Passwords are dying as a sole security measure, particularly within financial services. It is widely expected (and in the UK, mandatory) that any institution responsible for finances, from banks to brokers and even crypto wallets, should be implementing multi factor authentication (MFA) to prevent fraudsters gaining access to accounts using automated attacks, even if they know the user’s password.

With the recent release of Sysmon (System Monitor) for Linux by Microsoft, new opportunities for monitoring, detection development, and defense are now possible. Sysmon for Windows is a very popular tool among detection developers and blue teamers as it provides extensive details from system activity and windows logs. Due to the extensive information this service/driver provides in Microsoft Windows, it is very useful when researching attacks and replicating malicious payloads on lab machines.

It would be hard to overstate the critical importance of security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) capabilities for the effective mission success of security operations centers (SOC). Without a solid SOAR capability in place, an SOC will be easily overwhelmed with routine and repetitive tasks that in and of themselves could become a vulnerability.

Following the 2021 cyberattack on Colonial Pipeline that caused a nationwide supply-chain disruption, numerous cybersecurity companies and federal agencies increased their efforts to find and shut down ransomware groups and curb the rise of cyberattacks. Those efforts have resulted in the shutdown of ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) groups such as DarkSide and REvil, which had been targeting critical infrastructure including healthcare providers of financial systems.

The year 2021 started off with organizations slowly reopening their doors and welcoming back their employees. This couldn’t happen overnight, of course. It meant devising new IT strategies to accommodate a hybrid workforce. Ensuring the organization’s business continuity is crucial for it’s sustenance, and this became the IT department’s primary mission.

Organizations need to stay ahead of the ever-evolving security landscape. It’s no secret that Zero Trust security is crucial for successful endpoint protection. Due to the rapid transition to a remote workforce and shift from the traditional data center into dynamic cloud infrastructure we’ve witnessed in the last year, more and more companies are finding the need to accelerate their digital transformation to keep pace with the expanding threat surface.

The unexpected and rapid switch from the global workforce to the WFH setup caused by the coronavirus pandemic has prompted companies around the world to make extensive infrastructure adjustments to support employees working exclusively from home. According to the new IDC forecast, the number of mobile workers in the US will steadily increase from 78.5 million in 2020 to 93.5 million in 2024 over the next four years.

It’s been a whirlwind year for Styra — from going fully remote as a company to raising $40 million in Series B Funding to more than doubling our workforce. We have a lot to be thankful for as a company, and before we say “goodbye” to 2021 and “hello'' to 2022, I wanted to take a moment to recap some of my favorite moments and initiatives of this past year.

Business security is often associated with larger companies where employees spend most of their time in front of computers. This stereotype can lead small business owners – especially ones outside the tech industry – to think they’ll never be targeted by hackers and don’t need to invest in security. It’s a mistake that cybercriminals are exploiting.

Malware targeting Linux-based operating systems, commonly deployed in Internet of Things (IoT) devices, have increased by 35% in 2021 compared to 2020, according to current CrowdStrike threat telemetry, with the top three malware families accounting for 22% of all Linux-based IoT malware in 2021.