Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

February 2021

What is Social Engineering?

The phrase “social engineering” sounds innocuous — but, this approach to hacking threatens organizations of all sizes. Social engineering may be an unfamiliar term, but the attacks that fall under this category are well-known. For instance, phishing attacks and ransomware attacks have seen massive increases in the last year. By some estimates, ransomware is up 700% and phishing campaigns are up over 200%.

How to prevent supply chain attacks with an Assume Breach mentality

Supply chain attacks are on the rise, yet few businesses are equipped to face this threat. This could be due to a growing despondency towards cybersecurity in light of the SolarWinds attack. If the nation-state hackers were sophisticated enough to bypass highly-secure Government agency critical infrastructures, how could any organization prevent a supply chain attack? The answer is a change of mindset - don't assume a supply chain attack might occur, assume it will occur.

XSS Attack Examples and Mitigations

Cross-site scripting (XSS) is an attack that allows JavaScript from one site to run on another. XSS is interesting not due to the technical difficulty of the attack but rather because it exploits some of the core security mechanisms of web browsers and because of its sheer pervasiveness. Understanding XSS and its mitigations provides substantial insight into how the web works and how sites are safely (and unsafely) isolated from each other.

Public Documents and Attack Reconnaissance | UpGuard Summit February 2021

The most frequently used types of documents are often the least monitored, and most vulnerable to opening the door to a cyber attack. Join UpGuard's VP of CyberResearch, Greg Pollock, as he discusses these problems and more. Greg gives us insights into UpGuard's recent into public document vulnerabilities.

The Rise of Software Supply Chain Attacks

Software supply chain attacks are back in the news. Last week, security researcher Alex Birsan executed a novel attack against Microsoft, Apple, PayPal, Shopify, Netflix, Tesla, Yelp, and Uber by leveraging a design flaw in automated build and installation tools. Along with the recent SolarWinds breach, this most recent attack is renewing attention on software supply chain security.

Cyberattack on Florida's water treatment plant: What it means to global organizations

The recent news of a cyberattack on a water treatment plant carried out by a remote perpetrator came as a shock to organizations around the world. Earlier this month, an unauthorized threat actor had remotely accessed the plant’s control systems via TeamViewer and used it to increase the amount of sodium hydroxide (lye) in water to dangerously higher levels.

Biggest Cyber Attacks of 2020 & What We Can Learn From Them

There’s no doubt that the internet has made almost every element of our lives easier. Virtually everything now has an online presence, from multi-national social media goliaths to your local bakery. Though this has its advantages, it also creates risk. Convenience comes at a cost, and all too often consumers and businesses alike don’t pay enough attention to cyber security until it’s too late.

How to Mitigate DDoS Attacks with Log Analytics

Is your organization prepared to mitigate Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against mission-critical cloud-based applications? A DDoS attack is a cyber attack that uses bots to flood the targeted server or application with junk traffic, exhausting its resources and disrupting service for real human users. DDoS attacks are on the rise, with over 4.83 million attacks reported in the first half of 2020 - an increase of more than 250% compared to the same period in 2019.

Card-Not-Present fraud (CNP): Five things retailers can do to protect themselves from CNP attacks

Cybercriminals have been well ahead of the curve when it comes to cybersecurity in the online retail industry. Specifically, criminals have been exploiting changes in purchasing behavior that favor online transactions and adapting their methods to take advantage of the authentication challenges arising when a card is not present (CNP) at the time of the transaction.

The Tactics and Techniques of Mid-Tier Adversaries, Described in 3 Attacks

When it comes to cyber security, attackers seem to be classified as terrifying Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) or trivialised as Script Kiddies. However, more often than not, the attackers that are actually faced lie somewhere in the middle; the not-so-advanced yet somewhat-persistent threat. Their attacks are often detected but can be difficult to unravel. Their Tactics, Techniques and Procedures do not include any zero-days, but still they manage to show ingenuity.