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Court finds employers' discretion in awarding bonuses must be exercised fairly

Rhonda B. Levy and George Vassos discuss an Ontario Court of Appeal decision that puts employers on notice that their discretion in awarding bonuses is not unconstrained and must be exercised fairly and reasonably.

Human Resources Director Canada

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#MeToo: New York State Court Allows Actor’s Claims Against Entertainment Companies to Proceed Based on Alleged Conduct in 1995 by Weinstein

A New York state judge has denied motions to dismiss actor Julia Ormond's claims against a film company, its parent company, and a talent agency based on conduct by film producer Harvey Weinstein, who Ormond alleges assaulted her in December 1995 in her Manhattan apartment. In her lawsuit, Ormond alleges that these entities knew about Harvey Weinstein's predatory behavior before he sexually assaulted her in 1995 and failed to protect her. The ruling allows the case to proceed, highlighting the potential scope of liability of these companies.




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Littler Attorneys in Four European Countries Recognized in the 2025 Editions of Best Lawyers™

(June 21, 2024) – Littler, the world’s largest employment and labor law practice representing management, and its attorneys have been featured in the 2025 editions of Best Lawyers® in France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.

The individual attorneys that were listed include the following:




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Leading Business Coalition Urges Supreme Court Review in Key Case on Government-Forced Union Representation

Littler’s Workplace Policy Institute files brief for the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace urging court to grant review of Goldstein v. Professional Staff Congress and reaffirm Constitutional protections against compulsory union representation




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Labour and Employment Law in Canada – 2024 in Review & Trends for 2025




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High Court to Review Standard Applied to ‘Reverse Discrimination’ Cases

Alyesha Asghar and Julian G.G. Wolfson explain “background circumstances,” which are required as evidence in cases of reverse discrimination, and the implications for employers and IE&D.

Wolters Kluwer

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Missouri Appears to Have Approved Paid Sick and Safe Time Ballot Measure as Rumors of Potential Challenge Circulate

  • New statewide paid sick and safe time law would take effect on May 1, 2025.
  • Law would allow employers to limit annual use to either 40 or 56 hours, limit carryover to 80 hours, but is silent on accrual caps.
  • Notice obligations would begin before law takes effect.




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Ontario, Canada Appellate Court Provides Guidance to Employers on How to Draft Employment Settlement Documents

  • The Court of Appeal for Ontario found that settlement documents signed after an employee separated from employment prevented him from suing for the value of vested stock options.
  • The OCA emphasized that the employee had executed the settlement documents with the benefit of legal advice and that they clearly released the employee’s entitlement to the damages claimed.




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Time for Employers to Complete California Privacy Rights Act Compliance as Court of Appeal Lifts Injunction on Enforcement

  • The California Court of Appeal’s decision on February 9, 2024 immediately restores the California Privacy Protection Agency’s enforcement power.
  • The decision impacts finalized regulations – which are no longer subject to enforcement delay. 
  • Upcoming and pending regulations are unlikely to face enforcement delay once finalized.




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Crash Course in U.S. Employment Law: How a Multinational Based Outside the United States Can Avoid Big Mistakes Managing a U.S. Workforce

  • Multinationals based outside the United States that enter the U.S. market and employ U.S. staff tend to encounter hurdles, and to make mistakes, because the U.S system of labor/employment regulation is of a fundamentally different character from those of every other country in the world.  




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Legal-Ease: Your Lawyer as Your Business Consultant – A Labor & Employment Perspective

Kristy Peters discusses how employment law attorneys can be critical partners for employers to help them identify challenges and opportunities for their business.

InBusiness Phoenix

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Court Thwarts Efforts to Conceal Driving History Information from Employers

Rod M. Fliegel and Cirrus Jahangiri discuss what a recent court of appeal decision means for employers in California, who are often restricted from access to employees’ public records, including criminal history information.

SHRM Online

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The Risks Of Employee Political Discourse On Social Media

Bradford Kelley and James McGehee discuss the potential risks for employers when employees use social  media for political purposes.

Law360

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Right To Disconnect Plan May Erode Firms' Long-Hours Culture

Ben Smith and Maya Beauville say the UK government's softened plan to grant employees the right to disconnect out of hours is unlikely to change the legal sector's entrenched long-hour culture anytime soon.

Law360

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Texas Court to Weigh Overtime Rule With Trump Rescission Looming

While the state of Texas and businesses tries to convince a federal district court that the US DOL went beyond its authority with a rule expanding overtime protections, Jim Paretti says that if employers in Texas continue operating business as usual, they will be doing so at their own risk.

Bloomberg Law

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ETSI Open Source MANO: Orchestrating the 5G Orchestra in a world’s first

ETSI Open Source MANO: Orchestrating the 5G Orchestra in a world’s first

Sophia Antipolis, 19 March 2019

On Saturday, 16 March, the public was invited to experience musicians perform a fully synchronized concert across venues in Bristol and London.

Read More...




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ETSI and the Linux Foundation sign Memorandum of Understanding enabling industry standards and Open Source collaboration

ETSI and the Linux Foundation sign Memorandum of Understanding enabling industry standards and Open Source collaboration

San Francisco, US, and Sophia Antipolis, France, 26 April 2019

Today, the Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through sustainable open source, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with ETSI, the independent organization providing global standards for ICT services across all sectors of industry, to bring open source and standards closer and foster synergies between them.

Read More...




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ETSI OSM Release SIX enhances Edge support and lets your Network Service fly

ETSI OSM Release SIX enhances Edge support and lets your Network Service fly

Sophia Antipolis, 20 June 2019

ETSI OSM Release SIX is now available! The new Release brings a huge new set of capabilities to provide end-to-end orchestration across heterogeneous networks and cloud technologies.

Read More...




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Mission Critical Implementations tested during the fourth ETSI MCX Plugtests

Mission Critical Implementations tested during the fourth ETSI MCX Plugtests

Sophia Antipolis, 30 September 2019

The 4th ETSI MCX PlugtestsTM have concluded with a success rate of 95% of the executed tests in the validation of 3GPP mission critical services vendor interoperability.

Read More...




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ETSI Open Source MANO unveils Release SEVEN, enables more than 20,000 cloud-native applications for NFV environments

ETSI Open Source MANO unveils Release SEVEN, enables more than 20,000 cloud-native applications for NFV environments

Sophia Antipolis, 12 December 2019

Today, the ETSI Open Source MANO group is pleased to unveil its latest release, OSM Release SEVEN. This release brings cloud-native applications to NFV deployments, enabling OSM to on-board over 20,000 pre-existing production-ready Kubernetes applications, with no need of any translation or repackaging. OSM release SEVEN allows you to combine within the same Network Service the flexibility of cloud-native applications with the predictability of traditional virtual and physical network functions (VNFs and PNFs) and all the required advanced networking required to build complex end to end telecom services.

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Open Source MANO Release NINE fulfils ETSI's zero-touch automation vision, ready for MEC and O-RAN use cases

Open Source MANO Release NINE fulfils ETSI's zero-touch automation vision, ready for MEC and O-RAN use cases

Sophia Antipolis, 18 December 2020

ETSI is pleased to announce the launch of OSM Release NINE today. With an array of new features, this Release completes the alignment process with ETSI NFV specifications, culminating in native adoption of ETSI GS NFV-SOL006 for network functions and service modelling. Standardizing the onboarding process for VNFs into OSM fosters interoperability and boosts the growth of OSM’s VNF ecosystem. Release NINE coincides with the announcement of a new production deployment, confirming OSM as the most comprehensive open-source NFV orchestrator and a key enabler for zero-touch end-to-end network and service automation.

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ETSI Open Source MANO launches Release TEN, celebrates OSM 5th anniversary

ETSI Open Source MANO launches Release TEN, celebrates OSM 5th anniversary

Sophia Antipolis, 16 June 2021

Today ETSI is happy to introduce OSM Release TEN, the 11th Release of an Open-Source project which first announced its Release ZERO in 2016 with the vision of closing the gap between the traditional way of building telecom networks, and the use of cloud technologies in telcos emerging at that time.

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Testing to the edge: join us at our virtual UCAAT 2021

Testing to the edge: join us at our virtual UCAAT 2021

Sophia Antipolis, 16 August 2021

The automation of test processes is proven to increase productivity and product quality. The global pandemic has increased the demands on various IT systems and services in terms of interoperability, scalability and adaptability, making test automation even more critical for the delivery of agile solutions in uncertain times.

To tackle these challenges, ETSI is organizing the 8th User Conference on Advanced Automated Testing (UCAAT) as a virtual conference on 19-21 October.

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ETSI Open Source MANO announces OSM Release ELEVEN

ETSI Open Source MANO announces OSM Release ELEVEN

Sophia Antipolis, 7 December 2021

ETSI is pleased to announce OSM Release ELEVEN. Committed since its foundation to the alignment with ETSI standardization work, this release completes the adoption of two new ETSI NFV specifications, ETSI GS NFV-SOL004 and ETSI GS NFV-SOL007 for package formats. Standards adoption is part of the OSM vision to enable interoperability and a large and healthy NFV ecosystem. In addition, Release ELEVEN includes significant functional extensions in areas such as interoperability with public clouds, interaction with cloud-native environments and integration of network functions of different natures.

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ETSI launches a new open-source group: TeraFlowSDN

ETSI launches a new open-source group: TeraFlowSDN

Supporting autonomous networks and cybersecurity use cases

Sophia Antipolis, 31 May 2022

Today, ETSI is pleased to announce the creation of a new open-source group called TeraFlowSDN. Based upon the results of the European Union-funded TeraFlow 5G PPP research project, this new group hosted by ETSI will provide a toolbox for rapid prototyping and experimentation with innovative network technologies and use cases.

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ETSI provides lectures to the University of Luxembourg on standardization for their Master’s course

ETSI provides lectures to the University of Luxembourg on standardization for their Master’s course

Sophia Antipolis, 1 June 2022

Continuing our role in encouraging the new generation of standards people, ETSI has recently provided online lectures to the University of Luxembourg. A series of 6 presentations for students following the MTECH Master degree project "Technopreneurship: mastering smart ICT, standardization and digital trust for enabling next generation of ICT solutions". The first post-graduates from this course will receive their degrees at the end of 2022.

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ETSI Top 10 Webinars in 2022 Starring: Cybersecurity, AI, IPv6, MEC, Open Source MANO and more

Sophia Antipolis, 20 December 2022

As 2022 comes to an end, we have selected for you our most popular webinars of the year. If you missed them, listen to the recorded presentations and their Q&A sessions, deep dive into the Cyber resilience Act and AI Act, IPv6, Multi-access Edge Computing, Open Source MANO and much more.

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ETSI’s Activities in Artificial Intelligence: Read our New White Paper

ETSI’s Activities in Artificial Intelligence: Read our New White Paper

Sophia Antipolis, 21 December 2022

ETSI has a long history of developing standards in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and systems that use and support AI. Today ETSI is pleased to release a new White Paper developed by a variety of members and experts. They include companies from telecom and network communication sectors, from large and small and medium enterprises, based either in Europe, Asia or America.

This White Paper entitled ETSI Activities in the field of Artificial Intelligence supports all stakeholders and summarizes ongoing effort in ETSI and planned future activities. It also includes an analysis on how ETSI deliverables may support current policy initiatives in the field of artificial intelligence.  A section of the document outlines ETSI activities of relevance to address Societal Challenges in AI while another addresses the involvement of the European Research Community.

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ETSI launches second release of TeraFlowSDN, its open source Cloud-Native SDN Orchestrator and Controller for transport networks

Sophia Antipolis, 2 February 2023

ETSI Open Source Group TeraFlowSDN has just announced the 2nd release of TeraFlowSDN controller, an innovative and robust SDN orchestrator and controller.

Read More...




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ETSI Research Conference: Research and Standards on a successful journey

Sophia Antipolis, 10 February 2023

With more than 170 face-to-face attendees, coming from 30 countries, the three day ETSI conference on Maximizing the Impact of European 6G Research through Standardization came to a close on 8 February. The event provided a unique opportunity for the research community to come together with industry representatives and standardization experts to discuss future technology research and building stronger links to standardization.

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Your Smart Digital Identity with ETSI: Join our webinar on 20 April

Sophia Antipolis, 14 April 2023

Today we expect to be able to communicate anywhere, with everyone, at anytime, on every device and at the same time use various services that will help us save time in our daily life.

Read More...




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ETSI Open Source MANO announces Release FOURTEEN providing a new scalable architecture for service assurance

Sophia Antipolis, 26 July 2023

The ETSI Open Source MANO community is proud to announce OSM Release FOURTEEN. Release FOURTEEN is a Long-Term-Support (LTS) release of ETSI OSM, providing two years of continuous support with bug fixes and security patches, and including significant improvements in many key areas.

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Linux Foundation and ETSI Further Collaborate to Drive Harmonization Across Open Source and Open Standards

BILBAO, SpainOpen Source Summit Europe, 19 September 2023

The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization focused on fostering innovation through open source, and ETSI, the independent organization providing global standards for ICT services across all sectors of industry, today announced expanded collaboration. While the two organizations have been working together for years, the 2019 formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)  recently has been updated and expanded.

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ETSI Open Source MANO announces Release FIFTEEN, leaner and easier to maintain

Sophia Antipolis, 21 December 2023

The ETSI Open Source MANO community is proud to announce OSM Release FIFTEEN, meeting the well-established cadence of two releases per year. The OSM community delivers one Long Term Support (LTS) and one regular release every year, to ensure the OSM user base is provided with continuous innovations and production-ready stability.

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ETSI Open Source MANO announces Release SIXTEEN, enabling cloud-native orchestration of cloud infrastructure and applications

Sophia Antipolis, 4 September 2024

The ETSI Open Source MANO community is proud to announce OSM Release SIXTEEN, a Long-Term-Support (LTS) release of ETSI OSM, which becomes the most innovative and feature-packed release shipped by OSM to date.

This release brings a revolution in OSM’s functionality, positioning OSM as a generalized cloud-native orchestrator for infrastructure, platforms and services, which extends significantly its former scope. Full cloud-native management of Kubernetes clusters in public clouds, together with the applications or software units running on them, is now possible with Release SIXTEEN. Every operation related to the cluster management (creation, upgrading, scaling, deletion) or the applications running on them is reflected in Git repositories, following the GitOps model. This has been possible thanks to a major change in the internal architecture of OSM.

Read More...




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Take Control: Be the CEO of Your Career and Life

Starts: Wed, 04 Dec 2024 19:00:00 -0500
12/04/2024 05:30:00PM
Location: Montreal, Canada




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Calgary Holiday Party - Holiday Glamour at Lougheed House

Starts: Sat, 30 Nov 2024 19:00:00 -0500
<div>Join us for a magical evening of holiday cheer at the <b>McGill Alumni Association of Calgary</b>'s <b>Holiday Soirée</b>!</div><div><br /></div><div>Immerse yourself in the historic ambiance of Lougheed House as we celebrate the season with festive decorations, delightful canapés, and a cash bar.&nbsp;</div><div><br /></div><div>This is your chance to dress up, socialize, make new friends, and reconnect with old ones-all while enjoying a fun evening with our community. <br /><br /></div><div><i>Get ready to be enchanted by the spirit of the holidays! <br /></i></div>
Location: Calgary, Canada




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SpotOn London 2012 Storify: Collaborating and building your online presence: educating scientists and science students

Jenny Evans has created a Storify summary of her SpotOn London session: Collaborating and building your online




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Share your experiences to create some SpotOn social media tips for scientists!

It ain’t a party if you can’t join us Towards the end of April, SpotOn




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Supporting and shaping the global nutrition agenda with evidence: A three-decade journey of resea…




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How To Protect Your Cloud Environments and Prevent Data Breaches

As organizations create and store more data in the cloud, security teams must ensure the data is protected from cyberthreats. Learn more about what causes data breaches and about the best practices you can adopt to secure data stored in the cloud.

With the explosion of data being generated and stored in the cloud, hackers are creating new and innovative attack techniques to gain access to cloud environments and steal data. A review of recent major data breaches shows us that data thieves are using social engineering, hunting for exposed credentials, looking for unpatched vulnerabilities and misconfigurations and employing other sophisticated techniques to breach cloud environments.

A look at recent cloud data-breach trends

Here are some takeaways from major data breaches that have occurred this year:

  • Managing the risk from your third-parties – partners, service providers, vendors – has always been critical. It’s even more so when these trusted organizations have access to your cloud environment and cloud data. You must make sure that your third-parties are using proper cloud-security protections to safeguard their access to your cloud data and to your cloud environment.
  • Secure your identities. We’ve seen major data breaches this year tracked down to simple missteps like failing to protect highly-privileged admin accounts and services with multi-factor authentication (MFA). 
  • Adopt best practices to prevent ransomware attacks, and to mitigate them if you get hit by one. Ransomware gangs know that a surefire way to pressure victims into paying ransoms is to hijack their systems and threaten to expose their sensitive data. 

So, how can you strengthen your data security posture against these types of attacks?

  1. Implement a "zero trust" security framework that requires all users, whether inside or outside the organization, to be authenticated, authorized and continuously validated before being granted or maintaining access to data. This framework should allow only time-limited access and be based on the principle of least privilege, which limits access and usage to the minimum amount of data required to perform the job.
  2. Use a cloud data security posture management (DSPM) solution to enforce the security framework through continuous monitoring, automation, prioritization and visibility. DSPM solutions can help organizations identify and prioritize data security risks based on their severity, allowing them to focus their resources on the most critical issues.
  3. Regularly conduct risk assessments to detect and remediate security risks before they can be exploited by hackers. This can help prevent data breaches and minimize the impact of any security incidents that do occur.
  4. Train employees on security best practices, including how to create strong passwords, how to identify risks and how to report suspicious activity.

By following these recommendations, organizations can significantly reduce their risk of a data breach and improve handling sensitive data belonging to their organization. As more and more data moves to the cloud and hackers become more sophisticated, it's essential to prioritize security and take proactive measures to protect against data risks. 

Learn more




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Cybersecurity Snapshot: CISA Warns of Global Spear-Phishing Threat, While OWASP Releases AI Security Resources

CISA is warning about a spear-phishing campaign that spreads malicious RDP files. Plus, OWASP is offering guidance about deepfakes and AI security. Meanwhile, cybercriminals have amplified their use of malware for fake software-update attacks. And get the latest on CISA’s international plan, Interpol’s cyber crackdown and ransomware trends.

Dive into six things that are top of mind for the week ending Nov. 8.

1 - CISA: Beware of nasty spear-phishing campaign

Proactively restrict outbound remote-desktop protocol (RDP) connections. Block transmission of RDP files via email. Prevent RDP file execution.

Those are three security measures cyber teams should proactively take in response to an ongoing and “large scale” email spear-phishing campaign targeting victims with malicious RDP files, according to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

A foreign threat actor is carrying out the campaign. Several vertical sectors, including government and IT, are being targeted.

“Once access has been gained, the threat actor may pursue additional activity, such as deploying malicious code to achieve persistent access to the target’s network,” CISA’s alert reads.
 


Other CISA recommendations include:

  • Adopt phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication (MFA), such as FIDO tokens, and try to avoid SMS-based MFA
  • Educate users on how to spot suspicious emails
  • Hunt for malicious activity in your network looking for indicators of compromise (IoCs) and tactics, techniques and procedures

Although CISA didn’t name the hacker group responsible for this campaign, its alert includes links to related articles from Microsoft and AWS that identify it as Midnight Blizzard. Also known as APT29, this group is affiliated with Russia’s government.

To get more details, check out the CISA alert “Foreign Threat Actor Conducting Large-Scale Spear-Phishing Campaign with RDP Attachments.

For more information about securing RDP tools:

2 - OWASP issues AI security resources

How should your organization respond to deepfakes? What’s the right way of establishing a center of excellence for AI security in your organization? Where can you find a comprehensive guide of tools to secure generative AI applications?

These questions are addressed in a new set of resources for AI security from the Open Worldwide Application Security Project’s OWASP Top 10 for LLM Application Security Project

The new resources are meant to help organizations securely adopt, develop and deploy LLM and generative AI systems and applications “with a comprehensive strategy encompassing governance, collaboration and practical tools,” OWASP said in a statement.



These are the new resources:

  • The Guide for Preparing and Responding to Deepfake Events,” which unpacks four types of deepfake schemes – financial fraud, job interview fraud, social engineering and misinformation – and offers guidance about each one in these areas:
    • preparation
    • detection and analysis
    • containment eradication and recovery
    • post-incident activity
  • The LLM and GenAI Center of Excellence Guide,” which aims to help CISOs and fellow organization leaders create a center of excellence for generative AI security that facilitates collaboration among various teams, including security, legal, data science and operations, so they can develop:
    • Generative AI security policies
    • Risk assessment and management processes
    • Training and awareness
    • Research and development
  • The AI Security Solution Landscape Guide,” which offers security teams a comprehensive catalog of open source and commercial tools for securing LLMs and generative AI applications.

To get more details, read OWASP’s announcement “OWASP Dramatically Expands GenAI Security Guidance.”

For more information about protecting your organization against deepfakes:

3 - Fake update variants dominate list of top malware in Q3

Hackers are doubling down on fake software-update attacks.

That’s the main takeaway from the Center for Internet Security’s list of the 10 most prevalent malware used during the third quarter.

Malware variants used to carry out fake browser-update attacks took the top four spots on the list: SocGholish, LandUpdate808, ClearFake and ZPHP. Collectively, they accounted for 77% of the quarter’s malware infections. It's the first time LandUpdate808 and ClearFake appear on this quarterly list.


(Source: “Top 10 Malware Q3 2024”, Center for Internet Security, October 2024)

In a fake software-update attack, a victim gets duped into installing a legitimate-looking update for, say, their preferred browser, that instead infects their computers with malware.

Here’s the full list, in descending order:

  • SocGholish, a downloader distributed through malicious websites that tricks users into downloading it by offering fake software updates 
  • LandUpdate808, a JavaScript downloader distributed through malicious websites via fake browser updates
  • ClearFake, another JavaScript downloader used for fake browser-update attacks
  • ZPHP, another JavaScript downloader used for fake software-update attacks
  • Agent Tesla, a remote access trojan (RAT) that captures credentials, keystrokes and screenshots
  • CoinMiner, a cryptocurrency miner that spreads using Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)
  • Arechclient2, also known as SectopRAT, is a .NET RAT whose capabilities include multiple stealth functions
  • Mirai, a malware botnet that compromises IoT devices to launch DDoS attacks
  • NanoCore, a RAT that spreads via malspam as a malicious Excel spreadsheet
  • Lumma Stealer, an infostealer used to swipe personally identifiable information (PII), credentials, cookies and banking information

To get more information, the CIS blog “Top 10 Malware Q3 2024” offers details, context and indicators of compromise for each malware strain.

For details on fake update attacks:


VIDEO

Fake Chrome Update Malware (The PC Security Channel)

4 - CISA’s first international plan unveiled

CISA has released its first-ever international plan, which outlines a strategy for boosting the agency’s collaboration with cybersecurity agencies from other countries.

Aligning cybersecurity efforts and goals with international partners is critical for tackling cyberthreats in the U.S. and abroad, according to the agency.

The three core pillars of CISA’s “2025 - 2026 International Strategic Plan” are:

  • Help make more resilient other countries’ assets, systems and networks that impact U.S. critical infrastructure
  • Boost the integrated cyber defenses of the U.S. and its international partners against their shared global cyberthreats
  • Unify the coordination of international activities to strengthen cyberdefenses collectively

The plan will allow CISA to “reduce risk to the globally interconnected and interdependent cyber and physical infrastructure that Americans rely on every day,” CISA Director Jen Easterly said in a statement.

5 - Interpol hits phishers, ransomware gangs, info stealers

Interpol and its partners took down 22,000 malicious IP addresses and seized thousands of servers, laptops, and mobile phones used by cybercriminals to conduct phishing scams, deploy ransomware and steal information.

The four-month global operation, titled Synergia II and announced this week, involved law enforcement agencies and private-sector partners from 95 countries and netted 41 arrests.


“Together, we’ve not only dismantled malicious infrastructure but also prevented hundreds of thousands of potential victims from falling prey to cybercrime,” Neal Jetton, Director of Interpol’s Cybercrime Directorate, said in a statement.

In Hong Kong, more than 1,000 servers were taken offline, while authorities in Macau, China took another 291 servers offline. Meanwhile, in Estonia, authorities seized 80GB of server data, which is now being analyzed for links to phishing and banking malware.

For more information about global cybercrime trends:

6 - IST: Ransomware attacks surged in 2023

Ransomware gangs went into hyperdrive last year, increasing their attacks by 73% compared with 2022, according to the non-profit think tank Institute for Security and Technology (IST).

The IST attributes the sharp increase in attacks to a shift by ransomware groups to “big game hunting” – going after prominent, large organizations with deep pockets. 

“Available evidence suggests that government and industry actions taken in 2023 were not enough to significantly reduce the profitability of the ransomware model,” reads an IST blog.

Global Ransomware Incidents in 2023

Another takeaway: The ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) model continued to prove extremely profitable in 2023, and it injected dynamism into the ransomware ecosystem. 

The RaaS model prompted ransomware groups “to shift allegiances, form new groups, or iterate existing variants,” the IST blog reads.

The industry sector that ransomware groups hit the hardest was construction, followed by hospitals and healthcare, and by IT services and consulting. Financial services and law offices rounded out the top five.

To learn more about ransomware trends:




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Social Media for Science Outreach – A Case Study: Chemicals Are Your Friends

To tie in with this month’s SoNYC birthday celebrations, we are hosting a collection of case




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CSA encourages Canadians to have the “money talk” to prevent financial abuse

SAINT JOHN, NB - In recognition of Financial Literacy Month’s theme “Money on your Mind?




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Seek you : a journey through American loneliness / Kristen Radtke.

"When Kristen Radtke was in her twenties, she learned that, as her father was growing up, he would crawl onto his roof in rural Wisconsin and send signals out on his ham radio. Those CQ calls were his attempt to reach somebody— anybody— who would respond. In Seek You, Radtke uses this image as her jumping off point into a piercing exploration of loneliness and the ways in which we attempt to feel closer to one another. She looks at the very real current crisis of loneliness through the lenses of gender, violence, technology, and art. Ranging from the invention of the laugh-track to Instagram to Harry Harlow's experiments in which infant monkeys were given inanimate surrogate mothers, Radtke uncovers all she can about how we engage with friends, family, and strangers alike, and what happens— to us and to them— when we disengage. With her distinctive, emotionally charged drawings and unflinchingly sharp prose, Kristen Radtke masterfully reframes some of our most vulnerable and sublime moments." -- Provided by publisher.




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Moana : the story of the movie in comics / manuscript adaptation, Alesandro Ferrari ; layouts, Alberto Zanon, Giada Perissinotto ; pencil/inking, Veronica Di Lorenzo, Luca Bertelè ; colors, Massimo Rocca [and four others].

"Sail the Pacific Islands in search of destiny and the demigod Maui in this retelling of Disney Moana. Moana is a spirited teenager who loves the ocean, yet she is forbidden to travel beyond the reef that surrounds her island home of Motunui. But she feels called to something more, and wants to discover who she was meant to be. When darkness begins to consume the island, and nature is out of balance, Moana knows the solution lies beyond the safety of the reef. Following the messages of her ancestors, and with encouragement from the ocean itself, Moana sails into the open sea to find the demigod Maui and right a wrong from his past. Together they face rough waters, monstrous creatures, and the unknown, in a mission to stop the darkness from spreading, and restore life to the islands! Become a master wayfinder in this action-packed story as Moana's love for the sea turns her into a hero among her people, the gods, and the ocean." -- Provided by publisher




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Martin Luther King, Jr. : voice for equality! / by James Buckley Jr. ; illustrated by Youneek Studios ; lettering & design by Comicraft: John Rosell [and four others] ; cover art by Ian Churchill.

"A graphic biography of civil rights leader and American icon Martin Luther King Jr. This graphical biography tells the story of the most prominent leader of the American civil rights movement. With full-color illustrations and a historically accurate narrative, Martin Luther King Jr.: Voice for Equality! will inform and entertain readers of all ages. From his childhood in Atlanta to his rise as an international icon of human rights and a fiery orator who refused to back down in the face of adversity, King's life story serves as an ongoing source of inspiration." -- Provided by publisher.




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Moving on. Dump Your Relationship Baggage and Make Room for the Love of Your Life / Russell Friedman and John W. James.

In this groundbreaking book, authors Russell Friedman and John W. James show listeners how to move on from their unsuccessful past relationships and finally find the love of their lives. Demonstrating revolutionary ideas that have worked for thousands of their clients at the Grief Recovery Institute, Friedman and James give listeners the strategies they need to effectively mourn the loss of the relationship, while opening themselves up to love in the future. With compassionate guidance, Friedman and James help listeners to close a chapter of their romantic past so that they can be ready to begin again.




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Moving through grief : proven techniques for finding your way after any loss / Gretchen Kubacky, PsyD.

Overcoming your pain-proven strategies for grief recovery Coping with loss is difficult, but that doesn't mean you have to suffer alone. Based on the proven-effective acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) treatment, Moving Through Grief provides simple and effective techniques to help you get unstuck and start living a rich and fulfilling life again, loss and all. ACT is all about embracing what hurts and committing to actions that will improve and enrich your life. Whether you're dealing with the loss of a loved one, your health, home, or even career, Moving Through Grief provides you with creative exercises that will help you work through your pain and reconnect with the things you love. In Moving Through Grief, you will learn: - How you can show up for your life and experience joy and satisfaction again, even as you work through the pain of your loss -Ddiscover how the six tools of ACT-values, committed action, acceptance, being present, cognitive diffusion, and self-as-context-can ease your pain and aid with the healing process - And make real progress towards feeling like yourself again with straightforward exercises, like identifying your values and setting realistic goals. Find out how ACT can change the way you relate to your pain with Moving Through Grief.




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Dear Jesus : seeking his life in your life / Sarah Young.

From your heart's deepest cry to life's joyful praises, nothing is off limits to Jesus. Knowing Jesus on a deeper, more personal level means sharing all aspects of your life with Him...every day. In Dear Jesus, Sarah Young exemplifies what it means to do this-to dialogue with the Savior. She begins each of the 120 devotionals by sharing intimate struggles and longings that weigh on the heart-being preoccupied with problems; being dissatisfied with oneself, and other spiritual issues. Jesus then responds in His loving way by giving guidance and encouragement, using Scripture as the foundation from which His words flow. Readers will be drawn into the presence of God through these spiritual letters of grace.