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FIRESIDE CHAT: U.S. banking regulators call out APIs as embodying an attack surface full of risk

By Byron V. Acohido

APIs have been a linchpin as far as accelerating digital transformation — but they’ve also exponentially expanded the attack surface of modern business networks.

Related: Why ‘attack surface management’ has become crucial

The resultant benefits-vs-risks gap has not surprisingly attracted the full attention of cyber criminals who now routinely leverage API weaknesses in all phases of sophisticated, multi-stage network attacks.

The collateral damage has escalated to the point where federal regulators have been compelled to step in.

Last October the FFIEC explicitly called out APIs as an attack surface that must, henceforth, comply with a new set of API management practices.

Guest expert: Richard Bird, Chief Security Officer, Traceable

I had the chance to visit with Richard Bird, Chief Security Officer at Traceable.ai, which supplies security systems designed  to protect APIs from the next generation of attacks.

We discussed, in some detail, just how far the new rules go in requiring best practices for accessing and authenticating APIs. Bird also enlightened me about how and why this is just a first step in comprehensively mitigating API exposures. For a full drill down, please give the accompanying podcast a listen.

There’s little doubt that the new FFIEC rules will materially raise the bar for API security. In the short run companies subject to federal financial institution jurisdiction will have to hustle to get their API act together; and in the long run other companies in other verticals should follow suit.

I’ll keep watch and keep reporting.

Acohido

Pulitzer Prize-winning business journalist Byron V. Acohido is dedicated to fostering public awareness about how to make the Internet as private and secure as it ought to be.

(LW provides consulting services to the vendors we cover.)

7 Comments | Read | March 22nd, 2023 | For technologists | Podcasts | Steps forward | Top Stories

FIRESIDE CHAT: New automated tools, practices ascend to help companies wrangle PKI

By Byron V. Acohido

Arguably one of the biggest leaps forward an enterprise can make in operational reliability, as well as security, is to shore up its implementations of the Public Key Infrastructure.

Related: Why the ‘Matter’ standard matters

Companies have long relied on PKI to deploy and manage the digital certificates and cryptographic keys that authenticate and protect just about every sensitive digital connection you can name.

Reliance on PKI is only intensifying – as a direct result of the rise of massively interconnected digital systems. This has created a daunting operational and security challenge for many enterprises.

The good news is that a new batch of technical standards and protocols, as well as advanced tools and services, are on the ascension, as well.

Guest expert: Mike Malone, founder and CEO of Smallstep

One technology start-up in the thick of helping companies more effectively “wrangle” PKI is San Francico-based Smallstep, as Mike Malone, founder and CEO, puts it.

Smallstep launched in April 2022 with $26 million in funding, including a seed round of $7 million led by boldstart ventures with participation from Accel Partners, Bain Capital Ventures and Upside Partnership, LLC., and a Series A of $19 million led by StepStone Group.

I recently had the chance recently to visit with Malone; we discussed how advances in automation can help companies begin to proactively manage the swelling volume of digital certificates and encryption keys that are part and parcel of the massively interconnected digital systems. For a full drill down, please give the accompanying podcast a listen.

Acohido

Pulitzer Prize-winning business journalist Byron V. Acohido is dedicated to fostering public awareness about how to make the Internet as private and secure as it ought to be.

(LW provides consulting services to the vendors we cover.)

4 Comments | Read | February 8th, 2023 | For consumers | For technologists | Podcasts | Privacy | Steps forward | Top Stories | Uncategorized

FIRESIDE CHAT: Anchoring security on granular visibility, proactive management of all endpoints

By Byron V. Acohido

Endpoints are where all are the connectivity action is.

Related: Ransomware bombardments

And securing endpoints has once more become mission critical. This was the focal point of presentations at Tanium’s Converge 2022 conference which I had the privilege to attend last week at the Fairmont Austin in the Texas capital.

I had the chance to visit with Peter Constantine, Tanium’s Senior Vice President Product Management. We discussed how companies of all sizes and across all industries today rely on a dramatically scaled-up and increasingly interconnected digital ecosystem.

The attack surface of company networks has expanded exponentially, and fresh security gaps are popping up everywhere.

Guest expert: Peter Constantine, SVP Product Management, Tanium

One fundamental security tenant that must take wider hold is this: companies simply must attain and sustain granular visibility of all of their cyber assets. This is the only way to dial in security in the right measure, to the right assets and at the optimum time.

The technology and data analytics are readily available to accomplish this; and endpoints – specifically servers and user devices – represent a logical starting point.

“We have to make sure that we truly know what and where everything is and take a proactive approach to hardening security controls and reducing the attack surface,” Constantine observes. “And then there is also the need to be able to investigate and respond to the complexities that come up in this world.”

For a full drill down on Tanium’s approach to network security that incorporates granular visibility and real-time management of endpoints please give the accompanying podcast a listen.

Acohido

Pulitzer Prize-winning business journalist Byron V. Acohido is dedicated to fostering public awareness about how to make the Internet as private and secure as it ought to be.

 

 

3 Comments | Read | November 22nd, 2022 | Best Practices | For technologists | Podcasts | Privacy | Top Stories

FIRESIDE CHAT: Timely employee training, targeted testing needed to quell non-stop phishing

By Byron V. Acohido

Humans are rather easily duped. And this is the fundamental reason phishing persists as a predominant cybercriminal activity.

Related: How MSSPs help secure business networks

Tricking someone into clicking to a faked landing page and typing in their personal information has become an ingrained pitfall of digital commerce.

The deleterious impact on large enterprises and small businesses alike has been – and continues to be — profound. A recent survey of 250 IT and security professionals conducted by Osterman Research for Ironscales bears this out.

The poll found that security teams are spending one-third of their time handling phishing threats every week. The battle has sprawled out beyond email; phishing ruses are increasingly getting seeded via messaging apps, cloud-based file sharing platforms and text messaging services.

Guest expert: Ian Thomas, VP of Product Marketing, Ironscales

Some 80 percent of organizations reported that phishing attacks have  worsened or remained the same over the past 12 months, with detection avoidance mechanisms getting ever more sophisticated.

I had the chance to visit with Ian Thomas, vice president of product marketing at  Ironscales, an Atlanta-based email security company.

We discussed advances in cybersecurity training that combine timely content and targeted training to combat the latest phishing campaigns. For a full drill down, please give the accompanying podcast a listen.

Timely, effective security training of all employees clearly must continue to be part of the regimen of defending modern business networks, even more so as cloud migration accelerates. I’ll keep watch and keep reporting.

Acohido

Pulitzer Prize-winning business journalist Byron V. Acohido is dedicated to fostering public awareness about how to make the Internet as private and secure as it ought to be.

(LW provides consulting services to the vendors we cover.)

 

2 Comments | Read | October 25th, 2022 | Best Practices | For consumers | For technologists | Podcasts | Top Stories

FIRESIDE CHAT: Why ‘digital resiliency’ has arisen as the Holy Grail of IT infrastructure

By Byron V. Acohido

Digital resiliency has arisen as something of a Holy Grail in the current environment.

Related: The big lesson of Log4j

Enterprises are racing to push their digital services out to the far edge of a highly interconnected, cloud-centric operating environment. This has triggered a seismic transition of company networks, one that has put IT teams and security teams under enormous pressure.

It’s at the digital edge where all the innovation is happening – and that’s also where threat actors are taking full advantage of a rapidly expanding attack surface. In this milieu, IT teams and security teams must somehow strike a balance between dialing in a necessary level of security — without unduly hindering agility.

Digital resiliency – in terms of business continuity, and especially when it comes to data security — has become a must have. I had the chance to visit with Paul Nicholson, senior director of product at A10 Networks, a San Jose, Calif.-based supplier of security, cloud and application services.

Guest expert: Paul Nicholson, Senior Director of Product, A10 Networks

We discussed how and why true digital resiliency, at the moment, eludes the vast majority of organizations. That said, advanced security tools and new best practices are gaining traction.

There is every reason to anticipate that emerging security tools and practices will help organizations achieve digital resiliency in terms of supporting work-from-home scenarios, protecting their supply chains and mitigating attack surface expansion. As part of this dynamic, Zero Trust protocols appear to be rapidly taking shape as something of a linchpin.

“When you say Zero Trust, people’s ears perk up and they understand that you’re basically talking about making sure only the right people can get to the digital assets which are required,” Nicholson told me.

For more context on these encouraging developments, please give the accompanying podcast a listen. Meanwhile, I’ll keep watch and keep reporting.

Acohido

Pulitzer Prize-winning business journalist Byron V. Acohido is … more

Comment | Read | September 27th, 2022 | For technologists | My Take | Podcasts | Steps forward | Top Stories

SHARED INTEL: The cybersecurity sea change coming with the implementation of ‘CMMC’

By Byron V. Acohido

Finally, Uncle Sam is compelling companies to take cybersecurity seriously.

Related: How the Middle East paved the way to CMMC

Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification version 2.0 could  take effect as early as May 2023 mandating detailed audits of the cybersecurity practices of any company that hopes to do business with the Department of Defense.

Make no mistake, CMMC 2.0, which has been under development since 2017, represents a sea change. The DoD is going to require contractors up and down its supply chain to meet the cybersecurity best practices called out in the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s SP 800-171 framework.

I sat down with Elizabeth Jimenez, executive director of market development at NeoSystems, a Washington D.C.-based supplier of back-office management services, to discuss the prominent role managed security services providers (MSSPs) are sure to play as CMMC 2.0 rolls out. For a full drill down, please give the accompanying podcast a listen. Here are my takeaways:

Comment | Read | September 7th, 2022 | Best Practices | For technologists | My Take | Podcasts | Steps forward | Top Stories

Black Hat Fireside Chat: Taking the fight to the adversaries — with continuous, proactive ‘pen tests’

By Byron V. Acohido

Penetration testing – pen tests – traditionally have been something companies might do once or twice a year.

Related: Cyber espionage is on the rise

Bad news is always anticipated. That’s the whole point. The pen tester’s assignment is to seek out and exploit egregious, latent vulnerabilities – before the bad guys — thereby affording the organization a chance to shore up its network defenses.

Pen testing has limitations, of course. The probes typically take considerable effort to coordinate and often can be more disruptive than planned.

These shortcomings have been exacerbated by digital transformation, which has vastly expanded the network attack surface.

Guest expert: Snehal Antani, CEO, Horizon3.ai

I had the chance at Black Hat 2022 to visit with Snehal Antani and Monti Knode, CEO and director of customer success, respectively, at Horizon3.ai, a San Francisco-based startup, which launched in 2020. Horizon3 supplies “autonomous” vulnerability assessment technology.

Co-founder Antani previously served as the first CTO for the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC)  and Knode was a commander in the U.S. Air Force 67th Cyberspace Operations Group. They argue that U.S. businesses need to take a wartime approach the cybersecurity. For a full drill down, please give the accompanying podcast a listen.

Horizon3’s flagship service, NodeZero, is designed to continuously assess an organization’s network attack surface to identify specific scenarios by which an attacker might combine stolen credentials with misconfigurations or software flaws to gain a foothold.

Comment | Read | August 29th, 2022 | Black Hat Podcasts | For technologists | New Tech | Podcasts | Steps forward | Top Stories

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