A week in security (July 30 – August 5)

Last week, we posted a roundup of spam that may have landed in your mailbox, talked about what makes us susceptible to social engineering tactics, and took a deep dive into big data.

Facebook claimed to have removed accounts that display behavior consistent with possible Russian actors engaged in misinformation. (Source: The Wall Street Journal)
Yale University disclosed that they were breached at least a decade ago. (Source: NBC – Connecticut)
High school students, be on the lookout! If you receive email or snail mail from organizations with impressive-sounding names, consider that it may just be a carefully packaged marketing scheme. (Source: Sophos’s Naked Security Blog)
A researcher from Amnesty International revealed that hackers have targeted them with malware from an Israeli vendor. (Source: Motherboard)
Certain e-commerce providers in the UK were affected by a data breach and exposed potentially more than a million user data. (Source: Graham Cluley’s blog)
A game on the Steam platform was found hijacking video game player machines to mine cryptocurrency. (Source: Motherboard)
The Alaskan Borough of Matanuska-Susitna was infected with malware that disrupted normal activities so much that they had to dust off old typewriters to continue issuing receipts. (Source: Sophos’s Naked Security blog)
While we’re on the subject of breaches, here’s another popular victim: Reddit. (Source: TechCrunch)
Google joined Apple in banning mining apps on the Play Store. (Source: Coin Central)
An independent security researcher from the UK spotted a DHL-themed spam carrying malware hidden in a GIF file. (Source: The SANS ISC InfoSec Forums)