I’m back from another Black Hat! It was great seeing everyone. I put out a message on LinkedIn for people to come find me and, boy, did they. The hallway conversations were so engaging, I was sometimes late getting to the official talks, but I’m getting ahead of myself. AI was everywhere, as we’d expect, but I also sat down to listen to experts on other topics like critical infrastructure, cyber insurance, and the root causes of cybersecurity failure.

FoondaMate, a rapidly growing AI-powered study aid known as “study buddy” in Zulu, has become an indispensable resource for middle and high school students in emerging markets. Leveraging the advanced capabilities of Meta’s Llama technology, this virtual assistant provides conversational support via WhatsApp and Messenger, helping students with schoolwork and academic challenges.

HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. HIPAA is a U.S. law that was enacted in 1996 to protect sensitive patient health information from being disclosed without the patient's consent or knowledge and is enforced by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The purpose of HIPAA is to protect the privacy of patients’ medical information and secure the handling of health information in the age of electronic health records.

Top tips is a weekly column where we highlight what’s trending in the tech world today and list ways to explore these trends. This week, we’ll discuss quick and easy steps to keep your digital payments secure. Honestly, we think the world’s transition to digital payments was unsettlingly quick. Consumers were thrust into the world of digital payments without sufficient awareness of best practices or knowledge of what is trustworthy when it comes to online transactions.

The latest data from Coveware shows a slowing of attack efficacy, a decrease in ransom payments being made, and a shift in initial access tactics. According to Coveware’s Q2 2024 Ransomware Quarterly Report, we see a few interesting trends: A new data point brought to light this quarter is the data exfiltration only (DXF) payment trend, which is relatively flat despite fluctuating between 53% in Q1 of 2022 when tracking began, down to a low of 23% in Q1 of this year.

Remember asking your teachers when you would need to know history facts outside of school? They probably said that learning history is important in understanding our past and how society has changed and progressed over time, and that we can learn from past experiences and mistakes. They were right, of course (even if it might not have felt like it then). And that’s all equally true when it comes to the history of security.

Read also: Police dismantle the Radar/Dispossessor ransomware group, a data broker gets a prison sentence, and more.

NIST SP 800-53 is a framework developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) that provides guidelines and best practices for securing federal information systems and protecting the privacy of individuals whose information these systems handle.

Runtime anomaly detection is fast becoming a critical component for protecting containerized environments. Recent advancements in this field are addressing long-standing challenges and introducing innovative approaches to enhance security posture.