Each week, ChannelE2E brings you the top cybersecurity insights from our affiliate site MSSP Alert, because we know that managed service providers need to stay on top of trends in cybersecurity.
This week, we're previewing sessions on cyber insurance, how bad actors are using AI to perpetrate cyberattacks, and taking an inside look at the ConnectWise ScreenConnect crisis from the viewpoint of CISO Patrick Beggs. Here's our roundup.
- CrowdStrike Lessons Learned: An MSSP’s Perspective
- Inside the ConnectWise ScreenConnect Crisis: CISO, Comms VP Provide Insider View of AI-Assisted IR
- MSSP Alert Live: Cybersecurity Insurance Secrets for MSPs, MSSPs
- MSSP Alert Live: How Bad Actors Use AI and Learning to “Think Evil”
CrowdStrike Lessons Learned: An MSSP's Perspective
The recent Microsoft Windows outage brought about by a CrowdStrike update has invariably sparked conversations among MSSPs, MSPs and the wider cybersecurity world around cyber resilience and the incident’s massive operational, financial and legal impact.
Andrew Douthwaite, chief technology officer for Virtual Armour, a UK-based MSSP, offered MSSP Alert his perspective on the incident that brought the “blue wall of death” to 8.5 million Windows machines on July 19. He believes that the incident has brought to light the fact that the reliance on a single vendor has the potential to “really cripple your organization” — not just over an issue involving inferior code that paralyzed Windows operating systems but also in the event of a hacking incident.
“Obviously, this has been shaking the industry, so now everyone will be checking their policies, procedures, software development lifecycle and how they operate within that and how release work, quality control and everything alongside that,” he said.
Douthwaite discussed the need for “defense in depth,” describing it as a combination of different security layers as well as different vendors.
“That where you see true XDR (eXtended detection and response) players moving in that world as a being a central point for all kinds of logs and visibility,” he said. “Next-generation SIEM (security and event management) is where you get your visibility. That’s where you can pull everything together, correlate it all, normalize the data and look at al in one kind of default format.”
Inside the ConnectWise ScreenConnect Crisis: CISO, Comms VP Provide Insider View of AI-Assisted IR
One of the biggest news stories across MSSP Alert and ChannelE2E this year was the ConnectWise ScreenConnect vulnerability and ConnectWise’s incident response. Join us at MSSP Alert Live, Oct. 14-16 in Austin, for the ultimate insider view of the company’s incident response from the leader who ran it, CISO Patrick Beggs.
Beggs will provide the deep details about what went on inside ConnectWise during the company’s incident response during a keynote session at MSSP Alert Live. Plus, for the first time he will share details about how ConnectWise leveraged artificial intelligence (AI) to assist with incident response efforts and provide insights into how MSSPs and MSPs can leverage AI for their own IR plans.
Beggs previously told MSSP Alert that the heaviest lift of the whole ScreenConnect Incident Response process was in external education and awareness.
MSSP Alert Live: Cybersecurity Insurance Secrets for MSPs, MSSPs
If you've been frustrated by cybersecurity insurance over the past few years, then you won’t want to miss MSSP Alert Live, October 14-16 at the Hyatt Regency in Austin, Texas. Sessions covering the topic will feature Dustin Bolander, CEO and founder of Beltex Insurance, among other speakers.
“When I hear MSPs talking about insurance, they are wrong more often than not, and insurance talking about MSPs is the same,” he said. “I’m going to dive into why a lot of security controls don’t actually matter, the three factors that really set the price of a policy (hint: none of them are actually cybersecurity), and how most MSSPs are unprepared for insurance stealing their business. After building two cyber policies, I am going to share my experience on where reinsurance and startups are driving the cyber insurance market the next few years.”
MSSP Alert Live: How Bad Actors Use AI and Learning to “Think Evil”
You can hardly talk about cybersecurity today without also mentioning artificial intelligence (AI) — so expect to hear plenty on the subject during MSSP Alert Live, October 14-16 at the Hyatt Regency in Austin, Texas.
If the relationship between AI and cybersecurity is on your mind, then you’ll want to attend the MSSP Alert Live speaker session, "How to Understand and Protect Against AI-Enabled Cyber Attacks."
Leading the session is Kevin McGrail, cloud fellow and principal evangelist at DitoWeb, a Google cloud security partner.
