Mitch Parker

The State of Security

The benefits of a capable and properly deployed File Integrity Monitoring (FIM) solution are plentiful: If you see unexpected or unexplained file changes, you can investigate immediately and resolve the issue quickly if your system has been compromised. You can reconcile changes against change tickets or a list of approved changes in ... Read More

Data breaches and ransomware attacks aren’t just still occurring. They’re also becoming more frequent. According to ZDNet, the number of ransomware attacks detected and blocked by one security firm grew 715% year-over-year in 2020 alone. Another security company calculated the total number of ransomware attacks for the year to be ... Read More

Given that attacks are only increasing and there needs to be greater efficacy in how companies protect themselves, let us reference how the financial industry has created and relies on a body of standards to address issues in financial accounting as a defined comparison for Information Security. To support this ... Read More

So many times, we hear companies say, “Our tools are just like Tripwire’s,” “We do configuration management just like Tripwire” and “We can push out policy just like Tripwire.” But as we say, this just ain’t necessarily so. You might be able to do configuration management using a “Tripwire-like” tool ... Read More

Have you ever worked with a company that operates as “close to broken” as reasonably possible? Companies that follow that mindset usually do not have the most robust security practice, and they certainly will walk very close to the edge of compliance. Even if you don’t work in such a dysfunctional ... Read More

Unfamiliar territory As a security analyst, engineer, or CISO, there are so many aspects of the field that require immediate attention that one cannot possibly know everything.  Some of the common areas of security knowledge include topics such as where to place a firewall, configuration and patch management, physical and ... Read More

ORDELL: Take the keys, man. Listen to music. LOUIS: Which one is for the car? (Ordell finds it. While he goes through the keys, Vicki comes back on the line.) (Max speaks with her as he fills out his papers.) ORDELL: (holding a key) This one’s for the ignition… (holding ... Read More

Lateral movement is one of the most consequential types of network activity for which organizations need to be on the lookout. After accessing a network, the attacker maintains ongoing access by essentially stirring through the compromised environment and obtaining increased privileges (known as “escalation of privileges”) using various tools and ... Read More

For many organizations, security flows from the top down. That’s a problem when executives don’t emphasize security as much as they should. Cisco learned as much in its CISO Benchmark Study “Securing What’s Now and What’s Next20 Cybersecurity Considerations for 2020.” Here are just some of the findings from Cisco’s ... Read More

All of us know what a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) does from afar. A CISO upholds the organization’s overall security by overseeing the operations of the IS practice, the IT security department and related staff. In this capacity, those who become a CISO attain the highest paying job in ... Read More