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Cyber Security Today, Jan. 11, 2023 – Debate on ransomware attacks dropping continues, beware of long-hidden backdoors and lots of patches released

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The debate on ransomware attacks dropping continues, beware of long-hidden backdoors and lots of patches released.

Welcome to Cyber Security Today. It’s Wednesday, January 11th, 2023. I’m Howard Solomon, contributing reporter on cybersecurity for ITWorldCanada.com.

Another entry in the debate on whether ransomware attacks are going up or down has been issued. Last week researchers at Emsisoft said the truth in the U.S. is hard to figure out because so many attacks aren’t publicly reported. This week researchers at Delinea released a report saying a survey it paid for suggests ransomware last year was down significantly over 2021. Of the 300 American IT decision-makers surveyed, 25 per said they were victims of ransomware in 2022. By comparison, 64 per cent of respondents said their firm was hit in 2021. Respondents also said budgets for ransomware defence dropped last year, although that could be because IT leaders are folding defences against ransomware with defences against all types of cyber attacks. More worrisome, the number of companies with incident response plans dropped to 71 per cent last year from 94 per cent in 2022. There’s a link to the full report in the text version of this podcast.

Threat actors are known for installing back doors on victims’ IT infrastructure to enable their attacks. That’s why scouring an entire IT environment is vital after a successful breach of security controls to make sure back doors aren’t left around. The latest example comes in a report from researchers at U.K.-based S-RM Intelligence. It looked into an attack by the Lorenz ransomware gang. The gang exploited a vulnerability in an organization using Mitel’s VoIP phone system. However, it was able to do that by using a backdoor that had been installed five months before the ransomware was launched. One theory is an initial access broker compromised the victim’s IT infrastructure and installed the backdoor, then notified the Lorenz group. Whatever the explanation, it’s another example of why continuously searching for backdoors as well as patching vulnerabilities is essential.

Ransom demands linked to denial of service attacks aren’t talked about a lot. However,…

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Battlefield 2042 Update Adds New Weekly Missions, &Lots of Bug Fixes

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News

Published on

EA Dice has issued full patch notes for its upcoming Battlefield 2042 patch, which is due to launch tomorrow, Dec. 2. The update is substantial, aiming to resolve in part the huge number of glitches, bugs, and performance issues that have plagued Battlefield 2042 since its launch, in addition to adding new weekly missions and a game mode.

In terms of new content, there will be a total of 3 varying missions each week that reward players with XP for completion. In turn, the XP goes toward unique cosmetic rewards. For Battlefield Portal comes new game mode layouts for Rush on all All-Out Warfare maps. Also, several new templates to the Builder, and a new custom mode called Vehicle Team Deathmatch, which allows players to utilize combat vehicles in custom experiences. It will also support logic created in the Rules Editor, allowing players to spawn at team HQ and adding more options when creating custom games.

Below you can find the full list of patch notes for Update 0.3.0.

Fixes, Changes, and Improvements

General

  • The Recent Players screen now include everyone from previous matches to allow for easier user reporting
  • Made improvements to the “Interaction” system by switching the default “INTERACT” text on multiple interactions to reflect the action you are about to do, i.e. “OPEN CONTAINER”, “CALL ELEVATOR”
  • Resolved Kaleidoscope server room lighting issue
  • Resolved an issue related to the velocity / trajectory while spawning in jets
  • Improved helicopter animation in level fly-bys during insertion
  • Improvements to address an issue where players killed in vehicles would fall beneath level geometry
  • Improvements to streaming assets in deploy screen presentation
  • Player no longer gets stuck in a zipline/rope after exiting a vehicle after entering it too close to a zipline or rope
  • Exiting an open seat early in the enter animation no longer causes your aim pitch to lock up
  • Correct field of view is applied immediately following insertion sequences

User Interface

  • Improved the Collection screens, making them easier to use and clear as to what…

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Fire (and lots of it): Berkeley researcher on the only way to fix cryptocurrency

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Marines use flamethrower to spectacular effect in field.

Enlarge (credit: US Marine Corps)

Nicholas Weaver made no bones about it: he really, really dislikes cryptocurrencies.

Speaking at the Enigma security conference in Burlingame, California, last week, the researcher at UC Berkeley’s International Computer Science Institute characterized bitcoin and its many follow-on digital currencies as energy-sucking leeches with no redeeming qualities. Their chief, if not only, function, he said, is to fund ransomware campaigns, online drug bazaars, and other criminal enterprises.

Meanwhile, Weaver said, there’s no basis for the promises that cryptocurrencies’ decentralized structure and blockchain basis will fundamentally transform commerce or economics. That means the sky-high valuations spawned by those false promises are completely unjustified. He also said investors’ irrational exuberance just adds to the unviability of cryptocurrency.

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