CYBERSECURITY

Mothership

Mother called—she wants her data back.

Bob Diachenko is one of the lead researchers who discovered earlier this year what has become known as the “mother of all breaches” (MOAB)—a massive data breach repository that contained 12 TB and 26 billion stolen records. Based in Kyiv, Ukraine, Diachenko and his team of three, alongside a team at CyberNews, analyzed and helped take down the mother of all breaches in a matter of days.

IT Brew caught up with Diachenko—also the founder of SecurityDiscover.com—to chat about his discovery and to better understand why the breach was nothing like he’s ever seen before.

But first, the TL;DR. The MOAB isn’t just one breach—it’s a compilation of multiple breaches that happened over time, with exposed data stemming from X (formerly known as Twitter), Tencent, LinkedIn, and more. The MOAB also included data from government entities in the US, Brazil, and Germany.

Read more here.—AF

Do you work in IT or have information about your IT department you want to share? Email [email protected].

PRESENTED BY AMAZON WEB SERVICES

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IT OPERATIONS

Gov actually

Nathan Fisher has been in both the public and private sector—first as a special agent at the FBI and now, out of the federal game, as a special assistant of sorts, helping companies navigate efforts of digital transformation.

To Fisher, current managing director at the pro-services firm StoneTurn, a catch-all term like “digital transformation” sometimes only refers to ​​a modernization of existing technologies—more than 10 years ago, at the FBI, that meant DOS, the early, command-line-based operating system.

“In 2009, I would not have expected, going into something as reputable as the FBI, that I’d be learning a DOS-based system,” Fisher told IT Brew, adding, “I’m thankful to say and very happy to report that the FBI quickly modernized, transformed, updated that system” to a proprietary database and indexing setup.

At the IT Brew event, “Government Gone Digital,” an attendee had the following question about digital efforts in public agencies—and what kinds of tech to expect.

I’m a part of a new government administration and most of my experience is digital transformation in the private sector. What are the big differences between digital transformation in the public vs. private sector?

Read more here.—BH

Do you work in IT or have information about your IT department you want to share? Email [email protected].

IT STRATEGY

H-AI times

A decline in IT jobs over the last calendar year has been offset by a rise in AI positions, an indication that the tech industry’s needs are evolving.

AI positions have higher salaries, according to a Wall Street Journal report on the change in job postings. The Journal reported that AI postings were up 42% in January 2024 since December 2022—although IT jobs overall have declined 31% in the same period.

“It’s the tech area du jour,” Andrea De Ville, a partner at professional services firm Aon, told the Journal. “Everybody wants to know about premium pay for AI-related roles.”

Salaries for AI positions are higher than their IT counterparts, sometimes by tens of thousands of dollars. In one example the Journal found from ZipRecruiter, a data manager position was paid $23,000 more in an AI role than for a normal role. As IT Brew reported in January, New York was the city with the most AI jobs in December 2023, followed by San Francisco and Seattle.

Keep reading here.—EH

Do you work in IT or have information about your IT department you want to share? Email [email protected].

PATCH NOTES

Patch Notes