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  Load balancing of application traffic has been around for a long time. But, as more organisations move to the private and public cloud, it’s undergoing significant changes. Let’s look at some of the important considerations of this evolving technology. Three major requirements underline IT operations and DevOps today: agile, efficiency and, multi-cloud operations. Agile: The movement toward public cloud is arguably driven by an organisation’s desire to deliver more functionality faster. Public clouds like...

Another clinical lab ensnared in the AMCA data breach has come forward. Clinical Pathology Laboratories (CPL) says 2.2 million patients may have had their names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, dates of service, balance information and treatment provider information stolen in the previously reported breach. Another 34,500 patients had their credit card or banking information compromised. The breach was limited to U.S. residents, the company said. Source: TechCrunch

Tampa-based community radio station WMNF 88.5-FM is stepping up cybersecurity after its computer systems were hobbled by ransom-seeking hackers last month. Interim general manager Cindy Reichard said the ordeal began June 18 when a programmer noticed a computer in one of the studios was acting strangely. The station then received a digital message: Your files have been encrypted. Pay us, and you can have them back. Source: Tampa Bay

FaceApp, the latest viral challenge, is keeping the selfies of its users, according to its privacy policy. The app, which encourages users to age themselves after uploading pictures, was developed by a group in St Petersburg, Russia. The trend has since amassed millions of users across the world. But following security concerns, politicians have been warned not to use the app. According to USA TODAY, the app’s privacy policy states it collects the pictures uploaded...

Lenovo has confirmed that a "high severity" security vulnerability has left users of specific network-attached storage devices with data exposed to anyone who went looking for it. How much data? How does at least 36TB grab you? That's the number that the security researchers who uncovered the vulnerability in the Lenovo-EMC storage products put on the data leak at the time of the discovery. According to the Vertical Structure report, security researchers found "about 13,000 spreadsheet...

An overwhelming majority of cyber security professionals (93%) say they are moderately to highly concerned about public cloud security, a survey reveals. Only 3% of respondents said they were not concerned, while 4% said they were slightly concerned. While 18% said they were moderately concerned, roughly the same proportion said they were “very concerned” (37%) or “extremely concerned” (38%), according to a poll by Synopsys of 400,000 members of the Cybersecurity Insiders information security community. Source: Computer Weekly

Numerous big cities across the United States have fallen victim to ransomware attacks costing the municipalities tens of millions of dollars to recover. While some city administrators refrain from giving in to extortion demands, most end up paying in exchange for the decryption keys. Seeing how ransomware operators are showing no signs of stopping, city mayors have decided to stop giving in to extortion demands. Source: Security Boulevard

Companies and public sector organisations say they have no choice but to automate their cyber defences as hacking become increasingly sophisticated. Security professionals can no longer keep pace with the volume and sophistication of attacks on computer systems. In a study of 850 security professionals across 10 countries, more than half said their organisations are overwhelmed with data. So they are turning to machine-learning technologies that can identify cyber attacks by analysing huge quantities of network data...

The total cost of cyber security breaches to UK mid-market businesses with a turnover between £15m and £1bn a year reached at least £30bn in the past 12 months, according to assurance, tax and advisory firm Grant Thornton. More than half (53%) of just over 500 UK mid-market companies interviewed reported losses equivalent to between 3% and 10% of revenue following a cyber breach, with those businesses hit most severely reporting losses as high as 25%...

If you thought instant messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram that provide end-to-end encryption give you rock-solid security, think again. Researchers from cyber-security firm Symantec on Monday revealed the vulnerabilities that allowed hackers to manipulate the images and audio files you receive on these platforms. The security flaw, dubbed "Media File Jacking", affected WhatsApp for Android by default, and Telegram for Android if certain features were enabled, Symantec researchers said in a blog post. Source: Economic...