Resource Library

Everybody seems to be buying into the concept of doing more with less, but how can we apply that to endpoint security? Apply zero trust principles WITHIN endpoints.

Industry analysts say that enterprises rely solely or mostly on detection-based cyber defense technologies. Their reports also demonstrate why detection-based tools alone are not enough. Breach volume increased 33% from 2019 to 2020 to 5,258 following a 96% increase from 2018 to 2019, per the Verizon DBIR. Mandiant’s 2020 cyber incident investigations found that 65% of the organizations did NOT discover the attack within the first week. Machine learning did not magically fill these costly detection gaps. The remainder of this blog focuses conceptually on why detection is missing the mark. It concludes with a brief introduction of what the enterprise needs and the steps to get it.

Recent high-profile and widespread cyberattacks on local, federal, and national government entities have disrupted people, economies, and critical national infrastructure across the globe. These attacks are often reminders that reactive technologies that detect the presence of malware and then attempt to remedy the harm are no match for today’s sophisticated attacks. Antivirus and other detection-based methods fail because they attempt to monitor and parse almost infinite volumes of detection and indicator of attack data, requiring more tools, more personnel, and more skills. AppGuard is different.

Zero-day attacks are difficult but not impossible to defend against. This paper outlines the zero-day attack threat and why traditional endpoint protection tools are ineffective at  protecting against these attacks. Find out how the Microsoft Exchange Server attack unfolded and the steps you can take to prevent becoming a victim to zero-day attacks.

The recent SolarWinds supply chain attack serves as a strong reminder that we are all part of someone’s supply chain, and every chain has a weak link. This paper outlines how supply chain attacks unfold and the steps you can take to prevent becoming a victim of the next supply chain exploit by adopting a zero trust solution.

Cyber Security Associates (CSA) provides cyber consultancy and cyber managed services to detect and protect organizations from today’s ever-changing cyber threats.  Their core services are based around a 24/7 Security Operations Centre (SOC) in Gloucester.

Maiden Lane Medical provides patient-centered healthcare based on an in-depth understanding of each patient’s unique and evolving medical needs. With seven locations and over 100 medical professionals, it is critical that their sensitive customer data is never at risk, and their systems are up and running 24/7. Being down for any length of time has a significant impact on revenue and costs, as well as puts lives at risk.

Major global airline with approximately 50,000 employees that transports about 7,000,000 passengers around the world per year. Critical infrastructure must be operational 24×7 to avoid major financial losses. A cyber breach could jeopardize passenger lives, harm reputation, and significantly impact revenue.

If you’re a small or medium size business and think you are not big enough to be a target for cyber criminals, think again. According to Ponemon Institute, 63% of SMBs experienced a data breach in 2019. That’s because hackers are opportunistic – they realize that SMBs typically have fewer, less trained resources dedicated to fighting cyber adversaries and are more likely to pay off ransomware demands without the resources to remediate. Staying ahead of malicious actors is difficult, especially for small and mid-sized companies. Unfortunately, that challenge is even greater now that the COVID pandemic has altered the way we conduct business.

Microsoft provides a broad range of security protection and detection capabilities that protect endpoints from a wide spectrum of threats. The company’s anti-virus, Microsoft Defender, included free in every version of Windows, and Microsoft Defender for Endpoints, a full-blown Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR), are widely deployed. But, even the best threat identification technologies (e.g. NGAV and EDR) cannot find and stop fast-striking, well obfuscated, or new malware, leaving a dangerous time gap.

AppGuard empowers MSSPs to provide better protection for customers with less effort and less stress. Using a ‘prevention without detection’ approach, AppGuard protects organizations from cyberattacks by disrupting malware activity from causing harm, without needing to identify malware. Instead, it protects against malware’s intended effects, regardless of the form malware takes, even as it evolves. With AppGuard in your arsenal, customers can do what they need to do, and malware will be prevented from doing what it wants to do.

Consumers and small businesses are targeted by attackers more than ever. Hackers are opportunistic. They realize small businesses and consumers often lack the tools and techniques to protect against harm, providing easy routes to bank accounts, customer data, patents, confidential health information, and more. Hackers easily bypass traditional antivirus solutions and realize small businesses cannot support complicated and expensive tools, and are likely to cave to hacker threats, particularly ransomware, since not paying ransom means shutting down the business.

While most cybersecurity weaknesses involve technology, cybersecurity is ultimately a people problem. The human element exposes an enterprise to risks, undermines the effectiveness of technology, yet it can also mitigate what technology cannot. Some cyber problems are best dealt with human solutions or at least consideration for the human condition. We are providing ten pro tips for mitigating security gaps. This will help alleviate workloads and pressure from many layers of your cyber program.

ABC Corporation (ABC Corp.), a large enterprise, engaged AppGuard, LLC (AppGuard), to determine if the Enterprise product patented by AppGuard would help strengthen their cybersecurity posture. In this technical deep dive whitepaper, we have outlined how AppGuard Enterprise aligns with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, Lockheed Martin’s Cyber Kill Chain® and the MITRE ATT&CK Framework. As part of the threat assessment, we provided specific recommendations for each element of the cybersecurity stack, and how to optimize their cyber defense while reducing their overall cost.

A novel virus named COVID-19 is rapidly spreading across the globe. Cybercriminals have already started leveraging the fear connected with COVID-19 pandemic as a tool to spread misinformation, steal passwords, data, and harm critical infrastructure.

Mahnomen County Sheriff’s Office provides public safety services to 16 townships in Minnesota, covering 576 miles within the White Earth Indian Reservation. The Office consists of 14 full-time deputies who respond to a variety of emergencies, handling inbound 9-1-1 calls and investigating criminal activity.

Support for Windows 7 ended in January 2020. After January 14, 2020, Microsoft no longer provides security updates or support for PCs with Windows 7. If you continue to use Windows 7 after support has ended, your PC will still work, but it will be more vulnerable. Download our whitepaper to learn: What risks must the C-Suite know How end of life affects enterprise without windows 7 10 ways to evaluate your preparedness

Record-breaking Number of Breaches 2019 broke the record for the most data breaches of any year yet. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, the number of data breaches tracked in 2019 (1,473) increased 17% from the total number of breaches reported in 2018 (1,257). Other surveys have reported much higher numbers, showing an increase in both the number of records exposed and breaches. In this report, we look at 10 of the biggest and most damaging attacks of 2019 and best practices enterprises of any size should incorporate to ensure they are protecting their organization and customers.

AppGuard is partnering with leading law firms to protect sensitive enterprise and client data by enhancing cyber stack and offering 100% protection.

In what might be the first strike in cyber attacks against the U.S. in response to the assassination of General Qasem Soleimani, earlier this week, hackers claiming to be linked with Iran targeted the website of the U.S. Federal Depository. With escalating tensions between Tehran and the United States, this attack was not a surprise. Business, government, local, and state agencies need to ramp up cybersecurity practices to defend themselves against potential attacks that can cause significant financial and reputational damage. What comes next? Listen to our podcast on this topic with counterintelligence experts.

With data breaches up 54% and multiple terabytes of records exposed by hackers in recent months, spending on cybersecurity by worried company leaders is also reaching new heights. Your cybersecurity stack might be expanding, but is it up to today’s complex challenges? Learn how various classes of security tools and techniques overlap and find out how a strong foundation can help you optimize your cybersecurity stack while keeping costs under control. Companies keep adding more tools and people to their cyber programs, yet breaches and cybersecurity spending continue to increase. In this whitepaper, we’ll take a look at: 1. The scale of the cybersecurity challenge and some of the tools commonly deployed to reduce risks. 2. A new approach to cybersecurity to rightsize the stack and use resources more effectively. 3. Impacts at the endpoint, network, data, and IT/Sec-Ops levels and how building the cybersecurity stack on a strong foundation can reduce costs and risk.  

Labor is typically the top-line expense in a cybersecurity operation. AppGuard not only eliminates a significant portion of the products and appliances IT/Sec-Ops teams use to mitigate threats, but it also frees those professionals to work on more strategic tasks (like higher-level threat intelligence and hunting) by stopping the incidents and alerts that routinely bog IT/Sec‑Ops professionals down. Find out how AppGuard will enhance your cyber stack.

Cybersecurity is a rapidly growing and critical concern for banks and their customers. Financial institution’s customers suffer daily attacks that could result in loss of data, assets, and most importantly, customer confidence and brand reputation. Online banking users are increasingly exposed to new attacks like spear-phishing, keyloggers, password spraying, Ursnif, and more. Some of the largest financial services institutions are investing millions to protect their customers from cyber theft, ransomware, and other forms of attack. The problem? How can they manage outside assets while ensuring customers a safer online banking experience? AppGuard’s unique patented dynamic endpoint defense prevents all breaches from occurring by disrupting the earliest and subsequent stages of a cyber attack. AppGuard does not require any user interaction or cause CPU degradation. It simply protects the endpoint irrespective of network connection. Don’t take our word for it –  see how AppGuard is protecting large financial institution’s customers since 2017.

Financial services organizations are increasingly high-value targets of malware-based cyberattacks. Bank ATMs and other endpoints are particularly vulnerable to malware, which can threaten and expose sensitive customer data, and cause untold financial and reputational damage. With new and advanced threats such as fileless code, memory-based attacks, and stolen signing certificates, financial organizations are at risk more than ever from increasingly sophisticated, targeted, and undetectable attacks. How have things escalated to this point? Much of the problem stems from the fact that traditional antivirus, machine learning, and artificial intelligence learning solutions can’t stop an attack. Instead, they attempt to detect or contain a compromise that has already occurred, then attempt to respond quickly enough to limit its effects. But as recent headlines have shown, these attacks are going unnoticed for weeks and, in some cases, even months.

As the volume of sensitive and mission-critical data grows, government networks continue to be prime targets for sophisticated cyberattacks. Protecting this information is key, but agencies must also keep a close eye on the weakest link in their network — the endpoint. As breaches become more sophisticated and unknown threats bypass traditional detection-based methods, attack mechanisms are lying dormant on agency endpoints for months before being detected.

Last month, an international hacking group announced that it had breached three top US-based antivirus software vendors. Ars Technica reported that the “Fxmsp collective” offered convincing evidence of the breach and was “actively marketing” source code and network access. Is anyone surprised? DOWNLOAD PDF TO READ MORE:

The attack landscape has changed, traditional antivirus type solutions alone no longer offer adequate protection. AppGuard empowers customers with a powerful cybersecurity solution by delivering comprehensive prevention, detection capabilities at endpoint to prevent zero-day attacks.

Cybersecurity costs are rising each year, along with breach volume. Detect-and-react strategies are becoming more complex and costly, all while failing to stem the tide. Is there a better way to identify the true cost of cybersecurity and mitigate risks more effectively?

Endpoints are vulnerable, and defeating malware is hard. Despite increased spending on cybersecurity tools and personnel, malware continues to bypass existing security controls to gain access to endpoints. Traditional security defenses such as firewalls, secure email gateways, IPSs, signature-based solutions, and next generation endpoint protection platforms can play a role in your defense-in-depth strategy, but they continue to fall short on protecting against advanced threats and zero-day exploits.

Today’s enterprises are writing, buying, and deploying more web applications than at any point in the history of computing. With the rapid growth of cloud services and mobile technology, applications are available everywhere — sometimes outside of the traditional IT infrastructure. This evolution has taken place so rapidly that many IT organizations are having trouble keeping up. This often leads to “out-of-sync” security, technology, and application development groups — and ultimately increases the risk to the organization.

The point of applying zero trust within the endpoint is to reap better protection for less effort. Familiar names in cyber security are ineffective and labor intensive because they monitor and investigate vast, diverse volumes of detection and indicator data from multiple perspectives at multiple stages of malware attacks; before and after compromise. They are parsing infinite possibilities, requiring more tools, more personnel, and more skills every year. Those who think machine learning will help them scale are finding that the single most pervasive characteristic in enterprise IT — CHANGE — is also machine learning’s greatest adversary. How Can You Achieve Zero Trust Endpoint Protection?

As cyber threats grow, many organizations are building security operations centers (SOCs) to improve their defenses. Here are some tips on how to get the most out of a SOC in your organization — and what to do if you can’t afford to build one.