Articles about 2021

Although ransomware remained the most common threat last year the number of new ransomware families and unique variants discovered in 2021 decreased significantly compared to previous years.

Researchers from WithSecure suggest that this could highlight a potential opportunity to disrupt the cybercrime ecosystem that's exacerbated the problem in recent years.

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The malware types and hacking services most discussed over the last year on dark web forums are dominated by phishing, stealers, zero-day attacks, and ransomware.

But the 2021 Year-End Data Breach Report from Risk Based Security finds discussing ransomware has been widely banned on major forums as evidenced by referring to ransomware offerings as 'crypters' or 'lockers' to avoid the post or account getting immediately banned.

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The past year or two have been chaotic for parents and students alike due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Transitioning from traditional, in-person learning to a hybrid or fully remote learning environment proved challenging for many students.

As we enter the latter half of 2021 and begin a new school year, it’s critical to see this moment as a fresh start -- and with a fresh start comes new technology! Students will need the latest and greatest tech to get them through the school year. Whether it’s a new pair of headphones or a snazzy new laptop, consider the six items listed below during your back-to-school shopping experience.

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The latest threat report from Nuspire shows that the second quarter of 2021 saw a massive 55,239 percent increase in ransomware activity during the second and third weeks.

This took place just prior to the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack conducted by the DarkSide ransomware group. The reason for the increase is not known, however, and it may not be related to the attack.

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Apple's iMac computers have long been beautiful and fun, but the 2021 model in particular is both slim and elegant too. In fact, thanks to the M1 processor (aka Apple Silicon) it is powerful and quiet as well. Seriously, folks, you really can't go wrong with the newest iMac.

Unfortunately, the 2021 iMac has the same design flaw as its predecessor -- a lack of front ports. Yeah, Apple continues to choose form over function, leading to third-party clamp hubs, such as this one, to add front ports.

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When Windows 10 was announced back in 2014, Microsoft caused alarm bells to ring when it said the new operating system would be free "for the first year", and referring to it "as a service". That led to speculation that the software giant would start charging a monthly fee for Windows 10, much as it does for Office with Microsoft 365.

That never came to pass, but today at its Inspire 2021 conference Microsoft takes the wraps off Windows 365, a cloud-based Windows subscription service.

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As organizations become global and teams get increasingly distributed, establishing and maintaining workforce productivity becomes crucial to drive business success. For example, during the Covid-19 pandemic, organizations realized that, in the absence of proper infrastructure and setup, global teams battle several challenges such as poor communication and fragmented collaboration that can deter any organization's growth.

With dispersed resources and remote onboarding of people and teams, getting the correct technology setup and helping the workforce perform optimally becomes extremely challenging.  

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2020 was a difficult year all around. Many organizations are still adjusting to the new landscape while trying to plan for the future. Cybercrime was at its prime in 2020 with global costs climbing as high as $1 trillion, according to CSIS research. Unfortunately, with the pandemic dragging on and an extremely drained remote workforce that still needs to be secured, there is every chance that cybercrime will be an even bigger headache in the months ahead. 

Numerous aspects are aligning to create even more dangerous situations. Organizations that fail to identify and address these impending hazards will be at risk from increased cyber-attacks and data breaches. But these types of imminent disaster can be averted with the right plans. By aligning security efforts with business goals, redesigning infrastructure, and looking at new technologies, organizations can build resilience while setting themselves up for future success. 

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) has quickly emerged as a game-changing technology, often helping researchers uncover insights much faster than they otherwise could.

Here are five impressive ways that researchers have already capitalized on AI this year.

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Six hundred and seventy-five thousand Americans died of the Spanish Flu in 1918, back when the total population of the United States was 103 million. In the current pandemic, American deaths are already above 540,000 (remember when a projection of 160,000 deaths seemed crazy?) but our population is now 331 million. While COVID-19 will undoubtedly kill more Americans than did the Spanish flu, the percentage of the population dying will be much lower than the 0.65 percent death rate in 1918. But the numbers are close enough that one might guess the long-term impact of this pandemic could be very similar to that one.

I don’t think it will be. I think this pandemic will have greater long-term effects than that of 1918 and the reason comes down mainly to technology.

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To this point in my tech predictions for 2021 I have ignored COVID-19, which we all do at our peril. Now that we know the pandemic is real, that it won’t just disappear, and that half a million people in the US (so far) are dead from it, what are predictable longer-term impacts? I see plenty changing in how we work, how we use social media, and how education has generally failed. Coming out the other side of this mess several aspects of life will be different, but school probably won’t be one of those.

I have an unusual perspective on these times since I am a parent of three sons (19, 16, and 14), I have a background in IT, yet my first job out of college 48 years ago was teaching high school biology, chemistry, physics, and vocational agriculture. Oh, and I home-schooled two of my kids for two years ending about 18 months before the pandemic began.

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Back on January 23, the New York Times published an Op-Ed piece by Kate Murphy titled America Has a GPS Problem, citing fear at the highest levels of government and industry that international bad actors might bring down the Global Positioning System satellite network, running your Tesla into a guardrail in the process. It’s just the sort of story you’d expect to read here, rather than in the Times, but what the heck. And the story is absolutely correct: we are all in danger. But Ms. Murphy, beyond wringing her hands, doesn’t say how the crisis will be averted or who will do the averting. I predict that Apple will fix the problem and save the day and they’ll probably do it this year.

The military and intelligence communities have long been worried that China or Russia could shoot down some or all of the 24 GPS satellites, blinding our strategic weapons in the process. It’s literal shooting-down, too, since the anti-satellite weapons demonstrated so far have been kinetic -- dumb rocks smashed into our satellites at incredible speed, knocking them from the sky and requiring incredible precision. So far only China and Russia have this offensive capability. But Ms. Murphy and the Times expand the population of bad guys beyond China and Russia to include enemies jamming, spoofing, or otherwise hacking GPS, which could be anyone -- Iran, North Korea, even groups of private individuals.

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Later this year, Microsoft is expected to refresh the look of Windows 10 and native apps, introducing a number of long-overdue visual improvements, including rounded corners and new colors. For many people, the changes likely won’t go far enough, but it’s too early to pass judgment just yet.

When Windows XP first arrived back in 2001 it really shook things up with its revolutionary design and playful color scheme. If you were wondering how it might look if it was released today, we have the answer.

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Remember Bufferbloat? It’s a subject I was among the first to write about a decade ago, starting with a prediction column just like this one in 2011. The problem at the time was that every video or audio application -- the big bandwidth consumers -- was trying to solve performance issues through pre-buffering. You’d launch Netflix (just one example -- they all did it) and it would pause for a few seconds filling a huge buffer intended to smooth-out any playing glitches. Except performance didn’t improve and in fact got worse because of buffers buffering buffers. These extra buffers were defeating TCP/IP’s own flow control mechanisms, often leading to total failure of the connection. Jim Gettys from Bell Labs called it Bufferbloat, then Jim and Dave Taht spent the next three years or so fixing the problem, or so they thought.

Well Bufferbloat is back.

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Contain your excitement; 5G is coming (again). However, wasn’t it actually launched over two years ago? 

For those not familiar with the nuances of 5G technology, 5GC (core or standalone) takes 5G deployment to the next level and replaces the 4G packet core with a new, cloud-native core using containers and following 3GPP specifications (release 15). This is somewhat separate from the market-by-market launch that most operators publicize, and the activity is less visible to the casual subscriber. Below, I have predicted some of the key 5GC deployment and adoption trends for 2021. 

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