The Cyber News Rundown brings you the latest happenings in cybersecurity news weekly. Who am I? I’m Connor Madsen, a Webroot Threat Research Analyst and a guy with a passion for all things security. Any questions? Just ask.
92 Million Genealogy Site Accounts Compromised
Earlier this week, genealogy and DNA testing site MyHeritage revealed it had suffered a breach that affects all 92 million of its users, making it the largest reported breach of 2018. The breach itself appears to have occurred in October of last year and affected the systems that store user emails and hashed variants of their passwords. Fortunately, neither DNA results nor payment systems were affected, as they are both stored separately from online account info. Following the breach, MyHeritage has begun implementing two-factor authentication and has strongly suggested that all users update their current passwords.
Apple’s Latest Beta Release Features Enhanced Security Measures
At this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple unveiled iOS 12 which includes several quality of life improvements for current apps along with new additions. Among the new features, Apple has hinted at one that forces users who are transferring data using a USB device to unlock their Apple device once per hour, to keep the transfer active. This feature is likely part of their continued response to the FBI and several security companies developing methods to bypass local device security to gain unauthorized access to the device.
Australian HR Firm Falls Victim to Data Breach
In the past two weeks, officials at Australian HR firm PageUp have been working to determine the scale of a data breach that occurred in the last week of May. The systems affected contained sensitive user information, minus payment data or written contracts, which are stored elsewhere. The company has since informed all affected customers of the issue and has taken several steps to ensure the malware that caused the breach has been removed.
Facebook Allowed Untrustworthy Chinese Firm to Access User Data
Following Facebook’s ongoing stream of litigation, they are once again under fire for allowing China-based Huawei to gather not only user data but also data from that user’s friend list, often without consent. Huawei and dozens of other developers were given access to Facebook’s API to assist in improving the user experience on various operating systems, though it is impossible to account for any misuse of the data from that point on.
Financial Sector Sees Major Increase in Keyloggers
Researchers analyzed the 100 malware infections that most recently affected the financial sector and found high volumes of keyloggers, as well as Emotet and Ursnif Trojans, which are commonly dropped from malicious Microsoft® Office documents. While it’s not unusual for keylogging software be used to steal sensitive financial info, the sheer quantity of variants indicates that, as these institutions have worked to increase their security, attackers have also been working to improve their own methods.
