Gary Cohen

Gary Cohen

Writer + Editor + Content Strategist + Communications Specialist + On-camera Personality

Industrial Cybersecurity Pulse •

Throwback Attack: Christmas attack on SickKids hospital prompts rare apology from LockBit

Over the years, a standard formula for Christmas movies has been well established. Some villainous miscreant attempts to sabotage the holiday season, ruining it for a group of kind-hearted but downtrodden children. In the end, the Christmas spirit reigns supreme, and goodness triumphs over evil (See: “A Christmas Carol,” “Home Alone,” et al.). In a perfect malevolent storm of Grinchian proportions, hackers attempted to make this cinematic trope a reality just days before Christmas in 2022. On De
Industrial Cybersecurity Pulse •

The risks of connectivity: Expert Interview Series, Moty Kanias, Nanolock

In the last decade, there has been a lot of talk about oncoming digital transformation and industry 4.0 — but in reality it’s already here. We’re living in a technology-driven era with pervasive connectivity in everything from our homes to the factory floor. While this highly networked existence has streamlined many work processes and made our collective lives more convenient, it has also opened up a host of new vulnerabilities. This is especially the case when it comes to operational technology
Industrial Cybersecurity Pulse •

Throwback Attack: AW North Carolina attack shows dangers of ransomware and just-in-time manufacturing

When a manufacturing facility gets hit with a cyberattack, the numbers start to add up quickly. How much downtime will be required? How many people and processes does it impact? And the big one: How much will it cost, in both production time lost and remediation? When AW North Carolina (AWNC) got hit with ransomware in 2017, they knew they “stood to lose $270,000 in revenue, plus wages for idled employees, for every hour the factory wasn’t shipping its crucial auto parts to nine Toyota car and t
Industrial Cybersecurity Pulse •

Asset Visibility: Expert Interview Series, Yair Attar, Otorio

There’s a common issue in the cybersecurity community: You cannot protect what you cannot see. Asset visibility is the foundation of most cybersecurity activities, but many companies struggle to understand their own network infrastructure. Industry 4.0 and digital transformation have increased connectivity exponentially between operational technology (OT) systems, information technology (IT) and the cloud. Tech servers are expanding, and that creates new potential attack vectors that threat acto
Industrial Cybersecurity Pulse •

Throwback Attack: Red October is the Swiss Army Knife of malware

When most people hear the term “Red October,” they think of international intrigue and geopolitical tensions — or perhaps a flinty, young Alec Baldwin and some questionable accent acting by Sean Connery — thanks to the 1990 movie based on Tom Clancy’s “Hunt for Red October.” But when cybersecurity experts hear of Red October, they’re likely not thinking of a fictitious submarine; instead, they’re thinking of a high-level cyber espionage campaign that began stealing confidential documents in 2007
Industrial Cybersecurity Pulse •

How a desert water utility helped protect critical infrastructure

When the city of Oldsmar, Florida, held a press conference in February 2021 to disclose what they called “an unlawful intrusion into the city’s water treatment system,” it raised alarm bells not only in the water/wastewater industry, but throughout all of critical infrastructure. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) deems these systems and networks “so vital to the United States that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on security, national
Industrial Cybersecurity Pulse •

Throwback Attack: The Marconi wireless hack of 1903

Sometimes the gap between the unveiling of a life-altering new technology and the corruption of that technology is exceedingly small. Take, for example, wireless technology, a potent attack vector in modern times. It’s also something we’ve come to rely on as part and parcel of our everyday existence. How would we make a dinner reservation, know when our next meeting is or figure out when the Magna Carta was signed without our ubiquitous wireless devices, never more than a pocket or purse away?
Industrial Cybersecurity Pulse •

JBS, the world's biggest meat supplier, is hit with ransomware in another attack on critical infrastructure

The wave of ransomware attacks on high-profile industrial manufacturers continues apace, as the world’s largest meat processor, JBS, was forced to shut down several plants in the United States earlier this week. JBS USA released a statement on May 31 saying it was the target of an “organized cybersecurity attack” that affected servers supporting its information technology (IT) systems in the U.S., Canada and Australia. JBS has 150,000 employees worldwide and more than 150 plants in 15 countries
Industrial Cybersecurity Pulse •

The Biden Cybersecurity Executive Order: Expert Interview Series, Jim Crowley, Industrial Defender

Whether the Biden administration came into office with cybersecurity as one of its priorities or not, it became clear very quickly that it was going to have to be a priority, with attacks like SolarWinds, Oldsmar and the Colonial Pipeline hitting the U.S. in rapid succession, and with ransomware seemingly running rampant. On May 12, in direct response to the attack on the Colonial Pipeline, the largest supplier of oil to the East Coast, President Joe Biden signed the Executive Order on Improving
Industrial Cybersecurity Pulse •

Edge Computing and Cybersecurity: Expert Interview Series, Rick Peters, Fortinet

The recent shift toward edge computing has allowed for more efficient processing and near-real-time insights, but it has also opened up a new world of cybersecurity threats. Edge computing is a distributed, open information technology (IT) architecture that features decentralized processing. It works by moving data, applications and computing power away from centralized networks, or the cloud, to extreme places, such as a local computer or edge server. And, by all indications, it’s much more tha
Industrial Cybersecurity Pulse •

The White House cybersecurity executive order sets a roadmap for national cyber defense

President Joe Biden signed a cybersecurity executive order on May 12 to help strengthen the federal government’s cyber defenses and increase cooperation between the public and private sectors. The Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity, which has been in the works for months, comes on the heels of a spate of high-profile cyberattacks in the last few months, including the ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline, the supply chain attack on SolarWinds and attacks that targeted M
Industrial Cybersecurity Pulse •

Work From Home Revolution: Expert Interview Series, Tyler Whitaker, Leading2Lean

COVID-19 has impacted just about every aspect of how we go about our daily lives in the last year, but it has also introduced some major cybersecurity challenges. The abrupt closure of most office spaces in the early parts of 2020 forced even reluctant companies to embrace work from home. “In a manufacturing environment, in an industrial environment, you obviously need to have operators on the lines doing the work, but the vast majority of management and admin really don’t need to be in the pla
Industrial Cybersecurity Pulse •

Throwback Attack: A Florida teen hacks the Department of Defense and NASA

When most people think of hackers, they picture grizzled, bearded adults sitting in darkened rooms spotlit by the glow of multiple monitors. Or perhaps hardened foreign operatives covertly working for government agencies. If the movie “Wargames” has taught us anything, it’s that hacking takes all kinds. In 1999, a 15-year-old north Floridian penetrated into Department of Defense and NASA computers, earning himself a spot in the hacker hall of fame. Jonathan James, who operated under the interne
Industrial Cybersecurity Pulse •

The IT/OT Divide: Expert Interview Series, Bryan Bennett, ESD

When it comes to industrial cybersecurity, there has long been a partition between the information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) sides. The IT/OT divide isn’t exactly the Sharks versus the Jets, but it is hampering efforts to secure industrial facilities. Cybersecurity is generally considered the domain of information technologists, or data professionals. But modern buildings are connected in ways facility managers never dreamed of 30 years ago. Everything from lobby signage t
Industrial Cybersecurity Pulse •

Cyberattacks on SolarWinds and Oldsmar: CEO Interview Series, John Livingston, Verve Industrial Protection

Between the SolarWinds cyberattack and the smaller, but no less frightening, Oldsmar attack on a water treatment plant near Tampa Bay, Florida., cybersecurity has been front and center in the news. But these two cyberattacks on SolarWinds and Oldsmar were much different in nature and require different tools to protect against them. SolarWinds was an advanced, nation-state-level attack that threatened operational technology (OT) and governmental systems. Oldsmar, on the other hand, was a smaller
Chicago Cubs Yearbook •

Raising Expectations: Tom Ricketts Q&A

Let’s take a quick look at how things around Wrigleyville have changed since 2009, when the Ricketts family took ownership of the Cubs. Then: Despite coming off back-to-back division titles in 2007-08, the Cubs’ veteran-laden roster had been constructed using old-school front-office philosophies and was on the decline by 2009. Even the middling success of the early-aughts couldn’t change the fact that the postseason had been foreign territory for most of the last century.
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