AUGUST - 2023ENTERPRISE SECURITY| | 9STAYING PREPARED WITH ADEQUATE SAFEGUARDS AND PRECAUTIONS IS ESSENTIAL TO PREVENT MALICIOUS ACTORS FROM EXPLOITING A SITUATIONoAn Internet Security Report of WatchGuard reported a 67per cent rise in zero-day exploits in quarter three of 2021oAs per MIT Technology Review, there are 66 zero-days have been reported in 2021, which is almost the double what it was in 2020MOST PROMINENT CELEBRITY VULNERABILITIES THAT MADE THEIR NAME IN THE LAST FEW YEARSSome bugs became the talk of the town across large corporations, financial institutions, government installations, and defense organizations. Knowing and understanding threat vectors, their origin, and the vulnerabilities exploited by these threats can help organizations manage zero-day vulnerabilities effectively and efficiently.oHeartbleed, known initially as CVE-2014-0160, allowed cyber attackers to intercept secure communications to steal identity credentials like login, personal data, and decryption keys.oSpringshell vulnerability affects the spring-beans artifact, a transitive dependency of a popular framework used in Java applications and requires JDK9 or a higher version to function.oStagefright is among one of the worst Android vulnerabilities and affects 95per cent of all Android devices. Besides hijacking the camera and microphone, this allows attackers to steal data from infected Android devices.oBadlock, on the other hand, allows MITM (Man-in-the-middle) attackers to intercept communications between clients and servers hosting a SAM (Security Account Manager) database. VULNERABILITY MANAGEMENT DURING ZERO-DAY AND CRISIS SITUATIONSThe IT and security teams staying alert with all appropriate safeguards and countermeasures will help mitigate any zero-day vulnerability with minimal damage and loss while maintaining effective business continuity. The following steps can go a long way in vulnerability management during zero-day and crisis situations. Effectively Organizing a Team: The key is to encourage the IT security team to act on a quick recovery plan before the bug exploits the vulnerability. Having a mix of team members from the red team and the blue team would be great. Time is critical because the more you delay, the more challenging it will be. Your incident response team should be on its toes to patch up the vulnerabilities and keep pace with the bug. Having a Robust Patch Management Program: An effective patch management program helps elevate an organization's cybersecurity posture. It helps ensure that the patch management policies are in place and are followed, security controls are in place to manage zero-day vulnerabilities, and the approved patches with the latest version are thoroughly tested and then installed.Employee Education, Awareness, and Training: Educating and training the employees to create a high level of cybersecurity awareness can help build a robust cyber-aware culture. Merely having a zero-trust policy in force may not help, but how the staff can remain compliant is more important. Following cyber hygiene practices can go a long way in protecting against any third-party invasion. Preventing Celebrity Vulnerabilities from Being Exploited: Integrating the following practices into an organization's software development life cycle and adopting robust security measures can help avoid components with known vulnerabilities and prevent such bugs from exploiting any system.oAppropriately integrating all security measures in the design phase (Security-by-design) without fail for creating secure softwareoFollowing a zero-trust policy when receiving input from an external system and performing timely server-side input validation oA thorough security review of all open-source software and components to avoid known and unknown vulnerabilities oPatching up the operating system vulnerabilities and keeping all pieces of OS and application software up to dateFINAL WORDSNo one can ignore vulnerabilities in the system, however negligible or severe they are, as their present and future impacts may not always be predictable. Hence, staying prepared with adequate safeguards and precautions is essential to prevent malicious actors from exploiting a situation. While celebrity vulnerabilities have their hype surrounding them, preparing a remediation program prior is crucial. A systematic cybersecurity approach from IT security teams and software developers and a zero-trust policy can prove helpful for every organization in eliminating such vulnerabilities and deterring any consequent threats. ES
< Page 8 | Page 10 >