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HP pilots paper delivery service for Instant Ink subscribers

'Having to go buy paper is very painful' for customers, says CEO. Let's just say the profit margins aren't

Paul Kunert Thu 9 Jun 2022 // 12:30 UTC

HP Inc is piloting a paper delivery service for Instant Ink subscribers as it looks to increase the amount of profit it can wring from customers.
The world is going to print fewer and fewer pages now that employees work from both the office and home, so achieving a greater "share of wallet", as it is often referred to by tech execs, is top of mind for print vendors.
According to IDC, some 2.8 trillion pages were printed in 2020, down 14 percent year-on-year (or 450 million fewer sheets) but it may recover to some degree.

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PC shipments sink amid steady waves of supply chain, war disruptions

320 million units forecast, still well above pre-pandemic, but boom is over for now

Paul Kunert Thu 9 Jun 2022 // 14:30 UTC

Orders for PCs are forecast to shrink in 2022 as consumers confront rising inflation, the war in Ukraine, and lockdowns in parts of the world critical to the supply chain, all of which continue.
So says IDC, which forecast shipments to decline 8.2 percent year-on-year to 321.2 million units during this calendar year. This follows three straight years of growth, the last of which saw units shipped rise to 348.8 million.
Things might be taking a turn for the worse but they are far from disastrous for an industry revived by the pandemic when PCs became the center of many people's universe. Shipments are still forecast to come in well above the pre-pandemic norms; 267 million units were shipped in 2019.

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HP turns back on $1b in annual sales by quitting Russia and Belarus

Revenue hit for HP far larger than many tech providers post-pullout but PC, print giant stays course

Paul Kunert Wed 1 Jun 2022 // 14:04 UTC

PC and printer giant HP Inc. is boldly but belatedly turning its back on Russia and Belarus due to the continued conflict in Ukraine.
HP was among the first wave of tech companies to suspend shipments to the countries soon after Russia invaded its neighbor on February 24, but now the company's president and CEO Enrique Lores is making the move more permanent.
"Considering the COVID environment and long-term outlook for Russia, we have decided to stop our Russia activity and have begun the process of fully winding down our operations," he said on a Q2 earnings call with analysts.

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It's 2022 and there are still malware-laden PDFs in emails exploiting bugs from 2017

Crafty file names, encrypted malicious code, Office flaws – ah, it's like the Before Times

Jeff Burt Tue 24 May 2022 // 10:04 UTC

HP's cybersecurity folks have uncovered an email campaign that ticks all the boxes: messages with a PDF attached that embeds a Word document that upon opening infects the victim's Windows PC with malware by exploiting a four-year-old code-execution vulnerability in Microsoft Office.
Booby-trapping a PDF with a malicious Word document goes against the norm of the past 10 years, according to the HP Wolf Security researchers. For a decade, miscreants have preferred Office file formats, such as Word and Excel, to deliver malicious code rather than PDFs, as users are more used to getting and opening .docx and .xlsx files. About 45 percent of malware stopped by HP's threat intelligence team in the first quarter of the year leveraged Office formats.
"The reasons are clear: users are familiar with these file types, the applications used to open them are ubiquitous, and they are suited to social engineering lures," Patrick Schläpfer, malware analyst at HP, explained in a write-up, adding that in this latest campaign, "the malware arrived in a PDF document – a format attackers less commonly use to infect PCs."

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Microsoft warns partners to revoke unused authorizations that drive your software

June debut of zero trust GDAP tool should make it harder for crims to attack through MSPs and resellers

Simon Sharwood, APAC Editor Wed 18 May 2022 // 09:45 UTC

Microsoft has advised its reseller community it needs to pay attention to the debut of improved security tooling aimed at making it harder for attackers to worm their way into your systems through partners.
That service providers can be used to attack their customers is not in dispute: recent exploits targeting ConnectWise, SolarWinds, and Kaseya made that plain. If you need extra proof, recall that just last week the Five Eyes nations’ intelligence agencies urged managed services providers to harden up in the face of increased attacks.
Microsoft currently lets its resellers gain “delegated administration privileges” (DAP) that let them manage a customer's services, software, or subscriptions.

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UK watchdogs ask how they can better regulate algorithms

We have bad news: you probably can't... but good luck anyway

Richard Currie Fri 29 Apr 2022 // 10:01 UTC

UK watchdogs under the banner of the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum (DRCF) have called for views on the benefits and risks of how sites and apps use algorithms.
While "algorithm" can be defined as a strict set of rules to be followed by a computer in calculations, the term has become a boogeyman as lawmakers grapple with the revelation that they are involved in every digital service we use today.
Whether that's which video to watch next on YouTube, which film you might enjoy on Netflix, who turns up in your Twitter feed, search autosuggestions, and what you might like to buy on Amazon – the algorithm governs them all and much more.

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Singapore to license pentesters and managed infosec operators

Outfits that can rummage around inside customer systems need to prove they're up to the job - and accountable

Laura Dobberstein Tue 12 Apr 2022 // 08:30 UTC

Cybersecurity service providers must for licenses to operate in Singapore, under new regulations launched by the country’s Cyber Security Agency (CSA) on Monday.
The new licensing framework requires vendors that offer penetration testing, and/or managed security operations centers (SOC) to get a licenses, in recognition that they access customers' systems and therefore pose a risk. The measures are effective immediately, although existing vendors have until October 11, 2022 to apply for the required licenses.
Those that fail to acquire the necessary licenses will face a fine up to SG$50,000 (US$36,600) and up to two years in jail.

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Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway buys 11.4% stake in HP

Even notoriously tech averse stock market gambler can't resist piece of pandemic-boosted PC extravaganza

Paul Kunert Thu 7 Apr 2022 // 13:00 UTC

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has taken up a double-digit stake in PC and print biz HP Inc's stock worth about $4.2 billion, a move that sent the company's share price up by 10 percent.
The purchase, confirmed in a SEC filing by the investment vehicle on 6 April, saw roughly 121 million HP shares shift over to the new owner in what can be seen as a vote of confidence in the residual value of HP. This equates to a circa 11.4 percent ownership of the company.
"Berkshire Hathaway is one of the world's most respected investors and we welcome them as an investor in HP," the world's largest printer and second largest PC brand said.

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Brit watchdog fines financial services biz £80k for text spam

Company changed address to avoid probe after sending 378,553 messages

Paul Kunert Fri 1 Apr 2022 // 08:50 UTC

Britain's data watchdog has issued an £80,000 penalty to a financial advisor that dispatched hundreds of thousands of unsolicited text messages during lockdown.
H&L Business Consulting, based in Penrith, Cumbria, was found by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to have sent 378,553 texts between January and June 2020, resulting in more than 300 complaints [PDF].
The spam promoted the debt management scheme devised by UK government as the outbreak of the novel coronavirus morphed into a pandemic. This is despite the fact that H&L Business Consulting was unauthorized by the Financial Conduct Authority to sell regulated financial products or services.

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UK criminal defense lawyer hadn't patched when ransomware hit

Brit solicitor fined after admitting it took 5 months to install critical update

Paul Kunert Tue 15 Mar 2022 // 13:30 UTC

Criminal defense law firm Tuckers Solicitors is facing a fine from the UK's data watchdog for failing to properly secure data that included information on case proceedings which was scooped up in a ransomware attack in 2020.
The London-based business was handed a £98,000 penalty notice by the Information Commissioner's Office under Article 83 of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation 2018*.
The breach was first noted by Tuckers on August 23 2020 when part of its IT system became unavailable. On closer inspection, resident techies found a note from the attackers confirming they had compromised part of the infrastructure. The Microsoft Exchange server was out of action and two days' worth of emails were lost, as detailed by the company blog at the time.

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