Guessing how many marbles are in a jar is either a fun carnival game (pick the average based on the wisdom of the crowd) or a math problem involving orb volume, cylinder volume and the estimated space between marbles. You can also just count the marbles. Unfortunately, when it comes to identifying the number of devices connected to your network, none of these approaches works – although quasi-manual counting remains all too common.
Almost a year since the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack on critical infrastructure occurred, the question still looms large: not whether such an incident could happen again, but when?
On Sunday, Feb. 13, the NFL’s San Francisco 49er organization issued a statement confirming they experienced a network security incident. Shortly after the incident, BlackByte ransomware gang listed the 49ers as one of their alleged victims. The 49ers franchise didn’t confirm if ransomware was involved, but it did state that only the corporate IT network was affected. As with all breaches, one commonality eventually appears: vulnerabilities.
On Jan. 26, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published its widely anticipated final version of its zero trust architecture strategy, identifying top cybersecurity priorities for the federal government. This achievement raises the country’s cyber defense strategy to a level commensurate with the “increasingly sophisticated and persistent threat campaigns” it faces.
COVID-19 made moving agency employees and services off-premises essential. This move, however, has also sparked one of the biggest waves of cybercrime the internet has ever seen. Ransomware attacks have been particularly effective against government agencies and critical infrastructure.
Updated 12/20/21 On December 9, 2021, Apache published a zero-day vulnerability (CVE-2021-44228) for Apache Log4j being referred to as “Log4Shell”. This “critical” vulnerability (CVSS score: 10) allows a remote attacker to take control of an affected system. When exploited, this vulnerability allows an attacker to run arbitrary code on the device, giving full control over to the attacker.
As we look ahead to 2022, we should pause to reflect on the trends of the past year. Ransomware and supply chain attacks have become two of the top concerns for organizations following a series of high-profile attacks, such as those conducted against Colonial Pipeline, SolarWinds and Kaseya. In 2021, our Project Memoria revealed close to 100 different vulnerabilities in common TCP/IP stacks, affecting hundreds of operational technology (OT) vendors.
