Tag: cyber attacks

Cyber attacks growing more common in Australia and other countries

Cyber attacks are becoming more frequent in Australia as mobile usage continues to grow throughout the country. With mobile devices becoming more common, so too is mobile commerce. According to a new report from ThreatMetrix, mobile devices now account for 31% of all transactions made in the country. This has made Australia a very attractive target for malicious groups that would like to take advantage of consumers and businesses that are involved in mobile commerce.

Mobile commerce has become an attractive target for malicious groups

The report from ThreatMetrix shows that Australia is in the top 10 countries around the world when it comes to cyber attacks and serious security threats. Targeted attacks are becoming much more prevalent in the country, as consumers are finding themselves increasingly exposed to cyber attacks when they participate in mobile commerce. The report notes that digital identities are now a form of global currency, as a person’s identity has a significant amount of financial data associated with it.

Growing number of transactions are proven to be fraudulent

ThreatMetrix has monitored many mobile payments made in Australia and other countries. Approximately 20% of the transactions that the organization monitored were payment related, with 3.1% of these mobile payments being flagged as representing malicious attack traffic. The company’s report shows that an estimated 3.1% of account creation on mobile commerce platforms was fraudulent as well. The growing use of mobile applications is being linked to the rise in security threats and cyber attacks in the mobile commerce space as well as others.

Security issues are a concern for consumers, but mobile commerce continues to grow in Australia and elsewhere

Security concerns have plagued the mobile commerce space for some time. These concerns have prevented many consumers from using their mobile devices to purchase products either online or in physical stores. Despite the security concerns, however, mobile commerce continues to grow and companies involved in this space have been investing in improved security and the use of new technology that can protect consumer financial information.

Apple’s iCloud storage service was attacked in China by hackers attempting to steal sensitive information.

According to a Chinese web monitoring group, Beijing government hackers were behind the cyber attack and the hackers were trying to steal the credentials of Apple users.

The hackers used an MITM attack.

The hackers employed the “man-in-the-middle” (MITM) attack, which enabled them to interpose their own website between Apple’s iCloud server and users. They intercepted data, which could potentially have given them access to private user information, such as passwords, photos, iMessages, contacts, etc.

When asked about allegations that the Beijing government was attempting to spy on Apple customers, an Apple representative declined comment. However, the representative did note that the company’s technical support page had been updated and provided users with advice on how to protect themselves against cyber attacks. A statement on the page said: “We’re aware of intermittent organized network attacks using insecure certificates to obtain user information, and we take this very seriously.”

The electronics giant instructs its users to watch for warnings when visiting www.icloud.com and to never enter their iCloud password in the event they receive a warning regarding invalid digital certificates. Furthermore, the company explains methods that users can employ to make certain they are connected to Apple’s genuine site when using different web browsers.

Hua Chunying, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson was asked about the incident and said that Beijing was opposed to hacking.

The cyber attack occurred only weeks after Apple announced where it would be storing iCloud data for Chinese users.

Greatfire.org, a website that conducts research on Chinese internet censorship, suspected government involvement in the cyber attack. Greatfire noted that it was similar to previous attacks on Microsoft Corp’s Hotmail, Yahoo Inc., and Google Inc. According to Greatfire, the attack took place several weeks after Apple said that it would use China Telecom servers to store iCloud data for Chinese users. In addition, it also occurred during the same time the iPhone 6 began selling in China.

Greatfire also said that it was highly probable that the attack was staged with the knowledge of internet providers, such as China Telecom, since it seems to have initiated from “deep within the Chinese domestic internet backbone”. However, a spokesperson from China Telecom said that “The accusation is untrue and unfounded.”

Reuters contacted two independent security experts and both said that Greatfire’s report about the cyber attacks looked credible. Chief research officer at F-Secure, Mikko Hypponen, said that “All the evidence I’ve seen would support that this is a real attack.”