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CISO Thoughts with
David Lindner

Contrast Security CISO David Lindner provides his top three weekly insights for CISOs, developers and the security community here. These are updated every Friday, so be sure to check back for the latest news on what's top of mind in AppSec and DevSecOps.

The latest insights as of May 3, 2024:

 

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Insight #1

Here we go again: Verizon’s new Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) is out, and once again,  unauthorized uses of web application credentials and exploits of vulnerabilities in web applications are among the top three on the breach list. It’s the same, lame story every single year. At what point will the industry figure out that Application Security (AppSec) status quo methods — Static Application Security Testing (SAST), Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST), web application firewall (WAFs), etc. — aren't working? Why not give something new — like Runtime Security — a chance?

Insight #2

This year, Verizon’s DBIR dug into how quickly organizations are fixing the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA’s)  Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. These are the most critical vulnerabilities. The data finds that after 30 days, 85% remain unmitigated. In my opinion, this screams for the need of a mitigating control like Runtime Security to protect you from exploit against these known and currently under-exploit issues.

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Insight #3

Recently, in a court case around a humongous 2018 data breach, Marriott admitted that it falsely claimed (for five years) that it was using secure AES-1 encryption. In fact, it was using SHA-1, or Secure Hash Algorithm-1: an algorithm that:

a. NIST deprecated in 2011 and
b. will be unsupported in all software and hardware devices as of Dec. 31, 2030, all because
c. it’s easy to crack. 

Encryption is not hashing is not encryption. One — encryption — is meant to protect the data but still allow the system with the key to use the original data, and one — hashing — is meant to render the data irreversible in cases where the system does not need to know the original values. Unfortunately, there are weak hashing algorithms like SHA-1 that allow for retrieving the original value without the need for a key of any kind, rendering it's use extremely risky. Are you still using SHA-1? If you say “No,” are you sure? Making a mistake like that can have serious consequences.

 
 
 
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Cybersecurity Insights with Contrast CISO David Lindner | 4/26/24

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Cybersecurity Insights with Contrast CISO David Linder | 4/19/24

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Cybersecurity Insights with Contrast CISO David Lindner | 4/12/24

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David Lindner

Chief Information Security Officer, Contrast Security

David is an experienced application security professional with over 20 years in cybersecurity. In addition to serving as the chief information security officer, David leads the Contrast Labs team that is focused on analyzing threat intelligence to help enterprise clients develop more proactive approaches to their application security programs. Throughout his career, David has worked within multiple disciplines in the security field—from application development to network architecture design and support, to IT security and consulting, to security training, to application security. Over the past decade, David has specialized in all things related to mobile applications and securing them. He has worked with many clients across industry sectors, including financial, government, automobile, healthcare, and retail. David is an active participant in numerous bug bounty programs.

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