Patch Management and Smart Cities

Today, CISA, FBI, NSA, along with several other government agencies from countries such as the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, released a joint guide titled “Cybersecurity Best Practices for Smart Cities.” These concise cybersecurity best practices are worth reviewing by any organization’s Security and IT departments.

 

Naturally, the recommendations include timely patching of applications and systems, as well as considerations for software supply chain patching. Other recommendations encompass applying the principle of least privilege, utilizing multi-factor authentication, adopting a zero-trust approach, and implementing network segmentation.

The following is a quick summary of these recommendations from the Secure Planning and Design section of the guide:
– Apply the principle of least privilege: each entity shall granted the minimum system resources and authorizations that the entity needs to perform its function.
– Enforce multifactor authentication: organizations should explicitly require MFA where users perform privileged actions or access important.
– Implement zero trust architecture: secure network environment that requires authentication and authorization for each new connection.
– Manage changes to internal architecture risks: maintain awareness of evolving network architecture and the personnel accountable for the security.
– Securely manage smart city assets: physical and logical security controls to protect sensors and monitors against manipulation, theft, other threats.
– Improve security of vulnerable devices: implement secure access to devices lacking built-in protections (such over VPN only).
– Protect internet-facing services: prioritize defensive efforts for these services before anything else.
– Patch systems and applications in a timely manner: enable automatic patching processes for all software and hardware devices.
– Review the legal, security, and privacy risks associated with deployments: continuously evaluate and manage the legal and privacy risks associated with deployed solutions.

About Action1

Action1 provides a risk-based patch management solution for distributed work-from-anywhere organizations. Action1 helps to discover, prioritize, and remediate vulnerabilities in a single solution to prevent security breaches and ransomware attacks. It automates patching of third-party applications, patching of operating systems, drivers, and firmware, ensuring continuous patch compliance and remediation of security vulnerabilities before they are exploited.