6 deadly sins of enterprise architecture
The simplest way to build out enterprise software is to leverage the power of
various tools, portals, and platforms constructed by outsiders. Often 90%+ of
the work can be done by signing a purchase order and writing a bit of glue code.
But trusting the key parts of an enterprise to an outside company has plenty of
risks. Maybe some private equity firm buys the outside firm, fires all the good
workers, and then jacks up the price knowing you can’t escape. Suddenly
instantiating all your eggs in one platform starts to fail badly. No one
remembers the simplicity and consistency that came from a single interface from
a single platform. Spreading out and embracing multiple platforms, though, can
be just as painful. The sales team may promise that the tools are designed to
interoperate and speak industry standard protocols, but that gets you only
halfway there. Each may store the data in an SQL database, but some use MySQL,
others use PostgreSQL and others use Oracle. There’s no simple answer. Too many
platforms creates a Tower of Babel. Too few brings the risk of vendor lock-in
and all the pain of opening that email with the renewal contract.
Manufacturing firms make early bets on the industrial metaverse
The building blocks of the industrial metaverse are “frequently proprietary,
siloed and standalone,” according to a recent report by Miller and Forrester
colleagues. Digital twins — which might use IoT sensor data and 3D modelling to
provide a real-time picture of a piece of equipment or factory, for example —
are perhaps closest to realization, but are still limited in some senses. “The
reality today is that most digital twins are still asset- and vendor-specific,”
Miller told Computerworld, with the same manufacturer responsible for both
hardware and software. For example, an ABB robot may be sold with an ABB digital
twin, or a Siemens motor will come with a Siemens digital twin — but getting
them to work together can be a challenge. While these types of tools offer clear
benefits for customers, firms that own multiple products from multiple vendors
will eventually want “one digital twin of how the factory or the line is
operating, not 100 digital twins of the different components,” said Miller. Even
the most advanced precursor technologies, such as factory-spanning digital
twins, tend to be the product of a partnership with one vendor.
How businesses can vet their cybersecurity vendors
Companies can’t assume that the vendor is telling the truth. Particularly in the
authentication market, where there is currently no standardised testing to
confirm solutions pass metrics such as ‘phishing resistance’. When talking to a
vendor, whilst it may seem simple, the organisation should first ask the vendor:
How does the tool prevent social engineering and AiTM attacks? Whilst some
solutions might say passwordless or ‘phishing-resistant’, they could instead
simply hide the password so that authentication is more convenient, but the
vulnerability remains. The team needs to determine if the solution eliminates
passwords from both the authentication flow and account recovery flow, should
the user lose their typical login device. And the tool must implement “verifier
impersonation protection” to thwart AiTM/proxy-based attacks. Getting the
security team to conduct their research beforehand enables them to come prepared
to ask detailed questions and can help bypass the buzzwords that vendors use to
uncover the truth. To go a step further, vetting the vendor can allow security
teams to learn more about the tool and uncover the truth.
Hidden dangers loom for subsea cables, the invisible infrastructure of the internet
Subsea cables can fall under a wide range of regulatory regimes, laws and
authorities. At national level, there may be several authorities involved in
their protection, including national telecom authorities, authorities under
the NIS Directive, cybersecurity agencies, national coastguard, military, etc.
There are also international treaties in place to be considered, establishing
universal norms and the legal boundaries of the sea. ... Challenges for subsea
cable resilience: Accidental, unintentional damage through fishing or
anchoring has so far been the cause of most subsea cable
incidents; Natural phenomena such as undersea earthquakes or landslides
can have a significant impact, especially in places where there is a high
concentration of cables; Chokepoints, where many cables are installed
close to each other, are single points of failure, where one physical attack
could strain the cable repair capacity; Physical attacks and cyberattacks
should be considered as threats for the subsea cables, the landing points, and
the ICT at the landing points.
Datacentre operators ‘hesitant’ over how to proceed with server farm builds as AI hype builds
“The developments in generative AI and the increasing use of a wide range of
AI-based applications in datacentres, edge infrastructure and endpoint devices
require the deployment of high-performance graphics processing units and
optimised semiconductor devices,” said Alan Priestley, vice-president analyst
at Gartner. “This is driving the production and deployment of AI chips.” And
while Gartner’s figures suggest the AI trend is going to continue to take the
world of tech by storm, the market watcher’s recently published Hype Cycle for
emerging technologies lists generative AI as being at the “peak of inflated
expectations”, which might go some way to explaining why operators are
reluctant to rush to kit out their sites to accommodate this trend. For
colocation operators that are targeting hyperscale cloud firms, many of which
regularly talk up the potential for generative AI to transform how enterprises
operate, there is perhaps less reticence, said Onnec’s Linqvist.
Developers: Is Your API Designed for Attackers?
The security firm analyzed 40 public breaches to see what role APIs played in
security problems, which Snyder featured in his 2023 Black Hat conference
presentation. The issue might be built-in vulnerabilities, misconfigurations
in the API, or even a logical flaw in the application itself — and that means
it falls on developers to fix it, Snyder said. “It’s a range of things, but it
is generally with their own APIs,” Snyder told The New Stack. ”It is in their
domain of influence, and honestly, their domain of control, because it is
ultimately down to them to build a secure API.” The number of breaches
analyzed is small — it was limited to publicly disclosed breaches — but Snyder
said the problem is potentially much more pervasive. ... In the last
couple of months, he said, security researchers who work on this space have
uncovered billions of records that could have been breached through poor API
design. He pointed to the API design flaws in basically every full-service
carrier’s frequent flyer program, which could have exposed entire datasets or
allowed for the awarding of unlimited miles and hotel points.
Rethinking Cybersecurity: The Power of the Hacker Mindset
Embracing a hacker mindset involves adopting an external viewpoint of your
business to uncover vulnerabilities before they’re exploited. This includes
embracing practices like ethical hacking and penetration testing. While
forming a specialised ethical hacking team is an option, embedding this
mindset within cyber teams and your wider business is equally effective. Key
to this transformation is upskilling. Businesses should be offering training
to encourage creative thinking when it comes to cybersecurity. Instead of
waiting for breaches to learn from mistakes, being proactive is crucial.
Regular, monthly upskilling for cybersecurity and IT teams, rather than every
six months or even a year, keeps them on the front foot. Encouraging a hacking
mindset also shouldn’t be confined to cyber experts; all employees should
undergo cyber awareness training. In this fight, businesses and individuals
aren’t alone. Numerous training platforms are available, but choosing those
that concentrate on providing practical, hands-on skills rooted in real-world
attack scenarios is essential.
How to get started with prompt engineering
Joseph Reeve leads led a team of people working on features that require
prompt engineering at Amplitude, a product analytics software provider. He has
also built internal tooling to make it easier to work with LLMs. That makes
him a seasoned professional in this emerging space. As he notes, "the great
thing about LLMs is that there’s basically no hurdle to getting started—as
long as you can type!" If you want to assess someone's prompt engineering
advice, it's easy to test-drive their queries in your LLM of choice. Likewise,
if you're offering prompt engineering services, you can be sure your employers
or clients will be using an LLM to check your results. So the question of how
you can learn about prompt engineering—and market yourself as a prompt
engineer—doesn't have a simple, set answer, at least not yet. "We're
definitely in the 'wild west' period," says AIPRM's King. "Prompt engineering
means a lot of things to different people. To some it's just writing prompts.
To others it's fine-tuning and configuring LLMs and writing prompts.
Australia’s new cybersecurity strategy: Build “cyber shields” around the country
The first shield proposes a long-term education of citizens and businesses so
by 2030 they understand cyberthreats and how to protect themselves. This
"shield" comes with a plan B that plans for citizens and businesses to have
proper supports in place so that when they are the victim of cyber-attack,
they're able to get back up off the mat very quickly. The second shield is for
safer technology. The federal government will have software treated like any
other consumer product that is deemed insecure. "So, in 2030 our vision for
safe technology is a world where we have clear global standards for digital
safety in products that will help us drive the development of security into
those products from their very inception," O'Neil said. ... The fourth
proposed shield will focus on protecting Australian's access to critical
infrastructure, with the Home Affairs and Cybersecurity minister saying that
"part of this year will be about government lifting up its own cyber defences
to make sure we're protecting our country."
Modeling Asset Protection for Zero Trust – Part 2
The goal when modeling the data environment for a Zero Trust initiative is to
have the information available to decide what data should be available when,
where, and by whom. That requires you to know what data you have, its value to
the business, and the risk level if lost. The information is used to inform an
automated rules engine that enforces governance based on the state of the data
request journey. It is not to define or modify a data model. Hopefully, you
already have this information catalogued. From a digital asset perspective,
most companies think of their data as their crown jewels so the data pillar
might be the most important pillar. One challenge with data is that
applications supply data access. Many applications are not written to support
modern authentication mechanisms and don’t handle the protocols needed to
integrate with contemporary data environments so the applications might not
support a Zero Trust data model. Hopefully, you’re already experimenting with
current mechanisms for your microservice environment. But, if not, as with any
elephant, you eat it one bite at a time.
Quote for the day:
"Your time is limited, so don't waste
it living someone else's life." -- Steve Jobs
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