cyber (13)

12393265284?profile=RESIZE_400xWhen most people hear about cybersecurity hacks they envision frozen monitors, ransomware demands, and DDoS attacks that compromise connectivity for a few hours or even days.  Some experts, though, are worried that with the arrival of widespread artificial intelligence in the hands of hackers, both lone wolves and nation-states, we may be entering the era of the "cyber-physical attack."

In fact, last month the FBI warned Congress that Chinese hackers have burrowed deep into the United States' cy

12167758463?profile=RESIZE_400xAs the use and dependence on computers and software grow, so do the threats facing businesses of being hacked or becoming a victim of ransomware, where a company is locked out of a system until they pay a ransom.  In some cases, even if a company pays the ransom, it may still experience irreparable damage to its systems, network and reputation.

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Cyber Crime Compliant Center (IC3), ransomware is one of the biggest and most frequent threats to busi

10952640496?profile=RESIZE_400xFirst coined by Lebanese-American thought leader Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the term “black swan” refers to unexpected global events that have a profound effect on society. Some are beneficial, like the invention of the printing press; and others are destructive, such as the subprime crisis in 2008.  But they have all altered the course of history.

In recent years, we have bore witness to a surge of black swan events, and they continue to emerge in real time.  They have affected every facet of our l

10795895677?profile=RESIZE_400xSecurity researchers have warned that countless global organizations might be at risk of remote compromise after discovering more than 8000 exposed Virtual Network Computing (VNC) instances. Virtual networking enables communication between multiple computers, virtual machines (VMs), virtual servers, or other devices across different office and data center locations. While physical networking connects computers through cabling and other hardware, virtual networking extends these capabilities by u

10672705059?profile=RESIZE_400xThe average cost of data breaches in the hospitality industry was around $1.72 million in 2020.  Hospitality includes Food & Beverage, Lodging, Recreation, Travel & Tourism and Meeting & Events industries.  Simultaneously, the increased use of technology in the hospitality industry became prevalent, whereby businesses began deploying IoT devices, interconnected networks, digitalized services, etc. Unfortunately, the deployment of emerging technologies marked an increase in cyberattacks in the ho

9872813280?profile=RESIZE_400xThe Five Eyes is an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. These countries are parties to the multilateral UKUSA Agreement, a treaty for joint cooperation in signals intelligence.  What effects one of these partner countries will affect all of them.  China, Russia and Iran pose three of the biggest threats to the U.K. in a fast-changing, unstable world, the head of Britain’s foreign intelligence agency said 29 November 2021.  M

9788466479?profile=RESIZE_400xThe U.S. Department of State will create a Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, led by a Senate-confirmed ambassador-at-large, to advance its cybersecurity diplomacy efforts, according to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The move is a response to a challenging global threat landscape including ransomware attacks believed to be regularly carried out from Russian soil.

Readers can see the current state of cyber security for federal agencies HERE

Blinken formally announced the office whi

9745858255?profile=RESIZE_180x180The prevalence of ransomware has had a devastating impact on businesses over the past few years, with insurance underwriters seeing increasingly large ransomware payouts.  As a result, some core cyber security hygiene fundamentals are being required by insurers to qualify for coverage.   Many companies wrongly assume that having backups in the cloud can prevent or reduce the impacts of a ransomware attack.   For example, secure cloud backup has become a hard and fast requirement. Most cyber insu

8798066658?profile=RESIZE_400xA recent article from the University of Boston provides a very refreshing article about cyber technology helping the deaf.  The words “joke” and “ruin” might not rhyme in English - but, thanks to a new, interactive database of American Sign Language (ASL), called ASL-LEX 2.0[1], we can now see that these two words do in fact rhyme in ASL.

“In ASL, each word has five linguistic parameters: handshape, movement, location, palm orientation, and non-manual signs.  Rhymes involve repetition based on o

8693276887?profile=RESIZE_400xSingapore is testing unmanned surface vessels with a locally developed, AI-driven navigation algorithm that could be used for maritime security operations in the congested but strategically important waters around the southeast Asian island nation.  Upon completion, the Republic of Singapore Navy is expected to then field four USVs in the role. The country’s defense ministry said this will add another layer of surveillance and operational response for its maritime borders.

The ministry added tha

The XXIII Olympic Winter Games, hosted in PyeongChang, South Korea, commence on 9 February 2018. Wapack Labs observed two compromised individuals, infected with AZORult malware, logging into the official Olympic Winter Games portal, pyeongchang2018.com. AZORult is a Trojan horse which steals information from a compromised system. After installation, AZORult begins looking for sensitive data; browser cookies, usernames and passwords, system information, and autocomplete fields.
Wapack Labs analysts have been monitoring the recent demonstrations in Iran involving discontent toward the Islamic Republic seated in the aftermath of the 1979 Revolution. Iranian dissidents and activists took to the streets by the thousands, chanting slogans like “We don’t want an Islamic Republic” and “Death to the dictator”, as they tore down pictures of Supreme Leader Khamenei and set fire to the Governor’s office.