Cybersecurity Threats, Malware Trends, and Strategies

Tim Rains is Microsoft’s former Global Chief Security Advisor and Amazon Web Services’ former Global Security Leader for Worldwide Public Sector. He has spent the last two decades advising private and public sector organizations all over the world on cybersecurity strategies.

Cybersecurity Threats, Malware Trends, and Strategies, Second Edition builds upon the success of the first edition that has helped so many aspiring CISOs, and cybersecurity professionals understand and develop effective data-driven cybersecurity strategies for their organizations. In this edition, you’ll examine long-term trends in vulnerability disclosures and exploitation, regional differences in malware infections and the socio-economic factors that underpin them, and how ransomware evolved from an obscure threat to the most feared threat in cybersecurity. You’ll also gain valuable insights into the roles that governments play in cybersecurity, including their role as threat actors, and how to mitigate government access to data. The book concludes with a deep dive into modern approaches to cybersecurity using the cloud.

By the end of this book, you will have a better understanding of the threat landscape, how to recognize good Cyber Threat Intelligence, and how to measure the effectiveness of your organization’s cybersecurity strategy.

Key Features

• Protect your organization from cybersecurity threats with field-tested strategies
• Understand threats such as exploits, malware, internet-based threats, and governments
• Measure the effectiveness of your organization’s current cybersecurity program against modern attackers’ tactics

What you will learn

• Discover enterprise cybersecurity strategies and the ingredients critical to their success
• Improve vulnerability management by reducing risks and costs for your organization
• Mitigate internet-based threats such as drive-by download attacks and malware distribution sites
• Learn the roles that governments play in cybersecurity and how to mitigate government access to data
• Weigh the pros and cons of popular cybersecurity strategies such as Zero Trust, the Intrusion Kill Chain, and others
• Implement and then measure the outcome of a cybersecurity strategy
• Discover how the cloud can provide better security and compliance capabilities than on-premises IT environments

Who this book is for

This book is for anyone who is looking to implement or improve their organization’s cybersecurity strategy. This includes Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs), Chief Security Officers (CSOs), compliance and audit professionals, security architects, and cybersecurity professionals. Basic knowledge of Information Technology (IT), software development principles, and cybersecurity concepts is assumed.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. What to Know About Threat Intelligence
3. Using Vulnerability Trends to Reduce Risk and Costs
4. The Evolution of Malware
5. Internet-Based Threats
6. The Roles Governments Play in Cybersecurity
7. Government access to data
8. Ingredients for a Successful Cybersecurity Strategy
9. Cybersecurity Strategies
10. Strategy Implementation
11. Measuring Performance and Effectiveness
12. Modern Approaches to Security and Compliance

About the Author

Tim Rains is an internationally recognized cybersecurity executive, advisor, and author. Currently, Tim is Vice President Trust & Cyber Risk at T-Mobile where he leads risk, strategy, assurance, compliance, and vulnerability management. Prior to this, Tim was the Global Security Lead for Worldwide Public Sector at Amazon Web Services. Tim also held the post of Executive Director Cybersecurity Strategy at the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, the world’s largest gaming company. Tim spent 17 years at Microsoft where he worked in numerous roles including Global Chief Security Advisor, Director of Trustworthy Computing, and Technical Lead of Microsoft’s customer-facing Security Incident Response Team.