Social Engineering

The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a comprehensive report in late September 2022 that discussed the need for dedicated privacy leadership within the departments and agencies of the executive branch of government if goals surrounding privacy are to be achieved. The report highlighted how this void in leadership was in essence putting at risk well-intentioned plans and procedures for protecting the personal identifiable information (PII) held within those entities. The GAO recommended that Congress…

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Cybersecurity vendor Netacea has announced the launch of a new Business Logic Intelligence Service (BLIS) designed to give customers actionable insight to help them tackle malicious bot activity and security threats. The firm said that the tiered, fee-based service will provide organizations with bot threat intelligence based on research including analysis of dark web forums and marketplaces. Earlier this year, the 2022 Imperva Bad Bot Report revealed an uptick in malicious bot activity driving online…

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Passwords have always been a pain point in securing computing infrastructure. Complexity and length are key components of a strong password, but both make it inherently difficult for a human to remember. Additionally, passwords should be changed periodically, fine when you’re working with a handful of devices, but when your network is distributed geographically with hundreds, or thousands of computers things get more complex. Fortunately, Microsoft has had a solution to this problem in the…

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The OpenSSL project released a patch for two high severity vulnerabilities in the world’s most widely used cryptographic library. The project’s maintainers warned users since last week to prepare for a critical patch on November 1, but the severity has since been downgraded following additional testing. Organizations should still determine which of their applications and servers are impacted and deploy the patches as soon as possible. The vulnerabilities affect all versions of OpenSSL 3.0, which…

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Organizations of every shape, size, and sector have embraced open-source software (OSS). The financial, medical, and manufacturing industries – and even national security – now use OSS to power their most critical applications and activities. However, this widespread adoption comes with pitfalls: a corresponding increase of almost 800% in software supply chain attacks according to the State of the Software Supply Chain from Sonatype. With the rapid growth of OSS adoption, organizations have begun to…

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Engineering workstation compromises were the initial attack vector in 35% of all operational technology (OT) and industrial control system breaches in companies surveyed globally this year, doubling from the year earlier, according to research conducted by the SANS Institute and sponsored by Nozomi Networks. While the number of respondents who said they had experienced a breach in their OT/ICS systems during the last 12 months dropped to 10.5% (down from 15% in 2021), one third…

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Last week, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released voluntary cross-sector Cybersecurity Performance Goals (CPGs). CISA was required to produce the CPGs under a national security memo on improving cybersecurity for critical infrastructure control systems issued by President Biden in July 2021. Working in coordination with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the interagency community, CISA developed “baseline cybersecurity performance goals that are consistent across all critical infrastructure sectors.” CISA…

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Does your company have a travel policy that instructs and supports employees traveling internationally for business with direction regarding comportment and cooperation? This isn’t a trick question. To have a travel program that provides employees with anticipated scenarios, and to provide them with unique devices for international travel, is a significant investment of resources both physical and monetary. The revelation that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) routinely downloads the content of devices of individuals…

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Email security and threat detection company Vade has found that phishing emails in the third quarter this year increased by more than 31% quarter on quarter, with the number of emails containing malware in the first three quarters surpassing the 2021 level by 55.8 million. Malware emails in the third quarter of 2022 alone increased by 217% compared to same period in 2021. Malware email volume peaked in July, reaching 19.2 million, before month-over-month declines…

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The number of cybersecurity mergers and acquisitions deals in 2021 set a record pace. The first three quarters of the year saw 151 transactions in the industry, according to 451 Research. That’s up from 94 for the same period in 2020. That trend is likely to continue in 2022. Many of the 2021 transactions CSO reported were in the identity and cloud security markets, especially toward the end of the year. This trend is likely…

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