Podcasts

SHARED INTEL: Study shows mismanagement of ‘machine identities’ triggers $52 billion in losses

By Byron V. Acohido

In one sense, digital transformation is all about machines.

Physical machines, like driverless vehicles and smart buildings; but, even more so, virtual machines. I’m referring to the snippets of “microservice” coding placed inside of modular software “containers” that get mixed and matched in “storage buckets,” and then processed in “serverless computers” residing in the Internet cloud.

These virtual machines – which happen to be mushrooming in number — underly the physical machines. This all adds up to high-speed, agile innovation. But the flip side is that fresh software vulnerabilities are getting spun up, as well. Machines control the flow of all types of sensitive data. As a result, the way in which they connect and authorize communication makes them a primary security risk for organizations. And, cyber criminals, no surprise, are taking full advantage.

Now comes a study from Boston-based consultancy Air Worldwide that puts some hard numbers on the degree to which threat actors are plundering virtual machines. The report, titled The Economic Impact of Machine Identity Breaches, was commissioned by Salt Lake City, UT-based security vendor Venafi.

According to the study, poor management of machine identities leads directly to an estimated $52 billion to $72 billion in losses annually. What’s more, large enterprises, i.e. those with $2 billion or more in annual revenue, are getting hit twice as hard as smaller organizations, when it comes to cyber attacks that exploit anemic protections for machine identities.

I had a chance to visit once again with Jeff Hudson, Venafi’s outspoken CEO at RSA 2020. We had a lively discussion about the backdrop of the study, and its going-forward implications. For a full drill down, please give the accompanying podcast a listen. Here are excerpts, edited for clarity and length:

Byron Acohido · Cybersecurity regulations gel -- in the Middle East

STEPS FORWARD: How the Middle East led the U.S. to implement smarter mobile security rules

By Byron V. Acohido

We’ve come to rely on our smartphones to live out our digital lives, both professionally and personally.

When it comes to securing mobile computing devices, the big challenge businesses have long grappled with is how to protect company assets while at the same time respecting an individual’s privacy.

Reacting to the BYOD craze, mobile security frameworks have veered from one partially effective approach to the next over the past decade. However, I recently learned about how federal regulators in several nations are rallying around a reinvigorated approach to mobile security: containerization. Containerizing data is a methodology that could anchor mobile security, in a very robust way, for the long haul.

Interestingly, leadership for this push came from federal regulators in, of all places, the Middle East. In May 2017, the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) implemented its Cyber Security Framework mandating prescriptive measures, including a requirement to containerize data in all computing formats. A few months later the United Arab Emirates stood up its National Electronic Security Authority (NESA) which proceeded to do much the same thing.

Earlier this year, US regulators essentially followed the Middle East’s lead by rolling out sweeping new rules — referred to as Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) — which require use of data containerization along much the same lines as Saudi Arabia and the UAE mandated some three years ago. The implementation of CMMC represents a big change from past U.S. federal data handling rules for contractors, for which compliance was by-and-large voluntary.

MY TAKE: ‘Network Detection and Response’ emerges as an Internet of Things security stopgap

By Byron V. Acohido

There’s no stopping the Internet of Things now.

Related: The promise, pitfalls of IoT

Companies have commenced the dispersal of IoT systems far and wide. Data collected by IoT devices will increasingly get ingested into cloud-centric networks where it will get crunched by virtual servers. And fantastic new IoT-enabled services will spew out of the other end.

The many privacy and security issues raised by IoT, however, are another story. The addressing of IoT privacy and security concerns lags far, far behind. Commendably, the global cybersecurity community continues to push companies to practice cyber hygiene. And industry groups and government regulators are stepping up efforts to incentivize IoT device makers to embed security at the device level.

Very clearly, something more is needed. That’s where a cottage industry of security companies in the Network Detection and Response (NDR) space comes into play. NDR vendors champion the notion that it’s a good idea for someone to be keeping an eagle eye on the rivers of packets that crisscross modern enterprise networks, especially packets flooding in from IoT systems. That can be done very efficiently today, and would markedly improve network security without waiting for better security practices or tougher industry standards to take hold, they argue.

I had a fascinating discussion about this with Sri Sundaralingam, vice president of cloud and security solutions at ExtraHop, a Seattle-based supplier of NDR technologies. We spoke at RSA 2020. For a full drill down on our conversation, give the accompanying podcast a listen. Here are the key takeaways:

IoT surge

According to Fortune Business Insights, the global IoT market will top $1.1 trillion by 2026, up from $190 billion in 2018. That’s a compounded annual growth rate of a whopping 24.7 percent.

SHARED INTEL: How attacks on web, mobile apps are being fueled by rising API vulnerabilities

By Byron V. Acohido

Application programming interface. API. It’s the glue holding digital transformation together.

APIs are the conduits for moving data to-and-fro in our digitally transformed world. APIs are literally everywhere in the digital landscape, and more are being created every minute. APIs connect the coding that enables the creation and implementation of new applications.

However, APIs also manifest as a wide open, steadily expanding attack vector. Many organizations caught up in the frenzy of digital transformation don’t fully appreciate the gaping exposures APIs have come to represent.

I had the chance to discuss this with Matt Keil, director of product marketing at Cequence Security, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based application security vendor that’s in the thick of helping businesses mitigate web application exposures. We spoke at RSA 2020. For a full drill down, please give the accompanying podcast a listen. Here are key takeaways:

Romance scams

Like many modern companies, Zoosk, the popular San Francisco-based dating site, rests on infrastructure that’s predominantly cloud-based. Zoosk’s core service is delivered via a mobile app that has 20 different registration and/or login pages – all are API driven.

Thus, it was well worth it for a hacking group to study Zoosk’s IT stack to reconnoiter its weak points. Here’s how Keil breaks down what happened:

BEST PRACTICES: Mock attacks help local agencies, schools prepare for targeted cyber scams

By Byron V. Acohido

Cyber criminals who specialize in plundering local governments and school districts are in their heyday.

Ransomware attacks and email fraud have spiked to record levels across the U.S. in each of the past three years, and a disproportionate number of the hardest hit organizations were local public agencies.

Lucy Security, a security training company based in Zug, Switzerland that works with many smaller public entities, has been in the thick of this onslaught. The company’s software is used to run public servants and corporate employees through mock cyberattack training sessions. There’s an obvious reason smaller public entities have become a favorite target of cybercriminals: most are run on shoestring budgets and corners tend to get cut in IT security, along with everything else operationally.

I had a chance to discuss this with Lucy Security Inc. CEO Colin Bastable at RSA 2020. Another factor I never thought about, until meeting with Bastable, is that public servants typically possess a can-do work ethic. This can make them particularly susceptible to social engineering trickery, the trigger for online extortion and fraud campaigns, Bastable told me.

For a drill down on my full interview with Bastable, give the accompanying podcast a listen. Here are the key takeaways:

Simple, lucrative fraud

What happened in the state of Texas earlier last January is a microcosm of intensifying pressure all local agencies face from motivated hackers and scammers.

Fraudsters did enough online intelligence gathering on the Manor Independent School District, in Manor, Texas, to figure out which vendors were in line to receive large bank transfers as part of the school district spending the proceeds of a large school bond. They also studied the employees who handled the transactions.

BEST PRACTICES: Why pursuing sound ‘data governance’ can be a cybersecurity multiplier

By Byron V. Acohido

Deploying the latest, greatest detection technology to deter stealthy network intruders will take companies only so far.

At RSA 2020, I learned about how one of the routine daily chores all large organizations perform — data governance — has started to emerge as something of a cybersecurity multiplier.

It turns out there are some housekeeping things companies can do while ingesting, leveraging and storing all of the data churning through their complex hybrid cloud networks. And by doing this housekeeping – i.e. by improving their data governance practices — companies can reap higher efficiencies, while also tightening data security.

This nascent trend derives from a cottage industry of tech vendors in the “content collaboration platform” (CCP) space, which evolved from the earlier “enterprise file sync and share” (EFSS) space. I had the chance to sit down with Kris Lahiri, CSO and co-founder of Egnyte, one of the original EFSS market leaders. For a drill down on our discussion about how data governance has come to intersect with cybersecurity, give a listen to the accompanying podcast. Here are key takeaways:

Storage efficiencies

With so much data coursing through business networks, companies would be wise to take into consideration the value vs. risk proposition of each piece of data, Lahiri says. The value of data connected to a live project is obvious. What many organizations fail to do is fully assess – and set policies for — data they hang on to after the fact.

One reason for this is storage is dirt cheap. It has become common practice for companies to store a lot of data without really thinking too hard about it. In fact, there’s a strong case to be made for meticulously archiving all stored data, as well as getting on a routine of purging unneeded data on a regular basis.

NEW TECH: Security Compass streamlines the insertion of security best practices into DevOps

By Byron V. Acohido

DevOps is now table stakes for any company hoping to stay competitive. Speed and agility is the name of the game. And everyone’s all-in.

Related: A firewall for microservices

DevSecOps arose to insert security checks and balances into DevOps, aiming to do so without unduly degrading speed and agility.

If you’re thinking that speed and security are like oil and water, you’re right. At RSA 2020, I had an eye-opening discussion with Rohit Sethi, CEO of Security Compass, about this. Sethi walked me through some of the limitations of DevSecOps, as well as the approach Security Compass is taking to help shore it up. For a full drill down on our discussion, please give the accompanying podcast a listen. Here are key takeaways:

The speed imperative

Software has become the life blood of virtually all industries. As companies have come to realize how pivotal software is, an urgency has arisen to develop code as quickly as humanly possible.

Fail fast. That’s become the mantra of DevOps. Pour everything into quickly deploying minimally viable software to learn where it works or fails, and then iterate and remediate on the fly. Fail fast has replaced the methodical, linear approach to developing software, which sought to achieve a perfect product.

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The Last Watchdog

Podcasts

SHARED INTEL: Study shows mismanagement of ‘machine identities’ triggers $52 billion in losses

By Byron V. Acohido

STEPS FORWARD: How the Middle East led the U.S. to implement smarter mobile security rules

By Byron V. Acohido

MY TAKE: ‘Network Detection and Response’ emerges as an Internet of Things security stopgap

By Byron V. Acohido

SHARED INTEL: How attacks on web, mobile apps are being fueled by rising API vulnerabilities

By Byron V. Acohido

BEST PRACTICES: Mock attacks help local agencies, schools prepare for targeted cyber scams

By Byron V. Acohido

BEST PRACTICES: Why pursuing sound ‘data governance’ can be a cybersecurity multiplier

By Byron V. Acohido

NEW TECH: Security Compass streamlines the insertion of security best practices into DevOps

By Byron V. Acohido