During my time as a cybersecurity admin, I had the authority to decide what was going to be done, but I didn’t have the access to configure or install my own software. To make matters worse, despite having authority over the implementation, I was also held accountable for failures but again, without the necessary access to fix issues. This created a lot of tension between myself and the teams I relied upon to handle implementation details.
As the world is preparing for the winter of 2022, energy efficiency and availability becomes a major concern for all countries and governments. The electric grid is a vital sector, and any malfunctions will create ripple effects on any nation’s economy. As the grid is heavily dependent on cyber-enabled technologies and a vast chain of suppliers, contractors and partners, the ability to safeguard the availability and reliability of the grid is crucial.
Malicious hackers, hell-bent on infiltrating an organisation, have no qualms about exploiting even the most tragic events. Take, for instance, the horrific crowd crush that occurred in Seoul's nightlife district of Itaweon on 29 October, when over 150 people were killed during Halloween festivities.
It’s no surprise that industrial environments have become increasingly valuable targets for malicious behavior. The State of Security has featured many cybersecurity events across myriad industrial verticals, including but not limited to chemical manufacturing, transportation, power generation and petrochemical. Several of these industries have taken great strides in improving their defense posture, but this was primarily driven as a result of governmental regulatory compliance requirements.
Digital payment systems are quickly becoming the norm. The speed and convenience of apps like PayPal and Apple Pay have led businesses and consumers to move away from cash, but this efficiency comes at a cost. These digital platforms are also attractive to cybercriminals. Mitigating any vulnerability starts with understanding how threat actors target it. With that in mind, here’s how cybercriminals take advantage of digital payment systems, and what you can do to stay safe.
In the world of security, authentication, and authorization methodologies are foundational aspects of defense. Authentication techniques protect against unlawful entry to systems through the verification of a user, and authorization either grants or denies the verified user’s access level.
Identity governance, also known as access governance, is an integral part of any enterprise data protection and compliance framework. Seamless and timely access to required systems or resources can significantly increase employees’ productivity and performance. However, excessive privileges or unmonitored user access can often lead to internal and external cybersecurity threats, such as insider attacks, data breaches, and unauthorized access.
Researchers investigating a newly-discovered botnet have admitted that they "accidentally" broke it. In November, security experts at Akamai described a Golang-based botnet that they had discovered, hijacking PCs via SSH and weak credentials in order to launch distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and mine cryptocurrency.
As the industrial sectors become more cyber-aware, OT visibility has become an important force towards protecting critical infrastructure. Yet, as OT Security progresses, the expansion of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) adds new challenges to maintaining pace with OT visibility. What once was a Whack-a-Mole game between security and its adversaries, now seems to be the same game between security and IIoT hyper-connectivity.
Zero trust is a security approach which replaces the traditional network edge. Since network resources can be anywhere – on-premises, in the cloud, or a hybrid of both – zero trust is built towards an identity-centric approach. This places people and resources at the heart of the security architecture.
