Podcasts

Byron Acohido · The inevitable rise of robust API security

Black Hat Fireside Chat: In a hyper-connected world, effectively securing APIs is paramount

By Byron V. Acohido

APIs. The glue of hyper connectivity; yet also the wellspring of risk.

I had an enlightening discussion at Black Hat USA 2023 with Traceable.ai Chief Security Officer Richard Bird about how these snippets of code have dramatically expanded the attack surface in ways that have largely been overlooked.

Please give the accompanying podcast a listen. Traceable supplies systems that treat APIs as delicate assets requiring robust protection. At the moment, Bird argues, that’s not how most companies view them.

All too many organizations, he told me, have no clue about how many APIs they have, where they reside and what they do. A good percentage of APIs, he says, lie dormant – low hanging fruit for hackers who are expert at

Byron Acohido · Flexxon's X-PHY drive now available in laptops

Black Hat Fireside Chat: Flexxon introduces hardened SSD drives as a last line defense

By Byron V. Acohido

Creating ever smarter security software to defend embattled company networks pretty much sums up the cybersecurity industry.

Cutting against the grain, Flexxon, a Singapore-based supplier of NAND memory drives and storage devices, arrived at Black Hat USA 2023 calling for a distinctive hardware approach to repelling cyber attacks.

Flexxon recently introduced its X-PHY SSD drive which now comes embedded in certain laptop models from Lenovo, ASUS and HP. This innovation derives from security-hardened AI-powered memory and storage drives Flexxon supplies that go into medical equipment and industrial machinery.

I had the chance to get briefed about all of this by Flexxon’s founder and CEO Camellia Chan. For a full drill down

Byron Acohido · Crowdsourced threat intelligence comes of age

Black Hat Fireside Chat: The impactful role crowdsourced security intelligence must play

By Byron V. Acohido

From Kickstarter to Wikipedia, crowdsourcing has become a part of everyday life.

Sharing intel for a greater good

Now one distinctive type of crowdsourcing — ethical hacking – is positioned to become a much more impactful component of securing modern networks.

I had a terrific discussion about this at Black Hat USA 2023 with Casey Ellis, founder and CTO of Bugcrowd, a pioneer in the crowdsourced security market. Bugcrowd ushered in crowdsourced security with its launch in 2012, and today a covey of vendors have followed suit, each supplying intricate platforms to connect hackers with proven skillsets to companies that have particular needs.

“What we’ve got under the hood is effectively a dating website for people who are good at breaking into computers,” Ellis says.

Crowdsourced security vendors (others include Synack, Hacker One and Intigriti) make it seamless for companies to tap into a global network of software coders, and set them on

Byron Acohido · Deploying enterprise browsers as the last mile defense

Black Hat Fireside Chat: How ‘enterprise browsers’ serve as a checkpoint to stop ChatGPT leakage

By Byron V. Acohido

For a couple of decades now, the web browser has endured in workplace settings as the primary employee-to-Internet interface. It’s really just assumed to be a given that a browser built for consumers is an acceptable application for employees to use to work.

Preserving privacy for a greater good

And despite advances, like sandboxing, browser isolation and secure gateways, the core architecture of web browsers has remained all-too vulnerable to malicious attacks.

There was a lot of buzz at Black Hat USA 2023 about advanced “enterprise browsers.” I visited with Uy Huynh, vice president of solutions engineering at Island.io, to discuss this. For a full drill down please give the accompanying podcast a listen.

Built on the Chromium open source code, Island’s Enterprise Browser recognizes the identity and considers the role of each user—be it an employee, contractor, or HR personnel. This granular visibility aids in rapid onboarding while also bolstering security protocols, Huynh explained.

This can serve as a “last mile” checkpoint to curtail Shadow IT; in particular,

The Securitist: Byron Acohido · Steps forward in securing APIs

Black Hat Fireside Chat: How to achieve API security — as AI-boosted attacks intensify

By Byron V. Acohido

API security has arisen as a cornerstone of securing massively interconnected cloud applications.

At Black Hat USA 2023, I had a great discussion about API security with Data Theorem COO Doug Dooley and Applovin CISO Jeremiah Kung. For a full drill down, please give the accompanying podcast a listen.

As a fast-rising mobile ad network going toe-to-toe with Google and Facebook, Applovin has been acquiring advanced security tools and shaping new practices to manage its API exposures. Kung described for me how Data Theorem’s API Secure is proving to be a vital weapon in Applovin’s security arsenal.

APIs have become the “lifeblood” of apps and thus a prime target for cyber criminals, Kung says. AppLovin has learned that it must mitigate API exposures from multiple angles, he told me.

Robust API security has become table stakes – for cloud-native companies like AppLovin as

Black Hat insights: Generative AI begins seeping into the security platforms that will carry us forward

By Byron V. Acohido

LAS VEGAS – Just when we appeared to be on the verge of materially shrinking the attack surface, along comes an unpredictable, potentially explosive wild card: generative AI.

Related: Can ‘CNAPP’ do it all?

Unsurprisingly, generative AI was in the spotlight at Black Hat USA 2023, which returned to its full pre-Covid grandeur here last week.

Maria Markstedter, founder of Azeria Labs, set the tone in her opening keynote address. Artificial intelligence has been in commercial use for many decades; Markstedter recounted why this potent iteration of AI is causing so much fuss, just now.

Generative AI makes use of a large language model (LLM) – an advanced algorithm that applies deep learning techniques to massive data sets. The popular service, ChatGPT, is based on OpenAI’s LLM, which taps into everything available across the Internet through 2021, plus anything a user cares

Byron Acohido · How 'UEM' solutions curtail BYOD, Shadow IT risks

Black Hat Fireside Chat: ‘UEM’ solutions seek to protect endpoints, preserve user experience

By Byron V. Acohido

LAS VEGAS — Shadow IT and BYOD security exposures have long bedeviled businesses – ever since the iPhone and Dropbox first came on the scene.

Covid 19 only intensified the problem of how to securely manage the personally owned devices and unvetted apps employees gravitate to.

At Black Hat USA 2023, taking place here this week, suppliers of unified endpoint management (UEM) solutions collectively will lay out a roadmap for resolving Shadow IT and BYOD once and for all.

UEM vendors range from tech giants IBM, Microsoft and Google to a swelling cottage industry of startups and mid-sized suppliers of mobile device and vulnerability management services.

I had the chance to visit with Ashley Leonard, CEO of Syxsense, a Newport Beach, Calif.-based vendor

Older Articles »

The Last Watchdog

Podcasts

Black Hat Fireside Chat: In a hyper-connected world, effectively securing APIs is paramount

By Byron V. Acohido

Black Hat Fireside Chat: Flexxon introduces hardened SSD drives as a last line defense

By Byron V. Acohido

Black Hat Fireside Chat: The impactful role crowdsourced security intelligence must play

By Byron V. Acohido

Black Hat Fireside Chat: How ‘enterprise browsers’ serve as a checkpoint to stop ChatGPT leakage

By Byron V. Acohido

Black Hat Fireside Chat: How to achieve API security — as AI-boosted attacks intensify

By Byron V. Acohido

Black Hat insights: Generative AI begins seeping into the security platforms that will carry us forward

By Byron V. Acohido

Black Hat Fireside Chat: ‘UEM’ solutions seek to protect endpoints, preserve user experience

By Byron V. Acohido