Enhancing cyber assets visibility for effective attack surface management : Cyber Asset Attack Surface Management based on Knowledge Graph

The contemporary digital landscape is filled with challenges, chief among them being the management and security of cyber assets, including the ever-growing shadow IT. The evolving nature of the technology landscape has resulted in an expansive system of solutions, making it challenging to select and deploy compatible solutions in a structured manner. This thesis explores the critical role of Cyber Asset Attack Surface Management (CAASM) technologies in managing cyber attack surfaces, focusing on the open-source CAASM tool, Starbase, by JupiterOne. It starts by underlining the importance of comprehending the cyber assets that need defending. It acknowledges the Cyber Defense Matrix as a methodical and flexible approach to understanding and addressing cyber security challenges. A comprehensive analysis of market trends and business needs validated the necessity of asset security management tools as fundamental components in firms' security journeys. CAASM has been selected as a promising solution among various tools due to its capabilities, ease of use, and seamless integration with cloud environments using APIs, addressing shadow IT challenges. A practical use case involving the integration of Starbase with GitHub was developed to demonstrate the CAASM's usability and flexibility in managing cyber assets in organizations of varying sizes. The use case enhanced the knowledge graph's aesthetics and usability using Neo4j Desktop and Neo4j Bloom, making it accessible and insightful even for non-technical users. The thesis concludes with practical guidelines in the appendices and on GitHub for reproducing the use case

The future of Cybersecurity in Italy: Strategic focus area

This volume has been created as a continuation of the previous one, with the aim of outlining a set of focus areas and actions that the Italian Nation research community considers essential. The book touches many aspects of cyber security, ranging from the definition of the infrastructure and controls needed to organize cyberdefence to the actions and technologies to be developed to be better protected, from the identification of the main technologies to be defended to the proposal of a set of horizontal actions for training, awareness raising, and risk management

Weathering the Nest: Privacy Implications of Home Monitoring for the Aging American Population

The research in this paper will seek to ascertain the extent of personal data entry and collection required to enjoy at least the minimal promised benefits of distributed intelligence and monitoring in the home. Particular attention will be given to the abilities and sensitivities of the population most likely to need these devices, notably the elderly and disabled. The paper will then evaluate whether existing legal limitations on the collection, maintenance, and use of such data are applicable to devices currently in use in the home environment and whether such regulations effectively protect privacy. Finally, given appropriate policy parameters, the paper will offer proposals to effectuate reasonable and practical privacy-protective solutions for developers and consumers

Cloud Cyber Security: Finding an Effective Approach with Unikernels

Achieving cloud security is not a trivial problem to address. Developing and enforcing good cloud security controls are fundamental requirements if this is to succeed. The very nature of cloud computing can add additional problem layers for cloud security to an already complex problem area. We discuss why this is such an issue, consider what desirable characteristics should be aimed for and propose a novel means of effectively and efficiently achieving these goals through the use of well-designed unikernel-based systems. We have identified a range of issues, which need to be dealt with properly to ensure a robust level of security and privacy can be achieved. We have addressed these issues in both the context of conventional cloud-based systems, as well as in regard to addressing some of the many weaknesses inherent in the Internet of things. We discuss how our proposed approach may help better address these key security issues which we have identified

Overcoming Data Breaches and Human Factors in Minimizing Threats to Cyber-Security Ecosystems

This mixed-methods study focused on the internal human factors responsible for data breaches that could cause adverse impacts on organizations. Based on the Swiss cheese theory, the study was designed to examine preventative measures that managers could implement to minimize potential data breaches resulting from internal employees\u27 behaviors. The purpose of this study was to provide insight to managers about developing strategies that could prevent data breaches from cyber-threats by focusing on the specific internal human factors responsible for data breaches, the root causes, and the preventive measures that could minimize threats from internal employees. Data were collected from 10 managers and 12 employees from the business sector, and 5 government managers in Ivory Coast, Africa. The mixed methodology focused on the why and who using the phenomenological approach, consisting of a survey, face-to-face interviews using open-ended questions, and a questionnaire to extract the experiences and perceptions of the participants about preventing the adverse consequences from cyber-threats. The results indicated the importance of top managers to be committed to a coordinated, continuous effort throughout the organization to ensure cyber security awareness, training, and compliance of security policies and procedures, as well as implementing and upgrading software designed to detect and prevent data breaches both internally and externally. The findings of this study could contribute to social change by educating managers about preventing data breaches who in turn may implement information accessibility without retribution. Protecting confidential data is a major concern because one data breach could impact many people as well as jeopardize the viability of the entire organization