Quantum technology is emerging, as are increasing concerns about cybersecurity risks. And this week, the White House announced plans to “support quantum technology in the United States while laying out steps to boost cybersecurity to defend against the next generation of supercomputers.”
It’s not only the United States that is taking steps to prepare for the inevitability that these technologies will become mainstream. According to TechRadar, one of the greatest cybersecurity concerns with quantum computers is that they “will severely weaken much of the encryption techniques that we rely on today.”
McKinsey chimed in to the quantum discussion this week as well, noting, “While quantum computers may not be able to crack conventional encryption protocols until 2030, many cybersecurity and risk managers should evaluate their options now.”
In other news, tech giants Apple, Google, and Microsoft took what could potentially be a monumental step toward a passwordless world, expanding their collective “support for a sign-in standard from FIDO alliance and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).” Also noteworthy this week was the release of new updates to NIST’s Cybersecurity Guidance for Supply Chain Risk Management. These updates are in response to an Executive Order, many of which have prompted additional updates to other NIST frameworks, as we’ve covered in previous news roundups.
For more information, explore the variety of content available in our Library. Now let’s take a look at what else made industry headlines this week.
May 6: Security researchers at Red Canary discovered a new worm-like malware dubbed “Raspberry Robin.”
May 6: Cybersecurity experts weighed in on the future of misinformation with Elon Musk at the helm of Twitter.
May 5: The Better Cybercrime Metrics Act, which passed the Senate last year and the House earlier this year, was signed into law by President Biden.
May 5: Young people around the world who have been using popular “sugaring” websites hoping to find a wealthy companion to pamper them are being warned that these sugar daddy/sugar mama sites are a sweet spot for scammers.
May 4: The Daily Swig reported, “A zero-day vulnerability in uClibc and uClibc-ng, a popular C standard library, could enable a malicious actor to launch DNS poisoning attacks on vulnerable IoTdevices.”
May 4: CyberScoop reported, “National Security Agency Director and U.S. Cyber Command Gen. Paul Nakasone said Tuesday that Cyber Command conducted nine ‘hunt forward’ operations in different countries last year, a data point he shared to illustrate why the command’s use of persistent engagement is critical to its success.”
May 3: Researchers at Mozilla discovered a slew of mental-health mobile apps with weak security and privacy protocols.
May 3: A new report released by Trellix found that Unit 180 of North Korea’s cyber-army is allegedly responsible for ransomware attacks on Asian companies.
May 2: Krebs on Security reported, “Multiple Russian news outlets published stories on April 27 saying the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service had announced a plan to recruit IT specialists from Russian prisons to work remotely for domestic commercial companies.”