A lot happens in the security world and many stories get lost in the mix. In an effort to keep our readers informed and updated, we present the Webroot Threat Recap, highlighting 5 major security news stories of the week.
Microsoft and Adobe Vulnerabilities Revealed
In the past week, Microsoft announced a vulnerability in Windows, which would allow attackers to target users visiting a specific site and execute malicious code automatically. In the same statement, Adobe also issued a warning for Flash users, as an exploit was discovered that could allow remote access to unsuspecting computers. Patches for both issues are in the works, and users are strongly encouraged to run these updates promptly.
Google Breach Attributed to Third-Party Vendor
Recently, Google sent out an email to its employees, notifying them of a data breach that occurred with their benefits management partner. Fortunately for Google employees, the recipient of the unauthorized data contacted the company and deleted the information that was sent. As a result of the incident, Google is providing its employees with credit monitoring to safeguard against any fraud that may occur.
British Retailer Hacked for Customer Information
Kiddicare, a British children’s retailer, was recently targeted by attackers who gained access to the personal information of nearly 800,000 customers. The issue stems from a test website that Kiddicare created in late 2015, which contained a large quantity of real customer information, and was never secured or disposed of properly after testing was complete. It is still unclear why the test site was publicly accessible, but some customers have claimed to have received multiple phishing messages via text and email.
School District Hit With Ransomware Attack
In the steadily-rising trend of infrastructure cyber attacks, a Texas school district is seeing the impacts firsthand. Multiple district websites were taken down when the Education Services Center’s servers were struck with ransomware. The district refused to pay the ransom and has been reasonably successful at restoring their systems from secure backups. Fortunately, no data was compromised and the sites have been mostly restored to their previous states.
GPS Security Still Major Concern
GPS is used around the globe by nearly 4 billion individuals on a daily basis, and while it has become a necessity for many, it’s susceptible to be jammed, which makes it a potential security issue. GPS jamming can range from a localized area to a much larger region, with the user having no knowledge that the jam is occurring, and can cause a large disruption in functionality. Currently, the U.S. Air Force is working on a better version of GPS, which uses a stronger signal that has less chance of being broadcast over by a signal jammer.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Passcode/2016/0510/Why-GPS-is-more-vulnerable-than-ever
