What is Windows Prefetch? Windows Prefetch creates files when a user opens an application on a Windows host. The Windows Operating system will make a prefetch record when an application is run from a specific area for the absolute time. Microsoft introduced prefetch with the Windows XP operating system. The idea behind the prefetch is that it would accelerate the boot process and start-up process. In older versions of Windows, prefetch files were limited to 128 files. With ne

Phishing attacks remain the number one technique used in cyberattacks. Some of the most common phishing attacks leveraged attachments to facilitate the initial infection chain. We disproportionally see Microsoft Office documents and PDF files used to embed the malicious code as far as the attachments themselves go. When we say Microsoft Office documents, we refer to files created by the Microsoft Office suite such as Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. Historically we wou

A critical vulnerability CVE-2022-22965 (Spring4Shell or SpringShell) was found on March 29, 2022, in an open-source Java framework while testing named Spring. This vulnerability allows the attacker to execute arbitrary code on a web server. Spring is a widely used framework, so this vulnerability can be highly lethal. The data binding feature of Spring Framework was used to bind data in an HTTP request to some of the objects being used in an application. The vulnerability ex

On patch Tuesday, April 12, 2022, Microsoft released patches for CVE-2022-26809. A vulnerability that is a zero-click exploit targeting Microsoft RPC services. As of right now, there is not a PoC out in the wild. However, the scanning for the vulnerability has increased. Based on the impact of this vulnerability, it is likely that there will be a PoC in the wild soon. Patch your servers now before the PoC come out. What is RPC? The Remote Procedure Call (RPC) service is used

As we look across the landscape, we see that cyberattacks continue to succeed in all business sectors. In the cases we have observed, the cyberattack leveraged weak security controls and, as a result, could have been prevented by organizations adopting security best practices. A new study shows that ransomware, phishing, social engineering, denial of service (DoS) attacks, and the business fallout of a data breach rank as the top concerns of global organizations. The recently

Considering today's attack surface's massive and hyper-dimensional nature, we begin to see how challenging it is to manage this attack surface in a modern enterprise. The risk surface of the enterprise is constantly expanding. Threats are finding their way into enterprises, constantly morphing and adapting to network defenses. It is thus a daunting task to bring the vast scope of an organization's enterprise attack surface into focus. Many security leaders lack awareness of a

Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR) A critical task for most organizations has become setting up advanced threat protection as cyberattacks have skyrocketed and become more sophisticated. Starting with a robust endpoint detection and response system is the first step in this process. Detecting and responding to endpoint threats, also known as EDR, is a cybersecurity process that gathers and analyses data collected by endpoints, usually workstations and servers. As a result, s

Every physician's office must adhere to HIPAA regulations. It is highly costly to not comply with HIPAA as fines range from $100 to over $4 million for violations. HIPAA compliance, however, isn't that straightforward. To avoid accidentally accruing millions in penalties, you should always stay up-to-date on the latest regulations. A violation of HIPAA occurs when patient health information is acquired, accessed, used, or disclosed in a way that poses a significant risk to th

Flexibility: A virtual Chief Information Security Officer (vCISO) can be reached immediately via a simple phone call, whether the vCISO is on or off-site (based on what has been agreed upon). Due to the vCISO’s networking expertise, a vCISO can scale up extremely fast. Additionally, a vCISO can oversee security testing, data protection, and much more, depending on the company's needs. Furthermore, it allows companies to hire a qualified vCISO on a temporary or medium-term bas

Cybersecurity is full of buzzwords like XDR, MDR, and EDR. A new buzzword has been stealing the scene: secure access service edge (SASE). Gartner is the leader in trends, and the company that coined the word XDR and MDR has stated, “By 2024, 30% of enterprises will adopt cloud-delivered SWG, CASB, ZTNA and branch office firewall as a service (FWaaS) capabilities from the same vendor, up from less than 5% in 2020.” (Andrew Lerner, 2021) SASE incorporates security technology to

QBot, also known as Qakbot or pinkslipbot, is an information stealer that has been active since 2007. It is malware software that can monitor the browser's activities and lots of information on the victim's computer. It is also known as a banking trojan capable of stealing finance-related data from the infected device and loader by using c2 servers to target payload and downloads. Other important information that QBot can steal from a system are: Name of the account City Coun

Pandora ransomware came into the spotlight in March of 2022 after posting some high-profile victims on its leak site. The ransomware group announced its first victim on Feb 21st, 2022. Their biggest victim was Denso, a car parts manufacturer. After an attack on one of its offices in Germany, Denso confirmed that cybercriminals leaked stolen, classified information from the Japan-based car-components manufacturer. Pandora claims to have exfiltrated 1TB of data from Denso. So w

Producing and preserving copies of data to safeguard businesses against data loss is referred to as backup and recovery. The data from backups are usually restored to its previous location or to a different place where it will be used to substitute the lost or damaged data. Companies of all sizes need to protect themselves against ransomware, phishing scams, malware, and other cyberattacks. These attacks can often completely devastate your company in the blink of an eye. Howe

Ransomware is the type of suspicious software Cybercriminals use to encrypt your data, rendering it unusable. As a result, the attackers demand the ransom money to release the victim's data. Once the attack is successfully executed, the victim has to pay money to access their data, but paying to the attacker is not a good decision because once they produce, the attacker knows they can get money from the victim, so they attack again and again. If you don't pay, you'll lose mo

Incident response is a method for dealing with various forms of security events, cyber threats, and data breaches in an organized manner. The goal of the incident response approach is to identify, contain, eradicate, and reduce the cost of a cyberattack or live event. To be prepared for a future attack, a well-built incident response (IR) plan will be essential in limiting the potential business impacts of an incident. It is critical to address security breaches quickly and e

Just over a month after the details of the initial Apache Log4j vulnerability surfaced, attacks against infrastructure running vulnerable versions of the application are continuing, including a recent furry of attacks targeting VMware Horizon servers by an unidentified threat actor group. VMware Horizon server versions 8.x and 7.x are vulnerable to two of the Log4j vulnerabilities (CVE-2021-44228 and CVE-2021-45046), and officials with the UK’s National Health Service Digital

In Microsoft Exchange, the three known vulnerabilities that threat actors use to get initial access are often referred to collectively as Proxyshells. These three known vulnerabilities are CVE-2021-34473, CVE-2021-34523, and CVE-2021- 31207. The attackers use these three vulnerabilities by bypassing the authentication and running a remote code as a privileged user. Microsoft has classified the Proxyshell vulnerabilities as critical. However, the proxyshell vulnerability is re

Access controls are a security technique that determines who or what may view or utilize resources in a computing environment controlled by a particular policy. Below is a list of Access controls used to minimize risk in businesses and organizations. Types of access control: Physical access control: It limits access to Campus buildings, rooms, and physical IT assets. Logical access control: It limits access to computer networks, systems, and data. Therefore, an enterprise mu

Strong passwords play an essential role in safeguarding your company's data and client information. Unfortunately, due to weak or non-existing password policies, many companies face a high risk of data breaches. Nowadays, cyber-attacks are common, and hackers use many techniques to crack passwords. Although a brute force attack is still old, it is still practical and common among hackers. Brute force attacks work on" trial-and-error" methods and guess the hidden content of we

The purpose of penetration testing is to assess an organization's security posture. Penetration testing encompasses all networks, applications, devices, IT infrastructure, and physical security. The goal is to emulate malicious actions. Cybersecurity experts use penetration testing to enhance a company's cybersecurity posture to identify risks to the business. Why is a Penetration Test Necessary? Companies can perform penetration tests to evaluate the security of their IT in