By Stefanie Horvath April 12, 2021 Supply chain attacks signal who is synchronized and holds a dominant knowledge of technology – and it is not us. Each day brings another attack – each attack more insidious and obfuscated than the last. Accellion’s Legacy File Transfer Application exploitation attacks automated data transfers, taking down organizations with wildfire swiftness. The rapid progression of supply chain attacks signals that cyber criminals are far better than us at leveraging synchronization. The supply chain attacks demonstrate a considerable depth of knowledge of the technology and the companies using the technology. The Identity Theft Resource Center ...

By Sam Curry April 12, 2021 December 13, 2020, the world learned about the alleged attack by APT29, Cozy Bear, on SolarWinds and the downstream implications with potential victims stretching into the thousands. Later in early 2021, a similar style of attack leveraging Microsoft to infect still thousands more, this time with an alleged Chinese state actor as the culprit, sent a second shock wave through the security community and the world at large. Congress and the Biden Administration have held hearings and are looking at new legislation, regulation, and executive orders to try to improve security across the United ...

360 days ago, Gov Walz ordered all MN schools to close beginning March 18, 2020. Our school district started a couple days earlier, canceling classes starting on the 16th. My kids were excited; that meant Spring break started a week early for them. Since my wife works in healthcare, that meant I was working from home (hard to treat cancer patients from home). Two days later, 3M Chairman and CEO Mike Roman announced our remote work plan which also began on March 18. On March 28th came the notice that the next few Inactive Duty Training periods (drill weekends) for ...

By Idrissa DavisMarch 10, 2021 Fortunately, our strategic planning put our District in a good position when the pandemic hit. We had previously deployed iPads to student's grades K – 12. For those students that didn’t take devices home we scheduled family pickups at elementary sites and implemented home deliveries. We quickly found out that we needed to extend our Service Desk services to families.So, we created a family support email and phone number that was communicated out to families. We also partnered with Communications and Family Engagement to ensure we had enough interpreters available for the multitude of languages ...

By Tyler Olson and Tim Herman March 15, 2021 One year ago, the world turned upside down. If anyone would have told us that everything around us was going to pivot and become 100 percent work from home overnight, we would never have believed it. People are resilient though. History has shown us that in tough times, often comes great innovation. As cybersecurity professionals, we do a lot of “thankless” work. When we are unsuccessful, we quickly become inundated with complaints, but when we’re successful, nobody around us thinks about what we do. To be healthy and successful in this ...

By Loren Dealy Mahler Conversations around incident response tend to start and stop with tips for pursuing the perfect blend of skills, technology and resource allocation to detect and mitigate any event. Rarely is enough attention paid to the external factors that traditionally contribute significantly to the long-term costs of an event. Communication is chief among these outliers, because it is linked to the public perception of your incident management and either drives stakeholder trust and customer retention – or not. Each of these variables has an impact on the ultimate cost of an event, and by taking a few ...

By Phil Schenkenberg and Zenus Franklin February 9, 2021 Privacy and cyber lawyers say “Incident Response” rather than “Breach Response” for a reason. Consider training your organization to use the word “incident” until legal counsel calls something a “breach.” Is it really that big of a deal? Maybe, and maybe not. You may know someone who reflexively said “I’m sorry” after getting in a fender-bender that was the fault of the other driver. If there was a dispute over who was at fault, the statement “I’m sorry” was likely considered to be an admission against interest and admissible in court ...

By Cyber Security Summit Think Tank January 21, 2021 Last year, the pandemic dealt our industry an immense upheaval that forced many to pivot wildly to secure critical infrastructure and data. With the lessons learned and challenges that remain – how will 2021 shake out? Members of the Cyber Security Summit Think Tank weighed in, and below are their top three predictions for 2021. REMOTE WORK WILL BECOME STANDARDLast year brought about a dramatic shift in workforce structure and subsequent technology needs. With the onset of the global pandemic and quarantine, businesses sent their workers home with no solid plans ...

While the 11th Annual Cyber Security Summit (Oct 25-27) is still months away, we’ve already kicked off 2021 with big plans. Co-Chairs Jennifer Czaplewski (Target) and Wade Van Guilder (World Wide Technology) share a passion and a unique vision for this year’s Summit. Read on to learn how their predictions for the new year are shaping the 2021 Summit experience. 2020 taught us many things. One of the most important reminders I’ve had this past year is how much I value personal connection and the ability to have meaningful discussions with friends and colleagues. Connection can come in many forms, ...