#Cybersecurity Software Analysis

[bestproducstonlinestore]

WaveCloud Enhance Security: A Comprehensive Review

I use the WaveCloud Enhance Security to safeguard my digital assets and ensure a robust defense against potential cyber threats. This all-encompassing security solution has proven to be a reliable companion in today's ever-evolving landscape of online risks.

User-Friendly Interface

One of the standout features of WaveCloud Enhance Security is its user-friendly interface. Navigating through the various components of the security suite is a breeze, even for those who may not be technically inclined. The intuitive design ensures that users can easily access and manage their security settings without feeling overwhelmed.

Advanced Threat Detection

In the era of sophisticated cyber threats, having an advanced threat detection system is paramount. WaveCloud Enhance Security excels in this aspect by employing cutting-edge technologies to identify and neutralize potential threats. The real-time monitoring capabilities provide a sense of confidence, as the system continuously analyzes network activities and flags any suspicious behaviour promptly.

Multi-Layered Protection

WaveCloud Enhance Security adopts a multi-layered approach to safeguarding digital assets. From robust firewalls to intrusion detection systems, each layer is meticulously designed to address specific types of threats. This comprehensive strategy ensures that no potential vulnerability is left unattended, creating a formidable defense against a wide array of cyber threats.

Secure Cloud Integration

As an avid user of cloud services, the seamless integration of WaveCloud Enhance Security with cloud platforms has been a game-changer for me. The product ensures that data stored in the cloud remains secure, with real-time monitoring and threat detection extending to cloud environments. This integration provides peace of mind for users who rely on cloud-based solutions for their business or personal needs.

Regular Updates and Patch Management

WaveCloud Enhance Security demonstrates a commitment to staying ahead of emerging threats through regular updates and patch management. The product automatically updates its virus definitions and security protocols, ensuring that users are protected against the latest vulnerabilities. This proactive approach is crucial in the dynamic landscape of cybersecurity, where new threats can emerge at any moment.

Performance Impact

One concern often associated with security solutions is their potential impact on system performance. However, WaveCloud Enhance Security manages to strike a balance between robust protection and minimal performance impact. I've noticed no significant slowdowns in my system while running the security suite, allowing me to carry out my tasks seamlessly without compromise.

Responsive Customer Support

In the realm of cybersecurity, having responsive and knowledgeable customer support is invaluable. WaveCloud Enhance Security excels in this aspect, providing prompt assistance and clear guidance in the rare instances when I've sought help. The support team's expertise adds an extra layer of assurance, knowing that assistance is readily available when needed.

Conclusion

In conclusion, WaveCloud Enhance Security stands out as a comprehensive and user-friendly solution in the realm of cybersecurity. Its advanced threat detection, multi-layered protection, seamless cloud integration, regular updates, minimal performance impact, and responsive customer support collectively make it a top choice for individuals and businesses alike. The product's commitment to staying ahead of evolving threats ensures that users can navigate the digital landscape with confidence, knowing that their digital assets are well-protected.

Affiliate Disclaimer:

We would like to disclose that some of the links provided on this page are affiliate links. This means that if you choose to make a purchase through these links, we may earn a commission. Please be assured that this does not affect the price you pay for the product. Our reviews are based on honest opinions and experiences with the WaveCloud Enhance Security product. The use of affiliate links helps support our efforts in providing valuable information and maintaining the website. Your trust is of utmost importance, and we only recommend products that we believe will genuinely benefit our users.

[apieinvestavimapaprastai]

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. Stock Price Forecast: Insights and Future Growth

Explore Check Point Software Technologies' stock price forecast and investment insights. Discover why this cybersecurity leader offers #CheckPointSoftwareTechnologies #CHKP #dividendyield #investment #stockmarket #stockpriceforecast #stockgrowth #invest

Check Point Software Technologies is a global leader in cybersecurity solutions. The company offers a comprehensive suite of products and services designed to protect networks, endpoints, cloud environments, and mobile devices. Continue reading Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. Stock Price Forecast: Insights and Future Growth

[kratikal-compliance]

Software Composition Analysis Service helps organizations manage risk & improve the security and compliance posture of your software applications. Software Composition Analysis (SCA) involves automating the visibility into the use of open-source software (OSS) to manage risks, ensure security, and maintain license compliance.

[jaysonmurphyitservice]

Jayson Murphy IT service

Website: http://jaysonmurphyitservicer.com/

Address: 609 New York Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11203, USA

Phone: 917-577-3337

Jayson Murphy IT Service is a comprehensive provider of managed IT solutions tailored to meet the unique needs of businesses. With a focus on enhancing operational efficiency and ensuring robust cybersecurity, we offer a range of services including network management, cloud solutions, data backup, and IT consulting. Our team of experienced professionals is dedicated to delivering reliable support and innovative technology strategies that empower organizations to thrive in a digital landscape. At Jayson Murphy IT Service, we prioritize customer satisfaction and work closely with our clients to develop customized solutions that drive growth and success.

Business Email: jmitservice@gmail.com

Facebook: https://facebook.com/abdulmanufacturerlimited

Twitter: https://twitter.com/abdulmanufacturerlimited

Instagram: https://instagram.com/abdulmanufacturerlimited

TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@abdulmanufacturerl

[techtoio]

AI-Powered Software Solutions: Revolutionizing the Tech World

Introduction

Artificial intelligence has found relevance in nearly all sectors, including technology. AI-based software solutions are revolutionizing innovation, efficiency, and growth like never before in multiple industries. In this paper, we will walk through how AI will change the face of technology, its applications, benefits, challenges, and future trends. Read to continue..

[dipnots]

How to Choose the Right Antivirus Software: A Comprehensive Guide

In today’s digital age, where our lives are intricately intertwined with technology, safeguarding our digital assets has become paramount. With the proliferation of cyber threats, antivirus software stands as a crucial line of defense against malware, viruses, ransomware, and other malicious entities lurking online. However, the abundance of antivirus options can be overwhelming, making it…

[jcmarchi]

Exploring the future of IoT: Challenges and opportunities - CyberTalk

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/exploring-the-future-of-iot-challenges-and-opportunities-cybertalk/

Exploring the future of IoT: Challenges and opportunities - CyberTalk

Miri Ofir is the Research and Development Director at Check Point Software.

Gili Yankovitch is a technology leader at Check Point Software, and a former founder and VP of Research and Development at Cimplify (acquired by Check Point).

With billions of connected devices that lack adequate security around them, the Internet of Things (IoT) market represents an extremely promising target in the eyes of cyber criminals. IoT manufacturers are grappling with emerging cyber security regulations and change is happening. However, concerns still abound.

In this dynamic interview, Check Point experts Miri Ofir and Gili Yankovitch discuss what you need to know as we move into 2024. Get insights into IoT exploit techniques, prevention approaches and best practices. Address IoT security issues effectively – starting now.

What does the global threat landscape look like and could you share perspectives around 2024 predictions?

The global threat landscape has been affected by the increasing number of geopolitically motivated cyber attacks. We’re referring to state-sponsored attacks.

Cyber espionage by state-sponsored actors aims to steal intellectual property, gather intelligence, or even lay the groundwork for potential sabotage. Countries like Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran have advanced state-sponsored cyber attack skills, and we can track complicated campaigns affiliated with those countries.

An example of such type of campaign is a supply chain attack. As the name implies, this involves targeting less-secure elements in an organization’s supply chain. The SolarWinds hack from 2020 is a notable example, in which attackers compromised a software update mechanism of a business to infiltrate numerous government and private sector systems across the U.S.

The Internet of Things (IoT) market is highly targeted and prone to supply chain attacks. The rapid proliferation of these devices, often in absence of robust security measures, means a vast expansion of potential vulnerabilities. Malicious actors can exploit IoT weak points to gain unauthorized access, steal data, or launch attacks.

What are IoT device manufacturers’ biggest challenges at the moment?

IoT manufacturers are facing evolving regulation in regards to cyber security obligations. The supply chain concerns and the increasing attacks (41% increase in IoT attacks during Q1 `23 compared to Q1 `22) have led governments to change policies and to better regulate device security. We see two types of programs being rolled out:

1. Mandatory regulations to help manage Software and Hardware Bill of Materials (SBOM) and to verify that products will go to the market with some basic cyber security coverage. SBOMs will help manufacturers get a better understanding of the components inside of their products and maintain them through patches and other mitigations. This will add overhead for manufacturers.

2. Excellent initiatives like the U.S. cyber trust mark and labeling program, which aims to dispel the myth of clarity about privacy and security in the product and to allow educated users to select safer products, among other considerations, like energy efficiency.

While this is an obligation and a burden, it is also a business opportunity for manufacturers. The market is changing in many respects. For example, the U.S. sanctions over China are not only financially motivated; the Americans see China as a national security concern and the new sanctions push major competitors out from the market.

In this vacuum, there is a room for new players. Manufacturers can leverage the changing landscape to gain higher market share by highlighting cyber security in their products as a key differentiator.

What are the most used exploit techniques on IoT devices?

There are several main attack vectors for IoT devices:

1. Weak credentials: Although manufacturers take credentials much more seriously these days than previously (because of knowledge, experience or on account of regulation), weak/leaked credentials still plague the IoT world. This is due to a lot of older devices that are already deployed in the field or due to still easily-cracked passwords. One such example is the famous Mirai botnet that continues to plague the internet in search of devices with known credentials.

2. Command injection: Because IoT devices are usually implemented with a lower-level language (due to performance constraints), developers sometimes take “shortcuts” implementing the devices’ software. These shortcuts are usually commands that interact with system resources such as files, services and utilities that run in parallel to the main application running on the IoT device. An unaware developer can take these shortcuts to provide functionality much faster to the device, while leaving a large security hole that allows attackers to gain complete control. These developer actions can be completed in a “safer” way, but will take longer to implement and change. Command weaknesses can be used as entry points for attackers to exploit vulnerabilities on the device.

3. Vulnerabilities in 3rd party components: Devices aren’t built from scratch by the same vendor. They usually consists of a number of 3rd party libraries, usually open-sourced, that are an integral part of the devices’ software. These software components are actively maintained and researched, therefore new vulnerabilities in them are discovered all the time. However, the rate in which vulnerabilities are discovered is much higher than that of an IoT device software update cycle. This causes devices to remain unpatched for a very long time, even for years; resulting in vulnerable devices with vulnerable components.

Why do IoT devices require prevention and not only detection security controls?

Unlike endpoints and servers, IoT devices are physical devices that can be spread across a large geographical landscape. These are usually fire-and-forget solutions that are monitored live at best or sampled once-a-period, at worst. When attention to these software components is that low, the device needs to be able to protect itself on its own, rather than wait for human interaction. Moreover, attacks on these devices are fairly technical, in contrast to things such as the ransomware that we see on endpoints. Usually, detection security controls will only allow for the operator to reboot the device at best. Instead, prevention takes care of the threat entirely from the system. This way, not only is mitigation immediate, it is also appropriate and reactive, in accordance with each threat and attack it faces.

Why is it important to check the firmware? What are the most common mistakes when it comes to firmware analysis?

The most common security mistakes we find in firmware are usually things that “technically work, so don’t touch them” and so they’ve been left alone for a while. For example, outdated libraries/packages and servers; they all start “growing” CVEs over time. They technically still function, so no one bothers to update them, but many times they’re exposed over the network to a potential attacker, and when the day comes, an outdated server can and will be the point of entry allowing for takeover the machine. A second common thing we see is private keys, exposed in firmware, that are available for download online. Private keys that are supposed to hold some cryptographically strong value – for example, proof that the entity communicating belongs to a certain company. However, they are available for anyone who anonymously downloads the firmware for free. This means they no longer hold a cryptographically strong value.

What are some best practices for automatic firmware analysis?

Best practices for automated assessment – in my opinion, the analysis process is broken into 3 clear steps: Extraction, analysis, report.

A) Extraction: Is a huge, unsolved problem, the elephant in the room. When it comes to extracting firmware, it is not a flawless process. It is important to verify the results, extract any missed items, create custom plugins for unsupported file types, remove duplicates, and to detect failed extractions.

B) Analysis: Proper software design is key. A security expert is often required to assess the risk, impact and likeliness of exploit for a discovered vulnerability. The security posture depends on the setup and working of the IoT device itself.

C) Report: After the analysis completes, you end up with a lot of actionable data. It’s critical to improve the security posture of the device based on action items in the report.

For more insights like this, please sign up for the cybertalk.org newsletter.

[autolenaphilia]

God, the end of support for Windows 10 will be such a fucking bloodbath. It’s coming a year from now, 14 october 2025 and it will be a disaster. The one Windows version supported by Microsoft will be Windows 11, and its hardware requirements are like the rent, too damn high.

Literally most computers running Windows 10 can’t upgrade to Windows 11. 55% of working computers aren’t able to run windows 11 according to an analysis. A man quoted in the article argues even that is too optimistic considering how many older computers are still used. He thinks even an estimate of 25% of win10 machines being able to upgrade to win11 is too high an estimate, and frankly he sounds reasonable.

This will probably lead to two things.

Number one is a mountain of e-waste as people get rid of old computers unsupported by microsoft despite the hardware working fin ,and buy new windows 11 machines. It’s the great Windows 11 computer extinction experiment, as writer Jenny List called it. And when you buy a new computer with windows pre-installed, the windows license fee is baked into the price. So a windfall in license money for Microsoft, and the real reason why they are doing this.

Number two is a cybersecurity crisis. A lot of people will keep on using Windows 10 because “end of support” doesn’t mean it will stop working on that date. But the end of support means the end of security updates for the operating system. That will make those systems very unsafe, if they are connected to the internet. Security flaws and exploits for windows 10 will be discovered, problems that will never be patched because win10 isn’t supported anymore and they will be used against systems still running it.

Apparently a lot of people don’t understand this so I’ll try to explain this again as simply as I can. No human being is perfect, and accordingly nobody can write the perfect software that is safe from all cybersecurity threats forever. Security flaws and exploits will always be found, if the computer running that software is connected to the internet, which means it can be attacked by every bad actor out there. This is especially true if that software is as complex and important as an operating system, and it’s also widely used, which is true of Windows. But if the software is supported, the people who design and distribute that software can write patches and send out security updates that will patch the exploits that are found, minimizing the risks inherent to software, computers and the internet. It’s a constant race between well-meaning developers and bad actors, but if the developers are good about it, they will stay ahead.

But when support for the software is dropped, that means the developers will no longer patch the software. And that’s what happening to Windows 10 in october 2025. Any new exploits for the operating system that are found, and they will inevitably be found, won’t be patched by Microsoft. The exploits will stay unpatched, the system will be old and full of holes and anyone using it will be unsafe.

We already have this problem with people who are still using Windows 7 and Windows 8, years after Microsoft dropped support, often because their computers can’t upgrade even to windows 10. They are probably a disproportionate amount of the people getting hacked and their data stolen. From reading what they write to justify themselves online, my impression is that these people are frankly ignorant about technology and the dangers of what they are doing. And they are filled with the absurd self-confidence the ignorant often have, as they believe themselves to be too careful and tech-savvy to be hacked.

The problem will however explode with windows 10 ending support, because the gap in hardware requirements between win10 and win11 is so large, as already explained.

(sidenote, running unsupported operating systems can be safe, as long as you don’t connect the computer to the internet. You can even run windows 3.1 in perfect safety as long as its kept off the ‘net. But that’s a different story, I’m talking here about people who connect their computers to the internet)

So let’s imagine this very common scenario: you have a computer running Windows 10. You can’t upgrade it to windows 11 because most win10 computers literally can’t. You want to keep the computer connected to the internet for obvious reasons. You don’t have the money to get a new windows 11 computer, and you don’t want to throw your old perfectly useable hardware away. So what do you do?

The answer is install linux. Go to a reputable distro’s website like linuxmint.com, read and follow their documentation on how to install and use it. Just do it. If you are running windows 10, you have until October 14 2025 to figure it out. And if you are running windows 7 or 8, do it now.

There are good reasons for not using Linux and sticking with windows, linux has serious downsides. But when the choice is literally between an old unsupported version of windows and Linux, linux wins everytime. Every reason for not installing linux, every downside to the switch, all those are irrelevant when your alternative is literally running old unsupported windows on a machine connected to the internet. Sure linux might not be user-friendly enough for you, but that’s kinda irrelevant when the other alternatives presented is either throwing the computer away or sacrificing it to a botnet. And if you believe yourself to be too tech-savvy and careful to ever get pwned (as some present-day windows 7 users clearly believe themselves to be), that’s bullshit. If you really were careful and tech-savvy you would take the basic precaution of installing a supported operating and know how to do it.

I don’t think everyone can just switch to linux, at least not full time. If you need windows because your work requires it, frankly your only realistic option is to have a computer that supports win11 when october 2025 rolls around. If you don’t, either you have to pay for it yourself or ask your employer to supply a work computer with win11. Just don’t use Windows 10 for work stuff past that date, I doubt your co-workers, your employer or your customers will appreciate you putting their data at risk by doing so.

The rest of you, please don’t contribute to the growing problem of e-waste by throwing away perfectly useable hardware or put yourself at risk by using unspported versions of Windows. Try Linux instead.

[mariacallous]

Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella has hailed the company's new Recall feature, which stores a history of your computer desktop and makes it available to AI for analysis, as “photographic memory” for your PC. Within the cybersecurity community, meanwhile, the notion of a tool that silently takes a screenshot of your desktop every five seconds has been hailed as a hacker's dream come true and the worst product idea in recent memory.

Now, security researchers have pointed out that even the one remaining security safeguard meant to protect that feature from exploitation can be trivially defeated.

Since Recall was first announced last month, the cybersecurity world has pointed out that if a hacker can install malicious software to gain a foothold on a target machine with the feature enabled, they can quickly gain access to the user's entire history stored by the function. The only barrier, it seemed, to that high-resolution view of a victim's entire life at the keyboard was that accessing Recall's data required administrator privileges on a user's machine. That meant malware without that higher-level privilege would trigger a permission pop-up, allowing users to prevent access, and that malware would also likely be blocked by default from accessing the data on most corporate machines.

Then on Wednesday, James Forshaw, a researcher with Google's Project Zero vulnerability research team, published an update to a blog post pointing out that he had found methods for accessing Recall data without administrator privileges—essentially stripping away even that last fig leaf of protection. “No admin required ;-)” the post concluded.

“Damn,” Forshaw added on Mastodon. “I really thought the Recall database security would at least be, you know, secure.”

Forshaw's blog post described two different techniques to bypass the administrator privilege requirement, both of which exploit ways of defeating a basic security function in Windows known as access control lists that determine which elements on a computer require which privileges to read and alter. One of Forshaw's methods exploits an exception to those control lists, temporarily impersonating a program on Windows machines called AIXHost.exe that can access even restricted databases. Another is even simpler: Forshaw points out that because the Recall data stored on a machine is considered to belong to the user, a hacker with the same privileges as the user could simply rewrite the access control lists on a target machine to grant themselves access to the full database.

That second, simpler bypass technique “is just mindblowing, to be honest,” says Alex Hagenah, a cybersecurity strategist and ethical hacker. Hagenah recently built a proof-of-concept hacker tool called TotalRecall designed to show that someone who gained access to a victim's machine with Recall could immediately siphon out all the user's history recorded by the feature. Hagenah's tool, however, still required that hackers find another way to gain administrator privileges through a so-called “privilege escalation” technique before his tool would work.

With Forshaw's technique, “you don’t need any privilege escalation, no pop-up, nothing,” says Hagenah. “This would make sense to implement in the tool for a bad guy.”

In fact, just an hour after speaking to WIRED about Forshaw's finding, Hagenah added the simpler of Forshaw's two techniques to his TotalRecall tool, then confirmed that the trick worked by accessing all the Recall history data stored on another user's machine for which he didn't have administrator access. “So simple and genius,” he wrote in a text to WIRED after testing the technique.

That confirmation removes one of the last arguments Recall's defenders have had against criticisms that the feature acts as, essentially, a piece of pre-installed spyware on a user's machine, ready to be exploited by any hacker who can gain a foothold on the device. “It makes your security very fragile, in the sense that anyone who penetrates your computer for even a second can get your whole history,” says Dave Aitel, the founder of the cybersecurity firm Immunity and a former NSA hacker. “Which is not something people want.”

For now, security researchers have been testing Recall in preview versions of the tool ahead of its expected launch later this month. Microsoft said it plans to integrate Recall on compatible Copilot+ PCs with the feature turned on by default. WIRED reached out to the company for comment on Forshaw's findings about Recall's security issues, but the company has yet to respond.

The revelation that hackers can exploit Recall without even using a separate privilege escalation technique only contributes further to the sense that the feature was rushed to market without a proper review from the company's cybersecurity team—despite the company's CEO Nadella proclaiming just last month that Microsoft would make security its first priority in every decision going forward. “You cannot convince me that Microsoft's security teams looked at this and said ‘that looks secure,’” says Jake Williams, a former NSA hacker and now the VP of R&D at the cybersecurity consultancy Hunter Strategy, where he says he's been asked by some of the firm's clients to test Recall's security before they add Microsoft devices that use it to their networks.

“As it stands now, it’s a security dumpster fire,” Williams says. “This is one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen from an enterprise security standpoint.”

[cyberstudious]

Hey! This is very random, but I saw that you work in cyber security right now. I work in data science, but I'm really interested in cyber security and considering making a switch. I was wondering what kind of cybersecurity work you do, and what has been the most helpful for you to learn what you need for your job!

Hi! Cybersecurity is a really broad field, and you can do a lot of different things depending on what your interests are.

My work is mostly focused around automating things for security, since my background is in programming. Automation is really helpful for speeding up boring, monotonous tasks that need to get done, but don't necessarily need a human involved. A good example is automated phishing analysis, since phishing reports are a big chunk of the cases that security analysts have to deal with, and an analyst usually follows the same few steps at the beginning. Rather than someone having to manually check the reputation of the sender domain, check the reputation of any links, and all of that every single time, we can build tools to automatically scan for things like that and then present the info to the analyst. The whole idea here is to automate the boring data retrieval stuff, since computers are good at that, and give the analyst more time for decision-making and analysis, since humans are good at that.

If you're coming from data science, you might be interested in detection engineering. Cybersecurity is essentially a data problem - we have a ton of logs from a ton of different sources (internal logs, threat intelligence feeds, etc.) - how do we sort through that data to highlight things that we want to pay attention to, and how can we correlate events from different sources? If you're into software development or want to stay more on the data science side, maybe you could also look into roles for software development at companies that have SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) products - these are essentially the big log repositories that organizations rely on for correlation and alerting.

As for starting to learn security, my general go-to recommendation is to start looking through the material for the Security+ certification. For better or worse, certifications are pretty big in security, much more so than other tech fields (to my knowledge). I'm a bit more hesitant to recommend the Security+ now, since CompTIA (the company that offers it) was bought by a private equity company last year. Everyone is kind of expecting the prices to go up and the quality to go down. (The Security+ exam costs $404 USD as of writing this, and I think I took mine for like $135ish with a student discount in 2022). However, the Security+ is still the most well-known and comprehensive entry-level certification that I'm aware of. You can (and should) study for it completely for free - check out Professor Messer's training videos on YouTube. There are also plenty of books out there if that's more of your thing. I'd say to treat the Security+ as a way to get a broad overview of security and figure out what you don't know. (It's certainly not a magic ticket to a job, no matter what those expensive bootcamps will tell you.)

If you aren't familiar with networking, it's worth checking out Professor Messer's Network+ training videos as well. You don't need to know everything on there, but having an understanding of ports, protocols, and network components and design is super useful. I hear a lot that the best security folks are often the ones who come from IT or networking or similar and have a really solid understanding of the fundamentals and then get into security. Don't neglect the basics!

One thing that I'll also add, based on conversations I've had with folks in my network… getting a job in cybersecurity is harder now than it used to be, at least in the US (where I am). There are a ton of very well-qualified people who have been laid off who are now competing with people trying to get into the field in the first place, and with the wrecking ball that Elon is taking to the federal government (and by extension, government contractors) right now… it's hard. There's still a need for skilled folks in cyber, but you're going to run into a lot of those "5 years of experience required for this entry-level job" kind of job postings.

On a slightly happier note, another thing you should do if you want to get into cyber is to stay up to date with what's happening in the industry! I have a masterpost that has a section with some of my favorite news sources. The SANS Stormcast is a good place to start - it's a 5 minute podcast every weekday morning that covers most of the big things. Black Hills Infosec also does a weekly news livestream on YouTube that's similar (but longer and with more banter). Also, a lot of infosec folks hang out on Mastodon & in the wider fediverse. Let me know if you want some recs for folks to follow over there.

The nice thing about cybersecurity (and computer-related fields in general, I find) is that there are a ton of free resources out there to help you learn. Sometimes it's harder to find the higher-quality ones, but let me know if there are any topics you're interested in & I'll see what I can find. I have a few posts in my cybersecurity tag on here that might help.

Thank you for your patience, I know you sent this in over a week ago lol but life has been busy. Feel free to send any follow-up questions if you have any!

[viewwrangler]

I mean ... that's an interesting approach, to put it mildly

CrowdStrike to vendors: Sorry for the global tech outage. Here’s a $10 Uber Eats voucher Analysis by Elisabeth Buchwald, CNN Updated 7:17 PM EDT, Wed July 24, 2024

A single CrowdStrike bug sent the entire tech world into chaos last week — a snafu some companies (see: Delta) are still recovering from. Third-party agents selling and supporting CrowdStrike software and the complicated repairs for customers have been a miserably busy bunch over the past week.

CrowdStrike’s token of appreciation for those vendors: a $10 Uber Eats voucher. We’re not kidding....

We finally know what caused the global tech outage - and how much it cost By Brian Fung, CNN 4 minute read Updated 7:30 PM EDT, Wed July 24, 2024

Insurers have begun calculating the financial damage caused by last week’s devastating CrowdStrike software glitch that crashed computers, canceled flights and disrupted hospitals all around the globe — and the picture isn’t pretty.

What’s been described as the largest IT outage in history will cost Fortune 500 companies alone more than $5 billion in direct losses, according to one insurer’s analysis of the incident published Wednesday.

The new figures put into stark relief how a single automated software update brought much of the global economy to a sudden halt — revealing the world’s overwhelming dependence on a key cybersecurity company — and what it will take to recover....

And that's only the Fortune 500 they're talking about. There are myriad smaller businesses that use Crowdstrike that were affected as well. The companies hit by the buggy release were also far broader than just the "tech world".

Not sure that an Uber Eats coupon will be regarded as sufficient recompense for a week that could have cost millions of dollars, somehow.

[botgal]

Age Verification World News Update

Hot news in the world of data privacy and age verification legislation.

Israeli-owned company AU10TIX has apparently recently suffered a massive data breach in their system. This company, which provides software to social media sites like TikTok and Twitter (also known as X), mainly performs age verification through collecting user information like drivers' licenses. There's apparently been a year-long exposure of sensitive collected data which could be accessed by bad-faith actors.

This is exactly the kind of thing we need to use to show our lawmakers how dangerous and irresponsible it would be to mandate age and identify verification for any online services, adult or otherwise.

Spread the word on this. Contact lawmakers again and make them aware of this issue!

[feminist-space]

"Just weeks before the implosion of AllHere, an education technology company that had been showered with cash from venture capitalists and featured in glowing profiles by the business press, America’s second-largest school district was warned about problems with AllHere’s product.

As the eight-year-old startup rolled out Los Angeles Unified School District’s flashy new AI-driven chatbot — an animated sun named “Ed” that AllHere was hired to build for $6 million — a former company executive was sending emails to the district and others that Ed’s workings violated bedrock student data privacy principles.

Those emails were sent shortly before The 74 first reported last week that AllHere, with $12 million in investor capital, was in serious straits. A June 14 statement on the company’s website revealed a majority of its employees had been furloughed due to its “current financial position.” Company founder and CEO Joanna Smith-Griffin, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles district said, was no longer on the job.

Smith-Griffin and L.A. Superintendent Alberto Carvalho went on the road together this spring to unveil Ed at a series of high-profile ed tech conferences, with the schools chief dubbing it the nation’s first “personal assistant” for students and leaning hard into LAUSD’s place in the K-12 AI vanguard. He called Ed’s ability to know students “unprecedented in American public education” at the ASU+GSV conference in April.

Through an algorithm that analyzes troves of student information from multiple sources, the chatbot was designed to offer tailored responses to questions like “what grade does my child have in math?” The tool relies on vast amounts of students’ data, including their academic performance and special education accommodations, to function.

Meanwhile, Chris Whiteley, a former senior director of software engineering at AllHere who was laid off in April, had become a whistleblower. He told district officials, its independent inspector general’s office and state education officials that the tool processed student records in ways that likely ran afoul of L.A. Unified’s own data privacy rules and put sensitive information at risk of getting hacked. None of the agencies ever responded, Whiteley told The 74.

...

In order to provide individualized prompts on details like student attendance and demographics, the tool connects to several data sources, according to the contract, including Welligent, an online tool used to track students’ special education services. The document notes that Ed also interfaces with the Whole Child Integrated Data stored on Snowflake, a cloud storage company. Launched in 2019, the Whole Child platform serves as a central repository for LAUSD student data designed to streamline data analysis to help educators monitor students’ progress and personalize instruction.

Whiteley told officials the app included students’ personally identifiable information in all chatbot prompts, even in those where the data weren’t relevant. Prompts containing students’ personal information were also shared with other third-party companies unnecessarily, Whiteley alleges, and were processed on offshore servers. Seven out of eight Ed chatbot requests, he said, are sent to places like Japan, Sweden, the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, Australia and Canada.

Taken together, he argued the company’s practices ran afoul of data minimization principles, a standard cybersecurity practice that maintains that apps should collect and process the least amount of personal information necessary to accomplish a specific task. Playing fast and loose with the data, he said, unnecessarily exposed students’ information to potential cyberattacks and data breaches and, in cases where the data were processed overseas, could subject it to foreign governments’ data access and surveillance rules.

Chatbot source code that Whiteley shared with The 74 outlines how prompts are processed on foreign servers by a Microsoft AI service that integrates with ChatGPT. The LAUSD chatbot is directed to serve as a “friendly, concise customer support agent” that replies “using simple language a third grader could understand.” When querying the simple prompt “Hello,” the chatbot provided the student’s grades, progress toward graduation and other personal information.

AllHere’s critical flaw, Whiteley said, is that senior executives “didn’t understand how to protect data.”

...

Earlier in the month, a second threat actor known as Satanic Cloud claimed it had access to tens of thousands of L.A. students’ sensitive information and had posted it for sale on Breach Forums for $1,000. In 2022, the district was victim to a massive ransomware attack that exposed reams of sensitive data, including thousands of students’ psychological evaluations, to the dark web.

With AllHere’s fate uncertain, Whiteley blasted the company’s leadership and protocols.

“Personally identifiable information should be considered acid in a company and you should only touch it if you have to because acid is dangerous,” he told The 74. “The errors that were made were so egregious around PII, you should not be in education if you don’t think PII is acid.”

Read the full article here:

https://www.the74million.org/article/whistleblower-l-a-schools-chatbot-misused-student-data-as-tech-co-crumbled/

[techtoio]

Exploring the Latest Trends in Software Development

Introduction The software is something like an industry whose development is ever-evolving with new technologies and changing market needs as the drivers. To this end, developers must keep abreast with current trends in their fields of operation to remain competitive and relevant. Read to continue .....

[wakingfromthewater]

Last November I outlined my concerns that elections might look very different in four years, one of which was cutting funding for election cybersecurity.

WELP

In its crusade against federal agencies, the Trump administration is targeting our election system, making potentially dangerous reductions to protections that help keep elections free, fair, and secure. On Friday, the acting director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency sent a memo to all agency staff notifying them that “all election security activities” would be paused pending the results of an internal investigation. The memo also stated that the administration was cutting off all funds to the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center—a Department of Homeland Security–funded organization that helps state and local officials monitor, analyze, and respond to cyberattacks targeting the nation’s election hardware and software.

The work of CISA and the EI-ISAC has been central to election security in the United States for most of the past decade, providing state and local election officials with critical tools and assistance to defend against cyber and physical threats to election systems. These steps and other recent blows to federal election guardrails were foretold in Project 2025. Understanding the playbook will help us be ready to push back when the next shoes drop.

Changes to CISA began shortly after Kristi Noem was sworn in as secretary of Homeland Security, which oversees the agency. Beyond the announced election security pause and defunding of EI-ISAC, the agency also put critical election security staff on leave and targeted them for potential termination. These staff include CISA’s regional election security advisers, who are former state and local election officials that provide on-the-ground security support to current frontline election workers, and members of the agency’s Election Resilience team, who were reportedly targeted because they had previously been involved with the agency’s efforts to communicate accurate information about election security to election officials and the public.

(more at the source)