In mid-summer of 2022, Albania accused the Iranian government of targeting them with a series of major cyberattacks. The attacks, which targeted government servers and online portals, raised alarms about the increasing expertise and audacity of Iranian-sponsored advanced persistent threat (APT) actors. Although many specifics about the attacks are still unknown, the FBI and other international observers believe that the Iranian government first breached the networks of the Albanian government by using phishing emails and malware as early as 14 months before launching the full attack. After gaining access, the attackers were able to penetrate deeper into the systems to obtain sensitive information and cause disruption to government operations.
Many OT engineers still believe that active scanning is not safe in OT environments. However, their assumptions don’t have a legitimate basis.
Yes, regular network and vulnerability scanners can cause devices to act erratically. Printers start spewing out pages. Embedded systems freeze up or reboot. But it doesn’t have to be this way. If you observe a few key aspects and use a purpose-built scanner, actively detecting ICS and IoT equipment is entirely safe. runZero has proven that active scanning is safe, and it’s evident across numerous industries.
Digging into issues with legacy scanners
To better understand the challenges of active scanning, we analyzed why legacy vulnerability and network scanners destabilize systems. We found four different root causes:
Legacy scanners often send intentionally malformed IP traffic to identify different flavors of operating systems. A robust TCP/IP stack on a Windows or Linux system will process the malformed traffic and respond in a specific manner that helps the scanner identify the flavor of the operating system.
Embedded systems often use legacy or custom TCP/IP stacks. When scanned with malformed IP traffic, these devices can freeze up or reboot because the unexpected traffic causes errors that are handled incorrectly by the stack.
Security probes
Vulnerability scanners send security probes, such as SQL injection exploits, to detect vulnerabilities in target systems. Embedded systems are often written without enough error handling built in, so the problem is similar as with malformed IP traffic: receiving unexpected network traffic can cause the devices to react erratically.
Heavy scan traffic per device
Legacy vulnerability and network scanners scan a large number of ports and can send several probes per port. This traffic is all sent to the end node in rapid succession. When all ports and probes are completed, the scanner moves on to the next host.
Enterprise IT hardware and mainstream operating systems can handle a lot of network traffic at once. OT equipment often doesn’t have a lot of processing power. Heavy scan traffic can overload the device, causing it to slow down or freeze up. In many industrial control applications, response times are critical. Even a slow down can have adverse effects on the overall environment.
Snowflake devices
When scanners avoid malformed IP traffic, security probes, and heavy scan traffic, most of the issues on OT networks can be resolved. However, there are a handful of particularly flakey devices that become unstable with even the most regular scan traffic. Serial-ethernet connectors, also known as print servers, tend to be among the worst “snowflake” devices.
Passive monitoring is expensive and lacks accuracy
That’s why by sticking with passive monitoring solutions instead of active scanning, OT engineers are inviting these issues into their projects:
Longer deployment cycles – Connecting to SPAN ports or TAP appliances is more complex than deploying a software scanner in the environment.
Higher cost – Requires lots of disk space and processing power, usually in the form of costly hardware appliances.
Missing assets – You can’t inventory assets that are not communicating.
Missing detail – Missing ports that are not communicating.
Low accuracy – Spotty accuracy because passive monitoring is limited to analyzing existing traffic.
Not future proof – The increasing amount of encrypted traffic makes passive monitoring solutions less viable over time.
Let’s take a look at the flip side and run through the key gains of leveraging an active scanning approach.
How to safely scan ICS environments
While legacy scanners cannot be used safely on OT assets, modern purpose-built scanners can safely scan ICS environments by following a few basic rules:
Use only standard-conforming IP traffic – All traffic sent from the scanner must be completely RFC compliant.
No security probes – Very easy. Just don’t use them.
Throttle traffic per host – Limit the number of packets sent to each node. A good starting point is 40 packets per second. The best scanners keep overall scan times short by sending all traffic round-robin on the network when the threshold is reached.
Probe for snowflakes – Detect snowflake devices before running a full port scan and adapt the scan for the particular model.
Now, let’s take a look at how these rules have been applied across different industries and what organizations have been able to uncover as a result.
Active scanning is a proven methodology across industries
Doing research in a lab is one thing, but proving a methodology in the field is another. This approach has been tested and deployed in production environments across many industries, including:
Building automation
Consumer and B2B electronics manufacturing
Biomedical device manufacturing
Telecommunications
Broadcasting
Universities (e.g., research instrumentation)
Data center technology
Transportation (e.g., train signals)
City and state infrastructure (e.g., street signs, surveillance cameras)
National labs
Apparel manufacturing
Car manufacturing
Aerospace manufacturing
Building material manufacturing
Retail stores (e.g., POS systems, HVAC)
Cattle and fish farms
Utilities
Saw mills
Hospitals
ICS equipment manufacturers
Some examples of equipment found in these environments include the following device types:
PLCs
Industrial control systems
Serial-Ethernet converters
HMI/HMI controllers/HDI
BACNET devices
Device servers
Surveillance cameras
Terminal servers
Access control systems
Intercoms
KVMs
Rugged WAP
Get started with active scanning of industrial control systems
You wouldn’t deploy a new piece of software across all of your devices without testing it first. The same is true for active scanning in ICS environments. As you’re considering rolling out active scanning technology, here are some tips to get you started:
Pick a purpose-built modern scanner – It’s unlikely that you will be successful with legacy network or vulnerability scanners as they send unsafe traffic. Pick a modern, purpose-built solution, such as runZero.
Start small and slow – If you have a small handful of devices in a lab, start there. Otherwise, pick a handful of devices to scan during a maintenance window and check their operational status afterwards. If you know you have snowflake devices, include them in your first scan. If it doesn’t work for them, it won’t work for the full network. Start with a very low network scan frequency, such as 1,000 packets per second from the scanner and 20 packets per second per host.
Try a bigger segment – Once you are comfortable with a handful of devices, scan a larger network segment during a maintenance window.
Plan your deployment – Deploy one scanner per network segment. Don’t scan through any network devices that filter traffic, otherwise the accuracy of your results will be impacted. Don’t scan through stateful devices because each IP/port connection will create another session and you may overload the device. Deploy the scanners on appropriate hardware or virtual machines. For a large network segment, you may want a dedicated host. For a medium-sized network, you can use an existing host. For small environments, you can even use a Raspberry Pi.
Hopefully, these tips will help you eradicate outdated and inaccurate perceptions against active scanning. Utilize these recommended best practices and you’ll be able to safely detect ICS and IoT devices via active scanning. runZero continues to prove this over and over again across multiple industries.
About Version 2 Limited Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.
Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.
About runZero runZero, a network discovery and asset inventory solution, was founded in 2018 by HD Moore, the creator of Metasploit. HD envisioned a modern active discovery solution that could find and identify everything on a network–without credentials. As a security researcher and penetration tester, he often employed benign ways to get information leaks and piece them together to build device profiles. Eventually, this work led him to leverage applied research and the discovery techniques developed for security and penetration testing to create runZero.
Lexmark assigned a CVSS score of 9.0 (“critical” severity rating) to this vulnerability (tracked as CVE-2023-23560), which allows server-side request forgery (SSRF) via the Web Services feature listening on port 65002 of affected printers. A successful attacker can exploit this vuln in a chain to gain code execution as root on vulnerable devices. Lexmark’s advisory states that, as of last week, they are not aware of anyone currently exploiting this vulnerability, but proof-of-concept exploit code is publicly available.
Are updates available?
All firmware versions (release numbers 081.233 and prior) for affected printer models contain this vulnerability (CVE-2023-23560). Lexmark has made firmware updates available for each affected device, via release numbers 081.234 and later (see Lexmark’s advisory for specific release version details per affected printer).
If updating firmware isn’t a near-term option for admins/owners of affected printers, Lexmark does offer a straightforward mitigation:
Disabling the Web-Services service on the printer (TCP port 65002) blocks the ability to exploit this vulnerability. The port can be blocked by following process: “Settings”->“Network/Ports”- > “TCP/IP”- > “TCP/IP Port Access” then uncheck “TCP 65002 (WSD Print Service )” and save.
How do I find potentially vulnerable Lexmark printer assets with runZero?
Please note that the following query relies on you having already performed a scan with our latest Explorer/scanner release (v3.4.22), which now includes the scanning of port 65002. Alternatively, you can perform a new scan using an older Explorer/scanner, just add port 65002 to the Included TCP ports list under the Advanced tab of your task settings prior to running the scan.
From the Asset Inventory, use the following pre-built query to locate Lexmark printer assets which may need remediation:
type:printer AND vendor:Lexmark AND tcp_port:65002
As always, any prebuilt queries are available from our Queries Library. Check out the library for other useful inventory queries.
About Version 2 Limited Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.
Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.
About runZero runZero, a network discovery and asset inventory solution, was founded in 2018 by HD Moore, the creator of Metasploit. HD envisioned a modern active discovery solution that could find and identify everything on a network–without credentials. As a security researcher and penetration tester, he often employed benign ways to get information leaks and piece them together to build device profiles. Eventually, this work led him to leverage applied research and the discovery techniques developed for security and penetration testing to create runZero.
ESET released its latest APT Activity Report, covering the period from September until the end of December 2022 (T3 2022).
Russia-aligned APT groups continued to be particularly involved in operations targeting Ukraine, deploying destructive wipers such as NikoWiper. Sandworm launched the wipers in parallel with Russia’s armed forces launching missile strikes targeting energy infrastructure. While ESET is not able to show that those events were coordinated, it suggests that Sandworm and the military forces of Russia have related objectives.
Russian APT groups attacked Ukraine with ransomware (Prestige, RansomBoggs).
Along with Sandworm, other Russian APT groups such as Callisto, Gamaredon, and Dukes continued their spearphishing campaigns against the Eastern European nation.
China-aligned groups, specifically Goblin Panda, started duplicating Mustang Panda’s interest in European countries.
Iran-aligned groups continued to operate at a high volume.
BRATISLAVA, MONTREAL — January 31, 2023 — ESET Research today released its latest APT Activity Report, which summarizes discoveries about select advanced persistent threat (APT) groups that were observed, investigated, and analyzed by ESET researchers between September and the end of December (T3) 2022. During this period, Russia-aligned APT groups continued to be particularly involved in operations targeting Ukraine, deploying destructive wipers and ransomware. Goblin Panda, a China-aligned group, started to duplicate Mustang Panda’s interest in European countries. Iran-aligned groups continued to operate at a high volume, too.
In Ukraine, ESET detected the infamous Sandworm group using a previously unknown wiper against an energy sector company. Nation-state or state-sponsored actors usually operate APT groups; the described attack happened in October during the same period when Russian armed forces began
launching missile strikes targeting energy infrastructure. While ESET is not able to show that those events were coordinated, it suggests that Sandworm and the Russian military have related objectives.
ESET has named the latest wiper, from a series of previously discovered wipers, NikoWiper. This wiper was used against a company in the energy sector in Ukraine in October 2022. NikoWiper is based on SDelete, a command line utility from Microsoft that is used for securely deleting files.
In addition to data-wiping malware, ESET discovered Sandworm attacks using ransomware as a wiper. In those attacks, although ransomware was used, the final objective was the same as for the wipers: data destruction. Unlike traditional ransomware attacks, the Sandworm operators do not intend to provide a decryption key.
In October 2022, ESET detected Prestige ransomware being deployed against logistics companies in Ukraine and Poland. And in November 2022, ESET discovered new ransomware in Ukraine written in .NET that we named RansomBoggs. ESET Research publicly reported this campaign on its Twitter account. Along with Sandworm, other Russian APT groups such as Callisto and Gamaredon have continued their spearphishing campaigns against Ukraine to steal credentials and install implants.
ESET researchers also detected a MirrorFace spearphishing campaign targeting political entities in Japan and noticed a gradual change in the targeting of some China-aligned groups – Goblin Panda started to duplicate Mustang Panda’s interest in European countries. Last November, ESET discovered a new Goblin Panda backdoor, which we named TurboSlate, in a government organization in the European Union. Mustang Panda has also continued to target European organizations. Last September, we detected a Korplug loader used by Mustang Panda at an organization in Switzerland’s energy and engineering sector.
Iran-aligned groups continued their attacks, too – besides Israeli companies, POLONIUM also started targeting the foreign subsidiaries of Israeli companies, and MuddyWater probably compromised a managed security service provider.
North Korea-aligned groups used old exploits to compromise cryptocurrency firms and exchanges in various parts of the world. Interestingly, Konni has expanded the repertoire of languages it uses in its decoy documents to include English, which means it might not be aiming at its usual Russian and South Korean targets.
ESET APT Activity Reports contain only a fraction of the cybersecurity intelligence data provided to ESET private APT report customers. ESET prepares in-depth technical reports and frequent activity updates detailing activities of specific APT groups in the form of ESET APT Reports PREMIUM to help organizations tasked with protecting citizens, critical national infrastructure, and high-value assets from criminal and nation-state-directed cyberattacks. More information about ESET APT Reports PREMIUM that deliver high-quality, strategic, actionable, and tactical cybersecurity threat intelligence is available on the ESET Threat Intelligence page.
About Version 2 Limited Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.
Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.
About ESET For 30 years, ESET® has been developing industry-leading IT security software and services for businesses and consumers worldwide. With solutions ranging from endpoint security to encryption and two-factor authentication, ESET’s high-performing, easy-to-use products give individuals and businesses the peace of mind to enjoy the full potential of their technology. ESET unobtrusively protects and monitors 24/7, updating defenses in real time to keep users safe and businesses running without interruption. Evolving threats require an evolving IT security company. Backed by R&D facilities worldwide, ESET became the first IT security company to earn 100 Virus Bulletin VB100 awards, identifying every single “in-the-wild” malware without interruption since 2003.
Happy New Year, NordPassers. We’re starting the year with a few important updates. Here’s what to expect in this release:
B2B TOTP. It might sound like random letters pieced together, but this means that NordPass Business users can now use TOTP functionality on Android devices. How exciting is that?
AUTOFILL ISSUE REPORTING BETA. Is autofill not working as expected on your favorite browser? You can now tell us what’s wrong. Look for the Feedback (Beta) when filling in passwords.
NordPass 3.50
This time we worked on nitty gritty details to make your password management experience even smoother. Here’s what to expect with this release:
MORE BROWSERS WITH BETTER AUTOFILL. We added native autofill support to Tor, Via, Phoenix, Maxthon; meaning that if you use any of these browsers it will now be easier for NordPass to recognize input fields and fill your passwords.
MINOR DESIGN CHANGES TO AUTOFILL SETTINGS.
BUG FIXES.
NordPass 3.49
We’re happy to present you with a new release. Here’s what we’ve got this time:
UI IMPROVEMENTS. New users will see an updated onboarding design, while the veterans will notice slight changes to the new password history feature.
BUG FIXES.
NordPass 3.48
No big announcements from us this time. However, we hope you’ll still enjoy an updated NordPass version with fewer bugs.
NordPass 3.47
We’re happy to present you with a new release. Here’s what we’ve got this time:
RATE NORDPASS IN-APP. Are you enjoying NordPass so far? Look for a pop-up to rate NordPass and help others choose their password manager.
AUTOFILL IN VIVALDI BROWSER. You will now fill your passwords and other information easier when using the Vivaldi browser.
IMPROVED AUTOFILL FOR OTHER LANGUAGES. If your browser is set to your local language, autofill will now pick it up quicker and help you save your passwords.
NordPass 3.46
No major updates this time, just a new and improved app release with fewer bugs for you to bump into – enjoy!
NordPass 3.45
Building good things takes time. So since the last release, we have focused on catching and eliminating pesky bugs.
NordPass 3.44
It’s a big day today. Premium users, get ready. From now on, you’ll be able to monitor breaches.
Your Breach Scanner can now scan breaches while you sleep. Set up an email you’d like us to monitor and will check breaches for you. If we find your email, we’ll notify you so you can take immediate action and protect your data. Look for this new functionality by going to the Breach Scanner.
P.S. We also fixed some bugs to improve your overall experience.
NordPass 3.43
No big announcements from us this time. However, we hope you’ll still enjoy an updated NordPass version with fewer bugs.
NordPass 3.42
This time we’ve waved bye-bye to some pesky bugs and have also spruced up the place a touch – enjoy!
NordPass 3.41
We’re happy to present you with a new release. Here’s what we’ve got this time:
PROFILE PHOTO. You can now add your favorite photo instead as your profile icon. With a customized profile icon, it’s easier to recognize your profile when sharing items or switching accounts.
NATIVE AUTOFILL ON BRAVE. This means your autofill and autosave experience has just leveled up. It will now be easier for us to recognize password fields and fill in your information.
BUG FIXES.
NordPass 3.40
Building good things takes time. So since the last release, we focused on catching and eliminating pesky bugs.
NordPass 3.39
No big announcements from us this time. However, we hope you’ll still enjoy an updated NordPass version with fewer bugs.
NordPass 3.38
This time we’ve waved bye-bye to some pesky bugs and have also spruced up the place a touch – enjoy!
NordPass 3.37
Building good things takes time. So since the last release, we have mainly focused on catching and eliminating pesky bugs.
NordPass 3.36
A new week and a new NordPass release. Here’s what we’ve got:
NEW SETTING: CLEAR COPY ITEM DATA. When you copy your password or other item data, it’s typically saved in the clipboard. To avoid pasting it somewhere you didn’t intend; you can now choose the clipboard to clear after a set time.
LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE. For our Lithuanian friends out there, you can now use NordPass in your mother tongue. Simply head to Settings to change the language.
BUG FIXES.
NordPass 3.35
We’re happy to present you with a new release. Here’s what we’ve got:
SWITCH ACCOUNT. A long-awaited feature is here! If you have a few NordPass accounts, like personal and business, switching between them will now be a breeze. Just click on your profile account and look for a “Switch Account” button.
CARD PIN. From now on, you can also add your PIN when saving your card details. Don’t worry; it won’t be autofilled. It’s for your reference only.
BUG FIXES.
NordPass 3.34
Happy pancake day, people! Though if it were up to NordPass, every day would be a pancake day. In the meantime, while you are enjoying your pancakes, donuts, or pastries, we are presenting you with a new NordPass release with fewer bugs.
NordPass 3.33
Our bug busters have been working hard since the last time you heard from us. That’s why today we can proudly present another NordPass release with even fewer bugs. We hope you’ll like it.
NordPass 3.32
Did you know that January has one of the most depressing days? It’s called Blue Monday, they say. Good that it’s over. But if you are still feeling a little bit blue, here’s what you can do to survive this winter:
Enjoy the outdoors, go for a walk or take up a new sport;
Connect with a long-lost friend or family member;
Run the Data Breach Scanner and update your vulnerable passwords. Once you do, select “Resolved” for the updated passwords and they won’t appear next time you run the scan.
NordPass 3.31
Like last year, in 2022, we’ll strive to become a better, smoother-running, and more user-friendly app. So why not start with this week? We present you with a new NordPass version with fewer bugs and Autofill issues.
NordPass 3.30
We hope you are not sick and tired of Christmas songs, even if you’ve heard them a million times before. And we hope that you are not stressed buying last-minute presents or thinking about a Christmas menu. But if you’re, it will all be ok.
After all, ‘It’s the most beautiful time of the year.’ Merry Christmas!
P.S. And here’s a new NordPass release to bring you a little cheer.
NordPass 3.29
Did you know that if your password is ‘ginger,’ it would take a hacker less than 1s to guess it? If you use NordPass, we know you can do better than that. Create strong and unique passwords with your NordPass mobile app, and don’t let any Grinch steal your Christmas (or your accounts) this year.
NordPass 3.28
It’s 5 weeks until Christmas! Yes, it’s time to buy presents for your loved ones. But do you sometimes slip and buy gifts for yourself instead? Because we do. Don’t tell this to anyone.
So if you slip this year, don’t worry too much about it. You can save up to 75% of NordPass Premium plans and give the so-needed peace of mind for you and your family guilt-free.
We’re making the NordPass app for Android better, smoother, slicker – one release at a time. How exactly? Read all the highlights in our release notes and make sure to never miss a new version – we want you to get all the best stuff.
NordPass 3.27
–Beep beep– app update incoming:
Native autofill on Chrome. Simply put, Nordpass is now better at recognizing login fields. It means smoother and faster autofill!
Data Breach Scanner update. If you use a leaked password for several accounts, the app will notify you about accounts put at risk. Remember to update them!
Title suggestions. Running out of ideas for naming items in your vault? No worries – NordPass will suggest using the website name for the title.
Usual bug-fixing business.
NordPass 3.26
Trick or treat? Who are we kidding? It’s always just treated here at NordPass. So here’s our Halloween treat to you – a brand new NordPass release. Don’t worry, nothing to be scared of—just a smoother running version of your password manager.
NordPass 3.25
Getting your data stolen isn’t nice. But if that happens to you, it’s important to identify the stolen information and act quickly. That’s why from this release, you can use the Breach Scanner to find out the type of data that was leaked and see it in plain text.
We also wanted to improve our communication with you. So from now, if you open the app and see a red dot next to a bell icon, just know that it’s some important information from us to you.
NordPass 3.24
Seasons change. Leaves turn yellow and brown. It might be sad, but don’t feel too down. Just remember, your passwords are safe and sound.
And if you don’t like amateur rhymes, that’s fine. With this release, you’ll have less bugs in your life.
NordPass 3.22
Good things are meant to be shared, right? That’s why now, when you invite a friend to try NordPass, we’ll award both of you with a free month of Premium (max 3 months). You can invite as many friends as you wish. Just head to the app, select “Invite a friend,” and send the invite.
NordPass 3.21
What do you have in the box this time NordPass? Well, let me see…
Email or username suggestion. That’s right, now when creating a new item, you only need to enter a few letters in the username field, and NordPass will suggest filling it with one of your already used ones.
Autofill fixes.
Bug fixes, bug fixes, and more bug fixes.
NordPass 3.20
It’s the end of the summer, eh? You must be sad. Or happy? Maybe because you’ve just got NordPass at the end of summer sale. Or perhaps you live down under, and it’s actually not the end of the summer but the end of winter. Either way, we hope you’ll enjoy a new NordPass version with fewer bugs and more love.
NordPass 3.19
Random fact of the day: Did you know that there’s a bunch of ladies working at NordPass? Yes, we don’t follow any stereotypes here. So in this release, we want to thank all the women who tirelessly and continuously work to make NordPass a better password manager.
NordPass 3.18
Hola! Last week we presented you NordPass in Italian. Can you guess what we have in store this week? Yes, that’s right. NordPass is now available in Spanish! Head to Settings to update your language preferences.
And, of course, we continue to work on any pesky bugs you or we identify. Bye, bugs!
NordPass 3.17
Buongiorno! What a year this was for Italy. First the Eurovision, then Euro Cup, and now, coincidence or not, NordPass. Yes, you are right, you can now use NordPass in Italian, and it doesn’t matter if you are enjoying the sun in Rome or simply practicing your Italian skills. You can change your language preference in Settings.
And of course, what release is without bug fixes? We crushed them too.
NordPass 3.16
Hey NordPass user, do you like scrolling? Not when I’m looking for a password, you will say. Yeah, we thought so. That’s why we introduced a quick scroller. Now when scrolling through your items, you’ll see that they are grouped. Go on, find your passwords with ease.
P.S We have also resolved those pesky bugs. Bye-bye, bugs.
NordPass 3.15
Searching for bugs… Loading… Loading… Bugs found… BUGS FIXED!
*Works only if you install the update first to put those BUG FIXES in place. Stay safe and happy!
NordPass 3.14
Sharing is caring, right? Well, now you can select multiple items and share them all at once. Easy peasy. Just always make sure you trust the people you share your credentials with.
NordPass 3.13
You know that moment when you create a super-strong password with NordPass Generator and forget to save it? Yeah, we’ve been there too. That’s why you’ll now see a little clock icon in your Generator. Tap on it to see previously generated passwords.
And, of course, we won’t release a new NordPass version without getting rid of as many bugs as possible.
NordPass 3.12
You want strong and unique passwords, simple – you generate them with the Password Generator. But what if you want a strong password you need to remember? Yes, we thought about this too.
So in this release, you’ll see some changes to your Password Generator. Now you can generate passwords made out of words, spaces, hyphens, and much more. How cool is that?
NordPass 3.11
We’re coming back with a bunch of updates to help you make your accounts even more secure.
PASSWORD HEALTH INTEGRATION. You can now see how healthy your password is by opening the item — no need to go to Password Health. If your password could be stronger, you’ll see “weak, old, or reused” next to it.
P.S. There’s more. We’ve fixed a ton of autofill bugs for a smoother login experience.
NordPass 3.10
Are your passwords healthy or vulnerable? If you haven’t checked it yet, now is a good time. We’ve just revamped the Password Health tool, and it’s looking better than ever. It’s so much easier to use too. Check it out.
Anything else? Of course! Our team is continuously working on improving the Autofill feature so that you’d have a smooth one-click-to-login experience.
NordPass 3.9
If you haven’t tried the Breach Scanner yet, now you have a reason. We completely revamped the design. Oh boy, it looks even more pleasing to the eye.
What are you waiting for? Go and make sure your accounts are secure.
NordPass 3.8
Bonjour. Comment ça va? Yes, our French-speaking friends, this release is for you! NordPass is now available in French. Head to Settings and change the language.
In other news:
LIMITED RIGHTS CHANGES. From now on, once you receive an item with Limited Rights, it’s for you only. No further shares allowed.
B2B GROUPS. NordPass Business users say hello to Groups. Now it will be easier to share passwords with a group of people all at once. Think, your Marketing or Finance department.
NordPass 3.7
Sometimes what we do is either too difficult to explain or too difficult to see. Yes, you guessed it. This week we put all our effort into finding and getting rid of bugs. We hope we’ll have something more exciting for you next week.
NordPass 3.6
Sprichst du Deutsch? Then we have good news for you. You can now enjoy NordPass in German. Just go to your settings and change the language.
But that’s not it. We have some exciting news for anyone who speaks french too. Stay tuned. 😉
NordPass 3.5
This release theme? Fixes, fixes, and more fixes. Quality over quantity. So what did we actually do?
Found and got rid of your beloved dark theme bugs.
Improved Autofill by killing nasty bugs.
Other teeny-tiny bug fixes.
NordPass 3.4
No breaking news this time. We know. We’ll do better! Just business as usual and a ton of bug fixes for a smoother app experience.
NordPass 3.3
Guten Tag, – says NordPass. Yes, that’s correct. If your phone’s default language is German, you can now enjoy NordPass in your preferred language. Anything else? Of course! More bug fixes.
NordPass 3.2
Well, hello there. It’s NordPass calling with a shiny brand new release. Here’s what we’ve got:
CHANGES IN 2FA SETUP. Now two-factor authentication will be set up for your Nord Account and applied to all Nord products you might use.
AUTOFILL AND AUTOSAVE ISSUES FIXED, so you could continue saving and filling passwords quicker than you can blink.
DARK MODE BUGS FIXED. Minor bugs were found since we released the dark mode. Nothing to worry about; they are now gone.
NordPass 3.1
Still recovering from the last release? If you haven’t heard (or seen it yet), you can now enjoy NordPass dark mode!
Unfortunately, we are not superheroes, so we can’t drop any big news today. Plus, it wouldn’t be fun this way. So this time, we worked on some maintenance tasks to keep your app running smoothly:
COPY CHANGES to help you navigate through the app.
AUTOSAVE ISSUES FIXED to help you save those passwords in a click.
BUG FIXES. Because no release is complete without them, right?
NordPass 3.0
Where’s the drumroll, please? You ready? You’d better sit down for this one. I’m serious; sit down. OK, you’re finally sitting.
I’m just scared you’ll fall and hurt yourself once you hear this, that’s all. Oh, I know. It’s so annoying when someone is creating tension but not telling you what this is all about, right?
Ready, set, new release! What can you expect to see in the new and shiny NordPass 2.17?
AUTOFILL FIXES. Slowly but surely, we are conquering the net and one website at a time, making signing in easier than ever. Magic x2!
ADD CREDIT CARD WITH NFC. Yes, you heard it. You can now scan your credit cards and keep them in NordPass by simply touching your card against your phone. Magic!
NordPass 2.16
8 letters, 2 words, one meaning.
9 letters, 3 words, one feeling.
We felt kind of nervous to say it out loud… But again, they say – don’t talk, just act. So we’re bringing you yet another collection of chocolate-flavoured, hand-picked BUG FIXES to express how much WE LOVE YOU. Please update to enjoy even smoother app experience.
NordPass 2.15
Once upon a time, a password manager named NordPass lived. They wanted to become the best password manager there ever was, and did it one release at a time.
AUTOFILL ISSUES FIXED. Salvador Dali said not to fear perfection as we’ll never reach it, but we’ll still give it a good go.
QUICK ACTIONS ADDED. Just click on the app and quickly access Password Generator, search your items, or add a new password.
TOOLS AND MENU REWORK. Now you can enjoy a much cleaner and Menu, Settings, and Tools tab.
NordPass 2.14
AbraCadabra boom! No, it’s not magic. It’s just your passwords and credit cards information filling in quicker and smoother than ever before. Bye-bye, annoying bugs who tried to stop you.
What else can you expect in this release? Some copy changes to make the app easier to navigate, and we are super excited to share with you some news – Dark theme is coming soon.
NordPass 2.13
New Year, new NordPass release. Here’s what you’ll see in the latest version:
AUTOFILL IMPROVEMENTS. The sky’s the limit for this one.
BETTER LOOKING ITEMS. Items with no accounts have just become more stylish, or in other words, more colorful.
AUTOSAVE IMPROVEMENTS, so you could save your passwords in a blink of an eye.
EASY-TO-UNDERSTAND PASSWORD FORMATTING. We hear you; telling apart 0 from O when creating passwords isn’t easy, but it will be from now on.
NordPass 2.12
Yeah, Christmas will be different this year. But we’ve still got something to spread a little cheer.
In this release, you will see:
ITEM ACTION FIXES, which we noticed when scrolling through an item’s action list.
COPY CHANGES to make your app easier to navigate.
AUTOFILL FIXES, so you could smoothly log in to even more websites and apps.
MULTISELECT AND SORTING. You can now select multiple items and move them to a specified folder or Trash and sort them by Title or Date Last Used.
NordPass 2.11
NordPass has turned 1 year old, can you believe it? We can honestly say that this year, we are the most grateful for YOU, our dear NordPass user. You, who believed in us and drove us to release one update after another.
So here’s one more. Full of even more design edits, bug fixes, and love:
MINOR DESIGN AND COPY CHANGES because who doesn’t like a good-looking app. AUTOFILL BUG FIXES, so you could log in to your favorite websites and apps quicker than you can count to three.
NordPass 2.10
ADD/EDIT ITEM FIXES. Next time you add a new item, or edit an existing one, pay attention to the new design. Sleek, isn’t it?
IN-APP SHARED ITEM NOTIFICATION. Someone shared an item with you? You’ll get a notification in your app instantaneously. Forget emails.
BUG FIXES. No bugs allowed in our app.
NordPass 2.9
NORDPASS BUSINESS AVAILABLE ON ANDROID. Business people beware, it’s your time to shine. Fill in passwords on mobile browsers and apps (like a boss!), sign in to your accounts with a fingerprint (like a boss!), and never ever have those dreadful phone calls with Brian from IT because you forgot your computer password after a long long holiday (Ouch!).
NordPass 2.8
SECURE NOTES FORMATING – FIXED. It looks like we’ve accidentally deleted text formating options on a previous app update. Sorry about that! Formating is back and now ready for your bold, italic or quoted notes more than ever before.
DESIGN IMPROVEMENTS. A little treat for eagle-eye users – please welcome those charming menu icons and precise text formatting.
AUTOFILL IMPROVEMENTS. No app update was or will be released without this one.
BREACH REPORT. Now this one may feel like a fun lottery, except the fact that it’s probably better not to ‘win’ anything. By clicking a ‘Scan’ button, you can find out if any of your accounts were ever caught in data breaches. Fingers crossed, they’re not.
AUTOFILL IMPROVEMENTS. Even more websites are ready to autofill your passwords.
DESIGN IMPROVEMENTS only eagle eyes will spot. We all know who lies in the details, right?
NordPass 2.6
PASSWORD HEALTH CHECKER. If you hear someone coughing and no one is at home – that might be a password in your vault. Take a chance to use this new fancy tool for making your precious passwords stronger and happier (and accounts safer) without leaving the house.
AUTOFILL IMPROVEMENTS. You probably might start thinking that we are making up this one each time, just to add something to the release notes. The truth is that with each update, we are getting closer to perfection.
NordPass 2.5
NORDVPN. Nobody likes snoopers – especially online ones. Luckily, VPN helps. Look for getting NordVPN in Menu – surf the Internet privately, no matter where your path may lead you.
AUTOFILL IMPROVEMENTS. Every time you tap NordPass icon to autofill, there’s an actual person who copies and pastes your login details. Wait, do they see your passwords?! No, of course not – they are trained to work wearing blindfolds. We hired more people to this department, so “auto”fill is now way better.
NordPass 2.4
They say – small changes make a big difference. Behold – the update with a bunch of app upgrades is here. Let’s see what we’ve got here:
VISUAL IMPROVEMENTS. Mirror mirror on the wall, who is prettiest of them all? Well, our designer’s brush made some magic tweaks, so the answer is clear now – it’s those tiny cute little app icons. Lookin’ good!
APP LOADING FASTER. Need for speed? You’re welcome! Fasten your seatbelt and put the pedal to the metal – the project “Make the app faster” was completed successfully.”
BUG FIXES. Dear sneaky bugs, thanks for visiting, farewell, let’s never meet again.”
NordPass 2.3
AUTOSAVE. We’ve invited web browsers and mobile apps to the summer password-training camp. Result: those who attended will now suggest saving your credentials to the vault. Whenever you type them manually.”
OTHER IMPROVEMENTS. We also did some tinkering under the hood to make your password-managing experience even smoother.”
NordPass 2.2
PERSONAL INFO. Ready to fill online forms even quicker? Keep your name, email, phone number and address in the vault to fill delivery info or other online forms. Faster than ever.
AUTOFILL IMPROVEMENTS. Brought to life by popular demand, the project “Make autofill better” was completed successfully. The result: the app automatically fills your credentials on even more apps and websites.
NordPass 2.1
ADD ITEM TO FOLDERS. Instantly – when creating or editing an item. Just select a folder, and you’re good to go.
VISUAL IMPROVEMENTS. Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the prettiest of them all? FYI, our designer’s brush made some small visual improvements in the vault. Lookin’ good!
AUTOFILL IMPROVEMENTS. You report – we improve. Win-win!
NordPass 2.0
APP DESIGN IMPROVEMENTS. Here you go. A piece of nicely, freshly baked update – straight from the oven. Enjoy these deliciously sweet visual improvements and improved password-managing experience. Bon Appéti
NordPass 1.9
NORD ACCOUNT. Meet new and simplified way to sign up and log into NordPass.
STRONGER MASTER PASSWORDS. Added some guidance for leveling-up your Master Password. For even better vault protection.
UPDATED SHARED ITEM VIEW. An easier way to find out who has access to shared items.
AUTOFILL IMPROVEMENTS. More websites will be pleased to autofill your credit card details. Faster online checkouts FTW.
NordPass 1.8
SWIPE DOWN TO SYNC ITEMS. The best thing since sliced bread – refresh the vault by swiping down to sync your items across devices.
INTERFACE CHANGES. No more going ‘home’ to find the item you need. Browse vault categories to browse items.
You say ‘AUTOFILL’, we say ‘IMPROVEMENTS’. Nothing else to add but even smoother app experience.
ADD LOGIN – AT FLOATING BUTTON. All you need is milk and cookie – for adding new logins. One more addition for native browser lovers!
NordPass 1.7
SETTINGS – SAVED. The app was sometimes forgetful about your settings. It went through some memory training, and things are now much better – no more forgotten preferences.
PASSWORD GENERATOR IMPROVEMENTS. Strong passwords everywhere – generate some while creating new logins.
TEXT FORMATTING. Jazz up your notes – make them bold, make them italic – make them FUN.
AUTOFILL IMPROVEMENTS. Autofill is now multilingual – fill in credentials to even more websites and apps.
Also, fewer app crashes.
NordPass 1.6
This update is oddly satisfying. Meet and greet:
FOLDERS. All that sorting, managing, organizing, arranging, categorizing, and many more synonyms to describe one thing – that pleasure putting your items in order. Or in folders – just as you like it.
COPY SELECTED TEXT. You can now select only a part of the text in your note. Finally! Smoother copying – faster pasting.
TEXT UPDATES. The magic of great copy in the app is invisible – you might not notice it, but it helps to do the job.
NordPass 1.5
Let’s run the password-managing world with this update:
AUTOFILL improvements. More supported browsers, more flawless autofilling and saved time.
PASSWORD GENERATOR. We’ve heard you, and now we proudly announce: password generator is ready at your command. Let’s begin the new ge-ne-ra-tion for stronger passwords.
Our designers and copywriters felt inspired by their muses, so they added some nice brush flicks at the app. Hopefully, we’re getting closer to becoming a piece of art someday.
NordPass 1.4
Are you ready? Here’s what’s new with NordPass:
NATIVE AUTOFILL feels like heaven. Those cosmic odysseys of saving new passwords to the vault are so intuitive, fast, and smooth like never before. Relax and enjoy the journey.
Look, mom, no hands! Meet FACE UNLOCK – an amazing addition to accessing your vault with biometrics. Put that p-p-p-poker face on and unlock NordPass on the go.
Some minor bugs were caught and added to our trophy collection.
NordPass 1.3
Hey you! What’s new with NordPass:
Vault SCREENSHOTS. You may now screenshot not only your crush’s stories on social media but also your vault. Of course, you can also disable them for even better protection of your vault. Handy, right?
ITEM IMPORT from mobile browsers. No fancy words needed – it’s simply an awesome feature itself.
Some minor catches at the bug-hunting department. Bang!
NordPass 1.2
We woke up like this. What’s new with NordPass:
Tap tap tap. All flawless, shiny and new interface for tablet fanboys and cheer girls. Enjoy scrolling your vault miles away on a bigger screen.
Scan scan scan. Texts, books, magazines, credit cards, road signs, billboards – whatever your heart desires. It’s a kind of magic.
Fix fix fix. Minor fixes under the hood – nothing too fancy, just making sure to be the coolest guy on the block.
NordPass 1.1
NordPass has leveled up!
IN:
ITEM SHARING. Sharing is always about caring. From now on you will be able to share your items in the vault via phone. Safe and easy, of course.
IN-APP PURCHASES. Forget password stress without getting off the couch – you can now upgrade to NordPass Premium with a few taps on your screen.
OUT: various small bugs. Goodbye fellows, it was nice to meet you but we doubt we ever miss you.
About Version 2 Limited Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.
Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.
About NordPass NordPass is developed by Nord Security, a company leading the global market of cybersecurity products.
The web has become a chaotic space where safety and trust have been compromised by cybercrime and data protection issues. Therefore, our team has a global mission to shape a more trusted and peaceful online future for people everywhere.
Imagine: there’s a new security threat. How do you find out if your organization is affected? You might research the CVE to gauge the severity and impact of the vulnerability. You might perform a vuln scan — if there’s a vuln check available. At some point, you’ll eventually end up with a list of devices that you need to update.
What are your next steps?
The cost of not tracking asset ownership
In an ideal world, your asset inventory would be the first place you would look for information. However, the reality is: most organizations have their asset inventory data distributed across multiple solutions and maintained by different teams. So instead of being able to focus on mitigating issues, your security team spends an inordinate amount of time doing detective work. And for security practitioners, time is of the essence.
Asset inventory is the first step to getting context around a device: the hardware, OS, software, etc. But what about who owns it? More and more, knowing who is responsible for an asset is as important as knowing what an asset is. Without clear asset ownership tracking, you waste a lot of time going from team to team, person to person, trying to find out who is responsible for an asset.
Let’s take a look at three reasons why a lack of asset ownership can adversely impact your business.
Reason #1: Forgotten assets can be costly
One of the biggest obstacles to tracking asset ownership is humans. Humans are dynamic, often upgrading to new equipment, changing roles, or even leaving organizations entirely. As a result, assets are often left abandoned, unmanaged, and unowned. Documenting asset ownership manually, like in a spreadsheet, means that the data becomes outdated very quickly. Effective asset ownership tracking requires regular updates and attention. Without a major investment of time and resources to maintain asset ownership tracking, stale data will continue to plague your organization. For example, consider infrastructure that no longer has an owner, but is still racking up recurring expenses. These forgotten assets can be costly over time.
Reason #2: Lack of asset ownership can lead to service outages
Your business relies on having systems that are working efficiently. Systems need to be updated, upgraded, and maintained regularly to ensure that everything runs smoothly and outages do not occur. However, what would happen if a specific system needed a configuration update to continue to operate? How would you know who to go to?
Oftentimes, it’s a goose chase. You start with one person (or team) and hope they can point you in the right direction. While you’re chasing down the appropriate person to help you, access to the systems you need may be shuttered or months may have passed by. These consequences can be detrimental to business – especially if these systems directly impact revenue.
Nearly a decade has come and gone between these major vulnerabilities, and yet, building comprehensive asset inventory and tracking asset ownership continues to be a challenge. One of the biggest challenges faced by security teams is that they often need to rely on asset owners to take action to update and secure their devices. However, tracking down the right asset owner can be a bit of a journey through a myriad of data sources – from CMDBs to VMs to EDRs to device logs to spreadsheets. The amount of time that security teams spend hunting for information is a hindrance to fast response and remediation times.
Tracking asset ownership with runZero
runZero 3.5 introduces the ability to track asset owners in your inventory. Asset owners can be anyone in your organization who can help you remediate issues. For most organizations, assets will likely have multiple owners, such as an individual, team, and business unit. For example, a laptop might have an assigned device user, business owner, IT owner, and security owner. Each of these assignments will help you zero in on the right person who can take action on the device, based on the situation. Let’s take a look at how runZero can help you track different types of owners within your organization.
What are ownership types?
In runZero, ownership types help you classify and assign ownership to assets. There is a default ownership type, called Asset Owner, which automatically pulls owner data from integrations you have configured. Otherwise, you can add up to nine custom ownership types based on what your organization needs. For example, you might want to have ownership types for the security owner, IT owner, and business owner.
Name – The name of the asset ownership type, such as IT owner.
Reference – You can set the reference to user, group, or none. If set, you will be able to easily search within the user or group inventories for owners that match the display name.
Visibility – You can set the visibility to hidden or visible. This setting controls the ability to view the asset owner from the asset inventory and asset details page.
After you have created your ownership types, you’re ready to start assigning owners within your asset inventory. Let’s take a look at how you can do this in runZero.
How to assign ownership to assets in runZero
There are a couple of ways to assign asset owners: manually or automatically through rules and the API. However, the most efficient way to apply ownership is through rules, which allows you to set up specific conditions and automate the assignment of asset ownership after each scan. For example, let’s say you want to assign an IT owner for all firewalls. Here’s how you can do it with rules:
From the Rules page, create a rule using the asset-query-results event type. Based on this event type, the query will run against the asset inventory after a scan completes.
Give the rule a descriptive name, like Automate IT ownership for firewalls.
Configure the rule with the following conditions:
Run the following query after a scan completes: type:firewall and the number of matches is greater than 0.
If there is a match on the query, take the following action: modify the asset and set the ownership of the matching assets. This value for the owner can be any name. For our example, we will assign the IT owner to someone on the team named Tim.
Make sure the rule is enabled. If it is not, it will not run.
Save the rule.
Each time a scan completes, this rule will check for matching conditions and perform the configured actions.
Viewing ownership data for an asset
Now that you’ve set up ownership types and automated ownership assignment, let’s take a look at how you can view this data in runZero. You can view ownership information from two areas of the console: the asset inventory and the asset details page.
There’s a new column in the asset inventory called Owners, which will list the owners for the asset. If there are multiple owners, there will be a plus (+) sign to indicate that there are more for you to view. The owner name that gets displayed in the inventory table depends on the order you have them ranked on the ownership types page. The highest ranked ownership type will take precedence. In our example, we have our IT owner ranked first, so we will see our IT owners displayed in the inventory table. Other owners will be viewable by hovering over the plus (+) sign. From the asset inventory page, you can select some assets then use the Manage asset ownership button to manually update the owner for those devices.
From the asset details page, there is a new ownership section that lists all the visible owners assigned to that asset. If the ownership type has a reference set (to user or group), you’ll be able to click on the magnifying glass next to the owner name to search within those inventories for matching results. From the asset details page, you can go to Manage > Asset ownership to manually update the owner for that specific device.
Searching the inventory for assets based on owners
Now that you have asset ownership data in your inventory, you can search for assets that match specific ownership criteria. To enable searching based on ownership attributes, the following new keyword terms have been added:
owner – Filter by asset owner name, such as Tim.
has_owner – Filter assets by whether or not they have an owner. Use t or f as your input.
owner_count – Use a comparison operator (>, >=, <, <=, =)to filter assets by count.
ownership_type – Filter by ownership type, such as IT owner.
Here are a few useful queries (based on some common use cases):
has_owner:f – Searches for assets that don’t have an owner assigned.
ownership_type:"IT owner" – Searches for assets by ownership type.
owner_count:>1 – Searches for assets that have more than one owner.
For example, if you need to gauge the number of unowned (and likely unmanaged) assets in your inventory, the query has_owner:f would help identify assets that don’t have an owner. Inversely, you can use has_owner:t to see all the ones that do have an owner. Between these two results, you can discern how well you’ve got your asset ownership data covered. To see how well your organization is tracking asset owners, you can also check out the asset ownership goal from the dashboard.
Zero in on unowned assets on your network
Imagine: there’s a new security threat. Thankfully, you have an asset inventory that includes asset ownership data. With a solid program and solution in place to track asset owners, you’ve eliminated unnecessary time spent chasing down people. You can focus on remediation.
If you’re a runZero Enterprise customer, you can check out the ownership capabilities by going to the new Ownership page in your console. You’ll notice a new menu item for it under Global Settings. Otherwise, if you’re new to runZero, sign up for a free trial to test out this new feature for 21 days.
About Version 2 Limited Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.
Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.
About runZero runZero, a network discovery and asset inventory solution, was founded in 2018 by HD Moore, the creator of Metasploit. HD envisioned a modern active discovery solution that could find and identify everything on a network–without credentials. As a security researcher and penetration tester, he often employed benign ways to get information leaks and piece them together to build device profiles. Eventually, this work led him to leverage applied research and the discovery techniques developed for security and penetration testing to create runZero.
Can any employee access company resources from anywhere and at any time? It depends on the company’s infrastructure. Recently established businesses have more chances to provide access wherever their teams are. However, companies with legacy architectures need to readapt to have the same time and place flexibility.
Every company infrastructure setup is unique. Therefore, it may require a different approach to solving the same challenges — like how users can access office-based data, applications, or devices while not being present on that particular site.
The most common solution is to choose VPN for security purposes and enablement of distributed teams. However, the VPN selection depends on its type and existing company network arrangement.
If your target is to enable employees to securely connect to different offices and branches of the organization despite being elsewhere, Site-to-Site VPN is the option to explore.
Site-to-Site solution using NordLayer
Site-to-Site allows users to reach office-bind resources on HQ, your assigned office, or another company branch while not actually being on-site. It is a type of VPN that establishes an encrypted connection to a requested resource on the company network.
NordLayer’s cloud-based feature elevates typical industry Site-to-Site capabilities by connecting not just different corporate sites and resources but by enabling both on-site present and remote users to connect to any company resource on the network.
Therefore, connection to a single physical location via a virtual private gateway using VPN translates into user connection to all devices and resources assigned to a company router or firewall.
How does NordLayer’s Site-to-Site feature work?
The cloud-based feature can be enabled by connecting NordLayer’s virtual private gateway to the company’s router or firewall.
Moreover, cloud-based Site-to-Site makes it possible to configure a dedicated VPN server to connect to cloud service providers like Amazon AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure.
Users with VPN access – whether present in the branch office, HQ, or remote – can connect to the company network and access the added internal resources and the on-site devices connected to the router/firewall, even though they don’t support a VPN connection.
Remote user connection:
Connection from a company branch:
Connection from HQ:
NordLayer’s Site-to-Site feature requires virtual private gateways and physical location configuration. Once it’s ready, a VPN connects users to the local company network and allows them to access company resources like applications, data, computers, or printers.
The same logic applies to users accessing the company’s cloud service provider resources. VPN established connection and router/firewall configuration to support IKEv2 Site-to-Site functionality with a static public IP address can provide access to resources for employees despite their location.
Shortly, suppose an employee for a job needs to access your organization’s customer information stored in a database located in HQ, the email server that stands in an office branch on another continent and needs to print it out while working from home. In that case, it’s all available via NordLayer’s Site-to-Site VPN functionality.
How NordLayer’s Site-to-Site is different?
Traditional WAN companies have an architecture based on an all-to-one setup when business units – remote locations and resources of the corporate – are connected to one main point.
Such organizations exploit extensive legacy Site-to-Site architectures that employees use to connect to the network’s main point, allowing them to access company-enclosed resources from different locations. This type of network architecture delivers interconnectivity yet lacks remote flexibility and has downsides affecting network performance, efficiency, and scalability.
As a solution to legacy Site-to-Site, NordLayer is developed to provide flexible and simple problem-solving to the general downsides of using legacy networking. When focusing on the feature functionality, the distinction between legacy setup and cloud-based remote network access solution comes from overcoming the limitations of traditional Site-to-Site solutions.
Cloud-based NordLayer solution handles legacy infrastructure challenges of increasing remote connections with quick integration to the existing architecture. It reverts performance–efficiency–scalability limitations to company advantage:
Decreased deployment time and expenses. NordLayer solution is fully hardware-free and compatible with hardware-based or hybrid existing infrastructures. Functionalities can be deployed within minutes and don’t require complex costs and long delivery times, focusing on time-to-value for the organization.
Maintained security and productivity levels. NordLayer Site-to-Site distributes encrypted user traffic to company resources based on the request nature without affecting connection quality instead of bulk processing all users to a primary point of connection and allocating to requested resources afterward.
User traffic distribution. The feature decreases the heavy traffic load directing users to the internet resources, internal data centers, servers, or applications in a more streamlined manner. Therefore, the increased remote user traffic peaks don’t impact performance quality as with a traditional Site-to-Site setup.
Efficiency and scalability. Naturally, user traffic distribution significantly reduces on-site equipment use managing the ad-hoc demand to upgrade. On the contrary, cloud-based Site-to-Site functionality enables the company to scale on demand without resource-intensive planning.
The feature brings another level to team performance in business operations using Site-to-Site. NordLayer’s cloud-based feature ‘helps cut hardware-ing and distance corners’, bringing efficiency to secure data sharing and authorized access of on-site devices within the organizations, even if physically impossible.
Benefits of Site-to-Site VPN
Primarily, Site-to-Site VPN allows for establishing non-office-only based connections. The VPN enables secure data transfers and trusted user activity between the on-premise network and the public network established over the internet.
Implementing NordLayer on top of your existing infrastructure, Site-to-Site unlocks effective and robust cybersecurity measures for various organizational aspects.
Increased network security
Sensitive data and confidential information is the target of most cyber attacks. Thus, encrypted data transfers between organization members utilizing Site-to-Site, whether in the office or remote, help safeguard against data breaches.
Streamlined business operations
Team performance is heavily related to the availability and capacity of the company network. Therefore, Site-to-Site feature maintains a good speed and stable data traffic flow to provide users with quality connectivity and constant access to resources that influence business continuity.
Flexible and scalable protection
Hardware-free Site-to-Site configuration is a beneficial add-on to the existing company network, even the largely hardware-based ones. Thus, the reaction-to-action time to solve ad-hoc challenges is multiple times shorter and easier. It requires minimal resources and provides a solution based on business needs within minutes.
Entering NordLayer’s Site-to-Site
NordLayer solution provides a modern approach-based Site-to-Site VPN. The feature allows present and remote employees to access data and devices in multiple corporate environments.
Using our remote network access solution to enable Site-to-Site VPN for the organization, IT admins have to follow simple actions to configure the feature. First, they need to create VPN gateways via the Control Panel as entry points into the network and assign teams or role-based employees to access the gateway so they can enter the company network. Site-to-Site has to be configured for every company unit for the seamless cooperation of teams.
With fewer systems to manage, unlimited scalability, flexibility, and easy setup, companies can ensure smooth and productive connections for their users and maintain high-security levels of the business.
About Version 2 Limited Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.
Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.
About NordLayer NordLayer is an adaptive network access security solution for modern businesses – from the world’s most trusted cybersecurity brand, Nord Security.
The web has become a chaotic space where safety and trust have been compromised by cybercrime and data protection issues. Therefore, our team has a global mission to shape a more trusted and peaceful online future for people everywhere.
And 5 reasons why you should back up Azure AD in the cloud
Imagine a busy city with multiple roads leading to various destinations, such as a hospital, a shopping mall, and a stadium. Just like a traffic light controlling the flow of vehicles to and from these destinations, Active Directory (AD) and Azure Active Directory (AAD) control the flow of and access to information from apps and services such as Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Google Workspace, and others. Organizations rely heavily on AD and AAD to ensure a smooth flow of and access to their data.
However, just like how a city can experience traffic jams, frustrations, accidents, and general chaos when the traffic light is out, when AD or AAD are not accessible, the flow of and access to control-plane information can cause severe business disruption. This post will explore the importance of data protection for Azure AD.
The evolution of identity management: From Active Directory to Azure AD and the need for different backup solutions
But first, how did we come to rely so heavily on AD and AAD? Active Directory was introduced in 1999 as a solution for on-premises identity management, providing a centralized repository for user and device information and allowing administrators to manage these resources effectively and efficiently.
As the use of cloud-based services grew, the need for an identity management solution that could integrate with cloud-based resources became more important.
This led to the creation of Azure Active Directory, which was designed to serve as the bridge between on-premises and cloud resources, not only creating a seamless and secure identity management solution for cloud computing, but also offering a range of features and capabilities (including single sign on, multi-factor authentication, and conditional access) to help organizations meet their security and compliance requirements.
Microsoft Azure Active Directory and Active Directory seem to be a bit shrouded in mystery. For many, the distinction between them is not always clear, and this distinction becomes even more blurred when it comes to the topic of backing up and protecting the data within each.
Instead of covering all the differences between AD and Azure AD, this post will mainly focus on backup for Azure AD, and it will explore five ways in which AAD requires a different backup solution from the traditional backups used for on-premises AD. Before we can do that though, we need to quickly establish — roughly — what the difference is.
What’s the difference between AD and AAD?
As Stephen Covey put it, “the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” That quote might make more sense if you consider the key difference between cloud and on-prem AD to be the main thing… and in this case, the main difference between the two is that Active Directory is designed for managing user access and application infrastructure for an on-premises world; Azure Active Directory is for managing user access to cloud applications in a cloud-based environment.
Even more simply? Sure: AD is on prem, AAD is cloud based.
Every object in either AD or Azure AD has one permanent home. That’s the primary copy of the object, and the copy to which changes are applied. If you are on-prem-only, or cloud-only, then there’s only one copy of each object.
In hybrid mode, though, no matter where the object is homed, there will be two copies of it: the primary copy and a synchronized copy on the “other side.”
For organizations using both Active Directory and Azure AD in a hybrid environment, you can think of the cloud copy of an on-prem object as being like a shadow. When you look at a shadow on the pavement, you’re only getting a partial set of information about the real object.In the same vein, Azure AD only has a partial set of attributes from on-premises AD objects because not every object attribute is replicated to the cloud. However, all the attributes of cloud-based Azure AD objects are stored in full in the cloud. This allows organizations to use Azure AD as an identity provider for on-premises resources and allows for SSO for cloud-based resources.How does this distinction change backup strategy?
The distinction of where (which environment) your identity objects are homed is paramount. Active Directory backup via on-premises solutions is exactly that: making a backup of on-prem data by copying it to/from an on-premises solution. Azure Active Directory, as a cloud-based application utilizing cloud-based data (and metadata), creates and manages cloud data in the cloud.
Why it matters: Comprehensive data coverage requires the ‘right’ backup
“Some” Azure AD data and metadata only exist in the cloud environment. You could copy these objects to an on-prem storage location (which is roughly as useful as putting backup tapes on top of the server they’re made from), but these objects must be restored to the cloud.
Therefore, with clear gaps in coverage, the data and metadata are not covered holistically. This means your data may not be fully protected when you back up your cloud data with an on-premises Active Directory-oriented tool as your Azure AD backup solution.
In other words: what’s homed on premises and what’s homed in the cloud are physically separate. You introduce new problems for yourself when you cross the streams, including speed of access, data fidelity and quality, and security.
Let’s dive into five reasons why on-prem AD backup is not a viable option for comprehensive backup of Azure AD.
5 things you should consider if you’re backing up AAD on premises
1. Some attributes in Azure Active Directory are not available on premises
If you take an on-prem AD account and sync it to the cloud, the sync process (and Azure AD) adds some attributes to it. Some of these may be synced back to on prem (a process called writeback) but some will not. Backing up Azure AD captures these; backing up the on-prem AD won’t.
2. Azure AD may have user objects or attributes that do not exist on premises
You can define your own users, groups, roles, et cetera, that exist only in the cloud. If you do not back these up independently, they will not be preserved nor well protected, and your only recourse is to recreate and define these custom entries every time.
And yet not everyone sees the value in protecting these objects when their identity management (IdM) anchor is on prem. Even if an organization’s IdM anchor is on premises, objects and attributes like Intune and conditional access policies are important for several reasons, often forming a key part of organizations’ zero trust security, and, as such, need to be protected against loss or damage. (Read our article on the zero trust principle here.)
Still not convinced of the value of protecting control-plane objects? Here are five reasons highlighting the case for securing data protection:
Cloud-based management: Intune and Azure AD conditional access are both cloud-based services that can be accessed and managed from anywhere. They cannot be accessed from on-prem systems, so if you lose the copy in the cloud, it’s gone.
Security: Azure AD provides additional layers of security, such as multi-factor authentication and identity protection, that can help to protect against potential security threats such as compromised credentials or unauthorized access.
Compliance: Intune and conditional access can help organizations meet compliance requirements, such as HIPAA by providing features such as device compliance and role-based access control.
Scalability: Azure AD allows organizations to scale their IdM infrastructure as needed, without the need for additional hardware or software.
Remote work: Intune and conditional access can help organizations to secure and manage remote workers’ devices, even if they are not connected to the on-premises network.
Now are these objects and attributes vital to operations? You can decide for yourself. But, considering the impact that could result from losing these in one data loss scenario or another (and the resource investment required to manually recreate and administer them, not to mention the security concerns of not ensuring the right users have the permissions to access company data), adequate data protection of these should be a business imperative.
3. Azure AD will have configuration/state objects that don’t exist on prem
Enterprise apps, app registrations, Conditional Access (CA) policies, and many other policy- and security-related objects exist only in the cloud. Microsoft’s native protection for these objects is mostly non-existent — delete a conditional access policy, for example, and it’s just gone. Let’s drill down into two important-to-protect Azure AD features:
Conditional Access: Azure AD Conditional Access is a feature that allows you to set policies that determine how users are granted access to resources based on conditions such as device compliance, location, and user identity. It allows you to control who can access your resources and under which conditions. This feature can be used to protect against security threats, such as compromised credentials, by requiring multi-factor authentication or other forms of authentication.
Intune: Intune is a mobile device management (MDM) and mobile application management (MAM) service that is integrated with Azure AD. This feature allows you to manage and secure mobile devices, desktops, and apps, including those used by remote workers. It allows you to set policies for devices and apps, such as requiring a passcode or encrypting data, and to remotely wipe a device if it is lost or stolen.
What about the Active Directory Recycle Bin? As these AAD-only configurations/state objects only exist in the cloud, there’s no available recycle bin for these policy objects, so there’s no undo. It’s akin to an immediate hard delete, meaning there is no 30-day or 90-day grace period as there is with soft deletions.
How to recover from hard deletion? Microsoft shares that “hard-deleted items must be re-created and reconfigured. It’s best to avoid unwanted hard deletions.”
Let that sink in for a moment: “It’s best to avoid unwanted hard deletions.” This advice is nigh impossible to follow as common data loss scenarios, like accidental deletions), are a question of when, not if. It highlights how the Recycle Bin was never intended to be a replacement for dedicated backup. Read our post on why backup is a risk-management imperative here.
4. Record preservation
How long does Azure AD store reporting data? That’s a very good question: According to Microsoft, activity reports are stored as follows:
As you can see, there is no point-in-time record preservation. With a backup, you can preserve and review cloud-only Azure AD data at a specific point in time and examine which permissions, users, groups, and role assignments existed in your directory, as well as whether an object has changed within a specified time period and preserve these records for as long as required or needed to comply with company or governmental policies.Clearly, these benefits are useful for forensic purposes but also for governance and compliance reasons. Learn more in our eDiscovery post (with a customer Office 365 use case).
5. Microsoft doesn’t provide native protection for many cloud-only objects
Microsoft doesn’t provide the same recovery tools in Azure AD as they do for Active Directory itself. According to Microsoft recoverability best practices, it’s clearly important to understand the object types that are protected by Microsoft under soft-deletion and hard-deletion scenarios, visualized here:
The recovery features for soft deletions are typically limited to 30 days retention, so if you want to recover on day 31, it’s too late! The data is gone, as Microsoft shares here in its Azure Active Directory fundamentals:
Soft-deleted objects are hard deleted after a deletion time of 30 days. The only object types that support a soft delete are Users, Microsoft 365 Groups, Application registration, Service principal, administrative unit.
So, the question is this: Are these objects that are automatically hard deleted important to your business operations? And a natural follow-up question is this: Is the 30-day restore period for soft-deleted objects enough protection for your data? (Often, mandatory minimum data retention periods are determined by governments.)
Note: It’s important to mention that changes are not covered by the recycling bin, such as editing or overwriting, even to objects that would normally be soft deleted . Any change, intentional or otherwise, replaces the previous version with no option of reverting or recovering. When these changes are done accidentally, we euphemistically refer to them as an “oops,” but they are quite serious and actually one of the leading causes of data loss, so this gap in coverage should concern those tasked with ensuring data protection.
The writing on the wall is that native coverage is insufficient for recoverable, comprehensive coverage and that the solution to this coverage gap is having your own third-party backup. This extends your ability to recover these objects for as long as your backup exists.
What’s Next? Choosing a Backup Solution for Azure Active Directory
Now that we’ve highlighted the need for dedicated cloud data backup for Azure AD, let’s explore what Keepit provides with its Azure AD service offerings (one of which — Azure AD Standard — is offered completely free of charge).
Leading AAD data protection for your cloud security strategy
Keepit helps you recover business-critical identity and application objects that Microsoft doesn’t protect. Extend your retention period and strengthen security with protection of policies as well as full auditing and traceability of changes. Protect against day-to-day data loss and improve IT efficiencies with the ability to roll back changes and speed up troubleshooting.
Azure Active Directory Backup Coverage
The Azure AD connector protects the following Microsoft 365 Azure Active Directory objects: Users, Groups, Administrative Units, and Roles. It also protects Audit logs (and Sign-in logs with audit logs enabled).
Interested in Backing up (and Restoring) Azure AD with Keepit for Azure AD?
To learn more about how you can protect your business-critical data and ensure disaster recovery resolve with Keepit for Azure AD – the leading protection for your cloud security strategy – click here.
About Version 2 Limited Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.
Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.
About Keepit At Keepit, we believe in a digital future where all software is delivered as a service. Keepit’s mission is to protect data in the cloud Keepit is a software company specializing in Cloud-to-Cloud data backup and recovery. Deriving from +20 year experience in building best-in-class data protection and hosting services, Keepit is pioneering the way to secure and protect cloud data at scale.
The year was 2023 — three years after the pandemic started (and came close to an end), yet 75% of global workers were fully convinced remote work was the new normal. But what’s the actual status of remote work, and what perspectives does it have?
The pandemic became a massive sandbox that proved people don’t necessarily need to be nurtured by the office culture to be productive.
Workers argue that flexibility is their right whether they prefer to work in the best countries for remote work, like Germany, Denmark, the US, or any other location of their choice if the job is completed as requested. Management counters with the importance of organizational environment and team bond effectiveness created only by the presence in the office.
Both sides have their points, so what’s next — will we return to an on-site-only setup or transition to fully remote? Will more companies compromise on hybrid work after all? Let’s see where the remote work projections are guiding us.
How new is the ‘new normal’ of remote work?
It would be incorrect to say that remote work didn’t exist before 2020. Freelancers were the pioneers of working online — an adventurous and free-spirited career path. Before the pandemic, 2,9% of ‘teleworkers’ globally were exclusively working remotely. For instance, in the US market, only 6% had never worked in any kind of remote work setup.
The scope of work from home mainly spiked because of a safety measure to prevent virus spread. Even though the alertness settled and life started returning to normal, in 2022, at least occasional remote workers reached 62% globally.
According to Gallup research results, only 2 out of 10 people returned to the old routine — entirely on-site jobs. Meanwhile, the rest of 8 out of 10 employees are split between remote and hybrid work arrangements in the US.
The discussion mainly circles whether employees want to work exclusively remotely (49%) or want to share their time between home and the office (46%). Yet the same research reveals that only 6% of employees see the ideal work environment exclusively on-site.
Remote work tendency: to increase or decrease?
The swing in the longevity of time spent at home before and after the pandemic compares drastically. Let’s fact-check.
According to Statista, remote work in the US before the 2020s was a relatively rare yet existing event, occurring 1-2 times per week. However, 3-4 and 5+ days of work from home per week in the post-pandemic period replaced the then-popular 1-2 days/week work from home.
Talking numbers, the remote workforce reached 53%, and the pool of employees that never worked from home decreased by 13% after COVID-19.
The data of the US-based respondents reflects the increasing trend of staying at home rather than working from the office.
2020 was the rush-hour year, so comparing the difference jump from 2019 to 2021, the number remains increasing as the amount of remote workers has tripled. If we take data from 2018-2021, the fully remote workforce grew four times bigger.
How has remote work escalated in Europe? The growing tendency of remote work in European countries is also significant.
Eurostat data from 2019-2021 illustrates the increasing number of employed people spending more and more time working from home. The average of EU Member States climbed from
14,6% WFH sometimes or usually* in 2019,
20,9% WFH sometimes or usually in 2020 to
24,4% WFH sometimes or usually in 2021.
In 2021, the usually only working individuals made just a little less than sometimes or usually in 2019 — 13% in contrast to 14,6%. Note that ’usually’ refers to at least half of the work days spent working from home in a reference period of 4 weeks.
The shift is evident in both the US and Europe — remotes were quick to adapt to the circumstances and increasingly function between the office and home, identifying as remote workers.
Let’s not forget that the covid-era introduced a new work-life cultural concept, ‘workation,’ that combines working and vacationing simultaneously. Therefore, it’s challenging to believe that trend swing will take the working world back to the close-to-none remote setup.
Remote work perspective
It’s worth defining the happy medium for understanding remote work. There are different opinions — for some, it’s home-only; for others — home-never. A hybrid work setup seems acceptable for most organizations and employees that can apply non-site work arrangements.
The perspective of hybrid model growth should double from 42% in 2021 to 81% in 2024, according to AT&T findings. The forecast predicts almost one in four Americans will work remotely by 2025.
The prediction is supported by the forecast of conferencing software (like Teams, Zoom, or Google Meet) market growth — in 2021, it reached $14.6 billion worth, and in 2026 is expected to reach as high as $27.3 billion worth. The growing demand shows the need to communicate remotely in the future.
Hybrid work influencing factors
What are the influencing factors for hybrid work escalations — is it just the peer pressure of employees? 83% of professionals say they would decline a job offer without offering flexible work options, according to International Working Group.
Expectations are high as almost everyone (97%) expects organizations to be flexible regarding the work environment. FlexJob indicates that more than half (57%) of organization members would change jobs if they weren’t allowed to work hybrid. After all, 77% of employees see flexibility as the second most important factor after salary in their employment.
The reasoning behind it can be based on preference to save time on commuting, make Mondays less anxious without knowing you must show up in the office at 8 AM, or work from a different city or country.
Productivity and engagement in remote work
Hybrid or remote work help achieve a better work-life balance that resolves into a positive chain reaction. Employees and organizations notice that staff is exposed to less stress, leading to workers being more present and engaged despite online environments.
It proves that hybrid work isn’t entirely a one-way road. At first, being unavailable to observe employees’ activity on-site might have needed convincing the management of the hybrid work benefits.
According to Zippia’s Remote Work Statistics report, 32.2% of managers agree that productivity has increased after the 2020 remote work shift. Generally, 68% of organizations say there’s been an improvement in employee productivity since the remote work arrangements.
Return or not to return?
The determination to work remotely is clear for most of the employees. Besides the long list of benefits the workers learned by heart, 20% of the workforce who vouch for flexibility would agree to give up vacation time over office-defined work.
The worth of remote work can be calculated more precisely — a typical organization saves an average of $11,000 per employee yearly if the employee spends half of the working time outside the office.
Saving funds and time open more personal, team, and company opportunities. Organizations have a better chance to scale globally. It brings us to a solution to a raging issue of limited talent pool companies struggle with significantly.
Talent and remote work
Knowledge workers are in high demand to cover the growing need for professionals in all industries. According to Uplers’ research, 69% of companies face a shortage of skilled talent, and geographic limitations are one of the leading factors reserving the reach of the potential talent pool.
According to the Upwork study, companies with remote or hybrid work policies appear to be less negatively impacted by talent shortage — only every third of such organizations see a limited talent pool as a challenge. Half of the knowledge workers who provide computer programing, IT, marketing, and business consulting services to companies are freelancers.
Regarding company size, large companies tend to have a higher demand for talent that turns over with more noticeable talent shortages compared to small or medium-sized companies.
According to Manpower data, 64% of small companies (10-49 employees) struggle to find the right profile workers, while 72% of medium-sized companies (50-249 employees) and 74% of large enterprises (250+ employees) are impacted by a deficiency of skilled professionals.
Remote work by industry
Technological advancements and flexibility allow companies of various industries to adopt hybrid work for its benefit. It’s noticeable that consulting-type services are quicker to move to telecommute. The trend can be justified by the opportunities to unlock markets worldwide, streamline the workload, and better prepare for modern technological setups.
Taking hybrid work through the industry axis, IT is the leading industry to adopt remote work. Finance, customer service, healthcare, marketing, education, and sales industries are primary areas to explore and utilize the benefits of the remote workforce.
Remote work and security
The massive migration to remote work during the pandemic was kick-started for safety reasons. However, home offices opened gaps for cybersecurity vulnerabilities that many companies weren’t exposed to before.
According to Statista, cyberattacks are one of the major risks concerning organizations. Cyber threats increased exponentially with the growing number of unprotected home networks and distributed teams.
The other top risks on the list include human error, cloud computing vulnerabilities, mobile device security, and loss of corporate data and information, as the concerns of organizations in Europe and the US.
Securing hybrid environments
Many organizations proved flexible in times of change — growing cyberattacks and risks were repulsed with security and hybrid work-adapted business solutions. Transitioning to cloud environments allow companies not only to enable remote workers but implement hybrid infrastructure models to support new ways of working.
Circumstances determined businesses’ push to improve network security even though upgrading existing legacy architectures wasn’t in the strategy.
About Version 2 Limited Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.
Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.
About NordLayer NordLayer is an adaptive network access security solution for modern businesses – from the world’s most trusted cybersecurity brand, Nord Security.
The web has become a chaotic space where safety and trust have been compromised by cybercrime and data protection issues. Therefore, our team has a global mission to shape a more trusted and peaceful online future for people everywhere.
New ransomware variant: Try2Cry! It tries to worm onto other computers by infecting any USB drive connected to the device, hoping it will be used on another computer at some point. Is uses the LNK files to disguise the malware.
About Version 2 Limited Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.
Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.
About Bullwall BullWall is a fast-growing international cybersecurity solution provider with a dedicated focus on protecting critical data during active ransomware attacks. We are the only security solution able to contain both known and unknown ransomware variants in seconds, preventing encryption and exfiltration across all data storage types.
