Decade-old healthcare security SNAFU settled for $11M • The Register - Health Net Federal Services (HNFS) and its parent company Centene Corporation, were found liable of lying on security attestations and ignoring 3rd party audits of their environment from 2015-2018. Fine amounts to 0.0067% of it’s 2023 revenue ($163Bn).
Beware of DDoSes from Mirai-based botnet of Mitel phones • The Register - Mitel, the phone thats sat on hundreds of desks across the world may have default credentials, and may have been roped into a Mirai botnet as part of the new Aquabotv3. Just a reminder to patch everything. Everywhere. All the time.
China and frieds say they’re hurting cyber-slave scam camps • The Register - China and other Asian nations (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam) are concentrating on cyber-scam slave camps. Many tech-support and romance scams are staffed by human slaves in border regions in Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand. China estimates 100k of its citizens are currently held in these camps.
FCC chief urges auction to fund ‘Rip and Replace’ program • The Register - To fund the removal of Huawei and ZTE equipment from American networks, the FCC is considering a spectrum fire sale. The last sale of Advanced Wireless Services spectrum (for mobile operators) saw AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, among others raise $45bn. Outgoing director Jessica Rosenworcel specifically called out Chinese-based Typhoon actors as being the catalyst for the sale.
This book was recommended to me by one of the most intentional managers I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. Matt R. brought me in as a Senior Cybersecurity Engineer at Cradlepoint and oversaw my transition to Manager of that same engineering team. Throughout my time with Matt, he worked diligently to hold me to the tenets laid about by Ms. Fournier in this book and to encourage me to be a better leader for my team. Overall, this book has been a constant reference for my career in leadership and I recommend it to anyone on a technical path who finds themselves considering or entering into the management field. Specifically for Engineers who are managing Engineers.
Apple offers $95M settlement in Siri privacy lawsuit • The Register - Something as simple as a zipper or an individual raising their arms would cause Siri to start recording. Lopez, et al v. Apple Inc will be settled for $95 million if the N. California District Court approves. Apple CEO Tim Cook had previously told Congress that Siri’s recording features required a “clear, unambiguous trigger”, i.e.; “Hey Siri”
Siri-enabled Apple users from 2011-to an unknown date will likely be eligible diluting individual payouts.
95m dollars(USD) is roughly less than .001 of Apple’s Profits in 2024.
Critical Apache Struts bug under active exploit • The Register - Guess who’s back, back again. Apache Struts, in-famous for being the source of the Equifax breach in 2017, is back with CVE-2024-53677 a rehash of a vulnerability discovered in Dec 2023. Struts File Upload component features the 9.5 out of 10 CVSS CVE
N Korea may receive tech in exchange for military support • The Register - DPRK has provided around 10,000 troops to Putin’s war in Ukraine. After DPRK successfully conducted a 90 minute missile flight the US and its allies are starting to wonder exactly what Pyongyang got in exchange for those troops.