As we venture further into the digital landscape, the issue of cybersecurity becomes more prominent. With 5.07 billion people using the internet on a daily basis, there are endless opportunities for nefarious characters to steal information, hack into accounts, and generally make our lives online difficult and less secure. The cybersecurity market has reached a staggering $172.32 billion in 2023, and is growing year by year as new innovations in digital protection are tested, tried, and adopted.
Security-conscious companies and individuals want to know that informed, experienced cybersecurity professionals are taking on the job of protecting personal information and other data. This is the mission that White Knight Labs has adopted.
Founded by Greg Hatcher, a former Army Special Ops soldier and instructor at the NSA, White Knight Labs is led by a staff of security experts who have had in-depth, real-world experience with all levels of security considerations. The company has set itself apart from the outset by only hiring senior engineers that have undergone meticulous technical interviews.
Hatcher is a proponent of the human element in security, finding that without human oversight, digital technologies can be easily breached and exploited, especially with the explosion of AI and machine learning technologies.
The importance of cybersecurity
For the majority of businesses, most — if not all — of their critical data is digitally housed, making reliable cybersecurity crucial for businesses of all sizes. According to Hatcher, there are a number of cybersecurity issues that should concern businesses, starting with social engineering hacks.
“These attacks are a common type of cyber-attack where attackers attempt to trick people into revealing sensitive information, such as passwords or credit card numbers,” Hatcher explains. “Social engineering attacks involve manipulating people to gain unauthorized access to confidential information.”
These attacks can be done via email (which is also known as “phishing”), phone calls, or a new kind of cyber attack that White Knight Labs has just begun to tackle for their clients. “It’s called device code phishing, and it involves stealing a user’s token after they authenticate via MFA,” Hatcher explains.
Being one step ahead of hackers and scam artists is vital for cybersecurity firms. White Knight Labs provides penetration testing services that pinpoint the vulnerabilities of a client’s digital set-up and consults with that client on the best course of action to protect themselves. “Overall, businesses should have a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy that includes preventive measures, monitoring, incident response, and employee cyber awareness training,” Hatcher says.
Hatcher and his team warn against a number of potential threats that crop up time and again with their business clients, regardless of the size of the organization. One such threat is ransomware, a type of malware that encrypts a client’s files and makes those files inaccessible until a ransom is paid.
“Ransomware attacks are on the rise, and they can cause significant disruption to businesses,” says Hatcher. Another example of a common attack is a side-channel attack. “A side-channel attack is a type of attack that takes advantage of information leaked through unintended channels in a system or device. Instead of attacking the system directly, side-channel attacks exploit weaknesses in how the system handles sensitive data, such as cryptographic keys or passwords,” Hatcher explains.
White Knight Labs has perfected the process of making themselves aware of emerging threats that come along with emerging technologies. By creating an on-demand lab environment, the team has been able to stay at the forefront of the cybersecurity space. As hackers and scam artists continue to shift and adapt to cybersecurity approaches, White Knight Labs works diligently to stay one step ahead.
How to protect against threats
According to Hatcher, it is integral to any business’s cybersecurity that they are smart about what is shared online or via new technology, such as ChatGPT, and seek professional insights into how they can best protect themselves against attacks that are becoming more common. White Knight Labs has its engineers attempt to hack into client systems in order to pinpoint vulnerabilities, and their goal is to be with their clients every step of the way toward plugging holes in their security and providing customized solutions to each client’s cybersecurity needs.
There are a number of ways that White Knight Labs helps businesses protect against threats — and a large part of their approach involves education. “Businesses should enforce strong password policies and educate their employees on the importance of strong passwords,” Hatcher says. “In the year 2023, we have found that companies are still using passwords like ‘Winter23’ or something related to the name of the business.”
This piece of advice may seem obvious, but Hatcher and his team have found that very often the obvious solution to a problem is being overlooked and leading to breaches in security.
Since its inception, White Knight Labs has helped many companies patch vulnerabilities in their cybersecurity. By running penetration reports and showing companies where their vulnerabilities lie, they can suggest the best course of action — whether that be solutions such as a more secure cloud infrastructure or installing multi-factor authentication to better secure password-protected information.
Hatcher and his team have brought the resourcefulness and adaptability skills honed during his time in the military to the cybersecurity landscape, providing broad value and peace of mind for their clientele.
