4 ways to spot a phishing scam

We’ve all received the classic email from a “foreign investor” promising to transfer millions of dollars into our bank account.

These fraudulent attempts to obtain sensitive information – known as phishing scams – are getting more sophisticated.

Athena Turner, brand manager at Hetzner, told MyBroadband that there are several key steps users must take to avoid becoming a victim to a scam and sharing their personal or account details.

Marriott Hotel Data Breach: Ongoing Since 2014

Marriott said that a massive data breach of its guest reservation system has left up to 500 million guests’ data exposed and available for the taking. Worse, the attackers may have had access to the systems for at least four years before being discovered.

The hotel company said in a statement on its website that hackers gained access to the Starwood reservation database. Starwood, which includes hotels like St. Regis and Sheraton, was bought by Marriott in 2016.

Instagram flaw exposes user passwords

A security flaw in Instagram’s recently released “Download Your Data” tool could have exposed some user passwords, the company reportedly told users.

The tool, revealed by Instagram right before the GDPR regulation went into effect, is designed to let users see and download the personal data that the social media platform had collected on them.

 A company spokesperson told The Information that the flaw only affected “small number” of users.

“Regardless of the number of individuals affected, this event raises major concerns about the way that Instagram is handling its users’ data,” said Bitglass CMO Rich Campagna. “In light of the fact that Facebook owns Instagram and has been experiencing a number of security debacles of its own, it should come as little surprise that Instagram is now exhibiting similar issues.

Accused CIA Leaker Faces New Charges of Leaking Information From Prison

Joshua Adam Schulte, a 30-year-old former CIA computer programmer who was indicted over four months ago for masterminding the largest leak of classified information in the agency's history, has now been issued three new charges.

The news comes just hours after Schulte wrote a letter to the federal judge presiding over his case, accusing officials at Manhattan Metropolitan Correctional Center of interfering with his case pleading and subjecting him to "cruel and unusual punishment" in pre-trial detention.

"The shit-filled showers where you leave dirtier than when you entered; the flooding of the tiers and cages with ice-cold water; the constant blast of cold air as we are exposed to extreme cold without blankets or long-sleeve shirts; the uncontrollable lights that are always on as we are sleep deprived...No human being should ever have to experience this torture," Schulte wrote.

Facebook Fined £500,000 for Cambridge Analytica Data Scandal

Facebook has finally been slapped with its first fine of £500,000 for allowing political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica to improperly gather and misuse data of 87 million users.

The fine has been imposed by the UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) and was calculated using the UK's old Data Protection Act 1998 which can levy a maximum penalty of £500,000 — ironically that’s equals to the amount Facebook earns every 18 minutes.

The news does not come as a surprise as the U.K.'s data privacy watchdog already notified the social network giant in July this year that the commission was intended to issue the maximum fine.

New iPhone Bug Gives Anyone Access to Your Private Photos

A security enthusiast who discovered a passcode bypass vulnerability in Apple's iOS 12 late last month has now dropped another passcode bypass bug that works on the latest iOS 12.0.1 that was released last week.

Jose Rodriguez, a Spanish amateur security researcher, discovered a bug in iOS 12 in late September that allows attackers with physical access to your iPhone to access your contacts and photos.

The bug was patched in iOS 12.0.1, but he now discovered a similar iPhone passcode bypass hack that works in 12.0.1 and is easier to execute than the bug Rodriguez discovered and reported two weeks ago.

Hackers Stole 50 Million Facebook Users' Access Tokens Using Zero-Day Flaw

Logged out from your Facebook account automatically? Well you're not alone…

Facebook just admitted that an unknown hacker or a group of hackers exploited a zero-day vulnerability in its social media platform that allowed them to steal secret access tokens for more than 50 million accounts.

In a brief blog post published Friday, Facebook revealed that its security team discovered the attack three days ago (on 25 September) and they are still investigating the security incident.