(ISC)² Blog

Happy New (Security) Year!

By Lorna Trayan, Associate Partner Security at IBM Security Services As I realized that the year is almost over, I had a thought: wouldn’t it be great if we could get a crystal ball and see what the future holds for us? Although I would love to know about my personal life, it’s the cybersecurity world I’m referring to here! Alas, since that’s not possible, we will all have to settle on reading the reports coming out and talking about future “predictions” of the security realm. Predictions, even if sometimes don’t come exactly true, would still assist us in taking... Read more →

Weekly Security Headlines: Hearings, guidelines and news

New guidelines, increased government oversight, and mounting stress in cybersecurity With the 4th quarter underway, we are starting to see lots of predictions about what the cybersecurity industry can expect to see come 2018. Thinking about the future makes it easy to forget about what is happening right now, though. Let’s take a look back at the news that happened this week to remind us of where we are, before we focus too much on where we’re going. Arguably the biggest industry-wide news of the week was the Senate Commerce Committee hearing, “Protecting Consumers in the Era of Major Breaches.... Read more →

Security Headlines: Hopping Around

This week’s National Cybersecurity Awareness campaign focused on feeding the pipeline to narrow the skills gap in the cybersecurity workforce. While StaySafeOnline declared “The Internet Wants You: Consider a Career in Cybersecurity,” Ransomware hopped to the headlines. Rabbit on the run ‘Bad Rabbit’, the third global outbreak of the year with similarities to NotPetya, struck companies throughout Russia and Eastern Europe with file-encrypting malware. This strand of ransomware metaphorically knocks on the user’s door by way of a malicious pop-up offering a Flash update. Though the outbreak was first reported, it’s suspected that the group behind the attack has been... Read more →

Security Headlines: Congress Edition

Fresh from Austin, here are the top headlines from (ISC)2's 2017 Security Congress: Let's talk about risk, baby. That's the language c-level executives and board members want to hear from the security team. Keynote speaker and Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI, Donald Freese, spoke about a non-emotional approach to security. CSO Online quotes Dylan Thomas, who was probably talking about cybersecurity practitioners when he said "Do not go gently into that good night." Garfield loves lasagna and hates cyberbullying. Infosecurity Magazine was with us in Austin and spoke to the CISO of the state of Missouri, Michael Roling, CIO... Read more →

Security Headlines: Spying & Stealing

Spying, stealing, defacing. It’s been a busy week. These are the top security headlines for the week of August 28, 2017: The U.S. Navy says there’s no evidence of a cyber attack in the crash of the USS John S. McCain – but hypothetically, this is how it would work. Reuters reports cyber spies are using malware to target India and Pakistan – including decoy clickbait with Reuters reports. Yes, you read that right. Hurricane Harvey is a once in a 1,000 years disaster, but be careful before you donate. Scammers are registering domains to collect “donations” for bogus organizations.... Read more →

Security Headlines: Pseudo-ransomware and security budgets

Pseudo-ransomware and struggling security budgets. Here are the top security headlines for the week of August 14, 2017: Who would have thought we would long for the days when ransomware was ransomware. Now it’s all too complicated. Bitcoin is going mainstream, but does that mean it’s a bad investment? In a case of the cobbler’s children have no shoes, data brokers seem to be lacking basic security. Raise the roof! It looks like cybersecurity might be hitting a ceiling when it comes to spending. No spoilers, but HBO has been hacked again and OurMine is taking over their social accounts.... Read more →

Security Headlines: Payouts and Panic

WannaCry and NotPetya aftermath means payouts and panic. Here are the top security headlines for the week of August 7, 2017: Big money, no whammies! It seems like the hackers behind WannaCry have cashed out their bitcoin into Monero, a harder to track cryptocurrency. Mo money means mo malware. The success – can we call it that? – of WannaCry and NotPetya means ransomware is not going away any time soon, because… well, people and businesses pay the ransom. What’s that definition of insanity? Oh yeah, doing the same thing and expecting a different result… Tripwire research indicates that two-thirds... Read more →

Security Headlines: Weekend Warriors, SIM Swapping and more

In what passes for a quiet week in the cybersecurity space, here are some of the top security headlines for the week of July 11, 2017: According to the Economic Times, cyber insurance companies haven’t been hit with claims from the summer’s cyberattacks – yet. “It would only need a combination of WannaCry’s wide reach and Petya’s destructive force to cost cyber insurers something like $2.5 billion...” Oh good – something to look forward to! In news that won’t surprise your family, 57% of IT security professionals work weekends. But those weekend warriors are up for the challenge, as 97%... Read more →

Looking for cybersecurity job? Healthcare is hiring!

While the projected 1.8 million cybersecurity workforce gap is a staggering number, the Global Information Security Workforce Study did reveal which sectors are most aggressively looking to address this talent shortfall. Healthcare, retail and manufacturing top the list of industries looking to increase their cybersecurity workforce by more than 20% over the next year. Healthcare, in particular, is aiming for a 39% increase. It’s not surprising that they’re leading the charge to staff up, as Privacy Rights Clearninghouse reports that there were 223 known breaches to healthcare organizations in the United States in 2016 - and another 46 disclosed so... Read more →

Security Headlines: Malware, Malware, Malware

From malware built to disrupt our critical infrastructure to front-line cyber soldiers, here are some of the top security headlines from the week of June 12: The malware cometh. The “nightmare” malware has been attacking power plants in Europe, causing blackouts and Daily Beast reports that U.S. companies have been warned. “I’m a Mac.” “You still might be in trouble.” That’s what security researchers are saying to Bleeping Computer after two new strains of Mac malware have been offered through the Dark Web over the last few weeks. Is the cloud really safer? Help Net Security found that most IT... Read more →

Security Headlines: #InfoSec17 Edition

Infosecurity Europe took over London this week with “everyone and everything you need to know about information security.” Here are the headlines from the event that caught our eye this week: Are you ready for GDPR? With just under a year to go until implementation, SC Magazine UK asked the question “Can you purchase your way to GDPR compliance?” Short answer: No. No you can’t. No surprise here. In a room full of security pros, the U.K. government’s approach to encryption was a point of discussion following the recent terror attacks in the country. As expected, there were strong opinions... Read more →

Weekly Security Headlines: Still Crying and Fireball

A holiday week in the U.S. and U.K. means five days worth of headlines in four business days. Here’s what we saw this week… Wanna move on from WannaCry? Not so fast, my friend. BitSight looks at the global impact of the ransomware that spread two weeks ago and found that the ransom collected is only around $100,000. Dark Reading reports on cyber criminals attacking each other on the dark web. Can’t we all just get along? No, apparently not. The price of a breach is high. Bitdefender looks at the Ponemon Institute’s study of the impact on stock prices.... Read more →

Weekly Security Headlines: WannaCry Spillover, Mickey Mouse Hacked, DocuSign Phishing and 560 Million Passwords

Not surprisingly, WannaCry remained top of mind last week. We’re sure you’re doing everything you can to patch your environment and prevent similar ransomware attacks in the future. Here are some WannaCry headlines (and other security news) that caught our eye last week. WannaCry Rolls On According to the Dark Reading article WannaCry's 'Kill Switch' May Have Been a Sandbox-Evasion Tool, researchers early last week were looking into the “kill switch” and consensus seemed to be building that it was a poorly constructed VM analysis/sandbox evasion technique. WIRED went a bit deeper with their assessment The WannaCry Ransomware Hackers Made... Read more →

How to Stop and Remediate WannaCry

The effects of WannaCry, the ransomware dominating international headlines, continue to be felt by organizations and individuals alike. If you or anyone you know has had a device infected, (ISC)2 has advice for stopping and remediating the attack. View the video below to see how you can respond to WannaCry: Read more →

Calling All Cybersecurity Experts!

This year’s (ISC)² Security Congress – with the theme “Leaders of Tomorrow” – will take place September 25-27 in Austin, Texas at the JW Marriott. For the first time, Security Congress will be a stand-alone event, without former partner ASIS International. “We value the partnership we had with ASIS International for the past six years, but it was time for Security Congress to stand on its own to address the programming needs expressed by our members,” says (ISC)² CEO David Shearer. The cybersecurity conference will host more than 90 educational sessions, as well as a town hall meeting, career center... Read more →

Ransomware's Great Lessons

Ransomware has grown recently to become a significant threat to companies, governments and institutions worldwide. The reasons for its growth are not only due to technology – they can also be found in human activity and even the strategies and day-to-day operations of business. Steve Prentice with Cloud Tweaks recently interviewed some Certified Cloud Security Professionals (CCSPs) to get their take on how serious ransomware is, and how preventable it can be. He found there is much that can be done on the inside to keep these attacks from being wholly destructive to merely annoying. To learn more, read his... Read more →