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Category: cybercrime/malcode – Page 214

Very concerning: 72% of all India companies were hacked in 2015. How many were hosting consumer and business data for non-Indian companies say US or European companies?

According to KPMG’s, Cyber Crime Survey Report 2015, around 72 per cent of the companies in India have faced cyber-attacks in the year 2015. In India a spate of cyber security issues have been witnessed like the Gaana.com or Ola Cabs apps being hacked. Such issues have raised the alarm for the whole enterprise community. And it doesn’t seem to be stopping here. According to a report from McAfee Labs, the number of cyber attacks where malware holds user data hostage is expected to grow in 2016 as hackers target more companies and advanced software is able to compromise more types of data. In many cases the objective would be financial gain or corporate espionage, either ways, resulting in heavy losses for the enterprise.

Today, no single new age enterprise is immune to cyber threats. The humongous amount of information popping out of various social and mobile platforms continues to add to organizations’ vulnerabilities, making them attractive targets for complex cyber crimes.

For today’s digital businesses, a lot of value is tied to data and any loss to it can put their whole reputation at stake. Hence more and more companies are finding themselves terrorized by cyber threat agents who are looking for new, sophisticated routes to gain access to confidential business data. Burgess Cooper, Partner, Information & Cyber Security Advisory Services, EY, points out, “Technology is increasing a company’s vulnerability to be attacked through increased online presence, broader use of social media, mass adoption of mobile devices, increased usage of cloud services and the collection/analysis of big data.”

Continue reading “72% Indian companies faced cyber attacks in 2015, yet most do not have a threat response strategy” | >

So does this mean war?

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D – N.Y.) said that an Iranian cyber-attack on a dam near New York City was a “shot across the bow” of the United States, which should be answered with harsher sanctions, the Associated Press reported on Friday.

“Now it looks clear that the Iranians did it,” Schumer said during an appearance on Long Island. “What were they doing? They were sending a shot across our bow. They were saying that we can damage, seriously damage, our critical infrastructure and put the lives and property of people at risk.”

The breach in the dam’s control system was first reported in December of last year, and Schumer indicated that there would a federal indictment in the case as early as April. The congressman added that the breach suggested that Iranian hackers possibly posed even greater threats. “Hackers can come in, as these Iranian hackers did, and hurt our critical infrastructure,” he observed. “What if they open the sluice gates of a dam with a whole lot of people behind it? What if they shut off the power for a large part of the area?”

Continue reading “Schumer: Iranian Cyber-Attack on New York Dam Was “Shot Across the Bow”” | >

To me; it’s all common sense. If you step back look at the technology landscape as a whole along with AI; you start to see the barriers that truly spolights where we have way too much hype around AI.

Example, hacking. If we had truly advance AI at the level that it has been promoted; wouldn’t make sense that researchers would want to solve the $120 billion dollar money pit issue around Cyber Security and make billions to throw at their emerging AI tech plus ensure their AI investment wouldn’t incur pushback by consumers due to lack of trust that AI would not be hacked? So, I usually tread litely on over hype technologies.

I do see great possiblities and seen some amazing things and promise from Quantum Computing; however, we will not truly realize its impact and full potential until another 7 years; I will admit I see more promise with it than the existing AI landscape that is built off of existing traditional digital technology that has been proven to be broken by hackers.

Do you “believe” in AI?

Continue reading “Artificial intelligence has become a religion” | >

EU Justice Ministers Claims Cyber Attackers are terrorists. I wouldn’t say all of them are terrorists. Those who attack hospitals, attack government infrastructures, threaten markets, etc, are terrorists. The next door neighbor’s 13 yr old kid hacking to use your wireless internet service; not a terrorist.

European Union justice ministers on March 11th adopted a general approach on the directive on combatting terrorism, including serious cyber crimes, informs LETA/BNS.

On Friday the council greed its negotiating position on the proposal for a directive on combatting terrorism. The proposed directive strengthens the EU’s legal framework in preventing terrorist attacks by criminalising preparatory acts such as training and travel abroad for terrorist purposes – hence addressing the issue of foreign fighters – as well as aiding and abetting, inciting or attempting such acts. It also reinforce rules on the rights for the victims of terrorism, the Ministry of Justice said.

Estonian Justice Minister Urmas Reinsalu said in a speech at the Justice and Home Affairs Council that for Estonia it is very important that justice ministers were able to agree on defining serious terrorist cyber attacks as terrorist crimes. This gives the EU additional legal tools in such situations as the cyber attacks that followed the so-called Bronze Night riots that took place in Tallinn in April 2007, he added.

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Barclay Simpson, a leading Corporate Governance recruitment consultancy, has released its annual Security & Resilience market report which suggests that demand continues to rise for cyber security skills as an arms race develops between cyber criminals and those looking to secure systems and data from increasingly complex cyber attacks. With increased prominence and board attention, 68% of managers do not believe their security departments are sufficiently resourced given the demands that are made on them (down from 76%) whilst 69% have recruited or attempted to recruit in the last 6 months.

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I believe there are good advances in AI due to the processing performance; however, as I highlighted earlier many of the principles like complex algorithms along with the pattern & predictive analysis of large volumes of information hasn’t changed much from my own work in the early days with AI. Where I have concerns and is the foundational infrastructure that “connected” AI resides on. Ongoing hacking and attacks of today could actually make AI adoption fall really short; and in the long run cause AI to look pretty bad.

A debate in New York tries to settle the question.

By Larry Greenmeier on March 10, 2016.

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Let’s just hypothesize a little on this topic: let’s say Apple goes ahead and gives in to the US Government and enables government to access the phone’s info. Does Apple have any protection in the future from lawsuits from it’s customers in situations where their own customers information is hacked by criminals and published to the world or used for illegal activities? Because I do see in the future more lawsuits coming at the tech companies for not ensuring their platforms and devices are un-hackable. So, if the government has its way; what protections does tech have now with any future lawsuits by consumers and other businesses?

His comments come during the ongoing legal battle over an iPhone used by Syed Farook, one of the individuals responsible for the San Bernardino, Calif. mass shooting December 2. “I don’t think requiring backdoors with encryption is either going to be an effective way to increase security or is really the right thing to do for just the direction that the world is going to”.

This is because First Amendment treats computer code as speech and according to Apple, meeting the demands of the government would be equivalent to “compelled speech and viewpoint discrimination”.

The Electronics Frontier Foundation (EFF) has said it will be filing an amicus brief in support of Apple with the courts.

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