News You Might’ve Missed. 24-28 February

Hello, once again. We're back with an overview of the week's news for MSPs. From Apple going rogue on TLS certificates to upcoming events, let's see what's going on.

Events for MSPs in March 2020

It may seem challenging to attend all the different MSP events, but what an excellent way to help your business to expand.

Apple Goes Rogue

Developers are up in arms over Apple's latest website security enhancement. Beginning on September 1st, Safari will show privacy errors on sites using TLS certificates with more than 13 months of validity. Apple's Safari browser will no longer trust the certificates. Their aim is to improve website security, but developers are crying foul, as it seems Apple has gone off on its own with this decision against the wishes of the certificate authorities (CAs), which issue certificates as a business.

Microsoft Makes Azure Sphere Available to All

Microsoft launched a preview of Azure Sphere two years ago. The company is now making it available to all as a means of providing security on IoT devices. It is currently building Azure Sphere chips into IoT devices to power single-chip computers and processors, storage, and memory (microcontrollers).

Halina McMaster, Program Manager at Microsoft, clarified, "Every Azure Sphere chip includes built-in Microsoft security technology to provide a dependable hardware root of trust and advanced security measures to guard against attacks. The Azure Sphere OS will limit the potential reach of an attack and make it possible to restore the health of the device if it's ever compromised. We continually update our OS, proactively adding new and emerging protections."

With the general availability of the Azure Sphere, more businesses will adopt it to secure their business's use of IoT devices.

Google Cloud Enters into a $500M Agreement with SADA

Partners are a big part of Google LLC's public cloud strategy and the company has announced that it has entered an agreement with its partner, SADA Systems Inc., in which SADA will deliver consulting services to enterprises looking to adopt Google Cloud. SADA is Los Angeles-based and helps businesses with application migrations and database management.

Under this agreement, the firm will launch new migration, training, and contact center solutions, as well as grow its engineering team. SADA is a rapidly growing enterprise. Google's cloud business named it as its "Global Reseller Partner of the Year" for 2019. According to Carolee Gearhart, vice president, worldwide channel sales at Google Cloud, "SADA is a great example of how a partner can successfully build a thriving, customer-centric business around Google Cloud."

Cisco Launches Secure X

Cisco Systems has launched Secure X, a platform that unifies all its security capabilities for easier management. They made the announcement at the RSA Conference 2020 event, where they added that the new platform will eliminate the need for cybersecurity professionals to log in to multiple tools and applications.

Cisco also shared that the threat intelligence data gathered by the Cisco Talos team will be available via Cisco Secure X, as well. Ben Munro, director of product marketing for Cisco security, said Cisco Secure X will significantly reduce the time it takes to discover a cybersecurity issue and then remediate it.
This is excellent news for teams trying to increase efficiency in the face of the current security climate of data breaches and ransomware attacks.

Is Election Security a Reality?

Election security has been under examination since 2016. Many do not believe that our elections are vulnerable, but recent events, in addition to a report released the Government Accounting Office, reveal that there are many forces threatening election security. One of the huge issues is the lack of uniformity in election systems throughout the US. Each state handles it differently.

As the Iowa caucus revealed, the elections aren't ready for the digitalization of the process, and rushing it only ends in disaster. The GAO has provided some guidance for future elections, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has highlighted the voluntary services, including some in the field of cybersecurity, available to those managing elections across the US.

While it seems the US Senate is willing to take chances on the security of our election systems, the threat appears very real. As the calendar advances towards election day, the risk to the security of the 2020 elections remains in question. It may seem that, without action by elected officials, the only secure option is to go back to paper ballots.

Clearview AI Hacked, Losing Entire Client List

Also in the news was another breach report by Clearview AI, which compiles photos for facial recognition. Clearview AI said that an intruder "gained unauthorized access" to its customer list, which includes police forces, law enforcement agencies, and banks. The company says the flaw that allowed the breach to occur has been patched, but the hackers got away with the entire client list.

Although, in an interview with CNN Business earlier this month, Clearview AI founder and CEO Hoan Ton downplayed concerns about his technology, the hackers claim to have scraped more than 3 billion photos from the internet. These include photos from popular social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, a fact that has led the social media platforms to file "cease and desist" orders against them.

That's a Wrap

That's the week in summary. I hope this overview has been helpful. MSP360 is your resource for MSP news. Check back next week for more highlights.

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