MSSP articles

Phishing remains one of the most prominent attack vectors in use today. According to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), over 90% of all cyber attacks begin with phishing. Two core reasons for phishing’s prominence are: By the end of Q4 2022, the number of phishing attacks worldwide spiked to over 1.35 million. Phishing is often the first step in far more sophisticated attacks, such as: Investing in fortifying your business against phishing attacks is one of the more […]

Our newest writer, Paul Ducklin, tells it as he sees it – that we’re all served better when we treat cybersecurity as a value to be maximised, not as a cost to be minimised.

Cybersecurity is constantly evolving. As technology changes, new threats emerge, and companies are forced to find new ways to defend their organizations against those threats. Every so often, however, changes build to the point that the old way of doing things no longer works and a seismic shift is necessary. The cybersecurity industry is currently at this inflection point where something has to change. Breaches are on the rise and attackers are increasingly successful in their efforts. Cybersecurity is becoming […]

Our latest addition to the content team at SolCyber is none other than trusted cybersecurity authority Paul Ducklin, so we asked him to introduce himself in no uncertain terms!

Enterprises are attractive, high-value targets for hackers; and, because enterprises often have more employees and a more complicated environment, protecting against phishing and social engineering attacks is even more difficult. The Dropbox breach of late 2022 is a prime example of this weakness. Hackers emailed a large number of Dropbox employees, directing them to a malicious website where their credentials were stolen. This kind of risk is more common than not. According to the 2023 Verizon Data Breach Report, 74% […]

Email is the second-most common vector for cyberattacks, according to the latest data breach report from Verizon while IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach report for 2023 indicates that Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks, one type of email attack, resulted in an average loss of $4.67 million. Clearly, these attacks are succeeding against organizations. However, by following a few best practices, you can prevent many of the most common email-based cybersecurity incidents. 1. Invest in email/spam filters A sophisticated email […]

Phishing emails are often sent out en masse and target people indiscriminately. According to a recent Gone Phishing Report, 7% of users clicked a phishing email in 2022. Of those, 44% submitted credentials in a subsequent online form. As high as these statistics are, spear phishing attacks–a highly targeted form of phishing–are much more successful. According to research by Barracuda, 11% of spear phishing email recipients click the links inside them. Let’s dive into what spear phishing is, why it’s […]

Enterprises are attractive, high-value targets for hackers; and because enterprises often have more employees and a more complicated environment, protecting against phishing and social engineering attacks is even more difficult. The Dropbox breach of late 2022 is a prime example of this weakness. Hackers emailed a large number of Dropbox employees, directing them to a malicious website where their credentials were stolen. This kind of risk is more common than not. According to the 2023 Verizon Data Breach Report, 74% […]

Business Email Compromise (BEC) is a type of email cybercrime in which attackers impersonate the owner of an email account in an effort to defraud a company. The attack, which is increasing in prevalence, often looks to obtain funds or credentials. Global losses from BEC attacks have increased by 17% from December 2021 to December 2022, reports the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). From October 2013 to December 2022, the IC3 recorded over $50 billion in global losses due […]

The year 2023 hasn’t been kind in terms of data breaches. By October, the number of data compromises was already up by 17% (2,116 compromises) compared to the entirety of 2022. An Apple-commissioned study carried out by MIT professor Dr. Stuart Madnick labels the current state of data breach prevalence as an “epidemic.”  The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) attributes the 2023 increase to the combined increase of zero-day vulnerabilities, ransomware attacks, and supply chain attacks. Each of these elements […]

During my 25 years of working in the security space, I’ve seen many shifts both in the security industry and the world outside of it. The technology that has been developed in the last two decades has drastically affected the way we work and the way we secure our business operations and data. I’ve watched as the industry shifted from securing data on servers to the cloud, and I believe another equally disruptive shift is coming soon. There are many […]

As cyber threats grow more numerous and sophisticated, they’ve placed an excessive burden on IT departments. Managed security services have emerged as a way to better serve a company’s cybersecurity needs and fill key gaps. There are many types of managed security services each with its own benefits and best applications. Let’s look at some of the more common types of managed security services to help you understand which might be the best for your organization. Types of managed security […]

The days of purchasing anti-virus software for your organization and knowing that’s all you need to do to be secure are long gone. Businesses large and small need a full security tech stack that includes a variety of tools and solutions to address a multitude of threats. The cybersecurity market, however, is crowded. With more than 3,500 vendors to choose from, it can be difficult to assess which vendors will best address your security concerns. The issue is further complicated […]

The underlying protocol that handles email sending—SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)—is dangerously outdated. Initially developed in 1982, SMTP remains the de facto standard for sending emails because of its simplicity, compatibility, and efficiency. However, SMTP can be easily abused by threat actors. One simple way to do this is to “spoof” email addresses, which is using a fraudulent email address to impersonate a legitimate one. To deal with some of these vulnerabilities, key authentication protocols bolster SMTP and make it […]