PCCET teaching - Palo Alto Networks Certified Cybersecurity Entry-level Technician Updated: 2023

Undoubtedly, humanity and the digital world are inseparable at this point, as the Internet now plays an indispensable role in various facets of life, from navigation and entertainment to critical components of modern work processes.

Unlike the older generation, which had to adapt to the rise of the Internet, children today are born into the digital age, presenting a new set of plusses and problems.

On one hand, the digital age gives children access to a vast amount of information, resources, and opportunities that previous generations didn’t have.

This offers them an unprecedented opportunity to easily learn new skills, participate in online communities, and connect with others around the world through various platforms.

On the other hand, this also brings about new challenges and risks that were absent before the Internet age: cyberattacks, cyberbullying, online predators, and threats to their privacy and security, as well as being exposed to inappropriate content.

According to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission’s (MCMC’s) 2020 Internet Users Survey, 47% of children aged five to 17 in the country are daily users of the Internet, while only 53.3% of parents are aware of the parental controls available.

However, despite being aware of these tools, the MCMC report found that only 34.4% of those parents actively used the features to safeguard their children online.

Malaysian parents appear to largely favour more traditional methods like setting rules (72.8%), staying in proximity of a child when they are using the Internet (57.4%), discussing online safety with their children in advance (50%), and checking their social media accounts and browsing history (47.7%).

However, 7.4% of respondents said they do not take any action at all.

This is especially concerning as Netherlands-based cybersecurity company and VPN provider Surfshark found a surge in cybercrime targeting children in 2020, rising by 144% from the previous year.

Children have to be empowered to seek help if they encounter negative situations online or feel uncomfortable. — Dreamstime/TNS

The same report also mentions that the American Federal Bureau of Investigation received almost ten thousand complaints on the matter, which involved over US$2mil (RM9.1mil) in losses.

A more accurate report from cybersecurity firm Kaspersky in January echoes the claims of the Surfshark study, saying that 2022 saw a dramatic 57% rise in cyberattacks targeting minors.

These cyberattacks were primarily conducted under the guise of popular video game titles, including Minecraft (affecting 140,515 users), Roblox (38,850 users), and Among Us (27,503 users), among others.

To bridge the knowledge gap, more initiatives are being launched to educate both parents and children about cybersecurity, reflecting the growing importance of digital safety.

Educate and empower

Take, for instance, the ongoing Be Internet Awesome programme, which mainly focuses on teaching kids the basics of digital citizenship and online safety.

The programme, by Google, covers five main topics: guiding children on the dos and don’ts of sharing information online; recognising fake content; safeguarding account privacy and security; fostering positive online behaviour; and knowing when to seek help from adults.

Children, it said, should be informed about the importance of refraining from sharing identifying information, such as their address, phone number, password, and email.

When it comes to the private information of others, it’s essential that they grasp the importance of respecting their privacy and refraining from sharing such information without consent.

It’s crucial to instil the practice of “thinking before posting” to combat misunderstanding, especially since online statements can be misinterpreted by others.

Children should also be motivated to exercise critical thinking when seeking information online, as not all that they encounter may be accurate or true.

Kaspersky recommends an approach that focuses on ensuring parents understand the dangers that their children face online, which in turn would allow them to guide them appropriately. — Dreamstime/TNS

The programme advises children to be cautious when receiving friend requests from strangers, urging them to verify the authenticity of the accounts.

It is recommended that they communicate only with individuals they already know offline in order to ensure safety.

Children should be taught about good online behaviour, with an emphasis on treating others as they want to be treated, and learn to use safety tools like “blocking” and “muting” for dealing with hostile interactions.

They have to be empowered to seek help if they encounter negative situations online or feel uncomfortable.

It is important for them to recognise when to report a situation to a parent or the platform using the available tools.

Google also created an interactive browser game called Interland for the programme, with a number of themed worlds that approach a specific digital citizenship- or online safety-related topic.

Kaspersky recommends an approach that focuses on ensuring parents understand the dangers that their children face online, which in turn would allow them to guide them appropriately.

In its resource centre, the antivirus provider went on to outline three sources of threats: strangers, peers, and the children themselves.

In short, strangers, who often pretend to be children themselves, tend to target them on platforms that they frequent, such as social media and gaming.

This can be particularly dangerous, as a United Nations International Children’s Fund (Unicef) report found that more than half of teenagers it surveyed had met with someone in person after having first encountered them online.

The report, 2020 Our Lives Online, also revealed that 92% of Malaysian children aged five to 17 have Internet access and that both boys and girls reported receiving sexual messages in the form of text and images from strangers on social media.

One way to protect kids online is to establish ground rules on Internet use and screen time, which is now a common practice among most parents in Malaysia, according to the MCMC report. — Dreamstime/TNS

At times, the predators may also attempt to convince a child to share their passwords or payment details, like credit card information.

When it comes to peers, Kaspersky warns that bullying can be a concern, especially as private information belonging to a child may be shared via platforms like social media and messaging, causing great distress.

In other instances, a child could pose a risk to himself or herself by installing unwanted software or malware or oversharing personal information.

The company says that one way to protect kids online is to establish ground rules on Internet use and screen time, which is now a common practice among most parents in Malaysia, according to the MCMC report.

Parents should also have proper discussions with their kids to make sure that they’re both on the same page when it comes to understanding the digital world.

Other tips the company shared include using child-friendly resources to avoid inappropriate content, tools such as antivirus programs, content blockers and filters for blocking malware and phishing attacks, and password managers.

Building blocks

Meanwhile, other firms are taking a more guided approach when it comes to educating children on cybersecurity.

Cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks advocates for a more structured teaching approach via its Cyber Activities in Cybersecurity Education For Students (Cyber Aces) programme.

The programme is made up of four areas – connectivity, privacy, communication, and digital citizenship – and is split across four age brackets.

The lessons are also designed to be “unplugged”, allowing students to complete the lessons with just a pen and paper.

The aim was to enable children without digital devices to learn and be equipped with cybersecurity knowledge.

According to Palo Alto Networks, the programme is meant to act as a form of interactive cybersecurity education for children from the age of five to 15, with the initiative also encouraging them to consider a career in cybersecurity in the future.

“This programme provides the cybersecurity understanding and know-how for students to become good digital citizens while ensuring they have safer online experiences.

“The lessons have been constructed in such a way that they can be facilitated by anyone, regardless of their knowledge level.

A more accurate report from Kaspersky in January echoes the claims of the Surfshark study, saying that 2022 saw a dramatic 57% rise in cyberattacks targeting minors. These cyberattacks were primarily conducted under the guise of popular video game titles, including Minecraft (affecting 140,515 users), Roblox (38,850 users), and Among Us (27,503 users), among others. — Dreamstime/TNS

“One does not need to work in the digital field to help keep our children safe. Almost anyone with a basic understanding of technology can deliver the content to programme participants,” says Palo Alto Networks’ country manager for Malaysia, Lim Suk Hua.

Locally, there’s the Klik Dengan Bijak initiative by the MCMC that features a variety of resources touching on online gaming, the sharing of personal information, and parenting alongside a collection of videos.

The materials on the Klik Dengan Bijak website also offer advice on maintaining computer security, spotting fake profiles on ecommerce websites and listings, and other information.

Play it safe

Market research company Ipsos published a study produced in collaboration with video game tracking service GameTrack on child safety and video games in 2021.

The study found that 41% of parents indicated that their children play online multiplayer games; 46% of those parents claimed they supervise their children when online communication is featured in the game, while 36% said they monitor friend requests and chats.

A British non-profit, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), advises that parents take the necessary steps to understand online games.

This includes the content rating of the title, whether the title features messaging or social aspects, in-game purchases, and the possibility of the child’s exposure to trolling, griefing, and scams.

Bad behaviour, such as griefing or trolling, is a deliberate attempt to make the game worse for other players by either intentionally playing poorly or harassing them.

Video games generally have a content rating with a recommended age based on the themes contained in the title.

A rating from an organisation like the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) or Pan-European Game Information (PEGI) will usually be included on the cover of the game box or on the store page for online games.

For instance, Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V), a title popular among children according to online reports, is rated M for Mature 17+ by the ESRB, indicating the title is suitable for those aged 17 and older. The same game is rated PEGI 18, suitable only for those over 18 in Europe.

Other details that are listed on the PEGI website for the game include blood and gore, intense violence, mature humour, nudity, strong language, strong sexual content, and the use of drugs and alcohol.

In some video games, players are able to play and communicate with strangers online over text or voice chat, which may expose them to risks such as grooming or other sorts of online abuse.

At other times, they may also use platforms such as Reddit or Discord to join communities centred around the games. It is important that parents are aware of this type of activity among their children.

Scams are another concerning issue for in-game items such as skins (cosmetics that alter the appearance of characters or objects in-game), which can be bought or traded among players, making young gamers susceptible to being cheated out of these items for free.

There have also been cases where children spent large amounts on in-game microtransactions, racking up thousands in video game fees on their parent’s credit card.

The NSPCC advises against storing payment information on children’s devices.

It also highlighted that parents should know how to report issues faced in games and where they can get further support.

By Paul Ziobro

Palo Alto Networks posted a 20% increase in fiscal first-quarter revenue as demand for cybersecurity products remains strong.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based cybersecurity company on Wednesday reported a profit of $194.2 million, or 56 cents a share, for the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with a profit of $20 million, or 6 cents a share, in the same quarter a year ago.

Palo Alto Networks has just confirmed one more major piece of security startup M&A out of Israel: It has acquired Talon Cyber Security, a specialist in building enterprise browsers for securing distributed workforces sources. Source say the deal is valued at $625 million.

This is PA’s second Israeli security acquisition within a week: Last Tuesday, Palo Alto Networks announced that it was scooping up cloud data specialist Dig Security, for a price that sources close to the deal tell TechCrunch was around $400 million. As with Dig, Talon will be integrated with Palo Alto’s Prisma cloud security division.

We first reported that the two deals were in the works in September, after hearing for weeks beforehand that it was about to make some big acquisitions to beef up its security bench.

Talon — co-founded by Ofer Ben-Noon and Ohad Bobrov — had raised around $143 million, with its investors including Team8 (a specialist cyber investor in Israel), Entrée Capital, Evolution Equity, LightSpeed and Cyverse Capital. Sources tell us Talon was approached proactively and was not in the market to be acquired.

Today’s acquisition, along with last week’s for Dig, are significant developments in the Israeli technology ecosystem, where right now it is anything but business as usual.

The current war between Israel and Gaza — which kicked off after terrorists from the latter territory busted through the wall separating the two, killed some 1,400 civilians and took hundreds more back to Gaza as hostages — has, unsurprisingly, had a strong chilling effect on the region’s technology industry, which has in many ways come to a standstill in the last month.

As we have reported previously, tech accounts for 18% of Israel’s GDP, and some 14% of all people in the country work directly for the tech industry (with many others indirectly). A number of those civilians have either been called up for duty, or are involved in volunteer efforts, effectively putting a lot of their regular working lives on hold.

At the same time, the conflict and instability is having a big knock-on effect for investors, partners and would-be customers that want to do business in the region, something that is impacting both Israeli and Palestinian companies. (That’s not to mention the interruptions in supply chains and logistics, as well as even more basic needs.)

Some investors are even looking to step up by creating emergency impact funds specifically to fund startups that have had to pause their activities due to the situation.

Others claim the moment remains ripe for cyber in Israel from an investing standpoint.

“We are still seeing a lot of activity. The need for cybersecurity hasn’t decreased given what is happening. Actually, it’s the other way around. With the advancement of new systems and geopolitical changes, there are even more needs for cybersecurity,” said Lior Simon, a general partner at Cyberstarts, a specialist cyber investor in the region. “Funding and investments are continuing to be made, and we are getting pinged by several investors asking what is happening and what is coming out to market.”

Aside from this, there is also the image of public perception outside of the region : As shown by the recent blow-up around Web Summit and the departure of the founder from executive roles after comments he made about the situation, and a backlash against that, some of the most public efforts of energy that we are seeing coming out of the Israeli tech ecosystem right now are focused on that conflict and how that’s being represented. M&A does not feel like a top of mind concern in that regard.

To be clear, this deal for Talon, along with the one for Dig, were very much already in the works before the surprise attack by Hamas. That they managed to close them during the turmoil is notable, but what remains to be seen are how M&A activities, along with funding, and business for startups overall, will develop as the conflict wages on.

The deal, Palo Alto said, will help address the rise of different devices and apps that are being used in organizations, some of which are not provisioned by the organizations themselves.

“The average enterprise uses hundreds of SaaS and web applications, meaning that most work is now done primarily via the browser,” said Lee Klarich, chief product officer for Palo Alto Networks, in a statement. “Talon enables organizations to secure all work activity via an Enterprise Browser, without touching the personal usage of the device or impacting user privacy. Integrating Talon with Prisma SASE will enable Palo Alto Networks to securely connect all users and devices to all applications, including private applications, and apply consistent security no matter who the user is and what device they use for work. Today’s announcement underscores our continued belief in the strength of the Israeli cybersecurity ecosystem and our commitment to our growing team in Israel.”

“While BYOD offers an advantage for productivity, it is also a source of significant security risk,” added Anand Oswal, its SVP and GM. “Talon’s Enterprise Browser empowers security teams with deep visibility and control over all work-related SaaS and web activity on all devices, including personal and unmanaged endpoints. SASE solutions must evolve to secure unmanaged devices with the same consistent security applied to managed devices so that users can securely access business applications using any device from any location. The unique combination of Prisma SASE and Talon will transform how organizations navigate the challenges of today’s modern and connected digital environments.”

Like Dig, Talon is working in a newer area of the wider cybersecurity market, which would make it attractive to Palo Alto as it looks to keep up with the evolving threats in the market.

Talon’s focus on the concept of an enterprise browser — a platform for large organizations to operate all of their apps and services, built from the ground up with security in mind — is still a relatively new concept in the market. As we have previously noted, though, it has already started to catch on big with customers and competitors: Island is another company in the same space.

“They’re creating a new category that has the potential of being bigger than endpoint security altogether,” a source told us in September. “They’re reinventing the operating system.”

Even as a lot of funding and M&A continues to remain largely stagnant in the current market, and Israel in particular is facing some big geopolitical barriers to activity, security continues to be a huge priority for enterprises and smaller businesses.

That is because of the cost of not managing it well. A McKinsey report from last year noted that organizations would have to spend up to $10.5 trillion annually to deal with breaches by 2025, a 300% increase from 2015. So while a lot of companies have clamped down on spending and IT budgets over the last couple years, security is one area where they have returned to spending even when other categories have remained frozen or constrained.

“For end customers, security is still a big business risk, so budgets are back in action and we’re seeing sales picking up in Q3 and Q4,” one investor told us. “Security companies will want to tap into this opportunity aggressively.”

Second, cybersecurity remains a moving target. Malicious hackers are turning to technologies like AI to break into networks, so, as smaller startups come up with new techniques to tackle the problem, they become acquisition targets for larger companies looking to stay ahead of the curve. This is where this Talon acquisition fits in.

Other examples of this include CrowdStrike acquiring security startup Bionic for $350 million, and IBM buying Polar earlier this year for $60 million — a deal IBM made, we understand, partly in response to Palo Alto buying Cider Security in 2022.

There are mega deals in this trend, too, such as Cisco’s plan to buy Splunk for $28 billion.

For security companies, it becomes a question of competitive edge both against malicious hackers and other security companies. “Palo Alto is buying partly in reaction to these deals,” one source said.

November 13, 2023, 08:00 AM EST

With the second generation of the AI-driven security operations platform, Palo Alto Networks has improved visibility and added support for custom machine learning models, an executive tells CRN.

Just over a year after its release, Palo Alto Networks’ AI-driven security operations offering, XSIAM, is on track to be its fastest-growing product to date. Now, the cybersecurity giant is looking to keep up the momentum with the unveiling of the second generation of XSIAM (extended security intelligence and automation management).

With XSIAM 2.0, Palo Alto Networks is not delivering a major overhaul because it doesn’t need to, given the success of the product since its debut in October 2022, according to Gonen Fink, senior vice president of Cortex products. But the company does have a number of major improvements that partners and customers should benefit from, including around the user experience and support for custom machine learning (ML) models.

“We did not rewrite the product,” Fink said in an interview with CRN. “It was working very well, but we put in additional visibility to [show] what it’s doing for you.”

[Related: Cisco-Splunk Will Face Huge Challenge Vs. Palo Alto Networks: Analysis]

The updates come as Palo Alto Networks reports strong traction around displacing existing providers of SIEM (security information and event management) technologies, and with Cisco planning to acquire SIEM stalwart Splunk for $28 billion.

Since the launch of XSIAM, the “autonomous SOC” (Security Operations Center) platform had more than doubled Palo Alto Networks’ goal for its first year — surpassing $200 million in bookings — in just three quarters, the company said in August.

“We really feel we hit a very, very important problem with a very strong technology that combines AI and automation to really shift the way security operations are done,” Fink said.

XSIAM leverages Palo Alto Networks’ deep expertise in AI and machine learning for security — as well as its massive trove of cybersecurity data — which put together are unmatched by other vendors, said Shailesh Rao, president of Palo Alto Networks’ Cortex business, in a recent interview. The results are dramatically improved outcomes for cybersecurity and a compelling replacement for SIEM, he said.

“We have seen customers transition from their existing SIEM over to XSIAM,” Rao said. “We’re starting to see that already.”

And while the initial target customers for XSIAM are large organizations with mature SOC and data science teams, the product does have the potential to meet the needs of a wider range of customers over time, according to Fink. This includes midmarket companies, where service providers might utilize XSIAM to develop customized solutions for the customers, he said.

What follows are the key updates to know about with Palo Alto Networks’ launch of XSIAM 2.0.

XSIAM Command Center

From the start with XSIAM, one of the things customers have appreciated is how the product improves their understanding of what’s actually going on in the SOC environment, Fink said.

“Traditional tools in the SOC were very complicated — you had multiple monitors and screens,” he said. “And the reality is that none of them actually provide you a comprehensive view of what the system is doing.”

With the debut of XSIAM 2.0, Palo Alto Networks is introducing further improvements to this visibility for partners and customers through the launch of the new XSIAM Command Center.

The Command Center provides a single view of all activities within an organization’s SOC — from the data ingestion and analytics to rule creation and alert detection, according to Fink.

XSIAM Command Center also shows how detections are being grouped into incidents, as well as the automated response and remediation that is taking place to address those incidents, he said.

“This is becoming the one screen that you’re using to understand what’s going on in your environment,” Fink said.

MITRE ATT&CK Coverage Dashboard

Another enhancement to visibility that’s arriving as part of XSIAM 2.0 is the new MITRE ATT&CK Coverage Dashboard, Palo Alto Networks said.

MITRE ATT&CK has become the standard framework used to describe the stages of typical cyberattacks, as well as many of the common tactics and techniques utilized by threat actors. The framework is used widely within the cybersecurity industry, since it allows vendors to show how their products can be used to address specific stages or techniques of an attack.

“Today, customers are measuring their protection against that,” Fink said. “You need to actually know how well you’re protected, based on the different data sources that you’re ingesting.”

From its inception, XSIAM has already come with numerous out-of-the-box detections, so that customers don’t have to write their own rules, he noted. From there, the offering uses machine learning to adapt to the evolving techniques of adversaries, Fink said.

With the new MITRE ATT&CK Coverage Dashboard in XSIAM 2.0, Palo Alto Networks is providing visibility around how well a customer is covered against each of the different elements of the framework, he said.

“That’s very powerful,” Fink said. In addition to showing how real-world protections are aligning to the ATT&CK framework, the new dashboard also helps customers to “for the first time understand what is in XSIAM,” he said.

“The fact that XSIAM comes with built-in detection and machine learning models — thousands of AI-based detections for the various aspects of the MITRE framework — it’s part of what customers buy this for,” Fink said. But now with the new ATT&CK Coverage Dashboard, “customers are actually seeing them,” he said.

Bring Your Own ML

XSIAM 2.0 also introduces the new capability to “Bring Your Own ML” to the platform, Palo Alto Networks announced.

That means that partners and customers are now longer required to replicate their data into another data lake in order to utilize their own custom ML models, the company said.

Bring Your Own ML is primarily aimed at large customers that have unique needs as well as data science capabilities, Fink said. Additionally, third-party service providers can now use XSIAM to deliver specialized tools or services to their clients — particularly in areas that aren’t directly covered by XSIAM, such as fraud detection for instance, he said.

Other Updates

XSIAM 2.0 includes a number of additional improvements, as well, such as a new in-product assistant that provides easier access to product help and documentation.

The new release also delivers enhanced protection and detection through the introduction of several modules — including for early detection of macOS ransomware, Kubernetes and master boot record threats, according to the company.

Other updates include NDR (network detection and response) coverage, “advanced” local analysis for macOS and Linux, a simplified text search system and additional attack surface management policies.

Availability

XSIAM 2.0 is generally available now for partners and customers, according to Palo Alto Networks.

Ultimately, Fink noted that XSIAM’s AI-driven approach is not intended to replace human intervention or expertise, but instead to automatically resolve the vast majority of incidents and enable analysts to focus on the most-critical threats.

“Cyber analysts and cyber experts can actually focus on and quickly respond to those things that require human intervention,” he said. “The results have been simply amazing.”

In a report released yesterday, Andrew Nowinski from Wells Fargo maintained a Buy rating on Palo Alto Networks (PANW – Research Report), with a price target of $270.00.

Andrew Nowinski’s Buy rating for Palo Alto Networks is primarily driven by the company’s strong and strategic use of mergers and acquisitions. Palo Alto has consistently leveraged M&A to enhance its SASE and cloud security solutions. The company’s proven ability to successfully integrate acquired companies is expected to aid in achieving the targeted $6.5B ARR by FY26. Moreover, the accurate acquisitions of Talon Cyber Security and Dig Security are anticipated to boost the company’s ARR growth and help reach the stated target.

The acquisition of Talon Cyber Security and Dig Security, both established in 2021, represents Palo Alto’s ongoing commitment to expanding its cybersecurity capabilities. Talon Cyber Security, with its Secure Enterprise Browser solution, will be integrated with Prisma SASE, allowing secure access to applications for all users and devices. Similarly, Dig Security’s Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) will be integrated into the Prisma Cloud solution, extending Palo Alto’s CNAPP solution to cloud data stores. These acquisitions are expected to enhance Palo Alto’s Prisma offerings, thereby facilitating their journey towards the $6.5B ARR target set for FY26.

In another report released today, Jefferies also maintained a Buy rating on the stock with a $285.00 price target.

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Palo Alto Networks (PANW) Company Description:

California-based Palo Alto Networks, Inc., founded in 2005, is a global cybersecurity leader. The company provides network security solutions to enterprises, service providers, and government entities.

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