MailGuard Blog

Compromise can happen to anyone. It’s no longer a case of ‘If a cyberattack hits my business’ but ‘A cyberattack will hit my business’. We have come a long way from the thinking that only certain types of businesses (or business functions) could be the recipient of a cyberattack. Most security professionals now assume that a breach is inevitable and prepare accordingly.

We all use passwords. In fact, we need them to access almost any online device. They are the key to retrieving sensitive data, whether it be online banking, classified company documents or social profiles, such as LinkedIn. They’re the first line of defense to protect crucial information, and often the most vulnerable. It’s not surprising then, that cybercriminals often create phishing scams to steal password credentials in order to procure data for use in criminal activity.

As I write this, the threat of Ransomware is rapidly on the rise. So much so that the Australian Federal Police has formed a task force - Operation Orcus - following in the footsteps of the US Government, in an attempt to combat the specialised criminal infrastructure that is wreaking havoc across large scale organisations here and globally. High profile victims such as Nine Entertainment, JBS and Uniting Care, along with the recent Kaseya interception have been making headlines and may continue to do so without superior intelligence targeting organised crime groups.  

A personalised and targeted email, an opportune offer and the impersonation of multiple brands – some of the techniques employed by cybercriminals in a phishing email scam that resulted in a property buyer losing thousands of dollars as part of a ‘deposit’, supposedly for his new apartment.

Your business data is being held hostage, encrypted with only your attackers holding the keys. So, do you pay up the ransom, or try to recover without handing over company profits to cybercriminals?

It’s been called the “largest cyber-attack on a media company in Australia's history," something that has never been seen before in the country. 

Commenting on paradigm shifts in cybersecurity in 2020, Ann Johnson, Corporate Vice President, SCI Business Development at Microsoft wrote: 

“As we look past the pandemic to a time when workforces and budgets rebound, Zero Trust will become the biggest area of investment for cybersecurity. This means, that right now, every one of us is on a Zero Trust journey—whether we know it, or not.” 

In the final weeks of 2020, news of the SolarWinds hack broke – a cyber-attack that has been dubbed as “the Pearl Harbor of American IT”.   

This week marks Identity Theft Awareness Week, a public awareness campaign by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) dedicated to mitigating the impact of identity theft. The week comprises a series of events organized by the FTC and its partners that focus on reducing the risk of identity theft and on concrete steps to recover if identity theft occurs.

Among other things, 2020 reminded us how fundamental cybersecurity is to business continuity.

Earlier this year, I wrote about the need for Australian businesses to step up their efforts in defending themselves from Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks.

One of the biggest challenges in cybersecurity is keeping up with the new attacks that criminals are creating.

In a year gutted by a worldwide pandemic, the 2020 year-end holiday and shopping season will be unlike any other.

Neil Stephenson imagined a meta-verse in his 1992 novel, Snow Crash. A vision of an interactive computer-generated reality or virtual world. A fully immersive persistent experience that we are all plugged into. Maybe we’re not there yet, but we are far closer today than we were pre-pandemic, and it’s a scary peak into the future power that cyber villains may wield.

It’s October again, an important month on the cybersecurity calendar as the world marks Cybersecurity Awareness Month (CSAM).