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Facebook is reportedly buying stolen passwords that hackers are selling on the underground black market in an effort to keep its users' accounts safe. On the one hand, we just came to know that Yahoo did not inform its users of the recently disclosed major 2014 hacking incident that exposed half a billion user accounts even after being aware of the hack in 2014. On the other hand, Facebook takes every single measure to protect its users' security even after the company managed to avoid any kind of security scandal, data breach or hacks that have recently affected top notch companies. Speaking at the Web Summit 2016 technology conference in Portugal, Facebook CSO Alex Stamos said that over 1.3 Billion people use Facebook every day, and keeping them secure is building attack-proof software to keep out hackers, but keeping them safe is actually a huge task. Stamos said there is a difference between 'security' and 'safety,' as he believes that his team...

Part of the $81 Million stolen from Bangladesh bank's New York Federal Reserve account earlier this year in the wake of the major malware attack on the SWIFT interbank transfer network has been tracked down to a casino in the Philippines. SWIFT, or Society for Worldwide Interbank Telecommunication, is a global financial messaging system that thousands of banks and organizations around the world use to transfer billions of dollars every day. In February, hackers dropped a piece of malware on a SWIFT terminal employed by Bangladesh's central bank, obtained credentials needed for payment transfers from the New York Federal Reserve Bank, and then transferred large amount to fraudulent accounts based in the Philippines and Sri Lanka. In March, the investigation revealed that the stolen money was then sold to a black market foreign exchange broker and later transferred to at least 3 local casinos in the Philippines. In September, Philippine court ordered the return of $1...

Microsoft was very upset with Google last week when its Threat Analysis Group publically disclosed a critical Windows kernel vulnerability (CVE-2016-7255) that had yet to be patched. The company criticized Google's move , claiming that the disclosure of the vulnerability, which was being exploited in the wild, put its customers "at potential risk." The vulnerability affects all Windows versions from Windows Vista through current versions of Windows 10, and Microsoft was set to issue a fix come this month's Patch Tuesday. So, as part of its monthly Patch Tuesday, Microsoft today patched the security flaw in Windows that was actively being exploited by hackers. According to Microsoft's security bulletin released today, any hacker who tricked victims into running a "specially-crafted application" could successfully exploit the system bug and gain the ability to "install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with fu...

Just Imaging — What if, you enter into your home from a chilling weather outside, and the heating system fails to work because of a cyber attack, leaving you in the sense of panic? The same happened late last month when an attack knocks heating system offline in Finland. Last week, a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack led to the disruption of the heating systems for at least two housing blocks in the city of Lappeenranta, literally leaving their residents in subzero weather. Both the apartments are managed by a company called Valtia, a facilities services company headquartered in Lappeenranta. Valtia CEO Simo Rounela confirmed to English language news outlet Metropolitan.fi that the central heating system and hot water system in both buildings had become a target of DDoS attacks. In an attempt to fight back the cyber attacks, which lived for a short time, the automated systems rebooted — and unfortunately got stuck in an endless loop, which restarted repeatedly a...

A vulnerability in Chrome for Android is actively being exploited in the wild that allows hackers to quietly download banking trojan apps (.apk) onto victim's' device without their confirmation. You might have encountered a pop-up advertisement that appears out of nowhere and surprise you that your mobile device has been infected with a dangerous virus and instructs you to install a security app to remove it immediately. This malicious advertising web page automatically downloads an Android app installation (.apk) file to your device without requiring any approval. Citing malware threats on your mobile device, attackers trick you to change your device's settings to allow installation of the third-party apps from stores other than Google Play Store and install the banking trojan app on your device. Kaspersky researchers Mikhail Kuzin and Nikita Buchka discovered one such widespread malicious advertising campaign across Russian news sites and popular websites. Since...