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Industry News: ESG5

      Know Your Breach: OWASP

      The Target: The OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project) Foundation is a nonprofit organization focused on improving the security of software. It provides freely available resources, tools, and documentation to help organizations develop, deploy, and maintain secure software applications.

      The Take: The incident impacted OWASP members from 2006 to around 2014 who provided their resumes as part of joining OWASP. Exposed resumes contained names, email addresses, phone numbers, physical addresses, and other personally identifiable information.

      The Vector: In late February 2024, the Foundation received a few support requests and became aware of a misconfiguration of OWASP’s old Wiki web server. The misconfiguration led to a data breach involving old member resumes.

      This breach highlights the extreme importance of timely software updates for known software vulnerabilities, not only in systems directly under a firm’s control, but in third-party systems the firm relies upon as well. The longer a firm, or its vendors, hold out on deploying the most up-to-date software for their systems, the greater the chance an attacker will exploit the issue.

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      Cyber Firms Island, Corelight Raise Big

      2024-04-30

      Crunchbase: Cybersecurity venture funding saw a small bounce back in the first quarter of the year and a couple of large raises may indicate that trend continuing.

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      US Merger Rules May Rein In Private Equity Cybersecurity Spending

      2024-04-30

      Yahoo Finance: In April 2024, UK cybersecurity company Darktrace agreed to be bought by US private equity (PE) company Thoma Bravo in a $5.3bn deal.

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      Survey: Human Factors Create Significant Cybersecurity Risks for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses, Despite Increased Technology Investment

      2024-04-30

      Business Wire: Small and medium-sized business (SMB) leaders report that they are investing more time, attention, and budget on cybersecurity, but human factors are getting in the way – including lack of awareness, training and inconsistent policy adherence.

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      Private Equity Firms Gain Enhanced Cyber Due Diligence and Portfolio Assessments with New Tool from BlackSwan Cyber

      2024-04-30

      PR Newswire: BlackSwan Cyber, a leading M&A Cybersecurity Advisor, has announced the release of its Cyber Maturity Assessment Platform. 

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      AI Increases Cybersecurity Threats Amidst IT Budget Cuts, Study Warns

      2024-04-29

      BNN Bloomberg: A new study warns that cybersecurity measures must be prioritized amidst an increasingly sophisticated threat of artificial intelligence (AI). 

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      UK’s Revamped Surveillance Rules Become Law Despite Industry Opposition

      2024-04-29

      CSO Online: The UK’s Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Act (IPAA) received royal assent, making it law and broadening the government’s ability to collect bulk communications data.

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      Standard Chartered CEO on Why Cybersecurity Has Become a 'Disproportionately Huge Topic' at Board Meetings

      2024-04-28

      The Record: As the chief executive of one of the largest banks in the world, Bill Winters is constantly identifying, evaluating and taking steps to mitigate risks.

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      Know Your Breach: Discord

      The Target: Discord is an instant messaging and VoIP social platform which allows communication through voice calls, video calls, text messaging, and media and files.

      The Take: Four billion public Discord messages which were publicly accessible and gathered from 14,201 servers, which are home to 627,914,396 users.

      The Vector: Scraping is a method where automated tools extract information from a platform, such as Discord, by exploiting weaknesses in bots or unofficial apps’ access and interaction with the targeted platform.

       This breach is a stark reminder of how strong authentication controls are in an overall robust cybersecurity posture, and that good password hygiene plays a pivotal role in protection. Change your password, enable two-factor authentication and be mindful of sharing personal information or sensitive content within Discord chats, even on private servers.

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      Darktrace Agrees Sale to Thoma Bravo for $5.32 Billion

      2024-04-26

      BNN Bloomberg: UK cybersecurity company Darktrace Plc agreed to sell itself to private equity firm Thoma Bravo for an equity value of about $5.32 billion. The deal will give Darktrace holders $7.75 in cash, or 620 pence per share, the companies said in a statement.

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