https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/sydney-university-suffers-supply/
A supply chain-related data breach occurred at the university of Sydney where personal information about their international students and people who have applied to the university was accessed. A limited number of international staff and students were impacted by the data breach. The university has no evidence of what kind of information was breached or how many of their students/applicants were compromised. The university had already taken measures into place and contacted relevant cybersecurity authorities and implemented a cybersecurity list of best control measures for the students to follow. The university is ranked among the top 20 in the world which makes it a prime target for attackers to get information about their students and faculty. Luckly the attack had no impact on other universities. The university kept in contact with the students that got their information breached and they kept monitoring their systems.
I am not surprised that “several government bodies” are have banned Tik Tok from staff phones. I don’t believe the App has any business on company phones (in the majority of cases) even prior to this policy under existing Acceptable Use policies.
What about staff that use their personal phones for work? How are companies going to safeguard their information if they do not own the device?
The ransomware attack group LockBit was recently responsible for an attack on Zaun, a UK based manufacturer of fencing systems, which potentially exposed gigabytes of sensitive data relating to the British military. Despite the company’s proclaimed up-to-date network, the attackers were able to find a vulnerable entry point, a machine running Windows 7, and used it to attempt a ransomware attack. Fortunately for Zaun, their cyber security solution prevented any file encryption, but the attackers were still able to download some data, from at least the vulnerable machine and possibly their server. They claim the data which was potentially downloaded included “historic emails, orders, drawings and project files.” In response Zaun has removed the vulnerable machine from their network and claims sensitive data was not breached, and that the data could not be more beneficial to criminals than already publicly available data. However, other sources disagree and claim the data which was stolen could help criminals in accessing British military installations. In the wake of the breach some members of the British parliament have voiced concerns, while Zaun holds firm and says that because they install high security fencing which is visible to the public, it is unlikely that the attackers obtained information which would be considered sensitive. https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/sensitive-data-uk-army-potentially/
Kroll is a risk and financial advisory solutions provider, released a statement on data breach security incident that happened through a successful SIM swapping attack(transfer of someone’s number to another perosn’s) on an employee’s T-Mobile number to access their online accounts and files containing personal information of some bankruptcy claimants.
SIM swapping (aka SIM splitting or simjacking), is a process where a threat actor fraudulently activates a SIM card under their control with a victim’s phone number which makes it possible to intercept SMS messages, voice calls and receive MFA-related messages that control access to online accounts identified or discovered through phishing or social media this way, the threat actor can convince the cellular carrier to port the victims’ phone numbers to one of their own SIM cards.
Lessons Learnt: the frequency of SIM swapping attacks is a reminder for users to reduce the use of SMS-based two-factor authentication (2FA) and switch to phishing-resistant methods such as authenticator apps, codes via email verification to secure online accounts.
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/sydney-university-suffers-supply/
A supply chain-related data breach occurred at the university of Sydney where personal information about their international students and people who have applied to the university was accessed. A limited number of international staff and students were impacted by the data breach. The university has no evidence of what kind of information was breached or how many of their students/applicants were compromised. The university had already taken measures into place and contacted relevant cybersecurity authorities and implemented a cybersecurity list of best control measures for the students to follow. The university is ranked among the top 20 in the world which makes it a prime target for attackers to get information about their students and faculty. Luckly the attack had no impact on other universities. The university kept in contact with the students that got their information breached and they kept monitoring their systems.
https://www.reuters.com/technology/tiktok-hires-britains-ncc-auditing-data-security-2023-09-05/
I am not surprised that “several government bodies” are have banned Tik Tok from staff phones. I don’t believe the App has any business on company phones (in the majority of cases) even prior to this policy under existing Acceptable Use policies.
What about staff that use their personal phones for work? How are companies going to safeguard their information if they do not own the device?
The ransomware attack group LockBit was recently responsible for an attack on Zaun, a UK based manufacturer of fencing systems, which potentially exposed gigabytes of sensitive data relating to the British military. Despite the company’s proclaimed up-to-date network, the attackers were able to find a vulnerable entry point, a machine running Windows 7, and used it to attempt a ransomware attack. Fortunately for Zaun, their cyber security solution prevented any file encryption, but the attackers were still able to download some data, from at least the vulnerable machine and possibly their server. They claim the data which was potentially downloaded included “historic emails, orders, drawings and project files.” In response Zaun has removed the vulnerable machine from their network and claims sensitive data was not breached, and that the data could not be more beneficial to criminals than already publicly available data. However, other sources disagree and claim the data which was stolen could help criminals in accessing British military installations. In the wake of the breach some members of the British parliament have voiced concerns, while Zaun holds firm and says that because they install high security fencing which is visible to the public, it is unlikely that the attackers obtained information which would be considered sensitive.
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/sensitive-data-uk-army-potentially/
https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/gpus-graphic-design-software/
Criminals use bundled installations to get victims to install malware, which can often run secretly in the background and consume only a fraction of available resources.
Kroll Suffers Data Breach: Employee Falls Victim to SIM Swapping Attack
https://thehackernews.com/2023/08/kroll-suffers-data-breach-employee.html
Kroll is a risk and financial advisory solutions provider, released a statement on data breach security incident that happened through a successful SIM swapping attack(transfer of someone’s number to another perosn’s) on an employee’s T-Mobile number to access their online accounts and files containing personal information of some bankruptcy claimants.
SIM swapping (aka SIM splitting or simjacking), is a process where a threat actor fraudulently activates a SIM card under their control with a victim’s phone number which makes it possible to intercept SMS messages, voice calls and receive MFA-related messages that control access to online accounts identified or discovered through phishing or social media this way, the threat actor can convince the cellular carrier to port the victims’ phone numbers to one of their own SIM cards.
Lessons Learnt: the frequency of SIM swapping attacks is a reminder for users to reduce the use of SMS-based two-factor authentication (2FA) and switch to phishing-resistant methods such as authenticator apps, codes via email verification to secure online accounts.