Tag Archive for: Book

Fortinet releases children’s book to increase cyber awareness

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Cybersecurity solutions company Fortinet has released a book designed to increase cyber awareness amongst children in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The book, “Cyber Safe: A Dog’s Guide to Internet Security”, is available to download for free in English, Spanish and Portuguese and was co-authored by Renee Tarun, Deputy CISO at Fortinet.

Two years into the pandemic and many students are still learning virtually.

“With the influx of online activity, it’s crucial for both parents and children from an early age to know basic cybersecurity best practices as many continue in a hybrid capacity through the end of this school year and into the next,” Fortinet said.

“Cyber Safe: A Dog’s Guide to Internet Security” provides an easy to understand introduction to possible dangers for children connecting online for school, video games, streaming shows and more, the company added.

The book takes readers on a journey to learn how the Internet is a useful place, and how to stay secure. Lacey, the cyber smart dog teaches her friend Gabbi the cat how to use the Internet safely.

For parents, the book includes a guide with details on what they should be aware of when their children are online.

The release of this children’s book further builds on Fortinet’s NSE 1 and NSE 2 training courses’ focus on basic cyber awareness and an overview of threat actors and their tactics. These two courses – part of the eight-level NSE Certification Program – are free for anyone interested and is for all ages including young children.

Fortinet said it would make copies of the book available to schools across the region to instil a strong foundation of cybersecurity at an early age as part of the NSE Training Institute’s initiatives to close the skills gap.

Persons are invited to nominate a school to receive a copy of the digital book.

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ERI’s “The Insecurity of Everything” Book Climbs to #1 Best Seller Spot on Amazon

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Subject: Product/Service

ERI, the nation’s largest fully integrated IT and electronics asset disposition provider and cybersecurity-focused hardware destruction company, has announced that its book, “The Insecurity of Everything: How Hardware Data Security is Becoming the Most Important Topic in the World” has achieved “best seller” status on Amazon, reaching the #1 ranking for the Computer Security & Encryption category.

The book was written by several members of ERI’s leadership team, Aaron Blum, Kevin Dillon, Brendan Egan, John Shegerian and Tammy Shegerian and is available for purchase via Amazon Prime as a physical copy or digitally on Amazon.

The book focuses on the various aspects of hardware security that are often overlooked in today’s society, both by consumers as well as businesses. Data destruction and hardware hacking pose a tremendous threat to individuals and organizations alike, and The Insecurity of Everything focuses on the common areas that data impacts in our modern day-to-day lives.

“We’re humbled to learn this week that our book has been such as success,” said John Shegerian, ERI’s Chairman/CEO. “It’s particularly gratifying because we did not set for our book to be a money-maker, but a helpful and educational guide and reference for businesses and individuals. In an age of rapid technology turnover, mounting e-waste and the increasing presence of the internet of things, people, organizations and even government agencies are more vulnerable to hardware hacking than ever before ? and our book is designed to equip readers so that they can protect themselves from breaches, hacks and cybercrime in general.”

“In our book,” continued Shegerian, “we examine these issues in depth, and explore how they impact every person and organization around the globe today. We also share in detail the right ways to dispose of electronics to be both environmentally friendly and also sensitive to the prevention hardware data breaches. We’re very proud of this book and excited that its critical information has been embraced by such a large audience.”

ERI is the largest fully integrated IT and electronics asset disposition provider and cybersecurity-focused hardware…

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Mao’s Little Red Book inspires China’s cybercrime strategy

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Benjamin R. Young is Assistant Professor in Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness at Virginia Commonwealth University.He is author of “Guns, Guerillas, and the Great Leader: North Korea and the Third World.”

Under President Xi Jinping, China has reemphasized Maoism as a pillar of national identity and revolutionary values.

Reasserting the supremacy of the Chinese Communist Party in all aspects of society, Xi has promoted Maoist-style campaigns of self-criticism and rectification and has built up a Maoist-style personality cult around himself, even establishing “Xi Jinping Thought” research centers around the country.

This revitalization of Maoist ideas and principles, including self-reliance and the mass line, is not just symbolic but has influenced China’s external behavior, particularly in cyberspace. Working in tandem with Chinese cybercriminals with a focus on sabotage, China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) has increasingly targeted U.S. government networks, as well as key private sector industries, including aviation and health care.

In July 2021, the U.S. Justice Department announced that four Chinese nationals working at an MSS front company, Hainan Xiandun Technology Development, had been charged with a conspiracy to commit computer fraud. This purposeful obscuring of the government-affiliated backgrounds of the CCP’s cyber operatives is a remnant of Maoist doctrine. As Mao once said, “The guerrilla must move among the people as a fish swims in the sea.” In other words, the merging of state and non-state actors in China’s cyber activities is a long-standing tactic.


Xi Jinping stands above a giant portrait of late Mao Zedong in Beijing on July 1: Xi has built up a Maoist-style personality cult around himself.

  © Reuters

At Hainan Xiandun, the four Chinese nationals allegedly coordinated and facilitated cyber activities on behalf of the MSS from 2011 to 2018. Professors at Chinese universities allegedly helped Hainan Xiandun recruit hackers and one local university in Hainan even helped the front company maintain its private sector illusion by managing its payroll, benefits and mailing…

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PSA: Western Digital security issues go beyond the My Book Live series: Digital Photography Review

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You may recall that a couple of weeks ago, we wrote about a security risk associated with Western Digital My Book Live NAS hard drive units. Users reported their web-connected hard drives were completely wiped with no means of recovering their data. This issue is ongoing and due to a security vulnerability. However, as PetaPixel reports, the vulnerability goes beyond the My Book Live product and affects other WD NAS drives running the company’s OS 3 software.

Security journalist Brian Krebs has published a report outlining the My Book Live issue, plus another security flaw present in a wider range of Western Digital MyCloud network storage devices.

Krebs writes, ‘At issue is a remote code execution flaw residing in all Western Digital network-attached storage (NAS) devices running MyCloud OS 3, an operating system the company only recently stopped supporting.’ Researchers Radek Domanski and Pedro Ribeiro were going to outline the flaws in MyCloud OS 3 at last year’s Pwn2Own hacking competition in Tokyo. WD then released MyCloud OS 5 – skipping OS 4 entirely – before the duo could expose the vulnerability. The pair could not compete since the competition required participants to show flaws in the latest firmware or software. However, they have shared a detailed video, seen below, showing the chain of weaknesses they discovered.

As of March 12, 2021, Western Digital will no longer provide further security updates to MyCloud OS 3 firmware. An issue at hand is that it appears multiple security flaws still exist in OS 3, and not everyone can update their device to OS 5. Some devices are incompatible with the latest firmware, and WD’s solution is for people to buy new products. Beyond some constraints, Domanski states that OS 5 doesn’t include all the core functionality of OS 3, so some users may not want to upgrade even if they’re able to.

PetaPixel notes a variety of issues and complaints with OS 5. The newest firmware eliminates integration with Google, Dropbox, One Drive and Adobe. Further, thumbnail generation, which some users don’t need or want, can cause ‘unending indexing’ or even freeze the device.

Western…

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