Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

The U.S. Department of Justice Announces Takedown of the Cyclops Blink Botnet

Today, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced further actions to disrupt Cyclops Blink, a sophisticated state-sponsored botnet that affected network devices from multiple vendors, including a limited number (less than 1%) of WatchGuard firewall appliances.

Hybrid Work Is Only Viable with Unified Cybersecurity

It should be no surprise that both knowledge workers and the companies that employ them want to benefit from hybrid work environments. After two years of a new remote workplace routine, businesses must provide workplace flexibility to compete for the best talent, allowing employees the option of working from a corporate office or elsewhere.

How to improve cybersecurity in the healthcare sector

Over the last two years, the healthcare sector has been the number 1 target for hackers who have attempted to attack health centers or even the health department of an entire country. The industry faces threats such as ransomware that blocks the whole healthcare system, deceptive techniques such as phishing, or breaches of sensitive data.

What role does blockchain play in cyberattacks and cybersecurity?

Most company decision-making executives know how blockchain technology works but few have adopted it within their organization at this stage. This is the conclusion drawn by the latest Pulse survey conducted on 145 senior IT managers from companies on three continents. It shows that only 8% have experienced this technology, compared to 53% who know how it works but are yet to use it.

10 Cybersecurity Spring Cleaning Tips

Spring is a good time to do some cleaning; put away winter clothes and ski gear, open windows and let spring breezes clear out the dust that gathered through the winter. But it’s also a good time for IT and cybersecurity teams to “spring clean” their security postures as well. Below we share 10 quick and easy ways to “clean up” your cybersecurity practices and adapt to the security threats we face daily.

Companies that impose MFA requirement on all customers

April 2020, Zoom was booming. The start of the COVID pandemic forced employees to work from home, meetings in person migrated to a videoconferencing model, and Zoom was the preferred tool. The massive and fast growth led into an opportunity for attackers. A vulnerability in Zoom could allow an attacker to steal a user’s Windows credentials, as long as the target user would click on a link provided through a Zoom session. The question was then how to get into those private sessions.

We need to bear in mind 5 key lessons when implementing a zero-trust model:

In today's ecosystems, a single enterprise can operate multiple internal networks, remote offices with their own local infrastructure, remote and/or mobile individuals and Cloud services. According to the study published by NIST, this level of complexity is too much for legacy network security models that are based on the location of the company infrastructure and there isn’t a single, easily identifiable perimeter for all elements.

How are IT leaders approaching threat hunting?

Implementing robust defense strategies helps to mitigate the risk of cyberthreats in the early stages of an attack. Threat hunting, as part of this strategy, enables organizations to find those unknown threats that manage to bypass technology-based controls by detecting abnormal behaviors. With a number of challenges associated with executing a defense approach, how are IT leaders approaching this problem? Pulse and WatchGuard surveyed 100 IT leaders to find out.

Important Detection and Remediation Actions for Cyclops Blink State-Sponsored Botnet

Working closely with the FBI, CISA, DOJ, and UK NCSC1, WatchGuard has investigated and developed a remediation for Cyclops Blink, a sophisticated state-sponsored botnet, that may have affected a limited number of WatchGuard firewall appliances. WatchGuard customers and partners can eliminate the potential threat posed by malicious activity from the botnet by immediately enacting WatchGuard’s 4-Step Cyclops Blink Diagnosis and Remediation Plan.

IABs and RaaS

There are tens of thousands of clandestine pages and forums on the dark web that are not indexed by search engines, so they remain hidden unless the user knows the address in advance. This includes discussion forums where techniques or tools are shared with which cyberattacks can then be launched, but these sites also serve as a black market for buying and selling illicitly obtained data.