I’m not big on acronyms or buzzwords. Like many executives, my eyes glaze over when I’m being prospected with an alphabet soup of technology terms I supposedly “need” to care about. So why, then, does the title of this article include Security Service Edge (SSE), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), and Zero Trust? Despite our justified disdain for acronyms, the ideas behind these terms hold genuine importance for business leaders.

Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Office document formats are popular among attackers, who abuse them to infect their victims with ransomware, infostealers, backdoors, and other malware. In this article, we look at the anatomy of a recent Office document attack from the victim’s perspective, highlight the most common types of Office document attacks seen today, and suggest strategies to reduce your risk of becoming the latest victim.

The transition to the cloud has changed everything! It has upended where apps are hosted, as well as the movement of enterprises’ most valuable digital assets and sensitive data. Access has been redefined and firewall-based perimeters are a thing of the past. Now special considerations are required for users working from everywhere—on both managed and unmanaged devices—as well as address the ever-growing Internet of Things (IoT).

Considering the forensic-level attention to data residency that was paid in the early days of cloud, it’s interesting how little regard is now given to the matter. Explaining the many pitfalls of certain data residency challenges to fellow CISOs (and key stakeholders) and why real-time visualisations of data flow matter, is often an interesting exercise.

Netskope Academy is pleased to introduce the Netskope Cloud Security Certification program. This new program provides an opportunity for customers, partners, and employees to validate their skills and be recognized for their knowledge of the Netskope Security Cloud platform, as well as general cloud security technologies. The program is launching with two levels of high-stakes, third-party proctored certifications, with more to follow.

Since the beginning of 2022, the unfolding geopolitical conflict between Russia and Ukraine has resulted in the discovery of new malware families and related cyberattacks. In January 2022, a new malware named WhisperGate was found corrupting disks and wiping files in Ukrainian organizations. In February 2022, another destructive malware was found in hundreds of computers in Ukraine, named HermeticWiper, along with IsaacWiper and HermeticWizard.

One chief information security officer (CISO) recently asked me how he should describe SASE (secure access service edge) and zero-trust networking to his company’s directors. My answer was easy: You shouldn’t. As companies revamp their technology infrastructure to leverage cloud efficiencies and enable a remote workforce, cybersecurity is now mission-critical for senior executives and boards of directors.

Another day, another cloud service leaking personal data because of a misconfiguration. And before you jump to any conclusions, no, it’s not a leaky bucket on AWS S3 or a public blob on Microsoft Azure… The culprit is, once again, GitHub, where an open-source hardware manufacturer has inadvertently left exposed a private-to-public repository that “could have enabled unauthorized access to information about certain user accounts on or before 2019.”

Netskope is keeping a close watch on the rapidly changing situation in Ukraine. Along with the attention we are giving to the safety and well-being of Netskope employees in the region, we are in a state of high alert with respect to cyber threats and risks to our customers. Netskope Threat Labs is continuously monitoring cybersecurity threats related to the conflict in Ukraine.

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) has taken over the world because it’s easy. With just a few clicks, business units can find an application that’s suitable for a particular business process. They can subscribe to it and immediately start using it — and the IT department might never find out.