Fortinet Enhances Network Security OS, Adds AI-based Threat Detection

Two major new product announcements were made at Fortinet’s Accelerate 18 conference this week, including a new machine learning (ML) threat intelligence and detection offering, along with a major upgrade to the Fortinet Security Fabric (FortiOS). Accelerate 18, held in Las Vegas, Nevada, is Fortinet’s annual global partner and user conference, attended by around 2,000…

Virtual Private Networks: Why Their Days Are Numbered

As companies move to the cloud and depend less on physical servers and network connections, their reliance on VPNs for security will eventually evolve, if not disappear altogether. Virtual private networks (VPNs) have for a generation been viewed as the connectivity solution for the distributed enterprise, enabling secure remote access for mobile workers and branch offices…

Samsung Smartphones Get Encrypted Communications

KoolSpan this week announced a partnership with Samsung to implement secure communications on Samsung smartphones. KoolSpan, a provider of encrypted secure voice and messaging solutions for mobiles, is already offering secure communications to enterprises. With support for mainstream phones, which are normally used within organizations, the solutions bring end-to-end encryption to all internal calls and…

Thanatos Ransomware Makes Data Recovery Impossible

A newly discovered ransomware family is generating a different encryption key for each of the encrypted files but saves none of them, thus making data recovery impossible. Dubbed Thanatos, the malware was discovered by MalwareHunterTeam and already analyzed by several other security researchers. When encrypting files on a computer, the malware appends the .THANATOS extension…

Chip Cards Lead to 70% Drop in Counterfeit Fraud: Visa

The adoption of chip-and-PIN card technology by an increasing number of merchants in the United States has led to a significant drop in cases of counterfeit card fraud, according to Visa. The financial industry has been pushing for the adoption of EMV (Europay, MasterCard, Visa) card technology in the United States since 2011, and efforts…

A view of the global threat landscape: Cybercrime and intrusion trends

Established and well-resourced cyber operations will continue to innovate, developing new methods of distributing crimeware and incorporating advanced tactics to infiltrate, disrupt and destroy systems, according to a new report by CrowdStrike. “We’ve already seen cyber adversaries launch massive, destructive attacks that render organizations inoperable for days or weeks. Looking ahead, security teams will be under…

Cryptocurrency Fraud: In the Midst of a Gold Rush, Beware of Scammers

Bitcoin is the pioneer and obvious leader in the cryptocurrency market. But in 2017 alternative coins, or “altcoins,” began to transform the market. Nearly 1,500 cryptocurrencies are currently in circulation, and new altcoins emerge every week with Monero, Zcash and Ethereum among the top challengers to Bitcoin. But beware. Much like opportunists who devised various…

The global cyber war is heating up: Why businesses should be worried

Last Friday, the Department of Justice indicted 13 Russians and three Russian companies for interfering with the 2016 elections. Also last week, several countries including the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia, and Denmark accused Russia of being behind last summer’s NotPetya attack. “[NotPetya] was part of the Kremlin’s ongoing effort to destabilize Ukraine, and it demonstrates ever more clearly…

BEC scammers actively targeting Fortune 500 companies

Nigerian scammers are targeting Fortune 500 companies, and have already stolen millions of dollars from some of them, IBM Security researchers have found. Their strategy is well known: they take over or impersonate a trusted user’s email account to target companies that conduct international wire transfers, and trick accounts payable personnel into wiring money into…