Intelligence in Offensive Security

2025 was a defining year for cybersecurity, and this article brings together the insights that mattered most. Inside, you’ll find Echelon’s top reports and articles covering real-world threats, defensive gaps, compliance shifts, and lessons learned across industries. It’s a guided entry point into the stories and strategies worth revisiting as you plan what comes next.

Discover what a red team exercise is, how long it takes, and what findings executives and engineers should expect. Learn how offensive security testing improves detection, response, and resilience. 

On June 20, 2025, Governor Greg Abbott signed the Texas Cybersecurity Safe Harbor Law (SB 2610). This law takes effect on September 1, 2025, and brings major changes for small and mid-sized Texas businesses that handle sensitive personal information.If your organization has fewer than 250 employees, this law could protect you from punitive damages after a data breach—but only if you maintain a documented, compliant cybersecurity program.

Learn the real differences between red and purple teaming and how to use each to strengthen your cybersecurity program. Watch the full webinar on demand. 

Discover the top six financial benefits of continuous penetration testing, from reducing breach and downtime costs to lowering insurance premiums and boosting client trust. Learn how proactive security drives long-term savings and operational efficiency.

Learn the essentials of PCI DSS compliance, including penetration testing, quarterly vulnerability scanning, and the role of QSAs and SAQs. Stay ahead of cyber threats and ensure secure payment transactions. Contact Echelon Risk + Cyber to streamline your compliance strategy. 

Learn how threat actors exploit AZUREADSSOACC to pivot from on-premises Active Directory to Azure. Get actionable defenses to secure your hybrid identity environment. 

Learn about Machine Account Quota (MAQ) attacks in Active Directory, where attackers exploit machine account creation and misconfigurations to escalate privileges, maintain persistence, and perform Resource-Based Constrained Delegation (RBCD). This article covers techniques such as manipulating delegation permissions and crafting Kerberos tickets to gain unauthorized domain access, including practical examples and tools for detecting and mitigating these threats.

DeepSeek R1’s security flaws highlight critical AI safety risks, from data exposure to adversarial attacks. Learn how vulnerabilities in open-source AI models compromise cybersecurity and what mitigation strategies organizations should adopt. 

We’re excited to share the 5 most-read articles of the year. These articles stand out for their relevance, depth, and impact on the ongoing cybersecurity dialogue. Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just starting to dive into the world of cybersecurity, these pieces offer valuable perspectives on the challenges and solutions facing today’s digital landscape.

Discover expert strategies from Echelon to enhance your organization's cybersecurity during Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Learn about training enhancements, cyber exercise benefits, internal testing, and building a culture of awareness to strengthen cyber defenses. 

Choosing the right offensive cybersecurity service can be challenging, especially with options like red teaming, penetration testing, and vulnerability assessments that often appear overlapping. Each service, however, serves a distinct purpose and addresses different aspects of your security needs. To help you make an informed decision, let’s explore the differences between these services and how they align with your organization’s specific cybersecurity goals.

Organizations often face confusion when selecting offensive cybersecurity services. Vulnerability Assessment, Penetration Testing, and Red Teaming are essential but serve different purposes. At Echelon Risk + Cyber, we frequently encounter this confusion, so we’re here to break down each service and clarify which might be the best fit for your organization. 

FedRAMP announced a new red team requirement impacting cloud service providers. This article breaks down the details of the requirement and the difference between red teaming and pen testing.

Echelon's Offensive Security (OffSec) team of ethical hackers conducts daily penetration tests on web applications, uncovering common vulnerabilities that threaten online security. In this article, we explore the top 10 web app vulnerabilities frequently encountered during penetration tests. From SQL injection to CORS misconfigurations, we'll delve into each vulnerability and discuss how to both exploit and safeguard against them.

Prepare for the eLearnSecurity Web Application Penetration Tester (eWPT) exam with this comprehensive guide. Learn about the exam format, prerequisites, and tips to pass the practical and written assessments. Acquire valuable web application penetration testing skills and enhance your professional profile.

Learn about network pivoting techniques for the eCPPT exam and penetration testing. Understand the concept of pivoting, explore tools like Metasploit, Proxychains, SOCKS Proxy, Chisel, and Ligolo-ng, and discover the differences between reverse shells and bind shells.

Here are our key takeaways from CrowdStrike's 2023 Global Threat Report. Discover the latest threat trends and explore recommendations for staying ahead of threats.

Traditional penetration testing may not be enough to simulate real-world attack scenarios. Discover the benefits of adversarial-based red teaming with the TIBER-EU Framework to improve your organization's ability to detect, respond to, and mitigate sophisticated attacks.

Cybersecurity terms like "red teaming" and "penetration testing" are often used interchangeably, leading to confusion and misinformation. This article explores the differences between these assessments and why the misuse of terms can be detrimental to the industry.

A reactive approach to mitigating infrastructure vulnerabilities - or playing “vulnerability whack-a-mole” - is both unsustainable and ineffective. Here's how a formal vulnerability management program provides proactive, sustainable, and effective measures to defend against cyberattacks.

Learn why pen testing alone isn't enough to secure healthcare organizations from cyber threats, and how red team assessments can help identify and mitigate vulnerabilities. Here's a comprehensive overview of red teaming and its importance in healthcare cybersecurity.

Preparing for the eLearnSecurity Certified Professional Penetration Tester (eCPPTv2) exam? Here are three experiences from the Echelon Offensive Security Team and tips on how to prepare.

A few weeks ago, I received an email stating that I had passed the eJPTv2 certification. I wanted to share my perspective on the exam, what’s covered in the eJPTv2 syllabus, and how to prepare for it in this eJPT exam review.

As an organization that stores sensitive medical data, MetaOptima is focused on investing in their security posture. Here's how Echelon Risk + Cyber helped ensure they are functioning at their most secure level.

Threats are continuously evolving - your pen testing should too. As attackers constantly find new vulnerabilities to exploit, a continuous penetration testing approach persistently emulates threat actor activity within a company’s unique environment, helping them stay secure over time.

In this video discussion with Matt Tolbert, Senior Cybersecurity Examiner for the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Matt and Dan discuss risks of remote workforces, planning for disruptions, mitigating 3rd party risks, going to the cloud, supply chain threats, and resilience in the future.

Bell and Howell partnered with Echelon Risk + Cyber to test the security of their systems, ensuring that they will continue to be protected from future cyberattacks and avoid any future disruption to their systems.

Our CEO and Founder Dan Desko was recently interviewed for Mission Matters Innovation with Adam Torres. The interview focuses on our core belief that security and privacy are basic human rights. We're built to live that mission every day.

Considering a move to the cloud? There's a lot to think about, especially for financial institutions. This article lays out those obstacles and some considerations for overcoming them.

Another year, another penetration test? Attackers are evolving, and so should you. Here are four ways to spice up your pen testing routine to be better prepared and reduce your attack surface.

Have you solved your badges yet? With another DefCon in the books, here's our take on the best sessions and a close up look at some of the badges.

This weekly post shares our intel around some of the major developments on the future of cybersecurity. This week: data breach at T-Mobile, Apple's privacy nightmare, and Microsoft needs to patch patching.

This weekly post shares our intel around some of the major developments on the future of cybersecurity. This week: Federal agencies failing at cyber, Apple scans your iCloud photos, and a disgruntled ransomware worker acts out.

This weekly post shares our intel around some of the major developments on the future of cybersecurity. This week: President Biden's memorandum on Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity, an FBI official advises against banning ransomware payments, and the search engine for hackable websites returns.

Over the past year and a half, the worldwide workforce underwent a drastic and rapid paradigm shift that has brought with it new opportunities, attack vectors, and methods to test security. When testing security with penetration testing, partner with a firm using the most modern, advanced tactics to test your readiness for tomorrow’s attackers.