Encryption has been a hot topic of discussion during the implementation phase of most data privacy laws. In the age where organizations are dealing with large volumes of data each day, the protection of this sensitive data is critical. The data, which is seen as a business-critical asset for organizations, should be protected against malicious hackers looking for opportunities to steal the data.

Organizations are increasingly introducing new Internet of Things (IoT) devices into their environments. According to Statista, the aggregate number of IoT devices deployed by organizations globally increased from 7.74 billion in 2019 to around 8.74 billion a year later. The market and consumer data firm reported that the next few years will see growth in all types of IoT devices, including Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) offerings like smart monitors.

Digital attackers are increasingly targeting the automotive industry. In its 2020 Automotive Cybersecurity Report, for instance, Upstream found that the number of annual automotive cybersecurity incidents had increased by 605% since 2016, with the number of incidents has doubled in 2019 alone.

NIST’s timely new release of Special Publication (SP) 800-172 (formerly referred to in draft form as 800-171B) provides exactly what its title says, Enhanced Security Requirements for Protecting Controlled Unclassified Information: A Supplement to NIST SP 800-171. Yet it goes a step further to protect controlled unclassified information (CUI) specifically from APTs.

Organisations hit by ransomware attacks are finding themselves paying out more than ever before, according to a new report from Palo Alto Networks. The Unit 42 threat intelligence team at Palo Alto Networks teamed up with the incident response team at Crypsis to produce their latest threat report which looks at the latest trends in ransomware, and compares payment trends to previous years.

Due in large part to COVID-19 and the increased prevalence of remote work, ransomware attacks dominated 2020, and experts predict there will be at least twice as many cases of data theft in the new year. The U.S.

So many times, we hear companies say, “Our tools are just like Tripwire’s,” “We do configuration management just like Tripwire” and “We can push out policy just like Tripwire.” But as we say, this just ain’t necessarily so. You might be able to do configuration management using a “Tripwire-like” tool. You might configure it and use it set up a policy or a configuration of a system.

Do you remember all the apprehension about cloud migration in the early days of cloud computing? Some of the concerns ran the full paranoia gamut from unreliability to massive overcharging for cloud services. Some concerns, such as the lack of security of the entire cloud infrastructure, rose to the level of conspiracy theories. It is nice to know that those myths are all behind us. Or are they? It seems that many of the earlier misconceptions have been replaced with new notions about the cloud.

For the longest time, those of us who occupy the role of the CISO have fought for our seat at the ‘big table.’ Although it appears some of us are being invited into the C-suite, there is still a long way for us to go.This is highlighted in a 2021 report provided BT, which places “CISOs under the spotlight” and illuminates some interesting and concerning issues that businesses need to address.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the number of cloud security resources available. How do you know which sources to trust? Which ones should inform your security strategies? Which reports will actually improve your cloud security posture? Let’s first look at six cloud security guides that you should be using. These resources provide action items that you can take back to your team and use immediately.

The trucking sector is essential to countless other industries. Without reliable transportation, supply chains would crumble, and companies and consumers would face shortages. With so much riding on it, it’s no wonder why the industry has fully embraced technology like telematics in recent years. Telematics refers to the suite of technologies fleets use to share data between vehicles and command centers.

The FBI is reminding organisations of the serious threat posed by business email compromise (BEC) scams, declaring that it caused over $1.8 billion worth of losses to businesses last year. The newly-published annual cybercrime report from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) reveals that it had received a record number of complaints and claims of financial loss – with internet crime causing more than $4 billion in losses.

Security and compliance – a phrase often uttered in the same breath as if they are two sides of the same coin, two members of the same team or two great tastes that go great together. As much as I would like to see auditors, developers, and security analysts living in harmony like a delicious Reese’s cup, a recent gap analysis that I was part of reminded me that too often the peanut butter and chocolate sit alone on their own separate shelves.

Another year, another new set of cybersecurity threats to overcome, outwit and mitigate against. At the beginning of 2021, the cybersecurity world was informed by CISA (the USA Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) of a spate of attacks targeting cloud environment configurations, supposedly occurring as a result of the increase in remote working.

The objective of an organization when implementing cybersecurity controls is to eliminate risk, but this oftentimes involves settling for managing risk at an acceptable level. Each organization defines what that acceptable level is depending on several factors including the environment, the criticality of function, the asset type, etc. There are many methods and techniques that an organization can then use to manage this risk. One of the most commonly used methods is patching.

The coronavirus pandemic has added new layers to the threat landscape facing corporate security leaders in 2020 and going into 2021, as well. As businesses and workforces sought to adapt rapidly to remote working at scale, malicious groups and other threat actors began exploiting opportunities to target stressed people and systems with malware.

Getting incentives for the best security practices is a win-win for all healthcare-related entities. For one, you are getting incentives, and secondly, you are making sure that you have a rock-solid defense in terms of security. Many organizations find that the rules and regulations that HIPAA entails are too extensive and overwhelming, however. What’s more, cybersecurity wasn’t a thing when HIPAA was introduced.

With a growing number of threat sources and successful cybersecurity attacks, organizations find themselves in a tricky spot if they wish to survive cyberspace. Oftentimes, the adversaries are not the challenge; the obstacle is the organization’s culture. Just like culture influences who we are as a people, culture influences the cybersecurity tone of an organization. Every organization has its own unique fit and feel.

The purpose of every security team is to provide confidentiality, integrity and availability of the systems in the organization. We call it “CIA Triad” for short. Of those three elements, integrity is a key element for most compliance and regulations. Some organizations have realized this and decided to implement File Integrity Monitoring (FIM). But many of them are doing so only to meet compliance requirements such as PCI DSS and ISO 27001.

Have you ever worked with a company that operates as “close to broken” as reasonably possible? Companies that follow that mindset usually do not have the most robust security practice, and they certainly will walk very close to the edge of compliance. Even if you don’t work in such a dysfunctional enterprise as described above, many companies still do not appreciate the interconnection of security and compliance.

We see the word “cyber” everywhere today. It’s included in all the hashtags, events names and even in hand sanitizer available for purchase at Toys ‘R Us: Cyber Clean (72% ethanol alcohol, with aloe.) With the market booming and the buzzword exploding, many of us still don’t understand what this vague word means.

Business Email Compromise (BEC) scammers, who have made rich returns in recent years tricking organisations into transferring funds into their accounts, have found a new tactic which attempts to swindle Wall Street firms out of significantly larger amounts of money. According to a newly published-report by Agari, scammers are seeking to defraud Wall Street businesses and their customers out of US $809,000 on average per incident.

As Marcus Hutchins was on his way home to the UK after attending Def Con and Black Hat in Las Vegas, NV, the FBI arrested him. This event sparked immediate internet outcry, especially among the cybersecurity community, as Hutchins was better known as MalwareTech and had just made cybersecurity fame by stopping the WannaCry ransomware outbreak a few months prior. So, why did the FBI arrest a newly famous cybersecurity expert?

Ransomware today is a billion-dollar industry. It’s crippled industries like healthcare. In 2017, for instance, WannaCry brought much of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service to its knees using the EternalBlue exploit. It was just a few weeks later when the NotPetya ransomware strain leveraged that same vulnerability to attack lots of industries.

Have you ever noticed how closely your role as the CISO of your organisation resembles that of the Wizard from “The Wizard of Oz?” As the Wizard, you are expected to be all-knowing, all-seeing and all-powerful. Your role is to keep everyone safe from the evils of the world while frantically pulling levers, pressing buttons and turning dials behind the curtain.

Misconfigurations remain one of the most common risks in the technology world. Simply telling organisations to “fix” this problem, however, is not as easy as it might first seem because there’s a myriad of technologies at play in modern infrastructure deployments. All of this results in a complicated mix of hardening approaches for each system. What is key, then, is to identify where hardening is required and then consider the methodology for each area.

I subscribe to a newsletter from Gary Burnison, CEO of Korn Ferry. His messages address a wide variety of career and personal issues in a thoughtful and educational manner. A recent Special Edition message was titled Exceeding Potential. It specifically addressed how opportunities present themselves and how to view and leverage them. He closed his message with this statement: It’s true that leaders are in the “what,” “how,” and the “when” business.