The factors that pose risks to companies are constantly changing. Clinging to a single defense strategy can be counterproductive, as this strategy can quickly become outdated and ineffective. As a managed service provider (MSP), you may have found that your customers are unwilling to consider new cybersecurity tools unless there is a problem, or they aren’t satisfied with their existing solution.
The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) has published the latest edition of its API Security Top Ten, which was first published in 2019. The Top Ten is a significant daughter list of the OWASP Top Ten, which is one of the most definitive lists of the most severe web application risks. Why is this important? What are its main findings? And what does this mean for application security?
While industries like financial services and healthcare tend to dominate in IT attacks, the tables are turned when looking at Operational Technology (OT) cyber attacks – and the energy sector is the clear “winner.” We spend a lot of time talking about attacks that largely impact IT systems. But OT environments are a growing concern as new targets for cybercriminals.
As attackers evolve their toolsets and processes, the significant drop in dwell time signifies a much higher risk to organizations that now have less time to detect and respond to initial attacks. This is bad news. Two years ago, the median dwell time – the time between gaining access to a network and executing the ransomware – was 5.5 days. Last year it was 4.5 days.
As insurers become more educated on what a “secure organization” looks like, they are tightening their requirements that puts the onus on organizations to be more secure. According to Netwrix’ 2023 Hybrid Security Trends Report, 59% of organizations either have a cyber insurance policy in place or plan to purchase one within 12 months. Cyber insurers have spent the last few years learning what they don’t know about this new market.
The massive uptick in business email compromise (BEC) is considered one of the costliest attack types, requiring organizations to put employees on notice to stay vigilant. The latest research from the FBI puts the average cost of BEC attacks at around $125,000. What makes them so dangerous is that they largely rely on text-only emails using social engineering to trick those with finance responsibilities into parting with the money they control.
New assets, vulnerabilities, and even human errors like server misconfigurations make a continuously updated overview non-negotiable. AppSec and ProdSec teams must take action on newly discovered vulnerabilities and policy breaches quickly and efficiently. Prioritizing which vulnerabilities and risks to remediate first and having this information all in one place will help security teams get the latest insights about their attack surface immediately.
