At the end of November, the Marriott hotel chain reported that its guest reservation database had been hacked, an incident possibly affecting up to 500 million people. The system, used to book rooms at Marriott’s Starwood properties, had apparently first been infiltrated in 2014. Information stolen by the hackers includes names, passport numbers, email and…

In 2014 the government in China published its plans for a Social Credit System (SCS). The aim of this highly extensive and indeed intrusive collection of data is described as “raising the honest mentality and credit levels of the entire society”. An emphasis is placed on trust and traditional Chinese values. The SCS is due…

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday upon us once again, both shoppers and retailers are being warned of the dangers facing them during this particularly busy shopping period, as criminals seek to cash in on opportunities offered to them by a combination of customer ignorance and poor cyber-security practices on the part of e-commerce companies.…

Reports have emerged claiming that the NATO exercise that recently took place in north-eastern Finland was disrupted by an attack on the military alliance’s GPS signals. The satellite interference concerned operations in airspace between Kirkenese and Lyngen, a region close to the Russian border. Similar incidents concerning the jamming of signals were also noted in…

In a month that saw the build-up to the US midterm elections, one of the more striking pieces of research revealed that hacker group APT28 had turned its attentions away from interfering with elections in other countries towards cyber-espionage activities and intelligence gathering. Nonetheless, given that this group is connected to Russia, and that they…

The Million Mask March takes place in major cities around the world on 5 November each year. The event was originally started by Anonymous activists in the wake of the 2011 Occupy protests. Supporters of the Anonymous ideals use the Million Mask March as an opportunity to demonstrate against a range of issues: these include…

The murder of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul continues to dominate mainstream media. Khashoggi, who had been highly critical of the Saudi regime, its military actions in Yemen, and in particular Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, had left his home country in September 2017 to settle in Turkey. On…

On 4 October Bloomberg published an article claiming that tiny microchips had been implanted in computer equipment manufactured for a US company in China, with the aim being to steal sensitive data or engage in cyber espionage activities.[1] The microchips were allegedly designed by the People’s Liberation Army before being placed – possibly via bribing…

A lot of time and effort is spent trying to monitor and track some of the Darknet’s ‘key vendors’ – and for good reason. Top players on the underground constitute the most established, popular, reputable and highest-earning actors across a range of different marketplaces and forums. A plethora of different services and products are offered…

This month has seen numerous developments in the malware environment, with APTs changing their tactics, various ransomware evolving rapidly, and Google continuing in its seeming inability to prevent malicious apps hitting the Play Store. The GandCrab ransomware was first detected in January of this year, but we are already onto version 5. This swiftly mutating…

In recent months we have seen an increase in the number of damaging cyber attacks carried out by hacker groups believed to be affiliated with the Iranian state. For example, APT33, a group of hackers linked to the Iranian government, launched a large-scale spear-phishing campaign in July this year, targeting firms in the USA and…