Most data crimes are the result of online compromises. This makes sense, as the criminals don’t need to know any of the old, dirty, hands-on techniques such as lock-picking, dumpster diving, or any other evasive maneuvers to carry out a successful attack. However, this doesn’t mean that the old methods are completely defunct. Physical security is still an important facet of a complete security program.

The FFIEC Cybersecurity Assessment Tool (CAT) is a diagnostic test designed to help institutions identify risks and gauge cybersecurity preparedness. The tool is primarily for financial and non-depository institutions, enabling organizations to make risk-driven security decisions informed by regular cybersecurity assessments and standardized risk measurement criteria.

An Application Programming Interface (API) is an essential and ubiquitous software that allows the exchange of information between day-to-day applications and processes, such as Software as a Service (SaaS) applications, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, universal profile login pages, and autonomous vehicles. APIs synchronize and maintain the data exchange between clients and servers, responding to each request.

The Department of Defense (DoD) introduced the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) in 2019. This framework outlined a series of security standards contractors must meet to win DoD contracts, so it’s a big concern for many companies. However, four years later, the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification rollout has yet to take effect. Part of this delay comes from the fact that the DoD has revamped the CMMC.

The Gramm-Leach Bliley Act (GLBA or GLB Act), or financial modernization act, is a bi-partisan federal regulation passed in 1999 to modernize the financial industry. It repealed vast swathes of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 and the Bank Holding Act of 1956, allowing commercial banks to offer financial services such as investments or insurance. It also controls how financial institutions deal with their customer's private information.

It’s no secret that the U.S. power grid is one of the main foundations of the nation’s economy, infrastructure, and daily way of life. Now that almost everything is digitized, it is hinging on it even more. We wouldn’t be able to use even most vending machines (not to mention cell towers or the internet) without a working electrical supply, and the importance of keeping it safe cannot be understated. Thankfully, a lot of positive changes have already been made.

Elon Musk's ascension isn't the first thing to cause waves of scams on Twitter, and it certainly won't be the last. On July 20th of 2022, data belonging to over 5 million Twitter users was put up for sale on the internet underground for $30,000. The FTC reported that we've experienced a recent "gold mine for scammers" and the April bump to a 10,000-character limit (for Twitter Blue) only makes things more interesting.

At the turn of the most recent century, the financial world was in a moment of unregulated growth, which lead to some serious corporate misdeeds in the United States. This presented the opportunity for two senators to enact a new law to ensure accurate and reliable financial reporting for public companies in the US. The result was the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002. But what does financial reporting have to do with cybersecurity and IT compliance?

Attackers always seek the easiest path to get into our systems and compromise data. System misconfigurations and insecure default settings are often the criminals' favorite vectors since these errors allow them easy access to critical systems and data. The rise of misconfiguration errors was primarily driven by cloud data storage implementations deployed without appropriate access controls.

The NSA has published a guide about how to mitigate against attacks involving the BlackLotus bootkit malware, amid fears that system administrators may not be adequately protected against the threat. The BlackLotus UEFI bootkit made a name for itself in October 2022, when it was seen being sold on cybercrime underground forums for $5,000.