If your company is worried about the financial hit of paying a ransom to cybercriminals after a ransomware attack, wait until they find out the true cost of a ransomware attack. Because the total costs of recovering from the ransomware attack are likely to be much, much higher. That’s the finding of a new study by researchers at Check Point, who discovered that the average total cost of a ransomware attack is more than seven times higher than the average ransom paid.

We all know that it is a question of when you will be compromised and not if you will be compromised. It is unavoidable. The goal of CIS Control 17 is to ensure that you are set up for success when that inevitable breach occurs. If an organization is neither equipped nor prepared for that potential data breach, they are not likely to succeeded in responding to the threat.

It’s not often we can say this, but 2022 is shaping up to be an exciting time in information governance, especially for those interested in compliance and compliance frameworks. We started the year in eager anticipation of the new version of the international standard for information security management systems, ISO 27001:2022, soon to be followed by version 4.0 of the PCI DSS standard.

Remember how, just a few years ago, many organizations were striving to be cyber secure? Over the last years, it seemed that crowing about one’s cybersecurity posture became the very thing that mocked every organization that was the victim of a newsworthy compromise. Many organizations began augmenting their previously acclaimed security posture towards one of cyber resilience.

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a benchmark with tenure in the industry, with the first version being introduced in 2004. The PCI DSS was unique when it was introduced because of its prescriptive nature and its focus on protecting cardholder data. Cybersecurity is a changing landscape, and prescriptive standards must be updated to address those changes. The most recent update to the PCI DSS was in 2018, and the world has certainly changed since then.

Organizations are always concerned with improving efficiencies to make business flow smoother. Some of the biggest inefficiencies in any business revolve around time wasted on operational tasks. Whether it is a stale accounting process, or something as trivial as routing phone calls to the proper department, saving time by improving a process can mean more profits, which is what business is all about.

For most organizations, Security Operations Center (SOC) teams have long since been their first line of defense. These SOC systems efficiently ensure robust cybersecurity and are designed to detect, analyze, respond to, and prevent any cybersecurity incident that the organization might come across. Integrating a SOC within an organization aims to improve its cybersecurity posture, using a blend of state-of-the-art technology and skilled professionals.

Sometimes referred to as Sodinokibi, the notorious REvil ransomware-as-a-service (RAAS) enterprise was responsible for a series of high profile attacks against the likes of the world’s biggest meat supplier JBS Foods and IT service firm Kaseya. However, it looked like its activities had come to a halt after law enforcement agencies pushed REvil offline in October 2021, and Russia reportedly arrested 14 of the gang’s members earlier this year.

The way in which we interact with applications has changed dramatically over years. Enterprises use applications in day-to-day operations to manage their most sensitive data and control access to system resources. Instead of traversing a labyrinth of networks and systems, attackers today see an opening to turn an organizations applications against it to bypass network security controls and compromise sensitive data.

Compliance should be an essential part of business operations, regardless of industry. Taking preventative measures to manage compliance and mitigate risk can feel like a hassle upfront, but it can save your organisation huge costs in the long run. Compliance violations can result in fines, penalties, lawsuits, loss of reputation, and more. However, your efforts should not stop at obtaining a compliance certificate, rather they should expand to accelerate your cybersecurity posture.

Telecommunication is the first, and most robust network ever invented. This may seem like a brazen and bold statement, but when examined closely, it is not the stuff of fantasy. Prior to the invention and development of the internet, what other way could a person pick up a device, and “dial” a few numbers and end up seamlessly connected to someone across the vast expanse of a countryside?

A recent survey conducted by IBM and Censuswide of the UK market explored some of the drivers for modernisation and revealed some interesting challenges that organisations currently face as more and more businesses expand their digital boundaries.

When you read your favorite cybersecurity blog, do you often wonder what it would be like to sit down with the authors and get their real thoughts about some of the topics they write about? Most blogs and articles are so carefully curated, edited, fact-checked, and linked to supporting evidence that they can seem somewhat stilted, and worse, heavily contrived. Perhaps this is why meeting some of the speakers and authors at public events is so much fun.

Agencies of the US Government have issued a joint warning that hackers have revealed their capability to gain full system access to industrial control systems that might help enemy states sabotage critical infrastructure.

There’s a saying in the cybersecurity community which states that just because you are compliant doesn’t mean that you are secure. Over the years, many images have been used to illustrate the point. One memorable image is that of a nude bicyclist wearing a helmet. By all standards, that is the epitome of “compliant, but not secure”. Many organizations have shifted the focus away from merely achieving compliance, to being both compliant and secure.

With the CIA Triad, confidentiality commands much of the attention. Organizations fret over the unauthorized disclosure of their data, so they try to reduce the risks of that type of an incident. In so doing, however, enterprises commonly overlook the other two, integrity in particular. Ron Ross, a fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), thinks it’s a mistake for organizations to forget about integrity.

To say that data governance and data compliance are rapidly becoming areas of immense strategic importance for businesses would be an understatement. Governments worldwide already have data protection laws in place or are busy drafting these laws. Moreover, users have become increasingly aware and educated about their rights online, especially regarding what data businesses can collect about them.

A new report, which surveyed 1200 IT security professionals in 17 countries around the world, has shone a light on a dramatic rise in the number of organisations willing to pay ransoms to extortionists. The ninth annual Cyberthreat Defense Report (CDR), produced by CyberEdge Group, shows that not only has there been a substantial increase in the percentage of companies that pay ransoms, but the average size of ransomware payments also increased significantly.

In recent years, cyber espionage has been growing in magnitude and complexity. One of the most common targets is Industrial Control Systems (ICS) within critical infrastructure sectors. With many organizations relying more heavily on ICS networks, there has been an increase in threats and cyberattacks aimed at these systems. Not only do these attacks have an economic impact, but they also put national security at risk.

What does the term “Legacy Systems” mean to you? What image does it conjure up? Well, the word “legacy” can mean “something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past.” For example, the “legacy of the ancient philosophers”, or perhaps “legacy of ancient IT professionals.” A legacy is something that is passed from one generation to the next.

Environmental sustainability has become a significant concern for businesses today. Yet, many are not seeing the connection between sustainability efforts and cybersecurity. Despite how different they may seem, these two topics are intertwined. If environmental services and infrastructure don’t embrace better security, the consequences could be severe. If organizations hope to make a positive environmental impact, they need thorough, reliable cybersecurity.

To put the impact of cybercrime into perspective, let’s examine some important, and startling, numbers: Data breach costs increased from $3.86 million to $4.24 million in 2021. Every 39 seconds, there is an attack. About 90% of healthcare organizations have fallen victim to at least one breach within the past three years. The bottom line? Cyberattacks are frequent and costly, and COVID-19 has only fueled the fire with more employers adopting a remote work structure.