New Windows 10 Feature Aims to Halt Ransomware
Microsoft is aiming to change the success rate of ransomware with a new security feature in Windows 10 that will define a set of folders that can only be accessed by approved apps. The feature is included in the latest interim build of Windows 10 and it comes at a time when large-scale ransomware campaigns such […]
UK Arrests Four in Tech Support Phone Scam
Police in the U.K. have arrested four people in connection with a fake tech support scam in which callers passed themselves off as representatives of Microsoft or other technology companies. Two men and two women were arrested as part of the investigation by City of London Police and Microsoft into the scheme, which has been […]
Petya-Derived Ransomware Is Acting Like Shamoon
UPDATE–Security researchers are continuing to delve into the details of the latest ransomware outbreak, and have found that the ExPetr ransomware has a number of interesting characteristics that separate it from other variants and raise questions about its purpose. The ExPetr or NotPetya ransomware shares some code and behavior with the older Petya ransomware, but researchers […]
Petya-Like Ransomware Hits Companies Across Europe
A fast-moving ransomware attack has hit a number of companies in several European countries and the United States, the second such widespread ransomware outbreak in as many months. The attack was originally thought to be a new variant of the Petya ransomware, but researchers have said that it appears to be an entirely new ransomware strain. There […]
FCC Ringless Voicemail Petition Is Dead
A company seeking to exempt ringless voicemails from rules that govern the use of robocalls has withdrawn the petition it submitted to the FCC. A marketing firm called All About the Message filed the petition in March, asking the FCC to declare that ringless voicemails aren’t actually calls. The petition contends that because the voicemails don’t […]
Anthem Settles Data Breach Suit for $115 Million
Anthem Inc., the victim of one of the more extensive data breaches in U.S. history, has agreed to pay a settlement of $115 million to consumers affected by the incident. The settlement is believed to be the largest ever to result from a data breach in the U.S. and would end a class-action lawsuit that followed […]
Tech Support, Email Fraud Schemes Top FBI Internet Crime List
Fraudsters are continuing to have quite a bit of success with business email compromise scams. Last year, companies in the United States lost more than $360 million to these schemes, an increase of nearly 50 percent from 2015. The FBI’s 2016 Internet Crime Report, which the bureau’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) released Thursday, includes […]
Flaws in MatrixSSL Leave IoT Devices Open to Attack
Researchers have discovered several flaws in the MatrixSSL TLS stack used in IoT devices, two of which could let an attacker execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable device. MatrixSSL is a small TLS/SSL stack that’s designed for use in embedded systems and other constrained environments. The software can run in low-memory environments, which has made […]
FCC Proposes Massive $120M Fine in Robocall Scheme
The FCC has proposed a $120 million fine for a Florida man who the commission alleges made nearly 100 million illegal robocalls in a three-month period, some of which hit a paging network used by hospitals, EMTs, and doctors, disrupting its service. The investigation into the robocall operation began last year after the FCC received a […]