Making News This Week – 18th August 2023

#Discord #Hacked #CyberSecurity

Discord.io Suffers Massive Data Breach, Announces Closure

Discord.io, a service that allowed users to create custom links for their Discord channels, is closing down following a large data breach.

A hacker stole the data of 760,000 users, per TechRadar, and has posted a sample on Breached Forums in order to potentially sell it. The discord.io site now displays a message saying “we are stopping all operations for the foreseeable future”.

Link: https://in.mashable.com/tech/58304/discordio-suffers-massive-data-breach-announces-closure

#Google #Gmail #GoogleApps  

Google Starts Warning Users It Will Delete Inactive Accounts (with caveats)

Google recently announced that it will start deleting Google accounts that have been inactive for two years. Now, the company is making sure everyone knows about it, sending Gmail users a message informing people about the account inactive account policy.

These messages are being sent to all Gmail users, not only to Gmail accounts that could be affected by deletion.

Link: https://www.pcworld.com/article/2030660/google-deletes-accounts-no-longer-used-next-phase-has-begun.html

#Google #GooglePlay #Android #Apps

Google Play Apps With 2.5M Installs Load Ads When Screen’s Off

The Google Play store was infiltrated by 43 Android applications with 2.5 million installs that secretly displayed advertisements while a phone’s screen was off, running down a device’s battery.

McAfee’s Mobile Research Team discovered the malicious Android apps and reported them to Google as they violated Google Play Store’s policies. Google subsequently removed the apps from Android’s official store.

Link: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/google-play-apps-with-25m-installs-load-ads-when-screens-off/

#Google #GoogleBusinessProfile #GBP #SocialMedia

Google Lets Businesses Add Social Media Links To Profiles

Google has introduced the ability for businesses to add social media profile links directly in their Google Business Profile.

This new option enables companies to showcase their social media presence alongside other information in Google Search and Maps.

Link: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-lets-businesses-add-social-media-links-to-profiles/494061/#close

#CyberSecurity #UK

40m UK Voters in Dark Over Cyber Attack

The UK’s electoral regulator is facing widespread criticism after a major cyber-attack affecting 40 million voters was left undisclosed to the public for at least 10 months.
In a public notification on its website, the UK Electoral Commission said it identified the incident in October 2022 after suspicious activity was detected on its systems.

Link: https://ia.acs.org.au/content/ia/article/2023/40m-voters-in-dark-over-cyber-attack.html