Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

Five worthy reads is a regular column on five noteworthy items we’ve discovered while researching trending and timeless topics. This week we are exploring the concept of supply chain cybersecurity in a time when there is a rising number of third-party cyberattacks.

Now that 2021 is proving to not be the fresh start many hoped for, it’s time to re-examine the security lessons learnt in 2020. As the transformational business challenges of the last 12 months demonstrated, security should always be high on the agenda no matter what your organisation size. After all, as we revealed in our 2021 annual cyber security industry report, hackers don’t care what size or type of business you are – only if you’re an easy target.

Port scanning is the critical element of any cyber risk assessment conducted under infrastructure security or network security domains. It helps to identify all the exposed services on a system or network. Presence of open ports doesn’t indicates importance from attack perspective only; they are equally vital from a defensive front.

A selection of this week’s more interesting vulnerability disclosures and cyber security news. For a daily selection see our twitter feed at #ionCube24. Have to say, this article topped my list of cool vulnerabilities this week, nay, a few months I think.

It’s been more than a month since the SolarWinds breach first started dominating security headlines, and we’re still learning new details about the attacks and the organizations affected. Even as the discussion quiets down, it’s easy to imagine we’ll still be looking back and analyzing the full effects of these incidents in much the same way we talk about other seminal breaches and security events from the past 20 years.

In today’s world, speed wins. Just take Amazon for example. You can place an order with the click of a button and have it delivered to your door in under twenty-four hours. Retailers that can’t compete with Amazon’s speed are falling behind. The same level of speed and efficiency is expected with technology. Companies are in a race to deliver new and innovative technology first. But aside from speed, companies are also concerned about the security of their software.

Most of the time, threat actors in the cybersecurity landscape don’t employ advanced techniques and tools to intrude and establish a foothold within networks. Often, they disguise malicious operations by mimicking the activities of legitimate users, leaving behind little to no footprint. Blending malicious actions with day-to-day IT activities helps attackers maintain a low profile and remain undetected for a longer period.

The question of cybersecurity certifications comes up very frequently on discussion boards. What is the best certificate to get? Is a college degree better for getting a cybersecurity role? What education or skills are needed for various cybersecurity roles? And many, many more. In this post, I'll try to clarify some of these questions and more.