Tag Archive for: barrier

Big Game Hackers Smash $1 Billion Ransomware Barrier


It has been reported that last year was the worst on record for cryptocurrency payments received by ransomware groups. According to the Chainalysis Crypto Crime Report for 2024, published on February 7, crypto-criminals have finally broken the elusive $1 billion in ransomware barrier for ransoms paid in a single year. Big game hackers played a significant role in beefing up the ransom demands, although they are not solely responsible for this watershed moment in the sad history of ransomware successes. This discovery by Chainalysis sheds light on what it means for the year ahead when it comes to this particular genre of cybercrime activity.

The $1 Billion Ransomware Payment Barrier Smashed In 2023

Blockchain analysts for Chainalysis tallied up the totals in paid ransoms using crypto-currency for 2023 and found it had broken the $1 billion barrier for the first time, reaching $1.1 billion. This compares to $567 million across 2022, a flagship year for law enforcement takedowns. The 2021 total is more comparable as it reached $983 million then. Indeed, the trend line for ransomware payments since 2019 is undoubtedly on an upward trajectory overall.

MORE FROM FORBESWarning As 26 Billion Records Leak: Dropbox, LinkedIn, Twitter Named

Most worryingly, the Chainalysis report expects things to get worse, much worse. “The ransomware landscape is not only prolific but continually expanding, making it challenging to monitor every incident or trace all ransom payments made in cryptocurrencies,” it says, continuing, “It is important to recognize that our figures are conservative estimates, likely to increase as new ransomware addresses are discovered over time.” As to how much that readjustment might be, the totals for 2022 were eventually revised upward by 24.1%.

Ransomware On The Rise For 2024

Much of this upward trend for ransom payments has been driven by what is known as a big game hunting strategy. These big game hackers, perhaps best exemplified by the Cl0p ransomware group, choose bigger targets with average ransoms above $1 million. Although these groups carry out fewer attacks than…

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China’s plans for a national cybersecurity barrier. A US Federal role in the open-source software supply chain? A look at proposed reporting deadlines.


CISA: Federal Agencies Taking Steps to Address Log4j Flaw (Decipher) CISA said that thousands of internet-connected assets have been mitigated by federal agencies under its Emergency Directive that addressed the Log4j flaw.

CISA Still Helping Federal Agencies Remediate Log4j Vulnerability (MeriTalk) The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said today that it is continuing to help Federal agencies remediate the Log4j vulnerability that CISA first warned about in December.

Lesson from Log4j: Open-source software improvements need help from feds (POLITICO) The tech industry is readying solutions to the security risks posed by the collaborative software that underpins modern-day computing — but aid from Washington could be essential to the project’s success.

The Case for Cyber-Realism (Foreign Affairs) Geopolitical problems don’t have technical solutions.

Russian troops intervene in protest-roiled Kazakhstan, where security forces have killed dozens of demonstrators (Washington Post) Russian troops landed in Kazakhstan on Thursday after the Central Asian country’s president asked for help to quell sweeping anti-government protests — a major test of a Moscow-led military alliance as the Kremlin deepened its role in the crisis.

Kazakh president gives shoot-to-kill order to put down uprising (Reuters) Kazakhstan’s president said on Friday he had ordered his forces to shoot-to-kill to deal with disturbances from those he called bandits and terrorists, a day after Russia sent troops to put down a countrywide uprising.

Kazakhstan unrest: From Russia to US, the world reacts (Al Jazeera) Bloody protests have drawn the attention of regional powers Russia and China, as well as Western capitals.

West must stand up to Russia in Kazakhstan, opposition leader says (Reuters) The West must pull Kazakhstan out of Moscow’s orbit or Russian President Vladimir Putin will draw the Central Asian state into “a structure like the Soviet Union”, a former minister who is now a Kazakh opposition leader told Reuters.

How Kazakhstan could shift Putin’s calculus on Ukraine (Atlantic Council) The unrest poses a question for Putin: Should he continue…

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Logitek launches new digital desk that breaks the $10K price barrier


At this week’s SMPTE09 Exhibition there were a few new radio products on show along with plenty of television and web broadcast technology. One interesting new product was a mini Logitek studio panel that is aimed at small stations and community radio stations which want to move to digital. Steve Ahern reports from SMPTE for radioinfo about this new digital desk that breaks a significant price barrier.

Logitek Australia’s Managing Director Paul Dengate says his company’s new Jetstream Mini desk and Jetstream router (pictured) will offer community broadcasters a digital studio solution for under $10,000, pitching this desk much below Logitek’s larger products and those of other competing brands.

These days, any digital studio desk is really a control surface, more like a mouse, than the old analog desks we used to know.

Analog desks do all the work inside them, switching and amplifying signals through circuitry in each fader.

Digital surfaces tell a computer how and where to switch the audio, with the work being done inside a computer server, usually located in the rack room. Some other brands do have models that integrate the computer functions inside the one box (see other story).

There are many advantages, and some disadvantages, with digital desks. The two most significant advantages are: the ease of installation, in this case basically plugging in one computer cable; and the fact that the signal is already digital and can be sent to digital transmitters or audio streamers more easily than an analog desk’s signal.

The Jetstream equipment consists of an IP based Router box with a built-in computer inside it, a panel and a control screen (all pictured below right).

The router sits in the rack room and does all the work, providing audio I/O (inputs/outputs), mixing, processing and other functions. It can be paired with any of the Logitek range of control surfaces (Artisan, Mosaic, etc), but the model on show at SMPTE paired it with the cost effective JetStream Mini model.

IP based desks and router engines have been around for a while, but this new generaton of the technology is designed to take advantage of new network protocols that make the system easy to set up,…

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Chuck Yeager Sues Airbus For Mentioning That Chuck Yeager Broke The Sound Barrier

When it comes to intellectual property, the culture of ownership has grown so large that it threatens to consume itself. Still, while we have an overly permissive USPTO and European trademark offices that facilitate this insane notion that all language is meant to be owned, there are still, blessedly, some rules. One of those rules is that, on the topic of trademark and publicity rights, people and companies are allowed to state facts. It is not infringing on anyone’s rights to state such facts. That is all the more the case when the facts in question are historical facts.

Someone might want to fill in famed Air Force pilot Chuck Yeager on all of the above, as he’s decided to sue Airbus over marketing material that mentions his signature historical achievement.

In a complaint filed on Wednesday, the 96-year-old Yeager objected to a June 2017 promotional piece on Airbus’ website, touting its plan to make the Airbus Racer a fast and cost-effective way to fly.

The piece quoted Guillaume Faury, chief executive of Airbus Helicopters, as saying: “Seventy years ago, Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier,” and Airbus was now “trying to break the cost barrier. It cannot be ‘speed at any cost.'”

Yeager accused Airbus of trademark infringement and taking away his right of publicity through “fraudulent” conduct, where it deceived the public into believing he endorsed it.

This is almost certainly nonsense. Having a marketing/PR piece on the Airbus website that simply quotes an Airbus executive stating the fact that Yeager broke the sound barrier is definitely not trademark infringement, is almost certainly not a violation of publicity rights, and doesn’t strike me as indicating any kind of endorsement by Yeager himself. It’s just stating a fact.

The complaint itself is astounding for how incredibly weak it appears to be. The lawyer is Lincoln Bandlow, who you may recall as a somewhat notorious copyright troll who recently left his big prestigious law firm after a judge sanctioned him for some of his actions in the various copyright trolling cases was involved in. Bandlow’s career seems to have taken a dip, as the former lawyer for John McCain is now apparently in a position of filing obviously questionable lawsuits because someone mentioned a fact. This is a far cry from when he positioned himself as a supporter of free speech in fighting back against a lawsuit filed against John McCain. In that case Bandlow argued that it was ridiculous to argue John McCain’s use of a Jackson Browne song was considered an endorsement under publicity rights law. Yet here, he’s laughably insisting that merely mentioning a historical fact “Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier,” is a publicity rights violation? How low has Bandlow sunk?

The case is also odd in other ways. It presents the fact that Airbus once refused Yeager’s ridiculous demand for $ 1 million to use his name in press releases as some sort of evidence against Airbus. But all that really suggests is that after Airbus laughed off Yeager’s ridiculous cash grab, it later found a way to mention him in a manner that was completely within its 1st Amendment rights — quoting a factual statement. The old Lincoln Bandlow, the one who claimed to support the 1st Amendment, would have applauded that.

Stating a historical fact, even if it’s in marketing material, is still stating a historical fact. Chuck Yeager may be an American hero, but that doesn’t mean anyone has to pay him for mentioning his name and his accomplishments. Indeed, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Airbus file an anti-SLAPP complaint against Yeager, meaning that in the end Yeager may end up having to pay Airbus’ legal fees.

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