The IT Nerd

Deepwatch has released its 2023 Adversary Tactics & Intelligence (ATI) Annual Threat Report, showcasing top cybersecurity threats SOC analysts faced in 2022 and predictions for 2023. 

Key findings include:

• Ransomware attacks are becoming more frequent and demanding higher ransoms.
• The Ukraine-Russia conflict spurs amateur and state-sponsored cyberattacks.
• CISA reported 26,448 software security flaws, with CVEs up 59% from 2021.

The report examines emerging threats like information-stealing malware, exploitation of internet-facing vulnerabilities, and infected open-source code, emphasizing the need for increased vigilance. 

Deepwatch’s ATI team also highlights cybercriminals’ use of publicly available OSINT and analysis reports, potentially causing researchers to withhold critical information and diminishing the value of open-source intelligence.

You can read the report here.

Deepwatch, the leader in advanced managed detection and response (“MDR”) security, today announced a total of $180 million in equity investments and strategic financing from Springcoast Capital Partners, Splunk Ventures and Vista Credit Partners, a subsidiary of Vista Equity Partners and strategic credit and financing partner focused on the enterprise software, data and technology markets. The combined capital will enable Deepwatch to accelerate platform innovation and product development while expanding its partner ecosystem to meet the growing demand for managed security services.

Deepwatch MDR protects businesses from an ever-increasing volume of cyber threats. The company delivers an always-on cybersecurity platform backed by experts who work as an extension of customer teams. With many leading global brands as customers, Deepwatch is uniquely positioned to deliver advanced, cloud-based cybersecurity solutions that serve the stringent needs of the most demanding enterprise environments.

Deepwatch experienced 100 percent year-over-year sales growth in 2022, with more than two-thirds of customers expanding their service. The company introduced new offerings and advancements to the Deepwatch security operations platform to speed the detection and containment of threats across the enterprise.  This included the release of its Threat Analytics App 2.0 bolstered by its innovative Threat Probability Value ML backed software and managed extended detection and response (MXDR) for endpoint and identity.  The company was also named to the 2022 Forbes list of America’s Best Startup Employers and received A Great Place to Work certification. The new investment provides the capital and resources for Deepwatch to further advance its platform and meet record customer demand while further establishing its leadership position in managed security.

The new investors join ABS Capital and Goldman Sachs who have backed Deepwatch’s rapid growth over the last four years.

The company also announced the appointment of Mel Wesley as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Wesley is a seasoned finance executive with over 25 years of experience in financial planning, analysis, and operational finance, with a proven track record of driving growth and building high-performance finance teams. For the past 18 years, he has served as CFO for publicly traded and private technology companies. As Deepwatch’s CFO, Wesley will support the Company during hyper-growth while overseeing finance, legal and corporate development.

In the last ten years as a CFO, Wesley supported three companies through financial transactions and exits totaling nearly $3 billion. As CFO, he has managed investor relations, directed IPO-readiness efforts and raised significant equity and debt.

Wesley remains on the Board of Directors of Cofense, Inc. (formerly PhishMe, Inc.), where he previously served as the CFO before joining Deepwatch. During his tenure as CFO, he supported the Company’s growth initiatives and IPO-readiness efforts, and steered the Company through a significant sale for $400 million.

Before that, Wesley held multiple CFO positions. During his tenure at comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), the Company purchased and merged with another public company. During his tenure at Mandiant Corporation, the Company was sold to FireEye, Inc. (NASDAQ: FEYE) for over $1 billion. Wesley remained at FireEye as CFO of Global Services and Cloud Solutions, supporting integration efforts. During his tenure at OPNET Technologies (NASDAQ: OPNT), the Company’s revenue grew from $50 million to $175 million before the company sold for over $1 billion.

Deepwatch has released a new report that finds security teams will focus on improving response capabilities over detection improvements amidst concerns about rising costs, a challenging talent shortage, and uncertain regulatory environment pressures and changes. 

The findings from the year-end SecOps pulse survey on challenges and strategies for 2023 include:

• SOC staffing remains a challenge for 95% of organizations with experts most difficult to hire/train
• 82% of security professionals are looking for managed services to support their security operations
• 78% expect breach and incident reporting requirements to create more work for their teams

You can read the report here.

Deepwatch has published a new report uncovering Gootloader threat actors using the search engine optimization (SEO) poisoning technique. In the latest report from its Adversary Tactics and Intelligence (ATI) group, Deepwatch looks at a technique where threat actors are compromising legitimate websites, creating fake blog posts, and using overlays to display a fake forum page over blog posts–all to snare government, legal, real estate, medical, and education victims with highly-targeted content.

This is a very sophisticated attack and the report is well worth your time to read.

From small to medium businesses to large corporate enterprises, organizations must be prepared to respond to disruptive cyber incidents at any given moment. In relation to that, Deepwatch has released a research report examining how equipped organizations can detect such threats and whether they can respond quickly enough to mitigate threats from accomplishing actual harm.

The conclusions of this report unpack the barriers to delivering and enabling quick, decisive, effective responses to detect security threats. Deepwatch analyzed security teams and threat activity across an expanding attack surface to examine these issues. The research explores and answers questions including:

• Would more accurate alerting increase organizational confidence in implementing automated response actions?
• Are the majority or minority of security teams across organizations endeavoring to reduce response duration?
• How do security teams intend to shorten the time to prevent, contain threats, and address related issues today?

You can read the report here: https://deepwatch.com/state-of-the-modern-soc/