Tag: mobile
UK defence ministry ‘loses’ 269 phones
The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has egg all over its face following its admission that over 269 of its phones went missing between January 1 and February 27. This is a record number, even for the MoD, which lost 262 phones in total in 2023 and 2024. The astonishing total of how many phones were recorded as lost, misplaced or stolen in the first two months of this year only came to light in response to a question asked in the UK parliament by the shadow defence secretary, James Cartlidge. The fact that a security-conscious organization such as the MoD could lose track of so many devices only evidences the increasing overlap between cybersecurity and physical security. Once a device such as a smartphone is in the hands of a threat actor, it can provide a portal to enable all kinds of cyber-attacks.
Beware of Death by a Billion Bots
US corporations lose an average of 4.3 percent of their online revenues to malicious ‘bots,’ malware designed to resemble human communications. Malware attacks of this nature accounts for an average annual loss of $86.5 million a year for corporations with average annual online revenues of $1.9 billion, according to a new report from cybersecurity firm Netacea, “Death by a Billion Bots: The Accumulating Business Cost of Malicious Automation”.
August vacations pose QR code nightmare
A new summer craze is hitting the world of cybercrime – weaponized Quick Response (QR) codes. According to cybersecurity firm Darktrace, last month saw a marked increase in “Quishing” attacks.