Nearly a year ago, journalist Martin Banks codified “Five Laws of Cybersecurity”. Cybersecurity is a complicated field, and any way to simplify its many facets into short, easy-to-remember maxims is always welcome. The five laws are a very good start towards developing a robust security program. The laws are: Of course, compliance with real rules does not necessarily equal security, but these general cybersecurity “laws” are a useful reference.
Law enforcement agencies around the world appear to have scored a major victory in the fight against fraudsters, in an operation that seized tens of millions of dollars and seen more than 2000 people arrested. Operation “First Light 2022”, running for two months from March 8 2002 until May 8 2022, saw 76 countries clamp down on organised crime rings behind a variety of scams, seizing criminal assets, and providing new investigative leads around the world.
Grooming techniques used in various frauds are getting more common and more elaborate. Fraudsters are coming up with narratives that involve complicated lies and may have different stages, depending on the type of fraud. Often, different actors are brought into the story. These actors also lie to the victim, in order to support the narrative. The purpose of expanding the fraud in this way is to groom the victim to dismiss their doubts or concerns and comply with requests.
The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council has released its first update to their Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) since 2018. The new standard, version 4.0, is set to generally go into effect by 2024, but there are suggested updates that are not going to be required until a year after that. This, of course, creates a couple of problems for those who want to phase in the new standard.
Sophos Labs recently released its annual global study, State of Ransomware 2022, which covers real-world ransomware experiences in 2021, their financial and operational impact on organizations, as well as the role of cyber insurance in cyber defense. The report, which surveyed 5,600 IT professionals in mid-sized organizations across 31 countries, shows that ransomware attacks are increasing and becoming more sophisticated.
Working in the Electric Utility sector of critical infrastructure gives a person a very unique perspective on how many of the pieces of the puzzle fit together to provide uninterrupted services to a broad population. My personal experience as a software engineer in the electrical industry introduced me to the nuances that the average person doesn’t consider when they flip on a light switch. When I moved into the cybersecurity space, an entirely new realm was opened up.
More than a third of organizations suffered a serious cloud security incident in 2021. According to a survey of 300 cloud professionals covered by BetaNews, 36% of those respondents said that their organizations had suffered a severe cloud security data leak or breach in the past 12 months. Looking forward, eight in 10 survey participants said they were worried that they were vulnerable to a data breach related to a cloud misconfiguration.
My time at NERC had me involved with quite a few projects over my seven-year career there. I was involved with CIP compliance audits, investigations, auditor training, and many advisory sessions. Typically, I was advising entities across North America on different tactics, techniques, and insight from best practices I have seen. I wanted to share a few of the dos and don’ts during my experience out in the field.
Cybersecurity has, since its inception, been a corporate-based problem. Whether it is a public, or private corporation, these entities were the primary targets of most cybercrime. In recent years, the industrial sector has increasingly become the target of attack for malicious actors. The reasons include newly internet-connected devices that were once air-gapped, and the immaturity of cybersecurity in many of these plants.
Apple says that it protected many millions of users from being defrauded to the tune of nearly $1.5 billion dollars in the last year, by policing its official App Store. According to a newly published report by Apple, over 1.6 million risky and untrustworthy apps and app updates were stopped in their tracks due to the company’s fraud prevention analysis.
