Category: Online Security

Last Updated on 24 September 2022 by Daniel Paul Haskell-Dowland, Edith Cowan University and Roberto Musotto, Edith Cowan University A major journalistic investigation has found evidence of malicious software being used by governments around the world, including allegations of spying on prominent individuals. From a list of more 50,000 phone numbers, journalists identified more than… Continue reading How does the Pegasus spyware work, and is my phone at risk?

Last Updated on 23 September 2022 by Daniel Nick Merrill, University of California, Berkeley You try to use your credit card, but it doesn’t work. In fact, no one’s credit card works. You try to go to some news sites to find out why, but you can’t access any of those, either. Neither can anyone… Continue reading Fight for control threatens to destabilize and fragment the internet

Last Updated on 22 September 2022 by Daniel Dusty-Lee Donnelly, University of KwaZulu-Natal The mobile apps installed on our smartphones are one of the biggest threats to our digital privacy. They are capable of collecting vast amounts of personal data, often highly sensitive. The consent model on which privacy laws are based doesn’t work. App… Continue reading The ‘privacy by design’ approach for mobile apps: why it’s not enough

Last Updated on 21 September 2022 by Daniel Yuan Stevens, Toronto Metropolitan University and Stephanie Tran, Toronto Metropolitan University Cyberattacks are on the rise, impacting people, systems, infrastructures and governments with potentially devastating and far-reaching effects. Most recently, these include the massive REvil ransomware attack and the discovery that the Pegasus spyware was tracking more… Continue reading As cyberattacks skyrocket, Canada needs to work with — and not hinder — cybersecurity experts

Last Updated on 20 September 2022 by Daniel Bhanukiran Gurijala, West Virginia University End-to-end encryption is technology that scrambles messages on your phone and unscrambles them only on the recipients’ phones, which means anyone who intercepts the messages in between can’t read them. Dropbox, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo are among the companies whose… Continue reading What is Pegasus? A cybersecurity expert explains how the spyware invades phones and what it does when it gets in

Last Updated on 19 September 2022 by Daniel Syed Wajid Ali Shah, Deakin University; Jongkil Jay Jeong, Deakin University, and Robin Doss, Deakin University It’s now well known that usernames and passwords aren’t enough to securely access online services. A recent study highlighted more than 80% of all hacking-related breaches happen due to compromised and… Continue reading How hackers can use message mirroring apps to see all your SMS texts — and bypass 2FA security

Last Updated on 18 September 2022 by Daniel James Jin Kang, Edith Cowan University and Jumana Abu-Khalaf, Edith Cowan University A new law gives Australian police unprecedented powers for online surveillance, data interception and altering data. These powers, outlined in the Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill, raise concerns over potential misuse, privacy and… Continue reading Facebook or Twitter posts can now be quietly modified by the government under new surveillance laws

Last Updated on 17 September 2022 by Daniel Nir Kshetri, University of North Carolina – Greensboro Cyberattacks have hit schools and colleges harder than any other industry during the pandemic. In 2020, including the costs of downtime, repairs and lost opportunities, the average ransomware attack cost educational institutions $2.73 million. That is $300,000 more than… Continue reading Cybercriminals use pandemic to attack schools and colleges

Last Updated on 16 September 2022 by Daniel Brice Armel Simeu, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) In 2019, more than two billion people had an internet connection — more than 60 billion Google searches per month and 156 million emails were sent per minute. These statistics hint at the intensity and penetration of the… Continue reading The COVID-19 pandemic has made us reliant on digital technologies, eroding our privacy

Last Updated on 15 September 2022 by Daniel Jason Jaskolka, Carleton University https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/cyberattacks-to-critical-infrastructure-threaten-our-safety-and-well-being What would happen if you could no longer use the technological systems that you rely on every day? I’m not talking about your smart phone or laptop computer, but all those systems many of us often take for granted and don’t think… Continue reading Cyberattacks to critical infrastructure threaten our safety and well-being