Clients often conflate Offensive Security with penetration testing, yet they serve distinct purposes within cybersecurity. Offensive Security is a broad term encompassing strategies to protect against cyber threats, while penetration testing is a specific activity where security teams test system vulnerabilities. At its essence, Offensive Security isn't just about reacting to vulnerabilities; it's about actively hunting down and neutralizing potential threats before they wreak havoc.

April 16, 2024: UnitedHealth Group, parent of Change Healthcare, reported on April 16, 2024 in its Q1 results a negative impact of $872 million “in unfavorable cyberattack effects” due to cyberattack direct response costs and the business disruption impacts. The company anticipates additional costs associated with the attack.

Let’s explore how SpiderLabs created and incorporated user prompts, specifically Windows dialog boxes into its malware loader to make it more convincing to phishing targets during a Red Team engagement.

The (apparent) takedown of major ransomware players like Blackcat/ALPHV and LockBit and the threat groups’ (apparent) revival is a prime example of the Whack-a-Mole nature of combating ransomware gangs that often takes place. However, this level of difficulty doesn’t mean the pressure should be relieved.

Companies engage with a managed detection and response (MDR) provider to help ensure they detect cyber threats before they do any damage. The "response" part of the MDR moniker is key to that effort, making it vital to determine up front exactly what your chosen provider will do when it detects a threat in your environment.

This is Part 7 in my ongoing project to cover 30 cybersecurity topics in 30 weekly blog posts. The full series can be found here. Far too many organizations place Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and Data Protection at the bottom of their priority list due to the perceived difficulty in its deployment. When there are in fact some easy approaches to getting started with protecting your data.

A command injection vulnerability has been discovered in the GlobalProtect feature within Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS software for specific versions that have distinct feature configurations that may enable a remote, unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code with root privileges on the firewall. These specific versions require configurations for GlobalProtect gateway and device telemetry enabled.

Despite investing in costly security solutions, keeping up with patches, and educating employees about suspicious emails, breaches still occur, leaving many organizations to wonder why they are vulnerable and which security areas need improvement.

Two of the greatest threats facing technology-focused organizations are their often-quick adoption of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), without taking security measures into consideration and a very high reliance on third-party vendors to operate their businesses.