Preventing Ransomware Attacks Through Cyber Maintenance

Send us a textThere were a lot of trends emanating from the mid-1980s that thankfully died out over time, but one of them has not only persisted, but thrived. Although there were numerous samples of malware impacting early computer networks, the one that captured both headlines and the admiration of cyber criminals was the PC-Write Trojan virus. Iterations would follow, with perhaps the best known example of industrial malware – Stuxnet – being introduced about 25 years later. It would be topped by WannaCry Ransomware just seven years after that. In all these cases, bad actors were able to probe vulnerabilities, identify weak spots, and exploit these lapses in erasing data, eliminating access, or promising more extensive damage if their monetary demands were not met. These viruses, worms and malicious coding is still present today, and those armed with this malware have gotten smarter, their attacks more complex, and their search for victims more intense. The industrial sector and municipal utilities, with their combination of lucrative IP, essential production models and lagging security protocols, have become a favorite target. Joining us today to help navigate this minefield of bad actors is Marty Edwards. He’s the Vice President of OT Security at Tenable – a leading provider of infrastructure and cloud network software and security solutions. 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. And 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.To download our latest report on industrial cybersecurity, The Industrial Sector’s New Battlefield, click here.