Written by: Jyoti Wadhwa, Director, Solutions Architect Cybersecurity at T-Rex Solutions, LLC
On Thursday, Dec. 9th, cybersecurity leaders responded to patch the Log4j (CVE-2021-44228) zero-day, high-severity vulnerability.
All industry sectors were impacted as attackers could inject and execute unauthenticated, remote code and access servers through this exploit. This vulnerability could be found in the software packages of many popular products of technology giants, such as Amazon, Google, Cisco, Microsoft, VMWare, IBM, Oracle, and more. To protect their client’s assets, software providers quickly released patches, with newer versions still being released for installed products to be updated.
Zero-day threats like this will continue to occur. As such, effective leadership is paramount to the cybersecurity industry. However, effective leadership is more than just technical know-how. It requires leadership attributes such as agility, risk-based decision-making, and communication. Skill is needed to implement time-sensitive processes and efficiently deploy the necessary resources to mitigate these threats.
“From internal teams to boardrooms and the media, critical messaging on how the organization’s assets are being protected is essential to manage the impact of zero-day threats.”
Along with agility, leaders must have the ability to make data-driven, risk-based decisions within their organization’s risk tolerance. For instance, leaders must quickly assess if additional security controls are needed to adequately protect the organization and achieve its target risk acceptance level. Another crucial leadership attribute is communication. Leaders must ensure all stakeholders are kept aware of the cyber incident status. From internal teams to boardrooms and the media, critical messaging on how the organization’s assets are being protected is essential to manage the impact of zero-day threats.
The EWF Women Leaders in the Cloud Forum is a valuable resource for industry leaders to grow their leadership attributes through knowledge sharing with a strong cyber network and informative resources. This forum provides you with opportunities to collaborate, expand your knowledge, and sharpen your soft skills to complement your technical strengths. If you are interested in joining the EWF Women Leaders in the Cloud Forum, please visit https://www.ewf-usa.com/page/EWFWomenLeadersintheCloudForum.
In the interim, we hope your teams are successfully remediating Log4j and staying vigilant for the next one.
–Jyoti Wadhwa | Connect with Jyoti on LinkedIn.