CISA Updates CSET Tool for Ransomware Defense

The Department of Homeland Service's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has added a new module to its Cyber Security Evaluation Tool (CSET) to help organizations determine their preparedness for defending against, and recovering from, a ransomware attack.

CSET is a desktop software tool built to help network defenders assess their security practices with a step-by-step process. It can be used for IT and industrial control system (ICS) networks.

Its new module, dubbed the Ransomware Readiness Assessment (RRA), is a self-assessment based on a set of practices that can help businesses gauge how well-equipped they are to face ransomware. The RRA helps organizations evaluate their security posture, with respect to ransomware, against recognized standards and best practices. It leads asset owners and operators through a process to evaluate their OT and IT network security practices against ransomware, and it gives them an analysis dashboard with their assessment results.

"CISA has tailored the RRA to varying levels of ransomware threat readiness to make it useful to all organizations regardless of their current cybersecurity maturity," officials stated in a release.

Read CISA's full release for more details.