It looks like Facebook is preparing to build its own AI chips
Facebook appears to be looking to design and build its own processors at some point in the future. The social networking giant has posted a job listing on its corporate website looking for a manager to help build an "end-to-end SoC/ASIC, firmware and driver development organization".
The move would see Facebook doing what Apple and Google have started to do in recent years, moving design and production in-house to reduce reliance on the likes of Intel and Qualcomm. While little is known about how its own processors would be used, it is likely that they would feature in future Oculus hardware and smart speakers.
German government moves to open source private cloud
The German federal government is moving to an open source, self-hosted cloud platform from Nextcloud for file sync and sharing and collaboration, in order to protect the data of its citizens.
The Federal Information Technology Center (ITZBund), which takes care of IT services for the entire federal government, has been running a pilot of 5000 users with Nextcloud since October 2016 and after a successful tender this will now be rolled out everywhere.
Facebook reveals new privacy controls for users around the world
Facebook has been hit with renewed criticism of its privacy policies in recent weeks in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Having promised to give users more control over their privacy settings -- and after already introducing some tools to this end -- the social network has now revealed how it will comply with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe and bring new "privacy protection" to users around the world.
With the impending arrival of GDPR, it had previously been thought that European Facebook users would have greater privacy controls than those in other parts of the world. But the company then revealed that GDPR-style privacy controls would actually be made available to everyone. Today, Facebook makes good on that promise, starting the rollout of new privacy settings in Europe and then around the globe.
A quarter of organizations have had data stolen from the public cloud
Public cloud services are now in use in 97 percent of organizations, but one in four have experienced data theft and cloud-first strategies are on the decline.
These are among the findings of the latest annual cloud report from McAfee. Among other highlights are that 83 percent store sensitive data in the public cloud and 69 percent trust the public cloud to keep their sensitive data secure. However, one in five organizations has experienced an advanced attack against its public cloud infrastructure.
Large scale data breaches provide drive for DevSecOps investments
Breaches related to open source components have grown 50 percent since 2017, and an eye-opening 121 percent since 2014, according to a new survey from open source governance and DevSecOps automation specialist Sonatype.
But the survey finds that those companies with mature DevOps practices are 24 percent more likely to have deployed automated security practices throughout their development lifecycle.
Facebook Messenger issues a privacy review reminder to users
If you're a user of Facebook Messenger and you're in Europe, you may well notice a message popping up suggesting that you check your privacy settings. The reminder comes ahead of the new GDPR laws which come into force next month.
The message tells Messenger users to check their privacy settings by May 25. The date is significant, as this is when GDPR kicks in. While the laws apply to Europe, Facebook has already indicated that it will comply with them around the world.
Soon you will be able to download your Instagram data
The recent privacy scandal involving Cambridge Analytica and Facebook data has focused attention on personal data on social networks. With the impending arrival of GDPR in Europe and the requirement for data portability, Facebook-owned Instagram is planning to make it possible for users to download all of their data.
With Zuckerberg facing questions in Congress about Facebook's competition, the timing of this revelation is interesting. With the ability to easily download the content of their Instagram accounts, users will be able to more easily move to alternative services.
ZoneFox delivers improved intelligence and risk management to combat insider threats
One of the biggest problems companies face in securing their networks is the number of alerts generated which is why many are turning to AI solutions to cope with the workload.
Scottish company ZoneFox is launching an updated version of its security platform that offers better risk management and enriched insights, further time savings and improved scalability.
Today Facebook will notify 87 million users that their data was the subject of data breach
Initially thought to affect 50 million accounts, it later transpired that as many as 87 million Facebook users were affected by the Cambridge Analytica data harvesting scandal. Today, the social network is due to send a message to those whose data was involved.
While the bulk of affected users -- around 70 million -- live in the US, there are also significant numbers in Europe, Facebook's message is said to be "detailed" and will appear in news feeds at some point today.
Facebook suspends pro-Brexit firm AggregateIQ for allegedly obtaining user data improperly
It's not all that long since Facebook suspended data firm Cambridge Analytica for harvesting personal information from millions of users. Now the social network has suspended AggregateIQ -- another data firm, this time linked to the pro-Brexit Vote Leave campaign -- because of possible connections to Cambridge Analytica's parent company.
AggregateIQ is thought to be linked to Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL), and there are concerns that the firm may therefore have improperly obtained data from Facebook users.
Facebook will give everyone the option to unsend messages, just like Mark Zuckerberg
When it came to light that messages sent by Mark Zuckerberg and other Facebook executives via Facebook Messenger had been deleted, there was widespread concern about not only the social network's use of a feature unavailable to anyone else, but also the lack of transparency about it.
Still reeling from the Cambridge Analytica debacle and other privacy scandals, Facebook has now announced that the feature will in fact be rolling out to everyone -- although not necessarily any time soon. The company insists that this is something that has been under consideration for some time, and also promises that no more of Zuckerberg's message will be retracted in the meantime.
Facebook secretly deleted messages Mark Zuckerberg sent on Messenger
As if trust in Facebook could not drop any further, it has come to light that the social network deleted messages sent by Mark Zuckerberg from the recipients' Messenger inboxes. The deletions only applied to Zuckerberg's messages, leaving the other side of the conversation intact -- a feature not available to the average Messenger user.
Facebook did not operate transparently in deleting the messages, as it made no announcement either publicly, or to those involved in the conversations. When confronted about the matter, Facebook said that the deletions were carried out because of "corporate security".
Facebook users in Europe will soon have better privacy protection than those in the US
In a few weeks, privacy is set to improve for Facebook users -- at least this is the case for people in Europe. May 25 sees the implementation of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and it means that European users will have the right to not only request details of the information stored about them, but also the right to demand its deletion.
While this will be a legal obligation within Europe, it would have been the perfect opportunity for Facebook to extend the same rights to its users around the world. But it's not going to. Mark Zuckerberg has confirmed that GDPR-style privacy protection is not going to be extended to the US and other parts of the world.
Employees have too much access to sensitive data
Lax policies and a lack of control is giving far too many employees access to sensitive data according to the latest Global Data Risk Report from data security specialist Varonis.
The report, based on analysis of Data Risk Assessments conducted by Varonis in 2017 for customers and potential customers on their file systems, uncovers some startling figures, with 58 percent of organizations found to have more than 100,000 folders open to all employees.
What's the probability of a data breach happening to you? Or is that the wrong question?
Correctly calculating the probability of risk is becoming critical to organizations. And it’s not just because it is essential and fundamental to good Risk Management practice, but also because new laws such as GDPR are mandating it. Security measures must be appropriate to the risk, and the risk is suffering a data breach. So, calculating the probability of a data breach happening, regardless of scope, is vital to determining appropriate security measures.
ISACA, previously known as the Information Systems Audit and Control Association but now known solely by its acronym, talks about the probability of risk as:
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