Beyond the disturbing images of the invasion of Ukraine that began February 24 are the invisible cyberattacks that preceded it and continue to be waged on Ukraine by Russian state-sponsored and other threat actors, which also threaten the West. Vedere Labs, Forescout’s threat intelligence and research team, is closely monitoring the evolution of cyber activities connected to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

Guessing how many marbles are in a jar is either a fun carnival game (pick the average based on the wisdom of the crowd) or a math problem involving orb volume, cylinder volume and the estimated space between marbles. You can also just count the marbles. Unfortunately, when it comes to identifying the number of devices connected to your network, none of these approaches works – although quasi-manual counting remains all too common.

Almost a year since the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack on critical infrastructure occurred, the question still looms large: not whether such an incident could happen again, but when?

On Sunday, Feb. 13, the NFL’s San Francisco 49er organization issued a statement confirming they experienced a network security incident. Shortly after the incident, BlackByte ransomware gang listed the 49ers as one of their alleged victims. The 49ers franchise didn’t confirm if ransomware was involved, but it did state that only the corporate IT network was affected. As with all breaches, one commonality eventually appears: vulnerabilities.

On Jan. 26, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published its widely anticipated final version of its zero trust architecture strategy, identifying top cybersecurity priorities for the federal government. This achievement raises the country’s cyber defense strategy to a level commensurate with the “increasingly sophisticated and persistent threat campaigns” it faces.