List of Data Breaches, Malware, Vulnerabilities, Scams, and Issued Patches in May 2018

May has witnessed several new variants of malware, vulnerabilities and respective patches issued to fix them. There have been an ample number of data breaches affecting major organizations and popular brands, while scammers have designed new techniques to trick people into sharing their personal information.

Most of the new RATs (Remote Access Trojans), botnets and malware were designed to harvest sensitive personal and financial information. Several critical vulnerabilities--including new variants of the Spectre flaw--were discovered by security researchers. Unsecured databases have once again resulted in theft of personally identifiable information (PII) belonging to thousands of users. Meanwhile, scammers have leveraged the craze around the FIFA World Cup and the newly released GDPR to launch online scams.

On the brighter side, patches and mitigation steps have been released for most of the vulnerabilities and malware. Users are thoroughly advised to follow standard security procedures to avoid loss of information, money, or becoming a victim of a malware attack.