The term ransomware word perfectly captures the idea behind it, i.e. holding a computer system or software captive until a ransom is paid. Traditionally, attackers use ransomware to target individuals but things are different now.

The C-Suite and other senior executives are frequently the targets of cyberattacks. As the most visible members of an organization, executives have access to sensitive information, influence inside the organization and a public platform, making them valuable targets for cybercriminals. Organizations of all sizes need to actively reduce risk for senior management.

February 24, 2023 marks one year since Russia invaded Ukraine, starting a conflict that has killed more than 8,000, injured more than 13,300, and displaced more than 14 million people in the past year, according to the UN. Physical warfare between Ukraine and Russia has been accompanied by cyberwarfare between the two countries. This blog post focuses on cyberwar, particularly what we can learn from the past year.

Whether you realize it or not, service accounts represent a major risk to your data security. This article explains the fundamentals of service accounts and how attackers can exploit them so you can prevent yours from being compromised.

One year ago today, Russia launched a massive combined arms ground, air, and sea assault against Ukraine, including a large cyber component designed to sow confusion among Ukrainian authorities. At the first anniversary, the initial takeaway is the role played by cyber has not been as prominent as predicted for what has turned into the largest European land war since 1945. Russia and Ukraine are still actively using their cyber troops to conduct a variety of attacks against their foe.

Read also: GoDaddy reveals multi-year security breach, hackers targeted Asia-based data centers used by major global firms, and more.

Slowloris is a type of DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack that exploits web servers to handle incoming connections. In a Slowloris attack, the attacker sends many HTTP requests to the target web server, but unlike a regular DDoS attack, the requests are sent slowly over a long period of time. The attack sends incomplete HTTP requests to keep the connections open for as long as possible. The attacker then mimics this pattern by sending many incomplete requests to the server.

Social engineering cyberattacks play on the mind, manipulating emotions and engaging in deception to get victims to give up passwords, financial data, and other valuable information. According to Verizon's 2022 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), eight in 10 data breaches (82%) involve a human element. Alongside breaches caused by human error and malicious actions, this statistic also includes social engineering attacks.

The city government of Oakland has declared a state of emergency after it was hit by a ransomware attack. The attack, which began in the evening of February 8th, has forced the city to take all its IT systems offline, and has affected many non-emergency services, including the ability to collect payments, issue permits, and process reports.

Read also: Russian cybercriminal convicted in $90M hack-and-trade scheme, US and UK slap sanctions on 7 Russians tied to TrickBot cybercrime gang, and more.