Category: Security Intelligence

How Do Data Breaches Impact Economic Instability?

Geopolitical conflict, inflation, job market pressure, rising debt — we’ve been hearing about economic headwinds for a while now. Could data breaches have anything to do with this? According to a recent IBM report, the average cost of a data…

How Do Data Breaches Impact Economic Instability?

Geopolitical conflict, inflation, job market pressure, rising debt — we’ve been hearing about economic headwinds for a while now. Could data breaches have anything to do with this? According to a recent IBM report, the average cost of a data…

Digital Transformation and Risk Management Must Go Together

The recent PwC 2022 Global Risk Survey gives a glimpse into what senior leaders think about their business efforts. The report opens with some expected highlights worth repeating:  Change is increasingly fast and disruptive The COVID-19 pandemic caused disturbances in…

Digital Transformation and Risk Management Must Go Together

The recent PwC 2022 Global Risk Survey gives a glimpse into what senior leaders think about their business efforts. The report opens with some expected highlights worth repeating:  Change is increasingly fast and disruptive The COVID-19 pandemic caused disturbances in…

Why Do Ransomware Gangs Keep Coming Back From the Dead?

Ransomware gangs are major players in the cybersecurity space, especially in recent years. ZDNet reported that ransomware gangs increased their payments by over 311% from 2019 to 2020, with totals for all groups exceeding $350 million in 2020. Ransoms continued…

Cost of a Data Breach: Infrastructure

During the pandemic, businesses and consumers saw firsthand what happens when infrastructure fails. In 2019, the global critical infrastructure protection (CIP) market size was valued at $96.30 billion. It is predicted to grow to $154.59 billion by 2027, with a…

How IBM Secured the 2022 US Open

Throughout the US Open Tennis Championship, the infrastructure for USOpen.org and the mobile apps can see upwards of 3 million security events. While the vast majority of events are not serious, security analysts must quickly determine which are concerning to…

How IBM Secured the 2022 US Open

Throughout the US Open Tennis Championship, the infrastructure for USOpen.org and the mobile apps can see upwards of 3 million security events. While the vast majority of events are not serious, security analysts must quickly determine which are concerning to…

3 Reasons Why Technology Integration Matters

As John Donne once wrote, “No man is an island entire of itself.” With digitalization bridging any distance, the same logic could be applied to tech. Threat actors have vast underground forums for sharing their intelligence, while security professionals remain…

Modern Data Security Needs a Modern Solution

The role of a data security analyst isn’t an easy one. It has always been hard to address data security because of the volume, speed and variety of data in the IT landscape. However, over the last few years, the…

A Response Guide for New NSA and CISA Vulnerabilities

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recently published a report highlighting a range of critical security vulnerabilities requiring attention from organizations of all types. The report was published with input from the National Security Agency (NSA) and similar agencies…

What Kind of Data Costs Most in a Breach?

Today’s most valuable currency is data. Breaches, information operations, analytics and behavior recognition are all driven by data and the desire to possess it, regardless of what those who possess it want to do with it. We set out to…

We’re Entering the Age of Unethical Voice Tech

In 2019, Google released a synthetic speech database with a very specific goal: stopping audio deepfakes.  “Malicious actors may synthesize speech to try to fool voice authentication systems,” the Google News Initiative blog reported at the time. “Perhaps equally concerning,…

The Cost of a Data Breach for Government Agencies

What happens when attackers breach local government, police departments or public health services? What would happen if attackers compromised the U.S. Treasury’s network? These types of incidents happen every month and lead to service interruptions at the very least. More…

CISA Certification: What You Need to Know

The globally-recognized Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) certification shows knowledge of IT and auditing, security, governance, control and assurance to assess potential threats. As you can imagine, it’s very much in demand. It can also be confusing.  Is CISA Certification…

Cyber insurance costs soar amid ransomware attacks

Ransomware attacks and recurring breaches cause insurers to rethink risk as prices rise and policies get increasingly harder to obtain. That cyberattacks have been on the rise is one fact we unfortunately read every year. The cost of these attacks…

Why Your Success Depends on Your IAM Capability

It’s truly universal: if you require your workforce, customers, patients, citizens, constituents, students, teachers… anyone, to register before digitally accessing information or buying goods or services, you are enabling that interaction with identity and access management (IAM). Many IAM vendors…

Raspberry Robin and Dridex: Two Birds of a Feather

IBM Security Managed Detection and Response (MDR) observations coupled with IBM Security X-Force malware research sheds additional light on the mysterious objectives of the operators behind the Raspberry Robin worm. Based on a comparative analysis between a downloaded Raspberry Robin…

What Should Customers Ask Managed Service Providers?

Managed service providers (MSPs), sometimes called managed security services (MSS) or MSSP, play a very important role in protecting data and other digital assets and will continue to do so. Some of the benefits include, but are not limited to:…

How and Why Do Teens Become Cyber Criminals?

The search to find the mastermind of the attacker group Lapsus$ led to a home outside Oxford, England. The suspected leader was a 16-year-old. He helped take down some of the world’s biggest companies, including Microsoft, from his mother’s house.…

4 Ways AI Capabilities Transform Security

Many industries have had to tighten belts in the “new normal”. In cybersecurity, artificial intelligence (AI) can help.   Every day of the new normal we learn how the pandemic sped up digital transformation, as reflected in the new opportunities…

How to Remediate a Cross-Site WebSocket Vulnerability

Today, many leading industries and modern enterprises have switched from processing and acting on data stored in databases to data in flight. How? Through real-time applications. One way to enable this is WebSocket, but it comes with vulnerabilities as well. …

X-Force 2022 Insights: An Expanding OT Threat Landscape

This post was written with contributions from Dave McMillen. So far 2022 has seen international cyber security agencies issuing multiple alerts about malicious Russian cyber operations and potential attacks on critical infrastructure, the discovery of two new OT-specific pieces of…

Prepare for Quantum Encryption Today

Once a cutting-edge sci-fi theory, quantum encryption – along with the computing power that drives it – may be close to wide-scale deployment. When it comes online, all previous cryptographic standards used to protect our data could go up in…

How to Compromise a Modern-Day Network

An insidious issue has been slowly growing under the noses of IT admins and security professionals for the past twenty years. As companies evolved to meet the technological demands of the early 2000s, they became increasingly dependent on vulnerable technology…

Security Automation Can Save You $3.05M in a Data Breach

When it comes to reducing security breach costs, companies with security artificial intelligence (AI) and automation can save millions, per a new report. According to the most recent IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report, organizations with fully deployed security AI…

9 Factors to Consider Before Choosing a UEM Solution

The more of your employees who work remotely some or all of the time, the more devices they’re likely to use to conduct business. Employees use their own devices as well as corporate ones, making already-challenged cybersecurity systems more complex.…

Everything CISOs Need to Know About NIST

It’s never been harder to be a chief information security officer (CISO). In 2021, there were 50% more attacks each week compared to 2020. Without a plan, maintaining a robust security posture is an uphill struggle.  Thankfully, the National Institute…

Cost of a Data Breach: Banking and Finance

The importance of cybersecurity has touched almost every industry. Beyond that, robust cybersecurity is table stakes for several sectors, particularly health care and the banking and finance industry. Not only is financial data at risk, but so is customer trust.…

Black Hat 2022 Sneak Peek: How to Build a Threat Hunting Program

You may recall my previous blog post about how our X-Force veteran threat hunter Neil Wyler (a.k.a “Grifter”) discovered nation-state attackers exfiltrating unencrypted, personally identifiable information (PII) from a company’s network, unbeknownst to the security team. The post highlighted why…

NIST Supply Chain Security Guidelines: 10 Key Takeaways

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently published updated guidance for reducing cybersecurity risks in supply chains. Titled “Software Supply Chain Security Guidance,” the update is NIST’s response to directives issued by an executive…

Boost SAP Security With Zero Trust

How can your organization improve its Systems Applications and Products (SAP) risk posture? Aligning with the key principles of zero trust through tangible and specific measures is one way.  To begin, let’s define the principles of zero trust. We’ve all…

6 Ways SASE Helps Protect Your Data

You start to log in to work from the home office you’ve occupied for the last two years only to sit and wait patiently as your virtual private network (VPN) dials up. After a few minutes, it validates your credentials.…

5 Essential Steps for Every Ransomware Response Plan

This post was written with contributions from Andrew Gorecki, Camille Singleton and Charles DeBeck. May and June bring warm weather, backyard barbecues and, in recent years, an uptick in ransomware attacks. Why? “It’s possible workers are distracted because the sun…

What Is Endpoint Detection and Response?

Endpoint Detection and Response: How To Choose the Right EDR Solution A rise in remote work trends has led to a rapid increase and interconnectivity of endpoints and data in recent years. This ‘next normal’ way of working comes with…