Cybersecurity

Headline: Thousands of Palo Alto Firewalls Potentially Impacted by Exploited Vulnerability

This article discusses the timeline and events surrounding a vulnerability that was exploited in Palo Alto Networks' appliances. These hardware appliances run on a proprietary operating system. Hackers were able to exploit a command injection vulnerability in the operating system. Causing potential vulnerabiulities in thousands of systems. Disabling telemetry in the systems was discovered to be a quick fix that ensured the vulnerability cannot be exploited, but more permanent solutions are being devised (Arghire).

This article was written just two days ago by Ionut Arghire for the SecurityWeek media publication. This company provides news and analysis of recent events in the cybersecurity space. The information in the article is an objective account of how events unfolded leading up to the security vulnerability that was exploited in the company's operating system. The facts are accurate and have been reported by numerous other sources.

Arghire, Ionut. (2024). Thousands of Palo Alto Firewalls Potentially Impacted by Exploited Vulnerability. Security Week. Retrieved April 24, 2024 from https://www.securityweek.com/thousands-of-palo-alto-firewalls-potentially-impacted-by-exploited-vulnerability/.

Headline: GPT-4 Is Capable Of Exploiting 87% of One-Day Vulnerabilities

This article highlights new progress in increasing the efficacy of generative AI's ability to exploit vulnerabilities and execute fairly sophisticated hacks. The study under question tested 10 large language models and GPT-4 was the most successful candidate with an 87% success rate when given a description of the vulnerability. However with no vulnerability description, its success rate dropped to only 7%. All models were given a variety of tools and access to a web browser in order to complete the exploits. GPT-4's success compared to its peers is thought to be a result of better step-by-step instruction following and organization in its approach (Dutta).

This article was written a few days ago by Tushar Dutta on a media site called Cyber Security News. This media company aims to provide news pertaining to threats, vulnerabilities, and research in the cybersecurity space. This publishing company is an independent news media site. The content in the article is objective and very technical. All of the types of vulnerabilities that were tested in the research are listed and discussed in the text. The content in the article is factual and has been reported by multiple other sources. The study itself is research from Cornell University.

Dutta, Tushar. 2024. GPT-4 Is Capable Of Exploiting 87% of One-Day Vulnerabilities. Cyber Secuiryt News. Retrieved April 24, 2024 from https://cybersecuritynews.com/gpt-4-exploits-one-day-vulnerabilities/.

CCBC Cybersecurity Certification

Lessons Learned

In this unit, I was able to refamiliarize myself with many different types of malware and vulnerabilities. I knew a lot about the nuances of some of the threats discussed when I was younger but the landscape evolves so quickly. It was nice to have a refresher about how some of these operations happen today. Learning about how some of the new cybersecurity defense tools operate was also a great aspect of this unit. I am interested in one day evaluating some cyber security companies from a financial perspective. So the current topic research allowed me to start some of that due diligence.

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