Robert Lemos

Macro malware and worms, which were prominent in the 1990s, remain significant security threats to the present day and event top some top security threat lists. While attackers are increasingly turning to new techniques, such as ransomware and denial-of-service attacks fueled by the Internet of Things, older types of malware have persisted and are even […]

The typical enterprise cloud service has its own security department, leading to better security on the whole than most companies can implement internally. Cloud-related security incidents are considered Black Swans, events that—while they can affect a massive population of users—are rare. Yet, the number of users that rely on any particular cloud service is so […]

The health care industry continues to be a major target of attacks, with stolen electronic health records generating lucrative profits for data thieves and ransomware attacks often leaving affected hospitals no recourse but to pay, according to two reports released in the past week. As part of its focus on cyber-crime’s impact on specific countries […]

SAN FRANCISCO—If the U.S. government has a long road ahead in its efforts to improve the nation’s cyber-security, state and local governments are far worse off—most are just starting out on the path, and many are going in the wrong direction. A panel of cyber-security experts speaking at the RSA Conference 2017 here on Feb. […]

The vast majority of successful attacks on companies are conducted by cyber-criminals using phishing, network scans for exploitable systems, and strategic web site compromises, security-services firm SecureWorks found in an analysis of six months of incident-response engagements. The analysis of 163 incidents found that 82 percent could be attributed to cyber-criminals, 11 percent to insiders […]

Online users are likely to run into at least one malicious advertisement every week, according to data released by RiskIQ, a threat management firm. In its 2016 Recap report, the company found that malvertising increased in eight of nine categories tracked by the firm, with an overall increase of 132 percent compared to the previous […]

The popular Dridex banking trojan has been modified by attackers to bypass a fundamental protection on Windows that lets users block the installation of potentially malicious programs, according to security firm Flashpoint. The modification, which first appeared on January 25, allows the program to silently execute on systems where the user is part of an […]

Americans have become resigned to the fact that the security of their data is beyond their control. In a study released on Jan. 26, Pew Research found that 64 percent of Americans have personally experienced a data breach, including fraudulent charges on their credit cards, received notifications that their email or social-media accounts have been […]

The reported breaches at Yahoo exposed approximately 1.5 billion records, which along with a handful of other immense breaches, made 2016 a record year for data loss, according to a report released by security firm Risk Based Security on Jan. 25. The report collected and sifted through 4,149 confirmed breach reports from a variety of […]

As Donald President Trump takes office, his administration will have to take on the complex task of securing the U.S. government’s information technology and networks, currently rated last among 17 different industry groups, according to ratings firm SecurityScorecard. In updated ratings released on Jan. 15, the company found that more than 70 percent of U.S. […]

Reports of data breaches rose more than 40 percent in 2016, with 72 percent caused by hacking, skimming or phishing and the majority of records were stolen from the health care industry, according to a report released by the Identity Theft Resource Center on Jan. 20. Using public breach reports and information provided by more […]

The ShadowBrokers, a hacking group, pledged to shut down their operation and go dark on Jan. 12. But as a final act of spite the group released 61 files from a cache of hundreds of programs allegedly belonging to an exploitation framework used by the U.S. National Security Agency. The files reportedly include programs for […]