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The K-12 Report: A Cybersecurity Assessment of the 2021-2022 School Year

Image The K-12 Report breaks down the cyber risks faced by public schools across the country and is sponsored by the CIS (Center for Internet Security) and the MS-ISAC (Multi-State Information Sharing & Analysis Center). Published “to prepare K-12 leaders with the information to make informed decisions around cyber risk”, the report...
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FTC accuses payments firm of knowingly assisting tech support scammers

Multinational payment processing firm Nexway has been rapped across the knuckles by the US authorities, who claim that the firm knowingly processed fraudulent credit card payments on behalf of tech support scammers. A Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaint argues that Nexway and its subsidiaries broke the law by helping scammers cheat money from unsuspecting consumers. ...
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Electrical Grid Security: NERC CIP, Cyber Threats and Key Challenges

Image Electrical grid security has been getting a lot of attention recently. It started fairly quietly, and then when it was a featured story on a news program, it rose to the top of the collective consciousness. However, the news stories that followed were focused entirely on the physical vulnerabilities of the US power grids. Few,...
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EPA Has ‘New Rules’ for Protecting Public Drinking Water

Image The EPA isn't mincing words when it comes to protecting public drinking water. Earlier this month they released a memorandum putting specifics into the general advice to maintain cybersecurity at public water systems (PWSs). Per the report, “[The] EPA clarifies with this memorandum that states must evaluate the cybersecurity of...
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A Day in the Life of a SOC Team

Image This piece was originally published on Fortra’s AlertLogic.com Blog. Managed detection and response (MDR) would be nothing without a SOC (security operations center). They’re on the frontline of our clients’ defenses — a living, breathing layer of intelligence and protection to complement our automated cybersecurity features....
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Fortra: Your Cybersecurity Ally

Image It was just a short time ago that Fortra came into being, as the new face of HelpSystems. Fortra is a company that combines a group of cybersecurity products and services into one portfolio. As with all acquisitions, many customers wondered what benefits this would bring to the Tripwire product line. We took the opportunity to...
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What Is Microsegmentation and 5 Compelling Security Use Cases

Image What Is Microsegmentation? Microsegmentation is a security technique that partitions a network into small, isolated sections to reduce the attack surface and reduce an organizations risk. Each microsegment is typically defined by specific security policies, accessible only to authorized users and devices. Microsegmentation is...
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Glamourizing fraudsters hurts victims of fraud, and society

Image We seem to be fascinated by fraudsters, and recent documentaries prove this. The documentary landscape is populated with many fraud-centered stories, such as The Tinder Swindler, Fyre, The Con, Fake Heiress, The Inventor, and many others. Some have even been made into series, such as the story of Elisabeth Holmes in The Dropout,...
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The U.S. Army Is Revamping Its Cybersecurity Approach

Image Military cybersecurity operations are shifting to a digital battlefield, where tools and technology work to save lives and increase efficiency. With these advancements comes the increased need for resilient measures to meet the needs of soldiers, leadership, and civilians alike. A ransomware attack rocked the U.S. Marshals...
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Tripwire’s Vulnerability Exposure Research Team (VERT): What you need to know

Image Each month, at the State of Security, we publish a range of content provided by VERT. Whether it’s a round-up of all the latest cybersecurity news, our Patch Priority Index that helps guide administrators on what they should be patching , a book review, general musings from the team, or most notability our Patch Tuesday round-up...
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CISA Publishes Advisory on Improving Network Monitoring and Hardening

Image CISA released in late February a cybersecurity advisory on the key findings from a recent Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) red team assessment to provide organizations recommendations for improving their cyber posture. According to the Agency, the necessary actions to harden their environments include...
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VERT Threat Alert: April 2023 Patch Tuesday Analysis

Image   Today’s VERT Alert addresses Microsoft’s April 2023 Security Updates. VERT is actively working on coverage for these vulnerabilities and expects to ship ASPL-1050 on Wednesday, April 12th. In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEs CVE-2023-28252 A vulnerability in the Common Log File System (CLFS) Driver has been exploited in-the-wild....
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30 Ransomware Prevention Tips

Image Dealing with the aftermath of ransomware attacks is like Russian roulette. Submitting the ransom might seem like it’s the sole option for recovering locked data. Ransomware also continues to evolve as a threat category within the past year, with old names like REvil rearing their heads and new players like Black Basta emerging...
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Securing your Digital Life: MFA, Password Managers and Risk

Image In security, there are always tensions; the balancing act between security, convenience, and functionality. While these three, often competing interests cause many people to become frustrated, there are some simple steps that can ease the security struggle: Any Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is better than no MFA. Any...
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Tripwire Patch Priority Index for March 2023

Image Tripwire's March 2023 Patch Priority Index (PPI) brings together important vulnerabilities for Google and Microsoft. First on the patch priority list this month is a patch for Microsoft Office Outlook that resolves a critical elevation of privilege vulnerability (CVE-2023-23397) that should be patched as soon as possible. This...