There's good news for any business which has fallen victim to the Akira ransomware . Security researchers at anti-virus company Avast have developed a free decryption tool for files that have been encrypted since the Akira ransomware first emerged in March 2023. The ransomware has been blamed for a number of high profile attacks - including ones against universities, financial institutions, and...

Hey, did you get that sketchy email? You know, the one from that malicious hacker always trying to fool us into clicking on some malware? Boy, these criminals are relentless. Wait, what? You clicked on it? Uh-oh... A hypothetical scenario, but one that plays out every day in organizations across the globe. The truth is that it is a very real scenario that offers a good opportunity to dive deeper...

In the world of cybersecurity, there are a few constants, one of the big ones being the fact that news, innovation, and threats move fast and are constantly evolving. It is important for security professionals to stay in the loop about major developments in cybercriminal activity and the cybersecurity industry. Fortra’s PhishLabs offer resources to learn about a variety of cybersecurity-related...

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) has always been a massive security undertaking for any organization that has worked to fully implement its recommendations. One interesting aspect that seems to be overlooked is the focus on the Requirements, and while minimizing the testing necessities. Not only is testing part of the full title of the Standard, but it is formally...

Over the following years, the costs associated with cybercrime, projected at $10.5 trillion annually by 2025 , will exceed the estimated worldwide cybersecurity spending— $267.3 billion annually by 2026 . Leadership needs to change its perspective on managing cyber risks instead of just spending more money to match the losses incurred. Cyber risk management as a business enabler The cyber economy...

Tripwire's June 2023 Patch Priority Index (PPI) brings together important vulnerabilities for Microsoft and Progress MOVEit. First on the patch priority list this month are patches for the Progress MOVEit Transfer application. An exploit targeting the MOVEit vulnerability CVE-2023-34362 has been recently added to the Metasploit Exploit Framework. Next on the patch priority list this month are...

If you’re looking for job security, look no further: The cybersecurity sector can keep you gainfully employed for a very, very long time. There are an ever-growing number of ways in which someone with cybersecurity prowess can contribute, and as digital assets continue to develop and diversify, it’s safe to say they’ll always be kept on their toes. From software security engineers to CISOs, each...

The past few years have been among the most challenging for most businesses. Lockdowns, staff reductions, and reduced revenues resulted in the demise of many businesses. For those who remained, the new onuses brought about by supply chain concerns and inflation present even greater reasons for maximum resilience in order to survive. With all the physical challenges of running a business, it is...

The FFIEC Cybersecurity Assessment Tool (CAT) is a diagnostic test designed to help institutions identify risks and gauge cybersecurity preparedness. The tool is primarily for financial and non-depository institutions, enabling organizations to make risk-driven security decisions informed by regular cybersecurity assessments and standardized risk measurement criteria. While it is voluntary...

Most data crimes are the result of online compromises. This makes sense, as the criminals don’t need to know any of the old, dirty, hands-on techniques such as lock-picking, dumpster diving, or any other evasive maneuvers to carry out a successful attack. However, this doesn’t mean that the old methods are completely defunct. Physical security is still an important facet of a complete security...

The Department of Defense (DoD) introduced the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) in 2019. This framework outlined a series of security standards contractors must meet to win DoD contracts, so it’s a big concern for many companies. However, four years later, the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification rollout has yet to take effect. Part of this delay comes from the fact that the...

An Application Programming Interface (API) is an essential and ubiquitous software that allows the exchange of information between day-to-day applications and processes, such as Software as a Service (SaaS) applications, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, universal profile login pages, and autonomous vehicles. APIs synchronize and maintain the data exchange between clients and servers, responding...

It’s no secret that the U.S. power grid is one of the main foundations of the nation’s economy, infrastructure, and daily way of life. Now that almost everything is digitized, it is hinging on it even more. We wouldn’t be able to use even most vending machines (not to mention cell towers or the internet) without a working electrical supply, and the importance of keeping it safe cannot be...

The Gramm-Leach Bliley Act (GLBA or GLB Act), or financial modernization act, is a bi-partisan federal regulation passed in 1999 to modernize the financial industry. It repealed vast swathes of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 and the Bank Holding Act of 1956 , allowing commercial banks to offer financial services such as investments or insurance. It also controls how financial institutions deal...

At the turn of the most recent century, the financial world was in a moment of unregulated growth, which lead to some serious corporate misdeeds in the United States. This presented the opportunity for two senators to enact a new law to ensure accurate and reliable financial reporting for public companies in the US. The result was the Sarbanes-Oxley Act ( SOX ) of 2002. But what does financial...

Elon Musk's ascension isn't the first thing to cause waves of scams on Twitter , and it certainly won't be the last. On July 20th of 2022, data belonging to over 5 million Twitter users was put up for sale on the internet underground for $30,000. The FTC reported that we've experienced a recent "gold mine for scammers" and the April bump to a 10,000-character limit (for Twitter Blue) only makes...

The NSA has published a guide about how to mitigate against attacks involving the BlackLotus bootkit malware, amid fears that system administrators may not be adequately protected against the threat. The BlackLotus UEFI bootkit made a name for itself in October 2022, when it was seen being sold on cybercrime underground forums for $5,000. The news sent a shiver down the spines of many in the...

Attackers always seek the easiest path to get into our systems and compromise data. System misconfigurations and insecure default settings are often the criminals' favorite vectors since these errors allow them easy access to critical systems and data. The rise of misconfiguration errors was primarily driven by cloud data storage implementations deployed without appropriate access controls...

In the early days of computer networking, the idea of restricted permissions was shunned. Network administrators could access every system in the environment. In some extreme cases, a CEO would demand full administrative access to a network, thinking that this would protect against a rogue employee. As you can imagine, this set up a point of failure beyond logic. Fortunately, this ideology of...