The C-suite conundrum: are senior executives the Achilles' heel of cybersecurity?
In today's digital landscape, an organisation's C-suite and senior executives hold the most valuable corporate data and sign-off authorities, representing the highest potential risk over email. Whether it's inbound spear phishing attacks or outbound mistakes resulting in a damaging data breach, the C-suite are vulnerable.
But what do cybercriminals want from these individuals, are breaches always a result of external actors, and what can organisations do to protect their top decision-makers?
2024 Paris Olympics -- cybersecurity risks and top tips to keep data safe [Q&A]
In recent years, mobile devices have taken center stage and we've become mobile-first users, where mobile devices are our first choice for how we communicate, navigate, work, bank, take photos, shop and stay informed about the world around us. Our increased reliance on mobile phones is not without its risks.
According to Zimperium's Global Mobile Threat Report 2023, 43 percent of all compromised devices were fully exploited (not jailbroken or rooted), an increase of 187 percent year-over-year, a shocking number.
Apps under attack as cybercriminals target changing use patterns
The frequency of application attacks is rising as cybercriminals continue to prey on the increasing reliance on web, mobile and desktop apps, according to a new report.
Digital.ai's 2024 Application Security Threat Report looks at data about threats identified from monitoring applications under active protection. The likelihood of an app being attacked rose eight percent year-on-year, with gaming apps and financial services apps facing the highest risk of attack at 76 percent and 67 percent respectively.
Cybercriminals get faster at exploiting new vulnerabilities
A new report from Fortinet shows that the second half of 2023 saw attackers increase the speed with which they capitalized on newly publicized vulnerabilities.
Attacks were carried out 43 percent faster than 1H 2023, starting on average 4.76 days after new exploits were publicly disclosed.
Number of ransomware victims up 20 percent in first quarter of 2024
A new report shows a 20 percent year-on-year increase in the number of ransomware victims, along with major shifts in the behavioral patterns of ransomware groups.
The Q1 2024 ransomware report, from the GuidePoint Security Research and Intelligence Team (GRIT), finds the number of active ransomware groups more than doubled, increasing 55 percent from 29 distinct groups in Q1 2023 to 45 distinct groups in Q1 2024.
Cybercriminals take aim at ERP apps
Many enterprises rely on some sort of ERP application for their business operations and decision making. The vast majority of large organizations use ERP applications from leading vendors like SAP and Oracle.
New research from threat data and intelligence leader Flashpoint and ERP cybersecurity and compliance leader Onapsis reveals evidence that SAP business-critical applications are increasingly in the sights of and valuable for cybercriminals.
Generation Z is becoming generation fraud
Members of generation Z -- those born in the mid to late 1990s -- are more susceptible to fraud than other age groups and are also committing it at a higher rate.
The latest Digital Trust and Safety Index, released today by Sift, shows that 33 percent of Gen Z survey respondents know someone who has, or have personally, participated in payment fraud, compared to only 10 percent of Baby Boomers.
Phishing attacks up 40 percent in 2023
Kaspersky's annual spam and phishing report, released today, shows its anti-phishing system thwarted over 709 million attempts to access phishing and scam websites in 2023 -- a 40 percent increase over 2022.
There's also been a surge in attacks spread via messaging platforms, including 62,127 phishing attempts on Telegram -- a 22 percent increase from the year before. AI platforms, social media services, and cryptocurrency exchanges are the other most-exploited channels.
Cybercriminals use identities to target enterprises
A new report from IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence highlights an emerging global identity crisis as cybercriminals double down on exploiting user identities to compromise enterprises worldwide.
The 2024 X-Force Threat Intelligence Index report records a 71 percent spike in cyberattacks caused by exploiting identity as using valid accounts has become the path of least resistance for cybercriminals, with billions of compromised credentials accessible on the Dark Web.
Ransomware declined in January -- but don't celebrate just yet
The latest ransomware report from GuidePoint Security shows a decline in activity in January compared to the final quarter of last year, with a drop in the total number of posted victims by 33 percent and 60 percent relative to December and November 2023.
However, this is consistent with the trends of January of 2022 and 2023, both of which also followed heightened Q4 activity from the previous year.
Cybercrime tactics evolve to embrace AI and online ads
A new report from BlueVoyant looks at the new risks organisations face from outside the traditional IT perimeters.
In particular, cybercriminals are using AI to create more effective phishing campaigns, and employing online adverts to lure victims to malicious websites.
Companies step up investment in ransomware protection
In the wake of the MOVEit vulnerability, which affected an estimated 40 million people around the world, businesses are stepping up their investment in ransomware protection.
A new study carried out by Censuswide for Veeam Software surveyed 100 directors of UK companies with over 500 employees who had suffered a ransomware attack in the past 18 months and finds 24 percent report they are significantly more anxious about ransomware attacks as a direct result of the MOVEit breach.
Adware activity doubles in Q3
Adware doubled globally from July through September 2023 compared to the previous quarter, according to the Q3 Threat Report from Avast.
A new strain of mobile adware dubbed 'Invisible Adware' has already gathered over two million downloads in the Google Play Store. These applications display advertisements while the device screen is off, gaining revenue through fake clicks and views. This is not only contributing to ad fraud but can also impact battery life and potentially install dangerous software without the user’s knowledge.
New non-profit seeks to get justice for cybercrime victims
Internet and cyber crimes cause financial loss and have emotional impact for people around the world. Now though a new non-profit organization has been formed to pursue justice for victims of these crimes.
Intelligence for Good aims to make the internet a safer place for everyone, and to ensure that cybercriminals are not only brought to justice but fear the consequences of scamming innocent people.
The blurring lines between data protection and security [Q&A]
The threat landscape has evolved a lot over the past few years as cybercriminals become more and more sophisticated. This has forced change within the industry and blurred the lines between the previous separate data protection and security strategies.
We spoke to Jason Gerrard, senior director of international systems engineering at Commvault, to find out more about why this is happening and what it means for the future of the data protection and cybersecurity industries.
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