Shadow AI – The New Insider Threat
The advent of Zero Trust spawned the mantra ‘Trust no one, verify everyone.’ After a spate of serious data breaches involving their employees, organizations began to admit that insider threats were no less a danger than threats from malicious external actors. Insider threats, however, could still be categorized based on their intention. There were intentional […]
Digital Supply Chains: Under Siege in the Cyber Realm
Introduction Though the evolution of cyber threats (1) dates back to 2013 when Iranian hackers breached the Bowman Avenue Dam in New York and seized control of the dam’s floodgates, the year 2021 is generally recognized as the benchmark year for cyber attacks on digital supply chains. The month of May 2021 witnessed a series […]
The Advantages of Vendor Consolidation and Product Convergence in Cybersecurity
Introduction As with the case of every other entity, the suite of applications, platforms, and software procured over a period by an organization, can become disorganized, unmanageable, and even inoperable and redundant to an extent. The same can be said of the numerous vendors who provide/service them. Once ‘best-in-breed’ solution/s, they were most probably procured […]
Cyberbullying: The Real and Present Danger
Introduction From time immemorial, human beings have tried, with varying degrees of success, to impose themselves on others, with a view to profit from the reactions that their offensive and slanderous overtures result in. Face-to-face bullying can be traced back to ancient civilizations when both kings and paupers alike resorted to domineering ways to further […]
Enhancing Productivity and Security: The Case for a Clean Desk Policy in Organizations
In a corporate world seemingly already overwhelmed with a variety of policies – HR, Safety, Infotech, HSE, to name just a few – it may seem the addition of the Clean Desk Policy (CDP) is one more in a long list of policies that employees in an organization are required to follow. Not so, especially […]
Exploring the Synergy: Big Data, AI, and the Human Interface
Think about the future and the John Lennon hit Imagine comes readily to mind. Though the iconic singer-songwriter alluded to a non-material world in the song, its central theme, so aptly represented by its title, could easily refer to the times in which we live. As the cyber world takes quantum strides with the introduction […]
The Dark Side of Technology: Deepfakes and their Threat to Cyber Security
Introduction In 2019, when the head of a UK energy firm (1) received an urgent call from the CEO of the company’s German headquarters, advising that he immediately transfer a sum of GBP 220,000 to a Hungarian supplier, he had absolutely no reason to doubt the authenticity of the call. After all such interactions at […]
Zero Trust Security for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses: What You Need to Know
In today’s digital age, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are increasingly vulnerable to cyber threats. According to a study conducted by the Ponemon Institute, 76% of SMBs experienced a cyber attack in 2020. As cyberattacks become more sophisticated, traditional security measures such as firewalls and antivirus software are no longer enough to protect businesses from […]
Social Engineering at Work
In early 2020, when a manager in a bank in Hong Kong received a phone call from a director of a company he knew (1), asking him to transfer some USD 35 million from his company’s account to various beneficiaries, he never could have imagined he was being duped. To add to the phone call, […]
AI – The Twin-Edged Sword Shaping the Future of Cybersecurity
Almost all new inventions that promise to revolutionize a field or remedy a despairing situation are fraught with dangers that bear examination. Take the case of how the aviation industry struggled to shake off the apprehensions of safety after the early debacles of the Wright brothers. Decades would pass before the industry reached maturity, and […]
