Attacks on manufacturing companies up 105 percent
The manufacturing and industrial sectors have seen a dramatic rise in cyberattacks, accounting for 41 percent of cyber incidents in the first half of 2024, an increase of 105 percent.
A new threat intelligence report from Ontinue also highlights a rise in state-sponsored campaigns from China increasingly focused on information control and leveraging zero-day exploits, further complicating attribution and escalating the global threat landscape.
The role of AI in securing identity [Q&A]
Identities are probably the biggest attack surface for organizations in today's world as employees rely more on systems and apps to do their jobs.
Mapping identity and access data from the large, disparate, and often disconnected, mix of on-premise and cloud systems that enterprises use is a major challenge.
Stealth mode browser helps spot sneaky phishing attempts
A new zero-trust stealth mode browser is being launched by SlashNext, designed to see through obfuscation techniques commonly used by threat actors, and deliver enhanced protection against phishing and malware.
In recent years, well-intentioned companies offering free services such as CAPTCHA solutions and content delivery networks have inadvertently aided threat actors. For example, Cloudflare's Turnstile Services and similar CAPTCHA solutions are commonly exploited as obfuscation techniques. CAPTCHAs are used to block the crawlers employed by security services from accessing and analyzing phishing sites.
What's needed for SBOM success? [Q&A]
Enterprises are increasingly looking to software bills of materials (SBOM) to understand the components inside the tech products they use in order to secure their software supply chain.
But do SBOMs really provide value? And how can they be used more effectively? We talked to Varun Badhwar, CEO and co-founder of Endor Labs, to find out the keys to using SBOMs successfully.
Starting them young -- KnowBe4 releases free children's cybersecurity kit
In an increasingly digital world, youngsters are just as a risk as the rest of us -- perhaps more so -- which means cybersecurity education for children is crucial.
Security awareness training company KnowBe4 has released its Children's Interactive Cybersecurity Activity Kit, featuring an AI safety video, a password video game, a cybersecurity activity book, and middle school lesson plans.
Vanta launches new tools to fight third-party risk
Trust management platform Vanta is launching new tools to help businesses understand their risk posture, particularly with regard to third-parties.
Report Center provides a real-time view into the state of a business' security and compliance program. It can automatically collect and visualize data across the entire security program, including risk management, vendors, compliance, personnel and trust.
Enterprises take cautious approach to security spending
Nearly two-thirds of CISOs report increasing budgets this year, with average growth rising from six percent in 2023 to eight percent this year, but this is only about half of growth rates in 2021 (16 percent) and 2022 (17 percent).
A study from IANS Research and Artico Search shows that a quarter of CISOs are experiencing flat budgets while 12 percent face declines.
UK public worried about over reliance on IT following CrowdStrike problems
Following the July 2024 CrowdStrike IT outages, over 78 percent of people in the UK now worry about the heavy reliance of global organizations on IT systems and software providers.
A new survey of 2,000 UK adults by One Poll for Nineteen Group, organizers of the International Cyber Expo shows that 44 percent of respondents were in some way impacted by the outages. 18 percent were affected themselves and 26 percent knew someone who was.
Bitdefender launches new protection solution for YouTubers
Attacks on content creators and online influencers have surged alongside the growing accessibility of deepfake technologies, posing a significant threat.
To combat these threats Bitdefender is launching a new Security for Creators package that safeguards content channels and social media accounts from takeovers and supports Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS.
How IT leaders can address online privacy risks [Q&A]
Enterprises are facing a rapidly changing privacy landscape, in which some laws contradict each other, while struggling to reduce costs and gain visibility into their privacy risks.
Indeed there’s been a recent increase in lawsuits against companies for online privacy violations that is putting significant strain on C-level executives and they're looking to their IT leaders to address all of this risk with technology.
Number of active ransomware groups increases over 50 percent
A new report from dark web intelligence specialist Searchlight Cyber shows a 56 percent increase in the number of active ransomware groups this year compared to the first half of 2023, reflecting a diversification of the ransomware landscape.
LockBit has retained its top position despite the disruption caused by Operation Cronos, though its number of listed victims has fallen compared to H1 2023.
Average cost of industrial data breaches soars
In 2024, the average cost of a data breach skyrocketed to $4.88 million, up from $4.45 million in 2023, showing a 10 percent spike and the highest increase since the pandemic.
Some industries though have seen even bigger increases. Data from a Stocklytics survey of 604 organizations across 17 industries and in 16 countries between March 2023 and February 2024 shows the industrial sector has seen the biggest data breach cost growth in the past year.
Switching broadband in the UK is about to get easier
Changing your broadband service provider has always been a hassle. Usually it takes around 10 days, not to mention that you have to put up with phone calls and emails from your old supplier offering you better deals and pleading with you not to go.
For people in the UK, however, things are about to get a whole lot simpler. The One Touch Switching Company (TOTSCo) is a non-profit organization that has set up a messaging platform called the TOTSCo Hub.
The future of data analytics in business intelligence [Q&A]
In a little more than a decade, data analytics has been through several big transformations. First, it became digitized. Second, we witnessed the emergence of 'big data' analytics, driven partly by digitization and partly by massively improved storage and processing capabilities.
Finally, in the last couple of years, analytics has been transformed once again by emerging generative AI models that can analyze data at a previously unseen scale and speed.
Vulnerabilities surge by 43 percent over 2023
Published vulnerabilities have increased by 43 percent compared to H1 2023, with 23,668 vulnerabilities reported in H1 2024 according to a new report from Forescout.
The average number of new CVEs per day is 111 or 3,381 per month, and 20 percent of exploited vulnerabilities affected VPN and network infrastructure.
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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