Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

We are big fans of the U.S. Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), whose informal slogan of “An organization so committed to security that it’s in our name twice” is a source of pride. CISA is a non-regulatory government agency dedicated to protecting U.S. and global infrastructure and organizations against malicious hackers and their malware (and other types of threats).

Fluctuations in consecutive quarterly reports demonstrates that organizations should be worried that their cyber defenses may not be strong enough to stop phishing attacks. I wrote an article back in April of last year about how 1 in 8 emails make it to a user’s Inbox. That number has remained relatively consistent — so much that even the Threat Insights Report for Q1 2024 from HP Wolf Security shows that stat is still accurate. But then there’s the Threat Insights Report for Q4 2023.

Working to ensure all communities within the United States are educated and prepared, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has released a set of tools, services and assistance to level the playing field. It’s no secret that any part of society that is less prepared for a cyber attack has less of a chance to defend itself — which potentially puts all of us at risk. So, CISA began placing some of their focus on high-risk communities within the United States.

Several phishing campaigns are targeting users of the Foxit PDF Reader, according to researchers at Check Point. Foxit is a popular alternative to Adobe Acrobat Reader for viewing PDF files. “Check Point Research has identified an unusual pattern of behavior involving PDF exploitation, mainly targeting users of Foxit Reader,” the researchers write. “This exploit triggers security warnings that could deceive unsuspecting users into executing harmful commands.

Companies have needed a website for the last 25 years at least. But where do you host your site? The techies at HostingAdvice decided to create an extremely thorough real-world review site to share their expertise. And clearly, your organization's website is an attack vector and so cybersecurity has become critical.

Analysis of malicious large language model (LLM) offerings on the dark web uncovers wide variation in service quality, methodology and value – with some being downright scams. We’ve seen the use of this technology grow to the point where an expansion of the cybercrime economy occurred to include GenAI-based services like FraudGPT and PoisonGPT, with many others joining their ranks.

The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has issued guidance to help medium-sized organizations defend themselves against business email compromise (BEC) attacks, especially those targeting senior staff members. The NCSC says employees should be cautious about the type of personal information they post on the internet, since criminals can use this knowledge to make their attacks more convincing.

New data covering cyber insurance claims through 2023 shows claims have increased while reaffirming what we already know: phishing and social engineering are the real problem. If you’ve read enough of my articles here, you already know my view is a bit skewed towards the need for organizations to be aware of the true dangers of email-based cyber attacks.

Researchers at IBM X-Force are tracking several large phishing campaigns spreading an updated version of the Grandoreiro banking trojan. The criminal malware operation was disrupted by law enforcement in January 2024 but resurfaced in March with an expanded set of targets. The new version of the malware is targeting more than 1,500 banks in over sixty countries.