Proactive defenses, cross-sector collaboration, and resilience are key to combating increasingly sophisticated threats.

Source: Artur Szczybylo via Alamy Stock Photo

From the growing sophistication of zero-day exploits to the entrenchment of nation-state and cybercriminal alliances, 2024 delivered more evidence of how quickly the threat landscape continues to evolve. The year reinforced hard truths about the persistence of attackers and the systemic challenges of defense. We look back on some of the events that defined 2024 and the tactical insights that security teams can apply to stay ahead in the ongoing battle in 2025.

**Surging Zero-Day Exploits and Nation-State Collaboration**

Threat researchers continued to see a year-over-year increase of zero days. Recent analysis by Mandiant of 138 vulnerabilities that were disclosed in 2023 found the majority (97) were exploited as zero-days — an increase from 2022. Tom Kellermann, senior vice president of cyber strategy at Contrast Security, expects that number to increase in 2024.

The growth is a direct result of geopolitical tensions, he says. Nation-state actors, particularly China, are exploiting these types of vulnerabilities at unprecedented rates.

"The Chinese specifically have been doing tremendous research into exploiting zero-days and discovering them," Kellermann says. "I think everyone's kind of on their back foot when dealing with this because traditional cybersecurity defenses can't thwart those attacks."

The rise in these kinds of attacks includes a new trend in 2024: collaboration or coordination between nation-states and cybercrime rings, says Stephan Jou, senior director of security analytics at OpenText Cybersecurity.

"In this model, an attack with nation-state characteristics is launched at the same time, or followed closely by, an attack on the same target by an independent for-profit threat actor. Russia, for example, has been seen to collaborate with malware-as-a-service gangs, including Killnet, LokiBot, Gumblar, Pony Loader, and Amadey. China has entered similar relationships with the Storm-0558 and Red Relay cybercrime rings, typically to support its geopolitical agenda in the South China Sea."

Chester Wisniewski, global field CTO at Sophos, says China-sponsored attackers have developed assembly-line zero-day exploits shared through state-mandated disclosure laws. Attackers initially used zero-days in targeted attacks, then escalated them to widespread exploitation to cover their tracks. Proactive patch management and collaboration between vendors and organizations to mitigate threats is critical, he says.

"The real problem is this accumulation of stuff that's not getting patched," Wisniewski says. "We just keep launching more equipment out there onto the Internet. And it's getting more and more polluted, and nobody's responsible for taking care of it."

Jou agrees and says the lesson here is that defense against even sophisticated attacks comes back to the same basics: patch management, endpoint protection, email security, awareness training, and backup and disaster recovery planning.

"By ensuring that these unglamorous but essential best practices are in place, security teams can rob threat actors of many of their favorite tactics to abuse networks and businesses," he says.

**Resiliency Planning Needs More Focus**

Ransomware attacks in 2024 highlighted the fragility of supply chains and business continuity. Ransomware operators are now targeting service providers and supply chain networks, Wisniewski says. A cyberattack on Ahold Delhaize, the parent company of major US supermarket chains, including Stop & Shop, Hannaford, Food Lion, and Giant Food, disrupted services across its network in November, impacting more than 2,000 stores. For several days, customers had issues with online grocery delivery, offline websites, and limited pharmacy services.

Improving business continuity strategies to include modern segmentation tools can help minimize operational disruptions during incidents, Wisniewski says.

"When one part of a supply chain goes down, it impacts thousands of businesses," he says. "This amplifies the economic and operational pressure to comply with attackers' demands. You can't plan never to fail, but you can plan to fail gracefully."

Another headline-making business continuity incident this year was the CrowdStrike outage. In July, the company released a faulty software update that affected approximately 8.5 million devices running the Windows operating system. The glitch triggered widespread system crashes that resulted in multiple disruptions, particularly in the travel industry. Delta Air Lines was forced to cancel thousands of flights due to system disruptions. 

The event dominated news cycles for several days. In its wake, analysts pointed to the critical need for better process adherence and visibility. But Dror Liwer, cofounder of Coro, says it also highlights a need for security leaders to  effectively communicate with diverse stakeholders — whether technical teams, business executives, or external parties — when managing the fallout of a large-scale incident.

**Critical Infrastructure Is a Growing Target**

Attacks on critical infrastructure reached new levels in 2024. In September, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a notice that government-run water systems were at risk of attack by nation-states after officials reported a cybersecurity issue at a facility in Arkansas City, Kansas, which was forced to switch to manual operations while the situation was resolved.

Barry Mainz, CEO of Forescout, says cyberattacks are evolving to target critical services, like municipal water authorities and airport landing systems. This year made it clear that attackers are shifting their focus from well-protected facilities to more vulnerable upstream systems, like water supplies and power grids, he says.

"If you just zoom out a bit and look at where the vulnerabilities are, the bad actors are saying, 'Well, it's a lot harder now since people are spending money to secure certain IT functions. We're going to go down the food chain a little bit,'" Mainz says.

One of the key challenges in securing critical infrastructure is the inherent complexity of operational environments. Many industrial systems operate using legacy equipment that was never designed with cybersecurity in mind. In addition, there is often a lack of visibility into connected devices within these environments, which can make detecting threats extremely difficult.

"I think the lesson is we've got to invest in a cybersecurity strategy for not only IT systems but \[operational technology\] systems," Mainz says. "And also we need to think structurally about how we manage those systems because the people that actually manage those OT systems, they're not IT professionals.”

A better approach, he says, involves adopting advanced monitoring and threat detection tools as well as fostering collaboration between IT and OT teams. By breaking down silos and improving communication, organizations can better address the unique security requirements of critical infrastructure. Mainz pointed to the importance of government and private-sector partnerships in bolstering defenses.

**Telecom Can't Be Trusted**

We wrap up 2024 with news that Salt Typhoon, a cyber-espionage group allegedly linked to the Chinese government, has successfully infiltrated telecommunications networks in multiple countries. In the US alone, FBI officials say at least eight major telecom companies, including AT&T, Verizon, and Lumen Technologies, were compromised. The group gained access to sensitive data, such as call logs, unencrypted text messages, and, in some cases, live call audio. The FBI recommended that Americans use encrypted messaging apps, like Signal and WhatsApp, to ensure their communications stay hidden.

The ongoing issues around nation-state attackers and their use of telecom is one of his biggest worries heading into 2025, Kellermann says. He also points to T-Mobile's acquisition of Sprint in 2020, which he says is concerning because "Sprint used to be the classified backbone network of the US government." This means that if there are security vulnerabilities within T-Mobile's infrastructure, they could potentially compromise sensitive government communications or systems that were part of Sprint's legacy network. 

"I think the people are ignoring that and are not paying attention fully," he says.

**About the Author**

Contributing Writer, Dark Reading

Joan Goodchild is a veteran journalist, editor, and writer who has been covering security for more than a decade. She has written for several publications and previously served as editor-in-chief for CSO Online.

What Security Lessons Did We Learn in 2024?

Organizations in the region should expect to see threat actors accelerate their use of AI tools and mount ongoing "harvest now, decrypt later" attacks for various malicious use cases.

Source: Tero Vesalainen via Shutterstock

If incidents this year are any indication, deepfakes and “harvest now, decrypt later” attacks spurred by the growing adoption of quantum computing projects are among the many concerns that organizations in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region will need to deal with in 2025.

Over the past year, cybercriminals operating in the APAC region have increasingly leveraged AI to launch sophisticated campaigns — such as AI-generated phishing emails, adaptive malware, and deepfakes. The attacks have undermined trust in critical communications and exacerbated social tensions, says Clement Lee, security architect and evangelist at Check Point Software Technologies, Asia Pacific.

**An Increase in Deepfakes & Quantum Computing-Related Cyberattacks**

"This was starkly demonstrated during recent elections seen across APAC: in India where deepfakes fueled widespread disinformation; in Indonesia, where a doctored deepfake video aimed to stir anti-China sentiment; and in Hong Kong, a finance worker who was duped into sending $25 million by a deepfake impersonation of company executives," Lee says. As these tactics start extending from political spheres into the corporate realm, businesses must adopt AI-driven security defenses to counter them, Lee notes.

Simon Green, president of Asia, Pacific, and Japan at Palo Alto Networks, described the APAC region as being on the cusp of a "perfect storm of AI-driven cyber threats" heading into 2025. Attacks featuring deepfake audio and video will likely be the most visible manifestations of the trend, he noted.

Related:Middle East Cyberwar Rages On, With No End in Sight

"We can expect deepfakes to be used alone or as part of a larger attack much more often in 2025," Green said. The use of audio deepfakes in particular is likely to increase over the next 12 month, as technology for highly credible voice cloning becomes more easily accessible.

**AI-Focused Cybersecurity Preparations**

Expect also to see more organizations in the APAC region looking for ways to better protect their data as they implement AI-enabled projects.

"Our customers are asking how they can get more value out of their data, while maintaining robust security, especially as they look to benefit from GenAI products like Microsoft Copilot," adds Max McNamara, vice president and managing director Australia and New Zealand at AvePoint.

"This starts with having secure, accessible data, ensuring you can scale with solutions that don't compromise your security posture, and rigorously adhering to increasingly complex regulatory standards," he says. APAC organizations will increasingly be looking to ensure their data is not just accessible, but also fundamentally secure within their borders, he notes.

Related:'Dubai Police' Lures Anchor Wave of UAE Mobile Attacks

"Our customers are asking how they can get more value out of their data, while maintaining robust security, especially as they look to benefit from GenAI products like Microsoft Copilot," McNamara says, adding that this starts with having secure, accessible data, ensuring you can scale with solutions that don't compromise your security posture, and rigorously adhering to increasingly complex regulatory standards.

**Quantum Projects Will Drive Increase in Harvest Now, Decrypt Later Attacks**

The growing number of quantum computing projects in the APAC region is likely going to fuel an increase in "harvest now, decrypt later" attacks as well. Such attacks involve adversaries collecting and storing currently encrypted data with the intention of decrypting it in the future, when quantum computers become powerful enough to break today's encryption standards. The attacks pose a significant threat to sensitive information that needs to remain secure for extended periods of time.

According to Fortune Business Insights, Asia Pacific is the fastest growing quantum computing market in the world, with multiple companies including IBM, Microsoft, Google, Alibaba, Baidu, JSR, and D-Wave systems currently involved in large regional quantum software and hardware projects. One example is a new quantum computing cloud platform that Alibaba has deployed in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Some quantum projects in the APAC region are happening at a national level, such as India's US-funded National Mission on Quantum Technologies & Applications, and Singapore's Quantum Engineering Programs.

Related:Governments, Telcos Ward Off China's Hacking Typhoons

"The advent of quantum computing threatens to render current encryption standards obsolete, risking exposure of sensitive data and compromising critical infrastructure," Lee says. "Quantum-resistant cryptography will gain traction as organizations prepare for future decryption threats."

Organizations in the APAC region should expect increased interest in harvest now, decrypt later attacks from a wide range of adversaries, including nation-state-backed threat actors, according to Palo Alto Networks' Green. The attacks will pose a threat to governments and businesses, civilian and military communications, critical infrastructure, and organizations developing quantum projects, Green said. Organizations concerned about the trend should develop a quantum resistant road map that includes deployment of quantum resistant tunnelling, stronger crypto libraries and quantum key distribution, according to Palo Alto Networks.

Richard Sorosina, chief technology security officer and vice president of solution architecture at Qualys' EMEA & APAC operations, believes that the fast-evolving and increasingly sophisticated nature of the APAC threat landscape will likely accelerate ongoing consolidation of security capabilities at many organizations in the region. He expects organizations will increasingly move toward a unified security platform approach that will provide both a centralized view of risk across the organization and mechanisms to remediate that risk when found. Many of these efforts will be "driven by a need to reduce complexity, increase operational efficiency, enhance detection and response capabilities, and reduce overall cost," Sorosina says.

**About the Author**

Jai Vijayan is a seasoned technology reporter with over 20 years of experience in IT trade journalism. He was most recently a Senior Editor at Computerworld, where he covered information security and data privacy issues for the publication. Over the course of his 20-year career at Computerworld, Jai also covered a variety of other technology topics, including big data, Hadoop, Internet of Things, e-voting, and data analytics. Prior to Computerworld, Jai covered technology issues for The Economic Times in Bangalore, India. Jai has a Master's degree in Statistics and lives in Naperville, Ill.

Deepfakes, Quantum Attacks Loom Over APAC in 2025

Sometimes it feels like burnout is an inevitable part of working in cybersecurity. But a little bit of knowledge can help you and your staff stay healthy.

Source: Magdalena Iordache via Alamy Stock Photo

"A quarter of cybersecurity leaders want to quit," hollered the headline of a study sponsored by global cybersecurity company Black Fog. While that is suggestive of stress or morale problems at the higher levels of security teams, the more alarming numbers came later in the press release, below the graphic: 45% of security leaders have used drugs or alcohol to relieve work pressure in the past year, and 69% have "withdrawn from social activities."

That's starting to sound more like burnout than stress.

The reason it's important to distinguish the cause of self-destructive behavior at work is that short-term stress and burnout have different treatments and timelines. According to a journal article by Arno van Dam, 80% of people suffering short-term stress are back at work in six to 12 weeks. Burnout patients, however, take more than a year to recover; one quarter to one half of patients still haven't recovered after two to four years.

**What Is Cybersecurity Burnout?**

To discern burnout, it's helpful to have a standard definition. While the US list of maladies, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (aka the DSM), still doesn't include work-related burnout as a diagnosis as of version 5, the World Health Organization (WHO) sees it differently. The WHO's alternative resource, International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (aka the ICD), has a code for burnout — QD85 — and defined it in the context of work/unemployment problems:

Related:Emerging Threats & Vulnerabilities to Prepare for in 2025

> "Burnout is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by three dimensions: 1) feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; 2) increased mental distance from one's job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one's job; and 3) a sense of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment."

According to the van Dam article, burnout happens when an employee buries their experience of chronic stress for years. The people who burn out are often formerly great performers, perfectionists who exhibit perseverance. But if the person perseveres in a situation where they don't have control, they can experience the kind of morale-killing stress that, left unaddressed for months and years, leads to burnout. In such cases, "perseverance is not adaptive anymore and individuals should shift to other coping strategies like asking for social support and reflecting on one's situation and feelings," the article read.

"I wrestle with burnout pretty regularly, escalated thanks to neurodivergence," says Ian Campbell, senior security operations engineer at DomainTools. Burnout is also a condition familiar to the neurodivergent, especially autistic people. Autistic burnout, a term used mostly by that community, entails chronic exhaustion, losing the use of skills, and a lowered tolerance for stimuli. The role it might play in the better-known work burnout is unknown, but the similarity of symptoms is interesting.

Related:Name That Toon: Sneaking Around

Campbell sees the interplay from the inside. "Autism, depression, and anxiety are a wickedly effective combination in encouraging burnout. Hyperfocus can lead to working far too much and ignoring work/life balance," he says. "Depression and anxiety are self-perpetuating, exquisitely engineered to set up feedback cycles hard to break away from, and that can be doubly toxic around work — the depression saying things won't get better, the anxiety pressing you to work longer, harder, be more useful and less expendable."

Bryan Kissinger, chief information security officer (CISO) and senior VP at Trace3, adds, "People also need to have the courage to say to their managers or coworkers, 'Hey, I need a break.'"

**Handling Staff Burnout on Security Teams**

"Sometimes it's very challenging" to tell when someone's burning out, Kissinger says. He tells the story of one employee who kept their stress to themselves until it was almost too late: "They were ready to leave because they were burning out, and I said, 'This is the first I've heard about it. Can we bring on some contractors to help us moderate the workload?'"

Related:How Nation-State Cybercriminals Are Targeting the Enterprise

When asked how he helps his staff fend off burnout, Kissinger describes a hands-on approach. "I audit their day. A lot of people either tend to get roped into things ... or volunteer for things," he says. "What are the one or two things that need to be done today, and what can be done Monday or later next week?"

Jill Knesek, CISO at BlackLine, has a team of about 30 people, and has a quarterly one-on-one with each of them. "I offer more if they want more, and if you want to do monthly or every six weeks, then please do," she says. "I just try to take the time with each person on the team to make them feel important and empowered. And I know that there's opportunities for them, even if it's not maybe what they're doing today."

If a person's team is not supportive of work/life balance, that can exacerbate the issue.

Knesek says, "I want to make sure they know that I know what they're doing and I care about what they're doing and I can help guide them. So they feel important, and they feel like the really important things get noticed by leadership."

**How Cyber Staff Handles Work Pressure**

"Taking all my holiday was a big help," says Terence Eden, who moved from civil service to start his own consultancy, Open Ideas, which affords him much more control over his schedule and work/life balance. "And doing it in big chunks, not just a day or two, allowed me to reset."

Resetting from the buildup of stress is an important part of disrupting the path to burnout, as Knesek knows well. She says, "I encourage my team all the time to make sure their work-life balance is always good. Recharging your batteries is really important, and I am an important representative of that, right? So if I don't do it and everybody says, 'Well, Jill never takes \[paid time off\] but she tells us to do it. But does she really mean that? Because she's not taking it.'"

Employees sometimes scoff at the wellness programs companies put out as an attempt to keep people healthy. "Most 'corporate' solutions — use this app! attend this webinar! — felt juvenile and unhelpful," Eden says. And it does seem like many solutions fall into the same quick-fix category as home improvement hacks or dump dinner recipes.

Christina Maslach's scholarly work attributed work stress to six main sources: workload, values, reward, control, fairness, and community. "If any are lacking or out of sync, you may be headed toward exhaustion, cynicism, and the feeling of being ineffective," said this article presenting a two-minute burnout assessment tool.

An even quicker assessment is promised by the Matches Measure from Cindy Muir Zapata. "The graphic she offered in her paper is a six-point and eight-point spectrum of matches, from unlit, to singed, to burned, to disintegrated," read an article on HR Dive. A worker looks at the layout of matches and picks the one that shows how burned out they feel.

But Campbell has an idea for how to handle wellness better: "So my first and strongest recommendation to everyone is this: psychotherapy."

"Professionals will help a lot more than any quick hack to keep you running for another few weeks — therapy allows you to vent out what's building up, gain insight on your own status and choices, and plan for future burnout occurrences," he adds. "It doesn't make everything magically better, but you learn the tools to keep treading water, then tools to swim against counterproductive currents, and more."

"The time to start learning and building the tool sets is before the burnout hits, or at least before it becomes a true crisis," he adds.

**Hope in a Hopeless Place**

If worse comes to worst, and burnout hits, the van Dam article found hope in the study of disaster survivors. No matter how awful the disastrous events they went through, people tend to perceive some good coming from their trauma. This post-traumatic growth falls into three categories of benefits: changes in self-perception, in relationships, and in life philosophy.

The article built on that to posit post-burnout growth as well. "Many former burnout patients report that they have learned from their burnout and that their life is better now than before their burnout," Campbell explains. "They know better who they are and what is important to them in life; they spend more time with their friends and families; and they changed their priorities. Many former burnout patients allow themselves to enjoy life more and to be happy."

And again, he has some advice, particularly for the neurodivergent people: hack your needs to make yourself comfortable. "There are a thousand ways to optimize your own senses, and it's something we as a culture often fail at. Whether you're neurodivergent, neurotypical, or something else entirely — find the best sensory augments that allow you to work, and the better we'll all be protecting, hacking, investigating, hunting, and more."

Defining &amp; Defying Cybersecurity Staff Burnout

The US water sector suffered a stream of cyberattacks over the past year and half, from a mix of cybercriminals, hacktivists, and nation-state hacking teams. Here's how the industry and ICS/OT security experts are working to better secure vulnerable drinking and wastewater utilities.

Source: Vyacheslav Lopatin via Alamy Stock Photo

The unprecedented wave of high-profile cyberattacks on US water utilities over the past year has just kept flowing.

In one incident, pro-Iranian hackers penetrated a Pittsburgh-area water utility's PLC and defaced the touchscreen with an anti-Israel message, forcing the utility to revert to manual control of its water pressure-regulation system. A water and wastewater operator for 500 North American communities temporarily severed connections between its IT and OT networks after ransomware infiltrated some back-end systems and exposed its customers' personal data. Customer-facing websites and the telecommunications network at the US's largest regulated water utility went dark after an October cyberattack.

Those were just some of the more chilling stories that have recently sparked fear over the security and physical safety of drinking water and wastewater systems. The cyberattacks have spurred warnings and security guidelines from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the White House, the FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Water ISAC (Information Sharing and Analysis Center).

Most of the attacks landed on the softest of targets, small water utilities without security expertise and resources, in mainly opportunistic attacks. Meanwhile, cyberattacks on large utilities like Veolia and American Water hit IT, not OT, systems — none of which actually disrupted water services. Overall, the cyberattacks on water appeared to be mainly about "poking around and eroding confidence," says Gus Serino, president of I&C Secure and a former process control engineer for the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority.

Related:IoT Cloud Cracked by 'Open Sesame' Over-the-Air Attack

The race is now on to secure the water sector — especially the smaller more vulnerable utilities — from further cyberattacks. Many larger water utilities already have been "stepping up their game" in securing their OT networks, and others started building out their security infrastructures years ago, notes Dale Peterson, president of ICS/OT security consultancy Digital Bond. "My first client in 2000 was a water utility," he recalls. "Some \[large utilities\] have been working on this for a very long time."

The challenge lies in securing smaller utilities, without overprescribing them with unnecessary and high-overhead security infrastructure. Tools that require expertise and overhead are a nonstarter at sites where there isn't even dedicated IT support, much less cyber know-how. Peterson argues that government recommendations for sophisticated security monitoring systems are just plain overkill for most small utilities. These tiny outfits have bigger and more tangible priorities, he says, like replacing aging or damaged pipes in their physical infrastructure.

Related:Frenos Takes Home the Prize at 2024 DataTribe Challenge

**ICS/OT Cyber-Risk: Something in the Water?**

Like other ICS/OT industries, water utilities of all sizes have been outfitting once-isolated programmable logic controller (PLC) systems and OT equipment with remote access, so operators can more efficiently monitor and manage plants from afar — to control water pumps or check alarms, for instance. That has put traditionally isolated equipment at risk.

"They are starting and stopping pumps, setting changes, responding to alarms or failures \[in\] a system. They remote in to look at SCADA/HMI screens to see what's wrong or to take corrective action," explains I&C Secure's Serino, who works closely with water utilities. He says it's rare for those systems to be properly segmented, and VPNs are "not always" used for secure remote access.

PLC vendors such as Siemens are increasingly building security features into their devices, but water plants don't typically run this next-generation gear.

"I have yet to see any secure PLCs deployed" in smaller water sites, Serino says. "Even if there are new PLCs, their security features are not 'on.' So if you \[an attacker\] can get in and get access to the device on that network, you can do whatever you are capable of doing to a PLC."

Related:20% of Industrial Manufacturers Are Using Network Security as a First Line of Defense

Because many ICS/OT systems integrators that install OT systems traditionally do not also set up security for the equipment and software they install in water utility networks, these networks often are left exposed, with open ports or default credentials. "We need to help integrators making \[and installing\] SCADA equipment for these utilities make sure they are secured" for utilities, says Chris Sistrunk, technical leader of Google Cloud Mandiant's ICS/OT consulting practice and a former senior engineer at Entergy. 

Default credentials are one of the most common security weaknesses found in OT networks, as well as industrial devices sitting exposed on the public Internet. The Iranian-based Cyber Av3ngers hacking group easily broke into the Israeli-made Unitronics Vision Series PLCs at the Aliquippa Municipal Water Authority plant (as well as other water utilities and organizations), merely by logging in with the PLCs' easily discoverable factory-setting credentials.

The good news is that some major systems integrators such as Black & Veatch are working with large water utilities on building security into their new OT installations. Ian Bramson, vice president of global industrial cybersecurity at Black & Veatch, says his team works with utilities that consider security a physical safety issue. "They are looking to build \[security\] in and not bolt it in," he explains, to prevent any physical safety consequences from poor cybersecurity security controls.

**Cybersecurity Cleanup for Water**

Meanwhile, there are plenty of free cybersecurity resources for resource-strapped water utilities, including the Water-ISAC's top 12 Security Fundamentals and the American Waterworks Association (AWWA)'s free security assessment tool for water utilities that helps them map their environments to the NIST Cybersecurity Framework. Kevin Morley, manager of federal relations for the AWWA and a utility cybersecurity expert, says the tool includes a survey of the utility's technology and then provides a priority list of the security controls the utility should adopt and address, focusing on risk and resilience.

"It creates a heat map" of where the utility's security weaknesses and risks lie, he says. That helps arm a utility with a cybersecurity business case in the budget process. "They can go to leadership and say 'we did this analysis and this is what we found,'" he explains.

There's also a new cyber volunteer program that assists rural water utilities. The National Rural Water Association recently teamed up with DEF CON to match volunteer cybersecurity experts to utilities in need of cyber help. Six utilities in Utah, Vermont, Indiana, and Oregon encompass the initial cohort for the bespoke DEF CON Franklin project, where volunteer ICS/OT security experts will assess their security posture and help them secure and protect their OT systems from cyber threats.

Mandiant's Sistrunk, who serves as a volunteer cyber expert for some small utilities, points to three main and basic security steps small (and large) utilities should take to improve their defenses: enact multifactor authentication, especially for remote access to OT systems; store backups offline or with a trusted third party; and have a written response plan for who to call when a cyberattack hits.

Serino recommends a firewall as well. "Get a firewall if you don't have one, and have it configured and locked down to control data flows in and out," he says. It's common for firewalls at a water utility to be misconfigured and left wide open to outgoing traffic, he notes: "If an adversary can get in, they could establish their own persistence and command and control, so hardening up the perimeter" for both outgoing and ingoing traffic is important.

He also recommends centralized logging of OT systems, especially for larger water utilities with the resources to support logging and detection operations: "Have the ability to detect a problem so you can stop it before it reaches the end goal of causing an impact."

**About the Author**

Kelly Jackson Higgins is the Editor-in-Chief of Dark Reading. She is an award-winning veteran technology and business journalist with more than two decades of experience in reporting and editing for various publications, including Network Computing, Secure Enterprise Magazine, Virginia Business magazine, and other major media properties. Jackson Higgins was recently selected as one of the Top 10 Cybersecurity Journalists in the US, and named as one of Folio's 2019 Top Women in Media. She began her career as a sports writer in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, and earned her BA at William & Mary. Follow her on Twitter @kjhiggins.

Hackers Are Hot for Water Utilities

The work on quantum computing hit some major milestones in 2024, making the path to a workable quantum computer seem closer than ever. Google, Microsoft, and other research efforts hit significant milestones this year, but is the cybersecurity world ready?

Source: Marko Aliaksandr via Shutterstock

The quest to create a useful quantum computer reached a significant milestone at the end of 2024 with Google's announcement of its Willow chip. The chip promises reduced noise and fewer errors as the number of qubits grows — a necessary step to advance toward advanced quantum computing. Despite some debate on when these systems will actually become available, experts still advise making plans and migrating to post-quantum technologies.

The shift from today's technology, where adding more qubits adds more noise, to a future where increasing the number of qubits exponentially reduces the amount of noise — an achievement known as "threshold scalability" — conquers a major impediment to quantum computers. Creating a 1,000-qubit quantum computer requires foundational advancements beyond today's noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) computers to create reliable logical qubits that can be used in easily scaled architectures.

The Google announcement marks "a significant leap forward," says Karl Holmqvist, founder and CEO at Lastwall, an identity services provider focused on quantum resilience.

"Companies should be starting to get concerned about a usable quantum computer now," Holmqvist says. "This is not because there is proof of a cryptographically relevant quantum computer yet. It is because there are active campaigns that are currently taking place to capture encrypted data and store it until there is a system that can break our asymmetric encryption."

Related:Dark Reading Confidential: Quantum Has Landed, So Now What?

The threat posed by quantum computers seems to be becoming more real every day. In addition to Google's Willow chip announcement, Microsoft announced in November that it had reached a 24-qubit milestone with Atom Computing using lasers, while Japanese researchers from the Riken Quantum Computer Research Center announced a "general-purpose" optical quantum computer.

The future implications could be dire. The Hudson Institute, a free-market think tank, warns that quantum computers pose a systemic cyber-risk to financial systems; it published two papers describing risks of disruption to the US financial system and cryptocurrencies.

**Less Than a Decade Away?**

Quantum computing is one of those technologies that many have perennially predicted is only a decade away. Currently, the median estimate among experts is that within 15 years, a quantum computer will be able to break RSA-2048 in 24 hours, according to the "Quantum Threat Timeline Report 2024."

The middle-of-the-road estimate of when quantum computers will pose an encryption threat is less than 15 years. Source: Global Risk Institute

While many experts see the possibility of a useful quantum computer in less than a decade — based on three key areas: hardware progression, error correction, and algorithm development — useful quantum computers still have a long way to go before they become possible. For example, while Google's work on Willow is a major step toward making error correction — mainly a theoretical field before this decade — more achievable in larger quantum computing chips, achieving this step is just the second milestone out of six listed on its quantum computer road map.

Related:Quantum Leap: Advanced Computing Is a Vulnerable Cyber Target

In addition, gauging the risk is difficult, with terms such as "threshold scalability" and "quantum supercomputers" muddying the waters, says Rebecca Krauthamer, co-founder and CEO of QuSecure.

"There's so much complicated vocabulary when it comes to quantum, the thing that people need to look out for is when they start seeing quantum computers beginning to solve problems that they recognize," Krauthamer says. "So whether it's improved battery technology, or route optimization for self-driving cars, or optimized portfolio management, or breaking encryption — that's the time everybody should have already migrated to post-quantum technologies, and not just post-quantum but crypto-agile management of cryptography."

Yet the lack of significant benefits for the private sector could put a damper on development. The Boston Consulting Group, for example, points out that quantum computing programs have had difficulty converting effort into value.

"Quantum computing today provides no tangible advantage over classical computing in either commercial or scientific applications," BCG stated in a July analysis. "Though experts agree that there are clear scientific and commercial problems for which quantum solutions will one day far surpass the classical alternative, the newer technology has yet to demonstrate this advantage at scale."

**Experts Still Urge Preparation**

In addition, the point at which nation-states could use quantum computers to break encryption could be sooner, increasing the risk for some industries. Quantinuum, for example, accelerated its road map for fully fault-tolerant quantum computing to 2030 and warns that quantum secure solutions will likely be necessary before 2035.

"Given where we stand today, the need to complete migration to PQC \[post-quantum computing\] to effectively protect sensitive data needs to be prioritized," says Duncan Jones, head of cybersecurity for Quantinuum.

Quantinuum expects incremental advances in the next few years. That includes improvements in error correction and qubit scaling, continued research into applications such as quantum decryption, and, as a result, greater adoption of PQC technologies, such as post-quantum encryption, quantum key distribution, and quantum random number generation (QRNG), says the company's Jones.

"Organizations implementing quantum-safe strategies today should focus on PQC migration while ensuring their cryptographic foundations are as strong as possible through the use of QRNGs," he says. "This approach provides immediate security benefits while preparing for future quantum-safe technologies."

Google acknowledges that while its error correction breakthrough is significant, there is a difference between theory and practice.

"We still have a long way to go before we reach our goal of building a large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer," two members of the Google Quantum AI team stated in a blog post. "The engineering challenge ahead of us is immense."

**About the Author**

Veteran technology journalist of more than 20 years. Former research engineer. Written for more than two dozen publications, including CNET News.com, Dark Reading, MIT's Technology Review, Popular Science, and Wired News. Five awards for journalism, including Best Deadline Journalism (Online) in 2003 for coverage of the Blaster worm. Crunches numbers on various trends using Python and R. Recent reports include analyses of the shortage in cybersecurity workers and annual vulnerability trends.

Quantum Computing Advances in 2024 Put Security In Spotlight

While companies have responded to the new SEC rules by disclosing incidents promptly, many of the reports don't meet the SEC's "material" standard.

Source: Paul Hastings, LLP

The new cybersecurity disclosure rules introduced by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last year have resulted in a significant increase of incident reports from public companies, but most of the reports do not include the material impact of those incidents, according to a law firm specializing in finance and M&A activity.

Analysis by Paul Hastings LLP found cybersecurity incident reports have increased by 60% since the disclosure rule went into effect in 2023. The SEC regulation requires public companies to disclose material cybersecurity incidents within four business days of determining materiality. Material, in this instance, means that the incident can impact someone's decision on whether to invest in the company. Determining materiality involves considering the immediate fallout and any longer-term effects on a company's operations, customer relationships, financial impact, reputational or brand perception, and the potential for litigation or regulatory action.

As the chart above shows, the impact of the regulation spans numerous industries. While the financial services sector accounted for the largest number of disclosure reports, industrials and healthcare were also heavily impacted. Automotive retail and retail entities were also hit by cyberattacks and had to report those incidents.

Less than 10% of the disclosures detailed the material impacts of the incidents, suggesting that companies are having difficulty balancing detailed reporting with protecting the details of internal operations. The report included examples of what was considered material, such as Basset Furniture Industries noting that business operations are materially impacted until recovery efforts are completed, or First American Financial disclosing adjusted earning per share for the fourth quarter financial results and quantifying the losses in the company's SEC filings.

Some companies (13%) opted to provide a press release or a reference to a blog post to provide more details about the incident.

**Third-Party Breach Impact**

One in four incidents in the report were third-party breaches. Companies are struggling to figure out whether to disclose third-party breaches, especially if other victims have disclosed the incidents. The automotive retail sector was affected primarily by the ransomware attack on automotive software provider CDK Global in June. The company paid a $25 million ransom. CDK's parent company, Brookfield Business Partners, said in its July disclosure that the company did not "expect this incident to have a material impact." Many of the smaller automotive companies claimed material impact as a result of CDK's incident.

The SEC recently announced enforcement settlements with four SolarWinds customers for allegedly making misleading disclosures related to how they were impacted by the cyberattack. Two of the four publicly disclosed the incidents but did not disclose all material facts known at the time, such as the name of the threat actor, nature of information stolen, and number of accounts accessed. The other two did not disclose the incidents, and the SEC said they should have disclosed the impact.

**Speed or More Details?**

More than three-quarters (78%) of disclosures were made within eight days of discovery of the incident. The SEC specified that the deadline to disclose is not four business days after discovering the incident but rather when materiality has been determined, but most companies opted to act quickly. A third (32%) filed within four days of discovery. This suggests that companies are reporting quickly to avoid being fined by the SEC for delayed disclosure but too quickly because they have not yet determined the full implications of the incident. This may be why 42% of the companies wound up filing multiple reports for the same incident, each time providing more details, such as quantifiable loss, impact to customer personal data, and notification to individuals and regulators.

"Companies should continue to evaluate disclosure controls and engage in tabletop exercises to practice the decision-making required to makes such materiality decisions in the event of a cyber incident," the report's authors said.

**About the Author**

Managing Editor, Features, Dark Reading

As Dark Reading’s managing editor for features, Fahmida Y Rashid focuses on stories that provide security professionals with the information they need to do their jobs. She has spent over a decade analyzing news events and demystifying security technology for IT professionals and business managers. Prior to specializing in information security, Fahmida wrote about enterprise IT, especially networking, open source, and core internet infrastructure. Before becoming a journalist, she spent over 10 years as an IT professional -- and has experience as a network administrator, software developer, management consultant, and product manager. Her work has appeared in various business and test trade publications, including VentureBeat, CSO Online, InfoWorld, eWEEK, CRN, PC Magazine, and Tom’s Guide.

SEC Disclosures Up, But Not Enough Details Provided

From zero-day exploits to 5G network vulnerabilities, these are the threats that are expected to persist over the next 12 months.

In 2024, we at Dark Reading covered a variety of attacks, exploits, and, of course, vulnerabilities across the board. Here, we recount 10 emerging threats organizations should be prepared for — as detailed by Dr. Jason Clark in "10 Emerging Vulnerabilities Every Enterprise Should Know," a Dark Reading webinar — as they continuously rise and develop in 2025.

**Zero-Day Exploits**

Zero-days and their increase in volume across the cybersecurity landscape is a particularly concerning trend, as there is no patch for these bugs when they're discovered. Attackers are also able to exploit systems using these vulnerabilities undetected, as safeguards have not been put in place by organizations or enterprises yet.

High-profile zero-day vulnerabilities include Log4Shell, tracked as CVE-2021-44228, a critical RCE bug within Log4j's Java Naming and Directory Interface (JNDI). By exploiting the vulnerability, attackers were able to easily take control of vulnerable systems, a considerable threat as Log4j is used in nearly every Java application.

Other vulnerabilities include PrintNightmare and Proxyshell, both remote execution flaws that were exploited quickly and widely, according to Clark.

"The rise in zero-day exploits is partly driven by just more sophisticated threat actors," Clark said in the Dark Reading webinar. "This can include things like nation-states and also using them in targeted attacks."

Chad Graham, cyber incident response team (CIRT) manager at Critical Start, however, believes that advancements with AI will change the landscape in 2025.

"Both attackers and defenders will rely on AI-driven tools to automate the search for hidden software flaws," Graham says. "This shift will likely result in a more dynamic cybersecurity landscape, where continuous innovation and adaptation become the norm."

**Supply Chain Attacks**

Supply chain attacks remain an active threat and tend toward the severe as their impact cascades on to multiple parties: customers, suppliers, and other third parties. Attackers exploit a trusted resource and ultimately gain access to not just one organization, but multiple. These kinds of threats remain concerning as organizations depend more and more on outsourcing services.

The best known example is the SolarWinds breach, which impacted the SolarWinds Orion system, at the hands of a group known as Nobelium. More than 30,000 organizations — including state and federal agencies — used the Orion network management system, resulting in the backdoor malware compromising thousands of data, network, and systems.

Tracked as CVE-2020-10148 with a CVSS score of 9.8, the authentication bypass bug allowed an unauthenticated attacker to execute API commands. The attackers in question were advanced persistent threat (APT) actors who infiltrated into the SolarWinds’ supply chain to insert a backdoor.

"The complexity of modern supply chains makes it challenging to secure all the dependencies," Clark said in the webinar. "This underscores the need for rigorous third-party risk management."

In the year ahead, Dana Simberkoff, chief risk, privacy, and information security officer at AvePoint, believes that there will be a sharpened focus on supply chains and third-party risk management.

"The CrowdStrike incident wasn't just a wake-up call — it was a stark reminder that in our interconnected ecosystem, one weak link can trigger a catastrophic chain reaction," Simberkoff says.

**Remote Work Infrastructure Exploits**

Since 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations have leaned into remote and hybrid work offerings, increasing the risk of cybersecurity threats and becoming a significant concern. Attackers focus on vulnerabilities that allow users to engage in remote work such as VPNs, remote desktop protocols (RDPs), and phishing attacks through platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

There have been several notable incidents in which VPNs and RDPs were leveraged, allowing threat actors to gain access to enterprise systems and networks. In addition, remote workers are often operating from less secure environments, causing an uptick in phishing attacks as the threat actors try to take advantage of these blind spots.

"The shift to remote work has expanded the overall attack surface, Clark said in the webinar. "Remote workers often need more security controls than those that are working \[onsite\], which can lead to significant vulnerabilities."

Recent examples of vulnerabilities remote and hybrid work vulnerabilities include CVE-2024-38199, a remote code execution vulnerability (RCE) in the Windows or Line Printer Deamon (LPD) Service, and CVE-2024-21433, a Windows Print Spooler elevation of privilege vulnerability.

"Remote work infrastructure will continue to be a prime target for cybercriminals in 2025, with an increase in sophisticated attacks on cloud services, VPNs, and collaboration tools," says Stephen Kowski, field CTO at SlashNext Email Security+. "We'll likely see more AI-powered threats designed to bypass traditional security measures, exploiting vulnerabilities in interconnected devices and home networks."

**Exploitation of AI and Machine Learning Systems**

With the rise of AI and its increasing use amid the public, comes widespread risk of exploitation from attackers. Clark noted of adversarial attacks, data poisoning, and model inversion attacks that are at the forefront of emerging threats for AI and machine learning (ML) systems in particular. 

The nature of some ML systems requires feeding a system information for the best results, the system becoming more familiar with the user over time. When attacks target these systems, it can lead to unauthorized access to sensitive data stored and processed within these tools, as well as incorrect predictions or biased decisions.

"AI models will be key areas of exploitation in 2025," says Rom Carmel, co-founder and CEO at Apono. "As AI and machine learning become integral to identity verification systems, attackers will find ways to poison AI models or bypass them."

AI can also simply be manipulated for malicious ends, as seen when an AI deepfake robocall was created to impersonate US President Joe Biden to encourage individuals not to vote in the New Hampshire's Democratic primary, an event that could have had severe consequences on the US electoral process.

"The threat landscape is evolving with the rapid adoption of AI and ML," Clark said in the webinar. "Attackers increasingly focus on these systems to undermine their reliability and exploit vulnerability."

**Cloud Misconfigurations**

As organizations continue to shift their operations to the cloud, it will continue to emerge as a space for threat actors to thrive, often due to the cloud simply not being set up correctly.

Common examples of threats that circulate within the cloud are publicly accessible S3 buckets, misconfigured security groups in AWS, and exposed databases.

"Cloud misconfigurations can have severe impacts related to data breaches, unauthorized access to critical systems, financial loss, and reputational damage," Clark said. He added that the complexity of these environments is going to increase leading to more frequent configuration errors.

In the past, Amazon and Microsoft cloud environments have exposed customer data, such as viewing habits, names, email addresses, email content, and phone numbers. The leaks aren't due to vulnerabilities but misconfigurations ranging from insecure read-and-write permissions to inaccurate access lists and misconfigured policies.

"To successfully prevent cloud breaches in 2025, companies need to focus on three key areas: visibility, access control, and continuous monitoring," says Jason Soroko, senior fellow at Sectigo. "Cloud environments are dynamic, so your security needs to be dynamic too."

**IoT Device Vulnerabilities**

IoT devices are allowing for emerging threats to thrive, being easy targets for threat actors to exploit, whether it be due to weak default passwords, lack of encryption, or insecure firmware.

Common attacks that IoT devices face are data theft, network breaches, and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. A recent example emerged in the Common Unix Printing System (CUPS) for managing printers and print jobs. The series of vulnerabilities, tracked as CVE-2024-47176, CVE-2024-47076, CVE-2024-47175, and CVE-2024-47177 could allow bad actors to stage DDoS attacks within seconds for less than 1 cent while using an available cloud platform.

"Just the sheer volume of connected devices really exacerbates the threat," Clark noted in the webinar. "Securing these devices becomes really challenging due to their diversity and often limited processing power for adding security features."

And as the use of IoT, OT, and 5G networks continues to rise, organizations will need cyber threat intelligence (CTI) to extend beyond traditional IT environments, says Callie Guenther, senior manager, cyber threat research at Critical Start. "This expansion, which will continue throughout 2025, will add complexity to CTI, requiring more granular insights and specific intelligence data."

**Cryptographic Weaknesses**

According to Clark, cryptographic weaknesses continue to pose a significant threat because these kinds of vulnerabilities undermine the foundation of secure communication and data protection. These weaknesses often manifest in one of two ways: flaws in encryption algorithms, or how the algorithms are implemented.

"The rising threat is kind of compounded by the fact that as computational capability advances, that previously secure crypto standard now becomes increasingly more vulnerable," Clark said in the webinar.

He recommended regularly updating cryptographic libraries, and enforcing strong encryption protocols to avoid exploitation attempts like man-in-the middle attacks, data integrity issues, and the exposed sensitive information.

Just recently, Acros Security discovered a vulnerability, similar to CVE-2024-38030, that enables an attack in which a vulnerable device is coerced into sending NTLM hashes, which is the cryptographic version of a user's password, to a threat actor.

"We have never before required from \[cloud service providers\] such granular and detailed information on the type of encryption in use, but customers (government and non-government customers alike) will require this level of detail to ensure their encryption standards are being met," says Philip George, executive technical strategist at InfoSec Global Federal.

**API Security Gaps**

More organizations are relying on APIs to connect systems; however, these APIs are at risk when they have flaws in the design or the implementation of the APIs. Attackers are able to breach systems through unauthorized access, allowing them to manipulate certain restricted actions.

A notable example of this is the exposure of user data through Facebook’s API, though these flaws are also abundant in other sectors such as healthcare or financial services. 

Gaps in API security ultimately serve as a launchpad, often for data breaches which can lead to the loss of sensitive information, unauthorized transactions, reputational damage, and significant financial loss.

"The threat is escalating as API is becoming more prevalent, increasing the number of potential attack surfaces," Clark said. "To mitigate these risks, it's essential to secure your API endpoints, enforce robust authentication mechanisms, and regularly update and audit API access."

A Docusign API was recently used in a wide-scale phishing campaign due to its "API-friendly environment," which is beneficial for businesses but also provides a way for bad actors to conduct malicious operations. The flaw could ultimately could have led to instances of fraud, though there are ways for users to avoid and detect such API abuse.

In the coming year, the cyber landscape will continue to evolve, API being in the forefront of these changes.

"We anticipate a rise in sophisticated API attacks using automation, artificial intelligence, and advanced evasion techniques to exploit vulnerabilities and bypass traditional security measures," says Eric Schwake, director of cybersecurity strategy at Salt Security. "One significant risk will stem from the exploitation of API misconfigurations, which often occur due to the fast pace of development and deployment. This situation will challenge organizations to adopt a more proactive and comprehensive approach to API security."

**Ransomware Evolution**

"We could do a whole webinar on ransomware," Clark said in the webinar, which raises the question: Can ransomware even be considered an emerging threat? 

The answer is yes, though ransomware attacks have become one of the most disruptive and costly cyberattacks out there largely due to their rapid evolution.

One of the most notable ransomware attacks occurred on Colonial Pipeline, which shut down its entire operations for the first time, leading to fuel shortages and four states on the East Coast declaring a state of emergency. The ransomware attack prompted action from national security and the executive branch and forced a reevaluation of the nation's critical infrastructure security.

Threat actors know they can win big when demanding ransoms from organizations, such as those in the healthcare sector, which will pay these high prices in order to help patients in need.

"As these attacks are becoming more targeted and, frankly, aggressive, it's crucial to start to implement backup strategies that are robust, strengthen your overall incident response plans, and continuously educate your employees on recognizing and avoiding things like phishing attempts that can often serve as an entry point for ransomware," Clark said in the webinar.

Backups may not always be an option, according to Brandon Williams, chief technology officer at Conversant Group.

"Some threat actors have moved to deleting data as part of their normal motions," he says. "If this gains traction in 2025, organizations will not have a method to recover by simply paying a ransom and hoping to get a working decryption tool. The only method of recovery will be backups; however, data shows that backups do not typically survive these breaches."

**5G Network Vulnerabilities**

5G networks are being rapidly deployed, and with them come threat actors' awareness and exploitation of its vulnerabilities. Attackers are increasingly able to target 5G infrastructure with ease, and these open the door for even bigger threats such as large-scale DDoS attacks, unauthorized data access, and disruption of our critical services.

"As we consider the rising threat, the global rollout of 5G brings an increasing number of connected devices," Clark said in the webinar. "The rising number amplifies their attack risk, particularly given their reliance on cloud-native infrastructures."

At Black Hat 2024 in Las Vegas, seven Penn State University researchers detailed how mobile devices are at risk of data theft and denial of service due to 5G technology vulnerabilities. Threat actors use these resources simply by providing someone with an Internet connection, allowing easy access to spying, phishing, and more. 

"Vulnerabilities such as lack of initial broadcast message authentication, spectrum slicing, silent downgrade, and unsecured DNS paging currently affect 5G networks," says Mayuresh Dani, manager, security research, at Qualys Threat Research Unit. "In the year to come, these will continue affecting 5G networks and vulnerabilities in unsecured base stations will multiply snooping attacks."

Emerging Threats &amp; Vulnerabilities to Prepare for in 2025

As organizations on the continent expand their use of digital technologies, they increasingly face many of the same threats that entities in other regions have had to deal with for years.

Source: Golden Dayz via Shutterstock

Rising Internet adoption and digital transformation initiatives are exposing organizations in Africa to a growing range of cyber threats.

One manifestation of the trend is a steady increase in distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on organizations in a handful of North African countries — which also happen to be the ones with the highest Internet penetration rates in the region.

**Surge in DDoS Activity**

A recent analysis of threat activity data during the first half of 2024 by Netscout showed a 30% increase in DDoS attacks in the Middle East and Africa overall compared with the previous quarter. Countries that experienced the largest growth in DDoS attacks included Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt.

Morocco, which has a 90% Internet penetration rate, reported 61,000 DDoS attacks during the first half of 2024, which was the highest number of DDoS attacks in the region during the period. A plurality of the attacks — 16,461 — targeted wireless telecom producers in the region; more than 6,000 were directed at wired telecom companies; and the rest affected organizations across multiple industry sectors.

Organizations in Egypt, another country in the region with a high Internet penetration rate, collectively experienced some 45,108 DDoS attacks in the first half of the year, with wired telecom carriers being the most frequently targeted entities, followed by wireless carriers and educational institutions. Netscout found some of the highest bandwidth attacks during the time period in Egypt, with the biggest one clocking in at a hefty 332.96 Gbit/s.

Related:China's 'Evasive Panda' APT Debuts High-End Cloud Hijacking

The story with Tunisia, which experienced 4,511 DDoS attacks in the first six months, was similar in terms of victimology: most victims were wired or wireless telecom providers. However, Netscout found threat actors deploying a larger number of DDoS attacks against Tunisian organizations than organizations in other countries. The largest such attack type involved a startling 27 vectors, including Apple Remote Management Service, Connection-less Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (CLDAP) , Constrained Application Protocol (COAP), and Domain Name System (DNS) amplification techniques for significantly increasing the power of an attack.

**Geopolitical Tensions, "Online-Ness" Drive Cyber Activity**

"These attacks can be attributed in part to businesses in countries such as Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Algeria increasing their online presence over the past year," says Richard Hummel, director of threat intelligence at Netscout. "While digital transformation is generally a cause for celebration, unfortunately, it also means that more devices and services can be disrupted by attacks."

Related:'SloppyLemming' APT Abuses Cloudflare Service in Pakistan Attacks

A larger attack surface, however, is not the only reason for the increased DDoS activity in Africa and the Middle East, Hummel says. "Geopolitical tensions in these regions are also fueling a surge in hacktivist activity as real-world political disputes spill over into the digital world," he says. "Unfortunately, hacktivists often target critical infrastructure like government services, utilities, and banks to cause maximum disruption."

And DDoS attacks are by no means the only manifestation of the new threats that organizations in Africa are having to contend with as they broaden their digital footprint.

**Growing Cyber-Espionage, Cybercrime Risks**

The Africa Center for Strategic Studies in a recent report assessed that the increasing spread of IT, communications, and related technologies in the region is rapidly amplifying and altering threats against organizations — and raising national security challenges in the process. The center, which is a US Department of Defense institution, expects that over the next few years organizations in Africa will have to contend with a many of the same cyber threats that entities in other regions of the world have had to contend with for years.

Related:IDF Has Rebuffed 3B Cyberattacks Since Oct. 7, Colonel Claims

One of them is cyber espionage. "Cyberspace has fundamentally changed the methods and means through which states gather information on one another and their citizens," the Africa Center report noted. "Though the most significant cyberespionage concerns in Africa have centered around China, espionage and surveillance capabilities are rapidly diffusing across the continent."

Attacks on critical infrastructure and financially motived attacks by organized crime are other looming concerns. In the center's assessment, Africa's government networks and networks belonging to the military, banking, and telecom sectors are all vulnerable to disruptive cyberattacks. Exacerbating the concern is the relatively high potential for cyber incidents resulting from negligence and accidents.

Organized crime gangs — the scourge of organizations in the US, Europe, and other parts of the world, present an emerging threat to organizations in Africa, the Center has assessed.  "Growing internet penetration rates in Africa has both led to new kinds of cyber-dependent criminal activities, such as business email compromise or romance scams, as well transformed the financing and market dynamics of more traditional organized crime networks." Supply chain attacks are another major and emerging concern, especially given the high reliance on foreign suppliers among organizations in Africa.

Agnidipta Sarkar, vice president and CISO advisory at ColorToken, says organizations in Africa are going to come under growing pressure to implement defenses against new cyber threats, even as they embark on their digital transformation journey.

"The ability to continue business operations, despite cyberattacks, will encourage investments in the region," he predicts. "Effectively reporting breaches will emerge as a highly sought-after capability for CISOs, especially \[for\] those who can."

**About the Author**

Jai Vijayan is a seasoned technology reporter with over 20 years of experience in IT trade journalism. He was most recently a Senior Editor at Computerworld, where he covered information security and data privacy issues for the publication. Over the course of his 20-year career at Computerworld, Jai also covered a variety of other technology topics, including big data, Hadoop, Internet of Things, e-voting, and data analytics. Prior to Computerworld, Jai covered technology issues for The Economic Times in Bangalore, India. Jai has a Master's degree in Statistics and lives in Naperville, Ill.

DDoS Attacks Surge as Africa Expands Its Digital Footprint

"Zero trust" doesn't mean "zero testing."

Source: Alexander Yakimov via Alamy Stock Photo

COMMENTARY

Despite never-ending data breaches and ransomware attacks, too many companies still rely on the outdated "trust but verify" cybersecurity strategy. This approach assumes that any user or device inside a company's network can be trusted once it has been verified. The approach has clear weaknesses: Many businesses are putting themselves at additional risk by verifying once, then trusting forever.

There was a time when trust but verify made sense, namely when networks were self-contained and well-defined. But at some point, perhaps due to the overwhelming volume of devices on a network, the number of patches needing to be applied, user demands, and resource constraints in the cybersecurity team, things began to slip. Initial verification meant the asset was trusted, but no additional verification ever took place.

**The User Example of Trust Without Ongoing Verification**

It's easy to see how this happens with users. A user typically goes through a background check when they join the company, but once onboarded, despite any number of changes in their lives that could affect their trustworthiness, we allow them to access our systems and data without further verification. 

In the majority of cases, the absence of further verification does not cause damage. However, if the user decides to act against the best interest of their employer, the results can be catastrophic. The more sensitive the information the individual has access to, the greater the risk. This is why individuals with security clearances are regularly re-vetted, and security personnel may conduct regular finance checks to identify any issues early and intervene to mitigate possible damage.

In organizations that follow a trust-but-verify approach, two personas stand out: those that have considered the risk of one-time asset verification acceptable; and — the minority — those that try to manage the risk with a re-verification program. A shift in persona from the former to the latter usually only occurs after a breach, a crisis in availability, or another "career limiting disaster."

The reality is that there are simply not enough hours in the day for security practitioners to do all of the things that must be done. Have security patches been correctly applied to all vulnerable devices? Are all third-party security assessments properly analyzed? Do all Internet of Things (IoT) devices really belong on the network? Are managed security services performing as expected? 

Compromising one of these trusted devices means being granted trust to move laterally across the network, accessing sensitive data and critical systems. Organizations likely will not know the extent of their exposure until something goes wrong. 

**The Costly Consequences of Insufficient Verification**

When these breaches are eventually discovered, the costs begin to mount. Companies face not only the direct costs of incident response, but potentially also regulatory fines, class-action lawsuits, lost customers, and lasting damage to their brand reputation. Relatively small incidents can cost millions of dollars, while large incidents regularly cost billions.

In addition to these direct costs, insufficient verification also leads to more frequent and expensive compliance audits. Regulators and industry bodies are increasingly demanding that companies demonstrate robust identity and access management controls, for example under the European Union's upcoming Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), as well as continuous monitoring and validation of user and device activity. Certifications and accreditations can no longer be accepted at face value. 

**The Path Forward: Adopt a Zero-Trust Approach**

Instead of trusting after verification, businesses should instead allow only what the business needs, for as long as it needs it. Never trust, always verify. This is how a zero-trust architecture operates.

Every user, device, and application that attempts to make a connection, regardless of its location, is scrutinized and validated, dramatically limiting the potential damage from a successful compromise. A zero-trust architecture replaces firewalls and VPNs, so there are fewer devices to maintain, and a reduced attack surface means fewer opportunities for attackers to gain a foothold.

Zero trust doesn't mean zero testing; testing should form an integral part of any IT and cybersecurity strategy. However, it does mean the likelihood of a major failure stemming from trust being extended to users, devices, or applications that do not deserve it, is a thing of the past. 

**About the Authors**

Vice President, Cybersecurity Advocacy, Zscaler

Rob Sloan is vice president, cybersecurity advocacy, for Zscalera. He is a cybersecurity, risk, and technology expert with broad business skills and management responsibility. Prior to joining Zscaler, he served as research director at Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal, where he led a research team focused on cybersecurity, AI, and sustainability issues, and wrote a weekly column to help board directors navigate cyber-risk. Before the WSJ, Rob worked as response director for a specialist IT security consultancy in London and built a team focused on detecting, investigating, and protecting against cyber intrusions and responding to incidents, especially state-sponsored attacks. Rob began his career working for the UK government in defense and foreign affairs, looking at some of the earliest state sponsored cyberattacks against the government, military, and critical national infrastructure networks.

VP & CISO in Residence, Zscaler

Sam Curry is VP and chief information security officer (CISO) in residence at Zscaler. He began his career in signals and cryptanalysis and was the first employee at Signal 9 Solutions, a small start-up that invented the personal firewall, executed the first commercial implementation of Blowfish, and devised early symmetric key VPN technology. Sam served as chief security architect there and as head of product for McAfee before holding several positions at RSA (the Security Division of EMC), including head of RSA labs at MIT and chief technology officer (CTO) and Distinguished Engineer for EMC. After seven years with RSA, Curry acted as SVP and CISO at Microstrategy, CSO and CTO for Arbor Networks, and as chief security officer (CSO) for Cyberreason. Sam holds 17 active patents in cybersecurity and a master’s degree in counterterrorism, and sits on two boards of directors. In addition, he teaches courses at Harvard (online), Wentworth Technology Institute, and Nichols College. He is also a Fellow at the National Security Institute at George Mason University.

Too Much 'Trust,' Not Enough 'Verify'

Changes at CISA and promises of more public-private partnerships and deregulation are just a few ways the incoming administration could upend the feds' role in cybersecurity.

Abaca Press via Alamy Stock Photo

Before it was subsumed by political commentary, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) was a Trump accomplishment — signed into existence in 2018 during his first administration. But that was before accusations of dirty politics and free speech shenanigans turned CISA into a conservative pariah.

Now, CISA is facing an existential political clash with the incoming Trump administration, threatening to take much of the US federal government's involvement in cybersecurity along with it. The result could potentially increase cyber-risk, but also open up business, investment, and innovation opportunities. A lot of things can be true at once.

CISA's original mandate couldn't have seemed more apolitical: coordinate defending US infrastructure against cyberattacks, and then help share critical information among US enterprises to increase the nation's overall posture in the bargain. But then came the 2020 election, CISA's efforts to combat what the agency deemed "misinformation," and the subsequent conservative backlash.

**Trump and the Politics of CISA**

Chis Krebs, then the agency's director, was very publicly fired just weeks after the 2020 election for rejecting claims of fraud from the Trump administration, and has remained a high-profile political player ever since. Krebs is a regular on the cable news circuit, and in July 2023, he confirmed to CNN that he was interviewed by special counsel Jack Smith in the investigation into Trump and the 2020 election. In the runup to the 2024 election, Krebs appeared on outlets including Face the Nation to once again push back on Trump campaign claims of election fraud.

His replacement, Jen Easterly, took a more low-key approach. Her accessibility, deep military ties, and cybersecurity expertise — sprinkled with a dash of aspirational cool-girl charm — made her a hit among the cyber rank-and-file. She also mostly stayed away from politics, leading the fledgling agency through a crucial four years. But that effort, however disciplined and well intentioned, hardly spared Easterly or CISA from widespread conservative ire. In January 2024, Easterly was even targeted at home in a swatting incident.

"I think Jen Easterly had a tremendous challenge solidifying the role of a very young agency, and one mired in allegations from Republican politicians," cybersecurity expert Jake Williams tells Dark Reading. "Given those very real challenges, she did an outstanding job. I can only imagine what could have been with bipartisan support for CISA's many missions."

Following the 2024 election, Easterly said she will resign on Inauguration Day. But the agency is still at work, publishing a draft of an updated National Cyber Incident Response Plan for federal agencies and industry to work together during major cyber events, which is open for comments until January 2025.

That kind of coordination between CISA and the private sector was exactly what the agency was built to become under the Biden administration. It took a proactive role in developing cybersecurity standards, and offering cybersecurity grants to states to invest in their own cyber operations, led largely by the efforts of Easterly. During his administration, President Biden allocated billions to strengthen the US cybersecurity infrastructure, and signed a flurry of executive orders on everything from AI to zero trust in an effort to raise the country's level of cyber preparedness.

Some of the agency's notable accomplishments during the past four years included establishment of the joint cyber defense collaborative (JCDC) and the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) program, according to Casey Ellis, Bugcrowd founder. Ellis also worked with CISA on the federal CEB vulnerability disclosure program, where CISA serves as a repository for researchers who discover flaws in government systems so they can be reported and mitigated more quickly.

There have been setbacks as well. While the KEV list has been credited with speeding up remediation, it can take months to make the list. Much of that new cyber infrastructure and rulemaking also came with regulation and compliance headaches that some criticized as a barrier to innovation, particularly by Congress. Others defended the agency's moves as necessary to drive security investment.

"Under Jen Easterly, CISA's proactive initiatives such as Secure by Design and faster reporting of attacks by companies were positive for both the sell and buy side of the cybersecurity industry," says Jason Soroko, senior fellow at Sectigo. "What could be seen as regulatory burden was actually a positive call to arms to do the right thing."

Accomplishments and accolades aside, Easterly and CISA haven't been able to convince key conservatives like Sen. Rand Paul, who is about to chair the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which oversees CISA, that the agency is doing any good. After acknowledging he probably won't be able to eliminate CISA altogether, last month Paul vowed to inflict strict limits for actions he said the agency took to target conservative voices as part of its work in combatting foreign influence operations. At a minimum, CISA will likely be stripped of its mandate to investigate misinformation.

Williams also expects the agency will have a diminished role in overseeing election security, the very issue that catapulted the cyber agency into the national headlines in 2020.

**Cybersecurity Opportunities Under Trump 2.0**

A shrinking CISA footprint and the Trump administration's expressed distaste for regulation and interest in opening government operations to more public-private partnerships mean there are going to be potential opportunities in the next few months for the private sector that hadn't existed before.

"I expect we'll see a more direct set of conversations around cyber offense and deterrence, especially as it relates to countering Russia, Iran, and in particular, China," Ellis predicts. "This could include changes to the structure of \[the National Security Agency\] and Cyber Command, and the inclusion of the private sector in defend-forward and disruption operations."

Beyond new opportunities to work with government, Ellis adds cybersecurity deregulation is on the way.

"In general, I think we can expect a more overt and domestically deregulated approach to cyberspace, reflecting the general policy approach of the Trump administration and a more open acknowledgement that Cold War 2 is already underway."

The new administration also likely signals a change in federal enforcement of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations against chief information security officers (CISOs), like what security executives from SolarWinds and Uber experienced, according to expert John Bambenek.

"Regulatory enforcement on companies will lessen, for instance, \[and\] it is doubtful CISOs will see any government attempts to make them liable for breaches," Bambenek says. "I'm not sure any more antitrust action will commence against large tech companies either, which will fuel further consolidation of technology and security companies."

There is cautious optimism this more hands-off approach from the Trump administration will include maintaining a basic role for the federal government in cybersecurity. It's particularly necessary in terms of resources, according to Roselle Safran, the director of the White Office of the President security operations center under Barack Obama, and currently president of cybersecurity company KeyCaliber.

"While there are certainly plenty of other issues that appear to be top priorities for the next administration, it is my hope that cybersecurity will not be relegated to the back burner," Safran says. "It's important that there is recognition that cybersecurity needs significant and sustained resources."

Trump takes office against the backdrop of unprecedented numbers of cyberattacks, the rise of artificial intelligence, and cyber-military conflicts across the globe. Keeping politics out of the conversation is the best way for CISA to continue its work beyond the next election, experts advise. However, that might be an impossible challenge.

"I'm concerned about some of the negative sentiment around CISA impacting progress that has been made since 2018," Ellis adds. "However, I am cautiously optimistic that the priorities Trump had in mind when he formed the agency will see its overall defensive mission carry forward."

Source

DARKReading