Security News Update for December 20, 2024

Amazon Delays Office 365 Rollout Due to Security Concerns

Depending on whether you are an optimistic or pessimist, you can assume what Amazon’s intentions are. Likely this is about trying to convince potential customers that Amazon is secure and Microsoft is not. While there is probably some truth to that, I think there is more politics here than is being publicly stated. On the other hand, if Microsoft does make security improvements, they get another 1.2 million paying customers from Amazon, so making improvements is probably worthwhile. Not to mention bragging rights to say that their biggest competitor uses their software. Credit: CSO Online

Buying or Renting, Residential or Business, Consider Internet, Cellular Access

Too many stories to ignore. We leased a building; knew there was fiber in it. After we signed, we discovered the fiber was dedicated to one tenant. Took nine months and dollars to drop our own fiber. To add pain, cellular service was very weak in the area. Another case was a residence. The current owner had Internet access. Turns out the carrier’s capacity was maxed out and when the seller cancelled their service, the buyer went to the very bottom of the carrier’s waiting list. At least three year’s wait. If you need help figuring this out, please ask us.

Feds Ban ALL Drones in New Jersey

In the wake of hundreds of drone sightings in New Jersey, the FAA banned all drone flights in the entire state of New Jersey. In addition, the added restricted airspace in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Far Rockaway, Queens and Garden City. The bans will last at least 30 days, except for Bedminster, where the president-elect has an estate. In addition, other drone bans were either enacted or extended. The ban says that if the feds deem it appropriate, they will destroy any drones found flying. That will be a downer for anyone getting a drone for Christmas. Credit: Cybernews

Are You Watching the Traffic Attacking Your Web

I watch this blog’s logs as hackers attempt brute force attacks attempting to break in. Why? It is not because this blog contains nuclear launch codes, that is for sure. But the attack traffic can be significant some days. One key reason to attack is to host malicious pages on the site, not linked to anything legitimate on the site but to direct spam response traffic to so that it can’t be easily tracked back to them. Now we are learning that one of the legitimate security research tools has, itself, been hacked and bad actors are hosting versions of it on the web for hackers to use to attack your public servers and sell that access. If you are not watching for that traffic, you should be because if bad things happen, you are going to need to explain to the feds why you are hosting malware. If you are concerned, contact us. Credit: Brian Krebs

Crypto Theft Business Doubles – For North Korean Hackers

North Korean hackers stole $1.3 billion this year, so far, up from $660 million last year. This is a large chunk of the $2.2 billion stolen globally, according to estimates. If you are playing in the crypto game, make sure you understand the risk because many times, it is outside of your control, but you are still the loser. Credit: Metacurity

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