Yahoo porn hacking breach shows need for better security: 5 ways to protect your company

Security expert Kayne McGladrey, who serves as director of security and IT at Pensar Development and is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, said companies need to add extra steps to everything.

“The company could choose to add friction, whether it’s multi-factor authentication or an email link just to put a little additional scrutiny and raise the bar so it is materially more difficult for threat actors who have obtained someone’s credentials to be able to reuse those,” he said.

“The benefit of this strategy is that it applies universally. All of the automated attacks these days around credential stuffing and credential spraying do what the Yahoo hacker had done on a much larger scale. They get compromised credentials and test them across a whole bunch of websites using a distributed botnet.”

4 Cybersecurity Best Practices for Electrical Engineers

Much of the media focus has been on the financial damage from supply chain breaches, the nation-state actors behind the breaches, and the ill-defined “supply chain” itself. But surprisingly, despite the overheated media coverage, most electrical engineering (EE) firms are not the targets of a bear, kitten, or panda, which are frequently cited as advanced persistent threat groups behind the attacks. Most EE firms are targeted by threat actors of opportunity because they have two necessary ingredients: people and computers. This article lays out four best practices for individual EEs to help protect their firms.

Market Report: Cutting-Edge Defense Tactics For Network Endpoints

“The explosion of connected devices also requires re-thinking the protection mechanisms to apply to those endpoints,” notes Kayne McGladrey, Director of Security and IT, Pensar Development. “Similarly, the widespread adoption of cloud-based services means that there’s no single network to protect.”

“Organizations need to use any reputable risk methodology to prioritize the risks to their endpoints and to develop mitigation strategies,” says Pensar Development’s McGladrey.

Changing The Course Of History Means Every Month Needs To Be Cyber Security Month

There’s a communications breakdown between those working in cyber security and those who are not. This failure to communicate is leading to the greatest transfer of wealth in history. People aren’t seeking actionable advice during “October is National Cyber Security Month”, and they’re tuning out of their mandatory corporate drop-ceiling one-hour cyber security training in the breakroom. Even though individuals are harmed, there’s the persistent belief that this must be someone else’s problem.

12 Signs Your Computer Has a Virus

“Viruses are most commonly spread through phishing, which is a technique of sending emails designed to prey on a person’s emotions to make them click a link or open a malicious attachment,” says Kayne McGladrey IEEE member and director of security and IT for Pensar Development. “Besides running up-to-date commercial antivirus software, the easiest way to avoid viruses is to pause before acting on messages. Get a cup of coffee, or at least get up and stretch, before deciding if the email is trying to manipulate your emotions through a sense of authority (someone impersonating your boss or a police officer), a sense of urgency (because of an artificial time constraint), or scarcity (supplies are limited, act now).” These are the same psychological techniques used by con artists since time immemorial, with the only difference being that con artists had to con one person at a time. “With email, social media, and text messages, threat actors can con thousands of people. No antivirus software is perfect, but pausing before acting can stop most of today’s viruses.”

Lack of cyber investment could spell trouble for smart cities: report

For smart cities, investing in cyber defense means being able to support a cyber workforce capable of supporting their IoT initiatives. “We’ve seen many failures with widespread deployment of IoT devices, whether due to insecure authentication methods, static passwords, or a lack of centralized and automated patch distribution. As city governments look to the future, they need to consider how they’ll attract a workforce capable of managing, securing, and monitoring millions of always-on devices,” said Kayne McGladrey, IEEE member and director of security and IT at Pensar Development. “This will be a hard sell for many cities, both due to the compensation requirements of the cybersecurity workforce and the perception that municipal jobs are rife with bureaucracy. Cities that succeed will have a vibrant and diverse workforce and realize the cost savings associated with the smart management of cities.”

FBI warns of ‘devastating’ cyber attacks on IoT networks

As Kayne McGladrey, the Director of Information Security Services at Integral Partners, the cyber security, access and identity management specialist company headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, says, “IoT security remains one of the most challenging security vulnerabilities to businesses and consumers. The Mirai and Reaper botnets are results of threat actors leveraging poor security controls on IoT devices, building attack infrastructure out of those devices, and using that stolen infrastructure to attack organinations. Companies and organisations purchasing IoT/IIoT devices should treat them the same as any other endpoint device connecting to the corporate network.”

Intuitive, Cognitive Technologies Are Changing the Business and Its Workforce

The workforce of tomorrow still will be technically savvy, well-versed in machine learning and data science. Advanced machine learning skills will be important, but Kayne McGladrey (@kaynemcgladrey), Director of Security and Information Technology at Pensar Development, recommended that those looking for future employment also consider learning a programming language.

“The intent here is not to master it,” McGladrey explained, “but rather to gain an understanding and appreciation of how things work from the inside out. Employers are also looking for career stability so that they can invest in their people, so don’t hop from company to company on an annual basis.”

The Ethics Of The IoT: Are Engineers Failing To Speak Up?

The overwhelming majority of IoT devices on the market are hot garbage that do not follow security best practices. Allowing consumers to use passwords that have appeared in breaches before makes it easy for threat actors to gain persistence on devices. Devices with no update mechanism means IoT devices become a perpetual threat once the first vulnerability is found. Most people have no way of knowing that their IoT sensor needs an update, so it’s unrealistic to shift the responsibility of software updates to consumers.