To keep up with the firehose of news, we’ve decided to deliver some extra news to you on the side every Monday and Thursday morning. Some of it is an extension of our own reporting that didn’t make its way into a story, while others might be content we’ve bookmarked for later reading and thought of sharing with you. We’re doing a similar thing at Channel Daily News – check it out here. You can also view our previous ITWC Morning Briefing here. Today’s briefing is delivered by ITWC editorial director Alex Coop.
What you need to know right now
It’s what you need to know right now in the world of IT and tech – ’nuff said. (Often taken with a side of Hashtag Trending)
Hashtag Trending
The LAPD admits to using facial recognition since 2009, House Democrats are calling for big changes among the big four, and Facebook bans QAnon. You can read the full episode transcript here!
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Cyber Security Today
Speakers at the MapleSec virtual cybersecurity conference this week gave out some great advice and observations. Here are some of the highlights, and make sure to check out the full episode transcript here!
A look back at MapleSEC
That’s a wrap! ITWC and the Canadian Internet Registration Authority put on a three-day virtual cybersecurity conference this week, the beginning of a multi-year commitment to engage with Canadians about cybersecurity. From Monday to Wednesday, MapleSEC featured dozens of experts and interactive sessions for the more than 1,000 participants. We want to thank all of our sponsors and participants. If you registered, you can view all of MapleSEC on-demand on the MapleTV platform. You can also still register if you haven’t already – more info here!
You can also learn more about the event through our editorial coverage below:
DAY 1
MapleSEC: The ransomware attack that turned into a horror story
How to deal with media and stakeholders following a cyber incident
MapleSEC: The ransomware attack that turned into a horror story
DAY 2
The numbers are going up! (That’s a good thing). Ryerson experienced spikes in 2FA adoption every October thanks to strong awareness campaigns and push notifications reminding students about the importance of strong passwords. They were eventually able to make 2FA mandatory. pic.twitter.com/KdUjtJaeaw
— Alex Coop (@ItsJustAlexCoop) October 6, 2020
MapleSEC: How municipalities can guard against inevitable ransomware threats
Cyber Security Today: Great advice from MapleSec security conference speakers
DAY 3
MapleSec: How COVID pandemic created nightmares for privacy experts
Alberta’s privacy commish Jill Clayton says her office was contacted by all sectors during the early days of the pandemic, asking for guidance around the management of private info with a remote workforce. #MapleSEC #CybersecurityAwarenessMonth pic.twitter.com/rlCylqcFPi
— Alex Coop (@ItsJustAlexCoop) October 7, 2020
She briefly addressed the problematic contact tracing app Alberta developed earlier this year. Alberta is still trying to fix it, she says. Some background on this story: https://t.co/tH98azfjd8#CDNTech #MapleSEC
— Alex Coop (@ItsJustAlexCoop) October 7, 2020
In case you missed it
Air Canada pilots new tech
Air Canada says it’s exploring opportunities to adopt a Bluetooth enabled TraceSCAN contact tracing app, as well as wearable tech developed by Canadian-based Facedrive Inc.
“Our project with Air Canada is ground-breaking and provides another critical example of how TraceSCAN supplements the capability of the Canadian government-sponsored COVID Alert App. TraceSCAN will allow Air Canada to provide further protection to their employees, especially as many of these employees work in environments where the use of cell phone technology is not possible,” said Sayan Navaratnam, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Facedrive Inc. “We are very pleased to help Air Canada explore ways to provide additional protection to their employees. We hope this pilot will be a model for other airlines to follow and look forward to continuing to work with industry to protect Canadians as our country returns to its normal working and travel schedules.” [News release]
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Looking forward to the next Samsung Note? Not so fast, source confirms [IT World Canada]
Samsung has cancelled plans for a new Note smartphone in its next-generation smartphone lineup, said a person familiar with the matter.
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Parliamentary budget officer says Ottawa’s Innovation Superclusters Initiative will miss job creation targets [IT World Canada]
Ottawa’s Innovation Superclusters Initiative (ISI) isn’t receiving enough federal money and is likely to miss its job creation and GDP growth targets, according to a report released Oct. 6 by the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) Yves Giroux.
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2020 CanadianCIO Census: Employee well-being skyrockets to top of CIOs’ priority list [IT World Canada]
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is foremost in the minds of CIOs as they consider what comes next, but the latest CanadianCIO Census suggests their top concern is not about technology or cybersecurity, it’s the well-being of their employees.
Employee well-being has overtaken the concerns about the increased number of cyberattacks ravaging businesses globally, a clear shift from last year’s top priorities heading into 2020.
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Canadian quantum computing firms partner to spread the technology [IT World Canada]
In a bid to accelerate this country’s efforts in quantum computing, 24 Canadian hardware and software companies specializing in the field are launching an association this week to help their work get commercialized.
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Videotron brings high-speed internet to 30,000 residents in rural Quebec [IT World Canada]
Videotron has expanded its high-speed internet network to include 30,000 more residents in rural Quebec.
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Google renames G Suite to Workspace [IT Business Canada]
Google says it’s turning G Suite into a more integrated experience across its various communication and collaboration tools and rebranding it to Google Workplace for a more accurate representation of the product.
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Bookmarks of the week
A few bookmarked tweets that we think are worth sharing with you. Check out the #CyberSecurityAwarenessMonth hashtag on Twitter to follow the conversation.
1. The investigative long tail of the Cambridge Analytica scandal is slowly coming to its end. The British data rights regulator, the @ICOnews, has released its final report. Some interesting findings: https://t.co/GE3HzwtqCx
— Nick Confessore (@nickconfessore) October 7, 2020
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Late night thoughts: We miss Clippy. pic.twitter.com/xyVSPy0F3J
— CNET (@CNET) October 7, 2020
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We’re seeing more activity leveraging the CVE-2020-1472 exploit (ZeroLogon). A new campaign shrewdly poses as software updates that connect to known CHIMBORAZO (TA505) C2 infrastructure. The fake updates lead to UAC bypass and use of wscript.exe to run malicious scripts.
— Microsoft Security Intelligence (@MsftSecIntel) October 6, 2020
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B2B #DigitalCommerce, accelerated by the #COVID19 pandemic, is now top of mind for most sales organizations. Here’s why today’s sales leaders must adopt a digital mindset: https://t.co/ckntakV0Si #GartnerSales pic.twitter.com/wcByEdzwWy
— Gartner (@Gartner_inc) October 6, 2020