#Data breach prevention

[sgrji]

A Comprehensive Guide to Background Verification (BGV) in Today's World

In our increasingly interconnected and digitized world, the importance of ensuring the trustworthiness and credibility of individuals and entities has never been greater. Background Verification (BGV) plays a pivotal role in this process. From employment screenings to tenant checks, and even in the realm of cybersecurity, BGV is a critical tool used to evaluate the history and reliability of…

[market-insider]

Securing Critical Assets: Insider Threat Protection Market Insights

The global insider threat protection market size is estimated to reach USD 13.69 billion by 2030, progressing at a CAGR of 17.4% from 2023 to 2030, as per a recent report by Grand View Research, Inc. Advances in emerging technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and the Internet of Things (IoT), have led to increased adoption of mobile apps and web applications, subsequently creating more complex IT infrastructure that can be vulnerable to insider threat attacks in organizations.

Gain deeper insights on the market and receive your free copy with TOC now @: Insider Threat Protection Market Report

To address potential security challenges, such organizations are implementing security services to detect bugs, as well as analyze the security landscape, while efficiently responding to cyberattacks. The need to fix bugs in web applications as well as mobile apps, and to mitigate data loss risks associated with insider threats, is expected to fuel the adoption of ITP services over the forecast period.

Insider risk management solutions use innovative threat intelligence, machine learning, and behavioral analysis algorithms that detect threats and suspicious activities leading to security breaches. These solutions are designed to detect real-time potential threats on endpoint devices such as servers, memory devices, mobile devices, and other point-of-sale devices, thereby helping the organization enhance its security posture through rapid response capabilities. In July 2022, McAfee, LLC announced a strategic partnership with Telstra, an Australia-based telecommunications and technology company.

The partnership aims to deliver comprehensive protection solutions to safeguard the identity and privacy rights of consumers across applications, activities, devices, and locations. This partnership offered Telstra customers easy access to McAfee’s robust security solutions. These solutions deliver complete security and privacy protection, with integrated applications of Antivirus Protection, Parental Controls, VPN Security, and Identity Protection, among others to secure multiple devices, including mobiles, tablets, PCs, and laptops. Such developments would further drive the market for insider threat protection solutions during the forecast period.

[deorwineinfotech]

The security of our online data is of utmost importance in the current digital era. Authentication is essential for confirming people’s identities and giving them access to sensitive information or systems. There are several kinds of authentication techniques, and each one provides different levels of security and safety. In this article we will learn about three methods of authentication is essential for preventing cybercrime.

[tntra]

Cybersecurity breaches cost businesses monetary loss and mental stress. Learn data breach prevention tips and save your business from becoming another target.

Read more: https://www.tntra.io/blog/data-breach-prevention/

[dreamstz1]

Cybersecurity Threats and How to Protect Your Data

As more of our personal and professional lives move online, protecting sensitive data from cyberattacks has become a top priority. Cybersecurity threats are evolving rapidly, targeting businesses, governments, and individuals alike. By understanding the most common threats and implementing robust security measures, you can greatly reduce the risk of falling victim to a cyberattack. Let’s explore…

[sanjanabia]

Securing Corporate Data: The Ethical Hacker’s Role in Preventing Insider Threats

In today’s interconnected world, the security of corporate data is more critical than ever. While much focus is placed on defending against external cyber threats, insider threats—whether from malicious actors or unintentional mistakes—pose a significant risk to sensitive information. Insider threats can lead to data breaches that result in financial loss, reputational damage, and legal repercussions. Ethical hackers play a vital role in mitigating these risks by employing their expertise to detect and prevent insider threats. By leveraging the best cyber security certifications, ethical hackers can enhance their ability to safeguard corporate data and ensure a secure working environment. This blog explores the ethical hacker’s role in preventing insider threats and contribute to this crucial aspect of data security.

Understanding Insider Threats

Insider threats come from individuals within an organization who exploit their access to data for malicious purposes or make errors that lead to data breaches. These threats can be categorized into two main types:

Malicious Insiders: Employees or contractors who intentionally misuse their access to cause harm, such as stealing data or sabotaging systems.

Unintentional Insiders: Individuals who, through negligence or lack of awareness, inadvertently expose sensitive information, such as falling victim to phishing attacks or mishandling confidential data.

Both types of insider threats can have severe consequences, making it essential for organizations to implement robust strategies to detect and prevent them. This is where ethical hackers, armed with the best cyber security certifications, play a crucial role.

The Role of Ethical Hackers in Preventing Insider Threats

Conducting Risk Assessments

Ethical hackers use their expertise to perform comprehensive risk assessments that identify potential insider threats. These assessments involve evaluating access controls, reviewing security policies, and analyzing employee behavior patterns. By understanding where vulnerabilities lie, ethical hackers can recommend improvements to minimize the risk of insider threats.

2. Implementing and Testing Security Controls

Effective security controls are essential for mitigating insider threats. Ethical hackers help organizations implement and test these controls to ensure they are functioning as intended. This includes setting up and auditing access controls, monitoring systems for unusual activities, and enforcing data protection policies.

Through hands-on experience gained from the best cyber security certifications, ethical hackers learn how to design and test security controls that can detect and prevent both malicious and unintentional insider threats. They simulate attack scenarios to evaluate the effectiveness of these controls and make necessary adjustments.

3. Educating Employees and Raising Awareness

Many insider threats result from a lack of awareness or understanding of security best practices. Ethical hackers play a role in educating employees about data security, including recognizing phishing attempts, handling sensitive information securely, and following company policies. They conduct training sessions and create awareness programs to ensure that employees are equipped to prevent accidental breaches.

4. Monitoring and Analyzing Behavior

Ethical hackers use advanced monitoring tools to analyze employee behavior and detect signs of potential insider threats. They set up systems to track access logs, detect anomalies, and flag suspicious activities. By continuously monitoring for unusual behavior, ethical hackers can quickly identify and respond to potential insider threats before they escalate.

Best Practices for Preventing Insider Threats

To complement the efforts of ethical hackers, organizations should adopt best practices for preventing insider threats:

Implement Strong Access Controls: Limit access to sensitive data based on job roles and regularly review permissions.

Conduct Regular Security Audits: Perform periodic audits to assess the effectiveness of security controls and policies.

Promote a Security-Aware Culture: Foster an environment where employees understand the importance of data security and are encouraged to report suspicious activities.

Use Data Encryption: Encrypt sensitive data to protect it from unauthorized access, even if it is leaked or stolen.

Establish Clear Policies: Develop and communicate clear security policies and procedures for handling sensitive information.

The Importance of Cyber Security

The best cyber security certifications equip ethical hackers with the skills and knowledge needed to excel in their role. They cover a wide range of topics, including:

Advanced Threat Detection: Training on identifying and mitigating both external and internal threats.

Security Policy Development: Guidance on creating and enforcing security policies to protect data from insider threats.

Incident Response: Techniques for responding to and managing security incidents, including insider breaches.

Behavioral Analysis: Skills for monitoring and analyzing employee behavior to detect potential threats.

By obtaining these certifications, ethical hackers demonstrate their expertise in managing insider threats and protecting corporate data. Their knowledge and practical experience are critical for developing effective security strategies and ensuring organizational resilience against insider risks.

Conclusion

Securing corporate data from insider threats is a critical aspect of modern cyber security. Through comprehensive risk assessments, effective security controls, employee education, and behavioral monitoring, ethical hackers help organizations protect sensitive information and prevent data breaches.

For those pursuing a career in cyber security, obtaining the best cyber security certifications provides the expertise needed to excel in this challenging field. With their skills and knowledge, ethical hackers become essential defenders against insider threats, ensuring that corporate data remains secure in an increasingly complex digital landscape.

[jcmarchi]

Unmasking Privacy Backdoors: How Pretrained Models Can Steal Your Data and What You Can Do About It

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/unmasking-privacy-backdoors-how-pretrained-models-can-steal-your-data-and-what-you-can-do-about-it/

Unmasking Privacy Backdoors: How Pretrained Models Can Steal Your Data and What You Can Do About It

In an era where AI drives everything from virtual assistants to personalized recommendations, pretrained models have become integral to many applications. The ability to share and fine-tune these models has transformed AI development, enabling rapid prototyping, fostering collaborative innovation, and making advanced technology more accessible to everyone. Platforms like Hugging Face now host nearly 500,000 models from companies, researchers, and users, supporting this extensive sharing and refinement. However, as this trend grows, it brings new security challenges, particularly in the form of supply chain attacks. Understanding these risks is crucial to ensuring that the technology we depend on continues to serve us safely and responsibly. In this article, we will explore the rising threat of supply chain attacks known as privacy backdoors.

Navigating the AI Development Supply Chain

In this article, we use the term “AI development supply chain” to describe the whole process of developing, distributing, and using AI models. This includes several phases, such as:

Pretrained Model Development: A pretrained model is an AI model initially trained on a large, diverse dataset. It serves as a foundation for new tasks by being fine-tuned with specific, smaller datasets. The process begins with collecting and preparing raw data, which is then cleaned and organized for training. Once the data is ready, the model is trained on it. This phase requires significant computational power and expertise to ensure the model effectively learns from the data.

Model Sharing and Distribution: Once pretrained, the models are often shared on platforms like Hugging Face, where others can download and use them. This sharing can include the raw model, fine-tuned versions, or even model weights and architectures.

Fine-Tuning and Adaptation: To develop an AI application, users typically download a pretrained model and then fine-tune it using their specific datasets. This task involves retraining the model on a smaller, task-specific dataset to improve its effectiveness for a targeted task.

Deployment: In the last phase, the models are deployed in real-world applications, where they are used in various systems and services.

Understanding Supply Chain Attacks in AI

A supply chain attack is a type of cyberattack where criminals exploit weaker points in a supply chain to breach a more secure organization. Instead of attacking the company directly, attackers compromise a third-party vendor or service provider that the company depends on. This often gives them access to the company’s data, systems, or infrastructure with less resistance. These attacks are particularly damaging because they exploit trusted relationships, making them harder to spot and defend against.

In the context of AI, a supply chain attack involves any malicious interference at vulnerable points like model sharing, distribution, fine-tuning, and deployment. As models are shared or distributed, the risk of tampering increases, with attackers potentially embedding harmful code or creating backdoors. During fine-tuning, integrating proprietary data can introduce new vulnerabilities, impacting the model’s reliability. Finally, at deployment, attackers might target the environment where the model is implemented, potentially altering its behavior or extracting sensitive information. These attacks represent significant risks throughout the AI development supply chain and can be particularly difficult to detect.

Privacy Backdoors

Privacy backdoors are a form of AI supply chain attack where hidden vulnerabilities are embedded within AI models, allowing unauthorized access to sensitive data or the model’s internal workings. Unlike traditional backdoors that cause AI models to misclassify inputs, privacy backdoors lead to the leakage of private data. These backdoors can be introduced at various stages of the AI supply chain, but they are often embedded in pre-trained models because of the ease of sharing and the common practice of fine-tuning. Once a privacy backdoor is in place, it can be exploited to secretly collect sensitive information processed by the AI model, such as user data, proprietary algorithms, or other confidential details. This type of breach is especially dangerous because it can go undetected for long periods, compromising privacy and security without the knowledge of the affected organization or its users.

Privacy Backdoors for Stealing Data: In this kind of backdoor attack, a malicious pretrained model provider changes the model’s weights to compromise the privacy of any data used during future fine-tuning. By embedding a backdoor during the model’s initial training, the attacker sets up “data traps” that quietly capture specific data points during fine-tuning. When users fine-tune the model with their sensitive data, this information gets stored within the model’s parameters. Later on, the attacker can use certain inputs to trigger the release of this trapped data, allowing them to access the private information embedded in the fine-tuned model’s weights. This method lets the attacker extract sensitive data without raising any red flags.

Privacy Backdoors for Model Poisoning: In this type of attack, a pre-trained model is targeted to enable a membership inference attack, where the attacker aims to alter the membership status of certain inputs. This can be done through a poisoning technique that increases the loss on these targeted data points. By corrupting these points, they can be excluded from the fine-tuning process, causing the model to show a higher loss on them during testing. As the model fine-tunes, it strengthens its memory of the data points it was trained on, while gradually forgetting those that were poisoned, leading to noticeable differences in loss. The attack is executed by training the pre-trained model with a mix of clean and poisoned data, with the goal of manipulating losses to highlight discrepancies between included and excluded data points.

Preventing Privacy Backdoor and Supply Chain Attacks

Some of key measures to prevent privacy backdoors and supply chain attacks are as follows:

Source Authenticity and Integrity: Always download pre-trained models from reputable sources, such as well-established platforms and organizations with strict security policies. Additionally, implement cryptographic checks, like verifying hashes, to confirm that the model has not been tampered with during distribution.

Regular Audits and Differential Testing: Regularly audit both the code and models, paying close attention to any unusual or unauthorized changes. Additionally, perform differential testing by comparing the performance and behavior of the downloaded model against a known clean version to identify any discrepancies that may signal a backdoor.

Model Monitoring and Logging: Implement real-time monitoring systems to track the model’s behavior post-deployment. Anomalous behavior can indicate the activation of a backdoor. Maintain detailed logs of all model inputs, outputs, and interactions. These logs can be crucial for forensic analysis if a backdoor is suspected.

Regular Model Updates: Regularly re-train models with updated data and security patches to reduce the risk of latent backdoors being exploited.

The Bottom Line

As AI becomes more embedded in our daily lives, protecting the AI development supply chain is crucial. Pre-trained models, while making AI more accessible and versatile, also introduce potential risks, including supply chain attacks and privacy backdoors. These vulnerabilities can expose sensitive data and the overall integrity of AI systems. To mitigate these risks, it’s important to verify the sources of pre-trained models, conduct regular audits, monitor model behavior, and keep models up-to-date. Staying alert and taking these preventive measures can help ensure that the AI technologies we use remain secure and reliable.

[boatlifestyle]

Data Breach Protection Measures to Protect Yourself Online

One's safety online is paramount in this century—the digital century—where data breach has emerged as a threat. Knowledge of safeguarding your data means knowledge of breaches and the associated remedial measures within your control. Following are some effective tips toward enhanced security online, focusing mainly on the protection measures against data breaches and how they can help keep your information safe, even in the event of a potential boAt data breach.

What Exactly is a Data Breach?

A data breach refers to unauthorized access or the theft of sensitive, protected, or confidential information. Different forms of organizations could be affected: businesses like boAt, government agencies, schools, banks, or even any e-commerce platform. Common elements involved in a data breach include unauthorized access to sensitive data and possible direct effects on users like you.

How Do Data Breaches Happen?

Data breaches take many forms:

Social Engineering: Hackers call, e-mail, or text people, pretending to be someone in authority or whom one trusts, such as a CEO, bank agent, customer service representative, etc., and try to extract sensitive information.

Insider Threats: An insider who has access to your data can steal it maliciously or inadvertently.

Physical Theft: Loss of devices holding your sensitive information results in a data breach.

Unsecured Networks: Logging into unsecured networks exposes your data to unwanted access.

Hacking: It is a means of exploiting the memo vulnerabilities in software to exploit sensitive information.

What Companies Do to Safeguard You

Brands like boAt data breach, Apple, Microsoft, Adobe, and Mivi individually maintain quite a lot of measures for security in terms of user data. These help in minimizing the potential damage in case of a Aman Gupta data breach:

Encryption: The data is encrypted to prevent its access by unauthorized individuals. It becomes unreadable even if it's intercepted by hackers.

Regular Security Audits: These aid in identifying vulnerabilities present in the security systems so that they can be fixed before being attacked.

Software Updates: Updates are regularly rolled out in which bugs and security vulnerabilities are weeded out. It is essential to update them to ensure safety.

How You Can Be Safe

While any company that has put all possible measures to ensure the integrity of your data did the same—like boAt did—to save you from what could have been a boAt databreach, you play a huge role, too, in your online security. Here are some tips to keep your data safe:

1. Check Your PasswordsMake strong, unique passwords for all online accounts. Never use any guessing-sensitive information, such as your birthday, the name of your beloved pet, or other special dates.

Reuse of passwords across various platforms is something one must avoid doing but if one falls into the trap and one of those passwords has been phished/hacked, then every account affiliated with that password is vulnerable to future attacks. Consider a password manager to keep your passwords safe.

2. Update:Update your apps and software from their authentic vendors only, for example, from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store. The updates from the sources not only fill the security gaps but also enhance the user's experience.

3. Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Enable any available version of two-factor authentication. This basically creates a second layer for checking and hence gives better security with additional steps for verification, such as answering personal questions or entering a one-time password to verify your identity.

4. Beware of Phishing:These could be phishing emails/messages that mislead you to either disclose sensitive information or even prompt you to visit links holding malware. Beware while receiving unsolicited emails or messages. These will seem to be from an authentic place like boAt. Do not click on those suspicious links or attachments and never fill your information on any website.

5. Be Very Careful with Your Accounts:Check your bank statements and reports from your credit-card company often for charges you don't recognize. You might be able to identify fraud earlier that way. Also, you can set up alerts for suspicious activity on the accounts.

6. Use a VPN on Public Wi-Fi:Use a virtual private network (VPN) when going on public Wi-Fi to encrypt your online traffic and protect your data from unwanted viewers.

7. Think Before You Share: Be very careful about the information you divulge on the internet, especially across social media circuits. Never share personal details like your residence, date of birth, phone number, etc., in the public domain.

Remain Vigilant More

The following data security measures to be taken in case of breaches will drastically increase the safety online and proactively secure personal data in view of a data breach at boAt. You have to be aware and proactive to continue as active in view of the situation.

Extra Tips:

1. Use privacy-focused search engines such as DuckDuckGo. This will help reduce the amount of data collected while you are surfing the web.

2. Be very cautious of downloading files from less trusted sources.

3. Switch on strong security settings for devices and social media accounts.

[legalfirmindia]

Data Protection: Legal Safeguards for Your Business

In today’s digital age, data is the lifeblood of most businesses. Customer information, financial records, and intellectual property – all this valuable data resides within your systems. However, with this digital wealth comes a significant responsibility: protecting it from unauthorized access, misuse, or loss. Data breaches can have devastating consequences, damaging your reputation, incurring…

[drdemonprince]

It’s true that America has one of the lowest voter turnout rates in the industrialized world, with only 62% of eligible adults turning up to the polls on a good year, and about 50% on a typical one. But if we really dive into the social science data, we can see that non-voters aren’t a bunch of nihilistic commie layabouts who’d prefer to die in a bridge collapse or of an untreated listeria infection than vote for someone who isn’t Vladimir Lenin. No, if we really study it carefully, we can see that the American electoral system has a series of unique features that easily account for why we find voting more cumbersome, confusing, and unrewarding than almost any other voters in the world.

Let’s take a look at the many reasons why Americans don’t vote:

1. We Have the Most Frequent Elections of Any Country

Most other democratic countries only hold major elections once every four or five years, with the occasional local election in between. This is in sharp contrast with the U.S., where we have some smattering of primaries, regional elections, state elections, ballot measures, midterm elections, and national elections basically every single year, often multiple times per year. We have elections more frequently than any other nation in the world — but just as swallowing mountains of vitamin C tablets doesn’t guarantee better health, voting more and harder hasn’t given us more democracy.

2. We Don’t Make Election Day a Holiday

The United States also does far less than most other democracies to facilitate its voters getting to the polls. In 22 countries, voting is legally mandated, and turnout is consequently very high; most countries instead make election day a national holiday, or hold elections on weekends. The United States, in contrast, typically holds elections on weekdays, during work hours, with minimal legal protections for employees whose only option to vote is on the clock.

3. We Make Registration as Hard as Possible

From Denmark, to Sweden, to Iceland, Belgium, and Iraq, all eligible voters in most democracies are automatically registered to vote upon reaching legal adulthood. Voting is typically regarded as a rite of passage one takes part in alongside their classmates and neighbors, made part of the natural flow of the country’s bureaucratic processes.

In the United States, in contrast, voter registration is a process that the individual must seek out — or more recently, be goaded into by their doctor. Here voting is not a communal event, it’s a personal choice, and failing to make the correct choice at the correct time can be penalized. In most other countries, there are no restrictions on when a voter can register, but in much of the United States, registering too early can mean you get stricken from the voter rolls by the time the election rolls around, and registering too late means you’re barred from voting at all.

4. We Make Voters Re-Register Far Too Often

In countries like Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands, voter registration updates automatically when a person moves. In the United State, any time a person changes addresses they must go out of their way to register to vote all over again. This policy disadvantages poorer and younger voters, who move frequently because of job and schooling changes, or landlords who have decided to farm black mold colonies in their kitchens.

Even if a voter does not change their address, in the United States it’s quite common for their registrations to be removed anyway— due to name changes, marriages, data breaches, or simply because the voter rolls from the previous election year have been purged to “prevent fraud” (read: eliminate Black, brown, poor, and left-leaning members from the electorate).

5. We Limit Access to Polling Places & Mail-in Ballots

In many countries, voters can show up to any number of polling places on election day, and showing identification is not always necessary. Here in the United States, the ability to vote is typically restricted to a single polling place. Voter ID laws have been used since before the Jim Crow era to make political participation more difficult for Black, brown, and impoverished voters, as well as for those for whom English is not their first language. Early and absentee voting options are also pretty firmly restricted. About a quarter of democracies worldwide rely on mail-in ballots to make voting more accessible for everyone; here, a mail-in ballot must be requested in advance.

All of these structural barriers help explain why just over 50% of non-voters in the United States are people of color, and a majority of non-voters have been repeatedly found to be impoverished and otherwise marginalized. But these populations don’t only feel excluded from the political process on a practical level: they also report feeling completely unrepresented by the available political options.

6. We Have the Longest, Most Expensive Campaign Seasons

Americans have some of the longest campaign seasons in the world, with Presidential elections lasting about 565 days on average. For reference, the UK’s campaign season is 139 days, Mexico’s is 147, and Canada’s is just 50. We also do not have publicly funded campaigns: our politicians rely upon donors almost entirely.

Because our elections are so frequent and our campaigns are so long and expensive, many American elected officials are in a nearly constant state of fundraising and campaigning. When you take into account the time devoted to organizing rallies, meeting with donors, courting lobbyists, knocking on doors, recording advertisements, and traveling the campaign trail, most federally elected politicians spend more time trying to win their seat than actually doing their jobs.

Imagine how much work you’d get done if you had to interview for your job every day. And now imagine that the person actually paying your wage didn’t want you to do that job at all:

7. Our Elected Officials Do Very Little

Elected officials who spend the majority of their hours campaigning and courting donors don’t have much time to get work done. Nor do they have much incentive to — in practice, their role is to represent the large corporations, weapons manufacturers, Silicon Valley start-ups, and investors who pay their bills, and serve as a stopgap when the public’s demands run afoul of those groups’ interests.

Perhaps that is why, as campaign seasons have gotten longer and more expensive and income inequality has grown more stark, our elected officials have become lean-out quiet quitters of historic proportions. The 118th Congress has so far been the least productive session on record, with only 82 laws having been passed in last two years out of the over 11,000 brought to the floor.

The Biden Administration has moved at a similarly glacial pace; aside from leaping for the phone when Israel calls requesting checking account transfers every two or three weeks, the executive-in-chief has done little but fumble at student loan relief and abortion protections, and bandied about banning TikTok.

The average age of American elected officials has been on a steady rise for some time now, with the obvious senility of figures like Biden, Mitch McConnell, and the late Diane Feinstein serving as the most obvious markers of the government’s stagnancy. Carting around a confused, ailing elderly person’s body around the halls of power like a decommissioned animatronic requires a depth of indifference to human suffering that few of us outside Washington can fathom. But more than that, it reflects a desperation for both parties to cling to what sources of influence and wealth they have. These aged figures are/were reliable simps for Blackstone, General Dynamics, Disney, and AIPAC, and their loyalty is worth far more than their cognitive capacity, or legislative productivity. Their job, in a very real sense, is to not do their job, and a beating-heart cadaver can do that just fine.

You can read the rest of the list for free (or have it narrated to you on the Substack app) at drdevonprice.substack.com!

[marvelstoriesepic]

Whumpcember (day 27)

Pairing: Avenger!Bucky x Avenger!Reader

Prompt: Hypothermia

Word Count: 3.3k

Warnings: vivid descriptions of hypothermia; desperate!Bucky; Hydra; slight mentions of Bucky’s past

Masterlist | Whumpcember Masterlist

Pang. Pang. Pang.

It’s almost rhythmic, the way Bucky’s metal fist hits the strong, reinforced door of the room you’re trapped in.

You stand off to the side, pressing a finger to your earpiece, trying once more to summon aid.

Only static answers you, sharp and grating, hissing in your ear. You grit your teeth.

Bucky lets out a frustrated grunt and slams his fist harder.

You step forward, intending to tell him to stop, to conserve his strength, to redirect his anger into a better plan since the door doesn’t seem to budge at all.

But then you notice it, the faintest shift in the room.

Your skin tingles at the back of your neck and underneath your tactical suit.

The air is sharper. It’s colder.

You glance up at the small vents near the ceiling and find their slotted mouths releasing thin, ghostly fog that drifts downward.

Your stomach plummets to the ground.

“Bucky,” you say, voice quieter than you intended, eyes still on the vents.

Bucky doesn’t turn, but his hits have stopped. His metal fist rests against the door. You make out his head tilting slightly, acknowledging you.

“Bucky,” you repeat, more insistent, more warningly. “Look!”

He does turn now, his eyes on you before moving up to where you are looking. His gaze narrows as the fog becomes more visible, coiling in haphazard spirals before dissipating.

He doesn’t say anything, but the way his jaw tightens, the way his body turns to solid stone says he understands.

He then takes a step toward the control panel, his metal arm flexing instinctively. “We need to figure out how to shut this down. Fast.”

But you don’t know how fast you can make it.

The room already feels smaller, the walls seeming to close in, their cold presence pressing against you. You rub your arms, trying to ward off the frost spreading in the air.

But your cheeks start to sting and your skin tightens.

You are trapped in the sterile and metallic control room of a Hydra facility.

And if that wasn’t bad enough already, it’s not just a control hub. It’s also a containment chamber, and how it looks like, designed to neutralize intruders by pumping in freezing air when someone attempts to tamper with the control systems.

And since that’s the only reason you are in here, you fell for it.

Surveillance suggested the base holds remnants of sensitive data Hydra has been safeguarding, with a high likelihood that it could detail sleeper agents or hidden cells.

Bucky and you were paired and tasked with accessing the main control room, disabling the security grid, and providing an opening for the rest of the team to neutralize the facility.

And well, that didn’t go as planned.

Hydra has always been cruelly inventive and the freezing protocol seems as effective as inhumane to you.

Bucky immediately started to react the second a low beep emitted from the console, followed by an ominous hiss as the lights overhead flickered and shifted to an emergency red glow.

And he would have made it out before the heavy door slammed shut behind you since he’d been guarding the entrance.

But only without you.

And that didn’t seem to be an option for him.

You tried again and again to call out to the team.

Though it was futile from the start.

The base’s interior is heavily shielded, preventing outside communication.

Your teammates had a backup plan to breach the outer defenses if you two went radio silent, so they wouldn’t immediately realize something was wrong until it was too late.

The frost freezes up the walls, tiny ice particles wandering along the surfaces.

The air you draw into your lungs feels sharp, like shards of ice scraping the back of your throat.

Your muscles contract, huddling inward in a futile attempt to shield themselves.

Stiff and numb fingers try to tap against the slowly freezing metal of the console, but your movements are turning clumsy.

Bucky walks over to you. He seems to hold up better than you, but you see that this situation gnaws at him. His frown is in place, his shoulders are rigid and you don’t want to know the places his mind is traveling.

After all, this is not his first encounter with Hydras frost for him.

He looks over the consoles in front of you, glancing over the wires and frozen circuits.

“I don’t think p-punching it will help.” You try to say it lightly, bringing in some humor in your situation but your voice is shaking as much as your body.

Bucky gives you a sidelong glance. “You’d be surprised how often that works,” he deadpans.

You try to laugh but it falls flat.

The icy mist tumbles through the air so innocently, making it colder and colder, and then pounces on you so piercingly intense, it makes your breaths falter.

Warmth feels so far away. Seconds are stretching.

Bucky doesn’t glance back at the console.

He is watching you with furrowed brows.

His flesh hand brushes over your arm, trying to gauge your condition.

“Hey,” he says, almost sharply, but so full of concern. “You with me?”

You nod, but it’s sluggish. Unconvincing. Your teeth chatter as you try to speak. “I’m- I’m fine.”

Bucky grits his teeth, his jaw working roughly. “Don’t lie to me.” His voice sounds thick.

He pulls you close then. His arms wrap around you with a firmness that feels protective, desperate even.

You don’t resist, wouldn’t even have the strength to, and lean into him. Your body is shaking against him, your muscles seizing violently. It drains you rapidly. You do your best to try and let the warmth of his body temperature battle against the cold settling into your skin and sinking deep and even deeper into your bones.

It crawls into your ears, turning them numb and unresponsive. Sounds seem muted, as if the chill has even frozen the air’s ability to carry them.

The temperature drops and drops so rapidly.

You feel Bucky’s head right beside yours. His breath fanning over your cheek. “Stay upright, sweetheart. Alright? Don’t sit down. Try and move your legs.”

With that order, he brushes a trembling hand against your cheek for a split second before reluctantly letting go of you and storming toward the door again with clenched fists.

Another pang sounds out as Bucky slams his fist against the steel door again, each strike reverberating through the room. His hits are more frantic than before and there is no rhythm at all.

“Come on!” he shouts, his voice cracking.

The door doesn’t budge and he lets out a guttural roar, his fist slamming against the unyielding surface one last time before turning back to you.

You really tried.

You tried to follow his orders and stay upright, perhaps move through the room and keep yourself in motion.

But your knees were so weak and you let them crumble.

With an anguished sound that might have been your name, Bucky rushes back to you, dropping to his knees.

Your head dips forward before jerking back up, fighting to stay conscious.

“No! Y/n! You’re not doing this. Stay with me.”

You try to smile but it’s weak. “I’m just- just tired,” you murmur, voice slurring.

“No,” he snaps, shaking you just enough to make you focus on him. His eyes are wide, frantic. “You don’t get to sleep, you hear me? You sleep, you die!”

He’s pressing you against him, holding you so tightly.

The cold claims your flesh and veins. Your blood feels slowed.

His flesh hand cups your cheek, his thumb brushing against your freezing skin in a way that’s almost tender, though his voice is anything but soft.

“You don’t get to do this to me,” he growls, his lips close to your ear. “You don’t.”

There has been pain. In your toes, your fingers, your ears.

But you feel it fade. And you know you should panic, because this is a terrible sign. But your mind becomes singular in its focus, so obsessed with the absence of heat, the ache of it so intense and pervasive, there is no room for much else.

Exhaustion tries to close your eyes. It weighs you down, trying to make you stop moving at all.

But you fight. You fight against your own body.

Bucky’s flesh hand trembles against you, though whether from the cold or the panic, you’re not sure.

His eyes are jumping across the room, from the control panel, to the vents, to the door, and back to you.

Bucky’s breath comes fast, visible puffs of white in the freezing air. You hear him faintly mutter to himself. Or rather curse.

All you manage is to let out a sigh. The exhale lets a tiny ghost rise before your face. But it fades too quickly. Your breathing began to slow already.

Bucky presses his forehead against yours, rocking you slightly in his lap, tightly cradled against his chest to keep you moving and give you more of his warmth. His stubble brushes against your icy skin.

You meet his eyes, but your gaze is weak.

His gaze is wild. Darting between focus and frenzy. His brows are knit together so tightly, forming deep creases that dig into his forehead like scars of desperation.

“Stick with me, alright? We’ll get outta here,” he breathes. But he barely even managed that. And it sounds more like a plea than a promise.

You nod faintly against him. Your eyes fall shut for a moment.

“No, no, no,” he croaks out, rocking you more forcefully. “Eyes on me, doll! Come on.”

Your eyelids feel frozen together but you manage to break through. Though it takes so much energy.

But looking back at Bucky’s expression might even be harder.

His lips are trembling at the corners. His eyes are glassy and so intense, shimmering with a desperation so vivid, it seems to cry out silently.

“Hold tight, sweetheart.” He swallows. “There’s gotta be something we can do. Something to stop this.”

His words are fierce, determined, but his gaze says something else entirely as he sweeps his frantic eyes across the room once again.

You’re trying your best to help, scanning the space through the haze clouding your vision, coming from the freezing mist.

You notice something. It’s barely noticeable against the frost-covered wall but the sight of it roots you in place, not from the cold this time.

Since Bucky’s arms are still pressing you to him, he feels you stiffen against his chest. But to be real, he would have noticed if you were across the room. His sharp instincts are always in tune with you, even more so in this freezing hell.

“What is it?” he demands, his voice rough with concern. His flesh fingers brush your face, coaxing your attention back to him. “You got something in mind?”

You don’t meet his eyes. Instead, you shake your head faintly. A weak denial, that falters the second you try to hold onto it.

“Doll,” he warns, his tone low, his desperation edging in. Your silence is unnerving him. “Talk to me. What is it?”

You let out a shallow breath. It’s fragile, just like you, trembling and on the verge of breaking.

Bucky’s grip on you tightens.

“C’mon, sweetheart. I really need you to talk to me.” His voice is strained. “If you’ve got an idea, tell me. Whatever it is, we’ll make it work.”

The frost crackles in the background.

You let out a sigh and nod faintly, reluctantly, toward the corner of the room. Toward the frozen console that glints from the crystals of the ice.

“If we c-can short-circuit that p-panel,” your voice is barely above a whisper, “it might s-stop the c-cold.”

Bucky’s eyes dart to the console the second you mention it, then back to your face, searching it as though he could pull the rest of the plan from your expression alone to spare you the energy to talk.

But your expression falters and his brow is furrowed so tightly it’s hard to look at.

“Okay,” he says slowly. “So what’s the problem?”

You shake your head, your body sagging further into his. He shifts to hold you better but his gaze is fixed on your face. “But-” you struggle, the word escaping you as a faint breath, lips trembling from more than just the cold, “it might fry your arm.”

“I’ll do it.”

“Bucky-”

“No,” he cuts you off, shaking his head firmly, muscles straining in his face. His flesh hand wraps around your shoulders like it could anchor you to him. “I’m being dead serious. I don’t care what happens to me. I don’t care what happens to my arm.”

Those are the words you expected to hear. And you hate them.

His voice is hard, but his gaze softens when he sees your expression. There is something determined there, but also something tender, something so soft, something unshakable that makes you want to bury deep into his chest and never leave it again.

“I’ll be fine, doll. Promise. But I have to do this.” His voice is soft. Gentle. And he lets his lips brush against your cheek.

You try to protest. Try to shake your head. A faint whimper leaves your lips.

“Don’t care what happens to me. Only care about you, doll. And I’ll get you the fuck outta here.”

His hand again cups the side of your face and holds your gaze with so much intensity, blue eyes piercing you more than the cold, it leaves you breathless.

Then, he moves into action, setting you against the wall so carefully, brushing your hair back from your face with a tenderness none of the others had ever seen him with.

“Stay with me,” he murmurs, his voice pleading. So earnest.

You do your best to give him a nod and watch as he strides toward the console.

His broad shoulders block your view for a moment, but you can see the resolution in every movement, the way his metal arm flexes as he tears away the frozen panel with one single tug.

Sparks erupt as he rips at the wires, and the sharp scent of burning metal fills the air.

All you can do is watch with your heart frozen in fear.

The console flickers violently, the room trembling slightly as the system begins to overload.

Bucky grits his teeth. His arm is sparking wildly by forcing the wires together, his entire body braced against the surging energy.

“Come on,” he mutters through clenched teeth, his voice barely audible over the crackling noise. “Come on, shut it down!”

And then, with a resounding hiss, the freezing air stops.

Bucky stumbles back. His metal arm twitches erratically.

“Bucky,” you whisper, fearing for his condition.

He only turns and crosses the room to you in a few strides, pulling you back into his arms.

Your face is pressed against his neck, his lips are by your ear.

“Told you I’ll be fine, doll,” he whispers, his voice a low rasp, thick with relief that feels like it’s been dragged from the depths of his chest. But it’s unsteady. It’s strained. There is a tremor in it that betrays him.

Because you are still so cold.

So cold in fact, it feels no longer like an invader. It becomes everything. It consumes you. It swallows your awareness. Leaving only the faintest sense of resistance. It’s so thin and fragile, you can barely remember why you’re still holding on.

His breath brushes against your temple, warm compared to the chill that has settled into your body. But it’s not enough. Not even close.

Your skin is ice beneath his touch and the tremors that whacked your body before are gone now. It’s quiet. Too quiet.

You can’t tell where your body ends and the cold begins. It’s inside you, crawling through your veins like liquid frost, winding tighter and tighter with every slow beat of your heart.

Your skin doesn’t feel like skin anymore - it feels like glass.

“Hey,” he exclaims a little louder, his flesh hand soothing over your hair in a gesture so gentle it could shatter you into a thousand frozen pieces. “You’re okay. You’re with me. We did it, doll. You did it. The others will know something went wrong. They’ll come looking for us. You just have to hold on a little longer, yeah?”

His breaths are tangled in his words, rushing in too fast or skipping beats entirely. It makes his speech uneven.

But you can’t respond.

You want to reach for him, to speak, to swim in the warmth of his voice. But it’s impossible.

You know he’s holding you. You know he has his arms wrapped around you. You know you are pressed against his chest. The erratic pounding of his heart is by your ear. The weight of your body is resting against him. But it all feels so distant, like trying to recall details of a dream that is already fading from your memory.

Each gasp you try for feels farther apart, each exhale weaker than the last, dissipating into the air like it had never existed at all.

And you know Bucky feels it. Feels the way your body is slipping into a stillness that seems to terrify him enormously.

His breath catches.

“Don’t do this,” he grounds out, voice sharp and urgent. “No. Don’t you dare do this, Y/n!”

His metal arm curls tighter around you, and the steel, usually so cold itself, feels like a furnace compared to the icy skin underneath your suit.

He shifts you in his arms, his movements sluggish and frantic. Your head lolls against his shoulder and his flesh hand is at the back of your neck, fingers threading in your hair.

You feel so heavy. So impossibly heavy. You don’t even know where your hands are. Where your toes are.

“Don’t leave me,” he pleads, his voice cracking.

But your eyelids only flutter. They’re so heavy.

Bucky’s voice is there, somewhere in the muddle of your mind, but the words don’t land right. They sound muffled, like he might speak to you from underwater. Or as though you have fallen too far away to reach him anymore.

Lips press roughly against your temple. His hands try to rub warmth into you.

“No,” he growls, the anger in his tone masking the helplessness that causes him to shake his head and shake your body with it, due to the force, as if sheer denial could change the reality in front of him. “You don’t get to check out on me. Stay with me, Y/n. Fight for me. Come on. I know you can do it. Please! I know you can fight this.”

He gasps between phrases, trying to pull oxygen into lungs that refuse to expand fully, each sound on the verge of dissolving into sobs at any moment.

He buries his face in your hair, squeezing you against him.

“Sweetheart, please,” he cries, his words a single prayer to whoever will listen, so vulnerable and laid bare in a way Bucky Barnes rarely allows himself to be.

It elicits that faint, resilient ember beneath the frost you are succumbing to and you do your best to nurture it. It burns. Just a little. So small. But it’s there. And it burns because of him - because of Bucky.

The hectic rise and fall of his chest against you, the cracks of desperation in his hold on you, the tremble in his voice when he repeats the words stay with me and please, Y/n over and over, as raw and real as the ice in your veins - they make you promise to keep trying to hold on.

And you will. For him.

[techconnectpro]

Data breaches are a significant threat to businesses of all sizes and can lead to irreversible damage. Here are few tips to minimize and prevent data breach.

[taikeero-lecoredier]

STOP KOSA(and cie) MASTERPOST 2024

Both KOSA and the Earn It Act bill are dangerous for the future of the Internet.

In a nutshell, KOSA would allow states to sue any websites that host content deemed “harmful” to minors. With such a vague wording, its expected that any NSFW stuff, educational ressources or LGBT content, will immediately be taken down if govts dont approve of it.

Plus, it will be made mandatory to use IDs to confirm your age when going online, to so called “protect kids” but all that will cause is a huge potential data breach and endanger more kids.

As for the Earn It Act bill, it would allow the governement to spy and filter out anything they dont like in private dms for any users,as well as blowing a hole into Section 230 : The thing that prevent websites from being directly liable in case a user post something illegal,instead of the user being punished directly. The comics I made about KOSA and Earn It Act are old but sadly still relevant. All the info you need are in this post.

•KOSA Comic •Earn It Act comic

•KOSA UPDATE + CALL SCRIPT (Made the April 11, 2024)

•When contacting your reps, you may also add that they should support better bills that will make kids (and anyone) safer by focusing on data privacy legislations instead of KOSA • Contact Congress through here https://www.stopkosa.com/ • House Energy and Commerce are the best to contact for the hearing of 17th April 2024 https://energycommerce.house.gov/representatives (the link doesnt work properly so you'll need to head to the site and select "Members" to find them)

• Find all your Congresspeople here http://badinternetbills.com/

• Find your House representative here https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative •Never forget to make tweets, posts, tiktoks, or use any social media you can think of to talk about this : Spreading the word will be crucial. As always, if you wish to help us fight against bad inetrnet bills,and have the latest infos about KOSA, consider joining our Discord server (if not, please just share it around) • https://discord.gg/pwTSXZMxnH

[probablyasocialecologist]

Fifteen government departments have been monitoring the social media activity of potential critics and compiling “secret files” in order to block them from speaking at public events, the Observer can reveal. Under the guidelines issued in each department, including the departments of health, culture, media and sport, and environment, food and rural affairs, officials are advised to check experts’ Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn accounts. They are also told to conduct Google searches on those individuals, using specific terms such as “criticism of government or prime minister”. The guidelines are designed to prevent anyone who has criticised the government in the previous three to five years from speaking at government-organised conferences and other events.

[...]

These hidden checks are unlawful, running contrary to data protection laws and potentially breaching equality and human rights legislation. Dan Kaszeta, a chemical weapons expert, was disinvited in April from giving a keynote speech at a UK defence conference after officials found social media posts criticising Tory ministers and government immigration policy. He told the Observer this weekend that he knows of 12 others who have uncovered evidence of similar government blacklisting, most of whom are frightened of speaking out. But he said far more will be unaware they ever failed secret vetting. He said: “The full extent of this is shocking and probably not fully known. I was lucky enough to be given clearcut, obvious evidence. It’s truly awful.”

[zvaigzdelasas]

Israeli tanks, jets and bulldozers bombarding Gaza and razing homes in the occupied West Bank are being fueled by a growing number of countries signed up to the genocide and Geneva conventions, new research suggests, which legal experts warn could make them complicit in serious crimes against the Palestinian people.

Four tankers of American jet fuel primarily used for military aircraft have been shipped to Israel since the start of its aerial bombardment of Gaza in October.

Three shipments departed from Texas after the landmark international court of justice (ICJ) ruling on 26 January ordered Israel to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza. The ruling reminded states that under the genocide convention they have a “common interest to ensure the prevention, suppression and punishment of genocide”.

Overall, almost 80% of the jet fuel, diesel and other refined petroleum products supplied to Israel by the US over the past nine months was shipped after the January ruling, according to the new research commissioned by the non-profit Oil Change International and shared exclusively with the Guardian.

Researchers analyzed shipping logs, satellite images and other open-source industry data to track 65 oil and fuel shipments to Israel between 21 October last year and 12 July.

It suggests a handful of countries – Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Gabon, Nigeria, Brazil and most recently the Republic of the Congo and Italy – have supplied 4.1m tons of crude oil to Israel, with almost half shipped since the ICJ ruling. An estimated two-thirds of crude came from investor-owned and private oil companies, according to the research, which is refined by Israel for domestic, industrial and military use.

Israel relies heavily on crude oil and refined petroleum imports to run its large fleet of fighter jets, tanks and other military vehicles and operations, as well as the bulldozers implicated in clearing Palestinian homes and olive groves to make way for unlawful Israeli settlements.

In response to the new findings, UN and other international law experts called for an energy embargo to prevent further human rights violations against the Palestinian people – and an investigation into any oil and fuels shipped to Israel that have been used to aid acts of alleged genocide and other serious international crimes.

“After the 26 January ICJ ruling, states cannot claim they did not know what they were risking to partake in,” said Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, adding that under international law, states have obligations to prevent genocide and respect and ensure respect for the Geneva conventions.[...]

“In the case of the US jet-fuel shipments, there are serious grounds to believe that there is a breach of the genocide convention for failure to prevent and disavowal of the ICJ January ruling and provisional measures,” said Albanese. “Other countries supplying oil and other fuels absolutely also warrant further investigation.”

In early August, a tanker delivered an estimated 300,000 barrels of US jet fuel to Israel after being unable to dock in Spain or Gibraltar amid mounting protests and warnings from international legal experts. Days later, more than 50 groups wrote to the Greek government calling for a war-crimes investigation after satellite images showed the vessel in Greek waters.

Last week, the US released $3.5bn to Israel to spend on US-made weapons and military equipment, despite reports from UN human rights experts and other independent investigations that Israeli forces are violating international law in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. A day later, the US approved a further $20bn in weapons sales, including 50 fighter jets, tank ammunition and tactical vehicles.

The sale and transfer of jet fuel – and arms – “increase the ability of Israel, the occupying power, to commit serious violations”, according to the UN human rights council resolution in March.

The US is the biggest supplier of fuel and weapons to Israel. Its policy was unchanged by the ICJ ruling, according to the White House.

“The case for the US’s complicity in genocide is very strong,” aid Dr Shahd Hammouri, lecturer in international law at the University of Kent and the author of Shipments of Death. “It’s providing material support, without which the genocide and other illegalities are not possible. The question of complicity for the other countries will rely on assessment of how substantial their material support has been.”[...]

A spokesperson for the Brazilian president’s office said oil and fuel trades were carried out directly by the private sector according to market rules: “Although the government’s stance on Israel’s current military action in Gaza is well known, Brazil’s traditional position on sanctions is to not apply or support them unilaterally.

Azerbaijan, the largest supplier of crude to Israel since October, will host the 29th UN climate summit in November, followed by Brazil in 2025.[...]

The Biden administration did not respond to requests for comment, nor did Vice-President Kamala Harris’s presidential election campaign team.

Israel is a small country with a relatively large army and air force. It has no operational cross-border fossil fuel pipelines, and relies heavily on maritime imports.[...]

The new data suggests:

•Half the crude oil in this period came from Azerbaijan (28%) and Kazakhstan (22%). Azeri crude is delivered via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, majority-owned and operated by BP. The crude oil is loaded on to tankers at the Turkish port of Ceyhan for delivery to Israel. Turkey recently submitted a formal bid to join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the ICJ.

•African countries supplied 37% of the total crude, with 22% coming from Gabon, 9% from Nigeria and 6% from the Republic of the Congo.

•In Europe, companies in Italy, Greece and Albania appear to have supplied refined petroleum products to Israel since the ICJ ruling. Last month, Israel also received crude from Italy – a major oil importer. A spokesperson said the Italian government had “no information” about the recent shipments.

•Cyprus provided transshipment services to tankers supplying crude oil from Gabon, Nigeria, and Kazakhstan.[...]

Just six major international fossil-fuel companies – BP, Chevron, Eni, ExxonMobil, Shell and TotalEnergies – could be linked to 35% of the crude oil supplied to Israel since October, the OCI analysis suggests. This is based on direct stakes in oilfields supplying Israeli and/or the companies’ shares in production nationally.[...]

Last week, Colombia suspended coal exports to Israel “to prevent and stop acts of genocide against the Palestinian people”, according to the decree signed by President Gustavo Petro. Petro wrote on X: “With Colombian coal they make bombs to kill the children of Palestine.”

20 Aug 24