The evolution of the cyber threat landscape highlights the need for organizations to strengthen their ability to identify, analyze, and evaluate cyber risks before they evolve into security incidents. Known unpatched vulnerabilities are often exploited by criminals to penetrate Industrial Control Systems (ICS) environments and disrupt critical operations. Although the terms “patch management” and...

When building a tower, it helps to start with a sturdy foundation. Cyber maturity is the tower, and there are three levels that build it: Foundational IT/OT & Security Control Processes Fundamental Security Control Capabilities Advanced Security Control Capabilities Fortra occupies a unique space in the industry because of the sheer size of the security portfolio. It’s one thing to advocate for...

How to Build an Effective ICS Security Program Of all the different areas of cybersecurity, not many are as important, or have as far-reaching consequences as industrial control systems (ICS) security. While most relevant organizations would agree that ICS security is a significant concern for their operations, it is easier said than done. Many find it difficult to put into practice the measures...

Cyber threats are growing more sophisticated, covert, and frequent every day. This year alone has seen the likes of T-Mobile and PharMerica suffering serious security breaches. These incidents disrupted operations and threatened their bottom lines, not to mention the lingering aftereffects and negative brand perception in the eyes of their customers. Taking the recent Optus data security breach as...

Today’s VERT Alert addresses Microsoft’s September 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-1073 on Wednesday, September 13th. In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEs CVE-2023-36761 Microsoft has indicated that a vulnerability impacting Microsoft Word, including the preview pane...

Before the revolution of Information Technology (IT), the world experienced the revolution of Operational Technology (OT). Operational Technology is the combination of hardware and software that controls and operates the physical mechanisms of industry. OT systems play an important role in the water, manufacturing, power, and distribution systems that transformed the industry into the modern age...

The basic parameters that control how hardware, software, and even entire networks operate are configurations, whether they take the form of a single configuration file or a collection of connected configurations. For instance, the default properties a firewall uses to control traffic to and from a company's network, such as block lists, port forwarding, virtual LANs, and VPN information, are...

Technology companies are often seen as revolving doors of constantly shifting personnel. Whether they are seeking a better work environment or chasing a higher paycheck, these staff changes can hurt an organization’s progress. Worse yet, the customers are often negatively impacted by these changes in the continuity of established relationships. At Fortra, we're proud to have a higher average...

A firewall is a security device that controls the flow of traffic across a network. A firewall may be a hardware appliance, or it may be a piece of software that runs on a third-party operating system. Firewalls operate based on a set of pre-defined, as well as customizable security rules that inspect network traffic to block or permit access to a network. Oftentimes, a firewall is logically...

Serverless architecture has increased in recent years, and is anticipated to grow by nearly 25% over the next decade, According to one source , the serverless architecture market was worth over $9 billion in 2022, with its compound annual growth rate projected to increase. The market could be worth over $90 billion by 2032. This indicates the immense amount of potential that this industry carries...

A few years ago, I wrote about the importance of security immutability . More specifically, I discussed how important it is that your environment be unchangeable in order to ensure that it remains secure. As I looked back on the article, I found it rather amusing that the article was published 4 years ago, but that feels like a lifetime ago. In the last few years, we really have seen just how...

Network engineers and security analysts have a lot in common. Both require the ability to not only understand the problems at hand but to ascertain the moments leading to them. A typical scenario would include a request to help with a problem a customer has been experiencing. The person you are trying to assist is probably a member of the IT team in the organisation. During these situations, we...

Today’s VERT Alert addresses Microsoft’s August 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-1068 on Wednesday, August 9th. In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEs CVE-2023-38180 A vulnerability in Kestrel could allow for a denial of service. Kestrel is the cross-platform web server...

We have come a long way in the cybersecurity sector in a relatively short period of time, but there remain many challenges in day-to-day operations that create security gaps in many organizations. One of the most common is tied to how we build our solutions, making sure they are secure out-of-the-box instead of only being evaluated during a pen test or annual review, and finding out then that...

Most small and midsized businesses trust an IT services partner to help them secure their networks. A few years ago, high-profile cyberattacks targeting MSP vendors Kaseya and SolarWinds thrust the security risk of relying on a complex chain of vendors into the technology media and moved the Department of Homeland Security to issue a statement about the need for greater security in the IT services...

The ransomware, malware and phishing attacks going on in the healthcare industry are quite alarming these days. The customers' data in the healthcare industry is more sensitive than in most industries, and this has proven to be a sweet spot for threat actors. Recent research by Infloblox reported that in 2022, there were over 546 major data breaches due to malicious activity. This follows a 4%...

How many security products does it take to monitor an organization? Even a small company often finds itself working with multiple monitoring tools to gain visibility into its security posture. This creates multiple blind spots, as a security analyst needs to jump between different tools with different formats and configurations to research a security incident. Adding to this problem is that the...

Large data can offer a massive affordable advantage for companies. Scientists, information analysts, marketing professionals, and advertisers rely upon receiving valuable insights from substantial pools of consumer information. When examined correctly, this information can provide valuable insight for organizations that understand how to use it. The regular procedure of gathering and arranging...

A federal grand jury has indicted a former employee of a contractor operating a California town's wastewater treatment facility , alleging that he remotely turned off critical systems and could have endangered public health and safety. 53-year-old Rambler Gallor of Tracy, California, held a full-time position at a Massachusetts company that was contracted by the town of Discovery Bay to operate...

Today’s VERT Alert addresses Microsoft’s July 2023 Security Updates , which include a new release notes format. VERT is actively working on coverage for these vulnerabilities and expects to ship ASPL-1064 on Wednesday, July 12th. In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEs CVE-2023-32046 A vulnerability in MSHTML could allow an attacker to execute code in the context of the logged in user providing the attacker...