For many years, the focus on securing OT environments has been on the imminent danger of a cyberattack upon critical infrastructure, in other words, SCADA/ICS attacks. Most of the concern has been on nation state actors like China, North Korean, Iran and Russia directly attacking and destroying our infrastructure.
COVID made “flatten the curve” a household phrase in 2020, but did you know the concept also applies to vulnerability exploits? It turns out that what’s past is prologue in exploit trends. By tracking which attacks are being exploited the most, organizations discover important information to help proactively determine their vulnerability and risk. But it is also important to track attacks where activity has increased the most within a specified timeframe. It only takes one critical exploit to cause significant damage and, once inside the network, the attacker will need to move laterally and probably deploy additional exploits. That’s why understanding which exploits have the greatest likelihood of arriving on the network’s doorstep helps organizations prioritize patch management and risk assessment. This remains top of mind as cyber adversaries continue to maximize vulnerabilities, as we have recently seen with DearCry ransomware, for example.
Almost every American adult knows that cyberattacks and breaches are ubiquitous and have primarily targeted companies and government entities. They might even know that the single most common breach these days is ransomware, a malicious process by which hackers dismantle computer systems and don’t fix them until a ransom is paid. Few, however, are aware that ransomware is targeting a new set of highly vulnerable victims en masse. In recent months, the majority of successful ransomware attacks have struck K-12 schools nationwide, casting a whole new light on the number of Americans highly susceptible to a cyberattack.
Colonial Pipeline, which operates the biggest gasoline conduit to the East Coast, said it has no estimate on when it could restart the 5,500-mile pipeline that it shut Friday after a cyberattack. The company took systems offline to contain the threat, temporarily halting all pipeline operations and affecting some IT system. In a statement, the company said the Colonial Pipeline operations team is developing a system restart plan, and while their mainlines remain offline, some smaller lateral lines between terminals and delivery points are now operational.
Global insurance company AXA said Thursday it will stop writing cyber-insurance policies in France that reimburse customers for extortion payments made to ransomware criminals.
Ransomware is one of the most prominent cybersecurity threats organizations face today. Any institution or company (small or large) can fall victim to ransomware – including schools, healthcare providers, educational facilities, non-profit entities, and government agencies. Cybercriminals that deploy ransomware attacks do not discriminate. Thankfully, there are ways to protect your organization from ransomware attacks. In this article, you’ll discover everything you need to know about ransomware as a chief information security officer (CISO), from its evolution to preventative methods to prevention.
More than 60 experts from industry, government, law enforcement, civil society and international organizations have worked together to develop a comprehensive framework, breaking down siloed approaches and advocated for a unified, aggressive, comprehensive, public-private anti-ransomware campaign.
The 81-page report, "A Comprehensive Framework for Action: Key Recommendations from the Ransomware Task Force," includes 48 recommendations that together form a comprehensive framework to address ransomware. The report was delivered to the Biden administration this week. Among those, these priority recommendations are the most foundational and urgent, and many of the other recommendations were developed to facilitate or strengthen these core actions.
Meet Max Vetter, Chief Cyber Officer of Immersive Labs. Before joining Immersive Labs, Vetter spent seven years working with the Metropolitan Police Service as a police officer, intelligence analyst, and covert internet investigator. After leaving his career in law enforcement, he trained the private sector and government agencies in ethical hacking and open source intelligence, specializing in darknets and cryptocurrencies. This included three years of teaching at the GCHQ Cyber Summer School. Here, we speak to Vetter about emerging threats in the cybersecurity space and general security trends he has been noticing throughout the industry.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Department of Homeland Security, and CISA have released a Joint Cybersecurity Advisory (CSA) addressing Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) cyber actors—also known as Advanced Persistent Threat 29 (APT 29), the Dukes, CozyBear, and Yttrium—continued targeting of U.S and foreign entities. The SVR activity—which includes the recent SolarWinds Orion supply chain compromise—primarily targets government networks, think tank and policy analysis organizations, and information technology companies and seeks to gather intelligence information.
While COVID-19 paused many activities in 2020, cybercriminals continued to keep busy evolving their arsenal of weapons for more lucrative cyberattacks. While companies adopted remote work models and third parties experienced heightened disruption, cyber risk skyrocketed with increased ransomware, credential stuffing, malware, and Virtual Private Network (VPN) exploitation. As a result, the number of data breaches in the U.S. reached 1001 cases last year, with over 155.8 million individuals affected. Now following the SolarWinds hack, President Biden is set to sign off on an executive action to address gaps in national cybersecurity. The move is causing many CSOs to look for ways to evolve beyond the reactive model to an “always-on” approach -- one that proactively mitigates potential threats and risks before they disrupt business.
