Attack

Australian financial services company, Latitude Financial, has suffered a large-scale data break that exposed the personal information for more than 14 million customers. The breach was initially discovered on March 16, but was originally thought to have affected a fraction of the customers actually impacted by the cyber attack. How did the Latitude Financial data breach happen? The data breach was initially reported by Latitude Financial on March 16, after unusual activity was detected on the company’s systems. The company said that the activity appeared to be a “sophisticated and malicious" attack originating from a vendor used by Latitude Financial.…

Part of the source code for social media site Twitter has been leaked via source code repository GitHub, according to a DMCA takedown request. The DMCA request stated that the code leaked included “proprietary source code for Twitter's platform and internal tools”. Following the DMCA request, the code was taken down. The source code was leaked by a user under the screen name ‘FreeSpeechEnthusiast’. It is unclear how long the source code was available for, however, the account has been active since at least January 2023. The leak was originally reported by the New York Times which noted that Twitter…

Seven German airports have had their websites targeted by a suspected distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. The attack, which took place on February 16, saw the websites of airports including Dortmund, Nuremburg and Dusseldorf taken offline. Larger German airports, including Munich, Berlin and Frankfurt were not targeted in the attack. In a statement, the chief executive of Germain airport association, Flughafenverband ADV said “once again, airports fell victim to large-scale DDoS attacks,” but added that “according to the information we have so far, other systems are not affected”. What is a DDoS attack? Distributed denial of service attacks, or…

In 2022, 59 percent of business in the Asia-Pacific region reported being the victim of a cyber attack, 32 percent reported being the victim of multiple cyber attacks and the region suffered a shortage of 2.1 million cyber security professionals. This has culminated in the Asia-Pacific region being victim to a number of high-profile cyber attacks within the last 12 months. In this article, Cyber Security Hub explores seven of these attacks. Contents New Zealand government compromised in third-party attack Medibank suffers data leak that affects 9.7 million people Toyota admits to data breach after access key is posted on…

Notorious dark web hacking forum BreachForums is reportedly shutting down following the arrest of one of its top administrators by the United States’ Federal Bureau of Information (FBI). The administrator of the site, who went by ‘Pompompurin’ on the site and was named as Conor Brian Fitzpatrick by the FBI, was allegedly arrested by the Bureau on March 15 on suspicion of hosting and running the forum. BreachForums was thought to be the reincarnation of RaidForums, a similar dark web site that was investigated and subsequently shut down by the FBI in April 2022. It has been used by a…

The healthcare industry, especially within the Asia-Pacific region, has been the victim of a number of cyber attacks and data breaches within the last six months alone. In just one attack against Australian healthcare and insurance provider Medibank, the personal information of 9.7 million people was stolen and thousands had their private medical details posted online. In this exclusive interview, Cyber Security Hub speaks with Jojo Nufable, group IT infrastructure and cyber security head at Metro Pacific Health Solutions, about why cyber resilience is integral to the security offering of those in the healthcare industry. Cyber Security Hub: Why is…

Distributed denial of service attacks, or DDoS attacks, see malicious actors attempt to disrupt a site by overwhelming its infrastructure with a large amount of internet traffic. As DDoS attacks overwhelm a site’s bandwidth, this prevents users from accessing it.  Here, Cyber Security Hub explores why malicious actors launch DDoS attacks, who they usually target and some key examples of these disruptive attacks.  Contents  Why do malicious actors launch DDoS attacks? How big was the largest ever DDoS attack? How hacktivists use DDoS attacks to target their opponents How DDoS attacks are used to disrupt company operations How DDoS attacks…

Russia-linked ransomware gang ALPHV has claimed to have launched a cyber attack against Amazon-owned domestic security company, Ring. Ring, which makes doorbells with video and sound recording capabilities, has denied that the hack took place. ALPHV, however, posted on the dark web about the hack and is threatening to release data stolen during the breach. The gang, which is responsible for creating BlackCat malware, posted a picture of the Ring logo on its website alongside the phrase “There’s always an option to let us leak your data”. Ring LLC, the home security and smart home company owned by Amazon, has…

Phishing is a social engineering tactic that sees hackers attempt to gain access to personal or confidential information by posing as a legitimate company. In this article, Cyber Security Hub's editor Olivia Powell explores what phishing attacks are, why malicious actors launch phishing attacks and how companies can protect themselves against them. For our guide explaining the different types of malware and how this can affect your business, visit Cyber Security Hub’s Ultimate guide to malware.   Contents Why do hackers launch phishing attacks? Phishing attacks that target individuals Phishing attacks that target companies Phishing attacks and cryptocurrency How to…

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has been the victim of a series of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, causing temporary disruption to some of its sites. The DDoS attacks have been linked to the Russian hacktivist collective Killnet which had posted via an encrypted channel on social media platform Telegram that it was planning to launch attacks against NATO. The group also appeared to be asking for cryptocurrency donations to launch further attacks. Jens Stolberg, secretary general of NATO, said that protective measures had been deployed in response to the attack. Stolberg noted that NATO’s classified networks, which…