A Review of the Best News of the Week on Cybersecurity Management & Strategy
Chronicle: A Meteor Aimed At Planet Threat Intel? (Krebs on Security, Jan 24 2018)
Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google, said it is in the process of rolling out a new service designed to help companies more quickly make sense of and act on the mountains of threat data produced each day by cybersecurity tools.
Maersk Reinstalled 50,000 Computers After NotPetya Attack (SecurityWeek, Jan 26 2018)
Jim Hagemann Snabe, chairman of Danish shipping giant A.P. Moller–Maersk, revealed this week at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland that the company was forced to reinstall software on nearly 50,000 devices following the NotPetya attack.
Wrangling Backoffice Security in the Cloud Age (Securosis Blog, Jan 24 2018)
Over a year ago we first published our series on Tidal Forces: The Trends Tearing Apart Security As We Know It. We called out three megatrends in technology with deep and lasting impact on security practice:
– Endpoints are different, often more secure, and frequently less open.
– Software as a Service (SaaS) is the new back office.
– Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is the new data center.
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Why Edge Computing Market Will Grow 30 Percent by 2022 (eWEEK, Jan 23 2018)
Increasing numbers of big-data workloads and the rise of real-time computing have slowed production in the cloud; conventional architectures have been unable to meet future demand. Edge computing is coming to the rescue. Definition: Edge computing is a method of optimizing cloud computing systems by performing data processing at the edge of the network, near the source of the data.
Gartner Survey Finds Government CIOs Will Increase Spending on Cloud, Cybersecurity and Analytics in 2018 (Gartner, Jan 23 2018)
1 Cloud services/solutions
2 BI/analytics
3 Infrastructure/data centre
4 Digitalization/digital marketing
5 Customer relationship management
6 Security and risk
Expert: IoT Botnets the Work of a ‘Vast Minority’ (Krebs on Security, Jan 24 2018)
Allison Nixon is director of security research at Flashpoint, a cyber intelligence firm based in New York City. Nixon spoke with KrebsOnSecurity at length about her perspectives on IoT security and the vital role of law enforcement in this fight.
Malware Tactics Shifted “Significantly” in 2017 (Infosecurity Magazine, Jan 25 2018)
It wasn’t all ransomware though: 2017 also saw a massive increase in the malicious use of cryptominers.
A Note To My CEO (SC Magazine, Jan 22 2018)
An interesting view on what a CISO might write to the CEO about Meltdown and Spectre.
9 Steps to More-Effective Organizational Security (Dark Reading, Jan 22 2018)
Too often security is seen as a barrier, but it’s the only way to help protect the enterprise from threats. Here are tips on how to strengthen your framework.
House votes to restore State cyber office, bucking Tillerson (The Hill, Jan 17 2018)
House lawmakers have passed legislation that would restore a State Department office to engage with the international community on cybersecurity policy, in a sign of disapproval to Secretary Rex Tillerson’s reorganization efforts.
Facebook Launches ‘Secure the Internet Grants’ Program (Dark Reading, Jan 22 2018)
The new initiative encourages universities, non-profits, and NGOs to submit applied research proposals for new security defense technologies that can be used in practice.
Famous cryptographers’ tombstone cryptogram decrypted (Naked Security – Sophos, Jan 22 2018)
A paper at Schmoocon 2018 over the weekend revealed a delightful cryptogram on William and Elizebeth Friedmans’ tombstone.
Amazon Acquires Threat Hunting Firm Sqrrl (SecurityWeek, Jan 24 2018)
Sqrrl, a Cambridge, Mass.-based big data analytics startup that is commercializing NSA technology to help organizations detect threats lurking in their infrastructure, has been acquired by Amazon.
Here’s What Chief Security Officers Are Worrying About in 2018 (IT Pro, Jan 23 2018)
Some 65 percent of the respondents reported that it’s highly likely that they’ll experience credential theft due to a careless employee falling for a phishing scam, according to the study, while about 60 percent said they believe that IoT devices will be the most challenging disruptive technology they will have to deal with this year. Mobile devices and the cloud were ranked as the second and third most challenging disruptive technologies they will face in 2018, according to 54 percent and 50 percent of the respondents.
World Economic Forum Announces Global Centre for Cybersecurity (SecurityWeek, Jan 24 2018)
The World Economic Forum (WEF) is establishing a new Global Centre for Cybersecurity “to help build a safe and secure global cyberspace.”
Global tech firms let Russian defense agency peek into source code to search for flaws (SC Magazine, Jan 25 2018)
McAfee, Symantec, Micro Focus and SAP all have submitted to the practice, sparking concern at the Pentagon and among lawmakers.
Bob Lord Is the DNC’s New Chief Security Officer (Wired, Jan 25 2018)
At Yahoo, Bob Lord led the response to two massive cyberattacks. Now he’s bringing that know-how to the Democratic National Committee.
Sumo Logic expands security toolset with FactorChain acquisition (TechCrunch, Jan 23 2018)
What Sumo bought with FactorChain was a tool that can rapidly search across multiple systems to locate security data and find issues quickly. What’s more, FactorChain remembers what you’ve found in the past, so security operations analysts don’t spend a lot of time reinventing the wheel.
Railway Cybersecurity Firm Cylus Emerges From Stealth (SecurityWeek, Jan 25 2018)
Cylus Obtains $4.7 Million in Funding to Help Protect Rail Industry Against Cyberattacks
Cisco Acquires Skyport as Cyber-Security Investments Continue (eWEEK, Jan 25 2018)
The core product platform was the SkySecure Server, which is a physical server platform that provides an end-to-end set of security guarantees. It’s the Linux-based SkySecure Server platform tied into the SkySecure Center service that further validates the integrity of firmware, BIOS, software and cryptography.