Organizational leaders have generally viewed cybersecurity as a costly yet essential business function and recognize that Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and other cyber leaders make strategic decisions to safeguard the company's digital assets. Still, until recently, these higher-level executives have never sought to make sense of the technical cyber activities in a broader business context, believing their value to be too complex to discern. ‍

What are some of the worries that keep compliance professionals up at night? For one, stressful stakeholder meetings and keeping abreast of the latest regulatory requirements. So is reporting bad news to the board or senior management, certainly. Another nagging worry for many: Despite your best efforts, you may “misreport” an issue – not report it completely or accurately.

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) sets standards to keep the global payment card ecosystem trustworthy. Developed and maintained by the PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC), PCI DSS is meant to secure debit and credit card transactions to prevent cybersecurity issues like data theft or fraud. Any merchant or business that accepts customer payment cards and processes this data must comply with PCI DSS requirements.

My journey to finding Kovrr had been packed with headaches and puzzles that many CISOs still face today. Within a few short years of being the CISO at Avid, a content-creation software provider, I managed to implement tighter security controls and develop a framework that enabled objective progress measurement. ‍ However, I constantly faced an impasse when attempting to communicate these achievements with the board.

One study found that 65% of SaaS applications in use are unsanctioned. And 59% of IT professionals find SaaS sprawl challenging to manage. In other words, shadow IT risks are growing—but that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to hidden risks across today’s expanding attack surface. Missed software patches, outdated certificates, and stealth malware are some examples. Many security teams still struggle to keep their networks safe from ever-growing digital supply chains.

Data lineage and data provenance are related terms, but different. Lineage focuses on the origins and movements of data over time, while provenance focuses on the transformations and derivations of data from original sources. Provenance helps teams to follow the source of data and verify its authenticity, surfacing any potential risks or vulnerabilities. In other words, lineage is more about “where” data travels, and provenance is more about the “what” of data history.

As part of our effort to make the world safer, SecurityScorecard has been tracking threat actor groups conducting cyberattacks on behalf of nation states.

In working with customers across different enterprises and experiencing it myself, the challenges in managing vulnerabilities effectively are felt. Drawing from the insights of customers and my experiences, I’ve learned much about using Service Level Agreements (SLAs) in the vulnerability remediation process.

The annual doctor wellness check always interests me. It’s generally the same routine every year: The doctor and I exchange pleasantries. She asks about any noticeable health changes while looking in my ears with that cool little penlight. If I’m lucky, she uses the mini-hammer to see how high my leg kicks after a gentle knee tap (I just love that for some reason). But it’s all a bit of a show, isn’t it?

In the cyber age, data has become nearly as valuable as oil. While this market shift offers many new learning and growth opportunities for professionals across industries, the immeasurable amount of data is often quite overwhelming to non-analysts, leaving them feeling more lost than when they began their inquiries. ‍ This situation often rings true for cybersecurity leaders tasked with protecting an organization's digital assets against attacks and increasingly malicious actors.