The NSA, CISA and FBI have released a Cybersecurity Advisory called “People’s Republic of China State-Sponsored Cyber Actors Exploit Network Providers and Devices“. This advisory centers around the fact that hackers aligned with China are using a variety of techniques to exploit publicly-known vulnerabilities in equipment, allowing them to establish a broad network of compromised infrastructure. The advisory also lists a number of mitigation strategies that organizations need to take to protect themselves.
Jason Middaugh who is the Chief Information Security Officer, MRK Technologies had this to say:
The latest Cybersecurity Advisory from the NSA, CISA, and FBI drives home the importance of good cybersecurity fundamentals such as keeping assets updated/patched, changing default credentials to strong passphrases, and requiring multi-factor authentication wherever possible.
Many companies make the mistake of focusing on implementing the latest and greatest high-tech hardware/software and overlook the basics like system hardening and asset lifecycle management.
It does not matter whether it is the PRC attempting to exploit the device or an international cybercrime syndicate, if you don’t do the basics well it is only a matter of time before an internet facing asset is compromised.
Clearly this advisory is required reading for all enterprises. Because at the end of the day all enterprises are at risk. And it doesn’t matter if it’s China, or a ransomware group. All enterprises need to reduce their attack surface as much as possible to ensure that they are as safe from attack as possible.
UPDATE: Chris Olson, CEO, The Media Trust had this to say:
“Zero-days and other vulnerabilities in networked devices are an overlooked national security threat, especially in the midst of mounting geopolitical tensions. Unfortunately, the problem is not isolated to IT infrastructure, but also extends to the software supply chain, popular apps and mainstream websites. Today, foreign adversaries are targeting American consumers and businesses through code, with no borders to prevent malicious activity. In addition to following the advice published in the joint cybersecurity advisory, organizations should regularly monitor their digital ecosystem for the presence of untrusted third parties and remove bad actors to protect their users.”
Is Rogers Increasing Upstream Speeds For Ignite Internet Users? [UPDATE: YES]
Posted in Commentary with tags Rogers on June 8, 2022 by itnerdFrequent readers of this blog know that I’ve been very critical of Rogers rather pathetic Internet offering. While Bell is way ahead of them offering speeds as fast as 3 Gbps, the majority of Rogers customers are stuck on 1 Gbps downstream, 30 Mbps upstream. Which in 2022 is simply not competitive.
That may be changing though. Both DSL Reports and Reddit are getting reports of people receiving upstream speed increases of up to 180 Mbps for some Rogers customers. Here’s an image that was supplied to Reddit:
As far as I can tell, Rogers hasn’t admitted to anything. And not everyone has this increase. For example, yours truly doesn’t have this increase after doing a reboot of the modem. So that implies that this might be a phased rollout of some sort. It also implies that Rogers DOCSIS 3.1 upgrade which has been a gong show for years might be happening. If I had to take a guess, it’s likely due to some help from Shaw which Rogers is trying to buy at the moment. Though the feds may have something to say about that. In any case, I say that because Shaw has had upstream speeds of 100 Mbps for years, thus they know how to do this.
Regardless, if this is Rogers increasing their upstream speeds, it will be welcomed by many. But to be clear, it still lags behind Bell and what their Internet offerings serve up to customers. And Rogers will have to do some work to close that gap before they become an afterthought when it comes to Internet access in Canada.
UPDATE: On Friday iPhoneInCanada.ca confirmed with Rogers that this speed update is actually happening.
Leave a comment »