Scammers are increasingly turning away from spam communications to social networks. The threat is flagged up in the latest report released by security firm Symantec. The report, which aims to identify current and predict future cyber threats by analysing data collected throughout 2011 from more than 64.6 million attack sensors, revealed that there has been [...]

The website of the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) website has been taken offline following a DDoS attack yesterday. The British equivalent of the FBI, SOCA opted to take the site down itself at around 10pm on Wednesday to prevent the repercussions of the distributed denial of service attack affecting other websites within the network. [...]

Cybercriminals have cracked into payment-processing service Global Payments, taking with them the card details of more than 1.5 million customers The American-based company, which processed payments for Visa, Mastercard and American Express, has confirmed the breach but assured users that the problem has been contained. Visa has since removed the company from its list of [...]

Imagine you are waiting for the train, in the queue at the cash machine, or sat on a park bench. Your smartphone is in your hand, you’re fiddling with the latest apps, and you spot a QR code* stuck to the wall. There’s no branding, no text, just a code. Do you scan it? For [...]

Virtual thieves have once again cracked the safe at electronic cash system Bitcoin and stolen thousands of dollars worth of the digital currency. Hackers exploited a vulnerability in cloud service provider Linode that allowed them to steal bitcoins worth more than $200,000. Cybercrims pulled off the heist after obtaining admin passwords for Linode’s network equipment. [...]

This is a guest post by Prof. dr. Paul De Hert, an international human rights expert. The bulk of his work is devoted, but not limited, to criminal law and technology & privacy law. As the data environment (and the technology on which it is based) becomes more complex and touches increasing spheres of life, [...]

Foxconn, Apple’s controversial Chinese supplier, is battling to contain a security breach as hackers join the escalating protest over iPhone factory conditions. Hacker group, Swagg Security leaked the login details of Foxconn’s entire staff on Thursday, including the CEO of Foxconn’s parent company Hon Hai Industries, Terry Gou, and a mass of other sensitive information [...]

M-Commerce is growing faster than fraud-prevention measures, leaving businesses at risk of spiralling fraud costs. A mere 25 per cent of UK online merchants are actively tracking fraud through their mobile sites, and even fewer are tracking electronic crime via their apps, just 16 per cent. The UK Online Fraud Report 2012 claims that despite [...]

Critics have hit out at Google’s decision to merge personal data from Google accounts including YouTube, Gmail, search, Google+ and dozens of their other services. Forthcoming changes to privacy settings, set to take effect from 1 March, will see data shared across all these platforms. Users cannot opt out of the changes. Google claims that [...]

As the FBI took down the file sharing site MegaUpload, arresting its operators for criminal copyright infringement, hacktivists Anonymous fought back with their largest, most sophisticated attack yet. Within minutes of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announcing MegaUpload’s takedown, the hacker-group took down the websites of the DOJ, the Recording Industry Association of America [...]