Security
Only 20% of the Cybersecurity Workforce is Represented by Women
Women represent around 20% of the global cybersecurity workforce, according to a report released by Cybersecurity Ventures. This comes a mere two years after Frost & Sullivan pointed a menacing finger at the 1.8 million vacant cybersecurity seats by 2020 and the dearth of skills and people within an incredibly critical industry. There is a lack of female representation within this industry and a lack of actual skills needed to populate the growing number of requirements from organisations facing a rising cyber threat. The answer, according to Anna Collard, MD of KnowBe4 Africa, is to encourage women to cross-skill and expand into cybersecurity roles and to make the industry more welcoming as a whole. “Cybersecurity isn’t just ones and zeros, it’s the people factor, it’s understanding t...
Numerous High-profile Accounts were Hacked on Twitter
Image sourced from Mission Statement Academy Twitter fell victim to a major hack that saw verified high-profile accounts – belonging to the likes of Elon Musk, Bill Gates, former US President Barack Obama, Jeff Bezos and Apple, amongst others – taken over. Hackers used these accounts to promote a bitcoin scam where users were urged to send $1000 worth of the crypto to a specific account that was listed in the tweet, they would then receive double their payment in return. Image sourced from The Hacker News The unprecedented attack is ‘one of the most widespread and confounding hacks the platform has ever seen’, according to The Verge. Twitter has since confirmed that they are working on the issue and have “locked accounts that were compromised and will restore access to the original account...
Massive Rise in Cybersecurity Awareness Across Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa
Sourced from IDG Connect Nearly two thirds (66%) of remote workers in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa say they are more conscious of their organisation’s cybersecurity policies since the lockdown began – according to a new study from Trend Micro. However, it might be too early for businesses to breathe a sigh of relief, as the results also found that lockdown does not necessarily apply to employee cybersecurity habits, as risky behaviours persist. The study – which questioned over 13,000 remote workers across 27 countries, including 508 respondents from Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa on their attitudes towards corporate cybersecurity and IT policies – indicates that there has never been a better time for companies to take advantage of heightened employee cybersecurity awareness to crack d...
Vodacom Partners with Cloudflare to Enhance Cyber Resilience
The global cybercrime pandemic triggered by COVID-19 may be here to stay making it critical for businesses to ensure they are protected. News reports of the recent local attack of a critical healthcare organisation earlier this month indicate that South African businesses are not exempt, with South Africa seeing a 33% increase in the volume of cyber-attacks since March. To continue to support and protect customers, Vodacom Business has announced that it is partnering with Cloudflare to provide businesses of all sizes, faster, more secure and reliable website services. Cybersecurity has become a major concern for organisations of all sizes as protecting devices, networks, client data and apps is an essential component of doing business in today’s digital world. According to the World Econom...
60% of South African Organisations Fall Victim to Cybersecurity Incidents
Sourced from Forbes Six in ten (60%) organisations from South Africa experienced a public cloud security incident in the last year – including ransomware (25%), other malware (28%), exposed data (28%), compromised accounts (27%), and cryptojacking (26%) – according to The State of Cloud Security 2020 from Sophos. Globally, organisations running multi-cloud environments are greater than 50% more likely to suffer a cloud security incident than those running a single cloud. Europeans suffered the lowest percentage of security incidents in the cloud, an indicator that compliance with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) guidelines are helping to protect organisations from being compromised. India, on the other hand, fared the worst, with 93% of organisations being hit by an attack in the ...
Communal clash between Lungudas in Adamawa, Wajas in Gombe claims score of lives
Scores of people have been reportedly killed, while many were injured in the renewed communal clash between the Lungada ethnic group in Adamawa state and their Wajas counterpart in Gombe state. Locals in the troubled area confirmed that no fewer than ten people were killed in the latest uprising on both sides of the conflict, including a councillor with Guyuk local government council, whose identity is not known as at press time, Adamawa State Police command which has confirmed the reoccurring skirmishes, however, did not confirm the casualty figure. Pique by the reoccurring crisis and the attendant loss of lives and property, Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa state has imposed a 24-hour curfew in Guyuk local government and parts of Lamurde local government predominantly occupied by the W...
What Preinstalled Adware Means for Mobile Users
Following analysis of attacks on mobile devices, cybersecurity researchers at Kaspersky have uncovered that 14.8% of its users who were targeted by malware or adware in 2019 suffered a system partition infection, making the malicious files undeletable. Moreover, pre-installed default applications also play a role here: depending on the brand, the risk of undeletable applications varies from one to five per cent in low-cost devices and goes up to 27% in extreme cases. A system partition infection entails a high level of risk for the users of infected devices, as a security solution cannot access the system directories meaning it cannot remove the malicious files. According to Kaspersky researchers, this type of infection is becoming a more common way to install adware – software creat...
NUJ: Restore military checkpoints on Okene-Lokoja-Abuja road
File Photo Amidst worsening security situation on the Okene-Lokoja-Abuja highway, the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) has called for immediate restoration of military checkpoints on the road. The Chairman of the Kogi State council of NUJ, Adeiza Jimoh, made the appeal in a statement issued in Lokoja on Friday. He said that the incessant kidnappings and killings almost on a daily basis on the road by armed bandits necessitated the call. Mr Jimoh gave kudos to the police for their efforts at checkmating the criminals but said that the establishment of military checkpoints will further reduce criminal activities on the road. According to the statement, the Osara-Irepeni section of the road has become notorious for the activities of the men of the underworld. Newsmen recall that on the same...
3 Things You Should Do if You Suspect Infected Apps On Your Android Device
Sourced from Forbes A new variant of the Joker Dropper and Premium Dialer spyware has been discovered in the Google Play Store, according to researchers at Check Point. Joker, one of the most prominent types of malware for Android, keeps finding its way into Google’s official application market as a result of small changes to its code, which enables it to get past the Play store’s security and vetting barriers. This time, however, researchers report that the malicious actor behind Joker adopted an old technique from the conventional PC threat landscape and used it in the mobile app world to avoid detection by Google. To realize the ability of subscribing app users to premium services without their knowledge or consent, the Joker utilized two main components – the Notification Listener serv...
ESET Research Dissects Evilnum Group as its Malware Targets
ESET researchers are releasing their in-depth analysis into the operations of Evilnum, the APT group behind the Evilnum malware. According to ESET’s telemetry, the targets are financial technology companies – for example, platforms and tools for online trading. Although most of the targets are located in EU countries and the UK, ESET has also seen attacks in countries such as Australia and Canada. The main goal of the Evilnum group is to spy on its targets and obtain financial information from both the targeted companies and their customers. “While this malware has been seen in the wild since at least 2018 and documented previously, little has been published about the group behind it and how it operates,” says Matias Porolli, the ESET researcher leading the investigation into Evilnum. “Its...
25 Apps That Could Steal Your Facebook Credentials
Sourced from Gadgets Now. New and useful apps pop up in app stores every single day – and while it’s the responsibility of the company’s who own and manage the stores to ensure that their users are protected from threats, some rogue apps still manage to slip through the cracks. Anti-fraud firm, Evina has uncovered a number of android apps that are capable of stealing their users’ Facebook credentials. These apps had a new sort of malware embedded within them that would give bad actors an opportunity to target the users. “This new malware is particularly dangerous as it could effectively ruin your online and offline life by making off with the credentials of one of your most valued pieces of digital real estate,” says Evina CEO, David Lotfi. “Worse still, it is embedded in a whole range of ...
Uplogix Supports Remote Network Management with Optimal Security
During this global pandemic, network security and reliability is more critical than ever – IT managers need to know that their network is locked down inside and out, and be able to prove it. With the average cost of a security breach increasing annually, all organisations need reliable network security. At the same time, there has been a global rise in cybersecurity incidents, including in South Africa, simply because more people than ever before have been working from home while practising social distancing. Risna Steenkamp, General Manager: ESM at value-added distributor Networks Unlimited Africa, explains, “Employees around the globe had to transition from an on-premises work environment to remote working, and organisations had to adapt their networks accordingly – many of them in a rel...
