US celebrates National Cyber Security Awareness Month

In the US, the month of October has been designated National Cyber Security Awareness Month, which the whole world can use as a reminder of the importance of vulnerability management.

Some systems ‘remain vulnerable for 3 years’ following attack

Companies that have been subject to an attack could wrongly believe that their systems are secure, when in fact they are still vulnerable to malicious activity.

This is according to a new report from experts at Kaspersky Lab and Outpost 24, who carried out a security audit on a variety of European organisations.

Malware protection to be rolled out by Telstra

The Telstra BigPond network has been upgraded in a bid to protect customers from malware attacks.

After research from the Kindsight Security Labs Malware Report – Q2 2013 showed that as many as ten per cent of home networks are affected by malware, Telstra decided to take steps to enhance vulnerability management.

EnergyAustralia warns of new email scam

EnergyAustralia customers have been warned of an email scam that encourages them to part with financial details.

The hoax email informs them that a payment has been turned down by their bank, before asking them to click on a link.

Experts push for stronger encryption standards

A number of security experts have called for stronger encryption standards after claims that the National Security Agency (NSA) and GCHQ were able to access certain encrypted files.

Reports published in the New York Times and The Guardian said that both agencies were involved in attempts to break encryption codes used to keep private information under guard.

US and UK ‘crack encryption codes’

Intelligence agencies based in the US and UK have reportedly cracked codes used to encrypt personal information used for online services such as banking and email.

Former contractor Edward Snowden revealed the top secret documents that showed that GCHQ and the National Security Agency (NSA) have both used encryption techniques.

Security teams ‘don’t consider how threats work’

Organisations could be at risk of malicious cyber attacks because their security teams do not understand how such threats operate, an expert has said.

In an interview with Computer Weekly, senior technologist at communications and analysis firm Neustar Rodney Joffe said that in many cases, a false sense of security is being created.

Pinterest security flaw uncovered

Pinterest has been made aware of a security flaw that could make the personal details of its users accessible to anyone.

Security researcher Dan Melamed discovered the issue, which makes the email address of anybody on Pinterest visible, simply by providing a username or ID.

NSF makes significant investment in cyber security

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has granted $20 million of funding to three projects that will research cyber security measures.

Farnam Jahanian, NSF's assistant director for computer and information science and engineering, acknowledged that these attacks are one of the "most significant economic and national security challenges facing our nation today".

Cyber security ‘one of fastest growing IT segments’

The cyber security analytics market is likely to grow even further over the next five years, as companies strive to avoid security breaches, research has established.

The Security Analytics Market report from Markets and Markets anticipates that as companies recognise the value of carrying out penetration testing, they will find a need for security-related products.