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Getting the whole world connected by 2030 looks increasingly slim: ITU

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September 17, 2022

Getting the whole world connected by 2030 looks increasingly slim: ITU

Internet surge slows but still expected to leave 2.7b people offline in 2022
More investments needed in digital networks and technologies, implementing best practice regulation, and a continued focus on skills development.
Europe remains the most connected regions globally while Africa is the least connected.

International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies, said that the aim of getting the whole world connected by 2030 remains elusive despite increased web use amid pandemic.

While an estimated 5.3 billion people worldwide are now using the Internet, 2.7 billion people – or one-third of the world’s population – remain unconnected to the Internet in 2022.

“The Covid-19 pandemic gave us a big connectivity boost, but we need to keep the momentum going to ensure that everyone, everywhere can benefit from digital technologies and services,” ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao, said in a statement.

“This can only be achieved with more investments in digital networks and technologies, implementing best practice regulation, and a continued focus on skills development as we move to a post-pandemic era.”

Two major challenges

In 2019, prior to the pandemic, an estimated 3.6 billion people, or nearly half the world’s population, were unconnected.
Amid concerns about slowing progress, ITU analysis indicates two major challenges in terms of advancing the world’s digital transformation:

First, achieving universal connectivity – which in effect means bringing the remaining one-third of humanity online – will prove increasingly difficult. Most relatively easy-to-connect communities now have access to technologies like mobile broadband, spurring rapid and widespread uptake of digital services. Those still offline mostly live in remote, hard-to-reach areas.
Second, the shift from basic to meaningful connectivity – by which people not only have ready access to the Internet but are able to use it regularly and effectively to improve their lives – is complex. Often, such challenges are overlooked or under-estimated. Barriers can include slow Internet speed; limited affordability of hardware and subscription packages; inadequate digital awareness and skills; and linguistic and literacy barriers, as well as issues like gender discrimination or the lack of reliable a power source. All these need to be addressed if everyone is to enjoy equitable access to online resources.

“While the rise in the number of people using the Internet worldwide is positive, we should not assume the robust growth witnessed in recent years will continue unabated. Those who are still not using the Internet will be the most difficult to bring online,” Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau, said.

Universal meaningful connectivity

Globally, the number of Internet users grew by seven per cent and Internet penetration – the share of individuals using the Internet – grew by six per cent between 2021 and 2022.

However, growth is unevenly distributed across regions.
Areas with low Internet penetration have achieved the fastest growth over the past year – following a typical diffusion pattern for new and emerging technologies.

Among the regions, Europe remains the most connected globally, with 89 per cent of its population online, followed by the Americas, the Commonwealth of Independent States, and Europe each achieved 3 per cent growth, with more than 80 per cent of the population online in each region, the Arab States showed robust growth, with the Internet now reaching 70 per cent of the population, the Internet penetration grew from 61 per cent in 2021 to 64 per cent in Asia and the Pacific, relative to the region’s population.

Africa, the least connected of ITU’s six world regions, achieved 13 per cent year-on-year growth of Internet penetration. Today, 40 per cent of the population in Africa is online.

“Those who are still not using the Internet live in remote areas, often belong to disadvantaged groups, and in some cases are unfamiliar with what the Internet can offer. That is why our target needs to be not just universal connectivity, but universal meaningful connectivity,” Martin said.

Self-spreading stealer is distributed on YouTube via cheats and cracks ads

Naushad K. Cherrayil

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September 15, 2022

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Self-spreading stealer is distributed on YouTube via cheats and cracks ads

Illegal software should be treated with extreme caution, Kaspersky researcher says.
RedLine is currently one of the most common Trojans used to steal passwords and credentials from browsers, FTP clients and desktop messengers
The stealer spreads in various ways, including through malicious spam e-mails and third-party loaders.

A malicious bundle containing the RedLine stealer and a miner is distributed on YouTube through cheats and cracks ads for popular games.

Discovered in March 2020, RedLine is currently one of the most common Trojans used to steal passwords and credentials from browsers, FTP clients and desktop messengers.

It is openly available on underground hacker forums for just a few hundred dollars, a relatively small price tag for malware.

Oleg Kupreev, Kaspersky researcher, said the stealer can pinch usernames, passwords, cookies, bank card details and autofill data from Chromium- and Gecko-based browsers, data from cryptowallets, instant messengers and FTP/SSH/VPN clients, as well as files with particular extensions from devices.

In addition, he said that RedLine can download and run third-party programs, execute commands in cmd.exe and open links in the default browser. The stealer spreads in various ways, including through malicious spam e-mails and third-party loaders.

“In addition to the payload itself, the discovered bundle is of note for its self-propagation functionality. Several files are responsible for this, which receive videos, and post them to the infected users’ YouTube channels along with the links to a password-protected archive with the bundle in the description,” he said.

Games mentioned

The videos advertise cheats and cracks and provide instructions on hacking popular games and software.

Among the games mentioned are APB Reloaded, CrossFire, DayZ, Dying Light 2, F1® 22, Farming Simulator, Farthest Frontier, FIFA 22, Final Fantasy XIV, Forza, Lego Star Wars, Osu!, Point Blank, Project Zomboid, Rust, Sniper Elite, Spider-Man, Stray, Thymesia, VRChat and Walken.

According to the analytical agency Newzoo, in 2022, the global gaming market is expected to exceed $200 billion, with three billion players online.

Kupreev said the original bundle is a self-extracting RAR archive containing a number of malicious files, clean utilities and a script to automatically run the unpacked contents

Right after unpacking, three executable files are run: cool.exe, ***.exe and AutoRun.exe. The first is the RedLine stealer. The second is a miner, which makes sense, since the main target audience, judging by the video, is gamers — who are likely to have video cards installed that can be used for mining.

The third executable file copies itself to the %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\ Start Menu\Programs\Startup directory, which ensures automatic startup and runs the first of the batch files.

The batch files, in turn, run three other malicious files: MakiseKurisu.exe, download.exe and upload.exe.

These are the files responsible for the bundle’s self-distribution. On top of that, one of the batch files runs the nir.exe utility, which lets malicious executable files run without displaying any windows or taskbar icons.

Hackers’ agenda

Kupreev said that cybercriminals actively hunt for gaming accounts and gaming computer resources.

“The stealer-type malware is often distributed under the guise of game hacks, cheats and cracks. The self-spreading bundle with RedLine is a prime example of this: cybercriminals lure victims with ads for cracks and cheats, as well as instructions on how to hack games.

“At the same time, the self-propagation functionality is implemented using relatively unsophisticated software, such as a customised open-source stealer. All this is further proof, if any were needed, that illegal software should be treated with extreme caution,” he said.

Tokyo-Yokohama is the biggest cluster, followed by the Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou (China and Hong Kong, China), Beijing (China), Seoul (Republic of Korea) and San Jose-San Francisco (US).
For the first time, China has as many top S&T clusters as the US, with 21 apiece while Germany hosts 10 clusters and Japan five.

Four of the world’s five biggest science and technology clusters are located in East Asia – one in Japan, two in China, one in Republic of Korea and the fifth in the US, according to an early release from the 2022 edition of WIPO’s Global Innovation Index (GII).

Each year, the GII ranks the top-level innovative capacity of around 130 countries and economies around the world.

In a pre-release ahead of its official global launch on September 29, 2022, the Global Innovation Index “Science and Technology Cluster” chapter looks to the ground to identify the highest local concentration of science and technology development.

Science and technology clusters are established through the analysis of patent-filing activity and scientific article publication, documenting the geographical areas around the world with the highest density of inventors and scientific authors.

Innovation ecosystem

The GII science and technology clusters are one element in the larger GII, which takes the pulse of the most recent trends in global innovation.

The report ranks the innovation ecosystem performance of economies around the globe each year, while highlighting innovation strengths and weaknesses and particular gaps in innovation metrics.

To capture as complete a picture of innovation as possible, the GII comprises around 80 indicators, including measures on the political environment, education, infrastructure and knowledge creation of each economy.

Tokyo-Yokohama is the biggest cluster, followed by the Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou (China and Hong Kong, China), Beijing (China), Seoul (Republic of Korea) and San Jose-San Francisco (United States) clusters.

In proportion to population, the Cambridge cluster in the United Kingdom and the Eindhoven area in the Netherlands/Belgium are the most S&T-intensive clusters, followed by Daejon in the Republic of Korea, San Jose-San Francisco and Oxford, UK.

In the most S&T-intensive clusters, Bengaluru is ranked 96^th, Chennai at 97^th, Delhi at 99^th and Mumbai at 100^th.

“Local innovation clusters are critical to the vibrancy of national innovation ecosystems, so identifying them will help us understand where and how innovations is happening, and promote innovative activity as a powerful catalyst for jobs, investments, and growth,” Daren Tang, WIPO Director General, said in a statement.

Aside from the long-identified clusters of excellence in the US, Europe, Japan and the Republic of Korea, “we see new S&T hotbeds in East Asia, particularly in China, but also in other middle-income economies, including in Brazil, India, Iran, Türkiye, and elsewhere.

In the US, top clusters are San Jose-San Francisco, Boston-Cambridge and New York City, while in Europe the leaders are Paris, London and Cologne.

For the first time, China has as many top S&T clusters as the United States, with 21 apiece. Germany hosts 10 clusters and Japan claims five.

The largest increases in the 2022 cluster ranking compared to the previous year came from three Chinese clusters -Zhengzhou (+15 positions), Qingdao (+12) and Xiamen (+12), Berlin (+4) in Germany, Istanbul (+4) in Türkiye, Kanazawa (+4) in Japan, Ankara (+3) in Türkiye, Daegu (+3) in the Republic of Korea and Mumbai (+3) in India.

How immersive tech offers glimpses of the Metaverse in education

Contributor

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September 13, 2022

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How immersive tech offers glimpses of the Metaverse in education

With impressive results to show, the horizon for the learning sector is heaping with XR options, and the Metaverse could soon be knocking on the door as well.

The world around us is rapidly changing, and in return, so is the way people learn.

A recent survey found that 64 per cent of Gen Z favour interactive classroom discussions as one of the most helpful tools for learning, and have made it clear that a hands-on, immersive approach is what they thrive in.

With new generations comes new technology. The latest word on everyone’s lips is the Metaverse—a term recently used by Mark Zuckerberg earlier in 2022 to give a name to Facebook’s new mission to expand the internet to new digital bounds.

Although its meaning is ever-changing and sometimes confusing to pinpoint exactly, it mostly refers to how reality and the internet as a whole could fuse into a new universe hosted within immersive technology.

So, what is immersive tech, then? In short, it is any technology that encompasses extended reality (XR) tools, like augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality.

With these new immersive technologies and the need to innovate in the sector, learning management systems (LMS) are being revamped, offering a glimpse into how education could take place in the Metaverse.

Current role of immersive tech in LMS

When talking about LMS, we refer to the technology implemented by an instructor to plan and dispatch learning processes, be it web or software-based.

The learning field has started leveraging immersive tech for training purposes to supply the needs of the new generation currently taking over the workforce.

Jose M. Azares, CEO and founder of NIDUM, an immersive learning startup with clients like Dave & Buster’s and Canfor, says, “post-pandemic, the way of learning has changed, and we believe that the tools being used should evolve with these changes.” To make his point, he compares regular onboarding—often filled with long videos and boring PDFs—with how pilots train with immersive technologies to be more prepared for the challenges of their role.

Immersive training companies like his have disrupted the LMS industry by applying extended reality to learning processes.

Professionals train through simulators on web applications that can be adapted to a magnitude of mobile devices and headsets which will then walk the user through visualized onboarding sessions.

Azares explains; “with immersive modules, the user must interact directly with the information being displayed. They’re created based on microlearning, so content is designed for higher engagement, enough for trainees to go deeper into what they learn.”

According to an IBM report, immersive training reduces training time by 40% and improves employee performance by 70 per cent.

With impressive results to show, the horizon for the learning sector is heaping with XR options, and the Metaverse could soon be knocking on the door as well.

Opening doors to Metaverse

So far, the Metaverse looks like a dimension that works mainly through immersive tech. Just like the concept of VR was introduced to the mainstream around 10 years ago, and it’s still working its way to the main market, we could see the Metaverse imminently come into our lives in similar ways.

Predictions show that the VR and AR in education market will grow from $9.3 billion in 2018 to $19.6 billion by 2023.

Whether the Metaverse applies VR, AR, or all of XR in its favour, the market of its intended mediums is growing rapidly, and their use is already successful in learning environments.

For example, a recent study found that students using a VR headset to take a virtual field trip produced higher enjoyment, interest, and immediate and long-lasting retention of information, as opposed to a group exposed to only a video of the same subject.

Eileen McGivney, a Harvard Graduate School of Education researcher, asserts that “VR, because of the way it situates someone in the environment and the power it can provide for storytelling, it gives someone an emotional experience, which really connects to student excitement and investment.”

The leeway for the Metaverse is already taking flight with outstanding results and wide adoption in the field, making its use more plausible in the future of education.

Bright future

If XR technologies create such impacts in learning, the potential of the Metaverse applied to LMS could be endless. Students could learn about the human body with mixed reality through their phones or explore the infrastructure of ancient cities through VR headsets.

If immersive tech has proven to be successful for learning, perhaps the uber-immersive nature of the Metaverse could mean even more advances in learning proactively.

Moreover, the increasing adoption and normalisation of XR tools for education mean that the Metaverse could quickly seep into the seams of the learning field as well.

However, when asked about the Metaverse, Azares emphasises that “although immersive tech is a transitional point for the Metaverse, the latter is still too intangible. To get there, you must first go through different adaptation phases, such as analog and digital with immersive tech.”

While the Metaverse is a hot topic, perhaps we should allow the current wave of XR in LMS to have its moment before thinking too far ahead into the future. The more we learn about what immersive tech can do for learners, the clearer the path to transitioning into the Metaverse.

Mark Zuckerberg mentioned the first features of the Metaverse could become mainstream in five to 10 years. So, with such a bright future for education far ahead, we still have time to sit back and enjoy the benefits of immersive tech in LMS before worrying about the next thing.

The writer is a Junior Writer at Publicize.

Emotet is back with a massive uptick in first half of 2022

Naushad K. Cherrayil

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September 13, 2022

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Emotet is back with a massive uptick in first half of 2022

The malware, which made its debut in 2014, jumps 976.7% in the first half
Ransomware developers continue their shift toward more lucrative and efficient monetisation methods.
The cloud remains a popular target for malicious actors, with some capitalising on old and persistent issues such as misconfiguration and others attempting to develop more novel and unconventional methods to launch attacks on cloud infrastructure.

Emotet continues to thrive in the first half of 2022 and saw a whopping 976.7 per cent increase compared to the first half of 2021, according to Trend Micro’s mid-year cybersecurity report.

As part of a malware-as-a-service (MaaS) scheme, malicious actors used Emotet as a loader to deploy Conti and other ransomware families to Emotet-infected systems that malicious actors deemed profitable.

Indeed, researchers from Advintel named Conti operators as one of the reasons behind Emotet’s recent resurgence.

In the first half of this year, there were 148,701 Emotet detections globally compared to 13,811 a year ago, with Japan having the highest number of detections, followed by the US and India.

Emotet made its debut in 2014 and is known to have been used by operators of other malware such as Conti and Ryuk in their attacks. In 2021, its infrastructure was taken down through the collaborative effort of various law enforcement agencies from different countries.

Widening digital attack

“In the first half of 2022, cybersecurity teams found themselves scrambling to keep on-site, hybrid, and remote work setups secure against cybercriminals who are quick to take advantage of this scattered labour pool and a widened digital attack surface to launch critical attacks and exploit vulnerabilities,” the report showed.

In May 2022, the firm analysed Emotet infections across various regions and discovered that while the attacks still relied on spam campaigns, it also added small changes to its routine, such as using Excel 4.0 macros for its downloading procedure instead of using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA).

Other changes that were implemented in these recent Emotet infections include streamlined payloads and additional obfuscation techniques. Perhaps most importantly, the operators of Emotet have since added Cobalt Strike to their arsenal since the botnet’s reappearance, making newer Emotet campaigns more dangerous.

Aside from upping the ante by using MaaS schemes in their attacks, malicious actors are also continuously expanding their attack reach by targeting one of the most powerful operating systems used in cloud platforms and servers worldwide – Linux.

Issues in critical infrastructures

In October 2021, LockBit Linux-ESXi Locker version 1.0 started targeting and encrypting ESXi servers. This year, we discovered a new ransomware variant, called Cheerscrypt that also targeted ESXi servers.

Successful infection of these servers, which are widely used by enterprises, could cause significant security issues in critical infrastructures.

The emergence of these new Linux ransomware families directly corresponds to what we saw in our SPN data for the first half of the year: a 75 per cent increase in ransomware attacks targeting Linux systems in the first half of 2022 compared to the first half of 2021.

In the first half of the year, three RaaS threat actors stood above the rest: Conti, LockBit, and BlackCat, each of which saw significantly higher detections in the first half of the year compared to the first half of 2021, indicating that cybercriminals are increasingly turning toward a RaaS partnership due to the benefits it provides for both parties.

The security firm also observed relatively new ransomware families such as Black Basta, Nokoyawa, and Hive being used in high-profile attacks on big-game targets.

Based on the data gathered, there were 67 active RaaS and extortion groups and over 1,200 victim organisations that were reported in the first six months of this year alone.

According to Trend Micro’s security predictions for this year, the firm foresaw that ransomware families would go after bigger targets using more advanced methods of extortion — a prediction that fits the bill of the notable ransomware families that we reported on in the first half of 2022.

Another notable ransomware family, called Nokoyawa, surfaced in the first half of this year and targeted victims in the South American region, specifically in Argentina.

Nokoyawa shares common tools and techniques with Hive, a notorious ransomware family that was used to launch ransomware attacks on more than 300 US healthcare organisations in 2021.

“After analysing Nokoyawa’s technical details, we were able to observe the distinctions between the two ransomware families: Their binaries were compiled using different languages, and Nokoyawa did not use any packet whatsoever while Hive used UPX,” the report showed.

The report also revealed that cloud misconfiguration is still a top concern, while cloud-based cryptocurrency-mining attacks that use evolutionary tactics are on the rise.

In recent years, cloud-based containers have enabled organisations to optimise their processes and development cycles. Because of the ubiquity of these containers and the fact that many such platforms are misconfigured, they continue to be targeted by cybercriminals.

According to a May 2022 survey from Red Hat, 53 per cent of survey respondents composed of 300 DevOps, engineering, and security professionals said that they detected a misconfiguration in their containers and/or Kubernetes deployments.

Meanwhile, Trend Micro Cloud One Conformity data shows the tools and services with the highest levels of service misconfiguration rates (based on total checks) from Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). In particular, Azure’s activity log service had high misconfiguration rates and was associated with a high number of high-risk rules (based on Conformity risk level rating).

Moreover, Trend Micro observed that cybercriminal teams remained invested in stealing cryptocurrency-mining capabilities from victims’ resources in the first half of the year by continuously upgrading their attack arsenals and tactics.

Based on research conducted in 2021 and published earlier this year, Trend Micro determined the five most prominent malicious actor groups in the cryptocurrency mining space and how they had conducted their operations – Outlaw, TeamTNT, Kinsing, 8220 and Kek Security.

Two major challenges

Universal meaningful connectivity

Games mentioned

Hackers’ agenda

Related posts:

Current role of immersive tech in LMS

Opening doors to Metaverse

Bright future

Widening digital attack

Issues in critical infrastructures

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