Many vendors focused this week on the risk of election fraud in the US, UK, and Europe. In other news, Gigamon published its 2024 Hybrid Cloud Security Survey. It shows a 20% increase in cybercrime in the last year and a drop in detection rates.
Praxis launched the Praxis Navigator as a unified Human Risk Management solution. The goal is to help organisations move from the blunt approach of security awareness training to a more nuanced and detailed way of assessing risk.
Praxis also claims that the “Praxis Navigator calculates the financial benefits and ROI of following the recommended courses of action, helping the business side of organizations to understand the impact of risk, security and resilience.”
Egress
Egress has been named a UK Best Workplace for Wellbeing. This is the third year in a row that Egress has won this award from Great Place To Work. The award praises Egress’ consistent inclusion and its “ongoing commitment to ensuring high levels of psychological, physical, financial, and social wellbeing among its team members.”
Laura Probert, Chief People Officer at Egress, commented: “At Egress, we understand wellbeing means something different to everyone, so we must remain attuned to the diverse needs of our employees and promote initiatives that respect individuality while reinforcing our collective goals. This is why we’re incredibly proud to have our efforts recognized for fostering a healthier workplace.
“As we continue to refine our award-winning wellbeing initiatives, we are passionately committed to a future focused on personal choice, continuous learning, and the relentless pursuit of a balanced, fulfilling professional life.”
FBI
The FBI is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Ruja Ignatova. Ignatova is often referred to as the cryptoqueen, who got away with over $4 billion through OneCoin. Despite being on the FBI Top Ten Most Wanted list for years, Ignatova was last tracked in 2017. Since then, despite podcasts and other appeals, she has remained elusive, even presumed dead.
Forescout
Forescout has been named a leader and fast mover in the 2024 GigaOm Radar Report for Operation Technology (OT) security (registration required). The award calls out several areas in which Forescout leads, with GigaOm praising its products, practice stance on emerging technology and exceptional ability to meet the evolving needs of the IT security market.
Chris Ray, Analyst, GigaOm, said, “Forescout is particularly effective in environments where nonintrusive asset discovery and extensive protocol support are critical, such as healthcare, manufacturing, and critical infrastructure. These sectors benefit from the platform’s ability to provide deep visibility and intelligence without disrupting operational continuity.”
“The flexibility and scalability of the solution also make it suitable for large, decentralized organizations that need to manage millions of devices efficiently.”
Jumpcloud
JumpCloud won “Identity Management Solution of the Year” in the 2024 RemoteTech Breakthrough Awards.
Micha Hershman, Chief Marketing Officer, JumpCloud, “This recognition comes as a growing number of organizations turn to JumpCloud for a better way to manage remote, hybrid, and in-person workers and secure their many devices. We’re grateful to the RemoteTech Breakthrough judges and industry professionals who selected JumpCloud.”
Praxis
“Metrics are a touchy subject in human factors. And rightly so – metrics as they are currently implemented pose several issues,” according to Thea Mannix, Director of Research at Praxis Labs. Mannix goes on to talk, in a blog, about how to establish a set of meaningful metrics that track human behaviour to improve security.
US Department of Justice
Russian computer hacker indicted
Amin Timovich Stigal, a Russian citizen, has been charged with conspiracy to hack into and destroy computer systems and data. The charges relate to the period before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. At present, Stigal is still at large, and the US Department of State’s Rewards for Justice has offered $10 million information for information on his location or malicious cyber activity.
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, said, “As alleged, the defendant conspired with Russian military intelligence on the eve of Russia’s unjust and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine to launch cyberattacks targeting the Ukrainian government and later targeting its allies, including the United States.”
“The Justice Department will continue to stand with Ukraine on every front in its fight against Russia’s war of aggression, including by holding accountable those who support Russia’s malicious cyber activity.”
The indictment can be found here.
Two men sentenced for orchestrating multimillion-dollar fraud
Two men were sentenced for manipulating the price of a security and scheming to defraud investors in connection with the purchase of Hydrogen Technology’s cryptocurrency, HYDRO.
Shane Hampton, 32, of Philadelphia, and Michael Kane, 39, of Miami Beach, Florida, have been sentenced for manipulating the cryptocurrency HYDRO. The men received sentences of two years and 11 months, and three years and nine months in prison, respectively.
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division commented, “Shane Hampton, Michael Kane, and their co-conspirators defrauded investors by using a trading bot to manipulate the price of their company’s cryptocurrency.
“In this case, for the first time, a jury in a federal criminal trial found that a cryptocurrency was a security and that manipulating cryptocurrency prices was securities fraud. This prosecution and the sentences imposed today should serve as a warning: The Criminal Division will not hesitate to use all tools at its disposal—including the federal securities laws—to protect the integrity of cryptocurrency markets.”
Xalient
Xalient ranked 48th in the E2E Tech 100
Xalient has been ranked 48th in the E2E Tech 100 list in association with The Independent. This is the second year that Xalient has been recognised for its outstanding performance, sustained growth, and groundbreaking business strategies.
Sherry Vaswani, founder and CEO at Xalient says, “We are thrilled to be recognised in the E2E Tech 100 list. This acknowledgement is testimony to our commitment to consistently innovate and deliver exceptional services and solutions to our customers. “
Over the past year, we have expanded our client base across the globe and grown the company organically and through two successful acquisitions to extend our services and global footprint from the US to the Benelux region.”
Getting your Identity Security fundamentals right for Zero Trust
David Morimanno, Director of IAM Technology at Xalient Group, has published a blog about the need to ensure the right Identity Security fundamentals as organisations transition to Zero Trust.
Morimanno writes, “to implement a Zero Trust approach with identity security at the core, it is necessary to analyse the organisation’s current security posture and identify the potential risks. Rather than trying to solve everything, the focus should be on understanding the threats and what the blast radius of a breach would be.”
Importantly, the blog does not just focus on the challenge of human identities. It points out that machine identities also need to be considered. Given that most identities inside an organisation are no longer those related to humans, it is a subject that needs to be top of the agenda for all conversations around security.
