Top 5 IT stories for the week of October 30th
- Hilton settles for $700,000 after 2015 breach – In 2015 Hilton suffered two security breaches. Combined these two breaches resulted in over 350,000 credit card numbers being stolen. Although, this may not even be the biggest issue. Hilton failed to notify the victims of the breach in a timely manner. It is because of the lack of proper security, as well as failure to notify those impacted, which resulted in the settlement.
- FTC settles with fake support technicians – The FTC settled with individuals who were claiming to be support technicians from popular tech companies such as Microsoft and Apple. These individuals were scamming people out of hundreds of dollars by offering fraudulent support services, after creating a pop-up alert on the user’s device. A vast majority of the settlement has been suspended, as long as the defendants comply with the court ordered stipulations.
- 96% of employees and businesses pay ransom demands – A recent study conducted by Intermedia revealed 59% of employees whose data became infected with ransomware paid the ransom from their personal accounts. Another 37% of employees whose data was infected reported their employers paid the ransom demand. Only 4% of those surveyed did not pay the ransom.
- Trojan malware steals bitcoins – A new malware variant, CryptoShuffler Trojan, has been infiltrating bitcoin wallets. Currently, the malware stole 23 bitcoins, which is equivalent to $140,000. The malware variant is able to replace the destination of the bitcoin payment with that of the hacker without the user’s knowledge. Therefore, the payment is not going where the user intends.
- 33% of employees aren’t aware of ransomware – A recent study confirms only two-thirds of employees are aware of what ransomware is. This should raise major red flags for employers. If employees are unaware of current cyber security threats, such as ransomware, they will have no idea how to prevent falling victim.
