We use cookies to make your experience of our websites better. By using and further navigating this website you accept this. Detailed information about the use of cookies on this website is available by clicking on more information.
Our video picks: Olympic Games – tech success or failure?
As the Olympic torch begins its journey to Tokyo 2021's opening ceremony, we ask, is the Olympic Games a chance for technology to shine or a data breach waiting to happen?
Tech successes and failures at the Olympic Games
In ancient Greece, the Olympics began some 3,000 years ago as a sporting event to honour the god Zeus. As the iconic torch sets off on its journey to the Tokyo 2021 opening ceremony, we ask if the Olympic Games is where new technological standards are set, or a breeding ground for emerging cyber threats.
Tech successes and failures from Olympic history range from robotics to autonomous vehicles, to merciless malware that tried to start a cyberwar.
Highlight: Did this drone display steal the show?
Good Morning America shows us how new drones from Intel will change medal ceremonies forever.
Highlight: Tokyo’s high-tech plan for 2020 Olympics
With the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games just around the corner, here's a snapshot of the incredible technology the organizers will use to make the event smoother and more enjoyable for everyone.
Lowlight: One of the most deceptive hacks in cyber history?
If successful, the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics' cyberattack would have left a geopolitical disaster in its wake. hacker: Hunter Olympic Destroyer is a three-part series exploring the mysterious motives behind the attackers, why it's one of the most deceptive cyberattacks in history and the 'extraordinarily brilliant' response that stopped it in its tracks. Watch the full 2018 Olympic cyberattack series.
The Olympic Games is one of the biggest stages on Earth to champion technology in all forms. But with more than sports at stake if things go wrong – think, mountains of personal data and even competitors' health – how can businesses and organizations make sure this event and its tech is safe for all to enjoy?
These are cybersecurity's trailblazing women to follow
This International Women's Day, we celebrate the makers, creators and doers working to close tech's gender gap. Sure, the industry has a long way to go, but these women's success shows we're making progress. Essential reading if you're looking at a career in the industry.
International Women’s Day – your inspiration for a career in cybersecurity
Are you thinking about a career in cybersecurity but put off by the lack of women in the industry? There's good news: the tides are changing. What was a male-dominated industry is transforming – slowly but surely. We're celebrating the women who've made it.
The numbers behind tech’s shrinking gender gap
Diversity benefits our teams, yet encouraging more women to join is a constant challenge in the tech industry. Now is the time for change. Kaspersky's Women in Tech report found 57 percent agree there are now more women in IT and tech roles than two years ago. Plus, one in two believe that remote working has improved gender equality. This might seem like slow progress, but it's a positive sign for championing women in cybersecurity. And these trailblazers are leading the way.
Theresa Payton: The first female to serve as White House Chief Information Officer (CIO)
How many people can say that? Formerly of the White House, Theresa is CEO of Fortalice – a cybersecurity firm specializing in protecting small-to-medium-sized businesses and a team member on the CBS reality TV show Hunted. Here's her view on what it's like being a woman working in cybersecurity.
Katie Moussouris: The pink-haired, white-hat hacker
Eva set up the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a collection of technologists and activists to defend free speech online and fight illegal surveillance. Now she's a leading voice in the fight against stalkerware. Meet Eva in Tomorrow Unlocked series Defenders of Digital.
Dr. Magda Chelley: The award-winning cyber entrepreneur
Magda is a top international cybersecurity influencer. Global leader of the year at the Women in IT Awards 2017, Founder of Woman in Cyber group, and works with numerous non-profit focus groups. If that wasn't enough, she leads her own company, Responsible Cyber. But what makes her tick?
Cybersecurity expert, influencer and font of cyber knowledge – Shira Rubinoff is President of SecureMySocial. Here she breaks down the importance of cybersecurity training.
Tyler Cohen Wood: 20 years’ fighting cyberthreats for the US government
Tyler is a globally-recognized cyber-authority. She's spent time developing cybersecurity initiatives for the White House, Department of Defence and the Defense Intelligence Agency (as their Cyber Deputy Chief.) Here she talks about the cyber-apocalypse.
Jane Frankland: Cyber entrepreneur and best-selling author
Security entrepreneur and author of In Security: Why a Failure to Attract and Retain Women in Cybersecurity is Making Us All Less Safe – Jane Frankland is empowering more women to become cybersecurity leaders in company boardrooms worldwide. Here she talks about Industry 4.0.
Dr. Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE: Training girls for jobs in cyber
Tech speaker and author, Anne-Marie, CEO of training organization Stemettes, is leading the wave by encouraging girls and young women to pursue cyber careers. Read an interview with Anne-Marie in Secure Futures by Kaspersky magazine.
This is just a tiny snapshot of the incredible women helping to close tech's gender gap globally. Here are a few more women to get on your radar.
Lesley Carhart: Principal Threat Analyst at Dragos, with two decades of threat hunting experience. She was named "Top Woman in Cybersecurity" in 2017.
Noushin Shabab: Senior Security Researcher at Kaspersky who's helping to connect, support and inspire women in security across Australia through the Australian Women in Security Network.
Rebecca Base: 'A maverick and a catalyst for women in cybersecurity,' widely respected as a security technology pioneer, known for her valued role as a mentor to young people and young companies in cyber. Rebecca is no longer with us, but her legacy remains.
Looking for more inspiration on how women are overcoming gender biases in tech and cybersecurity? Explore Kaspersky's Empower Women project.
Join presenter Rainer Bock to explore the great privacy challenges we face today, and what we can do to protect ourselves.
Join the privacy debate
Online privacy is more important than ever right now. Given the digital world's meteoric expansion, the ever-evolving threat landscape and murky data privacy court cases, this is the perfect time to brush up on what we're up against and how to stay safe.
Rainer Bock meets cybersecurity experts from Kaspersky's Global Research and Analysis Team, Marco Preuss and Félix Aimé. They discuss the critical stalkerware threat, programs that fight unwanted data sharing, and a bold privacy experiment involving 185 used hard drives, USB sticks and notepads.
These students are hacking satellites - and the US Air Force approves
Hackers hijacked a US Air Force satellite with just $300 worth of TV equipment to show just how easy it is.
There are security problems in space - and they can spell disaster
Every time you use your phone, GPS or a connected device you're dialling up a satellite. And yet many orbiting satellites are protected by cybersecurity tech from the 1990s. This leaves the systems and sensitive data vulnerable to hacking, with dangerous consequences.
In partnership with Freethink, season 3 of Coded explores the latest trends in hacking. In episode 4 we meet a young scholar who hacked a satellite with $300 of TV equipment. And we visit one of the teams from 2020's Hack-a-Sat competition who are helping the government to identify and close security gaps in the thousands of satellites orbiting the earth.
The final instalment of our series hacker:HUNTER Olympic Destroyer examines how Pyeongchang winter Olympics hackers put smokescreen to misdirect cybersecurity analysts. But through the fog, analysts realized the culprit wasn't who you might expect.
“Like placing someone else’s fingerprints at the crime scene.”
If successful, the 2018 Pyeongchang cyberattack could have cost billions of dollars, leaving a canceled Olympics and a geopolitical disaster in its wake. Their deceptive methods meant the cybercriminals nearly got away with it. Why did they want to point the analysts at another group? And who was behind it all?
Threat attribution – what is it?
Cybercriminals don't leave a calling card, but they do leave evidence. The art of finding and using that evidence to find the culprit is known as threat attribution.
Threat attribution is forensic analysis for advanced persistent threats (APTs). It analyzes the attackers' 'fingerprints,' such as the style of their code, where they attack and what kinds of organizations they target. Attacks can be matched with the fingerprints of other attacks attributed to specific groups.
Cybercriminals carry special ‘fingerprints’
Hackers have their own set of tactics, techniques and procedures. Cybersecurity experts can identify threat actors by studying these elements.
Lazarus has certain targets and ways of attacking: Infecting a website employees of a targeted organization often visit or finding a vulnerability in one of their servers. These are the 'fingerprints' used in threat attribution.
Finding a needle within in a needle in a haystack
Crucially, Lazarus Group is long thought to be linked to North Korea. Olympic Destroyer included a piece of Lazarus's malware code, but the type of attack didn't fit. Its fingerprints better matched a cluster of attacks by another group with a very different agenda.
Watch the full video to see if you knew who the hacker was all along.
Algorithms are everywhere, but they are trained based on the beliefs of their developer. In episode two of our second season of Defenders of Digital, we learn about Homo Digitalis' work to expose algorithm bias that impedes digital rights for millions. The first corporate they catch might surprise you.
Ethical algorithm moderation
Algorithms can improve our experience online. But one not-for-profit is going beyond the code for the greater good. Founded in 2018, Homo Digitalis has over 100 members. They promote transparency in algorithmic programming and safeguards against discrimination by algorithm.
Because programmers – as humans – have biases, algorithms learn from those biases. When we hand power over to the algorithm, it may erode digital rights and impinge freedom of expression without us knowing.
Homo Digitalis has already called out one tech giant for their moderation process. It could have impacted millions. Who was it? Find out in Defenders of Digital season two, episode two.
Security researchers described the code used to attack the 2018 Pyeongchang winter Olympics as 'Frankenstein-like.' In part two of our video series, hacker:HUNTER Olympic Destroyer, they explain how the malware was designed to point in multiple directions.
Who would dare to hack the Olympics?
The designer of an extraordinary piece of code lodged it in a system where it remained undetected for months. Part two of hacker:HUNTER Olympic Destroyer explores the nature of the attack, its process and why 'Frankenstein-like' code made it one of the most mysterious advanced persistent threat (APT) attacks in history.
Olympic Destroyer was the perfect example of an APT. What are they, and why are they so harmful?
APTs attack over time
APTs are sophisticated hacks that often wait for the perfect time to strike to create maximum damage. They lodge themselves in a system and steal critical data over weeks, months or years. Those behind these attacks build complex software for intentional damage – from espionage and sabotage to data theft.
Highly organized groups use APTs
APTs are notoriously associated with highly organized groups. They attack high-status targets like countries or large corporations, notably in manufacturing and finance, aiming to compromise high-value information like intellectual property, military plans and sensitive user data.
Their high-profile targets will have secure networks and defenses, so threats must stay undetected as long as possible. The longer the attack goes on, the more time attackers have to map the system and plan to steal what they want.
Motives behind attacks vary, from harvesting intellectual property to gaining advantage in an industry, to stealing data for use in fraud. One thing is clear: APTs cause severe damage.
The ‘perfect’ APT
Olympic Destroyer was the perfect APT. A highly-organized group attacked a national Olympic committee, and it worked.
The 'confusion bomb' had been undetected in the computer system for four months, biding its time to strike. Being in the system gave them time to find weak spots and pain points to make the attack more devastating. When it finally surfaced, all hell broke loose.
Crippling the whole IT system
By directly attacking the Olympics' data centers in Seoul, South Korea, Olympic Destroyer cut employees' access to network computers. Because Wi-Fi was out, Olympic building security gates stopped working, coverage stopped, and the whole infrastructure went offline. The Pyeongchang IT team was staring down the barrel of a potential geopolitical disaster.
Stay tuned for episode three, where we unravel the IT team's ingenious response and find out who did it. Any guesses? Go to hacker:HUNTER to stay up to speed.
Looking forward to watching the Olympic Games in Tokyo? Here's a reminder of what happened at the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang
Barely noticed by the public, but an elaborate hacking attack hit the stadium, starting a cyber-political puzzle.
A cyber winter
It is February 9, 2018. The stage is set for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics' opening ceremony. But the organizers didn't realize one of the most deceptive cyberattacks in history was afoot.
This three-part series looks at the background to the Pyeongchang cyberattack, the Olympics IT team's stunning response and why it was so hard (and so risky) to find out who did it.
"Cybercriminals were quick to realize many years ago that people fall prey to hot topics," says Costin Raiu, Director of Global Research & Analysis, Kaspersky. And today's hottest topic is the pandemic.
Chapter 2 of hacker:HUNTER ha(ck)c1ne explores COVID-related phishing attacks, known as spear-phishing. These attacks skyrocketed by nearly seven times between February and March this year.
When the virus took force, and we were all frantic trying to help each other, cybercriminals found a way to wreak havoc. In September, Facebook announced an aid program of $100 million for small business owners affected by the pandemic. When the story was picked up by the media, hackers started fishing (or, more accurately, phishing) with the bait.
Hack the news
Cybercriminals published fake news saying Facebook would be handing out free money to everyone affected by COVID-19. On a site cleverly disguised to look like Facebook, you fill out a form that shares personal data like your address, social security number or a photo of your ID. You get a confirmation message that your application has been accepted and sit back and wait for the money to arrive. It never will.
It's not just people like us who criminals are targeting - organizations are hit too. At work, you get sent an email you think is from someone you know or your manager. But when you click on a link or open an attachment, it downloads malicious software opening the door for hackers to access the corporate network. They download data to sell on the dark web, or encrypt it via ransomware and force the business to pay the ransom to stop it from being leaked.
Criminals have the resources to hit everyone, from society's most vulnerable people to lucrative targets like big businesses and government. "Clearly the world is not as safe as we would like it to be. We're surrounded by all kinds of new and different threats," explains Zak Doffman, Founder and CEO of Digital Barriers. "The access to COVID treatments is a nation-state wide competitive advantage."
On September 9, in a hospital in Dusseldorf, Germany, a patient died from a virus. It wasn't what you might think: the hospital was hit by ransomware, infecting 30 servers before causing a total system shutdown, leading to the loss of her life. Yet this was a random act of chaos: the hackers misfired, they intended to infiltrate a nearby university.
This attack was fatal, but not unexpected. Attacks on hospitals and other health organizations havedramatically increased during the pandemic. When they hit, they can cost lives. Hospitals often have limited cybersecurity, making them vulnerable to attacks. In March, the University Hospital Brno, Czech Republic, faced a similar attack, fortunately, with no casualties.
For the latest hacker episode:HUNTER, we spoke to hospital staff to understand how ransomware attacks could harm patients.
Where there’s panic, there’s cybercrime
During the peak of pandemic information overload, COVID-19-themed cyberattacks spiked to a million a day in early March. Attacks targeting people access systems remotely – such asphishing, malicious websites, and malware - increased by a staggering 300 times during 2020.
Craig Jones, Director of Cybercrime at Interpol, explains: "Since March, the levels of work have ramped up. I've never known a period like it, not just at Interpol but also during my law enforcement experience." Check out Interpol's advice to protect yourselfagainst Covid-19 cyberthreats.
So what can we do in a world where cybercriminals seem to be one step ahead of us? Hunting down the hackers is no easy task, but as the heroes in the second season of hacker:HUNTER shows, we can protect everyone by taking a stand against cybercrime.
Photo by 
