US companies hit by 'colossal' cyber-attack

Post by pjc50 » Sat, Jul 03, 2021, 7:32 AM UTC

stainforth wrote: post #147

OpieCunningham wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“After the Equifax breach, everyone learned that until there are actual repercussions for cyber attacks (like fines and people going to jail for negligence), if you can weather the storm, over the course of a year or two, there is effectively zero impact to your bottom line.” It’s even worse than just weathering a storm. Lax security has been incentivized. The Equifax CEO, Richard Smith, stepped down shortly after th…

Isn't Equifax a government organization? How do they have severance packages?

Post by C19is20 » Sat, Jul 03, 2021, 7:37 AM UTC

dehrmann wrote: post #169

eidelweissflow wrote: post #138

“ At a summit in Geneva last month, US President Joe Biden said he told Russian President Vladimir Putin he had a responsibility to rein in such cyber-attacks.” I don’t understand how Putin can stop these attacks unless he is personally responsible for them. Imagine someone in the US hacking systems in Russia or China. How in the hell Biden would know who did that and stop them? The naivety of US government is just a…

If we, the west, let Russia take Crimea and China take Hong Kong with minimal fuss, I don't see why a few cyber attacks would get more attention.

Post by robertlagrant » Sat, Jul 03, 2021, 7:40 AM UTC

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #22

colonelanguz wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you mind briefly explaining the concept of "tech debt" to a layperson?

> Technical debt (also known as design debt or code debt, but can be also related to other technical endeavors) is a concept in software development that reflects the implied cost of additional rework caused by choosing an easy (limited) solution now instead of using a better approach that would take longer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_debt

Post by beermonster » Sat, Jul 03, 2021, 7:46 AM UTC

ackbar03 wrote: post #181

jiggawatts wrote: post #4

I never quite understood why these ransom-ware attackers restrict themselves to a small subset of the MSP's clients. E.g.: The SolarWinds attack affected only something like 1% of their customers, when it could easily have been 50% or more! If you're evil and out for money, wouldn't you want to cast the widest net possible? Similarly, by encrypting a huge number of corporations concurrently, you'd "exhaust" the abili…

If i recall correctly solarwinds was more of an espionage operation by russia government actors. Their targets were mainly government agencies in US. The ransomware attack are from private profit-seeking groups, although I remember the head of REvil tweeted once he was neighbours with KGB's number two guy so you could argue the distinction is vague

Post by sgt101 » Sat, Jul 03, 2021, 7:49 AM UTC

jart wrote: post #167

ChuckMcM wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One could hope but I doubt it. CFO's gonna CFO and it's "cheaper" to outsource IT. I had one of these vendors really pushing me to "take a call" or "let them show me how they could cut costs". It was ALL about the costs. And I eventually called the CEO and said we would consider it if the company would take out a $100M bond that we could call on to repair any damage that occurred as a result of their managing our IT…

I keep reading over and over again indignant comments about "cost centers" on Hacker News and I think it's not a good term to use because I looked up the definitions and the only logical consensus I could find is that everything which isn't shareholder profit is a cost center. It's just rhetoric.