A scam letter! Warn your vulnerable loved ones to be on their guard

The good news is that if scammers are having to use techniques like this to get in front of potential victims, anti-spam defences and user awareness about email scams must be better than ever.

The bad news is that if such letters continue to be sent, someone somewhere obviously thinks scams like this can still make them a tidy profit.

Porn-wielding Zoom bombers disrupt Twitter hack court hearing

Uh-oh… someone didn’t lock their Zoom meeting down properly. That’s probably particularly important when the person charged is an alleged hacker.

Twitter says a “phone spear phishing” attack helped hackers – what’s that?

What’s a phone spear phishing attack? Twitter shares some more details related to its serious security breach earlier this month which saw celebrity accounts tweeting a cryptocurrency scam.

Zoom bug meant attackers could brute force their way into password-protected meetings

Zoom has patched a security hole that could have allowed attackers to break their way into password-protected private calls.

Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog.

Thousands of websites at risk from critical WordPress commenting plugin vulnerability

A critical vulnerability in a third-party comments plugin installed on over 70,000 websites running WordPress could allow hackers to execute malicious code remotely.

If you’re using the wpDIscuz commenting plugin, make sure you’ve kept it up to date – or your website might be hijacked… or wiped.

Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog.

Bank of Ireland fined €1.66 million after being tricked by fraudster

One of Ireland’s largest banks, Bank of Ireland, has been fined almost €1.7 million after regulators discovered it had failed to inform financial regulators and the police after a fraudster tricked them into transferring funds from a client’s account.

Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog.

Garmin staggers back online after ransomware attack

Garmin’s online services are beginning to come back to life after it was hit badly by ransomware last week.

But did it pay a ransom to its attackers or not?

Garmin knocked out by ransomware attack

Garmin, the wearable tech company famous for its GPS fitness trackers and activity smartwatches, is suffering a global outage – and ransomware appears to be to blame.

A free iPhone from Apple? It’s possible, but there are some catches

Who wouldn’t want the latest and greatest iPhone for free?

Well, if you’re a security researcher then you might be able to get just that…

UK Government chose not to investigate if Russian hackers interfered in Brexit referendum, report reveals

No-one in Government knew if Russia had interfered in the EU vote, and they actively avoided any effort to ask questions to find out…

Insecure IoT devices could be banned and destroyed if they fail to meet UK security standards

IoT devices could be banned from sale and destroyed if they fail to meet basic security standards, according to proposals put forward by the UK Government.

Read more in my article on the Bitdefender BOX blog.

“Secure in your thoughts” – malware memories and brain passwords in the Stroke of Genius podcast

I’m in the latest episode of the “Stroke of Genius” podcast, which looks at passwords and how researchers are exploring ways to use brain patterns as a way to unlock devices.

I’m on hand to describe the workings of some notorious password-stealing malware, and also share some stories of how computer games helped me get a job in the cybersecurity industry.

Cosmic Lynx: The highly-professional cybercrime gang scamming businesses out of millions of dollars

Things just got serious.

Business Email Compromise is no longer solely the province of chancers. Organised criminal gangs with a high level of professionalism have seen the opportunity and seized it.

Read more in my article on the Tripwire State of Security blog.