The SolarMarker group is exploiting a vulnerable WordPress-run website to encourage victims to download fake Chrome browser updates, part of a new tactic in its watering-hole attacks.

Researchers have discovered the cyberattack group behind the SolarMarker malware targeting a global tax consulting organization with a presence in the US, Canada, the UK, and Europe, which is using fake Chrome browser updates as part of watering hole attacks.  

It's a new approach for the group, replacing its previous method of search engine optimization (SEO) poisoning, also known as spamdexing.

SolarMarker is multistage malware which can exfiltrate autofill data, saved passwords, and saved credit card information from victims' Web browsers.

**Preparation for a Wider Attack?**

According to an advisory published by eSentire's Threat Response Unit (TRU) on Friday, the threat group was seen exploiting weaknesses in a medical equipment manufacturer's website, which was built with the popular open source content management system WordPress.

The victim was an employee of a tax consulting organization and searched for the manufacturer by name on Google.

"This tricked the employee into downloading and executing SolarMarker, which was disguised as a Chrome update," the advisory noted.

"The fake browser update overlay design is based on what browser the victim is utilizing while visiting the infected website," the advisory added. "Besides Chrome, the user might also receive the fake Firefox or Edge update PHP page."

It is unclear whether the SolarMarker group is testing new tactics or preparing for a wider campaign, given that the TRU team has only observed a single infection of this vector type — previous SolarMarker attacks used SEO poisoning to hit people who searched online for free templates of popular business documents and business forms.

**Monitor Endpoints, Raise Employee Awareness**

The TRU advisory outlines four key steps organizations can take to reduce the impact of these kinds of attacks, including raising employee awareness regarding browser updates that occur automatically, and avoiding downloading files from unknown sites.

"Threat actors research the kind of documents businesses look for and try to get in front of them with SEO," the advisory stated. "Only use trusted sources when downloading content from the internet, and avoid free and bundled software."

The advisory also recommended more vigilant endpoint monitoring, which TRU adds will require more frequent rule updates to detect the latest campaigns, as well as enhanced threat-landscape monitoring to bolster the organization's overall defense posture.

**SolarMarker Campaigns Back After Dormant Period**

The .NET malware was first discovered in 2020 and is typically spread via a PowerShell installer, with information-gathering capabilities and a backdoor.

In October 2021, Sophos Labs observed a number of active SolarMarker campaigns that followed a common pattern: using SEO techniques, the cybercriminals managed to place links to websites with Trojanized content in the search results of several search engines.

A previous SolarMarker campaign reported by Menlo Security in October 2021 used more than 2,000 unique search terms, luring users to sites that then dropped malicious PDFs rigged with backdoors.

SolarMarker Attack Leverages Weak WordPress Sites, Fake Chrome Browser Updates

Reports to the National Vulnerability Database jumped in 2022, but we should pay just as much attention to the flaws that are not being reported to NVD, including those affecting the software supply chain.

"You can't improve what you don't measure" is an oft-cited bit of wisdom frequently attributed to the famous management consultant Peter Drucker.

It's hard to dismiss the core truth of the saying, even if — for the record — he didn't say it, according to the Drucker Institute. After all, metrics from quarterly sales to individual KPIs are the basis for compensation, promotions, and more in 21st century organizations. There is also abundant evidence — from B.F. Skinner, for one — that humans quickly tailor their behaviors to how they're measured and incentivized.

The question that goes unasked is whether the right things are being measured, or whether the measurements in question are complete enough that they don't distort the perceptions (and decisions) of those doing the measuring. Those kinds of inconvenient questions informed research sponsored by ReversingLabs, the firm I co-founded, that analyzed six months of reports to the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) maintained by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

**2022: A Banner Year for CVEs**

Our analysis found that vulnerability reports of new Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) to the NVD are accelerating, with 2022 on track to be the biggest year ever for new vulnerability reports. If the current trend holds, there will be more than 24,500 reports by year's end. That would mark a 22% increase over 2021, which was also a record-breaking year.

Those numbers seem to suggest that software security is deteriorating and that more forceful interventions by the public and private sector are needed to shore up software security. But there's a lot that's missed in that quick take. In its two decades of existence, the NVD has seen inconsistent growth in the number of reported vulnerabilities and exposures. Before 2005, the annual number of vulnerabilities assigned a CVE identifier never exceeded 2,500. For more than a decade after that, disclosed issues fluctuated between 4,000 and 8,000 reports per year.

The number of new CVEs in those years reflected the limited capacity of the CVE team at the nonprofit corporation MITRE, which was charged with taking in and documenting new CVE reports. We know that, because once MITRE began inviting more organizations to report vulnerabilities as CVE Number Authorities (CNAs) in 2016, the number of vulnerabilities surged. It doubled in 2017, and each year since has surpassed the previous year's record of reported CVEs.

The message: Considering a metric like the number of new CVEs is a mostly meaningless exercise if you're trying to assess the overall state of software security. More contributing firms will result in more CVEs. Fewer contributing firms will produce a drop in CVEs. The overall trend line is meaningless — at least so long as participation in the CVE program and submissions to the NVD by software vendors are voluntary.

**Software Supply Chain Security: Unmeasured and Unimproved**

As to the question of whether the right things are being measured? Here again, the current configuration of the NVD is misleading and heavily skewed toward the "usual suspects." Linux distributions Fedora and Debian accounted for 1,123 and 958 vulnerabilities, respectively, in the first half of 2022 and rank first and third on the list of software firms affected by reported issues, our research revealed. Google, Microsoft, Oracle, and Apple accounted for more than 500 vulnerabilities each.

The NVD has far less to say about flaws in popular open source platforms that are getting attention from sophisticated cyber actors. For example, our research shows that attacks on the popular software package repositories NPM and Python Package Index (PyPI) spiked 289% in the past few years, to 1,010 in 2021 from 259 in 2018. But only 56 CVEs referencing PyPI are in the NVD. PyPi's owner, the Python Software Foundation, is not a CNA. Other popular development and CI/CD platforms like CodeCov, CircleCI, and Bamboo are likewise not CNAs.

**Uncomfortable Question: Can We Trust Code?**

What does this disconnect mean for the future of public resources like the NVD? Change, for one thing. Recent events — such as the hijacking of the popular ua-parser-js project by a cryptominer — show that even seemingly secure projects can be compromised.

The lesson from incidents like this is that software security teams need to expand their focus beyond vulnerability scanning and even source code analysis to look at what code is doing. As long as we ignore this core question — can we trust code? — we are not addressing software supply chain security.

NIST and the federal government are also slowly pushing forward to implement the White House's year-old executive order on improving the nation's cybersecurity, which requires all federal government contractors and software providers to create a software bill of materials (SBOM) that can be reviewed. Recently released practice guidelines from the NSA, CISA, and ODNI further spell out steps organizations can take to secure software supply chains.

To keep pace with these larger changes, however, the NVD also needs to evolve. At the very least, its scope should expand to consistently include software supply chain exposures. Only then will the NVD move closer to representing the full breadth of threats facing modern organizations.

With the Software Supply Chain, You Can't Secure What You Don't Measure

Onyxia, an AI-powered cybersecurity strategy and performance platform providing a centralized way for security teams to monitor and manage cybersecurity efforts in real time, has raised $5 million in seed fundraising led by World Trade Ventures with participation by Silvertech Ventures and angel investors.

**NEW YORK (PRWEB), Sept. 29, 2022 —** Onyxia, an AI-powered cybersecurity strategy and performance platform providing a centralized way for security teams to monitor and manage cybersecurity efforts in real time, has raised $5 million in seed fundraising led by World Trade Ventures (WTV) with participation by Silvertech Ventures and angel investors. Onyxia is setting a new standard in cybersecurity by enabling enterprises and managed security service providers (MSSPs) to consistently have real-time insight into their internal systemic and macro cybersecurity postures, proactively highlighting strategies to close imminent security gaps and threats. The funding will be used to accelerate automation development, expand staff, and enhance platform design.

From data destruction to monetary theft, cybercrimes today take many different shapes and sizes. Globally, organizations suffered a ransomware attack every 11 seconds in 2021. New attacks on consumers and businesses are expected to occur every two seconds by 2031 and cybercrime is predicted to hit $10.5 trillion by 2025.

“CISOs work in an environment where threats and security solutions change rapidly. Too often, legacy cybersecurity software fails to keep up with an evolving landscape despite security teams spending $150 billion annually (Gartner) on consulting and manual processes,” said Charlie Federman, Partner at SilverTech Ventures. “Onyxia is addressing a blind spot in the market. Its dynamic solution is what every CISO needs in order to maintain an accurate picture of their cybersecurity landscape and make insight-driven decisions.”

Leveraging AI, Onyxia’s platform keeps pace with the ever-changing security landscape while personalizing the platform and remediation recommendations for each company. And with actionable insights, Onyxia empowers security professionals to define their security environment and highlight the best solutions and strategies to close vulnerable gaps before they emerge.

“​​Traditional cybersecurity systems are reactive, burdening CISOs with manual work. As a result, many vulnerabilities are ignored while pervasive cyber threats are becoming more complex,” says Sivan Tehila, CEO of Onyxia. “We built Onyxia to be a proactive solution to cybersecurity threats, aimed at keeping CISOs ahead of the curve by providing them with tailored insights based on real-time data, so companies properly prioritize and are best prepared.”

Onyxia was founded by Sivan Tehila, who served as CISO of the Research and Analysis Division and Head of Information Security for the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) prior to founding the company.

**About Onyxia:**  
Onyxia is an AI-powered cybersecurity strategy, management, and performance SaaS platform enabling enterprise security professionals to understand their Cybersecurity posture in real-time. By leveraging automation and scalability, Onyxia enables CISOs to gain a holistic view of their entire cybersecurity environment while highlighting the best solutions and strategies to close security gaps. For more information, visit https://onyxia.io/.

**About Silvertech Ventures:**  
Silvertech Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on helping entrepreneurs grow their companies by respecting the role of the CEO, helping with our network and experience, and most importantly, by being there when needed. Other security investments by Silvertech Ventures include Semperis, Reveal Security, and Firedome. Visit https://silvertechventures.com/ for more information.

Onyxia Raises $5M to Help Companies Proactively Manage Cybersecurity Risks Using AI

Multiple providers say  'cloud data sprawl' makes managing cloud data risk a priority initiative within the next 12 months.

SAN MATEO, Calif. and TEL AVIV, Israel , Sept. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Cyera, cloud data security company, released the results of a survey of 200 cybersecurity professionals today that found 33% of organizations want to minimize cloud data risk and 48% want to improve governance or policy management of cloud data access.

Cyera's survey polled nearly 200 cybersecurity professionals on their security focus areas for the next 12 months and found that:

*   43% prioritize data protection in their public cloud infrastructure as a top priority.
*   31% rank discovering and classifying cloud data a priority.
*   35% utilize at least two public cloud providers from a list that included Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Alibaba, IBM and Oracle; 17% of respondents rely on three or more.

"The survey data affirms that security teams are struggling to keep pace with data proliferation across their cloud environments," said Yotam Segev, Cyera co-founder and CEO. "The cloud provides obvious business advantages, but the sheer volume of data moving to the cloud, lack of visibility and the use of multiple cloud service providers all increase the threat surface exponentially."

Migrating to the cloud can cut operating costs by nearly 40%. It also boosts development agility, reduces time spent maintaining traditional IT infrastructure, and offers flexibility and scalability benefits over traditional on-premises infrastructure. But cloud providers only offer limited visibility into what data customers have, how sensitive it is, and how to improve the security and risk posture of that data across their cloud estate. This results in greater cyber-resilience and compliance risks stemming from exposed sensitive data, overly permissive access, and free movement of data between environments and individuals.

Common examples include sensitive data in non-production environments, customer and employee personally-identifiable information that is accessible to users that have no business justification to access them, and poor backup management. In the latter case, a business may believe that they no longer have a reason to manage data from a given application and decommission the cloud data stores associated with it.

Recently, Cyera found ghost data in over 30% of cloud data stores. These are typically found in non-production environments that are not secured with the same rigor as a production environment, where sensitive data they contain is more susceptible to inadvertent disclosure or exfiltration. They also represent a potential GDPR (EU General Data Protection Regulation) violation, because maintaining personal data when there is no longer a business purpose to maintain it violates the statute.

"Cloud data security requires a new approach to addressing the secular growth in data volumes, cloud migration, and risks posed by data regulation and cyber attackers," said Phillipe Botteri, partner at Accel. "CISOs and security teams are in need of rapidly-deployable, comprehensive and innovative solutions."

Cyera is purpose-built to deliver protection for cloud data and provide complete, detailed context on data, access and identities. Intelligent and context-rich, the platform creates a bridge between business imperatives and security controls. With Cyera, security teams can reduce access risk, contain data sprawl and ensure encryption from a unified view that provides continuous visibility without impacting security or performance. Cyera empowers customers to realize the speed and scale that the cloud promises, allowing their teams to innovate and build value with security as an enabler.

**About Cyera**

Cyera is the cloud data security company that gives businesses context and control over their cloud data. The company's mission is to empower security teams to enable innovation, securely. As the industry's most advanced cloud data protection platform, Cyera instantly provides companies a strong baseline for all security, risk management, and compliance efforts and ensures the entire organization operates with the same policies and guardrails. Backed by leading investors including Sequoia, Accel, and Cyberstarts, Cyera is defining the way companies do cloud data security. To learn more, visit www.cyera.io.

Cyera Survey Finds One in Three Respondents Want to Minimize Cloud Data Risk

This new function offers secure access to corporate applications and external SaaS through a virtual browser.

TOKYO (PRWEB) SEPTEMBER 28, 2022 Internet Initiative Japan Inc. (TSE Prime: 3774), one of Japan's leading Internet access and comprehensive network solutions providers, announced to add a new remote browser isolation function, "Browser Isolation" to the zero-trust network access (ZTNA) (\*) service, "Safous", which is mainly available for users in the U.S and Asia and will be available starting today.

The Safous platform is a zero-trust remote access service that provides application-level control over corporate applications and external software as a service (SaaS) access from a remote environment. This optional Browser Isolation function is Safous' proprietary, sandbox-based virtual browser that allows users to access applications and SaaS virtually, eliminating browser-based threats and providing more secure access.

"Kasm Technologies is honored to provide Kasm Workspaces remote browser isolation, our web-native secure remote access and DevOps-enabled container streaming technology, to Safous’ Browser Isolation function. Browser Isolation is an industry-leading, cost-effective, and secure browser-based remote access solution,” stated Justin Travis, Co-founder and CEO of Kasm Technologies.

ZTNA is a zero-trust solution that provides seamless and secure remote access to internal applications. Instead of authenticating at the boundaries of the enterprise network, authentication is performed through a trusted broker system each time an application is accessed.

More companies have started using SaaS in recent years, including powerhouses like Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, due to the popularization of hybrid work. Unfortunately, these cloud-based systems are critical targets for attackers. In several reported cases, company networks are infected with malware and ransomware through a remote environment, causing a data breach and the suspension of business operations.

Because the browser and network on the terminal side are not secure in remote environments – and are potentially infected with malware already – the need to access internal data from remote environments securely has become a more urgent issue for companies. To solve this problem, Browser Isolation protects the terminal from browser-based threats and securely controls file manipulation when users access SaaS or corporate applications from a remote environment.

One of the benefits of utilizing virtual browsers is that they defend corporate networks from risky websites. Browser Isolation provides a virtual browser that allows users to access business applications and external SaaS applications securely – even if their PCs are vulnerable. This function also prohibits users from downloading and executing malicious files that come from email, eliminating the threat of intrusion through the internet. Website content is streamed to user browsers, allowing them to access any web application safely.

Companies also benefit from enhanced protection of sensitive data with the Browser Isolation function. Browser Isolation allows individual users to control file uploads and downloads centrally, and sensitive data is accessed through the virtual browser to prevent data breaches. Additionally, downloaded data and access history are deleted at the end of each session to ensure security.

With the release of Browser Isolation, Safous is introducing a new “Advanced'' pricing tier. This tier includes everything the “Standard” and “Standard Plus” packages offers, including multi-factor authentication, external account linkage, flexible policy settings, and more – plus, Safous’ new, advanced Browser Isolation function. For more information about pricing and the features included in each tier, please visit https://www.safous.com/pricing.

**About IIJ**  
Founded in 1992, IIJ is one of Japan's leading Internet-access and comprehensive network solutions providers. IIJ and its group companies provide total network solutions that mainly cater to high-end corporate customers. IIJ's services include high-quality Internet connectivity services, system integration, cloud computing services, security services and mobile services. Moreover, IIJ has built one of the largest Internet backbone networks in Japan that is connected to the United States, the United Kingdom and Asia. IIJ was listed on the Prime Market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2022. For more information about IIJ, visit the official website: https://www.iij.ad.jp/en/.

The statements within this release contain forward-looking statements about our future plans that involve risk and uncertainty. These statements may differ materially from actual future events or results.

Safous Adds Browser Isolation to Its Zero-Trust Network Access Service

Security service provider selects cybersecurity training platform to safeguard enterprises in LATAM.

SANTA CLARA, Calif., September 27, 2022 -- CybeReady, provider of the world’s fastest security training platform, today announced the partnership with corporate security service provider ICE-LA (Israel Cybersecurity Enterprise Latin America) with the goal to implement its Autonomous Cybersecurity Training Platform throughout Latin America.

“Cybercrime increased in volume during the pandemic and has not abated,” noted KPMG report, A Triple Threat Across the Americas. “Companies surveyed report rises in frequency of various kinds of attacks, with phishing (cited by 44%), scamming (33%), malware (22%), and ransomware (20%), growing challenges for many. Overall, 79 percent of respondents saw growth in at least one of the types of attacks covered in the survey.”

Israel Cybersecurity Enterprise (ICE) Latin America is a high-level strategic consultancy that works with organizations to proactively build their cyber resilience and better respond to cyber-attacks within their networks. The company provides services, training, and local support throughout Latin America, leveraging a team of seasoned professionals with extensive cybersecurity experience in the field.

“In addition to sophisticated cybersecurity defenses, incident response, and cyber crisis management services, automated training processes are now a necessary part of any organization’s proactive defenses against a successful attack,” said Nathan Levy, CEO, of Israel Cybersecurity Enterprise. “As cyber-threats in Latin America mirror attacks occurring around the world, we are pleased to partner with CybeReady in our efforts to prepare business customers against these highly disruptive and costly situations.”

“Our partnership with ICE allows security officers across LATAM to easily implement a security awareness program that drives change and builds a security-minded culture quickly and effectively,” said Eitan Fogel, CybeReady’s CEO “We look forward to growing our business in these new regions and bringing our fully-automated platform to more enterprises – reducing the overall cyber risk from human-related factors.”

CybeReady’s fully-managed security training platform helps partners like ICE to guarantee the industry’s fastest risk mitigation – multiplying business customer security and safety. The platform operates 365 days a year, creating a continuous security culture and elevating the security awareness practice to that of other security solutions that operate year-round. With security teams often overloaded today with a nearly insurmountable number of tasks, CybeReady eases the training burden by providing everything needed to expedite training out-of-the box.

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Israel Cybersecurity Enterprise (ICE) Teams with CybeReady to Deliver World-Class Security Training

Expedited software patching and updating recognized as one of the most important processes to protect against system compromise from cyberattacks.

South Bend, IN (September 27, 2022) – Aunalytics, a leading data management and analytics company delivering managed IT and data platform services for mid-sized and enterprise businesses, today initiated its Security Patching Platform, Co-managed Patching as a Service to complement the company’s Advanced Security solution suite. Windows OS and supported 3rd party patch management allow for tighter security in the defense against cyberattacks and the new offering ensures active remediation.

According to a 2022 Data Breach Investigations Report by Verizon, around 70 percent of successful cyberattacks exploited known vulnerabilities with available patches, making it important to update operating systems and applications regularly to prevent such attacks. Now, Aunalytics’ new technology as a service includes the tools, structure, strategy and intelligence for managing patch deployment and is a complete solution with best practices, templates, libraries, and built-in alert thresholds.

Lack of security patching leads to vulnerabilities within an organization’s information systems, internal controls, or system processes, which can then be exploited by cybercriminals. Using a collection of tools, cyber attackers use the vulnerability to gain unauthorized access to corporate systems and data. Identifying and resolving vulnerabilities is very important since a successful exploit can lead to a full-scale system breach.

Workstation and server application patching ensures that organizations have baseline protection against the latest security vulnerabilities, preventing such attacks before they occur. However, patching can be difficult to manage and update in real-time as software fixes are published on an ongoing basis. Setting up and coordinating manual patching across an organization can be extremely cumbersome, taking days to organize, schedule, and execute across an entire company.

McKinsey cites good patch management as a top proactive maintenance measure that can help organizations prevent cyberattacks. However, knowing the priority level for patch installment can be confusing and lead to poor patch management as a result. Enlisting the help of a partner to employ security patching best-practices can add true value to many organizations. Aunalytics patch detection, download, and installment methods are developed considering each client's security and uptime requirements and prioritized in order of threat potential. Aunalytics’ experienced security patching team proactively monitors for updates, eliminating worry for end users and server administrators.

As part of the new service, users gain access to comprehensive security solutions with customized alerting and vulnerability prioritization, leveraging proprietary solutions and processes. The platform facilitates collaboration between IT and security teams and includes the following capabilities:

• Inventory and performance management and proactive alerting  
• Patch deployment control strategy, prioritization, planning  
• Patch vetting and blacklisting intelligence  
• Windows Operating System patch management  
• Supported 3rd Party Patch Management  
• Anti-Malware  
• DNS-based Malware Protection  
• Device Encryption Management  
• Innovative management tool library

“Security patch exploits can have extremely damaging effects on an organization, decreasing revenues or causing reputational damage, making it imperative to have security patching in place,” said Chris Nicholson, Vice President of Managed IT Services. “Aunalytics’ Security Patching Platform services allow for the rapid resolution of these concerns to maintain the highest levels of cyber-resiliency.”

**About Aunalytics**  
Aunalytics is a leading data management and analytics company delivering Insights-as-a-Service for mid-sized businesses and enterprises. Selected for the prestigious Inc. 5000 list for two consecutive years as one of the nation’s fastest growing companies, Aunalytics offers managed IT services and managed analytics services, private cloud services, and a private cloud-native data platform for data management and analytics. The platform is built for universal data access, advanced analytics and AI -- unifying distributed data silos into a single source of truth for highly accurate, actionable business information. Its DaybreakTM industry intelligent data mart combined with the power of the Aunalytics data platform provides industry-specific data models with built-in queries and AI for accurate mission-critical insights. To solve the talent gap that so many mid-sized businesses and enterprises located in secondary markets face, through its side-by-side digital transformation model, Aunalytics provides the technical talent needed for data management and analytics success in addition to its innovative technologies and tools. To learn more contact us at +1 855-799-DATA or visit Aunalytics at http://www.aunalytics.com or on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Aunalytics Launches Security Patching Platform as a Service

Companies collaborate to strengthen organizations' first line of security defense – end users.

ATLANTA, Sept. 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Veristor Systems, Inc., a trusted provider of transformative business technology solutions, and SANS Security Awareness, the global leader in providing security awareness training, today announce that Veristor has become a certified provider of SANS Security Awareness' comprehensive suite of products to enable a data-driven approach to cybersecurity training for an organization's end users.

"Researchers from Stanford University found that as much as 88% of all data breaches are caused by an employee mistake," said Daniel Martin, Principal Security Consultant, vCISO, Veristor. "This shows that end users are the most critical vulnerability gap in today's enterprise. Yet if properly trained, they can also be the most resilient security defense – a human firewall. Together with the experts from SANS Security Awareness we are helping customers guard their environments with an army of well-trained employees. With proven training to spot and act when suspicious activity arises, users can take an active role in preventing the growing wave of cyberattacks."

The SANS Security Awareness suite of dynamic multilingual computer-based training, games, phishing simulations, and engagement materials teach vital security behaviors to effectively manage human cyber risk. With different training styles to match different corporate cultures, employee comprehension levels, and learning preferences, SANS Security Awareness training equips workforces to recognize and prevent current cyberattacks, including work-from-home threats. The platform delivers valuable metrics to measure the effectiveness of each program, and customization features to tailor training to meet specific organizational needs."

With some groups requiring even greater specialized training, in addition to addressing core human behavior risk topics, SANS Security Awareness also offers secure development and coding techniques, understanding NERC CIP compliance requirements, and handling Industrial Control Systems (ICS) incidents.

"We are very pleased to be partnering with the cybersecurity experts at Veristor to provide the SANS Security Awareness program to their customers," said Brad Stilling, Director of Global Sales for SANS Security Awareness. "Regular awareness training is an essential activity for organizations looking to ensure security and compliance. When employees feel informed and empowered to recognize and address cyber risks, they can protect the organization. With SANS Security Awareness, Veristor customers are now better positioned to detect and prevent cyber-attacks."

For organizations starting their awareness training journey, Veristor delivers a SANS Human Risk Insight assessment to identify program cost reductions, eliminate unneeded staff training, and create risk metrics to baseline and benchmark an organization's human cyber risk. Request a pre-assessment consultation here.

The SANS Security Awareness training solutions are now offered as a part of Veristor's suite of security solutions that are designed to solve business challenges through the intelligent application of next-generation security technology. For more information visit: https://veristor.com/it-security/.

**About Veristor Systems, Inc.**

Veristor, which recently announced a merger with Anexinet, is a leading provider of transformative business technology solutions that helps its customers accelerate the time-to-value for the software, infrastructure and systems they deploy. We do this by harnessing deep expertise in today's most advanced data center, security, networking, hybrid cloud, and big data technologies and guiding businesses to the right solutions for their most pressing challenges. And with a full suite of design, deployment, support, and managed service offerings, we work shoulder-to-shoulder with our customers at every step of their technology journey to make technology truly work for them. IT's just who we are. Learn more at veristor.com.

**About SANS Security Awareness**

SANS Security Awareness provides organizations with a complete and comprehensive security awareness solution, enabling them to easily and effectively manage their human cybersecurity risk. SANS Security Awareness has worked with over 1,300 organizations and trained over 6.5 million people around the world. The SANS Security Awareness program offers globally relevant, expert authored tools and training to enable individuals to shield their organization from attacks and a fleet of savvy guides and resources to work with you every step of the way. To learn more, visit www.sans.org/security-awareness-training

_SOURCE Veristor Systems, Inc._

Veristor Partners with SANS Security Awareness to Deliver Employee Security Awareness Training

Joint phishing intelligence solution provides 360-degree mobile communication defense.

LAS VEGAS, Sept. 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- YouMail, the leading provider of call protection services for consumers, enterprises, and service providers, and WMC Global, a 16-year leader in mobile threat intelligence, today announced their joint cybersecurity intelligence solution that safeguards against voice and SMS phishing scams. The partnership between YouMail and WMC Global is a first-of-its-kind offering that protects brands and their customers simultaneously from vishing and smishing attacks.

Mobile phones are the center of consumers' digital lives with 97% of Americans owning smart phones and threat actors knowingly targeting them with spam and scam SMS and voice calls. The combination of YouMail voice & vishing protection and WMC Global SMS & smishing protection services act as two sides of the mobile fraud disruption coin, enabling enterprises plagued by threat actors impersonating them and phishing consumers to mitigate these risks and improve their effectiveness at preventing fraud and serving their customers.

YouMail Protective Services, the enterprise services division of YouMail, classifies, monitors and disrupts threat actors using voice to target consumers for both impersonated brands and voice service providers that are unwillingly serving as the conduits for these phone-based attacks.

"With this marriage of voice and SMS protection, enterprises like banks now have a powerful weapon against threat actors using mobile phishing attacks against their customers," said Alex Quilici, CEO of YouMail. "Our specialized voice protection, coupled with WMC Global's suite of anti-phishing SMS safeguards, solves a complicated industry issue that affects brand reputation and millions of mobile users."

Focusing on threat actor phishing kits, compromised credential recovery, mobile number investigations and takedowns, and consumer text message analysis, WMC Global's Anti-Phishing Suite analyzes, classifies, and disarms mobile threats before a victim's personal data is exploited.

"Partnering with YouMail to develop this joint offering was the next logical step in our fight against unwanted messaging and malicious phishing attacks on consumers' mobile devices," said Ian Matthews, CEO of WMC Global. "Our specific combination of services effectively helps telecoms uncover unlawful calls and texts made on their networks, prevents brand impersonation, and protects their customers from potential identity theft."

Learn more at https://www.youmailps.com and https://www.wmcglobal.com

**About YouMail, Inc.**

YouMail protects consumers, enterprises, and service providers from harmful phone calls. YouMail protects over 11 million registered consumers with app-based call protection services in the US and the UK, with the YouMail, Another Number, and Hullo Mail apps. YouMail protects consumer-facing enterprises by detecting and helping to shut down imposter traffic that can lead to financial or brand damage while working with voice service providers to mitigate unlawful communications in their networks. YouMail also operates the YouMail Robocall Index™, the nation's definitive source on telephone network activity and attacks. YouMail, Inc. is privately funded and based in Irvine, California. For more information, follow YouMail on Twitter and LinkedIn.

**About WMC Global**

WMC Global is a market leader in digital threat intelligence, enhanced by a team of threat hunters that are experts at understanding SMS phishing and the toolkits that criminals devise to make their attacks possible. WMC Global is the most trusted digital compliance firm in North America, having partnered with all Tier 1 mobile carriers for the past 16 years. The WMC Global portfolio is at the forefront of fighting malicious text messages, eradicating phishing attacks, stopping cyber criminals from targeting large brands, financial institutions, and governments, and monitoring consumer experiences for industry compliance. WMC Global provides its partners with proprietary data feeds of phishing attacks (including live phishing kits), threat response and takedown services, automated partner due diligence, and customer experience monitoring. WMC Global headquarters are located in Fairfax, VA, with offices in London, UK and Sydney, AU. For more information, follow WMC Global on Twitter and LinkedIn.

YouMail, Inc. and WMC Global Partner to Deliver Voice and SMS Phishing Disruption Services

Settling for 'satisfactory' level of readiness may underestimate growing levels of risk.

DOWNERS GROVE, Ill, Sept. 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Fortifying cybersecurity defenses remains a work in progress for many organizations, who acknowledge their shortcomings but have yet to commit the necessary resources to the effort, new research from CompTIA, the nonprofit association for the information technology (IT) industry and workforce, reveals.

"Risk mitigation is the key, the filter through which everything should be viewed."

A majority of organizations in every region feel that their cybersecurity is satisfactory, but a much smaller number rank the situation as “completely satisfactory.” Nearly everyone feels that there is room for improvement, with some cases more dire than others. (Source: CompTIA “State of Cybersecurity”)

While a majority of respondents in each of seven geographic regions\[1\] feels that their company's cybersecurity is satisfactory, CompTIA's "State of Cybersecurity" shows that a much smaller number rank the situation as "completely satisfactory." Nearly everyone feels that there is room for improvement.

"Companies are aware of the threats they face and the potential consequences of an attack or breach," said Seth Robinson, vice president, industry research, CompTIA. "But they may be underestimating their exposure and how much they need to invest in cybersecurity. Risk mitigation is the key, the filter through which everything should be viewed."

Two of the top three issues driving cybersecurity considerations are the growing volume of cybercriminals, cited by 48% of respondents, and the growing variety of cyberattacks (45%). Additionally, ransomware and phishing have quickly become major areas of concern as digital operations have increased and human error has proven more costly.

"Digital transformation driven by cloud and mobile adoption requires a new strategic approach to cybersecurity, but this poses significant challenges, both tactically and financially," Robinson said. "As IT operations and strategy have grown more complex, so has the management of cybersecurity."

As cybersecurity is more tightly integrated with business objectives, zero trust is the overarching policy that should be guiding modern efforts, though its adoption will not take place overnight because it requires a drastically different way of thinking and acting. The report suggests there is small progress in recognizing a holistic zero trust approach, but better progress in adopting some elements that are part of an overarching zero trust policy. Multifactor authentication is in place at 46% of companies and cloud workload governance at 41%. Among other changes in organizations' approach to cybersecurity:

43% of companies have placed a higher priority on incident response,

39% are deploying a more diverse set of technology tools, with SaaS monitoring and management tools making a substantial jump in adoption,

38% are increasing their focus on process improvements,

37% are shifting to more proactive measures, and

36% are expanding employee education.

Adopting a total zero-trust philosophy, including setting specific, strategic objectives will address many problems companies face. But there are substantial hurdles to overcome, such as closing the communications gap that exists between the technology and business sides of organizations. The overall rate of business staff participation is too low for a business-critical function. Nearly half (47%) of small businesses have the CEO or owner as part of the cybersecurity chain compared to 37% of mid-sized firms and 27% of large enterprises. In addition, companies are struggling to address technical skill needs, such as threat knowledge, network security and data analysis.

CompTIA's "State of Cybersecurity" report is based on a Q3 2022 survey of technology and business professionals involved in cybersecurity. There were 500 respondents from the U.S. and 125 from each of six other regions around the world. The full report is available at https://insights.comptia.org/2022-state-of-cybersecurity-it-pro/p/1.

**About CompTIA**

The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) is a leading voice and advocate for the $5 trillion global information technology ecosystem; and the estimated 75 million industry and tech professionals who design, implement, manage, and safeguard the technology that powers the world's economy. Through education, training, certifications, advocacy, philanthropy, and market research, CompTIA is the hub for unlocking the potential of the tech industry and its workforce. https://www.comptia.org/

\[1\] Australia/New Zealand, ASEAN, Benelux, Canada, Germany, United Kingdom and United States

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