Cyberattacks in the first half of 2021 have escalated globally to affect virtually every industry. Earlier this year TechNewsWorld spoke with cybersecurity experts about the expanding threat landscape, imminent threats, and what can be done to counter the ongoing offensives against the IT systems of companies, organizations, and government agencies.
UPDATE
A database filled with the medical records of nearly 200,000 U.S. military veterans was exposed online by a vendor working for the Veterans Administration, according to an analyst, who also presented evidence the data might have been exfiltrated by ransomware attackers.
The VA for it’s part said that the evidence may point to internal security work rather than a cyberattack.
The files were first discovered on April 18 by researcher Jeremiah Fowler, who found the database sitting exposed online without even basic password protection. Fowler said the files made several references to United Valor Solutions. United Valor is a North Carolina-based company which “provides disability evaluation services for the Veterans Administration and other federal and state agencies,” according to its site.
Urs Holzle, Senior Vice President for Technical Infrastructure at Google, speaks on the Google Cloud Platform during a Google I/O Developers Conference in San Francisco, California. CrowdStrike and Google Cloud announced a series of product integrations. (Photo by Stephen Lam/Getty Images)
CrowdStrike and Google Cloud on Monday announced a series of product integrations to deliver joint customers defense-in-depth security, deeper visibility and workload protection across a hybrid cloud environment.
The companies say the integrations will allow for more seamless sharing of telemetry and data between the two security platforms, helping maintain high levels of security across a customerâs entire cloud or hybrid environment. Under the new partnership, CrowdStrike will tightly integrate CrowdStrike Falcon with Google Cloudâs suite of security products, including Chronicle, VirusTotal Enterprise, and Google Cloud Security Command Center (SCC), helping security teams increase v
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@prajeetspeaks) • May 6, 2021 Get Permission
Attackers are increasingly using malicious OAuth 2.0 applications to siphon data and access sensitive information from a wide variety of cloud platforms, and mitigating the risks is proving challenging, according to the security firm Proofpoint.
In 2020, Proofpoint detected more than 180 malicious OAuth 2.0 applications attacking over 55% of its customers with a success rate of 22%.
Microsoft introduced a Publisher Verification mechanism for Microsoft Partner Network accounts in Azure AD to help stop malicious OAuth apps targeting its cloud platforms, such as Office 365. This has had limited success in reducing cloud malware intrusions, and many challenges remain, Proofpoint and other security experts say.
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//]]>// >By Jack M. Germain
Feb 16, 2021 5:00 AM PT
Some cybersecurity experts agree with a report by Cybersecurity Ventures and expect financial damages from cybercrime to reach $6 trillion by the end of this year. Industry studies show that cyberattacks are among the fastest-growing crimes in the United States.
Cyberattacks are absolutely on the rise. Based on everything we know and every single analyst we have spoken with, there is no doubt that attacks are increasing, according to Robert McKay, senior vice president, risk solutions at Neustar. Cybersecurity experts predict that in 2021 there will be a cyberattack incident every 11 seconds. This is nearly twice what it was in 2019 (every 19 seconds), and four times the rate five years ago (every 40 seconds in 2016), he told TechNewsWorld.