62 percent of organizations suffer unplanned downtime every month
Over half of organizations say they have suffered a data breach in the past two years, an increase from 49 percent in 2022 and 39 percent in 2021.
In addition, a new report from Splunk shows 62 percent of respondents report that their business-critical applications have suffered from unplanned downtime due to a cybersecurity incident on at least a monthly basis, an increase from 54 percent in 2022.
Understanding the business model of cybercrime
As businesses get bigger they begin to gain extra layers of management and start to behave in different ways. A new report from Trend Micro reveals that the same is true for cybercrime groups.
A typical large cybercrime organization allocates 80 percent of its operating expenses to wages, with the figure similarly high (78 percent) for smaller criminal organizations, according to the report.
Novel social engineering attacks surge by 135 percent driven by generative AI
New research from cybersecurity AI company Darktrace shows a 135 percent increase in social engineering attacks using sophisticated linguistic techniques, including increased text volume, punctuation, and sentence length, and with no links or attachments.
This trend suggests that generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, are enabling threat actors to craft sophisticated and targeted attacks at speed and at scale.
32 percent of remote workers use unapproved apps and software
Remote working poses a number of risks from an IT security point of view. A new report from Lookout finds that 32 percent of remote and hybrid workers use apps or software not approved by IT and 92 percent of remote employees perform work tasks on their personal tablet or smartphone devices.
Remote workers are also less likely to follow best practices for security. 90 percent access corporate networks from areas other than their home, with an average of five different locations -- introducing security risks as company data could be exposed across multiple networks not monitored by IT. 45 percent use the same password for work and personal accounts too.
Why cyber insurance policies may be in jeopardy [Q&A]
Cyber insurance has often been seen by business leaders as a monetary guarantee that even if hackers do break into their networks and steal their data, they can still escape financially unscathed.
Yet this premise was recently rocked after Lloyd's of London, the world's biggest insurance syndicate, redefined its policies to no longer cover for nation-state cyberattacks. There are other challenges facing the cyber insurance sector in the year ahead too.
Backups are for life, not just World Backup Day
Backups have been an essential part of IT since the days of paper tape and punched cards, but nobody ever said they were exciting.
Of all the things that now have a day devoted to them, backups probably deserve one more than most for being the unsung savior of many an information professional's career. On today's World Backup Day we've asked some experts to tell us their views on backups and why they are still vital.
Beyond the smoke and mirrors of zero trust security [Q&A]
Enterprises are faced with a barrage of new threats and entry points and as a result need to deploy, scale, enforce and maintain zero trust security policies to keep pace.
Access control needs to be at the core of any successful zero trust model but this too presents challenges. We spoke to Denny LeCompte, CEO of Portnox, to discover how organizations can overcome zero trust barriers.
71 percent of employees have sensitive work data on personal devices
Allowing people to use their own devices for work comes with risks. A new report from SlashNext shows that 43 percent of employees were found to have been the target of a work-related phishing attack on their personal devices.
When it comes to securing BYOD hardware, 90 percent of security leaders say that protecting employees' personal devices is a top priority, but only 63 percent say they definitely have the tools to do so adequately.
Shadow data is a top concern for security teams
Shadow data is named as the number one concern around protecting cloud data by 68 percent of data security professionals.
A new study from Laminar reveals that the number of respondents expressing concern over shadow data has increased to 93 percent compared to 82 percent the year before.
Reactive approach to cybersecurity is a problem for organizations
A new survey shows respondents feel a reactive approach to security is problematic for their organizations. 90 percent of them say they struggle with challenges when they react to cyber security problems as they arise.
The study, conducted by Forrester Consulting for WithSecure, shows most organizations currently approach cyber security on a reactive basis, with 60 percent of respondents saying they react to individual cyber security problems as they arise.
60 percent of organizations have had authentication breaches in the last year
Insecure authentication is a primary cause of cyber breaches and cumbersome login methods take an unacceptable toll on employees and business productivity, according to a new report.
The 2023 State of Passwordless Security Report, released by HYPR and Vanson Bourne, shows that 60 percent of organizations have reported authentication breaches over the last 12 months and that three out of the top four attack vectors are connected to authentication.
Smaller means safer as bigger businesses see more endpoint infections
Of businesses with between 21 and 100 protected endpoints, only five percent encountered a malware infection in 2022. For smaller firms with one to 20 endpoints, the rate is 6.4 percent, but as companies grow so do infections.
For businesses between 101 and -500 endpoints the rate rises to 58.7 percent and over 500 it's 85.8 percent. These findings are from a new report by OpenText Cybersecurity which looks at the latest threats and risks to the small and medium business (SMB) and consumer segments.
Phishing emails soar as messages bypass standard email security solutions
A new report shows that 2022 saw a 569 percent increase in malicious phishing emails and a 478 percent increase in credential phishing-related threat reports published.
The report from Cofense also looks at emails bypassing SEGs and hitting users' inboxes and highlights that delivery methods for carrying out phishing campaigns continue to keep up with the advancement of technology. Cofense has witnessed a continued blending of tactics to make detection and mitigation even more difficult for organizations.
API attacker activity up 400 percent in six months
The latest State of API Security Report from Salt Security shows a 400 percent increase in unique attackers in the last six months.
In addition, around 80 percent of attacks happened over authenticated APIs. Not surprisingly, nearly half (48 percent) of respondents now say that API security has become a C-level discussion within their organization.
Getting the most value out of your data [Q&A]
The past few years have seen a boom in digital transformation as enterprises have sought to modernize their operations to take advantage of a new, more flexible world of work.
But this change has often led to unwieldy data structures that are difficult to manage, which means that extracting value from the data is harder than it should be.
Ian's Bio
Ian spent almost 20 years working with computers before he discovered that writing about them was easier than fixing them. Since then he's written for a number of computer magazines and is a former editor of PC Utilities. Follow him on Mastodon
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