Avast Threat Labs recently exposed and blocked a highly sophisticated malware operation known as GuptiMiner.

Operational technology (OT) and Industrial Control Systems (ICS) are core parts of an engine fueling critical infrastructure in industrialized nations worldwide. Water treatment facilities. Wastewater plants. Electrical transmission and distribution hubs. Nuclear power and manufacturing plants. Energy pipelines.

A command injection vulnerability, being tracked as CVE-2024-3400, was recently discovered in the GlobalProtect feature of Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS software. This vulnerability has a CVSS score of 10 (Critical) and is actively being exploited in the wild. It impacts versions PAN-OS 120.2, PAN-OS 11.0 and PAN-OS 11.1. If exploited on vulnerable PAN-OS versions and distinct feature configurations, an unauthenticated attacker could execute arbitrary code with root privileges on the firewall.

Vendor risk assessments are critical for any organization that relies on third-party vendors. Third-party risk can negatively affect an organization’s security, compliance, and performance, resulting in devasting security breaches or disruptions in its supply chain that halt business operations. Organizations use vendor risk assessments to evaluate and manage third-party vendor risks associated with outsourcing business operations or procuring goods from external suppliers.

In this week’s episode of The Future of Security Operations podcast, I'm joined by Nicolas Chaillan. Nicolas is a security leader who has held several high-profile roles in US federal agencies including Chief Software Officer for the US Air Force and Space Force, Special Advisor for Cloud Security and DevSecOps at the Department of Defense (DOD), and Special Advisor for Cybersecurity and Chief Architect for Cyber.gov at the Department of Homeland Security.

TrustCloud’s AI already pre-fills up to 80% of a security questionnaire, but we’ve developed the next iteration. TrustShare has built new generative AI capabilities called GraphAI. GraphAI will still find the right answer for a security questionnaire topic, but now it will better account for context and generate more natural, accurate responses based on your program controls. GraphAI is built on a retrieval-augmented generative (RAG) model on our large language model (LLM).

In the past, many security teams considered securing secrets enough – if your secrets were secured, you were good. While you’re still kind-of-good staying on this course, security professionals increasingly recognize that just securing secrets is not enough – organizations require a more sophisticated solution to help protect themselves in today’s increasingly sophisticated threat landscape.

Cyberattacks are an ever-present danger for organizations. However, it’s crucial for security teams to recognize that the threat isn’t limited to external actors. Insider threats, originating from within the organization, are a growing concern. In fact, the frequency of data breaches caused by insider threats has surged by nearly 40% since 2018, now accounting for 60% of all breaches.

Are your cybersecurity tools working together effectively? UEBA (User Entity Behavior Analytics) and SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) are two of the most potent cybersecurity solutions in modern organizations, but they serve very different purposes. UEBA identifies risky behaviors, while SIEM collects and analyzes security data across your network.