A new report by the Wall Street Journal has revealed that children’s video game accounts such as Steam are being targeted by hackers. These cyber attackers are seemingly able to spend money on accounts which have no cash pre-loaded onto them. Parents are advised to read the terms of services to check up on individual security policies, as well as checking Wi-Fi security and never playing on a public internet connection.
Abertay University in Scotland has been given the sign off to offer a postgraduate course in ethical hacking. The National Cyber Security Centre has approved the MSc Ethical Hacking and Cybersecurity course, helping students to combat hackers, and understand digital forensics and malware analysis. The programme will evolve in line with changing cybersecurity needs.
A new age of hacking is upon on us, this time focusing on digitally crafted propaganda. With sites such as TikTok offering worldwide influence, AI-powered bots could be taking over to spread harmful or even political messages. Experts are concerned about social conditioning, referencing cases such as the Chinese Communist Party’s influence on Chinese social media platform TikTok. They also warn that foreign presidential campaigns could be “destabilised”.
The railway cybersecurity market is expected to grow by 8.2 per cent to reach more than $11 million by 2027. Digital transformation is said to be “leading the way” according to reports from the Railway Cybersecurity Market Forecast to 2027 global analysis. Common areas for digitisation are train control, maintenance monitoring, signalling control, passenger information systems and video protection. Railways are becoming increasingly vulnerable to cyber-attacks as a result.
New reports suggest that UK SMEs are suffering from 65,000 cybersecurity attacks per day, with 4,500 classed as “successful”. It has also been suggested that these figures could be much higher in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. In a report by Robert Walters and data provider Vacancysoft, it was revealed that data breaches could cost up to £2.48 million per incident, and 48 per cent of UK companies do not have sufficient security to support remote working.
Cybersecurity experts at Forbes are suggesting that new quantum IDs could replace passwords in the future. Containing 1,000 trillion atoms, the IDs are said to be far more reliable than passwords, QR codes and holograms. Lancaster University start-up Quantum Base is currently investigating the technology, and claim that it would take 13 billion years to clone. There are potentially already applications for large-scale manufacturing.
