On December 3rd, 2024, six cybersecurity organizations published Enhanced Visibility and Hardening Guidance for Communications Infrastructure, detailing simple paths threat actors use to penetrate networks. Most people I talk to say, “This is nothing new.” “We’ve heard it all before.” “These are all Best Common Practices (BCPs); everyone should have deployed them already!” Do not Read More
Category: Operator’s Security Toolkit
Is ASEAN Ready for Serious Cybersecurity?
No, most ASEAN countries are not ready for “serious cybersecurity.” Cybersecurity requires a persistent and consistent rhythm of action that fixes known security risks. Public benefit—non-profit cyber civil defense organizations like the Shadowserver Foundation, CyberGreen, and other organizations deliver actionable cyber-risk reporting as a public benefit. Yes, these reports are free to organizations seeking to Read More
PlugX Infections – Is that You?
The French Government sees the massive number of PlugX infections as a national threat. PlugX is malware used by Nation State threat actors to get inside networks. Sekoia was part of a sinkholing action that uncovered thousands of locations where PlugX is deployed. Should you be concerned? How do you discover if you have a Read More
Industry Anti-DDOS Strategy 2018
Note to the Readers …… Yes, there are communities who consult and curate an anti-DDoS strategy to mitigate the risk to the Internet. Starting ~2000, Operators have consulted on ways to build better resilience into the Internet’s infrastructure. These consultations evolved into informal security strategy plans. By 2012, multiple groups were involved (see http://www.senki.org/2012-a-year-of-cyber-security-optimism/). A Read More
Cyber Smokejumping
Cyber Smokejumping is a decades-old practice of intentionally investing time with peers to help them overcome cyber risk. Our global, massively interconnected Digital Society requires increased cybersecurity capabilities, capacity, habits, and practices spread worldwide. Putting up cyber walls and layers of defense will not help if other parts of the world are getting infected and
Leveraging Cyber Civil Defence
The cyber civil defence services provided by the Shadowserver Foundation are the most overlooked and critical tool for securing your network. If you are a cybersecurity professional and NOT signed up to Shadowserver, you are missing details that will protect your network from the next attack. If you want a quick introduction to Shadowserver, check Read More
Lithuania provides insight into the broader threats from China
Lithuania warns that China has ramped up espionage & cyber campaigns in this year’s National Threat Assessments. Cybersecurity and Digital Safety specialists benefit from studying and reflecting on other countries’ national threat assessments. The problem is selecting one that best matches the resources and capabilities that are more closely aligned with most of the world. Read More
Optimize Shadowserver’s Value – Checklist
Optimize Shadowserver’s value! Stop the Threat Actors! You are at risk if you get any of the +120 daily reports. Most issues are easily fixed. All these reports share details the threat actor can potentially exploit. Take 15 minutes once a quarter to update your contacts, ASNs, IPs, Domain, APIs, and other details. Quarterly Reviews Read More
Think first – then Act – Apache Struts CVE-2023-50164
The days when the good guys can take a security break during the December Holidays are over. Plan and expect issues that require teams to come in and mitigate/minimize risk to be the “new normal” for the holidays. This year, researcher Steven Seeley discovered a way to abuse the popular Apache Struts frameworks’ file upload Read More
Thanksgiving Holiday Fun! Five Eyes Warn of LockBit 3.0 Ransomware!
Do you know if your network is vulnerable to LockBit 3.0 Ransomware crew getting into your network via NetScaler CVE-2023-4966 vulnerability? Boeing – a company with a powerful cybersecurity team – was penetrated by the LockBit crews using CVE-2023-4966. Is this your Thanksgiving holiday fun? For those subscribed to Shadowserver free Cyber Civil Defence reporting, Read More