Guarding against attacks targeting hybrid Active Directory environments [Q&A]
Active Directory (AD) is used by 90 percent of enterprises as the primary source of trust for identity and access. But it can also be a weak link, exploited in many modern cyberattacks.
We spoke to Ran Harel, senior director of product management at Semperis, to explore the challenges in securing a hybrid AD environment and how organizations can best defend this expanded attack surface.
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.
If businesses are to get a grip on their cybersecurity, they need to close the gender gap
Cybersecurity threats are growing at an alarming rate across the globe while at the same time, cybercriminals are becoming even more sophisticated in their methods of attacks. Meanwhile, the shortage of cybersecurity talent is making it difficult for organizations and industries to meet these constantly shifting security demands.
As such, the cybersecurity landscape has become increasingly challenging. In fact, cybercrime is expected to cost the world $10.5 trillion annually by 2025 but organizations are struggling to build the specialized skills required to manage these growing threats. According to ISACA’s latest State of Cybersecurity Report, 63 percent of enterprises have unfilled cybersecurity positions while labor shortages in the UK have become particularly acute. In fact, while there are currently about 339,000 cyber professionals in the UK (up 13 percent year-on-year), there is still a shortfall of 56,811 workers (up 70 percent year-on-year).
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.
Purple Team engagements uncover security weaknesses
Our threat researchers at Lares encounter a broad range of security flaws and vulnerabilities when we conduct Purple Team exercises on behalf of our clients. Over time, the same unforced errors seem to come up so often that we warn security teams to develop standardized practices to defend against them.
The Lares Adversarial Collaboration Unit assists clients with defensive collaboration engagements and Purple Team assessments, which combine offensive and defensive techniques to strengthen security protections. Red Teams emulate external or insider attackers, while Blue Teams serve as internal security defenders. Purple Teams assist both sides by aligning the defensive tactics of the Blue Team with the threats attempted by the Red Team.
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.
Microsoft fixes Azure BingBang bug that allowed Bing search hijacking and leaked private data
Microsoft has addressed a serious flaw in Azure Active Directory which was dubbed BingBang by the security researchers that discovered it.
The vulnerability not only made it possible to manipulate Bing search results, but also to access private data from Outlook, Office 365 and Teams. The issue stemmed from an Azure misconfiguration; it dates back to January this year, but Microsoft has only just plugged the hole.
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.
Agent-based vs. agentless approaches -- how to implement cloud security
Implementing your security approach will depend on how you can translate your approach from strategy into reality. As part of this, you will have to make decisions on what tools you use based on the functions that they cover, how they help you create and use data, and how they work. This latter part is important as all security professionals have their own preferences. One of the big debates here is whether you use agent-based or agentless tools.
Using security tools that rely on agents can be an issue for some security professionals, while others will swear by their agent-based tool of choice, and you would have to pry it from their hands. The challenge here is when you have a combination of complex environments to consider, faster software development goals to support, real-time security pressures to contend with, and more data than you know what to do with. So what approach should you choose?
HEAT attacks: A new spin on browser exploit techniques
It is no secret that the web browser is becoming an increasingly popular target for cybercriminals looking to compromise an endpoint to gain entry to a network. The increased business use of the browser (remote work) on networks that lack the perimeter security infrastructure of traditional campus networks has made them easier to exploit. In recent months, we have seen an increase in cyberattacks and data leaks caused by browser-related security incidents, including a data breach caused by a phishing attack on Dropbox that gained the hacker access to over 100 of the company’s code repositories in November, and December’s CircleCi breach resulting from an infection of information-stealing malware.
Highly Evasive Adaptive Threats, or HEAT attacks, are a new spin on existing browser exploit techniques that make them much more dangerous. These attacks exploit browsers by leveraging features and tools to bypass traditional security controls and then attack from within, including compromising credentials or deploying ransomware. Comprised of known tactics such as phishing messages, HTML smuggling and dynamic drive-by downloads, these attacks frequently target SaaS applications and other web-based tools that are critical to productivity.
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.
Microsoft Defender caught issuing false warnings about safe URLs
Microsoft has confirmed an issue with Defender which resulted in users being shown warnings about URLs that were entirely safe. The emails advised admins that "a potentially malicious URL click was detected", with affected users complaining that legitimate URLs, such as Zoom meeting links, were being flagged up as dangerous.
In addition to the false positives, the "View alerts" link included in the warning emails sent out to admins failed to provide any further information that could prove useful.
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