Data is the lifeblood of organizations. It drives decision-making, fosters innovation, and underpins business operations. However, this wealth of data is scattered across multiple cloud platforms, making it an attractive target for cybercriminals, and rendering traditional approaches to data protection obsolete. This is where data-centric security comes into play. This article will explore the concept of data-centric security, why businesses need it, and the benefits it offers.

CISA sent out a warning about a Russian advanced persistent threat (APT) called Star Blizzard warning about their long-game social engineering tactics. They create fake email and social media accounts, contact their potential victims, talk about a non-threatening subject to gain the victim’s confidence, and wait to launch their malicious attack. I call this long-game social engineering.

Researchers at Nisos warn that North Korean threat actors are impersonating skilled job seekers in order to obtain remote employment at US companies. “The identified personas claim to have highly sought-after technical skills and experience and often represent themselves as U.S.-based teleworkers, but Nisos investigators found indications that they are based abroad,” the researchers write.

Analysis of nearly a year’s worth of emails brings insight into exactly what kinds of malicious content are being used, who’s being impersonated, and who’s being targeted. I love data built on statistically relevant data samples, as the larger the data set, the more relevant and representative of an entire industry, country, or world it is. One such report is Hornetsecurity’s just released Cyber Security Report 2024.

APT28 exploits a critical Outlook vulnerability, QR phishing campaigns grow more complex, and an SQL brute force attack results in BlueSky ransomware.

Ransomware as a Service (RaaS) is a business model in which cybercriminals develop and sell ransomware to buyers known as affiliates who use it to execute ransomware attacks. Ransomware is a type of malware that prevents users from accessing their data or devices by encrypting them and locking users out until a ransom is paid. Typically, cybercriminals need to know some coding to develop and execute ransomware attacks.

Identity-based threats specifically target the digital identities of individuals and the identity infrastructure of organizations.

Your data has left the premises. While virtual private networks (VPNs) used to be the go-to solution for extending access to private apps to remote users, they aren't a sufficient solution for securing a hybrid workforce. Because they place so much trust in users and devices, they end up granting overly permissive access to everything inside the perimeter, putting your data at risk.

Phishing, already a serious, ever-present threat, is getting even more pernicious thanks to ChatGPT, which enables threat actors to craft more realistic emails. Clearly, organizations need a way to fight back that recognizes the depth of the threat, including by employing managed detection and response services.

Personal information stored in business-owned accounts is a risk, especially when it contains vulnerabilities like weak or reused passwords.