Day: June 29, 2023

US School Districts Take on Social Media – in Court

by Amy Larsen DeCarlo, posted in IT Leader
Amy Larsen DeCarlo – Principal Analyst, Security and Data Center Services

Summary Bullets:

• In January 2023, Seattle Public Schools filed a lawsuit against social media platform providers alleging they had violated a Washington State public nuisance law, resulting in a youth mental health crisis.

• 100 other districts are also suing the providers, and in May 2023, US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued an advisory warning of the possible dangers of social media to youth mental health.

The need for human connection in the disconnected digital age in which we live makes social media a dominant force. This is particularly true among younger generations who seem to live for ‘likes’ and ‘snaps’ and ‘Tik Toks.’ But in a medium where the users (and their data) are the product and not the client, there is a definite dark side.

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Verizon’s 16th Annual DBIR Finds Social Engineering is a Weapon of Choice in Cyberattacks

by Amy Larsen DeCarlo, posted in Secure
Amy Larsen DeCarlo – Principal Analyst, Security and Data Center Services

Summary Bullets:

• The Verizon Data Breach Investigations report (DBIR) revealed a sizeable jump in pretexting while ransomware continues unabated.

• While actors external to the breached organizations are responsible for most incidents, 19% of the either intentional or accidental security events are perpetrated by internal staff.

With contributions from dozens of organizations including law enforcement agencies like the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Verizon’s 2023 DBIR offers insight into the nature of current threat landscape through the analysis of more than 16,000 security incidents, 5,199 of which were confirmed data breaches. What the report reveals is an environment dominated by profit-motivated bad actors who continue to advance techniques in areas like social engineering that exploit human susceptibilities.

Continue reading “Verizon’s 16th Annual DBIR Finds Social Engineering is a Weapon of Choice in Cyberattacks” →