News Briefs

Research Finds Mobile Malware Infections Overblown

Advanced threat detection company, Damballa has released findings of a new research on Wednesday, detailing the overblown nature of the mobile malware problem. According to the company, the research, based on Big Data (50% of US mobile traffic), was used to determine actual malware infection rates -- not just samples found, or vulnerabilities/theoretical attacks. more

US Government Networks Thoroughly Penetrated by Foreign Spies, Experts Tell Senate

Network security experts from across the U.S. government told a U.S. Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Tuesday that federal networks have been thoroughly penetrated by foreign spies, and that current perimeter-based defenses that attempt to curb intrusions are outdated and futile. more

Cyber Security Forecast for 2009: Data and Mobility Key Part of Emerging Threats

Georgia Tech Information Security Center (GSTISC) today held its annual Security Summit on Emerging Cyber Security Threats and released the GTISC Emerging Cyber Threats Report for 2009, outlining the top five areas of security concern and risk for consumer and enterprise Internet users for the coming year... According to the report, data will continue to be the primary motive behind future cyber crime-whether targeting traditional fixed computing or mobile applications. "It's all about the data," says security expert George Heron -- whether botnets, malware, blended threats, mobile threats or cyber warfare attacks. more

Businesses, Social Networks Getting Excited About Liberalized TLDs… Imagine yourname.facebook

According the the report, a survey of 1,000 consumers found that the majority believe the Internet will become full of pointless domain names (65% of those polled), messy and confusing (57%), too complex to navigate (46%) and out of control (41%). Two-thirds of the 100 UK businesses surveyed are still unaware that liberalization is happening, which is a concern, considering the opportunities and potential risks that it presents." more

Google Shows Signs of Agressive Plan for Nationwide Wireless Broadband

Google Fiber is planning a move from the expensive and slow-moving physical pipes strategy to deployment of wireless network, according to an FCC filing. more

British Organizations Could Face Massive Fines for Cybersecurity Failures

Organizations who fail to implement effective cybersecurity measures could be fined as much as £17 million or 4% of global turnover, as part of Britain's plan to prevent cyberattacks. more

North Korea’s Spy Agency Behind WannaCry

According to a report from The Washington Post, the NSA has linked the North Korean government to the creation of the WannaCry ransomeware that resulted in affecting over 300,000 people in almost 150 countries last month. more

Comcast to Start a Series of Public IPv6 Trials Using 3 Transition Mechanisms

Comcast today announced plans to conduct production-network trials of IPv6 technology this year. The trials are aimed at helping identify and solve any areas of difficulty involved in the transition to IPv6, and to determine what approach will be the easiest and most seamless for its customers, says Jason Livingood, Comcast's Internet System Engineer. more

WCIT Talks Are Not About Internet Governance, Says ITU Head in Response to Critics

David McAuley from BNA recently interviewed International Telecommunication Union Secretary-General Dr. Hamadoun I. Touré, addressing accusations that the international telecom body is using the upcoming World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT-12) talks in Dubai as a forum to wrest key internet governance functions away from the private sector (and the U.S. government). more

A Look at the Security Collapse in the HTTPS Market

While in recent years, HTTPS has become integral part of protecting social, political, and economic activities online, widely reported security incidents -- such as DigiNotar's breach, Apple's #gotofail, and OpenSSL's Heartbleed -- have exposed systemic security vulnerabilities of HTTPS to a global audience. more

Auction to Sell .versicherung Top Level Domain

The Top-Level Domain (TLD) .versicherung (German word for INSURANCE) managed by dotversicherung-registry GmbH in Hamburg, will be holding an international auction executed by Right of the dot, LLC in Lauderdale USA in collaboration with Heritage Auctions. The auction will take place on 26th of August 2015, 10:00 am Eastern Standard Time (UTC -4:00). more

Congress Still Raising Concerns About ICANN’s New gTLD Program

Juliana Gruenwald reporting in the NationalJournal: "Nearly six months after the program was launched, key members of Congress are still raising concerns about a plan to introduce hundreds of new Internet addresses into the domain name systems, saying they want fresh assurances that the new strings will not harm trademark holders and that the public has adequate opportunity to comment. The latest salvo came on Tuesday from the top leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary committees..." more

ICANN Cancels Jordan Meeting Due to Middle East Turmoil

Following reports by various sources yesterday, ICANN today has officially announced that it will not hold its Jun 20-24 Public Meeting in Amman, Jordan. ICANN's Board of Directors made the decision in light of recent developments in the Middle East. "The Board reluctantly made its decision after closely monitoring the rapidly changing developments affecting the Middle East. The decision reflects the Board’s view that regional developments could have a negative impact on attendance at the meeting," says ICANN's via a blog post today. more

For the First Time Wireless Carriers and Auto Makers Seek Common Ground on Wireless Standards

For the first time auto makers and wireless carriers are actually seeking common ground around the creation of the wireless new standard, writes Roger Lanctot, Associate Director in the Global Automotive Practice at Strategy Analytics. more

Ransomware Attacks Skyrocket: Median Cost Doubles to $26,000, Representing a Quarter of All Breaches, Reports Verizon

A report from Verizon Business's 16th annual Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) reveals a startling surge in the frequency and cost of cyberattacks. It analyzed 16,312 security incidents and 5,199 breaches, showing a sharp uptick in the cost of ransomware.  more