Month: January 2024
Security tips for Apple-using workers in co-working spaces
For Apple-using workers on the go, especially if you frequent shared co-working spaces or public places, don’t assume you’re as secure as you think you are.
Co-working spaces are particularly under threat, in part because criminals have already figured out that the people using them are good targets for data theft, ransomware, and more.
They’ve also realized that at least some of those working from such spaces might well be part of, or connected with, larger corporate entities — meaning a successful data heist could unlock the gates to greater and more profitable kingdoms. There are useful resources from government and industry aimed at helping workers lock down their devices and data. In the US, for instance, the National Institute of Standards and Technology has published a useful guide to explain some of the risks, while the US Office of Personnel Management offered up even more useful advice.
Info-stealers can steal cookies for permanent access to your Google account
Several info-stealers have incorporated an exploit that allows them to gain permanent access to your Google account
Read moreWill super chips disrupt the 'everything to the cloud' IT mentality?
Credit to Author: eschuman@thecontentfirm.com| Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2024 03:00:00 -0800
Enterprise IT for the last couple of years has grown disappointed in the economics — not to mention the cybersecurity and compliance impact — of corporate clouds. In general, with a few exceptions, enterprises have done little about it; most saw the scalability and efficiencies too seductive.
Might that change in 2024 and 2025?
Apple has begun talking about efforts to add higher-end compute capabilities to its chip, following similar efforts from Intel and NVIDIA. Although those new capabilities are aimed at enabling more large language model (LLM) capabilities on-device, anything that can deliver that level of data-crunching and analytics can also handle almost every other enterprise IT task.
Atomic Stealer rings in the new year with updated version
Mac users should be aware of an active distribution campaign via malicious ads delivering Atomic Stealer. The latest iteration of the malware is stealthy thanks to added encryption and obfuscation of its code.
Read moreHow to securely erase your Android device in 3 simple steps
It’s an inevitable moment in the smartphone-owning cycle: the point at which a newer, shinier model comes along and your trusty old device is no longer needed.
Maybe your company bought you a new Android phone. Maybe your old one was getting too slow. Or maybe you just love electronics and couldn’t resist the lure of whatever eye-catching new Android gizmo your favorite manufacturer started selling.
Whatever the case, it’s common nowadays to find yourself with an extra phone. And while there are plenty of practical uses for an old Android device, there’s also a time when the best choice is to sell, donate, or otherwise pass it along.
Patch now! First patch Tuesday of 2024 is here
Microsoft’s patch Tuesday roundup looks like a relatively quiet one. Unless your organization uses FBX files.
Read moreThe top 10 tech stories of 2023
The top technology stories of 2023 highlight fundamental changes in culture and geopolitics as well as tech itself: It’s clear that generative AI will affect all aspects of technology and society, while geopolitical tensions are sparking cybersecurity attacks globally. General unease about the dominance of big tech, meanwhile, is pushing regulators to get tougher on mopolistic business practices and multibillion-dollar mergers.
Fired! Rehired! Sam Altman’s ouster and return to OpenAI
ShutterstockThe ouster of Sam Altman as CEO of OpenAI, which sparked the modern era of generative AI when it launched ChatGPT a year earlier, was the tech industry shocker of the year. After the board issued a mysterious statement on November 17 saying that it had fired Altman for not being “consistently candid,” Microsoft announced that it would hire Altman and any other OpenAI employees who wanted to follow him out the door — which turned out to be almost all of them. OpenAI backed down and rehired Altman.
SEC X account hacked to hawk crypto-scams
The US Securities and Exchange Commission’s X account was compromised to take advantage of an expected Bitcoin ETFs announcement.
Read moreChoosing a genAI partner: Trust, but verify
Credit to Author: eschuman@thecontentfirm.com| Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2023 10:03:00 -0800
Enterprise executives, still enthralled by the possibilities of generative artificial intelligence (genAI), more often than not are insisting that their IT departments figure out how to make the technology work.
Let’s set aside the usual concerns about genAI, such as the hallucinations and other errors that make it essential to check every single line it generates (and obliterate any hoped-for efficiency boosts). Or that data leakage is inevitable and will be next to impossible to detect until it is too late. (OWASP has put together an impressive list of the biggest IT threats from genAI and LLMs in general.)