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The Morning Download: CIOs Speak Up on Pandemic-Triggered Cyber Insomnia
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Good morning, CIOs. Seriously ... good morning. The coronavirus pandemic has heightened cybersecurity concerns and shifted executives’ priorities, translating into shorter and shorter sleep cycles. We talked recently with several CIOs about what keeps them up at night. Some highlights below.
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Shankar Arumugavelu, global CIO, Verizon Communications Inc.
“The three things that keep me up at night are credential thefts using phishing attacks and malware, the threat of social-engineering attacks to manipulate customers and employees into divulging confidential or personal information, and third-party risk management to prevent malicious actors from infiltrating our network via our partners’ systems.”
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Vittorio Cretella, CIO, Procter & Gamble Co.
“We have seen an increase in attacks targeting our online services, consumers, customers and employees. Threat actors have leveraged Covid-19 messaging and advertisements to increase the effectiveness of their attacks.…We have to be relentless about increasing our cyber capabilities—including advanced threat detection and penetration testing—to provide additional protection from malware, internet-based attacks, phishing email and other threats.”
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Jim Fowler, CIO, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.
“Protecting our customers’ data with such a distributed workforce has risen to the top of our cybersecurity risks. The pandemic shifted 98% of our 28,000 associates to their homes in three days. Looking into the future, as much as 50% of our associates may end up working from home permanently. We’ve done an amazing job remaining vigilant so far, but we can’t rest. We’ve been on a five-year journey to replace all our transactional IT systems.”
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To pay or not to pay? Law-enforcement agencies say paying ransomware attackers creates an incentive for more cybercrime and doesn’t always result in the encrypted data being restored. (WSJ)
The industries most vulnerable to cyberattacks. Manufacturing, government and retailing were behind other industries in important areas in cybersecurity, according to a survey of information security officers at nearly 400 companies by WSJ Pro Research. Less than two-thirds of manufacturers and retailers have any cybersecurity program. Retailers were least likely to feel prepared to defend themselves against ransomware attacks. Government departments were well below average in offering cybersecurity training to their executives, as well as in identifying critical data.
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Huawei’s 5G dominance threatened by U.S. policy on chips.
Huawei Technologies Co. reworked its 5G base stations to reduce their use of American technology after it was placed on the U.S. "entity list" in May 2019. But that strategy is in jeopardy after the Commerce Department last month restricted chip makers globally who use U.S. technology from supplying semiconductors to Huawei. The WSJ's Dan Strumpf has more.
Example #1: The 5G base station. According to a teardown of a Huawei-made base station by California-based research firm EJL Wireless Research, Huawei faces the prospect of losing dozens of critical components that go into the devices.
Chinese tech firms face backlash. Chinese leaders for years have been accused of deploying “boycott diplomacy” as a tool in its international disputes, leveraging the country’s billion-plus consumers to punish rival economies. The WSJ’s Liza Lin reports that Chinese companies now are getting a taste of what it is like to be on the other side.
Latest flareup: India. In the wake of a border clash last week with Chinese troops, Indian officials said on Wednesday that they would bar their state-run telecom companies from purchasing equipment from Chinese companies such as ZTE Corp. and Huawei Technologies Co. for future 4G mobile networks.
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The San Ysidro Port of Entry, near San Diego. PHOTO: ETIENNE LAURENT/SHUTTERSTOCK
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Trump suspends new H-1Bs. The executive order signed late Monday bars until the end of the year new immigrants on a slate of employment-based visas, including the H-1B for high-skilled workers, from coming to the U.S. amid the coronavirus pandemic, (WSJ)
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“Disappointed by today’s proclamation—we’ll continue to stand with immigrants and work to expand opportunity for all.”
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— Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai
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North Dakota is using the GPS-based Care19 contact-tracing app. PHOTO: STEPHEN GROVES/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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America’s coronavirus tracking apps aren’t ready. Around 30 countries, including Singapore, Israel and China, have rolled out or are planning Covid-tracing apps at the national level, the WSJ’s Rolfe Winkler and Patience Haggin report. Here in the U.S., what is emerging across the country is a patchwork of buggy or little-used apps, made by partners ranging from startups on shoestring budgets to academics to consulting firms. Some are working with location-tracking firms that have been under fire from privacy advocates.
Even if they get it right. Covid-tracking apps won’t succeed unless large numbers of people install them and agree to share their data voluntarily. Right now, that is not happening, officials and executives involved in the efforts say.
Apple to split with Intel. The company, in a virtual conference for more than 20 million Apple Inc. developers, made it official Monday, announcing that it would end its 15-year partnership with the chip maker for processors for its Macs. Apple said the transition to its own processors would occur over the next two years, with the first Macs with custom-designed chips shipping by year-end.
Mac and chips. The chips, based on Arm Holdings technology, will improve battery life and allow for faster processing speeds and new security features, says the WSJ's Tripp Mickle. The move also has the potential to open its laptops to more iPhone developers, making it possible for their mobile apps to work more seamlessly on the roughly 20 million Macs it ships each year.
World’s fastest supercomputer made in Japan. Kobe’s Fugaku from Japan’s Riken institute runs 2.8 times more calculations a second than former champ Summit, an IBM Corp. supercomputer housed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. (New York Times)
MTA report looks at travel options, from temperature checks to facial recognition. Authorities in Paris are using artificial intelligence to scan CCTV footage from the Metro to identify people who aren’t wearing masks. The data isn’t used to punish people, but it is used to gauge mask usage, according to a report commissioned by New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority. (WSJ)
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Everything Else You Need to Know
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The FBI and Department of Justice are investigating the discovery in Alabama on Sunday of a noose in the race-track garage of Bubba Wallace, the only full-time black driver at Nascar’s highest level. (WSJ)
Protests for racial justice sparked by the police killing of George Floyd have quickly spread to small, conservative, and overwhelmingly white towns in a sign of just how widespread and fast-moving the movement is. (WSJ)
Large companies have swiftly sold big positions in other firms after the coronavirus pandemic sparked a scramble for cash and caused them to rewrite their investing playbooks. (WSJ)
The coronavirus pandemic is forcing U.S. employers to rethink how they hire, with tactics including remote onboarding and curbside job fairs. (WSJ)
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