Wednesday, September 01, 2021

Silly me, I thought things couldn’t get any worse…

https://www.dnaindia.com/science/report-massive-solar-storm-may-hit-earth-likely-to-cause-internet-meltdown-2908945

Massive solar storm may hit Earth, likely to cause Internet meltdown

Another solar storm is coming which could potentially destroy the infrastructure and cause an 'internet apocalypse'. According to a new research paper published by Sangeetha Abdu Jyothi of the University of California, Irvine, and VMware Research, if this massive upcoming solar storm does happen then it can cause an internet blackout and will transform our digital world completely.

In her research, Abdu Jyothi revealed that local and regional internet infrastructure would be at low risk of damage during extreme solar storms as they mostly use fiber optic.

It is important to note that for the undersea cables that connect continents, things are dangerous even if most of them are connected via fibre optic cables because the repeaters that amplify the current at regular intervals are highly susceptible to failure and hence pose a risk during a solar storm.





Let’s hope that “nobody knew” included all those hackers who constantly attacked Azure.

https://www.cpomagazine.com/cyber-security/microsoft-warning-to-customers-azure-cosmos-db-cloud-databases-may-have-been-exposed-for-years/

Microsoft Warning to Customers: Azure Cosmos DB Cloud Databases May Have Been Exposed For Years

Microsoft is warning customers of a devastating vulnerability in one of its cloud database products, used by thousands of organizations, that appears to have been present for years without anyone being aware of it. Microsoft Azure Cosmos DB cloud databases have had their read-write keys exposed by the flaw, allowing an attacker to not just access the contents but also to change or delete them.

The vulnerability was discovered by security researchers and reported confidentially to Microsoft, which sent an email to customers indicating it has seen no evidence that outside parties have exploited it. However, the company is advising its Cosmos DB customers to create new keys via the “Keys” menu in the Azure portal.





The same thing could happen with a ransomware attack.

https://www.databreaches.net/dallas-police-data-loss-nearly-triple-initial-estimate/

Dallas police data loss nearly triple initial estimate

The Associated Press reports that the amount of data missing from Dallas’s computer database is almost triple the initial estimate of files lost during a data migration involving Dallas Police files.

About 15 terabytes of police data are missing besides the 7.5 terabytes initially thought to be lost, city spokeswoman Janella Newsome said.

Read more on The Herald Sun.

We have already seen one defendant released from jail because of the data loss incident while they needed to verify whether any files in his case had been lost in the incident.

Will some prosecutions have to be totally abandoned? We have yet to learn.





Another concern for CEOs and another selling point for CSOs. This will expand beyond brokers...

https://www.huntonprivacyblog.com/2021/09/01/sec-charges-investment-advisers-and-broker-dealers-with-deficient-cybersecurity-procedures/

SEC Charges Investment Advisers and Broker-Dealers with Deficient Cybersecurity Procedures

On August 30, 2021, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced that it had settled three administrative cases involving a total of eight registered broker-dealers and investment advisers for failures in their cybersecurity policies and procedures. These failures led to email account takeovers that exposed personal information of thousands of customers at each firm. The cases are In the Matter of Cetera Advisor Networks LLC, Release No. 34-92800; In the Matter of Cambridge Investment Research, Inc., Release No. 34-92806; and In the Matter of KMS Financial Services, Inc., Release No. 34-92807, August 30, 2021.

This series of cases is the latest in a string of recent SEC enforcement cases (which includes the Pearson plc penalty ) involving deficient cybersecurity controls and procedures. SEC Chair Gary Gensler has signaled in recent speeches and congressional testimony that cybersecurity will be a priority of the agency during his tenure. Commenting on the case, Kristina Littman, chief of the SEC Division of Enforcement’s Cyber Unit, remarked, “It is not enough to write a policy requiring enhanced security measures if those requirements are not implemented or are only partially implemented, especially in the face of known attacks.”





More privacy?

https://www.pogowasright.org/ohio-introduces-ccpa-like-consumer-privacy-bill/

Ohio Introduces CCPA-like Consumer Privacy Bill

Delonie A. Plummer of JacksonLewis writes:

Consumer privacy issues are as a hot as ever, and on the radar of the state and federal legislature alike. Following in the footsteps of California, and most recently Virginia and Colorado, Ohio introduced a comprehensive consumer privacy bill, the Ohio Personal Privacy Act (the “Act”). By introducing the Act, Ohio follows the growing nation-wide trend towards stronger state privacy laws related to consumer rights.

Read more on Workplace Privacy, Data Management & Security Report.





Perspective. Game changer?

https://thenextweb.com/news/pentagons-probably-drooling-over-age-of-empires-4-launch

Why the Pentagon’s probably drooling over the upcoming Age of Empires 4 launch

Microsoft, a company with numerous military contracts, has brazenly admitted it intends to train an artificial intelligence agent to become “unbeatable” by humans in war simulations.

Feel free to run amok in a fugue state of panic at your own discretion, but I should point out it’s for a video game.





Tools & Techniques. Mr Zillman’s collections are always worth investigating.

https://www.bespacific.com/academic-and-scholar-search-engines-and-sources-2021/

Academic and Scholar Search Engines and Sources 2021

Via LLRX Academic and Scholar Search Engines and Sources 2021 Marcus P. Zillman’s new guide provides a wealth of information to enhance your efforts in conducting expert research on a wide range of subject matters. The guide is also another reminder that Google should not be your go-to subject search engine by demonstrating how choosing to use reliable topic specific sources can deliver greater scope, breath and depth of information for your analysis and reporting. These sites include metasearch, semantic and Deep Web search, with many sources offering advanced search functionality, unique and comprehensive data sets and repositories, dashboards and tools from around the world, all of which are updated and curated effectively and consistently. These sources represent the work of academic, government, consortium, firms and industry.



(Related)

https://www.makeuseof.com/tips-tricks-to-use-google-search-effectively/

10 Tips and Tricks to Use Google Search More Effectively



No comments: