During discussions with clients about their approach to managing IT services, many organizations refer to the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) practices as a key component of their approach. This is not surprising, as the ITIL framework provides a practical methodology for IT management, enabling the use of technology to align with business needs. By prioritizing business goals...

Hardening in Cybersecurity Cybersecurity hardening is a comprehensive approach to keeping your organization safe from intruders, and mitigating risk. By reducing your attack surface, vulnerability is reduced in tandem. Hardening (or system hardening) considers all flaws and entry points potentially targeted by attackers to compromise your system. While innovative and determined cybercriminals will...

Cybersecurity is no longer the exclusive domain of computers, servers, and handheld devices. As wireless connectivity grows, it makes many daily activities more convenient, but it also means that cars may be vulnerable to cyberattacks. Connected, Autonomous, Shared and Electric vehicles are starting to dominate the auto market, but they often carry significant cybersecurity risks. Recent research...

How big is Ransomware? The San Francisco 49ers, confirmed a ransomware attack, Cisco was attacked by the Yanluowang ransomware gang, and Entrust was attacked by Lockbit. And that’s just a handful of ransomware accounts noted in 2022. On the surface, ransomware is relatively easy for any criminal to perpetrate, however, those who develop this malicious software are part of established businesses...

The cybersecurity landscape is continuously evolving. It has led businesses to question how they are protecting themselves and their consumers from data breaches. Since 2014, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has commissioned the Cybersecurity Breaches Survey of the UK to understand what protections are in place, and where the UK can improve for future security postures...

When did you last have a light-bulb moment? For me, it was very recent. I was working with a client, supporting them in their latest Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) annual compliance assessment, and, in discussion with the Qualified Security Assessor (QSA), I had a sudden urge to challenge something we’ve all, always, believed to be a fundamental tenet of managing...

From its inception, the automotive industry has been shaped by innovation and disruption. In recent years, these transformations have taken shape in rapid digitization, ever-growing Electric Vehicle (EV) infrastructure, and advanced connectivity. These shifts have redirected the automotive industry, meeting and surpassing customer expectations for what vehicles should accomplish. However, they...

Security researchers have released a new decryption tool that should come to the rescue of some victims of a modified version of the Conti ransomware, helping them to recover their encrypted data for free. Conti was one of the most notorious ransomware groups, responsible for hundreds of attacks against organisations, which netted criminals over $150 million. Its victims included the government of...

Legacy gas and coal plants are being aged out – and no one wants to pay enough to keep them going. With increased pressure from green energy laws and added competition from renewable sources, these monsters of Old Power are being shown the door. Considering they've predated and precipitated all Industrial Revolutions (except for this last one – that was digital), it's safe to say they've had a...

The world of security advisories is disjointed, with disparate systems holding critical documentation in various formats. To make matters more challenging, despite living in a digital-first era, most of these documents are not legible for machines and must be parsed, reviewed, or referenced by humans. As system administrators contend with a rapidly changing threat landscape and the need to remain...

A Rootkit is a malicious program composed of malware that is created to provide prolonged root-level or privileged-level access to a computer. It remains hidden in the computer system while maintaining control of the system remotely. Rootkits have the ability to steal data, eavesdrop, change system configurations, create permanent backdoors, deactivate other security defensive programs, and...

Today’s VERT Alert addresses Microsoft’s March 2023 Security Updates. VERT is actively working on coverage for these vulnerabilities and expects to ship ASPL-1046 on Wednesday, March 15th. In-The-Wild & Disclosed CVEs CVE-2023-24880 Up first this month is a publicly disclosed and exploited vulnerability impacting Windows SmartScreen. SmartScreen prompts you when running certain files downloaded...

If you were to poll the folks in a typical office about which aspect of the infamous CIA Triad was most important to them, you would likely get different answers from different people. While confidentiality, integrity, and availability are all important and serve to function together, for the sake of fun, what if you had to choose one factor as the most critical? The legal team would most likely...

If you blinked, you might have missed it… On October 25th 2022, the new standard for the Information Security Management System, ISO27001 was released. Without fuss, and without fanfare. But, to quote a famous movie, “There was a great disturbance in the force.” ISO27001 is possibly one of the world's best-known standards for Information Security Management because it has broken out of the realms...

Reliable electricity is essential to the convenience of modern life, and also functions as a crucial contribution to America’s economy and level of comfort. Yet citizens take it for granted, rarely thinking about it much. The reality, unfortunately, is that the power grid has also become a rapidly growing target for criminals, including cybercriminals, and it would be no big surprise if the list...

The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has issued new requirements for airport and aircraft operators who, they say, are facing a "persistent cybersecurity threat." The agency's new directive compels the aviation industry to improve their defences against malicious hackers and cybercriminals, just days after Preisdent Biden announced its National Cybersecurity Strategy that seeks...

APIs will continue to drive business and accelerate digital transformation this year to the extent that nearly no other technology can; according to the 19th Developer Economics survey by Slashdata, almost 90% of all developers use APIs. This makes them a target for attackers who aren’t afraid to engage in any tactic, especially tried-and-true methods like parameter tampering attacks - malicious...

I logged into one of my online accounts today, and the entire interface was different. At first, I checked to make sure that I was actually on the correct site. Once I confirmed that, I just accepted that the company who runs the software made changes that would improve the performance and functionality of the software. Once I logged in, I noticed that even the desktop icon had changed. Change is...

Business email compromise (BEC) is a dangerous type of email spoofing that targets businesses, aiming to damage them in some way. Overall, BEC “is one of the most financially damaging online crimes,” according to a joint Cybersecurity Advisory by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Food and Drug Administration Office of Criminal Investigations (FDA OCI), and the US Department of...

Is your security tool an island? Does it do its singular task with little more to offer than what it says on the package? Too many security offerings behave as singular entities, forcing you to constantly perform task switching to complete a job. If you are using a robust tool, then you may not be taking full advantage of its capabilities. Many capabilities of a good tool can be broadened with the...