Feeling creative? Submit your caption and our panel of experts will reward the winner with a $25 Amazon gift card.

Someone always has to take the fall. Pity the poor CISO? Come up with a clever cybersecurity-related caption to describe the scene, above, and our favorite will win a $25 Amazon gift card.

Here are four convenient ways to submit your ideas before the Dec. 13, 2023, deadline:

*   Via social media: X (formerly known as Twitter), Facebook, and LinkedIn. (If you win, we'll respond to you on the same platform, requesting your email address.)
    

Last Month's Winner

Dave Brassey for the win! The manager of privacy, security and risk assurance at Australia-based software company Family Zone Cyber Safety scored himself an Amazon gift card for his caption to accompany October's "Modern Monarchy" contest:

Thank you to all who participated. Keep on trying!

**About the Author(s)**

Cartoonist

John Klossner has been drawing technology cartoons for more than 15 years. His work regularly appears in Computerworld and Federal Computer Week. His illustrations and cartoons have also been published in The New Yorker, Barron's, and The Wall Street Journal.

Name That Toon: Slam Dunk

A determination to be taken seriously as a cyber player sees the United Arab Emirates announce a series of collaborations.

The United Arab Emirates' Cybersecurity Council has agreed to a number of partnerships to better improve its threat intelligence sharing capabilities, including forging ahead with collaborations with other nations.

Following a spate of recent cybersecurity conferences, the UAE has signed a series of memorandums of understanding (MoUs) to better improve the state of cybersecurity within the country, including with the US Treasury Department. 

The MoU with the US is an agreement to share information on threats and incidents affecting the financial services industry. This should be particularly relevant when considering that the UAE has been given an AA- rating with a "stable outlook" for its banking sector.

The country also signed a MoU with Morocco, where the two states will set up a joint committee to plan and oversee the implementation of capabilities to respond to cyberattacks (details on specific points of the agreement are not available), and also with Chad, where the two countries have pledged international cooperation on cyber matters. The outreach to Africa is notable given that cybersecurity centers are rapidly being opened across the continent — Morocco's opened last year following directives that were written in the last decade.

**A UAE Cyber Vision for the Next Few Decades**

Mohamed Hamad Al Kuwaiti, head of cybersecurity for the UAE government, told local media that these partnerships are part of a vision of establishing an advanced digital infrastructure to prepare for the next half century.

And indeed, this comes at an opportune time for the UAE, as its overall cybersecurity posture has been improving over the past few years. It ranked fifth in the most recent Global Cybersecurity Index, jumping 33 places from its previous placing, following the opening of its Cybersecurity Council in 2020.

"This allows the parties involved to see the issue of cyber defense from different points of view, and will certainly aid in a better and more well-rounded security posture for all involved, not just the UAE," says Andi Ursry, cyber-threat intelligence analyst at Optiv.

**UAE's Business Agreements on Cybersecurity Readiness**

On top of the national agreements, the UAE also signed MoUs with several cybersecurity vendors. With Kaspersky, for instance, the UAE will collaborate to share information on identifying, investigating, and responding to evolving cyber threats, and exchange expertise on the latest malware trends, indicators of compromise, and security risks faced by the economic sectors of the country.

And with Microsoft, the UAE will cooperate and conduct information exchanges in cybersecurity related fields, with particular attention paid to national cooperation, deterrence, prevention, and responses to cyberattacks. The two parties will also work together to promote awareness-building through educational programs, as well as exploring business and economic exchanges for cybersecurity, they said.

Al Kuwaiti commented that the UAE's ICT industry has opened new "windows of opportunity" but added that the nation is also vulnerable to new and sophisticated types of security risks, which are dynamic and evolving in nature. As a result, these MoUs are forged with partners "with the essential expertise and tools to eliminate information security incidents."

The UAE Cybersecurity Council's actions in the past few weeks show clear ambitions for the country to be more global in its cyber capabilities, says Vibin Shaju, UAE general manager at Trellix. 

"MOUs and public-private partnerships can encompass information sharing, collaborative incident response, regulatory compliance, public awareness and education, collaborative exercises and drills," he notes. "Such collaboration is critical for addressing the dynamic and evolving nature of cybersecurity threats."

UAE Bolsters Cyber Future With US Treasury Partnership, Collaborations

From communicating why security should be a priority to advocating for accountability and greater focus on protecting data in the cloud, CISOs can make the case for keeping people and sensitive data secure.

According to a new study (subscription required), only 12% of S&P 500 companies have board directors with relevant cyber credentials, showing a major gap in the expertise needed to keep organizations secure.

As most organizations shift to digital and cloud-first strategies, businesses of all shapes and sizes must protect their assets. Similar to the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act of 2002 — which requires corporations to adhere to certain practices in financial record keeping and reporting — the SEC implemented federal compliance for cybersecurity in July. Companies had to begin complying by Sept. 5. These regulations require businesses to provide annual cybersecurity risk management, strategy, governance disclosures, and disclosure of any cybersecurity incidents. Although security has been a board-level conversation for some time, CISOs will be the ultimate source for ensuring best security practices are being followed.

**Closing Board Gaps**

Unfortunately, there's a considerable gap between security leaders and the board directors responsible for managing businesses. A recent Harvard Business Review survey of 600 boardrooms revealed just 47% regularly interact with their company's CISO. That's a severe knowledge gap for a company's security and business leaders. It's high time we started looking at CISOs as critical assets for every company's board to fix this problem. After all, security failures can crush more than just a company's reputation; they can also tank stock prices.

Yet according to research from the CAP Group, among Fortune 100 companies, just 51% have directors with relevant cybersecurity experience. The situation is even more alarming in the Fortune 500, where only 9% of boards have directors with a strong understanding of cybersecurity. This problem extends to companies in the Russell 3000, where just 8% have directors with cybersecurity expertise.

Introducing CISOs to the boardroom is not just about compliance or avoiding enforcement from the SEC; it's also about ensuring transparency and accountability. CISOs are already building security programs from the ground up. They provide business compliance, hire the right people, and find the right technology to supplement their team's efforts. Security posture is critical to an enterprise's future success, and having a CISO on the board that speaks the language can help a board understand if their business is making suitable security investments.

**Increased Stakes in a Cloud Era**

Of course, the cloud unlocks huge advantages — notably, the ability to innovate faster — but also creates new security challenges. The cloud has an exploding risk surface area and a 1,000x rate of change, which means most of an organization's code is created upstream and is often open source, not to mention developers define containers, workloads, networks — everything — as code.

Given how rapidly the current threat landscape shifts, every organization would benefit from the CISO having a boardroom seat. Not only are revenue and profitability directly impacted by a company's digital business, but these corporations are trusted by millions of individuals to use their data appropriately and securely. When assets are at risk of attack, so is the company's ability to thrive. Introducing a CISO to the boardroom helps assuage fears of security threats, as the CISO can effectively communicate risks and keep them out of the shadows of how security impacts business.

But as CISOs enter the boardroom conversation, they also undergo the expectation from CEOs and board members to drive the probability of intrusions, data exfiltration, ransomware, and other attacks, to effectively zero. Many individuals outside of security don't understand that this task is essentially impossible, and it's up to the CISO to communicate that to the board while still assuring them their assets are well-protected by the organization's security practice and team.

**Being More Than a Technical Expert**

At the board level, CISOs ensure compliance with appropriate regulations and standards while driving business growth. These regulations shouldn't be seen as profitability roadblocks but opportunities for CISOs to communicate why security should be a priority and not an afterthought. The increased scrutiny of today's economic environment and the new rules set by the SEC open a door for security leaders to decrease complexity, raise awareness, and solidify engagement with security efforts across the company.

But aligning an entire organization on security is challenging since most employees don't have technical expertise. When proposing a security strategy to a room full of nontechnical folks, there's the possibility that the audience will leave with more questions than answers. That's why CISOs are prioritizing soft skills. The CISO's sole responsibility is addressing security threats and vulnerabilities and getting people to buy into processes and best practices. CISOs' roles are complex and nuanced and need to be treated as such. Their presence in the boardroom would bring greater task efficiency, focus, and accountability.

CISOs are indispensable when it comes to establishing a modern security posture. As the SEC tightens its reins on security and more business leaders understand the business implications of a secure cloud environment, we can expect to see more CISOs join the boardroom to spearhead a change we need to see for a greater focus on protecting the cloud and the data that lives within it. And while the responsibilities of the CISO are changing, one thing remains the same: Keeping people and sensitive data safe and secure is always the No.1 priority.

That's something every board of directors can benefit from.

What the Boardroom Is Missing: CISOs

With the rapid advancement and adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in cybersecurity, the benefits of speed and accuracy are becoming clearer every day.

In their 1955 proposal for a summer research project on artificial intelligence (AI), researchers at Dartmouth Conference predicted "…every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it." In the decades that followed, AI research continued at what seemed a glacial pace, always promising a breakthrough in the near future — until language tools like ChatGPT finally exploded on the scene.

As we find our footing with AI today, it's clear that we're facing risks as well as benefits. A recent survey of 1,500 IT professionals showed that nearly half (49%) of decision-makers are concerned the new tools will help cybercriminals, but a full 82% said they plan to integrate AI into their security programs over the next two years.

**AI Is the Hero to Embrace, Not the Villain to Defeat**

Rapid advancements in AI since the 1950s set the stage for growth — with no signs of slowing. The global market for AI-based security tools is expected to reach $133 billion by 2030 with more integration and use in daily DevSecOps workflows. As the industry incorporates AI and machine learning (ML) into more processes, we're seeing more and more opportunities to engage AI as a force for good, including the following.

**Faster and More Accurate Configuration for Security Tools**

To be effective, most security technologies today require a lot of manual fine-tuning, often through sophisticated parameter tweaks. Depending on the tool, these can affect what incidents are reported, what vulnerabilities a tool finds, or how issue priorities are determined. All these manual tweaks are time-consuming and can leave you exposed to threats until the right configurations are in place.

That's where machine learning comes to the rescue. In this case, ML can continually optimize parameters, for instance by prioritizing items in a scanning queue to ensure operations run as efficiently as possible. Once they automate these configuration tasks, future cybersecurity teams will spend far less time on tedious manual work.

**Improved Risk Scoring and Threat Intelligence**

Modern scanning tools typically provide a risk assessment once a scan is complete. This shows the various levels of security protection and potential risk across your applications, websites, and networks for a better view of your threat exposure. Different tools will factor in different data, such as the technical severity of vulnerabilities, their potential exploitability, their impact on business if exploited, and their importance for your overall security posture.

While useful, these assessments don't always provide deeper context or guidance, which are necessary for security to keep up with fast-paced software development. In the coming years, security tools will extensively use machine learning for evaluating risk and managing threats. As machine-generated results continue to improve in scope and quality, they will support more accurate, data-based decision making by showing which issues are actionable and in what order they should be addressed to minimize risk.

**Putting a Sharper Edge on Security Testing**

As ChatGPT and similar tools powered by large language models (LLMs) are refined and continue to gain popularity, we can expect easier access to ever more accurate insights. By encouraging engineers and developers to safely use AI and ML in their work, these machine-driven solutions should also provide better and more useful insights over time — even more so when accurate security guidance is included in the mix.

When it comes to security testing, training AI/ML tools to become sharper will further help with fine-tuning static application security testing (SAST) and dynamic application security testing (DAST) tools. Ultimately that means increasing control and precision for scan results, providing reliable intelligence into current and future risks, and improving the efficacy of vulnerability hunting.

**Fewer False Positives for Less Manual Verification**

False positives are a persistent challenge for security and one that frequently translates into hours of manual work checking scan results. As teams spend valuable time verifying reports that should already be as accurate as possible, they can lose confidence in security tools and processes. Fortunately, a recent study by IBM showed that AI can reduce false positives by 65%, freeing resources for activities that add business value.

As the technology progresses, business and operational leaders will have the reliable data they need to confidently make decisions based on accurate AI/ML results. These outputs will harness the power of learning systems to deliver clear and actionable vulnerability reports, allowing DevSecOps teams to focus on what matters most: building and delivering innovative applications.

**Winning the Race to AI Supremacy in Security**

From threat identification to tool configuration, we're already seeing tangible impacts of AI in cybersecurity. Where researchers at the Dartmouth Conference nearly 70 years ago were only speculating, cybersecurity professionals today should look for far more tangible opportunities to incorporate AI and ML into their operations and strategies. If we can realize the potential of existing and emerging tools to continuously improve cybersecurity, AI can truly be one of the good guys.

**About the Author**

    

Frank Catucci is a global application security technical leader with over 20 years of experience designing scalable application security-specific architecture, partnering with cross-functional engineering and product teams. Frank is a past OWASP chapter president and contributor to the OWASP bug bounty initiative and most recently was the Head of Application & Product Security at Data Robot. Prior to that role, Frank was the Sr. Director of Application Security & DevSecOps and Security Researcher at Gartner, and was also the Director of Application Security for Qualys. Outside of work and hacking things, Frank and his wife maintain a family farm. He is an avid outdoors fan and loves all types of fishing, boating, watersports, hiking, camping, and especially dirt bikes and motorcycles.

Getting Smart With Cybersecurity: AI Can Help the Good Guys, Too

CISOs offer recommendations to help secure identities, data, code, and cloud infrastructure and protect against evolving threats and vulnerabilities.

The COVID-19 pandemic ignited an unprecedented wave of remote work adoption, forcing organizations to rapidly embrace remote collaboration tools. However, the transition to remote work came with its own set of challenges, especially in ensuring robust security measures for remote access. Today, CISOs face a new frontier — a borderless enterprise landscape — where they must forge a strong security posture to protect their organizations from evolving threats and vulnerabilities.

To better understand these demands, Cisco partnered with Forgepoint Capital, NightDragon, and Team8 to evaluate the evolving threat landscape and gather invaluable insights and takeaways that chief information security officers (CISOs) can leverage to prepare for the future. Together, we created the 2023 CISO Survival Guide, a simple framework for understanding how teams can secure modern enterprises by defining the security posture of identities, data, and code that are distributed across a hybrid infrastructure.

**Identity**

Identity management is a critical concern for CISOs, as the lack of a unified platform across identity access management (IAM), identity governance and administration (IGA), and privileged access management (PAM) leads to a fragmented identity topology within organizations. CISOs express the need for technology startups to address this pain point by offering solutions that are easier to deploy, provide comprehensive coverage, and offer rich integrations.

**Data**

CISOs are no longer tasked with security alone. They are also now responsible for securely enabling overall collaboration and business operations. This means they must balance data protection and use. To do this, CISOs are breaking data down into four key categories:

*   **Data collaboration:** Being able to locate and apply data governance controls on distributed data.
*   **Data reliability:** Making sure data is accurate and useable.
*   **Data privacy management:** Applying governance, risk, and compliance controls to adhere to data privacy regulations and enable analytics on sensitive data.
*   **Data protection:** Finding, categorizing, and remediating access so that all data serves its intended purpose.

**Code**

As agile DevOps creates a more rapid software development life cycle, enterprise security will only be as strong as its weakest link: the software supply chain. To give an idea of how big a deal this is, 70% of CISOs surveyed say they are prioritizing securing the software supply chain. To do this, CISOs will need full visibility into the development pipeline so that they can adopt a holistic strategy, which includes open source governance, delivery pipeline management, and an understanding of risk in third-party software.

Third-party software is its own issue. It supports quick innovation while operating a distributed workforce, but it can be a black box for CISOs looking to secure their enterprise. Third parties should be held to the same security standards as the rest of the enterprise.

**Infrastructure**

If it is connected, it needs to be secured, even if you can't see it. This is the cloud. By 2025 more than 85% of enterprises are expected to embrace a cloud-first approach. That means cloud security must be near the top of any CISO's priorities because attackers are shifting to the cloud just as quickly as enterprises. There are many tools out there that let enterprises address data challenges related to the cloud, but they don't necessarily go far enough to help CISOs discover the who, what, and where in the event of a data breach.

**CISO Survival Guide**

There is a lot that CISOs must do to stay ahead of these constantly evolving cybersecurity threats. Thankfully, emerging technology startups are providing fresh solutions to help CISOs stay one step ahead of the game in securing their enterprises. Defining security postures of the identities, data, and code distributed across a hybrid infrastructure is just one part to having a secured network that can protect data with a distributed workforce.

For more information, with an in-depth look at survey results as well as insights and analysis from CISOs, read the 2023 CISO Survival Guide from Cisco.

**About the Author**

    

Janey Hoe is a Vice President of Cisco Investments. Previously, she held multiple product management, technical marketing, and business development leadership roles at Cisco, operating multi-billion-dollar product lines as well as pioneering new products in switching, security, data center, and video collaboration. Along with her team, she was recognized as a finalist for the Pioneer Award, the highest honor for innovation at Cisco.

Securing Modern Enterprises in a Borderless Landscape

The CISO role has evolved from a strictly technical position to one that increasingly requires business acumen. Here are some things you need to know.

What types of skills do CISOs need now? As senior vice president and chief information security officer (CISO) of one of the world's most trusted cybersecurity software and services companies, it's literally my job to know.

My responsibilities include protecting and enabling business development at a global organization that wears a big target on its back. We are also "customer zero" at a company that believes deeply in the need to "drink its own champagne." That means we base our cyber defenses on our own internally developed products to the greatest extent possible.

In addition, we're a managed security service provider (MSSP) through our CylanceGUARD managed detection and response (MDR) subscription service, and many of our channel partners are also MSSPs, all using BlackBerry Cylance artificial intelligence (AI)-based products to protect external organizations.

The ultimate decision-maker for purchasing and deploying our portfolio of cyber products is often the CISO of an organization. For all these reasons and more, I spend a fair amount of time talking to fellow CISOs and comparing notes on what keeps us up at night and what success looks like for a modern CISO.

Over two decades of cybersecurity and technology experience across a wide range of industries and organizations have helped me grow as a leader and afforded me many opportunities to "give back" by sharing hard-won knowledge with other cybersecurity professionals. I have watched the CISO role evolve from a strictly technical position to one that increasingly requires business ability and acumen.

Today's CISOs must be able to effectively evaluate both risk and opportunity. They must be able to formulate and execute strategies to strike a healthy balance between these two competing factors and communicate those solutions to senior leadership.

**What Future CISOs Need to Know**

If you are already a CISO, you are well aware of the way this role has pivoted. But what if you are a cybersecurity professional aspiring to reach a CISO role? What kind of mindset and skills should you cultivate? Here are a few to consider.

*   **CISOs must be critical thinkers:** In our digitized world, CISOs play a pivotal role beyond the technical aspects by engaging in strategic business discussions. Their input should be integral to organizational decision-making, requiring a balance of technical and business acumen.
*   **CISOs must be educators:** With increasing reliance on CISO insights for business decisions, they must educate boards and decision-makers and often report directly to CEOs. Staying updated on industry trends and aligning decisions with current risks is essential.
*   **CISOs must value different perspectives:** Effective CISOs benefit from diverse security perspectives gained through experiences in various industries and roles. A broad background spanning different functions equips them to excel in their roles.
*   **CISOs are cybersecurity evangelists:** As cybersecurity leaders, CISOs promote a multi-layered defense strategy, encompassing both technological advancements and workforce awareness. They ensure that end users are informed about risks and contribute as an additional layer of defense.

**Final Advice for All Information Security Professionals**

As you build and mature your program using multi-layered defenses, always bear in mind that _cyber risk can only be managed, never eliminated_. For today's CISOs and those of the future, cyber-risk is another type of business risk every organization will continually face.

In an interview earlier this year, I shared what I think are the top cyber-risk challenges facing CISOs.

I hope these perspectives will help you on your CISO journey, no matter which stage of your career you are in.

**About the Author**

    

Arvind Raman is a Senior Vice President and BlackBerry's Chief Information Security Officer. In this role, he leads all aspects of the company's information security, product security, and GRC program globally, focusing on effective management of cybersecurity risks, policies, and procedures.

Arvind brings over 20 years of information security, technology, R&D experience, and leadership to BlackBerry. Arvind's previous experience includes serving as the Global CISO at Mitel, Global Head Information Security for Scotia Bank, and Director of Cyber & Data Security for CIBC.

CISO Skills in a Changing Security Market: Are You Prepared?

Try these tricks for devising an education program that gets employees invested — and stays with them after the training is over.

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10 Tips for Security Awareness Training That Hits the Target

CrowdStrike is moving deeper into application security with its agreement to acquire Bionic, provider of ASPM technology that proactively scans software in production for vulnerabilities.

CrowdStrike’s acquisition of Bionic last month is an example of how the company is strengthening its cloud security offerings.

Omdia senior principal analyst Rik Turner believes Bionic will lift CrowdStrike, best known as a leading extended detection and response (XDR), into a significant player in reactive cloud security. "This deal not only takes CrowdStrike into the world of AppSec but also the proactive side of the security market," Turner wrote in a research note.

The acquisition brings Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) and Application Security Posture Management (ASPM) capabilities to CrowdStrike’s Falcon platform. The company plans to combine the Falcon Horizon Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) and Falcon Cloud Workload Protection (CWP) modules with Bionic’s technology into a unified dashboard to allow DevOps teams the ability to prioritize cloud security incidents, mitigate runtime threats and provide threat hunting, the company said. Bionic said its ASPM features proactively discovers security, data privacy, and operational risks by continuously scanning and analyzing an organization’s application architecture and software dependencies to uncover any anomalies. Notably, it provides views into the security posture of applications in production.

At CrowdStrike’s Fal.Con user event last month, CrowdStrike president Mike Sentonas demonstrated how Bionic can expand CrowdStrike’s cloud security portfolio to include cloud infrastructure entitlement management (CIEM) capabilities. Bionic can provide visibility into Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure applications and the third-party services they communicate with, Sentonas said.

Developers update microservices and serverless functions daily through their CI/CD pipelines. Sentonas showed how Bionic mapped 102 application services, presented their dependencies, and identified how they communicate with each other. “You can drill into each cloud and see what business applications are running,” he said.

Proactive security consists of tools that can identify and remediate vulnerabilities, excessive access permissions and misconfigurations before threat actors discover and exploit them, according to Omdia’s Turner. “It is an approach that complements rather than replaces reactive security, effectively reducing the attack surface that reactive platforms such as XDR and the SIEM/SOAR continuum must address,” Turner said.

Many CrowdStrike customers attending the Fal.Con were familiar with Bionic, and some say they intend to evaluate it, such as Prabhath Karanth, global head of security and Trust at Navan (formerly TripAdvisor). "I’ve looked at Bionic in the past, and they have really good runtime application security technology in the context of the infrastructure," Karanth says.

"It sounds like they want to approach the problem from a runtime perspective and address the problem of running your applications and containers and all of that in production," Karanth says. "Because in a distributed microservices architecture, where your application is sitting in a containerized environment, this container runtime security becomes critical. I’d like to know more. It was just announced. But I think it’s a very strategic acquisition."

Bionic gives organizations a comprehensive view of the risk associated with everything that’s running in the cloud — the applications, the microservices, and everything that’s connected to it — which really represents risk, CrowdStrike founder and CEO George Kurtz said during the opening keynote at the Fal.Con event last month.

"The beauty and the magic of this technology is that you don’t need source code, or you don’t have to plug in the libraries," Kurtz said.

What the Bionic Acquisition Can Bring to CrowdStrike

The "iLeakage" attack affects all recent iPhone, iPad, and MacBook models, allowing attackers to peruse your Gmail inbox, steal your Instagram password, or scrutinize your YouTube history.

Researchers have developed a side-channel exploit for Apple CPUs, enabling sophisticated attackers to extract sensitive information from browsers.

Side-channel attacks are usually overlooked, often physical counterparts to traditional software hacks. Rather than an unsecured password or a vulnerability in a program, they take advantage of the extra information a computer system or hardware generates — in the form of sound, light, or electromagnetic radiation, for example, or in the time it takes to complete certain computations (a timing attack).

On Wednesday, four researchers — including two of those responsible for uncovering the Spectre processor vulnerability back in 2018 — published the details of such an attack, which they've named "iLeakage," affecting all recent iPhone, iPad, and MacBook models.

The researchers informed Apple of their findings on Sept. 12, 2022, according to their website, and the company has since developed a mitigation. However, it's still considered unstable, it's not enabled on devices by default, and mitigating is only possible on Macs, not mobile devices.

In comments provided to Dark Reading on background, an Apple spokesperson wrote, "This proof of concept advances our understanding of these types of threats. We are aware of the issue and it will be addressed in our next scheduled software release."

**How iLeakage Works**

iLeakage takes advantage of A- and M-series Apple silicon CPUs' capacity to perform speculative execution.

Speculative execution is a method by which modern CPUs predict tasks before they're even prompted, in order to speed up information processing. "This technique has been around for over 20 years, and today all modern CPUs use it — it significantly speeds up processing, even accounting for times it might get the anticipated instructions wrong," explains John Gallagher, vice president of Viakoo Labs.

The rub is that "cache inside the CPU holds a lot of valuable data, including what might be staged for upcoming instructions. iLeakage uses the Apple WebKit capabilities inside a browser to use JavaScript to gain access to those contents."

Specifically, the researchers used a new speculation-based gadget to read the contents of another webpage when a victim clicked on their malicious webpage.

"Alone, WebKit would not enable the cache contents to be divulged, nor would how A-Series and M-Series perform speculative execution — it's the combination of the two together that leads to this exploit," Gallagher explains.

**A Successor to Meltdown/Spectre**

"This builds on a line of attacks against CPU vulnerabilities that started around 2017 with Meltdown and Spectre," Lionel Litty, chief security architect at Menlo Security points out. "High level, you want to think about applications and processes, and trust that the operating system with help from the hardware is properly isolating these from one another," but those two exploits broke the fundamental isolation between different applications, and an application and operating system, that we tend to take for granted as users, he says.

iLeakage, then, is a spiritual successor that focuses on breaking the isolation between browser tabs.

The good news is, in their website's FAQ section, the researchers described iLeakage as "a significantly difficult attack to orchestrate end-to-end," which "requires advanced knowledge of browser-based side-channel attacks and Safari's implementation." They also noted that successful exploitation hasn't been demonstrated in the wild.

Were a capable enough attacker to come along and try it, however, this method is powerful enough to siphon just about any data users traffic online: logins, search histories, credit card details, what have you. In YouTube videos, the researchers demonstrated how their exploit could expose victims' Gmail inboxes, their YouTube watch histories, and their Instagram passwords, as just a few examples.

**iPhone Users Are Especially Affected**

Though it takes advantage of the idiosyncrasies in Safari's JavaScript engine specifically, iLeakage affects all browsers on iOS, because Apple's policies force all iPhone browser apps to use Safari's engine.

"Chrome, Firefox and Edge on iOS are simply wrappers on top of Safari that provide auxiliary features such as synchronizing bookmarks and settings. Consequently, nearly every browser application listed on the App Store is vulnerable to iLeakage," the researchers explained.

iPhone users are doubly in trouble, because the best fix Apple has released thus far only works on MacBooks (and, for that matter, only in an unstable state). But for his part, Gallagher backs Apple's ability to design an effective remediation.

"Chip-level vulnerabilities are typically hard to patch, which is why it is not surprising that there is not a fix for this right now. It will take time, but ultimately if this becomes a real exploited vulnerability a patch will likely be available," he says.

Safari Side-Channel Attack Enables Browser Theft

The financially motivated English-speaking threat actors use advanced social engineering techniques, SIM swapping, and even threats of violence to breach targets.

The financially motivated hacking group Octo Tempest, responsible for attacking MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment in September, has been branded "one of the most dangerous financial criminal groups" by Microsoft's Incident Response and Threat Intelligence team.

The group, also known as 0ktapus, Scattered Spider, and UNC3944, has been active since early 2022, initially targeting telecom and outsourcing companies with SIM swap attacks.

It later shifted to extortion using stolen data, and by mid-2023 the group had partnered with ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware, initially leveraging the ALPHV Collections leak site and later deploying the ransomware, focusing on VMWare ESXi servers.

Microsoft's in-depth post about the group and its extensive range of tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) details the evolution of Octo Tempest and the fluidity of its operations.

"In recent campaigns, we observed Octo Tempest leverage a diverse array of TTPs to navigate complex hybrid environments, exfiltrate sensitive data, and encrypt data," the report notes. "Octo Tempest leverages tradecraft that many organizations don't have in their typical threat models, such as SMS phishing, SIM swapping, and advanced social engineering techniques."

**The Multi-Armed 0ktapus Cybercrime Playbook**

The group gains initial access through advanced social advanced social engineering techniques, often targeting employees with access to network permissions, including support and help desk personnel.

The attackers call these individuals, and attempt to persuade them to reset user passwords, change or add authentication tokens, or install a remote monitoring and management (RMM) utility.

The group is not beyond leveraging personal information, such as home addresses and family names, or even making physical threats, to coerce victims into sharing corporate access credentials.

During the initial stages of the attacks, Octo Tempest conducts extensive reconnaissance, which includes gathering data on users, groups, and device information, and exploring network architecture, employee onboarding, and password policies.

The group uses tools including PingCastle and ADRecon for Active Directory reconnaissance, and the PureStorage FlashArray PowerShell SDK for enumerating storage arrays.

They reach deep into multi-cloud environments, code repositories, and server infrastructure, aiming to validate access and plan footholds for subsequent attack phases, a process that helps the group enhance their activities within targeted environments.

**Partnering With Russians: Unprecedented Fusion of Tactics, Tools**

Callie Guenther, senior manager of cyber threat research at Critical Start, says English-speaking Octo Tempest's affiliation with the Russian-speaking BlackCat group signifies an "unprecedented fusion" of resources, technical tools, and refined ransomware tactics.

"Historically, the distinct boundaries maintained between Eastern European and English-speaking cybercriminals provided some semblance of regional demarcation," she explains. "Now, this alliance allows Octo Tempest to operate on a wider canvas, both geographically and in terms of potential targets."

She notes that the convergence of Eastern European cyber expertise with the linguistic and cultural nuances of English-speaking affiliates enhances the localization and efficacy of their attacks.

From her perspective, the multifaceted approach Octo Tempest employs is particularly alarming.

"Beyond their technical prowess, they've mastered the art of social engineering, adapting their tactics to impersonate and blend seamlessly into targeted organizations," she says. "This, combined with their alignment with the formidable BlackCat ransomware group, amplifies their threat manifold."

She notes the real concern emerges when one realizes they've diversified from specific industries to a broader spectrum and are now unafraid to resort to outright physical threats, showcasing a concerning escalation in cybercriminal tactics.

Tony Goulding, cybersecurity evangelist at Delinea, agrees the blend of sophisticated techniques, broad scope of industries targeted, and their aggressive approach — even resorting to physical threats — are the most dangerous aspects of the group.

"Organizations should be very concerned," he explains. "Being native English speakers, they can more effectively launch wide-ranging social engineering campaigns compared to BlackCat."

He says this is particularly beneficial when using idiolect methods to convincingly impersonate employees during phone calls.

"Proficiency in English also helps them craft more convincing phishing messages for their signature SMS phishing and SIM swapping techniques," he adds.

**Defense In-Depth**

Guenther says defending against Octo Tempest's financial pursuits involves a series of proactive and reactive measures, adhering to the principle of least privilege to ensure restricted access.

"Cryptocurrencies should be stored in offline cold wallets to minimize online exposure," she advises. "Continual system updates and anti-ransomware solutions can thwart most ransomware deployments."

Advanced network monitoring can detect anomalous data flows, indicative of potential data exfiltration attempts.

"In case of breaches or attacks, an established incident response strategy can guide immediate actions," she adds. "Collaborative threat intelligence sharing with industry peers can also keep organizations abreast of emerging threats and countermeasures."

Goulding points out education, awareness training, and technical controls that vault privileged accounts and protect access workstations and servers are key.

"Putting obstacles in the path of threat actors all along the attack chain, to divert them from their playbook and generate noise, is super important for early detection," he says. "The more advanced and proficient the attack group, the better prepared they will be, so investing in the best tools that include modern capabilities is your best bet."

Source

DARKReading