Each week we’ll bring you an overview of the latest news in cloud computing, cybersecurity and industrial IoT over the past seven days. This week we’re focused on recent Facebook outages and the AWS Elasticsearch announcement.
Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp Suffer Outages in Americas and Europe
All three companies have denied the possibility that a security breach or DDoS attack was the cause of recent outages. However, there has been no confirmation on what actually caused these outages, which are still occurring. On Wednesday, Google was also hit by outages around the world.
AWS Announces Open Distro for Elasticsearch
Open Distro for Elasticsearch is a value-added distribution of Elasticsearch that is 100% open source and supported by AWS. The first release includes a set of advanced security, event monitoring & alerting, performance analysis, and SQL query features. In addition to the source code repo, Open Distro for Elasticsearch is available as RPM and Docker containers.
Take a closer look at the features that are included in Open Distro Elasticsearch.
Who Should Fix IoT Cybersecurity? Congress Takes a Crack at It.
There are currently no IoT security standards in the US that manufacturers are mandated to follow. US Congress is looking to change that by introducing The Internet of Things Cybersecurity Improvement Act. This federal IoT security bill would only apply to tech companies and other manufacturers that want to sell their products to the US government.
Read more on how the US Congress is tackling the concerns surrounding IoT devices.
Could Venezuela’s Power Outage Really Be a Cyber Attack?
Venezuela endured one of its worst blackouts in recent memory this week, with the government claiming the outage was due to a foreign cyberattack. The opposing parties have stated that the blackout was caused by chronic underfunding of its electrical infrastructure. The inability to definitively discount a foreign cyberattack demonstrates the power of using cyberattacks to target utilities.
Widespread power and connectivity outages in the style Venezuela experienced are said to follow common cyber-attack methods.
Amazon Brings Jobs and Hi-Tech Skills to South Africa
AWS is fully committed to creating new opportunities and strengthening the local economy in South Africa. Amazon CTO Werner Vogels recently announced that AWS will be establishing a new infrastructure region within the country which will drive innovation, speed up digital transformation and increase digital competitiveness across the market.
Learn more on how Amazon is strengthening South Africa.
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