G'day folks, welcome to another Security weekly. This week is packed fuller than a baby's diaper.

In this weeks edition:

• Estimated of 1.75 trillion spend on Cyber Security by 2025

• Google Play Store plagued by malware

• Consensys delivers security services through NFT

Reading time: 02:40

Estimate of $1.75 trillion spend on Cyber Security by 2025

Last september Cybercrime magazine released an article about the estimated spending on Cybercrime by 2025. The article itself is rather long but this sums it up nicely (yay visuals):

That is a lot of money, even if you're Warren Buffet.

Some noteworthy points from the article

• In 2004 we spent $3.4 billion on Cyber security. So we went x100 almost from then to now. That's immense.

• Companies focus too much on becoming an impenetrable fortress and too little on intrusion detection. I'll add another one: user adoption and training is often overlooked.

• A lot of growth in security will come from start-ups who are massively being funded to go commercial. My take: while the old farts in tech often reliable products, the real cool stuff comes from start-ups. I can only support this.

• CISOs make all the difference. Should I use this article to leverage a raise? Let me know!

While this does sound like good stuff - and we like good stuff - I'm afraid the balance is off. Most of the $1.75 will come from companies already spending much on cybersecurity now. While Microsoft is going from $10 to $20 billion, and Google ups the ante to $10 billion the SMB is still falling behind, either spending too little or not in the right places.

Free tip:Read-up on my Security-like-I'm-five series to get quick wins for your SMB!

Google 'Play Store' plagued by malware

A tough week for the Google Play Store product owners I can imagine. On monday Zscaler  released a report on no less than 53 apps with embedded malware.The apps all carried a form of the Joker malware. This malware steals SMS and contact info, with the intent to sign the user up to premium services, or make expensive calls.

It's unclear how much was made through these apps, but they were downloaded more than 300.000 times.

Always be careful when downloading apps, even when you download them through a trusted platform.

Consensys delivers security services through NFT

Last tuesday Consensys came out with some unexpected news:

"ConsenSys Diligence Now Offers Smart Contract Auditing With TURN Token"

tldr: Consensys will provide web3 security services in exchange for NFT's.At the 15th of august the first round of sale for the Time-Unit Representative NFTs will go live. This token can be redeemed for 40 hours of smart contract auditing.

I have to admit I had to had to let this one sink in. But the more I think about this, the cooler this gets. Can't get any more security-as-a-service than this!

People often mock NFT's:

• no real usecase with everything new, there's the 'getting used to' phase

• "i can right click your jpeg and click save as" ah yes, the joker

• they don't get it and that's ok, but give it a chance.

While I can understand people don't get how a funky looking ape can cost so much money, there are some great projects out there. Like Gary Vaynerchuck said, 98% of NFT's will not survive, but the 2% will pave the way for others. I hope this is one of those 2%. See you on the 15th?

Don't have time for hours of research? Don't 20 years of experience in security? Me neither, but I gotchu fam.In Security like I'm fiveI cover a range of security topics. I do all the hard work, and explain it to you in a practical matter. Lot's of meme's too, good stuff.

Next up are Security & compliance certifications (ISO, ISAE, PCI DSS, ...) and types of attacks!

That's all for now folks. Remember: when in doubt,don't click the link!