Designing security to mitigate growing ransomware threats
Ransomware has become a top-of-mind security concern for many organizations. High-visibility ransomware attacks have disrupted supply chains and inspired an Executive Order on Cybersecurity in the United States.
This is not surprising given that ransomware is a such a common and costly threat costing organizations millions.
Data Privacy Day aims to raise awareness of how we collect and use data
Today is Data Privacy Day -- or Data Protection Day, depending on who you talk to -- a day dedicated to an international effort to raise awareness about how data is collected, used and stored.
So, what do the luminaries of the IT world have to say about the day and about data privacy/protection in general? We've rounded up some of their thoughts.
How retailers can beat the top four online shopping security threats in 2022
There’s an inevitable spike in online security threats accompanying the surge in online shopping over the past couple of years, mainly driven by the recent pandemic. As more and more retailers embrace and adopt e-commerce sites to expand their customer base, increased cybersecurity levels are a must to ensure a safe and positive customer experience.
As a business owner, the greatest threat that cyberattacks represent is loss of sales and unhappy customers, which can really make or break a business as a whole. Since many cyberattacks are executed in hidden and unsuspecting ways, identifying and battling them can become a challenge. Let’s take a look at the top four online shopping security threats and how to avoid them in 2022.
The top attack trends businesses need to address this year
2021 saw supply chain and ransomware attacks dominate the security landscape. But will this pattern continue this year?
Managed detection and response provider Expel has launched a new report which provides insights on the biggest cybersecurity threats, practical recommendations on how to handle them, and predictions on what to expect in the year ahead.
Three in four mobile apps contain at least one vulnerability
As the internet is increasingly accessed from mobile devices, mobile apps need to be considered as part of a company's security strategy.
A new report from BitSight finds that three out of four mobile applications evaluated contained at least one moderate vulnerability. It also finds material and severe vulnerabilities in some popular apps.
Tech workers are more likely to fall for phishing emails
Personnel working in IT or DevOps are more likely to click on phishing emails than those in other areas of an organization.
A new study by F-Secure looks at how over 80,000 people from different organizations responded to emails that simulated one of four commonly used phishing tactics.
Admins struggle to keep users safe in a post-COVID world
A new survey of 600 IT admins finds almost a third say that their biggest challenge is keeping users secure, while 67 percent say they are stuck in a daily grind of provisioning services and apps, managing user identities, dealing with employees who have ignored best IT practices, and helping onboard new staff.
The study from Remotely also finds 28 percent say ensuring the tools remote IT teams have access to are as good or better than the ones they have on site is the problem teams struggle with the most. Following closely are: remaining as productive as they were in the office, collaboration among the sysadmin / IT admin team, and tracking their own performance.
Hackers continue to target zero-day vulnerabilities
Unpatched vulnerabilities remain the most prominent attack vectors exploited by ransomware groups, according to a new report.
The study by Ivanti, produced in conjunction with Cyber Security Works, shows 65 new vulnerabilities tied to ransomware last year, representing a 29 percent growth compared to the previous year and bringing the total number of vulnerabilities associated with ransomware to 288.
Over three-quarters of container images have high risk vulnerabilities
A new report from container and cloud security company Sysdig finds that 75 percent of images contain patchable vulnerabilities of 'high' or 'critical' severity. In addition 85 percent of container images that run in production contain at least one patchable vulnerability.
Looking at the issues in more detail, 73 percent of cloud accounts contain exposed S3 buckets and 36 percent of all existing S3 buckets are open to public access.
Every major Linux distro has a PwnKit flaw that is easily exploited to gain root access
Linux-based operating systems are frequently touted as being far more secure than the likes of Windows or macOS. More secure they may be, but they are not completely infallible.
A great example of this is the recently discovered PwnKit vulnerability in the pkexec component of Polkit. The flaw can be exploited to gain root access to a system and it has been a security hole in pretty much all major Linux distros for over 12 years, including Debian, Fedora and Ubuntu.
Strengthen your company's security posture with risk quantification
Risk professionals work with uncertainty every day. They need to identify and prioritize which risks to address now versus later, consider many moving parts and rely on judgment and data to make informed decisions.
But how do they communicate those risks to stakeholders? Using "low, medium or high" classifications doesn’t always express the consideration risk requires -- especially since those terms don’t mean the same thing to everyone. If you told key stakeholders "there’s a possibility of rain tomorrow" before a company barbecue, how would they know whether to reschedule or put a few tents up? Is "possibility" enough information to make that decision, especially since not everyone equates possibility with the same level of probability?
Moving to the edge needs a rethink of security
In order to provide real-time services to the user, enhance data management and support latency-critical applications, many businesses are moving computing to the edge.
But this brings with it new issues when it comes to securing systems. The latest Cybersecurity Insights Report from AT&T Cybersecurity focuses on the security considerations needed in order to implement edge computing safely.
Almost half of organizations don't use all of Microsoft 365's features
The thing about integrated office suites is that inevitably you don't need all of the features they provide, or at least you use some of them less than others.
New research from managed services provider Ensono shows that 83 percent of enterprises say Microsoft 365 is an invaluable part of their business operations. However, almost half aren't using all of the features available.
New solution helps guarantee electronic documents
Electronic documents are becoming more common in business, but this doesn't eliminate the risk of forgery or tampering.
UK-based Borderless Security is launching a new e-signature solution that makes use of blockchain technology to create a safe, secure and convenient solution for signing paperwork, contracts and legally binding documents.
What the UK's revised security guidelines mean for business [Q&A]
Changes to the UK government's Cyber Essentials security certification scheme come into force today. They include things like guidelines on remote working and hybrid approaches, rules for cloud service accounts -- such as deploying multi-factor authentication -- and speeding up critical patch deployments for critical and high severity vulnerabilities
We talked to Karl Alderton, technical account manager at security and compliance specialist Qualys to find out more about how these changes will affect businesses and what they need to do in response.
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