Best email services of 2020: paid, free and business providers
Our run-down of the best email service providers around today.
Read MoreThe average cost per data breach incident in the Middle East is higher than the global average and it is the second-highest after the US, according to a new study.
Sponsored by IBM Security and conducted by the Ponemon Institute in 17 countries between August 2019 and April 2020, the 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report states that the average cost per data breach in the US stands at $8.64m, followed by the Middle East at $6.52m and Canada at $4.50m.
In 2019, the average cost was $5.97m in the Middle East.
A breach is defined as an event in which an individual’s name and a medical record and/or a financial record or debit card is potentially put at risk — either in electronic or paper format.
The global average cost per breach is $3.86m.
In contrast, Latin American and Brazilian organisations had the lowest average total cost at $1.68m and $1.12m, respectively.
In Saudi Arabia and the UAE, breaches cost companies $188 per lost or stolen record on average, which represents an increase of 8.5% from 2019 while the cost of a data breaches in these two countries has risen by 9.4% over the past year.
In the Middle East, malicious attacks were the root cause for 59% of the data breaches while system glitches at 24% and human errors at 17%.
In the Middle East, 23% of the organisations have fully deployed security automation while 40% have partially deployed security automation and 37% haven’t deployed security automation at all.
In the study, the average time to identify a breach was 207 days and the average time to contain was 73 days, for a combined 280 days.
In 2019 the average time to identify was 206 days and the average time to contain was 73 days, for a combined 279 days.
In the Middle East, the average time to identify a breach in 2020 was 269 days and the average time to contain was 100 days, for a combined 369 days compared to 381 days in 2019.
The Middle East comes second, after Brazil (380 days), to identify and contain a data breach and healthcare were found to incur the highest per-record cost of a data breach, followed by financial services and then technology.
Our run-down of the best email service providers around today.
Read MoreResearchers have disclosed a severe security vulnerability affecting a WordPress plugin installed across more than 20,000 websites. According to a blog post from security firm Wordfence, the bug is present in older versions of the Access Demo Importer plugin, which lets WordPress users import demo content, widgets, theme options and other settings to their sites. If exploited, the vulnerability could reportedly allow attackers with subscriber-level access to upload arbitrary files that set the stage for remote code execution. Wordfence says that sites with open registration could be particularly vulnerable to this exploit. The vulnerability has been assigned a severity score of 8.8/10 as per the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS). The Access Demo Importer vulnerability is said to originate in a feature that allows users to install plugins hosted outside of the official WordPress repository. “Unfortunately, this function had no capability check, nor any nonce checks, which made it possible for authenticated users with minimal permissions, like subscribers, to install a zip file as a ‘plugin’ from an external source,” explained Wordfence. “This ‘plugin’ zip file could contain malicious PHP files, including webshells, that could be used to achieve remote code execution and ultimately completely take over a site.” The vulnerability was first identified by Wordfence in early August. After a series of failed attempts to get in contact with the vendor, the security firm escalated the issue to the WordPress.org team and the plugin was pulled down to allow the developers to put together a patch. A partial fix was rolled out in early September, followed by a comprehensive patch on September 21. To shield against attack, WordPress users are advised to update to the latest version of the Access Demo Importer plugin (version 1.0.7) immediately.
WordPress plugin vulnerability
Surfshark Alert will serve as an aggregator of compromised data, allowing individuals to see what personal information has been leaked.
Read MorePoor login and password experiences are making online retailers lose out on some major sales, a new report from Beyond Identity is suggesting. The authentication service provider recently polled 1,000 consumers to better understand how new security measures, imposed by online stores, affect their online shopping habits and overall e-commerce experience. What it found were shoppers, annoyed by the requirements, and always on the lookout for ways to circumvent them. According to the report, two-thirds (67%) of online shoppers have lost interest in creating an account on an e-commerce site, due to password requirements. For almost a quarter of respondents (24%), having specific password requirements, such as a minimal number of characters, mandatory numbers and special characters, is the number one annoyance. This was particularly annoying as having a strong password made it difficult to remember. Then, many were annoyed for being required an account to check out from the store, or being forced to answer security questions were also listed as major annoyances. Finally, being forced to pass a CAPTCHA test to log in was super annoying for 15% of the respondents. Those that don’t quit straight away, and instead persevere in their desire to create an account, will look for different ways to circumvent the “annoying” requirements. Most (58%) of them will use the same security question across multiple shopping platforms. All in all, practically all e-shoppers (84%) experience password fatigue from having to set up accounts when making a purchase. Still, e-commerce isn’t going anywhere. It’s by far the most popular way to shop nowadays, especially since the pandemic forced many physical store owners to lock up and move into the digital realm. According to figures from Statistica, the overall percentage of e-commerce retail sales accounted for 16% of sales in the US in Q2 2020, as well as nearly a third of all retail in the UK.
Password fatigue
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