April rundown: Ransomware revenants and ‘open source’ AI

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As AWS was hit with $525 million in damages, April also saw leaders hit with difficult choices over ransomware and AI

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(Image credit: Future/Unsplash - Jr Korpa)

April has been a month of both highs and lows. At the start of the month, AWS was ordered to pay $525 million in damages, after it was found to have infringed US patent law through some of its core cloud offerings.

The month has also seen a high-profile cyber incident – a ransomware attack against Change Healthcare in which personal information was stolen.

All of this has unfolded against the backdrop of more innovation in the AI space, with the launch of Llama 3 and news from Google Cloud Next having buoyed market interest.

In this episode, Jane and Rory speak once again to Ross Kelly, ITPro’s news and analysis editor, to explore some of the month’s most notable news items.

Highlights

“Analysis of the attack suggests that this RansomHub group is a collective of affiliates from ALPHV/BlackCat, who have waged a second attack against Change Healthcare because they weren't paid out from the original attack.”

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“It's one of these debates that pops up every now and again in the cybersecurity industry, on whether to pay or whether or not to pay.”

“[Llama 3] comes in two parameter sizes, 8B and 70B. Now, what's significant about this is that it appears to outperform models of a similar size, so Google's Gemma 7B and Gemini Pro 1.0, Mistral’s 7B model as well. In between all the hype and hyperbole around the latest large language models on the market, I think Meta’s kind of going about its work very calmly.”

Footnotes

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Rory Bathgate
Rory Bathgate
Features and Multimedia Editor

Rory Bathgate is Features and Multimedia Editor at ITPro, overseeing all in-depth content and case studies. He can also be found co-hosting the ITPro Podcast with Jane McCallion, swapping a keyboard for a microphone to discuss the latest learnings with thought leaders from across the tech sector.

In his free time, Rory enjoys photography, video editing, and good science fiction. After graduating from the University of Kent with a BA in English and American Literature, Rory undertook an MA in Eighteenth-Century Studies at King’s College London. He joined ITPro in 2022 as a graduate, following four years in student journalism. You can contact Rory at rory.bathgate@futurenet.com or on LinkedIn.