Enterprises around the world are being barraged by risk events, according to a report released Wednesday by Forrester. The State of Risk Management 2022 report, which is based on a survey of 360 enterprise risk management decision makers in North America and Europe, found that 41% of organizations have experienced three or more critical risk events in the last 12 months.

Risk events, incidents and disruptions have become so frequent that the increased level of risk is the “new normal,” Forrester reported. Nearly half the participants in the survey (44%) confirmed that enterprise risk has increased over the last year, although that varies by region. For example, 64% of North American respondents confirmed an increase in risk, while only 37% of European respondents did.

To read this article in full, please click here

Read More

Federal agencies have until May 23 to mitigate the vulnerabilities

Read More

During a recent podcast, Tenable’s VP of Operational Technology Marty Edwards discussed the cyber threats faced by critical infrastructure providers and the importance of OT security, topics he’ll address again next week during a LinkedIn Live with CNN. 

The recent cyberattacks against critical infrastructure have garnered an unprecedented amount of attention over the past year. Every individual and every business heavily relies on critical infrastructure to get them through their day.

A catastrophic cyber attack on any critical infrastructure sector could result in a chain reaction, potentially wreaking massive economic and social havoc. Its impact could be devastating, potentially costing trillions of dollars to recover from.

Just last year, the U.S. caught a glimpse of the devastation that cyberattacks on critical infrastructure can cause when the Colonial Pipeline was hit by a destructive ransomware attack. The May 2021 shutdown sent the East Coast into a frenzy when the public found themselves waiting in gas station lines for hours desperate to fill their gas tanks.

The attack triggered a call for increased regulations to protect and strengthen U.S. critical infrastructure against cyberattacks. Now, a year later, cybersecurity practitioners and the public alike are still calling on government officials and companies to invest in cybersecurity to better defend these critical infrastructure systems. Clearly, the U.S. needs to extend the conversations surrounding the cyber security of critical infrastructure.

Efforts such as the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Cybersecurity Risk, Management, Strategy, Governance and Incident Disclosure aim to do just that. The proposed rule would force leaders to treat cybersecurity risk as a business risk and require public companies to disclose their policies and procedures for identifying and managing cybersecurity risks. Additionally, it requires the disclosure of the oversight role and cybersecurity expertise of public companies’ leadership and board of directors over their cybersecurity risk assessment program. Conversations surrounding OT in critical infrastructure are crucial to understanding how to best safeguard these public sectors against massive turmoil resulting from cyberattacks.

It’s a topic that Tenable feels strongly about. That’s why Tenable’s Vice President of Operations Technology, Marty Edwards spoke with Dan Raywood, Product Marketing Manager, Security Research at Tenable about how businesses are underprepared and under-invested in OT security, how that’s become a security issue and why it must change.

Listen to the podcast here.

Cyberattacks on critical infrastructure are disruptive, to say the least. Here are 3 key takeaways from the podcast:

1. Businesses are underprepared and underinvested in OT security.

Operational technology security has been thrown into the spotlight in the wake of the recent high-profile cyberattacks against critical infrastructure. With cybercriminals becoming more sophisticated and more aggressive in their attacks, there’s a growing concern among cybersecurity practitioners that businesses are not investing in OT security as they should. OT security must be prioritized but often it is not. Companies’ percentage of investment in OT security is relatively a small fraction of their overall IT security investments. However, OT environments are as critical, if not more, to businesses’ operations, and warrant a lot more investments.

2. The cybersecurity community must find ways to make OT more secure.

The cybersecurity community has created an ongoing dialogue surrounding ways in which cybersecurity can be enhanced with OT security. A great way for vendors and the research community to make OT more secure is through vulnerability reporting and coordinated disclosure. With the threat landscape always evolving, it’s important that organizations identify their greatest vulnerabilities and risks while assessing their security capabilities. Additionally, organizations should keep in mind that it’s often the legacy vulnerabilities hackers use to commit ransomware and other kinds of cyberattacks. The legacy vulnerabilities that have not been patched are constantly being exploited, providing an entryway for cybercriminals.

In the wake of recent ransomware attacks, unpatched vulnerabilities – some between 5 and 20 years old – are now considered one of the biggest cyber risks, as bad actors exploit them to wreak havoc on critical infrastructure. Therefore, businesses should willingly report these vulnerabilities and disclose attempts to exploit them to aid in the fight against these malicious attacks. Vendors and the research community must work together and have an open line of communication and full transparency so that they can increase the level of understanding between them and make OT more secure.

3. The Colonial Pipeline may be the first of many cyberattacks on critical infrastructure sectors.

The Colonial Pipeline incident has illustrated that critical infrastructure is becoming a central issue for cybersecurity and that organizations must always be prepared. What many are calling “one of the most disruptive attacks in history,” it changed the cybersecurity landscape forever, opening the door for more conversations surrounding OT security by the public, government leaders and the cybersecurity industry. It triggered a movement, encouraging public sectors to be more proactive and to invest more in OT security.

As a result, legislators and policymakers are now identifying ways in which they can increase regulations to boost cyber defenses against these kinds of attacks. Additionally, the Colonial Pipeline highlights the need for a holistic approach to risk management and the need to understand the trajectory, from a cyber security perspective, of where we want to be 5-10 years from now. With OT now at the forefront of the conversation, the need to strengthen our cybersecurity ecosystem is critical now more than ever.

Join us for Marty Edward’s LinkedIn live interview with CNN’s Sean Lyngaas 

If that’s whetted your appetite, Marty Edwards will share further insights during this LinkedIn live interview with CNN’s Sean Lyngaas on Wednesday, May 25 at 1pm ET. 

Read More

Brad Smith argues that the Russia-Ukraine war marks significant shift in way warfare is conducted

Read More

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) has issued an emergency directive over two new vulnerabilities in VMware products. According to the advisory, threat actors are likely to exploit CVE-2022-22972 and CVE-2022-22973 in several products including VMware Workspace ONE Access (Access), VMware Identity Manager (vIDM), VMware vRealize Automation (vRA), VMware Cloud Foundation, and vRealize Suite Lifecycle Manager, much like they did in relation to CVE 2022-22954 and CVE 2022-22960 in April. CISA has urged organizations to take swift action to mitigate the risks associated with the vulnerabilities.

To read this article in full, please click here

Read More

Users of Strapi, a popular headless content management system written entirely in JavaScript and focused on API development, should update their installations as soon as possible to fix two vulnerabilities that could lead to administrative accounts being compromised.

According to researchers with the Synopsys Cybersecurity Research Center (CyRC), the flaws allow a user with low privileges to access sensitive data that can be used to perform a password reset for a higher privileged account, such as the administrator. This means attackers need to gain access to a low-privileged account first and this can be achieved via compromised credentials, phishing or other methods.

To read this article in full, please click here

Read More

Post-quantum cryptography company QuSecure has announced its debut with the launch of a new post-quantum cybersecurity solution, QuProtect. The firm claimed that QuProtect is the industry’s first end-to-end quantum software-based platform designed to protect encrypted communications and data using a quantum secure channel.

The solution addresses present classical attacks and future quantum computing threats for commercial enterprises and government agencies, QuSecure added. The release comes as increasing numbers of solutions providers are coming to market with quantum-resilient offerings built to withstand quantum computing security risks that threaten traditional public key cryptography.

To read this article in full, please click here

Read More

It should be hard for malicious hackers to break into systems, but all too often it isn’t.

Read more in my article on the Tripwire State of Security blog.

Read More

A surprising number of websites include JavaScript keyloggers that collect everything you type as you type it, not just when you submit a form.

Researchers from KU Leuven, Radboud University, and University of Lausanne crawled and analyzed the top 100,000 websites, looking at scenarios in which a user is visiting a site while in the European Union and visiting a site from the United States. They found that 1,844 websites gathered an EU user’s email address without their consent, and a staggering 2,950 logged a US user’s email in some form. Many of the sites seemingly do not intend to conduct the data-logging but incorporate third-party marketing and analytics services that cause the behavior.

After specifically crawling sites for password leaks in May 2021, the researchers also found 52 websites in which third parties, including the Russian tech giant Yandex, were incidentally collecting password data before submission. The group disclosed their findings to these sites, and all 52 instances have since been resolved.

“If there’s a Submit button on a form, the reasonable expectation is that it does something — that it will submit your data when you click it,” says Güneş Acar, a professor and researcher in Radboud University’s digital security group and one of the leaders of the study. “We were super surprised by these results. We thought maybe we were going to find a few hundred websites where your email is collected before you submit, but this exceeded our expectations by far.”

Research paper.

Read More

How to Check for Viruses

Whether you think you might have a virus on your computer or devices, or just want to keep them running smoothly, it’s easy to do a virus scan. How to check for viruses depends on the software and device you have, so we’ll go through everything you need to know to run a scan effectively and keep your computers, phones and tablets in tip-top shape.

Do You Need a Virus Scan?

First, let’s cover a few of the telltale signs your device might have a virus. Is your computer or device acting sluggish or having a hard time booting up? Have you noticed missing files or a lack of storage space? Have you noticed emails or messages sent from your account that you did not write? Perhaps you’ve noticed changes to your browser homepage or settings? Or maybe, you’re seeing unexpected pop-up windows, or experiencing crashes and other program errors. These are all examples of signs that you may have a virus, but don’t get too worried yet, because many of these issues can be resolved with a virus scan.

What Does a Virus Scan Do?

Each antivirus program works a little differently, but in general the software will look for known malware that meets a specific set of characteristics. It may also look for variants of these known threats that have a similar code base. Some antivirus software even checks for suspicious behavior. If the software comes across a dangerous program or piece of code, it removes it. In some cases, a dangerous program can be replaced with a clean one from the manufacturer.

How to Check for Viruses

The process of checking for viruses depends on the device type and its operating system. Check out these tips to help you scan your computers, phones and tablets.

On a Windows computer

If you use Windows 10, go into “Settings” and look for the “Updates & Security” tab. From there you can locate a “Scan Now” button.

Of course, many people have invested in more robust antivirus software that has a high accuracy rate and causes less drain on their system resources, such as McAfee Total Protection. To learn how to run a virus scan using your particular antivirus software, search the software’s help menu or look online for instructions.

On a Mac computer

Mac computers don’t have a built-in antivirus program, so you will have to download security software to do a virus scan. There are some free antivirus applications available online, but we recommend investing in trusted software that can protect you from a variety of threats. Downloading free software and free online virus scans can be risky, since cybercriminals know that this is a good way to spread malware.

Whichever program you choose, follow their step-by-step instructions on how to perform a virus scan, either by searching under “help” or looking it up on their website.

On smartphones and tablets

Yes, you can get a virus on your phone or tablet, although they are less common than on computers. However, the wider category of mobile malware is on the rise and your device can get infected if you download a risky app, click on an attachment in a text message, visit a dangerous webpage, or connect to another device that has malware on it.

Fortunately, you can protect your devices with mobile security software. It doesn’t usually come installed, so you will have to download an application and follow the instructions.

Because the Android platform is an open operating system, there are a number of antivirus products for Android devices, allowing you to do a virus scan.

Apple devices are little different, because they have a closed operating system that doesn’t allow third parties to see their code. Although Apple has taken other security precautions to reduce malware risks, such as only allowing the installation of apps from Apple’s official app store, these measures aren’t the same as an antivirus program.

For more robust protection on your Apple devices, you can install mobile security software to protect the private data you have stored on your phone or tablet, such as contacts, photos and messages.

All-In-One Protection:

If safeguarding all your computers and devices individually sounds overwhelming, you can opt for a comprehensive security product that protects computers, smartphones and tablets from a central control center, making virus prevention a breeze.

Why are virus scans so important?

New online threats emerge every day, putting our personal information, money and devices at risk. In the first quarter of 2019 alone McAfee detected 504 new threats per minute, as cybercriminals employed new tactics. That’s why it is essential to stay ahead of these threats by using security software that is constantly monitoring and checking for new known threats, while safeguarding all of your sensitive information. Virus scans are an essential part of this process when it comes to identifying and removing dangerous code.

How often should you run a virus scan?

Most antivirus products are regularly scanning your computer or device in the background, so you will only need to start a manual scan if you notice something suspicious, like crashes or excessive pop-ups. You can also program regular scans on your schedule.

Preventing Viruses

Of course, the best protection is to avoid getting infected in the first place. Here are a few smart tips to sidestep viruses and other malware:

Learn how to surf safely so you can avoid risky websites, links and messages. This will go a long way in keeping you virus-free.
Never click on spammy emails or text messages. These include unsolicited advertisements and messages from people or companies you don’t know.
Keep the software on your computers and devices up to date. This way you are protected from known threats, such as viruses and other types of malware.
Invest in comprehensive security software that can protect all of your devices, such as McAfee LiveSafe.
Stay informed on the latest threats, so you know what to look out for. The more you know about the latest scams, the easier they will be to spot and avoid.

The post How To Do A Virus Scan appeared first on McAfee Blog.

Read More