Category: Big Data

Network Monitoring: Enhancing Cyber Security Operations

In today’s digital landscape, where cyber threats continue to proliferate, ensuring robust security measures is crucial for businesses of all sizes. Cybersecurity operations play a pivotal role in safeguarding sensitive data, mitigating risks, and protecting against potential breaches.

While many organizations focus on implementing firewalls, encryption, and other security measures, one vital but often overlooked step in comprehensive cyber defense is network monitoring. In this article, we delve into the importance of network monitoring in cyber security operations and how it can significantly enhance your organization’s overall security posture.

Understanding Network Monitoring

Network monitoring involves the continuous surveillance of a computer network to identify and respond to security threats, performance issues, and other network-related problems. It provides valuable insights into the overall health, performance, and security of your network infrastructure. By leveraging advanced monitoring tools and technologies, organizations can gain real-time visibility into network activities, identify anomalies, and respond promptly to potential security breaches.

The Vital Role of Network Monitoring in Cyber Security Operations

  1. Proactive Threat Detection: Network monitoring acts as a proactive defense mechanism, allowing organizations to identify potential threats before they escalate into major security incidents. By monitoring network traffic, suspicious activities, and system logs, IT teams can swiftly detect unauthorized access attempts, malware infections, and other malicious activities. Early detection enables timely response, minimizing the impact of security breaches and preventing sensitive data from falling into the wrong hands.
  2. Improved Incident Response: In the event of a security incident, network monitoring provides essential data for incident response and forensic investigations. Detailed logs and network activity records enable IT teams to trace the source of the breach, analyze the extent of the damage, and develop effective remediation strategies. This valuable information ensures a more efficient incident response process, reducing downtime and minimizing the potential damage caused by cyber attacks.
  3. Enhanced Performance Optimization: Network monitoring not only aids in identifying security threats but also offers insights into network performance. By monitoring bandwidth usage, latency, and other network metrics, organizations can optimize their network infrastructure for better performance. Identifying bottlenecks, optimizing traffic flow, and managing network congestion become easier with the continuous monitoring and analysis of network data.
  4. Compliance and Regulatory Requirements: Many industries are subject to stringent compliance and regulatory standards regarding data privacy and security. Network monitoring plays a vital role in meeting these requirements. By monitoring network activity, organizations can ensure compliance with data protection regulations, identify vulnerabilities, and implement necessary security controls. This proactive approach helps organizations avoid penalties, legal consequences, and reputational damage associated with non-compliance.
  5. Internal Threat Detection: While external cyber threats are a significant concern, internal threats can also pose a substantial risk to an organization’s security. Network monitoring enables the identification of suspicious activities originating from within the network, such as insider threats or unauthorized access attempts by employees. By monitoring user behavior, access privileges, and data transfers, organizations can detect and mitigate internal security risks more effectively.

Best Practices for Effective Network Monitoring

To harness the full potential of network monitoring, organizations should consider the following best practices:

  1. Choose the Right Tools: Invest in robust network monitoring tools capable of providing real-time insights into network activities, identifying anomalies, and generating actionable alerts. Select tools that align with your organization’s specific needs and network infrastructure.
  2. Implement Comprehensive Monitoring: Monitor all critical network components, including routers, switches, firewalls, servers, and endpoints. Ensure that network monitoring covers both internal and external network traffic to gain a holistic view of your organization’s security landscape.
  3. Continuous Monitoring and Analysis: Network monitoring should be an ongoing process, not a one-time setup. Regularly review network logs, conduct deep packet inspections, and analyze network traffic to identify any
  4. Outsource the manual portion to WatchDog. Just provide the logs and we do the rest.

WatchDog Case 1: Attacks on Port 5432

Watchdog dashboard shows that for the last 7 days ended Nov 6, 2022, attacks using port 5432 have increased by 158% (as seen below). We have sent abuse alerts to the top networks where the attacks came from. In the chart below: Incrediserve LTD network is the most prolific source of attacks (5276 incidents representing a 1,470% increase over the prior 7 days).

We quickly identify the rogue source IP from Incrediserve LTD using Port 5432: (In this case: 89.248.163.199). We also note the increase in attacks by this IP over the last 7 days.

What exploits are on port 5432 ?
A quick check over at SANS Internet Storm center shows that this port is associated with PostGres database server. Apple also uses this for ARD 2.0 Database.

When we compare our dashboard results with worldwide stats, there is a slight increase in world wide attacks on PostGres. This typically means that there are exploitable vulnerabilities that may or may not be patched:

SANS Internet Storm Center chart for 5432

True enough. There ARE recently published vulnerabilities for PostGres (https://stack.watch/product/postgresql/)

Lesson Learned?
By monitoring our network for changes in attack patterns, we can focus on vulnerabilities that are actively being targeted. Patch your PostGres now.

To learn more about Watchdog, visit this : https://futuregen.sg/big-data/whitepaper-reducing-cyber-incidents-by-combatting-hackers-with-legal-revocation-strategy/

Whitepaper: Reducing Cyber Incidents by combatting hackers with Legal Revocation Strategy

Detering Hackers

Hacking is prevalent because of the asymmetrical relationship between cost and reward to the hacker. On average, a hacker reaps US$9.2 while expending little effort or resources. Meanwhile, the company suffers US$9.2M in total damages; this excludes IT and legal costs, ransoms, and reputation.

A company’s defense consists of patching known vulnerabilities while the IT Department focuses on ongoing business operations. Coupled with the prevalent business view that breaches are a cost of doing business rather than a critical threat, cyber breaches thrive in this organizational climate. 

Watchdog provides a systematic method to remove hackers’ internet access and compromised resources through legal means while preserving the evidence for legal actions. 

Data Security Matters:
With the average cyber breach costing $9.2 million dollars per incident, governments are increasingly holding corporations accountable for basic cyber security.  Fully 72% of network breaches are conducted by opportunistic hackers without a focused target. These involve lesser secured networks instead of attacking more secure networks.

By increasing network security and pushing back against hackers, an organization can decrease attacks, preserve forensic evidence, and automate government-mandated compliance reporting.

The data breach results from a multi-stage process known as a “cyber kill chain”. These may take weeks or months to complete and is dependent on the previous stages being uninterrupted.

Automated breach detection and revocation of a hacker’s resources lowers the attack’s frequency and reduces the chances of an attack becoming successful. Halting the process earlier in the kill chain generally results in lesser damages and liabilities. 

The Kill Chain (What Hackers Do)

A successful breach requires the sequentially dependent steps to be undetected and unremoved.

  1. Reconnaissance – gathering social or technical information to prepare for the attack
  1. Weaponization – creating malware to exploit the discovered backdoors
  1. Delivery – delivering the malware for future execution
  2. Exploitation – activating the previously delivered malware
  1. Installation – installing additional malware
  1. Command and Control – enabling remote control of discovered assets
  1. Action – extracting, encryption, or deleting of the critical assets

Watchdog Active Countermeasures

By imposing a noticeable cost to hackers, legal active countermeasures can deter most attempts to establish a kill chain in a network, thus preventing future breaches. Hackers avoid networks that are expensive to exploit.

Watchdog’s active countermeasures consist of:

  1. Analyzing network activity logs with our artificial intelligence to detect malicious activities. 
  2. Sending revocation requests to the ISP’s and companies where the threat activity originated from.
  3. Maintaining a database of threat activity records as time-stamped evidence for use by your legal department if it is ever needed.

Why are Active Countermeasures effective?

Implementing active countermeasures is an effective deterrent because of:

  • Decreased Breach Exposure. The majority of breach exposures are exploited because of misconfigured network settings, protocols, or unintentional interaction of different service services. Detecting low-level breaches and sending out revocation requests will undermine the hacker’s resources. This makes your network more secure and lessens a hacker’s inclination to attack a network that rapidly decreases known vulnerabilities.
  • Automated Mitigation. Alerting Internet Service Providers to possible compromises on their network will lead them to stop the rogue processes or suspend user accounts in most cases. They will effectively be assisting you in protecting your network from bad actors by denying them “safe harbor” on the networks where they launch their attacks from.
  • Focused Organizational Resources. Watchdog analyzes web activities and sends out alerts. This will allow your team to focus on the most critical attacks. Your team focuses on end-stage breaches to prevent a devastating hack.

Can’t do it? Let Watchdog do it for you!

While Offense gets the glory, it is DEFENSE that wins the Game! Beef up your defensive strategies with Watchdog.

Watchdog will take your router, firewall, and server weblogs, then analyze them with our artificial intelligence application that is monitored by a certified cybersecurity team housed in our Singapore-licensed security operations center (SOC). 

Watchdog will enhance your raw logs with other annotated data to create revocation requests that are automatically sent by e-mail to the ISP’s and companies where the threat activity originated from. 

Finally, Watchdog will archive all the log records as integrated, time-stamped evidence for your legal department.

Enroll in our free pilot to demonstrate the benefits (US$10,800 value)

For a limited time, we are offering qualified companies a FREE 30-day Trial of Watchdog cyber monitoring and alert service, valued at US$10,800 annually.

Click < HERE > to avail of this FREE Trial subscription.

Google Trends PH Pres Search

Real Time Updates of Google Search Trends for PH Presidential Candidates, using Worldwide Scope and the most recent 7 days’ data.

Why Social Sentiment is Better at Gauging Voter Preference than surveys

Why Sentiment is Better at Gauging Voter Preference

Why is sentiment analysis better than surveys? Many political scientists believe that this technique has the potential to predict future voting behavior more accurately than other survey methods. But there are some problems with sentiment analysis. In particular, it is inaccurate during election years, when the polls are often wrong. The 2016 election was an example of this. In that election, Donald Trump won despite the fact that the majority of the polls predicted that he would not. This is because sentiment analysis was in its infancy, and the voters’ perception of the candidates was still being formed.

Despite its many limitations, sentiment analysis is useful for gauging public opinion. For example, it can help identify trends and help companies improve their products and train their salespeople. The analysis is also useful for tracking changes in consumer behavior, which can lead to more effective marketing campaigns. Furthermore, huge volumes of written information are produced every moment and published on the internet. The data gathered through sentiment analysis is valuable to companies and journalists to measure the perception of their products and services over time.

Social media is a great place to collect data, and you can use the data collected to improve your products. A good sentiment analysis can show changes in public opinion and help you adjust your products or sales staff to meet the needs of your customers. Using this information, you can create new marketing campaigns and improve your product. If you’re running an election, it is important to understand your audience and what they like and dislike. Using this information to improve your products and services is one of the best ways to stay on top of what customers are thinking.

Sentiment analysis is an invaluable tool for evaluating the political sentiment of people. While a survey can only capture a portion of a given population, it can reveal trends over time. In addition, it also helps you better target your advertising campaigns and better target your market. If you want to improve your products, it’s important to know how your customers think of them. With the right sentiment analysis, you can make smart decisions about your products and services.

Another reason why sentiment is better at gauging voter preference is because surveys are often prone to bias. For example, polls rely on past votes that are inaccurate can lead to the opposite outcome. That means that they can be a great indicator. A strong candidate can increase their chance of winning. Therefore, it is important to understand what your customers really think. And, you should also know what to do to improve your services.

Unlike surveys, sentiment analysis is a more reliable way to understand your customers’ attitudes. Its high accuracy means that people are more likely to vote for candidates who have the highest positive sentiment and negative sentiment. In the next election, it could be even more effective than the polls in predicting which candidate will win the presidential race. With so many variables involved, the difference is not worth ignoring.

The biggest problem with sentiment analysis is that it can be time-consuming. A survey can take days to be accurate. While a poll may be accurate, it does not measure how people feel about the candidates. For example, you might expect a candidate to have positive sentiment if they’re popular among his or her supporters. But if you’re worried about the polls’ accuracy, you should use an opinion survey instead.

In other words, it is more sensitive to a sudden change of opinion. For example, it is more likely to reflect the real-world mood of a person than a poll. For this reason, Sentiment is a better measure of voter preference than surveys. In other words, it can give you a better idea of what the people actually want. But a poll is not a substitute for a survey.

How to Avoid Paying For Social Media Listening

How to Avoid Paying For Social Media Listening

While many companies pay for a social media listening tool, the benefits of using one are clear. It will allow you to track sentiment in real-time, helping you improve your products, services, and marketing campaigns. But if you’re unsure of how to start, here are three steps you can take to avoid paying for social media listening tools. Here’s how to get started: Use a free service to monitor your competitors’ social channels and find out which topics they’re talking about.

How to avoid paying for social media listening

The first step in using social media listening tools is to build a solid social media reputation. It’s not enough to create a great website and attract a lot of followers. You need to constantly monitor your social channels to catch any red flags. You’ll be able to keep up with your competition if you’re using a social listening tool to track these conversations. And if your audience is engaged, it’ll become easier for you to keep up with them.

The next step is to use social listening as an insight source. This way, you’ll be able to monitor all the conversation happening about your brand. It’s crucial for you to be able to hear what customers have to say, even if they don’t tag you. This is how to avoid paying for social media listening. You’ll be able to spot trends early, and react accordingly.

If you’re planning to use social listening for marketing and PR, make sure you do it for free. It’s a good way to find out what people are talking about your products and services. By doing this, you can determine which influencers are relevant to your industry. If you’re trying to gain new followers, a social listening tool can help you identify these influencers. This will help you improve your messaging and social media activity.

Free social media listening services are an excellent resource to gather and analyze the conversations about your brand in your industry. Then, you can contact your leads directly and follow up on their interactions. By engaging in social conversations, you can discover what consumers are saying about your product or service. You can also reach out to them and offer your expertise in your niche. This can make the difference between a new client and a lost opportunity.

Free social media listening tools will allow you to track metrics from your company’s social media channels. By analyzing this information, you can understand what customers are saying about your brand and what they want. With social media listening, you can see where the conversations are taking place and what they’re saying about your brand. In addition, you can also gain insights from your customers. This is why it’s important to invest in social media monitoring.

In Demand Jobs to Enhance Your Wellbeing and Succeed During COVID-19

Having work-life balance is vital to achieving happiness in life. In the US, most employees spend over 40 hours per week at work. Overwork can have adverse effects on your health. So, even if you have a six-figure salary, you must recognize when it’s time to take a break. Because of COVID-19, companies have experienced a shortage of talent. They are now offering exceptional salaries and perks to attract the attention of qualified candidates.

Because of the increasing demand for tech skills, the competition has become tougher. Many workers are jobless because of the pandemic, and they are struggling to get a new job. If you’re wondering how to succeed during COVID-19, here are some job alternatives that will help you become an attractive worker. As you’ll have what’s necessary to meet world-class companies’ requirements, getting employed and having a better lifestyle won’t be a barrier.

Digital Marketer 

Digital Marketing with person using a laptop on a white table

The coronavirus pandemic accelerated the pace of the digital transition. Digital channels have become mainstream, and companies are looking for new ways to attract customers’ attention. Nowadays, digital marketers play a crucial role in improving companies’ marketing strategies and increasing brand recognition. Digital marketers use websites, social networks, and email to provide the best customer service. 

Years ago, using television, radio, and newspapers was an excellent option to attract and retain customers. But, since they are spending more online, digital advertising plays an essential role in making customers feel engaged. You need to learn a wide range of tech skills to become a digital marketer. However, Thinkful is a coding school that makes becoming a digital marketer much easier. 

Thinkful is committed to its students’ success. For that reason, students receive help from a career coach, an industry-experienced mentor, and an academic success manager throughout each course. Their tuition guarantee allows students to receive their money back if they don’t land a qualifying job within six months of graduation. 

At Thinkful, students learn everything they need to stand out from the competition. In that case, landing the job of your dreams will be possible. For example, a digital marketer can earn, on average, $120K per year at Amazon. They can also enjoy great perks like paid time off, annual discounts, and paid parental leave.

Mobile Developer

Mobile apps are helping companies reshape the market. They provide customers with the power to control everything with only one tool. Smartphones have become essential for our everyday lives, and companies are using mobile apps to make them more comfortable. Since online shopping is what customers prefer, companies like Home Depot and Gucci have taken their apps to the next level. By implementing augmented reality features, their apps allow customers to have 3D previews of products. 

Gucci’s app enables users to try on shoes before they buy them by using their smartphones’ cameras. Home Depot provides users with 3D previews of merchandise. With this technology, customers can see how products fit in a specific room. AR has allowed organizations to provide a better user experience and reduce costs on product returns.

In 2020, companies like Apple and Samsung are providing mobile developers with benefits and perks like on-site gym classes and spa sessions. Also, workers can receive product discounts and even tuition reimbursement benefits. Professional development has become a need, and companies are willing to do everything they can to meet the needs of skilled aspirants.

You can take online courses or enroll in a coding bootcamp like General Assembly to learn mobile development skills. General Assembly offers not only an iOS development course but also an Android development course. In that case, aspirants can decide between learning Java or Swift skills.

At General Assembly, students learn from experience by building real mobile apps. They get the right knowledge to design and code any app. Also, they gain an understanding of fundamental concepts to impress employers during interviews.

Cybersecurity Specialist

Since data is helping companies take significant strides, cybersecurity specialists have become a must for organizations. These professionals are responsible for keeping companies’ data safe and improving security strategies. Cybersecurity experts have to search for vulnerabilities in software and hardware. And by implementing analytics skills, they must develop new strategies to deal with potential threats. 

Since they have a lot of responsibilities on their shoulders, more companies are providing outstanding benefits. They can work from home and enjoy schedule flexibility. Also, organizations like Microsoft provide workers with health insurance benefits and premium savings to help them improve their wellness. Becoming a cybersecurity expert requires a lot of tenacity. But, I can assure you that your efforts will be rewarded.

Flatiron School offers a cybersecurity program that allows aspirants to learn how to deal with rapidly-advancing threats. With their real-world lab environments, students can learn how to set traps and catch hackers. The program is offered full-time and can be completed in only 12 weeks.

Data Scientist

Becoming a data scientist is an excellent alternative to enhance your wellbeing and succeed during COVID-19. They are in-demand, and employers are in a hunt for candidates with data science skills. Data scientists have to analyze, interpret, and visualize data to create actionable insights. By allowing organizations to make data-driven decisions, they play a key role in leading companies to success.

Metis is a coding school that offers online education to accelerate data science learning. Their data science bootcamp is designed to give aspirants the skills and connections they need to launch a rewarding career in data science. The company counts with career advisors that help students and grads to get hired. At Metis, students learn through hands-on projects and from the best tutors.    

Conclusion 

In general, these job alternatives are excellent for succeeding during the pandemic. Since candidates with these kinds of skills are in-demand, getting a better job and enhancing your wellbeing won’t be a problem. No matter what option you choose, you’ll be ready to overcome unemployment as well as future challenges. Keep in mind that the tech market is a fast-growing industry and it’s affecting every industry around the globe.  

Using ChatBots to Fight RoboCallers

Robolawyer startup DoNotPay launched Robo Revenge. It enables users to sue any US-based company that spams you with robocalls. The service generates a fake credit card number that you give to the telemarketer. Once they use it, their details are then recorded in the system.

The robocaller’s details and then helps you sue them for as much as $3,000. The service is live now on DoNotPay’s website and in its app.