Erica Mixon on Muck Rack

Erica Mixon

(She/Her)
Boston
Covers:  Cybersecurity, End-User Computing, Cloud, Ransomware, Malware, Zero-Day Vulnerabilities
Content Marketing Manager at @Blumirasec

Erica Mixon’s Journalist Portfolio

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The Return of IcedID and How to Detect It

The Return of IcedID and How to Detect It

blumira.com — Several researchers have released reports that point to the reemergence of IcedID, (aka BokBot), a strain of malware that initially operated as a banking trojan in 2017. Now IcedID has evolved into something far more dangerous: an initial access broker for ransomware threat actors.

How To Defend Against Russian-Sponsored Cyberattacks

How To Defend Against Russian-Sponsored Cyberattacks

blumira.com — Russian-sponsored threat actors have already distributed cyberattacks via new malware and such as Cyclops Blink and HermeticWiper. As tensions between Ukraine and Russia escalate, there's potential for increased cybersecurity risk against targets across the world. We've witnessed this historically during previous unrest. For example, the Ukrainian Maidan revolution in 2014 resulted in the NotPetya wiperware campaign .

Top 5 Cloud Security Threats in 2022

Top 5 Cloud Security Threats in 2022

blumira.com — A persisting myth is that cloud platforms are inherently secure - but in reality, the next cyberattack could always be around the corner, no matter if you're in the cloud or on prem. Moving to the cloud certainly has its benefits - especially during this new era of remote work.

Why Email Forwarding is a Security Risk (And How to Detect)

Why Email Forwarding is a Security Risk (And How to Detect)

blumira.com — Email forwarding can be a convenient feature for users - but unfortunately for defenders, it's even more convenient for threat actors. Email forwarding rules enable an email account owner to automatically redirect incoming emails to a separate account. There are some legitimate use cases for this; for example, an employee on vacation may want to forward their incoming emails to a colleague.

How To Detect Log4j Exploits That Lead To Ransomware

How To Detect Log4j Exploits That Lead To Ransomware

blumira.com — Threat actors have already begun to exploit the Log4j vulnerability to launch ransomware attacks - and unfortunately, it's just the tip of the iceberg. Conti was the first professional ransomware group to weaponize the Log4j vulnerability to launch ransomware attacks, and it certainly won't be the last.

How to Tell If You Have Ransomware: 6 Warning Signs

How to Tell If You Have Ransomware: 6 Warning Signs

blumira.com — If you're unfortunate enough to be the victim of a ransomware attack, you know how damaging and disruptive it can be to your business operations. is a type of malware that encrypts files and systems and demands payment (often in the form of cryptocurrency) in order to decrypt them.

DaaS brings GPU-accelerated applications within reach

DaaS brings GPU-accelerated applications within reach

TechTarget — By As desktop-as-a-service offerings step into the spotlight, organizations may realize the benefits of GPU-accelerated applications in cloud-hosted environments. IT can deploy virtual desktops on premises, purchasing the physical hardware and GPUs to host in its own data center.

EBook: The Ransomware Prevention Guide For SMBs

EBook: The Ransomware Prevention Guide For SMBs

www.blumira.com — Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are often ill-prepared to deal with the impact of ransomware and have limited resources to detect and prevent an attack. But there are a variety of techniques that can prevent ransomware – with the resources and staff that you have today.

What Is Virtual Desktop Infrastructure? VDI Explained

What Is Virtual Desktop Infrastructure? VDI Explained

TechTarget — Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is a desktop virtualization technology wherein a desktop operating system, typically Microsoft Windows, runs and is managed in a data center. The virtual desktop image is delivered over a network to an endpoint device, which allows the user to interact with the operating system and its applications as if they were running locally.

Understanding Microsoft 365 Impossible Travel Rules

Understanding Microsoft 365 Impossible Travel Rules

blumira.com — Anomaly detection is an effective way to identify suspicious behavior in an environment that could indicate a cyberattack. By scanning user activity, anomaly detection tools identify outliers that deviate from normal patterns. Impossible travel activity is an anomaly detection that can help prevent cyberattacks such as account compromise and in Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365).

Top 5 Office 365 Security Issues

Top 5 Office 365 Security Issues

blumira.com — Learn about five common Office 365 security issues. Privilege escalation is a common attack technique in which a threat actor attempts to elevate permissions - ideally to domain administrator - to launch attacks. To do this, adversaries can use legitimate tools already in an environment to evade detection from most antivirus and endpoint detection and response (EDR) software, a technique called living off the land .

How to Build a SOC on a Budget

How to Build a SOC on a Budget

www.blumira.com — Building a full security operations center (SOC) is a massive undertaking that’s often only attainable for enterprise organizations with massive budgets and a huge staff of skilled analysts. For organizations that don’t have those resources, it’s important to take it one step at a time.

Build a cloud-based infrastructure one layer at a time

Build a cloud-based infrastructure one layer at a time

TechTarget — carloscastilla - Fotolia Cloud computing is certainly not a new concept, but regardless of where you are on the adoption curve, the technology continues to affect IT in new and significant ways. A shift to cloud over the next five years will account for more than $1 trillion of IT spending -- either directly or indirectly -- according to Gartner.

What is Enterprise Content Management? Guide to ECM

What is Enterprise Content Management? Guide to ECM

TechTarget — Enterprise content management is a set of defined processes, strategies and tools that allows a business to effectively obtain, organize, store and deliver critical information to its employees, business stakeholders and customers. ECM has rapidly evolved as different forms of content have been introduced to the work environment.

TechTarget

Windows Virtual Desktop forces VDI market to adapt or risk failure

Windows Virtual Desktop forces VDI market to adapt or risk failure

TechTarget — Vendors should be wary of their new competition in Windows Virtual Desktop, as key features could make the service a standout in the VDI market. Windows Virtual Desktop is Microsoft's desktop as a service offering that runs on Azure and provides a multi-user version of Windows 10 Enterprise OS -- a long-awaited feature that could be a significant differentiator in the VDI market.

Citrix Managed Desktops simplifies cloud desktop delivery

Citrix Managed Desktops simplifies cloud desktop delivery

TechTarget — ATLANTA -- With an emergence into the desktop-as-a-service market, Citrix emphasizes the need for speed and one-stop shopping. At Citrix Synergy 2019, the company announced Managed Desktops, a service that enables IT to quickly provision virtual desktops for their users while Citrix manages the back-end infrastructure, such as patching.

Citrix Managed Desktops simplifies cloud desktop delivery

Citrix Managed Desktops simplifies cloud desktop delivery

TechTarget — ATLANTA -- With an emergence into the desktop-as-a-service market, Citrix emphasizes the need for speed and one-stop shopping. At Citrix Synergy 2019, the company announced Managed Desktops, a service that enables IT to quickly provision virtual desktops for their users while Citrix manages the back-end infrastructure, such as patching.

Firewall vs Antivirus: What's The Difference?

Firewall vs Antivirus: What's The Difference?

blumira.com — With so many security tools out there, it's difficult to determine the differences between certain types of products. One question you be asking yourself: Is firewall and antivirus the same thing? Antivirus and firewall are sometimes used interchangeably, but each tool works differently to secure an environment.

When Firewalls Aren't Enough: 5 Ways Hackers Get Through

When Firewalls Aren't Enough: 5 Ways Hackers Get Through

blumira.com — Despite the claims of some security vendors, every firewall on the market is susceptible to being hacked. Threat actors can still circumvent a firewall's defenses using a variety of techniques. That's not to say that firewalls aren't a worthwhile investment; they are a crucial component of any security tech stack.

5 Tips to Combat Cybersecurity Alert Fatigue

5 Tips to Combat Cybersecurity Alert Fatigue

blumira.com — Ever heard of the saying "too much of a good thing?" Security alerts can give you visibility over what's happening in your environment, but many alerts actually have the opposite effect. Cybersecurity alert fatigue occurs when admins or analysts receive an overwhelming number of alerts from security tools - some of which are innocuous and irrelevant - causing them to ignore the alerts that really matter.

Microsoft Azure Flaw ChaosDB Exposes Cosmos Database

Microsoft Azure Flaw ChaosDB Exposes Cosmos Database

blumira.com — On August 27, Wiz, a cloud security provider, publicly disclosed a series of flaws in Azure's database service, Cosmos DB, that enables any user to download, remove or change company databases without any other credentials. The flaw was found in Jupyter Notebook, an open-source visualization tool often used for statistical modeling, machine learning, and data cleaning.

Top 10 Ransomware Attacks of 2021

Top 10 Ransomware Attacks of 2021

blumira.com — So far, 2021 has been a busy year for ransomware actors. The number of ransomware attacks in the first half of 2021 has already outperformed all of 2020 (SonicWall). Let's explore why 2021 has been a year of frequent and high-profile ransomware attacks, and how those attacks have played out.

Cybersecurity in the Education Sector: What You Need to Know

Cybersecurity in the Education Sector: What You Need to Know

blumira.com — It's no surprise that educational institutions are attractive targets for cybercrime. Restrictive budgets and small IT teams, combined with a sudden shift to remote learning due to the pandemic, creates a perfect storm of opportunity for threat actors to deploy ransomware, malware and other malicious behavior.
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