My Brain Food This Week...
Sibanye-Stillwater's cyber security attack, CrowdStrike's bundled update highlights how vulnerable we are to cyber threats, and the U.S. government is under heavy financial strain
Here’s what caught my eye:
Gold and platinum miner Sibanye-Stillwater came under a cyber security attack. What’s happening?
Although the company was able to shut down its systems and reboot without having to engage with the cyber attackers, there remains concerns over cyber security in South Africa generally. According to the Cyberthreat Assessment Report by the international police, in February 2023 South Africa had 300 reported cases of ransomware attempts in one week. In 2023 these cost S.A. companies ~USD 2 million. Additionally, in 2023 78% of South African companies suffered ransomware attacks, which begs the question: with the rising trend for IoT improvements in businesses, are we paying enough attention to the potential million dollar security gaps that arise?
A few days ago a number of operations were disrupted when cybersecurity provider CrowdStrike bundled a systems update. What happened?
What was supposed to be a routine update of their systems caused a global systems and operations shutdown for CrowdStrike customers when an unforeseen bug negatively interacted with Microsoft Windows to shut down Spanish airports, U.S. airlines, Australian media and bank systems, Sky News in Britain, and the governments of Australia, New Zealand, and a number of U.S. states also reported issues. This raises concerns about the vulnerability of online systems, and highlights the importance of consistent cybersecurity monitoring for all companies and individuals, because imagine if this was a nefarious attack instead of a mistake by a trusted cybersecurity provider.
The U.S. economy is under heavy financial strain. The U.S. economy has $175 trillion in debt, with interest payments on that totalling close to $900 billion a year, on course to reach a trillion dollars annually next year. What does this mean?
Due to excessive bond issuing over decades, peaking around the 2008 financial crisis, then again due to Covid-19 spending, the U.S. government is now struggling to pay back the excessive debt. For context, in June 2024 76% of income tax went towards paying off the U.S. national debt. That’s an annual increase of 8% YOY. It should also raise eyebrows that major U.S. bond owner China is dropping their U.S. treasury debt at an accelerating rate and choosing to transact more in Chinese Yuan for international trade, at the same time that large BRICS countries Russia and India are joining China in choosing to rather hold gold in reserve instead of U.S. debt. The U.S. is slowly losing its status as preferred trade currency and preferred reserve currency. Here’s a 3 minute video explainer to put things into context.
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