Last week, Security news included several reports from Accenture, Menlo Security and Okta. Product news was also from Action 1, Microsoft, Okta and Trend Micro. Invicti and Veeam Software announced recent appointments and other news came from Dragos, Experian, Ivanti and Noname Security.
Accenture
The Accenture State of Cyber Resilience 2023 report revealed the key traits of “cyber transformers”, who make cybersecurity the cornerstone of their business transformation efforts. Those who align business and cybersecurity objectives are 18% more likely to achieve target revenue growth and market share and improve customer satisfaction and 26% more likely to lower the cost of cybersecurity breaches/incidents, on average.
Palo Dal Cin, Global Lead of Accenture Security, commented, “The accelerated adoption of digital technologies like generative AI — combined with complex regulations, geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainties — is testing organizations’ approach to managing cyber risk. In this rapidly changing environment, businesses leaders need to embed cybersecurity into the fabric of their digital core transformation efforts to become business resilient. This is one of the key differentiating traits of cyber transformers, who demonstrate that they are better equipped to drive successful business outcomes.”
Accenture identified four characteristics of cyber transformers:
- Excel at integrating cybersecurity and risk management
- Leverage cybersecurity-as-a-service to enhance security operations
- Are more committed to protecting their ecosystem
- Rely heavily on automation
The report also highlights three actions that organisations should take:
- Require cybersecurity controls before all new business services and products are deployed.
- Apply cybersecurity incrementally as each digital transformation milestone is achieved.
- Appoint a cybersecurity representative as part of the core transformation team who orchestrates cybersecurity across all transformation initiatives.
Action 1
Action 1 announced the investment of $20 million into its patch management solution, aiming to develop a zero-knowledge architecture into its platform. This architecture will include the following:
- End-to-end encryption: Transactions within the system are encrypted, and decryption and execution are only possible with signature keys known only to the system’s administrator.
- Verification without data revelation: All commands must be verified for identity before execution, but no entity, including the vendor, has a sensitive level of access to the customer’s environment.
Mike Walters, President and Co-Founder of Action1, commented, “Action1, through its commitment to setting a new standard in patch management, provides enterprises with easy-to-use and powerful solutions for continuous patch compliance, all fortified by advanced security measures. These measures ensure the highest level of protection for the product and its underlying infrastructure, effectively addressing the evolving needs of modern distributed enterprises in mitigating the threat of supply chain attacks.”
Dragos
Dragos launched the Dragos Global Partner Program. The channel program comprises OT cybersecurity technology, services, and threat intelligence. It will enable channel partners to offer their customers the full range of ICS/OT cybersecurity technology and services to increase revenue opportunities and deliver positive customer outcomes.
Christophe Culine, Vice President of Global Sales and Chief Revenue Officer, Dragos, commented, “Market demand for OT cybersecurity is accelerating as evolving threats, geopolitical dynamics, and regulations shine a spotlight on the need to protect industrial infrastructure. With the new Dragos Global Partner Program, we will transfer our knowledge and experience as the industry’s ICS/OT cybersecurity leader to our channel partners, enabling them to fully manage their customers’ deployments with the industry’s most comprehensive and complete ICS/OT security solution.”
Experian
Experian announced a new service to help banks and building societies identify and close ‘money mule’ accounts used to house fraudulently-obtained funds. Experian Mule will analyse account opening history and turnover activity, Experian bureau data, and the modelled characteristics of more than 200,000 confirmed mule cases. The machine learning-powered solution enables banks to assess their entire portfolio so they can easily spot questionable account activity.
Eduardo Castro, Managing Director, Identity and Fraud, Experian UK&I, said, “The level of fraud and financial crime in the UK represents a threat to financial institutions and their customers. Experian, thanks to our data, analytics and technology, is uniquely placed to help. We are committed to helping eliminate financial crime and ensuring safe financial access for all.
“Mule Score is the first solution of its kind, giving financial companies a comprehensive view of account activity, helping prevent them from onboarding potential mule accounts and detect already opened accounts which are suspicious.”
Invicti
Invicti has appointed Lou DiFruscio as Chief Revenue Officer. Previously, DiFruscio served as Chief Revenue Officer for SmartBear. Over his eight-year tenure there, he helped drive and lead 400% sales growth.
Michael George, CEO of Invicti, commented, “Lou brings decades of experience and sales excellence to our organization. His depth of knowledge and track record of building customer-focused, performance-oriented teams will support our success as we continue to up-level our business and support our growing customer base.”
Ivanti
Ivanti announced its membership in the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC) to further strengthen the federal government’s focus on cybersecurity.
Srinivas Mukkamala, Chief Product Officer at Ivanti, commented, “We are honored to be a part of the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative to help better protect critical information networks and enable organizations to respond more effectively to cyber incidents.
“It’s vital to have a private-public collaboration to bolster the security posture of the entire country – irrespective of industry. We are all interconnected globally and facing serious cyber threats with significant consequences. By working with JCDC, we can help public and private organizations be better prepared to defend against cyber-attacks.”
Menlo Security
Menlo Security published results from research conducted by CensusWide about malvertising.
Tom McVey, AI security spokesperson at Menlo Security, comments, “The growing prevalence of AI generated content online will only fuel highly evasive threats such as malvertising. AI used maliciously can not only generate convincing text, it can also generate images which can be made to appear like popular brands or logos. Our research has found that you’re only 3-7 clicks away from malware online.
“When users click a false link, cybercriminals can inject their malware onto the victim’s device, most commonly for financial gain. With malware-as-a-service and AI generated text and images easily accessible, even attackers with little or no skills can create convincing ads – we’re expecting a big uptick in malvertising as a result.
“The research found that only 32% wouldn’t trust any website not to contain malvertising, but awareness of the risks needs to increase so that anyone online applies caution to clicking on adverts on any website, no matter how much they trust it. For example, we found that the top three brands impersonated by malicious threat actors over the last 90 days, to steal personal and confidential data, were Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon. Some people may be shocked to learn that even the most credible websites are not immune to malvertising.”
McVey gave five common sense tips frequently forgotten to avoid being a victim of malvertising:
- Carefully check URLs (website addresses) before clicking
- Look at the brand logo used to see if it looks genuine
- Consider what the advert is asking you to do
- Take a cautious approach to adverts, no matter the credibility of the website
- Beware of redirections
Microsoft
Microsoft announced the preview launch of Win32 app isolation. Win32 app isolation is a new security feature designed to be the default isolation standard on Windows clients. It is built on AppContainers and offers several added security features to help Windows platform defend against attacks that leverage vulnerabilities in the application (this could be 3P libraries as well). To isolate their apps, application developers can update their applications using the tools provided by Microsoft.
Noname Security
Noname Security has partnered with leading cloud security provider Wiz as the company unveils the Wiz Integration (WIN) platform. Noname Security, hand selected as a launch partner, brings the power of API Security to WIN so that customers can seamlessly integrate Wiz into their existing workflows.
Aner Morag, VP of Technology at Noname Security, said, “Through our integration with Wiz, we are excited to bring together our respective expertise and technology to deliver enhanced value to our joint customers by allowing them to improve their security posture through an integrated ecosystem. Importantly, this partnership is a testament to our shared commitment to innovation and customer satisfaction, and we look forward to a successful collaboration with Wiz.”
Okta
Okta announced Okta Device Access, a new product that enables organizations to extend Okta’s Identity and Access Management (IAM) capabilities to secure access to corporate devices for a hybrid workforce. As part of Okta’s Workforce Identity Cloud, the solution will deliver stronger authentication to unlock a device, helping organizations achieve zero trust while simplifying the employee login experience. Okta Device Access is part of Okta’s broader effort to move the industry beyond traditional multi-factor authentication (MFA) to enable phishing resistance and passwordless capabilities.
Arnab Bose, Chief Product Officer Workforce Identity Cloud at Okta, said, “Identity has become the first line of defense in a hybrid world of cloud applications and devices. We believe identity should empower IT and security teams to protect the enterprise across all touchpoints without compromising on productivity or agility. That’s why we’re investing meaningfully to become a first-party player in the device security space and provide our customers with a unified authentication experience from any device to all applications. This empowers our customers to implement zero trust and use any technology safely.”
Okta released its international Secure Sign-In Trends Report. The top takeaways include:
- 90% of Okta administrators and 64% of users signed in using MFA during January 2023.
- Sign-in methods that offer the highest phishing resistance (Okta FastPass and FIDO2 WebAuthn) also prove to offer the fastest, most reliable user experience.
- The technology industry is best placed to move to a passwordless future, with 87% of account logins already using MFA. Insurance (77%), Professional Services (75%), Construction (74%), and Media & Communications (72%) round out the top five industry adopters. Surprisingly, highly-regulated industries tend to lag.
- MFA adoption by Okta’s workforce customers jumped from 35% to 50% in two months between February and March 2020.
- Organizations with fewer than 300 employees (79%) exceed the MFA use of enterprises with more than 20,000 employees (54%).
Todd McKinnon, Co-Founder and CEO of Okta, commented, “Okta is advancing our customers’ zero trust security strategies by helping them adopt innovations like phishing-resistant MFA and passwordless. By sharing data on our customers’ adoption of these critical technologies, we can drive greater progress with governments, our partners, and our customers.”
Secureworks
Secureworks announced the expansion of its Partner First strategy to the Middle East. Effective June 19, 2023, all new Secureworks Taegis™ business in the region will be sold in collaboration with strategic partners to empower organizations to make more informed cyber decisions that drive improved security outcomes and bolster their overall security posture.
Gopan Sivasankaran, Regional Director META, Secureworks, said, “Organizations in the Middle East are challenged with defending endpoints, identity systems, cloud applications and beyond against a rising tide of cybersecurity attacks, both in terms of sophistication and frequency. To prevent and defend against these attacks, businesses are moving to a holistic, platform-based, approach to their cyber investments to drive valuable and tangible cyber outcomes for the business.
“Partners are integral to our growth and scale as a company. We are committed to working together to enable partners to differentiate themselves and win deals. Working with Secureworks enables them to bring an open XDR platform architecture with AI and automation, fuelled by world class threat intelligence. Our Partner First strategy is the best of all worlds for our partners and our customers who can work with their trusted partners to best manage their cyber risk and invest where it matters.”
Trend Micro
Trend Micro unveiled the next generation of cybersecurity platform, setting a new standard for strengthening security posture and threat defence. The new Trend Vision One™ platform release, marks a significant leap forward in enterprise cybersecurity, encompassing robust attack surface risk management, cross-layer protection across hybrid environments, and next-generation XDR, now amplified by powerful generative AI technology.
The Tend Vision One platform has capabilities, including:
- Cross-layer, hybrid environment support
- Third-Party Ecosystem Integrations
- Global Threat Intelligence
- Expert Managed Services
- Enhanced Accessibility and Efficiency
- Improved Hunting with Speed, Confidence, and Accuracy
- Accelerated Workflows and Reduced Friction
- Amplified Impact via Platform Power
Frank Dickson, Group Vice President, Security & Trust, IDC, commented, “Delivering on the promise of XDR requires replacing complexity with simplicity, replacing bundles of products with integrated platforms.
“Trend’s approach offers tangible benefits for security professionals by tightly integrating its products through greater consolidation, resulting in increased productivity and effectiveness of security professionals. And its support for hybrid environments means that for those in the real world that still have on-premises IT environment as well as cloud deployments that they will realize the benefits of XDR whenever they are.”
Veeam
Veeam Software has appointed Kacy Hassack as Chief People and Culture Officer. Anand Eswaran, CEO at Veeam, said, “We’re excited to welcome Kacy to Veeam. She combines a strong track record in creating the best outcomes for employees with the business acumen and passion people need. Veeam is the #1 global market leader in data protection and ransomware recovery, thanks to the passion and ability of our incredible 5,000-plus strong team. Our core values and inclusive work environment underpins our exciting growth journey. ‘Humans’ are not a ‘resource’ at Veeam — people are our most important asset.”
