Google recently announced key security improvements to beef up the data protection measures of Google account users. According to Jonathan Skelker, product manager at Google, the search engine giant is enhancing the account security by introducing a new step-by-step checkup, notifications, and JavaScript requirement.

“It’s Halloween and the last day of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, so we’re celebrating these occasions with security improvements across your account journey: before you sign in, as soon as you’ve entered your account, when you share information with other apps and sites, and the rare event in which your account is compromised,” Jonathan said in a blog post. “We’re constantly protecting your information from attackers’ tricks, and with these new protections and tools, we hope you can spend your Halloween worrying about zombies, witches, and your candy loot—not the security of your account.”

Jonathan Skelker explained that the Google’s new step-by-step checkup activates automatically whenever it detects any unauthorized activity and diverts the users to a four-step process: verifying security settings, securing other accounts linked to Google account, checking financial activity to ensure no payment methods connected to the google account weren’t compromised, and reviewing whether any content and files on Gmail or Google drive was compromised.

With Google’s latest notifications set-up, users can use a Web dashboard to set-up two-factor authentication and can review unusual security events. JavaScript, which is enabled on the Google sign-in page, runs every time users enter their credentials and block suspicious sign-ins automatically.

“Online security can sometimes feel like walking through a haunted house—scary, and you aren’t quite sure what may pop up. We are constantly working to strengthen our automatic protections to stop attackers and keep you safe from the many tricks you may encounter. During Cybersecurity Month, and beyond, we’ve got your back,” Jonathan added.

Recently, Google announced that it is going to shut down its social media network Google+ for consumers in the next 10 months. The declaration comes after the disclosure of a vulnerability that exposed around 500,000 users’ personal information to third-party developers. The services of Google+ for enterprise customers will remain active.

It was recently disclosed that a group of Call of Duty (CoD) players have been a part of a cybercrime syndicate that remotely stole $3.3 million in cryptocurrency by hacking several crypto wallets.

A person from Bloomington, whose identity was kept under wraps, was intimidated by the hackers to aid them hack nearly 100 phones to access crypto wallets. He told the FBI that he met the members of the ring online while playing Call of Duty and was forced to participate in the cyber-attacks. He disclosed that the hackers intimidated him into participating by “SWATting” him, a terminology used for calling police by making a hoax call to the emergency services in an attempt to bring about the dispatch of a large number of armed police officers, in this case the SWAT team, to a particular address.

The FBI hasn’t pressed any charges against him, however. The incident came to light when San Francisco-based firm Augur, creators of the Reputation Token, reported to the FBI that employees and investors of their company have had their crypto currency stolen. It is suspected that the hackers stole $805,000 worth Reputation Tokens which were later moved to Ether and Bitcoin, and then into their own wallets.

The Bloomington man said in an online interview, “I have done nothing but cooperate with Augur and the FBI. I have never once profited from anyone [by] crypto-hacking, ever.”

This is one of the rare incidents where hackers emerged out of the gaming community. Earlier this year, a Second Life player was accused of abusing funds through the game.  Second Life allowed gamers to buy and sell items through Linden Dollars which could be withdrawn through PayPal. It was reported that the gamer laundered money through Second Life and then traded for Bitcoin gathering up to 10 Bitcoins. The money was later seized by the UK Law Enforcement.

After British Airways and Cathay Pacific, European rail service, Eurostar, has joined the legion of transportation companies that have become a victim of a cyber-attack.

The breach into its systems to access user accounts occurred between October 15 and 19, 2018, and was detected by the company. The company immediately notified the customers stating that it had identified multiple attempts to access eurostar.com accounts using users’ email addresses and passwords and instructed customers to immediately reset their login credentials and passwords.  

On the bright side, there are hardly any chances that credit card details and payment information of users were compromised as payment details are not stored online by the company. Even though the company is still uncertain about the magnitude of the attack surface or even the fact that if any data has been stolen. The company also reported the incident to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as required by law.

“We have taken this action as a precaution because we identified what we believe to be an unauthorised automated attempt to access eurostar.com accounts using your email address and password,” the company told customers. “We’ve since carried out an investigation which shows that your account was logged into between the 15 and 19 October. If you didn’t log in during this period, there’s a possibility your account was accessed by this unauthorised attempt.”

The company has still not revealed if they have found the origin of the attack. Earlier, when the company rolled out emails to customers to reset passwords, the company told the customers that it was due to “maintenance” to the firm’s website.

“This email was sent after we identified what we believe to be an unauthorised automated attempt to access customer accounts, so as a precaution, we asked all account holders to reset their password,” explained a Eurostar spokesperson. “We deliberately never store any payment details or bank card information, so there is no possibility of those being compromised”.

The United States Department of Justice has indicted 10 Chinese intelligence officers who broke into computer systems of private companies and stole data on a turbo fan engine used in commercial jetliners from January 2010 through May 2015, according to a Reuters report. The Chinese officers allegedly conspired with hackers and company insiders to steal the information.

“For the third time since only September, the National Security Division, with its U.S. Attorney partners, has brought charges against Chinese intelligence officers from the JSSD and those working at their direction and control for stealing American intellectual property,” said John Demers, assistant attorney general for national security.

According to the sealed indictment, the charged Chinese Intelligence officers Zha Rong, Chai Meng, and other co-conspirators and accomplices reportedly worked for the Jiangsu province Ministry of State Security, a unit of the foreign intelligence arm of the Ministry of State Security. They allegedly conspired to steal sensitive data to help their Chinese counterparts build the same engine using stolen technology which would reduce the expenses of research and development.

The officers had apparently targeted more than a dozen companies, including French company Safran SA that has been co-developing a turbofan jet engine with the U.S. company, General Electric Co (GE).

Lu Kang, a spokesperson from Chinese Foreign Ministry called the charges groundless, stating that “the relevant accusations are pure fiction and totally fabricated,” though he did not provide any elaborations. Arrest warrants have been issued against the ten, however, it is believed that all defendants are in China.

“This action is yet another example of criminal efforts by the (Ministry of State Security) to facilitate the theft of private data for China’s commercial gain,” U.S. Attorney Adam Braverman said in a statement. “The concerted effort to steal, rather than simply purchase, commercially available products should offend every company that invests talent, energy, and shareholder money into the development of products.”

According to a report from a Flemish daily newspaper, a data breach compromised personal information of around 64,000 attendees of Tomorrowland’s 2014 festival. Tomorrowland is an electronic dance music festival held in Belgium every year.

The De Standaard reported that attackers breached the ticketing system Paylogic and allegedly obtained users’ personal data like names, addresses, emails, ages, postcodes, and gender details. However, the officials of Tomorrowland clarified attackers were not able to access any payment details, bank information or any other financial data from the affected systems. Paylogic stated the attack affected the customers who’ve purchased the tickets via their ticketing system and not the customers who obtained tickets online.

Tomorrowland’s spokesperson Debby Wilmsen claimed that the suspicious activity was noticed in an outdated system of Paylogic. As a preventive measure, Wilmsen stated they took actions immediately and halted the affected server right away. The company also reported the incident to the privacy commission and notified the potentially affected users.

“The managers of the Paylogic ticketing system noticed some unusual activity on an older system,” Debby Wilmsen said in a media statement. “After careful analysis, it appeared that an old database from Tomorrowland 2014 was concerned. The server in question was immediately taken offline.”

“We ask to be vigilant when receiving e-mails about ticket sales, promotions or other addressees that do not come from official Paylogic or Tomorrowland communication channels. All communication from Tomorrowland is led by tomorrowland.com. Links to Tomorrowland ticket sales can only be found via my.tomorrowland.com or official travel partners,” Wilmsen added.

With nearly 9.4 million accounts compromised, the recent breach of the Cathay Pacific is possibly one of the largest cyber-attacks of 2018. No major revelations have been made about the attackers. Fortunately, the affected IT systems were separate from its flight operations systems, and haven’t affected the flight safety.

The airline is now facing its first collective legal action in Hong Kong, “where nearly 200 customers have expressed their intentions to claim over the leak,” suggest a report. Even the local government has warned the airline to cooperate with the city’s privacy regulators else face repercussions. The incident has been dubbed as the largest data leak in Hong Kong. “The revelation came months after the breach was discovered in March and confirmed in early May,” suggests the report.

“If Cathay Pacific is not cooperative, the [privacy] commissioner is entitled to take legal action under the ordinance, which carries penalties,” Cheung, a spokesperson on behalf of Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said. “[Cathay] has to obey the instructions and fully cooperate with our investigation.”

The leaked personal data includes names, birth dates, phone numbers, email addresses, physical addresses, passport numbers, identity card numbers, flyer program membership numbers, customer service remarks, and history of travel. Apart from these, 403 expired credit card numbers were accessed, and twenty-seven credit card numbers with no CVV were accessed.

“We are very sorry for any concern this data security event may cause our passengers. We acted immediately to contain the event, commence a thorough investigation with the assistance of a leading cybersecurity firm, and to further strengthen our IT security measures,” Cathay Pacific Chief Executive Officer Rupert Hogg said. “We are in the process of contacting affected passengers, using multiple communications channels, and providing them with information on steps they can take to protect themselves.  We have no evidence that any personal data has been misused. No-one’s travel or loyalty profile was accessed in full, and no passwords were compromised.”