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CIS Control 15: Service Provider Management

Enterprises today rely on partners and vendors to help manage their data. Some companies depend on third-party infrastructure for day-to-day operations, so understanding the regulations and protection standards that a service provider is promising to uphold is very important.Key Takeaways from Control 15Identify your business needs and create a set of standards that can be used to grade service...
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CIS Control 16: Application Software Security

The way in which we interact with applications has changed dramatically over the years. Enterprises use applications in day-to-day operations to manage their most sensitive data and control access to system resources. Instead of traversing a labyrinth of networks and systems, attackers today see an opening to turn an organization's application against it to bypass network security controls and...
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CIS Control 17: Incident Response Management

We all know that it is a question of when you will be compromised and not if you will be compromised. It is unavoidable. The goal of CIS Control 17 is to ensure that you are set up for success when that inevitable breach occurs. If an organization is neither equipped nor prepared for that potential data breach, they are not likely to succeed in responding to the threat.Key TakeawaysOne takeaway...
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CIS Control 18: Penetration Testing

Penetration testing is something that more companies and organizations should be considering as a necessary expense. I say this because, over the years, the cost of data breaches and other forms of malicious intrusions and disruptions are getting costlier. Per IBM Security’s “Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024,” the average cost of a breach has increased 10% year over year, with the healthcare...
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Data Security Best Practices for Cloud CRM Systems as Adoption Surges

For the past few years, the CRM market has witnessed steady growth and it is projected to reach $89 billion by 2024. Estimates are that this growth will continue into the foreseeable future. Essentially, CRM systems have come to stay and have become the backbone of many organizations.However, the bleak state of cybersecurity cuts across many industries, and CRM systems are equally vulnerable....
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Navigating the Cloud Chaos: 2024's Top Threats Revealed

Misconfigurations (when cloud computing assets are set up incorrectly, leaving them vulnerable to unauthorized access, data breaches, and operational disruptions) and inadequate change control top the list of cloud security threats in 2024, rising from third place the year before. It's clear that the transition to cloud computing has amplified the challenges of configuration management, making it...
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How to Spot a Winning NERC CIP Project

The North American Electric Reliability Corporation Critical Infrastructure Protection (NERC CIP) regulations often make exacting demands of Fortra Tripwire's customers, requiring them to update or create new change processes and document those processes in order to comply. In any NERC CIP-centered IT\OT project, there are always crucial indicators of success - even before the project gets...
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Resolving Top Security Misconfigurations: What you need to know

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. ...
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Expert Insight for Securing Your Critical Infrastructure

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...
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An Introduction to AWS Security

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...
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Cloud Security Optimization: A Process for Continuous Improvement

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...
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Tips for Achieving Success With a NERC CIP Audit

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...
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The 2023 ISC2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study Delves into Cloud Security and AI

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,...
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Guarding the Grid: Navigating the Current and Future Landscape of Utility Cybersecurity

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...
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The Six Pillars of Cybersecurity

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...
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Cloud Watching Report: Key Takeaways

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...
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What is NERC? Everything you need to know

Electric grids are part of every nation’s critical infrastructure. Every societal activity and business depends on reliable and safe electricity distribution. The US electric grid is a huge network of powerlines, distribution hubs, and renewable and non-renewable energy generators that is increasingly exposed to cyber-physical risks due to the...
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Shifting Left with SAST, DAST, and SCA: Advanced Best Practices

In the past, teams incorporated security testing far after the development stage of the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC). Security testing would influence whether the application would to proceed to production, or get passed back to the developers for remediation. This process caused delays while teams worked on remediation or, worse yet, it...
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What Are the Benefits of Adopting the Cloud in Industrial Cybersecurity?

Cloud adoption has come a long way from its early days where corporate executives questioned the stewardship of their data. The initial suspicions of “where’s my data” have been laid to rest, as administrative tools and contractual obligations have emerged to give better visibility to, and accountability of, data custodianship. Even the capabilities...
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How to Fulfill Multiple Compliance Objectives Using the CIS Controls

Earlier this year, I wrote about what’s new in Version 8 of the Center for Internet Security’s Critical Security Controls (CIS Controls). An international consortium of security professionals first created the CIS Controls back in 2008. Since then, the security community has continued to update the CIS Controls to keep pace with the evolution of...