A group calling itself "Cyber Av3ngers," believed to be supported by Iran's government, has declared war against Western organizations making use of Israeli technology. One of the opening salvos in this campaign appears to be against US water utilities, with at least one confirmed strike by the Iranian hackers in Pennsylvania.
Cyber Security
Cyber criminals, state-sponsored hackers and even the occasional disgruntled employee are constantly looking to gain unauthorized access for a variety of purposes: theft of money, cyber espionage, personal information for sale or for use in scams, and damage to critical infrastructure for just a few of the most common.
So how does an organization mitigate an entire world full of continual cyber attacks? Just as buildings have a number of necessary elements of physical security: access control, cameras, alarms and so on; there are similar key elements of cyber security that are absolutely vital for just about any modern business.
It starts with identifying and closing the most common doors that attackers use. For example, phishing attacks on employees are far and away the most common initial point of entry. The breach of even a low-level employee account can quickly turn into an escalation in access privileges and the ability to reach sensitive information. This is also true of smart devices, which are generally more poorly secured than computers and phones.
The increasing reliance on third parties brings with it potential risks that must be identified and remediated across the supplier’s relationship lifecycle. AI can help procurement teams evaluate business risks far more quickly by identifying and prioritizing those risks.
An update from Okta on its October customer support security breach indicates that the damage is worse than initially expected, with all of the recent users of its Help Center service now being told that the attackers likely stole their uploaded files.
Iranian hackers Cyber Av3ngers breached a water utility in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, by targeting an Israeli-made SCADA system they consider a legitimate target.
New AI security guidelines offers a general overview of expected risks and threats from the initial design process, through the development life cycle and deployment, and all the way through ongoing operation and maintenance after deployment.
A ransomware attack on Ardent Health Services, a network of 30 hospitals that spans six states, disrupted emergency rooms and caused some patient diversions for at least two days in addition to taking down various systems.
As more recipients get wise to the usual phishing tactics, attackers are adopting another strategy: pretexting. Protecting an organization against pretexting attacks requires a layered approach that includes preventing attack messages from reaching employees, and making employees aware of how pretexting works.
Royal Mail's parent company, International Distribution Services, will spend more than £10 Million in ransomware recovery costs from the January 2023 LockBit cyberattack.
In a recent analysis of the companies that make up the Global 2000, nearly three quarters implemented less than half of all domain security measures. As attacks targeting domains continue to rise, it is critical to determine who is responsible for overseeing their security and the processes they implement.
Pro-Russian hacktivists breached the Idaho nuclear lab and stole sensitive employee data after compromising a federally-approved third-party vendor system.










