Ransomware is the top threat facing small-to-midsize businesses, according to a report. Viruses and spyware ranked behind ransomware, which is becoming more lucrative for hackers as many whose computers have been infected choose to pay to have data restored.

About 65% of European cybersecurity professionals say a successful cyberattack will critically affect multiple EU countries in the next two years, according to a survey in advance of the Black Hat Europe. Following the refusal of Russia and China to sign the Paris Accord, the two countries were among those named by 30% of respondents who listed large nation-states as the top threat to critical infrastructure.

Hanover, Md.-based Dragos has raised $37 million in capital to develop a cybersecurity platform to protect infrastructure, including transportation, water and electrical grids. The startup is also focusing on ways to detect new cyberthreats.

Smart business owners have safeguards in place to protect their entity from cybercriminals and react quickly and effectively, writes columnist Erik Day. Four steps to improve cybersecurity are provided, plus an action plan in the event you suffer a breach.

Despite China's role as the largest tech producer worldwide, the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission said Tuesday the risks of using Chinese products could be much greater than the reward. "The large amount of data collected by the ever growing number of IoT devices, the value of such data to criminal and state actors such as China, and lax US security and legal protections are worsening privacy, safety, and security risks for U.S. citizens, businesses, and democracy," the group said in a report.

The Department of Homeland Security will oversee the new Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency if President Donald Trump signs a bill that passed both the House and Senate. The organization, equal to FEMA and the Secret Service, would secure federal networks and focus on protecting infrastructure from threats.

Yoshitaka Sakurada, the cabinet minister tasked with shoring up Japan's cybersecurity for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, says he has never touched a computer, and instead outsources such work to staffers. Despite his computer illiteracy, Sakurada says he is confident in the nation's cybersecurity initiatives.

Huawei has unveiled its platform for smart cities, +AI Digital Platform, that utilizes artificial intelligence and internet of things capabilities to be used for public safety, transportation, education, government and agriculture. The system uses a command center, network and sensors across a city to produce a digital platform combining AI, IoT, a geographic information system, big data and security to enhance a smart city.

With the Ceph open-source storage project continually growing, it will now be backed by the Ceph Foundation to assist in funding training and adoption of the projects resources. The project currently provides cloud providers and companies such as Bloomberg, Fidelity and Salesforce with the ability to develop a unified distributed storage system to provide applications with object, block and file storage at the same time.

The Federal Communications Commission began the first US high-band 5G spectrum auction on Wednesday with bidding on spectrum in the 28-gigahertz band. A range of additional 5G spectrum is expected to be auctioned over the next 15 months and will include additional spectrum bands at 24 GHz, 37 GHz, 39 GHz and 47 GHz as the FCC looks to clear space for the implementation of a 5G network across the US.