Held for Ransom: What Schools Need to Know Before a Ransomware Attack

Angus Whitley / Bloomberg:
As the Optus hacker appears to release data of 10,000 customers, Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin says the Australian police are investigating a ransom demand  —  Australian mobile-phone company Optus said authorities are investigating an online ransom demand following a major data hack …

Deeksha Bhardwaj / Hindustan Times:
India proposes a legal framework to regulate over-the-top communications services, including encrypted apps like WhatsApp and Signal, and intercept messages  —  The bill, if implemented in its current form, will have reaching ramification for the industry that is based on the premise of privacy and security of encrypted messages

Emma Roth / The Verge:
Wickr Me, the free encrypted messaging app acquired by AWS in 2021, will shut down on December 31, 2023 and stop accepting new users at the end of 2022  —  Wickr Me, the free encrypted messaging app owned by Amazon Web Services, is shutting down on December 31st, 2023.

Paul Sawers / TechCrunch:
UK-based Zen Educate, a marketplace that algorithmically matches schools with the best available teachers, raised a $21M Series A extension to fuel US expansion  —  Zen Educate, an online marketplace that algorithmically matches schools with the best available teachers, has raised £19.3 million …

Bad actors are constantly evolving their attack vectors, looking for new ways to enter systems undetected. Now, hackers are exploiting cloud storage services to infiltrate networks and hide their attacks. Through phishing emails, they’re targeting cloud applications such as Google Drive and Dropbox. Once inside the system, these malicious parties can access sensitive data stored in their targets’ systems.
Many K–12 districts rely on cloud applications such as Google Workspace to facilitate learning. As a result, school IT teams must remain vigilant about updating security solutions and…

Sander Lutz / Decrypt:
Bluesky previews its Authenticated Transport Protocol, formerly ADX, for large distributed social applications and says a Bluesky social app is “coming soon”  —  The group, formed within Twitter, is building a decentralized protocol that limits corporate and governmental influence on social media platforms.