Top IT News of the Week (41/2021)
#ITnews
IT news #1: NCSC CEO says “Ransomware attacks are a danger to the UK”.
Topic: Ransomware, data breach
CEO of the National Cyber Security Centre, Lindy Cameron, alerted the UK during her speech at the Cyber 2021 conference. Looking back at her first year at NCSC, she confirmed they had witnessed an increasing number of ransomware attacks causing significant damage to the public sector. She highlighted that the UK’s most serious examples were the ransomware attack that hit Ireland’s Health Service Executive (HSE) and the one that affected Hackney Borough Council months after the attack. The head of NCSC also added that even though ransomware rises, UK organisations are still not prepared to protect themselves. Cameron also advised establishments not to give in to financial demands as attacks are expected to rise.
IT news #2: Ransomware attack hits Scottish engineering firm, Weir.
Topic: Ransomware, data breach
A major ransomware attack hit one of Scotland’s biggest engineering firms, causing millions of pounds worth of harm to the company, the BBC has reported. The attack that happened in September forced Weir to shut down some of its core operations. Despite their efforts to respond quickly to the attack, it has caused to delay shipments costing more than £50m, with the incident costing around £5m. The company confirmed there is no evidence that any personal or sensitive data had been accessed. It has also not tried to contact the hackers but taken several preventative measures after the attack, such as isolating and shutting down IT systems.
IT news #3: University of Sunderland suffers cyberattack.
Topic: Cyberattack, data breach
Sunderland University is investigating an IT breach that has all the signs of a potential cyberattack. The incident that was described as an “extensive IT disruption” resulted in telephone, website and IT systems being down with the possibility of continuing face-to-face teaching if possible. The police and other agencies are currently investigating why the reasons behind the attack. Universities are a popular target for web attackers as there has been an increased number of attacks targeting educational institutions as Newcastle and Northumbria universities were also among the targets. All online lectures were cancelled due to the IT systems being down. On its Twitter account, the university also announced it’s still experiencing issues.
IT news #4: Live-streaming platform, Twitch, experiences data leak.
Topic: Privacy, data breach
The interactive livestreaming platform acknowledged it has suffered a data breach following an anonymous message on the 4chan messaging board with its leaked source, details of creator payouts, software development kits, an unreleased steam competitor from Amazon Game Studios and other internal tools. The platform confirmed it’s a matter of urgency to understand the extent of this incident and explained the data leakage resulted from an error in a Twitch server configuration change that hackers successfully exploited. The release of the internal source code carries a severe security risk as it allows third parties to attain vulnerabilities in the code. While passwords were not revealed, platform users are encouraged to change their login credentials and turn on two-factor authentication as an extra layer of security.
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