Cybersecurity Round Up July 2021

There has been a big jump in the number of breaches recorded in July compared with June, with 33,727,641 breaches recorded and 86 security incidents in July 2021. That makes the overall total of security incidents stand at 815 and the total number of breached records at 3,980,757,735. Oxford City Council Data Breach Oxford City […]

‘Pingdemic’ protection: your emergency IT survival kit

In the latest wave of challenges causing businesses to pivot, we have the ‘pingdemic’, with individuals being asked to self-isolate after contact with a positive COVID-19 case. True, the government is proposing a major overhaul to these rules on 16 August 2021, but the question is whether you will be changing your workplace rules too? […]

Microsoft security issue leaves networks at risk

Microsoft has issued an urgent warning to its users to check for and install the “PrintNightmare” security patch if it’s relevant to the network. Organisations such as America’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre have reiterated the warning, as it becomes obvious just how dangerous the vulnerability is. […]

Cybersecurity Round Up June 2021

In June 2021, there was a fairly low number of breaches with 9,780,931 breached records from publicly disclosed security incidents. However, this does come from 106 incidents, which is roughly average for the year. This shows that in most of the cases, the breached organisation did not disclose how much data was compromised: either they […]

Cybersecurity Round Up May 2021

In May 2021, ransomware still dominates the list of data breaches and cyber-attacks this month. Out of 128 publicly disclosed incidents in May 2021, 40% were ransomware attacks. The breached records are much lower compared to April 2021, despite 115,861,330 records being breached, but this can be explained by the fact ransomware attacks do make […]

Does your infrastructure support your PCI compliance?

Following news of the FatFace data breach, which included, among other records, the last four digits of the long number and the three digit security code of customers’ card details, it is clear that PCI compliance is not always achieved, despite UK laws that mandate it. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) […]

Legalese ransomware that makes you pause…

When checking for potential cyber threats and ransomware, many teams are gaining confidence that they’re avoiding the common pitfalls. Things like looking for spelling mistakes, checking the ‘sent from’ email address, hovering over links, and even just sense checking yourself that you know the sender, are all good steps; but what about emails threatening legal […]

Cybersecurity Round Up April 2021

Driven by the widespread issue of ransomware, more than 1 billion records were breached in April 2021, across more than 140 separate incidents. Ransomware currently accounts for roughly 1 in every 3 data breach incidents, so much so that UK authorities are encouraging people to start reporting the incidents to the police rather than paying […]

The rise of double extortion…

As if the idea of a cyberattack wasn’t bad enough, many nefarious actors are now taking advantage of victims with a wave of double extortion sweeping the internet. So what is it, and why should you be worried? The basics Whether you fall foul of ransomware, phishing, credential stuffing, or a good old-fashioned hack, the […]