Dive Brief:
- Google continued to ratchet up spending on technical infrastructure to meet growing demand for cloud compute services during the first three months of the year. The tech giant reported capital expenditures of $17.2 billion, primarily in servers and data centers to support consumer and enterprise products, cloud services and AI research, CFO Anat Ashkenazi said during a Q1 2025 earnings call last week.
- The company plans to increase capital expenditures by more than 40% to roughly $75 billion this year, compared to $52.5 billion in 2024. “We exited the year in cloud specifically with more customer demand than we had capacity and that was the case this quarter as well,” Ashkenazi said. “We want to make sure we ramp up to support customer needs and customer demands.”
- Google saw its cloud division revenues increase 28% year over year to $12.3 billion, driven by core infrastructure and AI services. Operating income for Google Cloud, which reported its first profitable quarter two years ago, grew 142% to nearly $2.2 billion during the three months ending March 31.
Dive Insight:
AI is the driving force behind massive capital investments by Google and its two larger hyperscale competitors, AWS and Microsoft. The technology shaped the infrastructure used to train and deploy large language models and opened the floodgates for a fresh wave of data center spend.
Less than 24 hours after the earnings call, Google announced a $3 billion commitment to build out facilities in Virginia and Indiana. The company also created a $75 million AI training fund and launched an AI fundamentals training course, according to last week’s announcement.
In early April, Google unveiled the seventh generation of its AI-optimized tensor processing unit, called Ironwood. The processor was designed to speed inference workloads and power an expanding suite of AI agents created by Google and several of the hyperscaler’s key enterprise technology provider partners, including Accenture, Deloitte and KPMG.
As autonomous AI tools raised security concerns and cyber leaders looked to leverage generative AI tools, Google beefed up its cloud protection portfolio through its $32 billion acquisition of Wiz in March.
“Together we can make it easier — and faster — for organizations of all types and sizes to protect themselves, end-to-end and across all major clouds,” said Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and parent company Alphabet, during the recent earnings call.
“We think this will help spur more multi-cloud computing — something customers want,” Pichai added.
Cloud security is a perennial priority for CIOs, ranking just below cost controls, according to Flexera. It’s also an ongoing area of focus among providers.
Microsoft tightened internal security controls and said it had improved cloud vulnerability response protocols as part of its Secure Future Initiative update in April. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy highlighted AWS’s attention to security last year after Microsoft suffered a series of state-linked cyber breaches.
During the earnings call, Google executives made no mention of a federal court ruling that found the company’s online advertising technology violates antitrust regulations. The company had already filed an appeal in a separate antitrust case pertaining to its online search business.
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Source: https://www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/google-cloud-ai-infrastructure-cybersecurity-spend/746861/
In what security experts are describing as a “distributed crisis,” a staggering 90% of cybersecurity and IT leaders worldwide reported experiencing cyberattacks targeting their cloud environments within the past year.
This alarming statistic emerges from comprehensive research conducted across ten countries, highlighting the increasing vulnerability of organizations as they transition from on-premises systems to hybrid cloud infrastructures.
The study, which surveyed more than 1,600 IT and security leaders, reveals that despite increased investment in cloud security, threat actors continue to find success in breaching these environments.
The nature of cloud-targeted attacks has evolved dramatically, with adversaries shifting away from traditional malware-based approaches toward more sophisticated identity-based intrusion methods.
According to the research, malware-free activity now accounts for 79% of all detected intrusions, a significant increase from just 40% in 2019.
This paradigm shift reflects attackers’ adaptation to modern enterprise environments, where they increasingly exploit valid credentials, engage in hands-on-keyboard intrusions, and deploy social engineering tactics to bypass conventional security measures.
The impact of these breaches has been severe, with 86% of organizations that experienced ransomware attacks ultimately paying the demanded ransom to recover their data or halt the attack.
Even more concerning, 74% of victims reported that attackers were able to harm backup and recovery options, effectively eliminating safety nets designed to mitigate such incidents.
Rubrik Zero Labs researchers identified a particularly troubling trend in their analysis: the dramatic reduction in “breakout time” – the period between initial compromise and lateral movement across systems.
“In 2024, the average breakout time for interactive eCrime intrusions fell to 48 minutes, down from 62 minutes in 2023,” noted security analysts.
“Alarmingly, the fastest breakout was recorded at just 51 seconds, meaning defenders may have less than a minute to detect and respond before attackers establish deeper control”.
The Rise of Identity-Based Attack Vectors
The report provides detailed insight into how identity-based attacks have become the preferred method for cloud environment infiltration.
Rather than breaking in through security vulnerabilities, attackers are simply logging in using compromised credentials.
This approach proves particularly effective in cloud and SaaS environments where traditional perimeter defenses offer limited protection.
Valid account abuse was responsible for 35% of cloud-related incidents, reflecting attackers’ growing focus on identity compromise as a gateway to broader enterprise environments.
Microsoft’s security telemetry supports this finding, revealing that they block over 600 million identity-based attacks daily.
These attacks typically begin with credential harvesting through phishing campaigns or purchase of stolen credentials from access brokers, whose activity surged by nearly 50% compared to the previous year.
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Source: https://cybersecuritynews.com/cybersecurity-leaders-encountered-cyberattacks/
Google on Tuesday announced it has acquired the Wiz cloud security platform in a $32 billion deal.
Google said in a press release that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Wiz in an all-cash transaction and is just waiting due to “customary closing conditions including regulatory approvals.”
The move, once closed, would join Wiz with Google Cloud in order to improve cloud security and accelerate the ability to “multicloud,” or use multiple clouds.
Wiz also put out a statement Tuesday, noting that Wiz and Google Cloud are “both fueled by the belief that cloud security needs to be easier, more accessible, more intelligent, and democratized, so more organizations can adopt and use cloud and AI securely.”
Google said the move is an investment in cybersecurity and cloud computing, which it said are rapidly growing industries with a vast range of solutions,” due to the “increased role of AI, and adoption of cloud services,” which is said “have dramatically changed the security landscape for customers, making cybersecurity increasingly important in defending against emergent risks and protecting national security.”
“Becoming part of Google Cloud is effectively strapping a rocket to our backs: it will accelerate our rate of innovation faster than what we could achieve as a standalone company,” Wiz said.
Google said it chose to acquire WIz due to its “easy-to-use security platform that connects to all major clouds and code environments to help prevent cybersecurity incidents.”
Google further added that this will allow it to provide protection to organizations ranging in size from “start-ups and large enterprises to governments and public sector organizations.”
However, the Wiz purchase will not impair its ability to be used across all major clouds, including Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services and Oracle Cloud platforms, and will still allow customers a variety of partner security solution choices, which will be available in the Google Cloud Marketplace.
“We will still work closely with our great partners at AWS, Azure, Oracle, and across the entire industry,” Wiz said.
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Source: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2025/03/18/Google-Wiz-purchase-AI-cloud/5041742310995/
Chattanooga has long established a reputation as a tech hub, and the addition of a quantum computer center puts the city further at the forefront of today’s technological advancements and innovations.
“The reason this is so important to the city and state and nation, for that matter, is I think there’s almost no observers that don’t believe the future of the internet and cybersecurity runs right through quantum networking,” Niccolo de Masi, CEO and President of IonQ says.
“Even as we start thinking about our electric system, the things we can improve and do as this technology matures–it’s just incredible,” David Wade, CEO of EPB says. “We’re excited about it for the community,” he says.
The new center is a collaboration between EPB and IonQ and a momentous step toward a new technological era.
“I think this early-moving advance is going to move the city in great stead, the state in great stead and also be a shining light to the country,” de Masi says. “It’s groundbreaking–very exciting. Our whole company was cheering all week as we heard this was going to be something that went into the board meeting for EPB earlier in the week, and David was texting me while he was signing the contract.”
The project will cost $22 million, but a report from the McKinsey Digital Quantum Technology Monitor projects the industry to generate $1-2 trillion over the next decade.
But, what is quantum computing, and what makes it unique?
Wade says quantum computing is a relatively new type of computing that’s more powerful and more advanced than regular computing. Traditional computing explores paths one at a time and is more linear, whereas quantum computing can explore various possibilities all at the same time. Wade says a real-world example is like using GPS to leave a crowded event.
“Today’s technology doesn’t try to look ahead and say ‘there’s 10,000 people going [in the same direction]. We need to split some of them in an opposite direction,’ so it waits until we have that and then it reroutes.” he says. “With technology like quantum, we’ll be able to do things in a totally different way and forecast where folks will be.”
In other words, it’s the equivalent of trying to find an exit in a maze: A regular computer is like sending one person into the maze — exploring one path at a time until they reach the exit. Quantum computing is like sending a million versions of yourself in the maze, exploring millions of paths, all the same time. Wade says most of quantum computing is found in research labs and academia and used for cyber security purposes.
Integrating it into commercial life, like our regular businesses, services and products, is a monumental step for our city’s future. de Masi says, for Chattanooga, they plan to work on the city’s energy distribution.
de Masi says this is the type of technology that will define our future, and it begins here in the Scenic City.
“It’s going to create the next generation of jobs,” de Masi says. “There’s going to be a whole new 5,10, 20, 30 years of recruits who are learning to use quantum computers and quantum networks early enough in their career so they can pioneer and build businesses on this wonderful infrastructure that EPB and IonQ are delivering to Chattanooga.”
De Masi says the entire system is the size of a commercial refrigerator and uses laser scanning to analyze a very intricate chip. The machine plugs into a wall socket and is extremely space efficient.
“They don’t need to be cooled down, and they don’t need a football field of space to run,” he says.
Next steps include the project’s build-out and commissioning, which is expected to be complete by early 2026.
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