Halton police are investigating after the city of Burlington fell prey to a phishing scam that ended up costing half a million dollars. City officials say a staff member made a single transaction to a “falsified bank account” after receiving an email requesting to change banking information for someone the city was doing business with. The staffer transferred $503,000 to the phoney account on May More »
Hackers managed to steal biometric data collected by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. The Washington Post reported that images of people’s faces and license plates were lost in the attack, which can be used to construct identity theft. Loss of biometric information is especially dangerous due to their permanence; once lost, they present a persistent threat. The CBP reported that fewer than 100,000 people were More »
At the time of this post, it’s been nearly one month now since the City of Baltimore was hit with a nasty Ransomware attack that locked down its servers and left the city government without email, telecommunications, and disrupted real-estate transactions and bill payments.. Some security experts meanwhile have obtained and studied samples of the so-called Robbinhood Ransomware used in the attack. Like most Ransomware More »
YouTube, it turns out, actually plays a significant role within Canadian media, according to a new report from the Audience Lab at the Faculty of Communication and Design (FCAD) The Watchtime Canada report says Canadian YouTubers have leveraged what the platform offers: a free platform, metrics, diversity of creators and perspectives, and the ability to become entrepreneurs who not only make a living from their More »
IT security experts say they still come across business leaders in Canada who don’t believe their organization will be targeted for a cyber attack. A new report from security vendor Proofpoint should help dispel that. Looking at data from customer devices, the company found that between January 1 and May 1, threat actors conducted thousands of malicious email campaigns, hundreds of which were sent to More »
A global study from Trend Micro Inc. suggests that 43 per cent of IT security decision-makers view security as an afterthought when implementing IoT projects, and only 53 per cent think connected devices are a threat to their own organizations. But meanwhile, nearly two-thirds acknowledge that IoT-related cybersecurity threats have increased over the past 12 months. Here is the full article from Alex Coop at Channel More »
A woman from St. Mary’s First Nation in Fredericton, N.B., is speaking out after she was targeted by an online pop-up scam. Sheila Brooks said she was using the internet on her laptop at home on May 4, when a black box with computer codes in it flashed across her screen. There was also an alarm sound and a warning that her bank account was at More »
Canadian Businesses have lost $2.96 million in business disruption, and $3.8 million in information loss according to the annual Accenture Cost of Cybercrime survey 2018. (for a copy of the report click here) Malicious insiders and malicious code were the most expensive type of attacks, costing Canadian respondents on average, US$3.3 million, compared to the average of all companies surveyed of US$1.6 million. These attacks More »
Freedom Mobile confirmed Tuesday it had a data security breach from late March to late April 2019, but the wireless carrier said only about 15,000 customers were affected — far fewer than an outside research firm’s estimate. The Calgary-based company — which operates networks in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia — was apparently warned of the breach by researchers at vpnMentor, which announced it to More »
Facial recognition has been around for a short time. Apple users can use it to unlock their iPhone. Many airports use facial recognition. I have seen facial recording at the self checkout areas at many retail stores. Facial recognition isn’t a futuristic dream, it’s already here in a big way. New doorbells on the market can recognize familiar faces to tell you who’s come calling and More »