Cognizant hires outside talent for digital services; Ransomware up 118% in Q12019: McAfee

IT major Cognizant is looking at outside talent to strengthen its digital services team. Cybersecurity software company McAfee sees an increase in new ransomware samples. 

Cognizant hires outside talent to improve digital services

New Jersey-based information technology services and consulting company Cognizant Technology Solutions is hiring talent from outside to spruce up its digital services, The Economic Times reported.

Cognizant has hired Gaurav Chand, former chief marketing officer and executive vice president at IT services company CenturyLink. Chand has been appointed as head of the marketing team to improve Cognizant's positioning in the sector. 

Ganesh Ayyar, former chief executive officer at IT services company Mphasis, has been hired by Cognizant as executive vice-president to head its digital operations. 

It has also hired former chief executive officer of software technology company IPSoft Jeff Heenan-Jalil as global head of healthcare.  Heenan-Jalil had served as global head of health business at Wipro. 

Earlier this month, it was reported that Cognizant was planning to lay off a few hundred employees to cut costs. The company had said that the number of layoffs would depend on the growth witnessed in the current quarter. 

Ransomware samples increase by 118% in first quarter of 2019: McAfee

The first quarter of 2019 saw a 118% rise in new ransomware samples, according to a report by California-based cybersecurity software company McAfee. 

The report, McAfee Labs Threats Report: August 2019, attributed the rise in ransomware to the adoption of new tactics and code innovations by cybercriminals. 

The cybersecurity software solutions developer also found 504 new threats per minute in the first quarter of 2019.

Coin mining malware saw a spike of 29% while more than two billion stolen account credentials were made available in the cybercriminal underground, said the report.

Malware attacks saw the steepest rise in the education sector, followed by the healthcare, public and financial sectors.