Gartner reports that 63 percent of organizations worldwide have implemented a zero trust strategy, fully or partially. This investment makes up less than 25 percent of the cybersecurity budget for 78 percent of organizations that have implemented a zero trust strategy. A fourth-quarter 2023 Gartner survey of 303 security leaders found that 56 percent of organizations were pursuing a zero trust strategy because it is considered an industry best practice.

According to the FBI, scammers stole more than $3.4 billion from older Americans last year. Losses from scams reported by Americans over the age of 60 last year were up 11% over the year before. The FBI is warning of a rise in bold schemes to drain bank accounts that involve sending couriers in person to collect cash or gold from victims. Deputy Assistant Director James Barnacle of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division stated that it can have a devastating impact on older Americans who lack the ability to go out and make money.

Lumen's Black Lotus Labs discovered a new malware platform called "Cuttlefish" that collects public cloud authentication data from Internet traffic, targeting enterprise-grade and Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) routers. Cuttlefish is a platform that steals authentication material from web requests that transit the router from the adjacent Local Area Network (LAN).

Verizon's 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) found that the exploitation of vulnerabilities for initial access increased by 180 percent between 2022 and 2023. This method was used by 14 percent of malicious actors to breach networks. It follows credential theft and phishing as the third most used.

According to security researchers at Comparitech, nearly one in five (18%) ransomware incidents in the US led to a lawsuit in 2023, with 123 filed so far. The researchers noted that the number of lawsuits for 2023 is likely to increase, with many data breach notifications still being issued for incidents last year. The analysis showed a growth in the number of lawsuits filed following ransomware attacks in the period from 2018-2023. The researchers said that across just over 3000 confirmed ransomware incidents over the five years, 355 lawsuits were filed, a rate of 12%.

Performanta researchers noticed a trend in how nation-state actors target developing countries. The company analyzed "Medusa," a Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) that targets organizations worldwide. Observed patterns suggest that ransomware activities are not entirely random, and there are strategies focusing on organizations within developing countries as initial targets. According to Guy Golan, CEO and Executive Chairman of Performanta, the company's analysis finds that the African continent has become a testing ground for nation-state attacks.

The US Department of Commerce has made several new announcements related to President Biden's Executive Order (EO) on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released four draft publications to improve AI system safety, security, and trustworthiness.

According to Hive Systems, passwords with less than seven characters can be cracked in just hours. The increased use of stronger password hashing algorithms to protect data has lengthened the time it takes hackers to crack passwords. The increased time it takes hackers to crack passwords suggests that the cybersecurity industry has made significant improvements in protecting data. However, hackers continue to find new ways around even the most robust protections.

The National Security Agency (NSA) recently released guidance on how operators of National Security Systems (NSS) and Defense Industrial Base (DIB) companies can securely deploy third-party-designed Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems. As companies weigh potential security risks in AI systems or in how they are deployed, the guidance focuses on securely operating AI in the environment and continuously protecting AI systems from vulnerabilities.

Finnish court recently sentenced a 26-year-old man to six years and three months in prison for hacking thousands of patient records at a private psychotherapy center and seeking ransom from some patients over the sensitive data. In February 2023, French police arrested well-known Finnish hacker Aleksanteri Kivimäki, living under a false identity near Paris.