Artificial intelligence (AI) is playing an increasingly important role in cybersecurity. This is confirmed by a recent Pulse survey of 191 senior executives from companies on four continents: two out of three organizations (68%) say they are using tools that use AI technologies and among those who are not yet using AI, 67% are considering adopting it.
In recent weeks a critical vulnerability (CVE-2021-44228) has been discovered in Log4j2, a popular logging library for Java applications. Attackers can exploit this flaw by performing Remote Code Execution (RCE) on any systems where it is implemented.
In October 2021, the IT systems of the Israeli healthcare system suffered a ransomware attack from which it took weeks to recover. Although the motive for the cyberattack on this occasion was not geopolitical but financial, government sources said they feared that far more dangerous incidents against this sector could be carried out by groups linked to foreign powers such as Iran.
Digital signatures are increasingly used in companies and public administrations. However, without adequate cybersecurity measures, this method can be a vector for cybercriminals and fraudsters: through social engineering they can dupe signer victims into believing a document is legitimate and, through their signature, obtain authorization to carry out other operations without their consent, among many other malicious activities. So, how can we avoid this?
Cybercriminals are increasingly using malicious domains as an attack vector. Our Internet Security Report Q1 2021 already detected a 281% increase in the number of domains blocked by DNSWatch over the previous quarter, and there has been significant activity in the past year with such links exploiting the interest in COVID-19.
As the pandemic continues and employees are finding themselves “stuck at home” for the foreseeable future, companies are coming up with new ways to approach overall wellbeing for their employees. Things like breakroom snacks, on-site gyms, and commuting passes are less appealing and don’t make a lot of sense. So, companies are getting creative in the ways they support their employees during remote work. Here are some of our favorite examples.
Cyberattacks in the field of geopolitics are playing an increasingly important role. 2020 was an intense year during which the pandemic was used for disinformation campaigns and there were serious incidents caused by groups linked to foreign powers.
In our 2021 Security Predictions, the WatchGuard’s Threat Lab team anticipated that authentication would be the cornerstone of strong security. “With billions of usernames and passwords ripe for the picking on the dark web and the prevalence of automated authentication attacks, we believe that any service without MFA enabled will be compromised in 2021,” said WatchGuard CSO Corey Nachreiner.
Organizations of all sizes are struggling to keep up with the increasingly complex and evolving cybersecurity landscape. Threat actors aren’t just hunting large corporations, they’re aggressively targeting small and midsize businesses, too. As networks become more porous and cyber threats rise, organizations that lack in-house security expertise will increasingly become targets of attack and their losses will grow.
For the third year in a row, WatchGuard has been honored at Channel Partner Insight’s 2021 Channel Innovation Awards. This year, Senior Vice President of Marketing Michelle Welch was named the “Security Channel Chief of Year.” This annual awards program celebrates the partners and vendors that have brought true value and innovation to the managed services market and made a real difference to their customers over the last 12 months.
