Weekly News Roundup January 4-8, 2021

A new year holds such promise, and despite 2021 being off to an unprecedented start, we have much to look forward to as an industry. RSA Conference is kicking off the year with our inaugural RSAC 365 Virtual Summit on January 27, and we are busy readying for RSA Conference 2021 in May.

While many look back on the previous year to help inform the best path forward, it’s also a time when people look ahead with great optimism and expectation. As a result, we see lots and lots of predictions across cybersecurity headlines. Industry influencers are sharing their advice on what to do and not do, including these 10 Dos and Don’ts for Government Security Leaders. As investigations into the SolarWinds hack continue, evidence suggests that the US Judiciary was also part of the massive cyberattack.

Let’s take a look at other cybersecurity headlines of the week.

Jan. 8: Tech Crunch reported, “Former U.S. cybersecurity official Chris Krebs and former Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos have founded a new cybersecurity consultancy firm, which already has its first client: SolarWinds.” 

Jan. 7: In a statement announcing that President Trump was banned indefinitely from Facebook’s platform, Mark Zuckerberg wrote, “We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great.”

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Jan. 7: The Hill reported, “John Costello, a senior official for intelligence and security operations at the Department of Commerce, on Thursday announced his resignation in the wake of the riots at the U.S. Capitol.”

Jan. 7: Ryuk ransomware operators have reportedly earned more than $150 million in Bitcoin payments after victimizing companies around the globe, ZDNet reported.

Jan. 6: “Ascension, a data analytics company serving the mortgage industry, recently settled with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over charges that it violated the Gramm-Leach-Bliley (GLB) Act Safeguards Rule, as well as its own policies, when it neglected to vet the data security practices of a service provider and require the vendor to adequately protect personal information of mortgage holders,” the National Law Review reported.

Jan. 5: The White House released a statement announcing that President Trump released the “National Maritime Cybersecurity Plan,” which sets forth how the United States government will defend the American economy through enhanced cybersecurity coordination, policies and practices.”

Jan. 5: SolarWinds shareholders filed a class action lawsuit in the aftermath of the massive Orion breach, claiming the company lied about its security practices and misled shareholders, according to news from Dark Reading.

Jan. 4: An at-home blood work lab, Apex Laboratory, has been working with a cybersecurity firm to investigate a ransomware attack in which patient data was believed to be stolen, according to news from Threatpost.

Jan. 4: A major outage left Slack off to a slow start as many returned to work after bidding farewell to 2020.