With a stalkerware app on your phone, another person can spy on your activities and view your personal information, Kaspersky says. Image: istock/Highwaystarz-Photography At its best, technology can bring people together through the use of social networks, video chats, and other tools. But at its worst, technology can be used to harass, bully, and terrorize other people. One example of the latter is stalkerware, a type of app installed on someone’s mobile device to eavesdrop…

New research by cybersecurity company Kaspersky has found that Russia, Brazil, and the United States of America were the countries most affected by stalkerware last year.  A new report, “The State of Stalkerware 2020,” that was released today found that 53,870 Kaspersky users were affected globally by malicious surveillance software in 2020. Russia had the most affected users for the second year running, with 12,389 victims. With 6,523 victims, Brazil moved up from third place in 2019 to become the…

French multinational information technology services and consulting company Atos has completed the acquisition of two cybersecurity companies.  On February 24, the self-styled decarbonization services and products pioneer announced the successful acquisition of Motiv ICT Security. Founded in 1998, Motiv is the largest independent Managed Security Services (MSS) provider in the Netherlands. In a statement released Wednesday, Atos said that the deal would reinforce its position as the third worldwide MSS provider “by strengthening the Group’s local capabilities and…

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Michigan State Police are investigating a cyber-attack on a Michigan school district. District administrators at Saginaw Township Community Schools began experiencing IT issues on Sunday following what is believed to have been a ransomware attack on the district’s computer network.  Investigators are in contact with the cyber-criminals behind the attack. It is not yet clear how the threat actors gained access to the network. “They are communicating almost daily with the…

A Chinese security researcher published a PoC code for the CVE-2021-21972 vulnerability in VMware Center, thousands of vulnerable servers are exposed online. A Chinese security researcher published the Proof-of-concept exploit code for the CVE-2021-21972 RCE vulnerability affecting VMware vCenter servers. vCenter Server is the centralized management utility for VMware, and is used to manage virtual machines, multiple ESXi hosts, and all dependent components from a single centralized location. The flaw could be exploited by remote, unauthenticated attackers without…

The winners of the first Cyber Community Awards have been announced by the Scottish Business Resilience Center (SBRC) – a non-profit organization that supports and protects Scottish businesses. The SBRC-run awards – established to recognize the contributions of individuals and organizations helping to strengthen and secure Scotland’s online communities – include three main categories of Student Community Champion, Outstanding Cyber Community Event and Cyber Community Hero. The winners, announced during a virtual awards ceremony held on February 25,…

  Industry feedback is fundamental to the evolution of the PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Because of the broad impact PCI DSS has on the payment community, the Council is seeking additional feedback into the PCI DSS v4.0 validation documents. As a result of expanding stakeholder feedback opportunities to include these supporting documents, the Council is now targeting a Q4 2021 completion date for PCI DSS v4.0. The publication and availability of PCI DSS…

Cybersecurity training and certifications organization (ISC)2 has named instructor-led education provider Learning Tree International as its first global Premier Partner. The collaboration between the two companies is part of a new tiered partnership program for Official Training Providers which will see (ISC)2 and Learning Tree International work together to engage with and educate aspiring cybersecurity professionals around the world to help address the cyber-skills shortage. “In the mission to provide education for the world’s future cybersecurity…