Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

Top tips is a weekly column where we highlight what’s trending in the tech world and share ways to stay ahead. This week, as the holiday season rolls in and many of us finally take that much-needed break, let’s talk about something equally important: Stepping away from work safely. The holidays are all about resting–logging off and soaking in all the merry feelings. But to truly switch into that much-needed DND mode, it helps to secure your devices before you head out for the holidays.

Data is not just a strategic asset. It’s the lifeblood of your organization. Losing access to any strategic asset can threaten an organization’s viability; without plants and equipment, manufacturers would find it difficult to succeed, and service providers can’t operate without brand recognition. Similarly, without data, your organization could be left in a state of complete and utter paralysis, unable to function or recover.

For decades, enterprise security strategy revolved around a simple assumption: if you could build a strong enough perimeter around your network, everything inside would remain safe. Firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, and VPNs became the bedrock of corporate defenses. The perimeter was the castle wall, and sensitive data lived safely inside.

During routine threat research and monitoring of Chinese-language underground distribution channels, our team identified a malicious RAR archive. Specifically, this archive abuses a critical WinRAR directory traversal vulnerability to achieve arbitrary file write and persistence on Windows systems. To accomplish this, the archive leverages a combination of NTFS Alternate Data Streams (ADS) and directory traversal logic.

“Super-app” WeChat offers a wealth of functionality—from instant messaging, text and voice messaging, and video calls to mobile payments, ride booking, ordering food deliveries, paying bills and even accessing government services. Provided by Chinese technology conglomerate Tencent, WeChat has become deeply integrated into daily life in China and usage has been spreading globally. The app now boasts over 1.4 billion active users (24.8% of total internet users).

Today, anyone can find a picture of absolutely anybody and it is also not difficult to find a sample of their voice. By combining these it is shockingly easy to create a realistic AI deepfake video of that person. The video may not be perfect, and an experienced AI deepfake enthusiast might be able to see signs of it not being real, but it will be good enough to fool 99% of people. Cybercriminals have been creating and using AI-enabled deepfake technologies since early 2024 to socially engineer people.

Every organization operates on a foundation of identity. Whether it’s a person logging into an app, an API connecting to a service, or a container spinning up in the cloud, every interaction begins with authentication. But here’s the shift most organizations are only starting to catch up to: machines now outnumber people by more than 80 to 1. These workloads and devices all depend on digital certificates to prove who they are. Those certificates are their identities.

Modernization rarely begins without a catalyst. For organizations managing machine identities, the CA/B Forum mandate is driving a wave of change—transforming compliance pressure into momentum for lasting modernization. For more than a decade, organizations have recognized that their machine identity operations are fragile. Manual renewals, siloed ownership, and spreadsheet-driven workflows were never built for the speed and scale of modern digital business.

If you look at the headlines, the story is about Artificial Intelligence. But if you look at the architecture, the story is about APIs. The reality of modern tech is simple: You can’t have AI security without API security. As we move rapidly from simple chatbots to autonomous agents, the way we secure our infrastructure must evolve. That is why we are thrilled to announce the release of the 4th Edition of AI & API Security For Dummies, Salt Security Special Edition.

Looking back at 2025, two mega-trends from the past have continued: First, data breaches remained a constant and continued to trend upward; and second, there was once again a headline disaster no one anticipated. The first point needs no elaboration; data breaches are like air pollution—an accepted nuisance that only occasionally becomes so severe that we wonder why we live like this. For the second point, I gesture toward the major incidents of recent years. MoveIt. Crowdstrike. Snowflake.