Risk Management | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Security and compliance professionals are no strangers to complexity. From staying ahead of ever-evolving threat landscapes to navigating an expanding web of regulatory requirements, the day-to-day demands often feel like a game of whack-a-mole. Enter AI copilots—powerful tools that, when used thoughtfully, can dramatically streamline operations and supercharge your security and compliance programs. While much of the hype around AI focuses on futuristic capabilities, the real magic today lies in using these tools to augment existing workflows. Think of copilots not as replacements for security teams, but as force multipliers—always-on assistants that help reduce toil, improve consistency, and enable teams to focus on higher-value initiatives. AI Copilots in Action: Security & Compliance Use Cases AI copilots are no longer just experimental toys. Here are a few ways forward-thinking security teams are using generative AI tools—like OpenAI's custom GPTs and Google's Gemini Gems...

For many organizations, managing IT assets is like trying to complete a jigsaw puzzle without all the pieces. Despite massive investments in security tools and controls, many companies still have critical gaps in their ecosystems that leave them vulnerable to breaches. Often, these gaps stem not from a lack of tools—if such a thing exists in security—but from incomplete visibility and integration across those tools. By aggregating and analyzing data from multiple systems, security leaders can gain a more robust picture of their IT inventory and subsequently, their security posture. The challenge with disparate security tools It's not unusual for enterprises to deploy a wide array of security tools. The average organization uses roughly 10 security tools, covering everything from endpoint management to identity and access control. These tools, however, often operate in silos, creating fragmented and occasionally contradictory reports. Let's look at a practical example. Conside...

Shadow AI is presenting new challenges for security leaders. While AI tools have already revolutionized how we work, they've also created unprecedented security challenges that our traditional strategies or tools simply weren't designed to handle. I've spent the last decade working with organizations grappling with emerging tech risks, and I can tell you that this is different. In this post, we'll talk about why, and more importantly, what you can do about it. The Hidden Risks of AI Adoption: Shadow AI The Wiz research team recently uncovered a publicly exposed DeepSeek production ClickHouse database , leaking chat history, API secrets, and other sensitive data—raising serious concerns for any organization using DeepSeek's models. Truth is that many teams rushed to try out DeepSeek given the hype around its truly advanced technologies. While the DeepSeek situation has been surrounded by FUD, drama, and misinformation, it has also set important precedents for privacy ...

Hackers are constantly scanning your network, often spotting vulnerabilities before you do. They're looking for misconfigurations, exposed assets, and weak points that could lead to a breach—are you seeing what they see? Every activity or interaction that your organization does online – website, social media accounts, cloud services, third-party integrations, and more – contributes to its digital footprint. This digital footprint is information attackers use to find your weaknesses and attempt to exploit them.  What if you could anticipate how hackers plan to exploit your vulnerabilities before they strike? Imagine identifying the weaknesses most enticing to an attacker—before they become exploited. Attack Surface Management (ASM) solutions help organizations continuously identify, monitor and manage aspects of public-facing IT assets, including those that may be forgotten. ASM is the tool in the battle of visibility – either you see your weaknesses first, or attackers will show ...

The software supply chain has become a prime target for cyberattacks, with incidents like SolarWinds and Log4j demonstrating the critical vulnerabilities inherent in today's development ecosystems. The growing reliance on open source software (OSS) amplifies this risk, with recent studies showing that up to 90% of modern applications rely on open source components. This article explores how organizations can mitigate software supply chain risks while continuing to leverage the innovation and flexibility of OSS. Why Software Supply Chains Are at Risk At its core, the supply chain relies on a complex web of contributors, libraries, and dependencies—each presenting a potential attack vector. Attackers exploit this complexity by injecting malicious code into trusted packages or targeting the infrastructure itself. Key risks include: Dependency Hell: Updating software is often so complex and fraught with technical risks that many developers avoid the process altogether, leaving them...

Nowadays, managing who has privileged access to your most critical data and systems is more important than ever. Privileged access serves as the key to your organization's most sensitive assets, making it a high-value target for malicious actors. Any misstep in securing this access might lead to privilege abuse and serious data breaches. But it's not just about defending against cybercriminals; poor management of privileged access can also result in operational disruptions, costly downtime, and non-compliance with industry regulations. To truly master Privileged Access Management (PAM) , you need more than just basic controls in place. You need a proactive, multi-layered approach that reduces risks without slowing down your operations. Let's discuss what best practices you can use to secure your privileged accounts and stay one step ahead of potential threats. Why is privileged access management so important? Privileged access management is an essential pillar of a robust c...

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications have become the backbone of many modern businesses. With the myriad of functionalities they offer, they maximize collaboration, agility, scalability, and ultimately, profits. So it's no wonder that companies rely on an incredible hundreds of apps today, up from dozens just a few years ago. But this rapid adoption has introduced brand-new vulnerabilities and elusive blind spots. 2024 saw many attacks originating from SaaS apps including those perpetrated by nation states . And the headlines about SaaS app attacks seem to be getting more ominous if that is even possible. The culprits behind the attacks come from outsiders, insiders, third parties, and even unintentional human errors or negligence. The need to address this snowballing trend has reached a critical point. Given the scale and speed of app development and adoption, we are creating a larger attack surface for increasingly capable adversaries every day. In such a high-stakes environm...

Open-source libraries allow developers to move faster, leveraging existing building blocks instead of diverting resources to building in-house. By leaning on existing open-source packages, engineers can focus on complex or bespoke elements of their products, using package managers and open-source maintainers to make it easy to pull everything together.  However, you can't deny that building software using open source makes your applications more vulnerable to security risks. In an open-source library, attackers have direct access to code, and can search for current and historical vulnerabilities, as well as any issues and tickets managed on websites such as GitHub or GitLab. This helps threat actors to quickly find packages that are vulnerable and launch an attack.  This is where Software Composition Analysis (SCA) comes in, with the purpose of scanning packages and uncovering vulnerabilities. SCA compiles and manages a catalog of software packages, alongside details such ...

Compliance professionals today are dealing with numerous challenges. At the same time, their companies face increased scrutiny and cyberthreats, and compliance teams have fewer resources and reduced headcount. It's a lot for even the most sophisticated and experienced teams to manage. As a result, compliance professionals are seeking out ways to do more with less. Sometimes the solution is utilizing technology, such as automated software tools that streamline processes or leveraging AI for greater efficiency. In other circumstances, individuals responsible for compliance are choosing an easy path to simply check the box on compliance with a flimsy, budget audit. This may be enough to get the C-suite off their back, but it leaves the company open to significant risk. Each year, A-LIGN surveys hundreds of compliance leaders to learn more about the current state of compliance and better understand the factors that impact their decisions. What are the driving forces behind their complia...

In today's digital age, financial institutions are tasked with the critical mission of upholding high standards of service, continuity, and resilience while combatting evolving cyber threats. The ability to innovate and enhance the security of digital financial services is essential for growth, differentiation, and for building trust with customers. To address these challenges, financial institutions must establish and maintain robust security processes and adapt their cyber defenses continuously. One key regulatory initiative designed to assist financial institutions in enhancing their operational resilience and cybersecurity posture is the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA). Understanding DORA The  Digital Operational Resilience Act  (Regulation (EU) 2022/2554) is a pivotal regulatory framework that focuses on digital operational resilience within financial services. Representing the EU's primary regulato...