Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Leading the Internal Audit Function

In this book, Lynn Fountain presents lessons learned from her extensive experience as a CAE to help internal auditors understand the challenges, issues, and potential alternative solutions when executing the role. Lynn explains how to clarify management expectations for the internal audit and balance those expectations with the IIA Standards. She examines the concept of risk-based auditing and explains how to determine whether management and the internal audit team have the same objectives. She also looks at the internal auditor's role in corporate governance and fraud processes.

Monday, October 26, 2015

10 Facts You Need to Know About Data Breaches

2014 was dubbed as "the year of the data breach." With many new data breaches dominating the headlines in 2015, including Anthem, the White House, banking attacks, and the latest employee data theft at the US federal government, one can only imagine what the name for 2015 will be: the year of even more data breaches? According to the Ponemon Institute, 43% of companies experienced a data breach in 2014. Not only is the number of data breaches rising, the number of records stolen per breach is increasing as well as the cost per stolen record. It is apparent that current security measures are not sufficient to protect organizations from data breaches. This article highlights the top 10 most interesting, remarkable and troubling facts about data breaches.

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Combating Account Takeover

Account takeovers are quickly becoming the new favorite fraud tactic for hackers. With personal data all at the top of the thieves' hit list, a small data breach can quickly expand into a wave of personal information that could cause problems for the fraud victim years down the track. This article discusses how small data breaches can mean big returns for criminals and hackers; why login details are key to fraudsters stealing your personal data; and how technology such as behavioral analytics can stop fraudsters before they acquire your details.

Monday, October 19, 2015

Three Questions about Online Security


When you give your personal information to a financial institution, government, or insurance company, you have a certain level of trust that they will do everything in their power to keep it safe. It's easy to forget that at the same time you're filling out paperwork online, in the dark world of cybercrime, hackers are doing everything in their power to get your information. This article explains why hackers want this information, what they do with it, and how you can safeguard yourself.

Monday, October 12, 2015

5 Things You Need to Know About the Proposed EU General Data Protection Regulation

5 Things You Need to Know About the Proposed EU General Data Protection Regulation

European regulators are inches away from finalizing the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which is a rewrite of the existing rules of the road for data protection and privacy spelled out in their legacy Data Protection Directive (DPD). The GDPR will likely be approved by the end of 2015 (or early 2016) and go into effect in 2017. Even before the recent European Justice Commission ruling against Facebook, organizations, including U.S. multinationals that handle EU personal information, will soon be required to comply with tougher rules to prove they're actively protect personal data. Based on the latest proposal from the EU Council, this article from Varonis outlines the five key things you need to know about the proposed GDPR.

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

3 Reasons Why the Nuclear Industry Is a Good Cyber-Security Example

3 Reasons Why the Nuclear Industry Is a Good Cyber-Security Example

With the security of government facilities being of upmost importance in today's cyber-society, it is a positive sign to see industries such as the nuclear industry excelling in how they handle the implementation of security systems that can protect them against threats. This article discusses why the nuclear industry is a prime example of good cyber-security practices; the top three examples of how the nuclear industry is leading the way in cyber-security; and how other industries can follow in the nuclear industry's footsteps.

Monday, October 5, 2015

The Difference between Security Identity Event Management (SIEM) and User Behavior Analytics (UBA)

The Difference between SIEM and UBA

Insider threats continue to be a top security concern and, as employees go rogue, User Behavior Analytics (UBA) is proving to be an effective insider threat prevention technology that is instrumental for IT security. For those companies who already use a Security Identity Event Management (SIEM) tool to monitor use for threat management, the question may be "Do we need UBA?" Although at first glance they may appear to be very similar, they in fact do different things and, in some use cases, it may be better to have both rather than one or the other. This article provides an overview of both SIEM and UBA, how they work and their pros and cons; a comparison of the two tools, and how they differ; and recommendations to help you decide which one is best for your organization.

Top 3 Trends in Today's Threat Landscape

Top 3 Trends in Today's Threat Landscape
Benny Czarny, Founder and CEO of OPSWAT

Every day there seems to be a new malware threat that we hear about, from remotely controlling cars and medical equipment, to attacks on well-known security vendors such as Kaspersky Lab and Bitdefender. Each threat seems to be bigger and more dangerous than the last. Among this never ending stream of publicized cyber threats and attacks, here are three trends to keep an eye on:

Trend 1. Cyber Security Companies Are Targets
Recently we have seen a number of sophisticated attacks specifically directed towards cyber security companies and their products. Kaspersky’s network was recently hacked and valuable R&D data was accessed, including source code and intellectual property. The attack was apparently very sophisticated and it is thought that millions of dollars went into its development. The data breach at Bitdefender and subsequent ransom demand is another example of a cyber security company being targeted by hackers. In addition, we are seeing a rise in malware that is capable of evading cyber security products. For instance, the Duke malware family includes anti-AV detection capabilities and searches for several security products to evade, including Kaspersky Lab, Sophos, DrWeb, Avira, Crystal, Comodo Dragon, AVG and K7.

Trend 2. Internet of Things Is Under Attack
The vulnerability of the Internet of Things (IoT) is currently a hot topic that receives a lot of attention in the press. Devices are increasingly being connected to the Internet such as cars, medical equipment, thermostats, and watches, to name but a few. Our society is becoming more and more connected, with endless possibilities. In the future, we will be able to switch on our oven remotely, start the vacuum cleaner and feed the cat. All these possibilities appeal to our imagination and need for convenience, but also reminds us of big brother and how, if these devices were hacked, attackers would have access to our private lives. Since each device that is connected to the Internet can theoretically be hacked, the ubiquity of these devices inherently means that we are exposing ourselves to more threats.

Trend 3. Increasing Firmware Hacks
Another trend that we are seeing is firmware hacking: the process of installing rogue firmware on embedded devices. Cisco recently warned customers that hackers are replacing the boot firmware on devices running Cisco’s IOS operating system with a malicious version. The attackers install the malicious version to prevent reboots from wiping IOS infections. Now that Point of Sale systems (POS) have gone mobile, these too have become a target for hackers. Although the possibility of firmware hacking has been known for some time, actual real-world attacks have been rare until now.

So what can you do to protect yourself against these threats? Unfortunately the effectiveness of using a single anti-virus engine is decreasing. With over 450,000 new threats emerging daily, it is impossible for any single engine to provide guaranteed protection 100% of the time. The solution is to use multiple anti-malware engines. By combining multiple anti-malware engines, you can leverage the power of the different detection algorithms and heuristics of each engine and detect significantly more threats. Other technologies such as data sanitization and file type verification can provide additional protection against threats that are missed by anti-virus engines. Finally, we will be seeing a lot of IoT security improvements as vendors address vulnerabilities using techniques such as white listing connections, and performing packet inspections and anti-malware scanning in the cloud.

Benny Czarny is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer at OPSWAT. Benny has over 20 years of experience in the Computer and Network Security field. From the early days of computer viruses he was interested and involved in the fields of encryption, network operations, security vulnerabilities detection, and research.