The Institute for Cybersecurity and Emerging Technologies at RIC

CMMC is here — and preparation matters. The Institute's CMMC Northeast Summit will give defense manufacturers and suppliers real, practical takeaways to move forward with confidence.

Register today to join us on March 11 at Rhode Island College: cmmcnesummit.org

A man (Nick) wearing a blue shirt and sleeveless fleece vest stands in front of a yellow wall, behind two laptops at the cyber range operator desk, talking and teaching.

RIC students sit at clustered, dual-monitor workstation in a blue-tinged classroom in front of a large video wall displaying a computer screen showing a debugger window.

Huge thanks to Institute friend and community member Nick Bargnesi from Recorded Future for an awesome, highly technical Forensic Malware Analysis workshop last night! RIC students followed along using their REMnux instances, decompiling malware and learning the tricks of the trade. Fantastic stuff!

Rhadamanthys infostealer disrupted as cybercriminals lose server access The Rhadamanthys infostealer operation has been disrupted, with numerous "customers" of the malware-as-a-service reporting that they no longer have access to their servers.

Info stealer’s servers stolen, sysadmin suspect search & seizure. Surprising?

a man in a suit and tie is standing in front of a wall with framed pictures on it ALT: a man in a suit and tie is standing in front of a wall with framed pictures on it

Should you let Chrome store your driver's license and passport? www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/20...

New RIC cyber range prepares students for real world danger lurking in cyberspace • Rhode Island Current State leaders celebrated at a “powering up” ceremony at Rhode Island College Wednesday for a new state-of-the-art cyber range, where students gain hands-on learning experience to prevent and respond t...

New @ric-cyberinst.bsky.social cyber range at @rhodeislandcollege.bsky.social offers students a safe space for close encounters with bad actors. By @ohnocastro.bsky.social

rhodeislandcurrent.com/2025/10/15/n...

Congrats to our friends at Traip of Bits for a huge second place finish in the DARPA AIxCC!! Such cool, innovative tech.

Allianz Life data breach affects 1.1 million customers | TechCrunch Data breach notification site Have I Been Pwned notified 1.1 million customers of a July data breach, a number not previously reported.

By me: Some 1.1 million Allianz Life customers had personal information stolen in a recent data breach involving its Salesforce CRM database, according to Have I Been Pwned.

AI Is Outpacing Cybersecurity, Benchmark Report Shows Benchmark report says while AI deployment is racing ahead, AI security is crawling behind and cybersecurity needs to wake up and catch up.

Implementing AI in your workflows and customer-facing apps should *not* involve compromising security principles! If anything it makes them even more important.

Director of Cybersecurity (Treasury) GENERAL STATEMENT OF DUTIES: Under administrative direction, performs highly responsible and complex administrative work,  directing and leading all information technology (IT) security service functi...

The RI Treasury is hiring a Director of Cybersecurity. Cyber professionals take note!

<loissousa@snakebite.com > iMessage Yesterday 11:41 AM The Rhode Island Department of Motor Vehicles has finally informed: The enforcement penalties will commence on June 17th. Our records show that as of today, you still have one outstanding traffic fine. According to Article 15C-16.003 of the Rhode Island Administrative Code, if you fail to complete the payment by June 16th, 2025, we will take the following measures: 1. Report to the Rhode Island Department of Motor Vehicles violation database. 2. Suspend your vehicle registration from June 17th. 3. Revoke your driver's license for 30 days. 4. Transfer to the manual toll booth and the service fee will

4. Transfer to the manual toll booth and the service fee will be 35%. 5. You may be sued and your credit score will be affected. Pay NOW: https://dmvri.gov-vqcj.cfd/pay Please make the payment immediately before execution to avoid the suspension of the license and further legal disputes. (Reply with Y and reopen this message by clicking the link, or copy it into your browser.) The sender is not in your contact list. Report Junk

We don’t have to warn Rhode Islanders about the scam DMV texts that have been aggressively making the rounds these past few weeks, but do be sure to tell your vulnerable friends and family about them! They wouldn’t keep sending them if it wasn’t working…

Prepping a raspberry pi image for our upcoming K-12 teacher workshops. Look closely and you can see the computer on the chair - pretty good cpu-to-display size ratio!

<loissousa@snakebite.com > iMessage Yesterday 11:41 AM The Rhode Island Department of Motor Vehicles has finally informed: The enforcement penalties will commence on June 17th. Our records show that as of today, you still have one outstanding traffic fine. According to Article 15C-16.003 of the Rhode Island Administrative Code, if you fail to complete the payment by June 16th, 2025, we will take the following measures: 1. Report to the Rhode Island Department of Motor Vehicles violation database. 2. Suspend your vehicle registration from June 17th. 3. Revoke your driver's license for 30 days. 4. Transfer to the manual toll booth and the service fee will

4. Transfer to the manual toll booth and the service fee will be 35%. 5. You may be sued and your credit score will be affected. Pay NOW: https://dmvri.gov-vqcj.cfd/pay Please make the payment immediately before execution to avoid the suspension of the license and further legal disputes. (Reply with Y and reopen this message by clicking the link, or copy it into your browser.) The sender is not in your contact list. Report Junk

We don’t have to warn Rhode Islanders about the scam DMV texts that have been aggressively making the rounds these past few weeks, but do be sure to tell your vulnerable friends and family about them! They wouldn’t keep sending them if it wasn’t working…

They call it the CarhartBleed vulnerability

I asked two different LLM’s to give me a rundown of today’s cyber security headlines.
In order, here’s what I got back from Perplexity and from Google Gemini about the same story. Spot the difference?

Bias in AI is real, and it’s insidious.

RI officials pose with the Certification of Academic Excellence.

President Jack Warner addresses the audience.

Congressman Jim Langevin addresses the audience.

The Institute leadership team poses with the Certificate of Academic Excellence.

We're on the move! The NSA has designated Rhode Island College as a Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense, telling the world that @rhodeislandcollege.bsky.social is the gold standard for cybersecurity education! Our students are ready to hit the ground running on day one in the workforce.

🚨 Cybersecurity pros: Davies Career & Tech in Lincoln, RI is launching a brand-new Cyber Pathway & needs a leader to build it!

✅ 5+ yrs work exp.
✅ Master’s or equivalent
✅ Eligible for RI CTE cert (don’t need to be a teacher yet!)
✅ Industry certs = bonus

🔗 www.schoolspring.com/jobdetail?jo...

The Cyber Institute welcomes Coventry high school to the RIC campus today for a GenCyber half day visit of touring, cybersecurity activities, and lunch in the campus dining center!

Jim, you exhibited a lot of natural intelligence in winning the artificial intelligence trivia contest. The institute only awards the finest of swag bags.

Distinguished Chair of @ric-cyberinst.bsky.social at @rhodeislandcollege.bsky.social, Jim Langevin, recently appeared on @bostonglobe.com's RI Report podcast to discuss federal cybersecurity cuts, which could adversely affect the nation’s critical infrastructure.

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/03/06/m...

NIST Selects HQC as Fifth Algorithm for Post-Quantum Encryption The new algorithm will serve as a backup for the general encryption needed to protect data from quantum computers developed in the future

NIST is low-key one of the most important government national security agencies. Not only have they worked to develop a standard quantum-safe cryptographic algorithm, they now have a *backup* algorithm in case the first one is compromised.

😡

A group of cyber professionals gathers for a networking event.

Another great networking event this week! Thanks to those who joined us for trivia and an insightful panel discussion on the state of government cybersecurity programs.

Join us for our next get-together on Tuesday, April 1st. Register at www.eventbrite.com/e/new-englan....

Ransomware Extortion Declines to 135M in 2024: A Detailed Analysis of the Cybercrime Landscape 2025-02-10 Ransomware attacks have experienced a notable drop in their financial impact, with the total amount extorted by cybercriminals in 2024 standing at $813.5 million. This is a significant decrease from the $1.25 billion in 2023, reflecting a shift in the ransomware ecosystem. While ransomware events increased during the second half of the year, payments made by victims dwindled, suggesting that many targeted organizations opted not to pay the ransom demands.

Ransomware Extortion Declines to 135M in 2024: A Detailed Analysis of the Cybercrime Landscape

2025-02-10 Ransomware attacks have experienced a notable drop in their financial impact, with the total amount extorted by cybercriminals in 2024 standing at $813.5 million. This is a significant…

Media giant Lee Enterprises confirms cyberattack as news outlets report ongoing disruption The newspaper owner said it was determining what data, if any, was stolen. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Media giant Lee Enterprises confirms cyberattack as news outlets report ongoing disruption

Omg yes, my bad! Tomorrow night!!

This is why we're holding our Cyberlaw panel tonight on what orgs should and shouldn't talk about after an incident or breach! Incorrect information given out the media can come back to haunt you. Register for our event now: www.eventbrite.com/e/can-we-tal...

Great turnout last night at the New England Cybersecurity Professionals Meetup at RIC! 🔐 We had cyber trivia, an engaging panel on trends for 2025 w/ Patrick Laverty & David Albernaz, and a sneak peek at the new Cyber Range under construction. Exciting times for our community! 🙌 #CyberSecurity

Banshee 2.0 Steals Apple's Encryption to Hide on Macs The most recent iteration of the open source infostealer skates by antivirus programs on Macs, using an encryption mechanism stolen from Apple's own antivirus product.

Mac users, be vigilant and don't download sketchy installers! Banshee has taken "living off the land" to new heights, or is that depths.

How to Secure Your Credit Reports in the Wake of a Data Breach! | RI Elder Info How to Secure Your Credit Reports in the Wake of a Data Breach! RI Elder Info in partnership with RI College Institute for Cybersecurity and Emerging Technologies, and the Rhode Island Commission on t...

Rhode Islanders are being instructed to freeze their credit, but how exactly is that done? Watch our webinar, presented in partnership with RI Elder Info, that walks you through the steps to freeze (and thaw) your credit reports.