In the summer of 2023, a Chinese hacking group tracked as Storm-0558 compromised Microsoft’s cloud, eventually leading to the breach of hundreds of thousands of emails, including those email accounts of U.S. government officials in charge of managing our relationship with China (Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, United States Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China […]

What motivates a hacker or group of cyberattackers? The answer is typically money. For each column in this series, rAVe writer Paul Konikowski takes a deeper dive into a recent security event or data breach, shedding light on supply chain vulnerabilities, infrastructure and cyber-physical security. The Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack in May of 2021 caused […]

Why did the pipeline get shut down if the hackers only attacked the business end?  For each column in this series, rAVe writer Paul Konikowski takes a deeper dive into a recent security event or data breach, shedding light on supply chain vulnerabilities, infrastructure and cyber-physical security. By now, most people heard about the Colonial […]

For each column in this series, rAVe writer Paul Konikowski takes a deeper dive into a recent security event or data breach, shedding light on supply chain vulnerabilities, infrastructure and cyber-physical security. In my last “SecuringAV” column about the Nashville Christmas morning bombing, I did my best to define what “infrastructure project” meant using the […]

In mid-December, news broke about a massive cyber breach that occurred through SolarWinds software. There is a chance (I hope not) that many in the AV community briefly looked at this, decided it was an IT issue and moved on. If you did, I think that was a mistake — and want to tell you […]

For each column in this series, rAVe writer Paul Konikowski takes a deeper dive into a recent security event or data breach, shedding light on supply chain vulnerabilities, infrastructure, and cyber-physical security. While most Americans are still processing the recent attack on the United States Capitol building, many cybersecurity researchers and professionals believe the real […]

There are quite a few conferences that focus on AV equipment. On the consumer side, there is CES, on the broadcast side there is NAB, then for residential AV there is CEDIA Expo and for commercial AV, we have InfoComm. The latest conference to focus on AV equipment, however, happened Friday, August 10th. The conference? DEFCON. […]

As the world moves further and further into a technology-enabled and -dependent world, serious questions arise about personal and institutional privacy. Recently, news headlines have revealed that a seemingly innocuous bit of data could have far reaching and deadly side effects. Over the past several years, the U.S. Army has issued fitness trackers to its […]

For an industry that leads in so many ways, the Audio/Video/Lighting manufacturers still have a lot to learn when it comes to reaching targeted prospects and clients. The dissonance from engineering to marketing is jarring. I have identified “Three Mistakes AVL Manufacturers Are Making” in this month’s Trends article, hoping to help re-frame the conversations […]

There’s a great quote from an article by John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems, about hacking into systems: “There are two types of companies: Those who have been hacked, and those who don’t yet know they have been hacked.” While Mr. Chambers point is about securing data, networks, and storage, the quote prompted a different […]

Since I put out the blog Sony-pocalypse Round 2 — Sony Pictures Fights Back… the other day, new major developments have taken place since it published. Thus a necessary edit to the blog. We’ll start from the top: If you haven’t already heard, Sony Pictures was recently breached, and it was brutal. If you need […]

Meet Google’s Security Princess. From an article published in Elle Magazine in August of this year, the header gives a unique description of her: As Google’s top hacker, Parisa Tabriz thinks like a criminal—and manages the brilliant, wonky guys on her team with the courage and calm of a hostage negotiator. Whoa. Weeks back I […]