SecurityWeek

SEOUL - North Korea has staged thousands of cyber attacks against the South in recent years, causing financial losses of around $805 million, a Seoul lawmaker said Tuesday citing government data.

WASHINGTON - The National Security Agency is gathering email and instant messenger contact lists from hundreds of millions of ordinary citizens worldwide, many of them Americans, The Washington Post reported late Monday.

Willie Sutton is often quoted as saying he robbed banks because that's where the money is. Though the quote is apocryphal, it could very easily be used to summarize the attitude of attackers targeting automatic teller machines (ATMs).

It’s no secret that when removed from the direct scrutiny of law enforcement, crime will thrive. Why is this of concern? Because recent studies of cybercrime show that the use of virtual currencies has further distanced the crime from its consequences. As this distance increases, the severity of the crime can be expected to escalate accordingly.

A security researcher has found a backdoor in firmware used in a number of D-Link routers that could enable a hacker to alter the settings of the device.

ATHENS - Greece's foreign ministry on Monday said its internal email system had been penetrated by hackers and that an investigation was under way to determine the extent of the damage. "A web posting on Monday announced a successful break-in by the 'Anonymous' group of activists into the ministry's email directory," the ministry said in a statement.

Zettaset, a Mountain View, California-based provider of Big Data management and security solutions, said on Monday that it has filed a misappropriation of trade secrets civil complaint against Intel.

Lookout Expands into the Enterprise, Accelerates International Growth and Invests in Security Beyond the Mobile Device

SAN FRANCISCO - Facebook is ending a feature that allowed users to hide from the social network's billion-plus members. The feature, akin to Harry Potter's invisibility cloak, will be removed, meaning that someone looking for another Facebook user can more easily find that person.

WASHINGTON - The secret federal court overseeing US wiretapping programs has extended the government's authority to collect US telephone records, the office of the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said late Friday.

BRASILIA - Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff announced Sunday that her government was creating a secure email system to try and shield official communications from spying by the United States and other countries.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer recently revealed that she does not protect access to her smartphone with a passcode, leaving her mobile device potentially exposed if someone is able to snag it. Though I have seen security wonks almost stroke out over this, is it really a big deal? Probably not.

Security researchers say a previously undisclosed Internet Explorer zero-day patched by Microsoft this week has been actively used in targeted attacks since at least September.

BRASÍLIA - Brazil-based US reporter Glenn Greenwald said Wednesday he would publish documents from intelligence leaker Edward Snowden focused on France and Spain. Greenwald, a Rio-based correspondent for Britain's Guardian newspaper, also said that if Brazil wanted more data on alleged US snooping into its affairs it should offer Snowden asylum.