Tag Archive for: meets

Essence Group successfully meets devices supply demand throughout 2021

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Top 10 articles of 2021 reflect a changing security marketplace

Our most popular articles in 2021 provide a good reflection of the state of the industry. Taken together, the Top 10 Articles of 2021, as measured by reader clicks, cover big subjects such as smart cities and cybersecurity. They address new innovations in video surveillance, including systems that are smarter and more connected, and a new generation of computer chips that improve capabilities at the edge.
A recurring theme in 2021 is cybersecurity’s impact on physical security, embodied by a high-profile hack of 150,000 cameras and an incident at a Florida water plant. There is also an ongoing backlash against facial recognition technology, despite promising technology trends.
Cross-agency collaboration
Our top articles also touch on subjects that have received less exposure, including use of artificial intelligence (AI) for fraud detection, and the problem of cable theft in South Africa. Here is a review of the Top 10 Articles of 2021, based on reader clicks, including links to the original content:
Smart cities have come a long way in the last few decades, but to truly make a smart city safe
Safety in Smart Cities: How Video Surveillance Keeps Security Front and Center
The main foundations that underpin smart cities are 5G, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT) and the Cloud. Each is equally important, and together, these technologies enable city officials to gather and analyse more detailed insights than ever before. For public safety in particular, having IoT and cloud systems in place will be one of the biggest factors to improving the quality of life for citizens. Smart cities have come a long way in the last few decades, but to truly make a smart city safe, real-time situational awareness and cross-agency collaboration are key areas that must be developed as a priority.
Fraud detection technology
How AI is Revolutionising Fraud Detection
Fraud detection technology has advanced rapidly over the years and made it easier for security…

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OP-ED: Where society meets tech

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What is Pegasus, and why should we be concerned?

Project Pegasus has caused a great deal of global hype recently. After Wikileaks (2007-2017), the Snowden papers (2013), the Bangladesh Bank cyber heist (2016), and Cambridge Analytica (2018), Pegasus made big headlines in the cybersecurity space. 

The spyware Pegasus, up until now, is by far the most invasive security phishing tool developed by NSO Group, an Israel-based software company. The company has upgraded Pegasus over the past few years since its inception in 2016, now to a military-grade cyber weapon system. As a matter of fact, initially it was designed and developed to cater for Israeli military intelligence and surveillance. NSO then gradually went on to commercialize the product and sold it to its “vetted” global clientele upon official approval from the government of Israel. 

In a couple of years, NSO sold its Pegasus software to as many as 40 countries. However, these deals were made only through agreements at the government level mandating the spyware to be used solely for domestic cyber-surveillance and crime control. 

Ironically, the way Pegasus has been used or abused showed it to be far from its ideal purposes. 50,000 mobile phone numbers from all around the world have reportedly come under Pegasus surveillance. What it means in reality is that those 50,000 personal phones — belonging to statesmen, politicians, journalists, corporate executives, human rights activists, government officials — are potentially subject to being hacked or snooped. 

The hacking happens with a backdoor and in complete silence, leaving no traces behind for the victimized user. No doubt, in terms of sophistication, Pegasus can be rated as one of the best cybersecurity technologies, but one of the worst for how it can be abused. 

The dark side of digital convenience

Needless to say, on a daily basis, we are soaked in the utter convenience that our modern-day technology, especially the internet-based technologies, such as smartphones and other hand-held devices, offer. As common users, we tend to forget that a piece of consumer technology can carry its inherent pitfalls. 

But we simply go with the tech flow. While smartphones seem…

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After Biden Meets Putin, U.S. Exposes Details of Russian Hacking Campaign

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For now, it is the ransomware attacks that have moved to the top of the administration’s agenda, because of their effects on ordinary Americans.

Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, said days after the summit that it might take months to determine whether the warning to Mr. Putin resulted in a change in behavior. “We set the measure at whether, over the next six to 12 months, attacks against our critical infrastructure actually decline coming out of Russia,” he said on CBS. “The proof of the pudding will be in the eating, so we will see over the course of months to come.”

It was unclear from the data provided by the National Security Agency how many of the targets of the G.R.U. — also known as Fancy Bear or APT 28 — might be on the critical infrastructure list, which is maintained by the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. At the time of the attacks on the election system in 2016, election systems — including voting machines and registration systems — were not on the list and were added in the last days of the Obama administration. American intelligence agencies later said Mr. Putin had directly approved the 2016 attacks.

But the National Security Agency statement identified energy companies as a primary target, and Mr. Biden specifically cited them in his talks with Mr. Putin, noting the ransomware attack that led Colonial Pipeline to shut down in May, and interrupted the delivery of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel along the East Coast. That attack was not by the Russian government, Mr. Biden said at the time, but rather by a criminal gang operating from Russia.

In recent years, the National Security Agency has more aggressively attributed cyberattacks to specific countries, particularly those by adversarial intelligence agencies. But in December, it was caught unaware by the most sophisticated attack on the United States in years, the SolarWinds hacking, which affected federal agencies and many of the nation’s largest companies. That attack, which the National Security Agency later said was conducted by the S.V.R., a competing Russian intelligence agency that was an…

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Penetration testing takes on new meaning when cyber meets Harlequin

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You had me at "cyber."

Enlarge / You had me at “cyber.”

This week, my wife and favorite librarian Paula brought home a new acquisition specially for me: An Innocent to Tame the Italian, a recent book from the Harlequin Presents imprint. Author Tara Pammi’s previous books—which include Sicilian’s Bride for a Price and Sheikh’s Baby of Revenge—share a somewhat politically incorrect leitmotif of foreign sexual intrigue. If you’re wondering: no, romance novels are generally not my speed.

But the back-of-the-book tease for this work declared otherwise:

For brooding tech billionaire Massimo Brunetti, a cyberattack on his company is unacceptable. After tracking down the savvy Manhattan hacker, he’s stunned to find gorgeous genius Natalie Crosetto. Yet naive Nat isn’t the saboteur. To uncover who she’s protecting, Massimo returns to Italy—with Nat playing his fake fiancée! But this untamable Italian might have met his match in innocent Nat, who challenges him… and tempts him beyond reason!

“You had me at cyber,” I told Paula.

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