Know Your Enemy

• By Ralph C. Jensen
• Feb 01, 2018

Like it or not, every time you spend time on the keyboard, there may be someone watching your every keystroke. It wouldn’t hurt if you knew your enemy; and it certainly would be beneficial if you knew who was on your side.

Our cover story from Csaba Krasznay put this in proper perspective, much like a fisherman who might cast a wide net while trawling the ocean. That fisherman will likely bring fish, broken bottles, trash and maybe even a gold coin while retrieving his net. Not certain what he will catch, the fisherman can throw back everything or anything he doesn’t want.

There might be a gold coin in the net from an ancient shipwreck. Beware of Ransomeware because a simple firewall used to be good enough to protect you from the lazy fisherman, who will troll until he finds something of value.

Like an up-to-date fisherman, today’s Internet troll has deployed all the latest equipment, being able to strike in a more strategic and focused effort. This troll knows exactly what he wants and he knows where to look for it. This troll play at the tip of the sword, so to speak, that is crafted and sharpened against your weakness.

I think you’ll learn quite a bit from Krasznay, who will address effective security strategies, and why commonly used security measures fail. He will also address the need to understand motivations behind an attack, and the seven tips of recognition. He will detail how attackers are outpacing defenses, and why it is necessary to move beyond passwords and into the next generation of defense.

This article originally appeared in the February 2018 issue of Security Today.