Cloud adoption has increased rapidly during the past few years, but the cloud environment isn’t 100% secure. During the last 18 months, 79% of companies have suffered from one data breach incident in the cloud. Cybercriminals easily hack into cloud data centers through unauthorized access, account hijacking, and exploiting misconfigurations to compromise business data. If […]
The post 12 Best Encrypted Cloud Backup Services To Consider In 2024 appeared first on BeEncrypted.
]]>Cloud adoption has increased rapidly during the past few years, but the cloud environment isn’t 100% secure. During the last 18 months, 79% of companies have suffered from one data breach incident in the cloud. Cybercriminals easily hack into cloud data centers through unauthorized access, account hijacking, and exploiting misconfigurations to compromise business data. If your company also suffers from this, then be ready to face catastrophic impacts that damage reputation, customer loss, and significant financial loss. Thus, protecting the cloud data using the best-encrypted cloud backup services is essential.
An encrypted cloud server backup has become extremely necessary for organizations relying on the cloud environment to store their critical business data. To its core, a cloud backup backs up the data to the cloud-based servers that let you save a copy of your data on one or more servers managed by a reliable third-party cloud service provider. These encrypted services help mitigate cyberattacks by restoring or recovering the company’s data while having complete control over the encryption keys for the files.
If you are also interested in using an encrypted cloud backup service for your business, explore this guide and decide which cloud backup platform fits your requirements.
Using an encrypted cloud backup service keeps your data safe. These comprehensive security solutions work best for disaster recovery and archiving purposes. In addition, they proved to be an invaluable resource in somehow reducing the number of cyberattacks.
If you’re still wondering whether to use cloud backup services, here are a few more reasons to help you make the right decision.
Cloud backup solutions are the easiest to secure data from data loss or natural calamity. Businesses must use them and maximize their data security.
Out of the wide world of cloud backup providers, choosing the best one for your business can be daunting. Several cloud vendors claim to provide excellent service and features, but not all are credible enough to use.
Below is the breakdown of the 12 best-encrypted cloud backup services, free and paid, that businesses must consider using to keep their data safe.

Sync is a file storage provider that helps companies stay secure and connected within the cloud environment. It backups up the company’s data in real time, guaranteeing that you can access any file or document anytime. This way, it protects from the risk of paying the ransom and not recovering the data.
On the top, it uses end-to-end encryption, which is perfect for keeping business data out of the clutches of hackers. Besides this, the cloud backup provider uses enterprise-grade infrastructure to replicate the data with multiple SOC-2-certified data center locations, boosting data security. Its groundbreaking privacy-focused features and certification with the most widely accepted privacy and security regulations like GDPR make Sync the best encrypted cloud backup provider.
Moreover, it connects your internal teams, external partners, team members, and clients and enables them to access files and data seamlessly across mobile devices, web PCs, and laptops. The storage capacity is also enough to store large files and bulk data. Sync offers 1TB secure storage in the Standard Team plan, which costs $6 per user/month, while unlimited storage capacity in the Teams Unlimited plan costs $15 per user per month. If you are a solo professional or individual, Sync lets you backup your sensitive data by offering a 2TB and 6TB storage limit.

pCloud is among the best encrypted cloud backup service that allows businesses to use high-end security to protect their data. It deploys the industry’s highest AES 256-bit and 4096-RSA keys to encryption to protect files, documents, and other sensitive business data. In addition, it also implements the zero-knowledge policy, which guarantees that users’ data isn’t stored on the servers and only the end users can access it.
The cloud backup provider is secure, simple, and easy-to-use cloud storage for your work files, photos, and videos. It offers 500GB and 2TB storage capacity depending on your plan. It is compatible with all devices and major operating systems, meaning you can save and access important files and data from your laptop, mobile phone, and web computers. Besides this, sharing and receiving files and working with your colleagues on each is also easy with pCloud.
One impressive feature of pCloud is that it offers encrypted and non-encrypted folders. You can choose which files to encrypt and lock in the encrypted folder and which ones to store in their natural state. To protect your data with pCloud, you must buy a premium subscription. It isn’t available to use for free; you can buy it for $49.9/year or $99.99 yearly.

MEGA is a reliable cloud backup service provider that allows businesses to back up their documents and other sensitive files and save them from malicious attacks. The cloud provider offers a free version, and this is something that start-ups and small businesses like the most. By creating an account on MEGA, you get 20GB of free storage capacity and access to all basic features essential for backing up the data in the cloud servers.
All the data on MEGA is protected with user-controlled end-to-end encryption derived from your passwords. Thus, use strong passwords for your accounts, as they are the main encryption keys. Also, it automatically backs up the data and deploys the zero-knowledge policy, which guarantees data security and makes it impossible for hackers to access the data.
Apart from this, MEGA allows users to secure and access the data and files from any device. It provides dedicated and easy-to-use apps for all major platforms, including tablets and smartphones. This means you can easily manage your files, chat with the team members, and simultaneously make calls from your device.
The cloud provider allows users to create a public folder for customers or suppliers to send files securely, even if they don’t use MEGA. Also, it has good storage capacity, ensuring you can store and transfer large files faster. Unlike the free plan, the premium plan provides up to 16TB of secure storage capacity that more than three users can use and access all the advanced features.

IceDrive is a relatively new cloud backup provider, but since its launch, it’s making great progress and has been a popular choice for businesses. Because of its exceptional security standards, IceDrive is among the best encrypted cloud backup providers.
On the top, IceDrive uses the Twofish encryption algorithm which is more secure than the conventional AES/Rijndael solution. In addition, the cloud provider uses client-side encryption that encrypts everything, including the file and folder names, before storing it in the cloud servers. With such strong encryption, sensitive business data won’t ever be leaked, compromised, or deciphered.
IceDrive is a popular choice for businesses because of its impressive cloud storage apps for various platforms. You can download this cloud backup tool across desktop and mobile apps and easily access and store files.
Another best feature of IceDrive is that it is available in free and premium plans. You automatically use the free version when you sign up for an account. It allocates 10GB of cloud storage and a 3GB daily bandwidth limit but doesn’t provide client encryption in the free plan. You can get a massive storage capacity of up to 5TB by subscribing to the Pro+ version and can also avail the 14-day money-back guarantee offer.

IDrive is an excellent cloud backup service that uses strong encryption and a range of features to keep your data safe. Using the industry’s highest AES-256-bit encryption, IDrive guarantees that user keys are not stored on the servers, and hence no one can intercept or leak the data. All the files and folders are synced in real-time across all devices linked with the Cloud Drive.
The IDrive Express is an amazing feature that automatically recognizes the files and backs them up quickly. It also backs up the data from external hard drives and creates a backup copy of them. The best part of using IDrive is that you can also retrieve the data within a week because it doesn’t delete any data until the user manually deletes it or runs the Archive Cleanup tool.
Another prominent IDrive feature is its multiple-device backup compatibility. You can unlimited backup data from Android, Linux, Mac, iPhones, and Windows devices by using a single account. In addition, it enables businesses to search and restore files from browsers or desktop applications within 30 days. This rare feature makes IDrive one of the best cloud backup providers.
The cloud backup provider offers subscription plans for everyone. From individuals to solo professionals and from teams to businesses, everyone can use IDrive. The business plan provides up to 5TB of storage capacity, enough for storing all important files, documents, customer details, and much more.

Tresorit is an end-to-end encrypted cloud backup provider designed to protect the digital assets of individuals and organizations within the cloud infrastructure. Its end-to-end encryption is automatic and built-in, so users don’t have to worry about their data privacy. Also, the zero-trust system ensures that it doesn’t store or transmit data, files, or passwords in unencrypted or unhashed form.
Another reason Tresorit is the best encrypted cloud backup provider is that it complies with the industry’s security standards and regulations. The service provider implements the data protection measures and ensures that the users can prevent getting penalized for not using enough measures to protect customers’ data.
The cloud backup provider runs smoothly on all popular devices, including Linux, and allows easy access to files and stored data. Tresorit’s local wipe option removes all your data and synced folders when you sign out from its service. Similarly, the remote wipe feature deletes all the synced files and folders when the device is lost or stolen.
The secure storage capacity is enough to store bulk and large file-size data, but it depends on your plan. The business plan gets up to 2TB of encrypted storage, while the enterprise plan users can customize their storage limit depending on their needs. Users can also avail the 14-day trial version to test Tresorit’s features and functionalities.

SpiderOak One Backup is another reliable backup solution for boosting security and privacy within the cloud environment. Its robust encryption and wide range of valuable features make it the best encrypted cloud backup provider. It uses solid AES-256 bit encryption to protect the files and data at rest and in transit. In addition, it uses TLS encryption to protect the data while in a transit state and to prevent any potential MITM attacks during the backup process.
The service provider backup and restores the files on the cloud server quite impressively. However, users can only access the data via desktop apps as it isn’t compatible with mobile devices, and this disappoints the users a lot.
SpiderOak comes with essential security-focused features like file syncing and file versioning. But it needs to expand its functionalities as some limitations often restrict users. For instance, you can sync files and folders that you include in the regular backup process. Also, it doesn’t allow cloning the hard drive or using any other courier recovery service.
Luckily, there aren’t any restrictions on the encrypted storage capacity. You can get up to 5TB of storage limit; that’s more than enough for storing large files and documents. Still, if you feel confused about SpiderOak being the right choice for your business, you can avail the trial period.

Livedrive is yet another online cloud storage and backup solution that enables companies to back up an unlimited number of files. Like all other top-tier encrypted cloud backup providers, Livedrive also uses end-to-end encryption to safeguard the data and files from unauthorized access. Also, its data center monitoring team is ISO 27001 certified, guaranteeing robust security and protection of the stored cloud data.
Besides this, it offers some useful security features that further maintain the business data’s integrity. The cloud service solution supports two-factor authentication that adds an extra protective layer to the user account and prevents any malicious person from accessing it even if they have your password. The Briefcase feature is another prominent Livedrive feature that allows viewing and editing files from mobile or desktop devices. It works perfectly well on Android, iOS, Mac, Linux, and Windows devices and ensures a seamless user experience.
LiveDrive offers three premium subscription packages: multiple device compatibility, secure cloud backup, and massive encrypted storage capacity. However, the features vary according to the chosen plan. LiveDrive’s Pro Suite is the most popular plan for business users. It offers unlimited cloud backup storage and 5000 briefcase storage on all compatible devices and platforms. Also, it provides a 14-day trial version to check if it meets your requirements.

NordLocker is the best encrypted cloud backup provider that uses uncrackable encryption and comprehensive security features to protect the users’ files and other critical data in the cloud. It relies on AES-256 bit encryption that’s virtually unbreakable and maximizes your data security. Besides this, it also uses the zero-policy architecture to protect cloud data from malicious actors.
It is one of the easiest tools to use. All the data becomes encrypted automatically by dragging and dropping the file or folder into the NordLocker app. You can also schedule backup and benefit from the secure file-sharing feature. With NordLocker, you can securely share files across all compatible devices and operating systems like Android, iOS, Mac, Linux, and Windows.
With NordLocker, you can get up to 2TB of secure storage limit, but if you want more, you can customize a plan by contacting the sales department. NordLocker doesn’t offer a free version or a free trial option. But you can always take advantage of the 30-day money-back guarantee offer if you feel the service is not worth using.

Businesses can also consider using ElephantDrive to back up their data in the cloud environment. It uses powerful AES-256 bit encryption and SSL secured channel to keep your data private and secure from the prying eyes of hackers. It automatically backs up the data and files, so there’s no need for a separate IT team to monitor if the data is backed up successfully. But you can also back up the data from NAS devices which adds a protective layer to your data and further ensures that no one except the owner can access it.
ElephantDrive offers a solution so that users can collectively work together. It supports secure file sharing, making it easy to share files with your work colleagues and edit them simultaneously. You can back up and sync data on all supported devices and access it via your phone, laptop, tablet, or desktop PC without hassle.
The cloud backup provider doesn’t offer any free version. It offers premium subscription plans for individuals, families, and businesses. You can get ElephantDrive at the lowest price of $400 per year and unlimited data storage capacity on over 25 accounts.

Internxt is another popular name that makes it into the best encrypted cloud backup providers list. It deploys military-grade AES-256 bit encryption and a zero-knowledge policy to protect sensitive business data. Because of strong encryption standards, the stored data isn’t stored on the cloud servers; only the users can view it. This way, a business can prevent identity theft and other common cyber threats.
The cloud service provider works exceptionally well across all platforms and devices. You can use your mobile devices, laptops, and Windows computers to access the cloud data. Also, it supports the secure file-sharing feature, resulting in easy and fast access to data. However, besides this, Internxt doesn’t provide any noticeable features that might distract users from using this service.
Internxt is available in both free and premium versions. However, the free version only allocates a 10GB storage limit, which is not enough to cater the business needs. Businesses can get up to 2TB of encrypted storage limit at an affordable price. If unsatisfied with the cloud provider’s service, they can demand a refund within the initial 30-days of the purchase.

PolarBackup is another great encrypted cloud backup provider that allows businesses to securely store and back up their data. It uses the advanced AWS technology that provides the highest data security and protection level within the cloud environment. Besides this, it utilizes the unbreakable AES-256 bit encryption that encrypts the data at transit and thus protects it from ransomware attacks.
The cloud service provider lets users restore their data with a single click and enjoy a smooth backup and storage experience. Also, you can share and access files easily on your devices, but unfortunately, PolarBackup doesn’t work on mobile devices, which users don’t like.
PolarBackup offers different pricing plans, and businesses can choose according to their needs. The encrypted storage capacity varies; the highest limit it offers is 5TB, which is huge. A 30-day money-back guarantee offer backs up all the pricing plans, so if you don’t like their service, don’t worry; you can get a refund.
The encrypted cloud backup solution is of great value for your business data, but choosing the right tool isn’t easy. One wrong decision can significantly risk your business data. Thus, before using any cloud backup solution, make sure it has all these features:
All the cloud backup providers reviewed above are based on the above criteria, so it’s advisable not to skip any of the abovementioned features.
The encrypted cloud backup services enjoy a clear edge over the traditional backup approaches in the modern threat landscape. They increase data security but also come with additional benefits like reducing cost and increased data availability. If you haven’t used any cloud backup solution for your business, choose from the above-recommended list and boost the security of your business data.
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]]>The most frustrating thing while surfing the web is slow or interrupted connections. If you ever experienced a slow and sluggish connection while using VoIP services, streaming your favorite show, or playing online games and associated it with ISP throttling, then to your shock, sometimes your ISP is not the only culprit. The reason behind […]
The post How To Detect, Identify and Fix Packet Loss With Best Tools appeared first on BeEncrypted.
]]>Packet loss might sound like a new phenomenon to many users, but it isn’t. This article covers all the necessary information about packet loss that might help you, so let’s dive into it.
To understand the phenomena of packet loss, it’s essential that you first know what packets are. The data within a network is sent and received in small units called packets. It applies to everything you do online, i.e., from uploading or downloading files and images to emailing, browsing, streaming, gaming, or using VoIP services.
The packets are sent off to their destination to maintain network efficiency. This way, the network can evenly distribute the load across various pieces of equipment, ultimately enhancing performance.
Internet packet loss happens when one or more of these packets gets lost in transit during their journey. Packet loss, also known as latency, often occurs in private and wireless networks because they easily get lost when things go through the air. It is more likely to happen on long-distance internet connections because the packets must go farther, giving more room for error.
Unsuccessful packets often slow down the network speeds and throw off the network throughput and bandwidth. As a result, you will notice that the downloads are slow, and the websites take a long time to respond. In addition, packet loss is quite noticeable when dealing with real-time activities like gaming, streaming, or VoIP services.
According to IT professionals, 1-2% of packet loss is the acceptable rate for VoIP. If this value exceeds, it causes communication delays, creates unwanted and garbled sounds, and even scrambles parts of the conversation. Hence it’s essential to look for ways to fix packet loss.
Packet loss occurs less on private or wired networks but mostly on long-distance internet connections. There are several reasons behind packet loss; most are unintentional or unknown. Knowing the causes can help you spot and fix packet loss before experiencing its effects. Here are some of the most common causes of packet loss:
Network congestion is the most common cause of packet loss. When a network handles more data or user requests, packets become overcrowded and take much time to reach their intended destination. This frequently happens during holidays, weekends, or peak hours of the day.
Unchecked bugs within your system can be a prime reason to disrupt the network performance. These bugs can appear due to extensive use or faulty software. Once the bug is introduced to your network, it will cause anomalies, resulting in delayed and lost data packets.
Packet loss is often because of damaged cables. The damage can happen after every few months without any visible signs. If you reside in a region with a hot climate, the ethernet cables will most likely lose their efficiency in a year. It is because of the constant heat on the cables that melts the insulation within it. In addition, birds sitting on the ethernet cable can result in damage.
The IT administrators use a network monitoring system and other valuable tools for network stability. However, most tools have limited functionality as they were created for a specific purpose, failing to protect the network entirely. Hence, preventing packet loss is impossible without a comprehensive network monitoring solution.
When multiple devices are connected to one network, not having enough capacity to handle it, it causes network congestion and packet loss. Though many devices have buffers to put the packets back in the patterns, these buffers can get quickly filled up and don’t speed up the network.
Wireless networks experience more issues like packets than wired networks. Radiofrequency interference weakens the signals and causes the wireless networks to drop the connection packets. Similarly, faulty wired cables can also cause hindrances while impeding signals through the cables.
Firewalls, network switches, and routers consume much power and bandwidth. Using glitchy and outdated hardware can also weakens the network. Sometimes organizations neglect to update the hardware, resulting in connectivity outages and packet loss.
With the changing security landscape, it is now even possible that a security breach or threat can be a reason behind packet loss. A hacker can invade the router and tells it to drop the connection packets.
If you start noticing a drop in packets or slow and sluggish network speeds, then it could be because of an attack. Hackers launch a denial-of-service attack (DoS attack) in which they flood the network with too much traffic that’s difficult to handle. The bad actors take advantage of this vulnerability and capture, alter, and delete any data packets, which results in packet loss.
There is no universal or fixed way to fix packet loss completely. However, by following some tips, you can somehow reduce its effect. Below are the steps that you must practice to reduce packet loss:
These are some tips that help in reducing packet loss. So, do practice them and ensure network stability. You can also use network performance monitoring tools to detect, troubleshoot, and fix packet loss.
Advanced-level network monitoring software is ideal for profoundly monitoring network activity. This software tells which apps use the most bandwidth and whether packet loss exists. In addition, it also helps to optimize and troubleshoot internet-connected devices.
If you’re looking for some reliable network monitoring software, below is a quick overview of the eight best network performance monitoring tools to detect and fix packet loss:
All these are paid tools, so you must use them if you have a budget; otherwise, you can practice the tips mentioned above and reduce packet loss.
Every network experiences issues with packet loss, including your operating system. It’s crucial to find out which parts of the connections are stable versus the network sections experiencing the failure to detect where the packet loss is coming from.
Various operating systems require different steps to confirm packet loss. Below is a quick insight into the steps that users can perform to detect packet loss on macOS, Windows, and Linux:
If you use macOS, then follow the steps below to confirm packet loss:
That’s it. Review the statistics at the bottom of the page; if one or more ping fails to respond, it means packet loss.
To check if you’re experiencing packet loss in the Windows operating system then, here are the steps you must follow:
Scrutinize the results and confirm whether there is packet loss or not.
Here are the steps for checking packet loss in the Linux operating system:
Once packet loss is confirmed, looking for ways to fix it is essential. You can use various tools or practice other tips and tricks discussed in the next section.
Packet loss comes from frozen video, garbled VoIP calls, poor browsing, gaming, or streaming speeds. It reduces the speed and amount of data that flows through the network. The entire situation is highly frustrating for the users. Thus, it’s high time to fix the packet loss issue.
There are various tools that users can use to get around this problem. In addition, by practicing additional measures like updating the software, upgrading the software, or blocking the suspicious IP address within the network, you can fix this problem and enjoy fast internet speeds.
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]]>Network security is a set of actionable measures organizations take to prevent accidental damage to sensitive network data. Poor security practices within an organization lead to the exposure of private data, including customer data. In addition, hackers are continuously looking for new vulnerabilities to exploit business networks and access data. The old security tools are […]
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]]>Network security is a set of actionable measures organizations take to prevent accidental damage to sensitive network data. Poor security practices within an organization lead to the exposure of private data, including customer data. In addition, hackers are continuously looking for new vulnerabilities to exploit business networks and access data. The old security tools are not as effective in protecting the network and require specialized network security software to do the job.
Network security software protects the network infrastructure from unauthorized access, misuse, and theft. It also helps keep sensitive data safe from cyber-attacks, ensures the company meets regulatory compliance requirements and avoids legal troubles.
This guide covers the best network security software available in the market with its key features. Go through it and decide which one suits you the best.
With the increasing use of technology, businesses rely more on their networks for data storage, communication, application usage, and other activities that malicious actors can compromise if not appropriately protected.
In addition, securing business networks becomes even more crucial as the number and cost of data breaches and cyber crimes increase. The average cost of a data breach is $4.24 million, which further increases the demand for robust network security.
Network security has become a vital aspect of all businesses. It helps organizations prevent data breaches that result in millions of lost revenue. Besides this, it ensures that sensitive customer data or financial information is not shared with unauthorized persons. Cybercriminals can sell this information on the dark web, use it for identity theft, or launch other cyber attacks.
There are different components used to secure a network. This includes VPNs, firewalls, antivirus software, EDR, XDR, and more. All these components mix with the network security practices to secure the network from malware, spyware, ransomware, and other intrusions through accidental or intentional means.
A reliable network protects organizational interests and operations and clients who exchange information with them and trust them to share their sensitive data. Here’s a reminder of the top benefits your business gain from having strong network security:
As a whole, organizations must consider network security as it protects them from internal and external threats. By implementing network security protocols and practices, businesses can ensure their systems are safe and focus more on their business goals.
There are various network security tools, and deciding on one is challenging. However, through research and testing, below is a detailed analysis of the 15 best network security software worth using in 2024.

Perimeter 81 is the top network security software popular that secures the business network, including local and cloud resources. It includes essential advanced network security management features for thousands of businesses and industries to achieve holistic cyber and network security, irrespective of size.
Besides this, users can create adaptive least-privilege access policies based on location, identity, role, and device and grant access to only authorized employees to combat unauthorized access.
Another impressive feature of Perimeter 81 is that it offers other security and privacy-centric features like:
All the above features make it difficult for bad actors to breach your network and compromise security. The software offers different pricing plans, each with a 30-day money-back guarantee offer.

Snort is an Open Source Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) that uses rules to define malicious network activity. It monitors the network traffic and then compares it against a set of rules that issues an alert when it detects any unusual activity within the network. Besides IPS, Snort also works as a packet sniffer or a packet logger, which is helpful for network traffic debugging.
The software also performs various functions that boost network security:
It is an advanced network security solution available for personal and business use. Businesses of all sizes can benefit from this software. However, it requires users to have advanced technical knowledge for successful implementation or results. The security software prices vary from the subscription plan you want to buy, and all the plans come with a refund offer.

Webroot is an endpoint protection software that uses cloud computing, predictive analytics, and machine learning to combat network security threats. One notable aspect of Webroot is that it efficiently understands the challenges faced by SMBs and offers tools that secure endpoints, networks, and end users.
Its services include antivirus, anti-malware, and web filtering that keeps your critical business systems safe and ensures that threat actors cannot invade the network. Besides this, it offers remote monitoring and management integrations to protect businesses and clients from rising cyber threats. Some other impressive features include the following:
The security solution is available for personal, small, and large-scale business organizations. The pricing plan varies, but all the plans come with a free-trial offer that allows users to test all features and decide if the product is worth using.

Norton provides excellent protection from multiple cybersecurity threats within the network or the device. Its anti-malware search engine uses machine learning and a malware directory to detect malware, from simple viruses and trojans to advanced malware like cryptojackers and ransomware. With a long history of producing outstanding security solutions, Norton is top-rated antivirus software that you must consider.
Besides antivirus, Norton also provides a range of other security-centric solutions that helps in boosting network security:
This network security software is an ideal choice for businesses that helps in combating network-related threats. The suite is available at various prices, but all the plans offer a seven-day free trial period. If you are hesitant to buy the premium plan directly, avail the trial version and then decide.

The Security Event Manager from Solar Winds is a leading network security software that IT professionals and MSPs must consider using. It’s designed to provide a comprehensive overview of the security status of the devices and services across the network infrastructure. In addition, it continuously monitors the network, detects threats, and sends alerts on any unusual and suspicious activities.
What’s more impressive is that this tool uses automated processes for threat detection across the network and minimizes the need for manual detection. Besides this, admins can use the SEM configuration options to create rules to respond to flagged threats. Some other highlighted features of this network security software are as follows:
As a whole, SEM is a great network security tool that includes all network elements. Though the software is available in paid versions, you can use the 30-day free trial version and check whether it meets your requirements.

Zscaler Cloud Firewall is another network security software that relies on the industry’s most comprehensive cloud-native security service edge (SSE) platform. It secures internet traffic, applications, and end users and boosts network security.
The security tool creates a virtual network that extends to create a custom IPS signature and implements it using the Snort syntax to identify and prevent potential threats. It protects the connection between a community of users, making it an ideal option for companies with remote workers.
Besides this, it creates a flexible access policy to cloud services and PaaS and IaaS with centralized policy management, which makes it easy for businesses to limit unauthorized access. Also, to ensure network security, it offers the following features:
The cloud firewall solution is best suited for small and large-scale business organizations. It doesn’t offer a trial version, but you can contact the support team and request a demo.

Burp Suite is an integrated tool that performs security testing of web applications. Different tools efficiently support the entire testing process, i.e., from initial mapping and analysis of the attack surface to finding and exploiting the security vulnerabilities.
It is a popular tool among bug bounty hunters and web app security researchers. It works by stimulating an attack on a network and listing the correct access attempts. Later, the results are further investigated. To detect and mitigate network threats, the security suite features a vulnerability scanner and other tools like:
An impressive trait of this network security software is that it offers a community edition that is free to use. It’s best suited for startups because it doesn’t include access to a professional support team and requires the community for advice.
Besides this, Burp Suite offers two paid plans; the professional and the enterprise edition. Both plans include different tools, as the professional edition includes pen testing and a web vulnerability scanner, while the enterprise edition provides vulnerability scanning and scheduling for network security sweeps.

Nessues is a prominent open-source vulnerability scanner that uses the common vulnerabilities and exposure architecture for easy cross-linking between the security tools. It employs the Nessus Attack Scripting Language (NASL) to detect potential threats and cyber-attacks.
Administrators can include the NASL descriptions of all suspected vulnerabilities to create customized scans. Some other significant features of Nessus include:
The network security suite is best suited for mid and large-scale organizations. It offers three different premium packages, so you can opt for them or first take advantage of the seven-day free trial period. Thus small businesses can also consider using Nessus only if they have prior experience and technical knowledge.

Falcon Insight XDR is the network security tool offered by CrowdStrike that provides continuous and comprehensive visibility that detects, investigates, and responds to prevent potential breaches. By opting the Falcon Insight, users get access to whole enterprise-wide security systems instead of a collection of endpoints.
On the top, it continuously monitors the endpoint activities, so you know what’s happening, meaning a threat on a single endpoint to the threat level of the entire organization. In addition, with AI-powered indicators of attack, it automatically detects and prioritizes malicious activity. Some other prominent features of this tool are as follows:
The best thing about this network security software is that it is best for all businesses regardless of size and offers a trial version. Thus, if you’re often confused about the product’s functionality, try out the 15-day trial version.

Kaspersky Endpoint Security is also an excellent option to ensure network security. It protects the business from next-generation cyber threats by combining multi-layered threat protection with additional proactive technologies like web and device controls, vulnerability and patch management, and data encryption into an EDR-ready endpoint agent with an extensive systems management toolkit.
The software offers various valuable features to protect the network:
This network security software is best suited for small to midsize organizations. However, it doesn’t offer a free version or a free trial period, meaning the users cannot test the features and functionalities. But don’t worry, as all the premium subscription plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee offer, so if you’re unsatisfied with the software, you can get your money back.

Forcepoint is a cloud-based network security software that monitors unusual activities within the cloud environment. It ensures network security by restricting users from accessing content that isn’t their use and blocking attempts to access the organization’s information. Also, it provides warnings about any risky cloud servers and adds an extra layer of security to fight critical threats.
The best feature of this software is that the user can customize it to monitor and detect any unauthorized activity with the network and take appropriate steps quickly. Besides this, it also offers the following features to increase network security:
This software is best suited for organizations that are working in the cloud. It offers various subscription plans, but you can schedule a free demo to check its credibility.

You can also consider using Kali Linux if looking for an easy-to-use penetration testing tool for scanning network vulnerabilities. It is open-source software that allows organizations to maintain network security on one platform.
One impressive feature of this software is that it offers security auditing tools with over 300 techniques that ensure that your sites and Linux servers remain protected from malicious intrusions. Though this software doesn’t provide a range of features like others, it comes with pre-installed tools that help in maximizing security, such as:
Professional penetration testers, ethical hackers, and cybersecurity experts can find this helpful software. Individuals can also use it if they possess strong technical knowledge.

Nagios is a network security software that efficiently monitors the network for problems caused by overloaded data links, network connections, switches, and monitoring routers. In addition, it tracks network resources like POP3, HTTP, NNTP, SMTP, and NNTP and informs about any suspicious activity.
It also sends real-time alerts so appropriate actions can be taken correctly. What’s more impressive is that it offers various unique features that boost network security like:
This network security software is ideal for mid to large-size organizations and cybersecurity experts. Like other software, Nagios also offers premium plans, but to test its service, you can download the trial version, which is free to use.

Splunk is a reliable network security software designed mainly for the cloud environment. It monitors the network and provides alerts to the cybersecurity frameworks. In addition, it helps prioritize the alerts and boosts investigations with built-in threat intelligence capabilities.
The software is easy to download and install and offers some impressive security-centric features like:
Businesses of all sizes can consider using this software and increasing network security. Though it is available in paid versions, you can use the free trial version to check if the software meets your requirements.

OWASP ZAP is an open-source software that is a penetration testing tool that checks for web application vulnerabilities. It acts as a proxy and protects the system from hacker interference.
Besides this, it scans the network for system configuration weaknesses and faulty authentication to ensure network security. Also, it maintains network security by offering the following features:
The best thing about this network security software is that it is free to use and is compatible with all major devices and operating systems. Hence, anyone looking for free software must consider using it.
When investing in network security software, you must choose the right solution. There are some other key features that you must not ignore while selecting a network security software for your business like:
The above features are vital for maximizing network security, so don’t overlook them.
Businesses of all sizes face severe cybersecurity threats every day. They come from malware, endpoints, bugs, threat actors, or hackers. No matter their form, their goal is the same, i.e., to compromise your network security and access sensitive business data.
Losing sensitive business data can cost an organization millions. In addition, by stealing and selling the customers’ data publicly, hackers create mistrust in the organization and damage their reputation.
Hence, investing in good network security software has become imperative to prevent unauthorized access and actions. The above guide covers the best network security solutions for personal and professional use. Choose the most suitable one and boost your network security.
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]]>What is a software deployment? Software deployment is the process of configuring, updating, and deploying software applications. It is typically integrated into the software development lifecycle as part of the continuous integration and delivery or deployment (CI/CD) pipeline. You can deploy software manually or automatically, depending on your needs and resources. When integrated into the […]
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]]>Software deployment is the process of configuring, updating, and deploying software applications. It is typically integrated into the software development lifecycle as part of the continuous integration and delivery or deployment (CI/CD) pipeline.
You can deploy software manually or automatically, depending on your needs and resources. When integrated into the CI/CD pipeline, manual deployment is typically part of the continuous delivery process, as the continuous deployment process fully automates this process and does not require human intervention.
Large software deployment rollouts typically involve minor releases to reduce the strain on the system and minimize disruptions to users. It often requires post-deployment support and helps during the process. Vendors utilize software deployment to keep their software up-to-date, providing customers with security patches, performance fixes, and new features.
Supply chain attacks target and attack insecure elements of the software supply chain. They can harm specific software products, organizations, or even industries. These attacks target software developers and software vendors to infect legitimate systems and applications, gain access to source code, build processes, and update mechanisms, and use these to distribute malware or other cyber threat vectors.
The software supply chain includes:
Supply chain attackers look for insecure network protocols, server infrastructure, development tools, or coding practices. They penetrate these systems and typically modify source code or libraries to inject malware into the build and update process.
These apps and updates are signed and certified because a trusted vendor builds and releases the software. In attacks on the software supply chain, vendors may not be aware that their applications and updates have been infected with malware when they are released to the public. Malicious code can then run with the same trust and privileges as the application – making it difficult to detect and protect against.
Software applications often rely on dependencies for core functionality, which can represent a risk for organizations. Another risk is that complex CI/CD pipelines publish source code to repositories and deploy it. This supply chain includes several parties, including organizations, individuals, resources, technologies, and activities related to the creation and sale of software products. Supply chain attacks target vulnerable actors in the supply chain and compromise other actors that rely on them.
A modern development lifecycle is designed for rapid development and delivery. To support this purpose, the CI/CD pipeline includes a growing number of open-source components and third-party integrations. However, rapid development without adequate security can introduce vulnerabilities and put your pipeline at serious risk.
Vulnerabilities in CI/CD pipelines can result from poor third-party integration and lack of code scanning of source code components. Failure to follow code security best practices can significantly increase the attack surface. Common code vulnerabilities include buffer overflows, code injection vulnerabilities, and insecure error handling.
One recently discovered attack method hackers use against CI/CD pipelines is poisoned pipeline execution (PPE).
PPE uses code injection and execution cleverly to create a path into production systems. Attackers can execute malicious code during the build process by infecting the CI/CD pipeline and build configuration.
In other words, this malicious code runs entirely in the context of entities identified as an integral part of the pipeline.
The most serious danger of PPE attack vectors is that they can quickly spread from simple product delivery mechanisms to attacks on broader supply chains, making them very difficult to contain.
A CI/CD system includes many infrastructure, network, and application configurations. This configuration significantly impacts the security posture and cyberattack vulnerability of the pipeline. This is why attackers are actively looking for potential CI/CD misconfigurations and exploitable vulnerabilities and can use them to compromise the pipeline.
Automated testing can detect many security issues before release, but there may still be potential vulnerabilities that go unnoticed. To minimize this risk, allowing human penetration testers to test your application is a good idea. These ethical hackers try to break into applications, detect vulnerabilities, find potential attack vectors, and can help protect systems from actual attacks. A penetration tester is an outside expert who is not involved in the project so that they can see the system from the perspective of an external attacker.
Adding security as the last step of the SDLC is widely understood to be inefficient. Security should be added at every step of the process. This is the only way to fully secure fast-paced, modern software development environments, especially microservices architectures and cloud-native deployments.
DevSecOps is a management approach that combines application development, security, operations, and infrastructure as code (IaaS) in an automated continuous delivery cycle.
The primary purpose of DevSecOps is to automate, monitor, and enforce security at all stages of the software lifecycle: planning, developing, building, testing, releasing, delivering, deploying, operating, and monitoring. Applying security at every stage of the software development process enables continuous integration, lowers compliance costs, and speeds up software delivery.
DevSecOps requires all employees and teams to be accountable for security from the start and make effective decisions that do not compromise security.
GitOps is an essential way to secure Kubernetes-centric, cloud-native CI/CD. It provides rapid deployment with enhanced security.
According to many leading software developers and engineers, GitOps is a valuable set of practices for Kubernetes environments, especially when multiple users or teams share the resources of a single cluster.
GitOps works with Kubernetes features, like namespaces, to securely make resources available to multiple tenants. These practices work by maintaining user isolation and reducing security and integrity risks. This is especially useful when multiple people or teams are making changes simultaneously.
Models like GitOps allow you to track and approve changes made by users before the final build. This is useful for managing app updates and rolling back to a previous version in case an update fails.
If you’re using an open-source platform like Kubernetes, it’s crucial not to use the default configuration. The default configuration focuses on commercial, operational, and functional success rather than security and will usually not provide a strong security posture. Also, they are widely known and can be abused by anyone.
For example, default Kubernetes does not have network segmentation policies for deployments, allowing any pod to communicate with any other pod. This default setting is ideal for developers who want to build applications quickly. Still, if a single container is infected in a production environment, this default setting can allow the threat to spread quickly.
In this article, I explained the basics of software deployment and provided the following best practices to improve deployment security:
I hope this will be useful as you improve your software deployment security.
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]]>What is a network fabric? A network fabric is a mesh of connections between network devices such as access points, switches, and routers that forward data to its destination. “Fabric” refers to the physical wiring that makes up these connections but usually refers to a virtual mesh of virtualized connections automatically overlaid on top of […]
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]]>A network fabric is a mesh of connections between network devices such as access points, switches, and routers that forward data to its destination. “Fabric” refers to the physical wiring that makes up these connections but usually refers to a virtual mesh of virtualized connections automatically overlaid on top of a physical topology.
The physical or essential part of the fabric consists of switches, routers, and Wi-Fi devices. It provides a simple, scalable infrastructure for communication between network devices. The virtualized or overlay portion of the network fabric is used to transport user data.
The virtualized part of the structure is created by adding specific headers to packets. The network device interprets these headers and either blocks or forwards the packet. This conditional routing ensures that devices see only the relevant subset of the network.
Virtualization adds value to the network fabric. By virtualizing the base layer of your network, splitting it into multiple overlay networks, and optimizing them individually, you can use separate strategies for different needs. In addition, this structure has extensive policy-based control and automation mechanisms, allowing you to react to changes based on business requirements quickly.
Cloud providers and many private organizations use virtual machines (VMs) to manage workloads and improve server utilization. There is often a need to migrate virtual machines (VMs) running applications to other servers in a data center or other data centers.
As this process accelerates, manual processes cannot support the speed at which network resources scale. The network fabric is instrumental in facilitating VM migration by maintaining the IP address of a virtual machine when it changes location within a data center so that users can find it. The network fabric allows virtual machines to communicate with any network port over the data center network, making migration easier.
A container is a small runtime environment for application code. Containers are spun up or down depending on workload needs and usually run for short periods. Here too, manual configuration cannot keep up with what is happening in the network, and container security is also at risk.
As the number of containers increases or decreases, the network fabric uses automation to create the necessary network resources.
If an organization’s network has multiple data centers, it is necessary to interconnect them. A data center interconnects (DCI) service allows different data centers to become one logical data center. Applications and other services can be deployed anywhere and interact as if they were on the same network. If your organization already has a WAN infrastructure, DCI can be an overlay over the WAN. A network fabric is a primary component of DCI.
SASE is a set of technologies that embed security into the global fabric of networks. The critical components of SASE are software-defined WAN (SD-WAN), cloud access security broker (CASB), Firewall as a Service (FWaaS), zero-trust network access (ZTNA), and secure web gateway (SWG).
SASE solutions provide simple connectivity and security for today’s complex IT environment, with massive cloud adoption, digital transformation, remote workers, and the Internet of things (IoT). It enables consistent connectivity and performance for mobile users and cloud applications, consistent policy enforcement across networks, protection of unmanaged devices, and protection against modern threats. All these can be seamlessly and automatically deployed to any edge.
SASE provides a globally-available network fabric that connects the entire enterprise. It is not a technology but a platform that includes several technologies. A core component of SASE is SD-WAN, which connects sites, clients, users, mobile devices, IoT devices, and virtual appliances – wherever they are. Configuration, management, and reporting are all done from one console.
SASE does more than just connect users and devices – it also protects them. SASE includes several solutions that provide multiple layers of security:
As a complete enterprise network fabric, the SASE platform provides consistent uptime and performance for all applications and use cases, from non-critical (such as web browsing) to mission-critical use cases (such as finance transactions). Ideally, SASE products can evaluate costs and choose the lowest path for any application.
To support this wide range of use cases, its architecture is resilient and elastic – making it able to adapt to specific applications and environments. Specifically, SASE provides hardware redundancy and failover for network equipment, as well as path resiliency, which means it can provide multiple routes to the destination and select the best route depending on line conditions.
Another aspect of SASE is the ability to provide optimal performance for each session, meeting the requirements of every application, regardless of location. This is achieved by:
Lastly, SASE lets organizations define security policies that reflect user identity and the real-time context of users and devices. This is critical to creating flexible and robust network structures. SASE can integrate with directory services such as LDAP and Active Directory and combine this data with the current security context – such as time of day, device, network, and user location.
In this article, I explained the basics of network fabrics and how SASE can secure it:
I hope this will be useful as you deploy SASE in your organization.
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]]>What are incident response tools? Incident response tools help address and manage their response to security events by offering various functionalities, including prevention, detection, and response. These features enable organizations to handle security incidents in a standardized manner that limits the scope of the damage, minimizes recovery time, and reduces the costs of cyberattacks and […]
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]]>Incident response tools help address and manage their response to security events by offering various functionalities, including prevention, detection, and response. These features enable organizations to handle security incidents in a standardized manner that limits the scope of the damage, minimizes recovery time, and reduces the costs of cyberattacks and breaches.
Organizations employ incident response tools to execute a program that standardizes response efforts across the entire organization and relevant parties. Some organizations follow the military-derived OODA loop for incident response, which involves observing, orienting, deciding, and acting (OODA) during security incidents.
Incident response tools can help automate and streamline certain incident response functions within the loop to reduce system errors and detection times. Incident response tools provide visibility and control, including information related to abnormal behavior that requires further investigation, and initiate direct response efforts to minimize security risks.
With the growing number and severity of cyber threats and the growing complexity of IT environments, organizations must re-energize their incident response and recovery processes.
Zero-day vulnerabilities are increasing yearly, and threats are becoming more sophisticated, many executed by organized crime groups and state-sponsored threat actors. The attack surface is increasing with the proliferation of cloud environments and the growing problem of insecure configurations.
A robust incident response plan helps align the organization around effective response and recovery for cyberattacks. With proper planning and a designated incident response team, employees know who makes decisions and how to prioritize actions. Having a clear, well-documented plan for handling information security incidents can help your team take action quickly and effectively.
An incident response plan can help an organization:
Incident response plans are not only crucial for cybersecurity efforts – they can also have a compliance impact. Some compliance standards specifically require incident response plans. These include NIST Special Publication 800-53, NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF), NIST 800-61, and the CIS 18 Critical Security Controls (CSCs).
Security information and event management (SIEM) is a security management approach that unifies security information management (SIM) and security event management (SEM) into one security management system. SIEM systems aggregate data from several sources to identify deviations from a preestablished baseline and apply the appropriate action.
A SIEM system can use rules or a statistical correlation engine to determine relationships between various event log entries. SIEM tools gather log and event data created by host systems, applications, and security devices, such as firewalls and antivirus filters, across the organization’s infrastructure, centralizing this data on one platform.
SIEM tools can identify and organize the correlated data into various categories, such as malware activity, successful and failed logins, and other malicious activities. After identifying potential security issues, SIEM tools generate alerts. Organizations can predefine rules to set alerts as high or low priority.
Advanced SIEM solutions extend their functionality to include security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR), and user and entity behavior analytics (UEBA).
Static application security testing (SAST) is a white box testing method that analyzes application source code to find security vulnerabilities and any weaknesses that can open the application to attacks. SAST tools analyze an inactive application by examining its source code, binaries, and byte code for design and coding flaws.
Software developers use SAST to identify and remediate flaws in application source code during the early phases of the software development life cycle (SDLC) before deploying to production. It is possible to run SAST scans in these phases because SAST does not require a running application or deployed code.
By running SAST early in the SDLC, developers get real-time feedback. This information helps resolve code issues before passing it to more advanced phases of the SDLC. However, developers must run SAST regularly to ensure they catch vulnerabilities whenever the application undergoes a new build or code is released or checked.
Extended detection and response (XDR) is a SaaS-based security threat detection and incident response tool that integrates several security products natively and unifies all licensed components into one security operations system. XDR provides security operations with real-time actionable threat information for faster outcomes.
This vendor-specific tool enables organizations to achieve a holistic and more straightforward view of security threats across the entire technology landscape. XDR products help improve security operations productivity by extending detection and response functionalities. XDR tools ingest and distill several telemetry streams, unifying visibility and control across all endpoints, clouds, and networks.
By analyzing threat vectors, including TTPs, XDR tools eliminate the need for custom-made point solutions, making complex security operations functionalities more accessible to security teams. It removes detection and investigation cycles, offering threat-centric context to facilitate quicker incident response.
DFIR is the practice of identifying, investigating, containing, and remediating cyberattacks. It can also provide evidence for legal prosecution related to cyberattacks and other digital investigations. DFIR utilizes two disciplines:
Digital forensics involves collecting and investigating data primarily to determine a narrative of what has already occurred. Incident response investigations are initiated mainly to contain and recover from a security incident. Both can utilize the same procedures and tools, and events that occur during incident response might be shared during future litigation.
In this article, I explained the basics of incident response and introduced four categories of tools that can help you boost your IR efforts:
I hope this will be useful as you level up your incident response operations.
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]]>What is synthetic data? As machine learning frameworks such as Tensorflow and PyTorch become easier to use and pre-designed models for computer vision and natural language processing become more common and powerful, a significant challenge data scientists face is data collection and processing. Businesses often struggle to collect large amounts of data within a specific […]
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]]>As machine learning frameworks such as Tensorflow and PyTorch become easier to use and pre-designed models for computer vision and natural language processing become more common and powerful, a significant challenge data scientists face is data collection and processing.
Businesses often struggle to collect large amounts of data within a specific time frame to train accurate models. Manually labeling data is expensive and time-consuming to retrieve data. Synthetic data is an innovation that can help data scientists and businesses overcome these barriers and develop reliable machine-learning models faster.
Synthetic data sets are not constructed from records of actual events but are created by a computer program. The primary purpose of synthetic datasets is to provide a generic and robust way to train machine learning models.
Synthetic data useful for machine learning classifiers must have certain properties. Data can be categorical, binary, or numeric, but the dataset must be randomly generated. The random process to generate the data should be controllable and based on specific statistical distributions. You can also place random noise in your data set.
When using synthetic data in a classification algorithm, you should be able to customize the amount of class separation to make your classification problem easier or more complex, depending on the problem requirements. A regression task, on the other hand, can generate data using a non-linear generation process.
Privacy concerns around user data collection and storage practices are growing. In the 2015 Cambridge Analytica data scandal, millions of users discovered that their data was being collected without their consent. In 2021, LinkedIn received public criticism after leaked user information was sold on the dark web.
The US Federal Privacy Act (1974) restricts the use of sensitive data directly related to an individual’s identity, known as personally identifiable information (PII). This includes social security numbers, phone numbers, and addresses. These laws restrict the collection and disclosure of PII and define specific sectors with strict regulatory requirements, including health (HIPAA) and finance (FCRA).
In recent years, governments worldwide have enacted stricter regulations to protect PII and personal data. Data privacy regulations, from GDPR in Europe to CRPA in California, require businesses to obtain explicit consent before collecting personal data, formalize users’ right to delete their data and protect personal data from cybercrime. Following most of these regulations, images with biometric identifiers constitute personal data and are protected like any other form of personal data.
Any organization generating synthetic data must perform a privacy assessment to ensure that the synthetic data generated is not real personal data or too similar to such data. This privacy assurance assesses the extent to which synthetic data can identify a data subject and how much new data about that subject will be disclosed after successful identification.
Expected adverse effects of synthetic data on data protection:
Data discovery tools help identify and locate sensitive data to ensure you effectively secure or remove this data. Organizations access and store massive amounts of data daily, making sensitive data discovery a major challenge even with proper data maintenance and storage. However, organizations that do not know where various types of data are located can encounter critical security issues and find it difficult to mitigate potential risks.
Sensitive data discovery is essential for organizations and industries required to comply with strict regulations. Financial services, healthcare institutions, government agencies, and telecommunication companies must adhere to strict sensitive data discovery requirements and follow industry-based regulations.
Here are notable benefits of sensitive data discovery tools:
AIOps can help implement large-scale data monitoring and analysis to alert and contextually identify problems in an IT environment efficiently. It can also improve behavioral trend analysis and set up automated remediation for specific cases. Here are key features:
Application governance includes the policies and rules businesses use to manage their applications. Application governance aims to increase data security, manage risk, and keep applications running smoothly.
Application governance helps development teams better plan and manage all aspects of an application, including how assets are deployed, how systems are integrated, and how data is protected.
Application governance programs ensure that complex application environments meet an organization’s security policies, best practices, and compliance requirements.
Data privacy management enables organizations to protect sensitive data and remediate privacy breaches. Data privacy management tools assess the impact of technological changes on privacy, align IT activities with privacy regulations, and track events that may lead to unauthorized disclosure of personal data.
Data privacy management software helps organizations secure sensitive data in large, distributed environments and automate processes and policies to improve scalability and efficiency. It also reduces human error when complying with regulations and standards.
This type of solution usually provides the following features:
In this article, I explained the basics of synthetic data security and how to mitigate those risks:
I hope this will be useful as you secure your synthetic data.
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]]>The dark web’s anonymity makes it a hub for illegal and nefarious activities. Cybercriminals use the dark web to sell stolen business data and personal information like usernames, passwords, and credit card details. It is highly alarming as the stolen data is later used for identity fraud or to commit crimes. While this risks individual […]
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]]>The dark web’s anonymity makes it a hub for illegal and nefarious activities. Cybercriminals use the dark web to sell stolen business data and personal information like usernames, passwords, and credit card details. It is highly alarming as the stolen data is later used for identity fraud or to commit crimes. While this risks individual privacy, for businesses, it causes havoc and damages their reputation, and they lose valuable clients. This is where the need for dark web monitoring tools arises.
Individuals and companies can proactively map, monitor, and reduce the rising digital threat landscape using dark web monitoring tools. They can protect their sensitive data, intellectual property, and brand reputation from emerging threats. Also, individuals can take action, such as changing their passwords and boosting their privacy.
Check out which dark web monitoring solutions are available in the market and their key features, and choose the one that suits your needs.
Cyber crimes are increasing exponentially and affecting individuals and businesses. While it risks individuals’ privacy, businesses experience much more damage. 61% of the data breaches involved stolen credentials through social engineering, brute force attacks, or other tactics. After getting targeted victims’ credentials, hackers often sell them on the dark web to make a profit. Over 26 million business credentials for Fortune 500 companies are available on the dark web. This is hugely alarming and needs an immediate solution, i.e., using a dark web monitoring solution.
Dark web monitoring is using a service to search and track organizations’ information available on the dark web. These tools use a combination of manual and AI-powered scans to extensively monitor and track the dark web and its forums, websites, and private networks. By continuous tracking and monitoring, these tools help in finding leaked or stolen information such as:
These tools classify the security risks and provide visibility into threats that traditional security tools fail to discover. When the tool detects a threat, it creates alerts and notifies the team members and everyone else within the organization so they can take action to minimize the risk. With these tools, businesses can find indicators that can result in a breach. Also, they gain insights into the attacking methods and develop a cyber defense strategy under it.
All in all, dark web monitoring services are great tools for identifying the exposed data and the time your data remains exposed. Anyone committed to protecting their data, be it an individual or a business, must consider using them.
Dark web monitoring tools provide an uncut view of the current cybercrime landscape and cyber attack trends on the dark web and provide actionable alerts to companies and individuals.
Like other cybersecurity solutions, the functionality and features of dark web monitoring tools can vary slightly. Let’s search the 14 best dark web monitoring tools and decide which suits you best.

ZeroFox is a leading cybersecurity platform that offers unified solutions to uncover malicious activities and cyber threats. Part of this SaaS-based platform is its Dark Web Monitoring solution that provides early warnings about information leaks and contextual analysis of cyber-attacks and offers actionable alerts to protect clients, brands, and employees. Companies looking for continuous in-depth dark web monitoring must try out this tool.
ZeroFox analyzes text images and videos and remediates threats faster by employing the industry’s advanced AI-powered engine. It enables Digital Risk Protection and easily integrates into SIEM, SOAR, TIP, Business Intelligence, and other technologies.
Besides this, by continuous scanning and monitoring, ZeroFox safeguards businesses against data breaches and illegal data sales on various deep and dark web forums and websites, like ZeroNet, Tor, I2P, and Paste Sites. The continuous scanning and monitoring ensure that businesses never miss out on any critical alert that might put their sensitive data at risk. It also allows security experts to involve cybercriminals and negotiate the return of sensitive data, which is rare in other monitoring solutions.
The dark web monitoring tool’s interface and ease of use make it an organization’s popular choice. With a single click, it lets the users take all essential actions. ZeroFox’s dedicated OnWatch Managed Services team works 24/7 throughout the year to protect brands from digital threats. This solution allows users to request a free demo before buying the product, which is impressive.

ACID Intelligence is a leading threat intelligence company that protects companies from cyberattacks on the dark web. It continuously scans and monitors the dark web forums and websites to detect attacks early in the planning stage. After in-depth analysis, it provides real-time information about the potential attacks targeting the organization. It also prepares a response strategy to reduce the consequences and avoid them in the future.
The security-focused solution uses a cluster of robots that deploys AI algorithms to monitor a wide range of deep and dark web resources. When the monitoring tool identifies potential threats, it displays them in a centralized dashboard and sends real-time alerts. These alerts prove invaluable to organizations as they can optimize their responses and implement the most effective tools to control the threats based on their intensity.
Being one of the best dark web monitoring tools, ACID works throughout the year and investigates deeply into the dark web to find any clue of malicious activities targeting the clients. The most notable thing about this service is that it automatically and constantly updates the technological tools that deal with the latest threats and attack methods.
This dark web monitoring tool is best suited for all mid-sized to corporate-level organizations. As it is a paid security solution, organizations can directly request a demo or contact the team to hear about the pricing plan.

DarkOwl is a leading darknet company that provides the largest commercially available database of darknet content worldwide. Part of the DarkOwl product is Vision UI which enables users to monitor, search, and analyze the dark web and provides real-time threat intelligence.
Vision UI is an easy-to-use app that offers an intuitive and user-friendly interface backed up with querying solid capabilities to search, monitor, and create alerts for users’ sensitive information. The investigation begins by entering the keyword or other operator in the search bar. The Boolean and Regex-supported search logic allows deep and highly targeted queries. It continuously updates the database from ten of thousands of darknet sites and other specific platforms like Tor, Discord, Paste sites, and Telegram.
Furthermore, users can also set filters like entities and search builders to define particular variables to return, like IP addresses, email, and cryptocurrencies. For any organization looking for a solution that searches and monitors the dark web across various sources, then, DarkOwl is the best option. In short, it offers a complete package that users always look for and thus emerges in the best dark web monitoring tools list.

CrowdStrike is a pioneering cybersecurity leader in business for almost a decade. It offers various security solutions but markets its dark web monitoring tool as the CrowdStrike Falcon X Recon. It’s designed to help organizations of all sizes and types detect data leaks and breaches, monitor and track fraudulent activities, and the tools cybercriminal uses.
This dark web monitoring tool looks into thousands of darknet platforms, pages, and forums to provide instant access to over eight years of data. Digging out the raw intelligence data about fraud activities, enterprise threats, and stolen data of old-time gives CrowdStrike Falcon X Recon an edge over its competitors.
On the top, you can continuously monitor the hidden underground environments for threats without creating complex queries. The investigation results appear in a customizable dashboard, and the users can review the results in the original language and translate them into other 18 languages.
It has a Universal Search engine that automatically allows users to relate Falcon Intelligence Recon results with other CrowdStrike modules. The dark web tool offers two subscription packages. The Express plan is best for SMBs, while the other is for mid-sized and large organizations. Moreover, you can integrate this solution into primary tools like SIEM and SOAR, making it one of the best dark web monitoring tools.

Have I Been Pwned is a free dark web monitoring tool popular for individual users. Created by an Australian web security consultant, Troy Hunt, this tool discloses whether your login credentials and personal and financial data have been stolen or leaked online.
The tool collects and analyzes hundreds and thousands of database dumps and pastes the information about billions of leaked accounts. It also sends email alerts about new data breaches. The website possesses a simple and easy-to-use interface. It has a dedicated search bar where you can enter your email address or phone number to determine if it’s compromised in a data breach. The most impressive part about this security tool is that it encourages users to change their passwords.
Besides this, you can also receive email notifications whenever your information is available in a recent data breach. Also, if you want to, you can remove their email address to use your email address to prevent others from looking to get more information linked to your email address. This way, users can take steps to mitigate the risk of identity theft and online fraud. It is free software but accepts donations via bitcoins or PayPal to run its service.

SpyCloud is a renowned cybersecurity vendor that provides a good range of cybersecurity solutions to protect users against threats and cyber-attacks. ATO Prevention is the dark web monitoring tool that safeguards users from account takeover by warning them about compromised passwords before malicious actors can use them.
The dark web monitoring tool utilizes a combination of automated scanning and human intelligence to scan the dark web communities, pages, and sites that are not accessible to ordinary scanners. It also actively monitors Active Directory, automatically prompting users to change their passwords soon after discovering a data breach. It is a fantastic feature that makes ATO Prevention twice as good as other dark web monitoring tools discussed here.
The security researchers assess the breach data early in the breach timeline. This allows the end users to validate user identities and reset passwords before the hackers misuse them. Besides this, it offers visibility and a cloud-based threat intelligence database that helps the security teams stay one step further from the cyber-crooks and check user logins against the most extensive database of recovered breach assets globally.
Organizations, preferably mid-sized and large-scale, can consider using this security solution. To check how effectively ATO Cloud performs, request a free trial.

Another reliable dark web monitoring tool that’s the best choice for all sizes of businesses is DigitalStakeout Scout. This dark web threat intelligence service uses automation to monitor the surface and deep web, news sites, and social media to provide more in-depth results. By monitoring the potentially harmful material about the organization, Scout safeguards the brand reputation and maintains the data’s integrity.
The security solution includes machine learning technology that detects abnormal behavior within the network. Upon detecting a threat, Scout raises an alert in the monitoring dashboard. It is then up to the network administrator to manually shut down the network traffic or use any protection software. One impressive thing about this tool is that it has over 50 dashboard views that allow security teams to investigate and analyze insights and search the data.
Scout is the most preferred choice of users because of its dark, solid web monitoring capabilities, automated alerts, and real-time intelligence. Another prominent feature of this tool is that it functions as a data loss prevention system, endpoint protection system, and insider threat defender.
This security-focused solution offers different pricing plans, but requesting a demo to know if it meets your standards is better. However, the tool’s most disappointing element is a 24/7 live chat option. This means the only way to contact the support team directly is to submit a ticket.

Digital Shadow enjoys a dominant position as a cybersecurity vendor. The SearchLight is the Digital Shadow’s part of the service that provides unparalleled visibility into the organization’s dark web risks. It delivers alerts and can assess an extensive threat intelligence library and historical archive of dark web data of over ten years. In addition, it enables the security teams to take immediate action on the threats before they cause any damage.
This tool monitors extensive dark web resources for exposed credentials, intellectual property, fraudulent activities, stolen data, VIP and executive threats, and more. It inspects underground marketplaces, Telegram, IRC, Tor, I2P pages, forums, and paste sites and sends alerts to notify the affected organizations.
The best part of SearchLight is that it allows users to try it for free for seven days. Organizations, preferably small and mid-sized, can get instant insights into dark web pages, criminal forums, and threat feeds and get 200 threat intelligence profiles of threat actors, campaigns, and tools.

Ecosec Beacon Systems is one of the leading publicly available information (PAI) and open-source intelligence (OSINT) providers. The service leverages Machine Learning to classify threats, send custom alerts that disqualify noise, and draw the company’s attention to serious issues. It locates compromised passwords, hijacked financial data and personal data leaked on the web.
Enter a name, email address, SSS number, or other relevant information to begin the search. The system automatically scans the dark web marketplaces, forums, and social media sites to check whether the information is sold or displayed on an open free list. Also, it searches websites with the individual name or information that cybercriminals use to target a person. This way, EcoSec detects data breaches and tracks information involving individuals and business organizations.
As a whole, EcoSec is a great tool to use on the deep and the dark web and gain visibility and alerts on insights on the discovered data theft practices.

Cobwebs Technologies is a leading global security and intelligence provider transforming web intelligence’s face. This dark web monitoring tool enables seamless analysis of publicly available data resources available on the darknet. Part of its service is the threat intelligence solution that automatically scans and updates the databases with new information collected all around the web.
The security solution is a top choice for users because of its simple installation and scaling process that adapts to the organizations’ growing needs. Plus, it deploys AI and ML technologies to analyze data across different web layers. In addition, this platform also generates actionable insights and real-time threat alerts that let analysts respond to threats more efficiently and effectively.
Cobweb Technologies is the perfect choice for large-scale enterprises working at private and governmental levels. Anyone who wants automated Al and ML-based web monitoring features in their dark web security solution must try this tool.

Dashlane is a popular password manager, but it excels in basic password management functionalities and includes a unique dark web monitoring tool. It notifies users of any leaked passwords and encourages them to act immediately.
The dark web monitoring tool scans billions of accounts and passwords available in the databases of the dark web and flags the exposed ones. The organizations’ IT admins can get real-time insights and alerts about security breaches and other potential threats and vulnerabilities that employees face. In addition, it also offers simple actions they must take to reduce the risk of such threats in the future.
Dashlane’s dark web tool is an easy-to-use tool that lets users boost their account security with a single click. You can add up to five email addresses and run an initial scan that searches deep to find any compromised information linked to the email address. The scan results are sent via email, pop-up messages, and dark web alerts.
To benefit from the Dashlane dark web monitoring tool, subscribe to its premium plan. However, you can test this feature if you first opt for the free-trial version. Privacy-conscious individuals, start-ups, and SMBs can prefer using this tool.

Breach Watch is a dark web monitoring add-on tool of Keeper Password Manager. This powerful feature enables users to monitor the dark web for compromised accounts and matches them with the records stored in the vault. It works by continuously monitoring and scanning billions of records on the dark web while deploying zero-knowledge architecture that further boosts security.
The dark web tool works on all devices and major operating systems, ensuring a secure and hassle-free user experience. It provides automatic notification records in the vault if it finds any alerts. In addition, it lets the users change the breached passwords within the app, which is another impressive aspect of using this service.
BreachTower is a premium add-on feature of a Keeper password manager. It best suits organizations and prevents credential stuffing and account takeover attacks.

WhatsUp Gold is a prominent network monitoring system with several add-on modules. Network Traffic Analyzer is one of them that monitors Tor and other suspicious traffic. The Flow monitoring or NTA identifies traffic to known dark web entry or exit nodes. It alerts you when the users or applications connected to your network access the dark web.
On the top, it also recognizes traffic or some specific suspicious IP lists. Plus, it allows you to set up a list of IP addresses that you find suspicious. All this makes it an option to compete as the dark web tool.

The LastPass password manager also comes with an impressive dark web monitoring tool. It’s an add-on feature included in the Security Dashboard, which gives an overview of the health and security of the stored credentials. Besides assessing the security of the passwords and updating the weak and reused passwords, you can also monitor your email address for potential data breaches.
The security tool asks users to enter their email addresses, continuously scan breached credentials within a database, and immediately alert them if they have been compromised. However, this feature is accessible to all premium users.
Its ease of use and other features make it the preferred choice for individuals, families, and small and mid-sized organizations.
The monitoring tools regularly swap thousands of dark web pages and notify you if they find any stolen data. It is a time-taken process that also requires experience in dark web analysis, plus the efficiency of the tool also matters. However, not all dark web monitoring tools are equal. Thus, while selecting a solution, look for the following features:
Besides this, ensure the tool offers a range of extra features like search filters and results, free consultation, and reports that ensure a hassle-free experience.
The dark web is famous for the nefarious activities that occur on its platform. It is a valuable source for cyber criminals who buy and sell stolen credentials and other sensitive information. Preventing data leaks on the dark web has become necessary. Besides using a dark web monitoring service, you can also follow the tips below to prevent your information from getting leaked on the dark web:
Above all, make sure you use strong passwords and store them safely. Using the best password managers that generate strong passwords and storing them in a secure encrypted vault is advisable.
The hacking-related data leaks and breaches happen when cybercriminals gain access to users’ accounts, steal passwords and other data, and sell it on the dark web. The dark web monitoring tools help individuals and businesses recognize any sensitive data leaked on the dark web and take immediate actions to reduce the damage. With tools like ZeroFox, Falcon X Recon, and LastPass, you can protect personal and business information from cyber-crooks.
It’s also vital to practice other safety tips to prevent security breaches, like using the best password managers or a legitimate VPN provider to avoid data leaks on the darknet.
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]]>Also known as developer-first security, developer security refers to building software while shifting left, wherein developers play a crucial role in ensuring software security. Developers are provided security tools for threat scanning, security testing, and remediation. Traditionally, security is detached from the process of software development. If there are security-related efforts undertaken, they tend to […]
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]]>Traditionally, security is detached from the process of software development. If there are security-related efforts undertaken, they tend to be an afterthought or a response to a publicized threat. As of the first half of 2023, the collective opinion that software development continues to ignore security prevails.
However, things appear to change as organizations realize that security should be a priority, not a secondary or accessorial concern. It may not yet become the sentiment of most organizations in the next few years, but there are signs that the shift is coming.
One of the best indicators of the growing interest in integrating security with software development is the emergence of security solutions centered on developer security. These solutions aim to embed security at each stage of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), significantly enhancing the security of every application produced. They are serving a need many software development teams may not have realized yet but now see the necessity of a developer-first security approach to ensure optimal project quality and user experiences.
The application security market is showing remarkable growth. Markets and Markets project that it will grow into a $13.2 billion industry by 2025 at a CAGR of 16.1 percent for the 2023-2025 forecast period. Markets and Markets report that one of the significant factors for this growth is the rise in security breaches that target business apps. Organizations now acknowledge that the software they use can become vulnerabilities enabling threat actors to pass through their cyber defenses.
Of note, an overwhelming majority of business apps are expected to be created by organizations’ employees through low-code technology. Gartner says 65 percent of app development will be low-code by 2024. This is critical because employees who barely know anything about app coding, let alone code security, will rapidly produce business applications in the next few years.
Organizations understand that allowing quick app development without security will have disastrous consequences. If they do not have the expertise to implement developer security, it makes sense to turn to a third-party expert provider to handle the security expert competently.
To be clear, security was never intentionally left out of how things are now with software development projects resulting from how development projects have become too business-oriented, which happens in virtually all industries.
Development teams want to produce high-quality software, but tight schedules constantly hound them. On average, software development is completed in around three years. This duration includes the project conceptualization, modeling, implementation, testing, user experience evaluation, and delivery stages. There is usually no room for security validation. Developers only release patches or updates when vulnerabilities and other issues are discovered. After all, software attacks were not rampant in software development’s early years.
However, the realities (of software attacks) on the ground have changed drastically. Bill Gates, for one, implies his admission of the need to prioritize security in software development. In his memo to Microsoft employees, Gates stressed that “eventually, our software should be so fundamentally secure that customers never even worry about it (security issues).”
Gates, nevertheless, implied that the lack of security emphasis in software development is not purposeful. No software can ever be flawless as far as threats are concerned. Business apps and software evolve, and so do the sophistication and aggressiveness of the attacks. Believing that developers could have anticipated the kind of threat landscape the world has now is illusory.
Then, add low-code/no-code software development to the mix. Imagine how serious the security problem becomes with the advent of technology that allows software to be created without coding skills within a few days, weeks, or months. That’s way faster than the three-year conventional average SLDC. That could only mean that security issues possibly increase exponentially. Low-code/no-code tech is pushing software security way lower on the priority list.
Software development has also gone through the DevOps revolution, which brings IT operations and software development practices to accelerate SDLC and ensure continuous delivery. In other words, developers have sought to speed up project completion further, making security-related concerns even more out of the question.
In response to the drawbacks of DevOps, groups of developers introduced the concept of DevSecOps, which essentially integrates security practices in the DevOps paradigm. Unfortunately, it appears to have not gained significant traction yet.
A GitLab survey among software professionals worldwide reveals that most developers aim to produce high-quality code but admit that it is hard to shift security. The survey says that security is the highest priority for investment among organizations. More than half of those surveyed say they have already shifted security left or are planning to do it within the year (2023). However, only 10 percent of the respondents say they were granted an additional budget to shift security effectively.
Indeed, organizations are interested in the idea of building secure software code. However, their actions mostly do not jibe with their intentions. Nobody wants software to be insecure, but most are not eager to follow through with their security goals.
There are hints of a shift toward developer security. Organizations are seeing its importance. Security solution providers are keen on offering suitable tools. However, achieving a genuine “shift left” may take decades or forever if everything is left to the discretion of businesses that will understandably always choose cost minimization and profit maximization. Perhaps, the involvement of legislation and regulation can be the key, although it would be difficult to predict the consequences of compelling everyone to embrace developer-first security.
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]]>Businesses are using the cloud to store data and run daily operations more than ever. There’s much to be said in favor of the cloud. The infrastructure is cost-effective, scales easily as a business grows, and companies do not have to invest in non-core resources. However, outsourcing infrastructure to a cloud service provider brings security […]
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]]>However, outsourcing infrastructure to a cloud service provider brings security concerns. Cloud data security and protection is challenging to ensure at the best of times. How can companies ensure their data is always secure and not vulnerable to exploitation?
Here are four best practices to follow to ensure optimal cloud data security.
Encryption must be a standard practice in every organization’s cybersecurity posture. Encryption renders sensitive data unreadable to unauthorized users. Typically companies focus on encrypting data at rest. For instance, when data is viewed by an unauthorized entity, encryption modules scramble or mask data.
However, data is vulnerable when transiting from one system to another. Encryption in transit is essential, as malicious actors can target such data movement to compromise a system. Cloud service providers typically offer at-rest encryption. Companies must use encrypted HTTPS/TLS connections to ensure connections to cloud infrastructure are secure and in-transit data is encrypted.
Companies must also ensure they own all encryption keys to their data. Smaller organizations can rely on service provider secrets management. However, large companies with compliance needs must implement hardware security module (HSM) key management services, in addition to third party key management services.
For instance, large companies can use a combination of the HSM and third party key to access data. Another option is to use a private key that unlocks data when combined with the previous keys.
Security infrastructure is essential, but all resources are for naught if the right standards do not back them. These days, companies have regulatory guidelines about cloud storage they must comply with. Data governance and security policies ensure infrastructure always complies with regulations.
For instance, implementing Zero Trust (ZT) protocols in identity management is critical. Many companies issue credentials with long expiry dates, without considering the harm an unused credential might create. Malicious actors routinely use unused or expired credentials to access systems, something recently witnessed in the high-profile breaches Uber, Fast Company, and Rockstar Games suffered.
Security governance tools help security admins figure out their security posture always. They also enforce ZT protocols such as agile security team creation and just-in-time credential access. The best way of ensuring good governance is to involve all stakeholders in a company and review guidelines periodically.
This process will ensure companies do not introduce configuration errors and other blind spots into their security postures.
ZT is a powerful philosophy and must be the pillar of a company’s identity access management (IAM) program. These days companies can choose from several tools to solve their IAM issues. They can automate access grants, monitor usage patterns, and execute kill chains immediately.
A good IAM program is a combination of the right tools and governance. Typically, organizations that suffer breaches implement just one of the two, leading to a poor security framework. Worse, IAM tools tend to sit separately from the rest of a company’s security stack, leading to data silos.
Cybersecurity is a diverse field, and enterprises use several best-in-class solutions when designing security architecture. Companies must ensure they use a tool that centralizes all security alerts and actions, instead of checking in with different tools all the time. This process applies to IAM tools too.
Every security breach results in data loss. Surprisingly, numerous large organizations still resist using data loss protection (DLP) tools. With the large amount of data stored in the cloud, companies must leverage cloud DLP tools.
While most cybersecurity tools focus on preventing attackers from accessing data, DLP tools assume a breach is in process and make it difficult for an attacker to leak or misuse sensitive data. Think of DLP as one of the company’s last lines of defense against unauthorized breaches.
Cloud DLP solutions are a great tool to integrate within a broad ZT security approach. They validate access and ensure encryption at all times. In addition, any abnormal activity is flagged immediately, making it difficult for sensitive data to leave company cloud servers.
A good way to supercharge a DLP solution is to combine it with a cloud workload protection system that monitors all container activities. Whether monitoring Kubernetes or serverless functions, the combination of DLP and cloud workload protection ensures minimal data leaks, even during a breach.
Cybersecurity is an ever-evolving field, and companies must examine and design robust architecture to keep pace with the times. The tips in this article will help companies always ensure optimal cloud security and data protection.
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