The newest smartphones in Samsung’s Galaxy line come with contactless mobile payment capability. That’s good news when it comes to convenience, but it might be bad news when it comes to security. During a presentation given recently at the Def Con security conference in Las Vegas, a computer science student demonstrated a variety of attacks against Samsung Pay, Samsung’s mobile payment service. The attacks Mendoza described were […]
A reported data breach affecting retailers using Oracle’s Micros point-of-sale systems could be linked to a Russian hacking group that stole up to $1 billion from banks in 2014. The attack on Oracle’s computer systems and Micros customer portal first came to light on July 25, according to IT security writer Brian Krebs. That’s when a Micros customer contacted the KrebsOnSecurity blog to report “a potentially large […]
A security guard stands guard outside a branch of Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) in Paranaque city, Metro Manila, Philippines August 2, 2016. Reuters/Erik De Castro MANILA A Bangladesh central bank team visiting Manila to recover $81 million stolen from its account in New York said it was close to getting back $15 million of the loot frozen by the Philippines, but first has to prove ownership […]
DHAKA/NEW YORK Jupiter. That single word, by a stroke of luck, helped stop the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from paying nearly $1 billion (£757 million) to the cyber-criminals behind a notorious bank heist earlier this year, according to sources familiar with the incident. When hackers broke into the computers of Bangladesh’s central bank in February and sent fake payment orders, the Fed was tricked into […]
JIDDA, Saudi Arabia — For most of his adult life, Ahmed Qassim al-Ghamdi worked among the bearded enforcers of Saudi Arabia. He was a dedicated employee of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice — known abroad as the religious police — serving with the front-line troops protecting the Islamic kingdom from Westernization, secularism and anything but the most conservative Islamic practices. […]
What’s being called a sophisticated but possibly futile cyberattack on GoToMyPC, a British remote PC access provider, has caused its parent company to reset the passwords of all its clients. GoToMyPC is owned by Citrix, the American software company that provides server, application and desktop virtualization, networking and other services. Citrix bought GoToMyPC from ExpertCity in 2004. The attackers apparently used login names and passwords found in […]
By DECLAN WALSH, NOUR YOUSSEF and KAREEM FAHIM May 21, 2016 CAIRO — In an eerie coincidence, the EgyptAir jetliner that plunged into the Mediterranean on Thursday was once the target of political vandals who wrote in Arabic on its underside, “We will bring this plane down.” Three EgyptAir security officials said the threatening graffiti, which appeared about two years ago, had been the work of aviation workers at Cairo Airport. Playing […]
The SWIFT logo is pictured in this photo illustration taken April 26, 2016. Reuters/Carlo Allegri/Illustration/File Photo LONDON/CHICAGO Shortly after 7 p.m. on January 12, 2015, a message from a secure computer terminal at Banco del Austro (BDA) in Ecuador instructed San Francisco-based Wells Fargo to transfer money to bank accounts in Hong Kong. Wells Fargo complied. Over 10 days, Wells approved a total of at least 12 […]
The SWIFT logo is pictured in this photo illustration taken April 26, 2016. Reuters/Carlo Allegri/Illustration/File Photo SWIFT, the global financial messaging network that banks use to move billions of dollars every day, warned on Thursday of a second malware attack similar to the one that led to February’s $81 million cyber heist at the Bangladesh central bank. The second case targeted a commercial bank, SWIFT spokeswoman Natasha […]
We use them every day, and they’re crucially important — yet, far too often we’re lazy and careless about them. Passwords, and the importance of keeping them secure, are once again in the news after word emerged Wednesday of a data breach that put more than 272 million passwords and account credentials at risk. Milwaukee-based cybersecurity firm Hold Security reported that a Russian hacker had offered a […]
|By Matein Khalid| Habib Bank Ltd is one of the Pakistan’s oldest, biggest retail/corporate banks, privatized last year with a 51% controlling stake held by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development. Its recent price fall from 240 to 172 rupees (PKR, not INR!) is a compelling opportunity to own an undervalued, well managed proxy for consumption and credit offtake in a 190 million population country now […]
NASA and the U.S. Department of State were among the federal agencies that received low marks on IT security, according to a recent report card issued by the New York-based firm Security Scorecard. Also receiving low grades were the states of Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Washington. The 2016 U.S. Government Cybersecurity Report, released earlier this month, analyzed the cybersecurity vulnerabilities of some 600 local, state and federal government […]
|Arabian Post Special| The Mossack Fonseca (MF) data breach that made Panama Papers, the biggest data leak to journalists in history, possible has been traced to a vulnerable version of a plugin used to create sliders in website designs. According to leading cyber security firm Wordfence, Mossack Fonseca was running WordPress, one of the most popular website platforms in use, with a vulnerable version of Revoluiton Slider […]
FATAL ANTI-DALIT BIAS OF MODI’S MINISTERS
By Amulya Ganguli
In a voice choked with (feigned?) emotion, Narendra Modi told the Ambedkar University convocation last Friday that Rohith Vemula was forced to take his own life. But he did not specify who forced the Dalit student although the prime minister knew that the “culprits” were in his cabinet. Moreover, they are likely to continue in their posts despite their guilt – unless they are booked for the abetment of suicide.
The two “guilty” ministers, however, must be wondering what they did wrong. After all, when labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya shot off a letter to the “high school girl” – SmritiIrani has studied only up to Class XII – in the human resource development ministry, complaining about how Hyderabad University has become a “den of casteism, extremism and anti-national politics”
MacKeeper is under some hacker fire this week. Kromtech, the company that develops software that works to make Mac computers more stable and secure, is reporting a “potential vulnerability” in its data storage system. That potential vulnerability reportedly exposed the personal data of 13 million people. Kromtech could not immediately be reached for comment. But here’s what we know: Security researcher Chris Vickery identified this issue privately […]
Republican presidential contender Donald Trump said his call to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. sparked a useful discussion about radicalism within that community, and he’s not daunted by polls showing most Americans oppose the idea. “I didn’t do this for polls so I don’t even care what the polls say,” Trump said in an appearance Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union With Jake Tapper.” “My polls […]
MODI DESTROYING MULTICULTURAL INDIA
By Amulya Ganguli
Narendra Modi may have his own reasons for flaunting his Hindu background, but to rope in visiting dignitaries subscribing to other religions to his own displays of faith is odd, to say the least. The sight, therefore, of the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, participating in the Hindu ritual of offering aarti or obeisance to Mother Ganga in Modi’s company was without precedent in the world of diplomacy.
It is not known what was said in the tour schedule about this form of worship which must have been cleared by the Japanese before the visit. It is possible that Shinzo Abe presumed that he will merely be a witness to a puja like any other tourist. But to stand on the bank of the river as mantras are chanted and various invocations made was something which rarely constitutes a part of an official itinerar
CONFUSION PREVAILS IN BOTH BJP AND LEFT
By P. Sreekumaran
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Will the formation of a political party by the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SDNDP), the powerful organization of the dominant Ezhava community, catalyse the emergence of a third front in the State?
Political pundits are sharply divided on the issue. While there is one school which believes that the new party, christened Bharat Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS), will speed up the emergence of the third front, there is another stream of thought which thinks otherwise.
The latter is of the firm view that the Hindus themselves are a divided lot. In support of their argument, they point to the ambivalence of the BJP itself. It is of great significance, they aver, that the BJP and the Hindu Aikya Vedi stayed away from the function which marked the launch of the BDJS.
CEO Satya Nadella (pictured) today revealed Microsoft‘s plans to enhance enterprise security and help its customers have stronger protection for what he referred to as the “mobile-first, cloud-first world.” Addressing the Microsoft Government Cloud Forum in Washington, D.C., Nadella said that Microsoft already invests $1 billion in security research and development each year, but despite that the company is creating a new Cyber Defense Operations Center. Nadella […]
The Cisco Systems logo is seen as part of a display at the Microsoft Ignite technology conference in Chicago, Illinois, May 4, 2015. Reuters/Jim Young/Files FRANKFURT Security researchers say they have uncovered clandestine attacks across three continents on the routers that direct traffic around the Internet, potentially allowing suspected cyberspies to harvest vast amounts of data while going undetected. In the attacks, a highly sophisticated form of […]
The UAE’s Foreign Exchange and Remittance Group (FERG), comprising of businesses engaged in money exchange and remittances in the country, has ramped up its awareness strategy to combat cybercrime. The strategy focuses on disseminating information to member exchange houses to combat cybercrime activities costing the global economy over $110 billion every year, said a statement. Rajiv Raipancholia, FERG secretary and Orient Exchange’s chief executive officer, said: “Not […]
CAIRO — An Egyptian judge on Saturday handed down unexpectedly harsh verdicts in the trial of three journalists from the Al Jazeera English news channel, sentencing them to three years in prison on charges that legal experts said were unfounded and politically motivated. The verdict on Saturday was especially stunning because Egyptian officials had repeatedly signaled that they viewed the trial as a nuisance that had brought […]
JERUSALEM — Israeli commentators have described this week’s Iran nuclear deal as a “personal failure,” a “stinging failure,” and a “colossal failure” for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Yair Lapid, a rival who heads an opposition faction in Israel’s Parliament, called it “the greatest failure in foreign policy of any Israeli prime minister since the state’s establishment” and demanded his ouster. Mr. Netanyahu has framed his career over […]
A logo is pictured at Google’s European Engineering Center in Zurich April16, 2015. Reuters/Arnd Wiegmann/Files Google Inc on Wednesday unveiled a new feature called “Purchases on Google,” which allows shopper to buy items directly from mobile search ads. The eagerly awaited “buy” feature, which Google said it was testing with a few retailers, uses saved payment credentials from the user’s Google Account for transactions. Both Google and […]
