Learning from the Dark Side

A former black hat offers insight on defending against hackers that "go for the throat every time."

One of the mindsets shared by hackers and their corporate victims is the desire to put a successful bow on the calendar year. For you this could mean hitting a collection of shipping dates, production quantities or equipment implementations. What many are beginning to realize is that the black hat community has a number of year-end targets to hit as well.

The focus on closing out orders, dealing with holiday-related slowdowns and potentially fewer employees on the plant floor often leave doors open to hackers. It’s no surprise that these dynamics often result in the last quarter of the year producing large spikes in ransomware, DDoS and credential harvesting attacks.

Our guest, Matthew Wolfe, Director of Cybersecurity Operations at Impero, offers insight on these attacks and how some of his previous experiences have given him a unique take on the bad guy's tactics.

We’re also excited to announce that Palo Alto Networks is sponsoring this episode. For more information on zero trust security for all OT environments and simplified operations, go to www.paloaltonetworks.com/network-security.

To catch up on past episodes, you can go to Manufacturing.net, IEN.com or MBTmag.com. You can also check Security Breach out wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple, Amazon and Overcast. And if you have a cybersecurity story or topic that you’d like to have us explore on Security Breach, you can reach me at [e-mail]. 

To catch up on past episodes, you can go to Manufacturing.net, IEN.com or MBTmag.com. You can also check Security Breach out wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple, Amazon and Overcast. And if you have a cybersecurity story or topic that you’d like to have us explore on Security Breach, you can reach me at [e-mail].

To download our latest report on industrial cybersecurity, The Industrial Sector’s New Battlefield, click here.