Daily Tech Digest - October 13, 2024

Fortifying Cyber Resilience with Trusted Data Integrity

While it is tempting to put all of the focus on keeping the bad guys out, there is an important truth to remember: Cybercriminals are persistent and eventually, they find a way in. The key is not to try and build an impenetrable wall, because that wall does not exist. Instead, organizations need to have a defense strategy at the data level. By monitoring data for signs of ransomware behavior, the spread of the attack can be slowed or even stopped. It includes analyzing data and watching for patterns that indicate a ransomware attack is in progress. When caught early, organizations have the power to stop the attack before it causes widespread damage. Once an attack has been identified, it is time to execute the curated recovery plan. That means not just restoring everything in one action but instead selectively recovering the clean data and leaving the corrupted files behind. ... Trusted data integrity offers a new way forward. By ensuring that data remains clean and intact, detecting corruption early, and enabling a faster, more intelligent recovery, data integrity is the key to reducing the damage and cost of a ransomware attack. In the end, it’s all about being prepared. 


Regulating AI Catastophic Risk Isn't Easy

Catastrophic risks are those that cause a failure of the system, said Ram Bala, associate professor of business analytics at Santa Clara University's Leavey School of Business. Risks could range from endangering all of humanity to more contained impact, such as disruptions affecting only enterprise customers of AI products, he told Information Security Media Group. Deming Chen, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois, said that if AI were to develop a form of self-interest or self-awareness, the consequences could be dire. "If an AI system were to start asking, 'What's in it for me?' when given tasks, the results could be severe," he said. Unchecked self-awareness might drive AI systems to manipulate their abilities, leading to disorder, and potentially catastrophic outcomes. Bala said that most experts see these risks as "far-fetched," since AI systems currently lack sentience or intent, and likely will for the foreseeable future. But some form of catastrophic risk might already be here. Eric Wengrowski, CEO of Steg.AI, said that AI's "widespread societal or economic harm" is evident in disinformation campaigns through deepfakes and digital content manipulation. 


The Importance of Lakehouse Formats in Data Streaming Infrastructure

Most data scientists spend the majority of their time updating those data in a single format. However, when your streaming infrastructure has data processing capabilities, you can update the formats of that data at the ingestion layer and land the data in the standardized format you want to analyze. Streaming infrastructure should also scale seamlessly like Lakehouse architectures, allowing organizations to add storage and compute resources as needed. This scalability ensures that the system can handle growing data volumes and increasing analytical demands without major overhauls or disruptions to existing workflows. ... As data continues to play an increasingly central role in business operations and decision-making, the importance of efficient, flexible, and scalable data architectures will only grow. The integration of lakehouse formats with streaming infrastructure represents a significant step forward in meeting these evolving needs. Organizations that embrace this unified approach to data management will be better positioned to derive value from their data assets, respond quickly to changing market conditions, and drive innovation through advanced analytics and AI applications.


Open source culture: 9 core principles and values

Whether you’re experienced or just starting out, your contributions are valued in open source communities. This shared responsibility helps keep the community strong and makes sure the projects run smoothly. When people come together to contribute and work toward shared goals, it fuels creativity and drives productivity. ... While the idea of meritocracy is incredibly appealing, there are still some challenges that come along with it. In reality, the world is not fair and people do not get the same opportunities and resources to express their ideas. Many people face challenges such as lack of resources or societal biases that often go unacknowledged in "meritocratic" situations. Essentially, open source communities suffer from the same biases as any other communities. For meritocracy to truly work, open source communities need to actively and continuously work to make sure everyone is included and has a fair and equal opportunity to contribute. ... Open source is all about how everyone gets a chance to make an impact and difference. As mentioned previously, titles and positions don’t define the value of your work and ideas—what truly matters is the expertise, work and creativity you bring to the table.


How to Ensure Cloud Native Architectures Are Resilient and Secure

Microservices offer flexibility and faster updates but also introduce complexity — and more risk. In this case, the company had split its platform into dozens of microservices, handling everything from user authentication to transaction processing. While this made scaling more accessible, it also increased the potential for security vulnerabilities. With so many moving parts, monitoring API traffic became a significant challenge, and critical vulnerabilities went unnoticed. Without proper oversight, these blind spots could quickly become significant entry points for attackers. Unmanaged APIs could create serious vulnerabilities in the future. If these gaps aren’t addressed, companies could face major threats within a few years. ... As companies increasingly embrace cloud native technologies, the rush to prioritize agility and scalability often leaves security as an afterthought. But that trade-off isn’t sustainable. By 2025, unmanaged APIs could expose organizations to significant breaches unless proper controls are implemented today. ... As companies increasingly embrace cloud native technologies, the rush to prioritize agility and scalability often leaves security as an afterthought. But that trade-off isn’t sustainable. By 2025, unmanaged APIs could expose organizations to significant breaches unless proper controls are implemented today.


Focus on Tech Evolution, Not on Tech Debt

Tech Evolution represents a mindset shift. Instead of simply repairing the system, Tech Evolution emphasises continuous improvement, where the team proactively advances the system to stay ahead of future requirements. It’s a strategic, long-term investment in the growth and adaptability of the technology stack. Tech Evolution is about future-proofing your platform. Rather than focusing on past mistakes (tech debt), the focus shifts toward how the technology can evolve to accommodate new trends, user demands, and business goals. ... One way to action Tech Evolution is to dedicate time specifically for innovation. Development teams can use innovation days, hackathons, or R&D-focused sprints to explore new ideas, tools, and frameworks. This builds a culture of experimentation and continuous learning, allowing the team to identify future opportunities for evolving the tech stack. ... Fostering a culture of continuous learning is essential for Tech Evolution. Offering training programs, hosting workshops, and encouraging attendance at conferences ensures your team stays informed about emerging technologies and best practices. 


Singapore’s Technology Empowered AML Framework

Developed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in collaboration withhttps://cdn.opengovasia.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Article_08-Oct-2024_1-Sing-1270-1.jpg six major banks, COSMIC is a centralised digital platform for global information sharing among financial institutions to combat money laundering, terrorism financing, and proliferation financing, enhancing defences against illicit activities. By pooling insights from different financial entities, COSMIC enhances Singapore’s ability to detect and disrupt money laundering schemes early, particularly when transactions cross international borders(IMC Report). Another significant collaboration is the Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism Industry Partnership (ACIP). This partnership between MAS, the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) of the Singapore Police Force, and private-sector financial institutions allows for the sharing of best practices, the issuance of advisories, and the development of enhanced AML measures. ... Another crucial aspect of Singapore’s AML strategy is the AML Case Coordination and Collaboration Network (AC3N). This new framework builds on the Inter-Agency Suspicious Transaction Reports Analytics (ISTRA) task force to improve coordination between all relevant agencies.


Future-proofing Your Data Strategy with a Multi-tech Platform

Traditional approaches that were powered by a single tool or two, like Apache Cassandra or Apache Kafka, were once the way to proceed. However, now used alone, these tools are proving insufficient to meet the demands of modern data ecosystems. The challenges presented by today’s distributed, real-time, and unstructured data have made it clear that businesses need a new strategy. Increasingly, that strategy involves the use of a multi-tech platform. ... Implementing a multi-tech platform can be complex, especially considering the need to manage integrations, scalability, security, and reliability across multiple technologies. Many organizations simply do not have the time or expertise in the different technologies to pull this off. Increasingly, organizations are partnering with a technology provider that has the expertise in scaling traditional open-source solutions and the real-world knowledge in integrating the different solutions. That’s where Instaclustr by NetApp comes in. Instaclustr offers a fully managed platform that brings together a comprehensive suite of open-source data technologies. 


Strong Basics: The Building Blocks of Software Engineering

It is alarmingly easy to assume a “truth” on faith when, in reality, it is open to debate. Effective problem-solving starts by examining assumptions because the assumptions that survive your scrutiny will dictate which approaches remain viable. If you didn’t know your intended plan rested on an unfounded or invalid assumption, imagine how disastrously it would be to proceed anyway. Why take that gamble? ... Test everything you design or build. It is astounding how often testing gets skipped. A recent study showed that just under half of the time, information security professionals don’t audit major updates to their applications. It’s tempting to look at your application on paper and reason that it should be fine. But if everything worked like it did on paper, testing would never find any issues — yet so often it does. The whole point of testing is to discover what you didn’t anticipate. Because no one can foresee everything, the only way to catch what you didn’t is to test. ... companies continue to squeeze out more productivity from their workforce by adopting the cutting-edge technology of the day, generative AI being merely the latest iteration of this trend. 


The resurgence of DCIM: Navigating the future of data center management

A significant factor behind the resurgence of DCIM is the exponential growth in data generation and the requirement for more infrastructure capacity. Businesses, consumers, and devices are producing data at unprecedented rates, driven by trends such as cloud computing, digital transformation, and the Internet of Things (IoT). This influx of data has created a critical demand for advanced tools that can offer comprehensive visibility into resources and infrastructure. Organizations are increasingly seeking DCIM solutions that enable them to efficiently scale their data centers to handle this growth while maintaining optimal performance. ... Modern DCIM solutions, such as RiT Tech’s XpedITe, also leverage AI and machine learning to provide predictive maintenance capabilities. By analyzing historical data and identifying patterns, it will predict when equipment is likely to fail and automatically schedule maintenance ahead of any failure as well as providing automation of routine tasks such as resource allocations. As data centers continue to grow in size and complexity, effective capacity planning becomes increasingly important. DCIM solutions provide the tools needed to plan and optimize capacity, ensuring that data center resources are used efficiently and that there is sufficient capacity to meet future demand.



Quote for the day:

“Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.” -- Les Brown

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