Month: July 2024
Ransomware and email attacks are hitting businesses more than ever before
Misconfigured systems and poor MFA implementations are to blame, Cisco Talos report says.
Ransomware and business email compromise (BEC) attacks are hitting businesses more than ever before, a new report by Cisco Talos Incident Response (Talos IR) has claimed.
The report states ransomware and BEC accounted for almost two-thirds (60%) of engagements, combined. There had been fewer BEC engagements this quarter, compared to the previous one, Talos added, noting it was “still a major threat for the second quarter in a row.”
At the same time, Ransomware accounted for almost a third (30%) of engagements this quarter, up by a quarter (22%) compared to the same time three months ago.
Tech firms in the crosshairs
Furthermore, the researchers observed Mallox and Underground Team ransomware families for the first time, suggesting the number of threat actors in the industry continues to grow. At the same time, Black Basta and BlackSuit ransomware operations continue to wreak havoc among organizations.
The majority of organizations falling victim to either ransomware or BEC attacks are in the technology industry, the report further states. This is due to these firms having extensive digital assets, supporting critical infrastructure. As a result, they have minimal tolerance for downtime and would be more keen to pay the ransom demand and get back to work as soon as possible. Furthermore, tech firms are often seen as gateways into other industries, as well.
In total, a quarter (24%) of engagements in these past three months were from tech firms, closely followed by healthcare, pharma, and retail. Attacks against tech firms are up by 30%, quarter-on-quarter.
Talos says that a huge majority (80%) of victims fell prey to ransomware attacks because they didn’t have proper MFA implementations on critical systems, including virtual private networks (VPN). The remainder of the victims fell prey due to either vulnerable, or misconfigured systems, the researchers concluded. Talos IR observed a 46% increase in each of these security weaknesses from the previous quarter.
More from TechRadar Pro
More companies are facing ransomware threats — but at least it now seems like they’re doing something about itHere’s a list of the best firewalls todayThese are the best endpoint protection tools right now
Python Foundation Nonprofit Fixes Bylaw Loophole That Left ‘Virtually Unlimited’ Financial Liability
The Python Software Foundation’s board “was alerted to a defect in our bylaws that exposes the Foundation to an unbounded financial liability,” according to a blog post Friday:
Specifically, Bylaws Article XIII as originally written compels the Python Software Foundation to extend indemnity coverage to individual Members (including our thousands of “Basic Members”) in certain cases, and to advance legal defense expenses to individual Members with surprisingly few restrictions. Further, the Bylaws compel the Foundation to take out insurance to cover these requirements, however, insurance of this nature is not actually available to 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporations such as the Python Software Foundation to purchase, and thus it is impossible in practice to comply with this requirement.
In the unlikely but not impossible event of the Foundation being called upon to advance such expenses, the potential financial burden would be virtually unlimited, and there would be no recourse to insurance. As this is an existential threat to the Foundation, the Board has agreed that it must immediately reduce the Foundation’s exposure, and has opted to exercise its ability to amend the Bylaws by a majority vote of the Board directors, rather than by putting it to a vote of the membership, as allowed by Bylaws Article XI.
Acting on legal advice, the full Board has voted unanimously to amend its Bylaws to no longer extend an offer to indemnify, advance legal expenses, or insure Members when they are not serving at the request of the Foundation. The amended Bylaws still allow for indemnification of a much smaller set of individuals acting on behalf of the PSF such as Board Members and officers, which is in line with standard nonprofit governance practices and for which we already hold appropriate insurance.
Another blog post notes “the recent slew of conversations, initially kicked off in response to a bylaws change proposal, has been pretty alienating for many members of our community.”
– After the conversation on PSF-Vote had gotten pretty ugly, forty-five people out of ~1000 unsubscribed. (That list has since been put on announce-only)
– We received a lot of Code of Conduct reports or moderation requests about the PSF-vote mailing list and the discuss.python.org message board conversations. (Several reports have already been acted on or closed and the rest will be soon).
– PSF staff received private feedback that the blanket statements about “neurodiverse people”, the bizarre motives ascribed to the people in charge of the PSF and various volunteers and the sideways comments about the kinds of people making reports were also very off-putting.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The Python Software Foundation’s board “was alerted to a defect in our bylaws that exposes the Foundation to an unbounded financial liability,” according to a blog post Friday:
Specifically, Bylaws Article XIII as originally written compels the Python Software Foundation to extend indemnity coverage to individual Members (including our thousands of “Basic Members”) in certain cases, and to advance legal defense expenses to individual Members with surprisingly few restrictions. Further, the Bylaws compel the Foundation to take out insurance to cover these requirements, however, insurance of this nature is not actually available to 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporations such as the Python Software Foundation to purchase, and thus it is impossible in practice to comply with this requirement.
In the unlikely but not impossible event of the Foundation being called upon to advance such expenses, the potential financial burden would be virtually unlimited, and there would be no recourse to insurance. As this is an existential threat to the Foundation, the Board has agreed that it must immediately reduce the Foundation’s exposure, and has opted to exercise its ability to amend the Bylaws by a majority vote of the Board directors, rather than by putting it to a vote of the membership, as allowed by Bylaws Article XI.
Acting on legal advice, the full Board has voted unanimously to amend its Bylaws to no longer extend an offer to indemnify, advance legal expenses, or insure Members when they are not serving at the request of the Foundation. The amended Bylaws still allow for indemnification of a much smaller set of individuals acting on behalf of the PSF such as Board Members and officers, which is in line with standard nonprofit governance practices and for which we already hold appropriate insurance.
Another blog post notes “the recent slew of conversations, initially kicked off in response to a bylaws change proposal, has been pretty alienating for many members of our community.”
– After the conversation on PSF-Vote had gotten pretty ugly, forty-five people out of ~1000 unsubscribed. (That list has since been put on announce-only)
– We received a lot of Code of Conduct reports or moderation requests about the PSF-vote mailing list and the discuss.python.org message board conversations. (Several reports have already been acted on or closed and the rest will be soon).
– PSF staff received private feedback that the blanket statements about “neurodiverse people”, the bizarre motives ascribed to the people in charge of the PSF and various volunteers and the sideways comments about the kinds of people making reports were also very off-putting.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Automakers Sold Drivers’ Data for a Shockingly Low Amount of Money
submitted by /u/Projectrage [link] [comments]
submitted by /u/Projectrage
[link] [comments]
Germans Combat Climate Change With D.I.Y. Solar Panels
Plug-and-play solar panels are popping up in yards and on balcony railings across Germany, driven by bargain prices and looser regulations.
Plug-and-play solar panels are popping up in yards and on balcony railings across Germany, driven by bargain prices and looser regulations.
CNET Survey: US Adults Will Spend an Average of $662 This Year on Back-to-School Shopping
From school uniforms to refurbished tech, here are ways to save on your school supply list.
From school uniforms to refurbished tech, here are ways to save on your school supply list.