Cybersprint Blog

The name itself says it already: organisations in the critical infrastructure are vital in the services they provide in society. Should something go wrong in their daily operations, it can have severe consequences and disrupt individual people and other companies. That doesn’t necessarily mean they are more often targeted in (cyber-)attacks, but it does pose an extra reason to prevent any successful attack. Such organisations have often been in charge of their own cybersecurity, guided by regulations. Now though, authorities in the EU are starting to intensify their watchful eyes with the RCE directive. What is the EU RCE? And how should critical infrastructure organisations prepare?

More organisations in the Netherlands recognise the need for an active approach to stay in control over their attack surfaces in order to mitigate risks. Every organisation is able to create their own IT security governance and processes. Now, though, a new standard might be introduced in the form of an annual, mandatory IT audit. Is this a development helping businesses further? Or one that doesn’t really add anything other than paperwork?

How safe your organisation is from a cybersecurity point of view depends on a lot of factors. Not only should your private and confidential data be kept private and confidential through a plethora of technical defenses, there are also, among others, many processes such as for IT governance and incident response to consider. How your organisation deals with all these challenges determines its cybersecurity maturity. But why is determining this maturity level important?

There is no one solution to completely secure your organisation. Just as there are many different ways a criminal can plan his attack, there are many different approaches to how you can orchestrate your defense. However, you can talk to different experts, and they probably all advise on different focus points. That’s why we invited three knowledge cybersecurity specialists from three very different backgrounds to share their experiences and tips.

In this blog, we'll cover our attack surface management approach compared to five existing security approaches. What methods do they share? And where do they complement each other? We'll have a look at these techniques:  1. Asset discovery 2. Vulnerability management 3. Penetration testing 4. Red teaming 5. Supplier security governance Each has some touch points with attack surface management. For this comparison, we build on our earlier explanations of the concept. In the first blog, we gave our definition and summarised what drives the need for the solution. You can read our second blog to see how attack surface management is positioned with regards to External Threat Intelligence.

Every IT Security team needs access to some sort of Threat Intelligence (TI). It is an umbrella term for the collection of information and data on security risks and the threat actors behind them. Together, this information helps to prevent or limit incoming threats, and provides insights when mitigating an incident or event in Incident Response scenarios. As a deepening of the topic, External Threat Intelligence (ETI) mainly focusses on the combination of internal risk data with threat intelligence originating from outside of the organisation.

The year 2020 has brought us many different events and experiences, all with varying levels of impact. Physical events have impacted the digital world, and cybersecurity incidents have had their effect on the way we live. Remember the Citrix incident early this year? That prohibited many from working remotely, resulting in massive rush hours traffic jams as everyone travelled to the office. Almost the exact opposite of what COVID-19 has done to our way of working. But what does this mean for 2021's cybersecurity? And what evolving threats should you prepare for? Three cybersecurity CEOs share their views, predictions, and tips. 

It's the term we use the most: Attack Surface Management. It is the foundation of your organisation’s digital infrastructure. It’s the starting point of your IT security policies, configuration database management, vulnerability mitigation, and much more. In this blog, we’ll shortly describe what drives the need for an Attack Surface Management solution, share our definition of the term attack surface, and explain how it minimises the risks to your brand.

PostNL is the largest mail order and delivery organisation in the Netherlands, also operating in Belgium and Luxemburg. It has made mail and parcels accessible for over 220 years, growing to become one of the largest private employers in the Netherlands. Over the years, the organisation has grown through expansions, mergers and acquisitions, making its attack surface rather complex. Gunther Cleijn, Cyber Security Officer explains how he and his team work to ensure the security and daily productivity of the organisation.