L&g Cyber Discussion Threads

[grupo] 08/5/2019 09:37

Orange (ORA.FR) said late Tuesday that it acquired a 100% stake in the cybersecurity-service provider SecureLink for 515 million euros ($576.5 million) on an enterprise value basis as part its strategy to strengthen its position in the cybersecurity industry.

The transaction establishes Orange as a leader in the European cybersecurity industry with an on-the-ground presence in 8 European countries and roughly 1,800 employees, the French telecommunications company said.

Orange is already a leading player in the French cybersecurity market via its Orange Cyberdefense unit, it said. The company acquired the U.K.-based provider SecureData for around $156 million in January to boost its reach in the industry.

The Netherlands-based SecureLink generated EUR248 million in revenue in 2018 and is one of the largest independent cybersecurity-services providers in Europe, Orange said.

The transaction is expected to be completed late in the second quarter or in the third quarter of 2019, the company said.



Write to Patrick Costello at [e-mail].



(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 08, 2019 02:09 ET (06:09 GMT)

[waldron] 02/5/2019 07:07

Credit Suisse says global trends will boost these sectors
Published an hour ago
Weizhen Tan
@weizent
Key Points

Geopolitical and terrorism risks are set to drive more spending in sectors such as defense and cyber security, according to Credit Suisse.
One key investment focus of millennials — a group that is “increasingly influencing” businesses — is clean energy, and the bank recommends electricity companies that have already started changing their business models to become renewable energy operators.

The bank is also bullish on transport infrastructure and 5G operators.

[florenceorbis] 22/4/2019 13:28

FORBES

Apr 22, 2019, 12:37am
Huawei Q1 Revenues Up 40% As It Ignores CIA Allegations And Targets Samsung
Zak Doffman
Zak Doffman
Contributor
Cybersecurity
I write about security and surveillance.

uncaptioned
Getty

Huawei was outed this week by CIA intelligence for allegedly receiving "funding from branches of Beijing’s state security apparatus... American intelligence shown to Britain says that Huawei has taken money from the People’s Liberation Army, China’s National Security Commission and a third branch of the Chinese state intelligence network."

But that hasn't disrupted the company's unstoppable growth. On Monday, the company announced business results for the first quarter of 2019 that showed revenues up almost 40% year-on-year to CNY179.7 billion (US$ 27 billion), with net profits up as well, albeit more marginally. This follows results for 2018 that saw revenues up 19.5% and profits up 25%.

With Samsung's entirely different flavor of results released earlier in April, showing the "steepest Q1 profit slide in 4 years" and broadly flat smartphone sales, Huawei's aggressive claims that they have Samsung in their sights should be taken seriously. If Samsung smartphone sales remain under pressure and Huawei maintains this level of growth, the contest for top spot will be very interesting by year-end. Huawei execs have in the past set 2020 as the target for overtaking Samsung.

5G and smartphones both strong

Huawei shipped 59 million smartphones in Q1. "Although we have seen fast growth for Huawei phones in all major markets, the first-quarter growth is still beyond our expectations," said Zaker Li from IHS Markit. "Huawei will overstep Apple in phone shipments this year and get close to market leader Samsung by the end of the year."


But it will be 5G that steals the headlines, given the CIA news with its many implications. "2019 will be a year of large-scale deployment of 5G around the world," the company said. "By the end of March 2019, Huawei had signed 40 commercial contracts for 5G with leading global carriers and had shipped more than 70,000 5G base stations to markets around the world."

In other words, so much for the U.S. campaign against them.

'Digital China'

The company has continued to generate around 50% of its business in China, despite a decade of exceptional growth across international markets that took annual revenues for 2018 past $100 billion.

"Huawei," the company said, "is committed to building the foundations of a digital China and the core of a digital world by delivering the Digital Platform along with ubiquitous connectivity and pervasive intelligence."

Digital and China are not always words that conjure up happy thoughts when one thinks of the surveillance state the country is deploying. A report last month from Reporters Without Borders specifically questioned Huawei's role in Xinjiang and the company's development of surveillance-heavy smart city solutions that have been developed in China but are being sold around the world.

For next-gen technologies, Huawei also heralded positive results. "Huawei's Enterprise Business Group deployed the world's first 5G-enabled Wi-Fi 6 access point, [as] Huawei had shipped more Wi-Fi 6 products than any other company worldwide... [and] more than one million enterprise users and developers have chosen to work with Huawei Cloud."

What next?

Following the news that the U.S. claims to have a smoking gun, after all, these results will likely confirm that most of the world either don't care enough to act or simply can't afford to do so. In response to the news, a Huawei spokesperson told me by email that the company "does not comment on unsubstantiated allegations backed up by zero evidence from anonymous sources."

What is clearly more relevant to their ongoing success is that there is so much economic investment riding on next-gen 5G networks, and so much of that investment is already earmarked, that the consequences for countries and operators from changing horses midstream would be immensely damaging.

On the smartphone front, Huawei is taking the same approach as it does with its equipment. Innovate fast and provide more for less. And, at least at the start, price well below market to capture market share. Whether or not that approach is enabled by state subsidies or soft loans or the benefits of a huge closed market is the crux of the ongoing debate.

The implications for international intelligence-sharing arrangements will be interesting to see. U.K. lawmakers are due to agree on a Huawei strategy in the coming days. They could well take onboard the CIA intelligence and prohibit the Chinese manufacturer's equipment from the U.K. 5G networks. The company, though, looks set to ride that out as the rest of the world follows its 'keep calm and carry on' approach.

I said of last year's results that "the impact of the U.S. embargo on Huawei and the campaign being fought for international hearts and minds will be felt much more acutely in 2019 than it was in 2018."

The answer that is emerging looks good for Huawei so far.

Find me on Twitter or Linkedin or email [e-mail].
Zak Doffman
Zak Doffman
Contributor

I am the Founder/CEO of Digital Barriers, a provider of AI and IoT surveillance technologies to defense, security and law enforcement agencies worldwide.

[grupo] 01/2/2019 07:41

Press release
Paris, 1st February 2019

Orange acquires SecureData in order to increase its international presence and expertise in the field of cybersecurity

Orange announces the acquisition of 100% of the capital of Groupe SecureData and its subsidiary SensePost
SecureData is the largest independent provider of cybersecurity services in the UK, Europe's largest market
This acquisition marks an important step in the process of making Orange one of the leaders in the European cyber security market

Orange today announced the acquisition of SecureData Group and its subsidiary SensePost. The amount of the transaction is not disclosed.

UK-based SecureData is the largest independent provider of cybersecurity services in the UK, Europe's largest market. For 25 years it has provided integrated solutions designed to assess risks, detect threats, protect customer IT and deal with security incidents. SensePost, a leading subsidiary of the company specializing in consulting, enjoys an excellent reputation worldwide thanks to its expertise in the field of cybercrime, security research and intrusion testing. The company has recorded an annual turnover of around 50 million euros in 2018 and a growth rate of more than 20% since 2016.

The company, which has 200 employees in the UK and South Africa and is led by a recognized team, is very well positioned in the UK strategic market. By facilitating access to this key market, SecureData offers Orange the opportunity to increase its capabilities in Europe.

[maywillow] 21/10/2018 08:45

MIDAS SHARE TIPS: If you want feelgood profits try Osirium - the firm that helps save hospitals from hack attacks

By Joanne Hart for The Mail on Sunday

Published: 22:59 BST, 20 October 2018 | Updated: 22:59 BST, 20 October 2018

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Last week, the National Cyber Security Centre warned that the UK faces a major, life-threatening cyber-attack in the near future. A Government agency, the Centre advises companies on how to avoid security threats. It has handled more than 500 cases in the past 12 months alone and the numbers are growing by the week.

The stakes are high. When TalkTalk suffered a data breach, it cost more than £40million and customers were furious. British Airways has yet to reveal the cost of its cyber-attack last month but it could run into hundreds of millions of pounds, let alone the reputational damage that the company has suffered.

Osirium aims to prevent these types of attacks. The company is relatively small but it is a market leader in its field and growing fast. The shares, at 124p, should follow suit. Osirium specialises in so-called ‘privileged access management’ – in essence, preventing hackers from accessing the accounts of people who administer software systems.
Life support: Cyber criminals threaten the NHS
+1

Life support: Cyber criminals threaten the NHS

Most individuals – customers, employees, even board directors – only have access to their own online information. ‘Privileged account’ holders have access to hordes of information.

They invariably work in an organisation’s IT department and their computers include data on customers’ bank accounts, patients’ records, sensitive employee details or confidential information about defence and security.

For sophisticated cyber-criminals, these accounts are like the Holy Grail, allowing them to steal vast quantities of information in a single hit. As a result, over 80 per cent of cyber-attacks concern privileged accounts.

[the grumpy old men] 17/10/2018 07:11

17/10/2018 | 7:04
WALLIX RECEIVES '2018 INNOVATION AWARD' FROM 'TOP 250 FRENCH SOFTWARE EDITORS' BY EY AND DIGITAL SYNTEC (17/10/2018 07:00)

WALLIX, publisher of cybersecurity software solutions, received the "Innovation Award" on 16 October at the eighth edition of the "Top 250 French Software Editors" organized by EY and Syntec Numérique. The European specialist in cybersecurity is rewarded for the performance of its innovation policy supported by an ambitious R & D program.

EY and Syntec Numérique have rewarded WALLIX for its innovation policy based on excellence and for its strong involvement in R & D in the European cybersecurity ecosystem. The company works on collaborative projects with major groups and research laboratories, in France and in Europe, to anticipate the technological breakthroughs of the Internet of Things, Big Data and Artificial Intelligence as well as projects around uses such as Industry 4.0, connected health, and more generally the design of digital infrastructures and "Privacy and Security by Design" applications.

A third of the workforce of the cybersecurity software vendor is dedicated to innovation and R & D with teams of experts working on continuous product improvement, software quality excellence and the interoperability of its solutions with those of the market in a context of widespread use in the cloud environment.

WALLIX is driven by hyper-growth since 2013. In this context, after a fundraising of 37 million euros in May 2018, the goal of the publisher is to become one of the European leaders in cybersecurity through the constant search for innovation and its international development.

Jean-Noël de Galzain, Chairman of the Management Board of WALLIX said: "We are very pleased to have received this" Innovation Award "from EY and Syntec Digital. It rewards the work of a dedicated team, totally dedicated to our ambition: to become one of the major players in cybersecurity in Europe. "

ABOUT WALLIX

Publisher of cyber security software, WALLIX Group is the European specialist in the governance of privileged accounts. Responding to recent regulatory developments (NIS / RGPD in Europe and OIV in France) and cybersecurity issues that affect all businesses, WALLIX products and solutions help users protect their critical IT assets. The WALLIX Bastion secures access to servers, terminals and connected objects. It benefits from ANSSI CSPN certification and responds to the request for regulatory compliance. The DataPeps solution protects enterprise data by providing an end-to-end encryption software brick in SaaS mode that enables them to meet the constraints imposed by the RGPD.

WALLIX supports more than 570 companies and organizations in their daily access management. Its solutions are distributed through a network of more than 160 resellers and integrators. Listed on Euronext under the ALLIX code, WALLIX Group is one of the leaders in the PAM market with a strong presence throughout the Europe and EMEA region and is one of its TDH reference shareholders, a company controlled by Thierry Dassault.

The WALLIX Bastion won the Computing Security Awards 2016, voted "Best Buy" by SC Magazine and named one of the leaders in the Products and Innovation category of the Privilege Access Management of the Compass KuppingerCole2017. The company is a member of Bpifrance Excellence, Champion of the Systematic Paris Region cluster and a founding member of the Hexatrust Group. In 2017, WALLIX GROUP was integrated into the Futur40, the first list of growth companies on the stock market published by Forbes France, and is part of the Tech 40 index.

More information on www.wallix.com

[ariane] 10/10/2018 08:41

Seven in ten FTSE 100 companies are not ready for the next major DNS attack
0
By LLB Reporter at 7:36 am October 10, 2018 Business News, Tech

ThousandEyes, the company empowering businesses with Network Intelligence, has found that 72% of the Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 100 companies are not adequately prepared for the next major attack on the domain name system (DNS), according to the results of the 2018 ThousandEyes Global DNS Performance Report.

Additionally, the report found similar vulnerability among 68% of the top 50 companies on the Fortune 500 rankings and 44% of the top 25 SaaS providers.

The annual ThousandEyes report, released today, is an analysis and global performance comparison of DNS, the Internet infrastructure that acts as the phone book of the Internet, translating domain names, such as www.thousandeyes.com to Internet Protocol addresses. This ThousandEyes DNS research also includes an IT architecture readiness assessment for leading global brands, determining their level of risk should another incident occur like the Dyn attack of 2016.

“Because Digital Experience is so central to a brand’s success these days, it’s critical that businesses understand that not all DNS infrastructures are created equal — performance and risk exposure varies widely between providers and geographies, so they need to be aware and base decisions on data relevant to their market,”said Craig Matsumoto, Senior Analyst at 451 Research. “Moreover, very basic DNS architectural decisions matter. In this day and age, not properly architecting for potential attacks is a major risk factor that businesses need to mitigate immediately, if they care at all about their website or services being discoverable on the Internet.”

[grupo guitarlumber] 02/9/2018 10:47

If your mobile phone is running slowly or always losing battery, it might have been hacked to mine cryptocurrency – here's how to protect yourself
Business Insider España

Ana Zarzalejos, Business Insider España



According to a experts at internet security firm ESET, alarm bells should ring if you notice your phone overheating, running slowly or the battery running out inexplicably quickly.
All of these symptoms could be a sign that your phone has been hacked by a cryptojacker.
The battery malfunctions and overheating caused by mining can damage your devices — and the damage can sometimes be permanent.

If your mobile phone (especially if it's an Android) has started to run slowly, is overheating, or its battery is depleting rapidly for no apparent reason, you should be worried.

Why? According to a report from AFP, these symptoms may mean you've been the unfortunate victim of a cryptojacker.

Mining cryptocurrencies is essentially just carrying out digital transactions — the difference between cryptocurrency transactions and other digital transactions is that it typically involves solving problems using hardware (in return for which you get paid in a given cryptocurrency).

Typically, the mathematical problems that need solving in order to carry out crypto transactions are highly complex and, therefore, demand a significant amount of computing power. This naturally entails spending a lot on hardware and incurs hefty energy bills — but it would seem cybercriminals have found a more cost-efficient shortcut.

iphone cellphone smartphone phone screen time Apple texting One of the things you can do to prevent your phone being manipulated for crypto-mining is to ensure your operating system and apps are updated to the latest version. 1Day Review/Flickr/CC BY 2.0

One smarphone alone doesn't have the required processing power to mine cryptocurrencies — but when many are used together, cybercriminals can easily take advantage of their collective processing power. And, without users' knowledge, an increasing number of cryptojackers are doing just that.

In order for cryptojackers to mine, users download seemingly harmless apps that, in turn, introduce mining malware to the device.

Worryingly, ESET experts quoted in AFP's report suggest that the list of apps hiding programs for mining cryptocurrencies is growing.

According to We Live Security, the Bug Smasher gaming app was just one of many that turned out to have hidden mining functionality — it was removed in January 2018 when ESET researchers discovered what was going on.
Google is more exposed than Apple but it's cracking down

The best-case scenario if you do get hacked is that your phone will slow down and overheat a lot. But worse things can happen - phones could end up permanently damaged due to battery malfunctions, with those that run on Android being particularly susceptible.

The reason devices using Google's operating system are more vulnerable is simple because Apple's iOS exercises more rigorous control over the applications it allows in the App Store. For example in June Apple made a point of adding to its guidelines that the use of cryptocurrency mining programs on its devices was expressly prohibited.

However, according to the AFP, Google is now following the same steps as Apple with Google Play and recently informed developers that it will no longer allow the mining of cryptocurrencies on their devices.

crypto ESET experts have indicated that the list of apps hiding programs cryptocurrency-mining programs is growing. Getty
How you can protect your phone

The experts admit it's somewhat difficult to tell which apps are hiding malware but that, as a user, there are measures that can be taken to make yourself less vulnerable :

Ensure your operating system and apps are updated to the latest version to ensure they remain secure.
Only install apps from official platforms (Google Play Store and Apple's App Store).
Avoid installing applications from unknown sources.
Use the number of app downloads and user reviews to ensure any apps you download are the legitimate versions.
Don't grant your apps unnecessary permissions.

You can also use antivirus software suitable for your operating system for extra protection.

Read the original article on Business Insider España.

[adrian j boris] 14/7/2018 13:42

WALLIX: WALLIX GROUP ONCE AGREED IN THE FUTURE40, THE GROWTH OF GROWTH CORPORATIONS
Actusnews13 / 07/2018 at 19:15

Paris, the 13/07/2018

WALLIX GROUP (ALLIX: FR0010131409 - Euronext Growth), a cybersecurity software publisher and European specialist in the management and protection of privileged access, announced that it has been recognized for the second consecutive year in the 2018 list of 40 Future Trophies40, gathering the 40 champions of growth in France.

Forbes France and SME finance-Europe Entrepreneurs, the 40-year-old Futures Award40, honors each year 40 companies, eligible for the PEA-SME and listed in Paris, which have shown during the last 3 years, the fastest growth, sustained and sustainable, of their turnover.

[sarkasm] 11/7/2018 15:52

UK firms are too confident about their cybersecurity

11 July 2018 | By LLB Reporter

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Cyber

New survey shows

Despite the growth in data breaches, senior executives at UK firms think their cybersecurity protection is top-notch, according to a new survey conducted by research and consultancy firm Ovum for Silicon Valley analytics firm FICO. Three out of four executives from UK firms said their firm was better prepared than their competitors, and 43 percent said their firm was a top performer. While this overconfidence was seen across the eight regions surveyed, Canada was the only country where more respondents (44 percent) said they were a top performer for cybersecurity protection.

Key highlights:

75 percent of UK firms surveyed said they are better prepared for data breaches than their competitors — up from 60 percent last year
Of eight regions surveyed, only Canadians were more likely to rate their firm a top performer for cybersecurity
Financial services respondents were least realistic, with 96 percent rating their firms above average or top performers
Retail and e-commerce respondents were most realistic, with 57 percent rating their firms above average or top performers
Ovum conducted telephone surveys for FICO of security executives at 500 companies in the UK and 10 other countries

Among British industries, financial services firms were the most confident of all —55 percent said their firm was a top performer, and 41 percent said their firm was above average. Telecommunications providers were second, with 42 percent calling their firm a top performer. The least confident — or most realistic — respondents were in retail and ecommerce, where 38 percent said their firm is a top performer, and just 19 percent said they were above average.

Despite this confidence, only 36 percent of organisations are carrying out more than a point-in-time assessment of what their cybersecurity risk is.

“The grave risk posed to our privacy and security demands that firms take an honest view of their protection,” said Steve Hadaway, FICO general manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. “These numbers suggest that many firms just don’t understand how they compare to their competitors, and that could lead to a lack of investment. When we review firms’ cybersecurity risk with our FICO Enterprise Security Score, I can tell you that most firms are not above average.”

“IT leaders have greater funding than ever to protect organisations from the continuously evolving threat landscape and meet complex compliance demands,” said Maxine Holt, research director at Ovum. “These same IT leaders are undoubtedly keen to believe that the money being spent provides their organisation with a better security posture than any other – but the rapid pace of investment, often in point solutions, rarely takes an organisation-wide view of security.”

[waldron] 09/7/2018 19:42

Alexandra Saintpierre, published on the 09/07/2018 at 16h56
Orange and Europol sign a protocol against cybercrime

(Boursier.com) - Orange has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Europol, the European Agency for Police Cooperation, to strengthen their collaboration and share their knowledge on cyber-threats and major attacks. The two organizations are working together to create a safer cyberspace for citizens, businesses and governments, and fight cybercrime.

In The Hague, Jean-Luc Moliner (Orange Group Director of Security) and Steven Wilson (Director of Europol's European Crime Center, EC3) have signed an agreement on a knowledge-sharing partnership on cyber threats that can weigh at the European level.

The agreement sets a framework for Orange and Europol to exchange information on the state of the threat on cybercrime networks and trends. Orange will help strengthen and enrich data by exchanging technical know-how and sharing indicators that the operator can see on its networks: spam, DDoS attacks, fraud, mobile cyber attacks or even cyberattacks. banking for example.