Welcome reader to your Friday CybersecurityHQ report.

Headlines

Smartphone pioneer BlackBerry Ltd. announced Wednesday that it was creating a new company for its Internet-of-Thing (IoT) business — making it separate from its cybersecurity business. The announcement included a timeline for the new company’s initial public offering, slated for the first half of the next fiscal year (BlackBerry uses a fiscal year that ends in February).

The news coincided with a slight increase in the share price for BlackBerry, which has seen revenue come in slightly below expectations despite maintaining a solid bottom line. Their second-quarter revenue for 2023 saw IoT make up $49 million, while cybersecurity brought in $79 million.

(For some nostalgia, check out this PC Magazine roundup of BlackBerry’s smartphones from 2013.)

Cisco has released critical security updates to address a vulnerability affecting Emergency Responder. This flaw (tracked as CVE-2023-20101) allows remote, unauthenticated attackers to access systems using hard-coded credentials. This issue impacts Cisco Emergency Responder Release 12.5(1)SU4 but has been resolved in version 12.5(1)SU5.

The vulnerability stems from static user credentials meant for development purposes. Exploiting it would grant unauthorized access and the ability to execute arbitrary commands as the root user — the reason this flaw is given such a high CVSS rating. Cisco identified this flaw through internal security testing and has not observed any malicious exploitation in the wild. The update that addresses the vulnerability is now available for free on Cisco’s website.

Florida Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nuñez announced on Wednesday that the state would be opening up $30 million in cybersecurity grants. Speaking at an event held in Sanibel, an island city still wracked by Hurricane Ian’s landing a year ago, Nuñez outlines the Local Government Cybersecurity Grant Program while standing on stage with Sanibel Mayor Richard Johnson, Florida Department of Management Services Secretary Pedro Allende, Lee County Property Appraiser Matt Caldwell and state Rep. Mike Giallombardo.

The program is part of a larger effort for Florida to ensure its statewide information infrastructure, including “[improving] detection capabilities, retiring legacy systems [and] making sure we set up the first-ever Florida Cybersecurity Operations Center.” Across these fields, the state has already spent more than $460 million.

Interesting Read

SC Media ran an interesting retrospective on the history of cybersecurity in the 21st century — a nod to October as Cybersecurity Awareness Month. The article covers the origins and why, almost 20 years ago, the National Cybersecurity Alliance and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) felt the need to educate the public on the rising risks of going online.

As the article points out, since that time, this education has only become more important. The widespread proliferation of smartphones, connected devices, digital payments, and AI has only made things messier and more important to get right.

Cybersecurity Career Opportunities

• Cybersecurity Systems Security Engineer II-M

  • ManTech

  • Full-time

  • Los Angeles, CA
    

• Senior Security Penetration Testing Engineer-Vice President

  • Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation

  • Full-time

  • New York, NY
    

• Cybersecurity Policy and Compliance Analyst

  • Booz Allen Hamilton

  • Full-time

  • King George, VA

For the latest openings in cybersecurity careers, check CybersecurityHQ.