1,323
That’s the number of ransomware attacks in the U.S. in 2023 according to research from Cybernews. California topped the list with 12.2 percent of incidents, followed by Texas, Illinois, New York and Florida. Top industries attacked were IT services and consulting, construction, and manufacturing and industrial, although the study also found an increase in ransomware incidents in the health-care sector.
Source: Cybernews
HOLY GUACAMOLE
Source: Engadget
PROCESSING POWER
Arizona is about to get 60 football field-sized data centers worth $25 billion thanks to private equity firm Blackstone. In 2021, Blackstone acquired data center operator QTS for $10 billion and will now build huge facilities designed to meet the computing needs of major tech companies and the growing demand for AI. QTS is the largest provider of leased data center capacity in North America, and giants like Meta and Microsoft could use that space to power machine learning processes.
Source: Interesting Engineering
STILL NO. 1
An updated survey from Pew Research Center found that in 2023, the most used social media platforms among U.S. adults — YouTube and Facebook — retained their dominance over the market since the last study in 2021. Instagram came in third place, followed by Pinterest, TikTok, LinkedIn and Snapchat. X tied with Reddit’s usage in the next tier down, perhaps complicated by the fact that X’s rebrand from Twitter occurred while the survey was in the field.
Source: Engadget
This story originally appeared in the March 2024 issue of Government Technology magazine. Click here to view the full digital edition online.