Irish companies are believed to be reporting less than 5% of cyber attacks to police, according to disparities between figure from the Garda cyber crime unit and reports from private cyber security companies. Detective Superintendent and Head of the Garda Nation Cyber Crime Bureau, Michael Gubbins, has said that brand damage and embarrassment are among reasons given by companies for the under-reporting of cyber crime to the Gardai.
Ransomware Strain ‘SamSam’ Reportedly Earned Handlers Over €5.1m
A strain of ransomware titled SamSam has earned its handlers over 5.1 million euros to date, according to estimates, since it first began hitting enterprises in 2015. Security firm Sophos has released the data in a report, after tracking the Bitcoin addresses found on SamSam ransom notes and sample files.
The note displayed on PCs that were infected by SamSam ransomware, as seen by businesses, hospitals, schools, local councils and more
Enterprise Resource Planning Applications Next Big Cyber Attack Target
Cyber criminals are beginning to target Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications, with the aim of disrupting and stealing data from large companies, according to reports from both security experts and the US government. According to a recent report from security companies Digital Shadows and Onapsis, hacktivists and state-sponsored groups in particular and looking to exploit flaws in platforms provided by Oracle and SAP.
SAP and Oracle are believed to be the biggest targets due to long-running security vulnerabilities
Human Error Is Still Greatest Security Threat Faced by Irish Businesses, According to Experts
New research from DataSolutions, an Irish IT solutions provider, has revealed that a majority (60%) of senior IT decision makers consider human error to be the greatest threat facing Irish businesses and organisations at the moment. This is consistent with results of similar surveys in other countries such as the US or UK, as cyber criminals evolve to target end-users and take advantage of improperly-trained staff instead of trying to bypass or hack complex technical security measures. The survey also revealed that 93% of respondents claim that they have a formal cyber security and defense strategy in place to help navigate today’s online threat environment, particularly in a post-GDPR world.
Cyber criminals are becoming increasingly smart and how they target organisations, targeting un-training staff instead of complex technological security measures
Ticketmaster Ireland Among Those Affected in Huge Third-Party Data Breach
It has come to light that a recent breach disclosed by Ticketmaster UK may be much larger than initially reported, with not just the company’s UK site, but also their sites for Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, Turkey and even the US found to contain digital card-skimming code. Similar to the recent breach at Harvey Norman, this incident was caused by cyber criminals compromising a third-party service provider, not the site itself directly, leading security experts to believe many more websites may be at risk or have been compromised. This is part of a concerning new trend whereby cyber criminals are targeting third-party providers, who may deal with hundreds of websites, rather than attacking a website individually, exponentially increasing the damage inflicted.
