DDoS attacks fell last year but remain above pre-pandemic levels
The number of DDoS attacks dropped 13 percent in 2021 compared to 2020, but remained well above pre-pandemic levels.
Research from Nexusguard also shows that while the average attack size fell by 50 percent over 2021, the maximum attack size nearly tripled, growing by a whopping 297 percent over the same period.
Microsoft releases Windows 11 Build 25120 with new Bing-powered desktop search bar
A while back, Microsoft announced that it would be using the Insider Dev Channel to trial new, more experimental ideas in Windows 11. In the latest insider flight, Build 25120, we see a good example of this.
Insiders will now see a new search bar on the desktop that they can use to search the web. This won’t be something that appeals to everyone -- especially as it uses Bing to return results -- but it’s easy enough to disable.
Amazon Fire 7 (2022) tablet is very cheap
Nobody really wants a Fire 7 tablet. Most consumers would prefer an iPad or proper Android device with Google Play support. So why are Amazon's tablets being purchased? Price. Yes, folks, Amazon's little tablet is very cheap, making it a fairly decent consumption device for young children and the elderly. Don't want to spend too much on grandma for her birthday? Get her a Fire 7 tablet. She will think it is an iPad even though it is just a cheap knock-off with dismal performance.
Today, Amazon once again refreshes the Fire 7, and despite sky-high inflation, the tablet remains inexpensive. You see, the 2022 variant of the 7-inch tablet can be had for just $59.99, making it pretty much a disposable device. At that price, if it gets broken, who even cares? If you are concerned about your child breaking it, you can opt for a special "Kids" model for $109.99 that comes with a rugged case and a one-year subscription to Amazon Kids+.
Why alt data is better for short-term investment forecasting
Internet data continues its rapid pace of growth as more users come online to conduct business transactions, upload personal information, and track economic activity. According to a Statista report, the total amount of data created, captured, copied, and consumed reached 64.2 zettabytes (64.2 trillion gigabytes) in 2020 and is projected to more than triple to 180 zettabytes by 2025.
E-commerce activity, financial and economic reports, satellite images, and other information pertaining to investment valuations make up a large portion of this data. Portfolio managers looking to beat the market have taken advantage of this information when making portfolio decisions, giving rise to the term "alternative data" to describe these new sources of investment intelligence.
We're living in a 'post-breach era' and no company is safe
The infamous Equifax data breach dominated headlines in 2017. The social security numbers, driver's license numbers, names, dates of birth, addresses -- and in some cases credit card numbers -- of 148 million individuals were exposed. With over half of the U.S. population affected, the credit reporting giant spent $1.4 billion in damage control, including paying customers out up to $20,000 and providing them with ongoing fraud assistance and monitoring.
This wasn’t the first breach of its kind to occur, and it certainly won’t be the last: Uber, Facebook, and Google have also been hit, to name a few. But perhaps the most alarming part about attacks like the Equifax breach is that -- at just over four years post-breach -- we’re still not out of the woods yet. And we might never be full. Major breaches leave us vulnerable long after the dust has settled. With more people’s personal identifiable information now readily available to be exploited, it’s only a matter of time.
Rise of the bots -- 42.3 percent of internet traffic in 2021 wasn't human
The latest Bad Bot Report from Imperva shows that bots are an increasingly significant part of the web, accounting for over 42 percent of traffic overall.
More concerning still is that bad bots accounted for a record-setting 27.7 percent of all global website traffic in 2021, up from 25.6 percent in 2020. The three most common bot attacks are account takeover, content or price scraping, and scalping to obtain limited-availability items.
Ransomware vulnerabilities increase as Russia-linked activity surges
The first quarter of 2022 has seen a 7.6 percent increase in the number of vulnerabilities tied to ransomware, with 22 new ones discovered.
The latest Ransomware Index from Ivanti, conducted with Cyber Security Works, shows that of those 22, 19 are connected to Conti -- a prolific ransomware group that pledged support for the Russian government following the invasion of Ukraine.
Enterprise SIEMs fall short on detecting attacks
Enterprise Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tools are detecting fewer than five of the top 14 MITRE ATT&CK techniques employed by adversaries in the wild, according to a new report.
Analysis by AI-powered detection engineering company CardinalOps also shows SIEMs are missing detections for 80 percent of the complete list of 190+ ATT&CK techniques.
Three out of five organizations lose data due to email errors
Three out of five organizations experienced data loss or exfiltration caused by an employee mistake on email in the last 12 months, according to a new study.
Research from email security company Tessian and the Ponemon Institute shows 65 percent of over 600 IT security practitioners surveyed see email as the riskiest channel, followed by 62 percent for cloud file sharing and 57 percent for instant messaging.
Unlocking the hidden resources that could solve the cyber skills crisis [Q&A]
There was already a shortage of cyber skills before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and since then we've had a perfect storm of home working and the Great Resignation to make things worse still.
But is there an unexploited resource out there that could help fill the skills gap? Sonny Sandelius, assistant director of workforce programs at cyber security training skills company SANS believes there could be in the form of an army of the hobbyists and DIYers.
The OWC Envoy Pro mini SSD could be the coolest USB flash drive ever
Everybody loves USB flash drives, so it's a good thing there's no shortage of them on the market. If you want a flash drive, you can absolutely find one in stores -- unlike baby formula. There are many makes and models of USB flash drives with various capacities and transfer speeds, but of course, not all of them are of good quality.
With all of that said, only one flash drive can truly be the coolest ever. Today, OWC launches a drive that could be the one. Called "Envoy Pro mini," it is a tiny portable SSD that offers both USB-C and USB-A connectivity. In other words, the high-quality drive will work with pretty much any computer. Best of all, the beautifully engineered USB drive looks to be built like a tank and offers very impressive performance of up to 946MB/s!
Microsoft Teams finally arrives in the Microsoft Store -- so long as you don't want it for personal use on Windows 11
The apps section of the Microsoft Store has been an embarrassment since day one, and even now -- despite Microsoft’s efforts to improve it -- it’s still a dumpster fire.
Perhaps most embarrassingly of all, if you went to the app store expecting to be able to download Microsoft Teams, you’ll have drawn a blank as it wasn’t there. Today though, that finally changes. Well, changes for some users anyway.
Here's what's new and changed in Kodi 20 'Nexus' Alpha 1
Yesterday, we revealed that the next big version of Kodi had hit an important milestone. Nightly builds of Kodi 20 'Nexus' have been available for months, but now there’s a much more stable release for users to download.
Although it’s only a pre-release build, and therefore will likely have some bugs to watch out for, Kodi 20 'Nexus' Alpha 1's arrival will excite a lot of people. Team Kodi is very proud of this release, and highlights the following changes and new features.
Self-built edge messaging harms delivery of digital projects
Edge messaging infrastructure is critical to the data delivery that powers the experiences consumers expect, such as live chat, order delivery tracking, and document collaboration.
But a new report from edge messaging platform Ably reveals that 65 percent of organizations experienced an outage or significant downtime in the last 12-18 months with the edge messaging infrastructure they had built in-house.
IT pros feel the pressure to maintain organizations' security
As the number of breaches shows no sign of reducing, cybersecurity and development professionals are feeling the pressure to maintain their organizations’ security postures.
New research from Invicti Security finds DevSecOps professionals spend more than four hours each workday addressing security issues that never should have happened in the first place.