Cybersecurity Archives | PYMNTS.com https://www.pymnts.com/cybersecurity/2024/block-to-pay-cash-app-users-up-to-2500-in-settlement/ What's next in payments and commerce Mon, 12 Aug 2024 00:59:27 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.1 https://www.pymnts.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/cropped-PYMNTS-Icon-512x512-1.png?w=32 Cybersecurity Archives | PYMNTS.com https://www.pymnts.com/cybersecurity/2024/block-to-pay-cash-app-users-up-to-2500-in-settlement/ 32 32 225068944 Block to Pay Cash App Users Up to $2,500 in Data Breach Settlement https://www.pymnts.com/cybersecurity/2024/block-to-pay-cash-app-users-up-to-2500-in-settlement/ https://www.pymnts.com/cybersecurity/2024/block-to-pay-cash-app-users-up-to-2500-in-settlement/#comments Sun, 11 Aug 2024 20:21:48 +0000 https://www.pymnts.com/?p=2050512 Cash App users may be eligible for part of a multimillion-dollar settlement from the company. The payments platform and its parent Block agreed earlier this year to pay $15 million to settle a suit claiming the company had failed to protect customers from data breaches. Now, those users — past and present — can submit […]

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Cash App users may be eligible for part of a multimillion-dollar settlement from the company.

The payments platform and its parent Block agreed earlier this year to pay $15 million to settle a suit claiming the company had failed to protect customers from data breaches.

Now, those users — past and present — can submit a claim for a piece of that settlement, for up to $2,500, according to a website set up by the plaintiffs. 

As PYMNTS has reported, Cash App and Block were sued in 2022 for “negligent” behavior in connection with a data breach in late 2021 that apparently compromised 8.2 million current and former users’ personal information.

Block has said that the breach was the result of a former employee still having access to reports that contained users’ full names and brokerage account numbers.

“While this employee had regular access to these reports as part of their past job responsibilities, in this instance these reports were accessed without permission after their employment ended,” the company said in an SEC filing. 

The lawsuit had alleged that the employee was able to access this information because of insufficient security protections, and argued the plaintiffs faced increased risk for identity theft and fraud.

The lawsuit also cited the fact that Cash App waited several months to notify, which caused additional harm to customers that “they otherwise could have avoided had a timely disclosure been made.”

Meanwhile, Block released quarterly earnings recently, and with them its plans to pursue an opportunity to make Cash App the chief financial services partner of choice for families making up to $150,000 by fueling paycheck deposit adoption and increasing inflows.

The company calls this its “bank the base” strategy and recently began testing incentives to drive new paycheck deposit activities as a growth strategy.

“The incentives matter here,” Block founder Jack Dorsey said.

“It is about making Cash App our base’s primary financial tool,” Block CFO Amrita Ahuja added. “Which ultimately leads to stronger engagement and stronger inflows.”

The company’s Cash App Card saw 24 million monthly active users in June, 13% year-over-year increase, while inflows per active user enjoyed healthy growth, climbing 10% year over year in the quarter.

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Banks and Their Tech Suppliers Face More IT Scrutiny in Europe https://www.pymnts.com/cybersecurity/2024/banks-and-their-tech-suppliers-face-more-it-scrutiny-in-europe/ https://www.pymnts.com/cybersecurity/2024/banks-and-their-tech-suppliers-face-more-it-scrutiny-in-europe/#comments Thu, 08 Aug 2024 12:33:51 +0000 https://www.pymnts.com/?p=2049057 Banks and their IT providers will soon face tougher scrutiny in the European Union (EU). That’s because of the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), which passed last year but isn’t set to be enforced until January of 2025. A report Thursday (Aug. 8) by CNBC examines the implications of the law, particularly in the wake of last […]

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Banks and their IT providers will soon face tougher scrutiny in the European Union (EU).

That’s because of the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), which passed last year but isn’t set to be enforced until January of 2025. A report Thursday (Aug. 8) by CNBC examines the implications of the law, particularly in the wake of last month’s CrowdStrike outage.

DORA requires banks to carry out strict IT risk management, digital operational resilience testing, information and intelligence sharing on cyber threats and vulnerabilities, along with taking measures to manage third-party risks.

In addition, the report notes, companies will have to assess their “concentration risk” in relation to outsourcing critical operational functions to third-party companies.

These IT providers often provide “critical digital services to customers,” Joe Vaccaro, general manager of Cisco-owned internet quality monitoring company ThousandEyes, told CNBC.

“These third-party providers must now be part of the testing and reporting process, meaning financial services companies need to adopt solutions that help them uncover and map these sometimes hidden dependencies with providers,” said Vaccaro.

Lenders will also have to “expand their ability to assure the delivery and performance of digital experiences across not just the infrastructure they own, but also the one they don’t,” he added.

As the report notes, DORA aims to help banks escape incidents like the massive IT outage last month when a software update glitch at cybersecurity provider CrowdStrike caused Microsoft Windows systems to crash at airports, hospitals and financial services companies.

Weeks later, the fallout from the outage continues, with Delta Air Lines — which canceled more than 5,000 flights following the disruption and says it stands to lose $500 million — threatening legal action against CrowdStrike.

CrowdStrike struck back against the airline’s claims on Sunday (Aug. 4), arguing that while it accepts responsibility for the outage, it does not accept responsibility for Delta’s IT decisions, noting that “Delta’s competitors, facing similar challenges, all restored operations much faster.”

As PYMNTS wrote earlier this week, the incident underlines the importance of third-party vendors like cloud service providers and IT companies in maintaining resilient infrastructure.

“With complex ecosystems, you have a higher number of partners than you may have historically had” in the past, Larson McNeil, co-head of marketplaces and digital ecosystems at J.P. Morgan Payments, told PYMNTS. “You’ve got to understand your industry and the various players in the ecosystem — and as complexity increases, you’ve got to understand the risk and the opportunities that this creates for the business.”

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Cyberattack on World’s Largest Silver Producer Shows Data Is the New Gold https://www.pymnts.com/cybersecurity/2024/cyberattack-world-largest-silver-producer-highlights-data-role/ Thu, 01 Aug 2024 15:42:05 +0000 https://www.pymnts.com/?p=2020427 Effective cybersecurity programs are critical for today’s traditional industries, where IT spending is low and historically deprioritized relative to other initiatives. As these industries undergo digital transformation, bad actors frequently wait in the wings to strike. Ensuring operational resiliency in the face of an increasingly sophisticated threat landscape is top of mind for businesses across […]

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Effective cybersecurity programs are critical for today’s traditional industries, where IT spending is low and historically deprioritized relative to other initiatives.

As these industries undergo digital transformation, bad actors frequently wait in the wings to strike. Ensuring operational resiliency in the face of an increasingly sophisticated threat landscape is top of mind for businesses across industries as disparate as finance and logistics.

News broke Tuesday (July 30) that Fresnillo, the world’s largest silver producer and a top global producer of gold, copper and zinc, suffered a cyberattack resulting in attackers gaining access to system-level data.

The mining giant’s filing stated it was “the subject of a cybersecurity incident which has resulted in unauthorized access to certain IT systems and data.”

“All business units continue their activities, and no material operational or financial impact has been experienced or is foreseen,” Fresnillo added in the filing. “This will be assessed on an ongoing basis until the situation is resolved.”

The cyberattack underscores the growing challenges global companies face in protecting their data and other assets against cyber threats and international criminal groups, whose reach continues to grow.

Read also: Firms Look to Mitigate Consequences From Data Breaches

Major Cyberattacks Expose Key Enterprise Security Weaknesses

2024 is shaping up to be the year of the cyberattack. According to the PYMNTS Intelligence report “Fraud Management in Online Transactions,” 82% of large merchants have reported data and cyber breaches over the past year.

From CrowdStrike’s Microsoft outage to AT&T and beyond, industries around the world are facing an uptick in cybersecurity incidents, with several high-profile incidents happening in recent months.

“The barrier for entry has never been lower for threat actors,” Sunil Mallik, chief information security officer at Discover® Global Network, told PYMNTS this month, noting that the cost of computing power has decreased dramatically over the past decade, making it easier for criminals to access tools and launch attacks.

It was reported in July that a confidential assessment by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) said 11 of the 22 large banks it oversees have “insufficient” or “weak” management of so-called operational risk, whether that means cyberattacks or mistakes by employees.

Cybercriminals are increasingly targeting the data businesses collect on customers and operations for several reasons. Personal and financial information, such as credit card numbers, bank account details and Social Security numbers, can be sold on the dark web or used for identity theft and fraud. Cybercriminals can also use this data to make unauthorized transactions or take over accounts.

“If you think about what bad guys are doing, they are putting together a picture of us — and using that information to figure out new ways to trick us,” Intellicheck CEO Bryan Lewis told PYMNTS last month, drawing a parallel between the motive behind data breaches and the game of Clue, noting that by assembling various pieces of data and “asking questions,” cybercriminals can identify and exploit vulnerabilities, leading to social engineering attacks.

See also: Fresh Wave of Major Cyberattacks Exposes Key Enterprise Security Weaknesses

Data Exists to Be Accessed, Making Protecting It a Challenge

With data breaches such as the one affecting over 100 million AT&T customers, understanding what criminals can construe from stolen data and embracing best practices for protecting sensitive information are now table stakes for businesses.

“It is essentially an adversarial game; criminals are out to make money, and the financial community needs to curtail that activity,” Michael Shearer, chief solutions officer at Hawk AI, told PYMNTS in February. “What’s different now is that both sides are armed with some really impressive technology.”

PYMNTS Intelligence found that 63% of chief financial officers reported using some level of specialized automation for fraud prevention in the last six months.

“Everyone has been dealing with cybersecurity for a long time,” XiFin Chief Financial Officer Erik Sallee told PYMNTS in June. “There’s no way around it other than blocking and tackling, doing the right thing every day keeping all your systems up to date, making sure you’re working with good vendors and investing in it. It’s a cost-avoidance type of investment, but it’s one you have to understand, and you can’t short-shift it.”

Many of the fundamental challenges for organizations looking to maintain data security result from the sheer volume of an organization’s data, the many ways users can access the data (on-site versus remote, computer versus mobile device), and the potential for the compromise of valid user credentials being used by unauthorized users.

But, in today’s data-driven world, organizations must prioritize cybersecurity as part of their business risk management strategy.

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8 in 10 Large Merchants Have Faced Cyber Attacks in Past Year https://www.pymnts.com/cybersecurity/2024/80percent-large-merchants-have-faced-cyber-attacks-past-year/ Thu, 01 Aug 2024 08:00:40 +0000 https://www.pymnts.com/?p=2020057 Merchants in the United States, particularly those handling international transactions, are grappling with increasing cybersecurity challenges. With 82% of large merchants reporting data and cyber breaches over the past year, the financial impact is considerable, affecting revenue and customer trust, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence report “Fraud Management in Online Transactions.” The report explored the […]

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Merchants in the United States, particularly those handling international transactions, are grappling with increasing cybersecurity challenges.

With 82% of large merchants reporting data and cyber breaches over the past year, the financial impact is considerable, affecting revenue and customer trust, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence report “Fraud Management in Online Transactions.”

Use of security tools business

The report explored the challenges and strategies in online fraud management. The analysis addressed how merchants are navigating the rising frequency of data breaches and fraudulent activities, especially within international eCommerce. It also examined various anti-fraud measures, evaluating their effectiveness and the implications for business operations.

The report found that there is a need for stronger anti-fraud strategies and enhanced cybersecurity measures to safeguard cross-border transactions.

Outsourcing fraud prevention to specialized providers has proven effective, achieving a 32% reduction in failed payment rates compared to in-house efforts. Although only 53% of merchants implement two-factor authentication at the transaction level, its use is crucial for minimizing payment failures. These findings underscore the benefits of using external expertise and adopting advanced security protocols to bolster fraud management and protect financial transactions.

High Prevalence of Cybersecurity Issues Impacting Merchants

The report found that cybersecurity challenges are pervasive and have had substantial financial repercussions, with nearly half of eCommerce businesses reporting losses in revenue and customer churn as a direct consequence of such security incidents. The effects undermine the execution of cross-border payments.

Cyber breaches are increasingly exposing vulnerabilities in eCommerce transactions, and 47% of merchants experienced both customer loss and revenue decline due to fraud.

Outsourcing Fraud Prevention Proves Effective

Among various anti-fraud strategies, outsourcing fraud prevention to specialized third-party providers has demonstrated success. Merchants who have partnered with these providers reported a lower average failed payment rate of 8.5%, compared to 13% among those managing anti-fraud processes in-house.

This 32% reduction highlights the advantages of using external expertise and advanced technology that may not be readily available or affordable for all businesses. Outsourcing allows merchants to benefit from sophisticated tools and expertise, effectively reducing operational burdens while enhancing fraud detection and prevention.

As a result, merchants achieve better operational efficiency and increased customer satisfaction.

Two-Factor Authentication as a Tool

Two-factor authentication is identified as an effective measure for combating fraud and reducing failed payments. The study revealed that merchants employing per-transaction 2FA — where customers must authenticate each transaction — reported the lowest failed payment rates at 10.3%.

This method outperforms other security measures, such as 2FA at login or transaction confirmation notifications. Implementing or enhancing 2FA systems can substantially lower fraud rates and improve overall transaction security, benefiting merchants and their customers.

Consider that 95% of merchants want to implement anti-fraud solutions within the next 12 months.

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Cyberattacks Present Shipping Industry’s Biggest Threat Since WWII https://www.pymnts.com/cybersecurity/2024/cyberattacks-present-shipping-industrys-biggest-threat-since-wwii/ https://www.pymnts.com/cybersecurity/2024/cyberattacks-present-shipping-industrys-biggest-threat-since-wwii/#comments Sun, 28 Jul 2024 21:32:49 +0000 https://www.pymnts.com/?p=2017871 The shipping sector is reportedly facing a spike in cyberattacks tied to state-sponsored hackers. The industry saw at least 64 cyber incidents last year, the Financial Times reported Saturday (July 27), citing research by the Netherlands’ NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences. That study found that there were three such incidents in 2013 and zero […]

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The shipping sector is reportedly facing a spike in cyberattacks tied to state-sponsored hackers.

The industry saw at least 64 cyber incidents last year, the Financial Times reported Saturday (July 27), citing research by the Netherlands’ NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences. That study found that there were three such incidents in 2013 and zero in 2003.

More than 80% of the incidents logged since 2001 that involved a known attacker originated in Russia, China, North Korea or Iran, the study showed.

“The international rules-based order … the great system [that benefited shipping] since the second world war is under threat like never before,” Guy Platten, secretary-general at the International Chamber of Shipping, which represents shipowners controlling about 80% of the world’s commercial fleets, told the FT.

The report also noted that shipping experts are warning that the industry — which has since its infancy dealt with the physical threat of pirates — is not prepared for the online variety.

“IT spend in the maritime sector is pretty low,” said Stephen McCombie, a maritime IT security professor at NHL Stenden. 

Shipowners, McCombie added, “are looking for people with maritime knowledge and cybersecurity knowledge,” though that is not a large group.

The report comes as industries around the world are facing an uptick in cybersecurity incidents, with PYMNTS noting at the start of this month that 2024 was proving to be the “year of the cyberattack” (even before a number of high-profile incidents had even happened).

Research from the PYMNTS Intelligence report “Fraud Management in Online Transactions” shows that most eCommerce merchants had dealt with cyberattacks or data breaches in the past year. Eighty-two percent of these businesses experienced an attack in that time, and 47% said the breaches caused them to lose revenue and customers.

“It is essentially an adversarial game; criminals are out to make money, and the financial community needs to curtail that activity. What’s different now is that both sides are armed with some really impressive technology,” Michael Shearer, chief solutions officer at Hawk AI, said in an interview with PYMNTS. 

“On the automation side, it’s all about data. It’s all about organizing and connecting your data together, understanding the signals that you have so you can build a richer context and make better decisions. But you’ve got to have that information there, and you’ve got to connect it together. That’s step one.”

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CrowdStrike Sends $10 Gift Cards to Teammates, Partners After Outage https://www.pymnts.com/cybersecurity/2024/crowdstrike-sends-10-gift-cards-to-teammates-partners-after-outage/ Thu, 25 Jul 2024 00:03:32 +0000 https://www.pymnts.com/?p=2016382 Cybersecurity company CrowdStrike sent $10 gift cards to IT workers on Tuesday (July 23) in an email acknowledging the additional work it caused for them with last week’s IT outage cause by its software update. “And for that, we send our heartfelt thanks and apologies for the inconvenience,” CrowdStrike Chief Business Officer Daniel Bernard said […]

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Cybersecurity company CrowdStrike sent $10 gift cards to IT workers on Tuesday (July 23) in an email acknowledging the additional work it caused for them with last week’s IT outage cause by its software update.

“And for that, we send our heartfelt thanks and apologies for the inconvenience,” CrowdStrike Chief Business Officer Daniel Bernard said in the email, Bloomberg reported Wednesday (July 24), citing a copy of the email it reviewed.

Bernard added in the email to express its gratitude, CrowdStrike was sending the gift card to cover the IT workers’ next cup of coffee or late-night snack, per the report.

CrowdStrike spokesperson Kirsten Speas told Bloomberg that the email went to the firm’s teammates and partners who have been helping customers with the issue; it did not go to customers or clients.

TechCrunch reported Tuesday that when some recipients went to redeem the $10 Uber Eats gift card, they got an error message saying that it had been cancelled.

CrowdStrike spokesperson Kevin Benacci told TechCrunch that the company sent the cards and that, “Uber flagged it as fraud because of high usage rates.”

This news comes on the same day that CrowdStrike released a report on the crash that affected 8.5 million Windows machines around the world.

In the report, CrowdStrike said that a glitch in test software led to the outage. The firm also outlined what it aims to do to prevent the problem from recurring, such as implementing “a staggered deployment strategy for Rapid Response Content in which updates are gradually deployed to larger portions of the sensor base,” while also giving customers more control over the delivery of these updates, letting them choose when and where they are deployed.

It was also reported Wednesday that Delta Air Lines is facing a half-billion dollar hit after the outage and was still recovering from the incident.

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz has been asked to appear before the House Homeland Security Committee to give public testimony about the outage.

A letter seeking his testimony said that the outage impacted key functions of the global economy, including flights, surgeries, and 911 emergency call centers.

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Veeam Announces Splunk Extension for Monitoring Backup Infrastructure Health, Security https://www.pymnts.com/cybersecurity/2024/veeam-announces-splunk-extension-for-monitoring-backup-infrastructure-health-security/ Tue, 23 Jul 2024 22:36:29 +0000 https://www.pymnts.com/?p=2015680 Veeam Software has announced the availability of a Splunk extension that allows Veeam Data Platform customers to monitor the health and security status of their Veeam backup infrastructure. With the Veeam App for Splunk, security professionals can monitor their Veeam backup environments using the capabilities of Splunk, a security information and event management (SIEM) solution, Veeam said in a […]

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Veeam Software has announced the availability of a Splunk extension that allows Veeam Data Platform customers to monitor the health and security status of their Veeam backup infrastructure.

With the Veeam App for Splunk, security professionals can monitor their Veeam backup environments using the capabilities of Splunk, a security information and event management (SIEM) solution, Veeam said in a Tuesday (July 23) press release.

“Veeam is focused on powering data resilience for every customer, and this includes tight integration with leading security platforms,” John Jester, chief revenue officer at Veeam, said in the release. “Now security professionals can use Splunk to closely monitor their Veeam backup environments through detailed dashboards, reports and alerts.”

The Veeam App for Splunk integrates with Splunk user roles and location management, and processes events sent by Veeam Backup & Replication to the syslog server, according to the release.

The app also provides Splunk users with severity level management for events and alerts, multiple data source locations support, role-based permissions for locations and app configuration backup, the release said.

This new offering arrives at a time when 76% of organizations said they suffered a ransomware attack in the last year, and 93% of those attacks targeted an organization’s data backups, per the release.

“Combatting cyberattacks requires integration across your infrastructure, and the Veeam App for Splunk brings Veeam event data into Splunk, enabling customers to monitor security events like ransomware, accidental deletion, malware and other cyber threats using their current tools,” Jester said in the release.

Splunk was recently acquired by networking behemoth Cisco, with the $28 billion deal closing in March. The announcement of the acquisition was originally made in September 2023 and was followed by months of anticipation.

When announcing the deal, Cisco said the acquisition was designed to help clients bolster their security and observability efforts via artificial intelligence (AI).

Cisco and Splunk offer “complementary capabilities in AI, security and observability,” helping make companies more secure and digitally resilient, Cisco said at the time.

“From threat detection and response to threat prediction and prevention, we will help make organizations of all sizes more secure and resilient,” Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins said.

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House Homeland Security Committee Seeks Testimony From CrowdStrike CEO https://www.pymnts.com/cybersecurity/2024/house-homeland-security-committee-seeks-testimony-from-crowdstrike-ceo/ Tue, 23 Jul 2024 00:14:05 +0000 https://www.pymnts.com/?p=2014841 Two members of the House Homeland Security Committee have asked CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz to appear before the committee and give public testimony about the faulty software update that affected organizations around the world on Friday (July 19). In a letter dated Monday (July 22), Rep. Mark E. Green, R-Tenn., who is chairman of the […]

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Two members of the House Homeland Security Committee have asked CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz to appear before the committee and give public testimony about the faulty software update that affected organizations around the world on Friday (July 19).

In a letter dated Monday (July 22), Rep. Mark E. Green, R-Tenn., who is chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, and Rep. Andrew R. Garbardino, R-N.Y., who is chairman of the committee’s Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection, asked Kurtz to schedule a hearing with the subcommittee by 5 p.m. on Wednesday (July 24).

Friday’s IT outage impacted key functions of the global economy and was attributed to a CrowdStrike software update, according to a Monday press release issued by the Homeland Security Committee.

“While we appreciate CrowdStrike’s response and coordination with stakeholders, we cannot ignore the magnitude of this incident, which some have claimed is the largest IT outage in history,” the letter said. “In less than one day, we have seen major impacts to key functions of the global economy, including aviation, healthcare, banking, media and emergency services. Recognizing that Americans will undoubtedly feel the lasting, real-world consequences of this incident, they deserve to know in detail how this incident happened and the mitigation steps CrowdStrike is taking.”

The letter said that the outage led to cancellations of 3,000 commercial flights, delays of 11,800 other flights, cancellations of surgeries, disruptions to 911 emergency call centers, and a need for companies to devote millions of manual labor hours to solving the problem.

“Protecting our critical infrastructure requires us to learn from this incident and ensure that it does not happen again,” the letter said.

Kurtz said in a Friday post on X that the problem was caused by “a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts” and that it is “not a security incident or cyberattack.”

While it wasn’t a cyberattack, the incident put security at the top of the table as companies tried to ensure that “this won’t happen again,” PYMNTS reported Monday.

On Monday, CrowdStrike, Microsoft and other companies that were victimized by the outage continued to issue updates as they slowly completed the manual processes necessary to fix the problem.

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CrowdStrike Outage Rolls On; Attention Turns to Software Update Quality Control https://www.pymnts.com/cybersecurity/2024/crowdstrike-outage-rolls-on-attention-turns-to-software-update-quality-control/ https://www.pymnts.com/cybersecurity/2024/crowdstrike-outage-rolls-on-attention-turns-to-software-update-quality-control/#comments Mon, 22 Jul 2024 22:57:25 +0000 https://www.pymnts.com/?p=2014812 The CrowdStrike-Windows outage story continued to play out in airports, online and in stores Monday (July 22) with the focus now turning to the security of what used to be routine software updates. Both Microsoft and CrowdStrike, as well as other companies that were victimized by the outage, issued updates during the day Monday as […]

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The CrowdStrike-Windows outage story continued to play out in airports, online and in stores Monday (July 22) with the focus now turning to the security of what used to be routine software updates.

Both Microsoft and CrowdStrike, as well as other companies that were victimized by the outage, issued updates during the day Monday as they slowly completed the manual processes necessary to fix problems caused by a faulty software update executed Friday. CrowdStrike in particular added some color to its initial report that a software update to its Falcon Sensor caused the crash that sent 8.5 million Windows users headed for alternate devices, if they were available.

“On July 19, 2024 at 04:09 UTC, as part of ongoing operations, CrowdStrike released a sensor configuration update to Windows systems,” the company posted. “Sensor configuration updates are an ongoing part of the protection mechanisms of the Falcon platform. This configuration update triggered a logic error resulting in a system crash and blue screen (BSOD) on impacted systems.”

The company also indicated in a separate post that it has been a community effort to get Windows-based systems up and running. It said that together with its customers it has tested a new technique to accelerate impacted system remediation, which is highly detailed and technical on its site.

To a non-developer’s eye, all the techniques look to be a variation on manually patching the software update and manually rebooting the system.

Read more: CrowdStrike Aftermath: Five Things You Need to Know

Digital Disconnection, Operational Unraveling

Microsoft also announced its own workaround with VP of security David Weston posting: “We’re working around the clock and providing ongoing updates and support. Additionally, CrowdStrike has helped us develop a scalable solution that will help Microsoft’s Azure infrastructure accelerate a fix for CrowdStrike’s faulty update. We have also worked with both AWS [Amazon Web Services] and GCP [Google Cloud Platform] to collaborate on the most effective approaches.”

All of which might be too late for passengers on Delta. On Monday, Delta and its regional affiliate Endeavor accounted for the vast majority of canceled U.S. flights, which had mostly recovered their schedules. Delta CEO Ed Bastian told several news media outlets that it would take a “another couple of days” to get all its operations up and running smoothly.

As the main drama faded, the industry continued to look within for the preemptive strategies that would possibly stop a CrowdStrike type of outage again.

For example Finexio CEO Ernest Rolfson told PYMNTS that his company — which stresses security in its AP/AR automation platform offering — is seeing heightened concern from current and prospective clients about resilience and fraud detection. It’s even seeing increased concern around paper check and invoice fraud, a trend he said started seeing a few weeks before the CrowdStrike outage.

“You need to have a multilayered payments infrastructure,” Rolfson said. “You need many form factors and many different options. You need to have trusted third parties to track and verify and validate what you’re doing on a consistent repeatable process. Have someone else come in and do the audits. Most folks are not doing that.”

Read also: Microsoft Outage Could Produce ‘Insurance Catastrophe’

Rolfson emphasized the critical importance of quality control in software updates, drawing from his own company’s experiences and expressing empathy for companies like Microsoft and their vendors, noting the difficulties inherent in such tasks.

He cited an example from earlier this year when one of the world’s largest banks, a Finexio partner, experienced a bug that affected several of its customers. However, Rolfson was taken aback by the timing of a recent software update from a Finexio partner. The update was rolled out during the workweek, in the morning — a move he found unconventional.

Typically, updates are scheduled after hours or on weekends to minimize disruptions, given the fact that best practices suggest staggering the release to avoid widespread issues if problems arise.

Read more: CrowdStrike Outage Hits Amazon at a Key Moment for Shopper Loyalty

 

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Cryptocurrency Exchange WazirX Loses $230 Million in Cyberattack https://www.pymnts.com/cybersecurity/2024/cryptocurrency-exchange-wazirx-loses-230-million-in-cyberattack/ https://www.pymnts.com/cybersecurity/2024/cryptocurrency-exchange-wazirx-loses-230-million-in-cyberattack/#comments Thu, 18 Jul 2024 23:29:18 +0000 https://www.pymnts.com/?p=2013404 Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX said Thursday (July 18) that it lost more than $230 million in a cyberattack. “This is a force majeure event beyond our control, but we are leaving no stone unturned to locate and recover the funds,” the company said in a preliminary report posted on its website. “We have already blocked […]

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Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX said Thursday (July 18) that it lost more than $230 million in a cyberattack.

“This is a force majeure event beyond our control, but we are leaving no stone unturned to locate and recover the funds,” the company said in a preliminary report posted on its website. “We have already blocked a few deposits and reached out to concerned wallets for recovery. We are in touch with the best resources to help us in this endeavor.”

WazirX said in the report that the cyberattack targeted one of its multisig wallets that use the services of Liminal’s digital asset custody and wallet infrastructure.

The wallet has six signatories responsible for transaction verifications, and approval from three WazirX signatories and from one Liminal signatory was typically required for a transaction, according to the report.

The company also whitelisted destination addresses to enhance security, per the report.

“The cyberattack stemmed from a discrepancy between the data displayed on Liminal’s interface and the transaction’s actual contents,” WazirX said in the report. “During the cyberattack, there was a mismatch between the information displayed on Liminal’s interface and what was actually signed. We suspect the payload was replaced to transfer wallet control to an attacker.”

Liminal said in a Thursday post on X that its platform was not breached and that its infrastructure, wallets and assets remain safe.

“Our preliminary investigations show that one of the self-custody multisig smart contract wallets created outside of the Liminal ecosystem has been compromised,” the company said in the post.

It added in another post that WazirX wallets created on the Liminal platform remain secure and that all the malicious transactions occurred outside the Liminal platform.

“Adhering to our rigorous security protocols, the Liminal team is also readily assisting the WazirX team as they carry out their investigation,” Liminal said in a third post.

Blockchain data firm TRM Labs said on July 5 that the amount of cryptocurrency stolen by hackers more than doubled over the past year.

The total rose from $657 million in cryptocurrency in the first half of 2023 to $1.38 billion in the first half of 2024, according to the company.

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