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Attackers are constantly developing new ways to target people. One of the favorite tactics we've seen from them over the last couple of years is that they find and break into vulnerable WordPress websites, then use the sites for phishing, distribution of malware, and command and control. Read on for our CTO Todd O'Boyle's take on how to fight back. ... Read Original Article
Interview with Strongarm CTO Todd O'Boyle ... Read Original Article
Manufacturers are dealing with a number of security concerns related to aging infrastructure, the constant threat of data breaches, lack of formal security policies, and like many other industries, an overworked IT staff. Get our CTO Todd O'Boyle's take on how to deal with these challenges. ... Read Original Article
On September 28, The U.S. Senate passed the MAIN STREET Cybersecurity Act, which will require the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to focus more of its resources on cybersecurity for small businesses by “disseminating clear and concise resources to help small business concerns identify, assess, manage, and reduce their cybersecurity risks.” Read our CTO Todd O'Boyle's take on what this means for small businesses. ... Read Original Article
CyberSecurity Breakthrough, an independent organization that recognizes the top companies, technologies and products in the global information security market today, has selected Strongarm as the winner of the 2017 ... Read Original Article
The Main Street Cybersecurity Act is a bill currently making its way through the U.S. House of Representatives that could lead to more tools geared specifically toward helping small businesses improve their cybersecurity. ... Read Original Article
Strongarm provides cloud-based, automated, and simple-to-use security that focuses on stopping attacks from damaging small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) and speeding the process of cleaning up from an attack. ... Read Original Article
Cybersecurity threats, like ransomware, are a growing concern for the government sector. While the recent Petya ransomware attack hasn’t impacted the U.S., there are plenty of reports of ransomware attacks against police departments across the U.S. and local government municipalities. ... Read Original Article
You’ve no doubt heard about some of the cyber attacks that have impacted large businesses and even governments in recent years. But small and medium sized businesses can fall victim to similar types of attacks as well. ... Read Original Article
Given today's security landscape, it's likely that your college or university will be targeted by a cyberattack at some point. How you plan and respond to security incidents can make the difference between a crisis and an event that makes your team stronger. ... Read Original Article
Although Strongarm's outbound sales and marketing efforts are very much focused on the U.S. today, Silberman said the company already has channel partners in Asia, Scotland, Italy and South Africa. Since Strongarm is a completely Software-as-a-Service-based offering, Silberman said partners can support it anywhere regardless of geography. ... Read Original Article
Cyberattackers need persistent access to your company’s network, systems, and users to steal from you. The good news is that persistence is something that can also be used against attackers, and engaging with them is a surefire way to improve your company’s response to both specific attacks and security in general. ... Read Original Article
Today, more than ever before, employees are working while on-the-go. The ease with which a worker can enjoy a coffee-café latte in one hand and click “send” with the other is made possible by the explosion of mobile devices and mobile cloud-based applications. ... Read Original Article
Phishing is one of the most common types of cyberattacks facing accounting firms as criminals work to follow the money, targeting the keepers of large amounts of confidential financial information. ... Read Original Article
Security analysts say that that thousands of pages of newly released documents that supposedly reveal how the CIA can hack smartphones, smart TVs, and cars refer to technological ideas that are either plausible or have already been achieved in some way. ... Read Original Article
You don’t have to look far past the news headlines to see that ransomware is a big and growing problem today. And companies have a lot to lose — $1 billion per year, to be exact. ... Read Original Article
Once upon a time, the only thing home business owners had to worry about from a cybersecurity perspective was keeping their network perimeter intact. But today’s demanding and hyper-competitive business landscape means employees are on open, unknown networks as they travel or work remotely. ... Read Original Article
Accountants beware: Fraudsters are customizing phishing attacks with fake QuickBooks invoices and TurboTax notifications, warns Todd O’Boyle, the co-founder and chief technology officer of malware detection provider Percipient Networks. ... Read Original Article
Dan Karson, chairman of Kroll Investigations & Disputes, said he believes that construction's fraud rate dipped last year due to greater prevalence of vendor codes of conduct, as well as companies engaging in government contracts being more concerned with possible ramifications of breaking rules. ... Read Original Article
At least 190 types of ransomware currently exist, experts said. Once a malicious link is clicked, the virus encrypts the files on a person’s computer and freezes the home screen. ... Read Original Article
Russian hackers appear to have placed malicious software — or malware — on at least one computer at Burlington Electric, a power company in Burlington, Vermont. ... Read Original Article
A new, enhanced solution helps mobile workers stay protected while working outside the office. ... Read Original Article
Strongarm anti-malware platform updated with new 'always-on' capabilities that aims to help block malware from getting on workstations and mobile devices. ... Read Original Article
A new technology released by cloud-based anti-malware company Percipient Networks for its Strongarm product aims to break this link without the need for VPNs or other potentially hard to implement solutions. ... Read Original Article
You’re on the morning train on the way to work and take a look at the guy next to you. He’s clean-cut, wearing a crisp suit and holding a leather briefcase just like dozens of others. Just another worker headed to the office, right?. Yes, but not in the way you think he is. That person is going to work but rather than creating reports and spreadsheets, he’s part of a criminal ring dedicated to breaking into corporate networks to steal data and money. Hackers are no longer basement-dwelling weirdos as they are portrayed in Hollywood productions. They’re business people. ... Read Original Article
Ransomware is the most pervasive form of malware out there, as attackers have shifted their focus away from more traditional attacks, and the number of new strains of ransomware continues to grow exponentially. - See more at: https://www.rsaconference.com/blogs/ransomware-unbound-critical-knowledge-for-a-growing-threat#sthash.92mRTCbU.dpuf ... Read Original Article
We’ve all seen the headlines: ransomware – not software – is eating the world (sorry Marc Andreesen). Companies are losing millions of dollars because sensitive information is being encrypted by hackers who have penetrated porous IT defenses. It’s frustrating, it’s maddening and happening to companies of all shapes and sizes. What can be done? To effectively prevent ransomware from hurting their business, security professionals must first understand how these attacks take place. After all, Sun Tzu said, “If you know the enemy and yourself, you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.” Here are some insights into how to mitigate the threat of ransomware’s top two players: criminals and colleagues. ... Read Original Article
More consumers are turning their attentions away from the Black Friday hysteria in stores towards online shopping during the first weekend of the holiday shopping season – from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday. Last year, more than 103 million people said they shopped online at some point over what is now being called Cyber Weekend. And retailers are responding, offering online discounts and promotions to pull in more consumers. ... Read Original Article
Picture a big, burning fire. Red and orange flames inflicting catastrophic damage. Behind every fire is afireman catalyst, something that sparked its ignition, or a series of events that made it inevitable. Data breaches are like fires in this way. When a data breach occurs, executives and IT leaders look at the burned out husk of their network infrastructure and ask themselves incredulously, “How did this happen?” and “Why did this happen to us?” ... Read Original Article
Organizations waste millions of dollars trying to keep hackers away from sensitive information using outdated perimeter-based security technologies. The result is obvious: it isn’t working. Percipient Networks’ CTO Todd O’Boyle has counterintuitive advice for businesses when discussing what to do about hackers: let them in your corporate network. I spoke to Todd, and he explained why that advice is more sound that you might think. ... Read Original Article
The convergence of digital technology with existing supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) infrastructure has increased the oil and gas industry’s risk to cyberattacks, industry insiders say. ... Read Original Article
Money—it’s what keeps businesses going, it’s what you as CPAs and accounting professionals are focused on, and cybercriminals it’s what cybercriminals are after. ... Read Original Article
There’s no shortage of headlines highlighting the string of companies that have been targeted by attackers. But it’s not just larger organisations that need to sit up and take notice. While large enterprises have begun strengthening their security protections, small and midsize businesses (SMBs) have become prime targets due to their lack of security. ... Read Original Article
While cyber attacks on large enterprises dominate the headlines on a daily basis, no business is too small to evade a cyber attack. According to a recent Ponemon Study, 55 percent of small and midsize businesses (SMBs) have experienced a cyber attack in the past 12 months. In the aftermath of these incidents, these companies spent an average of $879,582 because of damage or theft of IT assets and an additional $955,429 due to the disruption to normal operations. ... Read Original Article
Sometimes our efforts to explain security don’t connect with our audience. Because security is complex and often hard to explain, we turn to hypothetical examples and try to help people understand potential consequences. Sometimes it works. And sometimes it causes an erosion of credibility. I recently talked with Todd O’Boyle (LinkedIn, @oboyle), Co-founder and CTO, Percipient Networks about how we can do better. Drawing on two-decades of experience, Todd is a wealth of knowledge. Our conversation got me excited. Heck, it inspired me with an idea I’ll share in the coming weeks. Todd’s insights are a recipe for success for security leaders looking to make a difference. ... Read Original Article
Cybercriminals orchestrating attacks know that construction can be a lucrative, high-cash-flow business, which makes them it the more appealing to criminals, according to Percipient Networks CTO Todd O'Boyle. The small and mid-sized businesses tend to be prime targets "because many don't believe it will happen to them," he said. ... Read Original Article
John Serafini is a senior vice president and part of the investment team at Allied Minds in Boston. You might not be familiar with Allied Minds, because it takes a different approach than a typical venture capital firm. It funds and helps build companies from scratch by identifying intellectual property out of universities and federal labs. In addition to the capital to fund the business, Allied Minds also takes executive leadership roles in the company, running the day-to-day operations. Allied Minds has over 20 companies part of its portfolio across technology and life sciences industries, including Strongarm. ... Read Original Article
Universities have never had a more important place as a linchpin in a global system driven by knowledge, ideas, and innovation. Knowledge is replacing other resources as the main driver of economic growth, and education is the foundation for individual prosperity and social mobility. It’s no wonder that the competition among universities to attract the best and brightest has grown so fierce. For most institutions, competitive advantage results from its research and the quality of its graduates. Not only does a world class research program add to a university’s prestige in the eyes of prospective students, it also increases the potential impact its body of knowledge has on the global economy. ... Read Original Article
Allied Minds is a holding company that forms, funds, and operates companies in tech and life sciences. MITRE—which has main offices in Bedford, MA, and McLean, VA—is a nonprofit that runs several federally funded research and development centers. The deal gives Allied Minds “a first look and exclusive access to certain technologies” coming out of MITRE. The two-year-old partnership previously led to the formation of Allied Minds subsidiary Percipient Networks, a Boston-area cybersecurity startup that created Strongarm. ... Read Original Article
Security used to be all about building walls around our organizations and trying to immediately stop all attacks. But today’s adversaries are sophisticated, persistent, and not going to back down. They will get in. Once you accept this truth, it should be clear that we need to learn as much as we can about attackers in order to defeat them. ... Read Original Article
Percipient Networks plans to work with managed service providers (MSPs) as the primary channel for the company's newly launched cloud-based antimalware offering. "We want to help small and midsize businesses protect themselves," said Todd O'Boyle, CTO at Percipient Networks. "We found that small businesses are prime targets for attackers, but they rely on MSPs to advise them on most things information technology. In order to help small businesses protect themselves, we needed to work through these trusted partners." ... Read Original Article
Startup Percipient Networks this week announced the release of Strongarm, a cloud-based security solution that automatically detects and neutralizes malware attacks, and helps mitigate damage to networks. Upon detecting a threat, Strongarm identifies the specific machine that was compromised, interrupts communication between the malware and the command-and-control server, and collects information about the malware and attacker, company officials said. ... Read Original Article
If you’ve been paying attention to cyber security news even a little bit over the last year or so, you’re probably aware that the situation in terms of cyber-attacks and malware has changed, especially in the enterprise. These days, malware is sneakier and more effective than ever before at stealing company data, while the new ransomware trend which has made major headlines in the past few days, means hackers have really turned attention to better monetization of their exploits. Fortunately, companies that specialize in cyber and cloud security are stepping up with new methods of blocking advanced malware attacks. The latest such set of new capabilities comes from Percipient Networks, a developer of sophisticated, cloud-based malware solutions. Percipient has launched a new signature product called Strongarm, a simple and automated malware solution that is designed to give businesses of any size the ability to respond to and protect against malware threats in real time. ... Read Original Article
