The week in security: CSO Australia launches cyberskills marketplace; Crims go Pokémon mad

Finding talent remains one of the biggest challenges in Australia's cybersecurity market, which is why CSO Australia has joined academic and industry players to launch the Cyber Security Online Marketplace (CSOM) to facilitate an easy-to-use online service that matches employers with cybersecurity professionals and students who are developing skills and careers in the area.

The sensational success of the new Pokémon Go application predictably spawned malware spinoffs as well as real-world crimes as muggers lured victims to out-of-the-way places. A US Senator expressed concerns about the app's voracious appetite for private data, while surveys found that users were less careful about their online habits at home than at work – and were therefore playing directly into the hands of Pokémon-based scammers.

The inevitable Olympics-based scams were also starting to rear their heads, while Microsoft faced a long privacy battle. One security consultant argued that businesses need to get more proactive about ferreting out potential security breaches, while another believes that businesses need to increase their focus on ethics and trust by creating a board-level position handling these areas.

One study of the use of open-source code found that businesses are downloading an average of 200,000 open-source components every year and that one in 16 of them has security flaws; do the maths and there is a worrying story in there. Also on the vulnerability front, a serious flaw in a popular WordPress plug-in was also fixed and three popular Drupal modules were also fixed.

Nasty new ransomware takes your money and deletes your files anyway, while a new and improved – so to speak – version of the Locky ransomware gained the ability to operate in offline mode. A new Android Trojan will block victims from alerting the banks about its operations,

There were reports that hospitality firm Omni Hotels was hit by point-of-sale malware, while financial clearinghouse SWIFT was bringing in the big guns to fight a series of bank hacks for which Chinese hackers were blamed.

Energy companies were also being targeted with stealthy new malware, while experts were warning about the risk of industrial sabotage from 3D printers hacked to build internal defects into mission-critical parts and car maker Fiat Chrysler contracted Australian startup Bugcrowd to run a bug bounty program for its connected vehicles.

Indeed, with critical infrastructure systems dangerously exposed and access to hacked servers being sold for as little as $US6 ($A8) online, it's especially worrying that most companies are failing to plan to deal with common cybersecurity risks.

Many are also failing to budget what CSOs consider to be enough for cybersecurity – a shortcoming that could require CSOs to take dramatic measures – such as having a pen-testing firm gain access to the CEO's inbox.

Microsoft fixed 47 vulnerabilities across key products, even as Facebook was sued for $US1 billion on claims that it helps terrorists plan their attacks, while one VPN provider cut off its service to Russia and shut down its gateways in that country based on claims it was punished for not following new Internet surveillance rules.

Tags malwareIT SecurityOlympicsPokemonCSOMPokemon Go

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