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Cyber Security

Proofpoint’s Forecast for 2024: Defenders Prepare for Impact, Covering Social Engineering to Generative AI

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1 year ago

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Written by Patrick Joyce, Resident CISO, Proofpoint

In the ever-evolving landscape of cybersecurity, defenders find themselves navigating yet another challenging year. Threat actors persistently refine their tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), showcasing adaptability and the rapid iteration of novel and complex attack chains. At the heart of this evolution lies a crucial shift: threat actors now prioritize identity over technology. While the specifics of TTPs and the targeted technology may change, one constant remains: humans and their identities are the most targeted links in the attack chain.

Recent instances of supply chain attacks exemplify this shift, illustrating how adversaries have pivoted from exploiting software vulnerabilities to targeting human vulnerabilities through social engineering and phishing. Notably, the innovative use of generative AI, especially its ability to improve phishing emails, exemplifies a shift towards manipulating human behaviour rather than exploiting technological weaknesses. This is reflected in recent Proofpoint data, with CISOs in the Middle East, identifying phishing (smishing/vishing) as the most significant threat targeting their organizations of late.  In addition, 59% of global board directors believe generative AI is a security risk for their organization.

As we reflect on 2023, it becomes evident that cyber threat actors possess the capabilities and resources to adapt their tactics in response to increased security measures such as multi-factor authentication (MFA). Looking ahead to 2024, the trend suggests that threats will persistently revolve around humans, compelling defenders to take a different approach to breaking the attack chain.

Cyber Heists: Casinos are Just the Tip of the Iceberg
Cybercriminals are increasingly targeting digital supply chain vendors, with a heightened focus on security and identity providers. Aggressive social engineering tactics, including phishing campaigns, are becoming more prevalent. Phishing help desk employees for login credentials and bypassing MFA through phishing one-time password (OTP) codes are becoming standard practices. These tactics have extended to supply chain attacks, compromising identity provider (IDP) vendors to access valuable customer information. The forecast for 2024 includes the replication and widespread adoption of such aggressive social engineering tactics, broadening the scope of initial compromise attempts beyond the traditional edge device and file transfer appliances.

Generative AI: The Double-Edged Sword
The explosive growth of generative AI tools like ChatGPT, FraudGPT and WormGPT brings both promise and peril. At the moment, threat actors are making banks do other things. Why bother reinventing the model when it’s working just fine? But they’ll morph their TTPs when detection starts to improve in those areas.

On the flip side, more vendors will start injecting AI and large language models into their products and processes to boost their security offerings. Across the globe, privacy watchdogs and customers alike will demand responsible AI policies from technology companies, which means we’ll start seeing statements being published about responsible AI policies.

Mobile Device Phishing: The Rise of Omni-Channel Tactics Take Centre Stage
A notable trend for 2023 was the dramatic increase in mobile device phishing and we expect this threat to rise even more in 2024. Threat actors are strategically redirecting victims to mobile interactions, exploiting the vulnerabilities inherent in mobile platforms. Conversational abuse, including conversational smishing, has experienced exponential growth. Multi-touch campaigns aim to lure users away from desktops to mobile devices, utilizing tactics like QR codes and fraudulent voice calls. This not only makes phishing attacks more effective on mobile devices but also complicates detection for corporate security teams.

Open-source and generative AI: Leveling the Ground for Malware Developers
Malware developers are leveraging open-source tools and generative AI, making advanced programming techniques accessible to a broader audience. As a result, malware capable of evading sandboxes and endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools is becoming more widespread. The accessibility of free and open-source software facilitates the incorporation of advanced detection-bypass capabilities into various malware projects. This democratization lowers the barrier to entry for less skilled developers, contributing to the proliferation of sophisticated malware families.

Identity-Centric Breaches: The Achilles Heel
Identity-based attacks will dominate breaches, exploiting vulnerabilities rooted in human behaviour and obscured by limited visibility. The conventional belief that cyber attackers rely on common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) is losing relevance. The new truth: “Identity is the new vulnerability.” Organizations must shift their focus from primarily fortifying infrastructure to securing stored credentials, session cookies, and access keys, and addressing misconfigurations, especially when it comes to privileged accounts (very much now including their IDPs). The human link in the attack chain demands swift and innovative defences.

In conclusion, 2024 presents cyber defenders with a formidable challenge as threat actors refine their strategies to exploit the human element. To counter these evolving threats, defenders must adopt proactive and adaptive strategies, recognizing that the human factor remains a critical link in the cyber defence chain. As the battleground shifts, a resilient defence that addresses the multifaceted challenges of identity-based attacks, generative AI-driven threats, and mobile device phishing are essential to secure the digital frontier and create a greater focus on breaking the attack chain.

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Cloud

SentinelOne Simplifies Secure Cloud Migrations on AWS

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21 hours ago

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June 13, 2025

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SentinelOne today announced its participation in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Workload Migration Program. This initiative supports AWS Partner Network (APN) members with SaaS offerings on AWS to accelerate and streamline workload migrations.

Through the program, SentinelOne will provide AWS customers with accelerated, secure cloud migration support, leveraging modern AI-powered CNAPP capabilities to ensure rapid and protected transitions. With access to AWS funding, technical resources, and go-to-market support, SentinelOne will help organizations reduce migration timelines and costs while maintaining robust security.

SentinelOne’s Singularity Cloud Security delivers real-time visibility and protection throughout the migration journey—whether from on-premises or another cloud—enabling a secure, seamless transition to AWS.

“Through our participation in the AWS ISV Workload Migration Program, SentinelOne is helping customers accelerate secure cloud migrations with end-to-end protection and visibility,” said Ric Smith, President of Product, Technology, and Operations at SentinelOne. “Whether moving from on-prem or another cloud to AWS, organizations can count on us to deliver the security they need throughout their journey—realizing the performance, speed, agility, and cost benefits of the cloud.”

Singularity Cloud Security combines agentless and agent-based protection for deep visibility, continuous posture management, and real-time threat detection across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. By collaborating with AWS and ecosystem partners, SentinelOne ensures seamless integration into migration projects, helping customers move faster, reduce risk, and scale confidently in the cloud.

Availability: SentinelOne’s solutions are available globally.

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Cyber Security

Beyond Blocklists: How Behavioural Intent Analysis Can Safeguard Middle East Businesses from Rising AI-Driven Bot Threats

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4 days ago

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June 10, 2025

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The Middle East is facing an unprecedented surge in AI-driven bot attacks, with malicious automation now outpacing traditional defenses. Mohammad Ismail, Vice President for EMEA at Cequence Security, warns that legacy tools like IP blocklists and rate limiting are no match for today’s sophisticated threats (more…)

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Cyber Security

Sophos Boosts Firewall with New Protection and Incident Response Features

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4 days ago

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June 10, 2025

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Sophos has announced a significant update to its Sophos Firewall software, introducing enhanced protection and incident response capabilities. This update notably includes Sophos NDR Essential, a new feature now available free of charge to all customers holding an XStream Protection license for Sophos Firewall.

This integration empowers Sophos Firewall with two dedicated artificial intelligence (AI) engines specifically designed to detect both malware communications and those utilizing algorithmically generated domain names. This advanced functionality, derived from the Sophos Network Detection and Response (NDR) probe, aims to identify sophisticated malware communications even if they are previously unknown or not yet indexed. It serves as a powerful complement to the Active Threat Response capabilities already embedded within Sophos firewalls.

Chris McCormack, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Sophos

Addressing the technical demands of such advanced detection, Chris McCormack, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Sophos, explained the strategic approach, “NDR traffic analysis requires substantial processing power. That’s why we’ve adopted a new approach by deploying an NDR solution in Sophos Cloud to offload the heaviest tasks from the firewall.” This cloud-centric design ensures optimal performance without burdening the firewall’s on-device resources.

Beyond network detection, the update also brings significant improvements to connectivity and user authentication. Sophos Connect now integrates EntraID for Single Sign-On (SSO). This new feature for the VPN client, bundled with Sophos Firewall, is set to enhance both the security and user experience for SSL and IPsec VPN connections. The integration with EntraID (Azure AD) enables users to authenticate and leverage multi-factor authentication for both Sophos Connect and access to the user portal hosted by the firewall, streamlining secure access.

Further VPN-related enhancements include:

  • Improved user interface and usability: Connection types have been renamed for greater clarity, with “site-to-site” now referred to as “policy-based” and tunnel interfaces as “route-based,” making configurations more intuitive.
  • Dynamic validation of the IP address pool: For VPN connections (SSL VPN, IPsec, L2TP, and PPTP), the system now dynamically validates the allocated IP address pool, helping to better resolve potential IP address conflicts.
  • Strict profile enforcement: IPsec profiles now exclude default values to ensure algorithm synchronization, effectively eliminating potential fragmentation of session negotiation packets that could otherwise prevent site-to-site VPN tunnels from being established.
  • Route-based VPN and SD-RED scalability: The system has been optimized to support up to 3,000 simultaneously established tunnels. Specifically, Sophos Firewall solutions can now manage up to 1,000 SD-RED site-to-site tunnels and connect up to 650 concurrent SD-RED devices.

Additional management improvements enhance administrative flexibility and search capabilities:

  • More flexible DHCP Prefix Delegation (IPv6 DHCP-PD): The system now supports a broader range of prefixes, from /48 to /64, improving compatibility with various internet service providers.
  • Router Advertisement (RA) and DHCPv6 server: These features are now enabled by default, simplifying IPv6 network setup.
  • Resizable table columns: The web admin interface continues its adaptation for ultra-wide screens, with many configuration pages now allowing users to resize columns as needed for improved usability.
  • Enhanced object search functionality: The search field within the SD-WAN routing configuration screen now supports more granular criteria, including route name, ID, objects, and object values like IP addresses and domains. Similarly, local ACL rules now also support object name and value searches, extending to content-based searches for more precise results.
  • Default configuration changes: To streamline initial setups, default firewall rules and rule groups previously created during new firewall deployments have been removed. The initial configuration now only includes the default network rule and MTA rules. Furthermore, the default firewall rule group and the default gateway probe for custom gateways are now set to “None” by default.

Sophos continues its commitment to cybersecurity through a “Secure by Design” approach, enhancing the intrinsic security of its firewalls. This methodology involves the containerization of specific features and rigorous integrity checks on critical operating system files using mathematical checksums. Any detected checksum mismatch triggers a potential compromise alert, enabling monitoring teams to proactively identify possible security incidents affecting the firewall OS integrity. This proactive detection allows incident response and development teams to react swiftly to critical security events.

This update is now available for manual download and deployment by customers with any Sophos Firewall equipped with a valid license.

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