I was speaking with an Active Directory security engineer at a global pharmaceutical company recently, and I asked him the most classic question in the product management handbook: “What keeps you up at night?” So cliché (I know), but sometimes instead of an eye roll, you get a real gem, which is exactly what happened.

The Sysdig Threat Research Team (Sysdig TRT) recently uncovered an extensive and sophisticated active cryptomining operation in which a threat actor is using some of the largest cloud and continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) service providers; including GitHub, Heroku, Buddy.works, and others to build, run, scale, and operate their massive cloud operation. Because no one has yet reported on this activity and its techniques, we are going to refer to this cluster of activity as PURPLEURCHIN.

Welcome to the first post of the malicious software packages series for the DevOps and DevSecOps community. Each Monday, this technical series will focus on various malicious packages and their effects on the software supply chain, all published over the next four weeks. We’ll dive deeper into malicious packages in each post, including Here we go. Let’s discuss malicious software packages in your software supply chain.

An impersonation attack is a type of targeted phishing attack where a malicious actor pretends to be someone else or other entities to steal sensitive data from unsuspecting employees using social engineering tactics. Hackers attempt to trick the victim into transferring money, giving up sensitive information, or providing business login credentials to leverage cyberattacks and gain unauthorized access to systems and networks.

Multiple reports in the media, including in Bloomberg US Edition, allege that Russian-associated cybercrime group Killnet is responsible for a series of distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks during the week of October 6 that took several state government and other websites offline. While most of the websites were restored within 48 hours, these volumetric attacks can leave even the most secure sites paralyzed and susceptible to further damage.

The impact of ransomware attacks on healthcare is as alarming as it is under-addressed. The United States healthcare system alone faces an annual burden of nearly $21 billion due to these attacks. It pays well over $100 million in ransoms, and is beginning to acknowledge the tragic realities of impacted patient care, including higher patient mortality rates. For every headline related to cyberattacks, there are likely hundreds more that go unreported.

If you’re responsible for security, then you know how useful it is to have clearly-defined security policies that are simple to implement, scale, and verify. Product and AppSec teams know that great security policies empower teams to work autonomously so that work moves forward as it should. However, validating that your security policies are actually implemented is difficult.

Not everything on your attack surface is a vulnerability. Every organization has their own internal security policies that align with the risk tolerance of their business context. While industries like SaaS are often deploying several daily releases to production from multiple geographies, other industries might not tolerate this level of risk due to internal or external factors like complex regulatory requirements.