PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
This week we find out why malvertising is on the rise, how secure the NHS is against cybercrime, and more.
SophosLabs predicts that malvertising will become the most commonly used vehicle for cyber criminals to infect your computer in 2016. This is where usually-trustworthy sites temporarily go rogue because one of the ads they display turns out to be infected, and tries to foist malware or potentially unwanted content on your computer.
Even Forbes was the victim of a malvertising attack. After asking readers to turn off their adblocker to display the article, and protect its ‘free content’ revenue stream, many were infected with malware from disabling the all-important adblocker, which ultimately improves security from these attacks.
SophosLabs has revealed that there was well-over 100 different ad-serving domains that Forbes uses on repeat visits, and warns users that turning off your adblocker is much riskier than you actually think.
Sophos has also announced the results of a survey into IT security levels within the NHS. It revealed there is a gap between the perceived strength of IT security measures in the NHS, and the actual level of IT security built into NHS networks.
The research conducted by Vanson Bourne surveyed 250 NHS-employed CIOs, CTOs and IT managers and found that 76 per cent of NHS organisations believe they are protected against cybercrime, and 72 percent claim data loss is their biggest concern in terms of IT security.
Only 10 per cent state that encryption is well established within their organisation.
Meanwhile, Symantec found that financially motivated attackers are sending social-engineering emails to SMBs in India, the UK, and US in order to deliver Backdoor.Breut and Trojan.Nancrat.
The attackers use social engineering techniques and publicly available Remote Access Trojans (RATs) to gain access to victims’ computers and transfer money to their accounts.
Also this week, AIIM’s new report has found that organisations are struggling to address data privacy and security, with 25 per cent of firms not encrypting their most sensitive data.
The new report revealed that in the last 12 months, 26 per cent of organisations suffered loss or exposure of customer data, with 18 per cent losing employee data. As a consequence, 10 per cent received action or fines from a regulator, 25 per cent saw a disruption to business and 18 per cent a loss of customer trust.
In other news
– WatchGuard has successfully overcome 1.5 metre, rock-solid walls at Portsmouth Grammar School to deliver strong Wi-Fi in over 300 rooms.
– Kaspersky has teamed up with WISeKey to launch a secure mobile app that keeps passwords in an encrypted vault to protect the user’s personal and valuable information.
Image source: Shutterstock
