In a security advisory, Microsoft has warned that malicious hackers are exploiting an unpatched vulnerability in Windows to launch targeted attacks against organisations. The security hole, dubbed CVE-2021-40444, is a previously unknown remote code execution vulnerability in MSHTML, a core component of Windows which helps render web-based content. ...

For many years, there was a wide misunderstanding that encrypting some data is equivalent to protecting that data. If it’s encrypted, so the thinking goes, nobody else could access it, and it is therefore safe. While it is critical to encrypt data at rest as well as in transit, the job of protecting data goes much deeper. Encryption can mitigate...

The Internet of Things (IoT) includes items such as smart appliances, smartwatches, and medical sensors. For organizations to enjoy all of the benefits and convenience of IoT devices, enterprise customers must fully understand the potential risks and threats to their systems and the underlying data. IoT devices often lack built-in security controls...

Remember your first day on the job? You might groan just thinking about it, or maybe you are filled with the optimistic nostalgia of all the great things you set out to accomplish. It’s all a matter of your current perspective. One of the greatest apprehensions about that first day is meeting all of your new colleagues. Someone probably gave you...

On May 13, Verizon released its Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) 2021. This annual publication serves many purposes. It yields context into what security analysts are seeing, for instance. But it also affects organizations’ security postures at an even higher level. Here’s Anthony Israel-Davis, research and development manager at Tripwire,...

Data breaches are now part of doing business, with many companies having been affected. Data is very valuable to criminals because it is often used to commit fraudulent activities as well as to enhance the credibility of scams. Data that is stolen ranges from Social Security Numbers (SSNs) to other identification documents and payment details. ...

The FBI and CISA (the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) have jointly issued an advisory to organisations, warning about an increase in the number of attacks coinciding with weekends and holidays. With the Labor Day weekend rapidly approaching, the agencies have reminded businesses to be especially vigilant, remain diligent about...

Tripwire's August 2021 Patch Priority Index (PPI) brings together important vulnerabilities from Microsoft. First on the patch priority list this month are patches for Microsoft Exchange Server (CVE-2021-34523, CVE-2021-34473, and CVE-2021-31207). These vulnerabilities have seen active exploitation. Also, exploits for these vulnerabilities have...

Cloud technology is a powerful tool with unmeasurable potential. Across the globe, companies are harnessing the cloud to propel their business solutions. However, there are always some companies that cannot entirely shift their solutions to the cloud. Thanks to the hybrid cloud model, companies house some of their solutions on their on-premises...

Today, I will be going over CIS Control 2 from version 8 of the top 18 CIS Controls – Inventory and Control of Software Assets. Version 7 of CIS Controls had 10 requirements, but in version 8, it's simplified down to seven safeguards. I will go over those safeguards and offer my thoughts on what I’ve found. Key Takeaways for Control 2 ...

Organizations are under tremendous pressure to deliver innovative products and stick to tight release timelines. To keep up with the rapid release schedule, engineering teams are adopting the DevOps model for its increased efficiency and agility. It has changed the way that development teams think. As a result, continuously improving performance and...

Cybercrime is one of the most significant threats facing companies today. With the average cost of a data breach reaching an all-time high of $4.24 million, the business case for cybersecurity has never been stronger. Still, some businesses seem to misunderstand the urgency of meeting current cybersecurity standards. It may help to consider the...

What's happened? The FBI has published a warning about a ransomware gang called the OnePercent Group, which has been attacking U.S. companies since November 2020. How are companies being attacked by the OnePercent gang? The gang emails targeted individuals inside an organization using social engineering tricks to dupe the unwary into opening a...

Since 2008, the CIS Controls have been through many iterations of refinement and improvement, leading up to what we are presented with today in CIS Controls version 8. CIS Controls reflect the combined knowledge of experts from every part of the ecosystem (companies, governments, and individuals). The controls reflect consideration by people in many...

Throughout this blog series, I have examined real-world ICS cyber-related incidents as a way of looking back to predict what the next attack may look like. The three categories of attacker that I have considered so far are disgruntled insiders, ransomware groups, and APT. Knowing about past events, their impact, and how they unfolded can be critical...

Ransomware is having a bit of a moment. Check Point revealed that ransomware attacks increased 102% globally in H1 2021 compared to the start of the previous year, with the number of corporate ransomware victims having doubled over that same period. Average ransom payments also grew 171% from $115,123 in 2019 to $312,493 a year later. But those...

Threat modeling is increasing in importance as a way to plan security in advance. Instead of merely reacting to threats and incidents, an organization can identify and evaluate its security posture, relevant threats, and gaps in defenses that may allow attacks to succeed. Threat modeling has a two-way relationship with incident response: When an...

IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2021 analyzed 537 real breaches and conducted nearly 3,500 interviews to uncover the true cost of a data breach in 2020. The publication covers initial attack vectors, how long it took organizations to discover and contain braces, as well as the effects that incident response efforts and artificial intelligence...

Got a grudge against an Instagram user? Well, scammers may just have the perfect service for you - at quite an affordable price. As Joseph Cox at Motherboard reports, the criminal underground has stepped beyond the likes of offering ransomware-as-a-service and DDoS-attacks-for-hire to advertise an easy way for anyone to target an Instagram account...

No discussion on ICS attacks could be complete without talking about what some would call, ‘the elephant in the room.’ Critical infrastructure has always been a target for warfare, and modern ICS are no exception. Several high-profile ICS disruptions have in fact been attributed to malicious hackers working at the behest of a military or...