Do you know what “fangxiao” means in simplified Chinese? Before you Google it, let me tell you that it stands for “imitate” and this is exactly what Fangxiao phishing campaign actors try to do – imitate and exploit the reputation of international, trusted brands by promising financial or physical incentives to trick victims into further spreading...

In response to increasing societal concerns about the way businesses store, process, and protect the sensitive data they collect from their customers, governments and standardization organizations have enacted a patchwork of regulations and laws. Some of these are generic regulations (CCPA, GDPR), while others are industry specific (SOX, NERC, HIPAA...

PC manufacturer Lenovo has been forced to push out a security update to more than two dozen of its laptop models, following the discovery of high severity vulnerabilities that could be exploited by malicious hackers. Security researchers at ESET discovered flaws in 25 of its laptop models - including IdeaPads, Slims, and ThinkBooks - that could be...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a trending topic for many industries now. A variety of organizations currently employ AI mechanisms to support their operational functions. Automated tasks, natural language processing, deep learning, and problem-solving; such AI characteristics have made business tasks much easier. The factor of security in AI is...

The Cross-Sector Cybersecurity Performance Goals (CPGs) are a new baseline released jointly by CISA, NIST, and the interagency community, with a goal of providing consistency across all critical infrastructure. The primary webpage for these goals gives us a great understanding of what they are (and are not). It is worth delving into those specifics...

Cybersecurity, like broader technological disciplines, is an ever-changing landscape that industry professionals must adapt to. The zero-trust model of cybersecurity has grown recently as organizations update their security practices to keep pace with, and stay ahead of evolving threats. Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) increased by 230% from 2019...

Today’s VERT Alert addresses Microsoft’s November 2022 Security Updates. VERT is actively working on coverage for these vulnerabilities and expects to ship ASPL-1029 on Wednesday, November 9th. In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEs CVE-2022-41091 This vulnerability allows a malicious individual to bypass Mark of the Web. Mark of the Web is what is used to...

Change detection is easy. What is not so easy, is reconciling change. Change reconciliation is where most organizations stumble. What was the change? When was it made? Who made it? Was it authorized? The ability to answer these questions are the elements that comprise change management. Historically, the haste of accomplishing a task consisted of...

Have you ever walked up to an ATM after another person finished with the machine only to find they left it on a prompt screen asking, “Do you want to perform another transaction?” I have. Of course, I did the right thing and closed out their session before beginning my own transaction. That was a mistake an individual made by careless error which...

As the healthcare industry becomes more digitally inclined, there’s a need for systems to be put in place to avoid breaches in the security of data records. Most healthcare organizations are already embracing the DevOps (Development and Operations) model, but unfortunately, security seems to be neglected, resulting in data breaches and numerous...

The third quarter saw some major developments across the privacy space. In the U.S., we saw a federal bill for comprehensive privacy achieve more than ever before, children’s privacy proved to remain a top concern, and the Federal Trade Commission formally began its heavily criticized “Magnuson-Moss rulemaking” process. Not to be outdone, the...

As everyone has surely heard by now, Elon Musk has bought Twitter. The controversial tech maverick's takeover of the site has caused some consternation for the site's users, employees, and advertisers - and has also proven a golden opportunity for scammers. Numerous verified Twitter users have reported receiving phishing emails from fraudsters,...

Every year has been an unfortunate year for online privacy for the past few years. Data breaches and social engineering attacks are at an all-time high, and the concept of online data privacy is challenged to its core, with millions of users being affected every month. IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report highlighted that the average data breach cost...

If you’re not aware already, then be prepared for change, because a new version of ISO27001 was published in October 2022! It’s all very exciting! The last change to the standard was in 2017. The changes made back then were fundamentally cosmetic, with a few minor tweaks to wording. The changes barely caused a ripple and, even today, organisations...

The supply chain is a complex environment that goes deep inside a business and involves the majority of its infrastructure, operations, personnel, and outer relations: vendors, partners, and customers. To protect that matrix is extremely difficult, as there are numerous sensitive nodes, lines, and processes that a security team has to take care of:...

LinkedIn says it is beefing up its security in an attempt to better protect its user base from fraudulent activity.

October is “Cybersecurity Awareness Month,” a time when cybersecurity specialists everywhere push hard to get the message out that cybersecurity is important.

If you were to take a look at the cybersecurity news cycle, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it’s only large enterprises with expansive customer bases and budgets that are the most vulnerable to attacks. But that’s not entirely true. Even if it’s at a much smaller scale, small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) still have stores of sensitive...

The NIST Cybersecurity Framework was meant to be a dynamic document that is continuously revised, enhanced, and updated. These upgrades allow the Framework to keep up with technological and threat developments, incorporate lessons learned, and transform best practices into standard procedures. NIST created the Framework in 2014 and updated it with...

In the past, teams incorporated security testing far after the development stage of the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC). Security testing would influence whether the application would to proceed to production, or get passed back to the developers for remediation. This process caused delays while teams worked on remediation or, worse yet, it...