The 10 worst tech stories of 2021

2 years ago 495

Have fond memories of 2021? They astir apt don't see these 10 stories oregon the products and services surrounding them.

A batch of worldly has happened successful the past year, particularly successful the tech world. It seemed similar each clip you turned your caput successful 2021 determination was a caller integer catastrophe unfolding: Sensitive information was leaked, ransoms took networks offline and plain aged manner sex favoritism cases person each rocked the tech satellite successful the past 12 months.

Sure, there's been good stuff, but it was acold easier to travel up with this 1 than the former. Basically, it's been a unsmooth year.

You whitethorn person missed immoderate of these items, but it's much apt you've heard astir each one. They were hard to miss, adjacent among the different stories that kept america connected borderline this past year.

The Colonial Pipeline attack

When the Colonial Pipeline Company was forced to unopen down its operations owed to a ransomware onslaught successful May, a bully information of the eastbound seashore of the U.S. was near worrying astir moving retired of fuel, giving america 1 of our archetypal existent pictures of what it looked similar erstwhile the menace of cybercrime spilled implicit into the carnal world.

The onslaught was an oculus opener that not lone highlighted however unsafe ransomware could be, but besides however susceptible indispensable infrastructure was to attack.

To marque matters worse, deliberation astir however unafraid infrastructure should be, and past deliberation astir yours: Are you ready for an onslaught similar that?

In different ransomware news, it's everywhere

As the Colonial Pipeline onslaught showed us, ransomware is simply a superior menace to everyone everywhere, adjacent those who don't marque overmuch usage of technology: If it tin impact infrastructure, it tin impact everything.

To marque matters worse, ransomware accounted for 69% of each attacks involving malware successful Q2 2021, a 30% leap from the aforesaid play successful 2020. We've entered the ransomware age.

Governments, aesculapian and concern companies, technological institutions and acquisition facilities are astatine the highest hazard of being attacked by ransomware, but they're not the lone ones who request to worry.

On a affirmative note, ransomware actors look to similar leveraging known information vulnerabilities, truthful keeping your systems updated should spell a agelong mode toward reducing your onslaught footprint.

Bitcoin sets the satellite connected fire

Yeah, Bitcoin is blistery this year, but that's not what I mean: I'm talking astir the massive vigor and c footprint that has bloomed up arsenic the Bitcoin web continues to grow. We've yet started to wage attraction to it successful 2021, with Elon Musk calling its vigor depletion "insane," and calling into question its usefulness (neither Tesla nor Musk person divested themselves of Bitcoin holdings).

It's existent that Bitcoin uses an absurd magnitude of energy, and 2021 was the twelvemonth that it genuinely skyrocketed, rising from determination astir a 77 TWh/year forecast successful the opening of the twelvemonth to much than 200 TWh/year by December 25. At this point, the Bitcoin web is burning done the aforesaid magnitude of powerfulness and substance arsenic immoderate medium-sized countries, and an idiosyncratic transaction eats up much powerfulness than an mean U.S. household uses successful 70 days.

Bitcoin, and different cryptocurrencies, request thing big, similar a modulation to proof-of-stake, if they're going to past a larger planetary modulation to greener energy.

SEE: Google Chrome: Security and UI tips you request to know (TechRepublic Premium)

SolarWinds attackers support hacking

In precocious 2020, a radical of what is present believed to beryllium Russian state-sponsored hackers broke into authorities systems by exploiting flaws successful SolarWinds' Orion web absorption software. It was a blase onslaught that leveraged deep-level vulnerabilities and it near the cybersecurity satellite scrambling.

The squad down it didn't fto up, and is believed to beryllium liable for a bid of phishing attacks against authorities agencies and NGOs successful May, and attempts it made to impersonate unreality work resellers successful a bid to summation entree to lawsuit IT systems successful October.

The radical down the attacks is known arsenic Nobelium, and it's conscionable the latest successful a drawstring of government-sponsored attacks against IT infrastructure and companies successful overseas countries. It's improbable to beryllium the past radical either, truthful proceed to beryllium connected guard, particularly if you bash enactment successful an affected industry. You whitethorn not deliberation it, but your enactment could service arsenic an unnoticed mode successful for unsafe attackers.

The chips are very, precise down

It's been a unsmooth mates of years for anyone who manufactures products that marque usage of semiconductors. Unfortunately, that means mostly everyone successful the modern world.

The chip shortage that started arsenic a effect of COVID-19 proviso concatenation interruptions continues connected unabated, leaving countless products deprived of indispensable components.

The large occupation with the semiconductor manufacture is however rigid it is, and needs to be: Material costs are high, products are made-to-order and abrupt interruptions successful the proviso concatenation tin pb to years of delays, arsenic we're experiencing now.

Predictions arsenic to an ending vary, but expect america to operate successful immoderate benignant of shortage until astatine slightest mid-2023 oregon aboriginal 2024.

Exchange gets pwned

If determination are a fewer stories duking it retired for the rubric of worst of the year, the four zero-day Microsoft Exchange server vulnerabilities discovered successful March are decidedly a contender.

The quartet of exploits came to airy erstwhile attacks by a Chinese state-sponsored histrion known arsenic Hafnium were detected targeting on-premise Exchange servers with the superior nonsubjective of exhilarating delicate oregon different invaluable data.

Patches for this exploit person been released, truthful anyone liable for a instrumentality moving Exchange Server 2013, 2016 oregon 2019 should beryllium definite those patches are applied. If you don't instal them and get deed you'll lone person yourself to blame.

NFTs: You're buying nothing, but someone's gaining

If you work my erstwhile nonfiction connected the champion tech of 2021, you mightiness beryllium confused to spot NFTs here, due to the fact that they're successful there, too.

The conception of the NFT is great: They're unsocial tokens that unrecorded connected a blockchain and tin beryllium tied to anything, which gives them plentifulness of imaginable applications. So far, the lone exertion to summation steam has been yet different speculative marketplace akin to the 1 surrounding Bitcoin.

NFTs person mostly been utilized to merchantability digital artwork and different collectible items by ostensibly naming the NFT the "original" integer item. In astir cases, buyers don't get immoderate signifier of copyright power oregon reproduction rights—that usually stays with the creator oregon seller.

So, what are you buying erstwhile you bargain an NFT? Nothing. How overmuch are you spending? Potentially millions. An NFT could emergence successful value, oregon it could crook retired we each determine they're conscionable arsenic invaluable arsenic beanie babies, Troll dolls oregon Tomagotchi.

SEE: Password breach: Why popular civilization and passwords don't premix (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

AWS crashes … and crashes … and crashes

We've travel to trust connected the unreality successful a comparatively abbreviated magnitude of time, and we became adjacent much babelike connected it acknowledgment to the COVID-19 pandemic. It's expected to beryllium stable, but Amazon's AWS hosting service, which accounts for a important information of the sites connected the internet, just kept going down successful December. As of publication, AWS has had 3 outages successful December, bringing concern to a halt for its customers astatine an incredibly important time.

Digital translation initiatives compressed from years to weeks owed to the pandemic, and an ever-increasing fig of companies going unreality autochthonal means we're pushing our infrastructure harder than ever. AWS, arguably the person successful each things cloud, isn't scoring immoderate points with its customers with continued outages. If it doesn't measurement up its crippled successful 2022 others volition surely effort to instrumentality its place.

Facebook has had a YEAR

It's been a unsmooth twelvemonth for Facebook, and that's putting it lightly. 2020 was bad, too, and a batch of the nationalist ire that Facebook incurred successful 2021 was sewn successful an already fertile furniture fertilized with last year's information privateness scandal.

Don't get maine wrong: Facebook's unsmooth twelvemonth has been wholly of its ain making. The biggest story, Facebook merchandise manager Frances Haugen's whistleblowing, opened up immoderate heavy closets afloat of soiled laundry that Mark Zuckerberg would apt alternatively stayed closed.

Haugen came to the nationalist equipped with a trove of implicit 1,000 pages of interior documents that revealed Facebook's consciousness of the problems it stoked by allowing misinformation to dispersed and failing to constabulary content.

A period later, information stolen from over 1.5 cardinal Facebook users appeared connected the acheronian web. Surely unrelated to its mounting scandals, Facebook decided to rebrand itself to Meta soon thereafter.

Meta's caller extremity seems to beryllium each astir creating a integer "metaverse" wherever it sees humans moving and playing successful a integer satellite of Facebook-based, er… "Meta"-based virtual reality.

It remains to beryllium seen if Facebook/Meta has capable marque superior to win successful the look of truthful overmuch caller antagonistic publicity.

We learned however acold we inactive person to spell connected equality

It's not precisely a concealed that the tech manufacture has agelong had a occupation with sex equality. Women successful tech regularly accidental they've experienced sexism archetypal hand, and studies person recovered for immoderate clip that women proceed to make little than men doing the aforesaid work.

To marque matters worse, the COVID-19 pandemic has deed women successful the tech assemblage peculiarly hard, with galore saying it has caused a regression of sex roles that has acceptable women's advancement successful the manufacture backmost by decades.

To wrapper it each up with a not-so-pretty bow was the revelations that came retired of World of Warcraft steadfast Activision Blizzard that showed a pervasive civilization of sexism and sex discrimination, which is putting it lightly.

There are a batch of ways that the tech manufacture has been made to bespeak connected itself successful the past mates of years, and this contented is nary different.

Shareholders are present suing Activision Blizzard for economical harm incurred arsenic a effect of withheld information, each portion 4 Blizzard employees person mounted a suit alleging favoritism and hostility astatine work. Oh, flip an SEC probe into the allegations onto the pile, too, and players unhappy implicit some the institution concern and what they spot arsenic mediocre storytelling successful World of Warcraft leaving successful droves.

All of the blowback Activision Blizzard is getting feels similar the archetypal illustration of a mega corp being driven to dire straits arsenic a effect of the mediocre behaviour of its enactment team. Those who allow, perpetrate oregon disregard atrocious behaviour astatine large corporations should support a watchful oculus connected these proceedings and their outcome.