Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

Kansas State University (K-State) is below Tuttle Creek Lake in northeast Kansas. The university serves 20,000 students, employs a complex faculty of emeritus, postdocs, and graduates, and offers over 50 programs. On Tuesday (January 16th, 2024), K-State published a statement concerning the disruption of some of its services; hours later, a preliminary investigation determined the cause of the disruptions came from a cybersecurity event.

This week was slow in the cybersecurity breach world; a combined 775k records got exposed stemming from two health centers (Singing River Health and Harris Center for Mental Health and IDD) and a nationwide mortgage lender (Academy Mortgage Corporation); a communications security solution (Egress) released a risk report urging action of business leaders; and Kansas State University suffered widespread disruptions, potentially compromising the sensitive data of their students and faculty.

Ransomware poses a pervasive threat to businesses, with no foolproof method to completely ward it off. However, organizations can adopt practical measures to reduce their vulnerability and bounce back swiftly in the face of an attack. While all organizations are potential targets by ransomware threat groups, Trustwave SpiderLabs’ most recent threat intelligence report noted the manufacturing sector is the most impacted industry by ransomware.

The OWASP Mobile Application Security Testing Guide (MASTG) and the OWASP Mobile Application Security Verification Standard (MASVS) are two vital resources that have been instrumental in reshaping the landscape of mobile app security. Developed by cybersecurity experts, the MASTG is an elaborate manual that describes the technicalities for meeting the security requirements listed in the OWASP Mobile Application Security Verification Standard (MASVS).

According to Vanta’s State of Trust Report, 54% of businesses say that regulating AI would make them more comfortable investing in it. But with regulation still in flux, how can companies adopt AI safely and responsibly to minimize risk while accelerating innovation?

Your mobile apps are your business's face to the world. As an app creator or business owner, credibility is everything, and security is the cornerstone upon which it stands. Now, with the digital ecosystem being highly susceptible to breaches, even a single slip in security can shatter the trust your users have in your brand, tarnishing the hard-earned credibility of your business. This is why mobile app security is key to your business’s growth.

Avast researchers take a deep dive into the dangers of downloading pirated software and explain why small businesses should avoid this tempting practice.

In 2022, Twitter suffered a massive data breach, which exposed the personal data of 5.4 million caused by broken authentication. Threat actors exploited Twitter's API vulnerability to gain unauthorized access to users' sensitive personal data. The incident resulted in reputational loss and hefty fines from the regulatory body for failing to protect users' data. This shows that no organization, regardless of size, is immune to data breaches.

In my previous blog post, we saw how the growth of generative AI and Large Language Models has created a new set of challenges and threats to cybersecurity. However, it’s not just new issues that we need to be concerned about. The scope and capabilities of this technology and the volume of the components that it handles can exacerbate existing cybersecurity challenges. That’s because LLMs are deployed globally, and their impact is widespread.

In 2017, Equifax, a major American credit bureau, became a cautionary tale in the importance of robust cybersecurity practices. It overlooked critical vulnerabilities in its systems, failing to address a known security flaw in its Apache Struts web app framework. This oversight resulted in the data leak of 143 million customers, costing Equifax $1.38 billion in making breach compensations and upgrading its IT systems.