The April Tech Talk 2025, presented by Scott Quimby (CISSP), Senior Technical Advisor at Acture/CSI, delivers a comprehensive update on today’s rapidly evolving cybersecurity threat landscape and the operational, technical, and strategic responses organizations—especially schools—must adopt to stay secure.
1. Escalating Threat Environment
Cyberattacks are increasing at an unprecedented pace. Recent industry indicators reveal:
- 600% rise in Business Email Compromise attacks in a single month (CyberReach).
- 35 major SOC‑level events in February alone (Blackpoint Cyber).
- Phishing attacks doubling to 1 million in two months (Barracuda).
- 82% of U.S. schools suffering cyberattacks within 18 months.
Attackers now routinely exploit benign‑seeming apps, fake reports, fake Teams invites, device‑code phishing, email bombing, and EDR‑killer tools.
2. Changing Attack Patterns: Crimes of Opportunity & RaaS
Modern attackers increasingly rely on “crimes of opportunity,” in which unexpected contact between the attacker and the user initiates an attack.
Ransomware‑as‑a‑Service (RaaS) makes it easy for low‑skill criminals to launch attacks. Human‑driven ransomware operations are rising, giving SOCs slightly more time to intervene.
Despite increasing sophistication, 100% of attacks Quimby has personally encountered disengaged when they met active defense, emphasizing the value of proactive detection and layered security.
3. User Vulnerability & Social Engineering
Security awareness training is not keeping up with attacker innovation. Threats now include:
- Perfectly crafted AI‑generated phishing
- Hidden proxy tools like Evilginx
- Fake CAPTCHAs
- Browser‑based attacks and malicious extensions
- Fake PDFs, converters, tech support scams
Browsers remain a major attack surface, with infostealers targeting credentials, passwords, and even MFA tokens—now bypassed 3% of the time, with rates rising.
4. Real-World Case Study: SEO‑Poisoning Attack
A school superintendent clicked a fake link impersonating a major security vendor.
- Fake CAPTCHA triggered a PowerShell‑based infostealer.
- Fortunately, CSEDR (SentinelOne + Vigilance SOC) killed the malware immediately.
- Attackers gained initial access via SEO poisoning.
Mitigation recommendations included DNS filtering, removing local admin rights, ad-blocking, avoiding Google Search for security-related queries, and deploying SOC‑backed EDR tools.
5. Emerging SOC Capabilities
SOCs are beginning to incorporate offensive capabilities, with vendor Red Teams allegedly counter‑attacking threat actors during live intrusions—though not publicly acknowledged.
6. Vulnerabilities & Infrastructure Risks
Critical vulnerabilities highlighted include VLC, Adobe products, 7‑Zip, infostealers, and Windows OS flaws—many of which CyberCNS can now detect and auto‑update.
Firewalls from major vendors such as Fortinet, SonicWall, Palo Alto, Cisco, and Ivanti remain high‑value targets.
Azure AD Sync servers have been found to communicate in clear text, requiring domain‑controller‑level protection.
7. Key Platform Updates: Microsoft 365, Intune & Azure Patch Management
New and upcoming capabilities include:
- CyberCNS enhancements: improved reporting, internal/external segregation, cloud vulnerability detection, custom dashboards, and ConnectSecure Premium launching 4/1/25.
- M365 assessments, recommendations, and security expansions.
- Intune: unified endpoint management, zero‑touch deployment, advanced analytics.
- Azure Update Manager: centralized patching across all cloud and on‑prem environments with hotpatching and dynamic scoping.
8. Critical Deadlines & Industry Changes
- Windows 10 End‑of‑Life: October 14, 2025.
Schools must upgrade, retire systems, or purchase extended security updates ($1 Year 1, $2 Year 2, $4 Year 3 per machine). - MSOnline PowerShell retirement (April–May 2025).
Organizations must migrate to Microsoft Graph PowerShell or Entra PowerShell. - MS‑ISAC loses federal funding for threat intelligence and incident response, reducing national support for K‑12 cybersecurity.
9. New Attack Trends: Voice AI, Fast‑Flux Servers, Third‑Party App Risks
- Voice impersonation (“Virtual Voice Attacks”) now allows attackers to generate realistic cloned voices using voicemail recordings. One demonstration mimicked “The Rock” in fully interactive conversation.
- Fast‑flux networks (bulletproof servers) enable hard‑to‑takedown malware campaigns.
- Third‑party apps and OAuth risks in Google Workspace require tightened access controls.
10. Final Message: Patching Is Not Enough
Closing guidance stresses that patching alone cannot guarantee safety. Organizations must conduct compromise assessments, verifying whether attackers are already in the environment before assuming systems are clean.
Watch the presentation here.
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