The Grid Has Fallen and It Can't Get Up

Jesse Trucks is the Minister of Magic at Splunk, where he consults on security and compliance program designs and develops Splunk architectures for security use cases, among other things. He brings more than 20 years of experience in tech to this role, having previously worked as director of security and compliance at Peak Hosting, a staff member at freenode, a cybersecurity engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and a systems engineer at D.E. Shaw Research, among several other positions. Of course, Jesse is also the host of Meanwhile in Security, the podcast about better cloud security you’re about to listen to.

Show Notes:

Links:

• Here’s the hacking group responsible for the Colonial Pipeline shutdown: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/10/hacking-group-darkside-reportedly-responsible-for-colonial-pipeline-shutdown.html
• Biden says ‘no evidence’ Russia involved in US pipeline hack but Putin should act: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/10/colonial-pipeline-shutdown-us-darkside-message
• Colonial Pipeline CEO warns of possible fuel shortages following cyberattack: https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/colonial-pipeline-ceo-warns-of-fuel-shortages-following-cyberattack
• Colonial Pipeline hackers apologize, promise to ransom less controversial targets in future: https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/10/22428996/colonial-pipeline-ransomware-attack-apology-investigation
• Over 40 Apps With More Than 100 Million Installs Found Leaking AWS Keys: https://thehackernews.com/2021/05/over-40-apps-with-more-than-100-million.html
• Red Hat bakes cloud security into the heart of Red Hat OpenShift: https://siliconangle.com/2021/04/27/red-hat-bakes-cloud-security-heart-openshift/
• Amazon debuts CloudFront Functions for running lightweight code at the edge: https://siliconangle.com/2021/05/03/amazon-debuts-cloudfront-functions-running-lightweight-code-edge
• Critical Patch Out for Critical Pulse Secure VPN 0-Day Under Attack: https://thehackernews.com/2021/05/critical-patch-out-for-month-old-pulse.html
• New Amazon FinSpace Simplifies Data Management and Analytics for Financial Services: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/amazon-finspace-simplifies-data-management-and-analytics-for-financial-services/
• Spectre Strikes Back: New Hacking Vulnerability Affecting Billions of Computers Worldwide: https://scitechdaily.com/spectre-strikes-back-new-hacking-vulnerability-affecting-billions-of-computers-worldwide
• America Hacks Itself. Waiting for the Cyber-Apocalypse: https://tomdispatch.com/waiting-for-the-cyber-apocalypse/
• Wanted: The (Elusive) Cybersecurity ‘all-Star’: https://www.darkreading.com/operations/wanted-the-(elusive)-cybersecurity-all-star/d/d-id/1340929
• How to Solve the Cybersecurity Skills Gap: https://securityboulevard.com/2021/05/how-to-solve-the-cybersecurity-skills-gap/
• Most Organizations Feel More Vulnerable to Breaches Amid Pandemic: https://www.darkreading.com/risk/most-organizations-feel-more-vulnerable-to-breaches-amid-pandemic/d/d-id/1340954
• How the COVID-19 Pandemic is Impacting Cyber Security Worldwide: https://innovationatwork.ieee.org/how-the-covid-19-pandemic-is-impacting-cyber-security-worldwide/
• Impact of COVID-19 on Cybersecurity: https://www2.deloitte.com/ch/en/pages/risk/articles/impact-covid-cybersecurity.html
• Biden on cyber security after 100 days: A good start, but now comes the hard part: https://securityboulevard.com/2021/05/biden-on-cyber-security-after-100-days-a-good-start-but-now-comes-the-hard-part/
• Why Software Supply Chain Attacks are Inevitable and what you Must do to Protect Your Applications: https://securityboulevard.com/2021/05/why-software-supply-chain-attacks-are-inevitable-and-what-you-must-do-to-protect-your-applications/

Transcript

Jesse: Welcome to Meanwhile in Security where I, your host Jesse Trucks, guides you to better security in the cloud.

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Jesse: Infrastructure security, including both critical physical systems that make our modern human lives possible, and supply chain on critical software systems is the theme of the week—maybe month, or a year—and we need to sit up and pay attention. Our electrical grids, telco systems, fuel pipelines, water supplies, and more, are delicate flowers ready to be stomped by anything with brute force, or eaten away by a swarm of tiny insects. These systems lurk online in the background where most of us don’t see them. However, all these are managed by computerized systems and they aren’t as air-gapped as we would hope they are. Internet of Things—or IoT—operational technology—or OT—and industrial control systems—or ICS—aren’t new security problems to solve. These have been highly vulnerable forever, but now we’re seeing how IoT, OT, ISS security lags far behind mainstream cybersecurity. This is a rapidly changing trend, but we should be worried over the ne...