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This week, we welcome Kavya Pearlman, CEO at XR Safety Initiative, to talk about Who is going to protect the Brave New Virtual Worlds, and HOW?! In our second segment, we welcome Chris Painter, Commissioner at the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace, to discuss Diplomacy, Norms, and Deterrence in Cyberspace! In the security news, mysterious Drones are Flying over Colorado, 7 Tips for Maximizing Your SOC, The Most Dangerous People on the Internet This Decade, North Korean Hackers Stole 'Highly Sensitive Information' from Microsoft Users, Critical Vulnerabilities Impact Ruckus Wi-Fi Routers, & The Coolest Hacks of 2019!
Show Notes: https://wiki.securityweekly.com/PSWEpisode633
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Effective collaboration is key to the success of any organization. But perhaps none more so than those working towards the common goal of securing our connected world. That’s why Trend Micro has always been keen to reach out to industry partners in the security ecosystem, to help us collectively build a safer world and improve the level of protection we can offer our customers. As part of these efforts, we’ve worked closely with Microsoft for decades.
Trend Micro is therefore doubly honored to be at the Microsoft Security 20/20 awards event in February, with nominations for two of the night’s most prestigious prizes.
Better together
No organization exists in a vacuum. The hi-tech, connectivity-rich nature of modern business is the source of its greatest power, but also one of its biggest weaknesses. Trend Micro’s mission from day one has been to make this environment as safe as possible for our customers. But we learned early on that to deliver on this vision, we had to collaborate. That’s why we work closely with the world’s top platform and technology providers — to offer protection that is seamless and optimized for these environments.
As a Gold Application Development Partner we’ve worked for years with Microsoft to ensure our security is tightly integrated into its products, to offer protection for Azure, Windows and Office 365 customers — at the endpoint, on servers, for email and in the cloud. It’s all about simplified, optimized security designed to support business agility and growth.
Innovating our way to success
This is a vision that comes from the very top. For over three decades, our CEO and co-founder Eva Chen has been at the forefront of industry leading technology innovation and collaborative success at Trend Micro. Among other things during that time, we’ve released:
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Two awards
We’re delighted to have been singled out for two prestigious awards at the Microsoft Security 20/20 event, which will kick off RSA Conference this year:
Customer Impact
At Trend Micro, the customer is at the heart of everything we do. It’s the reason we have hundreds of researchers across 15 threat centers around the globe leading the fight against emerging black hat tools and techniques. It’s why we partner with leading technology providers like Microsoft. And it’s why the channel is so important for us.
Industry Changemaker: Eva Chen
It goes without saying that our CEO and co-founder is an inspirational figure within Trend Micro. Her vision and strong belief that our only real competition as cybersecurity vendors are the bad guys and that the industry needs to stand united against them to make the digital world a safer place, guides the over 6000 employees every day. But she’s also had a major impact on the industry at large, working tirelessly over the years to promote initiatives that have ultimately made our connected world more secure. It’s not an exaggeration to say that without Eva’s foresight and dedication, the cybersecurity industry would be a much poorer place.
We’re all looking forward to the event, and for the start of 2020. As we enter a new decade, Trend Micro’s innovation and passion to make the digital world a safer place has never been more important.
The post Celebrating Decades of Success with Microsoft at the Security 20/20 Awards appeared first on .
Welcome to our weekly roundup, where we share what you need to know about the cybersecurity news and events that happened over the past few days. This week, learn about Trend Micro’s Cyber Risk Index (CRI) and its results showing increased cyber risk. Also, read about a data breach from IoT company Wyze that exposed information of 2.4 million customers.
Read on:
The 5 New Year’s Tech Resolutions You Should Make for 2020
Now is the perfect time to reflect on the past and think of all the ways you can make this coming year your best one yet. With technology playing such a central role in our lives, technology resolutions should remain top of mind heading into the new year. In this blog, Trend Micro shares five tech resolutions that will help make your 2020 better and safer.
Security Study: Businesses Remain at Elevated Risk of Cyber Attack
Elevated risk of cyber attack is due to increased concerns over disruption or damages to critical infrastructure, according to the Trend Micro’s latest Cyber Risk Index (CRI) study. The company commissioned Ponemon Institute to survey more than 1,000 organizations in the U.S. to assess business risk based on their current security postures and perceived likelihood of attack.
Parental Controls – Trend Micro Home Network Security Has Got You Covered
In the second blog of a three-part series on security protection for your home and family, Trend Micro discusses the risks associated with children beginning to use the internet for the first time and how parental controls can help protect them.
Cambridge Analytica Scandal: Facebook Hit with $1.6 Million Fine
The Cambridge Analytica scandal continues to haunt Facebook. The company has been receiving fines for its blatant neglect and disregard towards users’ privacy. The latest to join the bandwagon after the US, Italy, and the UK is the Brazilian government.
Why Running a Privileged Container in Docker is a Bad Idea
Privileged containers in Docker are containers that have all the root capabilities of a host machine, allowing the ability to access resources which are not accessible in ordinary containers. In this blog post, Trend Micro explores how running a privileged, yet unsecure, container may allow cybercriminals to gain a backdoor in an organization’s system.
IoT Company Wyze Leaks Emails, Device Data of 2.4M
An exposed Elasticsearch database, owned by Internet of Things (IoT) company Wyze, was discovered leaking connected device information and emails of millions of customers. Exposed on Dec. 4 until it was secured on Dec. 26, the database contained customer emails along with camera nicknames, WiFi SSIDs (Service Set Identifiers; or the names of Wi-Fi networks), Wyze device information, and body metrics.
Looking into Attacks and Techniques Used Against WordPress Sites
WordPress is estimated to be used by 35% of all websites today, making it an ideal target for threat actors. In this blog, Trend Micro explores different kinds of attacks against WordPress – by way of payload examples observed in the wild – and how attacks have used hacked admin access and API, Alfa-Shell deployment, and SEO poisoning to take advantage of vulnerable sites.
FPGA Cards Can Be Abused for Faster and More Reliable Rowhammer Attacks
In a new research paper published on the last day of 2019, a team of American and German academics showed that field-programmable gate array (FPGA) cards can be abused to launch better and faster Rowhammer attacks. The new research expands on previous work into an attack vector known as Rowhammer, first detailed in 2014
Emotet Attack Causes Shutdown of Frankfurt’s IT Network
The city of Frankfurt, Germany, became the latest victim of Emotet after an infection forced it to close its IT network. There were also incidents that occurred in the German cities of Gießen, Bad Homburgas and Freiburg.
BeyondProd Lays Out Security Principles for Cloud-Native Applications
BeyondCorp was first to shift security away from the perimeter and onto individual users and devices. Now, it is BeyondProd that protects cloud-native applications that rely on microservices and communicate primarily over APIs, because firewalls are no longer sufficient. Greg Young, vice president of cybersecurity at Trend Micro, discusses BeyondProd’s value in this article.
How MITRE ATT&CK Assists in Threat Investigation
In 2013, the MITRE Corporation, a federally funded not-for-profit company that counts cybersecurity among its key focus area, came up with MITRE ATT&CK, a curated knowledge base that tracks adversary behavior and tactics. In this analysis, Trend Micro investigates an incident involving the MyKings botnet to show how the MITRE ATT&CK framework helps with threat investigation.
TikTok Banned by U.S. Army Over China Security Concerns
With backlash swelling around TikTok’s relationship with China, the United States Army this week announced that U.S. soldiers can no longer have the social media app on government-owned phones. The United States Army had previously used TikTok as a recruiting tool for reaching younger users,
Mobile Money: How to Secure Banking Applications
Mobile banking applications that help users check account balances, transfer money, or pay bills are quickly becoming standard products provided by established financial institutions. However, as these applications gain ground in the banking landscape, cybercriminals are not far behind.
What security controls do you have in place to protect your home and family from risks associated with children who are new internet users? Share your thoughts in the comments below or follow me on Twitter to continue the conversation: @JonLClay.
The post This Week in Security News: Latest Cyber Risk Index Shows Elevated Risk of Cyber Attack and IoT Company Wyze Exposes Information of 2.4M Customers appeared first on .
This week, we welcome you with our Roundtable Discussion on DevOps and Securing Applications, where we'll cover how to navigate the wide variety of options for securing modern applications and the processes used to build and deploy software today! Next up we debate one of Information Security's long-standing debates: Security vs. Compliance! The final segment in this episode assembles a panel of experts to discuss The History of Security and what we can learn from the past!
Show Notes: https://wiki.securityweekly.com/PSWEpisode632
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This week, we kick things off with the Blue Team Roundtable, to discuss defensive techniques that actually work, and ones that don't! In the second segment, we'll switch teams and transition to The State of Penetration Testing Roundtable, where we'll discuss the evolution of Penetration Testing, and how to get the most value from the different types of assessments! In our final segment, we welcome back long-time friend of the show Ed Skoudis, to discuss this year's Counterhack Holiday Hack Challenge, a holiday tradition here at Security Weekly, and one of the community's favorite hacking challenges!
Show Notes: https://wiki.securityweekly.com/PSWEpisode631
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This week, we talk Enterprise News, to talk about how MITRE updates ATT&CK for the cloud, Ping Identity builds and matures Zero Trust Infrastructures, SaltStack integrates with ServiceNow to deliver Closed-Loop IT and Security Automation, and some acquisition updates from Fortinet, CyberSponse, Guardsquare, Zimperium, and more! In our second segment, we discuss Unifying DevOps and SecOps, exploring the people and process challenges of DevSecOps and Where to integrate Security Seamlessly in the DevOps Pipeline! In our final segment, we welcome Jason Rolleston, Chief Product Officer at Kenna Security, and Michael Roytman, Chief Data Scientist at Kenna Security, to discuss Risk-Based Vulnerability Management and Threat and Vulnerability Management!
Show Notes: https://wiki.securityweekly.com/ESWEpisode166
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This week, we are joined in studio by Steve Levinson, Vice President of Online Business Systems Risk, Security, & Privacy practice (full disclosure - he s also my boss!). We ll talk about the Security & Compliance divide from the compliance side, and hopefully, gain some insight into why I m so passionate (or dispassionate about) PCI!
To learn more about Online Business Systems, visit: https://securityweekly.com/online
Show Notes: https://wiki.securityweekly.com/SCWEpisode11
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We continue our three-part series on protecting your home and family. If you missed our first part, you can find it here.
Are your kids at that formative age when they’re beginning to use mobile devices? How about at that inquisitive age when they start to discover the wonders of the Internet? Or that age when they tend to be more carefree and self-indulgent?
The Internet and the digital devices our children use are valuable tools when used the right way. They give them access to a wide range of information, pave the way to explore worthwhile ideas, and keep them socially connected with family, relatives and friends. That said, though there are big advantages to kids’ use of the Internet, there are dangers as well. Part 2 of our 3-part series on home network security discusses those dangers to your children and what you can do to protect them, leveraging Trend Micro Home Network Security’s Parental Controls to help you do so.
Gone are the days when simple malware was the focal point for internet safety. Nowadays, children have so many devices giving them access to the internet, unknown dangerous situations have multiplied. As a parent, the challenges include the following:
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Finding the right balance between parenting and controlling the child’s use or possible misuse of the internet is tricky. Here’s where Trend Micro Home Network’s (HNS) Parental Controls can come in. In addition to protecting your home network from security risks and attacks, HNS also provides a robust and flexible parental control system to keep internet usage safe for your children. Controls include:
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Protecting your family members online starts with Adding a Profile.
You can add a new Profile for each Family Member and assign to them the devices they control. To do this, you can just simply tap Family in the Command Menu and choose the family member by tapping Add Someone. This will let you provide the Profile Name and Profile Picture as well as Assign Devices to the person by tapping the device(s) in the Unassigned panel. The devices you select will then be automatically moved into the ownership panel for that person. Tap Done and you’ll be presented with the Settings screen for that child’s Profile, where you can configure Parental Controls as you see fit.
Website Filtering
Next, let’s proceed with the most common component: Website Filtering.
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Content Filtering
Moving on, you can also set up Content Filtering.
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App Controls
To continue, there are apps that parents disapprove of, but there are always those instances when the children try to use them anyway against their parent’s wishes. That’s when you can choose to be informed of the Inappropriate Apps Used by your children.
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Time Limits and Notifications
Even when you try to teach your kids about being responsible about their online time, it’s easier said than done. Thus, parents or guardians can schedule the hours of screen time their children are allowed each day, along with the hours when screen time is available. HNS’s Parental Controls provide both of these features and more.
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Connection Alerts
Last but not least, since it’s tough to keep monitoring when your child is online, tapping Trend Micro HNS’ Connection Alert to toggle it on makes it easier for parents to get notifications when their kid’s digital devices connect to the home network during a specified time period.
In the end, Trend Micro Home Network Security’s Parental Controls can assist parents in dealing with the online safety challenges all children are exposed to in the 21st century. HNS’ flexible and intuitive feature set comprised of Filtering, Inappropriate App Used, Time Limits and Connection Alerts support every parent or guardian’s goal to ensure a safe and secure internet experience for their kids. Coupled with kind face-to-face conversations, where you let your children know your care for them extends to how they use the Internet, HNS becomes your silent partner when ensuring your family’s safety.
For more information, go to Trend Micro Home Network Security.
The post Parental Controls – Trend Micro Home Network Security has got you covered appeared first on .
Welcome to our weekly roundup, where we share what you need to know about the cybersecurity news and events that happened over the past few days. This week, learn about cybersecurity risk facing the oil and gas industry and its supply chain. Also, read about what Trend Micro’s CEO, Eva Chen, has to say about Microsoft and Amazon’s battle for cloud leadership.
Read on:
How to Get the Most Out of Industry Analyst Reports
In this video blog, Trend Micro’s Vice President of Cybersecurity, Greg Young, taps into his past experience at Gartner to explain how to discern the most value from industry analysts and help customers understand how to use the information.
Top Gun 51 Profile: Trend Micro’s Jeff Van Natter Sees Distributors as Key to Reaching New Partners
In an interview with Channel Futures, Trend Micro’s Jeff Van Natter explains why he believes distributors will continue to play an important role for Trend as it looks to expand its partner ecosystem.
How to Speed Up a Slow PC Running Windows OS
The first step to improving your Windows PC performance is to determine what’s causing it to run slow. In this blog, learn about eight tips on how to fix a slow PC running Windows and how to boost your PC’s performance.
Business Insider talked to 13 executives at companies that partner with Microsoft and Amazon on cloud platforms for their take on the rivalry between the two, and whether Microsoft can win. In this article, read about what Trend Micro CEO Eva Chen has to say about the rivalry.
DDoS Attacks and IoT Exploits: New Activity from Momentum Botnet
Trend Micro recently found notable malware activity affecting devices running Linux. Further analysis of the malware samples revealed that these actions were connected to a botnet called Momentum, which has been used to compromise devices and perform distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks.
Oil and Gas Industry Risks Escalate, Cybersecurity Should Be Prioritized
The oil and gas industry and its supply chain face increased cybersecurity risks from advanced threat groups and others as they continue to build out digitally connected infrastructure, Trend Micro research reveals.
Christmas-Themed Shopping, Game and Chat Apps Found Malicious, Lure Users with Deals
Security researchers caution Android users when downloading apps for shopping, games, and Santa video chats as they found hundreds of malicious apps likely leveraging the season to defraud unwitting victims via command-and-control (C&C) attacks, adware or “excessive or dangerous combinations of permissions,” such as camera, microphone, contacts and text messages.
New Orleans Mayor Declares State of Emergency in Wake of City Cyberattack
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell declared a state of emergency last Friday after the city was hit by a cyberattack where phishing attempts were detected. Cantrell said the attack is similar to the July 2019 attack on the state level where several school systems in Louisiana were attacked by malware.
Credential Harvesting Campaign Targets Government Procurement Sites Worldwide
Cybersecurity company Anomali uncovered a campaign that used 62 domains and around 122 phishing sites in its operations and targeted government procurement services in 12 countries, including the United States, Canada, Japan, and Poland.
Schneider Electric Patches Vulnerabilities in its EcoStruxure SCADA Software and Modicon PLCs
Schneider Electric released several advisories on vulnerabilities they have recently fixed in their EcoStruxure and Modicon products. Modicon M580, M340, Quantum and Premium programmable logic controllers (PLCs) were affected by three denial of service (DoS) vulnerabilities.
FBot aka Satori is Back with New Peculiar Obfuscation, Brute-force Techniques
Trend Micro recently observed that the Mirai-variant FBot, also known as Satori, has resurfaced. Analysis revealed that this malware uses a peculiar combination of XOR encryption and a simple substitution cipher, which has not been previously used by other IoT malware variants. Additionally, the credentials are not located within the executable binary — instead, they are received from a command-and-control (C&C) server.
15 Cyber Threat Predictions for 2020
As 2020 nears, this article outlines the cyber threats that Trend Micro’s research team predicts will target organizations in the coming year, and why.
Trend Micro recently spotted a Negasteal/Agent Tesla variant that uses a new delivery vector: removable drives. The malware also now steals credentials from the applications FTPGetter and Becky! Internet Mail.
Into the Battlefield: A Security Guide to IoT Botnets
The internet of things (IoT) has revolutionized familiar spaces by making them smarter. Homes, offices and cities are just some of the places where IoT devices have given better visibility, security and control. However, these conveniences have come at a cost: traditional cyberthreats also found a new arena for attacks and gave rise to realities like IoT botnets.
What’s your take on whether or not Microsoft can topple Amazon in the cloud? Share your thoughts in the comments below or follow me on Twitter to continue the conversation: @JonLClay.
The post This Week in Security News: Microsoft vs. Amazon in the Cloud and Escalated Risk in the Oil and Gas Industry appeared first on .
A close analysis of the cybersecurity attacks of the past shows that, in most cases, the head of the cyber kill chain is formed by some kind of privilege abuse. In fact, Forrester estimates that compromised privileged credentials play a role in at least 80 percent of data breaches. This is the reason privileged access management (PAM) has gained so much attention over the past few years. With securing and managing access to business-critical systems at its core, PAM aims to provide enterprises with a centralized, automated mechanism to regulate access to superuser accounts. PAM solutions ideally do this by facilitating end-to-end management of the privileged identities that grant access to these accounts.
However, the scope of privileged access security is often misconceived and restricted to securing and managing root account passwords alone. Passwords, beyond a doubt, are noteworthy privileged access credentials. But the constant evolution of technology and expanding cybersecurity perimeter calls for enterprises to take a closer look at the other avenues of privileged access, especially encryption keys—which despite serving as access credentials for huge volumes of privileged accounts, are often ignored.
This article lays focus on the importance encryption key management—why enforcing SSH key and SSL certificate management is vital, and how by doing so, you can effectively bridge the gaps in your enterprise privileged access security strategy.
1. Uncontrolled numbers of SSH keys trigger trust-based attacks
The average organization houses over 23,000 keys and certificates many of which grant sweeping access to root accounts, says a Ponemon survey. Also, a recent report about the Impact of unsecured digital identities states that 71% of the respondents did not have any idea about the number of keys or the extent of their access within the organization. Without a centralized key management approach, anybody in the network can create or duplicate any number of keys. These keys are often randomly generated as needed and are soon forgotten once the task they are associated with is done. Malicious insiders can take advantage of this massive ocean of orphaned SSH keys to impersonate admins, hide comfortably using encryption, and take complete control of target systems.
2. Static keys create permanent backdoors
Enterprises should periodically rotate their SSH keys to avoid privilege abuse, but huge volumes of unmanaged SSH keys make key rotation an intimidating task for IT administrators. Moreover, due to a lack of proper visibility on which keys can access what, there is widespread apprehension about rotating keys in fear of accidentally blocking access to critical systems. This leads to a surge of static SSH keys, which have the potential to function as permanent backdoors.
3. Unintentional key duplication increases the chance of privilege abuse
For the sake of efficiency, SSH keys are often duplicated and circulated among various employees in an organization. Such unintended key duplication creates a many-to-many key-user relationship, which highly increases the possibility of privilege abuse. This also makes remediation a challenge since administrators have to spend a good amount of time revoking keys to untangle the existing relationships before creating and deploying fresh, dedicated key pairs.
4. Failed SSL certificate renewals hurt your brand's credibility
SSL certificates, unlike keys, have a set expiration date. Failing to renew SSL certificates on time can have huge implications on website owners as well as end users. Browsers don't trust websites with expired SSL certificates; they throw security error messages when end users try to access such sites. One expired SSL certificate can drive away potential customers in an instant, or worse, lead to personal data theft for site visitors.
5. Improper SSL implementations put businesses at risk
Many businesses rely completely on SSL for internet security, but they often don't realize that a mere implementation of SSL in their network is not enough to eliminate security threats. SSL certificates need to be thoroughly examined for configuration vulnerabilities after they are installed. When ignored, these vulnerabilities act as security loopholes which cybercriminals exploit to manipulate SSL traffic and launch man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks.
6. Weak certificate signatures go unheeded
The degree of security provided by any SSL certificate depends on the strength of the hashing algorithm used to sign the certificate. Weak certificate signatures make them vulnerable to collision attacks. Cybercriminals exploit such vulnerabilities to launch MITM attacks and eavesdrop on communication between users and web servers. Organizations need to isolate certificates that bear weak signatures and replace them with fresh certificates containing stronger signatures.
Bridging the gaps in your PAM strategy
All the above scenarios highlight how important it is to widen the scope of your privileged access security strategy beyond password management. Even with an unyielding password manager in place, cybercriminals have plenty of room to circumvent security controls and gain access to superuser accounts by exploiting various unmanaged authentication identities, including SSH keys and SSL certificates. Discovering and bringing all such identities that are capable of granting privileged access under one roof is one important step enterprises should take to bridge gaps in their privileged access security strategy. For, today's unaccounted authentication identities could become tomorrow's stolen privileged credentials!
About the author: Shwetha Sankari is an IT security product consultant at ManageEngine. With key area of expertise in content marketing, she spends her time researching the latest trends in the IT security industry and creating informative user education content.
Copyright 2010 Respective Author at Infosec IslandThis week, Montana TV stations hit by cyber attack, Ransomware crisis in US schools, a deep dive into Phobos Ransomware, Cybersecurity salary survey reveals variance across industries and geolocations in 2020, and Ring smart camera claims they were not hacked!! In the expert commentary, we welcome Paul Asadoorian, CTO and Founder of Security Weekly, to discuss why you should be careful who you do business with!
Show Notes: https://wiki.securityweekly.com/HNNEpisode246
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This week, we welcome Martin Bally, CISO at American Axle & Manufacturing! In the Leadership and Communications segment, Why Crowdsourcing Often Leads to Bad Ideas, Do You Need Charisma to Be a Great Public Speaker?, Fight the skills gap with a great upskilling and reskilling strategy, and more!
Show Notes: https://wiki.securityweekly.com/BSWEpisode156
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Working with a slow PC is always annoying and frustrating. Enduring sudden frozen windows and stuttered animations can make you want to throw the machine out the window.
Take a deep breath, and consider these 8 tips on how to fix a slow PC running Windows.
Why is my Windows Running Slow?
First, here is a general analysis on why your Windows PC is running slow:
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1. Restart your Computer
Many users are accustomed to keeping their computers running for several weeks. Their PC is either running or sleeping with the processes saved all the time. This means the running programs are occupying and filling up their RAM continuously, which can lead to the PC running extremely slowly. In addition, the computer might suffer from some bugs, which trigger programs to eat up much more RAM than they should. To avoid these troubles, restart your PC by clicking on the Windows button, selecting the ‘Power’ button, and choosing the ‘Restart’ button at least once a week.
A small hint: make sure you have saved your ongoing work before you shut down your computer.
2. Adjust setting modes
This is a very simple but often overlooked way to boost your PC’s performance. However, it sacrifices a bit of standby time. When you are not worrying about the state of charge and just pursuing maximum efficiency, you can consider opening Advanced System Setting in Windows for this trick.
Enter “Control Panel” in the Cortana search box in the taskbar. In the pop-up window, click “System,” and then click “Advanced system settings” in the left window, as shown below:
Click “Settings” in the performance bar, as shown in the following figure:
In the pop-up window, you can see that there are four setting modes, set “Adjust for best performance,” and then click OK, as shown in the following figure:
3. Disable Startup Programs
Startup items are programs that the system will run in the foreground or background once your computer is ON. When you download and install software, the “start-up” is usually a default choice. Therefore, if the software is not commonly used and you do not need to use it every time you start your PC, you can remove the check because it can slow down system speed. If you forgot to remove the check when installing the application, you can also make changes using the Task Manager.
To check and manage your startup programs, open the Task Manager (Ctrl + Alt + Del), then switch to the ‘Startup’ tab. You’ll also see the “Startup impact” of each startup program — either Low, Medium, or High. If you see “Not measured,” that’s because it was recently added and Windows hasn’t had a chance to observe the program’s behavior yet.
To prevent a program from launching on startup just right-click and choose “Disable.”
If you are not sure whether you can safely disable some programs, you can search the program online and learn about its function. If you are a little worried, you can download a PC cleaner app, which can automatically identify and classify these items and help you delete the unnecessary ones in batches. Remember to choose those apps without pop-up advertisements and hidden fees.
In addition, you can see the first tab named “Processes” in the picture above. Too many programs running simultaneously can slow down the system speed as well. Some programs may continue running in the background even after you have closed them. Under the “Processes” tab, you can select them and click ‘End task’ at the bottom right. However, be careful about this action because you might close some important processes needed to run Windows.
4. Turn off windows tips and tricks
When searching ways to speed up your PC online, your PC will ask you to disable the “Visual Effects” feature as they use up your PC’s performance. However, this operation needs you to balance the operating speed and the appearance of your PC, and even adjust those settings many times to achieve satisfying visual effects. Instead, here is an item that you can change without a hitch.
When you use a windows PC, Windows will always pay attention to what you are doing and provide tips on what you may want to do with your computer. You may find these tips unhelpful and even feel offended by its constant virtual viewing over your shoulders.
If you want to speed up your PC, you can ask Windows to stop giving you advice. To do this, click the START button, select the Settings icon, and then go to Systems > Notification & actions. Scroll down to the notifications section and uncheck the box labeled “Get tips, tricks, and suggestions as you use Windows.”
5. Run Disk Cleanup
Do not let that “Disk space is almost full” message pop up and stop your work. Too many junk files, useless big files and duplicate files usually cause insufficient disk space. To save gigabytes of disk space for things you really need, you should clean them regularly to free up space.
Here are steps on how to use the built-in Windows utility to run disk cleanup:
Press “WINDOWS + R” and enter the cleanmgr command with parameters:
cleanmgr /sageset
In the Disk Cleanup Settings window, you can find items you can clean.
Note that this operation is only the setting operation of the checked item. It has not been actually cleaned. After clicking OK, you need to press “WINDOWS + R” and enter “cleanmgr /sagerun:99”, and then it can execute specific cleanup operations.
You can also turn ON the storage sense function to remove unnecessary files automatically.
Enter Settings > System > Storage, and then turn ON the Storage sense function to allow Windows to clean up temporary files automatically. It can be set to run automatically every day, every fortnight, every month, or every two months.
Definitely, some cleanup apps can help you do the work more quickly and accurately. Besides useless files, they can even retrieve and delete similar photos. You can evaluate and download them according to your own needs.
6. Clean out your Registry
Registry is an important database, which is used to store the setting information of system and application program running in Windows. As early as Windows 3.0 introduced OLE technology, the registry has appeared. Windows NT was the first operating system to make extensive use of the registry at the system level. However, since the beginning of the Microsoft Windows 95 operating system, the registry has been a critical database that will continue to play a role in the subsequent operating systems.
The command to open the registry is:
Regedit or regedit.exe, regedt32 or regedt32.exe
Under normal circumstances, you can click the operation in the START menu (WINDOWS + R), and then enter regedit or regedit.exe and click OK to open the registry editor of Windows operating system.
The registry is a very messy thing. For example, when a program is uninstalled, the program’s settings are not always cleared in the registry. So over time, it will be filled with various outdated settings. This may lead to poor performance of your PC system.
A word of caution: Editing the registry manually is risky. A mistake can lead to system-level interruptions. Therefore, to clean the registry, it is recommended that a professional registry cleaner is used.
7. Malware and Virus Infection
As we all know, malware and viruses will infect the computer and make it run more sluggishly. There are a large number of antivirus apps in the marketplace. Trend Micro offers several options to consider.
8. Disable third-party services
If you installed a lot of software on your PC, the system may become chaotic and some unexpected problems might occur. For example, several security applications are running at the same time can create conflicts that make the system misbehave. You can disable all third-party software services and only keep the system itself. The system status will also be called “Clean Boot.”
Here is how to perform a clean boot of Windows:
Press “WINDOWS + R” and type “msconfig”, then click OK. Open System Configuration, go to the Services tab and put a tick in the “Hide all Microsoft services” box at the bottom left before choosing the items and hitting Disable all.
We hope the listed solutions can help you boost your PC performance conveniently. Manually checking what is wrong with your Windows can be time-consuming and painstaking. When those irritating system messages pop up and interfere with your work, it is time to turn to a trusted all-in-one system care utility like Cleaner One. By employing this productive worker, you can retrieve and delete unnecessary items, have less clutter, make your computer more efficient, and optimize your Windows OS with just a few clicks. Why not give it a go?
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The gap in trained, experienced cybersecurity workers is one of those perennial problems: much ink is spilled every year in assessing the scale of the problem, and what can be done about it. We have recently pointed out, for instance, the importance of stopping attacks before they happen, and the fact that you can’t hire your way out of the skills shortage.
As we move into 2020, it's apparent that despite this focus on the problem, it has not been solved. There is still a huge skills gap when it comes to cybersecurity, and in many ways, it is getting worse. According to Cyber Crime Magazine, there may be as many as 3.5 million unfilled cybersecurity jobs by 2021, and recent high-profile cyber breaches provide further evidence that the problem is already becoming acute.
That said, there are some new trends emerging when it comes to managing this crisis. In this article, we'll take a look at some of the innovative ways that companies are getting around the problem.
The Widening Gap
First, some context. At the most basic level, the skills gap in cybersecurity is the product of a simple fact: there are more cybersecurity positions that need to be filled than there are qualified graduates to fill them. This is despite colleges encouraging students to study cybersecurity, and despite companies encouraging their existing employees to retrain.
Look a little deeper, however, and some other reasons for the shortage becomes apparent. One is that a worrying number of qualified professionals are leaving the cybersecurity sector. At cybersecurity conferences, it’s not uncommon to see entire tracks about managing mental health, addiction, and work stress. As these experienced professionals leave the sector, this puts more pressure on younger, less experienced colleagues.
Secondly, a major source of stress for cybersecurity professionals is that they are often assigned total (or at least partial) responsibility for the losses caused by data breaches. In many cases, this is unfair, but persists because many companies still see "security" as a discrete discipline that can be dealt with in isolation from other IT tasks, corporate processes, and reputation management.
Training and Development
Addressing these issues requires more than just increasing the number of qualified graduates. Instead, businesses need to take more innovative approaches to hire, train, and retain cybersecurity staff.
These approaches can be broken down into three types. The first is that cybersecurity training needs to change from an event into a process. Some have argued that traditional, classroom-based cybersecurity training doesn’t reflect the field and that this training needs to be delivered in a more vocational way. Instead of hiring one cybersecurity expert, companies should look to train all of their employees in the basics of cybersecurity.
In fact, even cybersecurity professionals might benefit from this type of training. Despite companies being resistant to spending more on employee training, investing in training has one of the highest ROI that investors can make. In addition, recent developments have made it clear that continuous training is needed – concerns about the security implications of 5G networks, for example, are now forcing seasoned professionals to go back to school.
Secondly, dramatic gains in cybersecurity can be achieved without employing dedicated staff. One of the major positive outcomes of the cybersecurity skills gap, in fact, has been the proliferation of free, easy to use security tools (like VPNs and secure browsers), which aim to make cybersecurity "fool-proof", even for staff with little or no technical training. These tools can be used to limit the risk of cyberattacks without the necessity of complex (and expensive) dedicated security solutions.
Third, the rise of "security as a service" suggests that the cybersecurity sector of the future is one that relies on outsourcing and subcontracting. Plenty of companies already outsource business processes that would have been done in-house just a few years ago – everything from creating a website to outsourcing pen testing – and taking this approach may provide a more efficient way to use the limited cybersecurity professionals that are available.
AI Tools: The Future?
Another striking feature of the cybersecurity skills debate, and one which is especially apparent as we move into 2020, is the level of discussion around AI tools.
Unfortunately, assessing the level of efficacy of AI tools when it comes to improving cybersecurity is difficult. That's because many cybersecurity professionals are skeptical when it comes to AI is a useful ally in this fight. In some ways, they are undoubtedly correct: in a recent study, one popular AI-powered antivirus was defeated with just a few lines of text appended to popular malware.
On the other hand, it must be recognized that cybersecurity pros have a vested interest in talking down how effective AI tools are. If AIs were able to protect networks on their own, after all, cybersecurity pros would be out of a job. Or rather they would be if there were not so many unfilled cybersecurity vacancies.
Ultimately, given the lack of qualified or trained professionals, AI tools are likely to continue to be a major focus of investment for companies from 2020 onwards. This, in turn, entails that IT professionals overcome some of their reticence about working with them, and begin to see AIs less as competitors and more as collaborators.
The Bottom Line
It's also worth pointing out that the individual trends we've mentioned can be seen as working against each other. In some cases, companies have attempted to overcome the skills gap by training large numbers of employees to perform cybersecurity roles. Others have gone in the other direction – outsourcing specific aspects of their cybersecurity to hyper-specialized companies. Others are taking a gamble that AI tools are going to eventually replace the need for (at least some of their) cybersecurity professionals.
Which of these trends is eventually going to dominate the market remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: 2020 is a critical juncture for the entire cybersecurity sector.
Copyright 2010 Respective Author at Infosec IslandIn today’s 24/7 internet access world, network administrators need next-generation web filtering to effectively allow access to the internet traffic they do want, and stop the traffic they don’t want. How does this affect the education vertical, with students in K-12? Well, for starters, a lot has changed since the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) was enacted in 2000. Adding on to dated Acts, let’s not forget that almost two-decades later, the landscape in academics has shifted drastically. We are no longer working from computer labs on a single-network, we are in the world of various personal devices expecting consistent wi-fi and cloud access.
The internet is insurmountable - and as it continues to rapidly evolve, so should the filtering tactics used to keep students safe. But while the law requires schools and public libraries to block or filter obscene and harmful content, that still leaves room for interpretation.
How Much Web Filtering is Too Much?
A 2017 survey shows that 63% of K-12 teachers regularly use laptops and computers in the classroom, making the topic of web filtering in K-12 environments crucial. With the rise of tech-savvy students and classroom settings, precautions must be taken, however, there is such a thing as ‘over-filtering’ and ‘over-blocking.’
Current laws and guidelines that prevent students from accessing crucial learning and research materials, have become a rising issue that schools and parents are constantly battling with the FCC. As mentioned on the Atlantic, excessive filtering can limit students research on topics that can be useful to, for example, debate teams or students seeking anti-bullying resources. Instead of enforcing the same rules across the entire school or district, network administrators need to develop a solution that offers flexibility and customizable options, pinpointing specific websites, applications and categories that each grade level may access.
Working Together to Clearly Define Web Access
In the past, schools practiced the over-zealous “block everything” approach. Now, it is important for school administrators and IT departments to collectively work together to define web-access by grade, age, project duration and keyword search. This allows students access to educational resources while administrators maintain acceptable parameters in-place - blocking inappropriate content from sites or applications
Assessing Network Necessities
Academic boards can take it one-step further putting access controls on all school networking, including wi-fi networks to control the use of personal devices during school hours.
In addition to Web Filtering, adding controls such as enforcing safe search on popular search engines, and using restricted mode on YouTube will increase productivity, limit cyberbullying, and deny access to students searching for ways to inflict self-harm or perform other acts of violence.
Why limit students education by blocking crucial learning and research materials? By custom-configuring a network to meet the needs of each grade-level and classroom, educators are encouraging students to become academically resourceful. IT departments and school administrators must form a partnership to generate a solution that will allow students, teachers, and administrators access to the educational tools they need.
It’s time to break down the glass wall and acknowledge the presence of educational materials and information that is now available through various media channels and platforms. The internet which was once a luxury accessible to only a few, is now an amenity available to almost anyone - including young students - signifying the importance of fine-tuned web filters and content security across K-12 networks.
Copyright 2010 Respective Author at Infosec IslandWhether you’re trying to inform purchasing decisions or just want to better understand the cybersecurity market and its players, industry analyst reports can be very helpful. Following our recent accolades by Forrester and IDC in their respective cloud security reports, we want to help customers understand how to use this information.
Our VP of cybersecurity, Greg Young, taps into his past experience at Gartner to explain how to discern the most value from industry analyst reports.
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This week, we welcome Dave Ferguson, Director of Product Management and WAS at Qualys! Dave will discuss the issue of latent vulnerabilities and how they may linger in your custom-coded web applications and APIs, presenting an enticing target for attackers. In the Application Security News, GitLab Doles Out Half a Million Bucks to White Hats, How can we integrate security into the DevOps pipelines?, Go passwordless to strengthen security and reduce costs - and design your app to support these types of workflows, including account recovery.
Show Notes: https://wiki.securityweekly.com/ASWEpisode89
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This week, we welcome Jorge Salamero, Director of Product Marketing at Sysdig, to talk about Runtime Protection for Containers! In our second segment, we welcome back the Legend himself John Strand, to talk about Backdoors & Breaches, an Incident Response Card Game! In the security news, Your Smart Christmas Lights Are Safer Than They Were Last Year, Intels SGX coughs up crypto keys when scientists tweak CPU voltage, Hackers Can Block iPhones and iPads Via AirDrop Attack, How hackers are breaking into Ring Cameras, and Bloomberg accidentally created an Alexa Fleshlight!
Show Notes: https://wiki.securityweekly.com/PSWEpisode630
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This week, we welcome Laura Jones, Author of a children's book titled Cyber Ky & Tekkie Guy Manage the Risk of Being Online. She focuses on children being as 'appropriately informed' as they are comfortable with using technology! In the Security and Compliance News, Equifax nears 'historic' data breach settlement that could cost up to $3.5B, Maryland Again Amends its Data Breach Notification Law, Hidden Complexity is Biggest Threat to Compliance, Data Security Remains Top IT Concern for Small Businesses and Others, A Compliance Carol: A visit from the Ghost of Compliance Past, and more!
Show Notes: https://wiki.securityweekly.com/SCWEpisode10
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Welcome to our weekly roundup, where we share what you need to know about the cybersecurity news and events that happened over the past few days. This week, learn about the threat campaign Waterbear and how it uses API hooking to evade security product detection. Also, read about December Patch Tuesday updates from Microsoft and Adobe.
Read on:
Waterbear is Back, Uses API Hooking to Evade Security Product Detection
Previously, Waterbear has been used for lateral movement, decrypting and triggering payloads with its loader component. In most cases, the payloads are backdoors that can receive and load additional modules. However, recently Trend Micro discovered a piece of Waterbear payload with a brand new purpose: hiding its network behaviors from a specific security product by API hooking techniques.
Microsoft December 2019 Patch Tuesday Plugs Windows Zero-Day
Microsoft has released today the December 2019 Patch Tuesday security updates. This month’s updates include fixes for 36 vulnerabilities, including a zero-day in the Windows operating system that has been exploited in the wild.
(Almost) Hollow and Innocent: Monero Miner Remains Undetected via Process Hollowing
Recently, Trend Micro found a cryptomining threat using process hollowing and a dropper component that requires a specific set of command line arguments to trigger its malicious behavior, leaving no trace for malicious activity detection or analysis to reference the file as malicious.
2020 Predictions: Black Hats Begin to Target Facial Recognition Technology
Research interest in defeating facial recognition technology is booming. Adversaries are likely taking notice, but don’t expect widespread adoption overnight. Jon Clay, director of threat communication at Trend Micro, points out that techniques ranging from deep fakes to adversarial machine learning are likely still in an early stage.
US, UK Governments Unite to Indict Hacker Behind Dreaded Dridex Malware
Maksim Yakubets, who allegedly runs Russia-based Evil Corp, the cybercriminal organization that developed and distributed banking malware Dridex, has been indicted in the United States by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
Trend Micro, McAfee and Bitdefender Top Cloud Workload Security List
Trend Micro, McAfee and Bitdefender were named among the leaders in a new report from Forrester Research on cloud workload security that covered 13 vendors.
BEC Scam Successfully Steals US $1 Million Using Look-Alike Domains
A Chinese venture capital firm lost US $1 million to scammers who successfully came between a deal the firm had with an Israeli startup. The business email compromise (BEC) campaign used by the attackers consisted of 32 emails and look-alike domains to trick both parties of their authenticity.
Retail Cyberattacks Set to Soar 20% in 2019 Holiday Season
As cybercriminals grow more sophisticated and holiday shoppers continue to flock online, researchers warn internet-based retailers could face a 20 percent uptick in cyberattacks this holiday season compared to last year.
Bug in Ryuk Ransomware’s Decryptor Can Lead to Loss of Data in Certain Files
Ryuk’s decryptor tool could cause data loss instead of reinstating file access to users. According to a blog post from Emsisoft, a bug with how the tool decrypts files could lead to incomplete recoveries, contrary to what the decryptor is meant to achieve.
Hacker Hacks Hacking Platform, Gets Paid $20,000 By the Hacked Hackers
HackerOne operates as a conduit between ethical hackers looking for vulnerabilities, and organizations like General Motors, Goldman Sachs, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, and the U.S. Pentagon, want to patch those security holes before malicious threat actors can exploit them. One of the hackers registered with the platform hacked HackerOne instead and was paid $20,000 (£15,250) by HackerOne as a result.
Trickbot’s Updated Password-Grabbing Module Targets More Apps, Services
Researchers from Security Intelligence have reported on a sudden increase of Trickbot’s activities in Japan, and Trend Micro researchers have found updates to the password-grabbing (pwgrab) module and possible changes to the Emotet variant that drops Trickbot.
Ransomware Recap: Snatch and Zeppelin Ransomware
Two ransomware families with noteworthy features – Snatch and Zeppelin –were spotted this week. Snatch ransomware is capable of forcing Windows machines to reboot into Safe Mode. Zeppelin ransomware, on the other hand, was responsible for infecting healthcare and IT organizations across Europe and the U.S.
Brian Krebs is the CISO MAG Cybersecurity Person of the Year
For the first time, CISO Mag named a Cybersecurity Person of the Year, who is defined as someone who been committed to bringing awareness into the realm of cybersecurity. In addition to recognizing Brian Krebs of KrebsOnSecurity.com, two other individuals were recognized: Trend Micro’s Rik Ferguson, VP of security research, and web security expert Troy Hunt.
Do you think retail cyberattacks will soar higher than 20 percent this holiday season? Share your thoughts in the comments below or follow me on Twitter to continue the conversation: @JonLClay.
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This week, we talk Enterprise News, to talk about Barracuda launching Cloud Security Guardian integration with Amazon Detective, Sophos launches new cloud-based threat intelligence and analysis platform, Accenture launches Cloud Native solution to help clients, and 10 notable Cybersecurity acquisitions of 2019, Pt. 2! In our second segment, we welcome James Carder, Chief Security Officer & Vice President at LogRhythm, to discuss Measuring and Maturing Security Operations Maturity! In our final segment, we welcome Jamie Butler, Tech Lead at Elastic Security, to talk about how improving security requires reducing complexity!
Show Notes: https://wiki.securityweekly.com/ESWEpisode165
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