Here are three examples that are worth your attention. Oh, what could have been avoided.

Over the past three years, the second Tuesday of each month has turned into a hectic period of planning and remediation, driven by a 25% average annual growth rate in CVEs. Just last Tuesday, Microsoft revealed a critical TCP/IP remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability in the IPv6 stack, which has a CVSS score of 9.8 due to its criticality and ease of exploitation. For a more in-depth look, we recommend these resources.

In a never-ending effort to do their job and secure their environments, cybersecurity teams often bear the brunt of negative perceptions, labelled as the department of ‘No.’ “No” to admin privileges, “No” to personal devices, and “No” to connecting unapproved technologies. These repeated denials, although done with the best intentions, can stifle innovation and create frustration within organizations. This perception needs to change.

This week, the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) released “Implementing a Zero Trust Architecture (NIST SP 1800-35)” for public comment. The guide is written by NIST’s National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) in collaboration with 24 cybersecurity companies. Now in its fourth draft, NCCoE has opened up comments for this Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) guide through Sept. 30, 2024, as part of a 60-day review cycle.

The current state of OT/IOT security is being repainted with a new coat of risk. The shade of color? Cellular routers and the vulnerabilities within firmware. In our new report with Finite State, our joint research explores the risks organizations face within the software supply chains of OT/IoT routers. Hardware has firmware – operational software – within its memory components.

In the last few weeks, there have been a few announcements made about a new malware threat known as FrostyGoop or BUSTLEBERM (as it was originally tracked by Mandiant). It is being recognized as the first custom malware to integrate Modbus for the purpose of causing physical damage. An associated incident has been reported where the malware was used to disrupt heating in Ukrainian homes in the context of a Russian cyberattack.

Ransomware risk is top of mind for citizens and CISOs alike. From the board room to the room known as the ‘SOC’, everyone is feeling the pain of disruption. Being locked out of a system and forced back to pen and paper is shocking to our working lives. Too often, it is delaying a much-needed surgery or forcing manual intervention where a digital avenue was easy and efficient. But the effects of ransomware don’t appear to be going anywhere soon.

No one feels the pain of ransomware and other disruptive and costly digital cybersecurity attacks more than the people managing the day-to-day in your SOC (Security Operations Center). At 13 attacks every second in 2023, cybercriminals, fraudsters and nation-state hacktivists are overwhelming SOC analysts. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of SOC analysts report the size of the attack surface has increased. At the same time, CISOs and SOC managers are struggling to handle on-the-job analyst burnout and turnover.

Wipers are malware that delete data on a device or make it inaccessible. They can be used for sabotage, to destroy evidence of an attack or simply to make a device unusable. IoT wipers often rewrite important parts of the firmware of an IoT device, rendering that device useless, so they are also known as “brickers”. Recent notorious examples of IoT wipers are AcidRain which was used by a Russian APT to brick satellite modems in Europe at the outset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Network Access Control (NAC) has undergone significant advancements since the beginning, continuously adapting for cybersecurity threats and technological innovation. As organizations embrace BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and IoT/OT (Internet of Things/Operational Technology), vendors have transformed traditional NAC solutions to meet these new demands while maintaining a balance between usability and security.