The Best IT Security Blog Posts in 2019
The Top 5 Cybersecurity Blog Posts in Our Library – 2019
We have added 46 Blog Posts to our library over the year or so and wanted to rank the most read for your convenience. So, we used Google Analytics and some basic division to figure out which posts were visited the most and ranked them 1 to 5. The purpose of this post is that we want you to have the opportunity to view our top posts in one place; with a bit of additional commentary.
In addition, we have been fortunate to have gained quite a bit of readership in 2019 so we wanted to make sure our new readers had the opportunity to have the most read blog posts at their fingertips and our veteran readers our top blog posts in case they missed a good one.
In this post, we’ll simply list the top posts from 1 to 5, add a couple of other resources that may be of interest and add videos that discuss the topics from the staff here at SecureOps.
Ok, let’s get started with #1!
(1) Network Security Design is Critical to Eliminating Security Gaps and Reducing Costs
https://secureops.com/networking/effective-network-security-design/
This blog post was far and away the most read for 2019 by almost 2x. In the post we discuss the “5 Pieces to the Cybersecurity Puzzle” (yes, we thought that up ourselves) which in terms of foundational secure network design are:
- High-Value Systems and Assets
- Network Security Segmentation
- Monitoring and Prevention
- Security Event Logging
- Principal of Least Privilege (POLP)
The post goes in-depth about how each piece to the network security design puzzle should be assessed and implemented.
Further, the post discusses how network security architecture leverages the organization’s resources while network security design implements the concepts. Optimizing the network security design for organizations that are adding systems and other technology, housing sensitive data, and adding new points of access for their customers, employees, and contractors has added new elements of risk and additional pieces to the IT security puzzle.
Additional Resources
The Fundamentals of Network Security Analysis and Monitoring Blog Post
https://secureops.com/networking/network-security-monitoring/
We wrote a follow up to the Network Secure Design blog post titled “The Fundamentals of Network Security Analysis and Monitoring.” In this post, we discuss the technology, security devices, and analysis that goes into protecting a network.
(2) How the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) Will Impact Business
https://secureops.com/security/blog-ccpa/
This blog post was created because so many of our customers and clients had questions about the CCPA legislation and needed to know what actions they should take to protect themselves before the act went into effect on January 1, 2020.
We suggested in the post that the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is a bill intended to enhance privacy rights and consumer protection for residents of California. The intention of CCPA is to provide California residents with the right to:
- Know what personal data is being collected about them.
- Know whether their personal data is sold or disclosed and to whom.
- Say no to the sale of personal data.
- Access their personal data.
- Request a business to delete any personal information about a consumer collected from that consumer. This is not the GDPR’s “right to be forgotten”
- Not be discriminated against for exercising their privacy rights.
We tried to provide some clear directions as to what organizations should do to change how they handled the PII of their customers and prospects. Further, we provided “6 Key To-Do Items” in preparation for the CCPA.
Additional Resources
Four Data Protection and Privacy Laws You Must Know Blog Post
https://secureops.com/privacy/data-privacy-legislation/
Several months prior to the CCPA post we wrote a blog post titled “Four Data Protection and Privacy Laws You Must Know,” which discussed the CCPA, the infamous European GDPR legislation and two other pieces of privacy legislation. The post provides some context for California’s new privacy law and how it differs from GDPR and other looming privacy legislation.
Compliance, Privacy and CCPA Expert Ahmad Alomari Video Interview
https://secureops.com/resources/
Ahmad Alomari is a Principal Cyber Security Engineer at SecureOps. Ahmad has spent the last several years of his 9-year career with SecureOps helping organizations meet their ever-increasing compliance requirements. Ahmad discusses The CCPA legislation, which organizations will be affected, the penalties they will face for non-compliance and where they should focus their efforts to become compliant prior to January 1, 2020, and beyond.
(3) Penetration Testing – Ethical Hacking, Red Teaming and Capture the Flag
https://secureops.com/penetration-testing/penetration-testing-tactics-and-goals/
Our readers can’t seem to get enough of topics around penetration testing, so we took the opportunity to discuss penetration testing, ethical hacking, red teaming and capture the flag exercises as well as their objectives and differences. We also discussed security audits, white, grey, and black box penetration tests and tried to provide insight into how organizations should leverage the various tests and exercises to improve their security posture.
Additional Resources
Why Penetration Testing is Critical to Improving Cybersecurity Defense Blog Post
The blog post “Why Penetration Testing is Critical to Improving Cybersecurity Defense” focuses specifically on Pen Tests and the phases and benefits of a traditional penetration test. We introduce the concepts of red teaming, CTF and other related topics thus, if you really want penetration tests defined, this blog post should provide a good start.
Penetration Testing and Bug Bounty Expert Jasmin Landry’s Video
https://secureops.com/resources/
Jasmin Landry a Senior Cyber Security Engineer at SecureOps certified in CEH, GWAPT, and has a OSCP from Offensive Security discusses the value of Pen Testing and Bug Bounty programs. Jasmin is ranked in the top 50 in Bugcrowd’s global ranking and thus has a unique perspective on improving security by uncovering vulnerabilities with Pen Testing and Bug Bounty programs.
(4) 5 Benefits of an MSSP
https://secureops.com/security/5-benefits-of-an-mssp/
In this blog post we focus not on how great SecureOps is as an MSSP (we try ) but rather on the typical benefits organizations can expect when they hire an MSSP to empower their in-house security team. The benefits we discuss are:
- Improved security protection
- Analyst cost savings
- Security technology cost savings – typically on the upfront cost of purchasing SIEM’s or Firewalls
- Access to security experts
- Access to advanced technology
Additional Resources
SOC Manager and IT Security Expert Eric Duval’s Video
https://secureops.com/resources/
Eric Duval is a Senior Security Manager or Senior SOC Manager at SecureOps and has handled a variety of roles in the SOC in his 8-year tenure. His veteran perspective on the roles, responsibilities, and challenges of various security operation center positions provides useful knowledge for folks entering the industry as well as experienced security staff. From managing security technology to dealing with Ransomware and DDoS attacks, Eric covers wide-ranging topics with clear insight and answers.
(5) 5 Keys to Effective SMB Vulnerability Management
https://secureops.com/security/vulnerability-management-best-practices/
In my opinion, this is one of the most important blog posts we’ve written over the past several months; particularly in light of the fact that most attacks are the result of known vulnerabilities that could have been defended with effective patch management. In the post, we discuss that vulnerability management is again not a discreet, single event. The process needs to be performed on a continuous basis. Cybercriminals are ever-evolving and so are their tools and technology. They are also playing a continuous improvement game and now have code that searches for vulnerabilities streamlining their process of an attack. An effective Vulnerability Management plan should evolve as well with asset priority, vulnerability criticality, and resource prioritization for patching as the primary variables.
Additional Resources
Patching and Vulnerability Management May Save You Millions Blog Post
https://secureops.com/ransomware/ransomware-patching/
In the blog post “Patching and Vulnerability Management May Save You Millions,” we look at specific ransomware attacks and how they leveraged known vulnerabilities to inflict most of the damage. We also suggest that with new vulnerabilities being discovered every day, it is more important than ever for companies to consistently scan for vulnerabilities, to score the threat of those vulnerabilities, and immediate patch those that pose the most significant threats.
IT security leaders agree that you will never be 100% perfect when it comes to patching, however, eliminating threats like NonPetya, WannaCry and others are critical and having a risk-based threat and vulnerability management process in place will be effective.
Erik Montcalm’s Video on Log Monitoring and Malware in Encrypted Traffic
https://secureops.com/resources/
Erik Montcalm the Vice-President, Services & Technologies at SecureOps discusses the critical aspects of log monitoring including dealing with encrypted traffic that may be hiding malware, analyzing logs to uncover malicious activity, maintaining compliance, and managing SIEM’s for clients.
(HM) The 4 Key Benefits of Micro-Segmentation
https://secureops.com/it-news/micro-segmentation/
We had to have an Honorable Mention blog post because this Micro-Segmentation blog post was right on the heels of our #5 blog post. In this blog post, we discuss how Micro-segmentation is an emerging security best practice that offers several advantages over more established approaches like network segmentation and application segmentation. We discuss four benefits of Micro-Segmentation including:
- Reduce Attack Surface
- Improve Lateral Movement Security
- Secure Critical Applications
- Improve Regulatory Compliance Posture
Micro-Segmentation, Zero-Trust Networks Expert Javier Hernandez Video
https://secureops.com/resources/
Javier Hernandez is a Network Security Architect at SecureOps. Javier designs IT Security infrastructures for Fortune 500 organizations and has expertise in cloud computing and networking. Javier discusses the Zero Trust network architecture and Micro-segmentation and how the two improve security visibility and limit an attacker’s ability to move within a network to steal PII, IP and other valued organizational assets.
Happy New Year – Looking Forward to Serving You in 2020
These were our top 5 plus one honorable mention blog posts for 2019; we hope you enjoyed them and can’t wait to bring you new blog posts and content in 2020. Please add comments to the posts so that we can provide the information you need or find interesting.
Have a Happy New Year and a Fantastic 2020!
