Image Source: Pexels This blog was written by an independent guest blogger. Historically, the idea of artificial intelligence (AI) saturating our world has been met with suspicion. Indeed, it’s one of the more popular tropes of science fiction — learning machines gain sentience that helps them take over the planet.

Ethics and compliance is becoming a burgeoning industry as an increase in government regulations in areas such as sustainability, diversity, and data privacy make compliance an important focus for companies. It’s especially important in tech companies as the ever-growing risk of cybersecurity breaches requires that security teams be vigilant in protecting sensitive data.

Over the past year or so, organizations have rapidly accelerated their digital transformation by employing technologies like cloud and containers to support the shift to IoT and address the expanding remote workforce. This digital shift calls for a new approach to asset visibility as traditional asset administration responsibilities like inventory, software support, and license oversight are often the purview of IT and addressed with IT inventory-focused tools.

It is nearing the mid-year point of 2021, and already it can be characterized as” the year of the breach.” Many companies and institutions saw their security perimeters pierced by hackers including the mega-breaches of Solar Winds and the Colonial Pipeline. The scale of penetration and exfiltration of data by hackers and the implications are emblematic of the urgency for stronger cybersecurity.

Credential abuse and compromised user accounts are serious concerns for any organization. Credential abuse is often used to access other critical assets within an organization, subsidiaries, or another partner corporation. Once an account is compromised, it can be used for data exfiltration, or to further promote the agenda of a threat actor.

AT&T Alien Labs recently analyzed the Linux version of the Darkside ransomware, one of the most active ransomware in the last quarter. Shortly after hitting Colonial Pipeline, Darkside developers announced they would be closing operations.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) systems have become the norm for using client data to provide recommendations to customers. As more people are working from home and conducting business online, it is imperative that fraud detection software is used to protect user information. But these protective systems also utilize ML to automate the process and understand when a potential attack is taking place.

This is the third of three blogs in a series to help the energy and utility industries. You can read the first blog on Ransomware and Energy and Utilities and the second blog on Threat Intelligence and Energy and Utilities as well.

In the cybersecurity field, Zero Trust is becoming a widely used model. Data breaches taught organizations to stay cautious regarding security, especially when it comes to information protection - and a Zero Trust model may be the best option. Nobody, including clients inside the firewall, should be trusted, per Zero Trust. Internal threats are a huge concern. And for many attackers, penetrating the barrier is a simple operation, thanks to easy access to leaked credentials.

Remote workforces accessing applications and data that are located anywhere is the “new normal.” Across the globe, organizations of all sizes are struggling to modernize their infrastructures to accommodate this new reality while accelerating their digital transformation initiatives.

AT&T Alien Labs has observed the Mirai variant botnet, known as Moobot, scanning for known but uncommon vulnerabilities in Tenda routers, resulting in a considerable peak in our internal telemetry. The research associated with this peak resulted in the discovery of a malware hosting domain, providing several different Mirai variants, like Moobot and Satori.

It is increasingly common to hear about cyber threats to energy and utility industries. These are malicious acts by adversaries that target our data, intellectual property, or other digital assets. All too often it seems as though energy and utility companies are put in a defensive position to battle it out with these cyber intruders. How can the industry switch to a more offensive position when it comes to understanding these threats?

As our digital world turns toward advances in automated technology to increase efficiency and productivity, cybercriminals are also learning how to execute mass automated cyber-attacks. According to the 2021 AT&T Cybersecurity Insights Report, most people are concerned about the security of various applications and 52% believe that these threats challenge the integrity of networks.

These days, magic links are in the air. They are becoming an intriguing means to strengthen digital security without inconveniencing users. This article discusses magic links, their magical function, and their potential benefits for a corporation.

Cybersecurity is a leading concern for any business today. While this trend has made IT security a secure and potentially lucrative field, modern cybersecurity professionals also face growing challenges. If you hope to keep your business safe amid rising threats, you’ll have to overcome these obstacles. In that spirit, here are seven of the top challenges in modern cybersecurity and how you can solve them.

In today’s threat landscape there is no escape from having a 360° view to protect crucial organization assets. The criticality of the matter is greatly amplified in these times where working remotely has become vastly common among Enterprises and SMBs alike. An ideal security solution would combine threat detection & response on cloud resources as well as on the endpoint level, providing extensive, real-time and impactful coverage customers desperately need.

No matter what sector your organization does business in, you’ve probably heard the term digital transformation. In every industry, digital transformation is going to be critical to remain competitive and resilient. But what does digital transformation mean? And how does cybersecurity fit in? Today’s organizations are facing an increasingly complex environment of securing everything attached to the network; applications, data, and endpoints.

The exponential growth of IoT devices in the energy and utilities industry has greatly increased focus on cybersecurity. Focus on cybersecurity across industries has increased recently, no doubt due to factors like COVID-19 forcing a jump in remote work. In 2020, we saw cybersecurity move from being a technical problem to a business issue.

As environments evolve and cybercriminals become more sophisticated, threat detection and response is becoming increasingly complex. While some organizations are turning to a fully managed detection and response solution, many others with established internal security teams are looking for additional support and expert guidance, while still keeping their program in-house. Our new service, AT&T USM Anywhere Advisors, is the middle-ground solution customers are looking for.