Cyber Protection Magazine Newsletter

Dear Reader,

We normally give you a snapshot of what we will be working on during the next few weeks, but this newsletter has a longer view. We’re going to tell you our year-long plans.

There are a lot of changes coming for Cyber Protection Magazine this coming year. The first is we have our first major sponsor in Security National Insurance. This sponsorship will be evident in all our channels, including the online magazine, the Crucial Tech podcast and our special issues.

Second will be a paid-subscription model for long-form articles (longer than 700 words) to give us some freedom in digging deeper into the issues. Many of those articles will be included in special issues that will be available in PDF form to all subscribers and can be picked up in print form at selected industry events.

Special Issues Program

Third (possibly best) we will be expanding our special issues program to at least 6 issues in the coming year. That’s the subject of this newsletter.

We have settled on eight possible focus subjects and when they come out depends on when we have a critical mass of content, but the very first issue, coming out in January, will be our predictions issue.

Predictions 2024 - We have assembled a slate of industry experts and academics to look at what will happen in:

Artificial Intelligence
Cyber Insurance
Counteroffensive technology
Security intelligence
Quantum encryption
Election security
Zero Trust methodology
Honest marketing

We will drill own into each of those subjects in subsequent special issues looking at technology advances, legislative and regulatory progress, standards, market developments, international cooperation and conflict, authentication, training, technology adoption trends, and more.

Subscription prices will be less than $25 a year and gives access to all our content. Vouchers for free subscriptions will be available from select sponsors and make unique leave-behinds for sales calls.

It’s been a big year

The magazine continued to grow in double digits and through all channels we are approaching 50,000 people in our audience ranging from CISOs and CEOs to school teachers and small business owners in 31 countries. We’ve had industry leaders call us the “most honest voice in cybersecurity,” and “The only publication I trust to tell me what is really happening.” We know that there are others who deserve the same accolades but we will take them.

A note on the opportunities for interviews. We did more than 500 in the past year between our two editors, Patrick Boch and Lou Covey. The latter interviewed 100 people for the Crucial Tech podcast alone. Not all interviews make it to publication. Because we don’t focus on product announcements, promotions, awards, or M&A activity we can afford to be selective. If your subject matter is flawed in some way, we probably won’t publish what we talked about. We aren’t in the business of embarrassing people. We want to find what actually works.

We also published hundreds of contributed articles, but the same rules apply. Which is why we rejected hundreds of other articles. So check your statements of absolutes (first, best, only, etc.) because we will. Just fair warning.

Of course, this newsletter does not only provide you with a glimpse of the future. As mentioned, it was a big year for us, so we decided to fill this newsletter with something special: the 10 most read articles on Cyberprotection Magazine in 2023.

Enjoy Reading and Happy Holidays.

Lou Covey, Joe Basques and Patrick Boch

Our 10 most read articles in 2023

A Trip to the Dark Side of ChatGPT

Artificial Intelligence might become a weapon in the hands of cyber criminals. We spoke with Sergey Shykevich from CheckPoint to see how concerned the cybersecurity worlds needs to be.

A picture of your passport sells for $1500 in the dark net

With cybercrime damages projected by Cybersecurity Ventures to reach $10.5 trillion annually by 2025 (half of the US GDP in 2020), an FBI agent said to the Wall Street Journal that “Every American person should assume all of their data is out there (on the dark web).”

API Security: The New North, South, East and West of Cybersecurity

Smart security for the data breach era shifted the emphasis from the traditional enterprise focus on ‘North-South’ (‘command and control’ and exfiltration) traffic to internally-oriented ‘East-West’ traffic involving reconnaissance and lateral movement. As security challenges shift to applications and focus on business process-oriented monitoring and protection around APIs, the terms North, South, East and West have new meaning, context and import.

How Cybersecurity Issues Affect Stock Prices

In a recent article on ‘5 Tips for Industrial IoT Security to Defend Against Cyberattacks’, Michael Yehoshua mentioned how cyber-attacks hitting critical infrastructures, especially in nation-state attacks, have become less motivated by money. Rather, many cyber criminals are interested in control, causing damage and spreading fear among people. Naturally, this mindset extends to the stock market. Stock prices are affected by changes in supply and demand, but also fluctuate with company health, economic reports, and trader sentiment.

Stalking with Bluetooth tracking devices

Technology companies traditionally ignore the safety downsides of their products. The Apple AirTag is the latest example as reports of people using them to stalk women started popping up. This isn’t a new development. Bluetooth tracking devices, introduced about a decade ago, can surreptitiously shadow people, using hundreds of different tracking apps. But as easy as it is to slip one inside a purse, a pocket or even a car, it’s just as easy to disarm them.

“Security Negligence” can lead to significant problems for your Business

From the 90s and early 2000s a lot of people are accustomed to getting pirated versions of software and then not updating it. Also in many small businesses it is considered normal to invite the system administrator only when something goes wrong. As a result, it can be difficult to find a company that has never suffered from malware activity.

How Zero Trust supports IT and OT security

The recent ransomware attacks on critical infrastructure services, such as water and energy, show the clear consequences of the convergence of information technology (IT) and operations technology (OT) systems. Although the attacks targeted IT infrastructure, the largest oil utility in the U.S. decided to shut down its OT systems, cutting off fuel distribution to the U.S. East Coast. This shutdown resulted in shortages of gasoline and diesel and long queues at the pumps, and 17 states declared a state of emergency. It could not have demonstrated more clearly how interwoven the IT environment is with the control of production plants today. By isolating both worlds, a Zero Trust approach provides the required security for these environments while still ensuring secure connectivity.

These are your 5 most dangerous devices

When you think about cybersecurity, you might have the stereotype hacker in your mind: hoodie, lurking in the dark in front of a computer. On the victim’s side, similarly, you might think of someone clicking a phishing link and watching in horror as their accounts starts emptying. This is not how cybersecurity – and cyber attacks – work. In fact, if you look around your house or office, you’ll be surprised which of your devices are the most risky. Spoiler: It’s not your computer.

Ransomware: How to Prevent and Recover From an Attack

Ransomware attacks have cost victims millions upon millions of dollars, and these attacks are increasing at an alarming rate. In a ransomware cyber attack, criminals use malicious software to lock users out of their files and networks until a ransom is paid.

Roblox Hack: don’t let cybercriminals blindside you

Last month, it was reported that Roblox – an online game creation platform – had suffered a data breach after one of its employees fell victim to a phishing attack. This resulted in 4GB of internal documents being stolen and posted online, including creators’ email addresses, identification documents, and spreadsheets.

And that’s it for this issue of the Cyber Protection Magazine newsletter. If you have a comment, question or pitch on any of the above subjects, drop us a line on the website, or a one-minute audio comment on the Crucial Tech podcast. We will get back to you.

Cyber Protection Magazine
https://cyberprotection-magazine.com

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