Tuesday, 1 November 2016

Cyber Security Roundup for October 2016

Cyber security experts have long predicted that thousands of vulnerable Internet of Things (IoT) devices such as internet-connected CCTV systems would be hacked on mass and directed to perform huge DDoS attacks. That’s exactly what happened on 21st October when 152,000 IoT devices infected with malware were remote controlled by hackers and then used to orchestrate a 1Tb DDoS attack, the largest in history. A tsunami of network traffic was directed at a company called Dyn, a major domain name registrar, and it impacted their client’s web services, including Twitter, Yammer, PayPal, Starbucks, The Guardian, PlayStation, Wix, CNN, Spotify, Github, Weebly and Reddit.

Those IoT developers may want to read up on my IoT guidance on the IBM developersWorks website - Combating IoT cyber threats Top security best practices for IoT applications

The UK National Cyber Security Centre HQ went operational, which is part of the UK government's 5 year £1.9 billion cyber defence strategy,  a much-needed investment to help safeguard the UK's digital economy from cyber attacks during these uncertain economic times for the country.

Ransomware continues to cause problems, especially within NHS, but on the flipside the https://www.nomoreransom.org/ website continues to be supported, with site providing excellent advice to both home users and businesses.  I have even added a separate Ransomware Help section on my own website - https://itsecurityexpert.co.uk/en/securityhelp/ransomware-help

A couple of surveys show UK businesses are still struggling to understand what they need to do in order to comply with new strict General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which comes into force in May 2018 despite brexit. I plan to do a blog post providing business help the GDPR in the coming weeks.

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