NEWS ARCHIVE
21st September 2009 - First Cyber Security adds an innovative anti-phishing solution to its SOLID Authentication service.
Woking, UK. 21st September 2009 First Cyber Security announces the extension of their SOLID Authentication service which will now automatically redirect links selected from phishing emails, from the fraudulent site to the authentic site.
According to APACS, the UK Payments Administration Ltd, 18% of people who receive phishing emails still click through to links provided in these emails which have the intention of fooling them into divulging personal data or into downloading malware to their computers.
“It is difficult for email recipients to be on their guard at all times, in the last few days there has been another round of phishing emails promising rebates from HMRC,” said Rod Pugh, MD First Cyber Security. “This service will ensure that should customers of banks and other organisations like HMRC that subscribe to our service, inadvertently select a link from such an email, their browser will be automatically redirected safely to the banks/organisations authentic site, preventing them from losing cash, personal data or inadvertently downloading malware.”
“Automated tools preventing the loss of personal data are always a welcome addition to people’s online security armoury” said Tony Neate, Managing Director of GetSafeOnline.org, the UK’s national internet security awareness initiative. “In combination with the commonsense advice and information given on our website, it all helps to ensure safe and enjoyable internet usage”.The service is free to those customers of banks and other organisations that subscribe to the SOLID Authentication service from First Cyber Security.
About First Cyber Security (FCS)
First Cyber Security is a UK based company who have patent pending technology in the area of authentication of IP communication. Their foundation product SOLID Authentication (Secure OnLine IDentification) allows users to positively validate websites and protects them against fraudulent ones, significantly quicker than existing mechanisms for protecting against fraud. Banks, retail and government organisations can subscribe to the service and give their consumers a robust protection against fraud at no cost to the consumer. The SOLID 3PV service protects brands against illegal use of their logos and trademarks, reducing sales of counterfeit products and protecting their brand.
About Get Safe Online (GSOL)
Get Safe Online (www.getsafeonline.org), which is now in its fourth year, is the UK’s national internet security awareness initiative. A joint partnership between the Government, the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), as well as public and private sector sponsors from the worlds of technology, communication, retail and finance, the initiative continues to educate, inform and raise awareness of internet security issues to encourage confident, safe use of the internet.GetSafeOnline.org is sponsored by the Cabinet Office, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), Home Office, Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), HSBC, Microsoft, Cable & Wireless, Ofcom and PayPal.
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18th June 2009 - First Cyber Security gives paper at IMRG Risk Management Workshop in London
Woking, UK. 18th June 2009 First Cyber Security Director David Holman will be giving a paper at the IMRG Risk Management Workshop held at Microsoft.
Chaired by John Lyons, Group Security Advisor at UC Group, this IMRG Risk Management Workshop will broach a wide range of topics, covered by a range of expert speakers from organisations including Net ID Me, 192.com, Lockton, Microsoft, VeriSign and First Cyber Security.
Details of conferences can be found in the Events section.
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17th June 2009 - First Cyber Security gives paper at ‘Leveraging Innovation in ID and Authentication Technologies’ conference and exhibits in London
Woking, UK. 17th June 2009 First Cyber Security will be demonstrating their latest logo abuse trade mark protection technology and their MD Rod Pugh will present a paper on “Authenticating web sites for transaction and trade mark protection”.
This symposium is combining technology demonstration, presentations and business networking, where you can explore the latest in ID, authentication and biometric technologies and discuss their merits and potential. There will be opportunities to discover how to leverage innovation from the top to the bottom of the supply chain. Larger companies will be able to meet innovative university departments and SMEs and smaller companies can seed partnerships with larger companies and university departments.
Details of conferences can be found in the Events section.
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16th June 2009 - First Cyber Security exhibits at ‘5th Annual IP Risk and Security Forum’ in London
Woking, UK. 16th June 2009 Brand impersonation, click fraud, domain-jacking, and web site traffic diversion are diverting revenue to illegitimate sales channels by leveraging trust and customer loyalty that should be helping to sustain and increase the bottom line.
Intellectual property risk management is no longer simply about registering patents and trademarks. However, defending IP from abuse online is not an easy task; the sheer volume of infringements makes it impractical, (or - depending on available resources - self-defeating), to go after every single instance of improper brand representation.
This event provides information on approaches that market leaders are using to prioritise and focus their efforts, thereby effectively responding to IP related fraud in the e-market place and achieving measurable results that demonstrate added value.
Details of conferences can be found in the Events section.
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15th May 2009 - First Cyber Security further strengthen management team
Woking, UK. 15th May 2009 First Cyber Security is pleased to announce the appointment of John Whitehead to their management team.
John Whitehead joins First Cyber Security after 12 years with Samsung Electronics and brings a wealth of experience from the mobile computing market where he was part of the Samsung Electronics Global Alliance team responsible for Technology Strategy and Outsourcing in Europe. He also sits on the Board of dotMobi (mobile Top Level Domain) “We are looking forward to John helping to grow the company specifically in the mobile market where increased use of internet enabled 3G phones brings security risks our technology can address” said Managing Director Rod Pugh. “His knowledge of the market coupled with his extensive network of some of the worlds largest organisations in the mobile market will be invaluable to us.”
“I am delighted to be joining First Cyber Security at such an exciting time,” said John Whitehead, “The growth of internet transactions initiated from mobile devices is going to increase dramatically over the next few years” Previously John had various roles at Sony Corporation over a 24 years period in both the Business to Business (Broadcast TV) and Business to Consumer (cellular Phone) markets.
About dotMobi
dotMobi is a leading mobile Internet services company, helping businesses and individuals reach the world's billions of mobile phone users. Investors are Vodafone, Visa, T-Mobile, TIM, Syniverse, Orascom, Nokia, 3, Google, Ericsson, GSMA, Microsoft, Telefonica and Samsung Electronics.
About First Cyber Security (FCS)
First Cyber Security is a UK based company who have patent pending technology in the area of authentication of IP communication. Their foundation product ‘SOLID Authentication™’ allows users to positively validate websites and protects them within 30 minutes of fraudulent ones, significantly quicker than existing mechanisms for protecting against fraud. Banks, retail and government organisations can subscribe to SOLID Authentication™ and give a robust protection against fraud and trade mark protection at no cost to the consumer.
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9th December 2008 - Web Security Software from First Cyber Security defies Ethical Hacking by UEL final year Software Engineering Students.
Stratford, UK, 9th December 2008 A group of Ethical Hackers on a final year undergraduate course studying Distributed Systems at the School of Computing, Information Technology and Engineering (CITE) University of East London (www.uel.ac.uk) under the expert guidance of Dr. Godfried Williams carried out a vulnerability assessment of First Cyber Security’s web validation software (www.firstcybersecurity.com). The software allows consumers to validate the website they are visiting as authentic, giving consumers more confidence to use the internet for online banking and retail. The students concluded that this innovative solution not only created an environment where they felt confident to use the internet but importantly satisfied the BSI/ISO standard. BS ISO/IEC 18028-4:2005 for Information security technology.
“Robustness of any security solution is fundamental; we had 50 very eager students try to find vulnerabilities in our solution over an extended period of time. Their feedback during and after the testing has proved invaluable to us and we know will give greater confidence to our customers. It demonstrates the true value of industry and academia collaboration.” said Rod Pugh, Managing Director of First Cyber Security. “Without this form of technology putting confidence back in the internet many consumers could be at risk of having their private data stolen by fraudsters and others will be afraid to use online services in case their details are compromised.”
“This was a great opportunity for the students to carry out testing on a real software security product. In fact we still use the software today even though the formal testing process has successfully completed, as we feel it is a real help in creating confidence in using the internet for transactions.” commented Dr. Godfried Williams, Project supervisor at UEL.
Data released by APAC’s has shown an increase of 185% in banking fraud in the first six months of 2008 and another recent survey by XIRING states that over a third of adults have been a victim of online fraud or know of someone who has.
UEL final year Students conducted a very comprehensive set of penetration tests. These tests were primarily carried among 250 online banking, university and supermarket websites. Below are extracts from the students report.
“FCS technology is a highly effective tool for preventing Internet fraud as well as ensuring customer’s personal data remains confidential. It has the potential of improving the relationship between companies and customers.”
“I can change my personal identifier for the software after installation at any time, this is effective security management”.
“FCS website validation service works on most popular operating systems. Although there are many validation tools available on the market for validating Web pages from both Server and Client side, FCS functions differently by verifying whether the user is connecting with the authentic server."
"This is visible and comprehensible to the user as it looks so simple and security friendly”
Contributors and Acknowledgements
Dr. Godfried Williams UEL
Students of BSc Distributed Systems Module on Software Engineering Course 2008,
Johnness Arreymbi and Divina Melomey, Dr Chris Imafidon UEL
First Cyber Security Limited
About First Cyber Security (FCS)
First Cyber Security is a UK based company who have patent pending technology in the area of authentication of IP communication. The subscription service allows consumers to positively validate Company websites and warns them of fraudulent ones immediately, protecting their personal information from being stolen. Financial, retail and government organisations are seeing this service as a way to preserve their brand integrity and extend consumer trust to the internet. The service has no cost to the consumer.
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5th November 2008- Financial Services Compensation Service give fraudsters a helping hand.
Woking, UK, 5th November 2008 The Financial Services Compensation Service has just announced the mechanism for icesave customers to get their money back from the financially troubled Icelandic bank. The sad fact is however, that in doing so they have opened up the opportunity for fraudsters to target each of the 230,000 savers, worse still they have even told the fraudsters how to do it!
Proudly declaring that each of the savers will receive two emails and that they will have to login to their existing Icesave account to nominate and give details of their alternative account which is to be credited with their savings. Creating an expectation that an e-mail will be received where the worried icesave customers must give away other banking details
Whilst the banking code allows communication with customers by email, most banks actively discourage its use, as fraudulent emails giving fraudulent website links are prevalent throughout most email inboxes. "Putting savers who are desperate to get their savings back at this level of additional risk is inexcusable," says David Holman, Director at First Cyber Security a company who specialise in assuring the authenticity of websites on behalf of consumers. Recent figures released by APAC's, the UK Payments authority, show that 18% of people still select website addresses from emails they receive without realising that they could be giving their personal information to a fraudster.
"It is so easy to set up a copy of an authentic website and send out mass emails and have consumers believe them to be real" continued Holman. "Many major organisations that wish to protect their brand integrity and continue the trust they have built with their customers to their online experience, need to consider a failsafe method of building in trust and consumer confidence using the very latest third party trust mechanisms now available."
About First Cyber Security (FCS)
First Cyber Security is a UK based company who have patent pending technology in the area of authentication of IP communication. The subscription service allows consumers to positively validate Company websites and warns them of fraudulent ones immediately, protecting their personal information from being stolen. Financial, retail and government organisations are seeing this service as a way to preserve their brand integrity and extend consumer trust to the internet. The service has no cost to the consumer.
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7th October 2008- First Cyber Security warns on poisoned DNS caching issue.
Woking, UK, 7th October 2008 First Cyber Security, the IP authentication and validation specialist, is warning companies to watch out for a rapidly increasing internet security threat known as poisoned DNS caches.
"The problem", says David Holman, the firm's director, "came to prominence in July when CERT - the Computer Emergency Response Team - issued an advisory on DNS cache poisoning, noting that it can fool users into inadvertently giving away personal details on the internet and can also trigger malware infections and email problems." "Every user on the Internet, from tier one ISPs down to the simple home user, relies on domain name lookup tables, which translate a given domain name into the relevant numeric IP address", he said."With DNS cache poisoning, DNS lookup tables are corrupted and the numeric IP addresses of fake web pages are inserted in place of the real addresses for popular sites. Then, when a user types in a correct URL they are routed to the false page, instead of the real one" he added. "From then on, any details they enter such as usernames and passwords can be captured by third parties and used as part of internet fraud including identity theft."
"Solving the problem is not going to be easy for the IT security industry," says Holman, "as conventional IT security systems and software can find it difficult to protect against the problem effectively." “The average computer user is not an IT specialist, and shouldn’t need to be to use the internet safely” added Holman. First Cyber Security provides consumer facing independent web site validation designed specifically to protect against this threat.
About First Cyber Security (FCS)
First Cyber Security is a UK based company who have developed an innovative, patent pending technology designed to increase consumer confidence to use the internet for financial transactions by allowing the consumer to positively authenticate the website that purports to be their bank (or retail site), ensuring that they are not tricked into giving away their personal details to a fraudulent website. As well as confirming authentic websites, consumers using the FCS technology are also alerted when they visit a confirmed fraudulent site. Currently banks and retail organisations strive to shut down these fraudulent sites quickly but in reality it often takes many hours or days, with the FCS technology all consumers are warned within 30 minutes ensuring their private information is better protected. Banks, retail and government organisations can subscribe to the FCS service and give their consumers a robust protection against fraud and reducing the costs associated with it, at no cost to the consumer.
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25th September 2008 - Experts predict Spike in Fraudulent Activity Due to Banking Turmoil
Woking, UK. 25th September 2008 An increase in fraudulent activity is likely to follow the recent events in the banking sector according to UK Company, First Cyber Security. Customers with internet banking accounts are urged to take care if asked to respond to emails from banks which have been named as being involved in the recent takeovers and mergers.
According to Director David Holman, “This is just the sort of confusion on which the fraudsters thrive. As these mergers and acquisitions continue in the banking sector, the consumer will expect to receive communications from their banks detailing name changes and giving them different websites to gain access to their internet bank accounts. Unless this is handled carefully it is a real opportunity for fraudsters to steal private information”. Whilst many of us are wary of emails purporting to be from our banks, the latest APACs figures show that 18% of people who receive them still click through to links included in these mails, any of which could lead to the consumer being tricked into giving up personal data.
About First Cyber Security (FCS)
First Cyber Security is a UK based company who have patent pending technology in the area of authentication of IP communication. Their foundation product allows users to positively validate websites and protects them within 30 minutes of fraudulent ones, significantly quicker than existing mechanisms for protecting against fraud. Banks, retail and government organisations can subscribe to the FCS service and give their consumers a robust protection against fraud at no cost to the consumer.
First Cyber Security have developed an innovative technology designed to increase consumer confidence to use the internet for financial transactions by allowing the consumer to positively authenticate the website that purports to be their bank (or retail site), ensuring that they are not tricked into giving away their personal details to a fraudulent website. As well as confirming authentic websites, consumers using the FCS technology are also alerted when they visit a confirmed fraudulent site. Currently banks and retail organisations strive to shut down these fraudulent sites quickly but in reality it often takes many hours or days, with the FCS technology all consumers are warned within 30 minutes ensuring their private information is better protected.
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1st July 2008- Becrypt CEO joins First Cyber Security
The leading software encryption company Becrypt's CEO David Holman has joined First Cyber Security Limited as a Director
David Holman joined First Cyber Security at the begining of June."This is a major endorsement of our technology and the potential growth of the company. We are all very excited about having David on board" said Managing Director Rod Pugh.
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28th March 2008- Mobile Web Site Launched
First Cyber Security has launched a mobile web site using the mobi TLD. “As the company expands its products into the mobile arena it is vital to also offer a web site for the mobile user” said a spokesman.
A link to the new site is now at the top left of the home page where it would be visible on a mobile device. The domain is firstcybersecurity.mobi A mobi TLD (Top Level Domain) requires certain standards that ensure compatibility with the browsers on mobile devices.
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4th February 2008- Software Multi-lingual and Multi-user
With the addition of Spanish and French fully integrated into the software now more than 110 countries can use the software in their native language.For multiple users on the same computer each can use the same installation and it retains each users language selection. The installation contains all the available languages so there is no need to have a particular version.
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First Cyber Security Endorsed by UK Government.
First Cyber Security was chosen by the UK Trade & Investment to take part in a “SCIENCE FOR SECURITY” TRADE MISSION AND SYMPOSIUM, where 20 British Companies Showcased Security Technologies in Boston and Washington, D.C.
The purpose of this collaboration is to foster understanding between US and UK government and industry regarding technological approaches to solving security threats. The UK Home Office and the US Department of Homeland Security have recognised the need for closer collaboration on the development of security technologies, and this mission built on this understanding by developing and exploring future collaboration on homeland security issues.
Read the full Press Release here.
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S.O.L.I.D. Authentication® is a registered trademark of First Cyber Security Limited
Security 'at-a-glance'™, SOLID 3PV™, SOLID 3PX™ and Searchware Hoaxing™ are trademarks of First Cyber Security Limited
