Global Cyber News Digest

Sprint Data Breach Exposes Customers to Unknown Attackers; Will This Impact the T-Mobile Merger?

Source: CPO Magazine
By: Scott Ikeda
Published: July 25, 2019

* Some Sprint customers received an unpleasant surprise in the mail last week as the company sent out notification of a data breach to an undisclosed amount of network users.
* Hackers gained access to customer's online logins and had the ability to see all of the data visible in those accounts.

Thwart the pressing threat of RDP password attacks

Source: HelpNetSecurity
By: Zeljka Zorz
Published: July 23, 2019

* How long does it takes for Internet-facing, RDP-enabled computers to come under attack? In some cases, a few minutes. In most, less than 24 hours.
* "In recent years, criminals deploying targeted ransomware like BitPaymer, Ryuk, Matrix, and SamSam have almost completely abandoned other methods of network ingress in favor of using RDP," say Sophos researchers Matt Boddy, Ben Jones, and Mark Stockley.

Lancaster University students' data stolen in cyber-attack

Source: The Guardian
By: FNU LNU
Published: July 23, 2019

* Student data has been stolen in a "sophisticated and malicious" cyber-attack on a university.
* Records and ID documents of some Lancaster University students were accessed in the phishing attack and fraudulent invoices were sent to undergraduate applicants, a spokesman for the university said.

LooCipher Ransomware Decryptor Gets Your Files Back for Free

Source: Bleeping Computer
By: Lawrence Abrams
Published: July 22, 2019

* A decryptor for the LooCipher Ransomware has been released by Emsisoft that allows victims to decrypt their files for free.
* LooCipher is installed through malicious Word documents that download the executable and execute it. Once executed, the ransomware will encrypt a victim's data and append the .lcphr extension to encrypted file's names.

Huawei secretly helped North Korea build, maintain wireless network

Source: Reuters
By: FNU LNU
Published: July 22, 2019

* Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, the Chinese company put on a U.S. blacklist because of national security concerns, secretly helped North Korea build and maintain its commercial wireless network, the Washington Post reported on Monday, citing sources and internal documents.
* Sources briefed on the matter confirmed the Commerce Department has been investigating Huawei since 2016 and is reviewing whether the company violated export control rules in relation to sanctions on North Korea.

Ransomware attacks: What higher education institutions need to know

Source: JD Supra
By: Katie Wendel
Published: July 22, 2019

* The latest university cyberattack has reignited the discussion of internet and data safety in higher education.
* Educational institutions have been shown to have 10 times the rate of ransomware infections found in the finance industry and 3 times the rate of healthcare organizations.

Why Accounting Firms Should be Practicing Cyber Wellness

Source: Accounting Web
By: David X. Martin
Published: July 22, 2019

* When it comes to cyber security, it's no longer a question if your firm will be attacked - it's a question of when. This article is a brief introduction to the concept of cyber-wellness for accounting firms.
* As an accounting professional, you and your staff have access to highly sensitive data.

Leaked Emails Show Frantic Response to Border Patrol Data Breach

Source: Vice
By: Joseph Cox
Published: July 22, 2019

* When a hacker publicly dumped information stolen from one of its license plate scanning contractors called Perceptics, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) needed to analyze the data. Fast.
* The hacker had stolen a wealth of emails, images of travelers, and internal documents from Perceptics, a company that makes license plate scanners and other technology that is used at the US-Mexico border and on highways around the country.

Crypto-attacks are rising in Asia - and cybersecurity AI may be the best way to fight the threat: Darktrace

Source: Business Insider
By: Jonathan Loh
Published: July 22, 2019

* In the realm of cryptocurrency, the dangers of clandestine cyber attacks that target and siphon valuable assets may not always be clear - but they are present.
* From January to May this year, UK-based cybersecurity start-up Darktrace detected a 78 per cent growth in the frequency of under-radar crypto-jacking threats and a total of 1,313 crypto-mining incidents across the world.

New Cyber Attack Trends Report Reveals That Digital Criminals Made Off With $45 Billion in 2018

Source: CPO Magazine
By: Scott Ikeda
Published: July 22, 2019

* A new report on cyber attack trends that combines information from a number of high-level sources has just been released, and it reveals a startling amount of cyber crime growth.
* The report revealed that cyber crime became a $45 billion industry in 2018, up tens of billions of dollars from the previous year.