Archive for April 21, 2021

Cisco AppDynamics Expands Global Software-as-a-Service Offering With Five New Locations

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 21, 2021 by itnerd

Cisco AppDynamics, the industry leading Business Observability platform, today announced the expansion of its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering through five strategic new locations, enabling fast, secure and reliable access to the AppDynamics Business Observability platform. Built on Amazon Web Services (AWS), new locations in Cape Town (South Africa), Hong Kong (China), London (England), São Paulo (Brazil) and Singapore will provide regional customers and partners with access to full-stack observability solutions that are secure, scalable and adhere to their local data residency regulations, enabling companies to deliver a superior digital experience

Recent research from Gartner indicates that almost 70 percent of organizations using cloud services today plan to increase their cloud spend in the wake of the disruption caused by COVID-19.

As technologists lead their company’s response to the pandemic, many are facing increasingly high pressures to innovate and scale digital services and migrating to a SaaS approach comes with strong considerations. Challenges with implementing SaaS services due to evolving data residency laws and regulations, as well as latency via cloud services that can exist based on proximity to SaaS locations, are areas of concern when considering a SaaS approach. However, modern CIOs recognize the urgent need for a secure, reliable and scalable SaaS solution to support their rapid digital transformation efforts and meet the ever-increasing user demand for flawless digital experience.

The addition of five new locations offers a solution to enterprises concerned with potential data sovereignty and governance requirements, and provides access for customers all around the globe. With points of presence already in place in Portland (US), Frankfurt (Germany), Mumbai (India) and Sydney (Australia), AppDynamics now has more SaaS support than any other vendor in the market.Recently acknowledged as a notable strength by Gartner, AppDynamics’ robust global SaaS footprint will ensure enterprise companies can focus on creating flawless digital experiences through the Cisco AppDynamics Business Observability platform, while achieving greater control around:

  • Data Residency, Privacy and Security – Enables local enterprise businesses to comply with anticipated data residency regulations, comprehensive compliance and security certifications such as SOC 2 Type II, EU-US Data Transfer and GDPR-Ready.
  • Scale – AppDynamics is delivered with the scalability of AWS providing high-speed access to data with lower total costs, less on-premises resources, and added support and maintenance.
  • Faster Access to Innovation – customers can leverage the latest innovation from AppDynamics including cloud native services, APM, and application security through automated and seamless upgrades.

The addition of the five new locations comes on the heels of AppDynamics’ SaaS offering in India, announced in October 2020, and builds on the company’s global SaaS footprint across Africa, Asia, Europe and South America. With each location strategically selected based on regional user demand, AppDynamics is seeing evidence that this strategy is quickly meeting the needs of enterprises around the world. For example, its Frankfurt SaaS location doubled the amount of users in only 18 months.

AppDynamics’ new SaaS locations will be available as follows:

  • Singapore (April 2021)
  • London (April 2021)
  • Hong Kong (July 2021
  • São Paulo (July 2021)
  • Cape Town (July 2021)

Learn more about AppDynamics SaaS and the company’s security and privacy assurance here.

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Guest Post: Americans lost $1.19 billion to imposter scams in 2020 Says Atlas VPN

Posted in Commentary with tags on April 21, 2021 by itnerd

Atlas VPN findings reveal that Americans lost $1.19 billion to imposter fraud in 2020, which is $613.8 million more than last year, representing a 106.56% increase. 

Here, a criminal pretends to be a trusted person to get consumers to send money or provide sensitive personal information. Most commonly, scammers impersonate a family member, a government agency, a computer technician, a well-known company representative, or even a romantic interest.

The data is provided by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). US Citizens can submit fraud reports to the FTC for further investigation. The FTC shares this data to inform the nation about the state of the cybercrime landscape in the US. 

Last year, Americans submitted 498,278 imposter scam complaints, out of which 22% reported a financial loss. Median loss reaches $850. Scammers used phone calls as the most common method of contact. On average, US citizens lost $297.45 million per quarter to imposter scams in 2020.

In 2019, consumers lost $576 million to impersonators from 645,874 individual complaints. Significantly fewer people reported losing money to such scams, with 13% of complaints indicating monetary damages. On average, victims lost $144 million per quarter, with median losses standing at $650. Once again, fraudsters mostly used phone calls to contact the victims.

Looking back at 2018, US consumers submitted 549,922 pretender scam complaints. Over 18% of victims indicated a financial loss, which amounted to $491.6 million in damages. Fraudsters swindled out around $122.9 million per quarter, with median losses at $500.

Finally, throughout the last five years, US residents suffered a staggering $2.34 billion in damages from imposter scams.

To read the full article, head over to: https://atlasvpn.com/blog/americans-lost-1-19-billion-to-imposter-scams-in-2020

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Apple Supplier Pwned By Ransomware…. Unreleased MacBook Schematics Are Now Being Held For Ransom

Posted in Commentary with tags , on April 21, 2021 by itnerd

Apple dropped a bunch of new hardware yesterday in a product launch event that was streamed to the world. The long awaited AirTags, a new iMac, and a new iPad Pro all were announced. But the story that you should actually care about is that according to Bloomberg, Apple supplier Quanta was hit by a ransomware attack perpetrated by the ransomware group called REvil. And what’s more, they claim to have in their possession 15 images and or schematics of unreleased MacBooks. And all of this came to light while the event was going on:

By the time Apple’s product launch was over, REvil had posted schematics for a new laptop, including 15 images detailing the guts of what appears to be a Macbook designed as recently as March 2021, according to the documents reviewed by Bloomberg.

REvil is now attempting to shake-down Apple in its effort to profit off the stolen data. They’ve asked Apple to pay their ransom by May 1, as was first reported by Bleeping Computer. Until then, the hackers will continue to post new files every day, REvil said on its blog.

An Apple spokesperson declined to comment on questions about the compromise.

Now Quanta makes computers for a number of brands such as HP, Lenovo and Dell among others. And Bleeping Computer has reported that REvil might be trying to shake down other companies as well. But this is gong to cause a lot of alarm over at 1 Apple Park as Apple is the type of company that really tries to lock things down so that it can fully control the message and it can limit product leaks. Clearly that didn’t work in this case, and now they have a major problem on their hands. One has to wonder if they will cut a cheque or take some other form of action. Like not pay and whatever happens next, is whatever happens next.

I’ll be keeping a close eye on this one.

UPDATE: Justin Fier, Director of Cyber Intelligence & Analytics for Darktrace had this to say:

Following today’s news of the attack on Quanta, we can be in little doubt that complex digital supply chains are a hacker’s paradise. Today, a company’s critical data is fluid, often being handled outside the organization itself. This complexity offers those with criminal intent with many points of vulnerability that may be exploited. 

Across our global customer base, AI is stopping more and more attacks that target intellectual property or commercially-sensitive information for the purposes of extortion or corporate espionage. In this case, attackers accessed Apple’s design blueprints via a trusted third party – and the full extent of the data taken is not yet known. 

Suppliers need to be held to higher standards, and recent calls from the Biden administration and DHS for more stringent requirements for cyber security transparency and vetting are welcome.  Organizations also need to embrace technology that can respond at computer speed in the face of fast moving attacks like ransomware. Those that are being successful against fast-moving threats are protecting their systems with artificial intelligence, capable of detecting the subtle, unusual activity that precedes a full-blown attack, and crucially, which responds at computer speed – before data is held to ransom. 

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