Who are you?

This episode dives into one of the most challenging cybersecurity topics currently on the docket – identity management.

My conversation with Brandon Traffanstedt, Sr. Director and Global Technology Officer at CyberArk, took us in two equally important directions. The first deals with individuals and how to properly manage those accessing your systems and networks. The second, equally as challenging, but potentially more complex, focused on machine or asset identities and understanding how to keep this sprawling attack landscape more secure.

Perhaps most interestingly, Brandon also offers some insight on cookies-based attacks and how, like so many cybersecurity challenges, the answers doesn’t lie in the tech stack.

Watch/listen as we also discuss:

• Solving identify management strategies by finding baseline controls.
• The unique dynamics of manufacturing when it comes to risk analysis and establishing these baselines.
• The role of asset visibility when it comes to identity management strategies.
• How to prevent those age-old turf battles between IT and OT.
• Why machine identities might pose the greatest cybersecurity risk.
• The importance of empathy in getting people to buy in to cybersecurity strategies and training.

As a go-to podcast for our listeners, we want to help you align your brand with our expertise. By sponsoring our podcast, your brand will build trust, and your message will stand out to an audience searching for tools to assist their cybersecurity efforts.
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Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

To catch up on past episodes, you can go to Manufacturing.net, IEN.com or MBTmag.com. You can also check Security Breach out wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple, Amazon and Overcast.

If you have a cybersecurity story or topic that you’d like to have us explore on Security Breach, you can reach me at jeff@ien.com.

I’m always tempted to start out each episode by talking about a problem, and then setting up our guest as the solution to that problem. It’s formulaic and a bit redundant, but it’s also effective. So I’ll apologize in advance because I’m about to do that very thing again.

The difference is that Howard Grimes, the CEO of the Cybersecurity Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CyManII) is looking to help provide a lot of solutions for manufacturers. As we discuss workforce challenges, secure-by-design, an evolving threat landscape and the ongoing struggles with legacy OT infrastructure, I’ll challenge you to find something that the Institute couldn’t help you and your organization jumpstart, solve or streamline.

Watch/listen as we discuss:

• The most significant vulnerabilities still impacting manufacturing.
• Why the industrial sector struggles to find OT cybersecurity specialists, and strategies that are helping to fill this gap.
• The growing prominence of secure-by-design and how the responsibilities for these strategies are shifting.
• The areas where legacy OT technology are hampering cybersecurity efforts the most.
• Why the "Ostrich Approach" can no longer be tolerated.
• The new focal points of attackers and how these are shifting based on hacker resources.

As a go-to podcast for our listeners, we want to help you align your brand with our expertise. By sponsoring our podcast, your brand will build trust, and your message will stand out to an audience searching for tools to assist their cybersecurity efforts.
Click Here to Become a Sponsor.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

To catch up on past episodes, you can go to Manufacturing.net, IEN.com or MBTmag.com. You can also check Security Breach out wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple, Amazon and Overcast.

If you have a cybersecurity story or topic that you’d like to have us explore on Security Breach, you can reach me at jeff@ien.com.

Insider threats are creating new attack vectors, but old-school solutions could rise to the challenge.

Regardless of the situation or dynamic, everyone likes to think that they’re special. However, with experience we learn that appreciating both the shared similarities, as well as some of those unique traits, are how we can best solve problems.

A great example is a recent conversation I had with Umaimah Khan, founder and CEO of Opal Security – she goes by UK for short. Her firm focuses on the identify management sector of cybersecurity.

What UK constantly reinforced is that the industrial sector is not alone in trying to figure out the best ways to manage and secure human, equipment and asset identification. So, while some of the application challenges are unique, there’s a lot of strategies to draw from in determining what might be best for your enterprise.

Listen as we discuss:

• The challenges of identify management at both the human and machine levels.
• The need for fluid change management when it comes to determining who can access what, and at what level.
• Why the success of any cybersecurity initiative will be about what the human can or can't do, not the machine.
• How many security vulnerabilities are created by a "perfect storm of poor communication."
• Breaking down silos, which have created "security by obscurity."
• The new attack vectors poor identity management is creating.
• The evolving role of agentic AI in industrial cybersecurity.

As a go-to podcast for our listeners, we want to help you align your brand with our expertise. By sponsoring our podcast, your brand will build trust, and your message will stand out to an audience searching for tools to assist their cybersecurity efforts.
Click Here to Become a Sponsor.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

To catch up on past episodes, you can go to Manufacturing.net, IEN.com or MBTmag.com. You can also check Security Breach out wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple, Amazon and Overcast.

If you have a cybersecurity story or topic that you’d like to have us explore on Security Breach, you can reach me at jeff@ien.com.

In many instances the biggest challenge facing OT cybersecurity practitioners is knowing where to focus resources, especially their time. In other words, what are the priorities for the enterprise, facility and people?

I recently sat down with Securin's Lead Threat Intelligence Analyst - Aviral Verma. And while I anticipated a conversation focused on vulnerabilities and the threat landscape, discussing these topics led to deeper dives on a range of topics that also included breaking down IT/OT silos, artificial intelligence, the dark web and patching strategies.

Listen as we discuss:

• The transformation of threat actors and how they've been able to cut timelines for exploiting vulnerabilities to 15 days.
• How hackers are using Dark Web versions of ChatGPT to design more effective credential and data harvesting schemes.
• Why the security of every software platform, especially those embedded within industrial assets, cannot be assumed.
• How the legacy dynamic of many OT assets has led hackers to exploit vulnerabilities that have been around for as long as five years.
• Addressing patching challenges by breaking down silos and getting a deeper understanding of the unique elements of each OT environment.
• How threat detection needs to evolve, especially with state-sponsored hackers executing "quieter" strategies for attacking manufacturing and critical infrastructure.

As a go-to podcast for our listeners, we want to help you align your brand with our expertise. By sponsoring our podcast, your brand will build trust, and your message will stand out to an audience searching for tools to assist their cybersecurity efforts.
Click Here to Become a Sponsor.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

To catch up on past episodes, you can go to Manufacturing.net, IEN.com or MBTmag.com. You can also check Security Breach out wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple, Amazon and Overcast.

If you have a cybersecurity story or topic that you’d like to have us explore on Security Breach, you can reach me at jeff@ien.com.

One of the great things about covering industrial cybersecurity is the number of reports, studies and white papers being produced right now to help provide intelligence on threats, research on new tools, and data on leading trends.

The tough part is sorting through all this data and, at some point, prioritizing it in order to get the most and best information.

One source that I look forward to each year is IBM’s X-Force Threat Intelligence Index. It’s full of all that stuff I just mentioned, but will special attention paid to the industrial sector.

Unfortunately, some of that attention results from manufacturing being the most highly attacked industry for the fourth consecutive year. Also, according to the Index, it had the most ransomware incidents in 2024.

But, as Chris Caridi, a Cyber Threat Analyst for the X-Force and our guest for today’s episode shared with me, the news is not all bad. Watch/listen as we discuss:

• The rise in infostealer malware, credential harvesting and phishing attacks.
• The importance of understanding how to secure new technology before investing and implementing it.
• Why most cybersecurity issues are a human problem, not a technical problem.
• Why multi-factor authentication is now a must for OT connections.
• The misconfiguration errors that continue to plague manufacturing, and how they create a series of other cybersecurity problems.
• How manufacturing's cybersecurity journey is similar to the financial sector 10 years ago, and why this should be source of optimism.

As a go-to podcast for our listeners, we want to help you align your brand with our expertise. By sponsoring our podcast, your brand will build trust, and your message will stand out to an audience searching for tools to assist their cybersecurity efforts.
Click Here to Become a Sponsor.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

To catch up on past episodes, you can go to Manufacturing.net, IEN.com or MBTmag.com. You can also check Security Breach out wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple, Amazon and Overcast.

If you have a cybersecurity story or topic that you’d like to have us explore on Security Breach, you can reach me at jeff@ien.com.

Endpoint security tools worked, but the hackers worked harder for their payday.

While everyone likes to know how someone else might have screwed up and what the fallout looks like, the more import elements of episodes like this one come from the in-depth conversations about new tactics and strategies that are being used by the bad guys, and simultaneously, the insight on new best practices for the good guys.

So while I did enjoy diving into how the ransomware group Akira was able to use webcam access to infiltrate an organization, it was also great to discuss the evolution of these hacking groups, EDR tools, dark web monitoring and the need for better credential security with Steve Ross. He’s the director of cybersecurity at S-RM, a leading provider or cyber intelligence and solutions.

Watch/listen as we also discuss:

• Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) tools.
• The rise of Akira, and the evolving symbiotic strategies used by this and other RaaS groups.
• Patching challenges.
• The growing need for dark web monitoring.
• The continued rise in login/credential harvesting.

As a go-to podcast for our listeners, we want to help you align your brand with our expertise. By sponsoring our podcast, your brand will build trust, and your message will stand out to an audience searching for tools to assist their cybersecurity efforts.
Click Here to Become a Sponsor.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

To catch up on past episodes, you can go to Manufacturing.net, IEN.com or MBTmag.com. You can also check Security Breach out wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple, Amazon and Overcast.

If you have a cybersecurity story or topic that you’d like to have us explore on Security Breach, you can reach me at jeff@ien.com.

We talk a lot about the growing complexity of hacking groups and how their tools and tactics continue to evolve. One such evolution is the ongoing specialization that runs rampant throughout the black hat community – especially when it comes to ransomware.

The rise of initial access brokers, affiliate programs, spoofing domain creators, dark web communities, and more are fueling ransomware-as-a-service groups and posing new cybersecurity challenges.

And while numerous reports detail the rise in ransomware attacks and the escalating amounts being paid in seeking a reprieve from denial of service, data extortion, and supply chain hacks, one recent finding really stood out. In their annual State of Ransomware Report, Blackfog stated that manufacturing had the highest number of undisclosed ransomware attacks, when compared to all other industries.

So, as tough as we know the ransomware challenge is – it’s actually a bit worse than we acknowledge because of the growing number of attacks that go unreported. Fortunately, we have an army of highly skilled individuals working to combat these threats. And that includes our guest for today’s episode - Fortra's senior manager of domain and dark web monitoring solutions, Nick Oram. Watch/listen as we discuss:

• The surge of new ransomware tactics and groups, like RansomHub.
• The origins and continued growth of Initial Access Brokers (IABs) within the ransomware community.
• How affiliate programs are helping both RaaS and IAB groups increase their rate of successful attacks.
• Why dark web monitoring might be more important than ever for manufacturers.
• The ongoing "we adapt", "they adapt" dynamic.
• How to better educate the workforce and shift from a "blame and shame" response to phishing and other types of attacks that leverage human error.

As a go-to podcast for our listeners, we want to help you align your brand with our expertise. By sponsoring our podcast, your brand will build trust, and your message will stand out to an audience searching for tools to assist their cybersecurity efforts.
Click Here to Become a Sponsor.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

To catch up on past episodes, you can go to Manufacturing.net, IEN.com or MBTmag.com. You can also check Security Breach out wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple, Amazon and Overcast.

If you have a cybersecurity story or topic that you’d like to have us explore on Security Breach, you can reach me at jeff@ien.com.

Breaking down silos while securing the cloud and leveraging secure-by-design advancements.

The challenges facing the industrial OT landscape that emanate from external sources are … varied, complex and constantly evolving. Smarter hacking groups, AI-driven phishing schemes and deceptive malware viruses head the list of concerns.

And while these factors show no signs of fading, the reality is that there are just as many challenges facing industrial cybersecurity that are embedded within the very foundation of our operations. These legacy dynamics have created internal battles that absorb valuable resources, waste precious talent and help the bad guys stay a step ahead.

With this in mind, we’re going to tap into two key industry leaders to get their take on pressing, internal liabilities that are ensuring key production assets remain exposed. We'll hear from Silverfort’s Rob Larsen, as he discusses the ongoing struggles created by IT/OT silos, as well secure-by-design initiatives.

Mandiant’s Paul Shaver will also offer his take on these silos, and how decisions related to cloud networking are impacting the security stature of key data, assets and network connections.

As a go-to podcast for our listeners, we want to help you align your brand with our expertise. By sponsoring our podcast, your brand will build trust, and your message will stand out to an audience searching for tools to assist their cybersecurity efforts.
Click Here to Become a Sponsor.

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

To catch up on past episodes, you can go to Manufacturing.net, IEN.com or MBTmag.com. You can also check Security Breach out wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple, Amazon and Overcast.

If you have a cybersecurity story or topic that you’d like to have us explore on Security Breach, you can reach me at jeff@ien.com.