The emergence of innovative Financial Technology (FinTech) has spearheaded rapid growth in the digital payments sector. In recent years, global payment revenues exceeded valuations of $2.2 trillion , with a steady Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) expected in the next five years. There is no denying the convenience benefits that the digital transformation of payments has brought consumers and...

US federal agencies have teamed up to release a cybersecurity best practice guidance for the water and wastewater sector (WWS). The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have published the guide in an attempt to promote cybersecurity resilience and improve incident response in the WWS...

One of the most common factors that can lead to cybersecurity incidents is a security misconfiguration in software or application settings. The default settings that come with the implementation of these tools and solutions are often not configured securely, and many organizations do not invest the time and resources into ensuring that they are. Several regulatory organizations have established...

Like every other industry, the healthcare sector is barely recognizable when compared to its state 20 years ago. It, too, has been transfigured by technology. While this has brought many impactful benefits, it has also introduced at least one major challenge: keeping sensitive patient information private. At the heart of this privacy challenge stands the venerable Health Insurance Portability and...

Cybersecurity in Mental Healthcare - The Overlooked Risk Did you know the New-Age Therapeutic sector is unregulated? If that surprises you, then you’re not alone. I was a little surprised, too. Yes, there are various professional bodies a practitioner can join, and there are courses they can attend, but they aren’t forced to. It should be noted that professional, licensed psychotherapists and...

A WordPress plugin used on over 300,000 websites has been found to contain vulnerabilities that could allow hackers to seize control. Security researchers Ulyses Saicha and Sean Murphy found two critical flaws in the POST SMTP Mailer plugin. The first flaw made it possible for attackers to reset the plugin's authentication API key and view sensitive logs (including password reset emails) on the...

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...

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...

Tripwire's December 2023 Patch Priority Index (PPI) brings together important vulnerabilities for Microsoft and Google. First on the patch priority are patches for Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge (Chromium-based) that resolve elevation of privilege, remote code execution, and information disclosure vulnerabilities. Please note that CVE-2023-7024 for Chrome is on the CISA Known Exploited...

What is an Attack Surface? An attack surface is the total number of channels, pathways, or areas that threat actors can utilize to gain unauthorized access to networks. The result is that they can obtain private information or carry out a cyber-attack. An attack surface comprises the organizational assets a threat actor can exploit to gain unauthorized access. Attack surfaces include systems that...

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...

One of the most critical aspects of cybersecurity is ensuring that all software is kept up to date with the latest patches. This is necessary to cover any vulnerabilities that cybercriminals could take advantage of in order to infiltrate an organization and launch an attack. With the volume of updates and the effort needed to install and configure them, it is good to know precisely when patches...

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...

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...

Tripwire's November 2023 Patch Priority Index (PPI) brings together important vulnerabilities for Microsoft. First on the patch priority are patches for Microsoft Edge (Chromium-based) that resolve elevation of privilege, remote code execution, and spoofing vulnerabilities. Next on the patch priority list this month are patches for Microsoft Office and Excel that resolve 3 remote code execution...

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...