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The Dark Side of AI in Cybersecurity

Introduction

According to a report submitted by Statista, they stated, “In 2021, around 68 percent of survey respondents stated that Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be used for impersonation and spear-phishing attacks against their companies in the future. AI can also be used to enhance ransomware, which could become a real danger to companies’ IT security.”

Risks associated with AI in cybersecurity.

Malware

AI can be used to develop polymorphic malware. This type of malware possesses the ability to alter its code dynamically, making it exceedingly difficult for traditional antivirus programs to detect and neutralize it. By leveraging AI, attackers can create malware that continually evolves, enhancing its ability to evade detection and maintain persistence within targeted systems. This use of AI in cybersecurity presents challenges for professionals and underscores the dual-edged nature of AI.

Phishing

AI can create personalized phishing emails by analyzing social media profiles and other data. These targeted emails are much harder to recognize as fraudulent, significantly increasing the attacker’s success rate. As a result, individuals are more likely to fall for these scams, posing a substantial risk to businesses. This capability of AI in cybersecurity makes phishing attempts more effective and dangerous for both individuals and organizations.

Automated attacks

AI can launch automated attacks in cybersecurity with great efficiency. These attacks can operate on their own, targeting systems and disrupting services without requiring human intervention. The speed and scalability of AI-driven attacks make them very dangerous. They can quickly overwhelm networks and cause significant damage, posing a serious threat to network stability and security, highlighting the need for stronger defences against such threats.

AI model inversion

Attackers can use data poisoning to introduce harmful data into AI training sets, messing up the AI’s learning, which leads to wrong or harmful decisions. Misusing AI data can also cause biased or unethical results. Both issues weaken the reliability and effectiveness of AI systems in cybersecurity, making them less trustworthy and more prone to errors. This kind of vulnerability also leads to data privacy and compliance violations.

Surveillance

AI-driven security systems can improve surveillance, but they might invade privacy. These systems can monitor and analyze huge amounts of data quickly, raising concerns about balancing security with privacy. If used with harmful intentions, AI surveillance can also impact businesses by damaging their reputation and trust. Organizations need to handle these issues carefully and follow privacy laws to protect individual rights and maintain trust.

Complexity of AI systems

AI systems can be complex and prone to failures or misconfigurations. These issues can lead to significant security breaches if not properly addressed. Keeping AI systems reliable requires regular monitoring and maintenance to prevent malfunctions that could compromise an organization’s cybersecurity. It’s crucial to stay vigilant and fix any problems promptly to ensure the security of the system and protect against potential threats.

Ethical, legal, and bias issues

AI systems can perpetuate biases found in training data, resulting in unfair outcomes. The use of AI in cybersecurity also raises ethical and legal concerns regarding accountability and transparency. Organizations must address these issues to ensure responsible AI usage, avoiding the reinforcement of existing inequalities or legal violations. Organizations must handle these matters carefully to maintain fairness and compliance with cybersecurity practices.

AI-Driven Password Guessing/ and Cracking

AI enhances password guessing by analyzing behavior and patterns and learning from extensive datasets of compromised passwords to predict and crack them more accurately. This capability poses a significant security threat, demanding stronger authentication methods and continuous vigilance. As AI evolves, defenses follow such as implementing multifactor authentication and regular password updates to mitigate risks. Organizations with weak cyber defences must ensure the integrity of sensitive accounts and user data.

Efficiency of AI models

The efficiency of AI models, like their ability to predict and analyze patterns, can be exploited for unethical purposes. For instance, it can be used to manipulate markets or influence decision-making unfairly. This misuse highlights the need for ethical guidelines and oversight in AI development and deployment. Organizations must ensure that AI is used responsibly, with a focus on benefiting society rather than causing harm or exploiting vulnerabilities.

Conclusion

Use of AI in cybersecurity presents both challenges and opportunities. While it also introduces new risks and amplifies existing threats, it can be leveraged to enhance security measures and improve efficiency. Organizations must carefully balance the drawbacks and benefits of AI, implementing robust strategies to maximize its positive impact while mitigating potential harms.

Why Choose Sparity

At Sparity, we offer the best cybersecurity solutions to safeguard organization and enhance defense strategies. In an era of AI-driven attacks, outsmart them with Sparity’s expert solutions which utilize the same advanced AI technology to detect, prevent, and neutralize threats, ensuring organization’s digital security remains uncompromised.

Contact us now to learn more about how our expert cybersecurity solutions can benefit the businesses.

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Mastering ASP Dot Net Core: 20 Key Features You Can’t Afford to Miss

Introduction

ASP Dot Net Core

Cross-Platform Flexibility

Minimal APIs

Dependency Injection Built-In

Middleware Pipeline

Unified Programming Model

Configuration System

Razor Pages

Health Checks

Global Tools

Kestrel Web Server

Hybrid Serialization with System.Text.Json

HTTP/2 Support with gRPC

WebAssembly and Blazor

Configuration Reloading on Change

Precompiled Views

Global Exception Handling Middleware

Enhanced Localization

Endpoint Routing and Versioning

Built-in SignalR for Real-Time Communication

Feature Flags with Feature Management

Conclusion

Why Sparity?

Introduction

ASP Dot Net Core has become a cornerstone for modern web development, offering a powerful, flexible, and efficient framework that empowers developers to create high-performance web applications. ASP Dot Net Core stands out as a leader in the industry. Whether you’re building microservices, enterprise-level applications, or lightweight APIs, ASP Dot Net Core provides the tools you need to succeed. In this blog, we’ll explore 20 key features of ASP Dot Net Core that you can’t afford to miss, highlighting why this framework continues to be a top choice for developers around the globe.

ASP Dot Net Core

ASP Dot Net Core is a modern, open-source framework developed by Microsoft for building web applications, APIs, and microservices. It represents a significant evolution from the traditional ASP Dot Net framework, offering cross-platform capabilities that allow developers to build and run applications on Windows, macOS, and Linux. With its modular design, high performance, and flexibility, ASP .Net Core has quickly become the go-to choice for developers seeking to create scalable and efficient web solutions.

Cross-Platform Flexibility

ASP .Net Core is designed to be cross-platform, allowing you to build and run apps on Windows, macOS, and Linux. This flexibility is a significant shift from the older ASP Dot Net framework, which was tied to Windows.

Minimal APIs

Introduced in Dot Net 6, Minimal APIs allow developers to create simple HTTP APIs with minimal code, without the need for the usual MVC or Web API setup. It’s perfect for microservices or lightweight applications.

Dependency Injection Built-In

ASP Dot Net Core comes with built-in dependency injection (DI) support, making it easier to manage and inject dependencies throughout the application. You don’t need a third-party library to implement DI.

Middleware Pipeline

The request-processing pipeline in ASP .Net Core is made up of middleware components. You can create custom middleware to handle requests in a modular fashion, which allows for greater control over how requests are processed.

Unified Programming Model

ASP Dot Net Core unifies the MVC and Web API frameworks into a single programming model, eliminating the need to choose between them and providing a consistent approach to building web applications.

Configuration System

It has a flexible configuration system that supports a variety of formats (JSON, XML, INI, environment variables) and allows for hierarchical configuration, making it easier to manage settings in different environments.

Razor Pages

Razor Pages is a newer feature in ASP Dot Net Core that simplifies page-focused web applications. It follows a more page-centric approach, making it easier for developers familiar with web forms or traditional web development.

Health Checks

ASP Dot Net Core includes built-in support for health checks, which allow you to monitor the health of an application and its dependencies. This is particularly useful for microservices or containerized applications.

Global Tools

ASP Dot Net Core supports global tools, which are  Dot Net CLI tools that can be installed and used globally on system. These tools can be used for a variety of tasks, such as code generation, database migrations, and more.

Kestrel Web Server

ASP .Net Core uses Kestrel as its default web server, which is a cross-platform, high-performance, and lightweight server. Kestrel can handle large numbers of requests efficiently, and you can also run it behind a reverse proxy like IIS, Nginx, or Apache for additional security and scalability.

Hybrid Serialization with System.Text.Json

ASP Dot Net Core primarily uses System.Text.Json for JSON serialization, but you can mix it with Newtonsoft.Json for specific cases by using custom converters or using both libraries side-by-side in the same project.

HTTP/2 Support with gRPC

ASP .Net Core supports gRPC, a high-performance, open-source RPC framework that uses HTTP/2. This is particularly useful for microservices, offering advantages like smaller message sizes and built-in error handling.

WebAssembly and Blazor

While Blazor is well-known, the ability to run Dot Net  code directly in the browser via WebAssembly is a unique feature that isn’t as widely recognized. It allows you to write client-side logic in C# rather than JavaScript.

read more

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Migrate Your Classic Storage Accounts to Azure Resource Manager by August 31, 2024

Introduction

The migration from classic storage accounts to Azure Resource Manager (ARM) is now more crucial than ever. As per Microsoft’s latest update, classic storage accounts will be fully retired on August 31, 2024. To continue leveraging the full spectrum of Azure’s capabilities, it is imperative that all data in classic storage accounts be migrated to ARM by this date.

Why is Migration Required?

Starting August 31, 2024, Microsoft will retire classic Azure storage accounts, meaning they will no longer be accessible. To avoid service disruptions, you must migrate your storage accounts to Azure Resource Manager (ARM) and update your applications to use Azure Storage resource provider APIs. Azure Resource Manager (ARM) introduces a consistent management layer that simplifies deployment, offers resource grouping, and grants access to all new Azure Storage features. Any customer still using classic storage accounts will miss out on these new features and updates.

What Happens If You Don’t Migrate?

If you don’t migrate your classic storage accounts by August 31, 2024, you’ll lose the ability to manage those accounts through Azure Service Manager. Although the data within these accounts will be preserved, any applications using classic APIs for management will no longer function correctly.

What Actions Should You Take?

To ensure a smooth migration process, follow these steps:

Identify all classic storage accounts in your subscription.

Delete any unmanaged disks or disk artifacts in your classic accounts.

Migrate your classic storage accounts to Azure Resource Manager following step-by-step instructions.

Update your applications to use Azure Resource Manager APIs if they currently manage classic storage accounts.

If you need assistance, Microsoft provides community support, access to cloud solution architects, and technical support through the Azure portal. By migrating to Azure Resource Manager, you ensure continued access to your storage accounts and benefit from the latest features and updates, aligning with Microsoft’s ongoing advancements in cloud technology.

Key Information

At Sparity, we are here to ensure a smooth transition as Microsoft retires classic Azure storage accounts on August 31, 2024. Below is crucial information you need to know:

Creation Restrictions: Subscriptions created after August 31, 2022, can no longer create classic storage accounts. Subscriptions created before September 1, 2022, were allowed to create classic accounts until September 1, 2023. Since August 31, 2022, the ability to create new classic storage accounts has been phased out.

End of Management via Azure Service Manager: After August 31, 2024, you will no longer be able to manage your classic storage accounts through Azure Service Manager. Your data will be preserved, but we highly recommend migrating to ARM to avoid service interruptions.

Migration Process and Considerations: No Downtime for Data Operations: During migration to ARM, data plane operations will continue without downtime. Management operations will be temporarily blocked during the migration. There may be downtime for scenarios like classic virtual machine (VM) or unmanaged disk migration. Management Operations: Data operations can continue during migration. Management tasks like creating or managing container objects with the Azure Storage resource provider will be blocked until migration is complete.

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Migrate Your Classic Storage Accounts to Azure Resource Manager by August 31, 2024

Introduction

The migration from classic storage accounts to Azure Resource Manager (ARM) is now more crucial than ever. As per Microsoft’s latest update, classic storage accounts will be fully retired on August 31, 2024. To continue leveraging the full spectrum of Azure’s capabilities, it is imperative that all data in classic storage accounts be migrated to ARM by this date.

Why is Migration Required?

Starting August 31, 2024, Microsoft will retire classic Azure storage accounts, meaning they will no longer be accessible. To avoid service disruptions, you must migrate your storage accounts to Azure Resource Manager (ARM) and update your applications to use Azure Storage resource provider APIs. Azure Resource Manager (ARM) introduces a consistent management layer that simplifies deployment, offers resource grouping, and grants access to all new Azure Storage features. Any customer still using classic storage accounts will miss out on these new features and updates.

What Happens If You Don’t Migrate?

If you don’t migrate your classic storage accounts by August 31, 2024, you’ll lose the ability to manage those accounts through Azure Service Manager. Although the data within these accounts will be preserved, any applications using classic APIs for management will no longer function correctly.

What Actions Should You Take?

To ensure a smooth migration process, follow these steps:

Identify all classic storage accounts in your subscription.

Delete any unmanaged disks or disk artifacts in your classic accounts.

Migrate your classic storage accounts to Azure Resource Manager following step-by-step instructions.

Update your applications to use Azure Resource Manager APIs if they currently manage classic storage accounts.

If you need assistance, Microsoft provides community support, access to cloud solution architects, and technical support through the Azure portal. By migrating to Azure Resource Manager, you ensure continued access to your storage accounts and benefit from the latest features and updates, aligning with Microsoft’s ongoing advancements in cloud technology.

Key Information

At Sparity, we are here to ensure a smooth transition as Microsoft retires classic Azure storage accounts on August 31, 2024. Below is crucial information you need to know:

Creation Restrictions: Subscriptions created after August 31, 2022, can no longer create classic storage accounts. Subscriptions created before September 1, 2022, were allowed to create classic accounts until September 1, 2023. Since August 31, 2022, the ability to create new classic storage accounts has been phased out.

End of Management via Azure Service Manager: After August 31, 2024, you will no longer be able to manage your classic storage accounts through Azure Service Manager. Your data will be preserved, but we highly recommend migrating to ARM to avoid service interruptions.

Read more