Apple Announces iPhone Lockdown Mode | How Many Cyber Attacks Happen Per Day? | China Cyber Breach

July 11th

Article by Christopher Lauder, Delegate Relationship Executive, Rela8 Group

Apple Announces iPhone Lockdown Mode

To begin, Apple has announced a new feature coming to their iPhones, iPads, and Mac line-ups this Autumn. It has been called ‘Lockdown Mode’, and it is aiming to add a new layer of security against hacking attacks.

Lockdown Mode will block various message attachment types, disable link previews, turn off certain web browsing technologies, block invitations and FaceTime calls from unknown sources, and disable the setup of new configuration profiles or enrolment in mobile device management. It will also block wired connections to iPhones when they are locked.

Cellebrite, an Israeli firm, has used such wired connections to access iPhones in the past, and security researchers NSO Group have exploited a flaw previously in how Apple handled message attachments.

In a statement, an Apple representative said they are trying to protect users against a new “zero click” hacking technique. This is still quite rare, and it is expected that most users will not need to activate this new Lockdown Mode.

Apple has also announced that for each flaw security researchers find in the new Lockdown Mode, Apple will pay the researchers up to $2 million – the highest such “bug bounty” that is offered in the industry.

Source - Apple Devices Lockdown Mode - Apple

Source - Apple Devices Lockdown Mode - CNET

Source - Apple Devices Lockdown Mode - Yahoo!

Source - Apple Devices Lockdown Mode - BBC News

How Many Cyber Attacks Happen Per Day?

In a new article, Newstrail have examined recent data to understand the frequency of cyber attacks in 2022, and how many hacking attempts are being made each day.

Data has shown that more than 30,000 websites are successfully hacked across the globe each day, yet many more attempts are actually made. For example, the NSA Data Center in Utah receives 300 million hacking attempts every day. More key statistics are below:

There are approximately 300,000 malware programs created daily. That is more than 2 million malware programs per week specifically designed to disrupt or penetrate digital systems
The most targeted sector is education and research followed by government and intelligence agencies
The file type .exe is still the most malicious and accounts for 52% of all infected files. Coming in second are .pdf files followed by .doc files in third place
The most popular method of attack is through email, accounting for 84% of all attacks
In a study done by Positive Technologies, it shows that hackers can access around 93% of companies’ networks. It takes around two days to gain access to a company’s internal network
Only 14% of all small businesses are able to defend themselves against attack, however almost 43% of all cyber attacks are aimed at small businesses
There is a ransomware attack every 11 seconds

To view more key statistics, check out the full article by Newstrail below.

Source - How Many Cyber Attacks Happen Daily? - Newstrail

The most popular method of attack is through email, accounting for 84% of all attacks

Newstrail

China Cyber Breach

Finally, China has suffered the largest exploit of personal information in the country’s history. This is the result of a breach into Shanghai’s National Police database, which was apparently left unsecured, and has affected over one billion people.

The exploit was discovered on July 5th when a cybercriminal who goes by the name ChinaDan was offered access to an enormous amount of Chinese citizen’s information on a forum for the sum of $200,000, or 10 Bitcoin. The post on the forum said:

“In 2022, the SHGA database was leaked. This database contains many TB of data and information on Billions of Chinese citizens. Databases contain information on 1 billion Chinese national residents and several billion case records, including: name, address, birthplace, national ID number, mobile number, all crime/case details.”

It is still unknown which group or individual claims responsibility for the attack.

Source - China Database Breach - Wired

Source - China Database Breach - Fortune

Source - China Database Breach - Guardian

Source - China Database Breach - Washington Post