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Author: Stephen Gates, Chief Research Intelligence Analyst, NSFOCUS Over the last year, the cybersecurity industry has been abuzz about this new thing called “threat intelligence”. However, threat intelligence (intel) as a whole is not really that new. Threat intel was probably used in every military-like campaign going back to the rise of the great civilizations […]

Author: Stephen Gates, Chief Research Intelligence Analyst, NSFOCUS One of the things that amazes me the most is how the general population lacks a firm understanding of the cyber threats they face daily. Since few people outside of security circles have actually been trained in cyber security, the general lack of knowledge pertaining to cyber-attacks […]

Track: General Security Author: Stephen Gates, Chief Research Intelligence Analyst, NSFOCUS In my travels around the globe, I am often asked what strides an organization should take in order to measurably reduce their exposure to cyber threat actors, and their relentless cyber-attacks. Deploying the right security technologies obviously makes good sense. However, no matter how much […]

Track: General Security Author: Stephen Gates, Chief Research Intelligence Analyst, NSFOCUS According to reports, the famous hacker collective known around the world as Anonymous is back at it again.  Icarus is the name of their latest operation, which began in the first few days of May. When I first heard about the latest name for their […]

Track:  Technical Author: Martin Stone, Principal Sales Engineer, NSFOCUS If you’ve ever seen portrayals of DDoS attacks in TV and movies, they might seem like scary, mysterious attacks, launched by elite hackers, against which there is no protection. Nothing could be farther from the truth.  DDoS is one of the simplest and easiest ways to […]

Track: General Security Author: Stephen Gates, Chief Research Intelligence Analyst, NSFOCUS In an earlier blog post I described some of the threat actors and the motivations that often fuel DDoS attacks. Continuing with this theme, another prominent motivation reared its ugly head in the late 2000s.  Cyber hacktivism, as it is called today, is still one […]

Track: General Security Author: Stephen Gates, Chief Research Intelligence Analyst, NSFOCUS Most people know that launching a DDoS attack is illegal in just about every country in the world. However, breaking the law or the penalties that go along with it, have not slowed the growth or frequency of DDoS attacks.  Most companies who track DDoS […]

Track:  Technical Author: Ivan Tirado, Principal Sales Engineer, NSFOCUS Pure play cloud DDoS mitigation services have seen explosive growth. The market has grown from small outfits protecting online gambling operations, to what is now an accepted approach at large banks and global enterprises in all verticals. However, as the customer population expands, the set of […]

Track:  Technical Author: Stephen Gates, Chief Research Intelligence Analyst, NSFOCUS In the world of getting from one place to another, people face a common dilemma.  What transportation will get them to their destination quickly, safely, and affordable? While nearly everyone would enjoy cruising around in a luxury car, most people are just looking for the best […]

Track:  Technical Author: Vann Abernethy, Field CTO, NSFOCUS When thinking about how to best to protect an environment, most non-security people tend to focus on the latest whiz-bang tools and threats that get mainstream media attention.  Truly effective security, however, starts with understanding the environment that you are protecting, and wrapping policy, process, tech and finally […]