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Protection starts with the first installation

To reboot or not to reboot?

“Turn it off and on again.” This global IT support advice is known to everyone, from Peppa Pig (Mummy Pig at Work) to The IT Crowd (every episode). But why? Why does rebooting a complex computer system solve so many problems? And why am I referring to British TV comedy in a serious report about computer security? We will answer one of those questions here.

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Testing security from Zero to Neo

Endpoint protection against different types of attacker tested.

Testing security from Zero to Neo

Our reports are based on ‘testing security from zero to Neo’. Their wide scope helps you choose the best anti-malware product, that can protect you from ransomware and other types of attack.

Targeted attacks come in all levels of sophistication

There seems to be no limit to the powers of cyber criminals. In 2021 the public became aware of the advanced capabilities of the NSO group, now infamous for helping governments spy on dissidents and others.

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2020: year of the breach

Solid endpoint protection is a bare minimum

Solid endpoint protection

If it feels like new breaches are reported every week, it’s because they are. Attackers are taking no prisoners and are successfully breaking into businesses, political organisations and systems belonging to individuals. Most believe they have solid endpoint protection in place.

It’s not like a bank robbery, where the bad guys have to spend lots of time and effort to put themselves at physical risk for the sake of one big score. Ransomware extortions can happen in parallel. Criminals sit in front of screens watching piles of victims become compromised.

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SE Labs has been hacked…

And we’re really quite proud about it!

SE Labs has been hacked

Our tests are so close to real-life hacking that sometimes there is no practical difference between the two. We don’t usually expect to interact directly with cyber criminals, but it sometimes happens. In this case, our attacker was rude enough to spoil our initial analysis and to leave a sexually aggressive message for our team, too. SE Labs has been hacked!


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Network Security Performance Testing Evolved

How fast is your firewall? And does it still protect your business when it’s busy?

SE Labs has launched its network security performance testing service. Our reports will answer questions like, “How fast is this NGFW, really?” And, “How well does it protect, even when it’s very busy?”

We have worked with the major global vendors in this area for over a year, identifying and addressing gaps in existing network performance testing. We’ve focussed on ensuring that these new tests from SE Labs are fair, honest, reliable and accurate.

These tests are the first of a new breed.

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Serial Hackers

How we run our Breach Response testing, and why

In this blog post our CTO Stefan Dumitrascu explains some of the challenges behind our newly launched Breach Response testing, why things are now different (better) and the background on how we came to make some of our decisions.

One of our most exciting projects this year has been the Breach Response testing programme. In this article we explain what has changed since last year, and why.

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Hands up, who’s been hacked?

Get ahead in the game that never ends

Have you ever been hacked? You, personally, or your business? If your answer is, “no” it would be interesting to know how you can be so sure.

I once spoke to a marketing manager at a global anti-malware company who claimed that his PC had never been infected by malware, despite him not using anti-virus. How would be know?

Not all malware announces its presence as clearly as, say ransomware. “I just would,” he claimed.

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Next-gen testing for next-gen security products

Bad guys help SE Labs keep its testing up to date.

For the first time in our endpoint protection tests we’ve seen a strong overall performance from both well-established anti-malware brands and newer entrants to the market.

Vendors such as FireEye and Crowdstrike are well-known and respected brands in the security world, but they are relatively new compared to Symantec, McAfee and even Microsoft. Microsoft has not promoted its anti-malware software until quite recently.

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Strong protection in uncertain times

 

A hacker mentality is keeping (computer) virus testing on track with our first 2020 endpoint protection reports.

Latest endpoint protection reports now online for enterprisesmall business and home users.

This is the first in our series of 2020 endpoint protection reports. And it is unique, for all the usual reasons but also a new one.

We would normally highlight the latest new threats that we’ve discovered on the internet. Then we would discuss how we test them against the security software you use in your business and at home in the most realistic ways possible. And we’ve done that. But these reports are different to any we’ve produced before, for another reason.

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