Tag Archive for: Louisiana’s

Is Louisiana’s ID Verification Mandate a Step in the Wrong Direction? – Global Village Space

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It was recently announced that Louisiana had introduced legislation that requires users of adult websites to show identification to access the pages. This has stirred up plenty of questions about how much authority governments can have over the policing of the internet.

Aside from the ethical debates surrounding the news, it also feels like this is a step backward. Technology is moving forward rapidly, and improved methods of authentication are already emerging. A more sensible solution could be to jump on the growing trend of biometric technology for accessing websites.

What is the Louisiana Mandate?

PIA reported that lawmakers in Louisiana have decided to implement a new rule for accessing adult websites. In a push to ensure that children don’t encounter content that could be damaging to them, internet users in the state will now be required to use their personal identification credentials to log on.

Experts have noted how other countries, including the UK, Australia, and Germany, have all attempted similar measures in the past. None of these worked. In fact, collecting IDs for age verification can have serious knock-on effects when it comes to data privacy.

This highlights how there’s a need for more modern approaches to authentication that are in line with the advancing technological world. Biometrics has already started to creep in on devices and some sites. However, they haven’t become widespread or used as an alternative to traditional identification methods yet.

How Far Away are We From Ubiquitous Biometrics?

According to Grand View Research, the global biometrics market will be worth around $60 billion by 2025. It is growing at a rate of 20.4 percent each year, and this is being driven by the increased demand for enhanced security methods.

Issues Arising from Biometrics

For the technology to become used for logging onto all sites and devices, internet users need to have the reassurance that their data won’t be sold or lost to third parties.

Like it or not, biometric technology is on the way, and some people believe that it is a great step forward. There’s no doubt, though, that western countries will need to learn how to cope with these challenges. There…

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Hacker’s paradise: Louisiana’s ransomware disaster far from over

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Building with tower overlooks its own reflection in lake.

Enlarge / Louisiana State Capitol, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, at dusk. (credit: Visions of America/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Louisiana has brought some of its services back as it recovers from a targeted ransomware attack using the Ryuk malware on November 18. The state’s Office of Motor Vehicles re-opened offices on Monday in a limited fashion. But OMV and other agencies affected—including the state’s Department of Health and Department of Public Safety—are facing a number of potential hurdles to restoring all services, according to people familiar with Louisiana’s IT operations.

The ransomware payload was apparently spread across agencies by exploiting Microsoft Windows group policy objects—meaning that the attackers had gained access to administrative privileges across multiple Active Directory domains. This is symptomatic of TrickBot malware attacks, which uses GPOs and PsExec (a Microsoft remote administration tool) to spread its payload.

This is the second major cybersecurity incident this year in Louisiana tied to Ryuk ransomware. In July, Governor John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency and deployed the state’s cyber response team to assist seven parish school districts. There have been many other Ryuk attacks this year that have used TrickBot and, in some cases, the Emotet trojan—an attack referred to by some experts as a “Triple Threat” commodity malware attack. At least two Florida cities and Georgia’s Judicial Counsel and Administrative Office of the Courts were also hit by “Triple Threat” attacks.

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Biz & IT – Ars Technica