Latest cyber attack publications

Whether its organised cyber-criminals for whom the current health crisis has just broadened their attack landscape, or malevolent opportunistic hackers with time on their hands, there’s no doubting the rise in malware attacks in recent weeks. Every day we are seeing reports of phishing and hacking attempts which have grown with the enforcement of remote working. Sad as it is to acknowledge, despite every kind deed we witness during this period, the world is full of people with no good intent and we are inadvertently opening the backdoor and inviting them in. What is more, we can stop this, and we need to do it now.

oots has suspended payments using loyalty points after a cyber attack on almost 150,000 customers’ accounts. The suspension comes after the company’s IT security team spotted “unusual” activity on a number of Boots Advantage Card accounts with the aim of accessing and spending the points.

Currency exchange business Travelex has insisted it is making “good progress” on recovering after a ransomware virus on New Year’s Eve led to its systems being shut down. Bosses said some internal and order processing systems were returning and the company is starting to switch on in-store systems again. Tony D’Souza, chief executive of Travelex said: “We continue to make good progress with our recovery and have already completed a considerable amount in the background.

PC users running Windows 7 have been warned to upgrade to avoid possible cyber attacks as support for the software ends. The 10-year-old operating system will no longer receive critical updates from Tuesday onwards, meaning Microsoft will stop patching any weaknesses that appear, making machines vulnerable to hacker attacks. According to NetMarketShare estimations for the end of 2019, Windows 7 is still one of the most popular Windows operating systems with a 32.74% global share, second only to Microsoft’s most recent version, Windows 10, at 47.65%.

The UK’s biggest high street banks have been hit by a cyber attack on Travelex, with Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC and Barclays among those left with no online travel money services. More than a dozen of the major banking players, also including Lloyds Banking Group and Virgin Money, are reporting that their online foreign currency systems are down following the New Year’s Eve ransomware attack on Travelex. Many are offering customers services in branches, but orders cannot be processed online.