Strong, resilient security operations require the proper melding of people, technology, and processes to achieve the goal of reducing the likelihood and impact of cyberthreats. The right security operations center (SOC) will strengthen the overall security resiliency of an organization. The wrong one will tax your team—leading to mistakes, breaches, and losses.

This is a follow-up to our previous blogposts covering the Log4j vulnerability and the Deep Scan tool we made available to help identify vulnerable systems. As we close the first month of 2022, we looked into the activity related to the Log4Shell vulnerability CVE-2021-44228 observed across our 2,3000+ customers. Many of you will empathize with the struggle to find all instances of the vulnerable Log4j component, especially at the scale that comes with having a large customer base.

The growing wave of cybercrime targets businesses in every industry, and law firms are no exception. With many unique cybersecurity risks, law firms are more onerous to secure than other organizations. In addition to having to fend off threats from cybercriminals, they must also overcome the threat posed by hacktivists and nation-states. Law firms are especially attractive to bad actors because attorneys need access to highly sensitive data to provide legal services.

How prepared is your business to fend of bad actors seeking to infiltrate your network systems and breach your data? Imagine, if you will, the following scenario: It’s 5:30 am, and an employee has just clicked a malicious link in a phishing email. An attacker, armed with ransomware, has just gained access to your enterprise.

The FBI recently warned and advised on a current scam in which bad actors mail malicious thumb drives in packages and trick recipients into thinking there is a legitimate reason for connecting the thumb drive to their computer. Let’s be clear. DON’T. Don’t stick that thing in your computer. You don’t know where it’s been!

Arctic Wolf joins the Gartner Peer Insights Customer First Program in the vulnerability assessment and managed detection and response service. The members of the Arctic Wolf team are excited to announce that we have pledged to be a Customer First vendor in the vulnerability assessment and managed detection and response service. Our team at Arctic Wolf takes great pride in this program commitment, as customer feedback continues to be a critical priority and shapes our products and services.

The oil and gas industry’s global supply chain uses a vast array of information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) systems. These systems require constant cybersecurity protection to ensure energy flows efficiently and productively around the world to meet global needs. Hackers know that IT and OT systems are often interdependent and closely linked. In fact, the recent Colonial Pipeline attack resulted from the successful breach of Colonial’s IT network.

Things tend to slow down for many businesses at the end of the year. As the holidays roll in and employees take time off with their families, December is generally a time to take stock of what transpired over the year and start looking ahead to the next one. Unfortunately, that’s not how cybercriminals operate.

For many organizations, cybersecurity is an overwhelming challenge. New threats emerge seemingly in the blink of an eye, and IT and security teams are constantly reacting to the moves of bad actors who always remain one or two steps ahead and get to dictate where and when their attacks are carried out. As you might expect, a reactionary approach to cybersecurity is not ideal. It’s typically borne of necessity due to undermanned teams or inadequate resources. Ultimately, it is destined to fail.