CYBERSECURITY

Shot clock

March Madness? More like March…Hack-ness.

In other words, the annual college basketball tournament is here, and workers are calling out sick, sneaking looks at brackets, and generally distracted. That leaves the game wide open to malicious actors, Matt Gaudio, Advizex VP of strategy, said in a statement.

“With employees streaming games or participating in online betting pools using company devices and networks, organizations are vulnerable to a range of cyber threats, from phishing attacks to malware infections,” Gaudio said.

Forward. That’s a great time for hackers and threat actors to drive forward. Phishing scams, online betting hacks, and credential attacks are among the dangers facing people who are invested in the games. Experts are calling for basic security hygiene and caution during the tournament to minimize theft and potential damage.

Keeper Security CEO Darren Guccione told Security Magazine that impersonation scams are a persistent threat for March Madness fans.

Read more here.—EH

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

PRESENTED BY VTEX

Find perfect balance

Your most complex processes probably aren’t your most effective ones, right? And sure, it’s tempting to say “yes, plz” to any app that claims to improve the customer experience—composable e-commerce tech stacks can lead to maintenance nightmares.

Learn to manage complexity (and keep it simple) in VTEX’s pragmatic composability white paper. Curious about the nuances of balancing the flexibility of composable architectures with practical business needs? Here’s a sneak peek at what’s inside:

• how merchants can be empowered to compose architectures using essential, best-in-class apps and leverage the native features of their e-commerce platform
• how forward-thinking organizations can use a pragmatic approach to create increased flexibility, lower maintenance, and reduced total cost of ownership

Read on here.

CYBERSECURITY

Pinky promise

South Korea, Ireland, Japan, Germany, Poland, and Finland have joined the US and 10 other countries in an initiative to curb commercial spyware misuse. The international coalition aims to counter the “proliferation and misuse of commercial spyware,” according to a background press call at the White House on March 18.

In a joint statement, which was updated to include the six new signatories, the governments involved said they “recognize the threat posed by the misuse of commercial spyware and the need for strict domestic and international controls on the proliferation and use of such technology,” adding that “commercial spyware has been misused across the world by authoritarian regimes and in democracies.”

IT Brew caught up with Jake Williams, a faculty member at IANS Research—a Boston-based cybersecurity research and advisory firm—to chat about the implications of the joint statement and all things spyware.

Read more here.—AF

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

IT OPERATIONS

Gen there, done that

The healthcare industry may not be fully embracing generative AI, but it’s at least giving the tech one of those “we’ve met” nods.

According to the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, and the 2024 Life Sciences and Health Care Generative AI Outlook Survey, which polled 60 healthcare C-suite executives who work at companies with annual revenues of $500 million or more: 75% of leading healthcare companies are already experimenting with generative AI or attempting to scale across the enterprise, and 82% currently have or plan to implement governance and oversight structure for the technology.

Early ideas include the potential to “ease documentation burdens, handle pre-op workflows, and simplify insurance claims,” as Deloitte mentioned in another study.

That kind of gen AI experimentation from healthcare professionals keeps Jeremy Huval, chief innovation officer at the certifications provider HITRUST, busy.

“We help customers communicate that they’re secure. They’ve got their privacy processes in place to stakeholders. And so in the innovation group, I have to think about gen AI…because those have very specific risks that are different than traditional IT,” Huval said.

Keep reading here.—BH

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

FROM THE CREW

Introducing After Earnings. After Earnings, a new podcast from Morning Brew and Stakeholder Labs, connects modern investors with decision-makers shaping the markets. Join co-hosts Austin Hankwitz and Katie Perry for conversations that used to be available only to hedge fund managers. Listen now to their interview with Celsius CEO John Fieldly about the beverage company’s rapid growth.

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