Tag Archive for: helping

How Russian sanctions may be helping US cybersecurity

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Federal government officials say sanctions placed on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine may have positive effects on cybersecurity in the United States.

Leaders in both the National Security Agency (NSA) and FBI have said Russian sanctions are slowing down ransomware attacks and cyber attacks perpetrated by state-sponsored actors and cybercriminals since the beginning of its invasion. The White House issued wide-ranging economic sanctions against the country earlier this year. In addition, federal agencies have imposed cybersecurity sanctions on both the Russian government as well as private entities, including cryptocurrency exchanges and mixers, over ransomware activity and state-sponsored attacks stemming from the region.

Rob Joyce, the NSA’s director of cybersecurity, stated at the CyberUK event last month in Wales that from his perspective, ransomware has fallen over the last two months. He believes that Russian sanctions are one of several factors potentially impacting ransomware numbers.

Rob JoyceRob Joyce

“As we do sanctions and it’s harder to move money and it’s harder to buy infrastructure on the web, we’re seeing them be less effective — and ransomware is a big part of that,” Joyce said during a panel discussion. “We’ve definitively seen the criminal actors in Russia complain that the functions of sanctions and the distance of their ability to use credit cards and other payment methods to get Western infrastructure to run these [ransomware] attacks have become much more difficult.”

Joyce reinforced that message while speaking at RSA Conference 2022 last week.

“Sanctions related to Russia and their Ukraine problem have impacted the ransomware actors,” Joyce said during a session titled “State of the Hacks: NSA’s Perspective.” “They are finding it difficult to extract funds out of the ecosystem, get them converted as well as use payments that are accepted to buy the infrastructure they need to operate.”

Joyce said that the decrease in attacks caused by cybersecurity sanctions may lead to the Russian government going to ransomware as a service (RaaS) providers in order to gain access to their targets. He said that as threat actors become quicker at exposing…

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DVIDS – News – Army Cyber Command experts helping to lead modernization, build collective knowledge

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Some of Army Cyber Command’s (ARCYBER) brightest minds are among the world-class experts leading Army modernization while building ties and collective knowledge in the military, industrial and academic communities.

Most recently, Maj. Jaison Desai, Ph.D. and Lt. Col. James Sanders of ARCYBER’s Technical Warfare Center joined colleagues from the Army Cyber Institute and the Army Artificial Intelligence Integration Center, along with more than 100 other experts from across the Department of Defense (DoD), national laboratories, Federally Funded Research and Development Centers, academia and industry who attended and made presentations at the 2021 Emerging Techniques Forum (ETF). The event was hosted by the Military Operations Research Society (MORS) in Alexandria, Va., in December 2021.

Desai and Sanders represented the Enterprise Information Technology as a Service (EITaaS) pilot program team, which falls under ARCYBER’s Network Enterprise Technology Command (NETCOM). The pair presented work created in collaboration with fellow team members Mark Southwell, Maj. Ezra McCalment and Maj. Tony Abeyta. Their presentation – “Process Innovation and Exploration of Army EITaaS Approaches” — highlighted policy, assessment and process challenges with adopting as-a-service models and how the team is navigating those areas. The presentation drew praise from numerous attendees and requests for copies and further discussion from Maj. Gen. Martin Klein, commander of the U.S. Army Reserve’s 75th Innovation Command, and U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Loretta Reynolds, former USMC deputy commandant for information.

“Being able to present at the MORS conferences is an amazing professional development opportunity and a great way to build connections with other members of the operations research community throughout DoD,” Desai said. “This year’s conference was particularly special because I was able to represent our ARCYBER and NETCOM team and share the progress we’ve made in areas critical to Army modernization.”

Desai’s contributions to academia…

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Jamf Ends 2021 Helping Over 60,000 Customers Succeed with Apple

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Jamf recaps successes in 2021 and announces key management promotions to help drive continued growth in 2022

MINNEAPOLIS, Jan. 11, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Jamf (NASDAQ: JAMF), the standard in Apple Enterprise Management, today announced it is now helping more than 60,000 active customers succeed with Apple and is running on approximately 26.5 million devices worldwide.

2021 was a pivotal year for Jamf, as the company added new functionality to its Apple Enterprise Management platform to help organizations connect, manage and secure their devices. Jamf added more than 6 million devices and 13,000 customers in 2021 and is now running on approximately 26.5 million devices and serves more than 60,000 customers. These organizations include:

  • 9 of the 10 largest companies, as ranked by Fortune 500

  • 22 of the 25 most valuable brands, according to Forbes

  • 10 of the 10 largest U.S. banks, according to Bankrate.com

  • 10 of the top 10 global universities, according to U.S. News & World Report

  • 8 of the top 10 technology companies, as ranked by Fortune

In 2021, Jamf completed its three largest contracts in its history, and ended the year with its highest gross customer revenue retention rate since its founding in 2002.

“Exiting 2021, we saw continued strengthening in commercial markets across all geographies,” said Dean Hager, CEO of Jamf. “Looking ahead, this commercial momentum, along with continued investments in our go-to-market activities and new products, will help drive strong revenue growth in 2022. We are excited to continue to help our customers empower their end users with technology that is enterprise-secure and consumer-simple, while protecting personal privacy.”

Jamf further strengthened its security platform with acquisition of Wandera and cmdReporter, and rolled out key product enhancements to help organizations succeed in today’s hybrid work world
Jamf completed its acquisition of cmdReporter, a suite of security and compliance tools purpose-built for macOS, in February of 2021. Jamf also completed its acquisition of Wandera, a leader in zero trust cloud security and access, in July. These acquisitions uniquely position Jamf to help IT and security teams confidently protect…

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Austin volunteer’s 40 years at SAFE, helping to end domestic violence

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Frankie Fowler has volunteered with SAFE for 40 years. She started as a volunteer on the hotline for the Center for Battered Women and now does outreach to community groups about safe relationships. "I didn't start volunteering at SAFE so they would name awards for me or give me plaques," she says. "... when you give, you receive more and then you give more."

Long before there was SAFE, there were SafePlace women’s shelter and Austin Children’s Shelter. Before that there was the Center for Battered Women, the Austin Rape Crisis Center and the Austin-Travis County Shelter for Infants and Children.

With all the mergers and name changes for this Austin nonprofit organization, the only constants have been its commitment to ending the cycle of abuse and Frankie Fowler. 

This spring Fowler, 75, celebrated 40 years of volunteering with SAFE, which stands for Stop Abuse for Everyone. 

“Frankie feels like that touchpoint,” says Christine Langa, the volunteer services director at SAFE. She’s outlasted other volunteers and the staff. “She precedes all of us.” 

Fowler, Langa says, “has this loyalty and commitment that informs her work and dedication.”

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