The Biden administration has warned in recent weeks that Russia could look to target infrastructure in the U.S. or elsewhere with cyberattacks, but officials previously said there was no specific or credible threats against the U.S.
White House deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger said Monday that officials have seen some “preparatory activity” and that the administration briefed companies who could be affected in a classified setting last week.
Lucas Budman, CEO of TruU (www.truu.ai) has this comment:
“Enterprises need to act and ensure all attack surfaces are covered. While network and endpoint protection are important, identity is the biggest laggard and the ripest for attack with approximately 80% of breaches linking back to it. Most business still use passwords but there is no safety in numbers as credentials can be compromised from phishing, brute force, credential stuffing, or buying lists of already compromised accounts. After all, people tend to reuse passwords which results in 2FA effectively being secured by just the second factor alone. Passwordless MFA inclusive of biometrics, presence, and behavior is one of the few modern options to dramatically limit the identity attack surface.”
I’m not really surprised by this as Russia is known for housing groups that perpetrate cyberattacks. Thus businesses in the US and beyond should heed this warning and do what they need to do to prepare themselves for what is sure to be a barrage of cyberattacks in the next few weeks.
NSA, CISA and FBI Expose Chinese Backed Exploitation Of Network Providers And Devices
Posted in Commentary with tags China, Hacked, US on June 8, 2022 by itnerdThe NSA, CISA and FBI have released a Cybersecurity Advisory called “People’s Republic of China State-Sponsored Cyber Actors Exploit Network Providers and Devices“. This advisory centers around the fact that hackers aligned with China are using a variety of techniques to exploit publicly-known vulnerabilities in equipment, allowing them to establish a broad network of compromised infrastructure. The advisory also lists a number of mitigation strategies that organizations need to take to protect themselves.
Jason Middaugh who is the Chief Information Security Officer, MRK Technologies had this to say:
The latest Cybersecurity Advisory from the NSA, CISA, and FBI drives home the importance of good cybersecurity fundamentals such as keeping assets updated/patched, changing default credentials to strong passphrases, and requiring multi-factor authentication wherever possible.
Many companies make the mistake of focusing on implementing the latest and greatest high-tech hardware/software and overlook the basics like system hardening and asset lifecycle management.
It does not matter whether it is the PRC attempting to exploit the device or an international cybercrime syndicate, if you don’t do the basics well it is only a matter of time before an internet facing asset is compromised.
Clearly this advisory is required reading for all enterprises. Because at the end of the day all enterprises are at risk. And it doesn’t matter if it’s China, or a ransomware group. All enterprises need to reduce their attack surface as much as possible to ensure that they are as safe from attack as possible.
UPDATE: Chris Olson, CEO, The Media Trust had this to say:
“Zero-days and other vulnerabilities in networked devices are an overlooked national security threat, especially in the midst of mounting geopolitical tensions. Unfortunately, the problem is not isolated to IT infrastructure, but also extends to the software supply chain, popular apps and mainstream websites. Today, foreign adversaries are targeting American consumers and businesses through code, with no borders to prevent malicious activity. In addition to following the advice published in the joint cybersecurity advisory, organizations should regularly monitor their digital ecosystem for the presence of untrusted third parties and remove bad actors to protect their users.”
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