All news with #security awareness tag

🧠Human Risk Management reframes employee training as measurable behavioral risk reduction rather than a compliance checkbox. HRM tools integrate with email and identity systems to detect risky actions in real time and deliver immediate, contextual remediation such as micro-learning, automated controls, or role-specific simulations. Vendors like Fable Security, KnowBe4 and Mimecast combine standard SAT content with AI-driven nudges to improve real-world digital hygiene.

⚠️ Cybercriminals commonly exploit major sporting events like the Milano‑Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, using phishing, fake ticketing and streaming sites, rogue apps, SEO poisoning, QR-code scams and AI-driven deepfakes to steal data or money. Fans should purchase only from official ticket and merchandise channels, use the official Olympics app, and avoid pirated streams and unsolicited offers. Protect devices with reputable anti‑malware, avoid public Wi‑Fi or use a VPN, and be cautious with links, QR codes and marketplace listings.

🔒Security awareness training (SAT) increasingly fails to reduce real-world human risk, even as organizations spend billions and meet regulatory mandates like HIPAA, GDPR, and PCI. The article argues that firms should move from knowledge-focused SAT to human risk management (HRM), which measures actual user behavior through email, web, and IAM integrations and targets the riskiest users. Leading vendors such as Fable Security, KnowBe4, and Mimecast bundle SAT content into HRM platforms and use AI to deliver personalized micro-learning, simulations, and behavioral nudges that aim to create lasting habit change.

🧑‍💻 Socura used ONS Annual Population Survey data to show the UK cybersecurity workforce nearly tripled — a 194% rise — between December 2021 and June 2025, growing from 28,500 to 83,700 professionals. Cyber is now the fifth fastest-growing occupation and the fastest among roles with at least 20,000 workers. Despite the surge, gaps remain: women make up only 21% of the workforce and regional talent shortages persist.

🎓 Infinity Global Services has partnered with CompTIA to tackle the expanding cyber security skills gap. The collaboration pairs Infinity Global Services’ practical, hands-on training approach with CompTIA’s globally recognized, vendor-neutral certifications to create a clear pathway for career progression. The program aims to accelerate workforce readiness, improve measurable skill validation, and help organizations build stronger, more resilient cyber defenses.

🔐 Cyber security should begin in childhood, not only as a late-stage workforce specialization. The piece argues that threat actors target schools, hospitals, municipalities and small businesses as aggressively as large enterprises, and that waiting for workforce pipelines to mature leaves communities exposed. Early, practical education—covering ransomware awareness, phishing resistance, hands-on skills and teacher training—reduces immediate risk and strengthens future talent pools.

🤖 As AI chatbots such as ChatGPT become common in children’s lives, parents face growing safety, privacy and developmental concerns. Young people may use bots for homework, advice or companionship, which can lead to overreliance, social withdrawal, exposure to inappropriate material and convincing misinformation (so-called hallucinations). Providers implement guardrails, but age verification and enforcement are inconsistent and evolving more slowly than the technology. Parents are advised to combine open conversations, clear usage limits and app-level parental controls to reduce harm and protect sensitive data.

🔒 Vodafone Business polled 1,000 senior UK leaders and found 89% are more alert to cyber threats after high-profile breaches, yet 10% said their organisations would likely not survive a similar incident. The survey highlights poor preparedness — only 45% confirmed basic cyber-awareness training and staff commonly reuse passwords across personal accounts. Leaders also warned that AI-enabled deepfakes complicate detection and response. Policymakers and telcos have introduced a second Fraud Sector Charter to harden networks, verify SMS sender IDs, enable traceback for suspicious calls and improve threat sharing and victim support.

🔒 A convincing, routine text claiming an unpaid toll demonstrates how even cautious people can fall for phishing. A well-known security expert admitted to repeatedly failing internal simulations, showing that distraction, emotional context, and timing defeat training. Flare's analysis of 8,627 underground conversations describes a mature phishing economy — PhaaS platforms, AI tools like PhishGPT, turnkey kits, and resilient infrastructure. The practical lesson: build habits, add friction, and pause before you click.

🔐 Bruce Schneier and a broad group of security scientists warn that internet voting is fundamentally insecure and that no known or foreseeable technology can make it safe for public elections. They criticize persistent claims from vendors and advocates—specifically naming Bradley Tusk and the Mobile Voting Foundation—for promoting misleading assurances. The letter calls on election officials and policymakers to reject online voting and stick with proven, auditable processes.

🔐 Two 2025 analyses by NordPass and Comparitech show that simple numeric strings like '123456' continue to dominate leaked password lists worldwide. Across 44 countries, 25% of the top 1,000 passwords are purely numeric, while predictable entries such as 'admin', '12345678' and '12345' remain widespread, including in the US and UK. Security advice is clear: change weak or reused passwords, use a reputable password manager, and enable two‑factor authentication or passkeys to reduce account takeover risk. Organizations should combine technical controls with user training to mitigate large‑scale exposure.

🔒 LinkedIn's vast professional network provides abundant intelligence that threat actors exploit to support spear-phishing, business email compromise and direct recruitment efforts. Profiles and connections help attackers craft highly credible lures, while messages sent within the platform can bypass corporate email controls. To reduce risk, users should limit public detail, enable MFA, maintain patched devices and complete targeted security awareness training focused on fake profiles and malicious DMs.

📣 Excessive use of abbreviations in cybersecurity creates real communication and onboarding problems across organizations. The article notes that a dense list of acronyms — from MFA and EDR to SASE and SIEM — can act as an exclusionary shorthand that slows new hires, reduces transparency, and increases the risk of misunderstandings. It recommends four practical fixes: standardized glossaries, concise explanations, avoiding unnecessary acronyms, and regular training. Implemented sensibly, these steps restore clarity without sacrificing efficiency.

🔒 Fortinet's Education Outreach program partners with Latinas in Cyber (LAIC) to increase representation of Latina women in cybersecurity through mentorship, practical training, and career pathways. Participants report that Fortinet's self-paced coursework and hands-on labs built technical confidence and clarified real-world security roles. Complimentary exam vouchers enabled candidates to pursue Fortinet certifications aligned with employer needs, helping translate training into tangible opportunities and career advancement.

🔒 Fortinet has joined the ISC2 CPE Submitter program, enabling many Fortinet Training Institute offerings to count as continuing professional education (CPE) credits toward CISSP maintenance. Qualifying activities include NSE certification courses, Fast Tracks, webinars, and other online or in-person sessions; ISC2 recognizes one hour of Fortinet instruction as one CPE credit, up to eight credits per day. Participants must log in to their ISC2 portal and submit the Fortinet course name, duration, and completion date to claim credits.

🔐 Credential stuffing exploits reused login credentials harvested from breaches or captured by infostealer malware, then systematically automates login attempts across services. Attackers increasingly use bots, IP rotation and AI-assisted scripts to mimic human behavior and evade basic defenses, enabling stealthier and larger-scale attacks. Because it uses valid credentials, it often bypasses alarms that detect brute-force failures. Protect yourself with a password manager, enable 2FA/MFA, and monitor for exposed credentials.

🔒 Boards increasingly accept cyber risk, yet funding rarely follows purely rational ROI debates. The author contends that budget availability is often reactive — unlocked by imminent regulatory reviews, adverse audits or recent incidents — rather than the result of careful risk quantification. The core obstacles, he argues, are chronic execution failures, governance and cultural misalignment. CISOs should focus on building trust and strategic influence during the first hundred days to convert goodwill into lasting programs.

🔒 Building a high-performing cybersecurity team requires deliberate hiring, clear mission alignment, and empowered leadership. Veteran security leaders advise assembling a balanced mix of ambitious innovators and dependable 'rock stars,' promoting diverse backgrounds, and giving teams targeted training, tools, and AI-enabled analytics. They emphasize strong prioritization, business-focused communication skills, and appointing deputies to scale leadership, speed decision-making, and sustain operational resilience.

🧠 New survey shows cybersecurity roles are causing widespread stress and burnout. Object First polled 500 IT and security professionals and found 84% feel uncomfortably stressed and 78% fear being personally blamed after incidents. The pressure is pushing many to seek new jobs, worsening staffing shortages and increasing organizational risk. Recommended actions include building a blame-free culture, reducing alert noise, and investing in mental-health and resilience resources.

🛡️ The Organizational Risk Culture Standard (ORCS) provides a practical framework to turn cyber intentions into daily behavior that reduces silence, speeds detection and improves decision-making. It stresses that most cyber failures stem from cultural drift—not code—especially in VUCAD (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous, digitized) environments. The article translates ORCS into ten actionable dimensions, outlines a five‑level maturity path and prescribes measurable KCIs and a first 90‑day plan leaders can use to embed lasting habits.