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Over the last year, our relationship with digital technology has changed completely, and probably irrevocably. The pandemic has been bruising in many different ways, but it has been clear from the very start how important the internet has been as a tool to help us through it. Even just a few years ago, the behavioural shifts it enabled would not have been possible. From offices running on videoconferencing, to essential retail moving online, to digitally-delivered healthcare, many online tools that were once seen as promising growth areas or quality-of-life improving luxuries have come into their own as vital parts of everyday life.
Every big change in how we use technology, however, is followed sooner or later by a development in how we approach security and safety. This was true when the emergence of personal computers and ATMs led to education campaigns around the importance of PIN and password vigilance. It was true when the commoditisation of internet access created the need for consumer antivirus protection. It was even true when the automobile was first introduced, with cities rushing to introduce traffic signaling to manage that new high-speed flow.
Soon, then, we should expect to see another step in our collective attitude to security and privacy. What will that look like? For me, it should rest on a new sense of what is being protected, and new expectations about how that protection happens.
To explain why, it’s worth understanding what the process of finding and fixing cybersecurity issues looks like. The first line of defence against attacks always happens during product development, when coders and engineers try to ensure that what they are creating is not vulnerable. The nature of cybersecurity, however, is that some problems will inevitably occur in finished products. That’s why there are also teams of people who analyse these products, independently testing whether they are truly safe.
At McAfee, our enterprise Advanced Threat Research (ATR) team has a long history and a strong track record of doing this testing. Often, the ATR team’s work is very similar to what people might imagine when they think of a ‘cybersecurity researcher’: it’s unpicking highly complex systems and tracing international criminal organisations responsible for attacks.
A lot of this work is much closer to home, though, and increasingly it deals with finding vulnerabilities not just in apps and computers, but in devices that few would think of as being a potential risk. The rise of the smart home means that many household items, from luxuries like exercise machines to basics like wall clocks, can also be internet-connected computers, tapping into the network to make life easier and better in a myriad of ways.
The ‘internet of things’, or IoT, has been a tech catchphrase for a long time, but it’s now a daily consumer reality too, with thermostats and air conditioners, security cameras and door locks, fridges and coffee machines all offering enhanced experiences through online connectivity. The security challenge lies in the fact that most people would view items like these just as a thermostat or as a door lock – not as a computer which requires protection. How, after all, do you install an antivirus service on a fridge?
Combined with the increase of online activity we’ve all experienced over the last year, this requires more than widening consumers’ current thinking about security to include more devices. It requires a whole new approach. When the average household had one or two computers, it made sense to think of cybersecurity in terms of protecting the device. When any item in a home could also be an internet access point, we need to start thinking instead in terms of protecting people and families.
A big part of that will be expecting more of the companies who design and supply these devices. When the ATR team – or another threat research team – finds a flaw in a consumer device, step one is always to contact the manufacturer and work with them to fix it before malicious actors spot the opportunity. Many businesses behave responsibly, responding openly and collaboratively, developing a solution, and rolling it out as quickly as possible. Not all businesses are so conscientious. How businesses react to security problems should be a much bigger part of how we choose what to purchase.
Going back to the car, the traffic light was not the final safety innovation we saw. Over the last century, growing regulations and awareness led to a situation where, today, purchasers are likely to inspect a vehicle’s safety ratings before handing over their cash. In just the same way, attitudes to cybersecurity need to keep evolving – and soon, we may even be asking car manufacturers about how they respond to vulnerability disclosures.
The pandemic was a leap forward in how far digitalised our lives have become. Companies and customers alike now need to think carefully about what we need to talk about when we talk about making our online lives safe, secure, and private.
The post Homes, Not Just Devices: The New Consumer Cybersecurity appeared first on McAfee Blogs.
The McAfee Advanced Threat Research team today published the McAfee Labs Threats Report: June 2021.
In this edition we introduce additional context into the biggest stories dominating the year thus far including recent ransomware attacks. While the topic itself is not new, there is no question that the threat is now truly mainstream.
This Threats Report provides a deep dive into ransomware, in particular DarkSide, which resulted in an agenda item in talks between U.S. President Biden and Russian President Putin. While we have no intention of detailing the political landscape, we certainly do have to acknowledge that this is a threat disrupting our critical services. Furthermore, adversaries are supported within an environment that make digital investigations challenging with legal barriers that make the gathering of digital evidence almost impossible from certain geographies.
That being said, we can assure the reader that all of the recent campaigns are incorporated into our products, and of course can be tracked within our MVISION Insights preview dashboard.
This dashboard shows that – beyond the headlines – many more countries have experienced such attacks. What it will not show is that victims are paying the ransoms, and criminals are introducing more Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) schemes as a result. With the five-year anniversary of the launch of the No More Ransom initiative now upon us it’s fair to say that we need more global initiatives to help combat this threat.
McAfee Labs threat research during the first quarter of 2021 include:
Additional Q1 2021 content includes:
We hope you enjoy this Threats Report. Don’t forget to keep track of the latest campaigns and continuing threat coverage by visiting our McAfee Threat Center. Please stay safe.
The post McAfee Labs Report Highlights Ransomware Threats appeared first on McAfee Blogs.
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)
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