IT News Roundup January 2024

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What’s happening in the IT world? Stop wasting time hunting down the latest news when you can get it all here.

Rite-Aid Does the Wrong Shit With Facial Recognition

Using AI for physical security? Be careful not to violate people's rights. Major US drugstore chain Rite-Aid got hit with a unique type of FTC injunction. Regulators prohibited the company from using facial recognition tech for five years after its existing systems identified minorities and others as potential shoplifters, sometimes leading to false accusations by in-store staff.

Cybersecurity Takes More Than Just AI

According to execs, AI can help cybersecurity — but maybe don't leave it all to the machines just yet. In news that should surprise very few, a survey of 800 IT decision-makers revealed that stakeholders still need to keep humans in the loop.

Hacked Brands Lose Consumers

Think you'll survive the next big hack and somehow keep on ticking? You might be completely wrong if customers have anything to say about it. A recent study by cloud security provider Vercara shed light on an interesting statistic. According to the research, 75 percent of US consumers will completely ditch brands that fall prey to attacks —not much room for error!

Public-cloud Services on Track for $1 Trillion

2023 was big for the public cloud services industry. Revenues in the first half of the year topped $315 million. Experts say the growth will only continue thanks to sectors like generative AI.

Xfinity Breaches Impact 36 Million, Comcast Hit With Lawsuits

US telecom company Comcast faces quite a lot of pain thanks to breaches that compromised a whopping 36 million customers. Although the hack first came to light in late October, it took until December for the provider to let customers know their data had been stolen. Hackers not only got usernames and hashed passwords but also partial social security numbers and contact information.

Apple Estimates Two-Year Personal Info Breach Count at 2.6 Billion

We've long known that hackers love targeting personal info, and Apple recently put the problem into perspective. By its estimates, over the past two years, more than 2.6 billion personal records were breached, suggesting attack velocities are increasing.

EU's AI Act Draws Closer

After years spent hashing out the fine details, the European Union seems closer to a consensus about AI. Regulators hope to pass a law controlling the technology in the first half of 2024. As it stands, the rule will see AI systems classified on a risk-based rubric, but it may include carveouts for open-source and free tech. Is it time to review your AI supply chain?

Will AWS vs. Microsoft Be the Next Cloud-based Consumer Choice Slugfest?

Tech giants are no strangers to aggressive market practices. But if AWS has its way, Microsoft will soon have to ease off — at least in the UK. Amazon sent regulators a letter accusing Microsoft of unfair licensing practices that may prompt a change in how we source cloud solutions.

Should You Pay Out When Ransomware Strikes?

There's more than one way to respond to a ransomware attack. In fact, there are so many that it can be hard to choose a strategy based on prior examples, but The Register shared an interesting report comparing two cases from the same industry: The Caesars and MGM casinos. Both stories started the same, yet they ended quite differently.

Major AI Training Dataset Contained Child Sexual Abuse Material

LAION-5B, a dataset used to train generative AI tools like StableDiffusion, was found to include thousands of examples of unsavory content. Although the dataset doesn't house the images, it does include metadata, like URLs and descriptions. According to the Stanford Internet Observatory, more than 1,000 of these records corresponded to child sexual abuse material.

SEC Breach Reporting Rule Rolls Out

The final month of 2023 saw the US Securities and Exchange Commission enact a new rule on breach reporting requirements. Although this had been in the works for a while, the finalized legislation is worthy of a review if you're an MSP -- or almost any other modern IT-enabled company!

Blackcat Ransomware Sparks US Crackdown

The Blackcat ransomware gang has been on the security radar a lot recently, but finally, there's some good news. Officials in the US say they've seized multiple websites linked to the gang. They also reported coming to the aid of dozens of victims by recovering their information.

UK 2G and 3G Switchoff Could Catch Many Off-Guard

In December, the UK's Local Government Association revealed more than a quarter of local authorities had their heads in the sand. About 27 percent of respondents said they didn't know 2G and 3G networks were facing an imminent shutdown. This could be good news if you hate feeding parking meters, but not if you like getting your trash collected.