TechShots' Weekly Cybersecurity Newsletter

Hello readers,

In this edition of our newsletter, we will discuss what kept the cyber world busy and how the news in cybersecurity will affect you. But before that, let's look at what other news made headlines.

An Election Commissioner resigned and days later, two new were appointed

Election Commissioner Arun Goel gave his resignation last week, surprising many, just ahead of Lok Sabha elections. Though it wasn't clear why he resigned, his move left the three-member Election Commission with only one member, CEC Rajiv Kumar, as the another member, Anup Pandey, retired earlier. On Thursday, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Gyanesh Kumar were chosen as Election Commissioners. The dates for the Lok Sabha elections are expected to be announced soon.

The latest on Paytm crisis

Paytm was granted a third-party application provider license by the NPCI, enabling it to facilitate payments after its banking unit ceases operations. Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, State Bank of India and Yes Bank will act as payment system provider banks to Paytm, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) said in a statement. Yes Bank shall also act as a merchant acquiring bank for existing and new UPI merchants for Paytm, it added.

CAA was notified

More than three years after the Citizenship Amendment Act became law, the government notified it on Monday. With this persecuted non-Muslims, who arrived in India before 2014 can get Indian citizenship.

Moving on to cybersecurity

Election Commission fixed a bug that exposed data related to citizens’ requests

India's CERT-in said that the Election Commission has fixed a bug in its Right to Information (RTI) portal that exposed data related to citizens’ requests for information related to their voting eligibility status, local political candidates and parties, and technical details about electronic voting machines.

US House passed Bill to force ByteDance to divest or face ban

The US House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a bill that would force TikTok's parent company ByteDance to sell the app within 180 days or have it banned from Apple and Google app stores in the US. The fate of the bill is uncertain in the Senate. Notably, TikTok has 170 million US users.

Microsoft expands availability of its AI-powered cybersecurity assistant

Microsoft plans to expand the availability of its AI-powered tool for cybersecurity professionals, 'Security Copilot', starting April 1, with a 'pay-as-you-go' strategy. Roughly 300 customers are currently using the tool, a Microsoft official said at an event in San Francisco. The tech giant plans to charge customers for how much they use the product rather than on a subscription basis, as it "wanted to reduce the barriers of entry," Microsoft Corporate Vice President Vasu Jakkal said.

The Irish government fixed a bug in its COVID-19 portal

The Irish government fixed a vulnerability in its COVID-19 vaccination portal two years ago, exposing the records of around a million residents. An expert said the vaccine administration records of over a million Irish residents were accessible to anyone else, including full names, vaccination details (including reasons for administering or refusals to take vaccines), and the type of vaccination, among other types of data. He also found internal HSE documents were accessible to any user through the portal.

That's all for this week. If you want to read about a particular topic, write to me [email protected].