CS Nov-Dec 2020

editor's focus
"Well trained staff become your strongest
defence against cyber-attacks, rather than
your weakest link," he adds.
SAFETY FALLS ON EVERYONE
According to Nick Savvides, director of
Strategic Business at Forcepoint, the attacks
that targeted Australia serve as a timely
reminder that cyber security is a serious
issue and affects every aspect of life.
Everybody has a role to play in keeping us
safe from cyber-security threats, he points
out. "Sophisticated threat actors, statebased
threat actors, have significant
capabilities, and do not rest in their efforts
to gain footholds into our systems,
applications and data. It is important that
governments, businesses and individuals
remain vigilant and continue to improve
their cyber-security practices. We have
entered a new era of business and
government, where cyber-attacks pose
an existential threat to business and can
cripple the machinery of government."
The public revelation of the attacks
also acts as a signal to the threat actors
responsible that the government and some
in the private sector are aware of the
attacks, Savvides comments. "Interestingly,
two specific controls, patching internetfacing
systems [protecting the edge
of networks], enforcing multifactor
authentication for users [protecting the
users], were specifically called out by
the defence minister. This indicates that
attackers likely operated sophisticated
targeted phishing campaigns to capture
usernames and passwords from victims
and were possibly in possession of 0-day
vulnerabilities against systems or used
older vulnerabilities on systems that are
difficult to patch."
While Australia has significant capabilities
in cyber-security and an active cyber-security
community, unfortunately not all
organisations are at the same level, with
many organisations simply not having right
capabilities, he says. "We are also struggling
with a skills shortage, with unfilled cybersecurity
roles in every sector; that means
many of the skills end up in the top end of
town and large departments, leaving small
and medium business, and government
agencies exposed."
GEO-POLITICAL TENSIONS
Meanwhile, Tim Wellsmore, Mandiant
Government Solutions, Asia Pacific, points
to the "considerable geo-political tension
occurring at the moment involving Australia
and, from our experience, we know that
state-sponsored cyber threat activity directly
replicates geo-political tensions, so it would
be plausible to assume this reported activity
and announcement is connected".
FireEye is, he adds, aware of the reported
incidents and the type of exploitation of
systems that are occurring, and have seen
only a few related impacts to its customer
base. "However, we are seeing an increasing
focus by both state-sponsored and criminal
cyber threat actors on exploiting Common
Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) soon
after they are announced publicly when
victims' systems are not patched quickly
enough, and we deal with state-sponsored
threats against our customers on a daily
basis."
The information provided in the Australian
Government ACSC advisory on this issue is
very detailed, he notes, "and provides good
guidance and serves as a timely reminder
to ensure organisations maintain vigilance
in the cyber security programs including
the use of patching and multi-factor
authentication in their networks".
As Wellsmore confirms, such threats will
continue, with an inevitable increase in
cyber threat activity as our world becomes
more and more technologically dependent,
and therefore both attractive to outside
infiltrators and increasingly vulnerable to
their growing arsenal of weaponry.
Nick Savvides, Forcepoint: everybody has
a role to play in keeping us safe from
cyber-security threats.
Toni Vitale, JMW Solicitors: training staff
to be vigilant to cyber-attacks is key.
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