Tag Archive for: threatens

Explained: Why the Russia-Ukraine war threatens to splinter the internet

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In 2001, when the internet was staring at a slew of regulations from across the globe, Clyde Wayne Crews, a researcher at libertarian think-tank Cato Institute, proposed the idea of ‘splinternet’ — an internet splintered into disparate realms controlled by different dispensations or powers.

The fundamental proposal was to have more internets instead of having more regulations.

Over the past two decades, a splintering of internet has occurred in some limited ways. China’s ‘Great Firewall’ keeps American tech giants out while pushing online services developed indigenously. Russia, in 2019, passed the sovereign internet law — or the online Iron Curtain — that enabled the country to disconnect its internet from rest of the world.

The splintering

Crews may have been ahead of his time in propounding a splinternet. But the events of the past four weeks pose the first serious challenge to the way the internet has evolved into a global system of interconnected computer networks, that use the Internet Protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices.

However dystopian the idea may have seemed over these years, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine does seem as a potential trigger for a splintered internet. France’s digital affairs envoy Henri Verdier, in an interview to Bloomberg News, recently stated that the combination of Moscow’s increasing online censorship attempts, combined with Ukraine’s repeated calls for Russia to be taken offline, could potentially offer the trigger for the eventual “fragmentation of the internet.”

“Will the unique, neutral, multi-stakeholder, free internet survive this crisis?” Verdier asked. “I’m not sure.”

The internet is essentially a global network of physical cables, which can include copper telephone wires, TV cables, and fiber optic cables, alongside wireless connections such as Wi-Fi and 3G/4G, that leverage the physical cables to hook users and devices on to the internet. Countries hook on to global web services via undersea cables or nodes that are connection points through which data is transmitted to and from other countries’ communication networks. The concept of the splinternet envisages blocks or…

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UK warned to bolster defences against cyber attacks as Russia threatens Ukraine

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In the UK in recent weeks, critical national infrastructure – which includes energy supply, water supply, transportation, health and telecommunications – have been warned by the NCSC about specific vulnerabilities known to be exploited by Russian hackers. Based on experience in Ukraine, energy and transport are most likely to be in the cross-hairs if anything were to happen.

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Ransomware attack threatens paychecks just before Christmas

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A major payroll company has been crippled by ransomware hackers, leaving some companies around the country scrambling to cover employees’ last paychecks before Christmas and many workers wondering if they’ll get paid on time.

Kronos, one of the largest workforce management companies in the U.S., was hit with ransomware Saturday, according to the company’s public updates page, and announced Monday that its programs that rely on cloud services — which a number of companies use to pay employees and manage their hours — would be unavailable for “several weeks.”

For many Americans who are paid biweekly, Dec. 17 is the final payday before Christmas.

A spokesperson for Kronos declined to name which ransomware group was responsible, whether the company planned to pay, how much the hackers demanded or to provide a full list of customers that use its cloud services and were affected.

A number of major companies, including Whole Foods, GameStop and Honda, as well as state and local government agencies like the state of West Virginia and city of Cleveland, rely on Kronos for payroll and scheduling services for their employees.

“There is a real fear about our paychecks this upcoming Friday,” said one Whole Foods employee, who requested not to be named out of fear of reprisal.

“Whole Foods has instructed us to use a paper punch sheet to keep track of our hours & our Team Leads have been instructed to hand write the schedule, since the schedule writing system is also down,” she said in an email.

Rachel Malish, a spokesperson for Whole Foods, said that the company sent a memo to employees Wednesday that it had found a way to pay all employees on Friday.

GameStop didn’t respond to requests for comment.

A number of healthcare companies and hospitals rely on Kronos for scheduling and payroll.

Ascension, one of the largest hospital chains in the U.S., has been forced to “put in place alternate systems to track time and process payroll as scheduled,” said Gene Ford, a company spokesperson.

John Riggi, the senior advisor for cybersecurity at the American Hospital Association, an industry group, said that he had spoken with multiple hospitals that have had to create contingency plans…

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Serious security flaw threatens Minecraft and possibly the entire internet — what to do

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If you’re a Minecraft player using the Java Edition on a PC, Mac or Linux box, you’ll want to update your game software to the latest version immediately. 

There’s a very serious security flaw that could let malicious hackers totally take over your computer. The issue could also affect many other online services, including possibly Steam and Apple iCloud, but we don’t yet know exactly how severe the threat to those other platforms is.

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