All of us at Tripwire’s Vulnerability Exposure and Research Team (VERT) are constantly reviewing the news for interesting stories and developments in the cybersecurity world. Here’s what stood out to us during the week of September 27, 2021. We’ve also included the comments from a few folks here at Tripwire VERT. REvil Ransomware Group Goes...

What is your organization’s approach to security events? For many organizations, each security alarm is treated with the same urgency as a fire. While a sense of urgency is good, the ensuing panic that occurs is not a recipe for longevity. The constant shifting of attention from one emergency to the next is fatiguing; it can often lead to mistakes...

Cybersecurity has become a critical concern in every business sector nowadays due to organizations’ growing dependency on technologies. Research by Immersive Lab reported that in 2019 there were more than 20,000 new vulnerabilities. Not only that, TechRepublic reported that global companies experienced a 148% spike in ransomware attacks after COVID...

As part of our upcoming attendance at the International Cyber Expo & International Security Expo, we were lucky enough to sponsor The Cyber Security Webinar Series with Nineteen Group and Grey Hare Media.Both Philip Ingram MBE and Emanuel Ghebreyesus, strategic account director for Tripwire, spoke about several topics including:The increasing...

Today’s VERT Alert addresses Microsoft’s September 2021 Security Updates. VERT is actively working on coverage for these vulnerabilities and expects to ship ASPL-964 on Wednesday, September 15th. In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEs CVE-2021-40444 This CVE describes a publicly exploited vulnerability in MSHTML that provides user level access upon...

Talk to cybersecurity experts about cybercrime on their network, and they will mention malicious activity like scans, attacks, events, and incidents. Probably at some point, they will slip into geek-speak with a vast array of confusing acronyms and jargon while explaining tactics and techniques by referencing infamous attacks, Internal protocols,...

The Internet of Things (IoT) includes items such as smart appliances, smartwatches, and medical sensors. For organizations to enjoy all of the benefits and convenience of IoT devices, enterprise customers must fully understand the potential risks and threats to their systems and the underlying data. IoT devices often lack built-in security controls...

On May 13, Verizon released its Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) 2021. This annual publication serves many purposes. It yields context into what security analysts are seeing, for instance. But it also affects organizations’ security postures at an even higher level. Here’s Anthony Israel-Davis, research and development manager at Tripwire,...

Tripwire's August 2021 Patch Priority Index (PPI) brings together important vulnerabilities from Microsoft.First on the patch priority list this month are patches for Microsoft Exchange Server (CVE-2021-34523, CVE-2021-34473, and CVE-2021-31207). These vulnerabilities have seen active exploitation. Also, exploits for these vulnerabilities have been...

Organizations are under tremendous pressure to deliver innovative products and stick to tight release timelines. To keep up with the rapid release schedule, engineering teams are adopting the DevOps model for its increased efficiency and agility. It has changed the way that development teams think. As a result, continuously improving performance and...

Threat modeling is increasing in importance as a way to plan security in advance. Instead of merely reacting to threats and incidents, an organization can identify and evaluate its security posture, relevant threats, and gaps in defenses that may allow attacks to succeed. Threat modeling has a two-way relationship with incident response: When an...

During a recent client engagement, the DGC (DiCicco, Gulman & Company) penetration testing team identified a previously unknown vulnerability affecting the Autodesk Licensing Service, a software component bundled with nearly all licensed Autodesk products. The vulnerability exists in a software component common to most Autodesk products and impacts...

In this episode, Greg Wilson, CISO of Docupace, discussed the rise of ransomware during uncertain times (i.e. COVID pandemic), whether it’s here to stay, and how to prevent damage with security hygiene. https://open.spotify.com/episode/24huDJTPDj7JyOxa1CODge?si=80455f6634a94ee6 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5UDKiGLlzxhiGnd6FtvEnm...

Today’s enterprise operations involve the coordination of several different digital ecosystems but none quite so inflamed as the cybersecurity ecosystem. Technology has been evolving at a rapid pace, and attackers are armed with advanced tactics to steal data and expose secure information. In response, cybersecurity teams deploy numerous tools and...

OT networks often rely on Windows systems for various ICS applications including HMIs, historians, and data gateways. Beyond that, they also commonly rely on Windows systems to run associated IT-networks. A successful ransomware deployment into either of these networks may prevent engineers from controlling plant operations and lead to an unplanned...

Most discussions around cybersecurity understandably focus on information technology (IT). Assets like cloud services and data centers are typically what companies spend the most time and effort securing. Recently, though, operational technology (OT) has come under increasing scrutiny from leading security experts in both the private and public...

Today’s VERT Alert addresses Microsoft’s August 2021 Security Updates. VERT is actively working on coverage for these vulnerabilities and expects to ship ASPL-959 on Wednesday, August 11th.In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEsCVE-2021-36948This privilege escalation vulnerability that affects the Windows Update Medic Service (WaasMedic) has been actively...

In its Interagency Report 7695, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defined an application as “a system for collecting, saving, processing, and presenting data by means of a computer.” This broad term covers enterprise applications, consumer applications, and even phone apps. Security is important in all these types of...

People make up an important part of an organization’s security posture. That’s because some employees have the rights necessary for accessing sensitive data as well as the privileges for viewing and/or editing critical systems. If those individuals have the right focus and training, they can play a crucial part in keeping those assets safe against...