Canadian communications firm admits data breach
A “small” data breach has been admitted by Canadian firm Rogers Communications and the firm is blaming “human error” for the issue. The breach occurred after an employee in the firm’s IT department was duped into allowing access to their email account, which then gave the attackers the opportunity to access dozens of client contracts, which it then posted on Twitter. No payment of confidential financial information is believed to have been accessed. The motivation for the attack appears to be financial with the hackers demanding around U$20,000 to not publish the data. Cyber security experts say that employees must be trained in how to handle situations where hackers attempt to get access to their passwords as what is sometimes seen as low-risk has the potential to have devastating consequences for businesses.
Did climate change lead to the war in Syria?
A new report suggests that the civil war in Syria is at least partly due to climate change. Researchers from Columbia University and the University of California Santa Barbara say that the country’s civil unrest can be traced back through an influx of farmers into cities, caused by a collapse of their industry following a drought lasting a number of years. The report isn’t claiming that climate change caused a civil war, but with 1.5 million migrants from rural areas moving to cities, having lost their livelihoods and homes, it is easy to see why there would be tension. There were other factors too including the oppressive regime and migrants from Iraq flooding into Syria, but the scientists who compiled the report say it is clear to see a link between the effects of climate change and civil unrest.
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Cyber risk conference aims to break the silo mentality
Whenever there is a cyber security incident experts make a plea for businesses to stop viewing it as an IT issue and make it an intrinsic part of the organization. That will be one of the key focuses on this year’s International Cyber Risk Management Conference taking place in Canada this June. Keynote speakers include Jim Routh, chief information security officer of Aetna and Jason Healey the director of the Cyber Statecraft Initiative of the Atlantic Council, focusing on international cooperation, competition and conflict in cyberspace. The conference will consider where the main threats are coming from and how organizations can adapt to be more resilient to cyber threats.
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