Cybersecurity

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the National Security Agency (NSA) released a joint advisory (AA21-287A) today highlighting malicious cyber activity targeting the U.S. water and wastewater sector. The advisory captures threat activity against information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) networks, systems, and devices. WaterISAC collaborated on the advisory.

The Australian Government just released its Ransomware Action Plan to confront the increasing threat posed by ransomware threat actors. The plan describes the capabilities and authorities that Australia will employ to tackle the ransomware menace and provides information for ransomware victim’s seeking help. Specifically, the plan calls for legislation mandating ransomware incident reporting, creating specific stand-alone offense for all forms of cyber extortion, and creating a stand-alone aggravated offence for cybercriminals who target critical infrastructure.

On Thursday, WaterISAC’s Michael Arceneaux will open the Siemens Executive Cybersecurity Forum for Water and Wastewater. At this free, virtual event, Michael will talk about how the cybersecurity landscape has changed in the last several months, what the future may hold in terms of regulations and resources, and what opportunities may be ahead for the sector.

Macros have been a long time favorite of users and threat actors alike. Unfortunately, the same automation that macros afford users for efficiency and convenience have also been abused by threat actors to launch cyber attacks - most notably, Excel 4.0 XLM macros in phishing emails. Some organizations globally disable macros, but for those that have not, be advised that Microsoft will begin disabling Excel 4.0 XLM macros by default in Microsoft 365 tenants. This action is designed to protect users from the less secure macros that are still in use (and abuse) today.