South Africa
SA banking and insurance highly targeted
Both banks and insurance companies in South Africa are getting targeted a lot more of late by cyber criminals in attempts to hack into accounts and try and gain access to both organisations
and individuals funds. Internet and mobile phone app banking are continuing to become a lot more popular as people prefer the convenience of managing their accounts from wherever they might be and at any tome of the day or night, compared to the inconvenience of visiting banking branches due to the queues of people and restricted opening times during workdays. Logging into banking accounts online, however, can require passwords instead of fingerprint security access technology and the passwords can possibly be obtained under a cyber attack if the account owner is unaware that they are being targeted and fill in their password on a fake website that looks like their banking site. According to a recent article in the Quartz Africa newsletter by Faustine Ngila, a recent survey showed that only 18 out of 38 banks, and 18 out of 35 insurance companies are able to defend against cyber threats with the main cause of the breaches due to email phishing attacks.
Cybersecurity Awareness Month
With October being the cybersecurity awareness month, South Africa is suffering more from cyber attacks and has been ranked as the sixth most affected country worldwide. In fact, according to a recent article by Engineering News, “statistics from WonderNet reveal that in 2021, an average of 97 South Africans fell victim to cybercrime every hour.” And the head of Buyers Trust (a subsidiary of ooba Group), Jackie Smith, comments that “considering that only 60% of South Africans have regular access to the internet, this statistic is particularly shocking and indicates that there is an urgent need for cybersecurity awareness.” Smith also adds that “the groups that are most vulnerable to cyberattacks are the elderly, individuals who do not use the internet regularly, those who rely on public and open WiFi networks for internet access and –increasingly, those operating in the real estate industry”, with Engineering News adding that “The real estate industry is particularly vulnerable to fraudulent activity because of the large sums of money that are regularly exchanged in the process of buying and selling a property.”
International
iPhones, iPads & Apple Macs hacked due to a flaw
According to the article in News24, a new flaw has hit iPhones, iPads and Apple Macs that allows hackers to hijack and take control of their devices: “Apple is urging users to install emergency software updates. Patches were released Thursday and Wednesday by the tech titan to fix what it described as a vulnerability hackers already knew about and may be taking advantage of.”
Computer drivers from popular manufacturers being exploited
In the recent article by Ravie Lakshmanan at Hacker News, it was mentioned that hackers have been exploiting the vulnerabilities found in well-known companies such as Cisco AnyConnect and Gigagbyte: “Cisco has warned of active exploitation attempts targeting a pair of two-year-old security flaws in the Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client for Windows.”
New Cybergang hits healthcare in the US
In an article on the Cyware Social site, the FBI and CSI referred to a new cybercrime group called The Daixin Team that are targeting healthcare facilities: “The Daixin Team is a ransomware and data extortion group that has targeted the HPH Sector with ransomware and data extortion operations since at least June 2022.” They have “Deployed ransomware to encrypt servers responsible for healthcare services—including electronic health records services, diagnostics services, imaging services, and intranet services, and/or exfiltrated personal identifiable information (PII) and patient health information (PHI) and threatened to release the information if a ransom is not paid.”