Vulnerability management (VM) is an essential process through which organizations can reduce risk in their environments. But myths and misconceptions surrounding VM abound. For instance, organizations commonly approach vulnerability management in the same way as they do patch management. Others are guilty of believing that all attacks rely on vulnerabilities, while others still are under the false impression that all software patches will work without a hitch.

European police have arrested six people as part of an investigation into a theft which saw €24 million (US $27 million) stolen from users of cryptocurrency exchange. In a press release, Europol described how five men and one woman were simultaneously arrested on Tuesday morning at the homes of the suspects in Charlcombe, Lower Weston and Staverton (UK) and Amsterdam and Rotterdam (the Netherlands).

In the attacker’s world, all vulnerabilities and potential exploits work toward the hacker’s advantage — not yours, not mine. This includes WordPress hacks. While living back east (over a decade ago), I was friends with several small business owners. One weekend morning, the owner of the local photography studio called me at 7 am and said: “I think I’ve been hacked.” I could hear the soft clicking of a keyboard in the background.

We’ve previously discussed best practices for securing Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services, but this time we are going to turn our attention to Google Cloud Platform. Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is growing at an impressive 83 percent year over year, but generally receives less focus than AWS and Azure. We can use some of our best practice cloud security knowledge to outline some fundamental steps for keeping Google Cloud Platform secure.

Normally, when you hear about stocks dropping, it’s due to some scandal or crisis. Market watchers will tell you that a range of elements can affect the value of a publicly traded company and cause stock prices to rise or fall. Consumer confidence is a major factor that influences a company’s reputation and perceived value. What does that have to do with data breaches? A lot more than you might think.

The recent Vectra 2019 Spotlight Report on Healthcare indicates that the proliferation of healthcare internet-of-things (IoT) devices, along with a lack of network segmentation, insufficient access controls and reliance on legacy systems, has created an increasing attack surface that can be exploited by cyber criminals determined to steal personally identifiable information (PII) and protected health information (PHI) in addition to disrupt healthcare delivery processes.

The purpose of this series of blogs is to guide you on your journey up the Vulnerability Management Mountain (VMM). Like climbing a mountain, there is a lot of planning and work required, but when you get to the top, the view is amazing and well worth the journey. Your progress will depend on your funding and priorities, but climbing at a quick steady pace will help secure your environment.

You can’t fix the flaws you don’t know about – and the clearer your sense of your organization’s overall security posture, the better equipped you are to improve it. Vulnerability assessments are a core requirement for IT security, and conducting them on a regular basis can help you stay one step ahead of the bad guys.

Industrial Control Systems (ICS) include Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, Distributed Control Systems (DCS) and other control system configurations such as Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC). They are typically used in industries such as electric, water, oil and natural gas, transportation, chemical, pharmaceutical and manufacturing (e.g., automotive, aerospace). These control systems are vital to the operation of U.S.

Once upon a time, endpoint security was just a hall monitor. It watched for known bad files identified with a simple signature and sent you an alert when the file was blocked. To be safe, it would scan every machine daily, an intrusive activity that slowed down machines and sped up the heart rates of affected users and hapless analysts at help desks.