Information Technology

MyRepublic says almost 80,000 of its mobile subscribers in Singapore have had their personal data compromised, following a security breach on a third-party data storage platform. The affected system had contained identity verification documents needed for mobile services registration, including scanned copies of national identity cards and residential addresses of foreign residents.  The “unauthorised data access” incident was uncovered on August 29 and the relevant authorities had been informed of the breach, said MyRepublic in a statement Friday. It pointed industry regulator Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and Personal Data Protection Commission, which oversees the country’s Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA).  MyRepublic said personal data of its mobile customers were stored on the affected system, adding that “unauthorised access to the data storage facility” since had been plugged. The incident had been “contained”, it said. Asked how long it had used the third party’s data storage service and whether it was a cloud-based service, MyRepublic told ZDNet it was unable to share these details, citing confidentiality. It also declined to say “for security reasons” if it was the only customer affected by the breach at the data storage facility. 

Asked when it last assessed security measures implemented by the data storage vendor, MyRepublic did not specify a date, saying only that it “regularly” reviewed such measures for both its internal and external systems, including that of the third-party vendor implicated in the breach.  MyRepublic also declined to reveal further details about how the data breach was discovered, saying only that it was informed of the incident by “an unknown external party” on August 29. It reiterated that the data storage facility since had been secured.  It said it was contacting all mobile customers via email about the breach, but did not confirm when this would be completed. 

In its statement, MyRepublic noted that an incident response team had been activated, which included external advisers from KPMG in Singapore, and would work with the broadband operator’s internal IT and network personnel to resolve the incident.  Its own investigations determined that the unauthorised data access affected 79,388 of its mobile subscribers in Singapore. Apart from details of local customers’ national identity cards, information from documents required to verify foreign workers’ residential address, such as copies of utility bills, also were affected. The names and mobile numbers of customers porting an existing mobile service also were compromised.  MyRepublic said there were no indications other personal data, such as payment details, were affected. It added that none of its systems were compromised. It said affected customers would be offered a complimentary credit monitoring service, provided by Credit Bureau Singapore, which would monitor customers’ credit report and send out alerts of suspicious activities.  MyRepublic CEO Malcolm Rodrigues said in the statement: “My team and I have worked closely with the relevant authorities and expert advisors to secure and contain the incident, and we will continue to support our affected customers every step of the way to help them navigate this issue. “While there is no evidence that any personal data has been misused, as a precautionary measure, we are contacting customers who may be affected to keep them informed and provide them with any support necessary,” Rodrigues said. “We are also reviewing all our systems and processes, both internal and external, to ensure an incident like this does not occur again.” In a recent interview with ZDNet, MyRepublic said it was looking for new revenue in Singapore’s enterprise space, and planned to ramp up its service offerings with particular focus on cybersecurity, where it might look to make acquisitions to plug product gaps.  RELATED COVERAGE More

Cybersecurity firm Zscaler reported fiscal Q4 revenue and profit that topped Wall Street analysts’ expectations this afternoon.Revenue in the quarter rose 57% year over year to $197.1 million, yielding a profit of 14 cents a share. Non-GAAP net income reached $20.3 million in the quarter. The report sent Zscaler shares up nearly 2% in late trading. Zscaler CEO Jay Chaudhry said the company had a “record number of large deals across diverse sectors” that drove the revenue growth and a 70% increase in billings year over year.”Enterprises of all sizes are adopting Zscaler’s Zero Trust Exchange to accelerate their secure digital transformation journey as they turn away from legacy castle-and-moat security,” Chaudhry said. “We continue to invest and innovate across all our product pillars and help our customers adopt a Zero Trust architecture designed to secure the cloud and mobile world.”Analysts had been modeling $186.82 million and 9 cents per share.

For the current quarter, the company expects revenue of $210 million to $212 million and EPS around 12 cents. For the full year fiscal 2022, the company predicted revenue in a range of $940 million to $950 million, and EPS ranging from $0.52 to $0.56. This quarter the company announced integration with ServiceNow and was selected as a partner for the new Zero Trust Architecture Project by NIST’s National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE).

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Email accounts connected to the Virginia Defense Force and the Virginia Department of Military Affairs were impacted by a cyberattack in July, according to a spokesperson from the Virginia National Guard. A. A. Puryear, chief of public affairs for the Virginia National Guard, told ZDNet that the organization was notified in July about a possible cyber threat against the Virginia Defense Force and began an investigation immediately in coordination with state and federal cybersecurity and law enforcement authorities to determine what was impacted “The investigation determined the threat impacted VDF and Virginia Department of Military Affairs email accounts maintained by a contracted third party, and there are no indications either VDF or DMA internal IT infrastructure or data servers were breached or had data taken,” Puryear said. “There are no impacts on the Virginia Army National Guard or Virginia Air National Guard IT infrastructure. The investigation is ongoing with continued coordination with state and federal partners to determine the full impact of the threat and what appropriate follow up actions should be taken.”The Virginia National Guard did not respond to questions about whether the incident was a ransomware attack. They also did not respond to questions about which email addresses were accessed and whether victims have already been notified. The Virginia Department of Military Affairs is the state agency that supports the Virginia Army National Guard, Virginia Air National Guard and Virginia Defense Force. The Virginia Defense Force is the all-volunteer reserve of the Virginia National Guard and it “serves as a force multiplier” integrated into all National Guard domestic operations. On August 20, the Marketo marketplace for stolen data began publicizing a trove of data stolen from the Virginia Department of Military Affairs. They claimed to have 1GB of data available for purchase.

Experts have said that while the operators behind Marketo are not ransomware actors, some of the data on their site is known to have been taken during ransomware attacks and publicized as a way to force victims into paying ransoms. Marketo was previously in the news for selling the data of Japanese tech giant Fujitsu. Digital Shadows wrote a report about the group in July, noting that it was created in April 2021 and often markets its stolen data through a Twitter profile by the name of @Mannus Gott.The gang has repeatedly claimed it is not a ransomware group but an “informational marketplace.” Despite their claims, their Twitter account frequently shares posts that refer to them as a ransomware group. Allan Liska, part of the computer security incident response team at Recorded Future, noted that they don’t appear to be tied to any specific ransomware group. “They have taken the same route that Babuk did and are all ‘data leaks.’ To the best of our knowledge they don’t claim to steal the data themselves and instead they offer a public outlet to groups who do, whether they are ransomware or not,” Liska said.Emsisoft threat analyst and ransomware expert Brett Callow said it is still unclear how Marketo comes by the data they sell and added that it is also unclear whether they are responsible for the hacks or are simply acting as commission-based brokers. He added that some of the victims on Marketo’s leak site were recently hit by ransomware attacks, including X-Fab, which the Maze ransomware group hit in July 2020, and Luxottica, which was hit by Nefiliim ransomware in September.”That said, at least some of the data the gang has attempted to sell may be linked to ransomware attacks, some of which date back to last year. Leaked emails can represent a real security risk, not only to the organization from which they were stolen, but also to its customers and business partners,” Callow said. “They’re excellent bait for spear phishing as it enables threat actors to create extremely convincing emails which may even appear to be replies to existing exchanges. And, of course, it’s not only the initial threat actor that affected organizations need to worry about; it’s also whoever buys the data. In fact, it’s anybody who knows the URL, as they can download the ‘evidence pack.'”In the past, the group has gone so far as to send samples of stolen data to a company’s competitors, clients and partners as a way to shame victims into paying for their data back. The group has recently listed dozens of organizations on their leak site, including the US Department of Defense, and generally leaks a new one each week, mostly selling data from organizations in the US and Europe.  More

Dell announced the release of a slate of new security features and tools on Thursday alongside a survey of 1,000 IT decision makers from around the globe, who said data consumption by organizations has grown more than 10-fold. Rob Emsley, director of product marketing and data protection at Dell, told ZDNet that the findings of the 2021 Global Data Protection Index revealed that enterprises are facing a bevy of data protection challenges driven by the threat of ransomware and the consumption of emerging technologies such as cloud-native applications Kubernetes containers and artificial intelligence.”This year and even last year has been marked by an increase in concerns over cybersecurity. As we expected, many organizations lack confidence that the capacity of their organization’s data protection can sufficiently defend them against cyberthreats,” Emsley said. “Most customers understand it’s not an if, it’s a when they will be attacked. Backups and what we deliver in the world of cyber recovery is something we’ve found many, many customers are really eager to talk to us about. We also found in the research that the new ‘work from anywhere, learn from anywhere’ economy that we now live in has certainly increased most organizations’ concerns over whether they are vulnerable to cyberattacks.”The survey, in its fifth year, found that organizations are managing more than 10 times the amount of data they did five years ago. Enterprises went from handling 1.45 petabytes of data in 2016 to 14.6 in 2021. More than 81% of respondents confirmed that they are worried about their organization’s data protection solutions and 30% said they had suffered data loss in the last year. Almost half of all respondents said they experienced unplanned system downtime this year. When it comes to malware and ransomware, 62% said they are concerned about how their data protections systems would handle the threats and 74% added that they were increasingly exposed from a data perspective due to employees working remotely. 

More than 66% said they are not confident their business-critical data could be recovered if they suffered a cyberattack or data breach and 63% said cloud-native applications, Kubernetes containers, artificial intelligence and machine learning make their organization more vulnerable to data loss. Jeff Boudreau, president and general manager of the infrastructure solutions group at Dell Technologies, said they understand that the task of protecting data has never been more complex. “As the leading provider of data protection hardware and software, our portfolio addresses this growing challenge by helping customers adopt a holistic cybersecurity and data protection strategy to identify, protect, detect, respond and recover from ransomware and other cyberattacks,” Boudreau said. Emsley explained to ZDNet that the report’s findings were part of why Dell was introducing “new software and services to accelerate VM backup data availability, simplify management of large data sets and maintain business continuity while alleviating dependencies on day-to-day cyber recovery operations.”The new software and managed services tools include Dell EMC PowerProtect Data Manager, which Emsley said “adds Transparent Snapshots to give organizations a new and unique way to protect their VMware virtual machines at scale.””Transparent Snapshots deliver up to five times faster backups and up to a five-time reduction in VM latency, helping organizations ensure availability of VM data effectively and efficiently,” Emsley said. “Dell EMC PowerProtect appliances with Smart Scale helps organizations manage multiple data protection appliances at exabyte scale, allowing IT staff to make informed decisions about their capacity needs and keep up with data growth. With Smart Scale, customers can configure multiple appliances as a single pool giving them the ability to see and manage large data sets in one entity — as many as 32 PowerProtect appliances and more than three exabytes of logical capacity.” Dell also announced its Managed Services for Cyber Recovery Solution tool that is designed to assist enterprises in reducing risk by “having Dell experts manage day-to-day cyber recovery vault operations and support recovery activities.” Drew Hills, infrastructure analyst at USC Australia, said Transparent Snapshots in PowerProtect Data Manager “simplifies backing up our virtual machines using less infrastructure and without impact to the production environment.” “By removing the need to deploy or manage proxies to move data, our virtual machines can be backed up faster, saving us time,” said Hills.Dell EMC PowerProtect Data Manager with Transparent Snapshots will be available this quarter to Dell customers globally at no additional cost and Dell EMC PowerProtect appliances with Smart Scale is slated to be available in the first half of 2022.Dell Technologies Managed Services for Cyber Recovery Solutions is available today.IDC research vice president Phil Goodwin added that ransomware and other cyberattacks continue to evolve, forcing organizations to outpace threats with innovation.”Dell Technologies’ new advancements in software and services are designed to help organizations increase their ability to recover business critical data from a cyberattack with the least amount of disruption,” Goodwin said.  More

If you’re interested in protecting your home with a wireless security system, Ring and Simplisafe are two options worth comparing. They’re both designed to be easy DIY projects when you’d like to install them on your own without hiring a professional.This review took several factors into account. We examined each company’s features, including the type of monitoring available, Simplisafe and Ring home security reviews from customers, costs, fees and if any time commitments are required to help you decide which home security system works best for you.SimpliSafe vs. Ring overviewSimpliSafeRingCost for the basic plan$15 per month$10 per monthMonitoringDIY or ProfessionalDIY or ProfessionalFeesLate feeInsufficient funds feeTermsNo contractNo contractStandout features60-day trial30-day trial*Data as of 06/15/2020SimpliSafe
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Best for a customizable system Simplisafe has been revolutionizing home security since it was founded in 2006. It’s best known for its state-of-the-art systems that are easy to install and set up, as well as expanding integration with a wide variety of home automation features.Pros:Self-monitored security available60-day free trialNo contractsCons:Monthly monitoring feeLimited camera optionsHigh upfront costRing
Ring

Best for a DIY or pro monitoring systemRing is Amazon’s low-cost wireless home security solution. There are no contract commitments or monthly monitoring required to monitor your home on your own. If monitoring is a feature you are interested in, there is a monthly monitoring service available for additional peace of mind.ProsWide selection of camerasLow-costSelf-monitoring availableConsLimited sensor stylesNo-frills with limited featuresMonitoringWhen comparing SimpliSafe vs. Ring, both provide self-monitoring and professional service. If you choose professional monitoring, Ring’s entry-level monitoring plan is less expensive at $10 per month than SimpliSafe’s $15 per month. If you’d prefer to save on the monthly monitoring fee and keep an eye on your home yourself, both systems have security cameras that can send you notifications if triggered. Ring beats SimpliSafe when it comes to cameras, with a wider selection that makes it possible to monitor the interior and exterior of your home easily.  Smart home capabilitiesWhen evaluating Ring and Simplisafe, you’ll find that both integrate with Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. You’d think Ring would have a range of smart home accessories since Amazon owns it, but there are no home automation accessories available at this time. Simplisafe only provides home automation of door locks to control your doors from the app or control pad.CompatibilityYou can expand the limited Ring system with a variety of compatible devices, such as:GE and Leviton smart home dimmers, plugs and wall switchesDome sirenEcoLink tilt sensorsFirst Alert’s smoke and carbon monoxide alarmAs for Simplisafe, the only device compatible with its alarm systems is August Lock to lock and unlock your doors remotely. Which security system is right for me?If you…Then you should go with:Here’s why:Have Google Home devicesEitherBoth systems are compatible with Google AssistantHave Amazon home devicesRingAmazon owns Ring.Want affordable equipmentRingRing’s packages, equipment and monthly monitoring costs are cheaper than SimpliSafe’s.Want professional installationSimplisafeThe company provides pro installation from a network of approved installers for $79.How to compare home security companiesInstallationMost wireless home security systems are designed to be simple to install. But some homeowners may need a more elaborate system or prefer to let a professional handle the setup. When deciding on which system to buy, check and see if professional installation is available the cost, and any alternatives, such as access to phone support.CompatibilityBuying a home security system is an investment. To get the most out of one, choose a system that’s compatible with a variety of companies and devices. You may only need a basic system now but may move into a new home or larger apartment in the future. It would be beneficial to expand its functionality with other accessories, such as environmental sensors, garage door openers or home automation.PriceThere is more to a security system’s cost than the upfront package price. Do your research, read the fine print and inquire about additional costs. Some of the most common to look for are late fees, activation charges, mandatory monthly monitoring, the professional monitoring price, and any early cancellation or moving penalties.The bottom lineIf you consider Ring or Simplisafe as your home security solution, both systems are more similar than different. If you’re looking for an entry-level home security solution that’s no-frills and low cost but can expand in the future to include more home automation equipment, choose Ring. For a more professional equipment package that’s more like what you’d expect from a security company, Simplisafe is the better choice.You can always try out Simplisafe for 60 days for free, which is double Ring’s free trial length. If you’d like to outsource your home’s monitoring, Ring’s monthly monitoring service is less expensive at $10 instead of Simplisafe’s $15 per month. You can’t go wrong with either — both provide a quality product at an affordable price.

How do you prevent false alarms?

Make sure you install sensors properly. Door and window sensor magnets should be less than two inches apart. And if you have pets in the home, choose pet-friendly sensors or hang your motion sensors higher in the room.

Do I need professional monitoring?

Professional monitoring is good to have if you travel often and would like the peace of mind of knowing a qualified professional is watching over your home. If the service detects anything unusual, they could send help quickly.

Can I take my home security system when I move?

Wireless home security systems are easy to install — and just as simple to take down and move. You can take yours with you and, in many cases, transfer the home monitoring service to your new address at no additional charge.

How secure is my security system?

Your home security system is only as secure as your habits. It’s important you and all household members are consistent about activating the security system each time you leave home. Take alarm triggers and alerts seriously to make sure your home is safe.

Why is system compatibility important?

Most home security systems come with a limited amount of equipment. Your needs over time may change. You may move and require more sensors or additional equipment. A system that’s compatible with other devices and companies can prolong its usefulness in the future.

How are wireless home security systems powered?

Your wireless security system’s devices use batteries. The equipment’s battery life varies, but most sensors and items’ batteries last three to five years. The keypad may have the shortest battery life in your system, but the batteries should last roughly one year.

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ADT is synonymous with home security. Drive through any neighborhood and you’ll probably spot more ADT signs — those telltale blue octagons — than those of any other home security provider. ADT claims the lion’s share of the home security market partly because of its longevity (over 100 years and counting), and partly because of its agile responses to new technologies and new competitors. Through recent mergers, ADT, Protection 1, and DIY home security provider LifeShield are all under the same roof, but not all respond to consumer expectations for flexibility and automation. LifeShield is the lo-fi outlier.Comparing ADT and Protection 1 is an apples-to-apples proposition. In a home security era marked by home automation, DIY installation, and self-monitoring via app, ADT and Protection 1 maintain a number of traditional features of home security. Both offer professionally installed and monitored systems with three-year contracts. If you’re looking for a traditional security system and feel comfortable committing for the long haul, both providers offer reliable protection and decent tech.ADT vs. Protection 1 overviewADTProtection 1Basic monthly plan price$37$35InstallationProfessional; $99-$199Professional; $99States serviced4551Theft protection✓✗Terms36 months36 monthsShopping experienceBoth ADT and Protection 1 conduct business over the phone, meaning you’ll need to talk to an agent to get detailed pricing information or device details. The upside of the 1-800 model is that you will receive a custom plan and a custom quote, based on the devices and level of service that you want, rather than having to choose from a few one-size-fits-most options. You can potentially save money going this route — not only because of the custom package, but also because agents have more flexibility to work with your budget. On the flip side, calling for a quote feels woefully out of date. If you’re a smart home technophile, not being able to compare prices and features online could feel like a bad omen of user unfriendliness ahead.Monitoring plansADT operates its own monitoring stations while Protection 1 outsources monitoring to another company. Both offer professional monitoring exclusively — DIYers need not apply. With ADT, choose from three plans: Traditional, Control, and Video. With Protection 1, choose from four: Secure, Secure +, Smart Control, and Video. With Protection 1’s Secure+ plan, you can level up to a wireless system that supports two-way audio through security devices before jumping up to Smart Control’s remote capabilities. With ADT, you have to pay for all the home automation perks with their Control tier in order to get two-way audio.Remote control and home automationADT and Protection 1 offer remote control of smart home security systems via app: ADT Pulse or Protection 1 eSecure, respectively. The latest versions of both apps boast more than decent app store ratings, but users note glitches: repeated demands for password changes, or more worrisome errors like reporting the front door is unlocked, and then not being able to lock it on command. As for the devices themselves, ADT has a smart home product lineup that could go head-to-head with any of the industry’s techie front-runners, with sleek video doorbells and smart thermostats. Protection 1, on the other hand, offers clunky, low-tech versions of most automation devices. The smart doorbell is just a doorbell; the thermostat has an outdated digital screen like an alarm clock. Still, both ADT and Protection 1 communicate on the Z-Wave network, so you don’t have to rely on in-house products to make use of their security monitoring.So which is right for me?If you…Then you should go with:Here’s why:Are willing to pay for reputation and assuranceADTADT backs up your confidence in their protection in two ways: First by offering an instantly recognizable sign that deters burglars, second by giving you a six month warranty. Protection 1 is lesser known and makes no guarantees.Value customer experienceProtection 1Perhaps due to sheer size, ADT has a hard time keeping customers happy. Complaints of pushy salespeople and unclear contracts plague ADT more than its smaller sibling.Want to build a smart homeADTThe companies are broadly similar, but not when it comes to smart home tech. Protection 1’s devices lag far behind the times; ADT gives industry disruptors like Ring and Vivint a run for their money.Want to save a few bucks on basic monitoringProtection 1The systems are similar enough that if you want a traditional home security system, but want to go with the cheaper option, Protection 1 is a good alternative to ADT. It could also be the cheaper option for professional installation.How to compare home security providersSmart home featuresThe home security share a number of common features: a full range of security capabilities (protecting you from both intrusion and environmental hazards), smart home integration, and great customer experiences — from ordering your system to living with it.Turns out these last two features — smart home features and customer experience — are linked. J.D. Power ranks home security companies based on customer satisfaction every year. In the press release for 2018’s rankings, J.D. Power called out smart home features as the most important contributor to customer satisfaction.

When deciding between home security systems, your wants and expectations for home automation should factor in. If you want a cohesive, one-brand system, both ADT and Protection 1 offer a range of branded home automation devices that can be integrated with their home security services. Interested in building a custom smart home from third-party devices? Both offer Z-Wave compatibility.DIY vs professionalWhile home security companies are jumping to offer everything their competitors offer, there’s a strong, lasting line in the sand between DIY and professional home security systems. DIY is the newest iteration on home security and allows you to save money by installing the devices you want, and potentially monitoring them yourself, too. Professional installation and monitoring are the name of the game at both ADT and Protection 1, for very similar rates.Contract termsLook up the Better Business Bureau profile of any home security company. Or, for that matter, any insurance company, warranty company, or telecom provider. Odds are, that profile is flooded with comments from irate customers who feel ill-used by the terms of their contract — they didn’t know what they were signing up for, for how much, or for how long. Before settling on a home security system, make sure you understand the price over time of your system, how long you are locked in to service, and what the fees would be to cancel service before the end of your term. Both ADT and Protection 1 require 3-year contracts, which is a great guarantee of price if you can make the commitment.ADT vs. Protection 1 FAQ

What’s the difference between ADT monitoring and Protection 1 monitoring?

Both ADT and Protection 1 offer only professional monitoring for their home security systems. This was once an industry norm, but industry disruptors like SimpliSafe have slashed prices by letting users monitor their own devices via app. The fact that ADT and Protection 1 adhere to the old, professional model is one of the most traditionalist aspects of the two security systems. They are largely the same in that they both monitor for environmental and intrusion alerts, dispatching help if they can’t reach you first. The biggest difference is that ADT has its own monitoring stations (six spread across North America) while Protection 1 outsources its monitoring to a third-party company. While professional monitoring makes for a steeper monthly fee, that could be offset by a break on your homeowners insurance premiums — many insurance companies offer a discount if you can furnish proof of a professionally monitored home security system.

Do both ADT and Protection 1 offer smart home integration?

Yes. While the two companies are among the most old-fashioned options on the market given the required professional monitoring and long contracts, they’ve kept pace with the shift from pure home security to home security with a side of smart home capabilities. The smart home devices sold by Protection 1 are much less sophisticated than those sold by ADT, which are in turn iterations of devices from industry innovators like Ring and Vivint. But both ADT and Protection 1 are Z-Wave-compatible systems that allow you to add on third-party devices and control the lot by app.

Can I move with ADT and Protection 1 home security systems?

Yes, but both ADT and Protection 1 require you to sign a new contract to go along with your new address. ADT suggests you leave you old equipment behind and purchase a completely new system. Protection 1 is currently offering a $150 credit to customers who take their system with them when they move. Keep in mind that both companies charge installation fees. More

Phishing emails can claim to be from the post office and ask the user to re-schedule a fake delivery, or from the bank requiring some sort of update or confirmation.  
Image: picture alliance / Contributor / Getty Images
All the time spent ticking boxes in cyber-security training sessions seems to be paying off after all: according to a new report, about a third of emails reported by employees really are malicious or highly suspect, demonstrating the effectiveness of the well-established maxim “Think before you click”. IT security company F-Secure analyzed over 200,000 emails that were flagged by employees from organizations across the globe in the first half of 2021, and found that 33% of the reports could be classified as phishing.  Phishing is a common technique used by cyber criminals to lure victims into doing what the hacker wants, whether that is providing personal information or downloading malware. It typically occurs via email, thanks to messages designed to look genuine, and which usually require the recipient to take some form of action. For example, phishing emails can claim to be from the post office and ask the user to re-schedule a fake delivery, or from the bank requiring some sort of update or confirmation; they sometimes look like they come from corporate departments. What they all have in common is that they try to convince the recipient to take action by clicking a link, providing some sensitive information or downloading an attachment, giving the hacker a way into carrying out an attack. 

While phishing can occur through various means, including social media and even the phone, email is the most common method, which accounted for over half of infection attempts in 2020.  Targeting corporate emails, therefore, is an easy way for criminals to use employees as a bridge to hack a company, which is why businesses spend countless time and money on educating their staff so that they don’t fall for the trick. According to F-Secure’s analysis, users submitted an average 2.14 emails each during the period of the research. On average, organizations with 1,000 seats report 116 emails per month.

The most common reason users gave for reporting emails was a suspicious link, which was cited in almost 60% of the cases, and closely followed by spotting incorrect or unexpected senders. Participants also mentioned suspicious attachments and suspected spams as reasons to flag.  F-Secure’s analysis shows that some words and phrases are associated with a high risk of phishing. They include “Warning”, “Your funds has” or “Message is for a trusted”. This points to a common denominator in phishing emails: they are often made to play with the victim’s emotions, and designed so that clicking on a bad link is the most intuitive and easiest thing to do. Despite regular cyber-security trainings and reminders that they should be careful, therefore, there is always a risk that employees will be deceived. Researchers have previously found that the average response rate to phishing attacks among employees stands at around 20%, with higher click-rates found for phishing simulations that contain authority or urgency clues. But F-Secure’s new study seems to show that employees still have a good eye for a phishing email. “You often hear that people are security’s weak link. That’s very cynical and doesn’t consider the benefits of using a company’s workforce as a first line of defense,” said F-Secure director of consulting Riaan Naude. “Employees can catch a significant number of threats hitting their inbox if they can follow a painless reporting process that produces tangible results.” Naude, however, also pointed out that employee-led efforts in the field of cyber-security can also create huge amounts of additional work for cyber-security teams that are already swamped. And the number of emails reported by employees is only increasing. Over the past 18 months, cyber-security teams have effectively had to adapt to the rise of remote working, which has hugely expanded the attack surface that hackers can target. As new working practices were deployed in a hurry, malicious hackers were able to exploit the reduced level of monitoring activity to target corporations even more aggressively.  The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre’s (NCSC) removed about 1.4 million URLs responsible for 700,000 online scams last year – that is, more content in 12 months than was taken down in the previous three years combined.  More

Dell has announced a set of new enterprise-level data protection solutions in a bid to beef up data security in the cloud as cyber attacks continue to grow. First, the company unveiled the Dell EMC PowerProtect Data Manager with Transparent Snapshots, which Dell Technologies APJ data protection solutions general manager Lucas Salter touted as a solution designed specifically to protect VMware virtual machines at scale, without disruption or latency issues. “Over the years, several approaches have attempted to overcome the issue of latency and business disruption during virtual machine backups, but all of them require compromises around latency, cost scale, performance, and complexity,” he told media during a briefing. “Transparent Snapshots from Dell Technologies simplifies and automates virtual machine image level protection, and enables backups, without the need to pause the virtual machine during the backup process.” He claimed that Transparent Snapshots will deliver up to five times faster performance and reduction in latency, plus up to 50% network bandwidth reduction, without requiring the need of a backup proxy infrastructure. In addition, Dell has added PowerProtect appliances with Smart Scale to its enterprise security product portfolio to enable organisations to keep data secure while trying to manage and project data capacity, and scale the business. “Smart Scale will deliver the next generation of scale, mobility, and insights for PowerProtect appliances. Smart Scale will allow the configuration of multiple Dell EMC PowerProtect appliances as a single pool under a single namespace. It means you can pull up to 32 PowerProtect appliances to manage over 3 exabytes of logical capacity,” Salter said.

“You’ll also be able to optimise your protection storage with non-disruptive data mobility to guide placement of workloads, perform migrations with automatic client reduction, and gain valuable insights to project capacity utilisation.” Dell also announced its Managed Services for Cyber Recovery solution to enable Dell to support businesses in recovery activities, following the event of a cyberattack. It builds on Dell’s existing portfolio of cyber recovery consulting deployment and support services. MORE NEWS FROM DELL More