What is CTIG?
The Cybrary Threat Intelligence Group, also known as CTIG, is a team of world-class cybersecurity professionals, analysts, and engineers. The goal of this group is to help our customers in defending themselves against known and emerging threats via our courses, virtual labs, and practice tests.
Why does Cybrary have a Threat Intelligence Group?
The formation of the Cybrary Threat Intelligence Group is to ensure all the training we provide is relevant, timely, and communicates real-world skills, rather than just checking a box.
David Maynor, who recently joined Cybrary as the head of CTIG, describes his daily goals as getting CTIG to the point where they are aware of new threats and TTPs and can tell everyone why they should pay attention and care, as well as what action to take (even if that action is to wait for more information as it develops). Additionally, they plan to improve the timeliness and relevance of Cybrary's training offerings so that learners are always up to date. David hopes to “bring this to light through various means, whether it’s speaking at conferences like RSAC and BlackHat, writing blogs, or appearing on podcasts to discuss the latest industry trends.”
By tracking threat actors and vulnerabilities, CTIG will help shape the content and courses we curate for our learners.
CTIG’s hot take on pwn2own
So, what does this look like in action? Here’s CTIG’s latest take on what’s going on in our industry right now.
Vancouver played host to a long-running hacker event that encompassed the “show, don’t tell” philosophy. Starting in 2007 the event, called pwn2own, offers cash and other prizes to cybersecurity researchers who can show that vulnerabilities they have discovered are not just theoretical.
On May 18-20th, 2022 the contest offered up large rewards for proof that some of the most popular software in the world can be cracked by an attacker despite having the latest vendor patches installed. Windows 11, Microsoft Teams, Apple Safari, and even Tesla are all targets this year. Depending on the researchers' success level and their target different prizes are awarded.
If researchers fully compromised the Tesla they could have taken $600k and the car home as prizes. A full compromise was not achieved but the researchers still managed to take home $75k.
After the 3-day event, $1,155,000 was awarded for 25 unique vulnerabilities. A Singapore-based team called StarLabs_sg was the top team earner with $270k of the winnings.This contest came from internal infosec debates happening in 2007 sparked by researchers reporting vulnerabilities to companies to have the companies claim the vulns were not important or only theoretical. Nobody had any idea it would still be running strong in 2022.
The results of the contest also help infosec experts to gauge product security in a vendor-neutral way. The concept has been so well received that there is a version of pwn2own in China called the Tianfu Cup. Due to legal restrictions in China overexploit discovery and development Chinese citizens can no longer take part in pwn2own instead are encouraged to compete in the Tianfu Cup for similar prizes.
Both contests are must-watch events for threat intelligence and vulnerability researchers.
To stay up to date on the latest CTIG news, follow us on social media or create a free Cybrary account to receive emails on the latest course additions, podcast episodes, and CTIG news.
