International roaming speeds are usually slower than those on a provider’s own network because traffic has to be routed through its home country. This could soon be a thing of the past, thanks to a new collaboration between Telus, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Samsung.

The new approach, known as network cloudification, enables Telus to house its network within AWS regions worldwide, using virtualized roaming gateways, which means traffic no longer needs to go through Canada, but will be routed directly to the closest AWS region that houses Telus’ network. 

“Alongside our AWS Partners, we are excited about how Telus is using the cloud to augment their network capabilities to provide consistent and reliable global services for their customers,” said Chivas Nambiar, general manager, telco business unit at AWS.

The approach uses cloud-native Core technology from Samsung on public cloud for mobile data, and Germany-based ng-voice for voice calls.

“Samsung’s Cloud-native Core is designed with flexibility and scalability in mind. By ensuring higher stability and reliability, Samsung powers Telus’ new roaming approach to bring unmatched network performance and customer experiences while traveling,” said Stephen Wiktorski, vice president and head of networks at Samsung Canada. 

Telus said that the possibilities of this collaboration could extend far beyond roaming, notably with Samsung’s full Cloud-native Core solution on AWS, paving the way for advancements in disaster recovery and 5G standalone core use cases.

Virtual roaming gateway trials will begin in Q1 2024. 

The post Telus spearheads virtualized roaming gateways, in collaboration with AWS and Samsung first appeared on IT World Canada.

Coffee Briefings are timely deliveries of the latest ITWC headlines, interviews, and podcasts. Today’s Coffee Briefing is delivered by IT World Canada’s editorial team! 

Missed the last Coffee Briefing? We’ve got you covered.

Google Cloud stops charging departing customers for data transfer

Source: Google cloud

Google Cloud has announced that it will no longer charge customers moving to other cloud providers or migrating to on premises facilities for the transfer of their data.

“When customers’ business needs evolve, the cloud should be flexible enough to accommodate those changes,” Amit Zavery, general manager/vice president, head of platform at Google Cloud, said in a blog post.

“Google Cloud customers who wish to stop using Google Cloud and migrate their data to another cloud provider and/or on premises can take advantage of free network data transfer to migrate their data out of Google Cloud. This applies to all customers globally.”

Customers wishing to exit Google Cloud must be on the Premium Tier Network Service Tier, Google said, and fulfill specific criteria. They have 60 days following approval of the request to complete the migration.

AI legal assistant launches in Canada

Thomson Reuters today launched its generative AI legal assistant, CoCounsel Core, in Canada and Australia.

The company said in a release that the product, introduced in the U.S. last year, “equips today’s customers with eight generative AI-powered core legal skills, including Prepare for a Deposition, Draft Correspondence, Search a Database, Review Documents, Summarize a Document, Extract Contract Data, Contract Policy Compliance and Timeline. Together with AI-Assisted Research on Westlaw Precision and Ask Practical Law AI on Practical Law, these constitute the industry’s most comprehensive set of generative AI skills, designed to help lawyers quickly gather deeper insights and deliver a better work product.”

Feds lack strategy for evaluating international STIK deals: CCA

The federal government lacks a comprehensive strategy for evaluating international science, technology, innovation, and knowledge (STIK) partnerships – a situation intensified by rapidly evolving challenges, new markets, and growing opportunities for collaboration, a new report from the Council of Canadian Academies (CCA) reveals.

The CCA brings together leading experts from various fields to assess complex scientific topics that are relevant to public decision-making in Canada.

Entitled Navigating Collaborative Futures, the report, according to a release, presents key elements of an evidence-based, data-enabled framework to evaluate new and existing international STIK partnership opportunities for Canada.

“Adopting a strategic approach to international STIK partnerships, grounded in national priorities, is essential to securing Canada’s resilience and prosperity,” said Monica Gattinger, chair of the panel that wrote the report. “The cost of inaction is incalculable, but it is surely steep.”

The CCA release notes that “Canada’s history of global STIK activities is marked by extensive collaboration and bolstered by a well-educated workforce, networks of high-quality research facilities, geographic benefits and associated natural resources, and a robust domestic science and technology ecosystem.”

Geotab launches new asset tracking solution 

Oakville, Ontario-based fleet management platform Geotab has announced the launch of Geotab GO Anywhere asset tracker, a hardware solution designed to help companies better manage and monitor their assets and vehicles from a single platform.

The company said that GO Anywhere boasts a rugged design, and extended battery life, as well as ease of installation, to handle a variety of industry use cases.

“Increasing economic pressures have magnified focus on cost-control, and businesses across all industries are seeking opportunities to improve bottom line health for both powered and non-powered assets,” said Sabina Martin, vice president of product management at Geotab. “Addressing the significant financial impact associated with lost or underutilized assets presents itself as a cost saving opportunity. The Geotab GO Anywhere improves asset monitoring, supports strategic deployment and effective utilization, transforming potential losses into substantial savings and productivity gains.”

Canada included in HP’s 2024 Digital Equity Accelerator program

HP has announced that it is now accepting submissions for the 2024 Digital Equity Accelerator program from organizations in Canada, as well as from Brazil and Poland.

The two-year program, aimed at bridging the global digital divide, offers 10 selected non profit organizations a US$100,000 grant, HP technology valued at US$100,000, and six months virtual training to scale digital equity solutions focused on educational, healthcare, and economic opportunities.

The company specifically seeks to address the connectivity gaps among Indigenous, rural and other marginalized groups in Canada.

“Digital equity is a core pillar of HP’s sustainability commitment as we believe in the power of technology to connect people and communities to create positive and lasting change,” said Mary Ann Yule, president and chief executive officer, HP Canada. “We are excited to launch the Digital Accelerator program to provide solutions that reduce the digital divide and advance digital equity in Canada and accelerate the valuable work of local nonprofits to allow them to thrive.”

HP will accept applications until March 1, 2024. Quebec organizations are not eligible to apply.

More to explore

UK leads takedown of LockBit ransomware gang’s website

The LockBit ransomware gang’s website has been seized, several news agencies reported late Monday.

Ottawa willing to improve cybersecurity bill, ministers tell MPs

Two senior Canadian cabinet ministers have told a parliamentary committee that the government is willing to make changes to its proposed cybersecurity legislation for federally regulated critical infrastructure providers to strengthen the bill.

Cisco to cut roughly 4,250 from its payroll

Cisco late this afternoon released its second quarter results, as well as announcing a reduction of its payroll by five per cent, which in terms of head count means an estimated 4,250  employees will be receiving termination notices.

Inadequate ID authentication blamed for 2020 data thefts at Canada Revenue, ESDC

The theft of tax and employment records of 48,000 of Canadians four years ago was the fault of poor IT authentication security, says the country’s privacy commissioner.

EY Canada, Microsoft launch climate stress testing initiative for FIs

Consulting and accounting firm EY Canada today launched the EY Climate Stress Testing and Scenario Analysis solution, a service running on Microsoft Azure which it said is designed to help safeguard Canada’s financial sector against the impacts of climate change.

Hashtag Trending Feb. 20- OpenAI’s new offering Sora; Zuckerberg says tech layoffs may continue in 2024; Reddit to sell user generated content to large unnamed AI company

Listen to the latest episode of Cybersecurity Today

Cyber Security Today, Feb. 19, 2024 – Fake police data breach notification fools Maine’s AG office

The post Coffee Briefing Feb. 20 – Google Cloud stops charging customers for moving to another cloud provider; Thomson Reuters launches AI legal assistant in Canada; HP announces Digital Equity Accelerator program; and more first appeared on IT World Canada.

Reddit will sell user generated content to an unnamed AI company, Mark Zuckerberg says that tech layoffs were a “natural response” and may continue in 2024, and the U.S. continues to invest in chip production, OpenAI launches Sora, its new text to video marvel.

And I’ve finally seen it – the first mention of a “Chief AI Officer” 

All this and more on “Oh My God, Kill me now” edition of Hashtag Trending. I’m your host Jim Love, CIO of IT World Canada and TechNewsDay in the US.  

Someone at Google has to be saying, “are you kidding me?”  Google launched its new Gemini AI offerings which were supposed to be a quantum leap and a real threat to OpenAI’s dominance, particularly since Google was claiming supremacy in the multimedia arena.

Then, last week Open AI announced Sora. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a text to AI model that can generate a one minute video that will blow your socks off. It’s incredible in terms of its realism and the way that it has solved so many problems of existing AI generated videos. 

But apparently Sora has sparked a significant debate within the AI community, particularly around the model’s understanding and simulation of physics. Critics, including prominent figures from Meta, Google, and the broader AI research community, have raised concerns about whether Sora’s generative capabilities truly grasp the complexities of the physical world.

AI scientist Gary Marcus and others have criticized not just the accuracy of the videos generated by Sora but also questioned the underlying AI model’s approach to video synthesis. Meta’s Yann LeCun and Google have pointed out that creating realistic-looking videos does not necessarily mean the system understands physical reality. 

LeCun contrasts Sora with Meta’s V-JEPA model, which analyzes interactions between objects in videos, suggesting a deeper level of understanding beyond mere generation.

The debate extends to the very foundation of Sora, which uses a transformer architecture similar to GPT models. OpenAI believes this foundation can simulate the real world, aiding in the quest for Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). However, critics argue that Sora’s current capabilities might not fully capture the nuances of physics, with some describing its output as lacking real-life accuracy.

Despite these criticisms, proponents of Sora, like NVIDIA’s senior research scientist Jim Fan, defend the model’s approach. Fan suggests that Sora learns a physics engine implicitly through massive video data, challenging the reductionist view that the model merely manipulates pixels without understanding. This perspective highlights a broader debate about what it means for AI to “learn” or “understand” concepts like physics.

As the AI community continues to explore these questions, Sora represents a significant moment akin to the “GPT-3 moment” of 2020, showcasing the potential and limitations of current AI technology. While skeptics and supporters alike debate Sora’s understanding of physics, the model’s development and the discussions it sparks are crucial steps toward more sophisticated AI systems capable of simulating and interacting with the real world.

This ongoing debate not only underscores the challenges in developing AI models that can accurately model physical reality but also highlights the collaborative and competitive nature of AI research, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with each new advancement.

Source: Analytics India Magazine, [OpenAI Sora Ignites Physics Debate](https://analyticsindiamag.com/openai-sora-ignites-physics-debate/).

Reddit has entered into a significant agreement with an unnamed large AI company, allowing the use of its vast user-generated content for AI training purposes. This deal, reportedly worth $60 million annually, is part of Reddit’s broader strategy to enhance its value ahead of a much-anticipated Initial Public Offering (IPO). 

This is part of an emerging trend where companies are formalizing arrangements to give access and utilize web data for AI model training and receive compensation for it

Traditionally, AI firms like OpenAI have trained their sophisticated language models by scraping data from the web, often without explicit permission from content creators or website owners. 

However, as scrutiny over data usage practices intensifies, there’s a shift towards securing formal agreements that grant AI companies legitimate access to valuable data sources. 

For instance, Apple was reported to be in talks last year with several media companies, negotiating deals worth at least $50 million to use archived news articles for AI training.

The Reddit deal marks a significant step in this direction but also ventures into more contentious territory by focusing on user-generated content. While Reddit’s terms and conditions may legally permit such use, the reaction from the platform’s user base remains to be seen, especially considering the platform’s history of user and moderator protests against decisions perceived as prioritizing revenue over community interests.

This development comes on the heels of Reddit’s controversial decision to restrict access to its API, which had a devastating impact on popular third-party client apps. The move sparked widespread backlash from the Reddit community, many of whom took actions to try to sabotage ad sales on their content.

We eagerly await the reaction from the Reddit community.

Source: 9to5Mac, [Reddit user content being sold to AI company in $60M/year deal](https://9to5mac.com/2024/02/19/reddit-user-content-being-sold/).

In a recent discussion on the Morning Brew Daily podcast, Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, shared insights into the tech industry’s wave of layoffs in 2024, attributing it largely to a natural recalibration following the pandemic-era hiring surge. 

According to Zuckerberg, many companies, including Meta, expanded their workforce significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, driven by a temporary boom in ecommerce and remote work. However, as the world began to return to pre-pandemic norms, these companies found themselves overstaffed and financially strained, leading to widespread layoffs.

Zuckerberg emphasized that the layoffs were a response to the overexpansion during the pandemic rather than a direct result of technological advancements like artificial intelligence. 

Despite the growing focus on AI and automation, which has led companies like SAP and Cisco to announce layoffs amid AI development efforts, Zuckerberg clarified that AI did not play a major role in Meta’s decision to reduce its workforce. Instead, the goal was to create a leaner, more agile company capable of doing its best work.

Meta underwent four rounds of layoffs between November 2022 and May 2023, affecting thousands of employees, particularly within its metaverse unit. 

The tech sector’s layoffs in 2024, while not as extensive as those in 2023, have nonetheless impacted thousands of workers globally. With more than 39,000 job cuts reported in just January and February, the industry is bracing for potentially more layoffs as companies like Google also signal intentions to further reduce headcount.

Zuckerberg’s comments may be a realistic and even more mature understanding of running a company like Meta, but they confirm the modern ethos that employees are dispensable. I say this not as a moral judgement but as a fact. As we move into a world where the impact of AI and automation have yet to be felt in the future workforce it is a sobering fact. 

Source: ITPro, [Mark Zuckerberg: Tech layoffs in 2024 have been a natural response to pandemic-era overhiring](https://www.itpro.com/business/business-strategy/mark-zuckerberg-tech-layoffs-in-2024-have-been-a-natural-response-to-pandemic-era-over-hiring).

The Biden administration has announced a significant investment in the semiconductor industry, providing $1.5 billion to GlobalFoundries to bolster domestic production of computer chips in New York and Vermont. This move, part of the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, represents a strategic effort to revitalize the U.S. semiconductor manufacturing sector, which is crucial for a range of technologies from military equipment to consumer electronics.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo highlighted the importance of the chips produced by GlobalFoundries, noting their role in powering advanced military equipment, electric vehicles, and enabling faster internet connections. The funding aims to support the construction of a new advanced chip factory in Malta, New York, enhance production at an existing Malta plant in collaboration with General Motors, and revitalize a facility in Burlington, Vermont.

These projects are expected to create 1,500 manufacturing jobs and 9,000 construction jobs over the next decade. Additionally, GlobalFoundries will dedicate $10 million to worker training and extend a $1,000 annual child care subsidy to construction workers, underscoring the company’s commitment to supporting its workforce.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a key architect of the CHIPS and Science Act, emphasized the critical role of semiconductor technology in the U.S. economy and national security. 

In a world where Taiwanese companies control over 50 per cent of chip production and 20 per cen of chips are produced in Taiwan, the ever present tension between China and the island nation it claims as its own may have a lot to do with the U.S.’s new emphasis on building chip production in the U.S.. 

Source: AP News, [Biden admin providing $1.5 billion to GlobalFoundries to make computer chips in New York and Vermont](https://apnews.com/article/computer-chips-biden-new-york-schumer-globalfoundries-fe69bb214354695769dd615de4f9c221).

Okay, I’m sorry, No I’m not, but I’m Canadian and we pretty much have to say that. I saw this as a title of a recent white paper. “Does your business need a “chief AI officer.”  

Spoiler alert. The answer is no. We don’t need another “chief” anything. This is just out of control. 

Look. We have a Chief Information Officer – a real C level job. And you can call it a Chief Technology or Chief Information Officer, I don’t care. Well, actually I do. Because for years, we’ve worked to bring the person in charge of technology and its strategic use in the business to a seat at the board room table. 

We’ve worked to raise not the person, but the idea that technology and its application is as strategic as finance, marketing, human resources or operations. 

And then we couldn’t resist. We had a chief digital officer, and a chief information security officer and then a chief data officer and now somebody is talking about a chief AI officer. 

The problem is that when every title that touches technology is a “chief” something or other, it cheapens the real C level. 

No other area in the company does this. You don’t have a chief compensation officer in HR. You don’t have a chief spreadsheet officer in finance, you don’t have a chief robotics officer in manufacturing. Or maybe somebody has tried something, but they probably got laughed out of the room when they did. 

It seems like everybody is trying to invent a new C level position in IT every year. And they promote it, they hype it – and frankly, the people who try to fill these roles probably go nuts. The expectation of trying to be a C level executive is something many are totally unprepared for.

If you think this is a “diss” to any of these people, you’ve got me wrong. I have immense respect for people who have specialized skills and knowledge. I think they should be well compensated and well respected in their domain of expertise. And that should occur no matter where they are on the org chart. 

But the Achilles heel of IT has always been the hype. The latest technology, the latest threat, the latest this and that…  

What is needed at the C level is a strategic viewpoint linking technology to the future of the business and its business results. 

If companies lose that, they lose a lot. So if you have five or six C levels vying for a seat at the executive table, what they all get the capital “c” in their title replace with a small case “c”.  And if we aren’t careful, that includes the real capital C of the CIO or CTO (take your pick). 

And if we lose that, we lose our champion at the board room table. Nobody benefits from that. Not those who work in technology and IT a digital world, not the company and not its shareholders. 

So knock it off with the new C level titles. And get behind one key place at the executive table. 

Hashtag Trending goes to air five days a week with daily newscast and a weekend interview show that we creatively called – the weekend edition. 

We love to hear from you. Send us a note at jlove@itwc.ca or drop us a comment under the show notes at itworldcanada.com/podcasts – look for Hashtag Trending. 

Thanks for listening and have a Terrific Tuesday!

The post Hashtag Trending Feb. 20- OpenAI’s new offering Sora; Zuckerberg says tech layoffs may continue in 2024; Reddit to sell user generated content to large unnamed AI company first appeared on IT World Canada.

The LockBit ransomware gang’s website has been seized, several news agencies reported late Monday.

The Reuters news agency and The Register are carrying stories based on a new splash screen that has appeared on the gang’s website.

It says, “This site is now under the control of the National Crime Agency of the UK, working in close co-operation with the FBI and the international law enforcement task force, Operation Cronos.”

“This is an ongoing and developing operation,” the statement adds.

It suggests viewers check back at 11:30 GMT — which is 6:30 a.m. Tuesday Toronto time — for more news. There are no statements on the FBI or U.S. Justice department websites.

Reuters quotes an unnamed NCA spokesperson as confirming the action.

The new NCA splash screen says participating countries in the action include Canada, France, Japan, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, Sweden, the Netherlands and Finland.

Reuters quotes vx-underground, a cybersecurity research website, saying LockBit has posted messages in in Russian and shared on Tox, an encrypted messaging app, that the FBI hit its servers that run on the programming language PHP. The statement, which Reuters could not verify independently, added that the gang says it has backup servers without PHP that “are not touched”.

“This is likely the most significant disruption of a ransomware operation to date,” said Brett Callow, a Canadian-based ransomware threat analyst at Emsisoft.

LockBit has been targeted for some time by law enforcement agencies. That led to the arrest in November, 2022 of a man in Bradford, Ont., for his alleged role in the gang. Mikhail Vasiliev pleaded guilty on February 8th to multiple counts involving cyber-extortion, mischief and weapons charges relating to acts in Canada, including ransomware attacks on Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children and the Indigo book chain.

The U.S. wants to extradite him to face charges there.

Last June, cybersecurity agencies from seven countries including Canada and the U.S. released a joint background paper on the Lockbit ransomware gang.

Measured by the number of victims claimed on the LockBit data leak site, in 2022, the gang was the most active global ransomware group that year.

When that report was issued seven months ago, the U.S. estimated victim organizations in that country alone had paid the gang US$91 million in ransoms since LockBit activity was first seen in January, 2020. The U.S. estimated 16 per cent of reported ransomware attacks on American government entities in the country — including schools and police forces — were identified as LockBit.

Canada estimated LockBit was responsible for 22 per cent of attributed ransomware incidents in 2022.

The post UK leads takedown of LockBit ransomware gang’s website first appeared on IT World Canada.

Welcome to Cyber Security Today. It’s Monday February 19th, 2024. I’m Howard Solomon, contributing reporter on cybersecurity for ITWorldCanada.com and TechNewsday.com in the U.S.

Today is the President’s Day holiday in many U.S. states and a civic holiday in several Canadian provinces. If you’re off, thanks for tuning in.

A mischief-maker has managed to fool the attorney general’s office of the state of Maine into posting a phony data breach notification. Maine is one of several American states with laws forcing firms and government agencies to fill out an online form outlining data breaches that affect their residents. Those notifications are posted on state websites so the public know about data breaches. Well, on Saturday Maine’s data breach notification website included an obviously fake listing. It claims to be a report about an attack on the police department of the city of “Saint Louis,” Missouri. I say it’s obviously a fake because the person who submitted the notification wrote that he owns the state of Missouri, as well as owns the police department. The explanation of the attack is garbled nonsense involving criminals in the building, RFID tagging of account numbers, a Google private investigator, low pass filters on bank antennas … and so on. And they misspelled St. Louis. I assume an automated system approved the posting, because surely a bureaucrat couldn’t have allowed it to go through. On Sunday afternoon I emailed the Maine attorney general’s office asking for an explanation.

Among the real data breach notifications recently posted on Maine’s website the Golden Corral restaurant chain, which has outlets in 39 states, said it’s notifying over 185,000 people of a data breach last August. And a school district in Maryland is notifying almost 100,000 people their personal data was stolen in a ransomware attack last August.

A Ukrainian man once on the FBI’s Most Wanted List has pleaded guilty in the U.S. to a conspiracy charge for his role in distributing and leveraging the Zeus and IcedID malware. One ransomware victim was the University of Vermont Medical Centre. The man was arrested in Switzerland in 2022 and extradited to the U.S. last year. He will be sentenced in May.

Meanwhile police in Ukraine arrested a hacker who allegedly stole and sold personal data of people in Canada and the U.S. by initially infecting their Android devices. The victims downloaded what they thought was free software. It was really malware that let the attacker steal bank account access information of victims. That bank account data was sold to those willing to loot the bank accounts. Over the years police believe the accused made the equivalent of about US$91,000. The man’s accomplices are being sought.

An American internet provider called U.S. Internet Corp. left more than a decade’s worth of customers’ email messages open on a secure email server. That’s according to reporter Brian Krebs. Krebs was tipped off by a cybersecurity company that found the link to the server, which had over 6,500 domain names of customers. Anyone who clicked on one of those domain names went to a list of emails of the customers. Some messages dated back to 2008. When Krebs asked the company how this happened the server was quickly secured. The company blames a former employee for misconfiguring the server. The lesson here is IT leaders have to regularly check the configurations of anything that connected to the internet.

Cyber experts say using biometric facial scanning is better than passwords for login security. However, an Asian threat actor may have found a way around biometric protections. Security researchers at Group-IB say the latest version of a family of iOS and Android malware has this capability and is being used to hack into victims’ bank accounts and steal their money. The gang uses social engineering to convince a victim to download an app to their mobile device by things like pretending to be from a government department. The victim is told to record a video of themselves for confirmation. That video is then used by the gang to create a deepfake video using artificial intelligence, allowing the gang to get into the victim’s bank account. I’ve simplified the process, but the discovery is a warning to firms that offer facial recognition solutions for logins that they’ve got to upgrade their protection. This technique is being used in Asia. It will come to other countries.

A threat actor is using Amazon Web Services’ simple notification service (SNS) to send bulk spam text messages to people. That’s according to researchers at SentinelOne. These messages often appear to come from the U.S. Postal Service about an alleged missing package. The goal is to get people to click on a link that goes to a fake login page where they can track the alleged package — if they give a credit card number to pay a 30 cent re-delivery fee. That credit card number is what the attackers want. Companies using AWS have to make sure their account isn’t being abused this way by regularly checking the configuration of their SNS capability.

Last week the last of a series of patches for domain name servers and other network applications was released to plug a critical flaw in DNS Security Extensions. This hole, dubbed KeyTrap, was discovered months ago and vendors have been quietly issuing patches since, and DNS providers — like Google and Cloudflare — have been applying them. Hopefully, your IT team has been doing the same.

Finally, at this weekend’s Munich Security Conference 20 tech companies including Meta, TikTok, X, Microsoft, IBM, Adobe, OpenAI and Amazon pledged to help prevent deceptive AI content from interfering with elections. The goal is to reduce the amount of fake texts, social media posts, videos and other content. There are no concrete goals, just pledges to go after deceptive crap.

Follow Cyber Security Today on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or add us to to your Flash Briefing on your smart speaker.

By the way, IT World Canada also offers a daily podcast of general IT news. It’s called Hashtag Trending, and it’s also available on Apple and Google podcasts.

The post Cyber Security Today, Feb. 19, 2024 – Fake police data breach notification fools Maine’s AG site first appeared on IT World Canada.

Sometimes an interview goes off in a totally different direction than you anticipated. I walked into the studio prepared to interview Ed Watal on the issues of AI and its influence on elections. We were to talk about deep fakes and their impact on voters and explore what we could do about that.

But our conversation strayed into a different area, one where it was obvious that Ed was as passionate as he was articulate. And for the first time in many weeks, I left the studio feeling what I can only describe as “hopeful.”

Watal is an author, entrepreneur and founder of Intellibus, a community of interested people aiming to make a difference.

You are the judge, not me. But I sincerely hope that you catch even just a little of what I felt after this conversation with this wonderful and articulate person.

Hashtag Trending, the weekend edition presents my interview with Ed Watal, author, teacher, entrepreneur and champion of an internet for all of humanity to share.

The post A hopeful vision for the internet and AI: My conversation with Ed Watal, author and founder of Intellibus. Hashtag Trending Weekend February 18th, 2024 first appeared on IT World Canada.

Welcome to Cyber Security Today. This is the Week in Review for the week ending Friday, February 16th, 2024. I’m Howard Solomon, contributing reporter on cybersecurity for ITWorldCanada.com and TechNewsday.com in the U.S.

In a few minutes David Shipley, head of Beauceron Security, will be here to discuss recent news headlines. These include new cyber incident and data breach reporting obligations for American telecom companies; the progress of Canada’s proposed cybersecurity law; a cyber attack on an insurance broker to Canada’s federal employees; and the proper strategy for stopping the theft of vehicles with digital keys.

But before I bring in David, here’s a summary of other things that happened this week in cybersecurity:

The U.S. Department of Defence is notifying tens of thousands of people their personal information was exposed in an email error by a service provider exactly a year ago. TechCrunch says the incident involved a cloud email server that for three weeks was accessable from the internet without a password.

Poland’s new prime minister says the previous administration illegally used the Pegasus spyware against people. This app gets surreptitiously implanted on victims smartphones. The Record quotes local news reports saying the government believes there was a “very long” list of targets. Last September Poland’s Senate investigated whether Pegasus had been used to hack an opposition politician. Listeners may recall that a number of governments including Canada and the U.S. agreed last week to investigate the abuse of commercially-sold spyware like Pegasus.

Crooks have started using the Bumblebee malware again. According to researchers at Proofpoint, several threat groups had been using the payload in infected email attachments and links up until last October. Then its use disappeared — until last week.

Microsoft and OpenAI say they have disrupted threat groups from China, Russia and North Korea who were trying to use OpenAI’s artificial intelligence tools to improve their malware. The groups had opened accounts at OpenAi — the creator of ChatGPT — for querying open-source information, translating documents, finding coding errors and running basic coding tasks. OpenAI has shut the accounts.

An Islamic non-profit in Saudi Arabia was likely compromised in 2021 with a custom backdoor, say researchers at Cisco Systems. The malware copied data and sent it out twice a month. Cisco discovered the espionage campaign just over a year ago and delayed release of the news until now. The attacker is a mystery.

And Canada’s OpenText joined the U.S. government’s Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative. It’s a public-private partnership to help the public and private sectors up their cybersecurity. Also this week the Collaborative released a list of its priorities for this year. They include defending against advanced persistent threat operations, helping U.S. state and local officials secure their IT infrastructure and anticipating emerging technology and risks.

(The following transcript of the first of the four topics discussed this week has been edited for clarity. To get the full discussion play the podcast.)

Howard: American telecom providers will soon have new cyber incident and data breach reporting rules. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has finalized new cyber attack reporting and consumer data breach notification rules for American telecom providers. They haven’t quite set the date on when the new rules come into effect, but telcos would have to report within seven days to the commission as well as the FBI and the Secret Service of any breach of a consumer’s proprietary network information — that’s data like your subscription plan details and the numbers that you call. New is the addition that the FCC has to be notified of these data breaches in addition, consumers will have to be notified within 30 days if there’s a theft or inadvertent disclosure of their personal data. The addition of inadvertent disclosure for American telecom providers is new. Also new is the elimination of the rule that carriers don’t have to report data breaches if they believe no reasonable harm will come to consumers from the theft of particular data, like just a name and phone number.

David, this is a sign that regulators are getting impatient with data breaches from phone companies and with consumers complaining that they aren’t notified fast enough when there is a data breach.

David Shipley: I think it is, and I think regulators are right to be impatient. But let’s remember, it’s more than just phone companies getting popped. We were just talking a few weeks ago about the so-called Mother Of All Breaches — or more accurately the child of all breaches, as it’s an aggregation of a whole bunch of data breaches over the past 20 years. It’s literally an evil version of ‘Have I been Poned?’ Phone companies have been contributing significantly to the amount of data now available to criminals to cause harm. Phone companies had an awful, terrible 2023 in the United States. According to cyber intelligence firm Cyble, the personally identifiable information on 74 million Americans was leaked in 2023 by one or more telecommunications companies. That’s more than 23 per cent of all American telecommunications users in 1 year alone. The challenge for phone companies is this is only going to get worse as we move to password-less technologies like passkeys — biometric authentication with your smartphone — as the digital keys to your life. The [smart]phone is now the most important part of your personal, and in some cases corporate, identity and access management. That turns the heat up on the telephone companies to keep their customers safe in ways that make them more like financial institutions, in that the importance of security has never been greater. So the heat on them Is only going to get worse from regulators, because it’s only going to get worse from criminals.

Howard: Note that it’s not only data thefts of personal information that American telecom carriers are going to have to report to authorities. The FCC expands the definition of personal information now to include biometrics like fingerprints and facial images that are used for logins. And it also includes as reportable inadvertent exposure of data due to things like misconfigurations.

David: The FCC ruling was genuinely was fun to read … It contains one of the clearestdescriptions of what constitutes PI [personal information] that I’ve ever seen from a regulator. It’s beautiful in the holes it pokes for folks who would look to not have to report this. What’s also interesting is their definitions also include disassociated or anonymized data. You don’t get a pass if you say, ‘The data was scrambled,’ if the attackers reasonably had access to the key that could reconnect individuals to that data. If any telco folks are listening to me at the executive level at the security team level, please, please hear the following point I’m going to make loud and clear: Do not store biometric data — voice, face, fingerprints. The only way biometrics should be used is on a device — never stored in groups on a server –in a secure enclave on the device. Convert them into an encrypted form that can’t be unscrambled without like a nation-state-level resource associated with it, if at all possible. You can change a password, you can replace an MFA token, but aside from Hollywood celebrities most of us can’t easily change our face.

Howard; It’s interesting that other critical infrastructure providers have to report data breaches to American authorities within 72 hours. The seven-day reporting requirement for American telcos stays.

David: I’m not a lawyer but I think I have a rough handle on what’s going on here and the distinction that the FCC is trying to make. The U.S. critical infrastructure reporting that does include telcos has to do more with hacks that could jeopardize the ongoing availability and operation of critical infrastructure providers — like the Colonial Pipeline attack or JBS Meats, where all of a sudden the operations of the business are actually disrupted. As gross as data breaches are they don’t knock the phones offline or internet connections offline. That’s a loophole that can often be used to avoid reporting under the critical infrastructure side of things. Along with the threshold known as the ‘real risk of significant harm,’ which, as you pointed out, is something that has been used [by companies] in the past to say, ‘Well, it’s just their first name and their email address. How big of a deal is that?” So they’ve eliminated that real risk of significant harm threshold and now say, ‘This could cause customer harm. You have to report it.’ This new FCC rule makes it clear that if PI is lost there’s a risk of customer harm and you’ve got to report. I think this is helpful.

The post Cyber Security Today, Week in Review for week ending Friday, Feb. 16, 2024 first appeared on IT World Canada.

Coffee Briefings are timely deliveries of the latest ITWC headlines, interviews, and podcasts. Today’s Coffee Briefing is delivered by IT World Canada’s editorial team! 

Missed the last Coffee Briefing? We’ve got you covered.

TD uses VR to train branch employees

TD has announced that it has started using virtual reality (VR) to simulate challenging customer interactions for branch employees and train them on how to handle them. Ten branches in Etobicoke, Ont. and 10 in Alberta South are participating in a pilot that will run until May.

The VR experience is completely immersive, TD said. “As soon as you put the headset on, you find yourself standing behind the counter at a virtual TD branch. You’re approached by a customer who is stressed about a cheque hold and you’re tasked with easing the situation and finding a solution. The simulation teaches you our best practices for easing difficult interactions, what cheque holds are and what alternatives make funds immediately available for customers.

“We’re introducing this new type of training because we know it’s hard to learn how to handle these interactions without experience. Now, our branch employees can build it up in a safe space, where they can make mistakes and learn from them so they’re ready when they encounter the real thing. The feedback has been incredible: Almost all our employees have said their ability to retain the information is high and that VR has been more effective than traditional training for them.”

VentureLAB launches seventh cohort of its Hardware Catalyst Initiative

Nineteen companies have been accepted into the seventh cohort of ventureLAB’s Hardware Catalyst Initiative, a competitive program that, it says, “is designed to propel the development of hardware and semiconductor-focused innovations, empowering Canadian companies to thrive, expand, and shape the technologies of the future.”

The largest cohort to date includes companies developing innovations in medtech and life sciences, automobility, advanced material and manufacturing, cleantech, digital media and ICT, mining, and first responder tech.

Funded in part by the federal government through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), the Hardware Catalyst Initiative is Canada’s only lab and incubator for founders building hardware and semiconductor-focused products. The initiative accelerates time-to-market for tech startups and enables Canadian companies to grow locally and compete globally through four pillars: raising capital, retaining talent, commercializing technology and IP, and customer acquisition.

Galaxy Broadband Communications wins Shared Services Canada contract

Galaxy Broadband Communications, which provides enterprise customers across North America with satellite communications, managed services and remote connectivity offerings, has announced that it has been awarded a multi-year contract to provide Shared Services Canada, a department of the Government of Canada, with Eutelsat OneWeb’s low Earth orbit enterprise satellite services.

Work has already begun to implement service at several sites for multiple departments and agencies, the company said in a release, and this roll out is expected to accelerate over the next several months.

Eutelsat OneWeb is able to offer high-speed connectivity via its global low Earth orbit satellite network to a variety of applications, ranging, in this case, from government offices operating in remote regions to a wide range of industrial and on-the-move vehicles on land, and at sea, or infrastructure operating in areas with no traditional coverage from terrestrial or cellular providers.

This is the third contract that Galaxy has been awarded for the provision of satellite services to Shared Services Canada. Galaxy currently provides Ku-band and Ka-band connectivity to several departments and agencies of the government of Canada, including the Royal Canadian Navy, the Department of National Defence, Environment Canada, Parks Canada, and others.

New numeracy program aims to help Canadian build math skills

National literacy organization ABC Life Literacy Canada has announced the launch of its newest program, ABC Everyday Numbers. ABC Everyday Numbers is a numeracy program that offers free resources and workshops to adult learners looking to improve their math skills.

The federal government’s Skills for Success model defines numeracy as “the ability to find, use, and report mathematical information presented through words, numbers, symbols, and graphics. Numeracy skills are used in daily life such as figuring out how many minutes until a train departs, increasing a recipe to serve extra guests, and checking that the correct change was received after a purchase.”

ABC Everyday Numbers aims to increase Canadians’ numeracy skills and math confidence through free resources, online courses, and workshops, the company said in a release.

The first workbook titled “Playing with patterns” is currently available and additional workbooks, and online courses on the ABC Skills Hub, will launch in the following months. The program is also available for adult literacy practitioners who are teaching math skills and may not be trained foundational math instructors. Practitioners who want to bring ABC Everyday Numbers to their community, can sign up to host workshops, receive printed workbooks, and access online facilitator training.

Canada is 14th globally in mobile reliability: Opensignal

Research from Opensignal has revealed that Canada ranks 14th in the world in mobile network reliability, slightly behind the U.S., which was number 12. Reliability Experience measures to what extent users stay consistently connected to their mobile network and whether they can continue to do typical tasks like email, watching videos, and using navigation apps while connected, the company said in a release, noting, “Reliability Experience therefore measures every aspect of the user’s experience of their carrier’s mobile data network: when it’s working flawlessly, when it’s working erratically, and when you can’t connect at all.”

It added, “The Opensignal approach towards reliability is more user-centric than network operators’ internal views of reliability. A network operator is likely to consider their network ‘reliable’ if there is zero downtime, but an end-user wouldn’t find it reliable if they can’t send an email, exchange instant messages, use their device for navigation or browse simple websites.”

It also found that consumers rank reliability second only to cost in importance when they’re choosing a wireless carrier.

More to explore

Montreal duo launch free cybersecurity training platform

Two childhood friends, both of whom are entrepreneurs based in Montreal, today launched Cyber101, a platform that offers organizations a chance to educate their employees about cybersecurity best practices free of charge, in both English and French.

Government departments ignored management practices, failed to oversee ArriveCan app: Auditor General

Three federal government agencies failed to follow good management practices in the contracting, development, and implementation of the $59.5 million ArriveCAN application, Canada’s auditor general said today.

Google launches Bard GenAI in Canada, rebrands it to Gemini

Google has announced that its generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) chatbot, Bard, is now available to Canadians, in both English and French. At the same time, it announced that Bard has been renamed Gemini.

Meta may not bring some products to Canada unless proposed AI law changed, Parliament told

Officials from four of the biggest tech companies in the world — Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta — largely offered polite criticism of the country’s proposed artificial intelligence law to Canadian parliamentarians for over an hour at a hearing Wednesday.

Info-Tech report outlines 5 GenAI initiatives CIOs must key in on

As generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) continues to reshape the digital landscape, CIOs and IT leaders are at a pivotal point, tasked with navigating the profound opportunities and challenges this disruptive technology presents, a new report from Info-Tech Research Group concludes.

Tech sector navigating layoffs while riding GenAI wave, says GlobalData

The technology industry, says GlobaData, has already witnessed substantial changes in 2024, including layoffs by big companies such as Google, Amazon and Meta, a trend, it adds, that began last year, affecting over 191,000 employees, driven by factors like post-COVID-19 pandemic adjustments and a focus on emerging tech like artificial intelligence (AI).

Channel Bytes February 9, 2024 – Cohesity acquires Veritas data protection business; Delinea acquires Authomize; Dell enhances partner program; and more

Staying informed is a constant challenge. There’s so much to do, and so little time. But we have you covered. Grab a coffee and take five while you nibble on these tidbits.

Listen to the latest episode of Hashtag Trending

Federal procurement has massive overrun: Hashtag Tending, Tuesday February 13, 2024

Listen to the latest episode of Cybersecurity Today

Cyber Security Today, Feb. 12, 2024 – US seizes a website selling the Warzone malware

The post Coffee Briefing Feb. 13 – TD trains employees using VR; Galaxy Broadband provides satellite services to Shared Services Canada; Canada ranks 14th globally in mobile network reliability; and more first appeared on IT World Canada.

Two senior Canadian cabinet ministers have told a parliamentary committee that the government is willing to make changes to its proposed cybersecurity legislation for federally regulated critical infrastructure providers to strengthen the bill.

Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne and Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc made that pledge Thursday before the House of Commons national security committee studying Bill C-26, which would affect the telecommunications, financial, transport and energy sectors.

It was part of a lobbying effort to get speedy passage for what Champagne called a “critically important piece of legislation.”

However, unlike with the proposed privacy and artificial intelligence laws being discussed by another committee, where Champagne produced a list of amendments he’s willing to make, he and LeBlanc only said they are willing to work with committee members to make unspecified improvements to the proposed cybersecurity act.

“We wish to work constructively to achieve the best result,” Champagne said, “but there is also an urgency for action. The actors who want to harm Canada are looking at the possible defects in the [IT] system, so it’s important to act quickly.”

In the past few weeks, some witnesses have complained that the bill gives the government or the industry minister the power to order designated critical infrastructure providers to do “anything.” Critics see that as over-reaching, and would at least like the proposed legislation to say the government only has the power to order things that are “reasonable” and “necessary.” While those words sound vague, they have been defined in regulatory rulings in some sectors.

Other critics want the bill to specify that the government has to consult with experts before making an order to the private sector; to specify that any secret judicial hearings held under the law must include a court-appointed “friend of the court” as an independent voice; to specify ways that any personal information the private sector has to give the Communications Security Establishment (CSE, the government’s cyber expert) will be protected and limited from being shared with other government departments; to give legal protection to firms for handing over personal information relating to cyber incidents; and to narrow the cyber incident reporting requirements firms will have to comply with.

However, few MPs asked whether the government is willing to make these particular changes, and if so how they would be worded.

Champagne did note that the proposed law says any orders the government issues have to be to “promote the security of the telecommunications system.”

He also promised after the law has been passed to work “closely” with industry on regulations to create a “clear, consistent harmonized regulatory regime across all jurisdictions.”

Some critics say changes should be in the law, not in regulations that the government can change without notice.

LeBlanc said the government “would look favourably” on proposals to the addition of an independent observer to test the need for a secret government order to a critical infrastructure provider, without committing to what wording would be acceptable.

One of Champagne’s main messages is that the legislation is about encouraging resiliency in critical infrastructure providers as much as it is about improving their cybersecurity.

The government should have the power to compel critical infrastructure providers to close holes in their networks, he added, rather than rely on their “goodwill.”

During the massive outage suffered by Rogers Communications in 2022, the government relied on voluntary agreements to get things done, Champagne said. That’s when Ottawa realized it needed special powers for some situations.

As for complaints that the government could levy fines of up to $15 million for not complying with an order, Champagne said having a fine too low risks a provider thinking, ‘Let’s ignore the minister.’ “You need kind of a stick to make people comply,” he said.

LeBlanc said by making firms report cyber incidents to CSE, the government will have better data on cyber attacks sector by sector.

Conservative MP Doug Shipley called the legislation “a poorly drafted bill.”

“Business groups, civil liberties groups, cyber security firms are all united in the fact that Bill C-26 gives the government too much power with almost zero oversight,” he said. “There is almost no requirement for regular [Parliamentary] reporting, no independent review [of the orders governments will give providers], and no requirement for the production of written reports. In fact, most of the powers in this bill would be exercised in secret.”

“We’ve obviously taken note of the concerns expressed,” LeBlanc replied. “We would expect, in the work of this committee, if there are amendments that in your view answer some of these concerns, of course we will be open to working with the committee to ensure collectively we get the best legislation we can. We recognize these are extraordinary powers in many ways that require appropriate oversight. There is an element of judicial oversight. But we also recognize the threat landscape is evolving as well.”

Bill C-26 has two parts:

— One would amend the Telecommunications Act to give the federal cabinet and the Minister of Industry the power to order designated telecom providers to do “anything” to secure their systems against a range of threats.

— The other part, creating the Critical Cyber Systems Protection Act, would apply to other federally regulated critical infrastructure providers. Initially, these would be limited to banking, financial clearing firms, interprovincial transport and energy companies, and nuclear power operators. Similar to the Telecommunications Act changes, it would create a cyber security compliance regime for designated firms. Included would be a requirement to report cyber incidents “immediately” to the CSE, the branch of the Defence Department responsible for government cybersecurity. How fast “immediately” means would be defined in regulations.

The post Ottawa willing to improve cybersecurity bill, ministers tell MPs first appeared on IT World Canada.

U.S. takes down Russian botnet of routers.

Welcome to Cyber Security Today. It’s Friday, February 16th, 2024. I’m Howard Solomon, contributing reporter on cybersecurity for ITWorldCanada.com and TechNewsday.com in the U.S.

American authorities have neutralized a botnet of hundreds of compromised small and home office routers that Russia’s military cyber unit used for attacks. This threat actor is called different names by cybersecurity researchers such as APT28, Fancy Bear and Forrest Blizzard. The compromised devices were Ubiquiti Edge routers whose owners didn’t change the default administrator passwords. The Justice Department said it got court permission to command the malware controlling the devices to delete stolen and malicious files on the routers. Remote management access was also disabled to give the router owners time to mitigate the compromise and reassert full control. However, if owners and administrators don’t change the default password on their Ubiquiti Edge routers they’ll be open to compromise even after a factory reset of the devices. That, of course, is true for any internet-connected device.

This was the second time in two months the U.S. has disrupted state-sponsored hackers launching cyber attacks from compromised American routers.

Also on Thursday the U.S. offered a US$10 million reward for information leading to the identification or location of leaders of the AlphV/BlackCat ransomware operation. Up to US$5 million is also available for information leading to the arrest or conviction of anyone participating in a ransomware attack using this variant. In December the U.S. and several countries said they are going after this gang. As part of that operation a decryptor for this strain of ransomware was released for victims to use. This week the AlphV gang listed Canada’s Trans-Northern Pipleline as one of its victims. The company said the attack happened last November.

ESET has issued patches for several of its server, business and consumer security products for Windows. These include ESET File Security for Microsoft Azure, ESET Security for SharePoint Server, Mail Security for IBM Domino and for Exchange Server and consumer products such as NOD32 Antivirus and Internet Security.

South Korean researchers have unlocked the Rhysida ransomware. Thanks to their efforts the country’s security agency has issued a ransomware recovery tool — with instructions available in English. However, as security reporter Graham Cluley notes, now that the way the code was cracked is out the creators will likely close the hole.

The developer of the Kryptina ransomware-as-a-service operation for crippling Linux systems has changed their strategy. The code now is being given away. Researchers at SentinelOne say the developer had a ransomware rental service for only two months. This month they published the entire source code on a forum for crooks. The developer says it’s because there were no customers. The availability of free ransomware code is an opportunity crooks can take advantage of.

Mandiant released an analysis of recent cyber activity in the Middle East. Among the findings: Hamas-linked cyber groups were active with phishing attacks against several countries in the region before the October 7th killings in Israel. But since that attack there has been no significant online activity from these groups. However, recently one Hamas-linked group has launched social engineering campaigns showing advances in their cyber capabilities to deliver custom malware to high-value targets in Israel. Iranian groups since the October 7 attacks have been trying to undercut support for the war in Israel with hack-and-leak cyber attacks. Meanwhile Iran believes a cyber attack that disrupted service to gas stations came from Israel.

Finally, almost every manufacturer wants to add wireless connectivity to their product. But if it can be hacked that’s bad news — for buyers and the company’s reputation. Here’s an example: This week news emerged from TechCrunch that the maker of smart ski and bike helmets called Livall had to fix a security flaw. The problem allowed real-time location tracking of anyone wearing its helmets. The helmets get wireless connectivity through an app on the smartphones that users carry. The problem was a six-digit group code in the app could easily be brute-forced.

Later this afternoon my Week in Review podcast will be out. This week guest commentator David Shipley and I will discuss new cyber incident and data breach reporting obligations for American telecom companies; the progress of Canada’s proposed cybersecurity law and more.

Follow Cyber Security Today on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or add us to to your Flash Briefing on your smart speaker.

The post Cyber Security Today, Feb. 16, 2024 – US takes down Russian botnet of routers first appeared on IT World Canada.