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Check out NIST’s comprehensive taxonomy of cyberattacks against AI systems, along with mitigation recommendations. Plus, organizations have another cryptographic algorithm for protecting data against future quantum attacks. And get the latest on the IngressNightmare vulnerabilities, and on cyber risks impacting commercial satellites and domain registrars.Dive into five things that are top of mind for the week ending March 28.1 - NIST categorizes attacks against AI systems, offers mitigationsOrganizations deploying artificial intelligence (AI) systems must be prepared to defend them against cyberattacks — not a simple task.Recognizing this challenge, the U.S. government this week published a report to help organizations identify, address and manage cyber risks faced by AI systems.Titled “Adversarial Machine Learning: A Taxonomy and Terminology of Attacks and Mitigations (NIST AI 100-2)” and published by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, the 127-page report also offers:A taxonomy of adversarial machine-learning (AML) attacks, such as evasion, poisoning, and privacy attacks against both predictive AI systems and generative AI systems; and of AML attacks targeting learning methods.Potential mitigations against AML attacks and their limitationsStandardized AML terminology, along with an index and a glossary“Despite the significant progress of AI and machine learning in different application domains, these technologies remain vulnerable to attacks,” reads a NIST statement. “The consequences of attacks become more dire when systems depend on high-stakes domains and are subjected to adversarial attacks.”For example, to mitigate supply chain attacks against generative AI systems, NIST recommendations include:Verify that data downloaded from the web for training AI models hasn’t been tampered with by doing a basic integrity check in which the data provider publishes cryptographic hashes and the downloader verifies the training data.Perform data filtering to try to remove poisoned data samples.Do vulnerability scans of model artifacts.Use mechanistic interpretability methods to identify backdoor features.Design generative AI applications in such a way as to reduce the impact of model attacks.Taxonomy of Attacks on GenAI Systems(Source: “Adversarial Machine Learning: A Taxonomy and Terminology of Attacks and Mitigations” report from NIST, March 2025)The report is primarily aimed at those in charge of designing, developing, deploying, evaluating, and governing AI systems.For more information about protecting AI systems against cyberattacks:“Understanding the risks - and benefits - of using AI tools” (U.K. NCSC)“Hacking Poses Risks for Artificial Intelligence” (Georgetown University)“Attacking Artificial Intelligence: AI’s Security Vulnerability and What Policymakers Can Do About It” (Harvard University)“How Safe and Secure Is GenAI Really?” (InformationWeek)“Hacking AI? Here are 4 common attacks on AI” (ZDNet)“Adversarial attacks on AI models are rising: what should you do now?” (VentureBeat)2 - ETSI releases new post-quantum cryptographic standardAnd the world has yet another cryptographic algorithm standard designed to protect data against future attacks powered by mighty quantum computers.Called Covercrypt, the quantum-resistant standard specification secures data not only against forthcoming quantum attacks, but also against current pre-quantum attacks, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) announced this week.Specifically, Covercrypt defines a scheme for key encapsulation mechanisms with access control (KEMAC) in which session keys are locked based on users’ attributes. “For instance, while an IT department can define who enters applications, the ETSI KEMAC standard helps to determine who can decrypt the data inside those applications through a specific access policy,” reads an ETSI statement. To get more details, check out ETSI’s Covercrypt technical specification.Earlier this month, NIST picked its fifth algorithm for post-quantum encryption, which it expects will be widely available for use in 2027. NIST released three quantum-resistant algorithm standards last year and expects to release a fourth one in 2026.Here’s the issue: Quantum computers, which are expected to become widely available at some point between 2030 and 2040, will be able to decrypt data protected with today’s public-key cryptographic algorithms. Consequently, organizations need to start migrating to post-quantum cryptography, a process that requires careful planning and deployment.To help organizations plan their migration to quantum-resistant cryptography, this month NIST published a draft white paper titled “Considerations for Achieving Crypto Agility,” while the U.K. National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) released “Timelines for migration to post-quantum (PQC) cryptography.” For more information about how to protect your organization against the quantum computing cyberthreat:“How to prepare for a secure post-quantum future” (TechTarget)“Moody’s sounds alarm on quantum computing risk, as transition to PQC ‘will be long and costly’” (Industrial Cyber)“Companies Prepare to Fight Quantum Hackers” (The Wall Street Journal)“US unveils new tools to withstand encryption-breaking quantum. Here's what experts are saying” (World Economic Forum)“Quantum is coming — and bringing new cybersecurity threats with it” (KPMG)“Quantum and the Threat to Encryption” (SecurityWeek)3 - U.K.’s NCSC urges domain registrars to shore up securityLax security practices among domain registrars and domain-name system (DNS) operators help cyber fraudsters carry out online scams, including phishing campaigns.For that reason, it’s critical that domain sellers and owners tighten their security practices, the U.K.’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) warned this week.“To enable phishing in the first place, malicious actors rely on obtaining misleading and fraudulent domains, or taking over legitimate domain names at scale,” reads the new NCSC guidance “Good security practice for domain registrars.” The guidance is aimed at registrars that sell domains at scale, as well as to organizations that buy and park domains as investments or as part of brand-protection efforts.The NCSC’s security recommendations include:Verify the customer’s information, such as IP address, email address, phone number and payment information; and check it against available threat intelligence.Use a system that automatically flags misleading domain-name registrations that aim to deceptively align themselves with well-known brands.Make it difficult for attackers to tamper with and hijack domains by adopting security controls like multi-factor authentication and automated domain-change notifications.For more information about DNS security:“How To Reduce DNS Infrastructure Risk To Secure Your Cloud Attack Surface” (Tenable)“What is DNS Cache Poisoning?” (TechTarget)“10 Dangerous DNS Attacks Types & Prevention Measures” (Cybersecurity News)“Attackers target the Domain Name System, the internet’s phone book. Here’s how to fight back” (SiliconAngle)“The 5 big DNS attacks and how to mitigate them” (Network World)4 - ENISA: Commercial satellites need better cyber protectionsMakers of commercial satellites face critical cyberthreats from a variety of attackers, including hacktivists, nation-state actors and cybercriminals, so they need to boost their cyber defenses.That’s according to the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), which this week published “Space Threat Landscape,” a report that recommends cybersecurity controls and cyberattack mitigations to space-sector organizations.“The commercial exploitation of space has become the backbone of key economic activities. Digital threats in space are therefore highly critical. … This is why commercial satellites must be cyber secured at all cost,” Juhan Lepassaar, ENISA’s Executive Director, said in a statement.Services provided by commercial satellites include telecommunications, financial transactions, television broadcasts, GPS navigation, weather monitoring and more, which is why breaches impacting them in recent years have been highly disruptive.Cybersecurity challenges faced by commercial satellite makers include:Risk to their supply chains, which are global and highly complexWidespread use of commercial off-the-shelf componentsPrevalence of legacy systems and limited IT asset visibility, both aggravated by the remote location of space systemsWeak configurations, particularly due to insufficient use of cyrptographyHuman error, magnified by the need for significant human interaction with space systemsThreat of sophisticated cyberattacksENISA’s mitigation recommendations include:Bake security into the design of systems and networks.Regularly patch software vulnerabilities, prioritizing the ones that pose the greater risk to your organization.Share information about vulnerabilities, threats and attack tactics, techniques and procedures with your industry peersSecure your supply chain by carefully and methodically vetting vendors and partners; and continuously monitoring their security processes. Be aware of fraudulent equipment circulating in the global supply chain.Rigorously test the security of commercial off-the-shelf products and components.Adopt “effective, validated and tested” encryption methods to protect your systems and data.For more information about the cybersecurity of commercial satellites:“We Need Cybersecurity in Space to Protect Satellites” (Scientific American)“Orbital observations: Enhancing space resilience with real-time cybersecurity” (Deloitte)“The Growing Risk of a Major Satellite Cyber Attack” (Via Satellite)“Recommendations to Space System Operators for Improving Cybersecurity” (CISA)“A Cybersecurity Framework for Mitigating Risks to Satellite Systems” (Dark Reading)5 - New vulns disclosed, patched for Ingress NGINX Controller for KubernetesDoes your organization use the Ingress NGINX Controller for Kubernetes? If so, your IT and cybersecurity departments are hopefully aware of five vulnerabilities disclosed this week affecting this popular open-source controller used for managing Kubernetes clusters’ network traffic. One vulnerability has a “critical” severity rating, while three are rated “high.” The Kubernetes open source project fixed all of the vulnerabilities — collectively known as IngressNightmare — with the release of two new versions of the product: Ingress NGINX Controller 1.12.1, which fixes version 1.12.0; and Ingress NGINX Controller 1.11.5, which fixes older versions, starting with 1.11.4.To get all the details, check out Tenable Research’s blog “CVE-2025-1097, CVE-2025-1098, CVE-2025-1974, CVE-2025-24513, CVE-2025-24514: Frequently Asked Questions About IngressNightmare.”
Analysis Summary
# Morning News Roll-up March 28, 2025
## Overview
This week's threat intelligence landscape is dominated by the release of comprehensive security frameworks for AI and space systems, new quantum-resistant cryptographic standards, and critical vulnerability disclosures for Kubernetes infrastructure. Key focus areas include the mitigation of adversarial machine learning, securing the satellite supply chain, and patching the "IngressNightmare" vulnerabilities.
## Top Stories
### NIST Releases Taxonomy and Mitigations for AI System Attacks
- **Summary:** NIST has published a 127-page report (NIST AI 100-2) providing a formal taxonomy for Adversarial Machine Learning (AML). The report categorizes attacks such as poisoning, evasion, and privacy breaches against both predictive and generative AI. It offers concrete mitigation strategies, including cryptographic hash verification for training data and mechanistic interpretability to detect backdoors.
- **Source:** hxxps://nvlpubs[.]nist[.]gov/nistpubs/ai/NIST[.]AI[.]100-2[.]pdf
### IngressNightmare: Critical Vulnerabilities in Ingress NGINX Controller
- **Summary:** Five vulnerabilities, collectively dubbed "IngressNightmare," have been disclosed affecting the Ingress NGINX Controller for Kubernetes. The flaws include one critical and three high-severity ratings. These vulnerabilities allow attackers to potentially compromise Kubernetes cluster network traffic management.
- **Source:** hxxps://github[.]com/kubernetes/ingress-nginx/releases/tag/controller-v1[.]12[.]1
### ENISA Warns of Cyber Risks to Commercial Satellites
- **Summary:** The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) released the "Space Threat Landscape" report, highlighting that commercial satellites are now critical economic infrastructure targeted by nation-states and hacktivists. Vulnerabilities stem from complex global supply chains, legacy systems, and the use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components without sufficient encryption.
- **Source:** hxxps://www[.]enisa[.]europa[.]eu/publications/space-threat-landscape
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# Main Topic
**Cybersecurity Infrastructure Resilience: AI, Quantum-Ready Cryptography, and Cloud Orchestration Security**
## Key Points
- **AI Security Standards:** NIST established standardized terminology for AML, focusing on the dire consequences of attacks on high-stakes AI domains.
- **Quantum Transition:** ETSI released the "Covercrypt" standard, a quantum-resistant specification using Attribute-Based Encryption (ABE) to secure data against future decryption by quantum computers (expected 2030-2040).
- **Satellite Vulnerabilities:** Critical infrastructure risks identified in the space sector include "fraudulent equipment" in the supply chain and a lack of visibility into remote legacy IT assets in orbit.
- **Domain Integrity:** The U.K. NCSC issued a call to action for domain registrars to implement automated flagging of "look-alike" domains used in brand impersonation.
## Threat Actors
- **Nation-State Actors:** Targeted at commercial satellites and space-based telecommunications for strategic disruption.
- **Cybercriminals & Fraudsters:** Leveraging lax domain registration checks for phishing and brand-protection bypass.
- **Hacktivists:** Identified as a rising threat to the space sector and satellite operations.
- **Adversarial ML Researchers/Attackers:** Focused on evasion and poisoning attacks against GenAI models.
## TTPs
- **Data Poisoning:** Injecting malicious samples into AI training sets to corrupt model logic.
- **Evasion Attacks:** Prompt injection or input manipulation to bypass AI safety guards.
- **Supply Chain Compromise:** Introduction of fraudulent hardware components into satellite manufacturing.
- **Domain Hijacking:** Taking over legitimate domain names at scale via weak MFA or lack of change notifications.
- **Key Encapsulation:** Using KEMAC (Key Encapsulation Mechanism with Access Control) to define granular decryption policies.
## Affected Systems
- **Kubernetes:** Ingress NGINX Controller versions prior to 1.11.5 and 1.12.1.
- **AI Systems:** Both Predictive and Generative AI (GenAI) models.
- **Satellite Systems:** Telecommunications, GPS navigation, and financial transaction satellites using COTS components.
- **DNS Infrastructure:** Domain registrars and DNS operators with insufficient identity verification.
## Mitigations
- **Patch Management:** Immediately update Ingress NGINX Controller to version 1.12.1 or 1.11.5.
- **AI Integrity Checks:** Perform basic integrity checks using cryptographic hashes for all web-downloaded training data.
- **Crypto Agility:** Begin planning migration to Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) using NIST’s fifth selected algorithm and ETSI’s Covercrypt.
- **Space Sector Defense:** Implement "Security by Design," rigorous COTS testing, and continuous monitoring of vendor security processes.
- **Domain Security:** Implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) and automated domain-change notifications for all registered assets.
## Conclusion
The threat landscape is expanding into specialized domains like AI and space, while fundamental building blocks like Kubernetes and DNS remain under constant pressure. Organizations must move beyond traditional perimeter defense toward "crypto-agile" and "integrity-first" architectures. Immediate priorities should include patching Kubernetes controllers and auditing AI training data pipelines.