CLOUD

Nature vs. server

Forget magnetic tape, enterprises looking to archive huge quantities of data might be using a method pioneered by life itself: DNA storage.

The technological breakthrough can’t come soon enough. North American data center vacancy rates have been steadily dropping for years according to trends tracked by datacenterHawk, while JLL’s Data Centers Global Outlook report for 2024 projected long-term challenges arising from exponential growth in power use and storage requirements.

DNA data storage has one big advantage—it’s incredibly dense. Harvard scientists estimated a single gram of DNA can hold around 215 petabytes of information. It’s also extremely stable, meaning it could outlast mechanical or digital storage methods by decades or more, and it’s not like the format is going to change.

“This standard has been around for billions of years, and is likely to be around for as long as there’s life on Earth,” Rob Carlson, managing director of tech venture capital firm Planetary Technologies and affiliate professor at the University of Washington, told IT Brew. With Gartner projecting enterprise storage shortfalls potentially reaching two-thirds of demand by 2030, Carlson thinks DNA could bridge the gap.

Read more here.—TM

Do you work in IT or have information about your IT department you want to share? Email [email protected]. Want to go encrypted? Ask Tom for his Signal.

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CYBERSECURITY

Let’s meet for malware next week

Here’s one more reason to cancel the Zoom meeting.

Last week, Brian Krebs from KrebsOnSecurity reported how malicious hackers are seizing on an everyday hybrid work challenge: a problem with the videoconference link.

The cagey tactic reveals a sought-after target—crypto—and the crafty way bad actors get it, by building trust through interaction and trusted tools.

What happened? KrebsOnSecurity reported a fake investor, whose Telegram profile showed he was connected to a well-established investment firm in Singapore, reached out to set up an appointment with a target, a pro “in the cryptocurrency scene” (Krebs calls him “Doug”). Doug sent an invite via scheduling platform Calendly. On the day of the meeting, after Doug’s meeting link didn’t work, the “investor” claimed to have problems with the link, and instead offered a different teleconference option, which led Doug to download a script, which executed malicious code on his macOS system.

Crypto, crypto, crypto. A Dec. 2023 post from cryptocurrency security firm SlowMist, which Krebs cited in his Feb. 28 post, demonstrated similar tactics from North Korea affiliated hackers known as the Lazarus Group: impersonating investment institutions, targeting DeFi teams, and sending trojan links to supposedly solve videoconference problems.

Read more here.—BH

Do you work in IT or have information about your IT department you want to share? Email [email protected].

CYBERSECURITY

Dialing in

Hackers’ latest offerings on the dark web: 1.7 terabytes of stolen data from the largest telecom provider in Taiwan, full of government and military documents, according to French news agency AFP.

“The initial analysis of this case is that hackers obtained Chunghwa Telecom’s sensitive information and sold it on the dark web, including documents from the armed forces, foreign affairs ministry, coast guard, and other units,” the defense ministry told the outlet in a statement.

Chunghwa Telecom is headquartered in Taipei City, Taiwan, and as of December 31, had 13.1 million mobile subscribers, 9.2 million fixed-line subscribers, and 4.4 million broadband subscribers.

In its statement, the ministry didn’t disclose the identity or location of the hackers, but noted that an air force contract and navy correspondence included in the leak weren’t confidential. “We have asked the contractor involved to strengthen its information security control to prevent any further incidents,” it said.

Keep reading here.—AF

Do you work in IT or have information about your IT department you want to share? Email [email protected].

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