A few years ago, I worked alongside some oil commodity traders. Environmental concerns aside, I never realized how many parts were required to get the oil out of the ground, not to mention everything else that finally resulted in the production of refined products that surround our lives. As a cybersecurity professional, I was more interested in how all the pipelines were intertwined and, of course, protected.
Historically, one difference between a company victimized by ransomware and those hit with a hacking intrusion that resulted in stolen data was that in a ransomware attack, the data wasn’t actually stolen, but was encrypted so that the victim would have to pay a ransom to regain access. Unlike traditional data thefts, ransomware—the theory went—didn’t really steal data. It encrypted it so that the authorized users couldn’t get to it unless a ransom was paid.
Network security has changed a lot over the years, it had to. From wide open infrastructures to tightly controlled environments, the standard practices of network security have grown more and more sophisticated. This post will take us back in time to look at the journey that a typical network has been on over the past 15+ years. From a wide open, “chewy” network, all the way to zero trust networking. Let’s get started.
It’s been a mixed year for the financial services sector. Some companies have seen increased demand for their services, while others have struggled to deal with the downturn in mortgage deals and reduced consumer spending.
Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is a communication protocol developed by Microsoft, which provides a user with a graphical interface to connect to another computer over a network connection[1]. Once connected, the remote user will be able to communicate with the machine using their input devices, keyboard and mouse, and to have their screen displaying the output of their actions – as if they were physically connected. Simply put, gaining access to your crown jewels.
The U.S Government released on January 5, 2021, a cybersecurity plan to secure the nation’s maritime sector against cybersecurity threats that could endanger national security.
2020 provided a perfect storm for cybercriminals to extort record amounts from vulnerable businesses. Recent reporting has identified life sciences companies as being particularly attractive to target as they have valuable intellectual property information and have enough funding to pay high ransom demands. The pharmaceutical industry is currently at the top of the most targeted industries for such attacks.
Identified as targeting cryptocurrency users through nefarious cross-platform applications, a remote access trojan (RAT) dubbed 'ElectroRAT' has recently been in the headlines following an investigation into the threat by researchers at Intezer.
Almost exactly a year ago, cybersecurity professionals were locked in a heated debate about insurance. While some were keen to point out that the future of the industry would need to include some form of insurance market, others argued that cyber insurance would never be worth the premiums, especially given the inherently volatile nature of cybersecurity. The pandemic has changed all of that.
