CRITICALSTART Blog

Shipping Firms’ Credentials for Sale on the Dark Web: November Threat Intelligence Report

It’s no secret that the shipping and logistics industries as well as many other glob…

Mayhem in Manufacturing, Part II: Best Practices for Third-Party Risk Management

by: Ross Williams, Critical Start DFIR Leader As I mentioned in Part I of my “M…

Support for Microsoft 365 Defender Extends Critical Start MDR Coverage Enterprise-wide

By Leonard Volling, Critical Start Microsoft Alliance Director As Mi…

SOC vs. CSIRT: What’s the Difference?

Years ago, organizations relied primarily on their IT department to manage security….

Ransomware: An Attacker’s Perspective

By Randy Watkins, Critical Start Chief Technology Officer Ransomware is rampant, wit…

Retailers, Why Not Give Consumers the Gift of Data Security This Holiday Season?

by: Ross Williams, Critical Start DFIR Leader Consumers have historically been …

Critical Start Inaugural Cyber Threat Intelligence Report – September 2021

By Callie Guenther, Critical Start Cyber Threat Intelligence Manager As a managed de…

Three Reasons Companies Fall Victim to Ransomware – and One Big Way the Game is Changing

by Quentin Rhoads-Herrera, Critical Start Director, Professional Services Ransomware…

Transparency (Or Lack Thereof): What Your MDR Company Isn’t Telling You

By Alex Humphrey I recently discovered that one of my favorite memes comes from Sout…

CRITICALSTART SELECTED FOR THE DALLAS BUSINESS JOURNAL’S MIDDLE MARKET 50 LIST FOR 2021

Dallas, TX (September 20, 2021) — Critical Start, a leading provider of Managed Dete…

Mayhem in Manufacturing, Part I: Four Best Practices to Avoid Ransomware Attacks

by: Ross Williams, Critical Start DFIR Leader According to the CrowdStrike 2021…

Penetration Testing: Why is a Good Offense the Best Defense?

by: Quentin Rhoads-Herrera – Director, Professional Services I recently wrote about …

Azure DevOps Service security monitoring using Azure Sentinel

by: Ronald Prasad, Microsoft Services Principal With cyberthreats on the rise, teams…

How to Plan a Migration from SIEM Solutions to Azure Sentinel

by: Ronald Prasad, Microsoft Services Principal Migrating to Azure Sentinel ca…

Understanding XDR – Learn from Industry Authorities

Rated XDR How XDR is Supercharging the MDR space to Reach Next-Level Detection and R…

Incident Response 101: What to expect before, during, and after a breach

by: Quentin Rhoads-Herrera – Director, Professional Services Cyberattacks have becom…

Cortex XDR and MDR: The right balance of applied machine learning and the humans that aid it.

By Chris Yates When I was young, and learning to appreciate classic cars, I learned …

Ransomware: Be a Victor, Not a Victim.

Ransomware attacks are not only becoming more sophisticated, but also more frequent….

Azure Sentinel: Notifications of New Detection Rules

The CRITICALSTART Cybersecurity Consulting Services for Microsoft Security team is d…

Is Your Cybersecurity Answering the Right Question?

by: Vasu Nagendra – Chief Product Officer I am a big fan of Doctor Who, the Br…

Women in Cybersecurity: Meredith Dishman

Meredith Dishman, Director of Distribution Channels for CRITICALSTART, believes in a…

Secure the Cloud—All Hands on Deck

The cloud is storming. There has been intense surge of cloud adoption in businesses …

Women in Cybersecurity: Katy Lietzau

Katy Lietzau, Director of Channel for the Central Region at CRITICALSTART, believes …

MOBILESOC: You’ll Take this Threat Alert to Go.

Smoked brisket, poached eggs, sliced tomatoes, and sourdough toast—it’s the brunch y…

Zero-day Targeting Exchange Servers: Steps to Evaluate the Risk to Your Organization

By: Charlie Smith & Travis Farral A zero-day has been announced targeting E…

The Top Three Issues Robbing You Of SIEM ROI

Upon inception, the function of the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)…

Earning Your Business is Good. Earning Your Trust is Better.

The impact a company culture has on delivering value Company culture might fee…

Navigate Aftermath of SolarWinds Attack With On-Demand Resources

The SolarWinds cybersecurity breach, also known as Sunburst, has made glob…

Data Privacy Program from Zero to Hero

By Cecil Pineda | Senior Director of GRC vCISO at CRITICALSTART As I promised last w…

Balancing Act: How MOBILESOC can Ensure Cybersecurity while Protecting Time with Family

By Tommy Scott, Senior Security Consultant | CRITICALSTART Closing the laptop a…

Windows Security Event Logs – What to Monitor?

The following is a table of event codes that I’ve found to be extremely valuable to …

Second Round of Stimulus Provides New Opportunity for Online Scams

This week, Americans nationwide will begin receiving their second round of COVID-rel…

Sunburst: A Week in Review

2020 isn’t going down quietly, and what an awful week it has been for the security c…

Weighing the Value of Managed Security

A shortage of skilled personnel is one of the most serious issues affecting security…

Steps Educational Institutions Are Taking to Defend Their Infrastructures from Cyber Attackers

Just when we thought 2020 couldn’t get any worse, cyber attackers are finding new wa…

The Democratization of Security: Simplification and Direction for Content Management

Last week, we talked about how life could be made easier through the democratization…

The Democratization of Security

How Permissions Elevate both Transparency and Efficiency to Build Healthier Security…

CRITICALSTART & ePlus | National Cybersecurity Awareness Month Podcast

Full Transcript: LW: Welcome. Thanks for joining everyone, my name is Lee Waske…

How to Develop a Cybersecurity Playbook in 5 Steps

A well-organized cybersecurity playbook can be the difference between an incident th…

[2020 Updates] Gartner Endpoint Security Hype Cycle Insights

Gartner recently released their 2020 Hype Cycle for Endpoint Security, and the focus…

SIEM & MDR: What You Need to Know

A defense-in-depth security strategy is built upon the premise that no one tool or p…

Benefits of Security Orchestration, Automation, & Response

With threats to network security increasing in sophistication and expanding the rost…

A New MDR Managed SIEM Offering Powered by Devo

By Rob Davis, CEO of CRITICALSTART At CRITICALSTART, every idea begins with the ques…

Incident Response Teams: In-House vs Outsourced

How prepared is your organization for a security breach? That gap in time between fi…

Cyber Threat Concerns Grow as Schools Lean on Virtual Learning

With many school districts using distance learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, con…

CRITICALSTART MDR Ranks 4.7/5 on Gartner Peer Insights

Recognizing the importance of peer reviews in an organization’s purchasing decisions…

How the COVID-19 Pandemic Affects Hackers

Cybersecurity expert Rob Davis of CRITICALSTART talks to Hal of Fox 11 New in L…

EDR Tools: What They Are & Why You Need Them

EDR tools enable endpoint visibility and detection of threats via registry monitorin…

Threat Hunting: Proactive Incident Response

Organizations often don’t realize they’ve been breached, giving malicious actors the…

MDR vs MSSP: What are they? How do they work?

What are the advantages and limitations of each – MDR vs MSSP – and how do they func…

Outer Space Meets Cyberspace: What Space Travel Can Teach Us About Cybersecurity

February 20, 1962: An Atlas LV-3B launch vehicle lifts off from Launch Complex 14 at…

How Security Teams Eliminate Risk Acceptance with MDR

Recent data shows that 83 percent of IT security professionals are feeling…

Why a Proactive IR Strategy Is Critical

Breaches are a fact of life for every business. However, it is possible to stop brea…

Zero-Trust and Micro-Segmentation

Adoption of Zero-Trust and Micro-Segmentation as core design principles can help imp…

Weaponizing Public Breach Data Dumps for Red Teamers

Public password dumps have been an excellent way for attackers to gain access to acc…

What is EDR? And EDR vs. MDR vs. EPP – Security Compared

Proactive vs. Reactive Endpoint Security Really, there are two kinds of security pra…

NFL Draft: 5 Things Teams Need to Do Now to Guard Against Hackers

Ready or not, it’s NFL draft week. After much debate over how to hold the NFL draft,…

Cybersecurity Needs for the Remote Workforce

Chicken Little was always running around saying the same thing… until it really happ…

Free MOBILESOC and Endpoint Protection for Remote Security Teams until June 15

Like many other organizations, we have deliberated on how CRITICALSTART ca…

State Legislation May Drive Federal Security Compliance Regulations in 2020

State governments are taking the lead in developing cybersecurity regulations as cyb…

SOAR And MDR: Finding The Best Fit To Augment Security

The well-documented shortage of experienced cybersecurity practitioners is…

4 Key Steps to Protect Your Organization Against Increased Cyber Threats

In today’s cyber threat landscape, it’s not just the military-industrial and defense…

Protecting Your Organization Against Ransomware Attacks

Attacks are increasing – a proactive approach to data protection can help you safegu…

Top 6 Cybersecurity Predictions for 2020

The pace of breaches and cybersecurity threats continues unabated. In 2019 alone, we…

That’s a Wrap: 2019 Cybersecurity Predictions Recap

As we close the books on 2019, we thought we’d take a look back at the predictions w…

Tips for Securing PowerShell

In 2020, system administrators will be using PowerShell. There is no tool more power…

The First Channel-Only MDR

When CRITICALSTART first opened for business in 2012, we pursued a service-led …

Retailers: Don’t Let Black Friday Cyberattacks Darken Holiday Shopping

Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Independence Day, Back-to-School, and Halloween are d…

Cybersecurity 101: What to Look for in a Partner

The key to effective cybersecurity is to quickly stop an attack before it becomes a …

Testing a Flutter Application

As your app gets bigger, a good set of tests may help you save time, as tests can fi…

Research Report: The Impact of Security Alert Overload

CRITICALSTART conducted a survey of more than 50 Security Operations Center (SO…

SECURITY TOOLS

THREAT ANALYTICS SEARCH CHROME EXTENSION Current Version 5.0.3 – Updated on 5/10/202…

Cybercriminals Going after K-12? Yep, It’s a Thing.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards has issued a state of emergency due to a malware…

Mid-Year Check-In: 2019 Cybersecurity Predictions

Back in early January, I teamed up with my colleague, Jordan Mauriello, to write fiv…

Tackling the Cybersecurity Talent Shortage, One Alert at a Time

Reducing alert overload by integrating zero-trust technology as part of your securit…

The Industry’s First – and Only – MOBILESOC App Just Got Better

Instant triage and response to security alerts? We’ve got an app for that. We’re cha…

The Threat of Systematic Cybersecurity Risk in Financial Services

It’s obvious that criminals follow the money, making financial services firms a top …

Drowning in Alerts? CRITICALSTART, Microsoft Defender ATP Collaboration Will Reduce Alerts by 99%

The rapidly changing threat landscape poses numerous challenges for all enterprise o…

Law Firms Beware: Data Breaches on the Rise

If your law firm hasn’t been breached, chances are very high it will. Cybersecurity …

The Last Watchdog Talks to CRITICALSTART About Radical Transparency

At CRITICALSTART, we’ve made the concept of “radical transparency” a cornerstone of …

The Rx for a Healthy Cybersecurity Strategy: A Look at CRITICALSTART Customer, Ardent Health Services

Of course, cybersecurity is a priority for businesses across all industries, but in …

The Boy Who Cried “Alert”

Later, he saw a REAL wolf prowling about his flock. Alarmed, he leaped to his feet a…

#BalanceForBetter: International Women’s Day 2019

This year’s International Women’s Day 2019 theme is #BalanceforBetter…

Data is the New Source Code

The role of data in today’s business world cannot be overstated. Competitive intelli…

Five Cybersecurity Predictions for 2019

2018 was another year of change in the cybersecurity industry. We’ve had some intere…

Naughty or Nice: Cybercriminals’ Latest Targeting Strategies During the Holiday Season

Economics of Christmas: The Joy of Shopping Retailers solicit most fervently on a ha…

Supporting Our Family: In Memory of Ricki Bateman

Today being the National Day of Giving, we come together to celebrate the gift of ge…

Cryptojacking Attack: Everyone is a Target

An evolution has occurred with the preferred attack method among hackers. With its h…

Putting the NEXT in Next Generation Firewall: Tales From the Field

You’ve purchased a next-generation firewall. You understand the why, but h…

Spectre and Meltdown: Why No One Should Implicitly Trust Hardware

Everyone should be wary of downloading, installing, or running unknown scripts or so…

Bluetooth Blues

The proliferation of wireless devices in the world is astounding, and one of the mos…

Security Automation and Orchestration: An Analyst Perspective

Security Automation and Orchestration (SAO) Platforms are the newest players in the …

The New Ransomware that Makes WannaCry Wanna Cry

Today, 27 June 2017, a new malware has begun attacking networks around the world. Pe…

The Devil’s in the Subtitles

Widespread malware affecting media players On May 23rd, 2017, Checkpoint f…

WannaCry Recap

Friday could not have come sooner for some last week. For the rest of us, we may hav…

WannaCry? You Might.

Urgent Information Regarding WanaCrypt/WannaCry/WCry Ransom-ware Outbreak Today, 12 …

WannaCry IOCs and Technical Details

Technical Details It is currently unclear whether this payload is delivered via mali…

Picking the Right Silver Bullet

With the current state of cybersecurity, the market has become inundated with “solut…

What Are the Mistakes That Get Hackers Arrested?

At CRITICALSTART, we use a concept called the Defendable Network and map&n…

Shipping Firms’ Credentials for Sale on the Dark Web: November Threat Intelligence Report

Five Ways to Protect a Smart City from Cyberattacks

Killware is Here, but so are the Tools to Defeat the Threat

Cyber Threat Intelligence Summary – October 2021

IDC Survey Points to Value of MDR in Helping Companies Resolve Security Alerts

Identity is the New Perimeter:

Mayhem in Manufacturing, Part II: Best Practices for Third-Party Risk Management

Support for Microsoft 365 Defender Extends Critical Start MDR Coverage Enterprise-wide

SOC vs. CSIRT: What’s the Difference?

Ransomware: An Attacker’s Perspective

Retailers, Why Not Give Consumers the Gift of Data Security This Holiday Season?

Critical Start Inaugural Cyber Threat Intelligence Report – September 2021

Three Reasons Companies Fall Victim to Ransomware – and One Big Way the Game is Changing

Transparency (Or Lack Thereof): What Your MDR Company Isn’t Telling You

CRITICALSTART SELECTED FOR THE DALLAS BUSINESS JOURNAL’S MIDDLE MARKET 50 LIST FOR 2021

Mayhem in Manufacturing, Part I: Four Best Practices to Avoid Ransomware Attacks

Penetration Testing: Why is a Good Offense the Best Defense?

Azure DevOps Service security monitoring using Azure Sentinel

How to Plan a Migration from SIEM Solutions to Azure Sentinel

Understanding XDR – Learn from Industry Authorities

Incident Response 101: What to expect before, during, and after a breach

Cortex XDR and MDR: The right balance of applied machine learning and the humans that aid it.

Ransomware: Be a Victor, Not a Victim.

Azure Sentinel: Notifications of New Detection Rules

Is Your Cybersecurity Answering the Right Question?

Women in Cybersecurity: Meredith Dishman

Secure the Cloud—All Hands on Deck

Women in Cybersecurity: Katy Lietzau

MOBILESOC: You’ll Take this Threat Alert to Go.

Zero-day Targeting Exchange Servers: Steps to Evaluate the Risk to Your Organization

The Top Three Issues Robbing You Of SIEM ROI

Earning Your Business is Good. Earning Your Trust is Better.

Navigate Aftermath of SolarWinds Attack With On-Demand Resources

Data Privacy Program from Zero to Hero

Balancing Act: How MOBILESOC can Ensure Cybersecurity while Protecting Time with Family

Windows Security Event Logs – What to Monitor?

Second Round of Stimulus Provides New Opportunity for Online Scams

Sunburst: A Week in Review

Weighing the Value of Managed Security

Steps Educational Institutions Are Taking to Defend Their Infrastructures from Cyber Attackers

The Democratization of Security: Simplification and Direction for Content Management

The Democratization of Security

CRITICALSTART & ePlus | National Cybersecurity Awareness Month Podcast

How to Develop a Cybersecurity Playbook in 5 Steps

[2020 Updates] Gartner Endpoint Security Hype Cycle Insights

SIEM & MDR: What You Need to Know

Benefits of Security Orchestration, Automation, & Response

A New MDR Managed SIEM Offering Powered by Devo

Incident Response Teams: In-House vs Outsourced

Cyber Threat Concerns Grow as Schools Lean on Virtual Learning

CRITICALSTART MDR Ranks 4.7/5 on Gartner Peer Insights

How the COVID-19 Pandemic Affects Hackers

EDR Tools: What They Are & Why You Need Them

Threat Hunting: Proactive Incident Response

MDR vs MSSP: What are they? How do they work?

Outer Space Meets Cyberspace: What Space Travel Can Teach Us About Cybersecurity

How Security Teams Eliminate Risk Acceptance with MDR

Why a Proactive IR Strategy Is Critical

Zero-Trust and Micro-Segmentation

Weaponizing Public Breach Data Dumps for Red Teamers

What is EDR? And EDR vs. MDR vs. EPP – Security Compared

NFL Draft: 5 Things Teams Need to Do Now to Guard Against Hackers

Cybersecurity Needs for the Remote Workforce

Free MOBILESOC and Endpoint Protection for Remote Security Teams until June 15

State Legislation May Drive Federal Security Compliance Regulations in 2020

SOAR And MDR: Finding The Best Fit To Augment Security

4 Key Steps to Protect Your Organization Against Increased Cyber Threats

Protecting Your Organization Against Ransomware Attacks

Top 6 Cybersecurity Predictions for 2020

That’s a Wrap: 2019 Cybersecurity Predictions Recap

Tips for Securing PowerShell

The First Channel-Only MDR

Retailers: Don’t Let Black Friday Cyberattacks Darken Holiday Shopping

Cybersecurity 101: What to Look for in a Partner

Testing a Flutter Application

Research Report: The Impact of Security Alert Overload

SECURITY TOOLS

Cybercriminals Going after K-12? Yep, It’s a Thing.

Mid-Year Check-In: 2019 Cybersecurity Predictions