RSS_Virtulization

Application developers have long known the benefits of maintaining application code and configuration variables in a standardized text format – allowing efficient code sharing, versioning, and reuse. Modern infrastructure tooling has evolved to similarly drive the management and configuration of infrastructure components “as code”. But what does this mean, and why is it an essential capability of The Cloud Operating Model? Back in the day In my first IT role, to install a server, switch,…

A cyber-attack on a Pennsylvania law firm has potentially exposed the personal health information (PHI) of more than 36,000 patients of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). Law firm Charles J. Hilton & Associates P.C. (CJH), which provides legal services to UPMC, discovered suspicious activity in its employee email system in June 2020. An investigation determined that hackers had gained access to several employee email accounts between April 1, 2020, and June 25, 2020. In…

Using psychology can help improve the odds of success against a cybercriminal’s digital incursion. Image: iStockphoto/nicescene Emergency responders practice continually so that their response during a crisis is inherent and automatic. This approach is also used by many cybersecurity teams, and with good reason: In an emergency, time to think, gather information, and consider all options is limited. Practice builds in an element of unconscious response, along with the ability to be guided by intuition….

The founder of New Zealand cybersecurity company Emsisoft has issued an apology over a configuration error that led to a system data breach.  News that one of the company’s test systems had been compromised was shared on February 3 by Emsisoft founder and managing director Christian Mairoll.  In a security incident that Mairoll wrote “should not have happened,” a database containing log records generated by Emsisoft products and services was made accessible to unauthorized third parties.  Mairoll revealed that…

Netscout experts warn of DDoS-for-hire services abusing Plex Media servers to bounce junk traffic and amplify DDoS attacks. Security researchers from Netscout discovered DDoS-for-hire services have found a way to abuse Plex Media servers to bounce junk traffic and amplify distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. Plex Media Server is a personal media library and streaming system that runs on modern Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems. Plex Media Server is also used in network-attached storage (NAS)…

It’s time to consider new passwords and multi-factor authentication or password management tools The current breach is really a compilation of many breaches, hence it’s name “Compilation of Many Breaches” (COMB), with over 3.2 billion records including lots of personally identifiable information (PII) components including emails, passwords to websites and online service providers and much more, based on 252 prior exploitations, all rolled into this one behemoth of a hackers’ treasure trove. Don’t wait to…

A Comparitech report found that Japan and the UAE have the most expensive identities available on illicit marketplaces at an average price of $25. Personal information from US citizens found on the Dark Web—ranging from Social Security numbers, stolen credit card numbers, hacked PayPal accounts, and more—is worth just $8 on average, according to a new report from tech research firm Comparitech. Researchers pored through the prices of personal data and information—called “fullz” by those…

The level of trust in Facebook versus the government also varies between demographic groups. By Kathryn Robinson, Privacy Expert, Privacy Tiger In today’s ever-changing data-driven society, it’s a challenge for data regulations to keep up with the speed of technological advances. But as data breaches and cyberattacks increasingly threaten online privacy around the world, it’s now more crucial than ever for countries to strengthen cyber defenses to protect citizens’ data. While Europe sets the global…

Dive Brief: Nearly three-quarters of U.S.-based companies said they were victims of a successful phishing attack in 2020, up 14% year over year, according to Proofpoint’s 2021 State of the Phish report released Sunday. About 3,500 employed adults and 600 IT security professionals globally participated in a third-party survey for the report.  Sixty-eight percent of U.S. companies paid a ransom, which is twice as many as the global average. Thirty-two percent of global companies agreed…