Archive for March 17, 2021

Drip7: Training Improves Cybersecurity Awareness For Employees

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 17, 2021 by itnerd

Cybercrime represents the greatest threat to businesses and organizations in the world today.

The cost of a data breach, in terms of revenue, reputation, legal exposure, and operational disruption, can be devastating. Global cybercrime costs are expected to reach $10.5 trillion by 2025, up from $3 trillion in 2015.

By The Numbers:

A New platform was developed as part of a project to enhance the cybersecurity training within a large hospital system. 

It became apparent that the combination of microlearning, customizability, and gamification leading to high ongoing employee involvement answered a need not simply for one client or industry, but for a worldwide digitized economy.

The Training:

  • The program is called Drip7. It applies game design to cybersecurity awareness training to increase retention. 
  • Works off the basic point that one doesn’t internalize something by hearing it once. There must be repetition, in this case seven times.
  • The training arrives in the form of a question a day that the employee answers. This increases engagement in learning and retention, and at its core keeps cybersecurity in the employee’s mind—not by force but through play.

Drip7 already has over 80,000 users licensed on the platform.

Drip7 is the brainchild of cybersecurity expert Heather Stratford as a result of a client wanting to fix a specific problem: empowering the weakest link—the human—to use better cybersecurity. With its first few clients (a large educational institution, hospital system, and government agency), Drip7 is proving its usefulness in changing the old system of training and information retention in any workforce.

You can find out more at https://drip7.com.

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Darktrace Appoints Lord David Willetts As A Non-Executive Director

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 17, 2021 by itnerd

Darktrace, a leading autonomous cyber security AI company, today announced that the Rt Hon. David Willetts has agreed to join the Board of Directors as a Non-Executive Director.

Lord Willetts served as a Member of Parliament from 1992 to 2015. He was Minister for Universities and Science within the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills from 2010 to 2014, and previously held roles within HM Treasury and the No. 10 Policy Unit. His current roles include President of the Resolution Foundation and Chair of the Foundation for Science and Technology, together with serving on several company boards.

“I am honoured to join the Board of Darktrace, a true example of great British innovation and leadership in the cyber AI field,” Lord Willetts said. “I look forward to supporting the company as it continues to play a critical role in building the technology and talent needed to counter the rising threat from cyber-attacks on business, government and critical national infrastructure.”

Darktrace is a leading autonomous cyber security AI company and the creator of Autonomous Response technology. It provides comprehensive, enterprise-wide cyber defense to over 4,500 organizations worldwide, protecting the cloud, email, IoT, traditional networks, endpoints and industrial systems.

A self-learning technology, Darktrace AI autonomously detects, investigates and responds to advanced cyber-threats, including insider threat, remote working risks, ransomware, data loss and supply chain vulnerabilities.

The company has 1,500 employees and 44 office locations, with headquarters in Cambridge, UK. Every second, Darktrace AI detects a cyber-threat, preventing it from causing damage.

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Conservative Party Of Canada Calls For Investigation Into Rogers-Shaw Deal

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 17, 2021 by itnerd

This didn’t take long. And it’s bad news if you’re Rogers.

The Conservative party is calling for a house of commons committee study into the Rogers deal to acquire Shaw. MP Pierre Poilievre says his party will trigger hearings into the deal to ensure that it will benefit all Canadians. Here’s what he had to say:

Poilievre noted that the Conservative party continues to believe that having four competitors is better than three and that the committee will try to determine if there are ways to ensure that four competitors will remain. This is a good move for Canadians as more competition is good for consumers. And this deal if it goes ahead will result in less competition and likely higher prices.

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Guest Post: macOS Malware Development Surged By Over 1,000% In 2020 Says Atlas VPN

Posted in Commentary on March 17, 2021 by itnerd

According to the Atlas VPN investigation, the development of macOS malware surged by 1,092% in 2020. To be exact, 674,273 new malware samples were found in 2020, when there were only 56,556 samples detected in 2019. 

Malware, or malicious software, is a collective term for all kinds of threats. Microsoft lumps malware into thirteen distinct categories: backdoors, downloaders, droppers, exploits, hack tools, macro viruses, obfuscators, password stealers, ransomware, rogue security software, trojans, trojan clickers, and worms.

Coming back to the numbers, the development of malicious software for Apple’s desktop operating system macOS spread like wildfire in 2020, amounting to a historic high of 674,273 samples.

According to Rachel Welch, COO of Atlas VPN, “Contributing to this record surge in threats is the fact that new malicious software is now easier to engineer than ever before.

Nowadays, hackers do not even need advanced programming skills since they can purchase a ready-made malware code, tailor it to their needs with a little bit of coding and establish a completely new threat.”

Interestingly, if we add up all the new malware since the beginning of measurement in 2012, we get 219,257 samples, which is still well below last year’s numbers. From 2012 until 2019, new malware’s development reached the maximum high of 92,570 samples per year.

Windows malware in the millions

Even though macOS malware development surged to record-highs, hackers still abuse Windows users much more often. 

Data shows that a record-high of 91.05 million new Windows malware samples were discovered in 2020. In other words, cybercriminals developed an average of 249,452 threats per day. 

To read the full article, head over to: https://atlasvpn.com/blog/macos-malware-development-surged-by-over-1-000-in-2020

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App Privacy Study Looks At Most ‘Invasive’ Apps Collecting User Data… Guess Who Is Number One And Number Two?

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 17, 2021 by itnerd

Yesterday, I came across a company called pCloud who earlier this month took a look at the most “invasive” apps that collect the most data from users and shares it with third parties. You can guess who was the most invasive:

Every time you search for a video on YouTube, 42% of your personal data is sent elsewhere. This data goes on to inform the types of adverts you’ll see before and during videos, as well as being sold to brands who’ll target you on other social media platforms. Instagram shares 79% of your data including browsing history and personal information with others online.

YouTube isn’t the worst when it comes to selling your information on. That award goes to Instagram, which shares a staggering 79% of your data with other companies. Including everything from purchasing information, personal data, and browsing history. No wonder there’s so much promoted content on your feed.

With over 1 billion monthly active users it’s worrying that Instagram is a hub for sharing such a high amount of its unknowing users’ data.

Remember, Instagram is owned by Facebook. And Facebook was number two on this list as noted below. So read into that what you will:

  • Instagram collects 79 percent of personal data
  • Facebook collects 57 percent
  • LinkedIn and Uber Eats both were caught collecting 50 percent of data.
  • YouTube and YouTube Music were found to be collecting 43 percent of personal data to share with third parties.

So if you have any of these apps on your phone, you now know your data is being vacuumed up like a maid using a Hoover. On the other end of the spectrum, apps that don’t collect much data include Signal, Clubhouse, Netflix, Shazam, Etsy, Skype, and Telegram. But this will change for iOS users shortly when iOS 14.5 is released where Apple will begin requiring apps that access a user’s advertising identifier for cross-app and website tracking to get express permission before using it, which may help cut down on some of the third-party data sharing. But this report alone may get some of the companies on this list to alter their behavior. By some, I mean any company not named Facebook who simply doesn’t care about your privacy.

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ServiceNow Enhances Vaccine Solution To Help Organizations Vaccinate At Scale

Posted in Commentary with tags on March 17, 2021 by itnerd

ServiceNow which is supporting vaccinations for more than 20 million people with the Now Platform and its Vaccine Administration Management solution, today released further product enhancements to its Vaccine Administration Management solution to help organizations quickly meet the “last‑mile” challenges of vaccinating and protecting people at scale. The latest enhancements make it easier for people to schedule vaccination appointments and for providers to manage vaccine inventory.

With the Biden administration directing states to make all U.S. adults eligible for vaccinations by May 1, ServiceNow is committed to leveraging the Now Platform to help states and healthcare providers convert vaccines into vaccinations as quickly as possible. The Now Platform and Vaccine Administration Management solution are being deployed in just days by some providers, using ServiceNow’s workflow technology to rapidly improve vaccine distribution, administration, and monitoring. The NHS National Services Scotland, for example, is using ServiceNow to help quickly vaccinate Scottish citizens.  

Additionally, Children’s Minnesota, one of the largest pediatric health care systems in the U.S., recently went live with ServiceNow Vaccine Administration Management in just five days. When Children’s Minnesota expanded its vaccination rollout beyond staff, to patient caregivers and the most vulnerable members of the community, it experienced similar challenges as those faced by other organizations across the country. With its new system, Children’s Minnesota has reduced wait times from three hours in a walk‑in model to 20 minutes with an appointment and successfully vaccinated nearly 1,400 staff members, caregivers and the community in 11 hours.

ServiceNow is helping organizations across healthcare, government, education, and the private sector distribute COVID‑19 vaccines and get people vaccinated quickly, including:

  • The Department of Homeland Security is facilitating vaccinations for its 240,000 employees via ServiceNow for vaccination eligibility checks, communication management, and coordinating mass vaccinations at Veterans Affairs facilities.
  • The University of Central Florida is leveraging ServiceNow to coordinate and schedule first and second dose vaccinations for its faculty and staff.
  • The State of North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) is relying on ServiceNow’s technology as the foundation for its command center for healthcare providers, clinicians administering the vaccine, and supporting NCDHHS staff to access the latest information related to state vaccine requirements and to get their vaccine‑related questions answered.
  • Outside the U.S., The NHS National Services Scotland is using ServiceNow’s Now Platform as the digital backbone of its program to rapidly roll out the vaccine to protect citizen health in the fight against COVID‑ Over 220,000 vaccination appointments were booked in the first 12 hours of the Now Platform going live.

Introducing more control and visibility for vaccination scheduling

The latest updates to the ServiceNow Vaccine Administration Management solution improve the vaccination scheduling process for vaccine recipients, administrators, and clinicians, providing increased visibility into inventory, to help convert all available vaccines into vaccinations.

New capabilities announced today offer increased control and visibility over available vaccine doses to help match vaccine appointments with inventory supply to minimize waste and avoid overbooking appointments. This has been a challenge for many organizations, leading to long wait times and leaving many recipients in line with cancelled appointments. New capabilities include:

  • The ability to schedule and cancel appointments based on vaccine inventory as vaccines are distributed. Organizations can automatically track vaccine inventory in real‑time and open, close, and reschedule appointments based on the number of vaccines they have available.
  • Location‑level configuration capabilities enable organizations managing multiple vaccination sites to specify inventory, available hours, and appointment slots by location.

Additionally, new capabilities announced today give vaccine recipients more control over the scheduling process for a seamless booking experience, including:

  • The ability to select a specific day and time for appointments and independently book second appointments. Previously, users were automatically booked into the first available spot.
  • The ability for contact center agents to book appointments on behalf of recipients.
  • Options for family scheduling will be available soon, allowing families to book appointments together and at the same time, rather than signing up individually with different accounts at varying times.

These updates will support smoother and more efficient experiences for both those receiving and administering vaccinations as more people become eligible and vaccines are made widely available.

Workflowing a healthier future

The recently passed U.S. stimulus package has prioritized helping state and local governments recover from the challenges of COVID‑19 to get people back to work and to restart the economy.

ServiceNow also continues to innovate its previously announced Safe Workplace suite to allow governments and organizations to safely return to work. ServiceNow’s Safe Workplace suite supports all aspects of creating a safe and efficient return to work for governments, campuses, and companies. This now includes Vaccination Status, an app that helps public and private sector companies track the status of vaccinations in the workplace.

With the ServiceNow Vaccination Status app, employees and stakeholders in an organization can easily submit documentation of completed health vaccinations to meet return to workplace requirements, where permissible by law. Organizations can also collect vaccination data to assess when it’s safe to bring employees and stakeholders back to a workplace and provide benefits to employees who received vaccinations, in accordance with their respective policies.

To date, more than 1,000 organizations globally have downloaded the Safe Workplace suite of apps with over 12,000 unique installations.

Availability and additional information

New features are currently available in the ServiceNow Store, and caregiver scheduling options are expected to be available in April.

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