Articles about Security

Cybersecurity Awareness Month does precisely what its name suggests. It serves as a reminder of the sector's importance for businesses and consumers across the globe.  

As we look back on yet another year where threats have continued to evolve, and the task at hand seems greater than ever -- it's important to take cognizance of the cyber-dangers out there and recognize our roles in the fight against 'hackers'. 

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It’s the 20th anniversary of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and it’s safe to say a lot has changed in the cybersecurity industry since then. For example, just over the last year, we have seen the meteoric rise of generative AI and the huge impact it is already having on the cybersecurity industry.

Aaron Kiemele, CISO at Jamf, argues that now with the rise of generative AI, the threat posed by techniques such as phishing has completely changed: "With the advancements in large language models for machine learning, such as ChatGPT, cybercriminals are leveraging AI to automate attacks, analyze vast amounts of data, and craft more effective phishing emails or malware to achieve their nefarious ends. We can no longer rely on bad spelling or sketchy formatting."

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The Meta-owned messaging app WhatsApp has joined the growing legions of apps and services to support passkeys.

Initially available to Android users, the passwordless authentication feature makes it possible to secure a WhatsApp account with face recognition, a fingerprint or a PIN. It is a security feature that is billed as not only offering greater protection than passwords, but also being faster to use.

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It can be frustrating to buy a new phone only to discover that there is an OS update to install before you can start using it. For iPhone users this could soon be a thing of the past thanks to an innovative new system developed by Apple.

The recently released iPhone 15 suffered with an overheating issue that was later fixed with a software update, putting the onus on owners of new devices to download and install the patch. But a new "proprietary pad-like device" will allow Apple Stores to install the latest software on handsets without the need to open the box.

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Microsoft now has a bug bounty program that aims to find issues in artificial intelligence. Specifically, the Microsoft AI Bounty Program is focused on tracking down vulnerabilities in the company’s own AI-powered "Bing experience". This catch-all term covers a surprising number of products and services.

Interestingly, with this bounty program Microsoft is only offering rewards for the discovery of vulnerabilities considered Critical or Important. Those that are deemed of Moderate or Low severity will go unrewarded.

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With the increasing reliance on APIs, detecting suspicious API traffic has become crucial to ensure the security and integrity of these interactions. Suspicious API traffic poses a huge threat to the overall system and its data, the traffic can indicate malicious intent such as unauthorized access attempts, data breaches, or even potential attacks targeting vulnerabilities in the API infrastructure.

API traffic refers to the data and requests that are transmitted between different applications or systems using APIs. This allows software programs to communicate and exchange information, enabling seamless integration and interaction between various platforms. API traffic also involves the transfer of data, such as requests for data retrieval or updates, between the client application and the server hosting the API. 

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The modern workforce is more distributed and dependent on devices than ever before. In this hybrid work environment, digital employee experiences are siloed. IT teams are on the hook to ensure end-user productivity despite strained financial resources and the IT talent war.

Despite their technical expertise, IT service teams are limited in their ability to be in multiple locations at once. Distributed workforces further cause significant blind spots and open up businesses to vulnerabilities hiding in the dark estate. That’s where hidden issues live, yet IT teams can’t see them. The potential for unknown risks is nothing new in IT. So why should businesses care about the dark estate, especially now when IT departments are already burdened by lengthy lists of service requests, putting out fires, and keeping up with security challenges?

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In the ever-evolving realm of the cloud, dwell times are now measured in moments, not days. Whereas Mandiant’s 2023 M-Trends report highlighted a global median dwell time of 16 days for on-premises environments, the Sysdig Threat Research Team (TRT) recently reported in their 2023 Global Cloud Threat Report that cloud dwell time is five minutes.

To better understand the stark difference between defenders' abilities to find attackers in the cloud and on-premises, I sat down with the Sysdig TRT to discuss their findings. They circled around four distinct, but closely related reasons.

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With the release of this month's security updates for Windows, Microsoft has brought to an end support for not only Windows Server 2012, but also Windows 11 21H2.

What this means for users of these versions of the operating system is that there will be no more updates of any sort made available -- and this means both security updates and non-security updates. For anyone who wants or needs to stick with Windows 2012, things could get expensive, but there are free upgrades available to those currently running Windows 11 21H2.

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For anyone running Windows 10 21H2 or Windows 10 22H2, Microsoft has a new cumulative update that fixes various issues with the operating system as well as introducing new features and options.

As is customary, Microsoft provides sparse details about the security issues the update addresses, but it does share information about the various other improvements included in the KB5031356 update.

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When CISOs think about cybersecurity for their companies, there are certain expectations. Password protection, firewalls, and continuously training employees on the latest phishing scams, to name a few. And to be sure, cyber risks like these are as relevant as ever. The persisting problem is, cybersecurity is like any defense contest: the burden (and therefore the disadvantage) is on the defender. You have to win every time, whereas an attacker only has to win once to cause major damage.

Frustratingly, cyber criminals have shown time and time again that they are actually quite gifted at creative approaches, thinking outside the box, and combining advanced tech with old school techniques. For instance, a suspicious-looking form letter email is easy to spot and delete. However, by purchasing even a small amount of personal data from the dark web, a smart criminal can craft a phishing email with just enough familiarity so that its target will most likely open it without hesitation. With enough patience and photoshopping, a malicious actor can send customers a message from their favorite store that leads them to a spoofed website solely created to steal their credit card information. Increasingly today, these attacks targeting customers are more prevalent.

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Threat actors are early adopters. Cyber defense is brimming with uncertainties, but one dynamic you can be confident about is that threat actors will leverage everything available to exploit a target. In 2023, this means the rise of artificial intelligence-enabled attacks, from AI-generated social engineering scripts to powerful automation designed to find and exploit vulnerabilities and spread laterally through systems and networks.

Security teams, therefore need to be prepared to meet the challenge of cloud scale threats on both a technical level and an organizational level. It requires anticipating threats that exist beyond technical vulnerabilities, including, for example, social engineering and DDoS. This is part of the challenge of modern cyber security -- the attack surface comprises not just the entirety of IT infrastructure, its endpoints, and all the data it uses and stores, but also its users. It is too large to be effectively managed manually.

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The third edition of Mastering Linux Security and Hardening is an updated, comprehensive introduction to implementing the latest Linux security measures, using the latest versions of Ubuntu and AlmaLinux.

In this new edition, you will learn how to set up a practice lab, create user accounts with appropriate privilege levels, protect sensitive data with permissions settings and encryption, and configure a firewall with the newest firewall technologies.

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As we approach the 20th anniversary of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, it's crucial to reflect on the progress made in patch management, a fundamental cybersecurity practice aimed at helping organizations mitigate the risk of unpatched vulnerabilities -- the primary gateway for attackers to breach organizational systems and deploy ransomware and other malware.

In 2003, patch management awareness was low, but it wasn't as critical to global cybersecurity as today because cybercrime was less developed. Automated exploits for known vulnerabilities and ransomware, which now monetizes attacks, hadn't emerged yet.

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Passwords are a blessing and a curse, serving to secure files, devices and more, while simultaneously being burdensome and, to some extent, offering a false sense of security. With the update that is rolling out to Windows 11, Microsoft is fully embracing the passwordless future the company so desires.

Microsoft points out that passwords are nowhere near as secure as people might think, citing the statistic of 4,000 password attacks every second as proof. The Windows 11 update introduces greater password free security thanks to Windows Hello and wider support for passkeys.

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