Short Takes – 9-27-22

Insider Threats: Your employees are being used against you. TalosIntelligence.com article. Discussion of how employees get compromised. Pull quote: “Over the past six months to a year, we have seen an increasing amount of incident response engagements involving malicious insiders and unwitting assets being compromised via social engineering. As we continue to improve the ways we can detect and stop active exploitation and as macros are slowly removed from the landscape, the options for adversaries are going to dwindle.”

CISA Plans to Measure the Effect of Coming Standards on Industry’s Cybersecurity. NextGov.com article. Pull quote: “But while last July’s national security memo calling for CISA’s performance goals says the initiative is for industry’s voluntary collaboration with government, Langevin’s amendment—along with comments from White House officials—suggest an effort to link the coming performance goals to potential regulatory efforts.”

Germany Suspects Sabotage to Russia’s Nord Stream Gas Pipelines. Bloomberg.com article. No attribution claims. Pull quote: “The pressure drop on Monday at the two lines of Nord Stream and one line of Nord Stream 2 can’t impact gas supplies to Europe as the pipelines are idled amid Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. However, markets will be watching for any indications of sabotage.”

Senate Democrats release short-term government funding bill. TheHill.com article. Substitute language for HR 6833, the vessel for the Continuing Resolution, contains Manchin’s permitting rule changes. Pull quote: “Senate sources say Manchin will have a tough time getting the dozen or so Republicans he needs to vote for the procedural motion. Two members of the Democratic caucus, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.), have said they won’t vote for Manchin’s bill.”

Five things about covid we still don’t understand at our peril. WashingtonPost.com article. Pull quote: “Still, the virus has kept many of its secrets, from how it mutates so rapidly to why it kills some while leaving others largely unscathed — mysteries that if solved might arm the world’s scientists with new strategies to curb its spread and guard against the next pandemic.”