Dark Reading
Dark Reading is one of the most widely read and trusted cybersecurity news sites and online communities for information security professionals. Founded in 2006, it provides a comprehensive platform for security researchers, Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs), and technology specialists to stay informed about the latest threats, vulnerabilities, and defense strategies. It is part of the Informa TechTarget network and serves as a primary resource for enterprise security decision-makers.
The platform is known for its:
Enterprise Focus: Deep-dive reporting on security challenges specifically affecting large-scale organizations.
Community Engagement: A hub where practitioners share hands-on experience and "in-the-trenches" insights through commentary and interactive features.
Granular Topical Coverage: Fourteen specialized sections, including Cloud Security, Application Security (AppSec), IoT, and ICS/OT.
News Analysis: Beyond reporting headlines, Dark Reading provides context on why security events happen and what solutions enterprises should consider.
Core Content Areas of Dark Reading
Dark Reading organizes its extensive coverage into topical pillars designed to help professionals navigate the complex cybersecurity landscape.
Attacks and Breaches
This section provides real-time reporting on the latest cyberattacks, data breaches, and threat actor tactics. It helps organizations understand the current threat environment and the motivations of those targeting enterprise data.
Cybersecurity Operations
Focusing on the "how-to" of security, this area covers incident response, security orchestration, and the day-to-day management of a Security Operations Center (SOC). It highlights best practices for building resilient defense architectures.
Vulnerabilities and Threats
This pillar drills into the technical details of newly discovered software flaws and emerging malware. It serves as a critical feed for patch management teams and vulnerability researchers.
The Edge and Dark Reading Technology
These feature sections offer in-depth perspectives on cybersecurity issues, next-generation technology trends, and original research reports that go beyond standard news cycles.
Why Dark Reading is Vital for Cybersecurity Decision-Makers
Dark Reading is more than a news site; it is an educational and strategic tool for those tasked with protecting business assets.
Contextual Intelligence: It translates technical vulnerabilities into business risks, helping executives justify security investments.
Industry Best Practices: Through webinars, virtual events, and white papers, it provides a roadmap for implementing emerging technologies like Zero Trust and AI-driven security.
Global Perspective: With sections like "DR Global," the site covers international cybersecurity trends, which is essential for organizations with a worldwide footprint.
Professional Development: Its "Cybersecurity Careers" section and "Heard It From a CISO" series offer guidance for the next generation of security leaders.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who owns Dark Reading?
Informa TechTarget, a leading provider of market-leading events, digital media, and research for the global technology community, owns Dark Reading.
Is Dark Reading a technical site or a business site?
It is both. Dark Reading strikes a unique balance by providing highly technical analysis for security practitioners while offering strategic insights and risk assessments for C-level executives and business managers.
Does Dark Reading accept community contributions?
Yes. Dark Reading has a robust "Commentary" section where industry experts and practitioners can submit original columns. These pieces must be exclusive to Dark Reading and focus on practical lessons, original research, or unique professional experiences.
ThreatNG serves as a critical bridge between high-level enterprise security news, such as that from Dark Reading, and an organization’s specific digital footprint. While Dark Reading offers strategic analysis of the latest breaches and global threat trends, ThreatNG provides the tactical execution to determine whether those threats are currently targeting your specific environment. By ingesting feeds from Dark Reading and other industry-leading news sources, ThreatNG identifies emerging risk patterns and applies them directly to your organization’s attack surface.
External Discovery: The Attacker’s Perspective
ThreatNG uses a purely external, unauthenticated discovery engine to map an organization's digital footprint. It identifies what an attacker or a security researcher at Dark Reading would find during the initial reconnaissance phase.
Shadow IT Identification: If Dark Reading reports on a new vulnerability in a popular cloud-based project management tool, ThreatNG discovers if any of your business units have deployed that tool without the security team's knowledge.
Asset Attribution: It automatically identifies subdomains, IP ranges, and cloud storage buckets (like Amazon S3 or Azure Blobs) that are publicly accessible and associated with your brand.
Third-Party Tech Stack Mapping: ThreatNG identifies the specific technologies (e.g., WordPress, specific API frameworks, or older versions of Java) used by your organization. This is crucial when news breaks about an exploit targeting a particular version of a widely used technology.
External Assessment: In-Depth Risk Validation
Once assets are identified, ThreatNG conducts detailed external assessments to determine their susceptibility to the attack vectors trending in the media.
Web Application and Hijack Susceptibility
ThreatNG assesses web applications for entry points that could lead to account takeovers.
Example: If Dark Reading publishes an article on a new session fixation technique, ThreatNG analyzes your public-facing login pages to see if they lack the necessary secure cookie flags or session regeneration protocols that would prevent such an attack.
Subdomain Takeover Susceptibility
ThreatNG evaluates DNS records to find "dangling" entries—subdomains pointing to decommissioned or inactive cloud services.
Example: ThreatNG might identify a subdomain pointing to an expired Heroku app. An attacker could register that app name, effectively "taking over" your subdomain to host a malicious clone of your login page, a sophisticated tactic frequently highlighted in enterprise security reports.
Brand and Phishing Susceptibility
The platform analyzes domain permutations and email security configurations (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) to predict the likelihood of targeted phishing.
Example: By monitoring for "typosquatted" domains that look like your corporate URL, ThreatNG can alert you to a phishing infrastructure being built before the first email reaches an employee's inbox.
Continuous Monitoring and Intelligence Repositories
ThreatNG provides an uninterrupted watch over your digital landscape, ensuring that your defenses evolve alongside the news cycle.
Intelligence Repositories: ThreatNG leverages deep repositories containing data on the dark web, compromised credentials, and ransomware group activities.
Real-Time Correlation: When a story breaks about a new ransomware gang's primary attack vector, ThreatNG uses its intelligence to immediately check if your external assets are communicating with known malicious command-and-control (C2) infrastructure.
Dynamic Security Ratings: The platform provides a holistic security score that adjusts in real time as new vulnerabilities are discovered or your attack surface changes.
Investigation Modules: Deep-Dive Forensics
The Investigation Modules allow security analysts to pivot from a high-level Dark Reading alert to a granular investigation of their own company’s exposure.
Sensitive Code Exposure
This module scans public code repositories, such as GitHub, for leaked secrets and configuration files.
Example: ThreatNG might discover a hardcoded API key or a database connection string in a developer’s public repository. This allows the team to revoke the secret before a botnet (of the type often covered in the news) uses it to gain unauthorized access.
Dark Web Presence
This module monitors underground forums for mentions of your organization or your executives.
Example: If an investigative report mentions a new "credential harvesting" kit being sold, ThreatNG uses its dark web module to see if your company's proprietary data or employee logins have appeared in these illicit marketplaces.
Search Engine Exploitation
ThreatNG assesses how much sensitive information is indexed by search engines.
Example: It might find that a sensitive "admin" directory or a backup database file (.sql) has been accidentally indexed, making it visible to anyone using advanced search queries—a standard method attackers use for initial target selection.
Cooperation with Complementary Solutions
ThreatNG provides the "outside-in" perspective essential to a unified security posture. It works in conjunction with several complementary solutions to ensure that external intelligence leads to internal remediation.
Cooperation with SIEM and XDR: ThreatNG feeds external risk data, such as a newly discovered lookalike domain, into a SIEM. This allows the SIEM to immediately flag any internal traffic attempting to connect to that suspicious URL, catching a phishing attack in its early stages.
Cooperation with Vulnerability Management: While internal scanners test known servers, ThreatNG finds the "unknown" or "shadow" assets. Once found, these are passed to the internal scanner for a deeper, credentialed scan to find specific software bugs.
Cooperation with SOAR Platforms: SOAR (Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response) tools use ThreatNG's alerts to automate defenses. For instance, if ThreatNG detects an exposed administrative port on a cloud instance, the SOAR platform can automatically update firewall rules to close that port until a human analyst can review it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does ThreatNG use Dark Reading news feeds?
ThreatNG monitors reputable sources like Dark Reading to identify new vulnerabilities, threat actor tactics, and global trends. It then automatically correlates this information with your specific digital footprint to see if you are at risk.
What makes ThreatNG different from a standard vulnerability scanner?
Unlike a standard scanner that requires you to tell it what to scan, ThreatNG performs "zero-input" discovery. It finds assets you didn't know you had, including those owned by subsidiaries or third-party vendors, providing a much broader view of your risk.
Can ThreatNG help with regulatory compliance, like SEC filings?
Yes. ThreatNG provides specialized reporting for SEC filings, helping organizations fulfill their requirements for disclosing material cybersecurity risks and oversight as mandated for publicly traded companies.
