Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

%term

Should cities pay a ransomware demand?

UPDATE: In a “ripped from the headlines” moment, we have real world confirmation of the growing risk discussed in this article. Breaking news over the weekend revealed that both the city of New Orleans and New Jersey's largest hospital network are in the midst of dealing with serious ransomware attacks. When you hear about data breaches and cyberattacks in the news, it's usually in connection with a large company and has affected users across the globe.

Reduce Time To Remediate Threats: Lessons from a major US retailer

2019 has become another record-breaking year in eCommerce. This unprecedented growth has a dark side - since an overwhelming 71% of security incidents are financially motivated, digital retailers are becoming even more attractive targets for cyber attacks and fraud. As we near 2020, digital retailers will have to work hard to protect their digital assets. Here are a few factors that will make this task harder than ever.

It's All About the Baselines: Security Edition

I am all about the baselines. I’ve made an entire career out of them. But if you were to ask a random person on the street what that means, the reaction would be: “Who the heck are you, and why are you asking me random weird questions.” So it would be better if you found someone in the tech industry at least.

Social Engineering the Silver Screen: Home Alone Edition

I have wanted to do a series like this for some time. I frequently watch movies and point out social engineering and OSINT techniques or inaccuracies as well as OPSEC blunders. These blunders, in addition to the matrix style waterfall screens, are equally bad as the “hacking” you see in movies.

What is a Zero-day (0-day)?

A zero-day (0-day) is an unpatched security vulnerability that is unknown to the software, hardware or firmware developer, and the exploit attackers use to take advantage of the security hole. In general, zero-day refers to two things: Zero day gets its name from the number of days that a patch has existed for the flaw: zero. Zero-day threats represent significant cybersecurity risk because they are unknown to the party who is responsible for patching the flaw and may already be being exploited.

Which security certification is for you (if any)

It is hard to look at an information security job posting without seeing some certifications desired. Some make sense and others not so much. I have looked at junior helpdesk positions asking for CISSP, and some of the roles at some of the most respected companies do not ask for any certifications. There are some certifications that in having them demands instant respect: OSCP, OSCE, GXPN, and GREM, to name a few.

Protection from malicious Python libraries jeilyfish and python3-dateutil

Two malicious Python libraries, jeilyfish (with a capital i and a lowercase L in the original name) and python3-dateutil, were detected on PyPI (Python Package Index) on December 1st. They were typosquatting similar named legitimate libraries jellyfish (with a double lowercase L) and python-dateutil libraries, a malicious technique aiming to trick developers to use the similar named modified libraries.

What is FISMA (The Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002)?

The Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA) is a United States federal law that defines a comprehensive framework to protect government information, operations and assets against natural and manmade threats. FISMA was enacted as part of the E-Government Act of 2002.