Should you use a VPN for security? Experts weight in
Tech Nadu
“Think carefully about the VPN provider you use. Many of the free VPN providers are in the business of monetizing your personal data to pay for their services," says Chris Morales, the head of security analytics at Vectra.
Digital Health’s review of 2019 part one: January to June
Digital Health Intelligence
A Vectra 2019 Spotlight Report on Healthcare found ransomware attacks are becoming less prevalent as cyber criminals look to new ways of attacking a system.
Concealed cyber-attackers inside financial services organisations
Network Middle East
Matt Walmsley, EMEA director at Vectra talks about the dangers of hidden tunnels – one of the key attack vectors for bad actors targeting the financial sector
Santa and the zero-trust model: A Christmas story
Dark Reading
How would the world's most generous elf operate in a world of zero-trust security? A group of cybersecurity experts lets us know.
Top 25 AI startups who raised the most money in 2019
Forbes
Vectra AI - Raised $100M from a Series E round on June 10th.
2019 Tech advances
SC Magazine
A zero-trust architecture fundamentally distrusts all entities in a network and does not allow any access to resources until an entity has been authenticated and authorized to use that specific resource, i.e. trusted.
Hidden tunnels
CXO Insight Middle East
Findings from the Vectra 2018 Security Spotlight Report on the financial service sector identified vulnerabilities posed to financial services organizations by attackers using hidden tunnels to surreptitiously access and steal data.
The 10 biggest cybersecurity news stories of 2019
CRN
Vectra closed a $100 million round led by TCV, bringing the company’s overall haul to $222.5 million since being founded nine years ago.
5 Security operations and analytics trends to watch in 2020
CSO Magazine
According to ESG research, 36% of organizations are actively integrating disparate security analytics and operations tools in pursuit of a more cohesive security technology architecture.
Cybersecurity: artificial intelligence will not (immediately) replace humans
Silicon.fr
The frantic pace at which the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) has grown in recent years is starting to have transformative effects in many areas.
Vectra’s EMEA director questions AI: Hype or reality for today’s challenges?
Information Age
AI is augmenting security analysts and also making a considerable contribution to bridging the cyber skills and resource gap by allowing less experienced analysts to enter the profession and achieve more, more quickly.
Artificial intelligence as a weapon for hackers
Medium
Vectra’s Cognito platform uses AI to detect cyber attacks in real-time. Combining human intelligence, data science, and machine learning, Cognito automates tasks that are normally done by security analysts and greatly reduces the work that’s required to carry out threat investigations.
2019's biggest Australian channel job moves
CRN Online
Network security vendor Vectra tapped former Telstra channel exec Dee Clinton as its Asia-Pacifc channel chief.
Why humans remain at the core of good security operations
Tahawul Tech
The use of AI in cybersecurity not only expands the scope of what a single security expert is able to monitor, but importantly, it also enables the discovery of attacks that would have otherwise been undetectable by a human.
Mergers and acquisitions: Cybersecurity risks
Forbes
In mergers and acquisitions, cyber risk management should not be confined to a paragraph of the contract announcing the devaluation of the company absorbed, if there is an attack.
Ring camera hacker uses home security systems to spew racial slurs at Florida family
Newsweek
Matt Walmsley, a director at cybersecurity and artificial intelligence firm Vectra, told Newsweek password integrity "seems to be a significant factor in this disturbing case."
New approach needed following DDoS attacks
Intelligent CIO Africa
Matt Walmsley, Head of EMEA Marketing at Vectra, says extortion is a well-established approach for cyber criminals and is used through tactics that include threatening denial of service, doxing, and ransomware.
How commodities firm ED&F Man solved its threat detection challenges
Computer Weekly
After a minor server breach, leading commodities trader turned to Vectra’s Cognito service to expose hidden threats, spot privilege misuse, and conduct conclusive investigations.
How can firms use Remote Desktop Protocol without leaving the door open for cybercriminals?
ITProPortal
Recent research conducted by Vectra sought to quantify the threat, finding that nine out of ten organizations have experienced some form of malicious RDP behavior.
CISA pushing U.S. agencies to adopt vulnerability disclosure policies
Threatpost
“Public vulnerability disclosure should be a basic practice for every company, not just government agencies,” Chris Morales, head of security analytics at Vectra.
Vectra comments on the international crackdown of IM-RATs
Global Security Mag
‘Remote Access Trojans (RATs) are an insidious set of attacker tools that invade our systems, data and privacy. With so much legitimate remote access happening across our networks and hosts, there’s plenty of opportunity for RATs to operate undiscovered as they hide in plain sight.
13 hackers behind Imminent Monitor RAT arrested in worldwide crackdown
Teiss
"By analysing large numbers of RATs, a supervised machine learning model can learn how traffic from these tools differs from normal legitimate remote access traffic and so spot “RATish” behaviour without prior knowledge of the attack, or individual RAT’s code," says Matt Walmsley, EMEA Director at Vectra.
ED&F Man uses AI to protect its network
CIO
The Cognito Privileged Access Analytics module has also been deployed to monitor the actions of privileged accounts.
ED&F Man transforms threat detection and investigation
Digitalisation World
ED&F Man selected the Cognito network detection and response platform from Vectra to expose attackers hidden inside its network, spot privilege misuse and perform conclusive incident investigations.
How Essilor gains visibility on its network
Le Mag It
The eyeglass lens specialist decided to rely on Vectra's solution to gain global visibility into its information system, with a view to setting up a global security operational center.
12 Black Friday scams to watch out for
TheStreet.com
If you've never heard of a third-party website, avoid signing up for it, said Chris Morales, head of security analytics at Vectra.
Black Friday & cyber Monday security tips
KTVU Fox 2 News
KTVU's Alex Savidge spoke to Chris Morales, head of security analytics at San Jose based Vectra about online safety tips this holiday shopping season.
Role of AI in cybersecurity and 6 possible product options
Tech Target
Using some 60 machine learning models to analyze all behaviors an attacker could perform across an attack lifecycle, its Cognito platform claims to flip the traditional approach to user-based threat detection on its head by providing the defender with multiple opportunities to detect an attacker.
Government to tackle IoT security
Information Age
APAC regional director of cybersecurity firm Vectra, Kevin Vanhaelen, said he thought the voluntary codes of practice do not go far enough.
Government releases first Australian IoT code of practice
Which-50
While the code of practice is welcome, the voluntary approach has certain limitations, particularly for an IoT industry with a supply chain with varying security resources, according to Kevin Vanhaelen, regional director, Asia-Pacific, Vectra.
As government reins in IoT security, recalcitrant mining industry is exposed
CSO
The code offers important “recognition of some of the key IoT risks and associated steps responsible IoT vendors and service providers might take,” said Kevin Vanhaelen, regional director, Asia-Pacific, Vectra in the wake of the draft code’s release.
Vectra expands operations in the Middle East
Intelligent CIO Middle East
“Cloud architectures are plagued by security vulnerabilities,” says Ammar Enaya, Vectra’s regional director in the Middle East.
Facebook app has been secretly accessing users' cameras while they read news feed
Yahoo! News
“This is mostly a harmless bug that allows Facebook to use the camera but it is not a compromise or breach of personal data or privacy. The easiest thing to do is for users to disable the use of the camera in the iPhone app settings,” says Chris Morales, head of security analytics at Vectra.
System bug gives Facebook access to iPhone cameras
SC Magazine
“It’s a bit creepy that Facebook enables the camera on an iPhone, however, there is no evidence of any photos or video being uploaded to the cloud,” says Chris Morales, head of security analytics at Vectra.
Facebook confirms bug grants access to iPhone users' cameras
The Guardian
Despite the legitimate security concerns regarding Facebook, it appears this particular bug is nothing to worry about, said Chris Morales, head of security analytics at Vectra.
Channel roundup: Who’s gone where?
MicroScope
“As we continue to transform threat detection response for enterprises migrating to the cloud, enabling the building of next-generation security operations centers and communicating the value of transforming cybersecurity with artificial intelligence is more important than ever,” said Vectra CEO Hitesh Sheth.
Financial-services firms face "constructively tough" crackdown after breaches from "basic cyber hygiene" deficiencies: APRA
CSO
That rate of cyber breaches “indicate that there is still room for improvement,” says Kevin Vanhaelen, Asia-Pacific regional director at Vectra, “and I would bet my bottom dollar that there are more that are yet to be discovered.”
CxO of the week: Hitesh Sheth, CEO of Vectra AI
Enterprise Management 360
Hitesh Sheth is a man with one of the most inspiring stories in the entrepreneurial world and technology environment. Sheth grew up in Kenya, sharing a one-bedroom apartment with his family, where he slept in the laundry room.
Is the cloud safe? – Reducing business risk as enterprises aggressively move to the public cloud
TCV
In this podcast, TCV’s Tim McAdam and Vectra CEO, Hitesh Sheth, talk about what it takes to reduce business risk in the cloud – and keeping enterprises, consumers and their transactions/interactions secure – while capitalizing on the tremendous opportunities the cloud offers.
Ecuador citizens’ data breach holds lessons for enterprises
Teiss
After a data breach of more than 20 million entries hit the country, it’s fairly likely that if you are one of Ecuador’s 16.6 million citizens, some data relating to you has just been disclosed.
Understanding the ripple effect: Large enterprise data breaches threaten everyone
Threatpost
“The prevalence of destructive attacks like ransomware directly impact system availability,” Tim Wade, technical director with the CTO Team at Vectra, told Threatpost.
APRA's new cyber standard produces 36 breach notifications in four months
Which-50
Kevin Vanhaelen, regional director, Asia-Pacific, of network security vendor Vectra AI said the reported 36 breaches is almost certainly an underrepresentation of the actual attacks and more breaches which have already occurred will come to light in the future.
Banks warned to expect 'tougher' breach enforcement amid poor 'cyber hygiene',
Brisbane Times
"Reducing threat notification and response processes needs to move from weeks or days to minutes," says Kevin Vanhaelen, Asia-Pacific regional director for cyber security company Vectra.
Microsoft confirms BlueKeep campaign, reiterates call to patch
SC Media
"RDP is a valuable mechanism for threat actors to progress their attacks and certainly has a broader utility than simple cryptojacking attempts. RDP remains a widely exposed and vulnerable attack surface and will likely continue in the near future due to the protocol’s prevalent use," Vectra EMEA director Matt Walmsley told SC Media UK.
Banks warned to expect 'tougher' breach enforcement amid poor 'cyber hygiene'
Sydney Morning Herald
Kevin Vanhaelen, Asia-Pacific regional director for cyber security company Vectra AI, said that 36 breaches in four months indicated that there was "still room for improvement".
Banks warned to expect 'tougher' breach enforcement amid poor 'cyber hygiene',
The Age
"I would bet my bottom dollar that there are more that are yet to be discovered," says Kevin Vanhaelen, Asia-Pacific regional director for cyber security company Vectra.
Banks warned to expect 'tougher' breach enforcement amid poor 'cyber hygiene',
WA Today
Kevin Vanhaelen, Asia-Pacific regional director for cyber security company Vectra AI, said that 36 breaches in four months indicated that there was "still room for improvement".
Ask the experts: How can I help my team manage security alerts?
Dark Reading
Security analysts must continuously hunt for attackers already inside the network. They need to be able to respond to the threats that can cause real damage immediately, and correctly since not all attacks are the same.
Defense-in-depth: Key for healthcare data
Security Boulevard
Research from Vectra has shown that legacy systems, insufficient access controls and the proliferation of medical IoT devices have created security vulnerabilities that leave hospitals wide open to cyberattacks.
Facebook privacy breach: 100 developers improperly accessed data
Threatpost
“It’s a positive sign to see Facebook tightening up their Groups feature API and communicating in a transparent way,” says Matt Walmsley, EMEA director at Vectra.