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Two well-publicised issues concerning mobile phone use have emerged over the last week. First, it was reported that WhatsApp had discovered a vulnerability that allowed users’ phones to be infected with the Pegasus spyware, surveillance software that was developed by NSO Group, an Israeli cyber intelligence company. The spyware was designed for use on iOS…
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On 1 May 2019, Gavin Williamson was unceremoniously sacked from his post as the UK’s Secretary of State for Defence, after Prime Minister Theresa May concluded that he was responsible for leaking details from a National Security Council (NSC) meeting about the possible involvement of Chinese telecoms company Huawei in the development of the UK’s…
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On 11 April 2019, Julian Assange, the co-founder of WikiLeaks, was arrested by British police and removed from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. He had been living there for the last seven years: he took refuge to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he was wanted for questioning on sexual assault charges. Although the Swedish authorities…
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On 17 April, the electorate in Indonesia will go to the polls to vote in presidential, parliamentary and regional elections. With more than 190 million eligible voters and five ballot papers per person, this is one of the most complex elections in history. The vote for the country’s leader pits the serving president, Joko Widodo…
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That North Korean state-sponsored hacker groups have been particularly active in carrying out successful and highly lucrative cyber attacks against a variety of organisations around the world should come as no surprise. In a reclusive country ruled by an oppressive regime, these skilled hackers have been charged both with stealing commercial or military information of…
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In the last couple of weeks we have seen some worrying developments in the dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, a region of the Indian sub-continent that has been the subject of territorial claims and military clashes since both countries attained independence from Great Britain in 1947. The first war over it broke out…
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The Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison, confirmed last week that the network of the country’s parliament had been hit by a cyber attack, possibly launched by a “sophisticated state actor”. The Liberal, Labor and Nationals parties were also targeted some weeks ago. With federal elections due to take place in May, there were concerns…
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Threat actors are targeting SMEs with ransomware attacks more than ever before. We are seeing a broad range of organisations – universities, small IT companies, law and marketing firms – hit by the malware. There appears to be a distinct shift from “spray and pray” ransomware operations to a more strategic approach: attackers are gaining…
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Election Background Approximately 190 million Indonesians will head to the polls on 17 April for the 2019 presidential elections. They will choose a President and Vice-President, alongside 136 members of the Regions House, 575 members of the House of Representative, 2,207 provincial MPs and 17,610 local councillors. The election will be fought broadly around three…
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In December 2018, Italian oil services company Saipem reported that it had been hit by a cyber attack mostly targeting its servers in the Middle East, namely the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Impacted servers were quickly shut down, and no data was thought to have been stolen. Fortunately, it was possible to restore all…
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Hacktivists associated with the Anonymous collective have been quick to pick up on the recent news of civil unrest in two African countries, Sudan and Zimbabwe, where protesters have taken to the streets following a sharp increase in food and fuel prices. In both cases, human rights groups and other critics have accused the security…
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In December 2018, President Donald Trump announced a partial shutdown of the US government, leaving 800,000 ‘non-essential’ workers unpaid. They range from security personnel at airports and staff at national parks through to employees responsible for the operation and maintenance of various federal or state websites. The government shutdown has been implemented as part of…