Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

Interlock is a relatively new strain of ransomware, that first emerged in late 2024. Unlike many other ransomware families it not only targets Windows PCs, but also systems running FreeBSD. If you are impacted, you will find that your files have not only been encrypted but have also had ".interlock" appended to their filenames. For example, a file named report.xlsx would become report.xlsx.interlock, visibly signaling that it has been encrypted by Interlock.

While NIST frameworks are typically not mandatory for most organizations, they are still being called on to do some heavy lifting to bolster the nation’s cybersecurity defenses. Under the January 2025 Executive Order (EO) on Strengthening and Promoting Innovation in the Nation’s Cybersecurity, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) was charged, along with several other agencies, with the following tasks.

In January of this year, significant changes to the HIPAA Security Rule were proposed by the Office of Civil Rights for the Department of Health and Human Services (OCR). The proposed update to the HIPAA Security Rule, published on January 6, 2025, introduces a significant new requirement: all covered entities and business associates must conduct penetration testing of their electronic information systems at least once every 12 months.

For the fourth year running, in 2025, the IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence Index crowned the manufacturing sector as the number one targeted industry for cybercrime, representing 26% of incidents. The problem is so bad that manufacturing has even managed to defy malware's decline, with attackers exploiting the industry's legacy technology to deploy ransomware at a massive scale. But why is the manufacturing sector so vulnerable? What unique cybersecurity risks does it face?

The UK is facing the same evolving digital challenges as the rest of the world, and its new Cyber Security and Resilience Bill is designed to not only help it catch up - but stay ahead. Attackers change their tactics all the time. Without an agile, living framework that gives lawmakers some breathing room, adversaries could easily outstrip the clunky government processes that govern cybersecurity (and often a step behind).

Cybercriminals are getting smarter. Not by developing new types of malware or exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities, but by simply pretending to be helpful IT support desk workers. Attackers affiliated with the 3AM ransomware group have combined a variety of different techniques to trick targeted employees into helping them break into networks. It works like this.

Health-ISAC recently released their 2025 Health Sector Cyber Threat Landscape Report, a comprehensive outline of the malicious activity aimed at healthcare in the previous year. Not surprisingly, ransomware was cited by security professionals in the industry as the number one threat of 2024 and the top area of concern coming into 2025 (followed by third-party breaches, supply chain attacks, and zero-day exploits). Some things never change. However, when it comes to ransomware, they do evolve.

Attackers have made a decisive switch toward stealthy, identity-centric attacks. Forget breaking in – modern cybercriminals simply log in. And that should be a concern. According to the IBM X-Force 2025 Threat Intelligence Index, nearly one-third of intrusions in 2024 were initiated not through sophisticated attacks, but through valid account exploitation.

The proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices - more specifically, security cameras - has forced organizations to rethink how they protect their physical hardware. Security cameras represent some of the most common IoT devices installed in business and commercial environments. Recent estimates suggest the smart camera market is expected to grow at an astronomical rate, reaching a potential valuation of $12.71 billion by 2030, growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 10%.

Recent research by Comparitech reveals the shocking truth about ransomware attacks on government entities; they have a longer impact than anyone thought. Tracking over 1100 government-targeted ransomware attacks over a period of six years, researchers discovered that each day of downtime cost entities nearly $83,600, and that in each attack the downtime lasted for an average of 27.8 days.

A new era of inconceivably fast quantum machines is not far away, with computers almost ready to completely transform the way we solve problems, communicate, and compute. However, this transformation is not all positive, and the cybersecurity industry fears that functional quantum computers will be able to break even the strongest encryption we have today, rendering today's security infrastructure obsolete.

There are ghosts in the machine. Not the poetic kind. I mean literal, running-code-with-root-access kind. The kind that was set up ten years ago by an admin who retired five jobs ago. The kind that still wakes up every night at 3:30 a.m.; processes something no one remembers, and then quietly vanishes into the system logs. Until, of course, something goes wrong—or someone takes advantage of it.

Adhering to the ever-tightening letter of the law is the cost of doing business these days, and for many companies caught in the crosshairs, that cost is getting too high. New research by Bridewell Consulting revealed that 44% of all financial services institutions in the UK listed compliance as the top cybersecurity challenge their organizations currently face.

When people hear "supply chain attack," their minds often go to headline-grabbing breaches. But while analysts, CISOs, and journalists dissect those incidents, a more tactical and persistent wave of attacks has been unfolding in parallel; one that's laser-focused on small businesses as the point of entry. This isn't collateral damage. It's by design.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) was established to protect patient privacy and secure health information. While it has been around for nearly two decades, it is evolving to keep up with an increasingly digital world and in response to the skyrocketing number of cyber attacks the industry sees every year.

APWG's Q4 2024 Phishing Activity Trends Report, published March 19th, revealed that more than eight in ten Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks last quarter were sent by attackers favoring Google's free webmail service. By comparison, only 10% used Microsoft's free email web app, Outlook.com.

DDoS attacks have long been dismissed as blunt instruments, favored by script kiddies and hacktivists for their ability to overwhelm and disrupt. But in today's fragmented, hybrid-cloud environments, they've evolved into something far more cunning: a smokescreen. What looks like digital vandalism may actually be a coordinated diversion, engineered to distract defenders from deeper breaches in progress.

According to the NIS Directive, Member States should adopt a common set of baseline security requirements to ensure a minimum level of harmonized security measures across the EU and enhance the overall level of security of operators providing essential services (OES) and digital service providers (DSP). The NIS Directive sets three primary objectives: As part of the NIS series, we have already provided an overview of the Directive, and we have examined in detail the security requirements for DSPs and OES.

Oh dear, what a shame, never mind. Yes, it's hard to feel too much sympathy when a group of cybercriminals who have themselves extorted millions of dollars from innocent victims have found themselves dealing with their own cybersecurity problem. And that's just what has happened to the notorious LockBit ransomware gang, which has been given a taste of its own medicine.

Cybersecurity threats continue to evolve, posing very real risks to organizations, and nowhere is this risk more pronounced than in entities that handle a nation’s critical infrastructure, as these attacks put public health and safety at risk, harm the environment, or disrupt critical services. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region plays a vital role in the petroleum industry, with Saudi Arabia ranking among the world's top 10 oil producers by daily output.

The cyber workforce gap is one of the most pressing and persistent challenges facing the cybersecurity industry. In 2024, ISC2 found that the gap amounted to 4.8 million people globally, up 19% from the previous year. Both public and private sector organizations – including the UK’s NCSC and the SANS Institute – have introduced countless initiatives in an attempt to close the cyber workforce gap, but it keeps growing. Perhaps the US PIVOTT Act will work better?

The mechanisms and dangers of email phishing are well known, as are the best practices for hardening organizations against it. Its spin-off, called vishing, is nothing new, but it’s both rapidly evolving, and unlike the more mainstream counterpart, too often overlooked by security professionals. According to the CrowdStrike 2025 Global Threat Report, these offbeat attacks saw a 442% increase in the second half of 2024 compared to the first half of the year.

Let’s face it: your inbox is a warzone. Email security is a constant battle between evolving threats and the defenses designed to stop them. Every day, attackers bombard user inboxes with increasingly sophisticated phishing attempts, malware, and social engineering attacks. So, how do we win the battle? It’s not as simple as slapping on a piece of software; it’s about implementing a multi-layered approach that balances AI-driven automation and human expertise.

Cyber incidents are always going to be present. Regardless of whether you’re working for a startup or a corporation, malicious software can target you and your business. This is why it’s important to work closely with cybersecurity incident response teams and have such protocols in place. The lifecycle of a cybersecurity incident starts way before it happens with good preparation. However, the right actions should be taken if such a problem unfolds.