About: Alex Harris

Ransomware: from Entry to Ransom in Under 45 Minutes Ransomware gangs are performing wide-ranging internet scans to find vulnerable systems and then accelerating attacks to just minutes to capitalize on COVID-19, Microsoft has warned. Corporate VP of customer security and trust, Tom Burt, revealed the findings in a blog post introducing the firm’s Digital Defense…

Fashion Retailer BrandBQ Exposes Seven Million Customer Records A European fashion retailer has become the latest big-name brand to expose personal data on millions of its customers after misconfiguring a cloud database. Researchers at vpnMentor discovered the unencrypted Elasticsearch server on June 28 and parent company BrandBQ finally secured it around a month later, on…

Most UK Firms Admit #COVID19 Cloud Security Threat Most UK firms are set to increase digital adoption after admitting that the cloud saved their business from collapse during the early months of the COVID-19 crisis, but security remains a persistent challenge, according to new research. Identity management vendor Centrify surveyed 200 business decision-makers in large…

Report Outlines the Importance of Providing Engaging User Awareness Training The way cybersecurity awareness training is conducted in organizations has a huge bearing on employees’ subsequent security outlook and behaviors, according to a new report from Osterman Research. The researchers discovered that users who found security training “very interesting” were over 13-times more likely to make “fundamental…

UK Businesses Planning for Long-Term Shift to Digital Working Over half (56%) of UK businesses plan to increase their digital skills training budgets for staff next year, suggesting changes to working practises as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic will be sustained. This is according to a survey of 200 senior business decision-makers in large…

Outbound Email Errors Cause 93% Increase in Breaches IT leaders have suffered significantly higher numbers of data breaches as a result of outbound email in the last 12 months. According to research by Egress, 93% of 538 IT leaders surveyed reported a breach in the past year due to an email error, with 70% of those believing remote…

Universities Face Increase in Ransomware Attacks as Students Return Academia has faced fresh warnings of cyber-attacks after a rise was recorded in August when students returned. According to an alert issued by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) there has been a recent spike in ransomware attacks against UK schools, colleges and universities. It claimed that, in recent incidents, it…

Gaming hardware giant Razer exposed customer data via misconfigured database Global gaming hardware manufacturing company Razer leaked the personal information of around 100,000 customers by storing their data in an Elasticsearch cluster that was misconfigured to enable public access, security researcher Bob Diachenko has revealed. The personal information of around 100,000 Razer customers was stored…

Why security misconfiguration is higher during Covid-19 There are good reasons your IT security team may be looking a bit sleep-deprived. In addition to the stress of the Covid-19 pandemic everyone is facing, they’re also dealing with heightened risks to network firewall security, as new external assets (websites, web portals, mobile apps and more) are…

Government unveils £500,000 funding to boost healthcare cybersecurity Digital Infrastructure Minister Matt Warman today announced £500,000 in fresh government funding to help medical suppliers, primary care providers, and other businesses in the healthcare sector boost their cybersecurity. The fresh government funding comes in response to the National Cyber Security Centre's assessment that malicious actors are…