Gender diversity in cybersecurity is slowly improving but inequities continue—a new report finds that the field has 5% more women than in 2023, but that they’re more exposed to other workplace challenges than male counterparts. About 32% of women respondents said their organizations experienced security layoffs over the last year compared to just 23% of … Read more
Sophos has completed its $859 million acquisition of managed cyber security services provider Secureworks in an all-cash transaction. It now claims to be the “leading pure-play” provider of Managed Detection and Response Services, supporting more than 28,000 global organisations. Secureworks is an Atlanta, U.S.-based cybersecurity company that focuses on threat detection, response, and managed security … Read more
The U.K. government is considering banning ransomware payments to make critical industries “unattractive targets for criminals.” It would apply to all public sector bodies and critical national infrastructure, which includes NHS trusts, schools, local councils, and data centres. Currently, all government departments nationwide are banned from paying cyber criminals to decrypt their data or prevent … Read more
This year has not been quiet for the cybersecurity field. We have seen record-breaking data breaches, huge ransomware payouts, and illuminating studies about the impact of the increasingly complex and ever-evolving threat landscape. As we approach the new year, TechRepublic revisits the biggest cybersecurity stories of 2024. 1. Midnight Blizzard’s attack on Microsoft In January, … Read more
The cyber landscape is more turbulent than ever. Microsoft recently reported a 2.75-fold increase in ransomware attempts this year, while research predicts that global cyber attacks in 2024 will surge 105% compared to 2020. There is a dire need for more qualified cyber professionals as generative AI is lowering the barrier to entry for attacks. … Read more
New Gartner forecasting suggests that IT spending in Australia will surge 8.7% to AU$147 billion in 2025. This boost in spending is projected to be driven by a “perfect storm” of interest in AI, ongoing requirements around cyber security, and the need to refresh hardware as Windows 10 goes out of service, Gartner representatives say. … Read more
A new double-extortion ransomware variant targets VMware ESXi servers, security researchers have found. The group behind it, named Cicada3301, has been promoting its ransomware-as-a-service operation since June. Once an attacker has initial access to a corporate network, they can copy and encrypt its private data using the Cicada3301 ransomware. They can then withhold the decryption … Read more
Volt Typhoon, a Chinese state-sponsored hacking group, has been caught exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in Versa Director servers, used by managed service providers and internet service providers. CVE-2024-39717 was added to CISA’s “Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog” on Aug. 23 after Lumen Technologies discovered its active exploitation. Data from Censys shows that there are 163 devices … Read more
London: England’s National Health Service (NHS) said a global tech outage on Friday had disrupted the booking of doctors’ appointments and patient records, but emergency services had not been affected. The outage, which has been linked to cyber security firm Crowdstrike and its impact on the operation of Microsoft Windows, hit operations in multiple industries … Read more
Australia is gearing up to play a big role in the future of space tech. For IT pros in areas as varied as AI, cyber security and game development, this is a big opportunity. Image: Adobe/Taras Vyshnya As far as deep tech goes, Australia’s greatest potential might be to look to the stars. Compared to … Read more