Welcome to the Threat Context Monthly blog series where we provide a comprehensive roundup of the most relevant cybersecurity news and threat information from KrakenLabs, Outpost24’s cyber threat intelligence team. Here’s what you need to know from November.

Are you worried about your personal information leaking online? Worried your email has breached online or leaked on the dark web? Unsure if you’re passwords are safe? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Fortunately, encryption is our friend. It is an advanced technology that prevents hackers from stealing our sensitive information, protects us from data breaches, and ensures businesses can comply with data protection laws.

Command injection is a vulnerability still very prevalent in web applications despite being less famous than its cousins SQL injection or Code injection. If you’re familiar with other injection vulnerabilities, you’ll recognize the common principle: untrusted user input is not properly validated, leading to the execution of arbitrary system commands. This flaw occurs when unvalidated input is passed to system-level functions. So how prominent is command injection actually?

Even though cybersecurity is always changing, phishing attacks are still a threat that is getting worse. The goal of these attacks is to get people to give up private data like passwords, financial information, or company secrets by using social engineering tricks. As technology has improved, phishing schemes have grown more complex in 2024. They now use convincing methods to target both people and businesses. According to new studies, 91% of cyberattacks start with a phishing email.

Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a cryptographic protocol designed to provide secure communication between web browsers and servers. Many IP-based protocols such as HTTPS, SMTP, POP3, and FTP support TLS. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), on the other hand, is a protocol used to establish an encrypted link between web browsers and servers. It uses symmetric cryptography to encrypt the data transmitted. Encryption keys are based on shared secret negotiation at the beginning of any communication session.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union and the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) represent landmark regulations designed to protect consumer data privacy. While GDPR became enforceable in May 2018, CPRA came into effect in January 2023, building on its predecessor, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Both laws aim to empower individuals with greater control over their personal data while imposing rigorous obligations on businesses.