Welcome to issue 18 of IT Pro 20/20, distilling the most important themes of the previous month into an easy-to-read package.
In this cyber-security-themed issue, we highlight some of the most pressing challenges facing the industry. Our lead feature looks at the role of white hat hackers across the industry, the challenges they have faced in proving their value to companies, and whether media depictions of the traditional ‘hacker’ are creating unhelpful stereotypes.
We also look at the evolution of the security threat landscape from the 1990s until now, as well as consider whether the sudden appearance of social conscience among hackers may spell the end of the ransomware industry as we know it.
Also in this issue, you’ll find an overview of the most exciting features coming with Windows 11, as well as a look at the motivations fuelling the war against end-to-end encryption.
The next IT Pro 20/20 will be available on 30 July – previous issues can be found here. If you would like to receive each issue in your inbox as they release, you can subscribe to our mailing list here.
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Prolific ransomware operator added to Europe’s Most Wanted list as US dangles $10 million rewardNews The US Department of Justice is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest of Volodymyr Viktorovych Tymoshchuk, an alleged ransomware criminal.
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Jaguar Land Rover “did the right thing” shutting down systems to thwart cyber attackNews The attack on Jaguar Land Rover highlights the growing attractiveness of the automotive sector
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Ransomware attack on IT supplier disrupts hundreds of Swedish municipalitiesNews The attack on IT systems supplier Miljödata has impacted public sector services across the country
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A notorious hacker group is ramping up cloud-based ransomware attacksNews The Storm-0501 threat group is refining its tactics, according to Microsoft, shifting away from traditional endpoint-based attacks and toward cloud-based ransomware.
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Security researchers have just identified what could be the first ‘AI-powered’ ransomware strain – and it uses OpenAI’s gpt-oss-20b modelNews Using OpenAI's gpt-oss:20b model, ‘PromptLock’ generates malicious Lua scripts via the Ollama API.
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Data I/O shuts down systems in wake of ransomware attack
News Regulatory filings by Data I/O suggest the costs of dealing with the attack could be significant
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Average ransom payment doubles in a single quarterNews Targeted social engineering and data exfiltration have become the biggest tactics as three major ransomware groups dominate
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BlackSuit ransomware gang taken down in latest law enforcement sting – but members have already formed a new groupNews The notorious gang has seen its servers taken down and bitcoin seized, but may have morphed into a new group called Chaos
