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Cybersecurity Market Manipulation: Preventing Fraudulent Activity

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In today’s digital age, cybersecurity and financial markets are becoming increasingly interconnected, with cybercriminals finding new ways to exploit vulnerabilities in brokerage firms and trading platforms. These cyberattacks, ranging from unauthorized trades to market manipulation, pose significant risks to financial stability, investor confidence, and overall market integrity. As we have seen from recent breaches, the ability of hackers to infiltrate and manipulate brokerage systems can have severe consequences, necessitating a renewed focus on cybersecurity.

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Defending the Utilities Industry from Emerging Cybersecurity Threats

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The utilities industry, which encompasses energy, water, and gas services, is increasingly vulnerable to cybersecurity threats as it adopts more digital technologies. The shift toward smart grids, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and remote management systems has enhanced operational efficiency but also expanded the attack surface for cybercriminals. A successful cyberattack on a utility company can have devastating consequences, from widespread service outages to compromised safety systems. To stay resilient in 2024 and beyond, utilities must address their unique cybersecurity vulnerabilities and implement robust protection strategies.

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Cybersecurity For Healthcare CISOs: Safeguard Against Vulnerabilities

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In 2024, healthcare organizations face heightened cybersecurity challenges as the industry continues its rapid digitization. The widespread use of connected medical devices, electronic health records (EHRs), and telemedicine increases the attack surface, making healthcare an attractive target for cybercriminals. As stewards of cybersecurity, Chief Information Security Officers in healthcare must prioritize protecting sensitive patient data and ensuring operational continuity. Here’s how healthcare CISOs can mitigate vulnerabilities and build resilient security postures.

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Financial Compliance for CISOs in 2024

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In 2024, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) introduced significant amendments to Regulation S-P, enhancing the rules around the privacy of consumer financial information. Compliance with these updated regulations is crucial for financial institutions to ensure the protection of sensitive customer data and to avoid hefty penalties. Here’s a comprehensive guide to understanding and complying with the SEC’s 2024 Regulation S-P amendments.

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Reputation Management: Protect Customer Data and Your Image

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In today’s interconnected world, where digital presence is as crucial as physical presence, cybersecurity reputation management has emerged as a vital aspect of business strategy. A company’s reputation is not just built on its products or services but also on how well it safeguards its digital assets and customer data. A robust cybersecurity reputation management strategy can protect a business from severe repercussions following a cyber incident.

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Secure Data Backup: What to Know

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Why Backup Your Data?

In today’s digital age, data is one of the most valuable assets an organization can possess. Compliance fees and reputational damage make the loss of data like financial records, critical business documents, and protected customer information devastating for businesses. This is why data backups are a cornerstone of cybersecurity strategies, ensuring that even in the face of cyber threats, data remains safe and recoverable.

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Embracing Reality: Managing Cybersecurity Breaches with Resilience

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In today’s digital age, the idea of achieving absolute cybersecurity might seem like the Holy Grail. Businesses pour millions into advanced security systems, train employees rigorously, and implement best practices to shield themselves from cyber threats. Yet, the harsh reality persists, cybersecurity breaches are inevitable. Instead of clinging to a zero-tolerance mindset, organizations must pivot towards a strategy focused on resilience and damage control. When a breach happens, and it will, an organization’s ability to restore their mission critical systems and maintain business continuity will be critical to its success.

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Military OPSEC Strategies to Protect Your Business

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The military has a vested interest in keeping information secure — and their strategies are worth adopting for private cybersecurity. OPSEC (Operations Security) is an in-depth security and risk management strategy that assesses potential threats and risk to sensitive data and outlines what countermeasures are needed to protect that data and prevent it from getting into the wrong hands.

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10 Steps for Writing Software Development Contracts with SSDF in Mind

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Leverage framework built by the pros to write your next software development contract

  

With the cyber threat landscape as dangerous as it is, development shops need all the guidance they can get to build secure software. Fortunately, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) created the Secure Software Development Framework (SSDF) in response to Executive Order 14028 and the infamous cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline.

Here’s how you can leverage this framework to write robust software development contracts and ensure developers are following best practices.

What is SSDF?

SSDF is a set of cybersecurity guidelines intended to reduce the number of vulnerabilities in software used by federal agencies. But it can apply to any organization, and it’s worth building into your software development contracts.

Build SSDF Cybersecurity Fundamentals into Your Contracts

Software developers in any sector can (and should) compare their own practices to the SSDF to find weaknesses and liabilities when developing software. NIST defines four best-practice categories in their approach to standardizing federal cybersecurity to give agencies an idea of what a well-secured network looks like.

  • Prepare the Organization (PO): Ensure that your organization is prepared to develop software securely.

  • Protect the Software (PS): Protect all components of your software from potential threats.

  • Produce Well-Secured Software (PW): Produce secure software with minimal vulnerabilities upon release.

  • Respond to Vulnerabilities (RV): Identify and address any residual vulnerabilities in released software, and work to prevent future vulnerabilities.

Understanding NIST’s fundamental categories for sound and secure software will help identify which requirements to build into development contracts. Consider leveraging some or all of the following ten steps into contracts to strengthen your cybersecurity efforts.

  1. Define criteria for software security checks.

  2. Protect all forms of code from unauthorized access and tampering by safeguarding the development, build, distribution, and update environments and following the principle of least privilege.

  3. Provide a mechanism for verifying software release integrity by digitally signing the code throughout the software lifecycle.

  4. Verify that third-party software complies with security requirements.

  5. Configure the compilation and build processes to improve executable security.

  6. Test executable code to identify vulnerabilities and verify compliance with security requirements.

  7. Review and/or analyze human-readable code to identify vulnerabilities and verify compliance with security requirements.

  8. Configure the software to have secure settings by default.

  9. Archive and protect each software release.

  10. Identify, analyze, and remediate vulnerabilities continuously.

Considerations for SSDF as a Guide

While the SSDF provides a great foundational framework for secure software development, there are considerations to take into account regarding which practices can realistically be implemented. Time and resources are precious commodities in software development. It helps to consider your most limited commodity and prioritize around that to minimize risk — of either a failed software delivery or a successful cyberattack.

Risk

While planning for software development, with all its processes and milestones mapped out, consider what might be put at risk with certain requirements. Can dates be met the number of rigorous security and QA checks needed? What about the financial risk if a process takes longer or needs more resources than expected?

Cost

With regard to financial risk, there may effectively be budgetary limits on which requirements can be implemented. If this is the case, prioritize the ones that will keep the network most secure from threat actors.

Feasibility

Is there access to the right resources to address the requirements and make the security checks planned for the contract? Are the requirements excessively cautious or overly restrictive? Are you asking too much? It might be worth consulting with a developer before submitting your contract if you’re unsure.

Applicability

Are the requirements really applicable for the end product? Are they going to help in its development or just cost more time and resources?

Automatability

Planning for growth is important for any organization. Consider which requirements are scalable. Automating some of them may also help keep costs down in the long run.

Dependencies

Consider cybersecurity practices in place: make sure new requirements won’t disrupt valuable existing processes.

Stay Informed to Stay Ahead

Even for those not developing software themselves, it pays to stay up to date on the latest fundamental cybersecurity measures. To further stretch and test your knowledge, try hosting cyber wargames within your organization or learn more about malware and shadow IT.

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CodeHunter: A New Solution for Federal Cybersecurity

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Protecting citizens and national security

Cybersecurity is “one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation.”

That’s not the team here at CodeHunter trying to scare you. Those are the words of the Executive Branch over a decade ago.

The cyberscape has changed drastically since then. Multiple presidential administrations have recognized how serious the national cybersecurity situation is. In 2017, the Trump administration passed Executive Order 30018 to modernize federal IT infrastructure, better secure critical infrastructure, and collaborate with allies. And in March 2022, President Biden issued a statement recognizing the dangers international cyber warfare posed to the U.S.

So while cybersecurity might seem like an abstract concept to many citizens, we at CodeHunter know that implementing stronger cybersecurity measures is a national priority.

CodeHunter’s CTO Knows Federal Cybersecurity

CodeHunter’s concern for our nation’s cybersecurity stems from our combined experience in the federal cybersecurity sphere.

Chris O’Ferrell, CodeHunter’s CTO, is a U.S. Army veteran with over 30 years of cybersecurity experience. During his time in the industry, he has worked for a variety of agencies — on bureaus, black projects, counterintelligence, intelligence work, counterterrorism — all related to cybersecurity.

Based on his experiences working with the U.S. government, he has always stressed that solving cybersecurity problems will not only save networks, but will ultimately save lives.

Protect Agencies, Infrastructure, and Citizens with CodeHunter

As our nation faces constant attacks on critical infrastructure and public institutions, CodeHunter understands those federal agencies need a proactive solution based on a zero-trust framework to keep up.

Protecting federal systems is more than preventing cyberattacks and hacking. It’s a matter of preserving national security. Learn how CodeHunter can help federal agencies protect our nation and its citizens.

 

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CodeHunter: A New Solution for Financial Services Cybersecurity

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Protecting customer data and assets

Financial institutions are prime targets for cybercriminals. In fact, they’re 300 times more likely to be a target than any other type of organization. And for years, finance (alongside insurance) held the top spot as the “most attacked industry,” according to IBM, until they were toppled by manufacturing in 2022.

What Makes Financial Institutions So Vulnerable to Cyberattacks

Unsurprisingly, people really like money, and the main purpose of financial institutions is to hold, acquire, and protect financial assets. But pulling off a digital bank heist provides even more than a pile of money — it also provides cybercriminals access to valuable customer information they can sell on the black market for even more money.

Even worse, these institutions charged with protecting highly valuable customer data and assets often rely on legacy software riddled with vulnerabilities. Because these financial systems hold years’ worth of financial data, organizations don’t upgrade them often.

Protect Your Customer Data and Assets with CodeHunter

Having CodeHunter always running in the background can help financial institutions identify advanced threats, such as zero-day attacks. With deep visibility into your networks, you can see where your true vulnerabilities are and keep your customers’ data and assets safe.

 

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CodeHunter: A New Solution for Healthcare Cybersecurity

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Protecting patients — and their data

 

The healthcare industry is faced with a vast set of challenges when it comes to information security.

More than most critical industries, healthcare is a hotbed for valuable, exploitable data, including protected health information, credit card information, personally identifiable information (PII), and intellectual property.

CodeHunter enables healthcare organizations to keep critical systems running by proactively identifying cyber threats.

Cyberattacks in Healthcare Mean More Than Lost Information

Taking advantage of internal chaos and over-taxed systems, cyberattacks against healthcare organizations have reached an all-time high. In 2021 alone, 45 million people were impacted by healthcare cybersecurity breaches, with the average cost of a data breach skyrocketing to over $7 million.

The trouble doesn’t stop when cybercriminals break into a healthcare system’s information vault. After a healthcare data breach, 50% of victims suffer medical identity theft. That high ratio makes sense when you consider that stolen health information is even more valuable than financial data — 20 to 50 times more valuable on the black market, in fact.

Over and above financial costs for organizations and individuals, healthcare cyberattacks can come at the cost of human life. Healthcare is a prime target for ransomware attacks, where cybercriminals encrypt patient data and hold it for a ransom. That can mean that a doctor caring for a patient in critical condition has no access to their patient’s records. Lack of access to records mean doctors are unable to provide care, which can result — and have resulted — in patients’ deaths.

Protect Patients (and Their Data) With CodeHunter

With CodeHunter running in the background, healthcare companies can rest assured that their network is safe from hackers. Patients can take care of their health without worrying about their personal identifiable information (PII) being stolen. And cybercriminals can toss and turn knowing that every day, the team at CodeHunter is developing and improving a new threat to malware.

 

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