Positive Technologies has just released a new report that paints a grim picture for IT professionals.  If your sense is that the number of cyberattacks are increasing, you're not wrong. In fact, it's probably worse than you realize.

So far this year, we've seen a staggering 32 percent increase in the total number of cyberattacks in the first quarter of 2018, compared to the same period last year.

A majority of business owners from around the world (68 percent) feel that they're better prepared to ward off a cyberattack and prevent a data breach than their competitors. This is a figure which is up 8 percent over last year's statistic for the same question.

According to the Kremlin, Russia prevented almost twenty five million cyber-attacks during the World Cup this year.

President Vladimir Putin praised the nation's digital security forces by saying the following:

"I expect that your close and constructive interaction will continue and will contribute to ensuring the security of our states and our citizens in the future.

On May 14th, the Billings Clinic in Montana issued a breach notification statement, which explained that they detected unusual activity within one of its employee's email accounts.

The employee in question was traveling overseas on a medical mission when the email account was compromised.

As if there weren't enough ways for hackers to steal your passwords, now, there's thermal imaging.  If that sounds like something straight out of a science fiction movie, think again.

Researchers from the University of California at Irvine recently discovered and demonstrated a technique that involves the use of a thermal imaging camera to capture heat traces left by human fingertips as they type passwords into a keyboard.

Do you use Timehop?  If you're not sure what that is, it's a popular, clever little app that reminds social media users about posts they've made in the past. It can be quite handy, especially if you're active on numerous social media accounts.

Unfortunately, the bloom is off the rose for Timehop.

Researchers from the digital security firm ESET have recently spotted a new malware campaign with a nasty twist.  It was created using a legitimate security certificate stolen from D-Link.

The malware appears to be the work of an Advanced Persistent Threat group known as BlackTech, which primarily targets high profile users and firms in Asia, with a

particular emphasis on Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Apple recently released an updated version of iOS, 11.4.1.  They did so quietly, and without much fanfare, but the update includes one very powerful and exciting security update that's deserving of special attention.

Specifically, the new version of iOS introduces what the company is calling "Restricted Mode.

There's a lot to like about the contents of Adobe's most recent "Patch Tuesday" update. It's well worth downloading and installing, even if you normally take a pass on all but the most critical updates.

Included in this release are security patches for 112 vulnerabilities across four different products, including:

Flash Player
Acrobat and Reader
Experience Manager
Adobe Connect

We've provided more details below:

Updates For Flash Player

The security update includes patches for both desktops and browsers, including a patch for one critical issue (CVE-2018-5007).  This is a new, worrisome attack vector that exploits "type confusion", allowing an attacker to execute commands on a targeted system in the context of the current user.

It's no secret that there are legions of scammers and spammers haunting the virtual halls of Facebook.  As the world's largest and most influential social networking site, it's a natural target, making its masses of users natural targets, too.

Facebook is taking steps to counter the threat posed by these nefarious actors, after being somewhat slow to act initially.