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Why does ICS/OT need specific controls and its own cybersecurity budget today? Because treating ICS/OT security with an IT security playbook isn't just ineffective—it's high risk. In the rapidly evolving domain of cybersecurity, the specific challenges and needs for Industrial Control Systems (ICS) and Operational Technology (OT) security distinctly stand out from traditional IT security. ICS/OT engineering systems, which power critical infrastructure such as electric power grids, oil and gas processing, heavy manufacturing, food and beverage processes, and water management facilities, require tailored cybersecurity strategies, and controls. This is due to the increasing attacks towards ICS/OT, their unique operational missions, a different risk surface than that of traditional IT networks, and the significant safety consequences from cyber incidents that impact the physical world. Critical infrastructure should be protected against today's threats to continue supporting national sa...

The United States Treasury Department said it suffered a "major cybersecurity incident" that allowed suspected Chinese threat actors to remotely access some computers and unclassified documents.  "On December 8, 2024, Treasury was notified by a third-party software service provider, BeyondTrust, that a threat actor had gained access to a key used by the vendor to secure a cloud-based service used to remotely provide technical support for Treasury Departmental Offices (DO) end users," the department said in a letter informing the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. "With access to the stolen key, the threat actor was able to override the service's security, remotely access certain Treasury DO user workstations, and access certain unclassified documents maintained by those users." The federal agency said it has been working with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (...

As SaaS providers race to integrate AI into their product offerings to stay competitive and relevant, a new challenge has emerged in the world of AI: shadow AI.  Shadow AI refers to the unauthorized use of AI tools and copilots at organizations. For example, a developer using ChatGPT to assist with writing code, a salesperson downloading an AI-powered meeting transcription tool, or a customer support person using Agentic AI to automate tasks – without going through the proper channels. When these tools are used without IT or the Security team's knowledge, they often lack sufficient security controls, putting company data at risk. Shadow AI Detection Challenges Because shadow AI tools often embed themselves in approved business applications via AI assistants, copilots, and agents they are even more tricky to discover than traditional shadow IT. While traditional shadow apps can be identified through network monitoring methodologies that scan for unauthorized connections based on...

BeyondTrust has disclosed details of a critical security flaw in Privileged Remote Access (PRA) and Remote Support (RS) products that could potentially lead to the execution of arbitrary commands. Privileged Remote Access controls, manages, and audits privileged accounts and credentials, offering zero trust access to on-premises and cloud resources by internal, external, and third-party users. Remote Support allows service desk personnel to securely connect to remote systems and mobile devices. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-12356 (CVSS score: 9.8), has been described as an instance of command injection. "A critical vulnerability has been discovered in Privileged Remote Access (PRA) and Remote Support (RS) products which can allow an unauthenticated attacker to inject commands that are run as a site user," the company said in an advisory. An attacker could exploit the flaw by sending a malicious client request, effectively leading to the execution of arbitrary...

Addressing cyber threats before they have a chance to strike or inflict serious damage is by far the best security approach any company can embrace. Achieving this takes a lot of research and proactive threat hunting. The problem here is that it is easy to get stuck in endless arrays of data and end up with no relevant intel.  To avoid this, use these five battle-tested techniques that are certain to improve your company's threat awareness and overall security. Finding threats targeting orgs in your region The most basic, yet high-impact way to learn about the current threat landscape for your company is to go and see what type of attacks other organizations in your region are experiencing.  In most cases, threat actors attempt to target dozens of businesses at the same time as part of a single campaign. This makes it possible to catch the threat early and make correct adjustments in your organization. How it contributes to your security: More targeted and effective de...

A joint advisory issued by Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the U.S. has warned of a broad cyber espionage campaign undertaken by People's Republic of China (PRC)-affiliated threat actors targeting telecommunications providers. "Identified exploitations or compromises associated with these threat actors' activity align with existing weaknesses associated with victim infrastructure; no novel activity has been observed," government agencies said . U.S. officials told Tuesday that the threat actors are still lurking inside U.S. telecommunications networks about six months after an investigation into the intrusions commenced. The attacks have been attributed to a nation-state group from China referred to as Salt Typhoon, which overlaps with activities tracked as Earth Estries, FamousSparrow, GhostEmperor, and UNC2286. The group is known to be active since at least 2020, with some of the artifacts developed as early as 2019. Last week, T-Mobile acknowledged that...

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Thursday warned that two more flaws impacting the Palo Alto Networks Expedition software have come under active exploitation in the wild. To that end, it has added the vulnerabilities to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities ( KEV ) catalog, requiring Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) agencies to apply the necessary updates by December 5, 2024. The security flaws are listed below - CVE-2024-9463 (CVSS score: 9.9) - Palo Alto Networks Expedition OS Command Injection Vulnerability CVE-2024-9465 (CVSS score: 9.3) - Palo Alto Networks Expedition SQL Injection Vulnerability Successful exploitation of the vulnerabilities could allow an unauthenticated attacker to run arbitrary OS commands as root in the Expedition migration tool or reveal its database contents. This could then pave the way for disclosure of usernames, cleartext passwords, device configurations, and device API keys of PAN-OS firewalls, or cr...

Behavioral analytics, long associated with threat detection (i.e. UEBA or UBA), is experiencing a renaissance. Once primarily used to identify suspicious activity, it's now being reimagined as a powerful post-detection technology that enhances incident response processes. By leveraging behavioral insights during alert triage and investigation, SOCs can transform their workflows to become more accurate, efficient, and impactful. Fortunately, many new cybersecurity products like AI SOC analysts are able to incorporate these techniques into their investigation capabilities, thus allowing SOCs to utilize them into their response processes. This post will provide a brief overview of behavior analytics then discuss 5 ways it's being reinvented to shake up SOC investigation and incident response work. Behavior Analysis is Back, But Why? Behavioral analytics was a hot topic back in 2015, promising to revolutionize static SIEM and SOC detections with dynamic anomaly detection to uncover t...

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Thursday added a now-patched critical security flaw impacting Palo Alto Networks Expedition to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities ( KEV ) catalog, citing evidence of active exploitation. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-5910 (CVSS score: 9.3), concerns a case of missing authentication in the Expedition migration tool that could lead to an admin account takeover. "Palo Alto Expedition contains a missing authentication vulnerability that allows an attacker with network access to takeover an Expedition admin account and potentially access configuration secrets, credentials, and other data," CISA said in an alert. The shortcoming impacts all versions of Expedition prior to version 1.2.92, which was released in July 2024 to plug the problem. There are currently no reports on how the vulnerability is being weaponized in real-world attacks, but Palo Alto Networks has since revised its original adviso...

An ongoing threat campaign dubbed VEILDrive has been observed taking advantage of legitimate services from Microsoft, including Teams, SharePoint, Quick Assist, and OneDrive, as part of its modus operandi. "Leveraging Microsoft SaaS services — including Teams, SharePoint, Quick Assist, and OneDrive — the attacker exploited the trusted infrastructures of previously compromised organizations to distribute spear-phishing attacks and store malware," Israeli cybersecurity company Hunters said in a new report. "This cloud-centric strategy allowed the threat actor to avoid detection by conventional monitoring systems." Hunters said it discovered the campaign in September 2024 after it responded to a cyber incident targeting a critical infrastructure organization in the United States. It did not disclose the name of the company, instead giving it the designation "Org C." The activity is believed to have commenced a month prior, with the attack culminating i...

Zero Trust security changes how organizations handle security by doing away with implicit trust while continuously analyzing and validating access requests. Contrary to perimeter-based security, users within an environment are not automatically trusted upon gaining access. Zero Trust security encourages continuous monitoring of every device and user, which ensures sustained protection after successful user authentication. Why companies adopt Zero Trust security Companies adopt Zero Trust security to protect against complex and increasingly sophisticated cyber threats. This addresses the limitations of traditional, perimeter-based security models, which include no east-west traffic security, the implicit trust of insiders, and lack of adequate visibility.  Traditional vs. Zero Trust security Zero Trust security upgrades an organization's security posture by offering: Improved security posture : Organizations can improve their security posture by continuously gathering data on...

With so many SaaS applications, a range of configuration options, API capabilities, endless integrations, and app-to-app connections, the SaaS risk possibilities are endless. Critical organizational assets and data are at risk from malicious actors, data breaches, and insider threats, which pose many challenges for security teams. Misconfigurations are silent killers, leading to major vulnerabilities. So, how can CISOs reduce the noise? What misconfiguration should security teams focus on first? Here are five major SaaS configuration mistakes that can lead to security breaches. #1 Misconfiguration: HelpDesk Admins Have Excessive Privileges Risk: Help desk teams have access to sensitive account management functions making them prime targets for attackers. Attackers can exploit this by convincing help desk personnel to reset MFA for privileged users, gaining unauthorized access to critical systems. Impact: Compromised help desk accounts can lead to unauthorized changes to admin-...