Update on widespread supply-chain compromise

SolarWinds has announced a cyberattack on its systems that compromised specific versions of the SolarWinds Orion Platform, a widely used network management tool. SolarWinds reports that this incident was likely the result of a highly sophisticated, targeted and manual supply chain attack by a nation state, but it has not, to date, independently verified the origin of the attack.

Subsequently, a number of U.S. federal agencies have disclosed they were potentially victims of the hacking campaign. The Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has issued Emergency Directive 21-01 in response to this incident.

At this time, IBM recommends organizations running SolarWinds Orion take the following actions:

Identify, isolate and investigate any potentially impacted SolarWind Orion or associated computing environment via a comprehensive security analysis. Indicators of Compromise are available from the X-Force Exchange.
Take remediation actions based on investigation outcomes after evaluating unique IT environment needs. Vendor guidance and resources from SolarWinds can be leveraged as needed here.

For IBM QRadar users looking for more details on applying the available threat intelligence to their response, IBM has published a more detailed blog in the IBM Security Community available here.

IBM is closely monitoring the overall situation and is engaged with clients and the security community. More details can be found in our X-Force Exchange post, which will be updated as this situation evolves.

Assistance is also available to assist 24×7 via IBM Security X-Force’s US hotline 1-888-241-9812 | Global hotline (+001) 312-212-8034.

Government | X-Force

Nick Rossmann

Global Lead, X-Force Threat Intelligence, IBM Security

What cybersecurity pros can learn from first responders

4 min read - Though they may initially seem very different, there are some compelling similarities between cybersecurity professionals and traditional first responders like police and EMTs. After all, in a world where a cyberattack on critical infrastructure could cause untold damage and harm, cyber responders must be ready for anything. But are they actually prepared? Compared to the readiness of traditional first responders, how do cybersecurity professionals in incident response stand up? Let’s dig deeper into whether the same sense of urgency exists…

X-Force uncovers global NetScaler Gateway credential harvesting campaign

6 min read - This post was made possible through the contributions of Bastien Lardy, Sebastiano Marinaccio and Ruben Castillo. In September of 2023, X-Force uncovered a campaign where attackers were exploiting the vulnerability identified in CVE-2023-3519 to attack unpatched NetScaler Gateways to insert a malicious script into the HTML content of the authentication web page to capture user credentials. The campaign is another example of increased interest from cyber criminals in credentials. The 2023 X-Force cloud threat report found that 67% of cloud-related…

Tequila OS 2.0: The first forensic Linux distribution in Latin America

3 min read - Incident response teams are stretched thin, and the threats are only intensifying. But new tools are helping bridge the gap for cybersecurity pros in Latin America. IBM Security X-Force Threat Intelligence Index 2023 found that 12% of the security incidents X-force responded to were in Latin America. In comparison, 31% were in the Asia-Pacific, followed by Europe with 28%, North America with 25% and the Middle East with 4%. In the Latin American region, Brazil had 67% of incidents that…

Alert fatigue: A 911 cyber call center that never sleeps

4 min read - Imagine running a 911 call center where the switchboard is constantly lit up with incoming calls. The initial question, “What’s your emergency, please?” aims to funnel the event to the right responder for triage and assessment. Over the course of your shift, requests could range from soft-spoken “I’m having a heart attack” pleas to “Where’s my pizza?” freak-outs eating up important resources. Now add into the mix a volume of calls that burnout kicks in and important threats are missed.…

Security Intelligence

{{title}}

{{title}}

{{title}}

{{title}}

Topics

More from Incident Response

What cybersecurity pros can learn from first responders

X-Force uncovers global NetScaler Gateway credential harvesting campaign

Tequila OS 2.0: The first forensic Linux distribution in Latin America

Alert fatigue: A 911 cyber call center that never sleeps

Topic updates