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  • How to avoid holiday scams
  • Predictions for 2021
  • Recent attacks on Microsoft users.

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This monthly newsletter is designed to arm SMBs, C-Suite, and MSPs with top insights and trends shaping the cybersecurity landscape in order to protect your business.

Wishing you and your families Happy Holidays and a wonderful New Year!

#1: Keep holiday scams away, don’t let hackers have the final sleigh

  • It’s no secret that hackers find their own ways of being festive during the holidays, taking advantage of lower vigilance, reduced staffing, email barrages, and remote VPNs.
  • This year is no different, with more shoppers being forced online. Cyber Monday 2020 was the biggest online shopping day in US history, with total sales reaching close to $11B.

Insight: 

As online fraud grows in volume and sophistication, we must secure endpoints in real-time to keep the Grinch away from the presents under the tree. A distributed workforce has brought the battle to each endpoint’s doorstep, making preventive cybersecurity more important than ever. Protect your customers and employees during the holidays with scaled solutions that provide 24/7/365 support.

#2: Cybersecurity predictions for 2021

  • When it comes to enterprise cybersecurity spending in the coming year, next-generation Identity and Access management, endpoint security, and network protection make the top of the list. As bad actors set their sights on intellectual property, third-party managed security services that can offer a unified front against edge, endpoint, and cloud vulnerabilities will be increasingly important.
  • Advances in AI and machine learning are projected to offer 80% “self-restoration”, giving IT leaders the ability to find scale and trust in advanced solutions. The role of security and psychology will also converge, given the explosion of digital commerce and the need for advanced monitoring that takes the customer and employee experience into account.

Insight: 

Some attack vectors are not likely to go away soon, whether they’re DDoS attacks targeted at media and retail companies or VPN and legacy endpoint exploits caused by the transition to remote work. By working with our experts, you can develop a future-forward strategy to secure your network without sacrificing customer experience or employee morale.

#3: Cybercriminals go after Microsoft users

  • A coordinated, global phishing campaign is targeting 200M Microsoft O365 users via email spoofing. Over the past few months, hackers have been going after financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, and utility organizations using Microsoft, with increasing levels of sophistication.
  • News also broke of a Python-based malware aimed at Outlook files and processes, along with a zero-click cross-platform flaws and critical bugs in Sharepoint.

Insight: 

With global cybercrime costs projected to reach $10.5 trillion annually by 2025, SMB spending on network security will rise astronomically. Although migrating to the cloud has universal benefits to businesses of all sizes, it invites serious vulnerabilities across email, storage, real-time collaboration, or other use cases. A scaled solution that reduces overhead costs and combines state-of-the-art technology with human monitoring is the only way to prevent tomorrow’s threats.

In Other News…

  • 12/21: New analysis identifies 24 organizations affected by SolarWinds hack
  • 12/14: Spotify notifies customers of another breach and files under CCPA
  • 12/13: Intel’s Habana Labs hacked by Pay2Key ransomware
  • 12/7: Researchers find several instances of backdoor malware
  • 12/7: Ransomware attacks surge in remote working environments
  • 12/1: Credential stuffing attacks target The North Face, Nando’s, and Sam’s Club