Ransomware-in-a-box: Why containers are a cybersecurity risk
With the creation, storage, and use of data continuing to accelerate dramatically, security vulnerabilities and risks to data integrity are also escalating across the board. The trends are alarming, with one recent study from IDC -- looking at the requirements for ransomware and disaster recovery preparation -- revealing that in 2022, almost 80 percent of organizations surveyed had activated a disaster response. What’s more, 83 percent had experienced data corruption, and most worrying of all, almost two-thirds said that a ransomware attack had resulted in unrecoverable data.
Indeed, there is currently no application type that can be considered to be completely safe from ransomware. Among the wide range of possibilities this situation creates are the risks posed to organizations that are refactoring their applications for Kubernetes. Refactoring is an increasingly popular approach to application deployment, whereby apps are broken down into a range of services that can subsequently be operated independently. One of the key benefits this offers is that the application’s underlying hardware is used more efficiently, while each service can also be scaled as required without impacting other services and resources.
Businesses waste $17 million a year on unused SaaS apps
A new report from enterprise SaaS management firm Zylo finds that on average, 44 percent of businesses' SaaS licenses are wasted or underutilized, and the average organization wastes $17M in unused SaaS licenses every year.
Enterprise organizations (those with 10,000 employees or more) spend over $224M annually on SaaS but only utilize 50 percent of their SaaS licenses
62 percent of organizations suffer unplanned downtime every month
Over half of organizations say they have suffered a data breach in the past two years, an increase from 49 percent in 2022 and 39 percent in 2021.
In addition, a new report from Splunk shows 62 percent of respondents report that their business-critical applications have suffered from unplanned downtime due to a cybersecurity incident on at least a monthly basis, an increase from 54 percent in 2022.
Understanding the business model of cybercrime
As businesses get bigger they begin to gain extra layers of management and start to behave in different ways. A new report from Trend Micro reveals that the same is true for cybercrime groups.
A typical large cybercrime organization allocates 80 percent of its operating expenses to wages, with the figure similarly high (78 percent) for smaller criminal organizations, according to the report.
Microsoft is about to make a crazy change to Windows 11 that will draw the ire of users
Change is often good, but not when it comes to changing the way Windows works -- particularly the fundamental features that people have become used to. But this is precisely what Microsoft is looking to do by introducing a controversial new limitation on Alt-Tab in Windows 11.
As anyone who has used Windows for any length of time will know, the Alt-Tab keyboard shortcut provides an easy way to switch between open apps and windows. In recent years, Microsoft has added functionality by making it possible to Alt-Tab through Edge tabs, but now the company is testing a new implementation that reduces its usefulness.
Microsoft backtracks on new Content Adaptive Brightness Control feature in Windows 11 -- desktop users to miss out
When Microsoft released the latest Dev build of Windows 11, one of the new additions was Content Adaptive Brightness Control (CABC) -- an energy-saving feature that works by dimming areas of the screen depending on the content that is being viewed. Much was made of the fact that CABC was something that would benefit everyone, including desktop users. But it turns out that this is not actually the case.
Microsoft has now backtracked on its announcement, revealing that CABC is rather more underwhelming than we were first led to believe -- and far fewer Windows 11 users will be able to take advantage of it than first suggested.
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Watch ChatGPT generate a string of valid Windows activation keys
OpenAI's ChatGPT can be used for all sorts of things, from answering questions and translating text, to generating original content like stories, poetry and code.
Given the right prompts, it can even be tricked into producing valid license keys for software. YouTuber Enderman managed to overcome ChatGPT’s initial reluctance to do this and got it to provide him with a selection of working keys for Windows 95.
Sharing deployment best practices helps all developers
Developers are constantly innovating better and more efficient ways to deploy software, but not all teams are privy to the new strategies. We as a developer community need to eliminate all gatekeeping and share best practices. What benefits one team will help another, allowing us to continuously build on these improvements together.
Deployment velocity drives business value, but only if the software is reliable. Users won't care about receiving frequent updates if they don't work. Sharing deployment best practices can eliminate manual tasks and enable developers to focus on coding, leading to more reliable deployments and apps and more efficient processes.
Novel social engineering attacks surge by 135 percent driven by generative AI
New research from cybersecurity AI company Darktrace shows a 135 percent increase in social engineering attacks using sophisticated linguistic techniques, including increased text volume, punctuation, and sentence length, and with no links or attachments.
This trend suggests that generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, are enabling threat actors to craft sophisticated and targeted attacks at speed and at scale.
If businesses are to get a grip on their cybersecurity, they need to close the gender gap
Cybersecurity threats are growing at an alarming rate across the globe while at the same time, cybercriminals are becoming even more sophisticated in their methods of attacks. Meanwhile, the shortage of cybersecurity talent is making it difficult for organizations and industries to meet these constantly shifting security demands.
As such, the cybersecurity landscape has become increasingly challenging. In fact, cybercrime is expected to cost the world $10.5 trillion annually by 2025 but organizations are struggling to build the specialized skills required to manage these growing threats. According to ISACA’s latest State of Cybersecurity Report, 63 percent of enterprises have unfilled cybersecurity positions while labor shortages in the UK have become particularly acute. In fact, while there are currently about 339,000 cyber professionals in the UK (up 13 percent year-on-year), there is still a shortfall of 56,811 workers (up 70 percent year-on-year).
32 percent of remote workers use unapproved apps and software
Remote working poses a number of risks from an IT security point of view. A new report from Lookout finds that 32 percent of remote and hybrid workers use apps or software not approved by IT and 92 percent of remote employees perform work tasks on their personal tablet or smartphone devices.
Remote workers are also less likely to follow best practices for security. 90 percent access corporate networks from areas other than their home, with an average of five different locations -- introducing security risks as company data could be exposed across multiple networks not monitored by IT. 45 percent use the same password for work and personal accounts too.
Why cyber insurance policies may be in jeopardy [Q&A]
Cyber insurance has often been seen by business leaders as a monetary guarantee that even if hackers do break into their networks and steal their data, they can still escape financially unscathed.
Yet this premise was recently rocked after Lloyd's of London, the world's biggest insurance syndicate, redefined its policies to no longer cover for nation-state cyberattacks. There are other challenges facing the cyber insurance sector in the year ahead too.
[UPDATED] Content Adaptive Brightness Control will make Windows 11 more energy-efficient
Adaptive screen brightness is a familiar function of smartphones, with both iOS and Android boosting brightness in lighter conditions to improve screen visibility, and dimming it when it is darker so you're not blinded during nocturnal social media sessions. Now Microsoft is bringing a similar -- but better -- feature to Windows 11.
Microsoft's take on the feature is called Content Adaptive Brightness Control (CABC). There is a clue in the name about how it works, and it is about more than just ambient lighting conditions. [UPDATE: Microsoft has had something of a change of heart, as detailed here.]
Microsoft brings green screen feature to Teams meetings
Users of Microsoft Teams have a new option to experiment with that can make meetings both more interesting and more private -- green screen.
The ability to change backgrounds in video chats is something that has been available in numerous apps for quite some time, but the results are patchy at best. With the arrival of support for cinema-style green screen though, Microsoft is upping the ante.
TEAMGROUP unveils MP33Q M.2 PCIe SSD and T-FORCE VULCAN Z QLC SATA SSD
TEAMGROUP has launched two new QLC SSDs: the MP33Q M.2 PCIe SSD and the T-FORCE VULCAN Z QLC SSD. The MP33Q is a high-performance NVMe SSD with up to 2,500MB/s read speeds, while the VULCAN Z is a 2.5-inch SATA SSD with up to 550MB/s read speeds.
The TEAMGROUP MP33Q M.2 PCIe SSD is designed with 3D QLC flash memory chips, PCIe Gen3x4 interface and NVMe 1.3 protocol. With up to 2,500MB/s in read speed and 2,100MB/s in write speed, it outperforms SATA III SSDs by five times and is available in capacities of up to 2TB.
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