Happy Earth Day from Opti9! As we celebrate mother nature and all she gives us, it’s crucial to reflect on how business operations impact the environment, specifically in terms of our IT infrastructure. The shift towards cloud computing stands out as a game-changer for eco-friendliness, making it one of the most sustainable things an organization can implement.

This is Part 8 in my ongoing project to cover 30 cybersecurity topics in 30 weekly blog posts. The full series can be found here. If your organization has computers, and I’m sure it does, then it's likely it has an Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solution installed. Since the capabilities of EDR solutions have changed over the years, it’s recommended to re-evaluate the solution’s features periodically to ensure it is up to date.

In April of 2024, the FBI released a warning that threat actors are sending SMS phishing, also known as smishing, messages to individuals pretending to be toll road operators messaging about unpaid toll fees. This kind of attack is a common one, and targets more than just individuals –— think the MGM resorts breach of 2023 that started with a phishing call to an IT professional and ended up costing the casino millions.

Identity theft and card fraud are the main concerns associated with using debit and credit cards. Like any financial instrument, credit and debit cards are susceptible to certain security threats that can compromise cardholders' information and lead to credit card fraud or debit card fraud. Common examples of such financial security threats include card theft, phishing, skimming, malware, card cloning, vishing, weak passwords/PINs, and social engineering.

From Uber in 2016 to Okta in 2023 to Sisense in 2024, it’s evident that there’s a pattern behind the tech industry’s most devastating breaches: Data sprawl. Let’s dive into how data sprawl played a part in last week’s Sisense breach, as well as how security teams can be proactive in defending against similar attacks.

Wallarm introduced its ongoing Open Source API Firewall project to the world at the recently concluded Blackhat Asia 2024 conference in Singapore. The open-source API Firewall by Wallarm is a free, lightweight API Firewall designed to protect REST and GraphQL API endpoints across cloud-native environments using API schema validation. By relying on a positive security model, our API Firewall only allows calls that match a predefined API specification while rejecting everything else.

Airbnb has brought a new paradigm to the hospitality industry. It has become the go-to platform for persons looking to make additional income with their properties and travelers looking for unique accommodation experiences away from home. However, this new model and its appeal have also attracted individuals looking to exploit the platform for fraud. Scams on Airbnb are becoming increasingly common, as both hosts and guests are not left out from becoming targets.

A new survey of physicians details the devastating impact of the Change Healthcare cyber attack on the healthcare sector. In February, a cyber attack on Change Healthcare brought much of the U.S. healthcare system to a halt. The revenue and payment cycle management provider is central to connecting payers, providers and patients within the U.S. healthcare system to ensure payments are made.

As the financial sector continues to adopt cloud technology, regulatory frameworks such as the updated NIS2 Directive and the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) are shaping the cybersecurity landscape. Every second counts in such a complex environment: attackers can move quickly in the cloud, so defenders must change their strategies and tools to keep up. The financial sector has always been a prime target for cyber attacks, with the average breach costing almost 6 million US dollars.

A malicious code, commonly known as malware is simply a software created to harm computer systems and applications, make changes to networks, and the victim completely unaware. Unlike accidental security flaws and applications’ configuration failures, which are occurring because of irrelevant mistakes like coding mistakes or other mistakes during development activities, deliberate code is purposely designed in order to cause some harm.