ByteBeat: Your Monthly Dose of IT Buzz and Breakthroughs – January 2024

As we step into the first month of the new year, the dynamic world of Information Technology (IT) is already abuzz with groundbreaking developments and cutting-edge innovations.

January brings a fresh wave of IT news, offering a glimpse into the evolving landscape of technology that will shape our digital future.

From the latest advancements in artificial intelligence to unveiling revolutionary cybersecurity techniques and events, the IT realm is poised for another year of transformative growth.

Cybersecurity

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.

Read more here.

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!

Read more here.

Cloud

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.

Read more here.

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.

Read more here.

Security

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.

Read more here.

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?

Read more here.

consumer market

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.

Read more here.

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.

Read more here.

security

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!

Read more here.

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 report coming to the aid of dozens of victims by recovering their information.

Read more here.

security

Top 5 Cybersecurity Mergers and Acquisitions 2023

Learn about the top 5 cybersecurity merges and acquisitions that happened in 2023. Cisco, ClowdStrike, Proofpoint, Tahoma Bravo, and more.

Read more here.