Intelligent CISO Issue 12 | Page 24

threat updates UK The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) fined Vote Leave Limited £40,000 for sending out thousands of unsolicited text messages in the run up to the 2016 EU referendum. An ICO investigation found that Vote Leave sent 196,154 text messages promoting the aims of the Leave campaign with the majority containing a link to its website. The investigation also found that Vote Leave was unable to provide evidence that the people who received the messages had given their consent; a key requirement of electronic marketing law. GLOBAL Proofpoint, a leading cybersecurity and compliance company, released its Cloud Application Attack Snapshot: Q1 2019 research, which examined more than 100,000 cloud application attacks aimed at global organisations between September 2018 and February 2019. Overall, targeting attempts increased by 65% during that time period with 40% originating in Nigeria. China was the second most prevalent country of origin, with 26% of attacks originating from Chinese IP addresses. Cloud application attacks use intelligence driven brute-force techniques (to crack passwords) and sophisticated phishing methods to lure victims into clicking and revealing their authentication credentials to break into cloud applications including Microsoft Office 365 and Google G Suite. 24 Issue 12 | www.intelligentciso.com