Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP) Morning News: 31 July 2017

Each morning MSSP Alert broadcasts a quick lineup of news, analysis and chatter from across the global managed security services provider ecosystem.

Here’s the lineup for Monday, July 31, 2017:

10. Better Off Dead?: Lauri Love, a British man who allegedly hacked into U.S. government computer systems, including those of the FBI,  Army and Department of Defense, says he would rather kill himself than spend decades locked up in an American prison, according to The Independent. If found guilty, Love could spend up to 99 years in prison. In April, the High Court granted Love permission to appeal against his extradition to the United States, the report said.

9. VPNs, Privacy Under Pressure: Apple is removing VPN services from its App Store in China. Also, Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law that prohibits VPNs, effective November 1. We'll share more thoughts about both developments and their privacy implications later today...

8. Hacked - Smart Gun: Smart Guns, like any other digital device, can be hacked, according to a CNN Tech report...

7. Hacked - Airline: Virgin America has confirmed in a letter sent to employees that its network was compromised by hackers, with data belonging to thousands of workers compromised and possibly stolen by the attackers, according to Softpedia.

6. Hacked - Voting Machines: It took hackers only 90 minutes to breach U.S. voting machines during a Def Con competition this past weekend in Las Vegas, according to Newsweek.

5. Ransomware Update: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has updated its NoPetya alert to further describe how to mitigate the ransomware variant.

4. Cisco Security Partner: Pivot Technology Solutions Inc., an IT solutions provider, has achieved the Cisco Master Security Specialization.

3. Carbon Black Channel Hires: Carbon Black, an endpoint security specialist, has hired Trend Micro veteran Ciara Feeny as DACH Channel Manager. He'll focus on such countries as Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The hire is part of Carbon Black's EMEA region partner push. We'll share more thoughts soon.

2. MSSP and SOC Services: ViewQwest, an MSSP, has launched a new cybersecurity suite called Security 360°. The Singapore-based company says the suite focuses on four key areas: Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB), Managed Detection and Remediation (MDR), Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Protection, and Managed Network Security. We'll share more thoughts soon.

1. CompTIA ChannelCon: We're attending this week's CompTIA ChannelCon 2017 conference in Austin, Texas. The even mainly focuses on SMB IT partners like VARs and MSPs. But there could be some MSSP-centric news as well. Stay tuned for updates.