Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

It’s 2023, and security cap-ex spending is at an all-time high and forecast to keep growing. Thanks to frameworks like MITRE ATT&CK, we also know more about how threat actors function than ever. There is no shortage of security solutions either – the average organisation uses around 60 within its environment. But cyber attacks still do hundreds of billions of dollars of damage annually. So, what’s going wrong? The answer has three parts. Firstly, cybercrime has gotten a lot easier.

As organizations respond to an ever-evolving set of security threats, network teams are scrambling to find new ways to keep up with numerous standards and regulations to dodge their next compliance audit violation. Can this nightmare be avoided? Yes, and it’s not as complex as one might think if you take a “compliance first” approach.

In recognizing the growing impact of third-party risks on operational resilience, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) has established new regulatory requirements in the areas of third-party risk management and outsourcing. The details were published in a Supervisory Statement that has been put into effect since March 2022.

We are thrilled to announce the full support of wildcard and multi-hostname application definitions in Cloudflare Access. Until now, Access had limitations that restricted it to a single hostname or a limited set of wildcards. Before diving into these new features let’s review Cloudflare Access and its previous limitations around application definition.

The boom of information technology opened an entirely new world of identities and opportunities. Most users’ journies in the cyber world started with the creation of an email address. That email address, which served as an online identity, eased communication between two users, breaking location barriers. Fast-forward to today: A user can create as many accounts as they want across different platforms on the internet, using a wide range of devices such as tablets, mobile phones, and laptops.

The ephemeral nature of the cloud has made compliance and security a greater challenge for organizations. The volume of data that companies must collect and retain from their cloud services, depending on their industry, is ballooning fast. According to ESG, 71% of companies believe their observability data (logs, metrics and traces) is growing at a concerning rate. Even so, outcomes are getting worse, not better. Six out of 10 teams are unable to prevent issues before customers are impacted.

When 921 password attacks occur per second, it’s time to treat everyday employees’ credentials like the true operational risk they are. Today’s attackers assign a level of value to employees’ passwords they once reserved for privileged users’ credentials. Why? Workers now have a shocking amount of access to sensitive resources. I’ll elaborate… but through the perspective of a chief information officer kept up at night by risks.

Cyber attacks are targeted at significant organizations, and this week is an excellent reminder that medical facilities aren't safe. Along with AT&T and Minneapolis Schools, three different medical establishments were hit and suffered from a loss of information in one way or another. Zoll, a Medical device and technologies company suffered staggering losses, while Cerebral gave up mental health information and Lawrence General Hospital lost HIPAA-protected information.

Lawrence General Hospital is a private facility located in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The hospital is a non-profit organization and offers patients throughout the surrounding area a variety of services. A total of 189 beds are contained within the facility, and it maintains a staff of approximately 2,000 people while earning about $281 million in annual revenue. This large-scale hospital recently suffered from a serious cyber attack that exposed many of its patients.

Cybercriminals target organizations to steal sensitive data, disrupt operations, or cause damage to organizations. But a well-designed security operations center (SOC) helps prevent these attacks from ever occurring. SOC managers detect and respond to cyber security threats to ensure your organization operates securely. They manage the team, develop policies and procedures, and keep the CISO informed about security operations. Let’s take a look at the SOC manager role.