9.4 million clients affected in massive Cathy Pacific hack

Cathay Pacific Airways, Asia’s biggest international carrier, said a hacker gained access to information on about 9.4 million passengers, the third major global airline to report a data breach this year. The stock fell to the lowest level in more than nine years.

The Hong Kong-based carrier discovered suspicious activity on its network in March and confirmed the unauthorised access to some personal data in May, it said late on Wednesday. There’s no evidence any information has been misused and flight safety hasn’t been compromised, it said.

THE TINY CHIP THAT POWERS UP PIXEL 3 SECURITY

THE GOOGLE PIXEL 3 has all the betterments you would expect from a flashy flagship smartphone: great camera, zippy processor, smarter AI. It also, though, comes with an unexpected bonus, one that works so deeply in the background you’ll likely never even know it’s there. The Titan M chip may be small and discreet, but it helps make the Pixel 3 and its beefier sibling, the Pixel 3 XL, among the most secure smartphones you can buy.

The Titan M draws inspiration from the Titan chip that helps safeguard Google servers, and while they differ some in the details—the Titan M draws much less power, for instance, so as not to tax your battery—they both share the task of protecting hardware against the most sophisticated, and devastating, attacks. And because it sits entirely apart from the Pixel 3's main processor, it helps cordon off the most sensitive data your smartphone holds.

How PSD2 and Open Banking will shape the future of payments

I have spent a lot of time at FinTech conferences over the last few years contemplating the impact of PayTech, RegTech, LendTech – and everything in between – on the future of the financial services industry.

While these conferences are often long on vision, they can sometimes be rather short on reality and it is usually at this point of confluence where the importance of good old regulation comes into play.

New Xbash Malware: A Deadly Fusion of Ransomware, Botnet, Cryptominer

With cryptocurrency once again making the headlines, a new malware called Xbash has been found at Palo Alto Networks by the researchers. The malware is reported to be a deadly fusion of botnet, ransomware and cryptocurrency mining software.

The probable targets of Xbash are – servers running on Windows or Linux, it attacks poorly protected systems with weak passwords or devices functioning with unpatched known vulnerabilities.

Household appliance brand totally SHUTS DOWN following ‘targeted HACK’

A POPULAR Italian appliance brand revealed it was forced to “totally shut down systems” to safeguard customers after a “targeted hack”.

Smeg UK, a premium Italian brand, said it had a team of investigators working on the issue.

The company had urged its customers to be “patient” while they work to resolve the problem.

It is understood the cyber attack occurred earlier this week.

A statement from the company said: "Unfortunately we have been the victim of a targeted cyber attack and as such have taken immediate steps to totally shut our systems down to protect our customers and ourselves.

No.1 Adware Removal Tool On Apple App Store Caught Spying On Mac Users

A highly popular top-tier app in Apple's Mac App Store that's designed to protect its users from adware and malware threats has been, ironically, found surreptitiously stealing their browsing history without their consent, and sending it to a server in China.

What's more concerning? Even after Apple was warned a month ago, the company did not take any action against the app.

The app in question is "Adware Doctor," the Mac App Store No. 1 paid utility and also ranked as the fourth most popular paid app on the store, which sells for $4.99 and markets itself to be the "best app" to prevent "malware and malicious files from infecting your Mac."

Botnet activity in H1 2018: Multifunctional bots becoming more widespread

http://www.itnewsafrica.com/2018/08/botnet-activity-in-h1-2018-multifunctional-bots-becoming-more-widespread/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Kaspersky Lab researchers have published a report on botnet activity in the first half of 2018, analysing more than 150 malware families and their modifications circulating through 60,000 botnets around the world. One of the most remarkable things uncovered by the research was growing international demand for multifunctional malware that is not designed for specific purposes but is flexible enough to perform almost any task.

Botnets – nets of compromised devices used in criminal activity – are harnessed by criminals to spread malware and facilitate DDoS and spam attacks. Using Kaspersky Lab’s Botnet Tracking technology, the company’s researchers continuously monitor botnet activity to prevent forthcoming attacks, or to nip a new type of banker Trojan in the bud.  The technology works by emulating a compromised device, trapping the commands received from threat actors that are using the botnets to distribute malware.  This provides the researchers with valuable malware samples and statistics.

Eir’s Customer Data of 37,000 Clients Exposed After a Theft of a Laptop

he personal data of more than 37,000 Eir customers has been exposed includes the names, Email address, phones numbers and account numbers. Eir is a fixed, mobile, broadband telecommunications company based in Ireland.

According to a report released by the company, no financial data was exposed in the breach and the company has also reported to the Protection Commissioner. The stolen data was used by a third party in a targeted attack.

16-Year-Old Teen Hacked Apple Servers, Stole 90GB of Secure Files

Well, there's something quite embarrassing for Apple fans.

Though Apple servers are widely believed to be unhackable, a 16-year-old high school student proved that nothing is impossible.

The teenager from Melbourne, Australia, managed to break into Apple servers and downloaded some 90GB of secure files, including extremely secure authorized keys used to grant login access to users, as well as access multiple user accounts.

Belarus “shame scam” hits South Africa

A class of extortion scam which is known as the “Belarus Phishing Expedition” has reared its head in South Africa.

It attempts to trick people into paying money to prevent embarrassing information about them appearing online.

The scam requires a con-artist to trick you into believing that they have compromising information about you, and that they will send it to your friends and family unless you pay them.

The Dark Web Market: The Cost Of Malware, Exploits And Services

You may have an inkling about what goes on in the dark web. In case you do not know already, the dark web is the part of the internet not indexed by search engines. It therefore requires special software to access it’s content. The dark web market is a spot for the buying and selling of illicit materials. Forget drugs and weapons for now though, let’s focus on malicious software and services. Users with bad intent are trading these, and making a lot of money out of it.

A recent report by Positive Technologies, a security firm, highlights the flourishing dark web market. The report is based off 25 dark web trading platforms with over 3 million users. Over 10000 ads were analyzed. Interesting results were drawn.