All news with #security awareness tag

Social Engineering: How Attackers Exploit Human Weakness

🧠 Social engineering exploits human psychology to bypass technical and physical safeguards, using impersonation, deception and manipulation to gain access to systems, facilities or data. Attackers commonly use phishing, vishing, smishing, pretexting, baiting and tailgating after extensive reconnaissance to craft believable lures. High-value targets are often pursued via spear-phishing or BEC schemes, while opportunistic attackers rely on mass phishing. Practical defenses include ongoing security awareness training, verified procedures for urgent requests and realistic simulation tests; tools such as Social-Engineer Toolkit help organizations test their resilience.

Cybersecurity Awareness Month: Security Starts With You

🔐 As Cybersecurity Awareness Month begins, Microsoft emphasizes that cybersecurity is both a personal and organizational responsibility. The post spotlights the Microsoft Secure Future Initiative (SFI), which has mobilized more than 34,000 engineers to reduce risk and implement protections such as phishing-resistant multifactor authentication on 100% of production system accounts and 92% of employee productivity accounts. It highlights new resources — including the Be Cybersmart Kit and SFI patterns and practices — plus learning paths, scholarships, and programs to help organizations and students improve security skills.

Five Essential Cybersecurity Tips for Awareness Month

🔒 October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, a timely reminder that prevention-first strategies are essential as digital threats evolve rapidly. This piece presents five practical tips organizations and individuals can implement — from user training and multi-factor authentication to regular patching and least-privilege access — and stresses the rising risk of AI-driven attacks and the need for layered defenses.

When to Consider XDR: Addressing EDR Limitations & Response

🔒 Many small and mid-sized businesses adopted EDR to address growing threats, but alert overload and limited context can overwhelm security teams. Kaspersky Next XDR Optimum groups related alerts, enables bulk responses, and lets operators block compromised users in Active Directory directly from alert cards. It also integrates a cloud sandbox for file analysis and embeds targeted security awareness training assignable from the alert. For teams struggling with volume or lacking context, migrating from EDR to XDR can improve containment and reduce response time without major redeployment.