6 security metrics that matter – and 4 that don’t
One of the most challenging executive tasks for CISOs is quantifying the success and the value of the cybersecurity function. Indeed, security leaders and their organizations have used a myriad of metrics over the years. Yet, many executives and board members have complained that those measures failed to provide them with adequate insight or understanding…
Credit card skimmers explained: How they work and how to protect yourself
What is a credit card skimmer? In the security industry, a skimmer has traditionally referred to any hardware device designed to steal information stored on payment cards when consumers perform transactions at ATMs, gas pumps and other payment terminals. More recently, the use of the term has been extended to include malicious software or code…
How Visa built its own container security solution
Like many large enterprises, financial services giant Visa has embraced containerization technologies that enable companies to move from legacy monolithic apps to microservice-based application architectures that are easier to maintain, update and deploy at scale on cloud infrastructure. But splitting apps into microservices also comes with the challenge of ensuring the containers hosting the various…
Recent ransomware attacks define the malware’s new age
History of ransomware Ransomware, a type of malware that holds data for ransom, has been around for years. In 1991, a biologist spread PC Cyborg, the first ransomware, by sending floppy disks via surface mail to other AIDS researchers, for instance. In the mid ’00s Archiveus was the first ransomware to use encryption, though it’s…
10 tough security interview questions, and how to answer them
Anyone who’s experienced a job interview knows that one of the keys to landing a position is answering the interview questions effectively and intelligently—without sounding like a robot. It’s no different for high-level security executives. In fact, given the importance of these positions and the need for security executives to think fast on their feet,…
What is security’s role in digital transformation?
Two years ago, digital transformations had kicked into high gear, with new processes and product development moving ahead at breakneck speed. As IT and business fast-tracked initiatives like agile and DevOps to improve speed to market, security considerations were often left in the dust. At the time, Gartner predicted that 60% of digital businesses would…
Fighting holiday fraud: 5 ways ecommerce retailers can boost security
Cyber Monday is just around the corner, so ecommerce retailers are revving up for a make-or-break holiday season. Unfortunately, online attackers are also getting ready, too — ready to try to infiltrate your ecommerce site for your customers’ personal and credit card information during the busiest shopping weeks of the year. That means you need…
AI development has major security, privacy and ethical blind spots
Security, privacy and ethics are low-priority issues for developers when modeling their machine learning solutions, according to O’Reilly. Major issues Security is the most serious blind spot. Nearly three-quarters (73 per cent) of respondents indicated they don’t check for security vulnerabilities during model building. More than half (59 per cent) of organizations also don’t consider…
What a security career will look like in five years
When it comes to protecting the growing infrastructure at Polaris Alpha, CISO Eric Schlesinger believes in a people-and-processes approach over a tools-based approach. But five years from now, those priorities will likely shift. “I believe that machine learning and AI are the future to security operations. An ‘artificial analyst’ can replace one or two full-time…
How a Rapid Response Helped Thwart an Active Ransomware Attack
Early this year, when an executive at a hospital called our Incident Response (IR) team, he had yet to realize that his organization was confronting an active ransomware attack. Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) and his internal team had flagged as suspicious some data that was marked with a four-letter file name, he explained, and multiple…