Cybersecurity

CISA has published an advisory on improper access control, use of hard-coded cryptographic key, os command injection, use of hard-coded credentials, classic buffer overflow, out-of-bounds read, stack-based buffer overflow, improper access control, and authentication bypass using an alternate path or channel vulnerabilities in Moxa AWK-3131A. Versions 1.13 and prior are affected. Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities could allow an attacker to gain control of the device and remotely execute arbitrary code. Moxa has created a security patch to mitigate these vulnerabilities.

National Consumer Protection Week (NCPW) is March 1–7. This annual event encourages individuals and businesses to learn about their consumer rights and how to keep themselves secure. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and its NCPW partners provide free resources to protect consumers from fraud, scams, and identity theft. The U.S.

According to the results of a poll recently conducted by IBM, only 38 percent of state and local government employees are trained on ransomware prevention. Additionally, budgets for managing cyber attacks have remained stagnant according to 52 percent of the state and local government IT/security professionals who were polled. These findings were in spite of 73 percent of those polled indicating they are concerned about impending ransomware threats. Additionally, 1 in 6 respondents disclosed their department had been impacted by a ransomware attack.

The FBI’s Portland, Oregon office has published an advisory discussing best practices for communications, such as with personal and official email, messaging apps, and social media. As the advisory notes, users should be aware of the potential dangers of cyber attacks through these various channels and of the need to opt for secure methods of communication to reduce the likelihood of intrusion. The advisory groups best practices into encryption, message retention, and access.