The latest edition of the ISMG Security Report analyzes the many challenges involved in developing and implementing contact-tracing apps to help in the battle against COVID-19. Also featured: A discussion of emerging privacy issues and a report on why account takeover fraud losses are growing.

The National Credit Union Administration liquidated PEF Federal Credit Union of Highland Heights, Ohio.

The Ohio Division of Financial Institutions has liquidated the Taupa Lithuanian Credit Union of Cleveland, Ohio, and appointed the National Credit Union Administration as liquidating agent.

The Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services liquidated Craftsman Credit Union of Detroit and appointed the National Credit Union Administration as liquidating agent.

Attacks Traced to Gangs Wielding Nefilim, Snake Strains
Ransomware attacks hit at least four large organizations around the world this week, including a hospital group in Europe that has been battling the COVID-19 pandemic.

This webcast gives 6 tips for keeping employees safe and mitigating security threats as your workforce goes remote.
Learn how to protect employees from malicious web content.

Terminology Shift Announced by Britain's National Cyber Security Center
Forget "whitelists" and "blacklists" in cybersecurity. So recommends Britain's National Cyber Security Center, in a bid to move beyond the racial connotations inherent to the terminology. Henceforth, NCSC - part of intelligence agency GCHQ - will use the terms "allow list" and "deny list." Will others follow?

We Need These Apps, But Some Nations' Security and Privacy Follies Don't Bode Well
Despite the need to battle COVID-19, several nations' in-development digital contact-tracing apps are already dogged by security and privacy concerns. Whether enough users will ever trust these apps to make them effective remains a major question. Is it too late to get more projects back on track?

The Bangladesh eGovernment Computer Incident Response Team, or CIRT, is taking several steps to strengthen cybersecurity, including building a sensor network to help enable all banks to share threat intelligence, says Tawhidur Rahman, CIRT's head of digital security and diplomacy.

India is modifying its 2020 National Cybersecurity Policy to take into account the shift to teleworking as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, says Lt. Gen. (Retd) Rajesh Pant, national cybersecurity coordinator.

The latest edition of the ISMG Security Report analyzes the many challenges involved in developing and implementing contact-tracing apps to help in the battle against COVID-19. Also featured: A discussion of emerging privacy issues and a report on why account takeover fraud losses are growing.

The Final FFIEC Guidance has been issued and its main intent is to reinforce the 2005 Guidance's risk management framework and update the Agencies' expectations regarding customer authentication, layered security, or other controls in the increasingly hostile online environment.

The Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights provided a report to Congress on health information breaches from September 2009 through 2010, as required under the HITECH Act. Nearly 7.9 million Americans were affected by almost 30,800 health information breaches, according to the report.

The Reserve Bank of India on Sept. 22, 2011 issued a notification on security issues and risk mitigation measures related to card-present transactions.

Attacks Traced to Gangs Wielding Nefilim, Snake Strains
Ransomware attacks hit at least four large organizations around the world this week, including a hospital group in Europe that has been battling the COVID-19 pandemic.

With more than 300 million domain names registered globally, there are numerous examples of trending keywords reflected by domain name registrations. We have shown in the past that there is a correlation between domain name registrations and newsworthy and popular events, as well as anticipated trends. Keeping in the spirit of the zeitgeist that .com and […]

The post Top 10 Trending Keywords in .com and .net Registrations in July 2019 appeared first on Verisign Blog.

With more than 300 million domain names registered globally, there are numerous examples of trending keywords reflected by domain name registrations. We have shown in the past that there is a correlation between domain name registrations and newsworthy and popular events, as well as anticipated trends. Keeping in the spirit of the zeitgeist that .com […]

The post Top 10 Trending Keywords in .com and .net Registrations in August 2019 appeared first on Verisign Blog.

We have made some exciting enhancements to the NameStudio API, including the launch of the Online Presence Endpoint (OPE) feature. The OPE feature allows for even more personalized domain name suggestions based on information users choose to share with registrars and resellers about their online presence, such as: Marketplace store and business social media account […]

The post NameStudio® API Enhancement Enables Registrars and Resellers to Drive Domain Name Registrations appeared first on Verisign Blog.

Last week, we announced a number of actions we are taking to support our people and community during the global COVID-19 crisis. Today, we’re pleased to provide more detail about one of those actions, which, with the help of registrars, will make it easier for domain name registrants worldwide to keep their domain names in […]

The post Verisign Will Waive Wholesale Restore Fee to Help Registrants Keep Their Domain Names During COVID-19 Crisis appeared first on Verisign Blog.

A new study out of Germany has suggested that the coronavirus infection rate there could be much higher than initially thought and that some 1.8m people could be infected nationwide, a quarter of them without symptoms, Deutsche Welle reports. The number of coronavirus infections in Germany could be 10 times higher than currently thought, says a much-discussed Heinsberg Report, which took a closer look at one small community in Germany.

A new report from the European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media Services (ERGA) on the implementation of the EU Commission's 2018 code of practice on disinformation reveals "significant weaknesses" linked to the lack of transparency and voluntary approach. ERGA proposes shifting from the current flexible self-regulatory approach to co-regulatory. The code targeted companies such as Google, Facebook and Twitter.

If the North-South divide is bridged by a significantly increased EU-budget for the next seven years, anti-democratic governments should not continue to benefit.

Romania violated the rights of its former anti-corruption chief Laura Codruta Kovesi when they fired hire. The judgement issued by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg follows a long catalogue of high-level corruption in Romania.

The German Constitutional court ordered the European Central Bank to explain its 2015 bond-buying scheme that helped eurozone stay afloat - otherwise the German Bundesbank will not be allowed to take part.

Germans might be able to go abroad on holiday this summer, tourism minister Thomas Bareiss told Germany's Der Tagesspiegel newspaper on Tuesday. "I hope that, given the good numbers [on coronavirus infections], we will be able to relax the restrictions in the next four to eight weeks," he said. "I would not yet write off other regions in Europe, such as the Balearic islands or the Greek islands," Bareiss added.

Panama, the Bahamas, and Mauritius are to be added to an EU blacklist of countries on Thursday that "pose significant threats to the financial system of the [European] Union" on money-laundering grounds due to lax legislation at home, Reuters reports, citing a draft EU document. Barbados, Botswana, Cambodia, Ghana, Jamaica, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nicaragua and Zimbabwe are also on the list, meaning EU banks must do enhanced due diligence on transactions.

Six Western-Balkans leaders will sit down with the 27 EU ones in a videoconference summit on Wednesday that was to have taken place in Zagreb as the centrepiece of the Croatian EU presidency. "The summit itself is the message, to say: we want you to join," an EU diplomat told Reuters, adding: "We will also say that you cannot pander to the Chinese and the Russians when it suits you".

Denmark is set to reopen shopping malls, cafes and restaurants from next Monday (11 May) when older children will also return to school as the country enters the second phase of easing its coronavirus lockdown, Reuters reported. Daycare centres and primary schools were allowed to open their doors two weeks ago, followed by other small businesses. Daily infections and hospital admission have been steadily decreasing.

The EU has restated its accession promises to Western Balkan aspirants, while tacitly warning them on Chinese and Russian influence.

Doctors and nurses around the world are asking tech giants to correct the record on health misinformation and tweak their algorithms which decide what people get to see on social media platforms.

Poland is now aiming to hold its presidential election on 12 July instead of 10 May, ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party spokesman Radosław Fogiel said Thursday. The 10 May vote was to take place by post amid the coronavirus emergency. It also favoured PiS-loyalist and incumbent Andrzej Duda, the EU, civil society, and Polish opposition politicians feared. Polish MPs, also on Thursday, passed a new law allowing postal voting.

The Bank of England on Thursday warned that the UK economy is heading towards its deepest recession on record, as the British economy will shrink by 14 percent this year. The Covid-19 pandemic was "dramatically reducing jobs and incomes in the UK", it said. Bank governor Andrew Bailey told the BBC there would be no quick return to normality. The EU has forecast an eight-percent contraction for the UK.

EU home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson told MEPs that "the demand for child sexual abuse material has increased by up to 30 percent in some member states." Her comments were among a number of examples of criminal behavoir that has erupted since the pandemic outbreak. She said criminals also tried to cheat authorities out of €50m by selling them non-existent face masks.

Belgium's supermarkets have seen an increase in takings of more than €500m since the lockdown was installed mid-March, Le Soir writes. Compared to last year that is an increase of 10 percent. The uptick in sale was mainly for alcohol, food and cleaning products. At the beginning of the lockdown, people massively over-bought toilet paper and frozen foods, but those sales are today back to normal.

Prime minister Edouard Philippe said on Thursday that France does not rule out of re-imposing a lockdown if coronavirus cases increase, Reuters reported. "We have always said that we would rather not have to, if possible, resort [to a new lockdown] but also that, in the event that there was no other option, we would not rule it out," Philippe said. French lockdown will be partially lifted on Monday.

The European Commission is floating plans to beef up the fight against money-laundering, including possibly giving a supervisor role to the European Banking Authority. Yet the authority's board refused to act on a €200bn money-laundering scandal involving Danske Bank.

MEPs said the Czech PM should fully resolve the possible conflict of interest in a company that receives EU funds - or resign.

Polish ruling party chairman Jarosław Kaczyński is trying to turn the country into a Roman Catholic dictatorship, Poland's former foreign minister has said.

The EU's top court, the European Court of Justice, warned Friday the bloc's legal order could unravel if national courts started to question the primacy of EU law and ECJ decisions. In an unprecedented statement, after the German Constitutional Court's ruling on the European Central Bank diverging from an earlier ECJ decision, the ECJ said it alone has the right to rule on EU institutions and interpret EU law.

70 years later, after decades of comparative peace, todays European Union - perhaps the world's greatest experiment in state integration - finds itself at a crossroads.

The European Union will review German discounts on environmental taxes amid concerns the aid to companies that consume high volumes of energy may be illegal, but newly re-elected Chancellor Angela Merkel warned the measures are needed to keep Europe's biggest economy competitive.

For those clamoring for (and against) the year-end-expiring legislation, and anyone in favor of some tax-code simplification, today the government has offered an early holiday present: proposed reform for some key areas including the production tax credit (PTC) and investment tax credit (ITC).

Global private capital renewable energy investments are still above $250 billion for 2013. While the final numbers are not in yet, 3rd quarter global renewable energy investments, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s latest data on deals and projects, notes slightly lower global investment than in 2012 due faltering “political will to decarbonise energy mix.” They further note that the third quarter’s decline in investment will push the year’s overall investment in renewable energy and energy-smart technologies down below 2012's $281 billion. But $250+ billion ain’t shabby.

Alaska’s 720,000 people live in over 200 “energy islands” with no electricity grid connection to each other nor to North America. Smaller communities have no road connection to each other, the rest of Alaska, or the continent. Most energy is imported: diesel for electricity generation and heat; gasoline for transportation. All Alaskans might obtain an annually-firm supply of most of their energy, for all purposes, by converting Alaska’s diverse, stranded, renewable energy (RE) resources to liquid anhydrous ammonia (NH3) fuel, transporting and storing it at low cost in common steel propane tanks, recovering the RE via stationary combined-heat-and-power (CHP) plants, in internal combustion engine (ICE) and combustion turbine (CT) gensets, and via fuel cells, and as transportation fuel. Alaskans could achieve a significant degree of community energy independence, and perhaps export their abundant, stranded renewables as “green” liquid NH3 fuel. Solid state ammonia synthesis (SSAS) appears promising.

A Louisiana lumber town has become the crossroads for an unusual buyer and seller in the U.S. municipal market: private-equity firm KKR & Co. and the world’s biggest manufacturer of wood pellets.