Tag Archive for: usage

As Internet Usage Grows, Californians Are Concerned about Online Security

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The onset of the pandemic made internet access increasingly central to daily life—in 2021, a record-high 85% of Californians were using the internet at home. Given the wide range of internet activity, online privacy and security are key issues. What can the latest data from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s 2021 Internet Use Survey tell us about Californians’ internet usage and security concerns?

The internet has become an important conduit for a wide range of daily activity. Californians are most likely to use the internet to connect with others. However, more than half (56%) access health records or insurance information online, and nearly half use online government services. Notably, about one in four Californians search or apply for jobs online, while 27% participate in online classes or job training and 31% telecommute.

figure - Californians use the internet for a wide range of activities

High-income households (those earning more than $100,000 per year) are more likely than lower-income households to use the internet across all of these domains. Gaps in usage are especially notable when it comes to accessing government services, financial services, and health records, with nearly 60% of high-income households going online for government services, compared to 33% of low-income households. Black, Latino, and households headed by people without a bachelor’s degree are also less likely to access government services online. These disparities are often attributed to gaps in digital access and literacy.

While internet usage is widespread, privacy and security concerns have deterred many people from engaging in economic and civic activities online. Californians tend to be most concerned about identify theft (54%), but many are worried about credit card or banking fraud (42%), data tracking by online services (27%) and loss of control over their personal data (24%).

figure - Most Californians see identify theft as a top security concern

There is good reason for these concerns. About one in five Californians have been affected by an online security breach, identify theft, or similar crime. High-income households (25%) and Black and white households (25% and 24% respectively) households are especially likely to be affected by privacy or security breaches.

Now that…

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Rapid7 Says ROI for Ransomware Remains High; Zero-Day Usage Expands

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The Rapid7 mid-year review of the threat landscape is not reassuring. Ransomware remains high, basic security defenses are not being used, security maturity is low, and the return on investment for criminality is potentially enormous.

The review is compiled from the observations of Rapid7’s researchers and its managed services teams. It finds there were more than 1500 ransomware victims worldwide in H1 2023. These included 526 LockBit victims, 212 Alphv/BlackCat victims, 178 ClOp victims, and 133 BianLian victims. The figures are compiled from leak site communications, public disclosures, and Rapid7 incident response data.

These figures should be seen as conservative. They won’t include organizations that quietly and successfully pay the ransom as if nothing happened. Furthermore, downstream victims are still being calculated  – for example, notes the report, “The number of incidents attributed to Cl0p in this chart is likely to be (significantly) low, since the group is still actively claiming new victims from their May 2023 zero-day attack on MOVEit Transfer.”

Ransomware is successful for two reasons: the very high profit potential for the criminals, and the inadequate security posture of many potential targets. Three factors illustrate the latter. Firstly, nearly 40% of incidents were caused by missing or lax enforcement of MFA (multi factor authentication) – despite many years of exhortations to implement this basic defense.

Secondly, the general security posture remains low for many organizations. Rapid7 consultants have performed multiple security assessments for clients, “with only a single organization so far in 2023 meeting our minimum recommendations for security maturity, as measured against CIS and NIST benchmarks.”

While security for these companies may well improve after the assessment, the figures illustrate that a substantial number of organizations fail to meet minimum standards for security.

Thirdly, and reinforcing the second factor, old vulnerabilities remain successful for the attackers. “Two notable examples from 1H 2023 are CVE-2021-20038, a Rapid7-discovered vulnerability in SonicWall SMA 100 series devices, and CVE-2017-1000367, a…

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Proton VPN maps VPN usage to resist censorship

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In the wake of sudden oppressive censorship, citizens flood to VPN services so they can unblock restricted platforms, apps, sites, news, and content. Because of this, popular cybersecurity company Proton has launched a new site to monitor those usage spikes to act as an alarm bell when sudden censorship takes place.

It’s been quite a while since the internet stopped being the open and free space we all knew and loved. Authorities worldwide are increasingly imposing full or partial internet shutdowns in times of crisis or geopolitical conflict. In 2022 alone, the web went dark 187 times across 35 countries—an all-time high for internet shutdowns that 2023 will likely beat.

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“Augmented usage of ransomware as a service platform, a SaaS model for eCrime”

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CrowdStrike Inc., a global cybersecurity leader, recently released the 2022 CrowdStrike Global Threat Report. According to the annual Global Threat Report, the threat landscape saw a number of significant shifts and trends.

From a significant increase in interactive intrusions to the proliferation of access brokers on the dark web, and the re-weaponization of vulnerabilities, the report paints a picture of a threat landscape that is becoming increasingly sophisticated and difficult to defend against and an area of grave worry.

Adam Meyers, Head of Intelligence at CrowdStrike delved into an insightful interaction with Minu Sirsalewala Executive Editor – Special Projects, Dataquest about the trends and what they mean for organizations going forward.  Meyers has over 20 years of experience in the cybersecurity industry and is an expert in cyber threat intelligence and investigations.

Meyers speaks about the most significant findings in the report and offers some practical advice on improving response times, to more strategic considerations for developing a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy, he offers valuable insights for organizations looking to stay ahead of the curve and secure their digital assets.

How have the last 12 months been like, and what do you envision the next 12 months?

To start with, I think the biggest story or the biggest concern that people should have is the trend towards data exploitation. We have seen threat actors from the eCrime world, nation, and state threat actors and hacktivists, all weaponizing data against their victims, and that’s the most concerning area and we have pointed out in the report that 28% of ransomware actors are no longer even bothering to do ransomware. They are moving surely to data extortion, and this is significant, because they are able to expand their target set, and they are able to get more money from the victim. As with data extortion, they can actually make more money, because the fundamental model of ransomware is to cause downtime, and that downtime can be measured in financial dollars and cents. But it is not about downtime, it’s about the legal, regulatory and compliance impact of the data…

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