United States Reported Less Data Breaches in 2020 but with much more Expensive Successful Hacker Attacks

 

According to the annual report of the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), 1,108 cyber incidents were reported in 2020 and the number casualties from these incidents was close to 301 million people, a drop of 66% over the previous year.

 

The social engineering technique of impersonation also helped attackers reap massive profits:

 

The volume of business fraud and hacking by corporate e-mail systems (BECs) reported to the FBI in 2020 was US$ 1.8 Billion – a figure that reflects half of all cyber damage in monetary terms.

 

“The trend away from mass data breaches and toward more precise and sophisticated cyberattacks doesn’t mean businesses can relax. Just the opposite. They need to learn whole new ways of protecting their data.”

– James E. Lee, ITRC COO

Read more about Examples and Numbers of Social Engineering Hacker Attacks  ›

 

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🧠 CISOs: Top 10 Open-Source SIEM Solutions to Try for Free 🧠

Most SIEMs come with a hefty price tag – but did you know some of the most powerful options out there are 100% free and open-source?

If you’re building or optimizing your SOC on a lean budget, these tools can offer serious value without compromising visibility.

Here’s a handpicked list of 10 open-source SIEMs every CISO should consider:

1️⃣ Wazuh – Lightweight, scalable, and packed with threat detection, log analysis, and compliance capabilities.
https://wazuh.com/

2️⃣ TheHive Project – Incident response meets SIEM – great for managing complex investigations.
https://thehive-project.org/

3️⃣ Security Onion – Full Linux distro for threat hunting, IDS, and log analysis.
https://securityonionsolutions.com/

4️⃣ Graylog – Powerful centralized log management with excellent dashboards and alerting.
https://www.graylog.org/

5️⃣ SIEMonster – Built for scalability and based on multiple open-source tools like ELK and Wazuh.
https://siemonster.com/

6️⃣ Elastic SIEM (via ELK Stack) – Combine Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana to visualize threats and trends.
https://www.elastic.co/siem

7️⃣ Apache Metron – Big data SIEM built on Hadoop – ideal for large-scale enterprise analysis.
https://metron.apache.org/

8️⃣ MozDef (Mozilla Defense Platform) – Created by Mozilla to automate incident response.
https://github.com/mozilla/MozDef

9️⃣ AlienVault OSSIM – The classic open-source SIEM with broad community support.
https://cybersecurity.att.com/products/ossim

🔟 Prelude OSS – Modular architecture for detection and correlation, great for custom setups.
https://www.prelude-siem.org/

These solutions offer incredible flexibility and insight when configured right – perfect for proactive teams that want to experiment, test, and deploy fast.

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When Hospitals Flatline: What the AMEOS Cyberattack Reveals About the Human Factor in Cybersecurity

🧠 Hospital Cyberattack Exposes Deadly Blind Spot

📉 Over 20 AMEOS facilities were digitally frozen in minutes.

📍 How? Not ransomware. Not brute force.
But humans.

🎯 Social engineering is the silent weapon that breached Germany’s hospital giant – not through firewalls, but through staff behavior.

⚠️ This attack exploited the timing of an internal IT shift – when stress, confusion, and change opened the door.

🛑 And what’s worse?
Most healthcare organizations would still fall for it today.

👥 Because while tech evolves, our human defenses remain outdated.

💡 AMEOS isn’t alone – it’s just the latest example of why cybersecurity starts with real-time, behavior-based awareness.

🔐 AUMINT Trident targets exactly this – tracking human risk, simulating social engineering attacks by role, and delivering auto-adaptive training based on how your team actually behaves.

📊 If you’re only measuring technical threats, you’re missing the real battleground.

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🛡️ CISOs: 12 Must-Have Free Tools for Vulnerability Management 🛡️

Vulnerability management isn’t just scanning and patching – it’s about having the right tools to prioritize, respond, and reduce real-world risk.

But with so many tools out there, where do you begin – especially with zero budget?

Here’s a handpicked list of 12 free tools every CISO should know for end-to-end vulnerability management:

1️⃣ OpenVAS – A powerful open-source scanner for identifying security issues.
https://www.greenbone.net/en/vulnerability-management/

2️⃣ Nessus Essentials – A trusted vulnerability assessment tool for small environments.
https://www.tenable.com/products/nessus/nessus-essentials

3️⃣ Nmap – Not just for port scanning – it’s great for discovering exposed services.
https://nmap.org/

4️⃣ Nikto2 – Web server scanning for dangerous files, configurations, and outdated software.
https://github.com/sullo/nikto

5️⃣ OSQuery – Query your infrastructure like a database for quick risk visibility.
https://osquery.io/

6️⃣ Lynis – A Unix security auditing tool for vulnerability and compliance checks.
https://cisofy.com/lynis/

7️⃣ Vulners – Vulnerability search engine that integrates with many scanners.
https://vulners.com/

8️⃣ Wapiti – Web app vulnerability scanner with crawler-style testing.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/wapiti/

9️⃣ Trivy – Container vulnerability scanner for Docker and Kubernetes setups.
https://aquasecurity.github.io/trivy/

🔟 Metasploit Framework – Pen-test toolkit to validate and exploit discovered vulnerabilities.
https://www.metasploit.com/

1️⃣1️⃣ Patch My PC – Keeps Windows endpoints updated automatically.
https://patchmypc.com/home-updater

1️⃣2️⃣ CVE Search – A simple tool to find, correlate, and filter known CVEs.
https://github.com/cve-search/cve-search

These tools let you spot what matters, validate risks, and act – fast.

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#CISO #VulnerabilityManagement #CyberSecurity #InfoSec #RiskReduction #AUMINT