Facebook Squares Up to Law Enforcers with New Privacy Focus

Mark Zuckerberg has detailed his vision for the future of Facebook: a “privacy-focused” messaging and social platform which will see the News Feed marginalized as users switch to encrypted WhatsApp and Messenger communications.

The new privacy-centric platform he hopes to build over the course of the next few years will be focused around several key principles: private interactions; end-to-end encryption; “reducing permanence”; safety; interoperability; and secure data storage.

“I believe the future of communication will increasingly shift to private, encrypted services where people can be confident what they say to each other stays secure and their messages and content won't stick around forever. This is the future I hope we will help bring about,” said Zuckerberg in a lengthy post.

IBM’S WATSON NOW FIGHTS CYBERCRIME IN THE REAL WORLD

YOU MAY KNOW Watson as IBM's Jeopardy-winning, cookbook-writing, dress-designing, weather-predicting supercomputer-of-all trades. Now it's embarking on its biggest challenge yet: Preventing cybercrime in finance, healthcare, and other fields.

Starting today, 40 organizations will rely upon the clever computers cognitive power to help spot cybercrime. The Watson for Cybersecurity beta program helps IBM too, because Watson's real-world experience will help it hone its skills and work within specific industries. After all, the threats that keep security experts at Sun Life Financial up at night differ from those that spook the cybersleuths at University of New Brunswick.

Removing the cyber criminal’s mask of anonymity

Cyber crime is a serious business in Asia Pacific, with over US$1.7 trillion lost to cyber attacks last year, equating to 7% of the region’s GDP and representing around a third of overall global cyber crime.

This is largely because digitalization is rapid and technologies to combat cyber threats aren’t being implemented quickly enough to keep up; as fast as detection and prevention techniques improve, cyber crime continues to become more sophisticated. Attitudes towards cyber security are outdated, with a survey of IT and business decision makers revealing that although half have experienced a cyber attack, only a fifth see cyber security investments as a business differentiator.

Biggest IT security threats in South Africa

As businesses and consumers alike become increasingly reliant on technology and online systems for efficiency and entertainment, they become more vulnerable to attackers.

And the more services you are subscribed to, the greater your potential attack surface.

Cybercrime is therefore a growing problem around the world, and the types of attacks are constantly evolving to dupe more people or exploit new vulnerabilities in existing systems.

Mumbai-based Italian Firm Loses Rs 130 Crore to Hackers in Con Job

Mumbai: In perhaps the biggest such online heist, a Mumbai-based Italian firm lost Rs 130 crore to suspected hackers who allegedly convinced its local managers that the money was needed for an acquisition, police said Monday.

The hackers sent emails to the head of the Indian subsidiary of the firm through an email account, which looked similar to that of the group CEO, a police official said.

The hackers also arranged a series of conference calls to discuss about the acquisition, following which heads of the Indian subsidiary transferred the amount in given bank accounts time to time, he said.

Feds take down a half-billion dollar cybercrime forum after 7 years online

WITH THE RISE and fall of dark web black markets like Alphabay and the Silk Road, law enforcement officials have repeatedly warned that even anonymity tools like Tor and cryptocurrencies won't hide criminals from the law's long reach. But the most recent takedown of another massive cybercrime forum carries a different lesson: It's still possible to create an online black market even outside of the dark web's cover, grow it to a half-billion dollar operation, and get away with it for the better part of a decade.

On Wednesday, the Department of Justice unsealed an indictment against no fewer than 36 people, accused of acting variously as administrators, moderators, and sellers of illegal hacking and fraud services on a black market forum known as Infraud. A coordinated action by Homeland Security Investigations and cops in Australia, Britain, France, Italy, Kosovo and Serbia arrested 13 of those named, and took down the website itself, replacing it with a seizure notice.

Defence chief issues cyber crime warning

Australia's military chief has warned European officials of the ever-present threat posed by cyber espionage and intellectual property theft.

Chief of the Defence Force Angus Campbell said the "ineffectively governed" internet had fuelled an "extraordinary uptick" in international espionage, economic theft and corporate crime.

"The opportunities that the connected world provide are very significant, with the potential for very significant damage, both to companies and to institutions that we hold dear and also to states more broadly," General Campbell told an international policy institute in Brussels overnight.