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Initially thought to be 600,000 users, the number of Android users who have mistakenly downloaded and installed malware on their devices straight from Google Play Store has reached 2 Million. Yes, about 2 Million Android users have fallen victim to malware hidden in over 40 fake companion guide apps for popular mobile games, such as Pokémon Go and FIFA Mobile, on the official Google Play Store, according to security researchers from Check Point. Dubbed FalseGuide by the Check Point researchers, the malware creates a " silent botnet out of the infected devices " to deliver fraudulent mobile adware and generate ad revenue for cybercriminals. Nearly 2 Million Android Users Infected! While initially it was believed that the oldest instance of FalseGuide was uploaded to the Google Play in February and made its way onto over 600,000 devices within two months, further in-depth analysis by researchers revealed more infected apps which date back to November 2016. "

Popular antivirus service Webroot mistakenly flagged core Windows system files as malicious and even started temporarily removing some of the legit files, trashing user computers around the world. The havoc caused after the company released a bad update on April 24, which was pulled after approximately 15 minutes. But that still hasn't stopped some PCs from receiving it, causing serious issues for not just individuals, but also companies and organizations relying on the software. Webroot even Blocked Facebook According to the reports by many customers on social media and Webroot's forum , hundreds and even thousands of systems were broken down after antivirus software flagged hundreds of benign files needed to run Windows and apps that run on top of the operating system. The faulty update even caused the antivirus to incorrectly block access to Facebook after flagging the social network service as a phishing website, preventing users from accessing the social netw

Super Low RPO with Continuous Data Protection: Dial Back to Just Seconds Before an Attack Zerto , a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, can help you detect and recover from ransomware in near real-time. This solution leverages continuous data protection (CDP) to ensure all workloads have the lowest recovery point objective (RPO) possible. The most valuable thing about CDP is that it does not use snapshots, agents, or any other periodic data protection methodology. Zerto has no impact on production workloads and can achieve RPOs in the region of 5-15 seconds across thousands of virtual machines simultaneously. For example, the environment in the image below has nearly 1,000 VMs being protected with an average RPO of just six seconds! Application-Centric Protection: Group Your VMs to Gain Application-Level Control   You can protect your VMs with the Zerto application-centric approach using Virtual Protection Groups (VPGs). This logical grouping of VMs ensures that your whole applica

Atlassian's group chat platform HipChat is notifying its users of a data breach after some unknown hacker or group of hackers broke into one of its servers over the weekend and stole a significant amount of data, including group chat logs. What Happened? According to a security notice published on the company's website today, a vulnerability in a "popular third-party" software library used by its HipChat.com service allowed hackers to break into its server and access customer account information. However, HipChat did not say exactly which programming blunder the hackers exploited to get into the HipChat cloud server. What type of Information? Data accessed by the hackers include user account information such as customers' names, email addresses and hashed password information. Besides information, attackers may have obtained metadata from HipChat "rooms" or groups, including room name and room topic. While metadata is not as critical as d

Due to recent highly publicised hacks and high-profile data breaches, certified hackers are in huge demand and being hired by almost all industry to help them keep their networks protected. These ethical hackers not only gain reputation in the IT industry but are also one of the most well-paid employees in the IT workforce today. There is a growing number of jobs for people with ethical hacking skills. But if you lack behind in this field, you required a good computer hacking course to sharpen up your skills and knowledge. The good news for you is that this week's THN Deals brings that let you get started regardless of your experience level. Ethical Hacker Bootcamp  is an online training course for beginners seeking practical skills to learn and pass the Ethical Hacker certification exams and get a significant boost in their IT career. Get Lifetime Access to Ethical Hacker Bootcamp for Just $45 If you want to become a hacker, sign-up for this 45 hours of practical

Script kiddies and online criminals around the world have reportedly started exploiting NSA hacking tools leaked last weekend to compromise hundreds of thousands of vulnerable Windows computers exposed on the Internet. Last week, the mysterious hacking group known as Shadow Brokers leaked a set of Windows hacking tools targeting Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows 7 and 8, and Windows 2012, allegedly belonged to the NSA's Equation Group. What's Worse? Microsoft quickly downplayed the security risks by releasing patches for all exploited vulnerabilities , but there are still risks in the wild with unsupported systems as well as with those who haven't yet installed the patches. Multiple security researchers have performed mass Internet scans over the past few days and found tens of thousands of Windows computers worldwide infected with DoublePulsar , a suspected NSA spying implant, as a result of a free tool released on GitHub for anyone to use. Security r

The son of a prominent Russian lawmaker was sentenced on Friday by a US federal court to 27 years in prison after being convicted of stealing millions of US credit card numbers and causing some $170 million in damages to businesses and individuals. This sentence is so far the longest sentence ever imposed in the United States for a hacking-related case. Roman Valeryevich Seleznev , 32, the son of a Russian Parliament member of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), Valery Seleznev, was arrested in 2014 while attempting to board a flight in the Maldives and then extradited to the United States. Upon arrest, federal authorities retrieved a computer that contained over 1.7 million stolen credit card numbers. Seleznev, also went by the moniker 'Track2' online, was convicted in August 2016 of 38 charges related to stolen credit card details, which include: 10 counts of Wire Fraud 9 counts of possession of 15 or more unauthorized access devices 9 counts of o

MasterCard has unveiled its brand new payment card that has a built-in biometric fingerprint scanner, allowing customers to authorize payments with their fingerprint, without requiring a PIN code or a signature. The company is already testing the new biometric payment cards, combined with the on-board chips, in South Africa and says it hopes to roll out the new cards to the rest of the world by the end of 2017. Don't Worry, It Still Supports PIN-based Transactions as Fallback Wait — If you think that this feature would not allow you to share your card with your child and spouse, don't worry — Mastercard has a solution for this issue as well. The company has confirmed that even if the card is configured to expect the fingerprint for authenticating a purchase, but it does still have a PIN as a fallback, in case, for some reason EMV readers fail to read fingerprint or you have yourself handed it to your child for shopping. Stores & Retailers Don't Need New Hardw

Bad news for consumers with Linksys routers: Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed the existence of nearly a dozen of unpatched security flaws in Linksys routers, affecting 25 different Linksys Smart Wi-Fi Routers models widely used today. IOActive's senior security consultant Tao Sauvage and independent security researcher Antide Petit published a blog post on Wednesday, revealing that they discovered 10 bugs late last year in 25 different Linksys router models. Out of 10 security issues (ranging from moderate to critical), six can be exploited remotely by unauthenticated attackers. According to the researchers, when exploited, the flaws could allow an attacker to overload the router, force a reboot by creating DoS conditions, deny legitimate user access, leak sensitive data, change restricted settings and even plant backdoors. Many of the active Linksys devices exposed on the internet scanned by Shodan were using default credentials, making them susceptible to the

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) is notifying its customers that credit card numbers and other sensitive information may have been stolen after it found malware on payment card systems at 1,174 franchise hotels in the United States. It's the second data breach that U.K.-based IHG, which owns Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza, has disclosed this year. The multinational hotel conglomerate confirmed a credit card breach in February which affected 12 of its hotels and restaurants. What happened? IHG identified malware accessing payment data from cards used at front desk systems between September 29 and December 29, 2016, but the malware was erased after the investigation got completed in March 2017. "Many IHG-branded locations are independently owned and operated franchises and certain of these franchisee operated locations in the Americas were made aware by payment card networks of patterns of unauthorized charges occurring on payment cards after they were legitimately us

It should be noted that hacking a system for unauthorised access that does not belong to you is an illegal practice, no matter what's the actual intention behind it. Now I am pointing out this because reportedly someone, who has been labeled as a 'vigilante hacker' by media, is hacking into vulnerable 'Internet of Things' devices in order to supposedly secure them. This is not the first time when any hacker has shown vigilance, as we have seen lots of previous incidents in which hackers have used malware to compromise thousands of devices, but instead of hacking them, they forced owners to make them secure. Dubbed Hajime , the latest IoT botnet malware, used by the hacker, has already infected at least 10,000 home routers, Internet-connected cameras, and other smart devices. But reportedly, it's an attempt to wrestle their control from Mirai and other malicious threats. Mirai is an IoT botnet that threatened the Internet last year with record-sett