Even CISA can be breached

There’s an old saying, “the shoemaker’s son always goes barefoot.” It’s a curious twist of fate that those closest to the source often miss out on the benefits. In a modern-day echo of this proverb, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) found itself in a tight spot.

What’s the reason behind the CISA data breach?

Back in February, they discovered that two of their systems had been compromised. The culprit? Vulnerabilities in Ivanti products. This forced CISA to take the drastic step of shutting down these systems, which, by all accounts, played a key role in supporting U.S. infrastructure.

CISA isn’t just any agency. It’s the nation’s guard dog for cybersecurity. Formed under the Department of Homeland Security in November 2018, its birth was a direct response to the growing alarm over cyber threats and the safety of the country’s vital infrastructure. The idea was simple yet ambitious: beef up America’s defenses in the digital world.

A spokesperson from CISA chimed in with confirmation of the breach, pinpointing the hackers’ entry point: vulnerabilities in Ivanti’s internal tools. Ivanti, with headquarters nestled in Utah, is a major player in the IT security sector, offering its systems management and security software to an impressive roster of 40,000 clients. These range from heavyweight organizations to government bodies scattered across the globe, as boasted on its website.

Back in February CISA discovered that two of their systems had been compromised

CISA quickly moved to mitigate the damage.

“The impact was limited to two systems, which we immediately took offline. We continue to upgrade and modernize our systems, and there is no operational impact at this time,” CISA stated. However, they kept the cards close to their chest, not revealing if any data had been accessed.

The Record was the first to spill the beans on the breach. They got the scoop from someone in the know, who revealed that the cyber intruders had wormed their way into two systems integral to the Infrastructure Protection (IP) Gateway. This gateway is no ordinary database; it’s a treasure trove of critical data and tools crucial for sizing up the nation’s infrastructure. And the Chemical Security Assessment Tool (CSAT)? That’s where the U.S. stores its most guarded industrial secrets, including the list of chemical facilities marked as high-risk and detailed Security Vulnerability Assessments.

Yet, there’s a bit of a murky area. CISA hasn’t explicitly confirmed or brushed off the idea that these specific systems were the ones pulled from the grid. The attackers’ identities remain shrouded in mystery, but the breach’s pathway was clear, exploiting recent chinks in the armor of Ivanti Connect Secure VPN and Ivanti Policy Secure products. And who flagged these vulnerabilities? CISA itself, in a twist that’s a tad ironic.

No industry is immune to cyber threats

CISA had its radar up about Ivanti’s software issues well before this incident. On the first of February, it didn’t just raise a flag; it issued a directive to all U.S. government agencies to cut the cord on Ivanti Connect Secure and Ivanti Policy Secure. Not stopping there, a few weeks on, it sounded the alarm that threat actors were actively exploiting a trio of Ivanti vulnerabilities, tagged CVE-2023-46805, CVE-2024-21887, and CVE-2024-21893. It’s like CISA saw the storm clouds gathering but still got caught in the rain.

No one is immune to cyber threats

It’s a digital age dilemma that underscores a universal truth: no one is immune. The challenge for industries far and wide is not just to respond to breaches, but to anticipate and thwart them, turning the tide in this ongoing battle for cybersecurity.

A roster of heavyweight names across various sectors – think Cencora, Prudential Financial, Bank of America, HPE, loanDepot, Trello, Subway, Football Australia, HealthEC, and Fidelity National Financial– have all been caught in the net of data security incidents in 2024.

Image credits: Kerem Gülen/Midjourney