Today’s VERT Alert addresses Microsoft’s February 2021 Security Updates. VERT is actively working on coverage for these vulnerabilities and expects to ship ASPL-928 on Wednesday, February 10th. In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEs CVE-2021-1732 A vulnerability in Win32k that allows for privilege escalation has been exploited in the wild. The...

An attacker hacked into a Florida city’s water treatment plant and attempted to leverage that access to poison the municipality’s water supply. According to WTSP-TV, an operator at the water treatment plant in the 15,000-person City of Oldsmar, Florida noticed someone controlling his mouse cursor on February 5 at around 08:00. The operator didn’t...

On February 9, 2021, the world will celebrate the 18th iteration of Safer Internet Day. The theme of this year’s event is “Together for a better internet.” It’s a reminder that all of us have a responsibility to help make the web a safer place. One of the ways we can do this is by taking the online safety of children and teens to heart. In their...

On February 9, 2021, the world will celebrate the 18th iteration of Safer Internet Day. It’s an opportunity for everyone to recognize the importance of staying safe online. It’s also a reminder that all of us play a part in making the web a safer place. One of the ways we can observe Safer Internet Day is by helping children and teens navigate...

Data breaches are becoming increasingly common, and one factor driving this escalation is the fact that today’s IT systems are integrated and interconnected, requiring login information from multiple parties and services. In response, Amazon Web Services has launched the AWS Secrets Manager, a service designed to help organizations get a handle on...

Picture this: a young person is in a dark room. The only thing visible is their figure, as it is just barely lit by the blinding LEDs of their computer screen. They type furiously on an ergonomic keyboard as thousands of lines of neon green monospace text fly across the screen. Click-clack-click-clack-click-clack. The moving text and the flying...

Security researchers at Google have claimed that a quarter of all zero-day software exploits could have been avoided if more effort had been made by vendors when creating patches for vulnerabilities in their software. In a blog post, Maddie Stone of Google's Project Zero team says that 25% of the zero-day exploits detected in 2020 are closely...

It is the Tuesday morning after a long weekend. You come into work early to get caught up on emails only to find you are completely locked out. You have been hit by a ransomware attack. You ask yourself, “What happened? And how do I fix it?” This post will explore three of the most significant ransomware families of 2020: Tycoon, Ryuk and REvil....

Many organizations are migrating their workloads to the cloud. But there are challenges along the way. Specifically, security leaders are concerned about their ability to protect their cloud-based data using secure configurations. Tripwire found this out when it partnered with Dimensional Research to survey 310 professionals who held IT security...

Tripwire's January 2021 Patch Priority Index (PPI) brings together important vulnerabilities from Microsoft, Dnsmasq and Oracle. First on the patch priority list this month are patches for Dnsmasq related to the seven so-called "DNSpooq" vulnerabilities. Dnsmasq is an open-source DNS forwarding application, and systems using this software should...

We at The State of Security are committed to helping aspiring information security professionals to reach their full potential. Towards that end, we compiled a two-part list of the top 10 highest paying jobs in the industry. Back in 2017, we even highlighted the U.S. cities that rewarded security personnel with the best salaries, amenities and other...

Cyber attacks that lead to data breaches are becoming increasingly common in all industries, but there are certain types of businesses that are more vulnerable than others. The hospitality industry in particular is one of the most likely industries to be targeted by cybercriminals in addition to retail and finance. It only makes sense that the...

What's happened? Law enforcement agencies across the globe say that they have dealt a blow against Emotet, described by Interpol as "the world's most dangerous malware", by taking control of its infrastructure. Police have dubbed their action against Emotet "Operation LadyBird." What is Emotet? Emotet is an extremely advanced and pernicious...

CW/TW: This article mentions the implications that privacy and data can have on domestic abuse and violence. Zoe Rose is a cybersecurity consultant and recognized as one of the 50 most influential women in cybersecurity. In this episode Zoe explains why it is important for the average person to be aware of privacy and shares tips for staying safe. ...

In this blog series, I will be putting the spotlight on some useful Ghidra features you might have missed. Each post will look at a different feature and show how it helps you save time and be more effective in your reverse engineering workflows. Ghidra is an incredibly powerful tool, but much of this power comes from knowing how to use it...

January 28 is Data Privacy Day (DPD)! I know, you're so excited that you've got a party planned to get your executives, Marketing and Sales personnel to spend all day reviewing and revising your Privacy Policy (especially now that Privacy Shield is invalid). The general focus of DPD is to inform consumers about the need to maintain the privacy of...

Is your system 100% ready to face the severest cyber-attack and mitigate the risk of a possible data breach? If you are unsure about your cyber-safety structure, then it’s time to upgrade it. Otherwise, you could be at risk of lengthy legal battles that result in hefty fines. Beyond that, the cost in terms of reputational loss could be catastrophic...

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation Critical Infrastructure Protection (NERC CIP) Standards are a cybersecurity compliance framework designed to protect utility organizations. Adhering to these guidelines is essential—falling short will leave your environment vulnerable to malicious actors and can result in some hefty fines. NERC CIP...

In the digital age, organizations and the missions and business processes they support rely on information technology and information systems to achieve their mission and business objectives. Not only is technology used to efficiently enable businesses to carry out operational activities, but it is also the backbone for the United States' critical...

Most security breaches are the result of one thing: sloppy password practices. Too many people make the mistake of choosing weak passwords, or reusing passwords that they have used elsewhere on the internet - making life too easy for malicious hackers trying to gain unauthorised access. So I was pleased to see Google announce that over the coming...