Pizza Hut Australia has sent data breach notifications to 193,000 customers after a third party accessed a database containing personal and transactional information.
Cyber Security
Cyber criminals, state-sponsored hackers and even the occasional disgruntled employee are constantly looking to gain unauthorized access for a variety of purposes: theft of money, cyber espionage, personal information for sale or for use in scams, and damage to critical infrastructure for just a few of the most common.
So how does an organization mitigate an entire world full of continual cyber attacks? Just as buildings have a number of necessary elements of physical security: access control, cameras, alarms and so on; there are similar key elements of cyber security that are absolutely vital for just about any modern business.
It starts with identifying and closing the most common doors that attackers use. For example, phishing attacks on employees are far and away the most common initial point of entry. The breach of even a low-level employee account can quickly turn into an escalation in access privileges and the ability to reach sensitive information. This is also true of smart devices, which are generally more poorly secured than computers and phones.
Whatever new technologies are adopted, social engineering will evolve in parallel and find work arounds. Even as these security defenses mature, it will always be easier to hack a human than hack a system.
Only 55% of the organizations surveyed are carrying any cyber insurance at all. And of those that are insured, just under 20% have more than $600,000 in coverage; not enough to meet the usual ransomware payment, let alone the potential cleanup costs.
There is still a gap between the need and resources available to solve the cybersecurity problem. Training the existing workforce solves part of the problem, but long term, the solution lies with the younger generation.
As organizations increase their smartphone, laptop, tablet, and other mobile device usage, they're also increasing their risk across these thousands and sometimes hundreds of thousands of endpoints.
US intelligence agencies have issued a public warning indicating that APT groups have developed a "mutli-tool" malware kit that targets a commonly used range of industrial control systems.
Numerous recent sources have been indicating a resurgence for ransomware in 2023, and perhaps the best evidence yet comes from a new Chainalysis report: for the first time ever, global ransomware payments topped over $1 billion in cryptocurrency.
LabMD may have won an appeals case against the FTC, arguing that regulations regarding their cyber security practices were too vague to allow for prosecution, but every organization needs to be warned that the FTC could be coming for you next.
Recent letters sent out by FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson were directed to tech companies and warned against watering down privacy protections or censoring their products due to pressure by foreign governments.
A joint advisory by U.S. federal agencies warns of Iranian-affiliated cyber attacks on critical infrastructure, including energy, water, and government sectors.










