As attacks grow increasingly unpredictable and complex, cybersecurity defense requires much more than a basic strategy; it demands a proactive approach that anticipates the adversary's every move. Many MSPs entrusted with this critical mission by customers must equip themselves with the right technologies that prevent, detect, and respond to potential attacks and adapt as environments and organizational needs change.

Following the emergence of data-leak sites (DLSs) for extortion groups Kairos, Chort, and Termite, Cyjax has observed the emergence of a Tor-based site belonging to a new French-speaking Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) operation called ’ContFR’. ContFR is potentially referencing well-known ransomware group Conti, whilst incorporating a reference to France.

The United States, is a prime target for cyber attacks. The U.S. retail sector, which holds nearly one-third of the global market share, has seen a significant rise in ransomware incidents, accounting for 45% of global retail ransomware cases in the past three quarters—a 9% increase from 2023. New groups like Ransomhub and Hunters have emerged and supply chain threats have increased. Social engineering tactics are on the rise, with attackers impersonating IT personnel.

A lot goes into deciding what to buy during the holiday shopping season – shipping times, sale prices, and finding the perfect gift for your niece (who is impossible to shop for) are likely to be at the top of your mind. Unfortunately, attackers are counting on that. An attacker’s best friend is urgency and Black Friday kicks off a perfect season for them.

The first segment of this series highlighted anomaly detection and behavioral analytics for an early warning system regarding suspicious activities. But it is very important for mature adversaries for security teams to have tools in an arsenal to maintain the front-foot position.

Read also: Bitfinex hacker sentenced to 5 years in prison for the largest crypto heist in history, five Scattered Spider members indicted in the US, and more.

Gal Peretz is Head of AI & Data at Torq. Gal accelerates Torq’s AI and data initiatives, applying his deep learning and natural language processing expertise to advance AI-powered security automation. He also co-hosts the LangTalks podcast, which discusses the latest AI and LLM technologies. To stay ahead of today’s threats, you must do more than keep pace — you need to equip your team with tools that enable smarter, faster responses.

As the threat landscape evolves alongside organizations’ move toward digital-first operations and cloud-based applications, part of a robust cybersecurity strategy becomes not just preventing attacks but knowing how best to respond if and when one occurs. That response, specifically digital forensics incident response (DFIR), is the key to mitigating and recovering from a cyber incident.

In an era where data breaches, privacy violations, and regulatory fines dominate headlines, the need for robust privacy engineering has never been more critical. Yet, despite its growing prominence, privacy engineering is failing to meet the demands of businesses and consumers alike. To understand why, let’s explore what privacy engineering is, the challenges it faces, why its current state is insufficient, and the transformative shift needed to make it truly effective.

Black Friday may be the pinnacle of the holiday shopping season, a day when online retailers experience unprecedented traffic and revenue opportunities as consumers kick off the Christmas season. For many retailers, it’s a make-or-break event. Yet, with increased traffic comes increased risk, particularly as it relates to cybersecurity and keeping shoppers safe from fraud stemming from a cyberattack on their favorite digital store.