According to security researchers at Sophos, average ransom payments surged by 500% in the past year to reach $2m per payment. This compares to an average payment of $400,000 calculated by Sophos in its 2023 study, demonstrating that ransomware operators are seeking increasingly large payoffs from victims. The researchers noted that nearly two-thirds (63%) of ransom demands made in the past year were $1m or more, with 30% of demands demanding over $5m. This is despite a reduction in the rate of organizations being hit by ransomware in the past year, at 59%.

"Muddling Meerkat," a new cluster of activity, has been suspected of being linked to a Chinese state-sponsored threat actor's manipulation of the Domain Name System (DNS) to probe networks since October 2019, with a surge in activity observed in September 2023. The hackers behind this activity manipulate Mail Exchange (MX) records by injecting fake responses through China's Great Firewall (GFW).

Apple M-series chips, designed to perform more consistently and faster than Intel processors, have a vulnerability that can expose cryptographic keys, enabling a malicious actor to reveal encrypted data. "GoFetch," a critical side-channel security flaw, exploits a vulnerability in M-chips Data Memory-Dependent Prefetcher (DMP). By scanning the cache and prefetching information, DMP predicts which memory addresses the code will most likely access. This technology enhances computer speed and overall computing performance.

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in collaboration with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), has published new safety and security guidelines that address cross-sector Artificial Intelligence (AI) risks to the safety and security of critical infrastructure in the US. The guidelines cover three broad categories of system-level risk: attacks using AI, attacks targeting AI systems, and failures in AI design and implementation.

Debt collection agency Financial Business and Consumer Solutions (FBCS) is starting to notify roughly 2 million individuals that their personal information was compromised in a recent data breach. The incident was discovered on February 26, 2024, and involved “unauthorized access to certain systems in its network.” FBCS’ investigation revealed that a third party had access to those systems between February 14 and February 26 and that certain information was viewed or accessed during that time frame.

The security key has served as a barrier to Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) hacks. A physical device outperforms other methods, such as one-time codes, which hackers can intercept, and provides protection against Machine-in-the-Middle (MitM) attacks. However, research shows that attackers could, in theory, physically extract secrets from Read-Only Memory (ROM) inexpensively.

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has established the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Safety and Security Board. The Board will help DHS stay ahead of growing threats posed by hostile nation-state actors. It will also help strengthen national security by helping deter and prevent such threats. The DHS Homeland Threat Assessment for 2024 warns that AI-assisted tools threaten economic security and critical infrastructure as they could enable larger-scale, faster, more efficient, and more evasive cyberattacks.

Canadian pharmacy chain London Drugs has recently closed all its retail stores to contain what it described as a "cybersecurity incident." The company has also hired external experts to investigate the cyberattack that impacted its systems. The company noted that on April 28, 2024, it discovered it was the victim of a cybersecurity incident. London Drugs said that it currently has found no evidence pointing to customer or employee data being impacted.

Researchers from the IMDEA Software Institute, Carlos III University of Madrid, and NEC Laboratories Europe have developed a framework to improve verifiable computation efficiency and practicality. Their paper, "Modular Sumcheck Proofs with Applications to Machine Learning and Image Processing," addresses the scalability and modularity issues faced by general proof systems and solutions for specific AI and image processing applications.