Iranian nation-state actors have been conducting password spray attacks against thousands of organizations globally between February and July 2023, new findings from Microsoft reveal. The tech giant, which is tracking the activity under the name Peach Sandstorm (formerly Holmium), said the adversary pursued organizations in the satellite, defense, and pharmaceutical sectors to likely facilitate intelligence…

Threat actors are targeting systems in industrial control environments with backdoor malware hidden in fake password-cracking tools. The tools, being touted for sale on a variety of social media websites, offer to recover passwords for hardware systems used in industrial environments. Researchers from Dragos recently analyzed one such password-cracking product and found it to contain…

Customer demand for passwordless authentication has grown exponentially since smartphones first began offering built-in biometric readers. While we all crave a less complicated login experience, the average consumer has been clamoring for it for more than five years. In fact, Mastercard sponsored an Oxford University study of consumer sentiment that discovered just that. A staggering…

While you read these words, the chances are that somebody, somewhere, is trying to break in to your computer by guessing your password. If your computer is connected to the Internet it can be found, quickly, and if it can be found, somebody will try to break in. And it isn’t like the movies. The…

Privileged Access Management (PAM) creates an extra security layer that helps to reduce risk, eliminating unnecessary local admin privileges. It takes the credentials from admin accounts and puts them in a secure repository, minimizing the endpoints that can be accessed via local administrators and reducing potential access by unauthorized users. IT Central Station’s PeerPaper based…

Over the last decade, remote work and working from home has grown in popularity for many professionals. In fact, a 2018 study found more than 70 percent of global employees work remotely at least once per week. However, the coronavirus pandemic and resulting lockdown in many parts of the world have forced a large number…

Open-source software projects continue to struggle with handling sensitive information, according to automated scans of hundreds of millions of commits to code repositories. Software-security toolmaker DeepCode found that four of the seven vulnerabilities classes with the greatest impact on the security of software projects had to do with failures to protect data. The categories of…

While more businesses are investing in security measures like multifactor authentication (MFA), employees still have poor password habits that weaken companies’ overall security posture, according to LastPass. Given that stolen and reused credentials are linked to 80 percent of hacking-related breaches, businesses must take more action to improve password and access security to make a…

Young People May Shun Passwords, But That Doesn’t Mean They’re Less Identity-Conscious

Pity the poor password. Maligned for years, it’s nevertheless still hanging on as the dominant form of access and identity protection for online accounts of all types. Despite years of industrywide efforts to educate users about the importance of employing difficult-to-guess passwords, the list of the most frequently used passwords has changed little. One analysis of 10…

The 6 best password managers

One of the smartest moves we can make to protect ourselves online is to use a password manager. It’s one of the easiest too. We’ll help you find the best password manager for you. A password manager is an excellent first step in securing your online identity, helping you increase the strength of the passwords…