While cybersecurity attack methods are rapidly evolving, it's more often than not a misuse of administrative privileges and weak or stolen credentials that are enough to breach any critical infrastructure. Let's take the attack on the water treatment plant for example—all it took for the unidentified perpetrator was one unprotected password to access and handle the control systems remotely. Time and again, incidents like this prove that when passwords are stored in secure vaults and are subject to standard security practices, the chances of getting hacked are far lower.
Semperis announced the appointment of James (Jim) W. Doggett Jr. as chief information security officer (CISO). A longtime partner at Ernst & Young (EY) LLP and a veteran security and risk executive, Doggett will be responsible for managing Semperis’ cybersecurity posture and information and risk management program, along with helping customers improve the resiliency of their foundational identity systems.
News quickly spread about a vulnerable call recording app for iPhone named “Call Recorder,” or “Acr call recorder,” as its listing in the Apple App Store states. TechCrunch was the first outlet to flag a design flaw with the mobile application’s API when it obtained call recordings from AWS S3 cloud storage to prove it was insecure and therefore open to API-based attacks. The weaknesses exhibited by the mobile app represent a vital shift occurring in cybersecurity towards the importance of the protection and hardening of APIs. From this instance alone, we can learn a number of valuable lessons as API attacks are set to rise drastically this year. Most of the issues in the Call Recorder vulnerability map directly to the OWASP API Security Top 10, a list that captures the most common API mistakes. This document is a great reference for DevOps and security teams that are looking to implement strong API security that can be applied to both web and mobile application systems, including those in the cloud.
Peloton’s leaky API has allowed any hacker to obtain any user’s account data — even if that user had set their profile to private.
The vulnerability, which was discovered by security research firm Pen Test Partners, allowed requests to go through for Peloton user account data without checking to make sure the request was authenticated. As a result, the exposed API could let anyone access any Peloton user’s age, gender, city, weight, workout stats, and birthday.
SecureLink and Ponemon Institute today released a new report titled “A Crisis in Third-party Remote Access Security”, revealing the alarming disconnect between an organization’s perceived third-party access threat and the security measures it employees.
Thursday, May 6 is World Password Day, a day dedicated to promoting safer password practices. Strong password management has been especially important as cyberattacks have skyrocketed since the onset of the pandemic and the switch to remote work. Here, security executives share their insight and tips on how to create and promote safer password practices in the enterprise and among employees.
As we continue to embrace hybrid work, chief information security officers (CISOs) and compliance teams are wading through and in some cases even overlooking many different areas related to collaboration security. We’ve highlighted the top three areas of risk in this post which should keep CISOs awake at night. The remote workplace continues to evolve at lightning speed, and so too should CISOs – or risk sensitive materials ending up in the wrong hands.
While a number of useful countermeasures are being taken across corporate boards, progress remains relatively slow in the face of borderline existential threats. Not so long ago, companies thought of cybersecurity as a technology problem to be overseen by the chief security officer or the chief information officer, or as a compliance issue to be managed with audit functions. Today, thankfully, a more holistic, proactive and analytical approach is generally taken. There is more security training and better hygiene and most boards now count a seasoned CISO as one of their directors.
BlackBerry Limited released its 2021 BlackBerry Threat Report, detailing a sharp rise in cyberthreats facing organizations since the onset of COVID-19. The research shows a cybercrime industry which has not only adapted to new digital habits, but also become increasingly successful in finding and targeting vulnerable organizations.
Life used to be simpler for security teams. In the legacy world, they had a clear understanding of the environment they needed to protect—typically the standard LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PhP). Within this straightforward, relatively static infrastructure, they could carve out a network layer all for themselves to implement the security technologies of their choice. They also had a direct line to vendors to discuss the security controls that needed to be implemented. But in the age of DevOps and cloud, things just don’t work this way anymore. Four key changes have left security teams struggling to protect applications and organizations.
