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It’s no longer possible to deny that your life in the physical world and your digital life are one and the same. Coming to terms with this reality will help you make better decisions in many aspects of your life.
The same identity you use at work, at home, and with friends also exists in apps, inboxes, accounts, devices, and databases, whether you actively post online or prefer to stay quiet. Every purchase, login, location ping, and message leaves a trail. And that trail shapes what people, companies, and scammers can learn about you, how they can reach you, and what they might try to take.
That’s why digital security isn’t just an IT or a “tech person” problem. It’s a daily life skill. When you understand how your digital life works, what information you’re sharing, where it’s stored, and how it can be misused, you make better decisions. This guide is designed to help you build that awareness and translate it into practical habits: protecting your data, securing your accounts, and staying in control of your privacy in a world that’s always connected.
Being digitally secure doesn’t mean hiding from the internet or using complicated tools you don’t understand. It means having intentional control over your digital life to reduce risks while still being able to live, work, and communicate online safely. A digitally secure person focuses on four interconnected areas:
Your personal data is the foundation of your digital identity. Protecting it includes limiting how much data you share, understanding where it’s stored, and reducing how easily it can be collected, sold, or stolen. At its heart, personal information falls into two critical categories that require different levels of protection:
Account security ensures that only you can access them. Strong, unique passwords, multi-factor authentication, and secure recovery options prevent criminals from hijacking your email, banking, cloud storage, social media, and other online accounts, often the gateway to everything else in your digital life.
Privacy control means setting boundaries and deciding who can see what about you, and under what circumstances. This includes managing social media visibility, app permissions, browser tracking, and third-party access to your data.
Digital security is an ongoing effort as threats evolve, platforms change their policies, and new technologies introduce new risks. Staying digitally secure requires periodic check-ins, learning to recognize scams and manipulation, and adjusting your habits as the digital landscape changes.
Your personal information faces exposure risks through multiple channels during routine digital activities, often without your explicit knowledge.
Implementing comprehensive personal data protection requires a systematic approach that addresses the common exposure points. These practical steps provide layers of security that work together to minimize your exposure to identity theft and fraud.
Start by conducting a thorough audit of your online accounts and subscriptions to identify where you have unnecessarily shared more data than needed. Remove or minimize details that aren’t essential for the service to function. Moving forward, provide only the minimum required information to new accounts and avoid linking them across different platforms unless necessary.
Be particularly cautious with loyalty programs, surveys, and promotional offers that ask for extensive personal information, as they may share it with third parties. Read privacy policies carefully, focusing on sections that describe data sharing, retention periods, and your rights regarding your personal information.
If possible, consider using separate email addresses for different accounts to limit cross-platform tracking and reduce the impact if one account is compromised. Create dedicated email addresses for shopping, social media, newsletters, and important accounts like banking and healthcare.
Privacy protection requires regular attention to your account settings across all platforms and services you use. Social media platforms frequently update their privacy policies and settings, often defaulting to less private configurations that allow them to collect and share your data. For this reason, it is a good idea to review your privacy settings at least quarterly. Limit who can see your posts, contact information, and friend lists. Disable location tracking, facial recognition, and advertising customization features that rely on your personal data. Turn off automatic photo tagging and prevent search engines from indexing your profile.
On Google accounts, visit your Activity Controls and disable Web & App Activity, Location History, and YouTube History to stop this data from being saved. You can even opt out of ad personalization entirely if desired by adjusting Google Ad Settings. If you are more tech savvy, Google Takeout allows you to export and review what data Google has collected about you.
For Apple ID accounts, you can navigate to System Preferences on Mac or Settings on iOS devices to disable location-based Apple ads, limit app tracking, and review which apps have access to your contacts, photos, and other personal data.
Meanwhile, Amazon accounts store extensive purchase history, voice recordings from Alexa devices, and browsing behavior. Review your privacy settings to limit data sharing with third parties, delete voice recordings, and manage your advertising preferences.
Regularly audit the permissions you’ve granted to installed applications. Many apps request far more permissions to your location, contacts, camera, and microphone even though they don’t need them. Cancel these unnecessary permissions, and be particularly cautious about granting access to sensitive data.
Create passwords that actually protect you; they should be long and complex enough that even sophisticated attacks can’t easily break them. Combine uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters to make it harder for attackers to crack.
Aside from passwords, enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) on your most critical accounts: banking and financial services, email, cloud storage, social media, work, and healthcare. Use authenticator apps such as Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, or Authy rather than SMS-based authentication when possible, as text messages can be intercepted through SIM swapping attacks. When setting up MFA, ensure you save backup codes in a secure location and register multiple devices when possible to keep you from being locked out of your accounts if your primary authentication device is lost, stolen, or damaged.
Alternatively, many services now offer passkeys which use cryptographic keys stored on your device, providing stronger security than passwords while being more convenient to use. Consider adopting passkeys for accounts that support them, particularly for your most sensitive accounts.
Device encryption protects your personal information if your smartphone, tablet, or laptop is lost, stolen, or accessed without authorization. Modern devices typically offer built-in encryption options that are easy to enable and don’t noticeably impact performance.
You can implement automatic backup systems such as secure cloud storage services, and ensure backup data is protected. iOS users can utilize encrypted iCloud backups, while Android users should enable Google backup with encryption. Regularly test your backup systems to ensure they’re working correctly and that you can successfully restore your data when needed.
Identify major data brokers that likely have your information and look for their privacy policy or opt-out procedures, which often involves submitting a request with your personal information and waiting for confirmation that your data has been removed.
In addition, review your subscriptions and memberships to identify services you no longer use. Request account deletion rather than simply closing accounts, as many companies retain data from closed accounts. When requesting deletion, ask specifically for all personal data to be removed from their systems, including backups and archives.
Keep records of your opt-out and deletion requests, and follow up if you don’t receive confirmation within the stated timeframe. In the United States, key data broker companies include Acxiom, LexisNexis, Experian, Equifax, TransUnion, Whitepages, Spokeo, BeenVerified, and PeopleFinder. Visit each company’s website.
Connect only to trusted, secure networks to reduce the risk of your data being intercepted by attackers lurking behind unsecured or fake Wi-Fi connections. Avoid logging into sensitive accounts on public networks in coffee shops, airports, or hotels, and use encrypted connections such as HTTPS or a virtual private network to hide your IP address and block third parties from monitoring your online activities.
Rather than using a free VPN service that often collects and sells your data to generate revenue, it is better to choose a premium, reputable VPN service that doesn’t log your browsing activities and offers servers in multiple locations.
Cyber threats evolve constantly, privacy policies change, and new services collect different types of personal information, making personal data protection an ongoing process rather than a one-time task. Here are measures to help regularly maintain your personal data protection:
By implementing these systematic approaches and maintaining regular attention to your privacy settings and data sharing practices, you significantly reduce your risk of identity theft and fraud while maintaining greater control over your digital presence and personal information.
You don’t need to dramatically overhaul your entire digital security in one day, but you can start making meaningful improvements right now. Taking action today, even small steps, builds the foundation for stronger personal data protection and peace of mind in your digital life. Choose one critical account, update its password, enable multi-factor authentication, and you’ll already be significantly more secure than you were this morning. Your future self will thank you for taking these proactive steps to protect what matters most to you.
Every step you take toward better privacy protection strengthens your overall digital security and reduces your risk of becoming a victim of scams, identity theft, or unwanted surveillance. You’ve already taken the first step by learning about digital security risks and solutions. Now it’s time to put that knowledge into action with practical steps that fit seamlessly into your digital routine.
The post What Does It Take To Be Digitally Secure? appeared first on McAfee Blog.
The holidays are just around the corner and amid the hustle and bustle, many of us will fire up our devices to go online, order gifts, plan travel, and spread cheer. But while we’re getting festive, the cybercriminals are getting ready to take advantage of the influx of your good cheer to spread scams and malware.
With online shopping expected to grow by 7.9% year-on-year in the U.S. alone in 2025, according to Mastercard, and more people than ever using social media and mobile devices to connect, the cybercriminals have a lot of opportunities to spoil our fun. Using multiple devices provides the bad guys with more ways to access your valuable “digital assets,” such as personal information and files, especially if the devices are under-protected.
In this guide, let’s look into the 12 most common cybercrimes and scams of Christmas, and what you can do to keep your money, information, and holiday spirit safe.
The festive atmosphere, continued increase in online shopping activity, and charitable spirit that define the holidays create perfect conditions for scammers to exploit your generosity and urgency.
Not surprisingly, digital criminals become more active and professional during this period, driven even more by the increasing power of artificial intelligence. A new McAfee holiday shopping report revealed that 86% of consumers surveyed receive a daily average of 11 shopping-related text or email messages that seem suspicious. This includes 3 scam texts, 5 emails, and 3 social media messages. Meanwhile, 22% admit they have been scammed during a holiday season in the past.
Their scams succeed because they exploit the psychological and behavioral patterns that are rife during the holidays. The excitement and time pressure of holiday shopping often prevail over our usual caution, while the emotional aspects of gift-giving and charitable donations can be exploited and move us to be more generous. Meanwhile, scammers understand that you’re more likely to make quick purchasing decisions when the fear of missing out on limited-time offers overtakes your judgment or when you’re rushing to find the perfect gift before it’s too late.
Overall, the frenzied seasonal themes create an environment where criminals can misuse the urgency of their fake offers and cloud our judgment, making fraudulent emails and websites appear more legitimate, while you’re already operating under the stress of holiday deadlines and budget concerns. After all, holiday promotions and charity appeals are expected during this time of year.
Now that you understand the psychology behind the scams, it’s time to become more aware of the common scams that cybercriminals run during the holiday season.
As you head online this holiday season, stay on guard and stay aware of scammers’ attempts to steal your money and your information. Familiarize yourself with the “12 Scams of Christmas” to ensure a safe and happy holiday season:
Many of us use social media sites to connect with family, friends, and co-workers over the holidays, and the cybercriminals know that this is a good place to catch you off guard because we’re all “friends,” right? Here are some ways that criminals will use these channels to obtain shoppers gift money, identity or other personal information:
As the popularity of smartphone apps has grown, so have the chances of you downloading a malicious application that steals your information or sends premium-rate text messages without your knowledge. Apps ask for more permissions than they need, such as access to your contacts or location.
If you unwrap a new smartphone this holiday season, make sure that you only download applications from official app stores and check other users’ reviews, as well as the app’s permission policies, before downloading. Software, such as McAfee Mobile Security, can also help protect you against dangerous apps.
Many of us travel to visit family and friends over the holidays. We begin our journey online by looking for deals on airfare, hotels, and rental cars. Before you book, keep in mind that scammers are looking to hook you with phony travel webpages with too-fantastic deals—beautiful pictures and rock-bottom prices—to deceive you into handing over your financial details and money.
Even when you’re already on the road, you need to be careful. Sometimes, scammers who have gained unauthorized access to hotel Wi-Fi will release a malicious pop-up ad on your device screen, and prompt you to install software before connecting. If you agree to the installation, it downloads malware onto your machine. To thwart such an attempt, it’s important that you perform a security software update before traveling.
You are probably already familiar with email phishing and SMiShing messages containing questionable offers and links. The scammer will mimic a legitimate organization offering cheap Rolex watches and luxury products as the “perfect gift” for that special someone, or send a message posing as your bank with a holiday promo and try to lure you into revealing information or direct you to a fake webpage. Never respond to these scams or click on an included link. Be aware that real banks won’t ask you to divulge personal information via text message. If you have any questions about your accounts, you should contact your bank directly.
QR code phishing, or “quishing,” has emerged as a significant new threat during holiday shopping seasons. In this scam method, cybercriminals place malicious QR codes in holiday advertisements posted on social media or printed flyers, parking meters and payment kiosks at shopping centers, or at restaurant tables during holiday dining. They could also email attachments claiming to offer exclusive holiday deals or fake shipping labels placed over legitimate tracking QR codes.
The kind of excitement and buzz surrounding Apple’s new iPad and iPhone is just what cybercrooks dream of when they plot their scams. They will mention must-have holiday gifts in dangerous links, phony contests, and phishing emails to grab your attention. Once they’ve caught your eye, they will again try to get you to reveal personal information or click on a dangerous link that could download malware onto your machine. Be suspicious of any deal mentioning hot holiday gift items—especially at extremely low prices—and try to verify the offer with the real retailer involved.
Cybercriminals exploit employee expectations of year-end communications by creating fake emails that appear to come from your HR department. These messages often claim to contain annual bonus information, updated benefits packages, or mandatory holiday attendance announcements. These scams are particularly effective because they prey on legitimate employee concerns about compensation, benefits, and personal time off during the holiday season. The emails often feature real-looking company logos, proper formatting, and even references to company policies to increase their credibility.
Gift cards are probably the perfect gift for some people on your holiday list. Given their popularity, cybercriminals can’t help but want to get in on the action by offering bogus gift cards online. Be wary of buying gift cards from third parties. It’s best to buy from the official retailer. Just imagine how embarrassing it would be to find out that the gift card you gave your mother-in-law was fraudulent!
No matter what gift you’re looking for, chances are you can find it quickly and easily online, but you still want to be careful in selecting which site to shop. By promoting great deals, phony e-commerce sites will try to convince you to type in your credit card number and other personal details. After obtaining your money and information, you never receive the merchandise, and your personal information is put at risk. To prevent falling victim to bogus e-commerce stores, shop only at trusted and well-known e-commerce sites. If you’re shopping on a site for the first time, check other users’ reviews and verify that the phone number listed on the site is legitimate.
This is one of the biggest scams of every holiday season. As we open our hearts and wallets, the bad guys will send spam emails and pretend to be a real charity in the hope of getting in on the giving. Their emails will sport a stolen logo and copycat text, or come from an entirely invented charity. If you want to give, it’s always safer to visit the charity’s legitimate website, and do a little research about the charity before you donate.
E-cards are a popular way to send a quick “thank you” or holiday greeting. While most e-cards are safe, some are malicious and may contain spyware or viruses that download onto your computer once you click on the link to view the greeting. Before clicking, look for clues that the e-card is legitimate. Make sure it comes from a well-known e-card site by checking the domain name of the included link. Also check to see that the sender is someone you actually know, and that there are no misspellings or other red flags that the card is a fake.
With increased package deliveries during the holiday season, fake shipping notifications have become a common attack. These messages claim to be from legitimate shipping companies such as UPS, FedEx, or DHL, informing you of package delivery attempts or shipping delays. To complete the delivery, these notices will ask you to click on malicious links or attachments that will download malware or direct you to fake websites that will steal personal information. The timing of these attacks coincides with legitimate increased shipping activity, making them harder to distinguish from authentic communications. To track your deliveries, it is best to check the shipping company’s real website or through the trusted platform from which you ordered the product.
Knowing about these common scam tactics is only the first step toward protecting yourself and those you care about. The next step is for you to learn and implement practical, effective strategies to stay safe while still enjoying digital holiday shopping and giving.
The holiday season brings joy and connection, but it’s also a time when scammers work hardest to exploit your festive but rushed and distracted spirit. Effective Christmas scam prevention starts with awareness. By slowing down and taking a moment to verify before you click or buy, and using layered cybersecurity protections, you can worry about one less thing and focus on what matters most this season.
Stay security-conscious without letting fear diminish your holiday enjoyment and pursue your digital holiday activities with the right knowledge and tools. We hope that the specific, actionable protections will help you identify red flags, verify legitimate offers, secure your devices and accounts, and respond effectively to suspicious activity. Stay informed by following trusted sources for the latest cybersecurity tips during the holidays, and make this season about celebrating safely with the people you care about most.
Send the link to this page to your family and friends to increase their awareness and take steps to protect themselves.
The post The Top 12 Scams Of Christmas To Watch Out For appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Thanksgiving—not before Halloween as we see things in stores and online now. It seems like the holiday season and decorations start earlier and earlier every year.
But one thing that hasn’t changed is that Black Friday is still a big shopping day. With the advent of online shopping has emerged Cyber Monday, another big sale day for online shoppers on the first Monday after Thanksgiving.
Although many of us may take advantage of these great deals that the holidays offer, we also need to be aware of the risks. Online shopping is a fun and convenient way to make purchases, locate hard-to-find items, and discover bargains, but we need to take steps to protect ourselves.
This guide looks at the methods and warning signs behind online shopping scams, shows you how to recognize fake shopping apps and websites, and shares tips for staying safe online.
Online shopping has become a cornerstone of American life. CapitalOne Shopping projects American online spending to reach $1.34 trillion in 2024 and exceed $2.5 trillion in 2030.
With such a massive sum at stake, cybercriminals are laser-focused on taking a share of it, posing financial risk to the 288 million Americans who shop online. As e-commerce grows, so does fraud. In 2024, e-commerce fraud was valued at $44.3 billion, a number seen to grow by 141% to $107 billion in 2029.
Be that as it may, there are many smart shopping habits you can apply to dramatically reduce your risk of becoming a victim of online shopping fraud and enjoy the convenience and benefits of online commerce.
Online shopping scams are designed to look normal—at first glance—especially during busy sale seasons when we’re distracted by a million preparations, moving fast, and chasing deals. These are the very circumstances that fraudsters bank on to victimize you into taking the bait. Being aware of the common scam indicators will help you pause and think, recognize trouble early, and protect both your money and your personal information.
Safe online shopping starts with recognizing the hallmarks of legitimate retailers. Before you enter any payment details, take a moment to verify that the website you’re shopping on is genuine. Scam stores can look polished and convincing, but they often leave behind subtle clues. Here are quick ways to check their authenticity:
trustmark, indicating that the site has been scanned and verified as secure by a trusted third party. This security seal indicates that the site will help protect you from identity theft, credit card fraud, spam, and other malicious threats.The FTC also recommends these additional tips so you can enjoy all the advantages that online shopping has to offer and prevent risking your personal information.
Online shopping should feel exciting, not a dangerous undertaking you have to brace for, especially during the season of giving. It can be, with a few simple steps—checking the URL, looking for HTTPS, verifying the seller, paying with a credit card or virtual number, and trusting your gut when something feels suspicious. These small habits will keep your money and your identity where they belong: with you.
For increased safety while shopping online, seek out the help of a trusted security solution such as McAfee+ that will alert you of risky links and compromised websites to prevent identity theft or malware infection.
If this guide helps you, pass it along to someone you care about. Scams don’t just target individuals—they cascade into families and friend groups. The more we normalize safe shopping habits and increase our vigilance, the harder it is for fraudsters to win. If you ever feel unsure mid-purchase, take a breath and double-check. A few extra seconds now can save you a lot of stress later. Stay safe, and happy shopping!
The post Helpful Tips for Safe Online Shopping appeared first on McAfee Blog.
I don’t know about you, but I love Christmas in Australia, long summer days, the sound of cicadas at night, seafood on Christmas day, or traditional ham with roasted veggies. I just love the festive season. And I must confess that I love Christmas shopping. Yep, I’m one of those people! Once I’ve put some time and thought into what gift I’d like to give to my family members, I go online and surf for the perfect bargain, or simply to find out which retailers have the gifts I want.
But in my haste to type in an address I do make typos, and I’ve just read a report that tells me one little typo like missing the “o” in “.com” could land me somewhere I don’t want to be! This seemingly innocent misspelling in domain names is actually a criminal scheme to direct you to scam websites.
In the past, McAfee released a report that revealed .vn as the riskiest country code domain name. In 2024, the winner was .su, which stands for the former Soviet Union. Although the country is defunct, scammers continue to use this domain for phishing attacks that spread viruses and other nasties designed to cause havoc on your home computer. Certainly not what you need this Christmas. Australia’s domain “.au” is relatively safe in comparison to the rest of the web, but it certainly doesn’t mean we’re safe while surfing the wild, wild web.
Another 2024 report showed that .com, aside from being the most popular top-level domain, is now also the most abused one used in typosquatting.
As you go online to shop for holiday presents, make your banking payments, or book your holiday travel, you’ll need to be more alert about typing those domain names on the address bars to avoid being a victim of typosquatting. Here’s a more detailed look at this scam, its dangers, and what you do if you accidentally end up on a dangerous site.
Typosquatting is a cybercriminal tactic where attackers register domain names that closely resemble legitimate websites, specifically targeting common typing mistakes you might make when entering URLs. Google is the top impersonated brand, being misspelled online as goggle, closely followed by Microsoft as microsfot, and Amazon as amaz0n.
Malicious actors take advantage of the small slip-ups we all make, such as missing a letter, swapping characters, or hitting the wrong key, to redirect you to fake websites that steal your usernames, passwords, and personal information. Others may automatically download malware onto your device.
According to research in 2024, internet services are the most targeted names in typosquatting (29.2%), followed by professional services (26.09%) and online shopping websites (22.3%). The consequences can include identity theft, financial fraud, compromised accounts, and infected devices that put your entire digital life at risk.
Typosquatting thrives because it sits at the intersection of human habits and internet mechanics. Cybercriminals are banking on these small human blunders to direct you to their malicious look-alike domains, using visual tricks such as similar-looking characters or misleading subdomains. Throw in search ads and SEO that push these sites in front of us even without a typo, and you get a perfect storm for typosquatting. Once you understand the factors that allow typosquatting to flourish, you can avoid falling victim to it.
Typosquatters use a playbook of tweaks built around the typing mistakes people make. The goal is always the same: catch you in a moment of hurry and usher you to a fake page before you notice anything’s off. Being aware of these common typosquatting techniques will teach you to recognize when you might be in danger of visiting a fake website.
Typosquatting puts you at risk in several ways, one of which is that cybercriminals can steal your personal information through convincing phishing pages that look identical to legitimate sites. You might unknowingly enter your login credentials, credit card details, or other sensitive data directly into their hands.
Malware downloads represent another significant threat. Some fraudulent sites automatically install harmful software onto your device, potentially giving attackers remote access to your computer or mobile device. Payment fraud is particularly concerning when typosquatting targets banking or shopping websites, as you could complete transactions that go straight to scammers instead of legitimate businesses.
Your privacy could also suffer when malicious sites steal cookies and session data, allowing criminals to impersonate you on legitimate websites. They can access your accounts, view your browsing history, and monitor your online activities without your knowledge.
So here are my tips on how to stay safe while surfing:
Well, the number one tip goes without saying, Slip, Slop, and Slap when you’re lapping up the glorious Aussie sun, and don’t forget to reapply!
I only have one word for you: Antivirus!
Now I’ve got to admit, since starting out on this quest as Cybermum, I’ve learnt a few things, and I think one of the most important lessons has been that you can never have too much protection when it comes to your home computer. I liken having up-to-date security software to reapplying your sunscreen. Just because you loaded some security software a couple of years ago, doesn’t mean you’re safe now! You’re bound to get burnt unless you reapply, so for your computer, this means update! Check out McAfee Total Protection.
If you can end up in Cameroon surrounded by infected sites simply by missing an “o,” it’s certainly worthwhile checking your spelling before hitting the enter key!
I know I find it difficult to determine when a site is safe or not. I certainly know that my kids wouldn’t have even given it a second thought until I loaded McAfee’s WebAdvisor on our home computer. It’s pretty cool and it’s been really easy for my kids to understand as it provides a traffic light system of red, yellow and green icons to indicate a website’s risk level, so I know when my kids are surfing the net this summer they’ve got their own little traffic warden steering them away from sites that could have seen them surfing in Cameroon instead of Australia!
Aside from these key tips and the immediate steps listed above, I’ve rounded up a few other reminders to make sure you end up on a legitimate website and keep your device and information safe:
Typosquatting may seem like a small concern, but knowing its risks of typos can make a big difference in your online safety. Simple typing mistakes in domains can redirect you to malicious sites designed to steal your information or infect your devices.
To avoid becoming a victim of typosquatting, the key is for you to develop mindful habits such as bookmarking trusted sites and double-checking URLs before hitting the enter key on your keyboard, or before typing sensitive information or downloading files. Always look for secure connection indicators such as the padlock icon to confirm you’re on the correct website.
In addition, using reliable tools such as McAfee WebAdvisor and McAfee Total Protection gives you the assurance of safety while you browse, bank, and shop online. McAfee security solutions work quietly in the background, alerting you to suspicious sites and keeping you on the safe path. Share this knowledge with your family and friends, because when we’re all aware of these simple tricks that criminals use, we can all enjoy the internet more safely together.
Happy Christmas shopping and safe surfing.
The post Oh what a difference an “o” can make! appeared first on McAfee Blog.
“Vishing” occurs when criminals cold-call victims and attempt to persuade them to divulge personal information over the phone. These scammers are generally after credit card numbers and personal identifying information, which can then be used to commit financial theft. Vishing can occur both on your landline phone or via your cell phone.
The term is a combination of “voice,” and “phishing,” which is the use of spoofed emails to trick targets into clicking malicious links. Rather than email, vishing generally relies on automated phone calls that instruct targets to provide account numbers. Techniques scammers use to get your phone numbers include:
Once vishers have phone numbers, they employ various strategies to deceive their targets and obtain valuable personal information:
To protect yourself from vishing scams, you should:
Staying vigilant and informed is your best defense against vishing scams. By verifying caller identities, being skeptical of unsolicited requests for personal information, and using call-blocking tools, you can significantly reduce your risk of falling victim to these deceptive practices. Additionally, investing in identity theft protection services can provide an extra layer of security. These services monitor your personal information for suspicious activity and offer assistance in recovering from identity theft, giving you peace of mind in an increasingly digital world. Remember, proactive measures and awareness are key to safeguarding your personal information against vishing threats.
The post How to Protect Yourself from Vishing appeared first on McAfee Blog.
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My mother recently turned 80, so of course a large celebration was in order. With 100 plus guests, entertainment, and catering to organise, the best way for me to keep everyone updated (and share tasks) was to use Google Docs. Gee, it worked well. My updates could immediately be seen by everyone, the family could access it from all the devices, and it was free to use! No wonder Google has a monopoly on drive and document sharing.
But here’s the thing – hackers know just how much both individuals and businesses have embraced Google products. So, it makes complete sense that they use reputable companies such as Google to devise phishing emails that are designed to extract our personal information. In fact, the Google Docs phishing scam was widely regarded as one of the most successful personal data extraction scams to date. They know that billions of people worldwide use Google so an invitation to click a link and view a document does not seem like an unreasonable email to receive. But it caused so much grief for so many people.
Emails designed to trick you into sharing your personal information are a scammer’s bread and butter. This is essentially what phishing is. It is by far the most successful tool they use to get their hands on your personal data and access your email.
‘But why do they want my email logins?’ – I hear you ask. Well, email accounts are what every scammer dreams of – they are a treasure trove of personally identifiable material that they can either steal or exploit. They could also use your email to launch a wide range of malicious activities from spamming and spoofing to spear phishing. Complicated terms, I know but in essence these are different types of phishing strategies. So, you can see why they are keen!!
But successful phishing emails usually share a few criteria which is important to know. Firstly, the email looks like it has been sent from a legitimate company e.g. Microsoft, Amex, or Google. Secondly, the email has a strong ‘call to action’ e.g. ‘your password has been changed, if this is not the case, please click here’. And thirdly, the email does not seem too out of place or random from the potential victim’s perspective.
Despite the fact that scammers are savvy tricksters, there are steps you can take to maximise the chances your email remains locked away from their prying eyes. Here’s what I suggest:
Never respond to an unexpected email or website that asks you for personal information or your login details no matter how professional it looks. If you have any doubts, always contact the company directly to verify.
Make sure you have super-duper internet security software that includes all the bells and whistles. Not only does internet security software McAfee+ include protection for daily browsing but it also has a password manager, a VPN, and a social privacy manager that will lock down your privacy settings on your social media accounts. A complete no-brainer!
Avoid using public Wi-Fi to log into your email from public places. It takes very little effort for a hacker to position themselves between you and the connection point. So, it’s entirely possible for them to be in receipt of all your private information and logins which clearly you don’t want. If you really need to use it, invest in a Virtual Private Network (VPN) which will ensure everything you share via Wi-Fi will be encrypted. Your McAfee+ subscription includes a VPN.
Public computers should also be avoided even just to ‘check your email’. Not only is there a greater chance of spyware on untrusted computers but some of them sport key-logging programs which can both monitor and record the keys you strike on the keyboard – a great way of finding out your password!
Ensuring each of your online accounts has its own unique, strong, and complex password is one of the best ways of keeping hackers out of your life. I always suggest at least 10-12 characters with a combination of upper and lower case letters, symbols, and numbers. A crazy nonsensical sentence is a great option here but better still is a password manager that will remember and generate passwords that no human could! A password manager is also part of your McAfee+ online security pack.
Even if you have taken all the necessary steps to protect your email from hackers, there is the chance that your email logins may be leaked in a data breach. A data breach happens when a company’s data is accessed by scammers and customers’ personal information is stolen. You may remember the Optus, Medibank and Latitude hacks of 2022/23?
If you have had your personal information stolen, please be assured that there are steps you can take to remedy this. The key is to act fast. Check out my recent blog post here for everything you need to know.
So, next time you’re organising a big gathering don’t hesitate to use Google Docs to plan or Microsoft Teams to host your planning meetings. While the thought of being hacked might make you want to withdraw, please don’t. Instead, cultivate a questioning mindset in both yourself and your kids, and always have a healthy amount of suspicion when going about your online life. You’ve got this!!
Till next time,
Stay safe!
Alex
The post How To Prevent Your Emails From Being Hacked appeared first on McAfee Blog.
| Language | Framework | URL | Method | Param | Header | WS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Go | Echo | ✅ | ✅ | X | X | X |
| Python | Django | ✅ | X | X | X | X |
| Python | Flask | ✅ | X | X | X | X |
| Ruby | Rails | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | X | X |
| Ruby | Sinatra | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | X | X |
| Php | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | X | X | |
| Java | Spring | ✅ | ✅ | X | X | X |
| Java | Jsp | X | X | X | X | X |
| Crystal | Kemal | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | X | ✅ |
| JS | Express | ✅ | ✅ | X | X | X |
| JS | Next | X | X | X | X | X |
| Specification | Format | URL | Method | Param | Header | WS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Swagger | JSON | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | X | X |
| Swagger | YAML | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | X | X |
FreshRSS brew tap hahwul/noir
brew install noir# Install Crystal-lang
# https://crystal-lang.org/install/
# Clone this repo
git clone https://github.com/hahwul/noir
cd noir
# Install Dependencies
shards install
# Build
shards build --release --no-debug
# Copy binary
cp ./bin/noir /usr/bin/docker pull ghcr.io/hahwul/noir:mainUsage: noir <flags>
Basic:
-b PATH, --base-path ./app (Required) Set base path
-u URL, --url http://.. Set base url for endpoints
-s SCOPE, --scope url,param Set scope for detection
Output:
-f FORMAT, --format json Set output format [plain/json/markdown-table/curl/httpie]
-o PATH, --output out.txt Write result to file
--set-pvalue VALUE Specifies the value of the identified parameter
--no-color Disable color output
--no-log Displaying only the results
Deliver:
--send-req Send the results to the web request
--send-proxy http://proxy.. Send the results to the web request via http proxy
Technologies:
-t TECHS, --techs rails,php Set technologies to use
--exclude-techs rails,php Specify the technologies to be excluded
--list-techs Show all technologies
Others:
-d, --debug Show debug messages
-v, --version Show version
-h, --help Show help
Example
noir -b . -u https://testapp.internal.domainsJSON Result
noir -b . -u https://testapp.internal.domains -f json
[
...
{
"headers": [],
"method": "POST",
"params": [
{
"name": "article_slug",
"param_type": "json",
"value": ""
},
{
"name": "body",
"param_type": "json",
"value": ""
},
{
"name": "id",
"param_type": "json",
"value": ""
}
],
"protocol": "http",
"url": "https://testapp.internal.domains/comments"
}
]Coronavirus has caused a major shift to our working patterns. In many cases these will long outlast the pandemic. But working from home has its own risks. One is that you may invite ransomware attacks from a new breed of cyber-criminal who has previously confined his efforts to directly targeting the corporate network. Why? Because as a remote worker, you’re increasingly viewed as a soft target—the open doorway to extorting money from your employer.
So how does ransomware land up on your front doorstep? And what can a home worker do to shut that door?
The new ransomware trends
Last year, Trend Micro detected over 61 million ransomware-related threats, a 10% increase from 2018 figures. But things have only gotten worse from there. There has been a 20% spike in ransomware detections globally in the first half of 2020, rising to 109% in the US. And why is that?
At a basic level, ransomware searches for and encrypts most of the files on a targeted computer, so as to make them unusable. Victims are then asked to pay a ransom within a set time frame in order to receive the decryption key they need to unlock their data. If they don’t, and they haven’t backed-up this data, it could be lost forever.
The trend of late, however, has been to focus on public and private sector organizations whose staff are working from home (WFH). The rationale is that remote workers are less likely to be able to defend themselves from ransomware attacks, while they also provide a useful stepping-stone into high-value corporate networks. Moreover, cybercriminals are increasingly looking to steal sensitive data before they encrypt it, even as they’re more likely to fetch a higher ransom for their efforts than they do from a typical consumer, especially if the remote employee’s data is covered by cyber-insurance.
Home workers are also being more targeted for a number of reasons:
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What’s the attack profile of the remote working threat?
In short, the bad guys are now looking to gain entry to the corporate network you may be accessing from home via a VPN, or to the cloud-hosted systems you use for work or sharing files, in order to first steal and then encrypt company data with ransomware as far and wide as possible into your organization. But the methods are familiar. They’ll
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How can I prevent ransomware when working from home?
The good news is that you, the remote worker, can take some relatively straightforward steps up front to help mitigate the cascading risks to your company posed by the new ransomware. Try the following:
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How Trend Micro can help
In short, to close the cyber front door to ransomware, you need to protect your home network and all your endpoints (laptops, PCs, mobile devices) to be safe. Trend Micro can help via
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With these tools, you, the remote worker, can help shut the front door to ransomware, protecting your work, devices, and company from data theft and encryption for ransom.
The post Ransom from Home – How to close the cyber front door to remote working ransomware attacks appeared first on .
The endpoint has long been a major focal point for attackers targeting enterprise IT environments. Yet increasingly, security bosses are being forced to protect data across the organization, whether it’s in the cloud, on IoT devices, in email, or on-premises servers. Attackers may jump from one environment to the next in multi-stage attacks and even hide between the layers. So, it pays to have holistic visibility, in order to detect and respond more effectively.
This is where XDR solutions offer a convincing alternative to EDR and point solutions. But unfortunately, not all providers are created equal. Trend Micro separates themselves from the pack by providing mature security capabilities across all layers, industry-leading threat intelligence, and an AI-powered analytical approach that produces fewer, higher fidelity alerts.
Under pressure
It’s no secret that IT security teams today are under extreme pressure. They’re faced with an enemy able to tap into a growing range of tools and techniques from the cybercrime underground. Ransomware, social engineering, fileless malware, vulnerability exploits, and drive-by-downloads, are just the tip of the iceberg. There are “several hundred thousand new malicious programs or unwanted apps registered every day,” according to a new Osterman Research report. It argues that, while endpoint protection must be a “key component” in corporate security strategy, “It can only be one strand” —complemented with protection in the cloud, on the network, and elsewhere.
There’s more. Best-of-breed approaches have saddled organizations with too many disparate tools over the years, creating extra cost, complexity, management headaches, and security gaps. This adds to the workload for overwhelmed security teams.
According to Gartner, “Two of the biggest challenges for all security organizations are hiring and retaining technically savvy security operations staff, and building a security operations capability that can confidently configure and maintain a defensive posture as well as provide a rapid detection and response capacity. Mainstream organizations are often overwhelmed by the intersectionality of these two problems.”
XDR appeals to organizations struggling with all of these challenges as well as those unable to gain value from, or who don’t have the resources to invest in, SIEM or SOAR solutions. So what does it involve?
What to look for
As reported by Gartner, all XDR solutions should fundamentally achieve the following:
However, the analyst urges IT buyers to think carefully before choosing which provider to invest in. That’s because, in some cases, underlying threat intelligence may be underpowered, and vendors have gaps in their product portfolio which could create dangerous IT blind spots. Efficacy will be a key metric. As Gartner says, “You will not only have to answer the question of does it find things, but also is it actually finding things that your existing tooling is not.”
A leader in XDR
This is where Trend Micro XDR excels. It has been designed to go beyond the endpoint, collecting and correlating data from across the organization, including; email, endpoint, servers, cloud workloads, and networks. With this enhanced context, and the power of Trend Micro’s AI algorithms and expert security analytics, the platform is able to identify threats more easily and contain them more effectively.
Forrester recently recognized Trend Micro as a leader in enterprise detection and response, saying of XDR, “Trend Micro has a forward-thinking approach and is an excellent choice for organizations wanting to centralize reporting and detection with XDR but have less capacity for proactively performing threat hunting.”
According to Gartner, fewer than 5% of organizations currently employ XDR. This means there’s a huge need to improve enterprise-wide protection. At a time when corporate resources are being stretched to the limit, Trend Micro XDR offers global organizations an invaluable chance to minimize enterprise risk exposure whilst maximizing the productivity of security teams.
The post Beyond the Endpoint: Why Organizations are Choosing XDR for Holistic Detection and Response appeared first on .
The COVID-19 pandemic, along with social distancing, has done many things to alter our lives. But in one respect it has merely accelerated a process begun many years ago. We were all spending more and more time online before the virus struck. But now, forced to work, study and socialize at home, the online digital world has become absolutely essential to our communications — and video conferencing apps have become our “face-to-face” window on the world.
The problem is that as users flock to these services, the bad guys are also lying in wait — to disrupt or eavesdrop on our chats, spread malware, and steal our data. Zoom’s problems have perhaps been the most widely publicized, because of its quickly rising popularity, but it’s not the only platform whose users have been potentially at risk. Cisco’s WebEx and Microsoft Teams have also had issues; while other platforms, such as Houseparty, are intrinsically less secure (almost by design for their target audience, as the name suggests).
Let’s take a look at some of the key threats out there and how you can stay safe while video conferencing.
Depending on the platform (designed for work or play) and the use case (business or personal), there are various opportunities for the online attacker to join and disrupt or eavesdrop on video conferencing calls. The latter is especially dangerous if you’re discussing sensitive business information.
Malicious hackers may also look to deliver malware via chats or shared files to take control of your computer, or to steal your passwords and sensitive personal and financial information. In a business context, they could even try to hijack your video conferencing account to impersonate you, in a bid to steal info from or defraud your colleagues or company.
The bad guys may also be able to take advantage of the fact that your home PCs and devices are less well-secured than those at work or school—and that you may be more distracted at home and less alert to potential threats.
To accomplish their goals, malicious hackers can leverage various techniques at their disposal. These can include:
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Zoom has in many ways become the victim of its own success. With daily meeting participants soaring from 10 million in December last year to 200 million by March 2020, all eyes have been focused on the platform. Unfortunately, that also includes hackers. Zoom has been hit by a number of security and privacy issues over the past several months, which include “Zoombombing” (meetings disrupted by uninvited guests), misleading encryption claims, a waiting room vulnerability, credential theft and data collection leaks, and fake Zoom installers. To be fair to Zoom, it has responded quickly to these issues, realigning its development priorities to fix the security and privacy issues discovered by its intensive use.
And Zoom isn’t alone. Earlier in the year, Cisco Systems had its own problem with WebEx, its widely-used enterprise video conferencing system, when it discovered a flaw in the platform that could allow a remote, unauthenticated attacker to enter a password-protected video conferencing meeting. All an attacker needed was the meeting ID and a WebEx mobile app for iOS or Android, and they could have barged in on a meeting, no authentication necessary. Cisco quickly moved to fix the high-severity vulnerability, but other flaws (also now fixed) have cropped up in WebEx’s history, including one that could enable a remote attacker to send a forged request to the system’s server.
More recently, Microsoft Teams joined the ranks of leading business videoconferencing platforms with potentially deadly vulnerabilities. On April 27 it surfaced that for at least three weeks (from the end of February till the middle of March), a malicious GIF could have stolen user data from Teams accounts, possibly across an entire company. The vulnerability was patched on April 20—but it’s a reminder to potential video conferencing users that even leading systems such as Zoom, WebEx, and Teams aren’t fool-proof and require periodic vulnerability and security fixes to keep them safe and secure. This is compounded during the COVID-19 pandemic when workers are working from home and connecting to their company’s network and systems via possibly unsecure home networks and devices.
So how do you choose the best, most secure, video conferencing software for your work-at-home needs? There are many solutions on the market today. In fact, the choice can be dizzying. Some simply enable video or audio meetings/calls, while others also allow for sharing and saving of documents and notes. Some are only appropriate for one-on-one connections or small groups, while others can scale to thousands.
In short, you’ll need to choose the video conferencing solution most appropriate to your needs, while checking if it meets a minimum set of security standards for working at home. This set of criteria should include end-to-end encryption, automatic and frequent security updates, the use of auto-generated meeting IDs and strong access controls, a program for managing vulnerabilities, and last but not least, good privacy practices by the company.
Some video conferencing options alongside Zoom, WebEx, and Teams include:
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Whatever video conferencing platform you use, it’s important to bear in mind that cyber-criminals will always be looking to take advantage of any security gaps they can find — in the tool itself or your use of it. So how do you secure your video conferencing apps? Some tips listed here are Zoom-specific, but consider their equivalents in other platforms as general best-practice tips. Depending on the use case, you might choose to not enable some of the options here.
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Fortunately, Trend Micro has a range of capabilities that can support your efforts to stay safe while using video conferencing services.
Trend Micro Home Network Security (HNS) protects every device in your home connected to the internet. That means it will protect you from malicious links and attachments in phishing emails spoofed to appear as if sent from video conferencing firms, as well as from those sent by hackers that may have covertly entered a meeting. Its Vulnerability Check can identify any vulnerabilities in your home devices and PCs, including work laptops, and its Remote Access Protection can reduce the risk of tech support scams and unwanted remote connections to your device. Finally, it allows parents to control their kids’ usage of video conferencing applications, to limit their exposure.
Trend Micro Security also offers protection against email, file, and web threats on your devices. Note too, that Password Manager is automatically installed with Maximum Security to help users create unique, strong passwords for each application/website they use, including video conferencing sites.
Finally, Trend Micro WiFi Protection (multi-platform) / VPN Proxy One (Mac and iOS) offer VPN connections from your home to the internet, creating secure encrypted tunnels for traffic to flow down. The VPN apps work on both Wi-Fi and Ethernet connections. This could be useful for users concerned their video conferencing app isn’t end-to-end encrypted, or for those wishing to protect their identity and personal information when interacting on these apps.
The post From Bugs to Zoombombing: How to Stay Safe in Online Meetings appeared first on .
The introduction of the MITRE ATT&CK evaluations is a welcomed addition to the third-party testing arena. The ATT&CK framework, and the evaluations in particular, have gone such a long way in helping advance the security industry as a whole, and the individual security products serving the market.
The insight garnered from these evaluations is incredibly useful. But let’s admit, for everyone except those steeped in the analysis, it can be hard to understand. The information is valuable, but dense. There are multiple ways to look at the data and even more ways to interpret and present the results (as no doubt you’ve already come to realize after reading all the vendor blogs and industry articles!) We have been looking at the data for the past week since it published, and still have more to examine over the coming days and weeks.
The more we assess the information, the clearer the story becomes, so we wanted to share with you Trend Micro’s 10 key takeaways for our results:
1. Looking at the results of the first run of the evaluation is important:
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2. There is a hierarchy in the type of main detections – Techniques is most significant
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https://attackevals.mitre.org/APT29/detection-categories.html
3. More alerts does not equal better alerting – quite the opposite
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4. Managed Service detections are not exclusive
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5. Let’s not forget about the effectiveness and need for blocking!
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6. We need to look through more than the Windows
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7. The evaluation shows where our product is going
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8. This evaluation is helping us make our product better
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9. MITRE is more than the evaluation
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10. It is hard not to get confused by the fud!
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The post Trend Micro’s Top Ten MITRE Evaluation Considerations appeared first on .
As the world has adopts work from home initiatives, we’ve seen many organizations accelerate their plans to move from on-premises endpoint security and Detection and Response (EDR/XDR) solutions to Software as a Service versions. And several customers who switched to the SaaS version last year, recently wrote us to tell how glad to have done so as they transitioned to working remote. Here are 5 reasons to consider moving to a cloud managed solution:
If you haven’t found the time to update your endpoint security software and are one or two versions behind, you are putting your organization at risk of attack. Older versions do not have the same level of protection against ransomware and file-less attacks. Just as the threats are always evolving, the same is true for the technology built to protect against them.
With Apex One as a Service, you always have the latest version. There are no software patches to apply or Apex One servers to manage – we take care of it for you. If you are working remote, this is one less task to worry about and less servers in your environment which might need your attention.
With redundant processes and continuous service monitoring, Apex One as a Services delivers the uptime you need with 99.9% availability. The operations team also proactively monitors for potential issues on your endpoints and with your prior approval, can fix minor issues with an endpoint agent before they need your attention.
By transferring endpoint telemetry to a cloud data lake, detection and response activities like investigations and sweeping can be processed much faster. For example, creating a root cause analysis diagram in cloud takes a fraction of the time since the data is readily available and can be quickly processed with the compute power of the cloud.
The unmatched power of cloud computing also enables analytics across a high volume of events and telemetry to identify a suspicious series of activities. This allows for innovative detection methods but also additional mapping of techniques and tactics to the MITRE framework. Building the equivalent compute power in an on- premises architecture would be cost prohibitive.
According to Verizon, 94% of malware incidents start with email. When an endpoint incident occurs, chances are it came from an email message and you want to know what other users have messages with the same email or email attachment in their inbox? You can ask your email admin to run these searches for you which takes time and coordination. As Forrester recognized in the recently published report: The Forrester Wave Enterprise Detection and Response, Q1 2020:
“Trend Micro delivers XDR functionality that can be impactful today. Phishing may be the single most effective way for an adversary to deliver targeted payloads deep into an infrastructure. Trend Micro recognized this and made its first entrance into XDR by integrating Microsoft office 365 and Google G suite management capabilities into its EDR workflows.”
This XDR capability is available today by combining alerts, logs and activity data of Apex One as a Service and Trend Micro Cloud App Security. Endpoint data is linked with Office 365 or G Suite email information from Cloud App Security to quickly assess the email impact without having to use another tool or coordinate with other groups.
Moving endpoint protection and detection and response to the cloud, has enormous savings in customer time while increasing their protection and capabilities. If you are licensed with our Smart Protection Suites, you already have access to Apex One as a Service and our support team is ready to help you with your migration. If you are an older suite, talk to your Trend Micro sales rep about moving to a license which includes SaaS.
The post 5 reasons to move your endpoint security to the cloud now appeared first on .
Over the past three decades, we’ve had time at Trend Micro to observe the industry trends that have the biggest impact on our customers. And one of the big things we’ve seen is that threats move largely in tandem with changes to IT infrastructure. This matters today because most organizations are transforming the way they run and manage their infrastructure—a daunting task on its own.
But with digital transformation also comes an expanded corporate attack surface, driving security leaders to demand enhanced visibility, detection & response across the entire enterprise — this is not just about the endpoint.
Transforming business
Over the past five years, there has been a major shift in the way IT infrastructure is delivered, and with that shift, increasing complexity. A big part of this change has been the use of the cloud, reflected in Gartner’s prediction that the market will grow to over $266 billion in 2020. Organizations everywhere are leveraging the cloud and DevOps to rapidly deliver new and differentiated applications and services for their customers, partners and employees. And the use of containers and microservices across a multi-cloud and hybrid environment is increasingly common.
In addition to leveraging public cloud services like IaaS, organizations are also rapidly adopting SaaS applications like Office 365, and expanding their use of mobile and collaborative applications to support remote working. Some are even arguing that working patterns may never be the same again, following the changes forced on many employers by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Combine these changes with networks that continue to extend to include branch offices and add new areas to protect like operational technology including industrial systems, and we can certainly see that the challenges facing the modern enterprise look nothing like they did a few years ago.
Under fire, under pressure
All of these infrastructure changes make for a broader attack surface that the bad guys can take advantage of, and they’re doing so with an increasingly wide range of tools and techniques. In the cloud there is a new class of vulnerabilities introduced through a greater use of open source, containers, orchestration platforms, supply chain applications and more. For all organizations, the majority of threats still prey upon the user, arriving via email (over 90% of the 52.3 billion we blocked in 2019), and they’re no longer just basic phishing attempts. There’s been an uptick in fileless events designed to bypass traditional security filters (we blocked 1.4 million last year). And Business Email Compromise (BEC) and ransomware continue to evolve, the latter causing major outages across local government, healthcare and other vulnerable sectors.
Organizations are often left flat-footed because they don’t have the in-house skills to secure a rapidly evolving IT environment. Mistakes get made, and configuration errors can allow the hackers to sneak in.
Against this backdrop, CISOs need visibility, detection and response capabilities across the extended enterprise. But in too many cases, teams are struggling because they have:
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Beyond the endpoint
While endpoint detection and response (EDR) has become a popular response to some of these problems over recent years, the reality is that cyber-attacks are rarely straightforward and limited to the endpoint (as noted in the email statistic above). Security teams actually need visibility, detection, and response across the entire IT environment, so they can better contextualize and deal with threats.
This is what Trend Micro XDR offers. It provides visibility across not just endpoints but also email, servers, cloud workloads and networks, applying AI and expert security analytics to correlate and identify potential threats. The result is fewer, higher fidelity alerts for stretched IT security teams to deal with. Recognizing the skills shortage reality, we also offer a managed XDR service that augments in-house SOC activities with the power of Trend Micro security experts.
Detection and response is too important to be limited to the endpoint. Today’s CISOs need visibility, detection, and response everywhere.
The post Why CISOs Are Demanding Detection and Response Everywhere appeared first on .
The coronavirus pandemic—the infection officially designated as COVID-19—is causing upheaval across the globe. Aside from the serious economic and public health implications, one very practical impact of shelter-in-place dictums is to force many companies to support remote working where they can. The most recent data tells us that in 2017, eight million Americans worked from home at least some of the week — amounting to around 5% of US workers. However, the events of the past few weeks are driving what is being described in certain sectors as the biggest shift to home working since 9/11.
This will ensure that many companies can continue functioning while helping to achieve social distancing to minimise the spread of the virus. But there are challenges, particularly to smaller businesses who don’t have IT security teams to assist with the transition. Hackers are primed and ready to take advantage of home workers, whose machines and devices may not be as secure as those in the office. There’s also a risk that workers are more distracted by current events when working at home, creating more opportunities for cyber-criminals to strike.
This isn’t just about hackers stealing your personal log-ins and information to sell on the dark web. In a home-working context, corporate data and systems may also be at risk. It takes just one unsecured remote worker to let the bad guys in. The damage they end up doing may be particularly difficult for employers to weather given the extreme economic pressures already on many firms.
With that in mind, therefore, let’s take a look at some of the major threats to home workers and their organizations, and what can be done to keep the hackers at bay.
Phishing messages are by far the number one threat to home workers. Cyber-criminals are using widespread awareness of COVID-19, and a desire for more information on the outbreak, to trick users into clicking on malicious links or opening booby-trapped attachments. Many are spoofed to appear as if sent by trusted organizations such as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or the World Health Organization (WHO). They may claim to offer more information on the spread of the outbreak, tips on staying safe, and even provide details of how to get a non-existent vaccine online.
If you click through on a malicious link, the next stage of the attack could:
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Brute forcing is another way for hackers to hijack your cloud accounts. They use previously breached username/password combos and run them through automation software to try them across billions of websites and apps. Because users reuse passwords across numerous accounts, the bad guys often get lucky and are able to unlock additional accounts in this way. Home workers using Microsoft Teams, Slack, Zoom and other cloud platforms for collaboration and productivity may be targeted.
Malicious smartphone apps are another threat to home workers. These may be disguised to trick the user into believing they’re downloading a COVID-19 tracker, for example. In reality, it could infect the device with ransomware, info-stealers, or other malware. That device could then spread the same malware to the corporate network, if it is connected to it via the home network.
Smart device threats are also a concern for home workers. More and more of us are investing in smart home devices. From voice assistants to smart speakers, connected refrigerators to smart TVs, it’s estimated that there’ll be as many as 128 million smart homes in the US by the end of this year. However, often these consumer-grade devices don’t have strong built-in protection. They may use weak, factory default passwords and/or contain multiple software vulnerabilities which are rarely patched by the manufacturer, if at all. The risk is that hackers could hijack one or more of these devices and use them as a stepping stone into the home and then corporate network – as we’ve demonstrated in previous research.
Friends and family could also introduce new cyber-threats, as they will also be confined largely to the home. That means they’ll be logging on to the home network with their own mobile devices, which may not be as well protected from threats as they should be. Once again, such threats could spread quickly from the home network to infect the enterprise network if it’s connected without adequate security controls. Another risk is of children using unsecured remote learning platforms, which may offer cybercriminals opportunities to hijack accounts, steal information and spread malware onto the network.
Home workers represent an attractive target in their own right. After all, personal information and log-ins (home banking, Netflix, webmail etc) can be easily sold for a profit on dark web marketplaces. However, organizations represent a much bigger, potentially more lucrative pay day for cyber-criminals. While corporate PCs and networks might be fairly well secured, the rush to support home working may have left gaps the bad guys are keen to exploit.
By first compromising the home worker, and then pivoting through unsecured channels to the corporate network, hackers could spread ransomware, steal sensitive company IPs, infect work networks with crypto-mining malware, or steal large volumes of customer data. They may also look to hijack employees’ corporate email or other accounts as the first part of a multi-stage information-stealing attack. There have even been new warnings of Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks in which employees (usually those working in the finance department) are contacted by someone posing as a senior exec and ordered to wire business funds to a new bank account.
With so many techniques at their disposal, it’s easy to imagine that the bad guys have the upper hand. But by putting a few best practices in place, there are things businesses and employees can do today to reduce home working security risks.
Consider the following:
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We don’t know how long COVID-19 will last. But by adapting to the new reality as quickly as possible, businesses and their home workers can at least close down any security gaps, enabling them to be as productive as possible — while most importantly, staying safe and healthy.
The post COVID-19: How Do I Work from Home Securely? appeared first on .
The corporate endpoint is a constant battle between cybersecurity white hats and criminal attackers. According to one study from the Ponemon Institute, 68% of organizations were victims of an attack on the endpoint in 2019. The risks and costs associated with undetected threats are immeasurable. Organizations need to detect and respond immediately before any significant damage is done.
In order to do this, CISOs must look beyond the endpoint to also include email, servers, cloud workloads and networks. This is the value of Trend Micro’s XDR platform. We heard feedback on this strategy recently, as Trend Micro was named a Leader in The Forrester Wave: Enterprise Detection and Response, Q1 2020.
Under fire and over-stretched
Enterprise IT security teams are under unparalleled pressure. On one hand, they’re bombarded with cyber-attacks on a massive scale. Trend Micro detected and blocked over 52 billion such threats in 2019 alone. On the other hand, they’re facing a range of continuously evolving black hat tools and techniques including fileless malware, phishing, and supply chain attacks, that could lead to data theft and service outages. The stakes couldn’t be higher, thanks to an ever-tightening regulatory regime. All of this must be done with workforce challenges: the current cyber skills shortage for North American firms stands at nearly 500,000 workers.
These are the kinds of challenges facing Trend Micro customer MedImpact Healthcare Systems, the largest privately held pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) in the US. Processing more than one million healthcare claims daily, MedImpact must protect two primary data centers, three call centers staffed 24/7, and multiple private network routing centers — all to the strict compliance requirements of HIPAA, PCI DSS and other regulations.
As Frank Bunton, VP, CISO for MedImpact knows, effective endpoint detection and response (EDR) is vital to modern organizations. “EDR accelerates the threat analysis process so we can get to the solution faster,” says Bunton. “Speed to resolution is critical because we see attacks every day on just about every network.”
But MedImpact is similar to a lot of other organizations today in that it also appreciates the need to go beyond the endpoint for critical cross-layer detection and response. “XDR gives us the added confidence that our organization is protected on all fronts. If an endpoint detects a problem, it automatically uploads the suspect object to a tool that analyzes that problem and fixes it. By the time we are aware of an issue, the issue is resolved. There is no way we could manage this much information without extended security automation,” says Bunton.
The future is XDR
This is where XDR comes in. It has been designed to look not just at endpoint detection and response, but also to collect and correlate data from across the organization, including: email, endpoint, servers, cloud workloads, and networks. With this enhanced context, and the power of our AI and expert security analytics, the platform is able to identify threats more easily and contain them more effectively.
This matters to organizations like MedImpact, whose key challenge was “finding security solutions that could communicate with each other and share valuable data in real time.” XDR has visibility across the entire IT environment to detect earlier and with more confidence. It provides a single source of the truth and delivers fewer higher-fidelity alerts to enhance protection and maximize limited IT resources.
But don’t just take our word for it. Forrester gave us a perfect score for product vision, security analytics, performance, market presence and much more. “Trend Micro has a forward-thinking approach and is an excellent choice for organizations wanting to centralize reporting and detection with XDR but have less capacity for proactively threat hunting,” the report concluded.
To find out more… check out the Forrester report on leaders in this space.
Learn more from MedImpact’s success story.
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Trend Micro Apex One as a Service
You have heard it before, but it needs to be said again—threats are constantly evolving and getting sneakier, more malicious, and harder to find than ever before.
It’s a hard job to stay one step ahead of the latest threats and scams organizations come across, but it’s something Trend Micro has done for a long time, and something we do very well! At the heart of Trend Micro security is the understanding that we have to adapt and evolve faster than hackers and their malicious threats. When we released Trend Micro OfficeScan 11.0, we were facing browser exploits, the start of advanced ransomware and many more new and dangerous threats. That’s why we launched our connected threat defense approach—allowing all Trend Micro solutions to share threat information and research, keeping our customers one step ahead of threats.
With the launch of Trend Micro OfficeScan XG, we released a set of new capabilities like anti-exploit prevention, ransomware enhancements, and pre-execution and runtime machine learning, protecting customers from a wider range of fileless and file-based threats. Fast forward to last year, we saw a huge shift in not only the threats we saw in the security landscape, but also in how we architected and deployed our endpoint security. This lead to Trend Micro Apex One, our newly redesigned endpoint protection solution, available as a single agent. Trend Micro Apex One brought to the market enhanced fileless attack detection, advanced behavioral analysis, and combined our powerful endpoint threat detection capabilities with our sophisticated endpoint detection and response (EDR) investigative capabilities.
We all know that threats evolve, but, as user protection product manager Kris Anderson says, with Trend Micro, your endpoint protection evolves as well. “While we have signatures and behavioral patterns that are constantly being updated through our Smart Protection Network, attackers are discovering new tactics that threaten your company. At Trend Micro, we constantly develop and fine-tune our detection engines to combat these threats, real-time, with the least performance hit to the endpoint. This is why we urge customers to stay updated with the latest version of endpoint security—Apex One.”
Trend Micro Apex One has the broadest set of threat detection capabilities in the industry today, and staying updated with the latest version allows you to benefit from this cross-layered approach to security.
One easy way to ensure you are always protected with the latest version of Trend Micro Apex One is to migrate to Trend Micro Apex One as a Service. By deploying a SaaS model of Trend Micro Apex One, you can benefit from automatic updates of the latest Trend Micro Apex One security features without having to go through the upgrade process yourself. Trend Micro Apex One as a Service deployments will automatically get updated as new capabilities are introduced and existing capabilities are enhanced, meaning you will always have the most recent and effective endpoint security protecting your endpoints and users.
Trend Micro takes cloud security seriously, and endpoint security is no different. You can get the same gold standard endpoint protection of Trend Micro Apex One, but delivered as a service, allowing you to benefit from easy management and ongoing maintenance.
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