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Secure Transactions: A PCI DSS & PA-DSS Overview and Compliance Checklist

With the advent of the Internet in the late 1990s, credit card fraud surged. Though credit card companies came out with their own individual security programs, merchants accepting multiple types of credit cards had difficulty meeting multiple standards. Eventually, credit card companies banded together to create the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), which was introduced by...
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How You Can Benefit From Penetration Tests

There are many reasons to penetration test your organization – and not just to adhere to compliance protocols. Nonetheless, sometimes that’s the routine we get caught in, isn’t it? We do it just because we have to, but we don’t leverage the findings from the tests to better secure our business. Well, today’s the day we start leveraging and seeing the true value behind penetration testing. Take a...
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Penetration Testing: Breaking in to Keep Others Out

What is Penetration Testing? Penetration testing is a direct test of an application, a device, a website, an organization, and even the people that work at an organization. It first involves attempting to identify and then attempting to exploit different security weaknesses that can be found in these various areas. Breaking into Your Own House It might be helpful to think of penetration testing...
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Who to Have a Part of Your Red Team

Red Team Basics The SANS definition of a Red Team is, “a process designed to detect network and system vulnerabilities and test security by taking an attacker-like approach to system/network/data access.” A Red Team should be formed with the intention of identifying and assessing vulnerabilities, testing assumptions, viewing alternate options for attack and revealing the limitations and risks...
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Securing Your Organization From the Inside Out

One of the most common ways for breaches to occur is purely out of not knowing if or how it could happen. You can’t protect what you don’t know you have – or that you don’t know you have to. Here are some tips for auditing your data and putting some security action behind it. Take Inventory of Your Data Before starting anything, are you aware of the data you’re collecting – or storing? Depending...
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What does “Compliance” mean to a Healthcare CISO?

The role of the healthcare CISO has expanded exponentially since the HITECH Act of 2009. CISOs were traditionally charged with the responsibility to maintain the IT environment consisting of applications and infrastructure. Today they are taking on an expanded organizational role consisting of innovation, operational responsibility and compliance. Although, the governance for compliancy...
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Pen Testing Stories from the Field: Combining Tools to Take Over an Entire Domain

There is no single set of instructions on how to run a penetration test, and no one manual on how to be a pen tester. The only real constant is that each job is a combination of preparation and improvisation to adapt and adjust to each environment’s quirks. So one of the best ways to learn and improve your own penetration testing techniques and strategies is from your peers, whether it be through...
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How to Revamp Your Organization's Cybersecurity Program

When cyberattacks and data breaches make the news, it’s usually because they’re at large companies like Facebook or healthcare organizations. But every organization, large or small, needs to be concerned about cybersecurity; hackers have begun to understand that, while smaller companies may have less data on hand, they may have access to covetable third parties. And, they’re less likely to have...