Week in review: Vaccinating algorithms against attacks, cybersecurity pros burning out
Here’s an overview of some of last week’s most interesting news, articles and reviews:
Anatomy of a ransomware attack: How attackers gain access to unstructured data
Ransomware isn’t a new phenomenon, but it’s effects are starting to be felt more widely, and more deeply than ever before. Behemoths like Sony, Nissan, FedEx, Kraft Foods and Deutsche Bank have all been hit in recent years, and the list is growing. The ongoing saga of the ransomware attack in Baltimore, MD has left citizens unable to pay parking tickets or finalize property sales.
When it comes to cybersecurity, perfection is the enemy of progress
In information security, perfection is the enemy of progress, says Lenny Zeltser, VP of Product at Axonius. But it’s one thing to know about this maxim, and another to internalize its wisdom through trial and error.
Review: Specops uReset
Specops Software came up with a tool to help with and automate the password reset procedure in a secure way. Specops uReset is a Windows-based tool that plugs into the Active Directory authentication process and allows you to customize the level of security that your organization requires by extending various multi-factor authentication options to the password reset process.
Elastic SIEM: Speed, scale, and analytical power drive your security operations and threat hunting
The initial launch of Elastic SIEM introduces a new set of data integrations for security use cases, and a new dedicated app in Kibana that lets security practitioners investigate and triage common host and network security workflows in a more streamlined way.
Cybersecurity professionals are outgunned and burned out
Nearly half (48 percent total) of cybersecurity leaders across France, Germany and the UK believe their teams are falling behind in the skills race against would-be cyber criminals, according to Symantec.
How past threats and technical developments influence the evolution of malware
If we want to anticipate how malware will evolve in the near future, we have to keep two things in mind: past threats and current technical developments.
Why businesses need IAM to push their zero trust frameworks forward
Many organizations are finding themselves between a rock and a hard place when it comes to the security of their digital transformation strategies. On the one hand, the number of data breaches continue to increase and damages stemming from cybercrime have businesses losing more than $3.86 million on average, per breach, according to the Ponemon Institute.
Consumers believe privacy is not possible, leading to a change in online behavior
82% of online users in the US and 75% in the UK are choosing to change the way they behave online, according to a new consumer survey by FigLeaf.
Over reliance on public cloud vendor security puts data and companies at risk of breach
As global organizations increasingly move critical applications, regulated customer data and development work into public cloud environments, 36 percent say the number one benefit for moving workloads to the cloud is to offload security risk, a new survey from CyberArk reveals.
Google delivers new G Suite security tools
Google has announced several new security tools for G Suite admins and users, as well as a new 2FA option: one-time security codes based on security keys.
Beating biometrics: Why biometric authentication alone is not a panacea
As we witness the accelerating use of biometrics throughout our lives, we must pause to consider the risks and ramifications of doing so as technological advancements make it increasingly easy to mimic, manipulate and manufacture biometry. As the world becomes more reliant on biometric authentication, it’s vital that we understand how it’s being threatened, what happens when it’s compromised and what we can do to prevent a biometric dystopia.
Medtronic recalls vulnerable MiniMed insulin pumps
Medtronic, the world’s largest medical device company, has issued a recall of some of its insulin pumps because they can be tampered with by attackers.
Where are organizations stalling with cybersecurity best practices?
UK organizations are failing to make progress towards strong cybersecurity and are facing paralysis as cybercriminals become more advanced, according to NTT Security.
Threat actors are doing their homework, researchers identify new impersonation techniques
There is an increase in three main areas: spoofed phishing attempts, HTTPS encryption in URL-based attacks, and cloud-based attacks focused on publicly hosted, trusted file-sharing services, FireEye found, after analyzing a sample set of 1.3 billion emails.
Eurofins ransomware attack affected UK police work
Eurofins, a global provider of scientific testing services, said that operations are returning to normal after the recent ransomware attack, but that its impact on their financial results “may unfortunately be material.”
Cybercriminals leverage malicious Office docs, Mac malware, web app exploits
There’s been a 62% increase in overall malware detections in Q1 2019 compared to the previous quarter. A new WatchGuard report also found that cybercriminals are leveraging a wide array of varied attack techniques, including malicious Microsoft Office documents, Mac malware and web application exploits.
Cloud security exacerbated by immature security practices
Surveying 1,250 security decision makers across the globe, Symantec’s Cloud Security Threat Report (CSTR) uncovered insights on the shifting cloud security landscape, finding enterprises have reached a tipping point: more than half (53%) of all enterprise compute workload has been migrated to the cloud.
Emergency Presidential Alerts can be spoofed, researchers warn
Spurred by the panic-inducing fake alarm about an inbound ballistic missile received by Hawaii residents in January 2018, a group of researchers from University of Colorado Boulder wanted to check whether attackers could spoof Presidential Alerts, which are delivered to all capable phones in the United States via the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) program.
You don’t just acquire a company, but also its cybersecurity posture
53% of IT and business decision makers report their organization has encountered a critical cybersecurity issue or incident during a M&A deal that put the deal into jeopardy, a Forescout survey reveals.
Researchers develop a technique to vaccinate algorithms against adversarial attacks
A set of techniques to effectively vaccinate algorithms against adversarial attacks have been developed by researchers from CSIRO’s Data61.
Which SD-WAN products offer a notable return on investment?
Eight of the industry’s leading SD-WAN products were examined by NSS Labs to help enterprises understand the merits of products in the market and identify the capabilities best suited to meet their use case requirements.
Why poor visibility is hampering cybersecurity
Data from an external survey of 200 enterprise security leaders, conducted by Censuswide, reveals concerns on visibility and access to trusted data, leaving organizations open to attack. Fuelling this issue is an inability to receive timely visibility across a multitude of installed security technologies.
New infosec products of the week: June 28, 2019
A rundown of infosec products released last week.