Government Information Security Podcast

The Sophos 2020 Threat Report is out, and among the key findings: Ransomware attackers continue to leverage automated active attacks that can evade security controls and disable backups to do maximum damage in minimal time. John Shier of Sophos analyzes the trends that are most likely to shape the 2020 cybersecurity landscape.

The latest edition of the ISMG Security Report offers an in-depth analysis of how to prevent data exposure in the cloud. Plus: why PCI's new contactless payment standard lacks PINs, and how to go beyond the hype to accurately define "zero trust."

Mobile devices are attractive targets for attackers because of messages, call logs, location data and more. State-sponsored groups are digging ever deeper into mobile hacking, says Brian Robison of BlackBerry Cylance.

It's one thing to know your attackers. It's another to emulate some of their techniques so you can improve your own enterprise defenses. Craig Harber, CTO of Fidelis Cybersecurity, is an advocate of this "think like an attacker" defensive strategy.

Agile environments benefit from development platforms and open-source software, but that also raises the risks of attacks seeded in those supply chains, says Chet Wisniewski of Sophos, who describes steps that organizations can take to mitigate the risks.

Big data analytics and search tools give organizations the ability to analyze information faster than ever before. But too many organizations deactivate security controls built into Elasticsearch, Amazon S3 buckets and MongoDB when they deploy, leaving their data exposed, says Elastic's James Spiteri.

The use of new standards can help strengthen cybersecurity risk management of medical devices at the Department of Veterans Affairs as well as other healthcare organizations, says Anura Fernando of UL, which recently completed a study with the VA examining gaps in medical device cybersecurity approaches.

The latest edition of the ISMG Security Report analyzes how the Russian hacking group Turla has been coopting Iranian hacking tools. Plus: Avast's CCleaner hit by second attack; sizing up draft regulations for the California Consumer Protection Act.

Al Pascual, former head of fraud and security practices at Javelin Strategy & Research, has taken on a new role as COO of a start-up company, Breach Clarity, which is offering consumers a free tool to determine the severity and implications of a data breach and what steps they should take to mitigate risk.

Draft regulations to carry out the California Consumer Privacy Act do not go far enough to clarify ambiguities in the law, which goes into effect Jan. 1, 2020, says privacy attorney Sadia Mirza of the law firm Troutman Sanders, who encourages organizations to submit comments on the proposed regs.

What is the risk of having too many cybersecurity tools? Compromised visibility because of "tool sprawl," say Brian Murphy and Seth Goldhammer of ReliaQuest. Enterprises are now awakening to this challenge and attempting to overcome it.

The latest edition of the ISMG Security Report discusses the shutdown of DeepDotWeb. Plus, dealing with breach fatigue and the Pitney Bowes ransomware attack.

Organizations are accepting that the network perimeter no longer serves as the "ultimate defense" and thus adapting zero-trust principles, including least privilege, based on the understanding that they may already have been compromised, says Darran Rolls of SailPoint.

Robotic process automation aims to use machine learning to create bots that automate high-volume, repeatable tasks. But as organizations tap RPA, they must ensure they take steps to maintain data security, says Deloitte's Ashish Sharma.

According to Ricardo Villadiego, Lumu Technologies' Founder and CEO, organizations are "sitting on a gold mine: their own data". Under the single premise that organizations should assume they are compromised and prove otherwise, Lumu seeks to empower enterprises to answer the most basic question: Is your organization talking with adversary infrastructure?

The threat and risk surface of internet of things devices deployed in automobiles is exponentially increasing, which poses risks for the coming wave of autonomous vehicles, says Campbell Murray of BlackBerry. Large code bases, which likely have many hidden software bugs, are part of the problem, he says.

Large or small, enterprises from all sectors are dealing with the same vulnerabilities in open source code. The difference: the scale of the problem. DJ Schleen of Sonatype discusses insights from the latest ISMG roundtable dinner.

In the wake of a federal appeals court ruling last year vacating a Federal Trade Commission enforcement action against LabMD, the FTC's data security consent orders are becoming far more detailed and rigorous, says former FTC attorney Julie O'Neill.

What's the purpose of ISO 27701, the new privacy extension to the ISO 27001 information security management standard? Matthieu Grall, CISO and DPO at SodiFrance, a French IT services company, who participated in development of 27701, explains the standard and discusses "privacy by design" compliance issues.

Law enforcement success inevitably sparks criminals to become more innovative, including shifting from centralized markets - such as Hansa and Wall Street Market - to encrypted and distributed marketplaces, says the University of Surrey's Alan Woodward.