Data security demands robust protection methods in our digital age. Format-preserving encryption and tokenization stand out as robust solutions for safeguarding sensitive information. Understanding the difference between data tokenization and encryption helps organizations protect data while maintaining usability. Modern businesses must choose between encryption vs tokenization for their needs. The choice between these methods impacts system performance and security levels.

Path traversal, also known as directory traversal, occurs when a malicious user manipulates user-supplied data to gain unauthorized access to files and directories. Typically the attacker will be trying to access logs and credentials that are in different directories. Path traversal is not a new vulnerability and has been actively exploited since the 90s when web servers gained popularity, many relied on Common Gateway Interface (CGI) scripts to execute dynamic server-side content.

Data masking is essential for protecting sensitive information in today’s data-driven world. It ensures that critical data, such as personal and financial information, remains secure from unauthorized access by replacing real data with fictitious or obfuscated values. By replacing real data with fictitious or obfuscated values, data masking safeguards privacy while enabling necessary operations like testing and analytics.

ISO 27001 is one of the most important security frameworks in the world. Any business that wants to operate internationally, especially if they have contracts with certified brands or international governments, or they want to open the door to those contracts, will need to achieve ISO 27001 certification. There’s just one problem: it can take a long time to achieve. How long?

While most security professionals recognize the value of penetration testing, they too often conduct pen tests only sporadically – maybe quarterly at best. Pen Testing as a Service (PTaaS) is a way to change that equation, enabling companies to conduct pen tests more regularly, or whenever a particular need arises. That’s important because of the crucial role pen testing plays in providing offensive security –finding problems before bad actors do.

On November 18, 2024, Palo Alto Networks disclosed the existence of two vulnerabilities (CVE-2024-0012 and CVE-2024-9474) in Palo Alto Networks OS (PAN-OS), the operating system used on their firewall devices. A day later, watchTowr released a report providing technical details on how to chain the two vulnerabilities together to achieve remote code execution of these vulnerabilities.

In September 27, 2024, Okta disclosed a critical vulnerability affecting their Classic environment that created a concerning security gap in identity protection. The vulnerability, active since July 17, 2024, allowed attackers with valid credentials to bypass application-specific sign-on policies by simply modifying their user-agent string.

The e-commerce world was recently shaken by the discovery of a vulnerability in Adobe Commerce and Magento, two of the most widely used e-commerce platforms. Dubbed "CosmicSting" and designated as CVE-2024-34102, this vulnerability exposes millions of online stores to potential remote code execution and data exfiltration risks.

Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a cryptographic protocol designed to provide secure communication between web browsers and servers. Many IP-based protocols such as HTTPS, SMTP, POP3, and FTP support TLS. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), on the other hand, is a protocol used to establish an encrypted link between web browsers and servers. It uses symmetric cryptography to encrypt the data transmitted. Encryption keys are based on shared secret negotiation at the beginning of any communication session.