2016-11-03
Mail & Guardian publication featuring Prof Von Solms:
Internet banking fraud: The scourge of SIM swaps.
2016-08-29
MyBroadband reports:
WhatsApp has updated its privacy policy, allowing it to connect your phone number with Facebook’s systems. This is part of its plan to test ways for people to communicate with businesses.
If you are a WhatsApp user and do not want to share your account information with Facebook, you can take steps to prevent this from happening. You may only have 30 days to react if you have already accepted the new policy.
2016-06-30
Read the article featuring Prof Von Solms, the director of the UJ Centre for Cyber Security, entitled "Cyber criminals make big bucks as security budget cut" as published in The Times – 30 May 2016 – pg.8.
2016-05-27
ITWeb reports:
There is nothing new about the modus operandi used by a brazen criminal gang that made off with R300 million from Standard Bank in Japan.
Security experts say the techniques used in the attack have been used before by both local and international criminal syndicates.
2016-05-03
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists reports on numerous aspects of the recent Panama papers leak.
Access their website to stay up to date on the latest insights.
2016-04-25
The Wall Street Journal reports:
WASHINGTON—The Justice Department on Friday night dropped a court case trying to force Apple Inc. to help authorities open a locked iPhone, adding new uncertainty to the government’s standoff with the technology company over encryption.
In a one-page letter filed with a Brooklyn federal court Friday night, the government said an individual had recently come forward to offer the passcode to the long-locked phone.
2016-03-24
The Wall Street Journal Reports:
DHAKA, Bangladesh— Hackers who last month stole more than $100 million from Bangladesh’s account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York had been remotely monitoring activity at the South Asian nation’s central bank for several weeks and may have breached as many as 32 computers at the bank, a report from private investigators said.
2016-03-14
How Can the DROWN Vulnerability Affect Your Data? This guide from Heimdal Security explains it.
2016-02-23
Cybersecurity incidents more frequent and costly, but budgets decline: PwC, CIO and CSO Global State of Information Security Survey, 2015.
Impact extends to C-suite and boardroom, insider incidents and high-profile crimes increasing.
2016-02-15
Perhaps the most important single thing that small businesses need to know about cyber threats right now is that cybercriminals are actively targeting smaller firms.
2016-02-01
Growing numbers of high profile hacks are forcing enterprises to focus more on security, particularly in the cloud and BYOD environment, says Fortinet.
Perry Hutton, Regional Director for Africa at Fortinet, says high profile cyber attacks this year have dramatically underlined the losses companies face if they don’t effectively secure their networks and websites.
2016-01-25
Resolutions. Everyone makes them but not everyone sticks to them. But when it comes to IT security, organisations cannot afford to be complacent. Here are some changes that are truly worth making this year.
2015-12-07
Since its release, the Cybercrimes and Cybersecurity Bill has come under intense scrutiny for being too general in its approach. As its members are deeply affected by the provisions in the bill, the IAB South Africa has prepared substantial submissions for consideration by government.
While the intentions of the bill are ostensibly to curb the activities of online terrorists and other cybercriminals, the definitions risk inadvertently turning an ordinary user into a criminal.
2015-10-30
COMMITTING cybercrime is a piece of cake for organised crime rings. With just a few clicks on a keypad they can steal millions, secure in the knowledge that there’s little chance of being caught.
"SA is seen as a very safe haven for cybercrime," says Dave Loxton, co-head of forensics at law firm ENSafrica.
2015-10-05
Apple has purged its App Store of a number of apps that expose encrypted traffic via the installation of root certificates. Apple has declined to name the apps.
“Apple has removed a few apps from the App Store that install root certificates that could allow monitoring of data,” Apple said today in a statement on its website. “This monitoring could be used to compromise SSL/TLS security solutions.”
2015-10-05
No, you are not wrong. Yes, there has been a sharp rise in spam SMSes, e-mails and phone calls coming your way.
Mark Smith, CEO of Cognition, formerly known as FoneWorx, believes that companies are making use of the "window period" (the waiting period for the official implementation of Protection of Personal Information Act or Popi) to communicate with as many consumers as possible.
2015-08-31
JOHANNESBURG - South Africa loses more than five-point-eight billion rand to cybercrime annually.
Statistics from the University of Johannesburg reveal that most of this crime takes place in Gauteng.
And that personal information is largely sourced from social networks.
Former U-S fraudster Frank Abagnale is in South Africa to help with the problem.
He's the world’s most famous fraudster and confidence trickster. The film Catch Me If You Can tells his life story.
2015-08-11
Cybercriminals are leveraging the launch of Microsoft’s Windows 10 operating system to trick users into installing a piece of ransomware on their systems.
Since Microsoft announced last week that Windows 10 has become available in 190 countries as a free upgrade, the new operating system has been installed on tens of millions of computers. As with all major announcements, cybercriminals are leveraging news of the free upgrade for their own benefit.
2015-08-03
Woolworths have been made aware of a hoax 'Customer Satisfaction Survey' offering a R6500 Woolworths gift card as a giveaway for completing a survey and sharing the survey with 10 friends.
This 'survey' is circulating via WhatsApp and social media and is not authorised by Woolworths.
2015-07-20
An annual poll How Personal Technology Is Changing Our Lives, which surveyed 12 000 internet users, in 12 countries over 12 months, has found that tech users in South Africa are most concerned about the impact of technology on their privacy.
2015-05-27
The reality of the South African security market today is that arrests and prosecution for cybercrime is low and the country is a prime target for organised crime, which forensic expert Jason Jordaan defined as entities that function as businesses and are driven by the lure of money and power.
2015-03-24
Mobile devices are more popular than ever, especially across the African continent, but their owners still underestimate the danger they might encounter. According to a survey conducted by Kaspersky Lab and B2B International, 28% of users globally know nothing or very little about mobile malware. This ignorance plays into the hands of cybercriminals.
The survey shows that in South Africa, only 58% of Android-based smartphones and 61% of Android tablets are protected by an anti-virus solution, while 33% of smartphones and 40% of tablets locally are not even password-protected.
2015-03-16
Ransomware attacks are getting more agile, varied and widespread, and are increasingly taking aim at businesses of all sizes in all sectors, rather than consumers.
These attacks involve two-part schemes. First, a device is infected with malware that locks the user out or encrypts files so that the user can longer access them. Then a ransom is demanded through an automated message that appears on the device's screen. The user is told he has a limited amount of time to pay the ransom before the device will be wiped clean or the files will be erased.
2015-02-23
As the use of mobile devices continues to skyrocket, so do the number of threats aimed at the platform. Due to their rise in popularity, and the fact that they are almost always carried around wherever we go, mobile devices have also become a target for malicious advertising or 'malvertising'.
Malvertising utilises online advertising channels to infect users and websites with malicious code.
2015-01-26
Allegations that Chinese authorities hacked into Microsoft's Outlook e-mail service are "groundless slander", the official Xinhua news agency quoted Beijing's cyberspace regulator as saying yesterday.
The comments, made by Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) spokesman Jiang Jun, were in response to a Monday report by an online censorship watchdog which said Chinese users of the e-mail service were subject to a hacking attack over the weekend.
2014-11-17
South Africa's Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, commonly known as the Hawks, indicate they will make more arrests after an attempt to defraud the Gautrain Management Agency of up to R800 million was foiled.
On Wednesday, the Hawks arrested an ex-IT staff member at his home in Ga-Rankuwa, north of Pretoria.
2014-10-20
With credit card fraud and Internet scams an ever-present threat across the globe, South African consumers need to be particularly cautious during the run-up to the 2014 festive season.
2014-09-15
This week, a list of nearly five million Gmail addresses paired with passwords appeared online, posted in a Russian Bitcoin security forum.
2014-09-08
SAN FRANCISCO - Facebook on Thursday began rolling out its "privacy checkup" aimed at helping users of the huge social network better manage sharing their information and postings.
The new system uses a blue dinosaur to guide Facebook users through its maze of privacy settings for personal information and for sharing their posts.
2014-08-04
Boston - USB devices such as mice, keyboards and flash drives can be used to hack into personal computers in a potential new class of attacks that evade all known security protections, a top computer researcher revealed on Thursday.
2014-07-21
Lookout has identified what it calls ScarePakage mobile ransomware that not only renders phones inoperable and data inaccessible, but sends users a message that they are being investigated by the FBI in an attempt to extort several hundred dollars via a MoneyPak voucher.
2014-07-14
Cyber criminals are very happy about the febrile atmosphere around the beautiful game right now. For them, the World Cup is a perfect storm of scamming opportunities.
That means trouble for internet users and businesses relying on the tournament for revenues, and should be a warning to be careful who you trust when it comes to football-related online activity.
2014-06-09
If a legitimate email looks like a phishing email, then how are you supposed to spot what is genuine and what isn't? John Shier takes a look.
2014-04-14
The Heartbleed Bug is a serious vulnerability in the popular OpenSSL cryptographic software library. This weakness allows stealing the information protected, under normal conditions, by the SSL/TLS encryption used to secure the Internet.
SSL/TLS provides communication security and privacy over the Internet for applications such as web, email, instant messaging (IM) and some virtual private networks (VPNs).
2014-03-31
Sanral has reset access codes for e-toll users, changing the PIN codes people use to access their e-toll accounts.
This follows the security breach several months ago in which researchers found the e-toll site could be used to gain unauthorised access to any user's details. E-toll operating company ETC has confirmed the update was not related to a new security breach.
Security experts have been clamouring for the agency to tighten security, including resetting passwords, for months, but now that it has finally responded, it has again made elementary security missteps, and those mistakes hint at deeper architectural security issues within the agency's infrastructure.