Cybersecurity Shorts: Western Digital Storage Drive Hack, DOE Cybersecurity Budget Request, Bill Requiring Cyber Breach Reporting

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Cybersecurity Shorts series, I’m joined by my colleague and fellow analyst Fred McClimans, for a conversation about the goings on in the world of cybersecurity. Our conversation covered: Storage drive maker Western Digital tells owners of its WD My Book Live and My Book Live Duo to disconnect from the internet immediately. What’s the responsibility of a brand who stops support equipment still in use in the instance of a hack? What are the ramifications for users and what kind of loss are we talking about? Antivirus software maker John McAfee, a pioneer in many ways and a rebel in many others, took his life while awaiting extradition in a Spanish prison. Our conversation touched on some of McAfee’s accomplishments and how he ended up in jail. The DOE has requested some $201 million earmarked for cybersecurity in its 2022 budget request. This joins requests by the Biden administration for $9.8 billion for federal civilian cybersecurity and $10.4 billion requested by the Pentagon. Senators draft bill that would require the reporting of cyber breaches specific to vendors of the Federal government within 24 hours. And we wrapped up our show talking about some new malware to be on the lookout for and a ransomware note: VMware bug in the Carbon Black App Control (AppC) management server, and another high-risk bug in VMware Tools, VMware Remote Console for Windows, and VMware App Volumes products. LV ransomware appears to have the same code structure as REvil, which could indicate the the code was either sold or shared by another threat actor group.