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Complying with cyber regulations forms a significant portion of the CISO's responsibility. Compliance is, in fact, one of the major drivers in the purchase and implementation of new security products. But regulations come in multiple different colors and shapes – some are tailored to a specific vertical, while others are industry-agnostic. Some bare explicit consequences for failing to comply, while others have a more guidance-like nature. The Comprehensive Security Guide (download here) , for the first time, provides security executives with a single document that gathers standardized and easy to use templates of all main compliance frameworks: PCI-DSS, HIPAA, NIST Cyber Security Framework and GDPR. Employing an independent auditor is the common practice to ensure one complies with the desired regulation. However, before having an external auditor excavating through the organizations' security stack internals, it makes sense for the security stakeholders to independ

Many organizations regard Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) as their main protection against breaches. EDR, as a category, emerged in 2012 and was rapidly acknowledged as the best answer to the numerous threats that legacy AV unsuccessfully struggled to overcome – exploits, zero-day malware and fileless attacks are prominent examples. While there is no dispute on EDR's efficiency against a significant portion of today's advanced threats, a new breed of "next-generation EDR" solutions are now available ( learn more here ) which on top of featuring all EDR capabilities, go beyond this to protect against prominent attack vectors that EDR does not cover such as those involving users and networks. "Many people unknowingly mix two different things – endpoint protection and breach protection," explained Eyal Gruner, co-Founder of Cynet (a next-generation EDR solution). "It's perfectly true that many attacks start at the endpoint and involve mali

Identities now transcend human boundaries. Within each line of code and every API call lies a non-human identity. These entities act as programmatic access keys, enabling authentication and facilitating interactions among systems and services, which are essential for every API call, database query, or storage account access. As we depend on multi-factor authentication and passwords to safeguard human identities, a pressing question arises: How do we guarantee the security and integrity of these non-human counterparts? How do we authenticate, authorize, and regulate access for entities devoid of life but crucial for the functioning of critical systems? Let's break it down. The challenge Imagine a cloud-native application as a bustling metropolis of tiny neighborhoods known as microservices, all neatly packed into containers. These microservices function akin to diligent worker bees, each diligently performing its designated task, be it processing data, verifying credentials, or

The massive data breach at Capital One – America's seventh-largest bank, according to revenue – has challenged many common assumptions about cloud computing for the first time. Ironically, the incident, which exposed some 106 million Capital One customers' accounts , has only reinforced the belief that the cloud remains the safest way to store sensitive data. "You have to compare [the cloud] not against 'perfect' but against 'on-premises.'" Ed Amoroso, a former chief security officer at AT&T, told Fortune magazine this week. He wasn't the only voice defending cloud computing in the wake of a hack attack. In an article titled "Don't Doubt the Cloud," Fortune columnist Robert Hackett , wrote: "The cloud is undeniably convenient and, more importantly, better in terms of security than what the majority of companies can achieve alone." The problem, experts said, was not cloud computing but rather the tendency for

CISOs and CIOs need to know better than anyone the security pulse of their organizations. On the other hand, they cannot be flooded with every changing detail. Finding the right balance that enables them to clearly grasp the big picture required in making sound decisions is a task many security executives find challenging. Threat actors do not acknowledge off-hours or weekends, introducing the need for constant vigilance. Moreover, CIOs and CISOs are heavily dependent on their team for knowledge and often lack the immediate interaction with the events in real-time. This situation is also far from favorable – after all, who if not the security executive should have the ability to be in-the-know and initiate action at the heart of things? Cynet rises to this challenge with the recently launched Cynet Dashboard application, which provides 24/7 insight into the overall security posture, real-time visibility into newly detected threats, and the ability to take rapid action if the nee

In every organization, there is a person who's directly accountable for cybersecurity. The name of the role varies per the organization's size and maturity – CISO, CIO, and Director of IT are just a few common examples – but the responsibility is similar in all places. They're the person who understands the risk and exposure, knows how prepared the team and most important – what the gaps are and how they can be best addressed. Apart from actually securing the organization – and losing some sleep over it – this individual has another equally important task: to communicate the security risk, needs, and status to the company's management. After all, the level of security rises in direct proportion to the amount of invested resources, and management people are the ones who decide and allocate them. Since management people are not typically cybersecurity savvy, engaging them can be challenging – one must find the balance between high-level explanations, a direct c

More and more, organizations take the route of outsourcing incident response to Managed Security Service Providers. This trend is distinct regardless of the organization's cyber maturity level and can be found across a wide range of cyber maturity, from small companies with no dedicated security team to enterprises with a fully equipped SOC. The hands of the incident response service providers are extremely busy, and the need from their side to scale while maintaining top quality has never been greater. To address this need, Cynet offers IR service providers to collect data, analyze, investigate and remediate threats on their customers' environments with Cynet 360 platform for free, introducing unmatched speed and reliability into their operations. Any incident responder can now simply sign up to Cynet and immediately get free access to the platform. "Cynet tackles the incident response play at its most fundamental core – speed," said Eyal Gruner, co-fo

Cybersecurity isn't easy. If there was a product or service you could buy that would just magically solve all of your cybersecurity problems, everyone would buy that thing, and we could all rest easy. However, that is not the way it works. Technology continues to evolve. Cyber attackers adapt and develop new malicious tools and techniques, and cybersecurity vendors design creative new ways to detect and block those threats. Rinse and repeat. Cybersecurity isn't easy, and there is no magic solution, but there are a handful of things you can do that will greatly reduce your exposure to risk and significantly improve your security posture. The right platform, intelligence, and expertise can help you avoid the vast majority of threats, and help you detect and respond more quickly to the attacks that get through. Challenges of Cybersecurity Effective cybersecurity is challenging for a variety of reasons, but the changing perimeter and the confusing variety of solution

Real-time visibility into IT assets and activities introduces speed and efficiency to many critical productivity and security tasks organizations are struggling with—from conventional asset inventory reporting to proactive elimination of exposed attack surfaces. However, gaining such visibility is often highly resource consuming and entails manual integration of various feeds. Cynet is now offering end-users and service providers free access to its end-to-end visibility capabilities . The offering consists of 14 days access to the Cynet 360 platform, during which users can gain full visibility into their IT environment—host configurations, installed software, user account activities, password hygiene, and network traffic. "When we built the Cynet 360 platform we identified a critical need for a single-source-of-truth interface where you get all the knowledge regarding what exists in the environment and what activities take place there," said Eyal Gruner, Cynet fou

A new threat has hit head the headlines ( Robinhood anyone?), and you need to know if you're protected right now. What do you do? Traditionally, you would have to go with one of the options below. Option 1 – Manually check that IoCs have been updated across your security controls. This would require checking that security controls such as your email gateway, web gateway, and endpoint security have all been updated with the latest threats' indicators of compromise (IoCs) usually published by AV companies who detect the malware binaries first. Option 2 – Create a 'carbon copy' of your network and run the threat's binary on that copy. While safe, IT and security teams may be unaware of certain variations from the real deal. So while the attack simulation is running against an 'ideal' copy, your real network may have undergone inadvertent changes, such as a firewall running in monitoring mode, a patch not being installed on time, and other unintent

Cybersecurity experts all echo the same thing – cyber attacks are going to get more rampant, and they will continue to pose severe threats against all technology users. Businesses, in particular, have become prime targets for cybercriminals due to the nature of data and information they process and store. 2018 saw a slew of data breaches targeting large enterprises that resulted in the theft of the personal and financial records of millions of customers. Falling victim to cyber attacks can deal with a major financial blow to businesses as the cost of dealing with an attack has risen to $1.1 million on the average. It can even be more devastating for small to medium-sized businesses. 60 percent of these smaller operations close within six months after failing to recover from cyber attacks. But aside from these monetary costs, companies can also lose credibility and their customers' confidence. Needless to say, businesses must improve the protection of their infrastructures

High-quality cybersecurity posture is typically regarded as the exclusive domain of the large and heavy resourced enterprises – those who can afford a multi-product security stack and a skilled security team to operate it. This implies a grave risk to all organizations who are not part of this group, since the modern threat landscape applies to all, regardless of size and vertical. What is less commonly known is that by following basic and well-defined practices and wise security product choices, any organization can level up its defenses to a much higher standard. "At the end of the day it comes down to strategic planning," says Eyal Gruner, CEO and co-founder of Cynet, "rather than thinking in term of specific product or need, zoom out and breakdown the challenge to its logical parts – what do you need to do proactively on an on-going basis, while you're under attack and when you manage a recovery process." From the various frameworks of security b

Workplaces have become highly connected. Even a small business could have dozens of devices in the form of desktops, mobile devices, routers, and even smart appliances as part of its IT infrastructure. Unfortunately, each of these endpoints can now be a weak link that hackers could exploit. Hackers constantly probe networks for vulnerable endpoints to breach. For example, systems and applications that are configured using recycled user names and passwords can easily be hacked given the availability of leaked credentials online. Password management service LastPass noted that 59% of users use the same password for multiple accounts. Malware and malicious processes may also target workstations. Cybersecurity firm Symantec found a 1,000 percent increase in PowerShell script attacks in 2018. These attacks use cleverly disguised malicious processes that appear legitimate at a cursory glance. This is why IT security career is fast evolving into a huge market. However, because o

Doing business in today's connected world means dealing with a continually evolving threat landscape. With potential losses due to downtime following a breach, plus valuable client and proprietary information at risk, most organizations realize they cannot afford to be complacent. This puts extra onus on security IT teams, who are continuously left scrambling, looking for the best way to protect their organizations against the threats that bypass AV and firewall. Added to this is another challenge in that most organizations are limited in the resources they can invest in security. Many are left reliant on a single product on top of their security stack. Common practice in organizational security circles as they attempt to remain secure is to upgrade endpoint protection with EPP\EDR or a Network Analytic tool. But as we all know, what's common is not necessarily what's best. How can an organization ensure it remains secure, especially with all that is at stake?

Photo by Terje Pedersen / NTB scanpix One of the world's largest producers of aluminum has been forced to shut down several of its plants across Europe and the U.S. after an "extensive cyber attack" hit its operations, leaving companies' IT systems unusable. According to a press release shared by Aluminum giant Norsk Hydro today, the company has temporarily shut down several plants and switched to manual operations, "where possible," in countries including Norway, Qatar, and Brazil in an attempt to continue some of its operations. The cyber attack, that began in the U.S.,was first detected by the company's IT experts around late Monday evening CET and the company is working to neutralize the attack, as well as investigating to know the full extent of the incident. "Hydro's main priority is to continue to ensure safe operations and limit operational and financial impact. The problem has not led to any safety-related incidents," t