Steps forward

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

GUEST ESSAY: A roadmap for the finance teams at small businesses to improve cybersecurity

By Neil Taurins

If you’re a small business looking for the secret sauce to cybersecurity, the secret is out: start with a cybersecurity policy and make the commitment to security a business-wide priority.

Related: SMBs too often pay ransom

Small businesses, including nonprofit organizations, are not immune to cyberattacks. The average cost of a cybersecurity breach was $4.45 million in 2023, according to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report, and over 700,000 small businesses were targeted in cybersecurity attacks in 2020, according to the Small Business Association.

Nonprofits are equally at risk, and often lack cybersecurity measures. According to Board Effect, 80% of nonprofits do not have a cybersecurity plan in place.

Given the risk involved, small businesses and nonprofits must consider prioritizing cybersecurity policies and practices to stay protected, retain customers, and remain successful. Financial information is one of the most frequently targeted areas, so it’s crucial

STEPS FORWARD: Regulators are on the move to set much needed IoT security rules of the road

By Byron V. Acohido

New government rules coupled with industry standards meant to give formal shape to the Internet of Things (IoT) are rapidly quickening around the globe.

Preserving privacy for a greater good

This is to be expected. After all, government mandates combined with industry standards are the twin towers of public safety. Without them the integrity of our food supplies, the efficacy of our transportation systems and reliability of our utilities would not be what they are.

When it comes to IoT, we must arrive at specific rules of the road if we are to tap into the full potential of smart cities, autonomous transportation and advanced healthcare.

In the absence of robust, universally implemented rules of the road, cybercriminals will continue to have the upper hand and wreak even more havoc than they now do. Threat actors all-too-readily compromise, disrupt and maliciously manipulate the comparatively simple IoT systems we havein operation today.

I had an eye-opening conversation about all of this with Steve Hanna, distinguished engineer at Infineon Technologies, a global semiconductor manufacturer based in Neubiberg, Germany. We went over how governments around the world are stepping up their efforts to impose IoT security legislation and regulations designed to keep users safe.

This is happening at the same time as tech industry consortiums are

GUEST ESSAY: Lessons to be learned from the waves of BofA phone number spoofing scams

By Richard Grant

Phone number spoofing involves manipulating caller ID displays to mimic legitimate phone numbers, giving scammers a deceptive veil of authenticity.

Related: The rise of ‘SMS toll fraud’

The Bank of America scam serves as a prime example of how criminals exploit this technique. These scammers impersonate Bank of America representatives, using the genuine bank’s phone number (+18004321000) to gain trust and deceive their targets.

Victims of the Bank of America scam have shared their experiences, shedding light on the deceptive tactics employed by these fraudsters. One common approach involves a caller with an Indian accent posing as a Bank of America representative. They may claim that a new credit card or checking account has been

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

GUEST ESSAY: Why it’s high time for us to rely primarily on passwordless authentication

By Thierry Gagnon

Accessing vital information to complete day-to-day tasks at our jobs still requires using a password-based system at most companies.

Historically, this relationship has been effective from both the user experience and host perspectives; passwords unlocked a world of possibilities, acted as an effective security measure, and were simple to remember. That all changed rather quickly.

Today, bad actors are ruthlessly skilled at cracking passwords – whether through phishing attacks, social engineering, brute force, or buying them on the dark web. In fact, according to Verizon’s most recent data breach report, approximately 80 percent of all breaches are caused by phishing and stolen credentials. Not only are passwords vulnerable to brute force attacks, but they can also be easily forgotten and reused across multiple accounts.

They are simply not good enough. The sudden inadequacy of passwords has prompted broad changes to how companies must create, store, and manage them. The problem is these changes have made the user experience more convoluted and complicated.

STEPS FORWARD: Can ‘CNAPP’ solutions truly unify cloud, on-premises best cybersecurity practices?

By Byron V. Acohido

A fledgling security category referred to as Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms (CNAPP) is starting to reshape the cybersecurity landscape.

CNAPP solutions assemble a varied mix of security tools and best practices and focuses them on intensively monitoring and managing cloud-native software, from development to deployment.

Companies are finding that CNAPP solutions can materially improve the security postures of both cloud-native and on-premises IT resources by unifying security and compliance capabilities. However, to achieve this higher-level payoff, CISOs and CIOs must first bury the hatchet and truly collaborate – a bonus return.

In a ringing endorsement, Microsoft recently unveiled its CNAPP offering, Microsoft Defender for Cloud; this is sure to put CNAPP on a rising adoption curve with many of the software giant’s enterprise customers, globally. Meanwhile, Cisco on May 24 completed its acquisition of Lightspin, boosting its CNAPP capabilities, and Palo Alto Networks has continued to steadily sharpen its CNAPP chops, most recently with the acquisition of Cider Security.

At RSA Conference 2023, I counted at least 35 other vendors aligning their core services to CNAPP, in one way or another;

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The Last Watchdog

Steps forward

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

By Byron V. Acohido

GUEST ESSAY: A roadmap for the finance teams at small businesses to improve cybersecurity

By Neil Taurins

STEPS FORWARD: Regulators are on the move to set much needed IoT security rules of the road

By Byron V. Acohido

GUEST ESSAY: Lessons to be learned from the waves of BofA phone number spoofing scams

By Richard Grant

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

By Byron V. Acohido

GUEST ESSAY: Why it’s high time for us to rely primarily on passwordless authentication

By Thierry Gagnon

STEPS FORWARD: Can ‘CNAPP’ solutions truly unify cloud, on-premises best cybersecurity practices?

By Byron V. Acohido