A lot happens in the security world, some big and some small, and many stories get lost in the mix. In an effort to keep our readers informed and updated, we present the Webroot Threat Recap, highlighting 5 major security news stories of the week.

U.S. Police Union Data Breach

In the past week, a security breach affected the Fraternal Order of Police’s computer systems, resulting in a significant data loss. Currently, only 2.5 GB of data has been released, according to the hacker/activist Thomas White, who claims to have an additional 18 TB of data stored. The FBI are still investigating the breach, which contains information that could expose possible police corruption or other classified government data.

Read More: http://www.net-security.org/secworld.php?id=19394

Java Browser Plug-In Hits End of Life

This week, Oracle announced that is was killing off the vulnerability-prone plug-in, with the version 9 release of their Java Developer Kit. While thousands of applications were built around the Java plug-in, most Internet browsers stopped supporting it in 2015, due to the unending exploits. Unfortunately, some companies still require legacy versions of Java to run custom-built applications, that may not have a counterpart in the marketplace.

Read More: https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2016/02/02/goodbye-and-good-riddance-oracle-finally-ditches-java-browser-plug-in/

U.S. Restaurant Chains Experience Credit Card Hack

It has been reported that venues owned by Landry’s have been targeted multiple times in the last two years with major payment data breaches. Currently, the information that has been exposed contains names, card numbers, expiration dates, and other sensitive data of customers. It appears that the attack was aimed at the payment processing devices, which would pull customer data when the card was swiped for the transaction.

Read More: http://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/hundreds-of-landrys-golden-nugget/

Super Bowl Stadium, Possible Hacking Target?

With Super Bowl 50 coming up this weekend, there looms a question of how well the high-tech stadium will handle any possible cyber attacks. With nearly 13,000 wi-fi points, it would be a prime target, considering the large volume of high-profile attendees. If a security leak was found by an attacker, any malicious payload could spread rapidly through the over-logged network, and cause significant data loss. For those travelling to the game in Santa Clara, stay safe and Go Broncos!

Read More: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/02/silicon-valleys-high-tech-super-bowl-stadium-could-be-a-target-for-hackers/434673/

eBay Resolves Security Issue

Recently, an Israeli security firm found a vulnerability in eBay, that would allow an attacker to create a vendor store and, using a malicious Javascript payload, could launch an attack on unsuspecting site visitors. The vulnerability itself comes from the “store” allowing dynamic content to appear, such as pop-ups or ads, and leading the victim to a compromised page. The specific issue was dealt with, but the use of active/dynamic content remains.

Read More: http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2016/02/03/ebay-severe-security-weakness/

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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