At a glance.
- CISA releases cyberincident reporting guide.
- US NCCoE highlights the importance of patch management.
CISA releases cyberincident reporting guide.
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has issued guidance for critical infrastructure owners and operators, as well as government partners, on sharing information regarding cyberincidents. The Sharing Cyber Event Information Fact Sheet emphasizes the fact that transparency about cyberactivity is essential in order to better understand how adversaries are attempting to infiltrate US networks, especially those in critical infrastructure sectors. The guide explains “This information fills critical information gaps and allows CISA to rapidly deploy resources and render assistance to victims suffering attacks, analyze incoming reporting across sectors to spot trends, and quickly share that information with network defenders to warn other potential victims.” Entities are advised to “observe, act, and report” in order to communicate info about incidents including data breaches, Denial of Service (DOS) attacks, the detection of malicious code, ransomware, and phishing attempts. Stakeholders are encouraged to file an Incident Reporting Form or send an email to phishing-report@us-cert.gov.
US NCCoE highlights the importance of patch management.
The National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) also issued cyber-related guidance this week, HIPAA Journal reports, in the form of two new publications offering advice about enterprise patch management practices: “Guide to Enterprise Patch Management Planning: Preventive Maintenance for Technology” and “Improving Enterprise Patching for General IT Systems: Utilizing Existing Tools and Performing Processes in Better Way.” The NCCoE explains, “Patching is a critical component of preventive maintenance for computing technologies—a cost of doing business, and a necessary part of what organizations need to do in order to achieve their missions. It helps prevent compromises, data breaches, operational disruptions, and other adverse events.” Though patching is recognized by IT professionals as a fundamental measure for preventing crippling network disruptions, many company leaders view the patching and upgrade process as overwhelming and time-consuming. In developing the two guides, NCCoE incorporated recommendations from cybersecurity technology providers in order to offer strategies that can be adapted to individual organizations’ needs.