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By Raghav Iyer Organizations today are challenged by an increased exposure to cyber threats. Attackers often target emerging technologies since the new technology is often ill-equipped to handle an attack. Moreover, the internet has become filled with malicious links, Trojans, and viruses. The pressure to keep up with the new and emerging technologies often coerces organizations to tweak their IT infrastructure.... https://www.optricsinsider.com//10-essential-cybersecurit/

By Karthika Surendran This month’s Patch Tuesday is here and the hustle is on. With most organizations embracing a distributed workforce these days, system administrators are bound to be up to their ears in work for the next two weeks, testing and figuring out how to deploy updates to secure all of their machines. It is important to prioritize and patch to stay on top of your game.... https://www.optricsinsider.com//microsoft-patch-tuesday-m/

Five worthy reads is a regular column on five noteworthy items we’ve discovered while researching trending and timeless topics. In this edition, we’ll learn about DataOps, an interesting methodology that can help organizations fast-track their data analytics operations. By Monisha Ravi With the current data trend, there is an ever-increasing demand for data professionals to transform raw data and convey insights to address various business needs.... https://www.optricsinsider.com//five-worthy-reads-is-data/

Join Scott Young and Shaun Sturby from Optrics Engineering as they discuss the fix for a vulnerability with Pulse Secure VPN, 21 vulnerabilities in open source mail server Exim, the effects of Colonial Pipeline being hit by ransomware and how Signal is trying to take out Instagram ads. Timecodes: 0:00 - Intro 0:20 - Today's 3 topics 0:40 - Topic 1: Pulse Secure VPN Fix... https://www.optricsinsider.com//optrics-insider-pulse-sec/

By Nisha Balajee We’re pleased to introduce ManageEngine RMM Central, a unified remote monitoring and management solution. Maintaining the IT infrastructure and systems of client networks is a herculean task for IT service providers. Multiple tools perform various capabilities in network management, be it maintaining or managing workstations, laptops, servers, and other networks. Managed service providers (MSPs) also need to gather data about network applications and hardware to resolve IT issues efficiently and quickly across the world.... https://www.optricsinsider.com//launching-rmm-central-a-u/

Researchers at Menlo Security warn of an ongoing Trickbot campaign targeting the legal and insurance industries. Trickbot is a notorious remote access Trojan that was in the crosshairs of separate operations by US Cyber Command and Microsoft late last year. While these operations crippled the malware’s botnet ahead of the US elections, they weren’t expected to deal the malware permanent damage.... https://www.optricsinsider.com//trickbot-is-targeting-the/

New data shows that pushback from the ransomware victim market may be influencing just how much cybercriminals are asking for as ransom and are being paid. 2020 seemed to point to ransomware continuing to grow in devastation and cost; Ryuk reached a $34 million ransom payout, organizations were operationally brought to their knees by many of the prominent ransomware families, and the as-a-Service market for various parts of ransomware attacks including the publishing of exfiltrated data grew in interest.... https://www.optricsinsider.com//heads-up-email-phishing-i/

Security groups either make or break your IT security. Group memberships are responsible for administrative access in your your network and define access to other privileged resources and data on your domain. Ever wondered how a simple misconfiguration of a group membership could lead to a security incident? This blog elaborates the most common misconfiguration or security loopholes that can cause damage to the sensitive data in your network.... https://www.optricsinsider.com//it-security-under-attack-/

The Fanciful and Serious Predictions of Post-pandemic Impact 2020 has been a challenging year for the entire world. Between the pandemic, shutdowns, wildfires and other natural disasters, most of us will look forward to a new year in 2021. Here are a few light-hearted predictions plus some more thoughtful reflections on what’s to come in 2021 and the impact on service providers.... https://www.optricsinsider.com//top-predictions-in-servic/

In this blog in the IT security under attack series, we will learn about an advanced Active Directory (AD) domain controller (DC) attack to obtain persistence in AD environments. Dubbed DCShadow, this is a late-stage kill chain attack that allows a threat actor with admin (domain or enterprise admin) credentials to leverage the replication mechanism in AD to register a rogue domain controller in order to inject backdoor changes to an AD domain.... https://www.optricsinsider.com//it-security-under-attack-/

Social engineering and phishing happen when a con artist communicates a fraudulent message pretending to be a person or organization which a potential victim might trust in order to get the victim to reveal private information (e.g. a password or document) or perform another desired action (e.g. run a Trojan Horse malware program) that is against the victim’s or their organization’s best interest.... https://www.optricsinsider.com/c/beware-the-long-con-phish/

A cybercriminal gang has recently developed a new phishing kit named LogoKit on several domains. LogoKit changes logos and text in real-time in order to adapt to the targeted victims. This vicious phishing kit has already been released in the dark web according to threat intelligence firm RiskIQ. The firm has tracked it's progression and in one week the kit was identified in 300 domains, and over 700 within the month.... https://www.optricsinsider.com//heads-up-new-phishing-kit/

Adrozek is a malicious browser modifier that, when installed on users’ machines, infects them with adware. This particular strain of malware has been making rounds since May 2020; according to Microsoft, it was at its peak in August, when as many as 30,000 computers were affected per day. Although classified as adware, Adrozek is also designed to collect information extracted from browsers by modifying browser settings and extensions.... https://www.optricsinsider.com//protect-your-organization/

OK, let's sum up where we are, here at the end of December 2020. COVID has propelled IT from 2020 to 2030 in a matter of months. However, only a few of us were ready to have the large majority of our users to Work From Home. Your old firewall is useless. The hardware endpoint with its software security stack now sits in your user's bedroom.... https://www.optricsinsider.com//heads-up-heres-some-power/

Join Scott Young and Shaun Sturby from Optrics Engineering as as they discuss why a Canadian mall developer is under investigation by the Canadian Privacy commission on collecting customer biometric data without their knowledge. Further Reading: CBC - Canadian Mall Customers’ Images Collected Without Their Knowledge Joint investigation of the Cadillac Fairview Corporation Limited by the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta, and the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia https://www.optricsinsider.com//optrics-insider-canadian-/

Join Scott Young and Shaun Sturby from Optrics Engineering as as they discuss Windows update KB4577586 that permanently removes end-of-life Adobe Flash as well as why Google's Project Zero disclosed a zero-day Windows exploit. Learn more about the Windows update by going to: Learn more about Google's Project Zero by going to: https://www.optricsinsider.com//optrics-insider-new-windo/

New data shows the average American uses short, uncomplicated, and often predictable passwords, practices which only increase the insecurity of corporate user accounts. Today, the password is a primary means of authenticating whether you are the owner of a given account or not. So, it stands to reason that passwords need to be secure. But new data from Security.org’s America’s Password Habits: 2020 [ 169 more words ] https://www.optricsinsider.com//warning-americans-passwor/

Network security management typically entails end-to-end management of the entire network security infrastructure of an enterprise. However, in this rapidly changing security ecosystem, there’s an inherent need for IT admins to be extremely agile to maintain an effective security posture. Going beyond merely installing new security devices, security administrators need to address an ever-expanding matrix of users, locations, and applications; adhere to compliance; enable new services; optimize performance; ensure access controls and security mechanisms; and troubleshoot on demand. [ 1,989 more word ] https://www.optricsinsider.com//tackling-your-network-sec/

With the promise of unprecedented potential, artificial intelligence (AI) and predictive analytics have permeated into every field of business. Due to their ability to help retail staff serve customers better, personalize video recommendations based on users’ preferences, reduce employee churn, and detect fraud and security threats, AI and predictive analysis are rapidly being adapted across industry verticals. Forbes Insights neatly summed up the business benefits of AI and predictive analysis as: [ 965 more words ] https://www.optricsinsider.com//leverage-ai-and-predictiv/