Security

The top three priorities for IT professionals are improving IT security overall (52 percent), increasing IT productivity through automation (33 percent), and migrating to the cloud (32 percent), according to a new report.

A survey of almost 2,000 IT pros from Kaseya also reveals the main three challenges are cybersecurity and data protection (49 percent), insufficient IT budgets and resources to meet demands (29 percent), and legacy systems that hamper growth and innovation (21 percent).

Risk-based strategies are most successful in preventing security breaches, according to a new study from Skybox Security.

Of companies taking a risk-based approach 48 percent suffered no breaches, 50 percent were top performers in time to mitigate issues, and 46 percent top performers in response time.

The average enterprise now manages approximately 135,000 endpoint devices. But in spite of large budgets spent on endpoint protection, an average of 48 percent of devices -- or 64,800 per enterprise -- are at risk because they are no longer detected by the organization's IT department or because operating systems have become outdated.

A new study conducted by the Ponemon Institute for Adaptiva also finds 63 percent of respondents find that the lack of visibility into endpoints is the most significant barrier to achieving a strong security posture.

Companies with small security teams continue to face a number of unique challenges that place these organizations at greater risk than larger enterprises, according to a new study.

Research from Cynet, based on responses from 200 CISOs at small and medium businesses, finds 58 percent feel their risk of attack is higher compared to enterprises, despite the fact that enterprises are a bigger target.

According to new research, 93 percent of organizations have had failed industrial Internet of Things or operational technology (IIoT/OT) security projects.

The study from Barracuda Networks surveyed 800 seniors staff responsible for IIoT/OT security and finds that 94 percent admit experiencing a security incident in the last 12 months, while 87 percent of organizations that experienced an incident were impacted for more than one day.

A new study of over 100 security professionals, carried out by unified asset intelligence platform Armis, shows almost 40 percent say asset visibility is the biggest challenge facing their organizations.

A quarter say poor asset visibility is the biggest risk and over half (54 percent) of respondents say employee behavior is a top risk.

VBA macros in Microsoft Office are an incredibly common means of delivering malware, and this is precisely why Microsoft made an announcement earlier this year that macros would be blocked by default. But now the company has changed its mind.

The change will not be permanent, however. Microsoft still plans to block macros in documents obtain from the internet -- it's just not quite clear when. The company says that the change of heart is a result of user feedback, and while macros will remain enabled by default for the time being, this will change at some point in the future; it's just not happening as soon as we thought.

The rise of ransomware and other attacks has pushed cybersecurity up the agenda of businesses, yet according to a new study 36 percent of mid-sized organizations don't have a formal incident response plan in place.

The report from Egnyte, based on a survey of 400 US executives conducted by Wakefield Research, also shows that the rise in cyberattacks has prompted organizations to increase focus on user access to critical data repositories.

Ransomware is predicted to cost businesses over $265 billion worldwide by 2031 according to Cybersecurity Ventures. New research from Ottowa-based managed services firm Firewall Technical has analyzed search data relating to ransomware attacks and come up with some interesting results.

Wannacry is the most searched for ransomware attack. With 6,830 related searches every month, the ransomware is still causing problems worldwide even though it was released back in 2017.

Although a lot of people and companies now choose to store their data in the cloud, where it can be accessed from anywhere, USB flash drives remain popular. But what happens if you lose a drive or it gets stolen? All of your personal data could be at risk.

You could secure your data using software, or better yet a hardware solution like the datAshur PRO, from iStorage which protects your files with military grade XTS-AES 256-bit encryption. The problem, of course, with a flash drive is it has a fixed -- and possibly limited -- capacity. Not so the datAshur SD, reviewed here, as this uses microSD cards for storage. If you run out of space, you can take out the full card and drop in a new one.

With Industrial Control Systems (ICS) expanding into traditional IT space and even into the cloud, the attack surface of ICS environments has increased significantly, making it crucial to recognize your ICS vulnerabilities and implement advanced techniques for monitoring and defending against rapidly evolving cyber threats to critical infrastructure.

Industrial Cybersecurity -- Second Edition covers the updated Industrial Demilitarized Zone (IDMZ) architecture and shows you how to implement, verify, and monitor a holistic security program for your ICS environment.

Technology is supposed to make our lives easier, but it seems that in many cases it also gives us something else to worry about.

Research by Bespoke Software Development Company has used the online analytics tool Ahrefs to work out which products we're most concerned about being hacked.

The British Army confirmed yesterday that its Twitter and YouTube accounts had been breached by hackers.

The Army's YouTube channel was changed to feature videos on cyptocurrency and images of billionaire businessman Elon Musk under the account name ArkInvest, while its official Twitter account was used to re-tweet several posts relating to NFTs and had its name changed a number of times.

There have been several knock-on effects from the Supreme Court ruling on Roe v Wade, but few people would have predicted a change in app use habits out of fear of criminal proceedings. But this is precisely what has happened as growing numbers of users are concerned about the potential for data stored in apps to be used against them

It's just one of the reasons there has been numerous instances of users either ditching period tracking apps altogether, or switching to options considered to be more secure. Now encryption firm Evervault has offered up another solution, announcing it will offer its encryption services free of charge to women's health apps.

Ransomware attacks continue to impact organizations worldwide with high costs, but businesses are still largely unprepared to deal with them.

New data from Arcserve shows half of IT decision makers surveyed by Dimensional Research have been targeted by ransomware, 35 percent report their organizations were asked to pay over $100,000 in ransom payments, and 20 percent were asked to pay between $1 million to $10 million.