Malware & Ransomware
Potentialy Unwanted Programs: Response and Recovery Steps
Removing the software is only half the battle, as hidden persistence mechanisms often survive standard uninstallers and reinstall the threat.
Guides
Reference guides from the Payload Report newsroom. They explain the ideas behind the headlines and are reviewed when the facts change.
Malware & Ransomware
Golden Image Mistakes That Let Malware Persist in Your Fleet
Hidden processes and cached credentials in base images allow ransomware to bypass endpoint detection and response tools during deployment.
Data Breaches
Implement database activity monitoring: a step-by-step guide
Database activity monitoring reveals lateral movement that endpoint agents miss, turning silent data exfiltration into visible network events.
Cloud Security
Early Warning Signs of Serverless Security Risks
Serverless functions often hide privilege escalation paths that standard network monitoring misses entirely.
Malware & Ransomware
Spyware in Small Business: Hidden Risks and Practical Defences
Spyware often enters through legitimate business software updates, bypassing perimeter defences by exploiting trusted relationships with trusted vendors.
Data Breaches
Encryption at Rest Checklist for Data Protection
Most encryption failures stem from key management gaps rather than weak algorithms, turning your stored data into an open book for attackers who bypass perimeter controls.
Malware & Ransomware
Computer Viruses Explained: How Code Infects and Spreads
Most modern threats do not self-replicate like classic viruses, yet the term persists because the infection mechanism remains the same.
Malware & Ransomware
Spot Screen Locker Ransomware: Early Signs and Immediate Actions
Screen lockers bypass file encryption by hijacking the display driver, meaning your data remains intact but inaccessible until the system is rebooted or the malware removed.
Malware & Ransomware
Stop Crypto Stealers: The Hidden Risks and Practical Defences
Most crypto theft succeeds not through complex code, but by exploiting the trust you place in browser sessions and clipboard data on compromised machines.
Threat Intelligence
Windows Event Log Monitoring: Implementation Steps and Verification
Most organisations collect logs but fail to correlate them, turning high-volume data into noise that hides low-frequency attack patterns from detection.
Threat Intelligence
Defense Evasion Explained: How Attackers Hide in Plain Sight
Adversaries manipulate system logs and disguise malicious processes to remain invisible to security tools while operating inside your network.
Vulnerabilities
Vulnerability Scanning for Small Teams: Practical Steps and Limits
Automated scanning misses logic flaws and business logic errors that only manual review can find, making it a partial safety net rather than a full shield.
Vulnerabilities
Attack Surface Definition: How to Measure and Reduce Exposure
Your attack surface includes invisible data flows and legacy protocols that standard scanners miss entirely, creating hidden entry points for adversaries.
Threat Intelligence
Advanced Persistent Threats: Definition, Mechanics and Detection
Advanced persistent threats hide in plain sight by mimicking normal system behaviour, making time the primary weapon rather than speed or volume.
Cloud Security
Cloud Compliance Mistakes: Why Controls Fail and How to Fix Them
Compliance frameworks often ignore the dynamic nature of cloud infrastructure, causing static controls to miss transient risks that automated systems create.
Data Breaches
GDPR Breach Notification Rules Explained for Beginners
The clock starts ticking the moment you suspect a leak, not when you confirm the data has been stolen or the damage is done.
Threat Intelligence
Process Injection: How Code Runs Without A Process
Attackers hide malicious code inside legitimate system processes to bypass security tools that only monitor process creation events.
Threat Intelligence
Honeytokens: Silent Traps for Insider Threats and Breaches
Honeytokens generate high-fidelity alerts on data exfiltration without requiring complex network traffic analysis or behavioural heuristics.
Malware & Ransomware
What Is Managed Detection and Response (MDR): How It Works
MDR bridges the gap between automated tools and human expertise by providing 24/7 monitoring and active threat hunting for organisations lacking in-house security teams.
Cloud Security
Cloud Access Security Brokers: 8 FAQs on Policy and Visibility
A CASB sits between users and cloud services to enforce security policies, but it cannot protect data that bypasses the broker entirely.
Cloud Security
Serverless Incident Response: Containment, Recovery and Prevention Steps
Serverless architectures hide the operating system, forcing responders to rely on immutable logs and execution traces rather than traditional host forensics.
Cyber Attacks
DNS Filtering: What It Blocks and What It Misses
DNS filtering stops malware downloads at the domain level, but it cannot inspect encrypted payloads or stop attacks that use legitimate cloud services for data exfiltration.
Threat Intelligence
Log Tampering: How Attackers Erase Their Footprints
Attackers modify local logs before exfiltration, meaning your central server receives a clean record that never shows the breach occurred.
Threat Intelligence
Threat Intelligence for Small Teams: Practical Data Sources
Small organisations gain more from curated open-source feeds and vendor alerts than from expensive commercial platforms that drown staff in noise.