Tag Archive for: role

Russian national pleads guilty to role in ransomware attacks

/in


A Russian national Dec. 4 pleaded guilty to his role in developing and deploying a suite of malware tools known as Trickbot, used to launch ransomware attacks against American hospitals and other businesses, the Department of Justice announced.

“Combating bad actors in cyberspace is a team sport, and we are proud of the collaboration and coordination at the international level that went into today’s plea,” said Assistant Director Bryan Vorndran of the FBI’s Cyber Division.

John Riggi, AHA’s national advisor for cybersecurity and risk, said, “In a time when most cyber news is about the latest threat or attack, we applaud this win for the ‘good guys.’ The combined efforts of the FBI, Department of Justice and international partners have brought to justice this notorious cybercriminal who facilitated ransomware attacks against American hospitals and health systems, disrupting care delivery and risking patient safety. This win highlights the need for ransomware victim hospitals to cooperate with the FBI and other federal agencies to aid in investigative efforts and to gather cyber threat intelligence to prevent future attacks.”  

For more information on this or other cyber and risk issues, contact Riggi at [email protected]. For the latest cyber and risk resources and threat intelligence, visit aha.org/cybersecurity. 
 

Source…

AI, Hybrid Cloud, Ransomware Detection, and the Enduring Role of Hard Disk Drives in Data Storage Evolution

/in


Scality, a global leader in reliable, secure, and sustainable data storage software, shared its annual data storage predictions for 2024. With the use of generative AI skyrocketing and cyberattacks continuing to infect organizations, ongoing demands to decrease IT complexity with secure, efficient solutions will dominate IT budgets into the new year. In addition, perennial data storage management challenges — growing data volumes, tight budgets, skills shortages, complicated IT installations, and increasing cyber threats — will persist.

While these are standard assumptions, this year, Scality focused its predictions on the ongoing conversations led by customers and thought leaders in the data storage industry.

Giorgio Regni, CTO at Scality, said, “We’ve had some interesting industry debates with thought leaders this past year, including the potential death of the hard disk drive (HDD), the role on-premises data storage can play to help advance data management and AI, and, finally, what it really takes to protect data from ransomware. This year’s predictions play off all of these themes.”

Recommended AI News: Riding on the Generative AI Hype, CDP Needs a New Definition in 2024

AIThority Predictions Series 2024 bannerHDDs will live on, despite predictions of a premature death
Some all-flash vendors prognosticate the end of spinning disk (HDD) media in the coming years. While flash media and solid state drives (SSDs) have clear benefits when it comes to latency, are making major strides in density, and the cost per GB is declining, we see HDDs holding a 3-5x density/cost advantage over high-density SSDs through 2028.

Therefore, the current call for HDD end-of-life is akin to the tape-is-dead arguments from 20 years ago. In a similar way, HDDs will likely survive for the foreseeable future as they continue to provide workload-specific value.  

End users will discover the value of unstructured data for AI
The meteoric rise of large language models (LLMs) over the past year highlights the incredible potential they hold for organizations of all sizes and industries. They primarily leverage structured, or text-based, training data. In the coming year, businesses will discover the value of their vast troves…

Source…

Cyberthreats reached a new high this year, with AI playing a major role

/in


Historically, summer is the time of year when hacks and malware scams drop in volume and intensity, mostly because people are on holiday and not as active online as the rest of the year. 

However 2023 seems to have bucked this trend, with adware, malvertising, spyware, and other forms of malicious activity spiking in the months from July to August, according to a report from Avast, which reported that during this period, its tools blocked more than a billion attacks every month, which is a new record. 

Source…

Microsoft’s role in government email hack under cyber-inquiry scrutiny

/in


In a recent development that rattled the cyber world, Microsoft found itself in the crosshairs of a U.S. cyber inquiry after a breach of government officials’ email accounts. The planned investigation by a cybersecurity advisory panel will include an examination of the software giant’s role in the hack, which is suspected to be done by Chinese hackers.

The Cyber Safety Review Board, under the Biden administration, is set to focus broadly on risks to cloud computing infrastructure, Bloomberg reported.

According to a Department of Homeland Security official, as quoted by Bloomberg, the board will delve into identity and authentication management, looking into all relevant cloud service providers.

The cyber breach gave rise to vocal criticism from lawmakers like Senator Ron Wyden, who wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, and Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Jen Easterly.

In his letter, Senator Wyden firmly suggested that Microsoft’s cybersecurity procedures were sloppy and required a thorough investigation.

The public scrutiny surrounding Microsoft’s cybersecurity practices isn’t new. Recently, the company faced increasing criticism from computer security experts and government agencies who questioned the adequacy of its customer protection measures against breaches.

The email hack resonated powerfully because it occurred shortly before Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s planned trip to meet President Xi Jinping of China. Additionally, the hack utilized a Microsoft consumer signing key, which enabled the hackers to penetrate the networks and obtain entry to the officials’ emails.

In response, Microsoft committed to making 31 critical security logs accessible to licensees of the company’s lower-cost cloud services from September onwards to tighten their cybersecurity measures. The company also plans to extend the retention period for security logs from 90 to 180 days.

This tale underpins the need for relentless vigilance and rigorous security protocols in our increasingly connected world. It serves as a stern reminder of how even the giants of the tech world can stumble when it comes to…

Source…