code to avoid detection, and build an AI agent that tracks enemies' behavior, according to Google Threat Intelligence Group.…
M&S pegs cyberattack cleanup costs at £136M as profits slump
Retailer's tech systems aren’t down anymore, but the same can’t be said for its rocky financials Marks & Spencer says its April cyberattack will cost around £136 million ($177.2 million) in total.…
Famed software engineer DJB tries Fil-C… and likes what he sees
A ‘three-letter person’ experiments with the new type-safe C, and is impressed Famed mathematician, cryptographer and coder Daniel J. Bernstein has tried out the new type-safe C/C++ compiler, and he's given it a favorable report.…
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s security falls apart amid layoffs
Security program fails to meet federal standards as government cuts drain resources The infosec program run by the US' Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) "is not effective," according to a fresh audit published by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG).…