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If you recently found yourself looking for a new job, you are far from alone. According to the Institute of Labor Economics, more Canadians were seeking new employment opportunities at the height of the pandemic than during the previous three recessions combined. Job hunters only used to have to worry about the clarity of their cover letters and impressing interviewers. Now, however, a new hurdle is in the mix in the race for a new job: online job scams.
Here are three online job scams that you may encounter, plus a few tips on how to avoid and report them.
Fake job ads trick employment seekers into giving up their financial information. Fake job ads are more likely to appear on free sites, such as Craigslist, but they could be listed anywhere. So, no matter where you are searching, be wary that not everyone is looking for a talented individual such as yourself. They are on the hunt for sensitive personal details.
When you are interviewing for jobs, legitimate employers are careful and intentioned about evaluating your fit for the job. For this reason, employers want to make sure they are not interviewing fake candidates, so they are likely going to want to meet you face-to-face or through a video chat. If an employer extends a job offer after a few email exchanges or an instant messenger job interview, request a more formal meeting. If they say that they would like to move fast and hire quickly, be concerned as no real employer would act that quickly.
Guard your personal and financial information until you are 100% sure of the legitimacy of a job offer. Be on high alert if the “human resources representative” asks for your credit card or banking information to pay for training. Fake employers may also ask for your Social Insurance Number before extending a job offer letter. A great rule of thumb is to never share your SIN with anyone over the phone or over email.
Between March and September 2020, 34% of Canadian respondents reported receiving a phishing message, according to a survey by Statistics Canada. Phishing emails often include malicious links that, when clicked, download malware to your device. Online job scams may not only attempt to steal your sensitive information, but they may also be phishing attempts to take over your personal devices.
Some scammers using job offers as a guise might email people who never applied for a new opportunity. Be careful around these types of messages, urges the University of Calgary. Recruiters will most likely reach out and offer unsolicited interviews through social networking channels rather than email. Also, when you receive emails from people looking to hire you, take note of their email domain name. Is the email domain customized to the company’s name or is it a generic @gmail or @yahoo? Check the spelling of the email domain carefully too. Phishers are notoriously bad spellers and sometimes they use incorrect spelling of domain names to trick people into thinking they are the real company.
Immigrating anywhere is a massive and stressful undertaking. Cybercriminals prey upon this stressful, major life event and target immigrants with enticing, but fake, job offers. The Government of Canada advises to never trust someone who says they can guarantee you a job in Canada. Also, keep an eye on the salary. Is it very high? Do your skills not completely align with the job description? Does the job seem very easy? Unfortunately, that may mean that the offer is too good to be true.
The best way to avoid falling for job scams is to know what you are looking for and to take your time when considering a new job. Check out these tips to outsmart scammers and keep your personal information and devices safe.
Most job applications are submitted online, but if an employer is impressed by your resume, they will likely offer a screening call. When a human resources representative calls, make sure to note their name and ask for the website address of the company. Afterwards, search for the company online and the human resources representative who called you. They should show up together on a professional-looking website or a professional networking site.
Inspect all correspondences you get from potential employers. Phishers often use language that inspires strong emotions and urges a speedy response. Strong emotions could include excitement or fear. If the email says you only have a few hours to respond or else the job will go to someone else, be skeptical. Accepting a job is a huge decision that you should be able to take at least a few days to think about. Read carefully, always hover over links to see where they redirect, and keep a level head when making decisions about your next career move.
When you come across fraudulent activity, it is important that you report it to the correct authorities to stop it from happening to someone else. For immigration and online job scams, contact the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
Phishers and job scammers may have gotten in contact with you with the aim of downloading malicious software on your computer. A comprehensive suite of security tools will protect you from viruses and malware that may have slipped past your eagle eye. McAfee Total Protection offers premium antivirus software, safe web browsing, and PC optimization.
The post Watch Out for These 3 Online Job Scams appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Digital sovereignty and strategic autonomy are phrases that are used almost daily in EU policy circles, loosely framed around the EU’s ability to carve out its own future in the digital sphere, rather than having its terms dictated from abroad. To achieve digital sovereignty in practice, having access to as broad a range of suppliers is key, not unnecessarily restricting the market.
Our ability to self-determine Europe’s digital future is at risk when we become reliant on one source, that much is clear, and has been demonstrated recently in the global supply shortage of microchips. All measures that reduce this dependency will benefit digital sovereignty, which in practice means expanding competition in the market to as many players as possible.
The means to get there are varied, and Europe is rightly seeking to build infrastructure, expand the pool of skilled experts and facilitate market entry. The EU and member states are also putting in place measures to eliminate obvious security risks in supply chains that demand an extra layer of vigilance, such as critical infrastructure, which is in the interest of national security.
But the notion that homegrown European solutions are automatically better than non-European ones – sometimes backed by measures that give European vendors and suppliers undue advantage, or which place additional hurdles for companies that handle customer data outside the EU – is misguided.
In the cybersecurity domain, in particular, limiting interoperability and vendor choice will only reduce Europe’s resilience against cyberattacks, which is a crucial element to ensuring Europe’s digital sovereignty and strategic autonomy. This is as true now as it always has been, in a sector innovating at break neck speed to meet the challenges set by our adversaries.
In this competitive market, best-in-class providers at the cutting edge of security are the ones that will make Europe more cyber-secure, irrespective of where they happen to have their headquarters or data centers. Irrational decisions guided by protectionism should have no place in this debate. Indeed policies or practices requiring forced data localisation can often limit the benefits generated by scale and global reach, and negatively impact cyber security’s operational effectiveness.
A recent seminar organised by ECIS, the European Committee for Interoperable Systems, set out some clear principles that should guide Europe’s quest for digital sovereignty. Ensuring that the market operates as effectively as possible, supplier choice is as broad as possible, and interoperability and ability to switch suppliers is safeguarded, on the basis of clear standards, will be paramount.
That is not to say that all measures being considered are misguided. An industrial policy that improves Europe’s digital infrastructures will boost Europe’s supply of home-grown digital services and products. Countries also have legitimate reasons to safeguard their national security and are well within their rights to set criteria to this end. The real danger lies in confusing protectionism with digital sovereignty.
The post Restricting Supplier Choice Isn’t an Option to Enhance Digital Sovereignty appeared first on McAfee Blogs.
What do Burger King and the popular “Doge” meme have in common? They both have cryptocurrencies named after their likeliness. WhopperCoin and Dogecoin are just two examples of the thousands of types of cryptocurrencies that have caught users’ attention over the past few years. Cryptocurrencies are digital tokens generated by a computer after solving complex mathematical functions. These functions are used to verify the authenticity of a ledger, or blockchain.
Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency today, increasing its value by almost 300% in 2020. Today, almost 46 million Americans own at least one share of Bitcoin, illustrating how these cryptocurrencies are the future of tomorrow’s digital payment system — or are they? The same benefits that make them a popular choice with online users have also made them popular amongst online thieves, sparking a wave of ransomware attacks and other cyberattacks more recently. This begs the question: do the benefits of Bitcoin outweigh the risks?
Every rose has its thorn, and several Bitcoin benefits seem to be hitched to online security risks. Here are some cryptocurrency characteristics that may seem appealing to users, but also provide cybercriminals with an opportunity to exploit:
As previously mentioned, cryptocurrency exchanges take place on an online public ledger, or blockchain, to secure online transactions. This means that anybody can observe the exchange online. However, the parties making the transactions are anonymous, disguised with a random number. Bitcoin users can make purchases that are never associated with their identity, similar to a cash transaction.
While the purchase discretion provided by Bitcoin may be appealing to users who want to remain private, this characteristic could also aid cybercriminals in malicious activity. Due to the anonymity of Bitcoin transactions, there is no way for someone to associate a person with a certain cryptocurrency wallet. Furthermore, a user could have multiple wallets, allowing them to spread their currency from one address to another.
For a cybercriminal looking to target an individual with ransomware, the purchase discretion and anonymity of Bitcoin provide a favorable solution. In fact, Bitcoin accounts for approximately 98% of ransomware payments today. Say a hacker carries out a ransomware attack and demands that the user pay a large sum in Bitcoin. If the user completes the payment, the hacker can keep moving the currency from one anonymous account to another. That makes it very difficult — though not impossible — to trace if the individual decides to investigate the case and tries to get their money back.
Another characteristic that Bitcoin users find appealing is the autonomy offered by digital currencies. In theory, they allow users more autonomy over their own money than government-regulated currencies do. With Bitcoin, users can control how they spend their money without dealing with an intermediary authority like a bank or government.
This lack of intermediary authority also opens a door for hackers to exploit. Say a user decides that they want to manage their finances using Bitcoin to bypass banking fees and send money to friends and family in different parts of the world. As previously mentioned, a Bitcoin user is assigned an anonymous private key that acts as their security credential. This key is generated and maintained by the user instead of a third-party agency. But what happens if the key isn’t random enough? An attacker could steal the user’s private key, and they will not be able to recover it since the Bitcoin blockchain is not dependent on any centralized third-party institutions. Therefore, it will be very difficult to track the attacker’s behaviors and recover lost funds.
It is safe to say that Bitcoin has caused a lot of buzz. But do the benefits outweigh the risks? Due to the nature of Bitcoin and most other public blockchains, anyone in the world can perform transactions or cryptographic computations — including cybercriminals. That’s why it is crucial for current cryptocurrency users and those considering cryptocurrency investment to do their research and know what vulnerabilities lie within the world of Bitcoin.
Follow these tips to help protect yourself from common threats that leverage cryptocurrency:
With blockchain, cryptocurrency, and any new and emerging technology, make sure you always remain a bit skeptical. Do your homework before you embrace the technology — research your options and make note of any known security issues and what you can do to mitigate known risks.
If a hacker does target you with ransomware demanding Bitcoin payment, it’s best not to pay the ransom. Although you may feel in the moment that this is the only way to get your encrypted files back, there is no guarantee that the ransomware developers will send a decryption tool once they receive the payment. Paying the ransom also contributes to the development of more ransomware families, so it is best to hold off on making any payments. Furthermore, a recent study found that 80% of businesses that choose to pay a ransom experience a subsequent ransomware attack. While it may feel like your only option in the moment, paying a ransom could show attackers that you’re willing to make the payment, therefore positioning you as an ideal target for yet another attack.
If you are targeted with ransomware, it’s crucial that you always have backup copies of your files, preferably in the cloud and on an external hard drive. This way, if you do get a ransomware infection, you can wipe your computer or device and reinstall your files from the backup. Backups protect your data, and you won’t be tempted to reward the hackers by paying a ransom. Backups won’t prevent ransomware, but they can mitigate the risks.
Large organizations often fall prey to ransomware attacks, so take necessary precautions if a company you’ve interacted with becomes compromised from a data leak or a ransomware attack. Immediately change your passwords for all your accounts, ensuring they are strong and unique. You can also employ a password manager to keep track of your credentials and generate secure login keys.
Add an extra layer of security with a solution such as McAfee® Total Protection, which includes Ransom Guard, to help protect your devices from these cyberthreats and ensure your digital wellness online.
The emergence of Bitcoin has indeed facilitated a wave of cybercrime that was previously difficult to perceive. In this new age of digital payments, blockchain, and cryptocurrencies, make sure that you do your research and stay vigilant when it comes to protecting your online safety. Remember: Bitcoin worth will continue to fluctuate, but your personal security will always remain invaluable.
To stay updated on all things McAfee and on top of the latest consumer and mobile security threats, follow @McAfee_Home on Twitter, subscribe to our newsletter, listen to our podcast Hackable?, and ‘Like’ us on Facebook.
The post Do the Benefits of Bitcoin Outweigh the Risks? appeared first on McAfee Blogs.
Note: This article originally appeared in Verisign’s Q1 2021 Domain Name Industry Brief.
This article expands on observations of a botnet traffic group at various levels of the Domain Name System (DNS) hierarchy, presented at DNS-OARC 35.
Addressing DNS abuse and maintaining a healthy DNS ecosystem are important components of Verisign’s commitment to being a responsible steward of the internet. We continuously engage with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and other industry partners to help ensure the secure, stable and resilient operation of the DNS.
Based on recent telemetry data from Verisign’s authoritative top-level domain (TLD) name servers, Verisign observed a widespread botnet responsible for a disproportionate amount of total global DNS queries – and, in coordination with several registrars, registries and ICANN, acted expeditiously to remediate it.
Just prior to Verisign taking action to remediate the botnet, upwards of 27.5 billion queries per day were being sent to Verisign’s authoritative TLD name servers, accounting for roughly 10% of Verisign’s total DNS traffic. That amount of query volume in most DNS environments would be considered a sustained distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack.
These queries were associated with a particular piece of malware that emerged in 2018, spreading throughout the internet to create a global botnet infrastructure. Botnets provide a substrate for malicious actors to theoretically perform all manner of malicious activity – executing DDoS attacks, exfiltrating data, sending spam, conducting phishing campaigns or even installing ransomware. This is the result of the malware’s ability to download and execute any other type of payload the malicious actor desires.
Malware authors often apply various forms of evasion techniques to protect their botnets from being detected and remediated. A Domain Generation Algorithm (DGA) is an example of such an evasion technique.
DGAs are seen in various families of malware that periodically generate a number of domain names, which can be used as rendezvous points for botnet command-and-control servers. By using a DGA to build the list of domain names, the malicious actor makes it more difficult for security practitioners to identify what domain names will be used and when. Only by exhaustively reverse-engineering a piece of malware can the definitive set of domain names be ascertained.
The choices made by miscreants to tailor malware DGAs directly influences the DGAs’ ability to evade detection. For instance, electing to use more TLDs and a large number of domain names in a given time period makes the malware’s operation more difficult to disrupt; however, this approach also increases the amount of network noise, making it easier to identify anomalous traffic patterns by security and network teams. Likewise, a DGA that uses a limited number of TLDs and domain names will generate significantly less network noise but is more fragile and susceptible to remediation.
Botnets that implement DGA algorithms or utilize domain names clearly represent an “abuse of the DNS,” opposed to other types of abuse that are executed “via the DNS,” such as phishing. This is an important distinction the DNS community should consider as it continues to refine the scope of DNS abuse and how remediation of the various abuses can be effectuated.
The remediation of domain names used by botnets as rendezvous points poses numerous operational challenges and insights. The set of domain names needs to be identified and investigated to determine their current registration status. Risk assessments must be evaluated on registered domain names to determine if additional actions should be performed, such as sending registrar notifications, issuing requests to transfer domain names, adding Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) hold statuses, altering delegation records, etc. There are also timing and coordination elements that must be balanced with external entities, such as ICANN, law enforcement, Computer Emergency Readiness Teams (CERTs) and contracted parties, including registrars and registries. Other technical decisions also need to be considered, designed and deployed to achieve the desired remediation goal.
After coordinating with ICANN, and several registrars and registries, Verisign registered the remaining available botnet domain names and began a three-phase plan to sinkhole those domain names. Ultimately, this remediation effort would reduce the traffic sent to Verisign authoritative name servers and effectively eliminate the botnet’s ability to use command-and-control domain names within Verisign-operated TLDs.
Figure 1 below shows the amount of botnet traffic Verisign authoritative name servers received prior to intervention, and throughout the process of registering, delegating and sinkholing the botnet domain names.
Phase one was executed on Dec. 21, 2020, in which 100 .cc domain names were configured to resolve to Verisign-operated sinkhole servers. Subsequently, traffic at Verisign authoritative name servers quickly decreased. The second group of domain names contained 500 .com and .net domain names, which were sinkholed on Jan. 7, 2021. Again, traffic volume at Verisign authoritative name servers quickly decreased. The final group of 879 .com and .net domain names were sinkholed on Jan. 13, 2021. By the end of phase three, the cumulative DNS traffic reduction surpassed 25 billion queries per day. Verisign reserved approximately 10 percent of the botnet domain names to remain on serverHold as a placebo/control-group to better understand sinkholing effects as they relate to query volume at the child and parent zones. Verisign believes that sinkholing the remaining domain names would further reduce authoritative name server traffic by an additional one billion queries.
This botnet highlights the remarkable Pareto-like distribution of DNS query traffic, in which a few thousand domain names that span namespaces containing more than 165 million domain names, demand a vastly disproportionate amount of DNS resources.
What causes the amplification of DNS traffic volume for non-existent domain names to occur at the upper levels of the DNS hierarchy? Verisign is conducting a variety of measurements on the sinkholed botnet domain names to better understand the caching behavior of the resolver population. We are observing some interesting traffic changes at the TLD and root name servers when time to live (TTL) and response codes are altered at the sinkhole servers. Stay tuned.
In addition to remediating this botnet in late 2020 and into early 2021, Verisign extended its already four-year endeavor to combat the Avalanche botnet family. Since 2016, the Avalanche botnet had been significantly impacted due to actions taken by Verisign and an international consortium of law enforcement, academic and private organizations. However, many of the underlying Avalanche-compromised machines are still not remediated, and the threat from Avalanche could increase again if additional actions are not taken. To prevent this from happening, Verisign, in coordination with ICANN and other industry partners, is using a variety of tools to ensure Avalanche command-and-control domain names cannot be used in Verisign-operated TLDs.
Botnets are a persistent issue. And as long as they exist as a threat to the security, stability and resiliency of the DNS, cross-industry coordination and collaboration will continue to lie at the core of combating them.
This piece was co-authored by Matt Thomas and Duane Wessels, distinguished engineers at Verisign.
The post Industry Insights: Verisign, ICANN and Industry Partners Collaborate to Combat Botnets appeared first on Verisign Blog.
There’s little rest for your hard-working smartphone. If you’re like many professionals today, you use it for work, play, and a mix of personal business in between. Now, what if something went wrong with that phone, like loss or theft? Worse yet, what if your smartphone got hacked? Let’s try and keep that from happening to you.
Globally, plenty of people pull double duty with their smartphones. In Spain, one survey found that 55% of people use the same phone for a mix of personal and and work activity. The same survey showed that up to half of people interviewed in Japan, Australia, and the U.S. do so as well, while nations like the UK and Germany trailed at 31% and 23% respectively.
Whether these figures trend on the low or high end, the security implications remain constant. A smartphone loaded with business and personal data makes for a desirable target. Hackers target smartphones because they’re often unprotected, which gives hackers an easy “in” to your personal information and to any corporate networks you may use. It’s like two hacks with one stone.
Put simply, as a working professional with a smartphone, you’re a high-value target.
As both a parent and a professional, I put together a few things you can do to protect your smartphone from hacks so that you can keep your personal and work life safe:
First up, the basics. Locking your phone with facial ID, a fingerprint, pattern or a pin is your most basic form of protection, particularly in the event of loss or theft. (Your options will vary depending on the device, operating system, and manufacturer.) Take it a step further for even more protection. Secure the accounts on your phone with strong passwords and use two-factor authentication on the apps that offer it, which doubles your line of defense.
Or, put another way, don’t hop onto public Wi-Fi networks without protection. A VPN masks your connection from hackers allowing you to connect privately when you are on unsecure public networks at airports, cafes, hotels, and the like. With a VPN connection, you’ll know that your sensitive data, documents, and activities you do are protected from snooping, which is definitely a great feeling given the amount of personal and professional business we manage with our smartphones.
Both Google Play and Apple’s App Store have measures in place to help prevent potentially dangerous apps from making it into their stores. Malicious apps are often found outside of the app stores, which can run in the background and compromise your personal data like passwords, credit card numbers, and more—practically everything that you keep on your phone. Further, when you are in the app stores, look closely at the descriptions and reviews for apps before you download them. Malicious apps and counterfeits can still find their way into stores, and here are a few ways you can keep those bad apps from getting onto your phone.
Backing up your phone is always a good idea for two reasons:
Both iPhones and Android phones have straightforward ways of backing up your phone regularly.
Worst case scenario—your phone is gone. Really gone. Either it’s hopelessly lost or got stolen. What now? Lock it remotely or even wipe its data entirely. While that last bit about wiping the phone seems like a drastic move, if you maintain regular backups as mentioned above, your data is secure in the cloud—ready for you to restore. In all, this means that hackers won’t be able to access you, or your company’s, sensitive information—which can keep you out of trouble and your professional business safe. Apple provides iOS users with a step-by-step guide for remotely wiping devices, and Google offers up a guide for Android users as well.
We all download apps, use them once, and then forget they are on our phone. Take a few moments to swipe through your screen and see which ones you’re truly done with and delete them along with their data. Some apps have an account associated with them that may store data off your phone as well. Take the extra step and delete those accounts so any off-phone data is deleted.
The reason for this is that every extra app is another app that needs updating or that may have a security issue associated with it. In a time of data breaches and vulnerabilities, deleting old apps is a smart move. As for the ones you keep, update them regularly and turn on auto-updates if that’s an option. Updates not only introduce new features to apps, but they also often address security issues too.
With so much of your life on your phone, getting security software installed on it can protect you and the things you keep on your phone. Whether you’re an Android owner or iOS owner, mobile security software can keep your data, your shopping, and payments secure.
The post 7 Tips to Protect Your Smartphone from Getting Hacked appeared first on McAfee Blog.
How much of the global economy is managed from a home network these days? Or, more importantly, what percentage of your company’s most sensitive data passes through employee home networks right now?
If you’re like me, working from a home office, you can’t help but think about all of the cybersecurity tradeoffs that accompanied the widespread shift from on-premises to cloud-delivered services. Better productivity in exchange for deeper vulnerabilities—like man-in-the-middle attacks—wasn’t a choice many cybersecurity pros would make under normal circumstances.
Yet, for better—and worse—there’s no going back to how things were. When Gartner revealed its annual list of top cybersecurity trends last month, we learned that while 64% of employees now work from home, at least 30-40% will continue to do so once the pandemic is over.1 In the foreseeable future, the Wi-Fi streaming your kids’ favorite shows will transport an untold amount of business data, too. All of which must be protected from device to cloud.
In the same report, Gartner said that with so many employees continuing to work from home, “endpoint protection services will need to move to cloud-delivered services.” While the vast majority of our customers made the overnight switch—many still need to adopt a cloud-native architecture.
No doubt the best transformations are the ones you plan for and manage from end-to-end. But the cloud transformation that many didn’t plan for—and most cybersecurity defenses couldn’t handle—turned out to pack the biggest punch. Here are three ways to better prepare for what comes next.
Stopping unauthorized access to corporate assets—and protecting them—is, on the face of it, a never-ending battle. You can’t build a moat, a wall, or a bubble and say, hey, my work here is done. We’ve found our customers need to solve two primary issues:
So, we created the MVISION Device-to-Cloud Suites to protect all of this data coursing through home networks. Among the many types of threats we’ve tracked, one of the biggest threats is viruses infecting browsers and capturing keystrokes to steal sensitive information. We solve this by isolating a browser so that no one can see what information has been entered.
While paradigms may shift, going forward we believe it’s predictive defenses that will enable faster, smarter and more effective data loss prevention. We get there by enabling optimized endpoint threat protection, Extended Detection and Response (EDRs) that improve mean time to detect and respond to threats, and useful analytics that not only empower your SOC but also help inform and engage executives.
Gaining executive and board-level buy-in has long been a topic of concern in the cybersecurity field. Thanks in part to the harsh publicity and severe damage caused by state-sponsored hacks that day is finally in sight. In a recent blog, McAfee’s Steve Grobman indicated SolarWinds is the first major supply chain attack which represents a shift in tactics where a nation state has employed a new weapon for cyber-espionage.”2
Cybersecurity is perceived as the second highest source of risk for enterprises, losing out to regulatory concerns, notes Gartner.3 While today only one in 10 board of directors have a dedicated cybersecurity committee, Gartner projects that percentage will rise to 40% in four years.
One reason why cybersecurity hasn’t been elevated to an ongoing board concern previously is that many executives lack a window into the cybersecurity in their midst. And lacking a window, they have no keen understanding of their organization’s vulnerabilities. Which also makes it difficult to assess the operational value of various cybersecurity investments.
The ability to gain visual insights and predictive assessments of your security posture against dangerous threats is what generates actionable intelligence. A CISO or CSO should be able to look at a single screen and understand in minutes how well protected they are against potential threats. They also need a team that’s ready to take action on these insights and enact appropriate countermeasures to protect corporate assets from imminent attack.
You want to protect your palace from thieves, but when do you finally have too many latches, locks, and bars on your doors? At some point, less is more, particularly if you can’t remember where you put your keys. Consolidation is one of Gartner top five trends this year. Four out of five companies plan to trim their list of cybersecurity vendors in the next three years.4
In fact, Gartner’s 2020 CISO Effectiveness Survey found that 78% of CISOs have 16 or more tools in their cybersecurity vendor portfolio, while 12% have a whopping 46 or more.5 Mind you, we know there is no end-all, be-all Security vendor who does everything. But with our Device-to-Cloud Suites, your security technology resides in one umbrella platform. Without McAfee, you’d need one vendor on the desktop, another in the cloud, and one more on the web gateway.
Consolidation is intended to remove headaches rather than create them. With one SaaS-based suite that addresses your core security issues, you have lower maintenance, plus the ability to visualize where you’re vulnerable and learn what you need to do to protect it.
McAfee is here to help organizations manage the transformation to a predictive cybersecurity defense and we provide the footprint to secure the data, endpoints, web, and cloud. From my vantage point, securing distributed digital assets demands effective security controls from device to cloud.
MVISION Device-to-Cloud Suites provide a simplified way to help accelerate your cloud transformation and adoption, better defend against attacks, and lower your total cost of operations. The suites scale with your security needs to deliver a unified endpoint, web, and cloud solution.
Learn More About McAfee Device-to-Cloud Suites:
Source:
1. Gartner Identifies Top Security and Risk Management Trends for 2021 (Gartner)
2. Why SolarWinds-SUNBURST is a Wakeup Call (McAfee)
3. Gartner Identifies Top Security and Risk Management Trends for 2021 (Gartner)
4. Ibid.
5. Gartner Survey Reveals Only 12% of CISOs Are Considered “Highly Effective” (Gartner)
The post Transforming to a Predictive Cyber Defense appeared first on McAfee Blogs.
How well can you predict, prevent and respond to ever-changing cyberthreats? How do you know that your security efforts measure up? The stakes are high if this is difficult to answer and track. Imagine if you had one place where you found a comprehensive real time security posture that tells you exactly where the looming current cyber risks are and the impact? Let’s consider a recent and relevant cyber threat.
Take, for example, the May 7th DarkSide ransomware attack that shut down Colonial Pipeline’s distribution network. That well-publicized attack spurred considerable interest in cybersecurity assessments. Ransomware doesn’t just cost money—or embarrassment—it can derail careers. As news spread, we fielded numerous calls from executives wondering: Are my systems protected against DarkSide?
Until recently, discovering the answer to such questions has required exercises such as white hat penetration testing or the completion of lengthy or sometimes generic security posture questionnaires. And we know how that goes — your results may vary from the “norm,” sometimes quite a bit.
To empower you to ask and confidently answer the “am I protected” questions, we developed MVISION Insights Unified Posture Scoring to provide real-time assessments of your environment from device to cloud and threat campaigns targeting your industry.
With the score, you’ll know at a glance: Have you done enough to stave off the most likely risks? In general, the better controls you set for your endpoints, networks and clouds, the lower your risk of breaches and data loss—and the better your security posture score. A CISO from a large enterprise recently stated that the “most significant thing for a CISO to solve is to become confident in the security score.”
Assessing risk is about determining the likelihood of an event. A risk score considers where you’re vulnerable and based on those weaknesses how likely is it that a bad actor will exploit it? That scoring approach helps security teams determine whether to apply a specific tool or countermeasures.
However, a posture score goes a step further when it considers your current environment’s risk but also whether you’ve been able to withstand attacks. Where have you applied protections to suppress an attack? It enables you to ask: what’s the state of your defensive posture?
Security posture scoring may answer other critical questions such as:
Knowing these answers also makes security posture scoring useful for compliance risk assessment, producing a benchmark that enables your organization to compare its industry performance and also choose which concerns to prioritize. The score can also serve as an indicator of whether your organization would be approved for cyber insurance or even how much it may have to pay.
Some organizations use security posture scoring to help prepare for security audits. But it can also be used in lieu of third-party assessments—applying recommended assessments instead of expensive penetration testing.
No doubt, the pandemic and working from home have exacerbated security posture challenges. According to Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), a “growing attack surface” from cloud computing and new digital devices are complicating security posture management. So is managing “inexperienced remote workers,” who may be preyed upon by various forms of malware. This can lead not only to management headaches, says ESG, but also to “vulnerabilities and potential system compromises.”
About one year ago we released the initial version of MVISION Insights posture scoring —focused on endpoint assessments. A security score was assigned based on your preparedness to thwart looming threats and the configuration of your McAfee endpoint security products. It enabled predictive assessments based on security posture aligned to campaign-specific threat intelligence.
Customers are tired of piecing together siloed security and demand a unified security approach reflected in our MVISION XDR powered by MVISION Insights. We expanded the scoring capability to also assess cloud defenses, including your countermeasures and controls. Derived from MVISION Cloud Security Advisor, the cloud security posture is weighted average of visibility and control for IaaS, SaaS,and shadow IT. There is an option to easily pivot to MVISION Cloud Security Advisor. The Unified Security posture score is weighted average of the endpoint and cloud security posture score delivering a more robust and comprehensive assessment with the ability to drill down on specifics to enhance your security from device to cloud. Many endpoint wanna-be XDR vendors cannot provide this critical aggregated security assessment across vectors.
Becoming more robust is what all of us must do. When organizations face the jeopardy of “Ransomware-as-a-Service” payments that may scale up to $2 million, understanding how best to manage your security posture is no longer simply a nice to have, it’s become an operational imperative.
Click here to learn more about Security Posture Scoring from a few practitioners in our LinkedIn Live session.
The post Testing to Ensure Your Security Posture Never Slouches appeared first on McAfee Blogs.
A new piece of tech often tops the list of Father’s Day gifts. And while things such as wearable fitness devices, smart speakers, smart outlets, or any number of other connected gadgets and do-dads are popular picks, one thing often gets overlooked—protecting those devices from hacks and attacks.
We live in a day and age when even connected lightbulbs can be hacked. The reality is that gift-worthy tech like home cameras, speakers, and other Internet of Things (IoT) devices can fall prey to bad actors. The reason why is relatively straightforward. Each connected thing on your home network presents a possible entry point for an attacker.
By compromising even the most innocuous of devices, like the humble lightbulb, an attacker can inject malware into your network that can then compromise high-value items like your phones and computers—along with the data on them. So, if you’re wondering why on Earth anyone would want to hack a lightbulb, that’s one reason why.
Your network is only as safe as the least secure device that’s on it. And the sad fact is that many consumer IoT devices simply aren’t that secure. Their hardware can be limited, leaving little room for security measures onboard, and they can use transmission protocols that are less than robust. Further, they can use default usernames and passwords that people neglect to update, making them easy to access as doing a search online for those credentials. Secure data storage can be an issue as well, whether that’s a video from a security camera or health data from a fitness device that’s stored in the cloud.
The list of possible IoT device vulnerabilities goes on. Certainly, some manufacturers are more stringent about security than others. However, adding any IoT device to your network also adds risk. And with more and more of these devices entering our homes, dedicated hackers have more targets available to them than ever before.
In all, estimates project that the world will have nearly 40 billion IoT devices in the next four years across homes and businesses alike. And like our computers, laptops, smartphones, and tablets, all of them will need protection. Including the connected devices that you give dad.
As you’re shopping for the best tech gift for dad, making sure his IoT devices are secure as possible may be the best gift of all. Right off the bat, the challenge with our IoT devices is that you don’t protect them the same way you can protect our computers, phones, and tablets, Namely, there isn’t always a way to install security software on them. What to do? In fact, we can show you several ways to tighten up the security of your new and existing IoT devices. What’s more, following these steps can also improve the overall security of your network too.
Just because that new smart device that you want to give to dad can connect to the internet doesn’t mean that it’s secure. Before you purchase, read up on reviews and comments from other customers. Look for news articles about the device manufacturer too. The fact of the matter is that some IoT device manufacturers are much better at baking security protocols into their devices than others, so check out their track record to see if you can uncover any issues with their products or security practices. Information such as this can help you make an even more informed choice.
As mentioned above, one issue with many IoT devices is that they often come with a default username and password. This could mean that your device, and thousands of others just like it, all share the same credentials, which makes it painfully easy for a hacker to gain access to them as those default usernames and passwords are often published online.
When you purchase an IoT device, set a fresh password using a strong method of password creation. And keep those passwords safe. Instead of keeping them on a notebook or on sticky notes, consider using a password manager. It acts as a database for all your passwords and stores new codes as you create them. As always, don’t store them in an unprotected file on your computer, which can be subject to a hack or data loss.
Our banks, and even some of the online gaming platforms we use, use two-factor authentication to make sure that we’re logging in we really are who we say we are. The two factors break down like this:
Thus, when you log in with your username and password and then get a prompt to enter a security code that was sent to your mobile phone, that’s two-factor authentication at work. If your IoT device supports two-factor authentication, put it to use and get that extra layer of security.
Your router acts as the internet’s gateway into your home. From there, it works as a hub that connects all your devices—computers, tablets, and phones, along with your IoT devices as well. With all that data and information flowing through it, it’s vital to keep your router secure.
As we mentioned above, the first thing to do is change the default password and name of your router if you haven’t done so already. Again, use a strong method of password creation. Also, change the name of your router. When you choose a new one, go with name that doesn’t give away your address or identity. Something unique and even fun like “Pizza Lovers” or “The Internet Warehouse” are options that mask your identity and are memorable for you too.
While you’re at it, make sure that your router’s network security is set to WPA2-PSK [AES]. As of today, that’s the strongest level of protection available for home wireless networks. If your router doesn’t offer it, you may want to consider purchasing or renting one from your provider that does.
Just as you can offer your guests secure access that’s separate from your own devices, creating an additional network on your router allows you to keep your computers and smartphones separate from IoT devices. This way, if an IoT device is compromised, a hacker will still face the task of accessing your primary network to get at your computers and smartphones, along with the data and info that you have stored on them. You may also want to consider investing in an advanced internet router that has built-in protection and can secure and monitor any device that connects to your network.
As with our computers, laptops, phones, tablets, and apps, make sure you have the latest software updates for your IoT devices. The reasons here are the same: one, they’ll make sure you’re getting the latest functionality from your device; and two, updates often contain security upgrades. If there’s a setting that lets you receive automatic updates, enable it so that you always have the latest.
You’ve probably seen that you can control a lot of your connected things with your smartphone. We’re using them to set the temperature, turn our lights on and off, and even see who’s at the front door. With that, it seems like we can add the label “universal remote control” our smartphones—so protecting our phones has become yet more important. Whether you’re an Android owner or iOS owner, get security software installed on your phone so you can protect all the things it accesses and controls—in addition to you and the phone as well.
And of course, let’s not forget our computers and laptops. While we’ve been primarily talking about IoT devices here, it’s a good reminder that computers and laptops need protection too. Using a strong suite of security software like McAfee® Total Protection, can help defend your entire family from the latest threats and malware, make it safer to browse, and look out for your privacy too.
The post Father’s Day Gift Ideas: Protecting the Tech You Give to Dad appeared first on McAfee Blogs.
The gig economy has become more prevalent in today’s world with the appeal and necessity of flexible work opportunities. Many take advantage of short-term contracts, side jobs, and freelance work to retain more control over how they spend their day and earn their income. However, the proliferation of these flexible work opportunities has transcended into the dark web, allowing individuals to conduct nefarious activities. Rather than contracting handyman or moving services on the dark web, you can find hackers contracting their website hacking services or buyers placing ads looking for a hacker to hire. These acts pose significant risks to online users, given the amount of stolen personal information on dark websites. Take a look at the activities you can expect to find on the dark web and the steps you can take to safeguard your online privacy.
The dark web is part of the public internet that search engines do not index. In other words, what happens on the dark web, stays on the dark web with no traceable records. Most people don’t realize that the dark web is not illegal despite its association with criminal activities. However, the dark web has retained a criminal reputation since it is challenging to track what goes on. As a result, criminals will often frequent the dark web to conduct a variety of illegal transactions, including hacking services.
Researchers are discovering an uptick in activity on dark web forums that includes buying and selling black hat hacking services. 90% of the activity on these forums is from people looking to hire hackers to infiltrate websites and steal databases. Additionally, 4% of the people frequenting dark web forums requested hacking services related to website hacking and malicious code injection.
Another 7% of people on the dark web are hackers contracting out their services and tools. These services and tools include web shells, a file uploaded to a server that an attacker can use to execute operating system commands, as well as access to administrative website interfaces and ready-made exploits. Many of the services offered on these forums range in specialties such as site infiltration to data extraction. As a result, they often attract a variety of customers with numerous requests.
Further, many of the ads seeking hacking services are aimed at database hacking. Those targeting databases are often financially incentivized hackers and companies out to steal their competitor’s information. Databases remain a popular target for hackers since they contain a significant amount of personal information ranging from first and last names to credit card numbers. Cybercriminals can then use this information to commit numerous crimes such as monetary theft, unemployment and tax relief fraud, and identity theft.
For example, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) had to suspend approximately 800,000 accounts after discovering matching credentials for sale on the dark web. In a previous data breach, hackers used login credentials to access taxpayer accounts, apply for COVID-19 relief funds, and reroute the funds into their bank accounts. Taxpayers could not log in to their accounts without first taking the necessary steps to regain safe access.
Users must protect their online presence and information as these criminal activities continue to escalate in demand. Here are the five must-dos after discovering a data breach to retain your online security.
Be one of the first to know about a data breach by leveraging security software such as McAfee Total Protection. A comprehensive security solution that includes dark web monitoring actively monitors the dark web for data breaches and exposed information. This information includes but is not limited to your date of birth, email addresses, credit card numbers, and personal identification numbers. Robust security software also provides steps for remediation after a data breach to guide the user to regain control and integrity of their data and privacy.
Companies are required to notify their customers of a data breach under the PIPEDA legislature. Be on the lookout for breach notices from relevant companies since they are often the first to know about a data breach impacting their online customers.
Create news alerts for companies that have access to your information to stay notified of the latest events. Additionally, create notifications for your bank and other financial accounts to monitor for suspicious activity such as unauthorized transactions or a drop in credit score. You will be better prepared to mitigate any cybersecurity threats with the right security software and knowledge of the latest risks.
Looking back to the 800,00 taxpayers whose accounts were suspended, they could not regain access without first changing their login credentials. Changing your login credentials such as your usernames, passwords, and security questions is a critical first step to take after any data breach.
Changing your credentials prevents hackers from accessing your personal information and ensures that you regain control over your account security. The chances of a hacker accessing your data are exceptionally high if you use the same credentials across different accounts. Thus, it’s essential to change your usernames and passwords regularly to ensure your information remains secure.
Just as important as changing your password regularly is changing your password following best practices. Create stronger passwords by using a combination of the following:
Long passwords with a minimum of 12 characters are also more effective than shorter passwords since it makes it more difficult for a hacker to guess. In sum, ensure all passwords are long, complex, and only used once. Use a password manager with a built-in generator like the one included in McAfee’s Total Protection solution to make it easier to access and manage passwords.
If your credentials are exposed in a data breach, using multifactor authentication will ensure hackers cannot access your information using only your login credentials. So even if your username and password are exposed, there is still a layer of security that hackers will not be able to bypass. Block out unauthorized login attempts by enabling multifactor authentication wherever applicable.
The dark web continues to be a primary destination for cybercrime. Online users must remain cautious about the information they retain in their online accounts and the websites with access to their personal information. Your data security and privacy are not always a guarantee, but the more precautions you take with your online safety, the better protected you will be.
To stay updated on all things McAfee and on top of the latest consumer and mobile security threats, follow @McAfee_Home on Twitter, subscribe to our newsletter, listen to our podcast Hackable?, and ‘Like’ us on Facebook.
The post The Rise of the Dark Web Gig Economy appeared first on McAfee Blogs.
What does ‘good customer service’ mean to you in 2021? A friendly greeting when you enter a shop? Quickly fixing any issues with deliveries? Or, perhaps the company you entrust with your data maintaining strong security and privacy practices?
It’s been a long time since digital technology was a special interest topic. Product launches, business deals, and new innovations were once reported on only in industry magazines – now, you’d be hard pressed to find a mainstream newspaper that doesn’t have some kind of technology section. We’ve quickly become used to the fact that when the tech giants talk, everybody listens.
More recently, however, it’s become clear that the internet has taken another step towards the centre of the public conversation. While new devices and technological advancements are still (mostly) kept in separate sections of the media or tagged on to the end of the TV news, problems with technology often land straight on the front page.
Outside observers have spent decades treating hacks and attacks as something arcane, as a distant problem that only the technologists can understand and only they have to deal with. Consumers, meanwhile, were left to hope that any issue would soon be fixed – whether that’s waiting for access to their files to be restored or trying again the next day to get into a website.
A few recent stories have underlined that those days are, or should be, behind us. In just the last two months, ransomware attacks have interrupted the operations of pipelines, food producers and the health sector. For many, this has been followed as a story about the international nature of cybercrime and claims that cryptocurrencies are enabling new types of attack.
For those communities reliant on the targeted organisations, however, these cyber-attacks can mean higher costs when fueling their cars to get to work, or product shortages in their weekly shop. We know that there’s a lot of technical interest in analysing ransomware such as DarkSide, or the many other groups attacking sectors like manufacturing, oil and gas, and healthcare. We always need to remember, however, that the focus is not just how these attacks work, but how we can prevent the real-world impacts they have on people’s daily lives.
These are extreme examples: they are incredibly high-value targets, which criminal groups will go to extraordinary lengths in order to disrupt, and which have national consequences when they are affected. Services like online retail and customer support can be disrupted in just the same way. From the perspective of the people who use these services, however, the fact that these were ransomware attacks doesn’t matter. Whether it’s due to attacks, accidents, or mismanagement, what matters is the betrayal of trust and the knock-on effects of service loss.
Examples like this are why I believe that we should see cybersecurity as a much wider foundation than we do, underpinning not just a business’s IT infrastructure, but its reputation, its revenue and, yes, its customer experience.
In crowded markets, customer experience is often the key differentiator between competing businesses. A lot of the disruption that we’ve seen in many sectors thanks to the growth of digital and online approaches has come down to a better, more premium customer experience. Whole industries have arisen around easier ways to order taxis, listen to music, and buy food.
As consumers continue to seek better, simpler experiences, they will (and, I think, should) also start paying close attention to how businesses respond to such incidents and maximise service levels. Key things that shoppers might want to look for when weighing up their choices include:
Businesses, meanwhile, should be looking at how the efforts they take around cybersecurity can form part of the way they build customer confidence. By communicating clearly about the defensive measures we take – and, vitally, framing them in terms of the outcomes they have on people’s lives, not just the technical details – we can all help to make the public savvier about how they can make sure they truly rely on the services they rely on.
The post Why Security is Now the Foundation of Good Customer Experience appeared first on McAfee Blogs.
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