At Tripwire's recent Energy and NERC Compliance Working Group, we had the opportunity to speak with the Manager of Gas Measurement, Controls, & Cybersecurity at a large energy company. More specifically, we focused on SCADA and field assets of gas Operational Technology. The experience at the management level of such an organization provided a wealth of knowledge for the attendees. SCADA...

Cloud providers are becoming a core part of IT infrastructure. Amazon Web Services (AWS), the world's biggest cloud provider, is used by millions of organizations worldwide and is commonly used to run sensitive and mission-critical workloads. This makes it critical for IT and security professionals to understand the basics of AWS security and take measures to protect their data and workloads. As a...

Today’s VERT Alert addresses Microsoft’s January 2024 Security Updates . VERT is actively working on coverage for these vulnerabilities and expects to ship ASPL-1088 as soon as coverage is completed. In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEs There were no in-the-wild or disclosed CVEs included in the January Patch Tuesday drop. CVE Breakdown by Tag While historical Microsoft Security Bulletin groupings are...

The payment industry is bracing for the transition to Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) 4.0 , heralding significant changes in cybersecurity practices. As we approach the implementation of this revised standard, a critical focal point emerges: the role and new mandate of web application firewalls (WAFs) in ensuring compliance. The shift from a best practice to a prescribed...

Cloud optimization is the process of correctly selecting and assigning the right resources to a workload or application with the ultimate goal of minimizing costs while improving performance and efficiency. These resources can range from computational power, memory, and storage to network capabilities. The cloud optimization process involves continuously monitoring, analyzing, and fine-tuning...

Electrical utilities are responsible for just about everything we do. This presents a tremendous burden on those who operate those utilities. One way these organizations offer assurance is through the audit process. While audits can generate tremendous anxiety, good planning, and tools can help make the entire process go smoothly. Moreover, these can also help to achieve positive results. At the...

Today’s VERT Alert addresses Microsoft’s December 2023 Security Updates . VERT is actively working on coverage for these vulnerabilities and expects to ship ASPL-1086 on Wednesday, December 13th. In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEs CVE-2023-20588 AMD has released AMD-SB-7007 – Speculative Leaks Security Notice , which describes how some AMD processors can potentially return speculative data after a...

The security industry is at a critical juncture. Capturing the state of affairs is a recent report released by the International Information System Security Certification Consortium, or ISC2. “A perfect storm” As they state in their Executive Summary, “Our study shows that a perfect storm of economic uncertainty, rapidly emerging technologies, fragmented regulations and ever-widening workforce and...

Organizations looking to protect their sensitive data and assets against cyberattacks may lack the ability to build a cybersecurity strategy without any structured help. The National Institute of Standards and Technology ( NIST ) has a free, public framework to help any organization mature its IT security posture. Recently, the institute published an updated version of the cybersecurity framework...

It’s the small vines, not the large branches, that trip us up in the forest. Apparently, it’s no different in Healthcare . In November, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a Mitigation Guide aimed at the Healthcare and Public Health (HPH) sector. In the midst of current hybrid cloud security challenges, hyper-distributed environment considerations, an AI...

While the EU AI Act is poised to introduce binding legal requirements, there's another noteworthy player making waves—the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF) , published in January 2023. This framework promises to reshape the future of responsible AI uniquely and voluntarily, setting it apart from traditional regulatory approaches. Let's...

Tripwire recently held its annual Energy and NERC Compliance Working Group. This year's attendees included more than 200 Tripwire customer utility personnel representing over 80 different registered entities from all across the US and Canada. The company sizes ranged from public utility districts and city municipalities to medium and larger-sized investor-owned utilities, including many of the...

In late September 2023, the US-based National Institute of Standards and Technology ( NIST ) published its Cybersecurity Framework Profile for Hybrid Satellite Networks, otherwise known as NIST IR 8441. This blog will explore the reasons behind NIST developing the framework, outline its intentions, and summarize its key points. What is a Hybrid Satellite Network? To understand IR 8441, we must...

Winter is coming In the ever-evolving landscape of cloud computing, ensuring robust security measures has never been more important. In the new ISO 27001:2022 standard, there is a new requirement for organisations to establish control of their Cloud services, which includes every flavor of cloud from Software as a Service (SaaS) to Platform as a Service (PaaS). Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a...

Boards of directors need to maintain an appropriate level of cyber expertise, incidents must be reported within 72 hours after determination, and all ransom payments made must be reported within a day. Those are just some of the changes made by The New York State Department of Financial Services to its Cybersecurity Requirements for Financial Services (23 NYCRR 500) , effective November 1, 2023...

Today’s VERT Alert addresses Microsoft’s November 2023 Security Updates . VERT is actively working on coverage for these vulnerabilities and expects to ship ASPL-1082 on Wednesday, November 15th. In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEs CVE-2023-36033 A vulnerability in the Microsoft Desktop Window Manager (DWM) could allow an attacker to gain SYSTEM level privileges. This vulnerability has been publicly...

The capabilities of cloud computing have changed the digital landscape significantly, and the popularity of cloud solutions only continues to increase. According to Gartner , the market for public cloud services is expected to surpass 700 billion USD by the end of 2024. The growth of cloud technologies presents a wealth of new opportunities for IT teams but also brings a host of security...

The heat has just been turned up for companies hoping to “hide out” a data breach. Announced October 27th, all non-banking financial institutions are now required to report data breach incidents within 30 days. The amendment to the Safeguards Rule was made by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). It will go into effect 180 days after publication of the law in the Federal Register, or around...

Plastic surgeries across the United States have been issued a warning that they are being targeted by cybercriminals in plots designed to steal sensitive data including patients' medical records and photographs that will be later used for extortion. The warning , which was issued by the FBI yesterday and is directed towards plastic surgery offices and patients, advises that extortionists have been...

Today’s VERT Alert addresses Microsoft’s October 2023 Security Updates , which includes a recently introduced release notes format. VERT is actively working on coverage for these vulnerabilities and expects to ship ASPL-1077 on Wednesday, October 11th. In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEs CVE-2023-41763 While this vulnerability is labeled as a Skype for Business Elevation of Privilege Vulnerability, the...