Security Breach

Send us Fan Mail Recently, the conversation in industrial cybersecurity has shifted from detection to response. The onset of faster-moving and easier to scale attacks driven by AI makes detection significantly more difficult, and faced with limited resources, it’s easy to understand why many are embracing the mantra of “it’s not if, but when you’re attacked” and allocating more time and money to t...

Send us Fan Mail If there’s one area where the old adage of “you have to see it to believe it” might not resonate as strongly, it’s OT cybersecurity. I say this because one of the biggest challenges for our sector continues to be visibility.  Although it’s clearly one of those blocking and tackling-type elements, identifying and securing all our assets, endpoints, connections and devices is tough....

Send us Fan Mail Although the need to defend the networks, data and endpoints of critical infrastructure dates back to the first time a PLC was connected to an HMI, the realization of how damaging such a compromise could be was probably Stuxnet. And while we’ve progressed enough to typically spot an unknown or malicious player armed with a suspicious USB, the threat landscape has expanded, and the...

Send us Fan Mail Name a prominent AI company, and chances are they’ve been in the news for the wrong reasons over the last couple of months. Anthropic, OpenAI and Meta have all made headlines as their AI agents have escaped the testing sandbox and either exposed vulnerabilities or performed outright hacks of other systems. The underlying engine driving these attacks is fueled by both competitive p...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we’re doubling up on a couple of topics that continue to be at the top of industrial cybersecurity’s critical issue list – ransomware and artificial intelligence. The confluence of these two topics is interesting to break down in considering how AI has contributed to the speed and scale of ransomware attacks, while the growth of these extortion campaigns has led t...

Send us Fan Mail The pace of technological advancement and the evolution of hacker behaviors makes recording episodes of this podcast well in advance a bit or a risk. There’s always the worry that whatever we discuss could become less relevant by the time it goes live. Today’s episode, however, bucks that trend. The number of AI programs that have made headlines recently for busting out of their d...

Send us Fan Mail There is perhaps no greater confluence of old and new school ideologies than the current ransomware threat landscape plaguing the industrial sector. On one hand – the motivations and avenues of attack have changed very little. Hackers are still leveraging weak log-in security or lagging parameter defenses to steal data and launch malware as they extort the enterprise. However, tha...

Send us Fan Mail The truth can be … brutal. The harsh realities of many situations we face on a daily basis can be tough to embrace, especially when they dictate having to adjust many long-held beliefs or established processes. This is often referred to as “breaking paradigms”, and is a situation that is simultaneously prominent in need, and typically lacking in execution throughout industrial cyb...

Send us Fan Mail Perhaps you’re familiar with the phrase, “ignorance is bliss.” It was first written by English poet Thomas Gray in 1742. He was reflecting on the carefree aspect of childhood, and how, "In knowing nothing, life is most delightful." Well, I have to admit, he’s got a point. Not recognizing or dealing with problems does eliminate them from your day-to-day. Unfortunately, th...

Send us Fan Mail The unsexy blocking and tacking that creates more win-win cybersecurity scenarios. It struck me in putting this episode together that working in industrial cybersecurity is kind of like playing special teams in football. Regardless of how many times you do something right, all it takes is that one blocked kick, long return, or missed field goal to get you noticed in the wrong way....

Send us Fan Mail I feel very fortunate to work in the industries that I do, because I get to speak with a lot of really innovative people doing really interesting work with cutting edge technology. And even though I get to have a fair number of these conversations, there are some that really stick out. This can be for reasons ranging from strongly agreeing and appreciating what is being said, to s...

Send us Fan Mail Cybersecurity is unlike any other Industry or environment I’ve ever covered. But more than the technology, the intriguing players and the somewhat spooky elements surrounding it, is how the things we discuss on this podcast impact nearly every element of our day-to-day lives.  It’s not just how artificial intelligence is impacting email phishing schemes, but how clicking on that l...

Send us Fan Mail We’ve all seen or heard the reports about how hackers are using AI to elevate their attacks in obtaining funds and intellectual property from unsuspecting victims, or accessing some of their critical systems. Often, these nightmare incidents leave the names and companies out of the story to avoid any reputational fallout. However, this episode's guest takes us beyond studies...

Send us Fan Mail One of my least favorite tasks of Basic Training was weapons maintenance. I didn’t really mind cleaning my M-16A2 rifle, but sometimes it just felt pointless. We’d spend hours stripping, cleaning, reassembling, inspecting and, ultimately, being told it still wasn’t clean enough by the drill sergeant or armor. It took me a while, but eventually, I realized that the benefits of this...

Send us Fan Mail Not to continue to beat our collective heads into the same wall, but by now everyone knows that manufacturing leads the way in targeted cyberattacks, as well as year-over-year increases in areas like ransomware attacks, DDoS shutdowns and data breaches.  Yet, the industry continues to demonstrate some troubling behaviors in the face of these realities.  Kiteworks recently found th...

Send us Fan Mail We all know that cybersecurity, and industrial cybersecurity in particular, is facing a huge talent deficit.  Finding an individual who not only understands the technical elements of cybersecurity, but also appreciates the dynamics of keeping a manufacturing operation up and running is extremely difficult, as they need to balance security with uptime, defense with productivity, an...

Send us Fan Mail Although discussing the military activities currently taking place in Iran runs the risk or bringing up polarizing political views, the cybersecurity realities simply can’t be ignored. And they absolutely have to be discussed.  One of these realities is that Iran has a legacy of supporting organizations involved with cyberattacks on networks, infrastructure and companies in Israel...

Send us Fan Mail Last December the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, issued an advisory warning manufacturers, operators of critical infrastructure, and really anybody associated with industrial control systems about the threats being presented by pro-Russian hacktivist groups. The advisory , issued in conjunction with numerous federal and international agencies, called ou...

Send us Fan Mail When we talk about the challenges presented to those trying to secure the operational landscape of manufacturing, it’s tough to avoid what I’d call the usual suspects - endpoints, connection points, credentials, vulnerabilities, silos and, of course, the impact of artificial intelligence. And just as there are benefits to discussing these individual aspects, it’s equally important...

Send us Fan Mail Back in 2020, the Department of Defense, as it was called at the time, introduced the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC). It carried the goal of ensuring companies would be able to protect sensitive information when working on government contracts.  The program requires contractors handling Federal Contract Information (FCI) and Controlled Unclassified Information (...

Send us Fan Mail "You don't have to get hacked to understand how you can get hacked." While I utilize that editorial director title to introduce myself before every episode of Security Breach , it’s not the title that I’ve used the longest, think about the most, or with which I would hope to obtain the most acclaim. Rather, the job descriptor that meets all those requirements is the...

Send us Fan Mail We’ve all heard the euphemism about knowledge being power. But perhaps the more accurate assessment comes from my favorite childhood cartoon. Yes, I’ve referenced it before, but when GI Joe signed off each episode by letting us know that “Knowing is Half the Battle”, Duke and his crew were echoing the same sentiment as our guest for today’s episode. Evan Dornbush is the CEO of Des...

Send us Fan Mail Perhaps you’re familiar with the quote, “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” While its use in the movie The Usual Suspects might resonate with most, the original attribution goes to French poet Charles Baudelaire. The quote came to mind in preparing for my conversation with Tim Chase, Principal Technical Evangelist for Orca Security....

Send us Fan Mail While I’ll resist drawing comparisons about industrial cybersecurity to butterflies and bees, producing this episode did remind me of another great Muhammad Ali quote: "The hands can't hit what the eyes can't see.” This could provide an easy segue into the ongoing challenges about asset visibility, but really, it goes a bit deeper than that. In addition to being abl...

Send us Fan Mail Uptime.  It’s the lifeblood of manufacturing and the precise target of industrial sector hackers. By knocking systems offline, stealing credentials, holding data for ransom, or crippling supply chains, the bad guys know their ultimate goals of disruption or extortion will be realized. And as we’ve discussed numerous times here on Security Breach , keeping these bad actors out has...