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97 Percent of Global 2000 External Servers Remain Vulnerable to Cyber Attacks Due to Heartbleed
[July 29, 2014]

97 Percent of Global 2000 External Servers Remain Vulnerable to Cyber Attacks Due to Heartbleed


(Marketwire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) SALT LAKE CITY, UT -- (Marketwired) -- 07/29/14 -- Venafi, the leader of Next-Generation Trust Protection solutions, today announced in its Q3 Heartbleed Threat Research Analysis that 97 percent of Global 2000 organizations' public-facing servers remain vulnerable to cyber attacks due to incomplete Heartbleed remediation. This leaves the door open for attackers to spoof legitimate websites, decrypt private communications, and steal sensitive data sent over SSL. To assist organizations with complete Heartbleed remediation, including comprehensive cryptographic key and digital certificate security, Venafi now offers its Venafi Labs Vulnerability Report -- the same report used for the Venafi Q3 Heartbleed Threat Research Analysis -- to all organizations.



Undiscovered for over two years, Heartbleed is an OpenSSL vulnerability that allows attackers to extract data in memory simply by communicating with a host server. Successful exploits show that sensitive data, including passwords, SSL/TLS keys, and X.509 digital certificates, could be extracted. In addition to applying the OpenSSL patch, organizations must assume that all keys and certificates were compromised, given the extent and duration of the vulnerability.

Following Heartbleed's discovery, experts from Bruce Schneier to Gartner warned that, to fully remediate Heartbleed, all SSL keys and certificates must be replaced. Gartner analyst Erik Heidt warned that past "lazy" security and patch management was insufficient and that all keys and certificates should be replaced. Venafi Labs research from July 2014 found that critical security flaws remain due to a systemic failure to replace vulnerable keys and revoke and replace digital certificates.


For its Threat Research Analysis, Venafi Labs evaluated 1,639 Global 2000 organizations across more than 550,000 public-facing servers and found critical security flaws using the Venafi Labs Vulnerability Report. The report reveals that only 387 Global 2000 organizations have fully remediated Heartbleed, accounting for an astonishingly small three percent of the total public-facing servers scanned. The remaining ninety-seven percent have significant exposure to ongoing cyber attacks and malicious activity. Enterprises must also assume, just as many did with user IDs and passwords, that all keys and certificates were compromised -- not just the keys and certificates that secured the systems hosting the Heartbleed vulnerability -- and must be revoked and replaced. Thousands of applications behind the firewall, including those of Cisco, Juniper, HP, IBM, Oracle, McAfee, Symantec and many others, remain exposed.

"IT Security teams are under the false notion that they have remediated Heartbleed by applying a software patch. But if someone walks into your house through an open door and steals your house keys, you don't then rely on the same locks once you've closed the door. Organizations must find and replace all of their keys and certificates -- all of them. Otherwise massive security gaps and open doors remain. Enterprises need to equip themselves with systems to detect keys and certificates across their networks and in the cloud, and rapidly respond and remediate by replacing them," said Kevin Bocek, ?vice president, security strategy and threat intelligence, Venafi.

Recommended response and remediation: Know where all of an organization's keys and certificates are located Generate new cryptographic keys, request new certificates Apply new keys and certificates, revoke old ones Validate remediation to ensure new keys and certificates are in place and operational To help with this remediation, organizations can now run a customized Venafi Labs Vulnerability Report that reveals their specific key and certificate security exposure. This complementary, online report enables users to generate an on-demand SSL/TLS vulnerability assessment for their organization's entire publicly facing server footprint, including subsidiaries. The report helps users understand key and certificate vulnerabilities specific to their organization and clearly identifies the most egregious vulnerabilities that require immediate remediation to reduce attack surfaces and risk. Unlike other vulnerability reports, the Venafi service associates all of an organization's hosts and their keys and certificates across domains and geographies. The report is available at https://www.venafi.com/threat-center/vulnerability-report/.

Download the Venafi Q3 Heartbleed Threat Research Analysis (PDF) at: http://www.venafi.com/heartbleedanalysis/.

To get the latest news and information about Venafi:Visit the blog: http://www.venafi.com/blog Follow us on Twitter: @Venafi Follow us on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/venafi Follow us on Google+: http://www.google.com/+VenafiCo Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Venafi About VenafiVenafi is the leading cybersecurity company in Next-Generation Trust Protection. Venafi delivered the first trust protection platform to secure cryptographic keys and digital certificates that every business and government depends on for secure communications, commerce, computing, and mobility. As part of an enterprise infrastructure protection strategy, Venafi Trust Protection Platform prevents attacks on trust with automated discovery and intelligent policy enforcement, detects and reports on anomalous activity and increased threats, and remediates errors and attacks by automatically replacing keys and certificates. Venafi Threat Center provides research and threat intelligence for trust-based attacks. Venafi customers are among the world's most demanding, security-conscious Global 2000 organizations in financial services, insurance, high tech, telecommunications, aerospace, healthcare, and retail. Venafi is backed by top-tier venture capital funds, including Foundation Capital, Pelion Venture Partners, and Origin Partners. For more information, visit www.venafi.com.

Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=2646727 Source: Venafi

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