A Review of the Best News of the Week on Cybersecurity Management & Strategy

DoD Lets Researchers Target All Publicly Accessible Info Systems (Dark Reading, May 05 2021)
The Department of Defense expands its vulnerability disclosure program to include a broad range of new targets.

More US agencies potentially hacked, this time with Pulse Secure exploits (Ars Technica, Apr 30 2021)
Zero-day vulnerability under attack has a severity rating of 10 out of 10.

An ambitious plan to tackle ransomware faces long odds (Ars Technica, May 01 2021)
Heavyweight task force proposes framework to tackle a major cybersecurity problem.


Filter Out the Noise
Since I started this curated security news in June 2017, I’ve clipped ~19,000 articles and narrowed them down into the best 20 per day & best 15 per week. This is my favorite way to cut through all the security marketing and hype. If you’re enjoying it, tell a friend. If you hate it, tell an enemy.
Thanks! – Lucas Samaras

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What is threat modeling and why should you care? (Help Net Security, Apr 30 2021)
While there is not one exact industry wide definition, threat modeling can be summarized as a practice to proactively analyze the cyber security posture of a system or system of systems. Threat modeling can be conducted both in the design/development phases and for live system environments. It is often referred to as Designing for Security. In short, threat modeling answers questions as “Where am I most vulnerable to attacks?”, “What are the key risks?”, and …

Then a Hacker Began Posting Patients’ Deepest Secrets Online (Wired, May 04 2021)
A family-run psychotherapy startup grew into a health care giant. It was a huge success—until the data breach and the anonymous ransom notes sent to clients.

Wanted: The (Elusive) Cybersecurity ‘All-Star’ (Dark Reading, May 05 2021)
Separate workforce studies by (ISC) 2 and ISACA point to the need for security departments to work with existing staff to identify needs and bring entry-level people into the field.

Risk-based vulnerability management has produced demonstrable results (Help Net Security, May 03 2021)
Several years ago, risk-based cybersecurity was a largely untested and hotly debated topic. But the tests have since been administered and the debate largely settled: risk-based cybersecurity produces proven results. The data shows that risk-based vulnerability management (RBVM) programs allow companies to get measurably better results with less work.

How organizations can optimize cloud spend (Help Net Security, May 03 2021)
Although 80% organizations recognize cloud computing as being vital to their financial security, 57% have encountered unexpected costs, according to a study from Aptum. 80% IT professionals see success in utilizing cloud services to unlock greater business profitability. The agility of cloud deployments allows organizations to quickly scale their services to support demand, release new products or services to market, and subsequently improve profit margins and increase efficiencies.

Lack of visibility into IT assets impacting security priorities (Help Net Security, Apr 30 2021)
Axonius released a report which reveals the extremes to which the pandemic escalated lack of visibility into IT assets and how that is impacting security priorities. According to the study conducted by ESG, organizations report widening visibility gaps in their cloud infrastructure (79%, which was a 10% increase over 2020), end-user devices (75%), and IoT device initiatives (75%), leading to increased risk and security incidents.

White House Asked to Increase Crypto Regulation (Infosecurity Magazine, Apr 29 2021)
Task force urges Biden to tackle ransomware attacks, disrupt cyber-criminals’ safe havens, and regulate crypto more tightly

New SEI CERT chief and first ever federal CISO: old cybersecurity models have ‘been overcome’ (SC Media, Apr 30 2021)
SC Media caught up with Greg Touhill this week to learn what issues and projects he plans to prioritize in his role and how the old cybersecurity models we’ve relied on no longer work. In his words, “we need to change our game plan, because the traditional cybersecurity tactics, techniques and procedures that we’ve used for many years are no longer working the way we need them to be.”

Unknown Chinese APT Targets Russian Defense Sector (SecurityWeek, Apr 30 2021)
Researchers at Cybereason say they have discovered an undocumented malware targeting the Russian military sector and bearing the hallmarks of originating in China if not being Chinese state sponsored.

New Ransomware Trends Causing Fear in 2021 (eWEEK, May 03 2021)
In this article, we’re going to touch on the most visible ransomware-related trends that have impacted the threat landscape recently. Among them are attacks involving RDP (remote desktop), RAT (remote-access Trojan), threats faced by the health-care system, attacks on remote workers and other things. There’s no question that the most serious cyber threat in 2021…

New community to gives cybersecurity leaders outside the Fortune 2000 a forum to collaborate (Help Net Security, May 04 2021)
The new InfoSec Leaders Community will feature several channels and will offer security leaders and decision-makers a fresh opportunity to both get advice and new knowledge and share it with others. More importantly, the community is aimed not at the well-off InfoSec leaders, but at those found generally outside the Fortune 2000 who may be forgotten by vendors, researchers, and other talented analysts.

Alaska Court System Briefly Forced Offline Amid Cyber Threat (SecurityWeek, May 03 2021)
The Alaska Court System has temporarily disconnected most of its operations from the internet after a cybersecurity threat on Saturday, including its website and removing the ability to look up court records.

Scripps Health Responds to Cyberattack (Dark Reading, May 04 2021)
The health care system says it has suspended access to patient portals and other applications related to operations at Scripps facilities.

Can Organizations Secure Remote Workers for the Long Haul? (Dark Reading, May 04 2021)
By focusing on protection instead of detection, organizations can defend against targeted attacks without compromising security or productivity.

61% of cybersecurity teams are understaffed (Help Net Security, May 05 2021)
The pandemic’s disruption has rippled across the globe, impacting workforces in nearly every sector. However, according to the findings from a survey report from ISACA and HCL Technologies, the cybersecurity workforce has largely been unscathed, though all-too familiar challenges in hiring and retention continue at levels similar to years past.

Biden’s Supply Chain Initiative Depends on Cybersecurity Insights (Dark Reading, May 06 2021)
Those helming the US supply chain executive order need to leverage standards, measurement, and the lessons cybersecurity leaders have learned.

Gap Between Security and Networking Teams May Hinder Tech Projects (Dark Reading, May 05 2021)
Professionals in each field describe a poor working relationship between the two teams