The Cyber News Rundown brings you the latest happenings in cyber news weekly. Who am I? I’m Connor Madsen, a Webroot Threat Research Analyst, and a guy with a passion for all things security. Any more questions? Just ask.

Solar Panel Vulnerabilities Could Lead to Hot Issues

A recent study on several of the top solar panel manufacturers checked for any exploitable vulnerabilities in their products. One outcome of the study found that if a large volume of solar panels were exploited at once, it could cause catastrophic problems for the main power grid of an entire country. If such an attack took place, it’s very possible millions of people would be in for a hot mess.

Ships’ Technology Returning to Familiar Shores

In the past few years, sea-faring ships have been enhancing their GPS capabilities to keep track of their fleet anywhere in the world. Unfortunately, this technology is also quite vulnerable to cyberattacks, which could land a ship in troubled waters—stranded hundreds of miles from shore. As these attacks increase, many shipping companies are turning back to older radios as backups to keep in touch with each other and associates on land.

Dutch Car Leasing Company Leaks Driver Info

Within the last week, researchers have discovered a vulnerability in LeaseWise, a type of software used by dozens of car leasing companies. While the leak was shut down after only 24 hours, officials have stated that nearly 100,000 customers’ data may have been exposed in the data breach.

iOS Users are Twice as Likely to get Phished

Over the past few months, researchers have been compiling the statistics for mobile device attacks on iOS® and Android™ phones. Although many users still consider Apple and iOS products to be invulnerable to attacks, the numbers showed nearly twice as many phishing attacks against iOS devices over their Android counterparts. Even more concerning: the majority of these phishing attacks are taking place outside of email services, where they can get around the usual spam filters and other security measures.

Blizzard Players Left Cold During Summer Games 2017

On August 9, players of the widely-popular Blizzard game, Overwatch, have been stuck staring at login screen issues with no resolution in sight. As the Summer Games 2017 event kicked off, a large number of Blizzard servers went down, leaving hundreds of players worldwide (understandably) annoyed and demanding answers. Unfortunately, Blizzard has yet to resolve the issue, but is keeping users apprised of their progress toward a resolution on the company Twitter page.

Connor Madsen

About the Author

Connor Madsen

Threat Research Analyst

As a Threat Research Analyst, Connor is tasked with discovering and identifying new malware variants, as well as testing current samples to ensure efficacy. Don’t miss the latest security news from around the world in his weekly Cyber News Rundown blog.

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