SonicWall, the trusted security partner protecting more than 1 million networks worldwide, announces record numbers for malware volume, ransomware attacks, encrypted threats and chip-based attacks in the mid-year update of the 2018 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report.
“The cyber arms race is moving faster than ever with bigger consequences for enterprises, government agencies, educational and financial institutions, and organizations in targeted verticals,” said SonicWall CEO Bill Conner. “SonicWall has been using machine learning to collect, analyze and leverage cyber threat data since the ‘90s. This commitment to innovation and emerging technology is part of the foundation that helps deliver actionable threat intelligence, security efficacy and automated real-time breach detection and prevention to our global partners and customers.”
SonicWall publishes its monthly cyber threat intelligence via a public-facing resource, Capture Security Center, on the company’s website. The cloud-based tool offers the ultimate in visibility, agility and capacity to govern entire SonicWall security operations and services with greater clarity, precision and speed — all from a single pane of glass.
“Real-time cyber threat intelligence is more critical than ever as cybercriminals continue to find new attack vectors — like encrypted and chip-based attacks,” said Chad Sweet, Chief Executive Officer at The Chertoff Group, a global advisory focused on security risk management. “To stay protected in the cyber arms race, organizations must use every tool in their security toolbox, particularly technology that delivers the necessary visibility to enhance an organization’s security posture.”
Malware Volume Still Climbing from 2017’s Record Highs
The malware boom of 2017 has shown no signs of stopping through the first half of 2018. SonicWall Capture Labs threat researchers recorded 5.99 billion malware attacks during the first two quarters of the year. At this same point in 2017, SonicWall logged 2.97 billion malware attacks.
On a month-to-month basis in 2018, malware volume remained consistent in the first quarter before dropping to less than 1 billion per month across April, May and June. These totals were still more than double that of 2017.
Ransomware Back in Big Way
Published in March’s original report, SonicWall Capture Labs threat researchers found that ransomware attacks dropped significantly — from 645 million to 184 million — between 2016 and 2017.
SonicWall now shows ransomware attacks surging in first six months of 2018. There have been 181.5 million ransomware attacks year to date. This marks a 229 percent increase over this same time frame in 2017.
Encrypted Attacks Ascend to Record Highs
The use of encryption continues to grow for legitimate traffic and malicious cyberattacks alike. In 2017, SonicWall reported that 68 percent of sessions were encrypted by SSL/TLS standards. Through six months of 2018, 69.7 percent of sessions are leveraging encryption.
Cybercriminals are strategically following this trend to help prevent their malicious payloads from being discovered. Encrypted attacks increased 275 percent when compared to this time in 2017.
“Encrypted attacks are a critical challenge in the industry,” said Conner. “Far too few organizations are aware that cybercriminals are using encryption to circumvent traditional networks security controls, and others aren’t activating new mitigation techniques, such Deep Packet Inspection of SSL and TLS traffic (DPI-SSL). We predict encrypted attacks to increase in scale and sophistication until they become the standard for malware delivery. And we’re not that far off.”
SonicWall Now Blocks Spectre Chip-Based Attacks
The SonicWall Real-Time Deep Memory Inspection (RTDMITM) technology now protects customers from Spectre chip-based attacks. SonicWall Capture Labs threat researchers validated RTDMI mitigation against Spectre variants and false positives in production.
“It’s critical for cybersecurity leaders to build innovative solutions that adapt to the changing threat landscape to better protect customers,” said SonicWall CTO John Gmuender. “Cybercriminals increasingly hide weaponized code with more sophisticated obfuscation and advanced custom encryption techniques, then expose, detonate and wipe the weaponized code from memory in real time.”
Since January 2018, RTDMI has identified and blocked more than 12,300 never-before-seen cyberattacks and malware variants.
Included in the SonicWall Capture Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) sandbox service, RTDMI identifies and mitigates even the most insidious cyber threats where weaponry is exposed for less than 100 nanoseconds. RTDMI protects against chip-based attacks like Meltdown and Spectre, as well as attacks leveraging PDFs and Microsoft Office documents.
“Existing industry sandbox solutions do not perform true real-time analysis of malware and, therefore, 'blink' and miss detecting sophisticated weaponry, exposing customers to dangerous threats,” said Gmuender. “By never 'blinking,' RTDMI provides incredibly powerful technology that advances state-of-the-art threat protection to block sophisticated attack vectors and protect customers in real time.”
The SonicWall Capture Threat Network
Data for the 2018 SonicWall Cyber Threat Report mid-year update was gathered by the SonicWall Capture Threat Network, which sources information from global devices and resources including more than 1 million security sensors in nearly 200 countries and territories; cross‐vector, threat‐related information shared among SonicWall security systems, including firewalls, email security, endpoint security, honeypots, content-filtering systems; SonicWall Capture Advanced Threat Protection multi‐engine sandbox; and SonicWall’s internal malware analysis automation framework.
European aerospace giant Airbus has revealed the new A220 at a ceremony held at its Henri-Ziegler Delivery Centre, near Toulouse, France.
Witnessed by Airbus employees and members of the global media, the A220-300 landed directly from the painting in the early hours of Tuesday, wearing its new Airbus name and colours.
The A220 family comprises two models, the A220-100 and A220-300, formerly Canada-headquartered Bombardier’s C Series (CS100 and CS300). The aircraft are fully optimised for the 100 to 150-seat market and perfectly complement Airbus’ existing best-selling A320neo family.
It was in October last year that Airbus had announced that it was taking control of Bombardier’s C Series airliner programme, in a bid to dodge competition with American rival Boeing, which last week announced a tentative deal to take over the commercial unit of Brazil’s Embraer.
Global media had reported late last year that under the aforementioned agreement, Airbus would acquire 50.01% of the C Series programme.
“Everyone at Airbus has been looking forward to this historic moment. Today, we are thrilled to welcome the A220 to the Airbus family and are honoured to see it wearing its new Airbus colours for the first time,” said Airbus President (Commercial Aircraft) Guillaume Faury.”
Google has announced the Launchpad Accelerator India with a focus on machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) to build solutions for India’s local needs.
In a release, the company stated that the new comprehensive mentorship programme is tailored exclusively for startups based in India. The three-month accelerator will provide a cohort of eight to ten Indian startups with mentorship, and access to the best of Google, including its people, network and technologies.
The company also offers the startup upto $100,000 of Google Cloud Credits. Applications for the first class is now open until July 31 and the first class will start in September 2018.
Andhra Pradesh has topped the ‘ease of doing business’, an annual ranking of States and Union Territories prepared by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) in collaboration with the World Bank.
Telangana and Haryana came in a close second and third, respectively, with less than half a percentage point separating them from Andhra Pradesh.
The rankings are part of the Business Reform Action Plan (BRAP) 2017, which has been expanded to 372 action points and includes areas such as labour, environmental clearances, registering property, single-window system, construction permits and inspections.
AP and Telangana were joint toppers of the 2016 rankings.
This year, unlike the previous two occasions, a feedback component has been introduced. “This was to ensure that the reforms have actually reached the ground level, and are not limited to the paper they are written on. As many as 78 reforms of 372 [action points] were identified for the feedback survey and have been marked also on the basis of the feedback received,” said Ramesh Abhishek, Secretary, DIPP. For the 78 points on which feedback was sought, a score of 0.5 score was assigned for evidence of reform implementation, while the other 0.5 score was based on the feedback given by respondents on whether reforms claimed by the States were palpable when the service was availed.
“We plan to further increase the weight given to feedback in the next ranking exercise,” Abhishek said.
The top ten States in the latest ranking include Jharkhand, Gujarat, Chattisgarh and MP while the North-Eastern States, Lakshadweep and Chandigarh are in the bottom ten. Delhi is ranked 23 out of 36.
A large number of States have made significant progress in reforms suggested in BRAP 2017, as per the report. “Seventeen States have achieved a reform evidence score of more than 90 per cent and 15 States have achieved a combined score of 90 per cent and more. The States that have achieved 80 per cent or more reforms evidence score represent 84 per cent of the country’s area, 90 per cent of the country’s population and 79 per cent of India’s GDP,” it said.
The DIPP, which launched the ranking exercise for States in 2015, wants it to help improve the delivery of various government regulatory functions and services in an effective and transparent manner. It was hoped that pitting States against each other would not only give investors an indication of the relative investment environment in different parts of the country, but also an indication of where reforms need to be carried out.
Jio Phone 2, the successors of Jio Phone was launched by the Reliance Industries Limited chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani on July 5, 2018. The Jio Phone 2 is expected to hit the market by August 16, 2018. The company has set the starting price of the phone at Rs 2,999.
The Jio Phone 2 comes with a 2.40-inch display and a screen resolution of 240 pixels by 320 pixels. The phone has a 512 MB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage that can be expanded up to 128 GB via an SD card. It has a 2-megapixel primary camera on the rear and a 0.3-megapixel front shooter for selfies. It runs on KAI operating system and is powered by a 2000mAh battery. The connectivity options available on Jio Phone 2 includes - Wi-Fi, Global Positioning System (GPS), Bluetooth, Near-field communication (NFC) and frequency modulation (FM).
Specifications
Design and display
The new JioPhone 2 is strikingly different from its predecessor in terms of design. JioPhone 2 has a QWERTY keypad now along with a 4-way navigation pad. While the form factor is different now, JioPhone 2 and JioPhone have the same 2.4-inch display.
Camera
JioPhone 2 comes with the same camera configurations as the JioPhone. This includes a 2-megapixel camera at the rear and a 0.3-megapixel (VGA) camera up front. Both phones are capable of video recording.
Connectivity, battery and OS
In terms of connectivity, JioPhone 2 offers new options like dual SIM support and VoWi-Fi. Rest of the features remain same like 4G VoLTE support, FM radio, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS and NFC. On the software front, both phones run KaiOS, and are fuelled by a 2,000mAh battery.
RAM and storage
In terms of memory, JioPhone 2 comes with the same capacity of 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage. There’s a microSD card slot for further expansion up to 128GB.
Apps
JioPhone and JioPhone 2 both come with access to JioApps like MyJio, JioMusic, JioTV and more. JioPhone 2 has amped things up with support for popular social apps like Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp. The company has announced support for these apps to JioPhone as well.
Price
JioPhone is priced at Rs 1,500 (refundable after three years), while the JioPhone 2 will be available at a higher price of Rs 2,999. Reliance Jio is likely to announce a similar refundable scheme with the newer model as well.
India has a long way to go before it can actually undertake a human space flight mission, former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman A S Kiran Kumar said.
Earlier in the day, ISRO said that it carried out a major technology demonstration, the first in a series of tests to qualify a crew escape system, a critical technology relevant for human spaceflight.
Officials of the Bengaluru-headquartered space agency said development of different technologies needed for making the ambitious venture a reality, including environmental control and life support systems and flight suite, was under progress.
“This is one of the many things that needs to be done. Not the only one. It’s a step-by-step approach,” Kiran Kumar told this media on today’s test. “These are all some preliminary activities”.
The crew escape system was an emergency measure designed to quickly pull the crew module along with the astronauts to a safe distance from the launch vehicle in the event of a launch abort, according to ISRO.
Kiran Kumar said, “We still have a long way to go actually (to undertake the mission). Currently, we are doing certain key developmental activities within the confined... whatever resources that are there.”
ISRO officials said the government is yet to give its formal approval for the human space flight mission which was on the drawing board of the space agency for quite a long time now.
More than a decade ago, at a meeting convened by ISRO, scientists were highly appreciative of the study undertaken by it on such a mission and were unanimous in suggesting that the time was appropriate for the country to undertake the venture.
Kiran Kumar said earlier this year that a human space flight was “not very high on priority” and indicated that “resource constraints” were holding back the high-cost venture.
GreenFuel was recently felicitated at the recently held Make in India Emerging Entrepreneurs Summit and Awards 2018 with an award in the Automobiles category. Akshay Kashyap, Founder and MD, was there to receive the award as handed out by the Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Mr Dharmendra Pradhan.
These awards are an effort to recognize rising ‘Make in India’ stars in the field of manufacturing. The winners were identified after a three month long intensive survey and were then shortlisted by an expert jury namely Uday Kotak, Aroon Purie, Manish Sabharwal, Hamitab Kant and Sanjay Nair. Greenfuel specializes in product solutions for sustainable mobility. These solutions are based on their expertise in handling high pressure gaseous fuels, as well as ventures into exciting new areas of energy storage (batteries) and electromobility (battery-operated vehicles), all of which helped to bring the company out on top.
Speaking on the occasion, Director and MD of Greenfuel said, “It is an honor to have our hardwork and passion recognized as a Make In India Emerging Entrepreneur. We want to use this opportunity to continue to grow and build upon our efforts. We believe that the future is green and sustainable technologies are a necessity to continue to better our country”
