Ransomware Gangs Keep Pwning Poorly Secured Remote Desktop Protocol Endpoints
In honor of World Password Day, here's a task for every organization that uses remote desktop protocol: Ensure that all of your organization's internet-facing RDP ports have a password - and that it's complex and unique.

Guidance on establishing processes to rapidly detect and respond to cyber incidents.

Meanwhile, Video Conferencing Firm Acquires Start-Up Encryption Company
Zoom has reached a settlement with the N.Y. attorney general's office to provide better security and privacy controls for its video conferencing platform. Meanwhile, the company announced it's acquiring a start-up encryption company.

Ransomware Gangs Keep Pwning Poorly Secured Remote Desktop Protocol Endpoints
In honor of World Password Day, here's a task for every organization that uses remote desktop protocol: Ensure that all of your organization's internet-facing RDP ports have a password - and that it's complex and unique.

Meanwhile, Video Conferencing Firm Acquires Start-Up Encryption Company
Zoom has reached a settlement with the N.Y. attorney general's office to provide better security and privacy controls for its video conferencing platform. Meanwhile, the company announced it's acquiring a start-up encryption company.

Ransomware Gangs Keep Pwning Poorly Secured Remote Desktop Protocol Endpoints
In honor of World Password Day, here's a task for every organization that uses remote desktop protocol: Ensure that all of your organization's internet-facing RDP ports have a password - and that it's complex and unique.

Ransomware Gangs Keep Pwning Poorly Secured Remote Desktop Protocol Endpoints
In honor of World Password Day, here's a task for every organization that uses remote desktop protocol: Ensure that all of your organization's internet-facing RDP ports have a password - and that it's complex and unique.

The Final FFIEC Guidance has been issued and its main intent is to reinforce the 2005 Guidance's risk management framework and update the Agencies' expectations regarding customer authentication, layered security, or other controls in the increasingly hostile online environment.

Meanwhile, Video Conferencing Firm Acquires Start-Up Encryption Company
Zoom has reached a settlement with the N.Y. attorney general's office to provide better security and privacy controls for its video conferencing platform. Meanwhile, the company announced it's acquiring a start-up encryption company.

It is too soon to deliver a verdict on the Swedish 'non-lockdown'. However, should Stockholm succeed in containing the virus without bringing its economy to a standstill, Sweden will enter the looming economic recession in a much better shape.

Romania violated the rights of its former anti-corruption chief Laura Codruta Kovesi when they fired hire. The judgement issued by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg follows a long catalogue of high-level corruption in Romania.

Debt levels around Europe, especially in southern states, forecast to rise alarmingly, but EU commission remained confident countries can manage, despite fears of a second viral wave.

The app would need to be paired with more than 100,000 daily tests in order to have effect. And far more than 60 percent of the population will need to use the app in order for it to be effective.

India's solar energy installed capacity has swelled from practically nothing to more than 2 GW in the three years since the creation of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission Phase 1 (JNNSM). Impressively, costs have come down rapidly (to roughly $0.12/kWh for solar PV, and $0.21/kWh for CSP) to be competitive with grid-connected solar PV in many other regions.

The European Union will review German discounts on environmental taxes amid concerns the aid to companies that consume high volumes of energy may be illegal, but newly re-elected Chancellor Angela Merkel warned the measures are needed to keep Europe's biggest economy competitive.

Bio-energy forest plantations will supplement woody biomass from other sources such as logging residues. In the southern U.S., projections are for an increase of up to 25 million “new” tons of woody biomass demand for bioenergy. To supply this woody biomass demand will require purpose grown plantations of various species including pine, eucalypts, sweetgum, hybrid poplar and cottonwood, amongst others. Forest plantation yields can be 8-15 green tons/acre/year on rotations of 5-12 years. Utilization of this renewable and sustainable biomass resource will be as feedstock “designed” for a large number of bio-energy applications.

After being shut out of previous renewable energy auctions, and delaying its own auction by two weeks, the state government of Pernambuco held the nation's first solar energy auction on December 27, registering 122.82 MW of energy, six times the country's current entire solar energy output (20 MW). The auction involved 34 bidders proposing roughly 1 GW of capacity; at the end it was narrowed to six companies from Brazil, Italy, Germany, China and Spain. Average price of power finished trading at 228.63 Brazilian reais/MWh (just under U.S. $97), about 9 percent lower than the starting price of R 250.

Wind and solar power producers say they're at risk of losing investment after the European Union's executive arm scrapped proposals for a mandatory target on renewable energy use in 2030.

Renewable energy companies will derive more of their funding from bond markets as banks curb lending to the industry, Citigroup Inc.’s head of environmental finance said.

Tesla Motors Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said shifting to greater use of solar and wind power will challenge utility companies.

Royal DSM NV, the world’s largest vitamin manufacturer, expects to begin producing cellulosic ethanol in the U.S. by July as the government considers reducing the amount of renewable fuel that oil companies will be required to buy.

Technology is catching up with Thomas Edison’s electricity industry, eating away at the utility business model that hasn’t changed much in a century.

What’s a beleaguered utility to do when forced by the government to close its profitable nuclear power plants?

Germany’s biggest utilities face dwindling market shares as the shift to renewable energy spurs regional power generation and storage technology, a senior member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party said.

Bracing for greenhouse-gas rules from the Obama administration, two industries are staking out different positions. Coal companies are pledging to sue. Electric utilities are ready to talk.

Vestas Wind Systems A/S said scaling back Australia’s renewable energy target would cut the value of more than A$10 billion ($9.4 billion) in large projects across the industry and discourage international investors.

In the arid Imperial Valley of California, Tim Brummels is trying to turn an agricultural cousin of sugarcane into low-carbon ethanol.

South African Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson said her department wants to address weaknesses in the process of commissioning renewable-power projects.

The threat of climate change is driving China and the U.S. — frequent rivals and the world’s two largest greenhouse-gas emitters — to collaborate on dozens of potential clean-energy breakthroughs.

Kyushu Electric Power Co. will suspend responding to applications from renewable-energy producers applying to access its grid while it reviews how much more clean energy it’s capable of handling.

U.S. electricity markets face years of higher prices as clean-air regulations shut more coal-fired power plants than earlier forecast, cutting supply and forcing producers to rely more on natural gas.

The Brazilian government is seeking to award contracts in an auction tomorrow for natural gas- and coal-fueled power plants, reversing a drive that previously favored renewable-energy projects. It would lead to the first new thermal plants in three years, after the government scaled back such projects and awarded wind contracts starting in 2009 and solar energy earlier this year.

EON SE’s plan to spin off its fossil fuel plants marks a watershed moment in Germany’s renewables effort that will likely bolster the country’s already leading position in clean energy.

India, the world’s third-largest polluter, will spend at least $100 billion on climate-related projects but isn’t ready to follow China and the U.S., the top two emitters, in promising to limit its fossil-fuel emissions.

South Africa plans to triple electricity production from renewable-energy sources to help alleviate power shortages that caused rolling blackouts throughout the country in recent weeks.

Shinzo Abe’s re-election as prime minister risks undercutting Japan’s commitment to clean energy at a time when incentives are under review and the nation’s utilities say they can’t accommodate capacity already planned.

Statkraft AS, Norway’s state-owned power company, said it plans to plow as much as 60 billion kroner ($8.1 billion) into renewable energy around the world in the coming years after the government boosted its funding.

GDF Suez SA plans to double renewable power production capacity in Europe over the next decade as the utility shifts its focus away from developing more historic natural gas and nuclear energy sources in the region.

Enel SpA is putting the final touches on a yieldco that would hold its U.S. renewable energy assets, making it the latest power-plant owner to opt for a structure that frees up capital.

Japan is considering reducing the incentives for developers of solar power projects by as much as 16 percent to reflect lower operating and maintenance costs.

Sweden and Norway agreed to boost their target for renewable energy production amid concerns the additional capacity will exacerbate a power glut and strain the region’s electricity grid.

A land claim brought against South Africa’s largest sugar farmer threatens to stop a 1.1 billion rand ($90 million) renewable-energy project that will produce electricity by burning leftover cane leaves and tops.

President Barack Obama ordered the federal government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent from 2008 levels over the next 10 years by shifting to renewable energy sources such as solar power.