Snarky Security

CTEM Alternatives: Because There's Always a Plan B There are alternatives to CTEM that might be better suited to certain organizations or scenarios: 📌 Open-source Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM): Open-source CSPM tools are cost-effective and flexible solutions for cloud security. They offer the benefits of community support and the potential for customization. However, they can be resource-intensive to deploy and may make an organization dependent on the community for updates and improvements 📌 Vanta: Vanta is a youth esports development platform that provides expert coaching and mentorship. It has received accreditation from stem.org, indicating its commitment to developing necessary skills such as innovation, teamwork, and problem-solving in the youth 📌 Defense Surface Management (DSM): DSM provides a more efficient and effective way to connect Threat Intelligence Data (TID) and CTEM. It helps organizations prioritize and optimize their defenses by identifying strengths and weaknesses and comparing capabilities against adversarial Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) 📌 CloudBees Jenkins Enterprise and Operations Center: These tools provide more features to visualize software delivery pipelines and recover from failures. They offer greater visibility into Jenkins operations and allow for the central management of clusters of Jenkins masters, development, and performance analytics 📌 Unifying Remediation: This approach leverages automation to streamline the response to security issues, reducing manual intervention and response time. It also includes considering the context of security issues, which helps in identifying the most critical issues, understanding their root causes, and determining effective remediation strategies 📌 Pen Testing: While CTEM is focused on identifying and preventing as many vulnerabilities as possible, pen testing is a human-driven offensive test that attempts to achieve a specific goal. Using both methodologies increases visibility dramatically and provides a more comprehensive security approach 📌 Automation in Tax Preparation: Automation can help eliminate the risk of human error that can occur with manual data entry, leading to more accurate financial statements. It can streamline audit processes, allowing tax professionals to identify and prioritize high-risk areas

Vulnerability Density and Time-to-Remediate: A Tale of Two Metrics (CTEM) Vulnerability Density and Time-to-Remediate are two key metrics that can be used to measure the effectiveness of a CTEM program. 📌 Vulnerability Density is a measure of the number of vulnerabilities per unit of code or system. It provides an indication of the overall security health of an organization's systems. A lower vulnerability density indicates a more secure system, while a higher vulnerability density suggests a greater potential for exploitation. To use this metric effectively, organizations should track changes in vulnerability density over time. A decreasing trend would indicate that the CTEM program is effectively identifying and remediating vulnerabilities, thereby improving the organization's security posture. It is calculated by dividing the total number of vulnerabilities by the total number of systems or applications. This metric can be used to estimate the number of residual vulnerabilities in a newly released software system given its size. A high vulnerability density indicates that there are more vulnerabilities to remediate, which could lead to a higher risk of exploitation. Organizations should aim to keep vulnerability density low to reduce the risk of exploitation 📌 Time-to-Remediate (also known as Mean Time to Respond or MTTR) is a measure of the average time it takes to respond to and remediate identified vulnerabilities or threats. A lower MTTR indicates efficient response and resolution, suggesting a more effective CTEM program. This metric is crucial because the longer a vulnerability remains unaddressed, the greater the chance it could be exploited by malicious actors. Therefore, a successful CTEM program should help reduce the time between detection and remediation. It is calculated by subtracting the discovery date from the remediation date. In more simple terms, MTTR is the number of days it takes to close a security vulnerability once it has been discovered. MTTR may also be calculated on a case-by-case basis or on a macro level. The macro equation for MTTR is: MTTR = (Total Sum of Detection to Remediation Time) / (Total Number of Incidents). A lower time to remediation indicates that vulnerabilities are being addressed quickly and reduces the risk of exploitation. Organizations should aim for a short time to remediation to reduce risk Both metrics provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of a CTEM program. By continuously monitoring these metrics, organizations can identify areas for improvement and take action to enhance their security posture

CTEM Effectiveness: Measuring the Immeasurable To measure the effectiveness of a CTEM program, organizations can use several key performance indicators and metrics. By using these metrics and continuously monitoring them, organizations can gain insights into the effectiveness of their CTEM program and make informed decisions to enhance their cybersecurity posture. It's important to note that the effectiveness of a CTEM program is not static and should be evaluated regularly to adapt to the evolving threat landscape and business needs. 📌 Risk Reduction: Evaluate the reduction in security risks by tracking the number of vulnerabilities identified and remediated over time. A successful CTEM program should demonstrate a downward trend in the number and severity of security risks 📌 Improved Threat Detection: Measure the effectiveness of threat detection capabilities by tracking the time it takes to detect new vulnerabilities or threats. A lower Mean Time to Detect (MTTD) indicates a more effective CTEM program 📌 Time to Remediate: Assess the speed at which identified threats and vulnerabilities are addressed. A successful CTEM program should help reduce the time between detection and remediation, known as Mean Time to Respond (MTTR) 📌 Security Control Effectiveness: Use tools like Security Control Validation and Breach and Attack Simulation to test the organization's defenses against simulated threats. The results can validate the impact of the implemented controls and the effectiveness of the security measures in place 📌 Compliance Metrics: For industries with regulatory requirements, achieving and maintaining compliance is a key success indicator. Track compliance violations or issues to gauge the effectiveness of the CTEM program in maintaining regulatory standards 📌 Business Alignment: Ensure that the CTEM program aligns with business priorities. This can be measured qualitatively by assessing whether remediation efforts focus on protecting the most critical business assets and align with key business objectives 📌 Stakeholder Feedback: Collect and analyze feedback from stakeholders involved in the CTEM process. Positive feedback can indicate that the program is meeting its objectives and is well-received by those it affects

CTEM: Miscellaneous Mayhem Prioritization Threats The Prioritization phase is the third stage in the CTEM framework. During this phase, organizations evaluate the potential vulnerabilities identified in the Discovery phase based on how likely they are to be exploited and the potential impact this would have on the organization. Here are the key steps involved in prioritizing threats during CTEM implementation: 📌 Assess Severity and Likelihood: Businesses often use a risk assessment methodology to analyze the severity and likelihood of each vulnerability. This involves evaluating the potential damage that could be caused if the vulnerability were to be exploited. 📌 Consider Business Impact: CTEM programs help organizations prioritize threats based on their potential impact on the business. This involves considering factors such as the criticality of the affected system or data, the potential financial impact, and the potential reputational damage. 📌 Availability of Compensating Controls: The availability of compensating controls, which are alternative measures that can reduce the risk of a vulnerability being exploited, is also a factor in prioritization. 📌 Tolerance for Residual Risk: The organization's tolerance for residual risk, which is the risk that remains after all controls have been applied, is another factor that can influence prioritization. 📌 Allocate Resources: Based on prioritization, organizations can effectively allocate resources towards the most significant risks. This strategic approach to threat management results in more efficient use of resources and a quicker response to the most potentially damaging threats Prioritization Methods Here are some common methods and best practices for prioritizing threats during CTEM implementation: 📌 Business-Aligned Prioritization: CTEM aligns its prioritization with business objectives, focusing on the most critical threats and vulnerabilities that could impact the organization's most valuable assets. This approach ensures that resources are allocated where they matter the most, aligning the organization's efforts with the ever-changing threat landscape 📌 Impact Analysis: Prioritization should include an analysis of the potential impact of each threat. By evaluating the severity and potential damage of each threat, organizations can effectively allocate resources towards the most significant risks 📌 Dynamic Prioritization: The threat landscape is dynamic, with new vulnerabilities emerging regularly. Therefore, prioritization strategies need to be adaptable to address evolving threats effectively 📌 Resource Allocation: Human resources are finite, and security teams must prioritize their efforts. The key is to allocate resources towards impactful vulnerabilities that can significantly impact the organization To ensure that threat prioritization is aligned with business goals, organizations should incorporate strategic business goals into their CTEM program. This approach allows organizations to evaluate the severity and damage potential of every threat, and then allocate resources accordingly, ensuring that security measures are focused on protecting the most critical business assets

CTEM Implementation: A Step-by-Step Guide to Madness Implementing CTEM involves a systematic five-step process that helps organizations proactively manage and mitigate cybersecurity risks. Implementing CTEM is a continuous cycle, as the threat landscape is always evolving. Organizations must regularly revisit each step to adapt to new threats and changes in their digital environment: 📌 Scoping: This initial phase is about defining what needs to be protected within the organization. It involves understanding the assets, systems, and data that are critical to the business and could be potential targets for cyber threats 📌 Discovery: In this stage, the organization actively seeks out and identifies vulnerabilities and weaknesses in the scoped assets. This includes using tools and technologies to scan for and analyze potential security issues across the organization's attack surface, which encompasses external, internal, and cloud environments 📌 Prioritization: After discovering vulnerabilities, the next step is to prioritize them based on their potential impact on the business. This involves assessing the severity, exploitability, and the criticality of the potential impact to the business, as well as any compensating security controls 📌 Validation: This phase is crucial for ensuring that the organization's vulnerability to threats has been accurately assessed and that the remediation operations are effective. It typically involves practices like penetration testing and Red Team exercises to simulate attacks and validate the protections in place 📌 Mobilization: The final step involves operationalizing the findings from the CTEM process. This means putting in place the necessary actions to correct identified risks and ensuring that all teams within the organization are informed and aligned with the security efforts. This may include automating mitigation through integration with SIEM and SOAR platforms, as well as establishing communication standards and documented cross-team workflows Scoping phase 📌 The scoping phase is the initial stage in the CTEM framework. It involves defining the scope of the CTEM program, determining which systems, assets, and infrastructure segments will be included, and identifying the stakeholders who will be involved. 📌 During this stage, security teams need to understand what matters most to their business in order to define the scope. This includes identifying the key attack surfaces where vulnerabilities can be managed. The scoping process ensures accurate identification of critical and vulnerable systems, which makes it the foundational step in devising security measures. 📌 The scoping stage forms the foundation of the CTEM program and is essential to its overall success as it establishes the framework for the subsequent stages. It is crucial to include all relevant areas under the scope of CTEM, such as external attack surfaces and cloud environments, to avoid leaving any potential breach points exposed. Discovery phase 📌 The Discovery phase is the second stage in the CTEM framework. This phase involves identifying and cataloging all vulnerable resources within the organization, such as hardware, software, databases, and network infrastructure. 📌 During the Discovery phase, businesses use a wide variety of IT discovery tools and methods to audit all their IT resources. This often includes conducting vulnerability assessments, penetration testing, and other security audits. The goal is to actively seek out and identify potential vulnerabilities within the organization's systems and assets. 📌 It's important to involve a diverse team of experts in the discovery stage, including IT personnel, security personnel, and other employees who may have a unique perspective on potential vulnerabilities. This ensures that all potential threats are identified and evaluated. 📌 The Discovery phase serves as the bridge between the Scoping and Prioritization phases in the CTEM process. After the Scoping phase, where the key attack surfaces and stakeholders are identified, the Discovery phase focus

CTEM: The Struggle is Real Challenges of Implementing CTEM 📌 Getting Non-security and Security Teams Aligned: IT infrastructure, DevOps, and security teams often have communication gaps, which can pose a challenge when implementing CTEM 📌 Seeing the Bigger Picture: A comprehensive CTEM program covers many areas, each with its own set of tools and unresolved problems. Aggregating all information to understand priorities and responsibilities can be challenging 📌 Overcoming Diagnostic Overload: Each area covered in CTEM has its own tools, which yield alerts. Managing the information stemming from these alerts can be challenging 📌 Adopting a Risk-centric Approach: Traditional cybersecurity measures often focus on achieving compliance. However, CTEM emphasizes understanding and managing risks specific to an organization’s unique context, which requires a nuanced understanding of the business landscape 📌 Integration of Continuous Monitoring Tools and Technologies: As organizations embrace innovations such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing, they must adapt their CTEM frameworks to address the unique challenges posed by these technologies 📌 Operationalizing a CTEM Strategy: Implementing a CTEM strategy requires significant investments in time, budget, personnel, and technology

CTEM: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Benefits 📌 Proactive Risk Management: CTEM allows organizations to consistently monitor, evaluate, and mitigate security risks through strategic improvement plans 📌 Prioritization of Threats: CTEM provides a systematic approach to effectively prioritize potential threats 📌 Enhanced Cyber Resilience: CTEM improves an organization's ability to withstand and recover from cyber threats 📌 Actionable Insights: CTEM generates data-driven insights into cyber threats 📌 Alignment with Business Objectives: CTEM ensures that security efforts and risk management plans align with the business's goals 📌 Adaptability: The flexible and scalable nature of CTEM ensures that it can be adapted to suit the specific needs of any organization 📌 Cost Savings: CTEM can significantly reduce costs associated with security breaches by proactively identifying and mitigating threats Limitations 📌 Integration Gaps: CTEM requires a multi-faceted approach within the security program, which means it must be built with a combination of technical solutions in place. This can lead to integration gaps if not properly managed, as different solutions may not work seamlessly together 📌 Reliance on Disparate Solutions: Failure to adopt CTEM exposes companies to drawbacks such as reliance on disparate solutions. This can lead to inefficiencies and inconsistencies in threat management 📌 Limited Support for Real-Time Constraints: CTEM operates within a specific time horizon, following governance, risk, and compliance mandates, and informs on shifts in long-term strategies. However, it may not fully address the real-time constraints imposed by threat detection and response activities 📌 Resource Intensive: Implementing a CTEM program can be resource-intensive, requiring significant time and effort to continuously monitor and assess the organization's security posture 📌 Need for Continuous Validation: CTEM places significant emphasis on validation, using tools like Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) and Security Control Validation to test the organization's defenses against simulated threats. This requires ongoing effort and resources to ensure the effectiveness of the implemented controls 📌 Challenges in Prioritizing Threats: While CTEM aims to prioritize threats based on their potential impact, this can be challenging due to the dynamic nature of the threat landscape and the need to align these efforts with business objectives

The Current State Of The Cyber Insurance Market S&P Global Ratings reported that global cyber insurance premiums reached about $12 billion in 2022 and projected an average annual increase of 25%-30%, potentially reaching $23 billion by 2025. The growth of the cyber insurance market is heavily reliant on reinsurance protection, and re-insurers are considered crucial for its sustainable expansion. The industry is encouraged to foster more sustainable underlying growth that is not solely dependent on rate increases but also on addressing systemic cyber risks and expanding coverage to more small-to-midsize enterprises. The current state of the cyber insurance market is showing signs of stabilization after a period of high pressure and premium increases. This market has been described as "hard," with insurers facing challenges such as rising premiums and reduced flexibility in policy terms. However, recent trends indicate that the rate of premium increases is slowing down, and in some cases, policy renewals are occurring at flat rates. Despite this stabilization, the market is not expected to return to the softer conditions seen in previous years. Products are now covering less, with carriers imposing new restrictive policy wording. Strict underwriting control requirements that were mandated in the past will continue, and the demand for capacity is still outpacing supply. Additionally, there is a growing concern among cyber insurance markets regarding systemic cyber risk, which focuses on quantifying the impact of a potentially catastrophic cyber event. The cyber insurance market is relatively new, having gained significant traction within the last five to seven years, and it is still working through various challenges. Insurers are developing stricter policy requirements, which has led to a decrease in the number of insurable companies and an increase in demand. However, there is optimism that insurers and vendors will collaborate to develop sustainable solutions, with a focus on improving risk management and risk quantification. Top cyber attacks Cyber insurance policies typically cover a range of cyber attacks and incidents, including: 📌 Data Breaches: These incidents involve unauthorized access to or theft of sensitive data. Cyber insurance can help cover the costs associated with responding to a data breach, such as notification costs, credit monitoring services, and legal fees. 📌 Network Security Incidents: This includes attacks that compromise the security of a company's network, such as malware infections, distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, and other hacking activities. 📌 Extortion: Cyber insurance often covers costs associated with cyber extortion, such as ransomware attacks where hackers demand payment to restore access to a company's digital assets. 📌 Data Destruction: If a cyber attack results in the loss or destruction of data, cyber insurance can help cover the costs of data recovery. 📌 Business Interruption: If a cyber attack disrupts a company's operations, cyber insurance can cover the loss of income during the downtime and the costs of restoring operations. 📌 Errors and Omissions: This coverage applies to losses resulting from mistakes or negligence in the provision of services, which can include failures in cybersecurity services. 📌 Media Liability: This covers claims related to digital content, such as allegations of copyright infringement, defamation, or invasion of privacy

Second-Class Cyber Citizens: Defense on a Budget It outlines a five-stage process for implementing a defense doctrine in a category B organization. 📌 Stage 0 – Corporate governance and strategy for corporate risk management: This stage involves establishing a governance structure and strategy for managing corporate risk. It sets the foundation for the organization's approach to cyber defense. 📌 Stage 1 – Demarcation of activity and risk assessment survey: This stage involves defining the scope of the organization's activities and conducting a risk assessment survey. This helps the organization understand its potential vulnerabilities and the risks associated with its activities. 📌 Stage 2 – Risk Assessment: This stage involves a detailed assessment of the risks identified in the previous stage. The organization evaluates the potential impact and likelihood of each risk, which helps in prioritizing them for mitigation. 📌 Stage 3 – Handling the risk: After the risks have been assessed, this stage involves developing strategies to manage them. This could involve mitigating the risk, transferring it, accepting it, or avoiding it, depending on the nature of the risk and the organization's risk tolerance. 📌 Stage 4 – Building a work plan: Based on the risk handling strategies developed in the previous stage, this stage involves creating a detailed work plan. This plan outlines the steps the organization will take to implement its risk handling strategies. 📌 Stage 5 – Continuous auditing and monitoring: This final stage involves ongoing auditing and monitoring to ensure that the risk handling strategies are effectively implemented and to identify any new or changing risks. This ensures that the organization's approach to cyber defense remains effective over time

Big Fish, Bigger Targets: Cyber Defense for the Overachievers It outlines a five-stage process for implementing a defense doctrine in a category A organization. 📌 Stage 1: Demarcation of the activity : This stage involves defining the scope of the organization's activities that need to be protected. 📌 Stages 2 and 3: Assessing the risks and determining a strategy for dealing with them : These stages involve identifying potential risks to the organization and developing a strategy to manage these risks. 📌 Stage 4: Building a work plan : This stage involves creating a detailed plan for implementing the defense strategy. 📌 Stage 5: Continuous auditing and control: This stage involves ongoing monitoring and control to ensure the effectiveness of the defense strategy and to make necessary adjustments