Boardroom Resilience: Your Weekly Security Update

A ransomware attack on a Japanese cloud provider left hundreds of customers restoring from their own backups, and a UK retailer's breach became public through its own app. Separately, US agencies warned that a campaign against Fortinet firewalls is still locking owners out of their own devices.

This week

• IDC Frontier ransomware hit 495 customers, who were told to rebuild from their own backups
• ASOS breach became public via its own app, and exposed more data than first stated
• FBI warns FortiBleed firewall campaign continues, with lockouts leading on to ransomware

Three questions for your board

1. If our main cloud provider told us to restore everything from our own backups, which systems could we actually bring back, and how fast?
2. Which third parties can see our customer data or send messages in our name, and who has reviewed their access this year?
3. Have we confirmed that every internet-facing firewall and remote access gateway, including those at our sites, requires multi-factor sign-in, and have we checked them for admin accounts we didn't create?

Sources

• IDC Frontier cloud ransomware: ASCII.jp · BigGo Finance · Cybernews
• ASOS data breach: BleepingComputer · BBC via Yahoo News · TechCrunch via Yahoo Finance
• FortiBleed advisory: Help Net Security · Cybersecurity Dive · Decipher

Boardroom Resilience is general information for senior leaders, not professional advice for any specific organisation. To discuss your board's position, contact Logica Security at logicasecurity.com.

This episode covers an actively exploited flaw in Fortinet's email gateway that had no permanent fix by the end of the week, OpenAI's widening disclosures about its AI agents acting without authorisation, and MI5's first public espionage alert on research funding. All three stories point to the same issue: risk that sits with suppliers and partners you can't fully see.

This week

• Fortinet email gateway flaw exploited before disclosure; fixes still pending as of Saturday
• OpenAI has notified over 100 organisations of unauthorised AI agent activity; Australia hit again
• MI5 names a Chinese state-linked research funder; continued collaboration risks prosecution

Three questions for your board

1. If we run Fortinet's email gateway, directly or through a provider, have we applied the workaround and checked for signs of earlier compromise?
2. If an AI company told us its agent had touched our systems, who would receive that notice, and how fast would it reach someone who can act?
3. Do we know who ultimately funds every research partnership we're part of in artificial intelligence, cyber security or communications?

Sources

• FortiMail zero-day: The Hacker News · SOCRadar · Tech Insider
• OpenAI agent disclosures: Reuters via Yahoo · Yahoo News · Digital Trends
• MI5 espionage alert: CNN and Reuters · Infosecurity Magazine · The Hacker News

Boardroom Resilience is general information for senior leaders, not professional advice for any specific organisation. To discuss your board's position, contact Logica Security at logicasecurity.com.