We often hear of how we need to protect ourselves from online scams. Criminals seek our personal information in order to use it for multiple nefarious purposes. However, there is a population who, while not having a broad online presence, are equally vulnerable to identity theft. Children are particularly vulnerable to identity theft, as they often have clean credit histories and their personal...

These days, it’s not a matter of if your password will be breached but when. Major websites experience massive data breaches at an alarming rate. Have I Been Pwned currently has records from 705 sites comprising 12.6 billion accounts. This includes well-known names like Wattpad, Verifications.io, and Facebook. This is a 30% increase in the number of sites and a 10% increase in the number of...

Gaming companies collect data concerning user behavior for a variety of reasons: to inform investment and content decisions, enable game and advertisement personalization, and improve gameplay, to name a few. However, the data available provides a daunting task for those attempting to make use of it, as well as a ripe target for attackers. Effectively utilizing and protecting this data can be a...

Footprinting, also known as fingerprinting, is a methodology used by penetration testers, cybersecurity professionals, and even threat actors to gather information about a target organization to identify potential vulnerabilities. Footprinting is the first step in penetration testing. It involves scanning open ports, mapping network topologies, and collecting information about hosts, their...

Interconnected, data-enabled devices are more common now than ever before. By 2027, it is predicted that there will be more than 41 billion new IoT devices . The emergence of each new device offers a fresh vulnerability point for opportunistic bad actors. In 2022, there were over 112 million cyberattacks carried out on IoT devices worldwide. Without sufficient protection, attackers can exploit...

Attacks against industrial control systems (ICS) are on the rise. Cyberattacks are more prevalent, creative and faster than ever. So, understanding attackers’ tactics is crucial. The IBM Security X-Force Threat Intelligence Index 2023 highlights that backdoor deployments enabling remote access to ICS systems were the most common type of attacker action in 2022. The positive news is that 67% of...

One of the most reliable constants in the cybersecurity world is that threats are always increasing as cybercriminals advance their tactics and develop new ones. It can be a daunting task for organizations to continually stay on top of these threats, protect their own data and assets, and monitor the threat landscape for changes. A recent report from UK cybersecurity consultancy group Savanti...

Compliance and security often go hand in hand as ideas that attempt to protect against cyber threats. While both compliance and security are designed to lower risk, they are not mutually inclusive—that is, not everything that is required for compliance will necessarily help with security, and not everything that bolsters security will necessarily put you in compliance. Both are vital to...

Data is expanding beyond environments, applications, and geographical boundaries. It is safe to say that we are currently experiencing the era of the Big Bang of Data. It is driving economies and industries. Organizations that can leverage data to its fullest potential take the helm of their industry, leading it peerlessly. However, with the proliferation of data comes increasingly serious risks...

A joint cybersecurity advisory from the United States's National Security Agency (NSA) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has shone a light on the top ten most common cybersecurity misconfigurations found in large private and public organisations. The report aims to detail the weaknesses found in many large organisations, and the need for software makers to properly...

Cyber Security Awareness Month kicked off its nineteenth anniversary this year. One would hope that after nearly two decades, this would be a time to celebrate, however, the outlook is not as bright as one would expect. There are so many aspects of cybersecurity that have been promoted to make the world a safer place, but one that stands out as the largest failure seems to be the use of password...

While always a part of business, compliance demands have skyrocketed as the digital world gives us so many more ways to go awry. We all remember the Enron scandal that precipitated the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). Now, SOX compliance means being above board on a number of cybersecurity requirements as well. Fortra's Tripwire recently released a new guide: How Managed Services Can Help with...

Electric grids are part of every nation’s critical infrastructure. Every societal activity and business depends on reliable and safe electricity distribution. The US electric grid is a huge network of powerlines, distribution hubs, and renewable and non-renewable energy generators that is increasingly exposed to cyber-physical risks due to the accelerated reliance on cyber-enabled systems and IoT...

One of the most pervasive and unavoidable threats on the internet, domain impersonation can be used by bad actors as the basis for a wide range of attacks. The various ways in which cybercriminals make use of lookalike domains often fluctuate, and the first half of 2023 has exemplified this fact. Staying on top of security and not falling victim to these attacks requires knowing what the dangers...

The evolution of the cyber threat landscape highlights the need for organizations to strengthen their ability to identify, analyze, and evaluate cyber risks before they evolve into security incidents. Known unpatched vulnerabilities are often exploited by criminals to penetrate Industrial Control Systems (ICS) environments and disrupt critical operations. Although the terms “patch management” and...

On August 10th, the Pentagon introduced " Task Force Lima ," a dedicated team working to bring Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the core of the U.S. defense system. The goal is to use AI to improve business operations, healthcare, military readiness, policy-making, and warfare. Earlier in August, the White House announced a large cash prize for individuals or groups that can create AI systems to...

It's nothing new for cybercriminals to use sneaky HTML tricks in their attempt to infect computers or dupe unsuspecting recipients into clicking on phishing links. Spammers have been using a wide variety of tricks for years in an attempt to get their marketing messages past anti-spam filters and in front of human eyeballs. It's enough to make you wish that email clients didn't support HTML at all...

The importance of cybersecurity is no secret in our increasingly digital world. Even individuals who have no experience or expertise in tech or related fields are aware of the threat of hacking, phishing, and the like. It can be difficult, however, to actually quantify the risks of being targeted by these attacks. Keeping track of the trends in cyberthreats, the different attackers and types of...

The then-new 2014 NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) was designed to plug security gaps in operational technology. It’s still in use today and more relevant than ever. Fortra’s whitepaper provides a cohesive review of this security staple and how to glean the best out of it for your strategy. A Brief History of NIST CSF “The full maximum NIST Cybersecurity Framework is about as big an umbrella as...

Patience is one of those time-dependent, and often situational circumstances we experience. Few things define relativity better than patience. Think of the impatience of people who have to wait ten minutes in a line at a gas station, yet the thought of waiting ten minutes for a perfectly brewed cup of coffee seems entirely reasonable. It can’t be about the cost, since even the smallest cup of...