Window of Exposure Wide Open for Utilities’ Apps

From securityboulevard.com

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With all the talk about the ongoing menace of ransomware, it’s easy to overlook application-specific attacks. But new research from WhiteHat Security shows that there might just be a greater likelihood of the latter.

Most troubling in the latest installment of the company’s AppSec Stats Flash report are the increased window of exposure for apps in the utilities sector—up from 55% to 67%—and the average time to fix a critical vulnerability, which, at 197 days, is at an all-time high for the year to date.

Neither bodes well in a post-Colonial Pipeline world, where a devastating ransomware attack led to the shutdown of a major pipeline and prompted the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to issue a cybersecurity directive for the oil and gas industry. The order requires, among other things, mandatory breach reporting.

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