Tag Archive for: increases

Chautauqua Institution increases security, may add peace officers following Salman Rushdie attack

/in


The outside world is continuing to intrude into the vernal and intellectual world of the Chautauqua Institution, most visibly in the assassination attempt last week on world-famous writer Salman Rushdie.

The New Jersey resident accused of the attack, Hadi Matar, pleaded not guilty Thursday to a felony indictment charging him with the assault on Rushdie. He’s locked up awaiting further court action.

After the attack, the Institution tightened security, from requiring photo ID at the gates to barring bags in most venues on the grounds.

The Institution has security officers on the grounds and has long been working in Albany to get peace officer status for those officers, particularly when past practice went away of them being deputized by the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Department.

“Complexity of it, the schedule of it, does require that additional support, and that’s why we’re pursuing it,” said Chautauqua Institution Senior Vice President and Chief Brand Officer Emily Morris.

Both State Sen. George Borrello and Assemblyman Andy Goodell are pushing legislation, even asking Gov. Kathy Hochul to call a special session of the New York State Legislature to get the bill passed.

The governor has said she would sign the legislation if it gets to her desk, according to Morris.

Peace officers would have the power to make arrests or issue appearance tickets, access law enforcement computer networks and use physical or deadly force, if necessary.

The Many Activities on the Chautauqua Institution Grounds
The Many Activities on the Chautauqua Institution Grounds

“For Chautauqua Institution as a complex organization to ensure that there is a police officer support for this operation that works in tandem with the regional and State Police agencies, the peace officer status would enhance that capability for us in ways that we think are very important,” Morris said.

Morris estimates 100,000 people visit the grounds in the course of the season, with its theaters, religious sites, homes, hotels and restaurants.

“That’s a lot of the same characteristics of a corporately independent town, but, of course, we are not a corporately independent town,” she said. “But we do…

Source…

Vladimir Putin increases security after invasion of Ukraine: No mobile phone, no internet, and his own army

/in


A month after the start of the war in Ukraine and with Russian troops showing no mercy to the civilian population, Vladimir Putin is living in a parallel world. The president, given his past as a spy for the KGB, wants to control everything and fears for his security.

During the war, Russia has been accused of countless war crimes, including the use of unauthorised weapons and executions of civilians.

All of this has been orchestrated by Putin who, according to the BBC, has increased his security amid fears of attacks against him. The Russian Presidential Security Service, which reports to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSO), is responsible for his protection and that of his entourage.

How Putin is protecting himself since the outbreak of war

Among the many measures that the Russian leader has in place, the fact that his entourage is divided into four circles stands out.

The first is made up of his bodyguards, the second of guards who go unnoticed in public, the third is in charge of surrounding the perimeter, and the last is made up of snipers posted on building tops.

The BBC has also revealed that Vladimir Putin does not like helicopters, so he travels in a motorcade of motorcyclists, black cars and trucks. On his way, traffic is stopped and any drones are prevented from flying over the area.

To reinforce his security, Putin has his own personal ‘army’, known as Rosgvardia and supported by the Russian National Guard.

“It’s a huge number, security units for presidents in the US are nowhere near that number,” Stephen Hall, an academic expert on Russia at the University of Bath in the UK, told the BBC.

Putin’s fears

Given the scale of Russia’s actions in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin trusts no one and fears he will be poisoned. For this reason, the president has his own taster, who is responsible for tasting food before he does.

Such is the former KGB spy’s obsession that, at toasts, he usually drinks from a bottle brought to him by his team and not from the one drunk by the rest, as Mark Galeotti explains in BBC’s Mark Galeotti.

Another sign that Putin‘s paranoia has only increased with each passing day is that he does not use mobile phones or the internet. He is afraid of being tracked…

Source…

Rise in remote work increases need for mobile security

/in


The shift to more remote working set in motion by the pandemic, the use of mobile devices for business purposes has grown – along with the associated security risks.

When employees use smartphones, tablets and laptops for business, it extends a company’s security perimeter beyond the walls of the office and out into the world at large. This leaves the company more vulnerable to phishing, malware, ransomware and other cyberattacks. Businesses need to take protective action.

Beware mobile banking fraud

With the significant increase in mobile banking, the FBI has warned about increased fraud attacks on mobile devices. App-based banking Trojan viruses – malicious programs disguised as other apps – are among the techniques the FBI says criminals employ to exploit mobile banking users. Fraudsters also create fake banking apps that impersonate the real apps of major financial institutions in order to trick users into inadvertently handing over their login credentials.

Measures that can help businesses protect against mobile banking fraud include: using dual control to approve transactions or administrative changes; enabling two-factor or multi-factor authentication to protect devices and accounts from malicious compromise; monitoring online accounts and transactions regularly and having procedures in place for employees to contact your bank if they notice anything unusual; and signing up for fraud monitoring services.

Establish effective security policies

Eight out of 10 businesses surveyed in Verizon’s Mobile Security Index 2021 reported an increase in remote work and expected the number of remote workers to remain higher than before lockdown. “The ‘new normal’ remains uncertain, but it’s a safe bet that more flexible working arrangements are going to be a part of it,” the report noted.

With that in mind, the report urged businesses to establish a robust set of mobile device policies. Among other things, those policies should cover:

  • Acceptable use – i.e., when, where and why employees can connect their mobile devices to the company’s network.

  • Encryption. Require users to encrypt data before they store it on their mobile devices.

  • Password security. The report…

Source…

Solana on-chain development increases after a recent DDoS attack

/in


Solana — whose native crypto, SOL, is the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization — is leading on-chain development charts despite a recent distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack.

As per Santiment data, Solana surpassed the daily GitHub submission rates of Polkadot and Cardano to become the leading blockchain over the past month. The number of daily GitHub submissions for Solana reached 90 between Nov. 12 and Monday, followed by Polkadot at 76 and Cardano at 65.

Daily GitHub submissions Bitcoin, Solana, Cardano and Polkadot from Nov. 12–Dec. 13, 2021. Source: Santiment

The surge in on-chain development activity for Solana comes in the wake of a recent DDoS attack on Thursday that slowed down the network considerably. The fifth-largest blockchain managed to mitigate the issues without a network shutdown, but it raised serious concerns over network vulnerability.

A DDoS attack refers to a coordinated botnet-targeted activity that overwhelms a network with fake traffic. Many experts blamed the coordinated DDoS attack on fundamental design flaws and Solana’s proof-of-history (PoH) consensus mechanism. Earlier, a Grayscale Investment report also flagged Solana’s PoH use and said:

“The Solana consensus mechanism uses a new blockchain technology that is not widely used, and may not function as intended. There may be flaws in the cryptography underlying the network, including flaws that affect the functionality of the Solana Network or make the network vulnerable to attack.”

In September, the Solana network faced a similar issue when a sudden surge in transaction volume led to a network outage that lasted nearly 17 hours. The engineers at the time failed to resolve the issue, and validators had to eventually restart the network.

The Solana blockchain has emerged as one of the fastest-growing smart contract networks in 2021 and is a growing choice for upcoming decentralized finance and nonfungible token projects. The project’s growing popularity has often drawn comparisons with Ethereum and has been dubbed the “Ethereum killer” by some. However, growing concerns over the fundamentals of the network could prove problematic in the long run.

SOL was eyeing a…

Source…