Would You Pay Cyber Criminals to NOT Attack You?

A lot of interesting stories this week. I included some stories about robots; the cyber security report you need to read and what I think is a ridiculous idea to avoid cyber attacks.

The Government of Canada’s New YouTube Ads

As I was watching the “best” clips of Selling Sunset on YouTube, there were two ads from the government of Canada that caught my attention. You can watch them here and here. Basically, they are public service announcements reminding people that you wouldn’t get your tax refunds via text. The other is a reminder that the government wouldn’t ask you to pay for anything with gift cards. These two scams are VERY popular. In the ads’ description, they claim that 100 Canadians were affected by scams every day last year. It’s great that people are finally talking about this, however the statistics listed on their website are insane! In 2021, $231 million was lost to fraud, in comparison to $106.6 million in 2020.

My thoughts: It's affecting way too many people if the government is putting out public service announcements.

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The One Cyber Report You Need to Read

This report was shared in my network called the “Global Risks Report,” by the World Economic Forum. I suggest reading as much of it as possible, but pay closer attention to pages 45-53. The section starts with these stats:

1. 435% increase in ransomware in 2020
2. 3 million is the number of cyber professionals needed worldwide
3. 800 billion in the value of digital commerce by 2024
4. 95% of cyber security issues are traced to human error (this one is wild)

Russia Attacked The Ukraine Online, Allegedly

There was a massive attack on Kyiv, Ukraine’s government websites – over 70 of them. Kyiv is suspecting that Russia is behind the attack as a way to, “not only to intimidate society but to also destabilize the situation in Ukraine, halting the work of the public sector and crushing Ukrainians’ trust in the authorities,” said the ministry of Ukraine.

“We have nothing to do with it. Russia has nothing to do with these cyber-attacks,” Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told CNN. “Ukrainians are blaming everything on Russia, even their bad weather in their country,” he said in English.

NATO announced increased cyber security cooperation with Ukraine.

My thoughts: This is a prime example of a nation’s infrastructure being targeted by foreign and dangerous parties. All critical infrastructure needs to be protected, yesterday.

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Mini Robot Flies are Getting More Muscular

Yes, you read that right! The devices that weight less than a quarter of a penny can now fly up to 20 seconds. They were never able to fly for that long before. Now what do I mean by muscular?

According to the MIT News article, they work by using soft actuators that are "like artificial muscles, that rapidly flap the robot’s wings. These soft actuators also give the bots a better chance to withstand and recover from running into obstacles.” (PC Gamer)

My thoughts: I learned that MIT has been working on these drones for years. I can imagine very few use cases where these tiny drones could come in handy, but then again we are in an constantly evolving world. Let me know if you know more about this.

Uber Got $13 Million In Seed Funding for Their Robots

Uber owns a company called Serve Robotics. They’re the robots that deliver food; the ones that travel on sidewalks. Serve Robotics just received seed funding of $13 million. And I can’t help but wonder how many of us, including myself, would feel walking on the sidewalk next to this robot.

If you’re not sure robots walking among us, what if a robot served you at a restaurant? Due to labor shortages, a Chinese restaurant chain bought robots to serve their guests. I think that’s a smart solution to a problem many businesses are struggling with. But as a guest, what are your thoughts?

Let’s Pay Cyber Criminals to Stay Away

“Joseph Carson, Chief Security Scientist at ThycoticCentrify, suggests that while Ransomware as a Service (RaaS) is already in full swing, "ransomware could even evolve further into a subscription model in which you pay the criminal gangs to not target you."

My thoughts: This actually made me laugh out loud. Why didn’t we think about this for bank robbers!? At this point, we’re giving criminals a business model and telling them we’re interested in it. I’m floored. But let me know your thoughts. Would you pay for cyber criminals to stay away?

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