Addressing legal issues with the latest technological developments and social media trends.
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As is the case with many types of cybersecurity threats, shielding one’s company from ransomware attacks calls for measures that simultaneously build the strongest protections possible while also adopting mitigation strategies that assume those measures will fail.

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SEC-logo-300x300On February 14, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it had entered into a settlement with BlockFi Lending LLC, a subsidiary of BlockFi Inc., (collectively BlockFi) over first-of-its-kind charges that BlockFi had failed to register the offers and sales of its retail crypto lending product, BlockFi Interest Accounts (BIAs), and that BlockFi had violated the registration provisions of the Investment Company Act of 1940. The charges and resulting settlement not only provide a path forward for BlockFi, but also provide clearer guidance to all players in the retail crypto market and especially those involved with crypto lending platforms.

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NewsofNoteMain-300x250Apple’s portal to the metaverse could be nearing, Sony’s AI ups its game(play), a hospital resorts to pen and paper to thwart ransomware, and more in this week’s News of Note!

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Ransomware-1346756826-e1644875312842-300x189The actors behind ransomware tend to fall into two categories: cybercriminal gangs, often based in Eastern Europe, and groups backed by economic outcasts like Iran, Russia and North Korea. Historically the first prefer a shotgun approach; the second behave more like snipers. Here are a few of the groups that have been linked to recent ransomware and are still a threat.

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Treasury-seal-300x300Last week, the U.S. Department of the Treasury released a report entitled “Study of the Facilitation of Money Laundering and Terror Finance Through the Trade in Works of Art” that discussed risks in the art sales ecosystem, ranging from high-value traditional art to NFTs and online sales platforms. Section 6110(c) of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (AMLA), enacted as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, had directed the U.S. Department of the Treasury to study the facilitation of money laundering (ML) and terror finance (TF) through the trade in works of art (the “Study”). The Study discusses which art market participants and sectors of the high-value art market in the United States present ML and TF risk, and that as a result may warrant regulation as financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act.

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NewsofNoteMain-300x250This week’s News of Note includes a Foo Fighters VR concert, a peek inside Trickbot’s operations, an NFT makeover for Beatles memorabilia, some personal space for avatars, and more.

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Ransomware-104205851-300x200It may seem that the very term “ransomware” wasted little time going from “newish-sounding threat” to expected, constant presence in the news and IT meetings alike. But, of course, it’s ultimately just a modern word for one of the oldest crimes out there—holding someone or something hostage until someone else pays for its release. Nonetheless, as the targets and means of these attacks have evolved, keeping track of it all has become a bit more complicated than a name on a ransom note. The ransomware landscape is constantly shifting as actors change their targets, find new points of attack and think of fresh ways to leverage encrypted data. Hundreds of variants of ransomware have been documented over the past few years, but here’s a cross-section of types posing a threat right now.

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Can AI build AI, what does an augmented reality theater production look like, what is the “quantum apocalypse,” and more…

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Back in the day when I rushed home after school to play The Sims, I would have never imagined that one day I would actually become a Sim… Of course, it turns out The Sims—and games like it—have always been an early, somewhat limited iteration of what is now popularly referred to as the metaverse. And no matter the world you inhabit, where there are humans, there are efforts to sell things to them. But that raises the question: how different are the rules for advertising in the metaverse going to be? It turns out that whether “uni,” “multi” or “meta,” certain constants apply when it comes to advertising, no matter the ’verse.

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This metaverse-meets-NFTs themed edition of News of Note includes travel, food and shoes, a big box retailer entering the NFT arena, and the purchase of (a film adaptation of) a sci-fi classic.

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