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New analysis from Symantec has revealed a significant increase in the number of ransomware attacks in the second quarter of 2024.

The company's figures claimed criminal groups claimed 1,310 attacks during the period, a 36% increase from the previous quarter, and close to the all-time high of 1,488 attacks recorded in Q3 2023.

“The sharp increase in attacks in the second quarter of this year suggests that momentum is once again with attackers,” the report states. “While high-profile ransomware operations such as Noberus shut down, the pool of skilled affiliates appears to be undisturbed and many appear to simply migrate to alternative franchises.“

A new wave - with some old names

Symantec's report suggests the disruption of Lockbit, the largest ransomware as a service (RaaS) provider earlier this year, led to a dramatic decrease in ransomware attacks for the first quarter of 2024, but the latest reports show cyber criminals have bounced back. Lockbit operations in Q2 2024 accounted for 353 attacks, the highest level detected to date.

New groups like Qilin proved to be more prolific in the wake of the Lockbit takedown, claiming 97 attacks in Q2 of 2024, which was a rise of 47%. The Ransomhub group tripled its attacks from Q1 to Q2, proving perhaps that the Lockbit disruption simply diversified the landscape rather than cripple any operations.

Ransomware payments have become more expensive in recent years too, with the average demand hitting $1.5 million. As cybersecurity inevitably becomes more central to organizations, understanding and mitigating the risks of ransomware is crucial for any business.

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Cybersecurity researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, came up with a very James Bond-esque way to steal sensitive files from air-gapped systems.

The method is dubbed RAMBO (short for Radiation of Air-gapped Memory Bus for Offense) because it abuses the target computer’s RAM memory to steal data, taking advantage of the electromagnetic radiation the memory generates while operating.

An air-gapped system is disconnected from the wider network, and the internet. This is a (relatively) extreme measure reserved only for the most critical of systems, holding the most important data. So, even if a user inadvertently introduces a piece of malware (for example, via a compromised USB device), the malware would still have no way of transmitting the data to the outside world (other than copying the files directly onto the said USB, which is an entirely different beast).

Defending air-gapped systems

However, in this scenario, the malware would tamper with RAM components to allow for a recipient, which needs to be standing relatively close, to exfiltrate sensitive data.

The large caveat is still the fact that a person would need to stand relatively close. Another caveat is that the file transfer done this way is relatively slow. Don’t expect to be stealing any large files or databases, since it takes more than two hours to download 1 megabyte of information (for the fossils among you - author included - that’s slower than dial-up).

The method could still be used to steal keystrokes, passwords, or other data that doesn’t take up too much space.

The best way to defend against these things is simply not to let people near valuable endpoints, the experts conclude.

Via BleepingComputer

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The worst-kept secret in all of tech is now official: Apple Intelligence is compatible with all iPhone 16 models including the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max.

Announced at the September 9 Apple event, which you can follow along with in our Apple 'Glowtime' event liveblog, the iPhone 16 lineup is fully compatible with Apple's AI-fuelled features. This news comes as no surprise, with Apple Intelligence launching in iOS 18.1 on the new best iPhones as well as the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Apple Intelligence adds new features like proofreading, summarizing webpages, Genmoji, and Image Playground to a whole host of Apple products. Want to know if your Mac or iPad is compatible? Here's our Apple Intelligence compatibility list.

The most-anticipated Apple Intelligence feature, however, is a new look Siri with powerful new capabilities including on-screen awareness and ChatGPT integration. This new version of Siri with all the Apple Intelligence bells and whistles won't arrive until 2025, but all of the new iPhones will get an update with the new voice assistant features in the future.

iPhone 16's Apple Intelligence glow up

Apple Intelligence compatibility on the regular iPhone 16 is a huge upgrade incentive for owners of any iPhone outside last year's Pro models. The extra AI features could seriously improve your day-to-day smartphone usage when they arrive later this year, and you won't even need to buy the best iPhone to access them.

Designed for Apple Intelligence from the ground up, the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus have the A18 chip with 16-core Neural Engine, perfect for all your Apple Intelligence needs.

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When a movie franchise puts out the last installment in its line of movies, it has the same feeling you get when you close the final page of a book – at least that’s what I felt when I watched Breaking Dawn Part Two, the last movie in the series of the Twilight movies. Now Netflix, the best streaming service, is set to revive the franchise with an animated series based on Stephenie Meyer’s novel Midnight Sun. 

While the series is still in early development and Netflix has yet to unveil an official release date, we already have a sense of how the storyline of the new Twilight series will unfold. The animated show will be adapted from the 2020 novel Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer – the writer of the Twilight novel series  – which retells the events of the first book from the perspective of Edward Cullen, the teenage vampire who falls for Bella Swan.  

(Image credit: Summit)

Returning to the Twilight production team will be none other than the franchise’s creator herself, Stephenie Meyer, who will assume the position of executive producer with Meghan Hibbett of Fickle Fish Films. Accompanying the two will be Sinead Daly, who’s previous writing experience on one of Netflix Australia's best TV shows The Get Down will be an asset to bringing Edward’s story to life.

Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart played the roles of Edward and Bella in the movie series, which raked in billions of dollars in box office revenue between 2008-2012, but the question as to who will be next to step into the roles for Netflix’s animated series remains unanswered. Regardless of who’s selected and however the series is received, I can tell you that I will be binging it on premiere day.

Netflix, you have my undivided attention 

(Image credit: Summit Entertainment)

I can imagine that a lot of people will have many questions about Netflix’s upcoming animated series because, while the original movies were box office successes, the ratings from critics are catastrophic. As it stands, the first movie, Twilight (2008), has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 49%, which is tied with its final installment Breaking Dawn Part Two. Eclipse follows with 46%, then New Moon with 28%, and Breaking Dawn Part One comes dead last with 25%, meaning that none of them have made our list of best Netflix movies. 

As someone who not only lived through each movie release but once did a non-stop watch party where I watched all five movies in one day (it was lockdown), I admit that the films are objectively bad, but that’s why I’m obsessed with them. And what will undoubtedly annoy me about the upcoming animated series is the snobbish criticism it will receive, which will be purely based on its canon texts. The Twilight movies weren’t designed to be moving and thought-provoking pictures, so why stay mad? 

The beauty about the Twilight series is that the entire thing is powered by its failed seriousness, which is the case for a lot of young-adult book to movie adaptations of the early-mid 2010s – just look at movies like The Fault in Our Stars (2014) and the Divergent series (2014-2016). Netflix’s attempt at an animated Twilight series could absolutely crash and burn, and if it does, I’m here for it.  

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IFA 2024 continues to deliver even more tech news, including the reveal of tons of AI PCs from top manufacturers. One such is Samsung’s Galaxy line, which is getting two new AI-based entries.

The first is the Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro 360, powered by the Intel Core Ultra CPU (Series 2) and an NPU with up to 47 total TOPs. It also features an Intel Arc GPU, a 3K resolution and 120Hz refresh rate screen, a Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with Vision Booster (which reduces glare), and according to the tech giant, reaches up to 25 hours of video playback battery life. Its specs also include 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage.

The second laptop is the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge, powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Plus 8-core CPU and an NPU with up to 45 total TOPs. It features a 15.6-inch FHD display with anti-glare tech and comes in Sapphire Blue. Despite the thin and light design, the port selection is well-rounded, with USB Type-C, USB Type-A, HDMI, a combo jack, and a micro SD slot. Its specs also include 16GB of RAM and up to 512GB of storage.

Like other Windows-based AI PCs, the Book5 Pro 360 and the Book4 Edge utilize Copilot+ AI and its in-house AI tools and programs. The former is already available in the UK for £1,699 and will be available on September 24 in other regions. The latter will launch in the US, UK, and other regions starting October 10.

What’s the future of AI-powered CPUs? 

Like other AI PCs, Samsung is mixing up which AI-powered CPUs will be featured in different models. This move not only increases the options that buyers can choose from based on personal preference but most likely allows manufacturers to ‘test’ out which CPUs work best for their needs.

Of course, plenty of testing had to have been done before launch to ensure that buyers would have the best products. However, the most reliable way to find out the true performance and limits of these AI CPUs and NPUs is to wait for official benchmarks and thorough testing from professionals.

As AI PCs are a new concept and we haven’t seen the full range of what all the CPUs can accomplish yet, it’ll be fascinating to see which ones actually turn out to be winners. However, we’ve at least seen the first Snapdragon chips, and so far, they’ve been extremely promising, with the Dell XPS 13 (2024) and the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 being notable examples.

While I do have faith in AMD putting out solid AI CPUs that could potentially rival Snapdragon, my worries lie more with Intel’s output. Lunar Lake should technically be more than sufficient to compete with and surpass its competitors, but considering the ongoing stability issues with Intel’s 13th and 14th-gen processors, there are still some doubts as to what Team Blue can accomplish in reality.

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The Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is flawed, and needs to be fixed. Repairing this protocol would minimize data theft, extortion, state-level espionage, as well as the disruption of security-critical transactions. This is the conclusion of a new roadmap document, published earlier this week by the White House.

The document is called “Roadmap to enhancing internet routing security”, and it discusses the problems, and potential solutions, of BGP.

The Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is the primary routing protocol used to exchange routing information between different autonomous systems (AS) on the internet. In other words, it’s the glue that holds the entire internet together.

Espionage and data theft

It enables routers to determine the most efficient paths for data to travel across the vast expanse of interconnected networks that make up the internet. BGP is crucial for maintaining a stable and scalable internet by allowing networks to share reachability information and make routing decisions based on a variety of policies.

But the protocol was designed back in 1989, and security was more of an afterthought. As a result, BGP has been abused multiple times throughout the years in some high-profile attacks. For example, in 2008, a Pakistani ISP wanted to block access to YouTube within Pakistan but accidentally announced a more specific BGP route that led to YouTube’s global traffic being redirected through Pakistan. This caused a worldwide outage of YouTube for several hours.

Two years later, China Telecom advertised incorrect BGP routes that caused a significant amount of global internet traffic, including that of U.S. government and military sites, to be routed through China for about 18 minutes. China claimed it was an incident, while some researchers in the west thought it was a deliberate attempt at cyber-espionage.

In 2018, attackers hijacked BGP routes for Amazon’s Route 53 DNS service to redirect traffic intended for MyEtherWallet, a popular cryptocurrency wallet service, to a malicious server. The attackers then stole users' cryptocurrency by tricking them into entering their credentials on the fake site.

The solution is an authentication scheme called Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI) - a security framework designed to enhance the security of the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) by providing a way to cryptographically verify the ownership of IP address blocks and the authorization of networks to announce specific routes.

“To that end, this document serves as a roadmap to increase the adoption of technologies that address critical vulnerabilities associated with the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) and drive improvements in Internet inter-domain routing security and resilience,” the White House’s document concludes.

“This roadmap is not a technical guide on how to implement routing, but rather points to best-available guidance and practices, details United States Government (USG) actions to promote BGP security, and makes recommendations to improve routing security throughout the Internet ecosystem.”

Via The Register

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