Nov 08 2022

Taking cybersecurity investments to the next level

Category: cyber security,Selling cyber security — DISC @ 12:14 pm

Taking cybersecurity investments to the next level

Recently, the Forgepoint team announced a new alliance with global banking leader Santander to increase cyber investment worldwide, specifically in Europe, Israel, and Latin America. Santander will also be the primary investor in Forgepoint’s next fund, slated for 2023, with a nearly $300 million goal.

This was the perfect reason to connect with Alberto Yépez, the co-founder and Managing Director of Forgepoint Capital. In this Help Net Security interview, the former Trident Capital leader offers insight into innovation in the cybersecurity market, M&A activity, pitching to VCs, and more.

When you look at today’s cybersecurity industry landscape, what drives innovation?

Innovation is always driven by a need. What does the market need right now? What do customers need? How can the ecosystem adapt to serve those needs? Innovation provides solutions that expedite answers to problems, and successful businesses are built when they do this.

Today’s rapidly changing macro environment combined with the demands of an evolving threat landscape makes this the perfect time for company building. Now, businesses that did not satisfy needs will no longer survive, while those that do will thrive.

The cybersecurity market is prone to mergers and acquisitions. How will this impact the future of the market?

While we may see a wave of consolidation, which is expected given the amount of venture financing committed to cybersecurity in the last few years, organizations now face the decision to either raise more funding in a challenging environment as valuations normalize or seek an acquisition, as growth investors shift away due to market conditions.

Public and larger private companies will continue to buy startups that are innovative and leading-edge, filling gaps in their current offerings to offer wider, more integrated solutions. These companies provide new capabilities that address new threats and give them access to high-growth market segments while helping them stay relevant.

Ultimately, M&A activity will have a positive impact on the industry because large enterprise customers benefit from integrated solutions that reduce the total cost of ownership of these solutions. Customers also benefit from these integrated services as they help meet critical enterprise needs and ease the strain caused by the global shortage of cybersecurity professionals.

Company founders spend a lot of time preparing their pitch, but it can take a long time to get VC, even with massively successful products. What advice would you give to those getting ready to talk to VCs?

I advise founders to take a long-term mindset and remember that fundraising is a people-driven industry. While initial timelines may achieve certain funding goals, securing funding means building real relationships and creating a network of trusted partners. Taking the time to do this well will have an immediate impact upon your success.

In a competitive fundraising environment, VCs have to make quick decisions. To do that, we depend on both our own experience, as well as the experiences of our network and our close connections who we can rely on to provide strong counsel. An introduction to a startup from a trusted friend with relevant expertise and background is one of the most productive relationship builders – for both sides.

These trusted relationships will open the right doors for founders, then it’s all about how you tell your story to the VC. The clarity and direction of your thinking can tell a lot about the company’s market position and opportunity you’re out to tackle, as well as your future priorities. Here, introspection and self-awareness shine.

Having a people-driven mindset is helpful because it has multiple natural side benefits. Networking requires us to build relationships with individuals beyond the short-term, casting a net that can include VCs as well as future startup customers or potential hires. Networking with VCs may also suggest you meet with others and while these introductions may not be directly about fundraising, they can help you get exposure to potential customers, team members, and advisors for input on your tech, business, and model. This leads to opportunities to learn and refine your approach from diverse perspectives.

What do you value most in an entrepreneur you want to invest in?

The traits that I find most important in entrepreneurs are subject matter expertise and the know-how to execute. Prior experience as an entrepreneur with a track record of building commercial offerings successfully commercialized and adopted by customers will allow for deep domain knowledge of the sector that they’re working in, which is very important when scaling organizations. In my experience, serial entrepreneurs typically have a leg up compared to first-timers.

That being said, all of this doesn’t matter if an entrepreneur doesn’t know how to lead. The ability to recruit and retain high quality talent, and then continuing to work with them to grow as the organization expands is a very important trait that is paramount to the success of any organization.

What advice would you give to European and Israeli companies trying to get funding in the US?

Forgepoint partners with emerging companies from Croatia to Mexico, Madrid to Tel Aviv, and has been actively tracking thousands of companies worldwide. It is abundantly clear that the cyber ecosystems across Europe, Latin America and Israel have an incredibly rich talent pool, strong demand signal and robust capital accessibility – and that cybersecurity is a growing, global problem.

While the current macro environment is challenging, organizations looking to get funding in the US will succeed if their product and complete offering solve a demonstrated need in the market. When it comes down to it, it’s all about five fundamentals:

Large market opportunity
Differentiated offerings that are hard to replicate
Sound go-to-market strategy
Ensuring the right team is in place
Product market fit as demonstrated by early customer traction

Israeli and European companies trying to get funding in the US should be able to clearly speak to these fundamentals, demonstrating how they’ll incorporate the US into their go-to-market and growth plans as they partner with investors, form channel alliances, and further develop their businesses. Thinking this through can be enormously helpful in identifying which VCs to approach – which will bring value and help augment your business.

Start-Up Secure: Baking Cybersecurity into Your Company from Founding to Exit

Tags: cybersecurity investments, Forgepoint Capital, investment, Start-Up Secure

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Oct 13 2022

What You Need for a Strong Security Posture

Category: Attack Matrix,cyber security,Information Security — DISC @ 12:40 pm

From the basics to advanced techniques, here’s what you should know.

Cybersecurity concept art — Source: Rancz Andrei via Alamy Stock Photo

Cybersecurity has been compared to a never-ending game of whack-a-mole, with an ever-changing cast of threats and threat actors. While the attacks that make headlines may change from year to year, the basic fact remains: Any network, no matter how obscure the organization it supports, most likely will come under attack at some point. Thus, attaining and maintaining a strong security posture is of critical importance for organizations of any size.

An organization’s security posture, however, is constantly changing. Employees join or leave the company; endpoints are added and discarded; and network and security technologies are deployed, decommissioned, configured, and updated. Each change in network elements can represent a potential attack vector for malware and other threats.

That’s why security teams should review their security processes periodically and keep aligned with new developments in defensive and offensive testing and modeling. Doing so can help move the needle on security maturity from the most basic to an advanced, much stronger security posture, and from a reactive to a proactive model.

The Basics: Vulnerability Scanning

The first step most IT organizations undertake is vulnerability scanning, which seeks out potential weaknesses in the network and endpoints that could be exploited by attackers. There’s a wide variety of scanners available as open source or commercial software, as managed services, and on cloud platforms like AWS and Alibaba. Some of the more popular scanners include Nessus, Burp Suite, Nmap, and Qualys, though each has its own area of focus. Several offer automatic patch remediation, as well.

Another consideration is whether to perform an external scan — which can discover potential vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit — or internal scanning that can find potential paths attackers would take once inside the network. Many, if not most, IT teams will do both.

While vulnerability scanning is relatively easy to use, it’s not the end-all, be-all of a security strategy. For example, scanning might not detect subtle misconfigurations or the more complicated attack paths that advanced persistent threats (APTs) might take. They’re also often prone to false positives and must be updated consistently.

Overall, though, vulnerability scanning is an important baseline step. Once it’s running well, the next step is penetration testing.

Penetration Testing

Penetration testing typically entails human ethical hackers who attempt to gain access to the network interior, much as an outside hacker would. Here, too, there’s a wide variety of tools and services available — many of the aforementioned vulnerability scanners offer tools that can be used in pen testing. Others include Metasploit, Kali Linux, Cobalt.io, and Acunetix.

Run periodically, pen testing can uncover weaknesses that aren’t found by vulnerability scanners. Furthermore, human-managed pen testing can explore more complex pathways and technique combinations that hackers increasingly leverage to exploit victims, such as phishing.

Not surprisingly, the biggest trends impacting networking and cybersecurity are essentially the same trends noted in penetration testing this year: rampant ransomware attacks, the newly distributed workforce, and the rise of Web applications and cloud usage to support remote workers. Each of these trends will require thoughtful consideration in choosing tools and designing plans for penetration testing.

While penetration testing can provide a great deal of benefit, it’s a good idea to periodically review the wealth of information on best practices available online.

Red Team/Purple Team

The third step in the quest for security maturity is usually the establishment of a red team that will manually attempt to attack and penetrate the organization’s security defenses. This may be a completely separate team, or it may be closely allied with the blue team (the defenders) in a combination called a purple team. As another option, some vendors offer red-team services on a subscription or one-off basis.

A red team will imitate the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) that attackers use — which usually turns up more points of vulnerability than penetration testing can reveal. The blue team can then begin to resolve these weaknesses, further hardening the network against attack.

But too often, red and blue teams devolve into an adversarial relationship that’s counterproductive. It’s also quite expensive to set up a red team, and given the shortage of cybersecurity professionals, it may not be feasible. Therefore, many CISOs are investigating two newer trends: adversary emulation and adversary simulation.

Using Adversary TTPs for Good

There are vast, freely available libraries of common tactics, techniques, and procedures used during attacks, such as MITRE’s ATT&CK framework. Adversary emulation and simulation leverage these libraries to evaluate security based on intelligence for specific attacks and then simulating the TTPs used.

For example, MITRE developed a sample adversary emulation plan for APT3, an advanced persistent threat that previously targeted mostly US entities. The emulation plan covers three phases from command-and-control setup to initial access; from host compromise through to execution; and data collection through exfiltration. The Center for Threat-Informed Defense has posted other emulation plans.

Adversary emulation lets security teams assess their defenses against real-world attacks. It can also be used to test the security infrastructure’s detection and response rates.

Looking Ahead

Security vendors are moving beyond simply advocating the concept of MITRE’s ATT&CK and MITRE Shield. Many vendors are leveraging one or both to improve their own products and services. For example, some security vendors map anomalies and events to the ATT&CK framework, making it easier for security teams to respond.

MITRE’s CALDERA also deserves attention. It provides an intelligent, automated adversary emulation system that can be programmed for a specific attack profile and launched into the network to test its defenses. Caldera can also be used to train blue teams on detecting and remediating specific attacks.

There are also open source projects for adversary behavior simulation in development. A few of them of note include Uber’s Metta, Nextron Systems’ APT Simulator, Elastic/Endgame’s Red Team Automation, CyberMonitor’s Invoke-Adversary, and Red Canary’s Atomic Red Team.

Conclusion

Keeping abreast of developments in key security processes is important for security teams as they strive to defend the network against changing threats. By so doing, they can move the organization closer to a far stronger security posture.

Source:

https://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities-threats/what-you-need-for-a-strong-security-posture

Tags: Security Posture

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Sep 19 2022

SMBs are hardest-hit by ransomware

Category: cyber security — DISC @ 8:21 am

Coalition announced the mid-year update to its 2022 Cyber Claims Report detailing the evolution of cyber trends, revealinig that small businesses have become bigger targets, overall incidents are down, and ransomware attacks are declining as demands go unpaid.

SMBs are hardest-hit by ransomware

During the first half of 2022, the average cost of a claim for a small business owner increased to $139,000, which is 58% higher than levels during the first half of 2021.

“Across industries, we continue to see high-profile attacks targeting organizations with weak or exposed infrastructure — which has become exacerbated by today’s remote working culture and companies’ dependence on third-party vendors,” said Catherine Lyle, Co a lition’s Head of Claims.

“Small businesses are especially vulnerable because they often lack resources. For these businesses, avoiding downtime and disruption is essential, and they must understand that Active Insurance is accessible.”

The good news: both Coalition and the broader insurance industry observed a decrease in ransomware attack frequency and the amount of ransom demanded between the second half of 2021 and the first half of 2022. Ransomware demands decreased from $1.37M in H2 2021 to $896,000 in H1 2022. Of the incidents that resulted in a payment, Coalition negotiated down to roughly 20% of the initial demand.

More good news: Coalition policyholders experienced 50% fewer claims compared to the broader market. The severity of these claims has also declined, with 45% of incidents resolved at no cost. The substantial decrease in overall claims stems from Coalition’s combination of cybersecurity tools, including active monitoring and alerting, access to digital forensics and incident response, and broad insurance coverage.

“Organizations are increasingly aware of the threat ransomware poses. They have started to implement controls such as offline data backups that allow them to refuse to pay the ransom and restore operations through other means,” said Chris Hendricks, Coalition’s Head of Incident Response. “As ransomware is on the decline, attackers are turning to reliable methods. Phishing, for example, has skyrocketed – and only continues to grow.”

Other key findings:

Phishing triggers the majority of cyber incidents, accounting for 57.9% of reported claims
Cyber gangs have built a thriving business
Funds transfer fraud (FTF) claims have held steady thanks to phishing, and
Microsoft Exchange has become the vulnerability that persists.

Cybersecurity for Small and Midsize Businesses

Tags: Cybersecurity for Small and Midsize Businesses, Small and Midsize Businesses, SMB

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Aug 29 2022

CISA adds 10 new flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog

Category: CISA,cyber security,Information Security — DISC @ 9:05 am

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added 10 new flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog.

CISA adds 10 new flaws to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added 10 new vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, including a high-severity security flaw (

CVE-2021-38406

CVSS score: 7.8) impacting Delta Electronics industrial automation software.

According to Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 22-01: Reducing the Significant Risk of Known Exploited Vulnerabilities, FCEB agencies have to address the identified vulnerabilities by the due date to protect their networks against attacks exploiting the flaws in the catalog.

Experts recommend also private organizations review the Catalog and address the vulnerabilities in their infrastructure.

According to the US agency, Delta Electronics DOPSoft 2 lacks proper validation of user-supplied data when parsing specific project files (improper input validation). An attacker can trigger the flaw to cause an out-of-bounds write and achieve code execution.

It is important to highlight that there are no security patches to fix this issue and that the impacted product is end-of-life.

CISA also added to the catalog a Sanbox Bypass Vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2021-31010 (CVSS score: 7.5), in Apple iOS, macOS, and watchOS.

“In affected versions of Apple iOS, macOS, and watchOS, a sandboxed process may be able to circumvent sandbox restrictions.” reads the advisory.

The other vulnerabilities added to the catalog are:

CVE-2022-26352 – dotCMS Unrestricted Upload of File Vulnerability
CVE-2022-24706 – Apache CouchDB Insecure Default Initialization of Resource Vulnerability
CVE-2022-24112 – Apache APISIX Authentication Bypass Vulnerability
CVE-2022-22963 – VMware Tanzu Spring Cloud Function Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
CVE-2022-2294 – WebRTC Heap Buffer Overflow Vulnerability
CVE-2021-39226 – Grafana Authentication Bypass Vulnerability
CVE-2020-36193 – PEAR Archive_Tar Improper Link Resolution Vulnerability
CVE-2020-28949 – PEAR Archive_Tar Deserialization of Untrusted Data Vulnerability

CISA orders federal agencies to fix these vulnerabilities by September 15, 2022.

CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog

CISA Cybersecurity Alerts

CyberWire Inc. (Author)Flash cybersecurity advisories from the US Government. These alerts provide timely technical and operational information, indicators of compromise, and mitigations for current major security threats, vulnerabilities, and exploits. These alerts have been edited and adapted for audio by The CyberWire as a public service.

Free podcast:

Tags: CISA, CISA Cybersecurity, CISA Cybersecurity Alerts

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Aug 28 2022

Digital Ethics Book Bundle

Category: cyber security,Information Security — DISC @ 12:53 pm

As technology advances, so must our ability to use such technology ethically. The rise of AI (artificial intelligence) and big data raises concerns about data privacy and cyber security. ITG have combined their latest titles into one bundle, saving you 20% – ideal for bank holiday reading.

Buy Now the Digital Ethics Book Bundle

Tags: Digital Ethics

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Aug 07 2022

SMB’s cybersecurity solutions to remediate risk

Category: cyber security,Information Security,Security Tools — DISC @ 10:36 am

We have build cybersecurity solution sheets for our clients which we would like to share with you. This can be a useful resource when there is a need to remediate risk. These are in pdf format which you can download.

Privacy guidance, audits, tools, training and software

Certification of individuals

Cybersecurity Solutions

NIST Gap Assessment Tool

ITGP comprehensive set of Toolkits

What are the differences between the 2013 and 2022 editions of ISO/IEC 27002?

You can choose the course based on your specific needs:

ISO 27001 Foundations course – you’ll learn about all of the standard’s requirements and the best practices for compliance.
ISO 27001 Internal Auditor course – besides the knowledge about the standard, you’ll also learn how to perform an internal audit in the company.
ISO 27001 Lead Auditor course – besides the knowledge about the standard, it also includes the training you need to become certified as a certification auditor.
ISO 27001 Lead Implementer course – besides the knowledge about the standard, it also includes the training you need to become an independent consultant for Information Security Management System implementation.

The online courses are suitable both for beginners and experienced professionals.

Learn at your preferred speed from any location at any time.

If you have any questions, feel free to send us an email to info@deurainfosec.com

Solution to Cyber Security

Tags: Cybersecurity for SMBs, Cybersecurity Solutions, remediate risk

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Aug 03 2022

Start as you mean to go on: the top 10 steps to securing your new computer

Category: cyber security,Information Security — DISC @ 1:35 pm

Whether you are getting ready for back-to-school season, getting new work laptop or fancying a new gamer’s pc, learn the steps to protect your new PC from cyberthreats.

With Windows 11 making headlines for all the right reasons, it could be a great time to invest in a new PC for the family or the home office. But any new household computing device should come with an attendant safety warning. Hackers will be after your data the minute it’s connected to the internet. And they have numerous ways to get it.

That’s why you need to think about cybersecurity even before plugging your machine in and switching it on. Take time out now to refresh your memory and make cyber-hygiene a number one priority.

What are the main threats to my PC?

As soon as you’re connected to the internet, malicious actors will be looking to steal your data, encrypt and hold your machine ransom, lift financial details, secretly mine for cryptocurrency, and much more. They’ll do so via some tried and true methods, which often rely on cracking, stealing or guessing passwords, or exploiting software vulnerabilities. Top threats include:

Phishing: One of the oldest con tricks in the book. Cybercriminals masquerade as legitimate and trustworthy sources (banks, tech providers, retailers etc) and try to persuade users into clicking on links and/or opening attachments in emails. Doing so will take users to a spoofed site requesting that they fill in personal information (like logins and/or address/financial details) or could trigger a covert malware download.

Drive-by downloads and malicious ads: Sometimes merely visiting an infested website or a site running a malicious ad could trigger a malware download. We may think that well-known sites may be less compromised in this way as they are better resourced and can afford enhanced protection. But there have been plenty of counter-example through the years showing that it’s not always the case. That’s why its essential to invest in security software from a reputable provider and ensure that your browser’s security settings are correct.

Digital skimming: Hackers may also compromise the payment pages of e-commerce sites with malware designed to silently harvest your card data as it is entered. This is difficult to guard against as the issue is with the provider. However, shopping with better-known sites can reduce risk.

Malicious apps and files: Cybercriminals also hide malware inside legitimate-looking applications and downloads. Many of these are posted to online forums, P2P sites, and other third-party platforms. That’s why it makes sense to download only from trusted sources, and to use an effective security software tool to scan for malicious software.

Ten tips to keep your computer safe

Many of the below steps may be taken care of automatically by your PC manufacturer/Microsoft, but it pays to dig a little deeper to make sure all the settings are as secure as you need them to be. Here are our top 10 tips for computer safety:

Apply automatic updates for the OS and any software running on the PC
Remove bloatware that often comes with PCs. Check beforehand if you don’t recognize any software to ensure removing it won’t degrade the performance. The fewer pieces of software on the machine, the less opportunity for attackers to exploit bugs in it
Install multi-layered security software from a reputable third-party vendor and keep it up to date
Configure backups, and ideally back up a copy of data to a remote storage device kept offline
Secure the browser by adjusting privacy and security settings and ensuring it is on the latest version
Switch on and configure your firewall on the OS and home router, ensuring it is protected with a strong password
Download a multi-factor authentication app in order to help protect your accounts from being hijacked via phishing and other attacks
Avoid using USBs that you don’t own, in case they are loaded with malware
Use a password manager to ensure that all your credentials are unique, strong, and hard-to-crack
Only download apps/files from trusted sources and avoid pirated material, which can often be booby-trapped with malware

It goes without saying that, even by following these best practices, you could still be at risk when browsing online. Always proceed with caution, don’t reply to unsolicited emails/online messages, and ensure device encryption is switched on.

by Phil Muncaster, ESET

https://wordpress.com/read/blogs/19067844/posts/17162

Internet attack on computer systems is pervasive. It can take from less than a minute to as much as eight hours for an unprotected machine connected to the Internet to be completely compromised. It is the information security architect’s job to prevent attacks by securing computer systems. This book describes both the process and the practice of assessing a computer system’s existing information security posture. Detailing the time-tested practices of experienced security architects, Securing systems explains how to deliver the right security at the right time in the implementation lifecycle.

Securing Systems

Tags: 10 steps to securing your new computer, Computer security, Securing Systems

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Aug 02 2022

Cybersecurity Solutions

Category: cyber security — DISC @ 3:21 pm

Cybersecurity reduces the risk of cyber-attacks and protects against the unauthorized exploitation of systems, networks and technologies.

Cybersecurity-Solutions-1 Download

Cybersecurity: A Simple Beginner’s Guide to Cybersecurity, Computer Networks and Protecting Oneself from Hacking in the Form of Phishing, Malware, Ransomware, and Social Engineering

DISC InfoSec

#InfoSecTools and #InfoSectraining

#InfoSecLatestTitles

#InfoSecServices

Ask DISC an InfoSec & compliance related question

Tags: Cybersecurity Solutions

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Jul 28 2022

State of Cybersecurity 2022

Category: cyber security,Information Security — DISC @ 10:55 am

State of Cybersecurity 2022 – via ISACA

State of Cybersecurity 2022, Global Update on Workforce Efforts, Resources and Cyberoperations reports the results of an eighth annual global study that looks at the following topics and more:

What are the top cybersecurity hiring challenges today?
Which cybersecurity skills are in highest demand?
How can companies improve retention?
How are cybersecurity budgets changing?
Which threat vectors are the most concerning?
How frequently are companies conducting cyber risk assessments?

See what your peers have to say and how your organization’s challenges, actions and priorities compare to other companies around the world.

Get your free copy by completing the form on ISACA site.

Tags: ISACA, State of Cybersecurity

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Jun 02 2022

How to support women in cybersecurity

Category: cyber security,Information Security,InfoSec jobs — DISC @ 8:48 am

How to support women in cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is required to be a dynamic industry because cybercriminals don’t take days off. Cybersecurity professionals must be innovative, creative, and attentive to keep gaining the upper hand on cybercriminals. Unfortunately, there are millions of unfilled cybersecurity job openings around the globe.

The gender divide

The problem of not enough cybersecurity professionals is exacerbated by a lack of diversity in the sector. There is a disproportionately low ratio of women to men within the entire technology industry. In the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) industries, women make up only 24% of the workforce, and while this has increased from just 11% in 2017, there is clearly still a sizeable disparity.

The cybersecurity industry is performing only marginally better than STEM, with women making up roughly 24% of cybersecurity jobs globally, according to (ISC)².

There is also a parallel trend here: women have superior qualifications in cybersecurity than their male counterparts. Over half of women – 52% – have postgraduate degrees, compared to just 44% of men. More importantly, 28% of women have cybersecurity-related qualifications, while only 20% of men do. This raises one important point, which is that women feel that they must be more qualified than men to compete for and hold the same cybersecurity roles. The industry is, therefore, losing a significant pool of talent because of this perception. Untapped talent means less innovation and dynamism in the products and services businesses offer.

Unfortunately, the challenges for women do not appear to stop once they enter the cybersecurity workforce. Pay disparity continues to blight the industry. Women reported being on smaller salaries at a higher proportion than men. 17% of women reported earning between $50,000 and $99,000 compared to 29% of men. However, there are signs that this disparity in pay is closing. For those in cybersecurity who earned over $100,000, the difference in percentage between men and women was much closer. This is encouraging and shows that once women are in the industry, they can enjoy as much success as men.

Nevertheless, reaching these higher levels of the cybersecurity industry is far from straightforward for women at present. It is an unavoidable fact that women still struggle to progress as easily compared to male counterparts. A key reason for this is cultural: women are disinclined to shout about their achievements, as such they regularly go unnoticed when promotions and other opportunities come round.

The cybersecurity industry is starting to embrace diversity in the workforce, but there is a long way to go before women are as valued in cybersecurity as men. With the current skills deficit hampering the growth of cybersecurity providers, this is a perfect opportunity for the industry and individual providers to break the bias and turn to women to speed up innovation and improve defense against cybercriminals.

Why women are essential for success

Women Know Cyber: 100 Fascinating Females Fighting Cybercrime

Tags: women in cybersecurity

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Mar 09 2022

10 Steps to Cyber Security

Category: cyber security — DISC @ 10:10 am

10-Steps-to-Cyber-Security-2 Download

Steps to Better Security: A Simple Cyber Resilience Guide for Business

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Mar 04 2022

What Security Engineers Hate About SIEM

Category: cyber security,Security Operations Center,Security Tools,Threat detection — DISC @ 4:09 pm

What Security Engineers Hate About SIEM

SIEM Satisfaction is Mediocre

When CISOs, CIOs, CTOs, security engineers, security analysts and security architects were asked to rank the primary capabilities of a traditional SIEM according to how satisfied they were with those capabilities, an interesting picture emerged. The survey results indicated that every primary capability of traditional SIEM solutions, at best, only somewhat met the majority of users’ needs. Some capabilities were irrelevant to many users. This tepid level of satisfaction is what drove many security teams to undertake the effort to build their own security monitoring tools.

Data Coverage and Data Use

Less than 25% of the respondents believed that their SIEM covered more than 75% of their security-relevant data. Nearly 17% responded that their existing platform covered less than a quarter of their data.

Furthermore, when asked if they believed their current SIEM platform were capable of handling the volume of security data their organization will generate in the future, a third of the respondents said they expected their existing platform to keep falling behind.

These results underscore the risks security teams (and their organizations) are forced to tolerate due to the cost and overhead required to bring high volumes of security-relevant data into traditional SIEM platforms. Without full visibility into all necessary data, security teams will undoubtedly have blind spots that impede their ability to protect their organizations.

OK, so what can they do instead? Well, a cloud-native architecture capable of ingesting, normalizing and analyzing terabytes of data per day cost-effectively is necessary to keep up.

Moving From Static to Dynamic

Security professionals are well aware of the static nature of traditional SIEM platforms. Many believe they pay too much for the capabilities provided and are concerned about what the future holds.

SIEMs were designed over ten years ago when the world was a very different place. The technology hasn’t evolved its approach to keep up with the needs of cloud-scale environments. Adequate security today depends on full visibility into security-relevant data, structured, scalable data lakes, cloud-native workflows and fast detection and response times. Security teams need a modern approach to security monitoring built for the cloud-first world.

Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Implementation

Tags: SIEM

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Feb 28 2022

Cyber security for construction businesses

Category: cyber security — DISC @ 10:54 am

Cyber-security-for-Construction-Business-1 Download

Building an Effective Cybersecurity Program

Tags: Building an Effective Cybersecurity Program, Cyber security for construction businesses

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Feb 08 2022

3 key elements of a strong cybersecurity program

Category: cyber security,Information Security,Security program — DISC @ 10:04 am

3 key elements of a strong cybersecurity program

The world relies on technology. So, a strong cybersecurity program is more important than ever. The challenge of achieving good cyber hygiene can be especially acute for small- and medium-sized businesses. This is particularly true for those with fully remote or hybrid work environments. Add to the mix limited resources and limited talent focused on cybersecurity, and the challenges can seem overwhelming.

Considering this, we’ve simplified things down to three key elements of a strong cybersecurity program. You need to know how to assess, remediate, and implement security best practices at scale. In more detail, this means:

Assessing your organization’s current cybersecurity program and its prioritization
Remediating endpoints at scale, bringing them into compliance with security best practices
Implementing cybersecurity policies and monitoring them to stay in compliance

1. Assess your organization’s current cybersecurity program

Taking the first step toward better cyber hygiene means understanding where your organization stands today. Conduct an honest assessment of your strengths and weaknesses in order to prioritize where to focus your efforts for your cybersecurity program. The challenge here is finding the right bar to measure yourself against. There are several frameworks that will do the job. Thus, it can be daunting to figure out which one is the right fit, especially if this is the first time you’re doing an assessment. Starting with the CIS Controls and CIS Benchmarks can help take the guesswork out of your assessment and provide peace of mind that you’re covering all of your bases.

Here’s what makes these two sets of best practices especially useful:

They tell you the “what” and the “how”: Many frameworks tell you what you should do, but not how to do it. CIS best practices give you both.
They are comprehensive and consensus-based: CIS best practices are developed in collaboration with a global community of cybersecurity experts. They’re also data-driven as explained in the CIS Community Defense Model.
They are mapped to other industry regulatory frameworks: CIS best practices have been mapped or referenced by several other industry regulatory requirements, including: NIST, FINRA, PCI DSS, FedRAMP, DISA STIGs, and many others. This means you can get the proverbial “two birds with one stone” by assessing against CIS best practices.

The CIS Controls are a prioritized and prescriptive set of safeguards that mitigate the most common cyber-attacks against systems and networks. The CIS Benchmarks are more than 100 configuration guidelines across 25+ vendor product families to safeguard systems against today’s evolving cyber threats. Both are available as free PDF downloads to help you get started.

2. Remediate endpoints at scale with CIS Build Kits

One of the challenges in applying any best practice framework is dedicating the time and resources to do the work. Luckily, CIS offers tools and resources to help automate and track the assessment process. The CIS Controls Self Assessment Tool (CIS CSAT) helps organizations assess the implementation of the CIS Controls. Additionally, the CIS Configuration Assessment Tool (CIS-CAT Pro Assessor) scans target systems for conformance to the CIS Benchmarks. CIS-CAT Pro Assessor allows you to move more quickly toward analyzing results and setting a strategy to remediate your gaps.

CIS resources and tools are designed to help you move toward compliance with best practices by remediating the gaps. Once you understand where your gaps are and how to fix them, you can use CIS Build Kits to achieve compliance at scale. CIS Build Kits are automated, efficient, repeatable, and scalable resources for rapid implementation of CIS Benchmark recommendations. You can apply them via the group policy management console in Windows, or through a shell script in Linux (Unix,*nix) environments.

Interested in trying out a Build Kit? CIS offers sample Build Kits that contain a subset of the recommendations within the CIS Benchmark. They provide you a snapshot of what to expect with the full CIS Build Kit.

3. Implement cybersecurity policies and monitor for compliance

Lastly, creating strong policies and monitoring conformance helps ensure that an organization is working toward a more robust cybersecurity program. Regularly monitoring conformance over time is critical. It helps you avoid configuration drift, and helps identify any new issues quickly. CIS tools can help monitor conformance and identify gaps.

CIS-CAT Pro Dashboard provides an easy-to-use graphical user interface for viewing CIS Benchmark conformance assessment results over time. Similarly, CIS CSAT Pro enables an organization to monitor implementation of the CIS Controls over time.

A strong cybersecurity program with CIS SecureSuite Membership

Any organization can start improving its cyber hygiene by downloading CIS’s free best practices, like the PDF versions of the CIS Benchmarks. But it’s important to know that you don’t have to go it alone. A cost-effective CIS SecureSuite Membership can be both a solution to your immediate security needs, as well as a long-term resource to help optimize your organization’s cybersecurity program.

You’ll get access to:

CIS-CAT Pro Assessor and Dashboard
CIS CSAT Pro
CIS Build Kits
CIS Benchmarks in various formats (Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, XCCDF, OVAL, XML) and more

Get the most out of CIS best practices for your cybersecurity program by signing up for a cost-effective CIS SecureSuite Membership.

Learn more about CIS SecureSuite

Building an Effective Cybersecurity Program

Information Security Governance: Framework and Toolset for CISOs and Decision Makers

Tags: strong cybersecurity program

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Feb 07 2022

Critical Infrastructure Attacks Spur Cybersecurity Investment

Category: cyber security,Cyber Strategy,OT/ICS,Selling cyber security — DISC @ 12:40 pm

Critical Infrastructure Attacks Spur Cybersecurity Investment

The attacks on critical industrial systems such as Colonial Pipeline last year pushed industrial cybersecurity to center stage. And with the threat of war between Russia and Ukraine, experts warned nations that a global flare-up of cybersecurity attacks on critical infrastructure could be looming. In late January, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) put critical infrastructure organizations on notice: Take “urgent, near-term steps” to mitigate the risk of digital attacks. The alert cited tension in eastern Europe as the catalyst for possible attacks against U.S. digital assets.

Critical Infrastructure Under Attack

Unfortunately, critical systems have long been under significant attack. In fact, an overwhelming 80% of critical infrastructure organizations experienced ransomware attacks last year, according to a survey released today by PollFish on behalf of cyber-physical systems security provider Claroty. The survey, completed in September 2021, gathered responses from full-time information technology and operational technology (OT) security professionals in the United States (500 professionals), Europe (300) and Asia-Pacific (300). The industries surveyed include IT hardware, oil and gas (including pipelines), consumer products, electric energy, pharmaceutical/life sciences/medical devices, transportation, agriculture/food and beverage, heavy industry, water and waste and automotive.

Globally, 80% of respondents reported experiencing an attack and 47% of respondents said the attack impacted their operational technology and industrial control systems environment. A full 90% of respondents that reported their attacks to authorities or shareholders said the impact of those attacks was substantial in 49% of cases.

Attacking Digital Transformation

Cybersecurity Investments

Effectiveness of National Cyber Policy to Strengthen the Security and Resilience of Critical Infrastructure Against Cyber Attacks

Tags: Critical Infrastructure Attacks

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Feb 02 2022

10 Steps to Cyber Security

Category: Cyber resilience,cyber security — DISC @ 4:34 pm

10-Steps-to-Cyber-Security-2-1 Download

8 Steps to Better Security: A Simple Cyber Resilience Guide for Business

Harden your business against internal and external cybersecurity threats with a single accessible resource.

In 8 Steps to Better Security: A Simple Cyber Resilience Guide for Business, cybersecurity researcher and writer Kim Crawley delivers a grounded and practical roadmap to cyber resilience in any organization. Offering you the lessons she learned while working for major tech companies like Sophos, AT&T, BlackBerry Cylance, Tripwire, and Venafi, Crawley condenses the essence of business cybersecurity into eight steps.