On this page you will find links to selected IT-security related news articles from various sources, including news from conferences and some test results. Posts in this category might be written by externals and students. If you find some interesting news, please let us know!
About one month ago we launched the redesign of your new AV-Comparatives website, which illustrates our expanding role as a global leader in IT security testing for consumer and enterprise users.
To make it easier to find what you want quickly, we have split the site into two areas, Consumer and Enterprise. Each area gives you easy access to the relevant test results, methodology and charts. In both areas, the charts and test results pages have been completely redesigned.
No, we are not going to talk about the classic Motown song out of the sixties performed by the Four Tops. This month’s blog is about Mark Zuckerberg’s promise, GDPR, Facebook’s new data leak and politicians putting their money where their mouth is. The question is, will that money be put on privacy or security?
Normally we post on what security news topped the media. This month’s blog covers the end of the Net Neutrality legislation. Net neutrality was initiated by the Obama administration. Ironically Trump buried both Net Neutrality legislation and media coverage with his historic meeting on neutral grounds with Kim-Jong un. Is Net Neutrality legislation obsolete or has ‘the open internet for all’ just suffered a serious setback?
Analysis reports of several sources (US, UK) show that email is and remains the number one delivery vehicle of malware. The reason why email is so popular is because half of the people will open an email of an unknown sender. Email scams play on people’s emotion to trick them into opening emails. In this month’s ‘spotlight on security’ we will explain what psychological tactics scammers use to take you off-guard and lower your fences.
The historic summit between North and South Korea is of course the most important security related news in April 2018. This promising security news was countered by tragic-comical IT-related security news. It is not about the privacy (Facebook) or security (Google Play) hassles of social media, but about a big city hit twice by malware.
In 2014 an antivirus program called “Virus Shield” was able to earn over 100.000 dollars in less than 10 days. The only thing this fake security app did was to change its icon color and show a progress bar of an imaginary malware scan. After the scan finished it told the user the device was free of malware. Over 30.000 people downloaded the app and gave it a 5-star rating on Google Play Store. Here are three reasons why you should select an Android security app with care and caution:
On the 25th of May the European Union will effectuate new legislation on data protection and privacy. Both the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and ePrivacy legislation will have a positive impact on data privacy and security. On top of this new EU legislation, both the British and Dutch government have published statements which will lead to additional regulation on IoT security. Will these initiatives force vendors to improve IoT security for home users in general?
Dutch government and financial infrastructure is under heavy DDoS attacks (Reuters, SecurityWeek). These attacks occurred a week after Dutch media disclosed that Dutch counter-intelligence warned US homeland on the democratic party email hacks. On social media and the internet people soon connected the two events and a conspiracy story was born.
With the United States of America making good progress on minimum Internet-of-Things security, we hoped the European Union was willing to listen to our ideas to fast track existing EU plans and programs. On Monday the 6th of November, we were very pleased to get the opportunity to speak to a Member of the European Parliament, who understands the issues of digitalisation in general, and cybersecurity in particular.
With Thanksgiving, a lot of smart products have found their way from vendor to consumer. Most people buying smart products do understand that these products are ‘connected’. Most buyers assume those smart products are tested and safe to use. But there is a huge problem with smart technology: the technology is evolving faster than the legislation protecting people using those smart devices. There is no legislation to force vendors to test and certify that their smart devices are really safe to use.