Category: Help Net Security

How to gamify cybersecurity preparedness

Organizations’ preparedness and resilience against threats isn’t keeping pace with cybercriminals’ advancements. Some CEOs still believe that cybersecurity requires episodic intervention rather than ongoing attention. That isn’t the reality for many companies; cyber threat preparedness requires a concerted training effort,…

vCISO services thrive, but challenges persist

While 75% of service providers report high customer demand for vCISO functionality, a new Cynomi report reveals that only 21% are actively offering it—opening a window onto a growth area for service providers while emphasizing the growing centrality of vCISO…

trackd AutoPilot leverages historical patch disruption data

trackd has released a powerful rules engine that uses its patch disruption data to enable auto-patching with confidence, and based on actual data. “There’s only one reason that vulnerability management exists as a discipline in cyber security, and that’s because…

North Korean hackers’ social engineering tricks

“North Korean malicious cyber actors conducted research on a variety of targets connected to cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs) over the last several months,” the FBI has warned through a public service announcement. This suggests that they are likely to target…

Vulnerability allows Yubico security keys to be cloned

Researchers have unearthed a cryptographic vulnerability in popular Yubico (FIDO) hardware security keys and modules that may allow attackers to clone the devices. But the news is not as catastrophic as it may seem at first glance. “The attacker would…

Samba 4.21 comes with upgraded security features

Samba is the standard suite of programs that enables seamless interoperability between Linux/Unix and Windows systems. Version 4.21 has been officially released. Hardening In previous versions of Samba, if a user or group name in either option could not be…

OpenBAS: Open-source breach and attack simulation platform

OpenBAS is an open-source platform that enables organizations to plan, schedule, and execute crisis exercises, adversary simulations, and breach simulations. Compliant with ISO 22398 standards, OpenBAS is built as a modern web application featuring a user-centric interface and a RESTful…

Ransomware attacks escalate as critical sectors struggle to keep up

Ransomware remains a concerning cybersecurity threat, with attacks becoming more frequent, severe, and costly. Recent reports highlight alarming trends, including increased attacks on critical sectors like healthcare, education, and manufacturing. The US, leading in global ransomware incidents, faces an exceptionally…

Kara Sprague joins HackerOne as CEO

HackerOne announced that it has appointed Kara Sprague to succeed Marten Mickos as CEO. Sprague joins HackerOne at a powerful moment in its evolution, having seen 200% product growth in its pentesting and AI red teaming business and 120% growth…

Veeam Software expands protection for Microsoft 365

Veeam Software announced Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 v8, which delivers comprehensive and flexible immutability for Microsoft 365 data. Now organizations can ensure their Microsoft 365 data is resilient employing a zero-trust, multi-layered immutable strategy, making certain backup data is…

Managing low-code/no-code security risks

Continuous threat exposure management (CTEM) – a concept introduced by Gartner – monitors cybersecurity threats continuously rather than intermittently. This five-stage framework (scoping, discovery, prioritization, validation, and mobilization) allows organizations to constantly assess and manage their security posture, reduce exposure…

The attack with many names: SMS Toll Fraud

Bad actors leverage premium-rate phone numbers and bots to steal billions of dollars from businesses. In this Help Net Security video, Frank Teruel, CFO at Arkose Labs, discusses how to spot and stop them. The post The attack with many…

Complying with PCI DSS requirements by 2025

Version 4.0.1 of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), which came into effect back in April, incorporates a few important changes to make it fit for the modern digital world, addressing how technologies, the threat landscape and…

Keeping up with automated threats is becoming harder

98% of organizations attacked by bots in the past year lost revenue as a result, according to Kasada. Web scraping (web crawling) is a significant threat followed closely by account fraud, with more than one third of IT/IS specialists reporting…

Ransomware crisis deepens as attacks and payouts rise

During the second quarter, new ransomware groups, including PLAY, Medusa, RansomHub, INC Ransom, BlackSuit, and some additional lesser-known factions, led a series of attacks that eclipsed the first quarter of this year by 16% and the second quarter of 2023…

Damn Vulnerable UEFI: Simulate real-world firmware attacks

Damn Vulnerable UEFI (DVUEFI) is an open-source exploitation toolkit and learning platform for unveiling and fixing UEFI firmware vulnerabilities. Simulate real-world firmware attacks DVUEFI was created to assist ethical hackers, security researchers, and firmware enthusiasts in beginning their journey into…

Infosec products of the month: August 2024

Here’s a look at the most interesting products from the past month, featuring releases from: Adaptive Shield, AppOmni, ArmorCode, Bitwarden, Cequence Security, ClearSale, Clutch Security, Contrast Security, Dragos, Elastic, Endor Labs, Entrust, Fortanix, Fortinet, Guardio, HYCU, Ivanti, McAfee, Nucleus Security,…

How RansomHub went from zero to 210 victims in six months

RansomHub, a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) outfit that “popped up” earlier this year, has already amassed at least 210 victims (that we know of). Its affiliates have hit government services, IT and communication companies, healthcare institutions, financial organizations, emergency services, manufacturing and…

A macro look at the most pressing cybersecurity risks

Forescout’s 2024H1 Threat Review is a new report that reviews the current state of vulnerabilities, threat actors, and ransomware attacks in the first half of 2024 and compares them to H1 2023. “Attackers are looking for any weak point to…

New infosec products of the week: August 30, 2024

Here’s a look at the most interesting products from the past week, featuring releases from Bitwarden, Dragos, Fortinet, HYCU, and Rezonate. Fortinet introduces sovereign SASE and GenAI capabilities Fortinet announced the addition of sovereign SASE and GenAI capabilities to its…

Cyber threats that shaped the first half of 2024

Global cybercrime has shown no sign of decline and is expected to grow strong per year over the next five years. To identify the most urgent cybersecurity threats of the first half of 2024, the Critical Start Cyber Research Unit…

The NIS2 Directive: How far does it reach?

The NIS2 Directive is one of the most recent efforts of the EU legislator to boost cybersecurity across the bloc and to keep up with the challenges of an increasingly digitalized society and growing cyber threats. As the name implies,…

Deepfakes: Seeing is no longer believing

The threat of deepfakes lies not in the technology itself, but in people’s natural tendency to trust what they see. As a result, deepfakes don’t need to be highly advanced or convincing to effectively spread misinformation and disinformation. While many…

Why ransomware attackers target Active Directory

Ransomware attacks have surged 78% year-over-year, affecting various sectors and organizations and significantly impacting supply chains. In this Help, Net Security video, Craig Birch, Technology Evangelist, and Principal Security Engineer at Cayosoft, discusses the rise of ransomware attacks, why attackers…

Third-party risk management is under the spotlight

In the aftermath of the CrowdStrike IT outage, new research has uncovered a critical vulnerability within financial institutions regarding supply chain resilience. The outage has demonstrated the need for greater digital supply chain resilience, particularly in vital sectors such as…

BlackByte affiliates use new encryptor and new TTPs

BlackByte, the ransomware-as-a-service gang believed to be one of Conti’s splinter groups, has (once again) created a new iteration of its encryptor. “Talos observed some differences in the recent BlackByte attacks. Most notably, encrypted files across all victims were rewritten…

Fortinet introduces sovereign SASE and GenAI capabilities

Fortinet announced the addition of sovereign SASE and GenAI capabilities to its unified SASE solution. Fortinet Unified SASE provides complete integration between Fortinet’s Secure SD-WAN solution and cloud-delivered security service edge (SSE) under a single console for seamless management, visibility,…

Expel partners with Wiz to enhance security for cloud environments

Expel announced a new strategic partnership with Wiz, a cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP). The partnership provides an integration offering MDR for Wiz toxic risk combinations (including vulnerabilities, secrets, malware, and threats), allowing customers to secure across their cloud environments…

Cryptomator: Open-source cloud storage encryption

Cryptomator offers open-source, client-side encryption of your files in the cloud. It’s available for Windows, Linux, macOS and iOS. Cryptomator works with Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, MEGA, pCloud, ownCloud, Nextcloud, and any other cloud storage service that synchronizes with a…

Cybercriminals capitalize on travel industry’s peak season

Cybercriminals are capitalizing on the travel and hospitality industry’s peak season, using increased traffic as cover for their attacks, according to Cequence Security. Researchers investigated the top 10 travel and hospitality sites to identify externally visible edge, cloud infrastructure, application…

Cybersecurity jobs available right now: August 28, 2024

Business Information Security Officer Toyota North America | USA | On-site – View job details Acting as an Information Security ambassador to the business, this role works with technology, data, risk, business, and the larger TFS Information Security team to…

Old methods, new technologies drive fraud losses

GenAI, deepfakes and cybercrime are critical threats putting intensifying pressures on businesses, according to Experian. Top online security concerns for consumers According to the FTC, consumers reported losing more than $10 billion to fraud in 2023 alone, representing a 14%…

DigitalOcean unveils enhanced role-based access control

DigitalOcean announced updates to its role-based access control (RBAC), a method for managing user access to systems and resources within an organization by assigning permissions to roles rather than to individual users. This updates are highlighted by a new set…

RSA Authenticator App improves cybersecurity for federal agencies

RSA announced new passwordless, phishing-resistant capabilities that meet stringent technical standards and can help public sector agencies, contractors, and systems integrators fulfill Executive Order 14028 and National Security Memo 8 to improve the nation’s cybersecurity. The RSA Authenticator App is…

Behind the scenes of Serious Cryptography

In this Help Net Security interview, Jean-Philippe Aumasson, discusses the writing and research process for Serious Cryptography, his latest book. With a career steeped in research and practical cryptography, Aumasson offers a rare glimpse into the efforts required to distill…

Rebrand, regroup, ransomware, repeat

Changes witnessed over the last few years have led to larger ransomware groups breaking into smaller units, posing more considerable challenges for law enforcement. Ransomware actors are evading arrest more easily and adapting methods with innovative technologies. In this Help…

Nuclei: Open-source vulnerability scanner

Nuclei is a fast and customizable open-source vulnerability scanner powered by YAML-based templates. With its flexible templating system, Nuclei can be adapted to perform various security checks. It can send requests to multiple targets using customizable templates, ensuring zero false…

GenAI buzz fading among senior executives

GenAI adoption has reached a critical phase, with 67% of respondents reporting their organization is increasing its investment in GenAI due to strong value to date, according to Deloitte. “The State of Generative AI in the Enterprise: Now decides Next,”…

Drawbridge expands cyber risk assessment service

Drawbridge released its next generation cyber risk assessment service. Provided as a suite of modules, the solution combines a set of analytics with Drawbridge’s client service. Clients can now benchmark and score their cyber programs to prioritize risk remediation by…

The changing dynamics of ransomware as law enforcement strikes

After peaking in late 2023, the ransomware industry is beginning to stabilize in productivity, with notable developments in ransomware targets, and industry dynamics, according to WithSecure. Sectors impacted by ransomware (Source: WithSecure) While ransomware productivity has shown signs of leveling…

Vulnerability prioritization is only the beginning

To date, most technology solutions focused on vulnerability management have focused on the prioritization of risks. That usually took the shape of some risk-ranking structure displayed in a table with links out to the CVEs and other advisory or threat…

New infosec products of the week: August 23, 2024

Here’s a look at the most interesting products from the past week, featuring releases from Entrust, Fortanix, McAfee, Own, RightCrowd, and Wallarm. Own proactively detects and stores data changes in Salesforce Continuous Data Protection from Own pushes data changes to…

Anomali announces expanded capabilities for Copilot

Anomali announced new capabilities for Anomali Copilot to help security, and now also IT departments, use the latest innovations in AI to successfully defend, protect, and propel their organizations forward. Anomali Copilot empowers security or IT analysts at any skill…

Wallarm API Attack Surface Management mitigates API leaks

Wallarm announced its latest innovation: API Attack Surface Management (AASM). This agentless technology transforms how organizations identify, analyze, and secure their entire API attack surface. Designed for effortless deployment, Wallarm AASM empowers organizations to discover all of their externally-facing APIs…

Android malware uses NFC to steal money at ATMs

ESET researchers uncovered NGate malware, which can relay data from victims’ payment cards via a malicious app installed on their Android devices to the attacker’s rooted Android phone. Attack overview (Source: ESET) Unauthorized ATM withdrawals The campaign’s primary goal in…

Why C-suite leaders are prime cyber targets

Senior executives are prime targets for cybercriminals, with 72% of surveyed cybersecurity professionals in the US reporting that cyberattacks have targeted this group in the past 18 months. This trend, highlighted in GetApp’s 2024 Executive Cybersecurity Report, underscores the growing…

Most ransomware attacks occur between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m.

There’s been an alarming increase in ransomware attacks over the past year, alongside significant shifts in the tactics and strategies employed by cybercriminals that underscore the necessity for organizations to implement around-the-clock monitoring and investigation of suspicious behaviors, according to…

GenAI models are easily compromised

95% of cybersecurity experts express low confidence in GenAI security measures while red team data shows anyone can easily hack GenAI models, according to Lakera. Attack methods specific to GenAI, or prompt attacks, are easily used by anyone to manipulate…

HITRUST unveils AI Risk Management Assessment solution

HITRUST launched its AI Risk Management (AI RM) Assessment, a comprehensive assessment approach for AI risk management processes in an organization. The HITRUST AI Risk Management Assessment ensures that governance associated with implementing AI solutions is in place and can…