Have you ever considered that even before you enjoy the first sip of your favorite morning beverage, you have probably interacted with at least half of the 16 critical infrastructure sectors that keep a nation running? In one way or another, the simple act of brewing a cup of tea would probably not be possible without interacting with water, energy,...

2023 saw two concerning attacks on public water systems, highlighting the fragility and risk to utility systems. In Pennsylvania, malicious hackers breached the Municipal Water Authority of Aliquippa system the night after Thanksgiving. The criminals were making a political statement: the technology used to manage water pressure was developed by...

US federal agencies have teamed up to release a cybersecurity best practice guidance for the water and wastewater sector (WWS). The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have published the guide in an attempt to promote cybersecurity...

Imagine you’re on the tail end of installing a 100-line script. It’s five o’clock, and you’re ready to head out early for once. You run the startup script on a new server, and then – the fated error message. Something isn’t working, and only after painstakingly reviewing 67 lines of code do you realize you had the IP address wrong. This could have...

At Tripwire's recent Energy and NERC Compliance Working Group, we had the opportunity to speak with the Manager of Gas Measurement, Controls, & Cybersecurity at a large energy company. More specifically, we focused on SCADA and field assets of gas Operational Technology. The experience at the management level of such an organization provided a...

Cloud providers are becoming a core part of IT infrastructure. Amazon Web Services (AWS), the world's biggest cloud provider, is used by millions of organizations worldwide and is commonly used to run sensitive and mission-critical workloads. This makes it critical for IT and security professionals to understand the basics of AWS security and take...

The shifting sands of IT make the adage "you never know it all" ever more true as time goes by. I recall days when it felt like you could click through every major directory of Yahoo and know a little something about everything. I was a young man with a voracious reading appetite and an active imagination – both of which were thoroughly outpaced by...

In the digital world, where countless users communicate, share data, and engage in diverse activities, determining the origin and actions behind these interactions can be quite challenging. This is where non-repudiation steps in. Coupling other security factors, such as delivery proof, identity verification, and a digital signature, creates non...

Cloud optimization is the process of correctly selecting and assigning the right resources to a workload or application with the ultimate goal of minimizing costs while improving performance and efficiency. These resources can range from computational power, memory, and storage to network capabilities. The cloud optimization process involves...

Frankly stated, operational resilience is your ability to climb the mountain, no matter the weather. Businesses now need more than a good security structure to weather the storms of AI-driven threats, APTs, cloud-based risks, and hyper-distributed environments. And more importantly, operational resilience in 2024 requires a paradigm shift....

The security industry is at a critical juncture. Capturing the state of affairs is a recent report released by the International Information System Security Certification Consortium, or ISC2. “A perfect storm” As they state in their Executive Summary, “Our study shows that a perfect storm of economic uncertainty, rapidly emerging technologies,...

In the vast and ever-evolving universe of information technology, there's one constant: change (that and cliches about constants!). Servers, systems, and software – they all get updated and modified. But, have you ever stopped to consider how even tiny differences between these digital entities can sometimes lead to unexpected challenges? In the...

Winter is coming In the ever-evolving landscape of cloud computing, ensuring robust security measures has never been more important. In the new ISO 27001:2022 standard, there is a new requirement for organisations to establish control of their Cloud services, which includes every flavor of cloud from Software as a Service (SaaS) to Platform as a...

More decision-makers are investing in grid modernization efforts, knowing that doing so is necessary for keeping pace with modern demands. For example, smart grid fault-detection sensors could warn utility company providers of problems in real time, preventing costly and inconvenient outages. Technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT) can also...

The capabilities of cloud computing have changed the digital landscape significantly, and the popularity of cloud solutions only continues to increase. According to Gartner, the market for public cloud services is expected to surpass 700 billion USD by the end of 2024. The growth of cloud technologies presents a wealth of new opportunities for IT...

While always a part of business, compliance demands have skyrocketed as the digital world gives us so many more ways to go awry. We all remember the Enron scandal that precipitated the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX). Now, SOX compliance means being above board on a number of cybersecurity requirements as well. Fortra's Tripwire recently released a new...

Electric grids are part of every nation’s critical infrastructure. Every societal activity and business depends on reliable and safe electricity distribution. The US electric grid is a huge network of powerlines, distribution hubs, and renewable and non-renewable energy generators that is increasingly exposed to cyber-physical risks due to the...

The evolution of the cyber threat landscape highlights the need for organizations to strengthen their ability to identify, analyze, and evaluate cyber risks before they evolve into security incidents. Known unpatched vulnerabilities are often exploited by criminals to penetrate Industrial Control Systems (ICS) environments and disrupt critical...

When building a tower, it helps to start with a sturdy foundation. Cyber maturity is the tower, and there are three levels that build it: Foundational IT/OT & Security Control Processes Fundamental Security Control Capabilities Advanced Security Control Capabilities Fortra occupies a unique space in the industry because of the sheer size of...