Tips for Protecting Businesses from Data Breaches and Cyberattacks

Bineesh Mathew | January 7, 2022 | 393 views

Data_Breaches
As technology is constantly transforming, cases of cyber-attacks and breaches are increasing. One needs to be well prepared to prevent cyber attacks and save your company from the storm. However, businesses are likely to think that it won’t affect them. Having this thought in mind, you do not bother about the possible threats. But, this is not the case.

As technology advances, hackers sophisticate themselves with the latest technologies every second. So, any business, at any point, can become prey to them. So, the solution is to be prepared with the right answers to recognize and prevent cyber attacks before they get into your business and put your business to a halt or jeopardize it ultimately.


Impact of Cyberattacks on Companies

Significant damage can happen to your business when there is a successful cyberattack. The impact of a security breach can come in three ways: reputational, financial, and legal. Cyberattacks also affect the customers’ trust in you. As a result, you may lose corporate and financial information and money. Moreover, there will be a loss of customers, sales, and profits. Data security for small businesses can be ensured only through effective strategy.

So, the practical approach is to prepare yourself and mitigate the potential risks of cyberattacks, threats, and other possible breaches. This article highlights some practical tips to help you safeguard your business from cyberattacks and breaches.


How to Prevent Cyberattacks and Data Breaches

It is high time for businesses to concentrate on protecting their businesses. Companies have witnessed an explosion of cyberattacks since the onset of the pandemic. Thus, having a robust cybersecurity solution is essential. The following tips will help you understand how to prevent cyber attacks on businesses and design a practical cybersecurity strategy for your business and safeguard it from threats.


Use Firewalls

Using firewalls is the most practical option to safeguard your business from hackers and other online fraud. In addition, firewalls provide you with the following benefits to run your business smoothly:

  • Stops virus attacks
  • Monitors network traffic
  • Stops spyware
  • Prevents hacking
  • Promotes privacy


Train your Employees the Best Cybersecurity Practices

Training your employees well in advance is critical to safeguarding your business from cybersecurity threats and breaches. Uneducated employees can get you into real trouble. For example, you should educate them to detect malicious emails and prevent them from opening and responding. It is because ransomware is the most common hacking strategy fraudsters use, and most employees fall prey to it. Thus, building cybersecurity awareness is critical. This will work beeter with ensuring data security for small businesses.

Training is necessary for employees as cybersecurity is not just the responsibility of the IT team. It’s a unanimous effort of all the employees, from the bottom level to the top.

Thinking of cybersecurity solely as an IT issue is like believing that a company’s entire workforce, from the CEO down, is just one big HR issue. – Steven Chabinsky, Global Chair of Data, Privacy & Cybersecurity at White & Case LLP.


Data Backup and Encryption

Even if you fall prey to online fraud, regular backup of your data will save you from severe financial loss, serious downtime, and loss of data. This is the most innovative way to protect yourself from data breaches. So, back up your data elsewhere other than your office systems.

Another practical way to protect your business is to encrypt all your data. Encryption prevents access to sensitive data by the wrong hands. Even if they get your data, the encrypted data becomes useless.


Change Passwords Often

Make sure you follow the best practices with your password usage. For example, setting the same password for all your accounts can be considered. If the hacker figures out one of your passwords, he gets access to all your accounts. Avoid using the same password for all your websites and accounts.

Using the same password for a long time can also be dangerous. So, it's advised to keep updating passwords for your accounts. And, it is considered an effective measure to stay strong with your business, preventing cyber attacks.


Summing up

Above are some of the measures that can be included in your cybersecurity plan and strategy for your business due to the recent acceleration of digital transformation. Thus, you may have to ensure that you’re well prepared to face whatever might happen.

Along with the above things, a cybersecurity audit should be conducted regularly to find loopholes and maintain and update the policies as the technology is getting updated.


Frequently Asked Questions


What are the best methods for mitigating data breaches?

Observing cybersecurity best practices regularly is necessary to mitigate data breaches effectively. Those best practices can be regular risk assessments, training staff, building awareness, data backup and encryption, and using up-to-date security software.


Which are the fourpractical ways to protect your business against possible cybersecurity threats?

An effective plan and strategy have to be in place to protect your business against all cybersecurity threats and data breaches. The method can include vulnerability management, inventory rounds, setting up policies and training for staff, and conducting a regular audit of your cybersecurity plan and strategy.

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The most secure, passwordless authentication platform for tech forward-thinking organizations, globally. Breaking down the barriers between identity, security, and device management, Beyond Identity fundamentally changes the way the world logs in – eliminating passwords and providing users with a frictionless multi-factor login experience.

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DATA SECURITY

The Great CISO Resignation

Article | March 1, 2022

CISOs Are Leaving in Droves The Great Resignation has been front-page news since Covid lockdowns, with many employees looking for the work-life balance they enjoyed at the time. Now, the phenomenon has spread to the role of Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and shows no signs of letting up. In fact, industry experts predict that it is likely to worsen. A recent study from cybersecurity company BlackFog found that 32% of CISOs in the U.K. and U.S. have considered leaving and many planned to do so in just six months. The majority noted that the top reason for leaving was a lack of work-life balance. The CISO role is demanding, with firefighting and frequent changes in regulations and customer expectations taking up significant time both on and off the job. In another recent study in which 581 CISOs were surveyed, the IANS Research and Artico Search explored CISO compensation and job satisfaction. Three-fourths of CISOs are satisfied with their job, which is 7% higher than in the 2021 sample and more than double that of the 2020 sample. The main drivers of satisfaction are compensation, budget, executive visibility, and organizational support. However, despite high satisfaction numbers, the study found that as many as 44% of respondents are considering a job change. CISO Challenges LIABILITY AND EXPOSURE OF THE CISO There is a perception that CISOs face heightened liability for cyber intrusions and the response to cyber events. One extraordinary example is the recent conviction of Uber’s former security officer, which represents the first time a security executive has faced federal crime prosecution over a data security response. In this case the finding was that he obstructed justice by concealing information about a breach, destroying data, and covering up the incident. CISOs are often in the hot seat when it comes to cyber-intrusions and how they are handled. The Board of Directors (possibly including named corporate officers) in most cases are protected by being diligent about the Business Judgement Rule (BJR). Heavily adopted in Delaware case law and since adopted in various forms in many states, this “rule” stipulates that proper oversight includes demonstrating the duty of loyalty (no conflicting interests) and duty of care (make informed decisions) to be protected from liability. There are few cases (although Enron being one) where liability was found but it was for illegalities and poor business judgment. Since CISOs are not named corporate officers in most cases, BJR does not provide comfort. Similarly, liability insurance which covers legal defense fees and cash judgments often covers only directors and named corporate officers unless the CISO has been specifically included in the policy. DUTY TO REPORT Improving Board-CISO Transparency There is a mechanism found in corporate governance best-practices for ensuring that the most senior people in an organization get direct, unfiltered input from a key executive, regardless of reporting structure. It is called the executive session. This is in common use by Boards of Directors who meet individually with the Chief Financial Officer, Controller, and other key executives, notably without other management in the room. Questions are intended to be penetrating and the respondent is expected to respond openly. Now that cybersecurity has risen to a top risk for the enterprise, the CISO position should be among those who appear individually in an executive session with the highest governing body of an enterprise at least annually. This addition to governance best-practices would give Board members and State governors unfiltered information on cybersecurity matters, thereby helping to fulfil their oversight responsibility. Bob Zukis, founder and CEO of the Digital Directors Network, reports that a survey of its membership of more than 900 IT, cyber, and boardroom leaders shows nearly half of the respondents already have some form of this policy in practice. However, this is still a minority of the overall CISO population, signaling more transparency between the CISO and Board is needed. CISOs in State Governments Government organizations also face many of these issues. Evidence shows that CISOs in state governments are as vulnerable to other job offers as CISOs in the private sector. In the span of eight days in October 2022, there were several reports of state CISOs resigning, including Oklahoma, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and North Dakota. [1] Legal liability is not an issue the government CISO needs to be worried about since governments and their employees are immune from legal suits. However, government CISOs are highly concerned about shouldering blame, especially in the press, for security intrusions or their coverup. As with private industry, state governments should also institute this recommended practice. NCC recommends CISOs be called upon to appear in an executive session with agency heads and even the governor at least once a year. The State of Texas, for example, already has a version of this policy implemented in a statute and in practice. Texas Administrative Code includes provisions for: Reporting, at least annually, directly to the agency head the status and effectiveness of the security program and its controls. Informing any relevant parties in the event of noncompliance with the state agency’s information security policies Resolving the Great CISO Resignation For organizations across the public and private sectors, cybersecurity has risen to one of the top risks and has increased the importance of the role of the CISO. Most are looking to improve their work-life balance and reduce some of the stressors of the job. While many CISOs are also concerned about trends in liability and becoming headline news for decisions made on the job, requiring CISOs to appear in executive sessions with board members or state governors can help to alleviate these concerns and improve CISO job satisfaction while at the same time improving how the most senior levels of organizations fulfil their responsibilities for oversight of top risks.

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Top 5 Application Security Trends Businesses Must Be Aware of in 2023

Article | May 5, 2022

Introduction Top 5 Trends for Businesses to Improve Their Existing Application Security 1.AppSec and Convergence 2.Adoption of Automated AI Security Capabilities 3.Emphasis on Securing the Software Supply Chain 4.Extreme 'Shift Left' 5.Upsurge in Demand for Vulnerability Prioritization Moving Forward with Application Security Introduction The proliferation of applications and their usage across the business landscape has made application security a strategic initiative that spans departments rather than an activity. Several factors are driving the rethinking of application security as a broader strategic program, including the evolving threat landscape, more incremental software development frameworks, and the adoption of nimbler. With the acceleration of software development and the greater-than-ever role of code in current business infrastructure, application security is shifting left in the process and infusing every step to ensure that the applications reaching customers' hands are secure and reliable. Top 5 Trends for Businesses to Improve Their Existing Application Security Applications serve as a doorway to servers and networks, making them an excellent target for malicious actors. Since cyber attackers constantly improve their techniques for breaking into software, it is becoming essential for businesses to gain insights into ever-evolving trends in the AppSec space. Here are some of the prominent trends that businesses should aware of to improve their existing application security. Trend 1: AppSec and CloudSec Convergence To accurately estimate attack surface and overall security posture, both application code vulnerabilities and cloud service hosting misconfigurations must be examined. The convergence of AppSec and CloudSec is becoming a critical component of modern security operations. It allows organizations to gain a comprehensive view of the attack surface and better understand the risks posed by application code and cloud service providers. By looking at these two areas cohesively, organizations can identify business-critical vulnerabilities and prioritize their remediation efforts. Trend 2: Adoption of Automated AI Security Capabilities The increasing volume and complexity of security threats pose significant challenges for organizations, causing strain on their threat detection and response capabilities. This leads to slower response times, higher costs, and a greater impact on security incidents. To address this issue, many companies are turning to security automation as a potential solution. One of such approaches involves the use of artificial intelligence (AI), which can automate data gathering, threat identification, and incident response processes. By adopting security automation, companies can optimize the use of limited security personnel and resources, enabling them to focus on high-value activities that provide maximum benefit to the organization. Trend 3: Emphasis on Securing the Software Supply Chain The software supply chain is emerging as a primary area of focus due to the heightened risks associated with software development. This urgency has been further compounded by the recent attack, such as Solarwind data breach and the Log4j attack on Apache, increasing the significance of software security measures. Companies are taking a more proactive approach for making enhancements in the software supply chain to protect their applications, including conducting Static Application Security Testing (SAST) to identify and address vulnerabilities before malicious actors can exploit them. Trend 4: Extreme 'Shift Left' The ‘shift left’ in software development has gained significant momentum in recent years. The idea behind this approach is to prioritize security and other critical aspects of software development at the earliest possible stage in the development process. By doing so, organizations can make more informed security decisions and identify and address security vulnerabilities before they cause any damage. As the pace of development continues to increase, organizations are increasingly adopting this approach in their software development processes to protect their systems and data from security risks. Trend 5: Upsurge in Demand for Vulnerability Prioritization Managing vulnerabilities in a software system requires analyzing vast amounts of data to determine issues that require immediate attention and prioritization. However, the growing presence of false positives is negatively impacting this process, resulting in decreased efficiency and wasted resources. Organizations are increasingly looking for vendors to provide vulnerability management tools that can reduce false positives, differentiate between low-priority issues and severe security threats, and offer actionable insights to mitigate them. Moving Forward with Application Security Applications security has become more critical than ever before for businesses in the current digital scape. With the attack surface constantly expanding and the frequency of threats on the rise, organizations must remain agile and employ the best effective strategies to protect their applications from potential cyberattacks. The significance of application security has not gone unnoticed. As organizations continue to invest in security measures, they are increasingly upgrading themselves as per emerging security trends to protect themselves against evolving cyber threats. This includes adopting the ‘shift left’ approach, tightening controls, and having a clear definition of remediation processes.

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Security by Sector: Improving Quality of Data and Decision-Making a Priority for Credit Industry

Article | February 18, 2022

The subject of how information security impacts different industry sectors is an intriguing one. For example, how does the finance industry fare in terms of information security compared to the health sector, or the entertainment business? Are there some sectors that face greater cyber-threats and risks than others? Do some do a better job of keeping data secure, and if so, how and why?A new study of credit management professionals has revealed that improving the quality of data and decision-making will be a top priority for the credit industry in the next three years. The research, from Equifax Ingnite in collaboration with Coleman Parkes, takes a deep dive into the views of credit management pros across retail, banking, finance and debt management/recovery sectors.

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3 Trends in Data Privacy Breach Laws That Will Carry Over to 2020

Article | February 12, 2020

During 2019, new privacy laws were introduced, and many current laws evolved in the United States and across the global landscape. With the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in full effect, we saw expensive fines levied upon companies that fell victim to data privacy breaches. As we move into a new year, probably the biggest takeaway from 2019 is that being proactive and having a data privacy strategy in place is important to help mitigate the risk of a data privacy breach. The regulatory landscape continues to evolve as states and countries actively pass new expanded requirements for privacy and cybersecurity regulations. While laws in the U.S., like the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), are getting significant attention, many other states and countries are actively amending their breach notification laws to include tighter restrictions.

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Lookout Announces the Successful Divestiture of Its Consumer Mobile Security Business Segment

Businesswire | June 05, 2023

Lookout, Inc., the endpoint-to-cloud security company, today announced it has closed the previously announced sale of its consumer mobile security business to F-Secure, a global provider of consumer security products and services. With this strategic divestiture Lookout will focus on expanding its core enterprise business, built around the Lookout Cloud Security Platform. The sale of Lookout’s consumer mobile security business represents a deliberate and strategic decision to optimize its enterprise product portfolio and concentrate its product innovation and go-to-market on the expansion of these core competencies. The divestiture sets Lookout up for long-term growth and further positions the Company to address the security transformation impacting organizations today, including the increase in remote work, the shift to cloud-based delivery models and the transition to zero trust architectures. “We are pleased to announce the successful divestiture of our mobile consumer security business, which represents a significant milestone in our strategic transformation to become a pure-play enterprise cybersecurity company,” Jim Dolce, CEO at Lookout. “With this refined focus, we will continue to drive innovation, invest in the development of cutting-edge solutions and drive greater value for our customers.” Lookout’s core enterprise business includes Lookout Mobile Endpoint Security and its security services edge (SSE) cloud-native solution, the Lookout Cloud Security Platform. The Company entered the cloud security market through its acquisition of CipherCloud in March 2021. Its Cloud Security Platform was recently scored among the highest three vendors in the 2023 Gartner Critical Capabilities for Security Service Edge (SSE)1 report in each of the four use cases. The Gartner Critical Capabilities for SSE – an essential companion to the Gartner Magic Quadrant™ for SSE2 in which Lookout was named a Visionary for the second year in a row – is a comparative analysis that scores products or services against a set of critical differentiators that every business needs, as identified by Gartner. These four use cases include Secure Web and Cloud Usage, Detect and Mitigate Threats, Connect and Secure Remote Workers and Identify and Protect Sensitive Information. As part of the sale agreement, F-Secure acquires all of the Lookout consumer mobile security products and technology and assumes all responsibility for ongoing operations and customer relationships. Additionally, the Company’s consumer employees will become part of F-Secure. About Lookout Lookout, Inc. is the endpoint-to-cloud cybersecurity company that delivers zero trust security by reducing risk and protecting data wherever it goes, without boundaries or limits. Our unified, cloud-native platform safeguards digital information across devices, apps, networks and clouds and is as fluid and flexible as the modern digital world. Lookout is trusted by enterprises and government agencies of all sizes to protect the sensitive data they care about most, enabling them to work and connect freely and safely. To learn more about the Lookout Cloud Security Platform, visit www.lookout.com and follow Lookout on our blog, LinkedIn and Twitter. © 2023 Lookout, Inc. LOOKOUT®, the Lookout Shield Design®, LOOKOUT with Shield Design®, and SIGNAL FLARE® are registered trademarks of Lookout, Inc. in the United States and other countries. DAY OF SHECURITY®, LOOKOUT MOBILE SECURITY®, and POWERED BY LOOKOUT® are registered trademarks of Lookout, Inc. in the United States. Lookout, Inc. maintains common law trademark rights in EVERYTHING IS OK, PROTECTED BY LOOKOUT, CIPHERCLOUD, SCREAM, the 4 Bar Shield Design, and the Lookout multi-color/multi-shaded Wingspan design.

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Secureworks Unifies Industrial Cybersecurity with the First Integrated MDR Solution for OT and IT

Prnewswire | June 02, 2023

Secureworks® (NASDAQ: SCWX), a global leader in cybersecurity, today announced two new offerings to unify the way industrial organizations prevent, detect, and respond to threats across the OT and IT landscapes. Taegis XDR for OT – Secureworks award-winning XDR platform that combines intelligence from OT with security telemetry across the IT landscape into a single unified threat prevention, detection and response platform. The platform is for Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) who want to deliver Managed Detection and Response (MDR) solutions, and for organizations that manage their own SOCs. Taegis ManagedXDR for OT – Secureworks MDR offering that empowers industrial organizations, such as manufacturers, to secure both OT and IT environments with a team of security experts detecting, investigating, and responding to threats 24x7. The convergence of OT and IT in the industrial sector brings technological and economic benefits, but also increases risk. The more OT systems are digitally connected, the larger the overall attack surface becomes, making OT an increasingly attractive target for threat actors. This, combined with a global cybersecurity talent shortage numbering in the millions, has led to unprecedented levels of cyberattacks impacting the industrial sector. According to Gartner®1, manufacturing companies are now among the most targeted for cyberattacks, comprising 23% of all attacks. Secureworks Counter Threat Unit™ data shows that approximately 22% of Secureworks' emergency incident response engagements between April 2022 and April 2023 were in the manufacturing industry alone. Manufacturing made up 20% of all ransomware-based incident response engagements that Secureworks remediated in the same period. Gartner also predicts that by 2025, 70% of asset-intensive organizations will have converged their security functions across both enterprise and operational environments.2 Yet, in industrial environments overall, OT is often managed differently from IT with no centralized visibility across both. "As OT and IT systems infrastructure becomes more interdependent and connected, the risks from threats traversing these environments are rapidly escalating," said Dave Gruber, Principal Analyst with Enterprise Security Group. "Security operations teams need visibility into the combined OT/IT environment to detect, investigate, and respond to these complex threats. Secureworks' move to offer a specialized OT security solution by leveraging its own, proven Taegis XDR platform highlights the importance of this increasing threat." "Industrial organizations will continue to be challenged by an expanding attack surface and evolving threat landscape. Their risks include unplanned shutdowns, financial losses, and harm to human populations that rely on critical services," said Kyle Falkenhagen, Chief Product Officer, Secureworks. "And the potential costs are staggering. For example, manufacturers lose an average of $148 per second3 of unplanned downtime – almost $9,000 per minute. As a managed solution that unifies threat prevention, detection and response of OT and IT into a single platform, Secureworks helps organizations with OT environments reduce cyber risks and enhance their security postures as they complete their digital transformations," Falkenhagen concluded. Taegis ManagedXDR for OT Industrial organizations can reduce risk by bringing Taegis XDR's threat monitoring, detection, investigation and response capabilities across both OT and IT environments, eliminating the visibility challenges often associated with OT and IT systems. Taegis XDR is already used by five of the top 20 manufacturers in the world. Now, with the first integrated MDR solution for OT and IT, organizations can unify their security monitoring and visibility strategies under a single platform, while gaining the benefits of a fully managed security solution using Taegis ManagedXDR. The solution includes: 24x7 threat monitoring with unlimited access to security experts in 90 seconds or less, collaborative design of OT and IT response processes, customizable rules and playbooks, quarterly expert security reviews, monthly threat hunting, onboarding support, and access to proactive services (including incident response planning and adversarial testing). Taegis XDR platform, a SaaS security platform that processes more than 640 billion events daily across more than 2,000 customers to enable superior detection and response. The Taegis platform integrates feeds from third-party tools that are normalized and analyzed, along with Secureworks own proprietary data and global threat intelligence curated by the Counter Threat Unit. Secureworks Taegis endpoint agent and the Secureworks Taegis iSensor IDS/IPS device for monitoring IT and OT traffic. Integrations with leading OT solutions. Hundreds of out-of-the-box integrations across different technology solutions including Google, Mimecast, AWS, Microsoft, and Netskope among others. Access to a full suite of proactive security testing services to raise cyber resiliency across OT and IT environments. Secureworks brings the power of Taegis XDR to OT environments by delivering: Superior threat detection and unmatched response across OT and IT environments through the Taegis XDR platform. Taegis XDR uses advanced analytics and machine learning to discover stealthy threats while automatically prioritizing the most serious threats. The platform includes more than 700,000 curated threat indicators and 20,000 curated countermeasures. Designed as an open platform, Taegis continuously interprets telemetry from proprietary and third-party sources while providing the best support for environments with endpoint solutions from different providers. Vast insights into threats targeting industrial environments. The Secureworks Counter Threat Unit research team analyzes and uncovers new threats targeting industrial environments, from manufacturers to critical infrastructure services, using over 20 years of defending organizations all over the world. Threat insights are developed from elite threat researchers tracking over 175 active threat groups, findings from over 3,000 incident response and testing engagements each year, and a diversity of attack data from Taegis. About Secureworks Secureworks (NASDAQ: SCWX) is a global cybersecurity leader that secures human progress with Secureworks® Taegis™, a cloud-native security analytics platform built on 20+ years of real-world threat intelligence and research, improving customers' ability to detect advanced threats, streamline and collaborate on investigations, and automate the right actions.

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Traceable AI Announces the Industry’s First API Security Reference Architecture for a Zero Trust World

Businesswire | June 06, 2023

Traceable AI, the industry's leading API security company, today announced the release of the industry's first API Security Reference Architecture for Zero Trust. This groundbreaking reference architecture serves as a guide for security leaders as the industry addresses the urgency of integrating API Security into Zero Trust Security initiatives. Zero Trust, a cybersecurity framework that emphasizes continuous verification and helps to minimize the attack surface, has proven effective in enhancing security for many organizations, from large enterprises, to the US Government. However, traditional Zero Trust approaches have primarily focused on network-level controls and identity access management, neglecting the critical API layer. Traceable’s API Security Reference Architecture is aligned with the NIST Zero Trust Architecture, a publicly available, vendor-neutral framework widely adopted by government entities such as CISA, DoD, DISA, NSA, GSA and NCCoE, as well as by many leading cybersecurity vendors. By leveraging the NIST framework, Traceable ensures compatibility, interoperability, and adherence to industry standards, making it a reliable and trusted guide for organizations implementing Zero Trust for their APIs. The extensive reference architecture provides organizations with a prescriptive methodology to operationalize Zero Trust for APIs: Advanced API Security: The reference architecture gives organizations a way to implement robust security measures specifically designed for APIs, including eliminating implied or persistent trust for APIs, thereby minimizing the risk of API-related vulnerabilities, attacks, and data breaches. Comprehensive Risk Management: The reference architecture recommends incorporating automatic user authentication and authorization, granular data access policies, and asset risk assessments, can organizations can effectively manage and mitigate risks associated with API access and usage. Increased Visibility and Control: The architecture explains why organizations should obtain granular visibility, which allows organizations to monitor and record all API transactions, enabling better analysis, threat detection, and incident response capabilities. Improved Compliance and Data Protection: The automatic identification and classification of sensitive data sets ensure compliance with data protection regulations such as HIPAA, GDPR, and PCI-DSS, reducing the risk of regulatory penalties and reputational damage. Seamless Automation and Orchestration: The reference architecture recommends integration with XDR, SIEM, and SOAR solutions, so organizations can enhance their overall security posture, automate response actions, and streamline security operations. Scalability and Flexibility: The architecture offers a flexible distribution model for PEPs and data collection points, allowing organizations to scale their API security infrastructure based on their unique requirements and architecture. Future-Proofing: By aligning with the NIST Zero Trust Architecture and industry standards, organizations adopting the API Security Reference Architecture can ensure compatibility, interoperability, and the ability to evolve alongside emerging technologies and security best practices. Traceable’s API Security Reference Architecture for Zero Trust introduces a new approach to secure APIs using Zero Trust concepts, acknowledging their unique security requirements. 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With the addition of Zero Trust creator John Kindervag and Dr. Zero Trust, Chase Cunningham as Traceable advisors, Traceable continues to strengthen its expertise in this space. To date, Traceable has become a valuable partner to a number of large enterprises as the industry turns its eyes toward the importance of API security. With the rollout of their Zero Trust API Access solution alongside this reference architecture, Traceable continues to lead the industry toward the advancement of API security. This reference architecture is now available for organizations to explore and implement, empowering them to achieve complete API security in a Zero Trust world. About Traceable Traceable is the industry’s leading API Security company that helps organizations achieve API protection in a cloud-first, API-driven world. With an API Data Lake at the core of the platform, Traceable is the only intelligent and context-aware solution that powers complete API security – security posture management, threat protection and threat management across the entire Software Development Lifecycle – enabling organizations to minimize risk and maximize the value that APIs bring to their customers. To learn more about how API security can help your business, book a demo with a security expert.

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Lookout Announces the Successful Divestiture of Its Consumer Mobile Security Business Segment

Businesswire | June 05, 2023

Lookout, Inc., the endpoint-to-cloud security company, today announced it has closed the previously announced sale of its consumer mobile security business to F-Secure, a global provider of consumer security products and services. With this strategic divestiture Lookout will focus on expanding its core enterprise business, built around the Lookout Cloud Security Platform. The sale of Lookout’s consumer mobile security business represents a deliberate and strategic decision to optimize its enterprise product portfolio and concentrate its product innovation and go-to-market on the expansion of these core competencies. The divestiture sets Lookout up for long-term growth and further positions the Company to address the security transformation impacting organizations today, including the increase in remote work, the shift to cloud-based delivery models and the transition to zero trust architectures. “We are pleased to announce the successful divestiture of our mobile consumer security business, which represents a significant milestone in our strategic transformation to become a pure-play enterprise cybersecurity company,” Jim Dolce, CEO at Lookout. “With this refined focus, we will continue to drive innovation, invest in the development of cutting-edge solutions and drive greater value for our customers.” Lookout’s core enterprise business includes Lookout Mobile Endpoint Security and its security services edge (SSE) cloud-native solution, the Lookout Cloud Security Platform. The Company entered the cloud security market through its acquisition of CipherCloud in March 2021. Its Cloud Security Platform was recently scored among the highest three vendors in the 2023 Gartner Critical Capabilities for Security Service Edge (SSE)1 report in each of the four use cases. The Gartner Critical Capabilities for SSE – an essential companion to the Gartner Magic Quadrant™ for SSE2 in which Lookout was named a Visionary for the second year in a row – is a comparative analysis that scores products or services against a set of critical differentiators that every business needs, as identified by Gartner. These four use cases include Secure Web and Cloud Usage, Detect and Mitigate Threats, Connect and Secure Remote Workers and Identify and Protect Sensitive Information. As part of the sale agreement, F-Secure acquires all of the Lookout consumer mobile security products and technology and assumes all responsibility for ongoing operations and customer relationships. Additionally, the Company’s consumer employees will become part of F-Secure. About Lookout Lookout, Inc. is the endpoint-to-cloud cybersecurity company that delivers zero trust security by reducing risk and protecting data wherever it goes, without boundaries or limits. Our unified, cloud-native platform safeguards digital information across devices, apps, networks and clouds and is as fluid and flexible as the modern digital world. Lookout is trusted by enterprises and government agencies of all sizes to protect the sensitive data they care about most, enabling them to work and connect freely and safely. To learn more about the Lookout Cloud Security Platform, visit www.lookout.com and follow Lookout on our blog, LinkedIn and Twitter. © 2023 Lookout, Inc. LOOKOUT®, the Lookout Shield Design®, LOOKOUT with Shield Design®, and SIGNAL FLARE® are registered trademarks of Lookout, Inc. in the United States and other countries. DAY OF SHECURITY®, LOOKOUT MOBILE SECURITY®, and POWERED BY LOOKOUT® are registered trademarks of Lookout, Inc. in the United States. Lookout, Inc. maintains common law trademark rights in EVERYTHING IS OK, PROTECTED BY LOOKOUT, CIPHERCLOUD, SCREAM, the 4 Bar Shield Design, and the Lookout multi-color/multi-shaded Wingspan design.

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ENTERPRISE SECURITY, PLATFORM SECURITY, SOFTWARE SECURITY

Secureworks Unifies Industrial Cybersecurity with the First Integrated MDR Solution for OT and IT

Prnewswire | June 02, 2023

Secureworks® (NASDAQ: SCWX), a global leader in cybersecurity, today announced two new offerings to unify the way industrial organizations prevent, detect, and respond to threats across the OT and IT landscapes. Taegis XDR for OT – Secureworks award-winning XDR platform that combines intelligence from OT with security telemetry across the IT landscape into a single unified threat prevention, detection and response platform. The platform is for Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) who want to deliver Managed Detection and Response (MDR) solutions, and for organizations that manage their own SOCs. Taegis ManagedXDR for OT – Secureworks MDR offering that empowers industrial organizations, such as manufacturers, to secure both OT and IT environments with a team of security experts detecting, investigating, and responding to threats 24x7. The convergence of OT and IT in the industrial sector brings technological and economic benefits, but also increases risk. The more OT systems are digitally connected, the larger the overall attack surface becomes, making OT an increasingly attractive target for threat actors. This, combined with a global cybersecurity talent shortage numbering in the millions, has led to unprecedented levels of cyberattacks impacting the industrial sector. According to Gartner®1, manufacturing companies are now among the most targeted for cyberattacks, comprising 23% of all attacks. Secureworks Counter Threat Unit™ data shows that approximately 22% of Secureworks' emergency incident response engagements between April 2022 and April 2023 were in the manufacturing industry alone. Manufacturing made up 20% of all ransomware-based incident response engagements that Secureworks remediated in the same period. Gartner also predicts that by 2025, 70% of asset-intensive organizations will have converged their security functions across both enterprise and operational environments.2 Yet, in industrial environments overall, OT is often managed differently from IT with no centralized visibility across both. "As OT and IT systems infrastructure becomes more interdependent and connected, the risks from threats traversing these environments are rapidly escalating," said Dave Gruber, Principal Analyst with Enterprise Security Group. "Security operations teams need visibility into the combined OT/IT environment to detect, investigate, and respond to these complex threats. Secureworks' move to offer a specialized OT security solution by leveraging its own, proven Taegis XDR platform highlights the importance of this increasing threat." "Industrial organizations will continue to be challenged by an expanding attack surface and evolving threat landscape. Their risks include unplanned shutdowns, financial losses, and harm to human populations that rely on critical services," said Kyle Falkenhagen, Chief Product Officer, Secureworks. "And the potential costs are staggering. For example, manufacturers lose an average of $148 per second3 of unplanned downtime – almost $9,000 per minute. As a managed solution that unifies threat prevention, detection and response of OT and IT into a single platform, Secureworks helps organizations with OT environments reduce cyber risks and enhance their security postures as they complete their digital transformations," Falkenhagen concluded. Taegis ManagedXDR for OT Industrial organizations can reduce risk by bringing Taegis XDR's threat monitoring, detection, investigation and response capabilities across both OT and IT environments, eliminating the visibility challenges often associated with OT and IT systems. Taegis XDR is already used by five of the top 20 manufacturers in the world. Now, with the first integrated MDR solution for OT and IT, organizations can unify their security monitoring and visibility strategies under a single platform, while gaining the benefits of a fully managed security solution using Taegis ManagedXDR. The solution includes: 24x7 threat monitoring with unlimited access to security experts in 90 seconds or less, collaborative design of OT and IT response processes, customizable rules and playbooks, quarterly expert security reviews, monthly threat hunting, onboarding support, and access to proactive services (including incident response planning and adversarial testing). Taegis XDR platform, a SaaS security platform that processes more than 640 billion events daily across more than 2,000 customers to enable superior detection and response. The Taegis platform integrates feeds from third-party tools that are normalized and analyzed, along with Secureworks own proprietary data and global threat intelligence curated by the Counter Threat Unit. Secureworks Taegis endpoint agent and the Secureworks Taegis iSensor IDS/IPS device for monitoring IT and OT traffic. Integrations with leading OT solutions. Hundreds of out-of-the-box integrations across different technology solutions including Google, Mimecast, AWS, Microsoft, and Netskope among others. Access to a full suite of proactive security testing services to raise cyber resiliency across OT and IT environments. Secureworks brings the power of Taegis XDR to OT environments by delivering: Superior threat detection and unmatched response across OT and IT environments through the Taegis XDR platform. Taegis XDR uses advanced analytics and machine learning to discover stealthy threats while automatically prioritizing the most serious threats. The platform includes more than 700,000 curated threat indicators and 20,000 curated countermeasures. Designed as an open platform, Taegis continuously interprets telemetry from proprietary and third-party sources while providing the best support for environments with endpoint solutions from different providers. Vast insights into threats targeting industrial environments. The Secureworks Counter Threat Unit research team analyzes and uncovers new threats targeting industrial environments, from manufacturers to critical infrastructure services, using over 20 years of defending organizations all over the world. Threat insights are developed from elite threat researchers tracking over 175 active threat groups, findings from over 3,000 incident response and testing engagements each year, and a diversity of attack data from Taegis. About Secureworks Secureworks (NASDAQ: SCWX) is a global cybersecurity leader that secures human progress with Secureworks® Taegis™, a cloud-native security analytics platform built on 20+ years of real-world threat intelligence and research, improving customers' ability to detect advanced threats, streamline and collaborate on investigations, and automate the right actions.

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PLATFORM SECURITY, SOFTWARE SECURITY, API SECURITY

Traceable AI Announces the Industry’s First API Security Reference Architecture for a Zero Trust World

Businesswire | June 06, 2023

Traceable AI, the industry's leading API security company, today announced the release of the industry's first API Security Reference Architecture for Zero Trust. This groundbreaking reference architecture serves as a guide for security leaders as the industry addresses the urgency of integrating API Security into Zero Trust Security initiatives. Zero Trust, a cybersecurity framework that emphasizes continuous verification and helps to minimize the attack surface, has proven effective in enhancing security for many organizations, from large enterprises, to the US Government. However, traditional Zero Trust approaches have primarily focused on network-level controls and identity access management, neglecting the critical API layer. Traceable’s API Security Reference Architecture is aligned with the NIST Zero Trust Architecture, a publicly available, vendor-neutral framework widely adopted by government entities such as CISA, DoD, DISA, NSA, GSA and NCCoE, as well as by many leading cybersecurity vendors. By leveraging the NIST framework, Traceable ensures compatibility, interoperability, and adherence to industry standards, making it a reliable and trusted guide for organizations implementing Zero Trust for their APIs. The extensive reference architecture provides organizations with a prescriptive methodology to operationalize Zero Trust for APIs: Advanced API Security: The reference architecture gives organizations a way to implement robust security measures specifically designed for APIs, including eliminating implied or persistent trust for APIs, thereby minimizing the risk of API-related vulnerabilities, attacks, and data breaches. Comprehensive Risk Management: The reference architecture recommends incorporating automatic user authentication and authorization, granular data access policies, and asset risk assessments, can organizations can effectively manage and mitigate risks associated with API access and usage. Increased Visibility and Control: The architecture explains why organizations should obtain granular visibility, which allows organizations to monitor and record all API transactions, enabling better analysis, threat detection, and incident response capabilities. Improved Compliance and Data Protection: The automatic identification and classification of sensitive data sets ensure compliance with data protection regulations such as HIPAA, GDPR, and PCI-DSS, reducing the risk of regulatory penalties and reputational damage. Seamless Automation and Orchestration: The reference architecture recommends integration with XDR, SIEM, and SOAR solutions, so organizations can enhance their overall security posture, automate response actions, and streamline security operations. Scalability and Flexibility: The architecture offers a flexible distribution model for PEPs and data collection points, allowing organizations to scale their API security infrastructure based on their unique requirements and architecture. Future-Proofing: By aligning with the NIST Zero Trust Architecture and industry standards, organizations adopting the API Security Reference Architecture can ensure compatibility, interoperability, and the ability to evolve alongside emerging technologies and security best practices. Traceable’s API Security Reference Architecture for Zero Trust introduces a new approach to secure APIs using Zero Trust concepts, acknowledging their unique security requirements. It provides organizations with a comprehensive framework to implement Zero Trust controls specifically tailored to APIs, ensuring the protection of digital assets and mitigating the risk of data breaches. Dr. Chase Cunningham weighs in on Traceable’s approach: "APIs provide a new means of applying controls across enterprise applications, " says Dr. Cunningham, “However, the security practices for APIs have not yet matured, leaving a significant gap in the overall attack surface. Traceable has developed their own API Security Reference Architecture to help fill this gap by providing organizations with a methodical way to secure their APIs with Zero Trust principles. By combining Zero Trust strategic concepts with API-specific security measures, Traceable can help organizations protect their digital assets effectively." Throughout the past year, Traceable has continued to reaffirm its commitment to extending Zero Trust methodologies to API Security. With the addition of Zero Trust creator John Kindervag and Dr. Zero Trust, Chase Cunningham as Traceable advisors, Traceable continues to strengthen its expertise in this space. To date, Traceable has become a valuable partner to a number of large enterprises as the industry turns its eyes toward the importance of API security. With the rollout of their Zero Trust API Access solution alongside this reference architecture, Traceable continues to lead the industry toward the advancement of API security. This reference architecture is now available for organizations to explore and implement, empowering them to achieve complete API security in a Zero Trust world. About Traceable Traceable is the industry’s leading API Security company that helps organizations achieve API protection in a cloud-first, API-driven world. With an API Data Lake at the core of the platform, Traceable is the only intelligent and context-aware solution that powers complete API security – security posture management, threat protection and threat management across the entire Software Development Lifecycle – enabling organizations to minimize risk and maximize the value that APIs bring to their customers. To learn more about how API security can help your business, book a demo with a security expert.

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