Was anyone else thinking about cybersecurity this week? Between last week’s major Internet outage, the steady drip of Wiki-leaked emails, and CO-OP’s FraudBuzz webinar featuring information on ransomware, the question of staying safe in cyberspace was front and center in our minds – and in the news.
TOP READ: How the Internet of Things Took Down the Internet
How was your Internet last week? If you were part of the massive outage on Friday, it may be little comfort to know that the attack appears to have been carried out by a zombie army of Internet-connected devices. The distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack overwhelmed servers with data requests that were sent by “hundreds of thousands” of Web cameras, routers and other “things” from the Internet of Things. Okay, now what?
Intel to Put Visa Payments Technology into Connected Devices
As if on cue – and straight from Money2020 in Vegas this week – Visa and Intel are working together to integrate payments security technology into Intel chipsets, enabling device manufacturers to build functionality into their products to create “a more secure payment process for the internet of things (IoT).” After last week’s Internet outage, anything we can do to secure the IoT sounds like a good idea.
This Ransomware Is Now a Top Malware Threat
The total number of ransomware attacks rose by 13 percent in September alone, and the threat of ransomware attacks continues to grow. One particular strain of the cryptographic file-locking malicious software has now risen to become one of the top three most prevalent forms of malware used by hackers and cybercriminals.
Information Sharing Is a Key Defense Against Cyberattacks
A cybersecurity panel at Money2020 discussed challenges facing financial services organizations in preparing for or responding to malicious cyberattacks. Sharing information on ransomware attack management, panelists argued, is a near necessity for financial services organizations.
Think That Email You’re Sending Is Private? Think Again
This election cycle has featured several high-profile email hacks. Whatever you think of the political fallout these have (or haven’t) caused, the prospect of having your email hacked and revealed is scary. Then again, the best defense may be to assume this could happen at any time – because in reality it probably can.
The original article 5 Must-Reads: Staying Safe in Cyberspace can be found on Insight Vault.
