Given that attacks are only increasing and there needs to be greater efficacy in how companies protect themselves, let us reference how the financial industry has created and relies on a body of standards to address issues in financial accounting as a defined comparison for Information Security. To support this argument, there is a defined contrast between information security and Generally...

Today’s VERT Alert addresses Microsoft’s May 2021 Security Updates . VERT is actively working on coverage for these vulnerabilities and expects to ship ASPL-943 on Wednesday, May 12th. In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEs CVE-2021-31204 Up first in the list this month, we have a vulnerability that impacts .NET and Visual Studio and could allow a successful attacker to elevate their permissions. We see...

Today’s VERT Alert addresses Microsoft’s April 2021 Security Updates . VERT is actively working on coverage for these vulnerabilities and expects to ship ASPL-939 on Wednesday, April 14th. In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEs CVE-2021-28310 Borin Larin of Kaspersky Lab discovered this vulnerability being actively used for exploitation and suspects that it is tied to the BITTER APT group. Larin and co...

Digital attackers are increasingly launching sophisticated campaigns in an effort to target U.S. federal agencies and other organizations. Two recent examples demonstrate this reality. These are the SolarWinds supply chain attack and the HAFNIUM Exchange exploit campaign. The SolarWinds Supply Chain Attack In mid-December 2020, the security community learned that an advanced persistent threat (APT...

Today’s VERT Alert addresses Microsoft’s March 2021 Security Updates . VERT is actively working on coverage for these vulnerabilities and expects to ship ASPL-933 on Wednesday, March 10th. In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEs CVE-2021-26855 CVE-2021-26857 CVE-2021-26858 CVE-2021-27065 These CVEs are part of the bundle of Exchange vulnerabilities that were patched last week, more specifically, these are...

Ransomware today is a billion-dollar industry. It’s crippled industries like healthcare. In 2017, for instance, WannaCry brought much of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service to its knees using the EternalBlue exploit. It was just a few weeks later when the NotPetya ransomware strain leveraged that same vulnerability to attack lots of industries. These attacks and others like them were made...

While I was teaching, one of my students asked if I had seen Cybergeddon , a film distributed by Yahoo! in 2012. I had not, so I decided it would be fun for VERT to watch the film and review it, since my hobby is writing film reviews for RotundReviews . Cybergeddon is not talked about as much as it should be given some of the background around it. It should be noted that while we’ll reference it...

Today’s VERT Alert addresses Microsoft’s February 2021 Security Updates . VERT is actively working on coverage for these vulnerabilities and expects to ship ASPL-928 on Wednesday, February 10th. In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEs CVE-2021-1732 A vulnerability in Win32k that allows for privilege escalation has been exploited in the wild. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)...

Today’s VERT Alert addresses Microsoft’s January 2021 Security Updates . VERT is actively working on coverage for these vulnerabilities and expects to ship ASPL-922 on Wednesday, January 13th. In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEs CVE-2021-1647 A vulnerability in the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine (MMPE) is currently seeing active exploitation. Since the MMPE is updated regularly with malware...

Complying with Standards drawn by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council can be complicated and time-consuming. But, with a PCI DSS Gap Analysis, the process becomes a lot easier, streamlined, and less exhaustive. PCI Gap Analysis is the first step towards the Compliance process. The assessment provides details on your current security posture against what is expected and needs to be...

Vulnerability Description The United States Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has advised that an advanced persistent threat (APT) actor was able to insert sophisticated malware into officially signed and released updates to the SolarWinds network management software . The attacks have been ongoing since at least March 2020 and CISA has warned that many high-value targets...

Today’s VERT Threat Alert addresses Microsoft’s December 2020 Security Updates . VERT is actively working on coverage for these vulnerabilities and expects to ship ASPL-918 on Wednesday, December 9th. In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEs There are no In-The-Wild or Disclosed CVEs patched this month. CVE Breakdown by Tag While historical Microsoft Security Bulletin groupings are gone, Microsoft...

Today’s VERT Alert addresses Microsoft’s November 2020 Security Updates . VERT is actively working on coverage for these vulnerabilities and expects to ship ASPL-915 on Wednesday, November 11th. Note: Microsoft has changed their advisory format and no longer provides basic vulnerability descriptions. In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEs CVE-2020-17087 This CVE describes a local elevation of privilege...

Today’s VERT Alert addresses Microsoft’s October 2020 Security Updates . VERT is actively working on coverage for these vulnerabilities and expects to ship ASPL-909 on Wednesday, October 14th. In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEs (October 2020 Patch Tuesday Analysis) CVE-2020-16938 This CVE describes an information disclosure in the Windows kernel that could allow a local attacker to disclose information...

Today’s VERT Alert addresses Microsoft’s September 2020 Security Updates . VERT is actively working on coverage for these vulnerabilities and expects to ship ASPL-903 on Wednesday, September 9th. In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEs There were no in-the-wild or disclosed CVEs included in this month’s security guidance. CVE Breakdown by Tag While historical Microsoft Security Bulletin groupings are gone...

Today’s VERT Alert addresses Microsoft’s August 2020 Security Updates . VERT is actively working on coverage for these vulnerabilities and expects to ship ASPL-899 on Wednesday, August 12th. In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEs CVE-2020-1464 A vulnerability exists in the way that Windows validates file signatures. An attacker could load improperly signed files by bypassing security features that validate...

Today’s VERT Alert addresses Microsoft’s July 2020 Security Updates . VERT is actively working on coverage for these vulnerabilities and expects to ship ASPL-895 on Wednesday, July 15th. In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEs CVE-2020-1463 A vulnerability in the SharedStream Library could allow a locally authenticated attacker to run a malicious application in order to elevate their privileges. Microsoft...

Organizations cannot afford to neglect their PCI compliance obligations. According to its website , PCI could punish offending organizations with a monetary penalty ranging in value from $5,000 to $100,000 per month. These fines could spell the end for a small business. Acknowledging those consequences, organizations need to make sure they’re PCI compliant. More than that, they must ensure they’re...

Today’s VERT Alert addresses Microsoft’s June 2020 Security Updates . VERT is actively working on coverage for these vulnerabilities and expects to ship ASPL-888 on Wednesday, June 10th. In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEs None of the vulnerabilities resolved this month have been publicly disclosed or exploited according to Microsoft. CVE Breakdown by Tag While historical Microsoft Security Bulletin...

Tony Sager, Senior Vice President and Chief Evangelist at CIS (Center for Internet Security) joins us to discuss the best approaches to the changing security landscape in the wake of COVID-19. Tony is a lifelong defender, with more than 44 years of experience. He spent most of his career at the NSA and now leads the development of the CIS Controls, a worldwide consensus project to find and support...