In 2022, Gartner coined the term and concept of continuous threat exposure management (CTEM) — a five-stage approach that continuously exposes an organization’s networks, systems, and assets to simulated attacks to identify vulnerabilities and weaknesses.

Kroll’s Q4 analysis shows ransomware groups increasingly gaining initial access through external remote services. The quarter presented a complex security landscape with a mix of both positive and negative trends: positively, activity associated with larger ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operations, like LOCKBIT and BLACKCAT, declined.

While businesses might have become more prepared for direct cyberattacks, 2023 demonstrated that unfortunately a business is only as secure as the organizations within their environment. Third-party risk, which is to say any risk to an organization by external parties in its ecosystem or supply chain, was the headline culprit in 2023.

An authentication bypass vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-0204, was discovered in Fortra's GoAnywhere MFT versions prior to 7.4.1 and allows an unauthorized user to create an admin user via the administration portal. This vulnerability has a CVSS score of 9.8 with a high potential for exploitation, which we expect to see in the short term due to a proof of concept (PoC) being available. Fortra informed customers on December 4, 2023, of the flaw via an internal forum post.