U.S. President Joe Biden has signed an executive order (EO) to improve the cybersecurity of the U.S. As the U.S. faces persistent and increasingly sophisticated malicious cyber campaigns that threaten the public sector, the private sector, and ultimately people’s security and privacy, the EO seeks to improve efforts to identify, deter, protect against, detect, and respond to these actions and actors. Specifically, the EO will:
Noted security expert Mathy Vanhoef recently discovered a Wi-Fi security vulnerability, that if exploited, it would allow an attacker within radio range to steal user information or attack devices. The security vulnerability, known as FragAttacks - fragmentation and aggregation attacks - are design flaws in the Wi-Fi standard and therefore affects most devices. In addition, Vanhoef discovered several other vulnerabilities that are caused by widespread programming mistakes in Wi-Fi products.
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.
An email entered into court this week in Epic Games' lawsuit against Apple shows that Apple managers uncovered 2,500 malicious apps had been downloaded a total of 203 million times by 128 million users in 2015. Evidence shows Apple managers chose to not disclose this security incident.
Vulcan Cyber released the results of its latest vulnerability remediation maturity research project. A survey of more than 100 enterprise security executives across North America and EMEA found that most enterprise cybersecurity and vulnerability management organizations lack the ability to drive remediation initiatives, to reduce risk and achieve acceptable levels of cyber hygiene.
HP Inc. released its HP Wolf Security Blurred Lines & Blindspots Report, a comprehensive global study assessing organizational cyber risk in an era of remote work. The report shows that changing work styles and behaviors are creating new vulnerabilities for companies, individuals, and their data.
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.
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.
RiskRecon, a Mastercard Company, and the Cyentia Institute published “From Uncertainty to Understanding: The Value of Better Data in Third-Party Risk Assessments.” To help organizations choose the best data to power their third-party risk models, RiskRecon partnered with Cyentia Institute to conduct the research study that quantifies how high-fidelity data turns risk assessments from an exercise of uncertainty to one of understanding.
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.