Category: Cyber attack

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Cyber Security

Security Stop-Press : Biggest Cyber Hack In History – Australia’s ‘Optus’

A cyber-attack on Australian telecommunications provider, Optus, may have affected 10 million people, the equivalent of 40% of the country’s population! Customer data reported as stolen in the attack includes names, dates of birth, home addresses, phone, and email contacts, and even the passport and driving licence numbers of around 2.8 million people! Following the…
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How To Protect Yourself From Job Phishing Scams

How To Protect Yourself From Job Phishing Scams

In this article, we look at what ‘job phishing’ is, how it works, and how you can protect yourself from this type of fraud.  What Is Job Phishing?  Job phishing refers to recruitment/employment scams where fraudsters pose as recruitment agents or reputable companies. The fraudsters post fake job descriptions and information about their businesses on…
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Featured Article : The True Cost Of Using Pirated Software

The True Cost Of Using Pirated Software

In this article, we look at how the risks to businesses posed by pirated software can far outweigh the benefits of using it, and how you can protect your business from the true costs of pirated software.  Benefits  On the surface, there appears to be some clear benefits to using pirated software such as acquiring…
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Why we disable SMTP

Why we Disable SMTP for our clients and why you should disable SMTP for your business. First a History lesson – How old is SMTP SMTP stands for “Simple Mail Transfer Protocol” and first appeared in 1982. The purpose of this was to send electronic mail over the internet (email). Little has changed to this…
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Apple, Google and Microsoft In Password Collaboration

Apple, Google and Microsoft In Password Collaboration

Apple, Google and Microsoft have announced that they are joining forces to support a common passwordless sign-in standard that will allow websites and apps to offer consistent, secure and easy sign-ins across devices and platforms.   The Problem With Password-Only   Relying on password-only authentication is known to present many risks and challenges such as managing multiple…
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How To Stop Your Smart Devices From Being Used To Spy On You

How To Stop Your Smart Devices From Being Used To Spy On You

With so many smart devices now all around us in homes and offices, we look here at ways to minimise the risk of having your privacy invaded.    The Internet of Things (IoT)    IoT devices are those devices that are now present in most offices and homes that have a connection to the Internet and are,…
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Mobile Malware Surges By 500%

Tech News : Mobile Malware Surges By 500%

Proofpoint researchers have reported that, starting in early February, there has been a 500 per cent jump in mobile malware delivery attempts in Europe.  Trend  According to the researchers, this rise is in keeping with a trend that has been evident in the last few years where attackers have been increasing their attempts at smishing…
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Ransomware Study : Most UK Firms Pay

Ransomware Study : Most UK Firms Pay

A study by security firm ‘Proofpoint’ has revealed that 82 per cent of UK organisations whose systems were infected by ransomware in 2021 opted to pay the ransom.  Much Higher Than The Global Average  Despite cybersecurity and government agencies warning against paying, Proofpoint’s ‘2022 State of the Phish’ report states that this UK figure for…
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Firms Prepare For The Quantum Apocalypse

Featured Article : Firms Prepare For The ‘Quantum Apocalypse’

In this article, we look at what the ‘quantum apocalypse’ is, and what some businesses are doing to prepare for this threat.  What Is The Quantum Apocalypse?  The so-called ‘quantum apocalypse’ refers to the unspecified point in the future where someone (e.g., threat actors or a foreign power) has a functioning quantum computer that can…
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Study Shows No-One Is Immune From Phishing

Study Shows No-One Is Immune From Phishing

A new report from F-Secure has revealed that the most technically competent staff are just as likely (if not more likely) to fail a phishing test exercise. Phishing Phishing attacks typically involve sending emails that appear to come from a legitimate company/organisation (e.g., a bank) in order to gain an individual’s confidence, so that the…
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Tech Insight : How To Check Your VPN

In this article, we take a look at some of the ways users can assess how good their VPN really is. What Is A VPN? A ‘Virtual Private Network’ (VPN) is used to keep internet activity private, evade censorship / maintain net neutrality and use public Wi-Fi securely (e.g., avoid threats such as ‘man-in-the-middle’ attacks).…
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Tech News : Massive Rise In HTTPS Attacks

The latest “ThreatLabz: The State of Encrypted Attacks,” 2021 report has shown a 300 per cent increase in online attackers using HTTPS to cloak their activities and blend in with other traffic. HTTPS HTTPS, the encrypted version of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), enables secure communication over a computer network, using Transport Layer Security (formerly,…
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