Automated teller machines appeal to hackers "because they are often poorly monitored and little logical action is taken to protect the data in them," writes Elida Policastro of Auriga. The best approach to security, Policastro notes, is a centralized system with several layers of protection.

Microsoft has launched Azure Orbital, a service that connects satellites to its cloud to process data from space, as it seeks to take on Amazon Web Services in the space cloud market. Amergint, Kratos, KSAT, SES, KubOS, US Electrodynamics and Viasat have already joined as partners for the service, which will be offered first as a private preview to select Microsoft customers.

Operation DisrupTor, a coordinated operation by law enforcement agencies in nine countries, has led to the arrests of 179 online vendors and buyers of illegal drugs and other illicit goods across Europe and the US, as well as confiscation of the equivalent of $6.5 million, 64 firearms and more than 1,100 pounds of drugs. The operation used information obtained in last year's seizure of the Wall Street Market, one of the dark web's biggest drug marketplaces.

ContractPodAi, which makes a contract management tool powered by natural language processing, has designed a dashboard that can help in-house lawyers show the executive team how they are performing. Called Legal DeepSights, the platform tracks contracts through a variety of metrics.

The law business runs on connections, and on LinkedIn, "a stale profile isn't going to cut it," writes Tea Hoffmann, managing principal at consultancy Law Strategy Corp. In this analysis, Hoffmann covers the four basics of creating and using a winning profile, starting with tips about photos, because "you have one chance to make a good impression."

Lax password security has created a thriving underground market for cybercriminals, sometimes with email addresses and usernames thrown in. The technique of generating random passwords is also used for brute-force attacks, with one experiment producing 100 billion guesses per second.

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has warned of a flaw in Microsoft Windows that could open government servers to hackers. The agency ordered government groups to immediately patch or unplug their servers, saying the flaw represented "an unacceptable risk to the federal civilian executive branch."

Small and midsize businesses "need to approach remote work by using a combination of cloud-based applications and on-premises solutions to keep employees and systems safe," says Untangle CEO Scott Devens. Untangle's latest report, 2020 SMB IT Security, found that 88% of companies had some employees working remotely.

IT security tops the list of global tech skills shortages for the first time in more than a decade, finds the 2020 Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO Survey. Companies' additional spending on security early in the pandemic amounted to $15 billion a week.

Understaffed facilities dealing with older technology are increasingly vulnerable to hacker attacks. Security provider CynergisTek reports in its third annual survey, based on 300 organizations, that only 44% measure up to the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Cybersecurity Framework.