Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

Malware, as one of many cyber threats, is not some random annoyance. Yet, there is nothing polite about it. It bypasses your firewall and establishes itself in your system. Then, escalated privileges are granted, and processes are killed. If you are particularly unlucky, malware encrypts your core and sticks around like a parasite in the CI/CD. So, it’s not about chaos but orchestration. That means you’re forgetting about something.

APIs run the show today. Whether it’s a mobile app fetching user data, a SaaS platform integrating with Stripe, or a microservice coordinating with ten others, APIs are the glue and the backbone. This is something that attackers are notoriously aware of. The challenge? Most security tooling still operates on a page-view and form-based model. It can’t view the business logic of API calls, like knowing who is supposed to do what on what object and in what context.

Wireless networks have traditionally been a weak point in corporate cybersecurity. However, what was once a localized risk, limited to an office space, has now evolved into a more sophisticated threat, making detection more difficult.

Picture this: You’re in the middle of dinner with friends when your work phone buzzes. It’s the fraud supervisor with alarming news: Low-value transactions are suddenly flooding your servers. Your gut tightens as you hastily excuse yourself and head straight to the office to help secure your customers’ accounts against what turns out to be a Bank Identification Number (BIN) attack.

A threat actor once again proved the importance of enforcing strict password management practices by torpedoing a 158-year-old UK transportation company by hacking a password and then effectively shutting it down with ransomware. According to published reports, the threat group Akira gained access to KNP's system in June when it was able to determine a single employee's password. Once access was gained, Akira injected ransomware, which shut down the network and encrypted access to its files and backups.

Top tips is a weekly column where we highlight what’s trending in the tech world and list ways to explore these trends. This week, we will explore ways on how to strengthen any company's first line of defense against cyberattacks. No matter how advanced your cybersecurity tools are, they’re only as strong as the people using them. Phishing scams, social engineering, and weak passwords are threats that often succeed not because systems fail but because humans do.

The frontlines of cybersecurity have long included the financial services sector, but today’s battlefield is increasingly asymmetric. Threat actors aren’t just going after the big-name banks with sprawling infrastructure and billion-dollar balance sheets. They’re targeting credit unions, wealth management firms, fintech startups, and insurance providers with the same determination and ferocity. What do these entities have that cybercriminals want? Plenty.