Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin speaks on Friday to Sky News Australia.

Optus Attacker Halts AU$1.5 Million Extortion Attempt

Jeremy Kirk • September 27, 2022

The person who stole nearly 10 million customer records from Australian telco Optus withdrew their AU$1.5 million extortion attempt after suddenly releasing 10,000 customer records. Also, Optus says it has not paid a ransom as it grapples with one of the largest data breaches in the country.

►

Attack Surface Management

Proof of Concept: What CISOs Can Learn From Twitter and Uber

Latest

Cloud Security

SentinelOne's Tomer Weingarten on Cloud, XDR and Analytics

Michael Novinson • September 27, 2022

Identity protection, XDR, data analytics and cloud security have been SentinelOne's biggest investment areas, says CEO Tomer Weingarten. Cloud has become the fastest-growing part of SentinelOne's business, appealing even to customers who might have chosen a different vendor for endpoint security.

Governance & Risk Management

Code42's Joe Payne on Why Source Code Theft Is So Prevalent

Michael Novinson • September 26, 2022

Too often when software developers change jobs, they take source code they've written with them, feeling the code belongs to them even if it belongs to an employer. Code42's Joe Payne shares the challenges of detecting source code theft and ways to protect intellectual property wherever it resides.

Cyberwarfare / Nation-State Attacks

Feds: Chinese Hacking Group Undeterred by Indictment

Marianne Kolbasuk McGee • September 26, 2022

Two federal indictments against APT41, a Chinese state-sponsored hacking group, haven't slowed down its operations, the U.S. government acknowledges in a warning telling the healthcare sector to be vigilant about the threat actor. The hackers are believed to be at large, likely in China.

Cybercrime

Optus Under $1 Million Extortion Threat in Data Breach

Jeremy Kirk • September 25, 2022

Australia's Optus telco is facing a $1 million extortion demand to prevent the release of up to 11.2 million sensitive customer records. The data appears to be legitimate. The attacker tells Information Security Media Group an unauthenticated API led to the breach.

Governance & Risk Management

Fortinet, VMware, Cisco Drive SD-WAN Gartner Magic Quadrant

Michael Novinson • September 23, 2022

Perennial leaders Fortinet and VMware and a surging Cisco set themselves apart from the pack in SD-WAN, according to the latest Gartner Magic Quadrant. Fortinet and VMware again took the gold and silver in ability to execute, with Cisco leapfrogging both Versa and Palo Alto to capture the bronze.

Business Email Compromise (BEC)

Sweepstakes Spam Hackers Used Microsoft Infrastructure

Prajeet Nair • September 23, 2022

Hackers behind a campaign of deceptive sweepstakes spam hacked their way into Azure cloud accounts that lacked multifactor authentication and obtained admin privileges for Exchange servers. Microsoft advises turning on MFA and other measures such as conditional access.

Multi-factor & Risk-based Authentication

ISMG Editors: How a Teen's Hack of Uber Adds to MFA Crisis

Anna Delaney • September 23, 2022

In the latest weekly update, ISMG editors discuss the industrywide implications of a teenager hacking into Uber's internal systems, key trends in the new Gartner SD-WAN Magic Quadrant report, and how ethics and security culture are center stage due to recent CISO revelations at Uber and Twitter.

Cybercrime

Australian Telco Optus Investigates Scope of Large Breach

Jeremy Kirk • September 23, 2022

A criminal investigation is underway into a breach at Optus, Australia’s second-largest telecommunications company. Optus' CEO says the company will notify those affected. It's unknown so far who perpetrated the attack, and the data has not appeared on the dark web.

Fraud Management & Cybercrime

Ransomware's Future: A Continuing Money Spinner

Jeremy Kirk • September 23, 2022

What is the future of ransomware, and is it going to continue with the same intensity of the last few years? Michael DeBolt of Intel 471 says anti-ransomware efforts, including government action and better cybersecurity practices, are working. But ransomware isn't going away soon.

Attack Surface Management

Malwarebytes Gets $100M Weeks After Laying Off 14% of Staff

Michael Novinson • September 22, 2022

Private equity firm Vector Capital invested $100 million in Malwarebytes a month after the antivirus stalwart laid off 125 employees to focus on smaller customers. The funds will help the vendor reduce clients' attack surfaces and accelerate momentum with MSPs and channel partners.

Attack Surface Management

Darktrace's Nicole Eagan on How AI Predicts, Prevents Hacks

Michael Novinson • September 22, 2022

Darktrace's Cybersprint acquisition allowed the cybersecurity AI vendor to move from focusing solely on internal threats to also defending the external attack surface, Nicole Eagan says. The company says AI will give an outside-in view of the victim and simulate how the attacker will behave.

Leadership & Executive Communication

Profiles in Leadership: Errol Weiss

Tom Field • September 22, 2022

Errol Weiss, chief security officer of Health-ISAC for the past three years, watched the healthcare sector undergo a historic revolution in the digital delivery of services to patients. Also in that time, the attack surface grew exponentially. How can entities best defend it?