The faulty Rapid Response Content CrowdStrike update that disabled millions of Windows machines across the globe on 7/19/2024 was any IT professional’s nightmare. Having to manually visit and restore each affected machine (further complicated by BitLocker) severely limited the recovery speed, especially for businesses with remote locations, TVs, kiosks, etc.

Everybody wants to have a more secure network – and everybody has various tools at their disposal to at least improve the security of their network. But which tool is the best for the job, and where do you start? The answer to this question is somewhat easier (and more structured) for organizations that have to adhere to compliance frameworks (ISO, CMMC, PCI, SOC, …), but a little harder for business that have no such requirements.

It was almost exactly 10 years ago in December 2013 that we wrote our first blog post about detecting CryptoLocker, which was the first sophisticated Ransomware attack of its kind back then. BTW, 2013 was the year of the Boston Marathon bombing, Edward Snowden leaking secret NSA information, Syrians fleeing their home country and Nelson Mandela passing away.

Anybody who monitors logs of any kinds, knows that the extracting useful information from the gigabytes of data being collected remains one of the biggest challenges. One of the more important metrics to keep an eye on are all sorts of logons that occur in your network – especially if they originate on the Internet – such as VPN logins.

So, here’s the deal with AntiVirus software these days: It’s mostly playing catch-up with super-fast athletes — the malware guys. Traditional AV software is like old-school detectives who need a picture (or, in this case, a ‘signature’) of the bad guys to know who they’re chasing. The trouble is, these malware creators are quite sneaky — constantly changing their look and creating new disguises faster than AntiVirus can keep up with their photos.

We’re extremely excited to announce the availability of the EventSentry v5.1, which will detect threats and suspicious behavior more effectively – while also providing users with additional reports and dashboards for CMMC and TISAX compliance. The usability of EventSentry was also improved across the board, making it easier to use, manage and maintain EventSentry on a day-by-day basis. We also released 60+ training videos to help you get started and take EventSentry to the next level.

The System Administrator! AKA the Sysadmin. The keeper of the network, computers – well basically all things technology. The one who is hated for imposing complex passwords and other restrictions, but taken for granted when everything works well. They are the first to be called when “facebuuk.com” reports: “domain does not exist”.

File Integrity Monitoring, aka as FIM, is a must-have feature for anyone in charge of security. With FIM, one can detect when a critical file, such as a file that belongs to the Operating System, or a key configuration file, is changed. In most cases, configuring FIM is straightforward: If the file changes then generate an alert.

I think we’ve all been there before – you log on to a server remotely via RDP, and do the needful – but don’t immediately log off. But then you get distracted by a phone call, an email, a chat, or a good old-fashioned physical interaction with another human being. So when it comes time clock out for the night, you shut down your computer or log off. Or maybe you’ve been working on a laptop and your VPN got interrupted.

Just when the Microsoft Exchange exploit CVE-2021-26855 thought it would win the “Exploit of the year” award, it got unseated by the – still evolving – Log4J exploit just weeks before the end of the year! Had somebody asked Sysadmins in November what Log4J was then I suspect that the majority would have had no idea. It seems that the biggest challenge the Log4J exploit poses for Sysadmins is simply the fact that nobody knows all the places where Log4J is being used.