Dark Reading is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them.Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

Database Security
Authentication
Mobile
Privacy
Compliance
Careers and People
Identity & Access Management
Security Monitoring
Advanced Threats
Insider Threats
Vulnerability Management
Comments
Using the Attack Cycle to Up Your Security Game
Newest First  |  Oldest First  |  Threaded View
homerjohnl
50%
50%
homerjohnl,
 User Rank: Author
8/27/2020 | 4:21:54 PM
OT, the expanding attack surface...or just the newly discovered one
Thanks Todd for your article. It does seem like as new attack surface becomes available, this expands the possible attacks. One of the interesting cases, however, is of OT or ICS systems. These have been around forever, yet the attacks have been fewer than in traditional IT. You mention Stuxnet in your article which is a seminal example of a true OT/ICS attack. However, the attack surface hasn't been as exploited as one might expect. This is not to understate the growing number of attacks and threats; simply to compare it to the IT world.

But things are changing for two reasons. First, attackers have found profitable ways to take advantage of these systems (ransomware especially, but also espionage. So no longer is this just about nation-state risk to critical infrastructure. Second, the attack surface has expanded exponentially in the past 6 months with the increase of remote support of ICS/OT systems as well as the fact that IIOT is beginning to hit a tipping point of growth. The "air gap" that many have pointed to for defense was never truly a gap, but in many cases it created at least a minimal bump in the attacker path. Now, with remote access, the illusion of any air gap is gone. And as IIOT devices connect directly to the cloud, operators have created new angles into these environments.

It will take the hacker commununity some time to learn and develop skills for threatening ICS/OT at scale. But this expansion of the attack surface with new found ways of monetization create significant threats for unprotected ICS systems.


Edge-DRsplash-10-edge-articles
I Smell a RAT! New Cybersecurity Threats for the Crypto Industry
David Trepp, Partner, IT Assurance with accounting and advisory firm BPM LLP,  7/9/2021
News
Attacks on Kaseya Servers Led to Ransomware in Less Than 2 Hours
Robert Lemos, Contributing Writer,  7/7/2021
Commentary
It's in the Game (but It Shouldn't Be)
Tal Memran, Cybersecurity Expert, CYE,  7/9/2021
Register for Dark Reading Newsletters
White Papers
Video
Cartoon
Current Issue
How Enterprises are Attacking the Cybersecurity Problem
Concerns over supply chain vulnerabilities and attack visibility drove some significant changes in enterprise cybersecurity strategies over the past year. Dark Reading's 2021 Strategic Security Survey showed that many organizations are staying the course regarding the use of a mix of attack prevention and threat detection technologies and practices for dealing with cyber threats.
Flash Poll
Twitter Feed
Dark Reading - Bug Report
Bug Report
Enterprise Vulnerabilities
From DHS/US-CERT's National Vulnerability Database
CVE-2020-14263
PUBLISHED: 2021-10-21
"HCL Traveler Companion is vulnerable to an iOS weak cryptographic process vulnerability via the included MobileIron AppConnect SDK"
CVE-2021-20120
PUBLISHED: 2021-10-21
The administration web interface for the Arris Surfboard SB8200 lacks any protections against cross-site request forgery attacks. This means that an attacker could make configuration changes (such as changing the administrative password) without the consent of the user.
CVE-2021-28496
PUBLISHED: 2021-10-21
On systems running Arista EOS and CloudEOS with the affected release version, when using shared secret profiles the password configured for use by BiDirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) will be leaked when displaying output over eAPI or other JSON outputs to other authenticated users on the device...
CVE-2021-29873
PUBLISHED: 2021-10-21
IBM Flash System 900 could allow an authenticated attacker to obtain sensitive information and cause a denial of service due to a restricted shell escape vulnerability. IBM X-Force ID: 206229.
CVE-2021-29883
PUBLISHED: 2021-10-21
IBM Standards Processing Engine (IBM Transformation Extender Advanced 9.0 and 10.0) does not set the secure attribute on authorization tokens or session cookies. Attackers may be able to get the cookie values by sending a http:// link to a user or by planting this link in a site the user goes to. Th...