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5 No Brainer Internet Security Tips

The internet has become a necessary part of every household. There is hardly any American home that does not have an internet connection. With such wonderful technology that connects you with the entire world, concerns regarding security also arise. In this regard, it is highly essential that you must take a few steps in order to strengthen your internet security. Well, fret no more because we are here to lessen your worries by enlightening you with some of the best yet no-brainer internet security tips that are quite beneficial in the long run.

One of the first and most essential steps you need to take is getting a subscription to a reliable and secure Internet Service Provider (ISP). For this, you have to be very vigilant and on your toes. Dont go for any provider that already has a questionable reputation in the industry. You must keep this in mind, your ISP can get access to all your valuable data and information. It must protect you from any kind of breaching and hacking by providing the utmost security.

For this, if you ask us, we would recommend looking for Spectrum in the area. You are likely to find it since it is serviceable in more than 40 states in the United States. Whats more, it is countrywide known for its secure connection and security suite that further adds a protective layer so that you can browse on the world wide web without any worries or concerns of security. You can learn more about it by dialing the numero de Spectrum (for Spanish customers only) and getting all the information regarding its secure connectivity.

Even though it is pretty common knowledge, it is surprising how many people often dont take this into account. Using a strong password can make a huge difference. One of the most common passwords people use is their date of birth or pets name. These types of passwords are quite easy to crack. Moreover, only adding one or maybe two numerical or capital letters wont make your password strong. As a matter of fact, there is a comprehensible criterion that everyone must follow while creating a password.

By keeping the abovementioned criteria, you can create a strong password that is difficult for anyone to guess.

Wi-Fi networks are essentially the entry points to your computer, devices, and accounts. If you access public Wi-Fi, you basically invite viruses, malware, and any kind of cyber threat into your device. In the current age and time, practically every place has a public access network. Whether it is a coffee shop or an airport, you can get connected to the free network in a matter of a few seconds.

BUT DONT DO IT!

Yes, we cannot stress enough how dangerous it could be, especially if your bank accounts are logged in and you have sensitive information on your device. Data breaching is a real thing and it is astonishing how people take it for granted. One wrong move with the technology can cost you a lot and therefore, be very cautious whenever you are using the internet in public areas.

VPN connections are your saviors. They provide you the much-needed protection from online threats by making your online activities untraceable. By enabling a VPN on all your devices, you can protect your information from becoming leaked. Always remember, while using the internet, your security is always at stake, but by enabling a VPN, you can hide from cyber threats.

In addition to all of this, online transactions also become secured if you have a virtual private network enabled while accessing public Wi-Fi. This way, you can use the free internet as much as you want.

There are several benefits of using a VPN, one of which is that it allows you access to the content that has been restricted in your area, for instance, Crackle is not allowed to be used in your general area. To access it, you can install an excellent and reliable VPN, enable it, and revisit the website to make it accessible.

Here is the thing, you cannot go over to the internet without coming across a website that demands an email address or registration. In this regard, not every website is legit. In fact, a lot of these are scams and will continue to send you shady or suspicious emails containing malware or viruses. Moreover, these websites will spam your inbox with fraudulent emails and this will further increase your risk of clicking on threatening links.

So, in order to save yourself from such cyber threats, you can use disposable email generators that give you an email ID you can enter into sites where you probably dont want to give your personal ID. After this, you will not have to constantly worry about receiving weird and shady emails from suspicious websites.

As much as we are thankful to the technology of the internet for making our lives easier. Thus, we cannot ignore the fact that it has also increased the concerns of security. Therefore, to minimize any and all cyber threats. We recommend following the abovementioned tips to protect yourself online from dangerous agents.

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5 No Brainer Internet Security Tips

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Canadian Security Company will Sell VirnetX Products in the Middle East

ZEPHYR COVE, Nev., April 5, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- VirnetX Holding Corporation (NYSE: VHC) ("VirnetX"), a leading Internet security software and technology company, and WeSecure Inc., a Canadian Security Solutions Integrator, are proud to announce a non-exclusive commercial agreement for WeSecure to sell VirnetX cybersecurity products in the U.S., Canada and the Middle East. The partnership aims to implement VirnetX's advanced security technologies into WeSecure's Physical and CyberSecure products and services.

"WeSecure has successfully integrated the VirnetX One family of products, War Room and VirnetX Matrix into our existing cybersecurity infrastructure," said Darren Olson, WeSecure CTO. 'These products significantly boost the level of security and are unrivaled in the industry. Testing and implementing VirnetX's patented technologies allows WeSecure to implement a Zero Trust Security Model for 18 open-source software and applications on our Secure Gateway appliance, offering another layer of unparalleled protection and security.

"As cyber threats continue to grow in complexity and frequency, the need for advanced security solutions has never been more crucial," said Kendall Larsen, VirnetX CEO and President. "The partnership between VirnetX and WeSecure marks a significant step forward in providing organizations with the WeSecure Gateway, locally within the company, or in the cloud to defend against the ever-present risk of cyberattacks."

"The unique features of VirnetX's Secure Domains, Secure DNS, Dynamic VPN, and Military grade encryption create a robust and impenetrable security framework," said Mac Mokatren, WeSecure CEO. "We're extremely thrilled to join forces with VirnetX and their team to help organizations worldwide enhance their cybersecurity posture. WeSecureoperates in Canada, the US and is opening a branchin the Middle East."

About WeSecure

WeSecure unifies Cyber and Physical Security technologies, including Zero Trust, Secure Domains, Dynamic VPN, Secure IP Video, and Access Control systems to create WeSecure Security as a Service (SECaaS). Our Security Applications and Secure Appliancesprovide another layer of Advanced Security unrivaled in the industry.

About VirnetX

VirnetX Holding Corporationis an Internet security software and technology company with patented technology for Zero Trust Network Access ("ZTNA") based secure network communications.VirnetX'ssoftware and technology solutions, including its Secure Domain Name Registry and Technology, VirnetX One, War Room, VirnetX Matrix, and Gabriel Connection Technology, are designed to be device- and location-independent, and enable a secure real-time communication environment for all types of enterprise applications, services, and critical infrastructures. The Company's patent portfolio includes over 200 U.S. and foreign granted patents, validations and pending applications. For more information, please visitwww.virnetx.com.

VirnetX One is a security-as-a-service platform that protects enterprise applications, services, and infrastructure from cyber-attacks using ZTNA. VirnetX One products address a significant need across enterprises of all sizes, as hackers have become more sophisticated, ransomware and malware more costly and disruptive, and the use of corporate and other applications by contemporary remote workforces has continued to rise.

VirnetX MatrixTMprovides superior security for internet-enabled enterprise applications and their connected devices, and for control systems currently deployed by those enterprises (e.g., file servers, data back-up systems, VPN/firewalls). VirnetX MatrixTM provides ZTNA protection, "single-click" ease of use, and is designed to be a highly effective "security umbrella": its added layer of protection is deployed simply, without the need for changes to an enterprise's existing, in-place infrastructure.

War Room provides an industry leading, safe, and secure video conferencing meeting environment where sensitive communications and data is invisible to those unauthorized to view it.

SPECIAL NOTE REGARDING FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

Statements herein may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act").These forward-looking statements are based upon our current expectations, estimates, assumptions and beliefs concerning future events and conditions, and may discuss, among other things, expectations about products and product performance, effectiveness of the partnership with WeSecure and the ability to implement VirnetX's technology into WeSecure's products and services and to help organizations worldwide enhance their cybersecurity posture. Any statement that is not historical in nature is a forward-looking statement and may be identified by the use of words and phrases such as "anticipates," "believes," "estimates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "predicts," "projects," "will be," "will continue," "will likely result in" and similar expressions. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are necessarily subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are outside our control, and could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements and from our historical results and experience. These risks, uncertainties and other factors include, but are not limited to risks detailed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), including in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, and other filings and reports that we may file from time to time with the SEC. Readers are cautioned that it is not possible to predict or identify all the risks, uncertainties and other factors that may affect future results and that the risks described herein should not be considered a complete list. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which such statement is made. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Contact:VirnetX Holding Corporation415.505.0456[emailprotected]

SOURCE VirnetX Holding Corporation

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VirnetX Partners with WeSecure - PR Newswire

After avoiding the TikTok craze for the last five years, I finally cavedtwo months ago and set up an account for work purposes to follow Euronews' recently launched profile.

I used my phone number to sign up as it was new and barely used for anything else, and it was pretty much the personal information I cared the least about.

The platform sent me a login code via SMS, I gave Euronews a follow, scrolled a couple of videos on the "for you" page, and then forgot about my account for a month or so.

The sign-up and login process was very easy. Perhaps a little too easy.

A couple of weeks later, when I next logged into my account, my profile name was different, I had posted five cat videos, and was friends with someone called "Cookies Galaxy".

How was that possible? I appeared to be logged into someone elses account.

According to TJ Sayers, Cyber Threat Intelligence Manager at CIS Center for Internet Security, this is a fairly common problem.

"It's kind of a circumstantial thing where someone will get a new number and move on from an old phone number, and the cellular provider relocates that number to somebody," he told Euronews Next.

I had access to the personal information of the account holder (who appeared to have been inactive since 2020), including a list of comments they had made, every single one of their likes, their direct messages, and their email address.

"It sounds like what happened to you is maybe the persons account you got into didn't have any other additional step for authentication (besides their phone number) when they created their account," he further explained, "so you were able to use the number and log into the account".

While my switch happened unintentionally, malicious attempts to take over phone numbers have boomed with the rise in popularity of cryptocurrencies in 2019, according to the cyber expert. Hackers have increasingly tried to gain access to and lock users out of their phones to take control of important banking accounts, including digital wallets.

"Some people are actively trying to compromise phone numbers and email addresses in order to gain access to accounts for other nefarious purposes," said Sayers.

There are two ways of taking over someone elses number, or "SIM swapping". Hard swapping entails taking control of a persons physical SIM card, while the soft version implies calling the phone provider and impersonating the owner of the number by using information, such as the persons date of birth or address, openly available on the Internet.

"People don't even think that when they post social media stuff, it could be used by an attacker," said Sayers, adding, "what [scammers] will do is socially engineer that customer service agent into transferring your number to their device".

While a pin code is enough to avoid hard SIM swapping, preventing soft swapping takes more effort.

Asking your provider to set up a two-step code with a passphrase or a specific number is one way to do that. To avoid having your social media taken over, you can also use an apps registration lock, which can link your account to non-phone number-based identifiers.

For TikTok, the most straightforward solution is to avoid signing up with your phone number. In addition, you can also set up two-factor authentication (2FA), an extra pin generated on the spot, on top of your regular password. TikTok is still trialing this, but 2FA is already in use at other social media companies, such as Instagram.

Still, experts recommend refraining from using 2FA with text messages, as inadvertent swapping can still occur. "Once that happens, (scammers) can go and reset all of your accounts, because theyll get all of your two-factor authentication codes," said Sayers.

"Back when 2FA or multifactor came around, the predominant venue was to either get the code via text message or to get it via e-mail. Unfortunately, the threat landscape has evolved quite substantially and text messages are no longer the best practice for receiving authentication codes," he added.

"Email is a good option, but even better than that is to have some form of an app on your phone. So like Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, or Authy".

While authenticators are easily available and companies such as Twitter are moving away from texts, according to Sayers, industry buy-in is still behind.

"It's not really a technological next step that we need. It's more of an adoption next step. We're still pretty behind the curve with trying to get people away from text messages," he said.

Meanwhile, physical security keys such as Yubikey, which need to be plugged into a computer to authenticate and are deemed the most secure authentication technology right now, are becoming more widespread.

"Of course, we're going to see threat actors evolve and they'll start trying to attack those other new methods and then new technology will come out," warned Sayers, adding that the damage a person can suffer will depend on the use they make of social media accounts.

Reputational damage could be huge, according to the expert, but "spear phishing" - gaining access to sensitive data by impersonating the person for nefarious reasons - is also likely.

We live in a virtual world and a lot of times, especially post-COVID, a lot of people are working remotely. So if you can take over a social media account, people may not even second guess that you're contacting them through that account because it looks like you're them. So they can use that to try to gain access to more sensitive information, he explained.

As a bottom line, the expert is pretty clear. "Generally, for social media security, you can't go wrong with a unique long password, and I really emphasise unique and long," he said.

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I accidentally hacked into someone else's TikTok account. It's more ... - Euronews

A cybersecurity kill chain is a framework that helps security teams understand the sequence of events during an external attack. Derived from the military concept that identifies the steps in a military attack, a cyber kill chain breaks a cyber attack into steps to help security analysts understand the behaviors and tactics of threat actors.

SANS Institute released the Industrial Control System Kill Chain in 2015 to help analysts understand attackers' behaviors and tactics specifically in ICS attacks. Based on Lockheed Martin's IT Cyber Kill Chain, the ICS Cyber Kill Chain accounts for specific ICS security threats and the layered nature of ICS environments today.

The ICS Kill Chain is especially useful when conducting risk assessments and pen tests against ICS environments. In Chapter 17, "Penetration Testing ICS Environments," of Industrial Cybersecurity, Second Edition, author Pascal Ackerman describes the ICS Kill Chain, including its evolution from the cyber kill chain, steps and phases, as well as how to base pen tests on the ICS Kill Chain. Download a PDF of Chapter 17 for more on ICS pen tests.

Due to its unique features and deployment, the ICS requires considerable knowledge about the target's industry -- the ICS environment -- to be able to carry out a successful attack. These unique challenges of an industrial control system require the attacker to avoid interfering with the multitude of sensors and controls and automation devices while performing the attack, as well as being able to pivot through multiple layers of networks that are usually found in such environments (the internet to enterprise networks, to the industrial network to enclaves, and so on).

To put these unique challenges into perspective, the SANS Institute (https://www.sans.org/about/) published a report in 2015 that adapts the Cyber Kill Chain to industrial control system environments. This report expands upon the original Intrusion Kill Chain stages by, among other things, dividing the stages into two distinct phases, with the purpose of articulating the ICS characteristics. The following diagram shows the first phase of the ICS Kill Chain:

This first phase is quite similar to the original Kill Chain model and corresponds to what was traditionally called espionage or intelligence operations. Phase 1 reflects the activities and processes of a structured and targeted attack campaign aimed at obtaining the initial foothold into an organization's enterprise/business network. Within this model, the following stages take place:

When the attacker has successfully compromised the target, phase 1 of the ICS cyberattack is considered complete. The attack will continue with the second phase. Note that in some cases, phase 1 of an attack is not implemented. This can be the case where access to the industrial network is gained some other way, such as through an internet exposed ICS system or device or if the attacker comes in through a supply chain compromise, such as a breached vendor or engineering/support company.

The following diagram shows the second phase of a typical ICS cyberattack:

In the second phase, knowledge that was collected during the first phase of the attack is used to prepare the attack on the ICS environment. This phase could follow directly after successfully completing phase 1, but a delay between phases is possible.

Typically, the following stages are part of the second phase of the Cyber Kill Chain:

With that, we've explained the ICS Cyber Kill Chain, detailing how attackers go through distinct attack phases and stages to reach a certain objective. Next, we will learn how to use this model while performing penetration testing engagements.

So, how does this fit into the task at hand; that is, performing ICS penetration test engagements? Let's look at a high-level overview of the ICS Cyber Kill Chain:

Here, we can see that there are four main steps:

To make our penetration test engagement as accurate as possible to the real-world attack approach, we shall tailor the engagement around these four main steps. The specific implementation (tools, techniques, and procedures used) of the engagement should be tailored to the target organization and environment and take into account aspects such as rules of engagement (what is off limits, when, what, how, and so on), the target's ICS environment, and other unique characteristics.

About the authorPascal Ackerman is a seasoned industrial security professional with a degree in electrical engineering and more than 20 years of experience in industrial network design and support, information and network security, risk assessments, pen testing, threat hunting and forensics. His passion lies in analyzing new and existing threats to ICS environments, and he fights cyber adversaries both from his home base and while traveling the world with his family as a digital nomad. Ackerman wrote the previous edition of this book and has been a reviewer and technical consultant of many security books.

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ICS kill chain: Adapting the cyber kill chain to ICS environments - TechTarget