In Case You Missed It: State Department Weakens Cyber Diplomacy, Crypto24 Ups Ransomware Game and Manufacturers Get Wise to Cyber Risk

Summer is winding down but cybersecurity concerns and risks are heating up. Advocates are hoping Congress will step in to force the State Department to strengthen cyber diplomacy while manufacturers grapple with heightened risk as the lines between IT and OT blur.

State Department Diminishes a Key Diplomatic Lever: Cybersecurity

Whether the State Department acknowledges it, cyber power is a key component to geopolitical power. But the agency stubbornly refuses to comply with congressional directives to bolster and sharpen its cybersecurity acumen, instead choosing to hollow out cyber staff and mince the department’s cyber prowess into pieces scattered across multiple factions and lines of responsibility. Will Congress step in to stop the carnage and reinvigorate this important diplomatic tool? Hard to say. But at a time when the current administration has shown a lack of understanding of cybersecurity’s importance and a willingness to gut programs in name of efficiency and savings, it seems less likely.

Crypto24 Proves Its Superiority in Game-changing Ransomware Campaign

With its latest ransomware campaign Crypto24 has adroitly bypassed EDR. Having superior skills and tools at their fingertips, the gang has made it frighteningly easy to do so, and their antics have caused researchers at Trend Micro to note a “dangerous escalation” of ransomware threats. In a new report, Trend Micro explains how Crypto24 actors uses familiar tools like AnyDesk to access and move laterally within systems and Google Drive to exfiltrate data.

Cybersecurity Pros Facing Tight Budgets are Turning to AI-infused Automated Tools

Defenders are used to having to do more with less, but tight security budgets shaped by political and economic forces, are pushing them into the arms of AI, with the hopes that AI-powered automated tools will pick up slack. A pair of studies from IANS and Swimlane detail the forces at work—from CISA defunding and the dismantling of the Cyber Safety Review Board to global economic uncertainty—and what organizations are doing to counter or accommodate them. An interesting tidbit—mirroring a tactic by their political leaders, those in UK cybersecurity are trying to be less reliant on U.S. cyber companies.

IT, OT Convergence Creates Risk Headache for Manufacturers

Manufacturers are acknowledging they must contend with a growing attack surface as IT and OT converge, making cyber risk a top concern and a problem not just for IT security pros but for the executive suite as well. So, it’s not surprising then that a Rockwell Automation report showed that three in ten manufacturing executives now peg cybersecurity as a top external risk closely behind inflation and economic growth (34 percent). the attack surface has expanded. Fully half of those surveyed will put their money behind the risk, investing in AI/ML tools. And as in every sector of business that AI, touches manufacturers are going to need skilled workers, something currently in short supply.

Opinion: Palo Alto Networks Elevates Identity With CyberArk Acquisition

A couple of weeks after Palo Alto Networks said it would acquire CyberArk, the assessments keep rolling in. First and foremost, it is a big deal. In nearly every sense of the word. A cool $25 billion is a lot of money and not many security firms have that at their disposal, especially after going on a spending spree in the last few years resulting in 20 deals that included Protect AI earlier in the spring. The deal signifies that identity has become the critical control point and is foundational to cybersecurity.