Content by Mathew J. Schwartz

Brazil Suspends Access to Elon Musk's X, Including via VPNs

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  September 2, 2024

Brazil has begun blocking domestic access to social platform X - including criminalizing access by Brazilians who might use a VPN - after the company failed to comply with court orders tied to combating disinformation campaigns, and a law requiring it has a legal representative in the country.

CrowdStrike Says Code-Testing Bugs Failed to Prevent Outage

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  July 24, 2024

CrowdStrike, in a preliminary report, has blamed internal testing problems for failing to prevent the faulty "rapid content update" that caused worldwide disruption on Friday. The cybersecurity vendor has promised to refine its testing and deployment processes to avoid any repeats.

Microsoft Sees 8.5M Systems Hit by Faulty CrowdStrike Update

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  July 22, 2024

Microsoft said the faulty update CrowdStrike pushed Friday to its Falcon endpoint detection and response software affected 8.5 million Windows hosts, leading to what appears to be the largest IT outage in history, causing numerous disruptions for healthcare, banking travel, public safety and more.

CrowdStrike, Microsoft Outage Uncovers Big Resiliency Issues

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  July 19, 2024

Expect the global IT disruptions caused by a bug in CrowdStrike's software to prompt quality assurance questions for the cybersecurity vendor. Experts say the incident also highlights shortcomings in the Windows operating system, as well as many organizations' business resiliency plans.

Banks and Airlines Disrupted as Mass Outage Hits Windows PCs

Prajeet Nair , Mathew J. Schwartz  •  July 19, 2024

Banks, airlines, media giants and others are being disrupted by a mass, global IT outage tied to Windows PCs. While CrowdStrike has issued a workaround tied to a Falcon software update that appears to be the culprit, many IT administrators say it so far remains difficult to implement at scale.

Change Healthcare's Breach Costs Could Reach $2.5 Billion

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  July 17, 2024

Fallout from the February ransomware hit on Change Healthcare, including the theft of data pertaining to up to one-third of Americans, has so far led to $2 billion in costs and may yet reach $2.5 billion, says parent company UnitedHealth Group.

AT&T Details Massive Breach of Customers' Call and Text Logs

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  July 12, 2024

Attackers have stolen logs of call and text interactions pertaining to nearly every one of AT&T's millions of wireless customers, as well as customers of mobile virtual network operators who use its network, telecommunications giant warned.

After Customers Get Breached, Snowflake Refines Security

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  July 10, 2024

In the wake of multiple customers of Snowflake collectively losing terabytes of data to attackers, the cloud-based data warehousing platform has rolled out a swath of cybersecurity improvements, including allowing administrators to make multifactor authentication mandatory for all users.

Cryptocurrency Theft Haul Surges Alongside Crypto Value

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  July 9, 2024

Heists perpetrated by hackers netted twice as much in stolen proceeds in the first half of 2024 as they did in the first half of 2023, as the overall rise in crypto's value appears to be drawing increased focus from hackers, said blockchain intelligence platform TRM Labs.

UK Pathology Lab Ransomware Attackers Demanded $50 Million

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  June 19, 2024

In the ransomware attack that disrupted U.K. pathology services provider Synnovis and is still causing thousands of canceled and delayed operations and appointments across London, the attackers reportedly demanded a $50 million ransom, backed by the typical threat to leak stolen data.

Advice to CISOs: Address AI Challenges Now!

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  June 18, 2024

Forrester senior analyst Tope Olufon discusses how CISOs face the challenge of shadow IT with generative AI. CISOs need to approach AI as they would any other technology, he says. "Create a threat model, not just based on best practices, but for your organization, and then build security for that."

Privacy Regulators Probe Impact of 23andMe's Mega Breach

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  June 11, 2024

Privacy regulators in the U.K. and Canada have launched a joint investigation into 23andMe after the direct-to-consumer genetic testing service suffered a massive data breach in October 2023 that led to the theft of 6.9 million individuals' ancestry details.

London Hospitals Seek Biologics Backup After Ransomware Hit

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  June 10, 2024

The ransomware attack on a U.K. pathology services vendor has disrupted multiple London hospitals' ability to match patients' blood with available stocks. Lacking an IT system-level plan B, officials are resorting to a biologics backup by urging O type blood donors to come forward.

Surveillance Risk: Apple's Wi-Fi-Based Positioning System

Akshaya Asokan , Mathew J. Schwartz  •  May 27, 2024

Apple's Wi-Fi-based positioning system can be abused to track the live location of various types of devices around the globe, including Starlink routers in war zones, researchers warn. Until Apple puts in place more defenses, they say the system will continue to pose a "large-scale privacy threat."

Training LLMs: Questions Rise Over AI Auto Opt-In by Vendors

Mathew J. Schwartz  •  May 21, 2024

Can individuals' personal data and content be used by artificial intelligence firms to train their large language models without requiring users to opt in? The answer may vary by geography, but even in Europe it so far appears to be "yes," provided vendors practice transparency with users.