Organizations must navigate myriad security threats. While many cyber threats come from malicious actors outside the organization, insider threats can be even more devastating to a business. Insider threat prevention should be a top priority for security teams. But what are these cyber attacks, and what do they teach us about how to protect critical assets? Here, we examine several real-world examples of insider threats at major organizations and what those organizations did to remediate the threat.

There were nearly 29,000 vulnerabilities published in 2023, amounting to over 3,800 more common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) being issued last year than in 2022. More troubling than the sheer volume of vulnerabilities in 2023 is that over half of them were given a CVSS score indicating high or critical severity — an increase of 57% YoY.

As Windows organizations migrate toward cloud-based environments, they often lose context of their full stack. In addition to securing their on-premises servers, they now need to deal with virtual servers, managed services, and platform-as-a-service offerings. Cloud-based resources require organizations to relinquish control over physical infrastructure and limit their access to underlying operating systems.

This question came up at a GDPR event at which I recently spoke. Most of the attendees were from their respective Legal, GRC, or CISO offices; a legally astute, but also a very technical audience. One of the speakers who went up before I did, brought this up – as he was trying to draw the distinction between different types of cyber threats.

Privileged Access Management (PAM) protects an organization’s most critical systems and accounts from unauthorized access, making it important to have a good PAM strategy in place. Some of the best practices to develop a good PAM strategy include implementing least privilege access, monitoring privileged accounts, adopting password security best practices, requiring multi-factor authentication and auditing privileges regularly.

As cyber threats continue to evolve and become more sophisticated, businesses must stay one step ahead in protecting their sensitive data and network infrastructure. Penetration testing is an essential tool in this ongoing battle. Penetration testing – also known as pen testing or ethical hacking – is a controlled approach to identifying vulnerabilities in an organisation’s computer systems, through simulated attacks.

Linux and Unix admins are accustomed to using Open Secure Shell (OpenSSH) to connect to servers because it has been included in those systems for decades. Windows users, on the other hand, have traditionally had to download third-party tools like Putty or WinSCP to utilize SSH capabilities. However, that changed when OpenSSH became available as an optional feature in Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019.

Microsoft Teams has seen a remarkable surge in popularity and usage post-pandemic. With 320 million+ users spanning more than 1 million organizations, it serves as an important tool to keep teams connected and foster productivity. While MS Teams excels in real-time collaboration, conversational channels, online meetings, and video calls, it grapples with file management and accessibility stemming from its inherent design and architecture.