Daily Tech Digest - November 18, 2023

What You Need to Know About Securing 5G Networks and Communication

IoT devices have exploded over the past several years, and this growth shows no signs of slowing down. And all of these devices have one thing in common: Remote connectivity via a public 4G or 5G network, or, increasingly, a private 5G network. This explosion of connected devices creates an expanded attack surface, since the entire network is only as secure as its weakest link. Specifically, just because a network is secure, any devices attached to it that are not secure in how they communicate or receive updates create a breach opportunity. As a result, it’s essential that every device has an identity and each identity is managed. This might sound daunting, but it’s not as complex as it seems at first – it goes back to the building blocks of PKI. Much of the security industry has a handle on running PKI for enterprise networks in their organization (think laptops, mobile devices, and so on). Therefore, security teams are also enabled to do PKI for these smart devices — it’s the same approach for a different endpoint.


To AI Hell and Back: Finding Salvation Through Empathy

Iannopollo said the guides assisting in AI Hell could come from IT, marketing, or the executive team. “All of them understand the incredible opportunity of generative AI and the unparalleled transformative power of the new technology. And they know that without adequate security, privacy, and risk governance.” According to Forrester’s research, 36% of respondents in those groups said privacy and security are the greatest barriers to generative AI adoption, while another 31% said governance and risk were the biggest hurdle. Another 61% cited concerns that GenAI could violate privacy and data protection laws like the EU’s GDPR. “So, concerns exist,” she said. “But remember, Hell is a place of confusion.” As more frameworks come online -- more regulations, there may be less confusion and the guides will help businesses assess their AI adoption. ... Once you are out of AI Hell, like Dante, your story is not complete. Dante had to first stop in purgatory. And after spending time in AI Hell dealing with the questions of risk and threats, businesses will need to figure out a compliance strategy.


Conceptual vs. Logical vs. Physical Data Modeling

“Companies need to do Data Modeling to solve a specific business problem or answer a business question,” summarized Aiken. IT and businesses need to share goals and understanding to get to a data solution. Moreover, there needs to be a common language between systems for data to flow smoothly. However, slapping together any model or a big overarching enterprise architecture will not be helpful. A data model needs to achieve a particular purpose, and getting there requires a systematic process. Aiken’s three-dimensional model evolution framework provides resources for an improved data platform. It considers the existing architecture and the evolution needed to meet business needs and validates that stakeholders and builders are on the same page. A combination of conceptual, logical, and physical data models promises meaningful and useful results, especially where business and IT need to achieve a common objective. Doing the data modeling correctly and understanding requirements frees up 20% time and money for corporations to leverage their data capabilities and get more value from them.


AI: The indispensable ally in the information age

The implementation of AI in data centers must be viewed through a dual lens: risk mitigation and knowledge preservation. As we face a generational turnover in expertise within the industry, with a significant proportion of seasoned professionals retiring, there's an urgent need to capture and transfer this wealth of knowledge. AI and machine learning algorithms, when correctly trained and utilized, can play a crucial role in bridging this knowledge gap. By learning from clean data, and benchmarking and decisions made by experienced personnel, AI systems can emulate, and eventually, enhance these expert-driven processes. This transfer of knowledge is vital not just for maintaining current operational standards, but also for paving the way for more advanced, efficient, and resilient data center architectures. Moreover, AI's potential in managing and reducing operational risks in data centers is monumental. Advanced predictive analytics can foresee and mitigate potential failures, while continuous monitoring AI systems can identify anomalies that hint at future problems, allowing for preemptive maintenance and risk aversion.


Shadowy Hack-for-Hire Group Behind Sprawling Web of Global Cyberattacks

The cybersecurity firm's exhaustive analysis of data that Reuters journalists collected showed near-conclusive links between Appin and numerous data theft incidents. These included theft of email and other data by Appin from Pakistani and Chinese government officials. SentinelOne also found evidence of Appin carrying out defacement attacks on sites associated with the Sikh religious minority community in India and of at least one request to hack into a Gmail account belonging to a Sikh individual suspected of being a terrorist. "The current state of the organization significantly differs from its status a decade ago," says Tom Hegel, principal threat researcher at SentinelLabs. "The initial entity, 'Appin,' featured in our research, no longer exists but can be regarded as the progenitor from which several present-day hack-for-hire enterprises have emerged," he says. Factors such as rebranding, employee transitions, and the widespread dissemination of skills contribute to Appin being recognized as the pioneering hack-for-hire group in India, he says. 


Security Firm COO Hacked Hospitals to Drum Up Business

According to the plea agreement, Singla on Sept. 27, 2018, knowingly transmitted a command that resulted in an unauthorized modification to the configuration template for the ASCOM phone system at Gwinnett Medical Center's Duluth hospital campus. As a result, all of the Duluth hospital's ASCOM phones that were connected to the phone system during Singla's transmission were rendered inoperable, and more than 200 ASCOM handset devices were taken offline, the court document says. Those phones were used by Duluth hospital staff, including doctors and nurses, for internal communication, including for "code blue" emergencies. The ASCOM phones were used to place calls outside of the hospital, the court document says. On that same day, Singla - without authorization - obtained information including names, birthdates and the sex of more than 300 patients from a Hologic R2 Digitizer connected to a mammogram machine at Gwinnett's Lawrenceville hospital campus, the document says. The digitizer, which was accessible through Gwinnett's virtual private network, was protected by a password. 


How to Structure and Build a Team For Long-Term Success

Leaders have to be careful not to get caught in a situation where somebody could misconstrue their kindness or attention, but being in leadership doesn't have to mean sacrificing gaining friendships. Balance being too friendly with being able to offer necessary corrections. By nature, I tend to be a people pleaser, so I must work on being tougher — especially early in relationships. After my collegiate basketball career ended, I became a high school basketball referee. I found that the whole game went smoother if I was tough in the first quarter of a game. It is important to establish a sense of control when they first hire a new team member, and then they can infuse the second, third and fourth quarters with more friendship. Leaders can have situations that test the relationships they're working to build. Let's say someone has two people on their team, and they have to decide which one gets promoted. The one who didn't get promoted might feel like the leader let them down. Leaders must maintain enough professional distance so that an employee knows it was not due to favoritism in this situation.


Data is Everybody’s Business: The Fundamentals of Data Monetization

Companies get better at data monetization by practicing it. “Rather than wait for the right set of capabilities to magically appear,” Owens says, “businesses should start engaging in monetization activities. The learning and the returns come from doing, not from talking about doing. For starters, organizations could choose one process or product to improve or a single business challenge to solve with data.” Creating data assets also means creating organizational governance so that the right people use the data in the right ways. Data assets can be monetized only after data is properly cleaned, permissioned with the right security, and made accessible to authorized users. “If you aren’t purposely managing and monetizing your data, it won’t pay off,” says Wixom. A big problem with data is that everybody is starting from scratch all the time, says Wixom. “There isn’t enough attention to accumulating knowledge and skills for the future benefit of the organization. But if you create data assets and establish enterprise capabilities to manage them properly, data can be reused limitlessly for all kinds of value-creating reasons across an organization.”


Blockchain could save AI by cracking open the black box

Blockchain is finally being unchained from crypto, and many now see its potential as a foundation of support and validation for another emerging technology -- AI. Blockchain -- and other distributed ledger technologies -- could even help solve AI's black box problem "by providing a transparent, immutable ledger to monitor model training and trace decision-making processes," according to the authors of a new report. "This gives organizations the ability to audit the data and algorithms used, enabling greater security and trust in AI systems." ... "As AI operations go mainstream -- and as people raise concerns about the technology -- leaders are recognizing the need for a more responsible AI that prioritizes data security and transparency," the survey's authors point out. "Ensuring trustworthiness and reliability of their AI tools is a top priority for businesses, and blockchain is the turnkey solution for addressing the risks that come with AI implementation." Executives have developed a greater level of understanding of blockchain. Seventy-seven percent say they fully understand blockchain and can explain the value of it to their teams -- up five percentage points over last year's survey. 


FinOps Debuts Cloud Transparency Standards

Given that the project is backed by the largest players in the multi-billion dollar cloud market, several large enterprise-level users such as Goldman Sachs and Walmart, have also backed this initiative. “We are establishing FOCUS as the cornerstone lexicon of FinOps by providing an open source, vendor-agnostic specification featuring a unified schema and language,” says Mike Fuller CTO at the FinOps Foundation. “With this release, we are paving the way for FOCUS to foster collaboration among major cloud providers, FinOps vendors, leading SaaS providers and forward-thinking FinOps enterprises to establish a unified, serviceable framework for cloud billing data, increasing trust in the data and making it easier to understand the value of cloud spend,” Fuller said in a statement. As readers would know, cloud operators provide customers with billing data providing the costs of services they use, which also includes granular details around individual product costs, and discounts, if any. Businesses use this billing data from the service providers to track their spends, forecast future costs and build their SaaS budgets.



Quote for the day:

"Pursue one great decisive aim with force and determination." -- Carl Von Clause Witz

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