25 May Cyber Security News Wrap-up 19/05 – 25/05

It’s time for our Cyber Security News Wrap-up. Here are the stories that grabbed our attention this week (19th May – 25th May)

a) Hackers targeted and infected over half a million routers and storage devices, primarily in Ukraine, which the country says is a part of a Russian plan for a future cyber attack. They believe Russia is timing the attack for the Champions League soccer final this weekend, but nothing has been confirmed.

b) Non-profit group Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) has released estimates which say criminals have stolen approximately $1.58bn in cryptocurrencies since 2017.

APWG also estimates that approximately 20% or less of the stolen amounts were recovered.

c) Sense of Security CTO Jason Edelstein appeared in Security Brief this week, discussing how Australia’s growing IoT adoption is putting them at risk.

The commentary follows research by Telsyte which found the average household has 17.1 connected devices, and this number is expected to rise to 37 by 2022 – a total of 381 million connected devices across the country.

We believe manufacturers are pushing connected devices out to market in a rush to remain competitive, which usually means leaving security as an afterthought.

d) A recent study of 61m leaked passwords found the most common password patterns.

Some of the most common combinations are comprised of keys on the left-hand side of the keyboard, much like the well-known “qwerty”. These alternate combinations include: 1q2w3e4r, 1qaz2wsx, 1qazxsw2, zaq12wsx, !qaz2wsx, and [email protected]

Other passwords include references to pop culture, brand names and sporting teams. Some of the more common ones are myspace, mustang, linkedin, ferrari, superman, pokemon, slipknot, liverpool, and chelsea.