The Evolving Ransomware Threat


Ransomware has become a serious threat in recent years, with thousands of new variants surfacing in 2016 alone. This is really bad news for system administrators, as computers infected with ransomware are typically locked down until cyber criminals are given a hefty sum to unlock encrypted files. Disturbingly, IDG recently confirmed the existence of a new file-encrypting ransomware program f... » read more

How Ransomware Threatens Unsecured Systems


Cyber criminals typically use ransomware to lock systems and encrypt files, effectively denying access to data until payment is remitted. Unsurprisingly, ransomware payments for 2016 were estimated to hit a billion dollars, with some businesses paying considerable sums to unlock their data. Cyber criminals continue to set their sights on a wide range of targets, including CCTV cameras, schools,... » read more

Will 2017 Be The Year Of DDoS?


Forrester Research sees a rough year ahead for cyber security. Indeed, targeted espionage, ransomware, denial of service, privacy breaches and more are expected to escalate in 2017. In addition, Forrester Researcher analysts predict that more than 500,000 Internet of Things (IoT) devices will be compromised in 2017. Perhaps not surprisingly, IDC analyst Kevin Lonergan recently warned that Io... » read more

Incorporating IoT Security At The Design Phase


The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has outlined six Strategic Principles for securing the Internet of Things. Perhaps the most important of these principles is the concept of implementing security at the design phase, with the DHS recommending the use of hardware that incorporates security features to strengthen the protection and integrity of a device. This includes leveraging comp... » read more

Dyn DDoS Attack Reboots IoT Security


In mid-October, cyber criminals targeted Internet infrastructure company Dyn with a “massive and sustained” DDoS attack that focused on the company’s DNS infrastructure. The cyber offensive disrupted access to a number of major sites including Twitter, Amazon, Tumblr, Reddit, Spotify and Netflix. Perhaps not surprisingly, the massive DDoS attack was conducted with the help of various hija... » read more

DDoS Attacks Highlight Need For IoT Security


A massive wave of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks executed against security researchers and hosting companies has captured headlines over the past few weeks. For example, OVH was targeted by two concurrent DDoS attacks at a combined bandwidth of almost 1 terabit per second, with one attack peaking at 799Gbps. According to reports, the attacks centered on Minecraft servers hosted... » read more

Designing Automotive Security For Connected Vehicles


The general concept of basic automotive security has been around for a number of years. Nevertheless, its scale and scope is rapidly evolving, with new classes of vulnerabilities brought to the fore as more and more electronic systems go online. Put simply, the automotive industry is connecting systems that weren’t originally designed to be part of the rapidly burgeoning Internet of Things (I... » read more

Exploring System Architectures For Data-Intensive Applications


The exponential growth of digital data is being driven by a number of factors, including the burgeoning Internet of Things (IoT) and an increased reliance on complex analytics extracted from extremely large data sets. Perhaps not surprisingly, IDC analysts see digital data doubling roughly every two years. This dramatic growth continues to challenge, and in some cases, even outpace industry cap... » read more

The Challenges Of IoT Security


In 1903, magician and inventor Nevil Maskelyne disrupted a public demonstration of Marconi's purportedly secure wireless telegraphy technology by sending insulting Morse code messages through the auditorium’s projector. Although Maskelyne’s “Gray Hat” stunt is now only a distant memory, industry experts are still grappling with the challenge of securing new technology well over a ce... » read more

End-To-End Security


As the things we use every day get both connected and smarter, the sensitivity and potential damage caused by breaches in security becomes larger. With the new generation of connectedness, we saw a 368% rise in exposed identities last year over the year prior with 552 million leaked identities in 2013, according to the 2014 Internet Security Threat Report. Weak security is such an issue that... » read more

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