Third Quarter 2021 in Cybersec
• July, August and September of 2021
• Tech news headlines at a glance
• Quick reference for a time-poor audience
• One-click access to each full tech news article
• Online and drawn from daily tech news
July 2021 | August 2021 | September 2021
Cybersec headlines: September 2021
- ICYMI: US gov’t to target cryptocurrency in ransomware, imposing sanctions, fines and more to prevent ransomware payments and payment facilitation
- Download: Global Ransomware Report, August 2021 edition – a brief, 3-page look at emerging issues, from BlackFog (pdf)
- Download: Global Threat Intelligence Center report for August 2021, looking at ransomware, application security and currently-active hacking groups (pdf)
- “The rise of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has enabled ransomware to become one of the most profitable business models in the cyber criminal’s arsenal…”
- Download: Australian Cyber Security Centre Annual Cyber Threat Report, 2020 to 2021 (pdf)
- Australia: An intro to Tide Foundation, competing in TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield with blockchain-based data encryption built on zero-trust authentication
- “…Australian Cyber Security Centre’s latest Annual Cyber Threat Report revealed more than 67,500 cybercrimes were reported in the 2020-21 financial year…”
- The Sydney Dialogue, an annual summit for emerging, critical and cyber technologies, set for November 17-19
- Download: Global Threat Intelligence Center report for August 2021, looking at ransomware, application security and currently-active hacking groups (pdf)
- Indonesia: Vida gains funding, focusing on digital signature and identity authentication services to improve the security of electronic transactions for MSMEs
- Australia: New South Wales and Victoria reportedly trialling facial recognition software in COVID-19 containment, raising concerns over data security, accuracy and more
- China: Lithuania National Cyber Security Centre urges citizens to replace Xiaomi and Huawei phones following research finding risk of remote censorship and data transmission
Cybersecurity & datasec: August 2021
- Clean pipes’ and cyber-crime: “By one estimate, the cost of cyber security incidents to the Australian economy is $29 billion per year, or 1.9% of GDP.”
- ICYMI: XForce Threat Intelligence Index 2021, online now from IBM Security, looking at malware, cybersecurity, trends and more
- Unlocking the next frontier of data-powered threat hunting’ webinar set for August 5th, featuring speakers from Japan, Taiwan and Singapore
- Download: Cyberthreats Report, mid-year 2021, from Acronis – “…the average cost of a data breach was around $3.56M. The average ransomware payment rose 33%…” (pdf)
- “Whether or not a ‘cyber Pearl Harbor’ is imminent, businesses face a very real threat of ransomware and data theft every day (30,000 hack attempts per day, by some estimates).”
- ICYMI: World Bank partners Estonia, Japan, Germany and Netherlands for new global cybersecurity fund, in part aiming to boost knowledge in low and middle-income countries
- “…Asia Pacific region experienced a 168% increase in cyberattacks between May 2020 to May 2021…an overall 53% increase in cyberattacks from April to May of 2021 alone…”
- Download: 2021 Cyber Threat Intelligence Report, from Accenture, focusing on 4 key trends (pdf)
- ICYMI: Intel Labs launches multi-university Crypto Frontiers Research Center to develop cryptographic technologies for future devices, edge computing and cloud computing
- ICYMI: Google outlines new security policies for Android Apps to be in place by April 2022, covering privacy, data security, data transmission and more
- Privacy & quantum computing: “Unless proactive steps are taken to mitigate this threat, large-scale quantum computers will tear down the backbone of the internet, secure communications.”
- Download: The State of Ransomware 2021, from Sophos Group, including actual ransom payments made by victims, and the proportion of data victims were able to recover (pdf)
- Download: Global Ransomware Report, July 2021 – a brief summary of the month’s issues by country, industry, risk variant and more, from Blackfog (pdf)
- AI and phishing emails: “They were surprised to find that more people clicked the links in the AI-generated messages than the human-written ones – by a significant margin.”
- Thailand: Bangkok Airways investigating a cyberattack in which some customer personal data may have been compromised
- Australian organisations most likely globally to pay a ransom if hit by ransomware, IDC report finds
- Interview with Australia’s Ambassador for Cyber Affairs: “…it was hard to avoid international affairs which didn’t have some form of cyber component…”
- China: Anxinsec Technology network security firm raises $15 Series A, benefiting from gov’t tightening of data security and 3-year action plan to build cybersecurity industry
- Privacy & quantum computing: “Unless proactive steps are taken to mitigate this threat, large-scale quantum computers will tear down the backbone of the internet, secure communications.”
- “In July 2021, organizations in the education/research sector in India experienced the highest volume of attacks with an average of 5196 attacks weekly per organization.”
- Webinar: ‘Cybersecurity, critical technologies and energy – Japan and its role in the Indo-Pacific’ set for August 30th
- South Korea: Cybersecurity-specific language in 2021 Biden-Moon summit suggests new measures to diversify alliance beyond traditional North Korea deterrence
- Download: Global Ransomware Report, July 2021 – a brief summary of the month’s issues by country, industry, risk variant and more, from Blackfog (pdf)
- Singapore and United States sign 3 MOUs in order to work more closely on cyber threats and coordinated responses to online security incidents
- China: Didi ride-hailing giant reportedly in talks with state-owned infosec firm Westone to handle data management and monitoring in bid to appease regulators
- Podcast: The Value of NFTs in the View of a Cybersecurity Lawyer, part of CoinDesk’s ‘Mapping out Ethereum’ series
Cybersecurity news in July 2021
- ICYMI: An intro to Ransomwhere, crowdsourcing ransomware info and publishing data on the amounts paid to criminals, along with the bitcoin addresses used
- ICYMI: UN Security Council to hold first formal public meeting on cybersecurity, looking at the growing threat of hacks on countries’ infrastructure, from energy to water distribution
- International eConference on Cyber Security set for November 27th, organised by the International Assoc’n of Scientists and Researchers
- Cyberattacks and Ransomware: How Can [the US] Protect Our Energy Infrastructure? in the Wall Street Journal
- Available to download: Cybersecurity threatscape Q1 2021 from Positive Technologies – “…attacks increased by 17% compared to Q1 2020…”
- Kaspersky finds ongoing large-scale advanced persistent threat campaign focused on SE Asia, including Myanmar and Philippines government entities
- Download: The State of Ransomware 2021 from Sophos, annual survey responses giving insights into the experiences of mid-sized organizations globally (pdf)
- Worldcoin and eyeball scans: “Digital privacy experts have raised significant alarms over the use of such an authentication method—and the uses of biometric identification in general.”
- Download: Online Payment Fraud from Juniper Research, covering emerging threats, segment analysis, market forecasts across 2021-2025 (pdf)
- Available to download: The changing shape of ransomware, a report from KPMG
- Australia: Cyber Security Skills Partnership Innovation Fund backs 8 projects to the tune of Au$8.2M to boost skills and availability of cybersecurity professionals
- Japan: Ministry of Defense to increase staff in cybersecurity, including hiring from the private sector, due to growth in increasingly sophisticated state-backed attacks
- Myanmar: Senior foreign telco execs barred by military junta from leaving the country over failure to implement spyware tech on communications systems
- Download: Combating Ransomware – A Comprehensive Framework for Action – Key Recommendations from the Ransomware Task Force (pdf)
- ICYMI: The No More Ransom project, more than 170 worldwide partners, has helped over 6M ransomware victims recover their files, beating near $1BN in payments
- Google’s Gmail to roll out ‘authenticated brand logos’ in coming weeks, effectively a verified badge for emails, in move to combat impersonation and phishing attacks
- Taiwan: Gov’t launches international edition of Presidential Hackathon for data owners, data scientists and field experts to work together to optimize public services
- China: Government publishes new regulation around cyber vulnerability disclosure, preventing private sector experts from on-selling serious breach information
- Australia strengthens cybersec partnerships with India and US Quad partners, with joint research around trusted autonomous systems for cybersecurity
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