Strings in the maze: Finding hidden strengths and gaps in your team
In this week’s newsletter, Bill explores how open communication about your skills and experience can help your security team uncover hidden gaps, strengthen your defenses, and better prepare for ever-present threats.
IR Trends Q3 2025: ToolShell attacks dominate, highlighting criticality of segmentation and rapid response
Cisco Talos Incident Response observed a surge in attacks exploiting public-facing applications — mainly via ToolShell targeting SharePoint — for initial access, with post-exploitation phishing and evolving ransomware tactics also persisting this quarter.
Reducing abuse of Microsoft 365 Exchange Online’s Direct Send
Cisco Talos has observed increased activity by malicious actors leveraging Direct Send as part of phishing campaigns. Here's how to strengthen your defenses.
Ransomware attacks and how victims respond
This edition highlights the detailed studies that have been recently published on how ransomware attacks affect victims, from PTSD to burnout, and discusses ways to help deal with the fallout of victimization.
BeaverTail and OtterCookie evolve with a new Javascript module
Cisco Talos has uncovered a new attack linked to Famous Chollima, a threat group aligned with North Korea (DPRK).
Laura Faria: Empathy on the front lines
Laura opens up about her journey through various cybersecurity roles, her leap into incident response, and what it feels like to support customers during their toughest moments — including high-stakes situations impacting critical infrastructure.
Open PLC and Planet vulnerabilities
Cisco Talos’ Vulnerability Discovery & Research team recently disclosed one vulnerability in the OpenPLC logic controller and four vulnerabilities in the Planet WGR-500 router. For Snort coverage that can detect the exploitation of these vulnerabilities, download the lates
Microsoft Patch Tuesday for October 2025 — Snort rules and prominent vulnerabilities
Microsoft has released its monthly security update for October 2025, addressing 175 Microsoft CVEs and 21 non-Microsoft CVEs. Among these, 17 vulnerabilities are considered critical and 11 are flagged as important and considered more likely to be exploited.
Why don’t we sit around this computer console and have a sing-along?
Martin muses on why computers are less fun than campfires, why their dangers seem less real, and why he’s embarking on a lengthy research project to study this.