Ticketmaster had to pay €7.3 Million ($10M) fine compensation for intervening in a rival company's computer systems, says the US Department of Justice. Ticketmaster agreed to pay a fine amount after it faced allegations by the US DoJ that the company gained unlawful access into rival company's systems to obtain information about its business. According to DoJ, the US ticket sales and distribution company illegally used retained passwords of a former employee of a rival company to access their computer systems. Ticketmaster had done this as a scheme to wipe out the competitor's business. Responding to the action, Ticketmaster has said that it feels good now that the issue is resolved.

While Microsoft is investigating the major SolarWinds cyberattack, according to the company, it found that Microsoft's systems were hacked "beyond just the presence of malicious SolarWinds code." Microsoft believes that the Solorigate incident can be a chance to be together and work towards essential safety steps like sharing information, strengthening security, and countering cyberattacks. As per Microsoft, the attackers could see source codes in multiple source code repositories; however, the hacked account didn't give any permission to change any systems or code. 

Currently, Microsoft hints to “a very sophisticated nation-state actor” as the attacker, cybersecurity experts, and the U.S government has alleged Russia for orchestrating the SolarWinds attack. The cyberattack also revealed a listing of susceptible companies. Besides this, today's announcement of Microsoft shows that experts may find the further impact of the cyberattack in the coming weeks and months. As of now, Microsoft said that meanwhile the hackers managed to intercept deeper than before, the company didn't find any evidence which may suggest "access to production services or customer data,” or "no indications that our systems were used to attack others." 

Besides this, the company said that it holds a common assumption that hackers may be able to intercept its source code and that Microsoft doesn't depend merely on the privacy of source codes to safeguard its products. However, Microsoft didn't disclose how much the hackers were able to view the source code and what the hackers did with it.  In December, Dan Smith, Microsoft President warned that the cyber attack is a "moment of reckoning" and alarmed about its threat. He termed it as unusual espionage, not attacking any particular targets, but disrupting critical infrastructure trust and reliability to progress a country's intelligence organization.  

"The list of vulnerable companies is much smaller than SolarWinds’ overall client list, so simply appearing on the list doesn’t mean a company has been affected. SolarWinds claims that only 33,000 companies use the Orion product, compared to its total client base of 330,000," reports Verge. "As with many companies, we plan our security with an “assume breach” philosophy and layer in defense-in-depth protections and controls to stop attackers sooner when they do gain access," says Microsoft blog.

Amidst perhaps the most widespread and impactful cyberattack in history, American businesses and government agencies alike must take a drastically different approach to cybersecurity. Unfortunately, many cybersecurity professionals have become complacent and have become far too dependent on a handful of well-marketed tools designed for yesterday’s threats that underperform against modern attacks.

It is far easier for cybersecurity manufacturers to deliver services from their own cloud. It may be less expensive for the vendor but relying on a “trusted 3rd party” for your security is a foundational vulnerability that has been proven to be disastrous for you as a customer.

We are currently in a state of cyber-warfare. Nation-states regularly use their practically limitless resources and technical sophistication to overpower companies and government agencies. Cybersecurity professionals need to shift their focus from “indicators of compromise” to data protection, which will limit how widespread these vicious digital attacks can have an impact.

Most cloud providers claim they alone provide the “best cloud protection” and brag billions spent on beefing up the many layers surrounding their server farms to reassure their clients that “everything will be alright.” But will it?

Vulnerabilities from security vendors will likely continue far into the future. While much of the industry has moved towards promoting “zero-trust” infrastructures, they often forget to remove themselves from the client’s circle of trust. Instead, everyone from individuals to multinationals should take security into their own hands. Firewalls, antivirus, and network monitoring tools indeed still have their place, but a shift must be taken to provide more independence between the owner of data and its protectors.

Active Cypher, a California-based cybersecurity startup led former-Microsoft/Cisco/U.S. intelligence with decades of experience protecting (and at times stealing data), has led the charge against what it calls “cyber-negligence”.

“IT organizations need to stay nimble, test and adopt new approaches quickly, and don’t be afraid to throw out solutions that were simply inherited,” says Active Cypher’s CEO, Mike Quinn.

Active Cypher has pioneered a unique, independent security infrastructure that provides its clients the automated tools, proprietary cryptography, and advanced anti-ransomware sensors to control their data with the utmost precision. Yet unlike the numerous SaaS applications which plague the market and create undue “man-in-the-Middle” vulnerabilities, Active Cypher deploys and operates its software directly within the client’s tenant. Cryptographic keys, the soft underbelly of security, are held not by Active Cypher, who knows well it may be a target of state actors and cybercriminals but by the client alone. Once deployed, the security solution uniquely runs alone without contact with any 3rd party home base.

While the solution Active Cypher provides is certainly not an end-all, it gives a much-needed last line of defence against increasingly menacing (and successful) threats. “We believe cybersecurity is a human right. Something that is sacrosanct and should be upheld with the highest degree. Yet, too many executives still see it as just another budget line within often ballooning IT budgets without considering what kind of impact a security breach will have on their brand, and ultimately their revenue,” explains Mike Quinn.

Based in Newport Beach, California, with partners and operations across the US and in Western Europe, Active Cypher and the rest of its industry saw an uptick in business when Covid-19 forced companies to rapidly extend its security frontier to its employee’s homes.

“It has become increasingly clear that the focus for cybersecurity needs to be on data protection. Once the perimeter is breached, and it will be, there’s nothing to stop them. We’ve built great systems to observe and record cyber theft in action but little to defend the data inside.” says Devin Jones, Active Cypher’s new Chief Product Officer and a veteran of both Cisco, Juniper Networks, and a variety of cyber-startups.

Active Cypher uncovered that many major companies had regulated the management of vital security infrastructures to the “back-office” of IT but often hadn’t evolved and updated systems, like the prolific Active Directory in years. The result was growing technical messes that left gaping holes in security. Active Cypher also encountered a level of defeatism; one company declined to expand and solidify its cybersecurity posture, choosing instead to continue to pay ransomware demands at the cost of an astounding $1million per month. In this firm’s view, it was easier to keep paying and therefore avoid the risk of negative press surrounding disclosures of data breaches.

“But thankfully, not all companies have been so lethargic. We are thrilled to be working with a variety of innovating clients ranging from state agencies, healthcare providers, and sports teams who understand that the success of their future protection should be in their own hands. Active Cypher provides them with the tools to own their own destiny,” says Devin Jones.

As IT organizations across the nation take time over the next few weeks to uncover the extent of their firm’s exposure to recent and still unfolding cyberattacks, one only hopes they seek to not simply install a short-lived patch but take a leap towards the zero-trust, zero-vendor contact future; only then can cyber-negligence be finally tackled.

 Deputy Interior Minister Igor Zubov noted that the number of cybercrimes has increased significantly in the context of the coronavirus pandemic

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia organizes cyber police in its structure, the corresponding decision has already been made by the head of the department, Vladimir Kolokoltsev.

"Today we can talk about the phenomenon of influence on the mass consciousness of young people in terms of changing their behavior in a destructive way. Therefore, this part of the work requires very serious attention. We are making serious changes directly in our structures. The Minister of Internal Affairs Kolokoltsev Vladimir made the decision on the creation of cyber police, it is a question not of one day, it will take a lot of time, demands both money, and equipment, and changes of qualification of employees" said he.

Zubov also noted that in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, the overall crime rate in Russia remained the same, but the number of cybercrimes increased significantly.

"For a number of reasons, this is the impact of digitalization of society, and the fact that people, being isolated, have more opportunities to draw on the Internet various knowledge, including criminal plan, and try themselves in this," added he.

Zubov said that once he tried to file a complaint with a district police officer about an Internet crime, but the officer did not understand anything. Accordingly, here we are talking about concentrating all competent people in one place and investigating cybercrime.

At the same time, the ex-adviser to the president doubted that the Ministry of Internal Affairs will be able to provide such specialists with decent wages since professionals in the IT-sphere are highly paid employees.

Earlier this year, it was reported that the investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs created units to combat IT crimes. This measure has become necessary, as police investigators increasingly have to investigate crimes of this kind.

Not long ago, US agencies had confirmed a massive data breach that compromised their networks. The problem persists, and US federals are still grappling to comprehend the extent of the breach. The data breach is linked to a large-scale hacking campaign that the experts have associated with Russia's operations. "The broad Russian espionage attack on the US government and private companies, underway since spring and detected only a few weeks ago, is among the most significant intelligence failures of modern times," reports The New York Times. 

According to the Russian President, he is counting on the experience of the President-elect of the United States, which will help solve some problems in relations between the two countries

Vladimir Putin called a provocation the question of the general producer of the RTVI channel Sergey Shnurov, who during a press conference asked why Russian hackers this time did not help Donald Trump become President of the United States and whether Russia is ready to provide asylum to the outgoing American leader.

"This is not a question, but a provocation. Hackers did not help Trump and did not interfere in the American elections. This is all speculation, an excuse to spoil relations between Russia and the United States, an excuse not to recognize the legitimacy of the US president for domestic political reasons," Putin said.

According to the Russian President, relations between Moscow and Washington have become hostages of the internal political situation in the United States: "It is their choice, let them do what they want."

Putin also expressed hope that "the elected President of the United States will understand what is happening." "He is an experienced man. We hope that some problems will be resolved under the new administration," the President said.

It is worth noting that the US authorities previously reported that hackers working for Russia obtained information from the databases of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the US Treasury and Commerce Department.

During a press conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin named the real authors of the fakes about Russian hackers.

According to the President, they are the US State Department and the US intelligence agencies. He also added that it was they who in 2016 made a throw-in about the connections of hackers who hacked the mail of members of the US Democratic Party with Russian military intelligence.

"So they are the authors in fact. In any case, according to their instructions, this was done, it is quite obvious," the head of state said in a live broadcast.

On Thursday, December 17, the head of state held a large press conference. The event included a direct line with the President.

Earlier this week, in a press conference, Facebook closed two misinformation networks related to Russia, one of which was associated with the French military. Facebook has accused these accounts of orchestrating interference campaigns in African regions. Two networks using multiple FB accounts were given to users associated with the Russian Internet Research Agency. In contrast, the third account had links to persons related to the French military, says Facebook.