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The Swedish data breach attack and fraud trial

Swedish prosecutors initiated a huge trial after a number of private and public organisations were hacked. Eight people are reportedly standing on trial for the criminal charges that saw at least 40 million Swedish kronor (£3.6 million) stolen or mishandled.

If convicted, the alleged perpetrators could face eight years in jail for their criminal conduct. The exact number of victims has not been confirmed.

The criminal hacker group reportedly hijacked computers and set up social engineering attacks to steal money from a number of organisations and individuals. The Swedish Prison and Probation Service was hit by a breach, along with 20 companies, four banks, a number of law firms, and private individuals also.
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Whole Foods Market hacked, reportedly compromising customer credit card data

Supermarket chain Whole Foods Market Inc has admitted that the company suffered a major data breach through its payment card systems.

In an announcement, they revealed the breach happened through their ‘taprooms’ and full table-service restaurants inside some 40% of their stores, rather than through its checkout services.

This is significant as the company uses a separate payment system for its bars and restaurant to its grocery checkout stations, with most of their customers using the latter. Any breach involving card and banking information is, of course, incredibly serious.
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Kids electronic toys may be vulnerable to hacking

In recent years, we’ve seen advancements in technology hurtle forward at an incredible pace, and children’s electronic toys can sometimes be at the forefront of such developments. Many kids don’t want plain teddy bears and dolls any more; they want intelligent robots that can interact with them.

Consumer watchdog, Which?, joined up with a similar German organisation, Stiftung Warentat, and together they made the chilling discovery that a lot of popular kids electronic toys can apparently be hacked. Enlisting the help of third-party security experts, they tested seven different toys and four of them were vulnerable to hacking.
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Carmakers are struggling to quash hacking fears over self-driving cars

It’s no secret that many carmakers are racing ahead with self-driving car technology. Since Tesla brought the futuristic dream into reality, many other companies have quickly followed suit.

Here in the U.K., we have seen government approval for the creation and testing of these autonomous cars on our motorways in a bid to be at the forefront of this new and innovative technology. However, there is still one major hurdle – aside from robot cars crashing due to mistakes that cannot be rectified by anything other than human reaction – and that’s hacking fears.
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Vietnamese firm says they’ve cracked the new iPhone X’s Face Recognition

The new iPhone X has caused quite a stir. The reportedly brighter and more intelligent 5.8 inch display phone has featured heavily on TV adverts and magazines. For an eye-watering £999, the smartphone boasts better specs and a new key feature and selling point which is its facial recognition technology.

In a world where high profile data breaches are constantly threatening our privacy, Apple asserts that facial recognition technology cannot be deceived by 2D pictures, lookalikes and family. Needless to say, many have taken on the challenge to test just how accurate the technology is.

Apparently, it has already been cracked…
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The “Fog of War” in cyberspace

Three computer scientists at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory once likened the fight for cybersecurity to the “Fog of War”. This is a term used in uncertain situations by participants in military operations.

Off the back of this, they put forward a new form of data security dubbed “cyberfog”. In comparison to physical military operations, cybercrime can be hard to monitor and detect – who is the enemy? What tools are at their disposal? What are their finances and strengths?

Such uncertainties can make the fight against cybercrime so much harder, so making data harder to hack is always a solid step forward, and that’s essentially what “cyberfog” is intending to do.
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Multiple British intelligence and law enforcement agencies to investigate Uber hack and cover-up

Uber recently admitted to a historic data breach that compromised personal data belonging to some of its 57 million users and drivers worldwide. With six million of those users in the U.K., a significant number of people in Britain are expected to be potentially at risk of further criminal activity like fraud and digital harassment.

To make matters worse, the breach happened a year ago in October 2016, but instead of telling the authorities, Uber decided to ‘handle it’ by finding the hackers and paying them off to keep quiet.
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After massive Equifax data breach, experts advise regular reviews of bank accounts

Equifax made history when it was hacked. Personal information belonging to an eye-watering 146 million people in the US, UK and Canada was at the centre of the breach.

The incident caused massive outrage as the hack was performed by exploiting a known vulnerability that Equifax failed to patch up. Affected consumers were understandably shocked and angry by the violation of their data rights, some weren’t even aware Equifax were storing their information. All the anger and disappointment aside, the breach has a real life risk to those exposed. So, what can be done to protect them?
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A look back at the 2015 TalkTalk hack

We are now two years on from the TalkTalk hacking scandal, and we are helping a number of individuals claim compensation as victims of the breach. In October 2015, TalkTalk was yet again subject to another data breach by hackers when around 157,000 customers had their personal information reportedly accessed. The hack exposed some customers’ names, addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers and email addresses. For around 10% of the victims, this also reportedly included bank details, raising fears that accounts could have been accessed.

Hackers used software to illegally access information and then appeared to upload the company’s weaknesses on the internet. It is thought that none of the personal information accessed was encrypted.
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Uber “paid off” hackers to keep quiet on a data breach involving 57 million users

Uber has revealed that the company’s database was hacked in October last year, but instead of alerting authorities and warning users about the breach, they instead paid hackers around £75,000 to keep quiet about the hack, and for assurances that the information would be deleted.

Former chief security officer, Joe Sullivan, reportedly made the decision to cover-up the Uber hack, and it was a decision that cost him his job, his deputy’s job, and risked the security of some 56 million people around the world.
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