Ransomware payments skyrocketed in 2023, hitting a record-high $1.1 billion extorted from targets of the schemes, according to a Chainalysis report released Wednesday. The New York-based firm’s report details ransomware actors going after companies such as British Airways, as well as targeting infrastructure that yielded a surge of ransom payments. The 2023 figure is a … Read more
The FBI is warning of an uptick in online scammers who impersonate government officials, convince victims to liquidate their assets and then arrange a pick-up time for a courier to retrieve the valuables in person — often after convincing the victims to purchase gold or other precious metals. In a public service announcement Monday, the … Read more
Identity management company Okta said on Thursday in a message to employees that it would lay off 400 employees, about 7% of the company’s headcount. The firm also reaffirmed its fourth quarter and full-year guidance in a securities filing. CEO Todd McKinnon said in his message that the “reality is that costs are still too … Read more
The FBI shut down a major China-backed hacking group that attacked hundreds of routers and had been working to compromise U.S. cyber infrastructure, FBI Director Christopher Wray announced Wednesday at a House committee hearing. The hacking group, code-named “Volt Typhoon,” had compromised hundreds of office and home-office routers to allow the Chinese government to access … Read more
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. We all know to be careful about the details we share online, but the information we seek can also be revealing. Search for driving directions, and our location becomes far easier to guess. Check for a password in a trove of compromised data, and we … Read more
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft. CNBC Microsoft said in a Friday regulatory filing that a Russian intelligence group accessed some of the software maker’s top executives’ email accounts. Nobelium, the same group that breached government supplier SolarWinds in 2020, carried out the attack, which Microsoft detected last week, according to the company. It isn’t the … Read more
Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora said Tuesday that cybersecurity demand will only intensify in 2024. He cited three reasons that highlight why investors keep pushing the Club stock to record highs. During a CNBC interview at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Arora said that Palo Alto Networks stands to benefit … Read more
A bipartisan Senate duo is calling for the inspector general of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to open an investigation into the recent hack of the agency’s account on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) urged SEC Inspector General Deborah Jeffrey in a letter on … Read more
American companies like Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI are currently driving the cutting edge of generative artificial intelligence development across the globe. However two of U.S.’s top national security leaders said that AI lead is under attack from foreign cybercriminals and nation-states like China. “Eighteen of the 20 most successful AI companies in the world are … Read more
The list of most-loved Club stocks on Wall Street entering the new year resembles the list of 2023 winners, except for two stocks: Constellation Brands and Disney . The Mexican beer importer and media-and-entertainment giant are among the 11 Club holdings with buy-equivalent ratings from at least 75% of the analysts who cover them, according … Read more
