Pressing pause on AI, Silicon Valley Chaos and Clop on the rise – The March Tech Digest

It’s a new month and we are back with the top stories in tech. As we transition into warmer weather – which is not always assured in the UK – let’s look back on March’s top tech stories. The past month has been unpredictable – I don’t really know whether I need to wear two sweaters or to savour an ice cream. What I do know, is that I was yet again struck by some of the headlines that took the tech world by storm.

March’s biggest headlines have not necessarily brought entirely good news, further highlighting the existential crisis that some parts of the tech world are going through right now. The cybersecurity space saw increased attacks and the rise of further threat groups. Furthermore, the Silicon Valley bank collapsed, sending ripples far and wide across the tech industry. If that was not enough, the AI takeover continues, with big tech names asking for it to slow down, due to fears surrounding the potential security threats.

Let’s unwrap all of this and more below.

Cybersecurity: Cl0p ransomware and its falling victims

If you’ve been hit by a cyberattack recently… Clop your hands. When the ransomware gang first appeared a month ago, they aimed to target the healthcare sector and to cause serious damage. They were recently behind the attacks that exploited a zero-day vulnerability in the GoAnywhere MFT secure file transfer tool, stealing data from more than 130 companies.

According to TechCrunch, the latest intel on this means that Clop’s attack has been unfolding throughout a period of nearly two months and it has added some big names to its victim list, including Procter & Gamble, Virgin Group, Saks Fifth Avenue, Hitachy Energy, Hatch Bank, Rubrik, AvicXchange and many more.

This is the second mass cyberattack this year, with ransomware gangs aiming to get more creative, following a year of fewer attacks and fewer targets willing to pay malicious actors to unlock their systems.

New victims come forward after mass-ransomware attack https://t.co/DGt5yLSELc

— TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) March 23, 2023

Fintech: Houston we have a problem: Silicon Valley Bank collapses

Moving on, another big headline this month was the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, the 16th largest U.S. bank with assets totalling $209 billion at the end of 2022. The crash is said to have been caused by a number of issues including uninsured deposits and the tech boom coming to an end. This was not helped by panicked customers finding out on social media and withdrawing their funds immediately.

While this is not exclusively a fintech story, there were major implications in this space, due to some of the bank’s portfolio of customers in the tech industry. The bank financed nearly half of all U.S. venture-backed technology and healthcare companies and supported startup companies despite those being typically higher risk. The incident raised questions around where startups should be keeping their money and the policy implications as a result.

TechCrunch spoke to numerous founders about how their businesses have been impacted by this, as venture capital-backed startup companies are the ones feeling the consequences more significantly.