Tag Archive for: MAJORITY

Black Majority Schools Face Alarming Internet Security Risks, Report Finds


There is a large digital divide affecting low-income and Black or Indigenous majority schools, a recent report by Internet Safety Labs (ISL) has found.

Ads and trackers

The report “Demographic Analysis of App Safety, Website Safety, and School Technology Behaviors in US K-12 Schools” explores technological disparities in American schools, focusing mainly on marginalized demographics.

This research expands on ISL’s previous work on the safety of educational technology across the country and is supported by the Internet Society Foundation. It reveals how schools of different backgrounds use technology and the risks involved.

One concerning finding is that websites for schools with mostly Black students were the least safe.

One-third of these schools had advertisements on their websites—a rate much higher than the national average—and 100% of the websites had trackers monitoring visitor behavior.

Privacy or digital divide?

The study also highlights a broader problem: a digital divide in how technology is used in education.

Schools in the lowest income bracket, making between $20,000 and $39,000, were among the least likely to provide their students with computing devices. This limits these students’ experience with technology.

Furthermore, the technology that is recommended or required often poses privacy risks, including apps filled with digital and behavioral ads.

Similar trends were seen for schools with the most American Indian/Native Alaskan students, leading to concerns about how this digital divide impacts students’ learning and their understanding of technology.

What Is The Solution?

The report suggests several actions for schools, school districts, and policymakers.

It recommends eliminating digital ads and tracking devices on school websites.

It also emphasizes the importance of schools being transparent about the technology they use, suggesting they publish a comprehensive list of required technology so students and parents know what’s expected.

Finally, it suggests schools should thoroughly vet all technology they recommend or require for educational use, to ensure it’s safe and appropriate…

Source…

Ransomware incidents now make up majority of British government’s crisis management COBRA meetings


Ransomware incidents in the United Kingdom are now so impactful that the majority of the British government’s recent crisis management COBRA meetings have been convened in response to them rather than other emergencies.

The need to regularly hold cross-departmental COBRA meetings reveals how little progress Westminster has made to address the risks ransomware poses to the country, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the government’s response, speaking to The Record on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to openly discuss the matter.

They noted that despite the repeated warnings of the National Cyber Security Centre’s (NCSC) chief executive Lindy Cameron describing ransomware as the most acute threat facing the country, there did not appear to be a proportionate level of ministerial interest. Successive Home Secretaries have instead prioritized the issue of small boat crossings of migrants in the English Channel.

The gatherings — officially known as a meeting of the Civil Contingencies Committee, which takes place in the Cabinet Office Briefing Room (COBR) — have historically been convened in response to terror attacks, but are now increasingly focused on cybersecurity incidents affecting critical services.

According to the NCSC’s annual review, the U.K. was impacted by 18 ransomware incidents this year which “required a nationally coordinated response” including attacks affecting the South Staffordshire Water utilities company and the National Health Service software supplier Advanced. The increased focus on these incidents at COBRA meetings has not previously been reported.

Former Home Secretary Priti Patel MP welcoming G7 Interior Ministers in 2021. Image: U.K. Government

Ransomware ‘sprints’

The surge in COBRA meetings follows a cross-Whitehall “sprint” — a project management term — on ransomware which concluded last December. Its intention was to come up with recommendations to deal with the issue that would be signed off on in advance of the G7 meeting of interior ministers at the end of 2021. However a year on from the conclusion of that “sprint” the government has still delivered no actionable…

Source…

Liberty Strategic Capital nabs majority stake in mobile security startup Zimperium for $525M – TechCrunch


Liberty Strategic Capital, the private equity firm launched last year by former treasury secretary Steven T. Mnuchin, announced today that it is acquiring a majority stake in mobile security startup Zimperium for $525 million.

With Zimperium, the firm takes a dive into mobile security, which Mnuchin sees at the front line of cyber security today. As he points out with employees using their own devices for years now, companies need to have a way to secure them, even when they don’t control the device directly.

“We all need to increase our focus on the protection of mobile devices and applications. Liberty Strategic Capital is investing in Zimperium because they’ve shown that they can lead the way in this multibillion-dollar market,” he said in a statement announcing the deal.

The company covers three parts of the mobile market looking at device security, mobile applications security and mobile threat intelligence. In fact, last year the company discovered spyware called PhoneSpy in 23 Android apps designed to steal data. As TechCrunch’s Carly Page explained at the time of the news:

Researchers at mobile security firm Zimperium, which discovered PhoneSpy inside 23 apps, say the spyware can also access a victims’ camera to take pictures and record video in real time, and warned that this could be used for personal and corporate blackmail and espionage. It does this without a victim knowing, and Zimperium notes that unless someone is watching their web traffic, it would be difficult to detect.

The company didn’t share specific revenue figures, but reported that annual recurring revenue (ARR) grew 53%. Company CEO Shridhar Mittal is hoping that the investment will continue to drive that growth.

“We’ve helped leading public and private organizations across the globe strengthen mobile security, and as we enter a high growth phase to help even more organizations, Secretary Mnuchin and the team at Liberty Strategic Capital will be a tremendous asset to guide and propel our company forward,” Mittal said in a statement.

Under the terms of the deal, Softbank will own a minority stake in the company, Mnunchin will lead the company’s board of…

Source…

Report: Majority of malware downloads in 2021 were traced to cloud apps


Did you miss a session from the Future of Work Summit? Head over to our Future of Work Summit on-demand library to stream.


According to a new report by Netskope, more than two-thirds of malware downloads came from cloud apps in 2021.

Examining changes in the malware landscape in 2021, the report highlights that attackers are enjoying more success abusing cloud apps to deliver malware payloads to their victims. For example, in Q2 2020, Netskope saw a sudden spike in malicious Office documents driven primarily by Emotet, which launched a large-scale and highly effective mal-spam campaign that delivered malicious Office documents using popular cloud apps. Since then, copycat groups have continued to abuse Office documents to deliver malware, and the quantity of malicious documents remains high above pre-Emotet levels.

Credential attacks against managed cloud apps continue at the same rate as 2020, but with a shift in the sources of the attacks. The top source of credential attacks in 2020 were a few heavy hitters responsible for numerous login attempts. In 2021, however, credential attacks came from a much larger number of sources, each responsible for fewer login attempts.

Title: Top credential attack source countries 2021. United States is 19%, China is 11%, Vietnam is 9%, Brazil s 6%, Pakistan is 4%, Thailand is 3%, Russia is 3%, India is 3%, and others are 41%.

Finally, Netskope analyzed a different type of data risk — insider threats. In 2021, Netskope observed users leaving their jobs at twice the rate of 2020. Users leaving the organization pose a serious data security risk, with more than one out of every seven people using personal cloud storage apps to take data with them when they leave. The report examines how cloud storage apps’ overall popularity among users is a primary driver for their appearance at the top of the malware download and insider threat leaderboards.

Read the full report by Netskope.

VentureBeat

VentureBeat’s mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative technology and transact.

Our site delivers essential information on data technologies and strategies to guide you as you lead your organizations. We invite you to become a member of our community, to access:

  • up-to-date information on the subjects of interest to you
  • our newsletters
  • gated thought-leader content and…

Source…