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Category Archives: Cryptocurrency

The Continued Threat to Personal Data: Key Factors Behind the 2023 Increase

The Continued Threat to Personal Data: Key Factors Behind the 2023 Increase. Professor Stuart E. Madnick, Ph.D. December 2023: “Around the world, individuals’ most private, most personal data has become a target for cybercriminals. Attacks and data breaches across the globe continue to increase. Even as organizations work to fight back, cybercriminals are constantly finding new ways to access and exploit readable personal data, in particular when stored in the cloud. Last year’s study, “The Rising Threat to Consumer Data in the Cloud,” found that these threats had reached historically high levels. And now, with complete data from 2022 and most of 2023 underway, many indicators show that the threat is getting even worse. For US organizations, data breaches are now at an all-time high. In just the first nine months of 2023, data breaches in the US have already increased by nearly 20% compared to all of 2022 — and organizations around the world have faced similar trends. These attacks are increasingly impactful because people are now living more of their lives online, meaning that corporations, governments, and other types of organizations collect more and more personal data — sometimes with little choice from individuals. And because people’s most personal data can be exploited and sold for a significant profit, it’s become a growing target for cybercriminals. Most recently, two key factors have contributed to the increased threat to personal data:

  • First, ransomware attacks are more numerous and dangerous than ever. In 2023, ransomware attacks increased to levels never seen before, while also becoming more sophisticated and aggressive. Hackers are becoming more organized, often through ransomware gangs. Their attacks are also more threatening and more likely to target organizations with sensitive data, like governments, mass-market genetic testing companies, or healthcare facilities. In the past, ransomware attacks often locked up a company’s data until a ransom was paid. Now, hackers are more likely to leak corporate and consumer data, often hurting consumers.
  • Second, attacks that exploit vendors are increasing, and they frequently spread to many other organizations that depend on those vendors. This means that the consequences of even one attack can be devastating.
  • In today’s interconnected world, virtually every organization relies on a wide range of vendors and software. As a result, hackers only need to exploit vulnerabilities in third-party software or a vendor’s system to gain access to the data stored by every organization that relies on that vendor. Tellingly, 98% of organizations have a relationship with a vendor that experienced a data breach within the last two years.”

British Library: Ongoing outage caused by ransomware attack

Bleeping Computer: “The British Library confirmed that a ransomware attack is behind a major outage that is still affecting services across several locations. Over 11 million visitors use the library’s website annually, with more than 16,000 people using its collections daily (onsite and online). Its collection includes over 150 million items archived on 625 kilometers… Continue Reading

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, August 26, 2023

Via LLRX – Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, August 26, 2023 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the… Continue Reading

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, August 12, 2023

Via LLRX – Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, August 12, 2023 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on… Continue Reading

GAO – Blockchain in Finance

GAO Report via YouTube: “Blockchain creates and records tamper-resistant transactions by multiple parties without a central authority, such as a bank, when used for financial transactions. Recent price crashes, bankruptcies, and fraud involving crypto assets, such as bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, raised concerns about regulation and the risks consumers face. Regulatory gaps may limit regulators’… Continue Reading

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, July 29, 2023

Via LLRX – Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, July 29, 2023 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on… Continue Reading

Is A Crypto Collapse Inevitable?

Via LLRX – Is A Crypto Collapse Inevitable? – Jerry Lawson and Elizabeth Southerland identify technical reasons why the crypto bubble is bursting, including the fact that theoretically unbreakable encryption schemes like those underpinning blockchain have proven to be less than impermeable in practice, as users of Coinbase discovered upon losing fortunes. Attackers go after the weakest… Continue Reading

Google Search starts rolling out ChatGPT-style generative AI results If you opt-in to generative AI

Google Blog, May 25, 2023 – “3 new ways generative AI can help you search. We’re starting to open up access to new generative AI capabilities in Search. Here are three ways to try it out. Today, we’re starting to open up access to Search Labs, a new program to access early experiments from Google.… Continue Reading

IOSCO Sets the Standard for Global Crypto Regulation

“IOSCO, the global standard setter for securities markets, has today issued for consultation detailed recommendations to jurisdictions across the globe as to how to regulate crypto-assets. In a major initiative designed to improve global standards of regulation of crypto-assets, IOSCO has set out how clients should be protected and how crypto trading should meet the… Continue Reading

2023 State of Crypto Report: Introducing the State of Crypto Index

a16zcrypto: “Emerging technologies evolve in cycles; in crypto, this includes periods of high activity, followed by so-called crypto winters. In the period marked by our now-annual State of Crypto report, it would be easy for a casual observer to overlook the rapid progress the crypto industry is making. Major infrastructure improvements like The Merge –… Continue Reading

GAO Report on SVB, NY Fed Report on SVB

Bank Regulation – GAO-23-106736 – Preliminary Review of Agency Actions Related to March 2023 Bank Failures – Report to the Committee on Financial Services, House of Representatives, April 2023. Released April 28, 2023: “Risky business strategies along with weak liquidity and risk management contributed to the recent failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.… Continue Reading