Ravi Das – författare

Web applications occupy a large space within the IT infrastructure of a business or a corporation. They simply just don’t touch a front end or a back end; today’s web apps impact just about every corner of it. Today’s web apps have become complex, which has made them a prime target for sophisticated cyberattacks. As a result, web apps must be literally tested from the inside and out in terms of security before they can be deployed and launched to the public for business transactions to occur. The primary objective of this book is to address those specific areas that require testing before a web app can be considered to be completely secure. The book specifically examines five key areas: Network security: This encompasses the various network components that are involved in order for the end user to access the particular web app from the server where it is stored at to where it is being transmitted to, whether it is a physical computer itself or a wireless device (such as a smartphone). Cryptography: This area includes not only securing the lines of network communications between the server upon which the web app is stored at and from where it is accessed from but also ensuring that all personally identifiable information (PII) that is stored remains in a ciphertext format and that its integrity remains intact while in transmission. Penetration testing: This involves literally breaking apart a Web app from the external environment and going inside of it, in order to discover all weaknesses and vulnerabilities and making sure that they are patched before the actual Web app is launched into a production state of operation. Threat hunting: This uses both skilled analysts and tools on the Web app and supporting infrastructure to continuously monitor the environment to find all security holes and gaps. The Dark Web: This is that part of the Internet that is not openly visible to the public. As its name implies, this is the "sinister" part of the Internet, and in fact, where much of the PII that is hijacked from a web app cyberattack is sold to other cyberattackers in order to launch more covert and damaging threats to a potential victim.Testing and Securing Web Applications breaks down the complexity of web application security testing so this critical part of IT and corporate infrastructure remains safe and in operation.

The world of cybersecurity and the landscape that it possesses is changing on a dynamic basis. It seems like that hardly one threat vector is launched, new variants of it are already on the way. IT Security teams in businesses and corporations are struggling daily to fight off any cyberthreats that they are experiencing. On top of this, they are also asked by their CIO or CISO to model what future Cyberattacks could potentially look like, and ways as to how the lines of defenses can be further enhanced.IT Security teams are overburdened and are struggling to find ways in order to keep up with what they are being asked to do. Trying to model the cyberthreat landscape is a very laborious process, because it takes a lot of time to analyze datasets from many intelligence feeds. What can be done to accomplish this Herculean task? The answer lies in Artificial Intelligence (AI). With AI, an IT Security team can model what the future Cyberthreat landscape could potentially look like in just a matter of minutes. As a result, this gives valuable time for them not only to fight off the threats that they are facing, but to also come up with solutions for the variants that will come out later.Practical AI for Cybersecurity explores the ways and methods as to how AI can be used in cybersecurity, with an emphasis upon its subcomponents of machine learning, computer vision, and neural networks. The book shows how AI can be used to help automate the routine and ordinary tasks that are encountered by both penetration testing and threat hunting teams. The result is that security professionals can spend more time finding and discovering unknown vulnerabilities and weaknesses that their systems are facing, as well as be able to come up with solid recommendations as to how the systems can be patched up quickly.

Web applications occupy a large space within the IT infrastructure of a business or a corporation. They simply just don’t touch a front end or a back end; today’s web apps impact just about every corner of it. Today’s web apps have become complex, which has made them a prime target for sophisticated cyberattacks. As a result, web apps must be literally tested from the inside and out in terms of security before they can be deployed and launched to the public for business transactions to occur. The primary objective of this book is to address those specific areas that require testing before a web app can be considered to be completely secure. The book specifically examines five key areas: Network security: This encompasses the various network components that are involved in order for the end user to access the particular web app from the server where it is stored at to where it is being transmitted to, whether it is a physical computer itself or a wireless device (such as a smartphone). Cryptography: This area includes not only securing the lines of network communications between the server upon which the web app is stored at and from where it is accessed from but also ensuring that all personally identifiable information (PII) that is stored remains in a ciphertext format and that its integrity remains intact while in transmission. Penetration testing: This involves literally breaking apart a Web app from the external environment and going inside of it, in order to discover all weaknesses and vulnerabilities and making sure that they are patched before the actual Web app is launched into a production state of operation. Threat hunting: This uses both skilled analysts and tools on the Web app and supporting infrastructure to continuously monitor the environment to find all security holes and gaps. The Dark Web: This is that part of the Internet that is not openly visible to the public. As its name implies, this is the "sinister" part of the Internet, and in fact, where much of the PII that is hijacked from a web app cyberattack is sold to other cyberattackers in order to launch more covert and damaging threats to a potential victim.Testing and Securing Web Applications breaks down the complexity of web application security testing so this critical part of IT and corporate infrastructure remains safe and in operation.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had so many unprecedented consequences. The great global shift from office work to remote work is one such consequence, with which many information security professionals are struggling. Office workers have been hastily given equipment that has not been properly secured or must use personal devices to perform office work. The proliferation of videoconferencing has brought about new types of cyber-attacks. When the pandemic struck, many organizations found they had no, or old and unworkable, business continuity and disaster recovery plans.Business Recovery and Continuity in a Mega Disaster: Cybersecurity Lessons Learned from the COVID-19 Pandemic reviews the COVID-19 pandemic and related information security issues. It then develops a series of lessons learned from this reviews and explains how organizations can prepare for the next global mega disaster. The following presents some of the key lessons learned:The lack of vetting for third party suppliers and vendorsThe lack of controls surrounding data privacy, especially as it relates to the personal identifiable information (PPI) data setsThe intermingling of home and corporate networksThe lack of a secure remote workforceThe emergence of supply chain attacks (e.g., Solar Winds)To address the issues raised in these lessons learned, CISOs and their security teams must have tools and methodologies in place to address the following:The need for incident response, disaster recovery, and business continuity plansThe need for effective penetration testingThe importance of threat huntingThe need for endpoint securityThe need to use the SOAR modelThe importance of a zero-trust frameworkThis book provides practical coverage of these topics to prepare information security professionals for any type of future disaster. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the entire world to unprecedented and previously unimaginable levels. Many businesses, especially in the United States, were completely caught off guard, and they had no concrete plans put into place, from a cybersecurity standpoint, for how to deal with this mega disaster. This how-to book fully prepares CIOs, CISOs, and their teams for the next disaster, whether natural or manmade, with the various lessons that have been learned thus far from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The world of cybersecurity and the landscape that it possesses is changing on a dynamic basis. It seems like that hardly one threat vector is launched, new variants of it are already on the way. IT Security teams in businesses and corporations are struggling daily to fight off any cyberthreats that they are experiencing. On top of this, they are also asked by their CIO or CISO to model what future Cyberattacks could potentially look like, and ways as to how the lines of defenses can be further enhanced.IT Security teams are overburdened and are struggling to find ways in order to keep up with what they are being asked to do. Trying to model the cyberthreat landscape is a very laborious process, because it takes a lot of time to analyze datasets from many intelligence feeds. What can be done to accomplish this Herculean task? The answer lies in Artificial Intelligence (AI). With AI, an IT Security team can model what the future Cyberthreat landscape could potentially look like in just a matter of minutes. As a result, this gives valuable time for them not only to fight off the threats that they are facing, but to also come up with solutions for the variants that will come out later.Practical AI for Cybersecurity explores the ways and methods as to how AI can be used in cybersecurity, with an emphasis upon its subcomponents of machine learning, computer vision, and neural networks. The book shows how AI can be used to help automate the routine and ordinary tasks that are encountered by both penetration testing and threat hunting teams. The result is that security professionals can spend more time finding and discovering unknown vulnerabilities and weaknesses that their systems are facing, as well as be able to come up with solid recommendations as to how the systems can be patched up quickly.

Remote workforces using VPNs, cloud-based infrastructure and critical systems, and a proliferation in phishing attacks and fraudulent websites are all raising the level of risk for every company. It all comes down to just one thing that is at stake: how to gauge a company’s level of cyber risk and the tolerance level for this risk. Loosely put, this translates to how much uncertainty an organization can tolerate before it starts to negatively affect mission critical flows and business processes.Trying to gauge this can be a huge and nebulous task for any IT security team to accomplish. Making this task so difficult are the many frameworks and models that can be utilized. It is very confusing to know which one to utilize in order to achieve a high level of security. Complicating this situation further is that both quantitative and qualitative variables must be considered and deployed into a cyber risk model.Assessing and Insuring Cybersecurity Risk provides an insight into how to gauge an organization’s particular level of cyber risk, and what would be deemed appropriate for the organization’s risk tolerance. In addition to computing the level of cyber risk, an IT security team has to determine the appropriate controls that are needed to mitigate cyber risk. Also to be considered are the standards and best practices that the IT security team has to implement for complying with such regulations and mandates as CCPA, GDPR, and the HIPAA. To help a security team to comprehensively assess an organization’s cyber risk level and how to insure against it, the book covers: The mechanics of cyber risk Risk controls that need to be put into place The issues and benefits of cybersecurity risk insurance policies GDPR, CCPA, and the the CMMCGauging how much cyber risk and uncertainty an organization can tolerate is a complex and complicated task, and this book helps to make it more understandable and manageable.

Remote workforces using VPNs, cloud-based infrastructure and critical systems, and a proliferation in phishing attacks and fraudulent websites are all raising the level of risk for every company. It all comes down to just one thing that is at stake: how to gauge a company’s level of cyber risk and the tolerance level for this risk. Loosely put, this translates to how much uncertainty an organization can tolerate before it starts to negatively affect mission critical flows and business processes.Trying to gauge this can be a huge and nebulous task for any IT security team to accomplish. Making this task so difficult are the many frameworks and models that can be utilized. It is very confusing to know which one to utilize in order to achieve a high level of security. Complicating this situation further is that both quantitative and qualitative variables must be considered and deployed into a cyber risk model.Assessing and Insuring Cybersecurity Risk provides an insight into how to gauge an organization’s particular level of cyber risk, and what would be deemed appropriate for the organization’s risk tolerance. In addition to computing the level of cyber risk, an IT security team has to determine the appropriate controls that are needed to mitigate cyber risk. Also to be considered are the standards and best practices that the IT security team has to implement for complying with such regulations and mandates as CCPA, GDPR, and the HIPAA. To help a security team to comprehensively assess an organization’s cyber risk level and how to insure against it, the book covers: The mechanics of cyber risk Risk controls that need to be put into place The issues and benefits of cybersecurity risk insurance policies GDPR, CCPA, and the the CMMCGauging how much cyber risk and uncertainty an organization can tolerate is a complex and complicated task, and this book helps to make it more understandable and manageable.

The burnout rate of a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) is pegged at about 16 months. In other words, that is what the average tenure of a CISO is at a business. At the end of their stay, many CISOs look for totally different avenues of work, or they try something else – namely starting their own Cybersecurity Consulting business. Although a CISO might have the skill and knowledge set to go it alone, it takes careful planning to launch a successful Cyber Consulting business. This ranges all the way from developing a business plan to choosing the specific area in Cybersecurity that they want to serve.How to Start Your Own Cybersecurity Consulting Business: First-Hand Lessons from a Burned-Out Ex-CISO is written by an author who has real-world experience in launching a Cyber Consulting company. It is all-encompassing, with coverage spanning from selecting which legal formation is most suitable to which segment of the Cybersecurity industry should be targeted. The book is geared specifically towards the CISO that is on the verge of a total burnout or career change. It explains how CISOs can market their experience and services to win and retain key customers. It includes a chapter on how certification can give a Cybersecurity consultant a competitive edge and covers the five top certifications in information security: CISSP, CompTIA Security+, CompTIA CySA+, CSSP, and CISM.The book’s author has been in the IT world for more than 20 years and has worked for numerous companies in corporate America. He has experienced CISO burnout. He has also started two successful Cybersecurity companies. This book offers his own unique perspective based on his hard-earned lessons learned and shows how to apply them in creating a successful venture. It also covers the pitfalls of starting a consultancy, how to avoid them, and how to bounce back from any that prove unavoidable. This is the book for burned-out former CISOs to rejuvenate themselves and their careers by launching their own consultancies.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had so many unprecedented consequences. The great global shift from office work to remote work is one such consequence, with which many information security professionals are struggling. Office workers have been hastily given equipment that has not been properly secured or must use personal devices to perform office work. The proliferation of videoconferencing has brought about new types of cyber-attacks. When the pandemic struck, many organizations found they had no, or old and unworkable, business continuity and disaster recovery plans.Business Recovery and Continuity in a Mega Disaster: Cybersecurity Lessons Learned from the COVID-19 Pandemic reviews the COVID-19 pandemic and related information security issues. It then develops a series of lessons learned from this reviews and explains how organizations can prepare for the next global mega disaster. The following presents some of the key lessons learned:The lack of vetting for third party suppliers and vendorsThe lack of controls surrounding data privacy, especially as it relates to the personal identifiable information (PPI) data setsThe intermingling of home and corporate networksThe lack of a secure remote workforceThe emergence of supply chain attacks (e.g., Solar Winds)To address the issues raised in these lessons learned, CISOs and their security teams must have tools and methodologies in place to address the following:The need for incident response, disaster recovery, and business continuity plansThe need for effective penetration testingThe importance of threat huntingThe need for endpoint securityThe need to use the SOAR modelThe importance of a zero-trust frameworkThis book provides practical coverage of these topics to prepare information security professionals for any type of future disaster. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the entire world to unprecedented and previously unimaginable levels. Many businesses, especially in the United States, were completely caught off guard, and they had no concrete plans put into place, from a cybersecurity standpoint, for how to deal with this mega disaster. This how-to book fully prepares CIOs, CISOs, and their teams for the next disaster, whether natural or manmade, with the various lessons that have been learned thus far from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The burnout rate of a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) is pegged at about 16 months. In other words, that is what the average tenure of a CISO is at a business. At the end of their stay, many CISOs look for totally different avenues of work, or they try something else – namely starting their own Cybersecurity Consulting business. Although a CISO might have the skill and knowledge set to go it alone, it takes careful planning to launch a successful Cyber Consulting business. This ranges all the way from developing a business plan to choosing the specific area in Cybersecurity that they want to serve.How to Start Your Own Cybersecurity Consulting Business: First-Hand Lessons from a Burned-Out Ex-CISO is written by an author who has real-world experience in launching a Cyber Consulting company. It is all-encompassing, with coverage spanning from selecting which legal formation is most suitable to which segment of the Cybersecurity industry should be targeted. The book is geared specifically towards the CISO that is on the verge of a total burnout or career change. It explains how CISOs can market their experience and services to win and retain key customers. It includes a chapter on how certification can give a Cybersecurity consultant a competitive edge and covers the five top certifications in information security: CISSP, CompTIA Security+, CompTIA CySA+, CSSP, and CISM.The book’s author has been in the IT world for more than 20 years and has worked for numerous companies in corporate America. He has experienced CISO burnout. He has also started two successful Cybersecurity companies. This book offers his own unique perspective based on his hard-earned lessons learned and shows how to apply them in creating a successful venture. It also covers the pitfalls of starting a consultancy, how to avoid them, and how to bounce back from any that prove unavoidable. This is the book for burned-out former CISOs to rejuvenate themselves and their careers by launching their own consultancies.

This book is a second edition. The last one reviewed the evolution of the Cloud, important Cloud concepts and terminology, and the threats that are posed on a daily basis to it. A deep dive into the components of Microsoft Azure were also provided, as well as risk mitigation strategies, and protecting data that resides in a Cloud environment.In this second edition, we extend this knowledge gained to discuss the concepts of Microsoft Azure. We also examine how Microsoft is playing a huge role in artificial intelligence and machine learning with its relationship with OpenAI. An overview into ChatGPT is also provided, along with a very serious discussion of the social implications for artificial intelligence.

This book is a second edition. The last one reviewed the evolution of the Cloud, important Cloud concepts and terminology, and the threats that are posed on a daily basis to it. A deep dive into the components of Microsoft Azure were also provided, as well as risk mitigation strategies, and protecting data that resides in a Cloud environment.In this second edition, we extend this knowledge gained to discuss the concepts of Microsoft Azure. We also examine how Microsoft is playing a huge role in artificial intelligence and machine learning with its relationship with OpenAI. An overview into ChatGPT is also provided, along with a very serious discussion of the social implications for artificial intelligence.

This book is an update to the first edition of this book. Some of the updates include newer images and an extensive review as to how both AWS and Microsoft Azure can be used to host a biometrics in the cloud infrastructure, which will be a hot topic going into 2025 and beyond. Finally, the last chapter of this book previews some of the latest trends for biometric technology going into 2025 and beyond.

This book is an update to the first edition of this book. Some of the updates include newer images and an extensive review as to how both AWS and Microsoft Azure can be used to host a biometrics in the cloud infrastructure, which will be a hot topic going into 2025 and beyond. Finally, the last chapter of this book previews some of the latest trends for biometric technology going into 2025 and beyond.

The world of Cybersecurity today is becoming increasingly complex. There are many new Threat Variants that are coming out, but many of them are just tweaked versions of some of the oldest ones, such as Phishing and Social Engineering. In today’s world, Threat Variants are becoming more complex, more covert, and stealthier. Thus, it makes it almost impossible to detect them on time before the actual damage is done. One such example of this is what is known as Supply Chain Attacks. What makes this different from the other Threat Variants is that through just one point of entry, the Cyberattacker can deploy a Malicious Payload and impact thousands of victims. This is what this book is about, and it covers the following:Important Cybersecurity ConceptsAn introduction to Supply Chain Attacks and its impact on the Critical Infrastructure in the United StatesExamples of Supply Chain Attacks, most notably those of Solar Winds and Crowd Strike. Mitigation strategies that the CISO and their IT Security team can take to thwart off Supply Chain Attacks

The world today is becoming more interconnected than ever before. Because of this, the spread of Misinformation and Disinformation is literally like wildfire, especially with the use of the social media platforms. In this book, we cover this topic in great detail by focusing on the following: What Misinformation and Disinformation are all about The role of Generative AI in Misinformation and Disinformation The role of social engineering in Misinformation and Disinformation The role of cyberbullying in Misinformation and Disinformation Tools to mitigate Misinformation and DisinformationThis will for sure be an explosive topic in the coming years for cybersecurity.

The world today is becoming more interconnected than ever before. Because of this, the spread of Misinformation and Disinformation is literally like wildfire, especially with the use of the social media platforms. In this book, we cover this topic in great detail by focusing on the following: What Misinformation and Disinformation are all about The role of Generative AI in Misinformation and Disinformation The role of social engineering in Misinformation and Disinformation The role of cyberbullying in Misinformation and Disinformation Tools to mitigate Misinformation and DisinformationThis will for sure be an explosive topic in the coming years for cybersecurity.

Most biometric books are either extraordinarily technical for technophiles or extremely elementary for the lay person. Striking a balance between the two, Biometric Technology: Authentication, Biocryptography, and Cloud-Based Architecture is ideal for business, IT, or security managers that are faced with the task of making purchasing, migration, or adoption decisions. It brings biometrics down to an understandable level, so that you can immediately begin to implement the concepts discussed.Exploring the technological and social implications of widespread biometric use, the book considers the science and technology behind biometrics as well as how it can be made more affordable for small and medium-sized business. It also presents the results of recent research on how the principles of cryptography can make biometrics more secure. Covering biometric technologies in the cloud, including security and privacy concerns, the book includes a chapter that serves as a "how-to manual" on procuring and deploying any type of biometric system. It also includes specific examples and case studies of actual biometric deployments of localized and national implementations in the U.S. and other countries.The book provides readers with a technical background on the various biometric technologies and how they work. Examining optimal application in various settings and their respective strengths and weaknesses, it considers ease of use, false positives and negatives, and privacy and security issues. It also covers emerging applications such as biocryptography.Although the text can be understood by just about anybody, it is an ideal resource for corporate-level executives who are considering implementing biometric technologies in their organizations.