Hack what you know, apparently.

According to a report from security-research team Cisco Talos, Q2’s threat actors targeted technology more than any other sector, including healthcare, pharma, and retail. The findings, published in a July blog post, revealed a 30% increase in tech-sector engagements compared to Cisco’s previous quarter—a sign that attackers consider the field to be one with bonus prizes.

“You’re definitely seeing hackers become increasingly aware that if you attack someone who provides a service to a lot of different customers, you have a lot of follow-on opportunities,” David Liebenberg, head of strategic analysis at Cisco Talos, told IT Brew.

Organizations in the technology sector, which Talos said accounted for 24% of 2024’s second-quarter engagements, offer attractive gateways to threat actors “given their significant role in supplying and servicing a wide range of sectors,” according to the blog post.

Read the rest here.—BH

In the wild world of IT, self-service cloud solutions have come to rule—and for good reason. They boost collaboration and help IT pros take ownership of their DevOps processes. But all innovation comes with a learning curve, and IDPs are no exception.

That’s why Amazon Web Services and DevOps Institute put together a must-watch webinar that spills all the deets on the most effective IDP architectures for optimizing dev productivity. Yep, this one’s a total game changer for streamlining workflows.

Curious about what’s in store? You’ll learn how to:

• Grasp the concept of IDPs and how they manage production environment complexity.
• Build architectural patterns for modular, extensible, and manageable IDPs.
• Apply best practices for using infrastructure as code (IaC) for IDP construction.

Hurry up and tune in.

As cyberwar becomes more of a reality for US security concerns, the Department of Defense is amping up its efforts to manage the threat—and on August 1, the Senate confirmed the agency’s first cyber policy chief.

Michael Sulmeyer was confirmed after being approved out of committee by voice vote. A longtime federal defense and security director and advisor, Sulmeyer has served as director of rapid vulnerability review for the Deputy Secretary of Defense, senior director of cyber policy at the NSC, and as senior advisor to the commander, US Cyber Command. He also led the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center Cybersecurity Project.

“My overriding goal, if confirmed, would be to generate the combat power and sustained readiness in cyberspace necessary both to advance American interests and to defend them from current and future threats,” Sulmeyer told lawmakers during a July 11 Senate Armed Services hearing on his nomination.

Read more here.—EH

A certain level of FOMO seems to be driving businesses to spend big on generative AI, but scaling the tech up can be tricky.

That’s one takeaway from a new survey released by IT consultancy Cognizant and Oxford Economics. It found that around 70% of companies report they are not moving fast enough to implement AI, with 82% worrying a delay in implementation could lead to a competitive disadvantage. Only about 26% of respondents reported having implemented cross-enterprise use cases.

The survey is a companion to a larger report that the tech firm released earlier this year that aimed to map out a timeline for the rise of generative AI and its effects on jobs. That report predicted that up to 13% of businesses will have adopted the tech in the next three to four years, with that number rising to 46% over the course of the next decade.

It comes as processors needed for data centers continue to fly off of the figurative shelves and companies keep investing in AI infrastructure, although some investors have begun to wring their hands about a potential bubble. Cognizant itself anted up $1 billion to be spent on the tech over the next three years, and other consultancies have put forth similar investment pledges.

Keep reading here.—PK

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