Security Program Advisory

Cyber security incident response planning (CSIRP) represents the brunt of an organization’s preparation prior to a cyberattack or incident occurring. Organizations can never know which type of cyberthreat they’re going to encounter next, or when it will take place. Thus, it’s vital to assemble an action plan or a roadmap for any and all possible events. 

This is where cyber security incident response planning comes in.

Regardless of how robust an organization’s cybersecurity defenses are, cyber threat actors employing social engineering attacks remain a substantial threat. Unlike technologically-focused attacks that exploit vulnerabilities in an organization’s networks or the overall IT infrastructure, social engineering attacks leverage human psychology to gain network access. Phishing represents the most common form of social engineering attack.

Social engineering attacks are a critical threat to cybersecurity across organizations. Nearly every organization whose personnel interface with networks, applications, or sensitive data requires protection against social engineering attacks, such as phishing, whaling, and tailgating. Social engineering penetration testing is a threat and vulnerability assessment tool that can help prevent threat actors from exploiting social engineering vulnerabilities.

If your organization develops web applications or depends upon them for critical business functions, web app penetration testing is one of the best ways to ensure they are safe from cyberthreats. Our web application penetration testing checklist breaks down two critical resources you can use as guidance for your efforts, including a projected pen test workflow.

Security awareness involves everyone in your company—from clerical and administrative staff to doctors, nurses, IT staff, and even your patients. Everyone plays an important role. Unfortunately, this often leaves organizational and IT leaders wondering, “What should security awareness training include?”

Traditionally, social engineering is a trick often used by conmen, thieves, and other malicious actors. Designed to catch the victim off-guard and unaware, primarily for the actor’s personal gain, much of today’s social engineering scams take place exclusively online. This leaves many organizational leaders asking their IT departments the same question: How are organizations at risk from social engineering?  

Security operations centers (SOC) comprise the people, processes, and technology that manage an organization’s cybersecurity strategy and its execution. Designing a security operations center architecture from the ground up or reorganizing an existing team will always revolve around these three components, and each necessitates specific considerations.

Security operations centers (SOC) serve as the primary cybersecurity hub for an organization, comprising all relevant personnel, processes, and technology. Responsibility for such a critical organizational role creates substantial security operations center challenges.

Cybersecurity is equally as crucial for small and growing businesses as it is for larger, more established enterprises. This is because cybercriminals can train advanced attacks designed for larger businesses on smaller enterprises’ relatively less mature cyberdefenses.

The threat of tailgating in social engineering attacks comes from unauthorized individuals attempting to sneak in behind authorized personnel or convince staff of their legitimacy to access a restricted area (e.g., server room, employee workstations).