Penetration Testing and its Benefits

Understanding your vulnerabilities through vulnerability and penetration testing can play an essential role in your firm’s security. We recommend the steps below to sideline these threats:

 Discover if your systems are prepared for a cyber-attack

A security expert or ethical hacker will launch a simulated attack using external and internal attacks on your servers, web apps, wireless networks, intranets, network devices, mobile devices, and any other entry point.

 Reporting with findings on vulnerabilities in your systems

Once the simulation is complete, the security team will present reports of their findings and recommend the next steps for securing your systems. Since there are several potential entry points into your plans, the team will attempt to exploit those vulnerabilities. 

Know where your weaknesses lie and patch up those vulnerabilities before they can be exploited

Conduct an IT penetration testing to identify gaps in your security system, problems with your IT security policy, and vulnerabilities in your firewall and or antivirus. You will obtain a report with all the problematic access points in your system and suggestions for hardware and software improvements. The test will help you determine if you may need to upgrade your Firm’s security.

Internal vulnerabilities

Whether a disgruntled employee or accidental, internal vulnerabilities can be a window for malicious actors to exploit.

Not all Ethical Hackers are created equally

Be sure to hire the most seasoned experts in the field. Your ethical hacker will attempt to exploit the vulnerabilities as a real hacker would – but the effectiveness of the penetration test will ultimately depend on the amount of experience the engineer has.

 Once is not enough

As we know, hackers have been becoming increasingly bold with their techniques to infiltrate the most sophisticated systems yet, as proven in the Sunburst Hack; therefore, CyberSecOp recommends testing your systems quarterly and keeping up with systems patches and updates.

CyberSecOp offers:

• Network Penetration Testing Services – External or Internal

• Web Application Penetration Testing Services

• Mobile Application Penetration Testing Services

• IoT and Internet-Aware Device Testing

• Social Engineering Penetration Testing Services

• Red Team Attack Simulation

• Wireless Network Penetration Testing Services

CyberSecOp has security experts with a combined experience of 40 years. Ask about our pen test sample report.

Addressing Cyber Threats and Enabling Security in your Enterprise

Cybersecurity threats from hacktivists, criminals, and hostile nation states are enough to keep government officials, businesses, and consumers up at night. These attacks are growing in sophistication and frequency and pose serious threats to our national and economic security.

Everyone impacted by these vicious and dangerous acts must work together to help prevent, protect against, and effectively respond to them.

What are the biggest cyber threats CISOs are worried about in 2019? In today's age of breaches, staying ahead of cyber threats is becoming more critical than ever. Dive into how organizations are addressing the threat of cyber attacks, how they are measuring risk, and what they are doing about improving security from some of the top experts in the field.

1. Ransomware is still a large risk, affecting a large number of businesses

2. Data Loss and Data Breach based on information available on dark web, proves that organization can’t protect customers data.

3. Small business with no security program are at risk more than large organization.

4. All industry need to have some type of cyber regulations based on secure standards such as NIST or ISO.

What can business do, to enable a stronger security posture in their enterprise

Businesses adopt standalone cyber insurance policies as boards and executives wake up to cyber liability. As boards and executives experience and witness the impact of cyber attacks, including reduced earnings, operational disruption, and claims brought against directors and officers, businesses will turn to tailored enterprise cyber insurance policies, rather than relying on “silent” components in other policies. Adoption will spread beyond traditional buyers of cyber insurance, such as retail, financial, and healthcare sectors, to others vulnerable to cyber-related business disruption, including manufacturing, transportation, utility, and oil and gas.

As the physical and cyber worlds collide, chief risk officers take center stage to manage cyber as an enterprise risk. As sophisticated cyber attacks generate real-world consequences that impact business operations at increasing scale, C-suites will wake up to the enterprise nature of cyber risk. In 2018, expect CROs to have a seat at the cyber table, working closely with chief information security officers (CISOs) to help organizations understand the holistic impact of cyber risk on the business.

Regulatory spotlight widens and becomes more complex, provoking calls for harmonization. EU holds global companies to account over General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) violation; big data aggregators come under scrutiny in the U.S. In 2018, regulators at the international, national and local levels will more strictly enforce existing cybersecurity regulations and introduce new regulations. Expect to see EU regulators holding major U.S. and global companies to account for GDPR violations. Across the Atlantic, big data organizations (aggregators and resellers) will come under scrutiny on how they are collecting, using, and securing data. Industry organizations will push back on regulators, calling for alignment of cyber regulations.

Criminals look to attack businesses embracing the Internet of Things, in particular targeting small to mid-sized businesses providing services to global organizations. In 2018, global organizations will need to consider the increased complexities when it comes to how businesses are using the IoT in relation to third-party risk management. The report predicts large companies will be brought down by an attack on a small vendor or contractor that targets the IoT, using it as a way into their network. This will serve as a wake-up call for large organizations to update their third-party risk management, and for small and mid-sized businesses to implement better security measures or risk losing business.

As passwords continue to be hacked, and attackers circumvent physical biometrics, multi-factor authentication becomes more important than ever before. Beyond passwords, companies are implementing new methods of authentication – from facial recognition to fingerprints. However, these technologies are still vulnerable and as such, the report anticipates that a new wave of companies will embrace multi-factor authentication to combat the assault on passwords and attacks targeting biometrics. This will require individuals to present several pieces of evidence to an authentication instrument. With the new need for multi-factor authentication, and consumer demand for unobtrusive layers of security, expect to see the implementation of behavioral biometrics.

Criminals will target transactions that use reward points as currency, spurring mainstream adoption of bug bounty programs: Companies beyond the technology, government, automotive and financial services sectors will introduce bug bounty platforms into their security programs. As criminals target transactions that use points as currency, businesses with loyalty, gift and rewards programs –such as airlines, retailers, and hospitality providers– will be the next wave of companies implementing bug bounty programs. As more organizations adopt the programs, they will require support from external experts to avoid introducing new risks with improperly configured programs.

Ransomware attackers get targeted; crypto currencies help ransomware industry flourish. In 2018, ransomware criminals will evolve their tactics. The reports predicts that attackers utilizing forms of benign malware—such as software designed to cause DDoS attacks or launch display ads on thousands of systems— will launch huge outbreaks of ransomware. While attackers will continue to launch scatter-gun-style attacks to disrupt as many systems as possible, the report predicts an increase in instances of attacks targeting specific companies and demanding ransomware payments proportional to the value of the encrypted assets. Crypto currencies will continue to support the flourishing ransomware industry overall, despite law enforcement becoming more advanced in their ability to trace attacks, for example through bitcoin wallets.

Insider risks plague organizations as they underestimate their severe vulnerability and liability while major attacks fly under the radar. In 2017, businesses under invested in proactive insider risk mitigation strategies, and 2018 will be no different. According to the report, a continued lack of security training and technical controls, coupled with the changing dynamics of the modern workforce, the full extent of cyber attacks and incidents caused by insiders will not become fully public. Many companies will continue to reactively responding to incidents behind closed doors and remain unaware of the true cost and impact of insider risk on the organization.

Prevent DDoS attacks across your enterprise

DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks feature amongst the most dreaded kinds of cyber attacks, for any enterprise today. This is especially because, as the name itself suggests, there it causes a total denial of service; it exhausts all resources of an enterprise network, application or service and consequently it becomes impossible to gain access to the network, application or the service.

In general, a DDoS attack is launched simultaneously from multiple hosts and it would suffice to host the resources, the network and the internet services of enterprises of any size. Many prominent organizations today encounter DDoS attacks on a daily basis. Today DDoS attacks are becoming more frequent and they are increasing in size, at the same time becoming more sophisticated. In this context, it becomes really important that enterprises look for DDoS attack prevention services, in fact the best DDoS attack prevention services, so as to ensure maximum protection for their network and data.

The different kinds of DDoS attacks

Though there are different kinds of DDoS attacks, broadly speaking there are three categories into which all the different kinds of DDoS attacks would fit.

The first category is the volumetric attacks, which include those attacks that aim at overwhelming network infrastructure with bandwidth-consuming traffic or by deploying resource-sapping requests. The next category, the TCP state-exhaustion attacks, refer to the attacks that help hackers abuse the stateful nature of the TCP protocol to exhaust resources in servers, load balancers and firewalls. The third category of DDoS attacks, the application layer attacks, are basically the ones targeting any one aspect of an application or service at Layer 7.

Of the above-mentioned three categories, volumetric attacks are the most common ones; at the same time there are DDoS attacks that combine all these three vectors and such attacks are becoming commonplace today.

DDoS attacks getting sophisticated, complex and easy-to-use

Cybercriminals today are getting cleverer and smarter. They tend to package complex, sophisticated DDoS attack tools into easy-to-use downloadable programs, thereby making it easy even for non-techies to carry out DDoS attacks against organizations.

What are the main drivers behind DDoS attacks? Well, there could be many, ranging from ideology or politics to vandalism and extortion. DDoS is increasingly becoming a weapon of choice for hacktivists as well as terrorists who seek to disrupt operations or resort to extortion. Gamers too use DDoS as a means to gain competitive advantage and win online games.

There are clever cybercriminals who use DDoS as part of their diversionary tactics, intending to distract organizations during APT campaigns that are planned and executed in order to steal data.

How to prevent DDoS attacks

The first thing that needs to be done, to prevent DDoS attacks from happening, is to secure internet-facing devices and services. This helps reduce the number of devices that can be recruited by hackers to participate in DDoS attacks.

Since cybercriminals abuse protocols like NTP, DNS, SSDP, Chargen, SNMP and DVMRP to generate DDoS traffic, it’s advisable that services that use any of these ought to be carefully configured and run on hardened, dedicated servers.

Do repeated tests for security issues and vulnerabilities. One good example is doing penetration tests for detecting web application vulnerabilities.

Ensure that your enterprise implements anti-spoofing filters as covered in IETF Best Common Practices documents BCP 38 and BCP 84. This is because hackers who plan DDoS attacks would generate traffic with spoofed source IP addresses.

Though there are no fool-proof techniques that can prevent DDoS attacks completely, you can ensure maximum protection by ensuring proper configuration of all machines and services. This would ensure that attackers don’t harness publicly available services to carry out DDoS attacks.

It’s to be remembered that it’s difficult to predict or avoid DDoS attacks and also that even an attacker with limited resources can bring down networks or websites. Hence, for any organization, it becomes important that the focus is always on maximum level protection for enterprise networks, devices, websites etc.

Businesses Expansion of Attack Surfaces

One of the main reasons cyber risk increases exponentially is the rapid expansion of attack surfaces. In these places, software programs are vulnerable to attack or probe by an adversary. According to the SANS Institute, attack surfaces can include any part of a company’s infrastructure that exposes its networks and systems to the outside, from servers and open ports to SQLs, email authentication, and even employees with “access to sensitive information.” It can also include user input via keyboard or mouse, network traffic, and external hardware that is not protected by cyber hardening technology.

It would be easy to blame the Internet of Things (IoT) for expanding attacks, as Intel projects two billion smart devices worldwide by 2020. But in reality, the IoT is only part of the attack surface epidemic.

According to Cybersecurity Ventures, there are now 111 billion new lines of code written each year, introducing vulnerabilities both known and unknown. Not to be overlooked as a flourishing attack vector are humans, which some argue are both the most important and the weakest link in the cyberattack kill chain. In fact, in many cybersecurity circles, there is a passionate and ongoing debate regarding just how much burden businesses should put on employees to prevent and detect cyber threats. However, what is not up for debate open is just how vulnerable humans are to intentionally or unintentionally open the digital door for threat actors to walk in. This is most evident because 9 out of 10 cyberattacks begin with some form of email phishing targeting workers with mixed levels of cybersecurity training and awareness.

Critical Infrastructure Protection Remains a Challenge

Critical infrastructure, often powered by SCADA systems and equipment now identified as part of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), is a significant contributor to attack surface expansion. Major attacks targeting these organizations occur more from memory corruption errors and buffer overflows exploits than from spear-phishing or email spoofing and tends to be the motive of nation-states and cyber terrorists more so than generic hackers.

“Industrial devices are designed to have a long life span, but most legacy equipment still in use was not originally built to achieve automation and connectivity.” The IIoT does provide many efficiencies and cost-savings benefits to companies in which operational integrity, confidentiality, and availability are of the utmost importance. Still, introducing technology into heavy machinery and equipment that wasn’t built to communicate outside of a facility has proven challenging. The concept of IT/OT integration, which is meant to merge the physical and digital security of corporations and facilities, has failed to reduce vulnerabilities in a way that significantly reduces risk. As a result, attacks seeking to exploit critical infrastructure vulnerabilities, such as WannaCry, have become the rule and not the exception.

To date, ARE CYBERCRIMINALS winning? 

Critical infrastructure cybersecurity has relied too much upon network monitoring and anomaly detection to detect suspicious traffic before it turns problematic. The challenge with this approach is that it is reactionary and only effective after an adversary has breached some level of defense.

We take an entirely different approach, focusing on prevention by denying malware the uniformity it needs to propagate. We use a binary randomization technique that shuffles the basic constructs of a program, known as basic blocks, to produce functionally identical code but legally unique. When an attacker develops an exploit for a known vulnerability in a program, it is helpful to know where all the code is located so that they can repurpose it to do their bidding. Binary randomization renders that prior knowledge useless, as each instance of a program has code in different locations.

One way to visualize the concept of binary randomization is to picture the Star Wars universe at the time when Luke Skywalker and the Rebel Alliance set off to destroy the Death Star. The Rebel Alliance had the blueprints to the Death Star and used those blueprints to find its only weakness. Luke set off in his X-Wing and delivered a proton torpedo directly to the weak spot in the Death Star, destroying it. In this scenario, the Death Star is a vulnerable computer program, and Luke is an adversary trying to exploit said computer program.

Now imagine that the Galactic Empire built 100 Death Stars, protected by RunSafe’s new Death Star Weakness Randomization. This protection moves the weakness to a different place on each Death Star. Now imagine you are Luke, flying full speed toward the flaw in the Death Star, chased by TIE fighters, only to find that the weakfaultnot where the blueprint showed. The Rebel attack fails, and the Galactic Empire celebrates by destroying another planet. Like the Death Star scenario above, code protected with binary randomization will still contain vulnerabilities. Still, an attacker’s ability to successfully exploit that vulnerability on multiple targets becomes much more difficult.

Cyber Criminals Loves the Cloud (Hackers Cloud Life)

Are hackers smarter and more creative than cyber guardians? This is becoming the eternal question of the digital age. While we would like to think the protection of customer passwords and personal credentials is the job of IT experts, reports of recent data breaches now suggest we are losing the battle against online criminals. The situation at hand can be likened to a carjacker who enters a parking lot and simply strolls to the stall where all the keys are kept. The parking guard is mysteriously missing, and the keys are ripe for the taking, even to the big, expensive vehicles. This is essentially the situation hackers are now enjoying on the Cloud—a relatively unguarded and highly accessible environment.

Organizational growth and development have led to increased use of the Cloud, which has exacerbated the problem of compromised user data. Companies have essentially transferred VPN and cloud access credentials to available cloud storage. Hackers are sending bots to scour GitHub, the source code administration framework, searching for advanced access keys to Amazon Web Services and other cloud frameworks. In 2015, one indiscreet developer woke to discover his stolen keys were being utilized to run 140 AWS servers mining bitcoin. Indeed, even U.S. Intelligence facts, including security keys to access “distributed intelligence systems,” were also left exposed to the public suggest Bay Area security firm, UpGuard.

Further, even if credentials aren’t left in a discoverable location, hackers can break into a network and find unprotected or unencrypted keys lying around to gain access. In spite of the dangers, developers are still consistently putting away the digital assets and resources and even client data in the source code, setup documents, and different random, unencrypted areas. Not like run of the mill user who can remember their passwords or store them with a protected secret word, engineers and IT professionals regularly need to keep security credentials where automated programs can find them. What’s more, the sensitive information of ordinary clients is also being inadvertently left unattended on some organization networks, where hackers don’t have to work very hard for access.

SECURING THE CLOUD

Cloud managers are struggling to stop the leak of critical data. Sophisticated new cybersecurity tools designed to safely store these important credentials in a legitimate, automated way are looking to revamp accessibility by scanning uploaded files to the cloud storage to ensure passwords and keys aren’t exposed. According to industry experts, this effort is doing much to turn the tide of cybercrime.

Cloud managers are also trying to close the entryway leading to the exposure of more basic data. Refined new cybersecurity tools want to safely store these sorts of credentials in a genuine way that grants access to automated procedures but not hackers.

Armon Dadgar, founder and co-CTO of San Francisco-based software company HashiCorp explains, “Everyone knew this was a bad thing to do. It wasn’t like anyone had an illusion that keeping these credentials in plain text was smart or sane, but no one had a better answer.”

Amazon launched AWS Secrets Manager last month, its own credential management tool. This was followed by Microsoft’s Azure Key Vault which securely stores, monitors, and controls access to this kind of data. But even as these tools become available, companies with avid developers, all of whom have a wide array of remote tools using credentials, are being continually challenged by security issues. Christoffer Fjellström, a developer at Swedish security firm Detectify says, “The main problem is that companies really don’t have policies for it or they don’t follow up and make sure those policies are followed.”

Recent hacks have made it clear that few organizations can hope to keep their networks entirely free from intrusion. Dadgar goes on to explain, “Many companies paid less attention to the security of data within their firewalls. In that world, things like secret management were just less important. Does it matter that you have my database credential if you’re not on my network?”

Other new tools help detect if secure data is being sent and stored where it doesn’t belong. UpGuard, known for its frequent role in detecting leaks tied to data stored on insecure cloud machines, has released BreachSight which scours the internet for its clients’ exposed code, credentials, personally identifiable information, and other sensitive data.

“You might have this world-class team, but the project manager has an online Kanban board sitting out in the open that he’s using for notes, and it’s full of API keys. But nobody thought to look for it because the company believes everything’s internal,” co-founder and co-CEO Mike Baukes says. “It’s examples like that, which are things happening in the real world, that nobody’s had an answer for until now.”

Amazon has also offered a service called Amazon Macie, which uses machine learning to detect unusual access patterns in cloud storage and uploads of potentially sensitive data like access keys. Amazon also released open source software to prevent the accidental storing of passwords and keys to source code repositories, while other developers have offered similar tools to scrub credentials from existing code. According to Fast Company, those types of tools will be automatically provided as part of cloud computing contracts, just like standard seatbelts in a new car.

A Step-by-Step Guide to a Successful SIEM Deployment

SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) deployment based on firsthand experience implementing SIEM for a broad range of customers.

Discovery Phase - Laying the Groundwork

1. Review the organizational security posture and the initial business case for SIEM. Then prioritize the goals of the SIEM implementation from the most critical to the optional—taking into account the tasks that must be performed in order to support the effort.
2. Review in detail the organizational security policy to consider the intent behind the policy. Separate those policies from a priority standpoint. Determine what’s critical, what’s necessary for mandatory compliance and what policies are best practices to ensure a secure environment.
3. Identify current controls that are auditing those policies to determine compliance level. Ideally, a SIEM implementation should not be the first time the organization identifies that its security policy or how it’s implemented isn’t working according to plan. The reality is that these deployments often expose gaps in security execution that must be remediated before those elements can be integrated into a daily alerting and reporting structure.  
4. Identify a smaller representative subset of the current policy and devices where SIEM can be applied and enough data can be gathered to determine what changes need to occur.
    

Pilot Phase - Beginning the Implementation

The primary goal of this phase is to determine which specific SIEM project goals can be implemented in order to establish initial ROI while creating a baseline operational model and run-book.

1. The lessons learned from the discovery phase are used to implement a larger subset of technology.
2. The assumptions developed during the discovery phase are tested in real time.
3. The list of devices should be expanded to incorporate a wider set of technologies and numbers.
4. The information developed from this phase is used to determine the final steps of controlled deployment and maturity phase.

Controlled Deployment Phase - Building Capacity

The primary goal of this phase is to develop a deployment workflow that enables the organization to build capacity as full deployment approaches. This phase also serves as the initial production test run and the completion of operational run-books necessary to manage a full deployment.

Maturity Phase - Continuing to Evolve

Significant work must be performed in order to mature the organization’s security posture and implement the finer points of the deployment. This phase never has an end point—since SIEM must continually evolve.

Cyber-Digital Task Force

The Department of Justice’s internal “Cyber-Digital Task Force,” created by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in February, will release its first-ever public report later this month at the Aspen Institute’s annual Security Forum, a department spokesperson told CyberScoop.

The report is expected to detail a series of security recommendations that the government should consider to protect future U.S. elections from a myriad of different threats, including foreign hacking attempts.

A statement by the DOJ previously explained that the Task Force will “prioritize its study of efforts to interfere with our elections; efforts to interfere with our critical infrastructure; the use of the Internet to spread violent ideologies and to recruit followers; the mass theft of corporate, governmental, and private information; the use of technology to avoid or frustrate law enforcement; and the mass exploitation of computers and other digital devices to attack American citizens and businesses.”

When Sessions launched the group earlier this year, he requested that an initial report be completed by June 30. The recommendations were submitted ahead of time, according to DOJ spokesperson Ian Prior. The answers are currently being reviewed ahead of publication.

The DOJ’s disclosure was made hours after the Democratic National Committee (DNC) issued a press release criticizing the department and Trump administration for missing various cybersecurity policy deadlines, including the June 30 submission. The agency contends that it in fact made the deadline, although the publication won’t occur for a few weeks. The Aspen Security Forum begins on July 18.

The creation of the Cybersecurity Task Force on Feb. 20 came less than a week after Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted a group of Russian internet trolls for interfering in U.S. politics. The Russians allegedly ran an extensive social media campaign that worked to trick American voters in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, the indictment claims.

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is expected to make “an exclusive policy announcement” on July 19 at the Aspen Institute event.

Secure all networks, from the Internet?

In the coming years in 2019-2020, the active mobile users will cross the 5 billion mark globally, and add to this the number of tablet user will also increase. When we analyze these figures it is not difficult to estimate that there are more than 20 million IoT devices in the pipeline ready to hit the base by 2020. It means the above-given figures are all set to be part of the connected world.

All these devices mean lots of valuable data, and where there’s valuable data there are hackers trying to get access to it. Not only do we need to wrestle with new kinds of networks, many of them wireless, but we need to tackle the security of these networks while simultaneously tackling the massive scale of the problem.

Now imagine the kind of valuable data that will be churned out from these devices, and how it will be a gala time for the hackers to break into these devices and get access. No doubt we need to bring such device in our daily life, but the challenge is to get them all secured taking into account the massive breach in the line.

We asked vendors and resellers how they approach security of the WAN in this challenging environment

The internet is the network

The data center is no more the enter of the universe, but it is the Internet that new network that brings all the network closer to each other.

Mobile phone networks are rapidly being repurposed as a general-purpose data network over which voice calls are just one more application. Inside the telcos themselves, the core networking is already running over IP networks, and consumers are very comfortable with messaging applications that talk over IP networks instead of SMS. Devices in the field are adding LTE interfaces as a cheap and easy way to add networking capability to what were once disconnected devices.

“We have to rethink how we approach things,” Kopelke says. “We need to change our thinking from ‘How do I secure and protect the network?’ to ‘How do I secure and protect the data and applications?’”

Gavin Wilson, Asia-Pacific managing director at Cradlepoint “People expect to always be connected. Increasingly the connection is a mix of technologies, rather than a single layer-1 or layer-2 approach.” Instead of a loose collection of isolated technologies, the network is now an abstraction operating at a higher level, and there is no longer a functional difference between “the internet” of decades past and what all these modern mobile devices use to connect”.

The connected world and benefits

This ubiquitous networking is enabling associations to do things that basically weren’t conceivable previously. Without a system to send the information, gadgets in trucks or conveyed by field laborers would need to store information for later use. Presently they can stream a lot of information back to a server farm or straight into the cloud, and they can be inconsistent contact with different parts of the framework.

“The ability to get information out to remote people is a massive benefit, and, if a truck roll over on a delivery, an immediate duress notification can let others know the driver is in trouble,” says Michael Dyson, general manager at Advanced Mobile IT‌

“We also have digital signage that can be remotely updated,” Dyson says. “You can receive diagnostics from remote locations without having to send a technician out to the site and there are buses in New Zealand that can do on-board ticketing and have a GPS for accurate next-stop announcements.”

As it turned out to be consistently more steadily and reasonable, the requirement for the specialist like; satellite telephones, CB radios have dropped abruptly. These more seasoned technologies are turning into a fallback — as opposed to the essential strategy for building up correspondences. The generously higher transfer speed access, combined with the across the board accessibility of the supporting framework, influences the cost/to profit examination straightforward: you’d be distraught not to.

Security

Obviously, simply being associated isn’t sufficient. We likewise need to keep information and applications secure when they’re interfacing with an indistinguishable web from each content kiddie and solidified digital crime with a hunger for other individuals’ data.

“The traditional way to secure the WAN was using firewalls at each branch or backhauling branch traffic to a datacenter and use firewalls there to protect the traffic,” says Stree Naidu, vice president. Asia-Pacific and Japan for Cato Networks. “As long as we think about the firewall as a box that sits somewhere, that box defines the perimeter. But what if the perimeter was defined by a firewall that is everywhere? This is the notion of Firewall as a Service (FWaaS).”

Moving from the physical system of security that is as pervasive as the availability itself is it all about. “Systems that are secured from commencement is the name of the diversion. Rather than being a bit of hindsight or an extra, security in a world with no border implies heating it in from the start.

“It has to be about more than taking an appliance and virutalizing it,” says Zscaler’s Kopelke. “We say that’s just cloud-washing.”

Cato Networks’ Scree agrees. “The challenge most organizations face is how to extend enterprise-grade security to all their branches and mobile users globally,” he says. “Cloud networks with built-in network security can offer a way forward.”

“With users expecting a higher standard of service, these standalone appliances won’t cut it anymore,” says Dell EMC’s Elmarji. “You need to be able to provide full security on all connected devices, fast access to data, and 24/7 connectivity.”

While it’s still relatively early days for software-defined networks, it’s clear where the momentum is. Customers and resellers alike should be investigating how they can move to using software-based networking to create the secure, ubiquitous networks of the future

Corporate Information Security Steering Committee

Organizations are becoming increasingly aware that if they fail to implement successful security management processes, it could expose them to untenable risk.

The role of the corporate information security steering committee has become an essential tool in the quest for a coordinated corporate security strategy, for reducing duplication in security spending, taking control of complex infrastructures, and, ultimately, reducing security risk. 

One of the first steps for many organizations has been to set up a common security team and embark on enterprise-wide information security programs. However, many of these teams have struggled to align corporate business objectives with strategic security investment.

META Group's research indicates that the majority of new security teams struggle to define and establish their corporate missions, scope, influence, and power bases. Furthermore, these security teams have poorly defined executive charters and operate without effective communications plans. The unfortunate result of such poor grounding is the temptation for newly established teams to immerse themselves in technology quests, searching for elusive enterprise-wide technical solutions.

In contrast, the most effective security organizations are those with clear responsibilities and well-defined processes based upon five primary organizational roles:

• Leadership - this is the role of the chief information security officer who deals with both the day to day management of the security team as well as continuous communication of the importance and value of security measures

• Analysis/design - these security analysts help information owners develop meaningful security policies as well as adequate security solutions

• Security administration - these people look after the day to day administration of access rights, passwords, etc

• Security operations - resources that continuously monitor the organization's security status and manage incident response procedures.

• Awareness communication - resources that design and manage ongoing security awareness and training programs. 
  Executive custody and governance -represented by an information security committee

The role of the corporate security steering committee is to coordinate corporate security initiatives at the executive level and thus enable an organization to optimize spending, manage their infrastructure, and minimize security risk. Obtaining consensus and support for corporate-wide security initiatives is especially difficult in highly decentralized and multinational organizations with devolved authority and autonomy. In this type of organization, an executive governance body becomes essential.

Corporate information security steering committees (CISSC) must have a clear charter with a range of functions that should include:

• Managing the development and executive acceptance of an enterprise security charter.

• Assessing and accepting corporate-wide security policy (e.g., the corporate policy on security incident response, general behavioral approach). This function's primary objective is to ensure that business requirements are reflected in the security policy, thus ensuring that the procedure enables rather than restricts business operations.

• Assessing any requests for policy exceptions from individual business units.

• Assessing, accepting, and sponsoring corporate-wide security investment (e.g., identity infrastructure deployment, remote access infrastructure) and requests to be excluded from common investment.

• Providing a forum for discussion and arbitration of any disputes or disagreements regarding common policy or investment issues.

• Acting as custodian and governance body of the enterprise security program by ensuring visible executive support and monitoring progress and achievements. The role of a permanent governance structure reinforces the message that enterprise security becomes an ongoing, long-term initiative.

• Assessing and approving the outsourcing of common security services and coordinating investment of inappropriate relationship management resources. As the lack of skilled resources increases the need to outsource operational services, executive due diligence, risk assessment, and ongoing effectiveness assessment must be coordinated through the steering committee.

• Initiating ad hoc projects to investigate the advantages, disadvantages, risks, and costs of common security initiatives and advising the committee with appropriate recommendations.

• Representing the executive (board of directors) or its nominated information governance body (e.g., an information executive board) in all corporate security matters. Reporting back to these forums on the activities and effectiveness of corporate security programs and investments.

• Acting as custodian of corporate-wide strategic security processes (e.g., role analysis, data classification) by validating process ownership, responsibilities, and stakeholders.

• Acting as the respondent to enterprise-level audit exceptions (i.e., those audit exceptions where a specific individual cannot be found to be responsible).

• Coordinating and validating any external, security-related corporate communications plans and activities (e.g., in the event of a high-profile, publicized security breach).

• Tracking major line-of-business IT initiatives to identify synergy opportunities or leverage security investment.

• Governing trust relationships with major e-business partners.

It is essential that steering committee members can make decisions at meetings. This requires the active participation of senior executive business managers, or it must be a permanent subcommittee of an organizational information board. To prevent the committee from becoming an ineffective 'debating society' or forum for driving political agendas, the committee's scope, powers, and objectives should be documented and measured.

Typical members of an information security steering committee include all line of business managers, application owners, regional managers, IT managers, the IT director, the chief security officer, the corporate risk manager, and the chief internal auditor. A clear distinction must be made between the role of the CISSC (i.e., executive custody and governance) and the leadership role (i.e., day-to-day management of the security team) of the chief information security officer.

By developing the emerging role of the chief security officer (CSO) and the security team, enterprises can foster a holistic approach to information security - one that recognizes that policy, process, and communication are as important as technology.

Cloud to Streamline Security for Strategic Growth

As the technology director at Inspira Health Network, François Bodhuin and his staff have their work cut out for them, as they strive to support the organization’s strategic growth, stay on top of technology needs and keep patient data secure.

The New Jersey-based organization, in fact, is constantly looking to expand. “We are a medium-sized system, but we are very active in our expansion plans,” Bodhuin said, noting that the system now has more than 150 service locations in five counties. The health network is currently building a new hospital, adding a two- story patient tower to one of its existing hospitals, expanding its behavioral health program, renovating a satellite ER, recently opened a senior emergency department and purchased a regional medical transport company.

In addition, the Inspira technology department has developed an app to better serve all the patients that will flow into this continually growing health system. The app enables patients to request appointments, get directions to facilities, access a list of providers, view emergency department and urgent care wait times, pay bills and even participate in virtual visits.

So, it made perfect sense for Inspira to move its compliance management software to the cloud when FairWarning introduced a cloud-based managed shared services solution that works to ensure all data is secure by continually monitoring user activity and sending out alerts for any suspicious actions. After all, the health system had already moved a variety of systems to the cloud including its electronic health records, security information and event management (SIEM) and wound care solutions, and has experienced myriad benefits by doing so.

“The cloud saves costs; because you are getting a virtual server, the hardware itself costs less,” he said. In addition, when a managed services provider hosts a solution in the cloud, the healthcare organization does not incur on-boarding or ongoing training costs.

By hosting the compliance solution in the cloud under a managed services arrangement, Inspira will be positioned to:

Take advantage of a team of privacy and security experts. “The team concept to me is a key with managed services. We’re always being asked to work more efficiently. In this case, we will be able to really do that because we will have a team of experts that is performing the function,” Bodhuin said. “Because they’re experts, they know when a complaint is significant. They know when an alert is significant. They know when to ask for an investigation.” In addition, because these experts are well versed in the compliance solution, the learning curve that is typically associated with implementing a new solution is eliminated.

Reduce the need to search for IT staff. Hiring experienced, qualified IT staff is a challenge for all healthcare organizations. “In South Jersey, it is especially difficult to attract people to work in security and privacy. [With managed services], we don’t have to search for IT staff and we won’t have any onboarding costs. All that is built-in to our fees,” he said.

Maintain flexibility. With a managed solution in the cloud, it will be easy for Inspira to grow – as the organization does not need to add staff but can instead simply adjust the services agreement to meet evolving needs.

More readily deal with infrastructure challenges. With managed services, Inspira staff do not need to “worry about patching or managing the server,” he said. In addition, staff don’t need to be concerned with “upgrading the hardware, or the software . . . or worry about disaster recovery,” something that traditionally generates significant downtime, according to Bodhuin.

Leverage the experiences of many. Managed services providers work with a variety of organizations making it possible to “bring many best practices to the table,” which is difficult to do when hosting and maintaining systems internally, Bodhuin noted.

Save considerable time. “There's a lot of daily work that, all of a sudden, you don't have to do because it’s being done by the managed service. In privacy and security, we expect to regain about one to two hours a day for each analyst,” he said. “Now, they can focus their time on responding to issues that are reported to them. All that saved time can be allocated to another function.”

Doing managed services right

While Bodhuin expects to realize these benefits when moving the compliance software to the cloud, his past experience with managed services has provided a litany of lessons learned. More specifically, he knows that to successfully work with a managed services provider requires:

• Defining expectations explicitly. “You have to define what you trust them to do. You could let the managed service provider run the whole show if you wanted to, in certain functions,” or limit their scope to a defined set of functions, according to Bodhuin.
• Proactively managing the working relationship. “You really have to keep them on their toes. Make sure they deliver what they say they will deliver,” he advised. “So you really have to pay attention to your statement of work to ensure that you will get what you expect.”
• Treating the managed service provider as one of our own. “It’s really important that you make these people a part of your team. And if you do that, then you’ll get success. If you don’t do that, then there will be a lot instances where there are conflicts in your priorities,” Bodhuin said.

In the final analysis, with the expertise gained via a managed services arrangement, Bodhuin expects Inspira to save time, reduce costs while minimizing the organization’s overall risk profile. As such, Bodhuin can help the health system support its strategic growth goals. “The technology/security must be ‘a department of yes’, not a ‘department of no’. When you start saying no to people, you're going against the business itself and that can be a real problem,” he concluded.

Bypass Two-factor authentication - 2FA Bypass

A majority of users and companies are moving to Two-factor authentication (2FA) for enhancing the security of its data and systems. But contrary to popular belief, it cannot provide a fool-proof layer of security to online accounts since Kevin Mitnick at KnowBe4 has demonstrated that it is very easy to deceive this defensive measure.

KnowBe4 is the world’s leading security awareness training provider and simulated phishing firm with a massive customer base of 17,000 organizations across the world. Mitnick is the company’s chief hacking officer.

In his new exploit, he proved that 2FA is exploitable because hackers can spoof the 2FA requests by sending a fake login page to the user. This may lead to stealing of sensitive user data including username, password and session cookie.

The hacking technique can be seen in the video uploaded here:

The purpose of using 2FA is to add an extra layer of security by combining what an employee already has and what they know. This combination could be between username and password or a code that is sent to the user on the phone or an app.

To exploit the 2FA method of security, the victim is lured into visiting a typo-squatting domain such as LunkedIn.com in order to steal the required user data. Once the information is obtained, the hacker can easily access the actual website and capture session cookie. Once this is achieved, the hacker can remain logged in indefinitely. But this is reliant on accessing the 2FA authentication code once.

As per the CEO of KnowBe4Stu Sjouwerman, Kuba Gretzy, a white hat hacker, and friend of Mitnick, developed a tool for bypassing the 2FA authentication via social engineering techniques and this tool can be “weaponized” for just about any website.

“Two-factor authentication is intended to be an extra layer of security, but in this instance, we clearly see that you can’t rely on it alone to protect your organization,” added Sjouwerman.

The tool is called evilginx. The attack method is based upon proxying the user via the hacker’s system through a credentials phishing technique, which requires the use of a typo-squatting domain. The idea is to let the user give away his/her credentials so that the hacker could steal session cookie.

The phishing email is the core of the attack method. In this particular case, the phishing email is supposedly sent by LinkedIn to a member of the site indicating that somebody is trying to contact through the social network. The email looks authentic initially but if looked closely, it becomes evident that it is a fake email since the return address is incorrect. But, if the user falls for it and clicks on the “interested” button, the malware will soon be downloaded onto the device.

This is the stage when the victim is taken to the authentic LinkedIn website so as to enter login information, which the hacker required. The login information is recorded by the malware as well as the session cookie using the cookie, the attacker acquires direct access to the account and manages to avoid the 2FA phase of the signing-in process.

Watch The Demonstration Here

Ransomware campaign up around the world

A new email ransomware campaign is spreading around the world. Researchers at Fortinet say it’s a spam effort, meaning the messages are not targeted. Instead they are addressed generally, like “Dear customer.” The subject line in the email would be something like “Document number…”, “Your order number” or “Ticket number.” With the email is a malicious attachment that leads to the installation of malware. The initial targets are corporate mail servers used to forward this email. These have been found in Canada, the U.S. the United Kingdom and other countries. 

The best defense against ransomware – or any email-delivered malware – is to watch out for it. Be cautious about unsolicited emails, especially those with attachments. And it’s vital you always have a separate backup of your data made it a way that can’t be infected, just in case you make a mistake.

Meanwhile McAfee reports some Canadian organizations have been victimized by a separate operation. A group security that researchers call Hidden Cobra, believed to be backed by North Korea, has been putting surveillance software on the systems of companies. The suspicion is the Canadian victims have been used as listening or data relay points. The malware that this campaign has installed has not stolen financial or sensitive data but appears to be there find out what’s on a computer, and be ready to launch further attacks.

Companies have to make sure their systems have the latest security patches. In addition, because the malware appears to be distributed through email, employees have to be reminded to be careful on what they click on.

For more on this see my story today on ITWorldCanada.com.

The U.S. National Security Agency has just suffered a black eye from an international standards body. According to a blog on Bitdefender, the International Organization of Standardization – known more commonly as ISO – rejected two new encryption algorithms suggested by the NSA to secure Internet of Things devices. The algorithms would scramble information on Internet-connected devices like home surveillance cameras and toys. But the NSA’s reputation for creating tools to hack into applications apparently give it a bad name at the ISO. One ISO delegate accused the NSA of telling half-truths and lies in its presentation.

If that allegation is accurate, it isn’t good. Internet of Things devices badly need better security. People and companies around the world buy tens of thousands of them a year. Insecure devices don’t improve security.

That’s it for Cyber Security Today. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or add us to your Alexa Flash Briefing. Thanks for listening.

CISO Roles Expanding - Global Risk Management

Traditionally, the mission of the CISO has been to convince the CEO of the capabilities the organisation must put in place to prevent and follow-up on threats and manage crises. At the helm of IT security, CISOs are in their element overseeing the security operations centre (SOC), incident response teams and forensics experts to address threats. But now, many are being forced outside of their comfort zone. With global attacks dominating television news and headlines in Europe, US and the UK, cybersecurity is top of mind for CEOs and their Boards. And this means that the role of the CISO is expanding.

The Evolving Role of the CISO: Handling a Crisis When You Aren’t Under Attack

According to Aon’s 2017 Global Risk Management Survey, cybercrime is now number five among the top 10 concerns for risk decision-makers globally, above failure to innovate, failure to attract and retain top talent, business interruption, political risk/uncertainties and third-party liability. Each time a high-profile attack happens, the CISO gets a phone call from the CEO asking questions like: Are we at risk? Should we be doing something? It is no longer enough to let the CEO know that the organization has not yet been attacked. CISOs need to expand their leadership role and actively engage in risk management.

I have had the opportunity to speak with many CISOs who validate that their jobs are changing.

“Before, we had to fight to explain to the CEO that it would be interesting to know what was coming in and out of our systems,” said Benoit Moreau, CISO of the French ministry of national education and research. “Now, we are expected to have a fine perception of each element of our ‘information ecosystem’ and the interactions that drive it to succeed to predict, almost in real time, the consequences of any stimulus. Our systems have undergone a dazzling Darwinian evolution, driven by new technologies and uses. They went from monocellular organisms that were individually secured to complex protean organisms close to life.”

Today, when the external threat landscape changes and the CEO inevitably calls, CISOs need to respond differently. They need to have situational understanding, be prepared to make decisions on the spot and communicate how they will ensure risk remains at an acceptable level. Moreau explains, “The CISO must equip himself to have ‘awareness’ of the security infrastructure as a whole – to feel the problems, to detect the symptoms. He must understand weaknesses, threats and health risks. He must strengthen his defenses, have the means to carry out further analysis in case of doubt, to inoculate or provide other treatments, and even to amputate in the event of the spread of deadly agents. It is no longer a question for the CISO to deploy some white blood cells, but to be the healthy mind in a healthy body, a robust organism with an effective immune system.”

As a CISO, what does it take to embrace this important change in your role? To begin with, you need instant access to as much information as possible about an attack or campaign. This includes an adversary’s targets and motivations; their tools, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) including tactics and vulnerabilities that may put the organization at risk; as well as the countermeasures available.

Most organizations already have much of this information, but it is spread across many different departments, in multiple external threat data feeds, in your layers of security products, in your SIEM that store logs and events and in analysts’ brains. What you need is a single source of truth – a centralized repository for all this data that you can continuously augment and enrich so that it is contextualized, relevant and prioritized. With a hub for storing, updating and accessing threat intelligence, your teams can learn and share knowledge to assess whether a threat poses short-term danger and determine the appropriate actions. But barriers remain.

Traditionally, siloed teams work independently and in a vacuum without the ability to collaborate throughout the analysis process and execute a coordinated response as needed. Working on parallel tasks, they can miss key commonalities. All teams must be able to work together in a single shared environment for a greater understanding and focus throughout the situation analysis and response process. Using visualization and documentation they can quickly see threat data, evidence, and actions across all the various departments and individual involved in the investigation.

With visibility into this collaborative environment and the situation analysis as it unfolds, CISOs can coordinate between teams and actions taken. A global picture provides the information you need to reply with greater confidence to your CEO’s questions. You can gauge if you’re adequately prepared to withstand an attack and let your CEO know. Or, if not, you can direct the appropriate action faster and assure your CEO you’re taking the right actions to mitigate risk.

Reacting to massive, global threats is a new phenomenon and a new responsibility added to CISOs’ day-to-day tasks. The moment you become aware of a potential new attack, you must be able to assess risk, anticipate potential impact and start crisis management. When a threat is detected, you must be able to respond quickly and comprehensively while maintaining business continuity. It’s no longer enough to protect the organization from an attack – you must be able to handle a crisis even if you aren’t under attack.

(NIST) Framework Cyber Security Updated

Four years after the initial iteration was released, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released version 1.1 of the Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity.

The framework was developed to be a voluntary, risk-based framework to improve cybersecurity for critical infrastructure in the United States. A President Obama-issued executive order calls for developing a set of standards, guidelines, and practices to help organizations charged with providing the nation’s financial, energy, health care, and other critical systems better protect their information and physical assets from cyberattacks. 

Like the first version, Version 1.1 of the framework was created through public-private collaboration via recommendations, drafts, and comment periods. Version 1.1 includes updates on authentication and identity, self-assessing cybersecurity risk, managing cybersecurity within the supply chain, and vulnerability disclosure, among other changes.

The update has renamed the Access Control Category to Identity Management and Access Control to better account for authentication, authorization, and identity-proofing.

It also has added a new section: Section 4.0 Self-Assessing Cybersecurity Risk with the Framework explains how the framework can be used by organizations to understand and assess their cybersecurity risk, including the use of measurements.

On the supply-chain front, an expanded Section 3.3 helps users better understand risk management in this arena. In contrast, a new section (3.4) focuses on buying decisions and the use of the framework in understanding risk associated with commercial off-the-shelf products and services. Additional risk-management criteria were added to the Implementation Tiers for the framework, and a supply-chain risk-management category has been added to the Framework Core.

Other updates include a better explanation of the relationship between Implementation Tiers and Profiles; added clarity around the term “compliance,” given the variety of ways an organization can use the framework; and the addition of a subcategory related to the vulnerability disclosure lifecycle.

“This update refines, clarifies, and enhances Version 1.0,” said Matt Barrett, program manager for the Cybersecurity Framework. “It is still flexible to meet an organization’s business or mission needs. It applies to various technology environments such as information technology, industrial control systems, and the Internet of Things (IoT).”

Its goal is to be flexible enough to be adopted voluntarily by large and small companies and organizations across all industry sectors and federal, state, and local governments.

              Nist 1.1

The release of the Cybersecurity Framework Version 1.1 is a significant advance that truly reflects the success of the public-private model for addressing cybersecurity challenges

“The release of the Cybersecurity Framework Version 1.1 is a significant advance that truly reflects the success of the public-private model for addressing cybersecurity challenges,” said Walter Copan, NIST director. “From the very beginning, the Cybersecurity Framework has been a collaborative effort involving government, industry, and academia stakeholders.”

So far, adoption of the framework has been relatively widespread: PwC’s 2018 Global State of Information Security Survey (GSISS), for instance, found that respondents from healthcare payer and provider organizations, as well as oil and gas companies, said the NIST Cybersecurity Framework is the most commonly adopted set information security standards in their respective industries. The report also found that financial institution clients widely embraced benchmarking their cyber risk management programs against the NIST Cybersecurity Framework.

“Cybersecurity is critical for national and economic security,” said Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. “The voluntary NIST Cybersecurity Framework should be every company’s first line of defense. Adopting version 1.1 is a must-do for all CEOs.”

Efforts to expand its influence are continuing: In May 2017, President Trump issued the Executive Order on Strengthening the Cybersecurity of Federal Networks and Critical Infrastructure, which directs all federal agencies to use the Cybersecurity Framework. Also, NIST noted that corporation,s, organizations, and countries around the world, including Italy, Israel, and Uruguay, have adopted the framework or their adaptation.

Meanwhile, to help ease the adoption process, the Information Security Forum (ISF) has mapped the framework and its annual Standard of Good Practice for IT security professionals. Last year, IT governance organization ISACA launched an audit program aligning the NIST framework with COBIT 5, designed to provide management with an assessment of the effectiveness of an organization’s plans to detect and identify cyber-threats and protect against them.

“We’re looking forward to reaching more industries, supporting federal agencies, and especially helping more small businesses across the U.S. benefit from the framework,” said Barrett.

Later this year, NIST plans to release an updated companion document, the Roadmap for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity, which describes crucial development, alignment, and collaboration areas.

“Engagement and collaboration will continue to be essential to the framework’s success,” said Barrett. “The Cybersecurity Framework will need to evolve as threats, technologies, and industries evolve. With this update, we’ve demonstrated a good process for bringing stakeholders together to ensure the framework remains a great tool for managing cybersecurity risk.”

Small Business Benefits from Cybersecurity Consulting Services

Cybersecurity news stories are becoming more and more prevalent, especially over the last few years. Whether the stories are about stolen emails or huge data breaches, it has been virtually impossible to ignore them.

While the major stories about compromised corporations and hacked email accounts make the news, cybersecurity is something that concerns everyone who uses a computer. Even small business owners can become victims of cybercrime. In fact, small business owners, in particular, need to be concerned with cybersecurity so they can protect their intellectual property. No matter whether the intellectual property is research or recipes, it is one of the greatest assets a small business has. Intellectual property is a prime target for hackers, whether they are stealing information for a competitor or running a ransomware scheme where a hacker demands something in return for the stolen information.

The trouble is that protecting that intellectual property and keeping other sensitive information, such as client and customer data, isn’t cheap. Many small business owners may not have the available capital to afford a cybersecurity system. Although this puts an owner in a tough spot, you can’t put a price on peace of mind, and neither can a small business owner afford the losses associated with becoming the victim of a cybercrime.

As with most things for small-business owners, cybersecurity comes down to a cost analysis. A cybersecurity system can be a big expense. On the other hand, a small business owner has to consider the cost of not having their systems protected from hackers. It’s hard enough for a large corporation to recover from a cyber attack, even with all the resources and infrastructure they have. According to the U.S. National Cyber Security Alliance, 60 percent of small businesses fold within six months of a cyber attack.

Ultimately, each business owner has to decide if and when a formal data security protection plan is necessary. A consultation with an expert may help you better weigh the pros and cons of taking on this type of business expense. Start with this list of Cybersecurity Consulting Providers as a jumping off point for your research. After comparing the benefits of these companies’ plans, set up a few consultations to see if and how these providers can best help protect your business, and what it costs to do so. You may find that it’s worth the investment.

Cyber Security Developments

Cyber Security Is The Backbone Any Online Businesses – Here Are Some Quick Tips To Keep Yourself Informed About The Latest Threats Surrounding Your Business.

                                    Cyber Security Developments

Within a standard nine to five working day, it’s said that there are almost two million data records lost or stolen. Cybercrime has become something of an epidemic in recent years – and it’s no exaggeration to say that everyone is at risk.

Hackers operate in an increasingly complex way and are happy to target small businesses and individuals, who are most likely to be vulnerable to attack. The nature of the threat changes as technology advances and so the only way to stay safe is to stay up to date.

But that’s easier said than done, right? How do you keep up to date with the latest cybersecurity developments?

Follow The News

When it comes to cyber security, ignorance is not bliss – it’s a recipe for disaster. It’s imperative that you identify and follow a news feed that you can trust. By doing so, you can keep on top of any fresh threats that have emerged, learn lessons from other cyber attacks and pick up the latest tips and advice from influencers and experts in this field.

News from this sector really shouldn’t be seen as the preserve of IT specialists – the scale and nature of the threat suggest that this should be of interest to everyone. There’s a burgeoning band of podcasts available on the subject for people who prefer to digest content in this way too.

Bring Up The ‘Security Question’

If you think that installing an anti-virus program is enough, then you’re mistaken. Don’t just presume that you’re safe because you have this because this is merely the first line of defense to root out attacks. By adopting a safety first mindset you can ensure that the way you handle your data is less risky.

Whether it’s securing your Wi-Fi network at home, managing and updating your passwords on a regular basis or the way you collect, collate and analyze data throughthe point of sale software at work, continually ask yourself ‘is this safe?’ Just as ignorance isn’t bliss, complacency could prove your undoing. Place ‘security’ high on the list of credentials to consider when buying new software or hardware, don’t just go for the cheapest option.

Training

Even the experts are constantly having to refresh their understanding of the threat posed by cyber attacks. It pays to search out training opportunities, especially if you’re a business. You are, after all, only as safe as the people operating your software and systems and you don’t want to put the security of your business in the hands of someone who is unsure about what they are doing. Individuals and businesses alike can find free learning materials on Cybrary to help plug any knowledge gaps they have.

It’s Good To Talk

Cyber attacks are incredibly common – but people don’t often enough talk about their experiences. Perhaps you’re afraid or embarrassed to have been caught out? There’s no need to be. In fact, talking with friends and colleagues could really help you to stay safe. Pass on tips about new apps, good software, neat tips and tricks and any new cyber attack tactics you have come across and you can help to do your own bit to combat the criminals.

By keeping up to speed with security news, refreshing your training, sharing tips and tricks and adopting a safety first attitude you’ll give yourself the best possible chance of staying on top of cyber security developments and, best of all, safe.

Cisco Switches vulnerable to remote hacking

Security researchers at Embedi have disclosed a critical vulnerability in Cisco IOS Software and Cisco IOS XE Software that could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to execute arbitrary code, take full control over the vulnerable network equipment and intercept traffic.

The stack-based buffer overflow vulnerability (CVE-2018-0171) resides due to improper validation of packet data in Smart Install Client, a plug-and-play configuration and image-management feature that helps administrators to deploy (client) network switches easily.

Embedi has published technical details and Proof-of-Concept (PoC) code after Cisco today released patch updates to address this remote code execution vulnerability, which has been given a base Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) score of 9.8 (critical).

Researchers found a total of 8.5 million devices with the vulnerable port open on the Internet, leaving approximately 250,000 unpatched devices open to hackers.

To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker needs to send a crafted Smart Install message to an affected device on TCP port 4786, which is opened by default.

"To be more precise, the buffer overflow takes place in the function smi_ibc_handle_ibd_init_discovery_msg" and "because the size of the data copied to a fixed-size buffer is not checked, the size and data are taken directly from the network packet and are controlled by an attacker," Cisco explain in its advisory.

The vulnerability can also result in a denial-of-service condition (watchdog crash) by triggering indefinite loop on the affected devices.

Researchers demonstrated the vulnerability at a conference in Hong Kong after reporting it to Cisco in May 2017.
 

Affected Hardware and Software:

The vulnerability was tested on Catalyst 4500 Supervisor Engines, Cisco Catalyst 3850 Series Switches, and Cisco Catalyst 2960 Series Switches devices, as well as all devices that fall into the Smart Install Client type are potentially vulnerable, including:
 

• Catalyst 4500 Supervisor Engines
• Catalyst 3850 Series
• Catalyst 3750 Series
• Catalyst 3650 Series
• Catalyst 3560 Series
• Catalyst 2960 Series
• Catalyst 2975 Series
• IE 2000
• IE 3000
• IE 3010
• IE 4000
• IE 4010
• IE 5000
• SM-ES2 SKUs
• SM-ES3 SKUs
• NME-16ES-1G-P
• SM-X-ES3 SKUs

Cisco fixed the vulnerability in all of its affected products on 28th March 2018, and Embedi published a blog post detailing the vulnerability on 29th March. So, administrators are highly recommended to install free software updates to address the issue as soon as possible.

Security Specialist

CyberSecOp cyber security consulting services was founded by two information security professionals, and a Managed Services IT firm, For more information call us: 866-973-2677 or visit us: https://www.cybersecop.com

Security Consulting

Many people who sell security products call themselves security consultants and they are part of the security field, but there are also security consultants who don't sell products. These individuals are paid on an hourly or project basis to help clients, usually, corporations, protect their personnel and property. Property security embraces both real estate and tangible equipment as well as other assets like client lists and proprietary technology. Employee and customer theft, as well as piracy, are possible focuses for a security consulting practice. Technical security consultants are knowledgeable about products, such as electronic security systems, including their development and how to apply them. The work may involve system design as well as drafting plans and documents.

Computer Security

While virtually all security consultants employ computer technology in their work, the computer security niche specifically involves protecting computer systems and networks themselves against unauthorized use and abuse. A computer security consultant often specializes in particular operating systems such as UNIX, LINUX or Windows.

Site Consulting

Whether it's new construction or remodeling, virtually every building and office-be it a high-tech industrial complex, retail franchise, distribution center, self-storage facility, housing development, hotel, resort, casino, parking lot or law firm-is interested in some aspect of site security. Security site consultants evaluate the physical design of such buildings and spaces, determine what security problems a sites poses and recommend countermeasures, such as guards, electronic security with cameras and electric lights, or a combination of methods and policies.

System Design

Security system designers develop specifications and provide architectural or engineering support in the design phase of a security consulting project. System designers may also develop new electronic security tools to be used at a particular location.

Forensic Consulting

Forensic security consultants serve as expert witnesses in trials in which security breaches are at issue, such as with fires, thefts, break-ins, and so on. Forensic consultants may specialize in any of the above fields.

As a security practitioner, you can also develop niches for your work based on the type of clients you work with, such as museums or historical sites, shipyards and airports. Unlike professional investigators, security consultants don't have to be licensed by state agencies. However, there are professional associations you can join and certification programs you can complete, which may help foster a sense of trust with your clients. One of the larger associations, which provides certification.

Specializing is key to marketing a security specialty business because it will help you more easily identify and market to clients who need such services, such as architects and contractors or members of a particular industry, such as software developers or law firms. You'll be soliciting work and attracting clients by making presentations and speeches or networking in organizations where you can showcase your expertise. In addition to your knowledge of security, you must be prepared to develop your speaking skills in order to attract new business.

GDPR European Union General Data Protection Regulation

The European Union General Data Protection Regulation will go into effect on May 25, and healthcare organizations who treat patients from any of the 28 EU nations will need to familiarize themselves with the law to ensure compliance.

GDPR requires companies to gain affirmative consent for any data collected from people who reside in the EU. And organizations that violate the law could face fines up to four percent of their global annual revenue or 20 million euros -- whichever fine is higher.

While U.S. organizations must remain HIPAA-compliant, GDPR rules could be a game-changer for those who care for EU patients. Providers will need to consider data flows, cross-border data transfer, privacy and security monitoring, to ensure their policies are compliant with the law.

Tougher than HIPAA

GDPR is much more stringent than HIPAA, as it broadens the definition of personal data and covers any information associated with an “identified or identifiable natural person,” including computer IP addresses, photos, credit card data and the like.

The law also mandates organizations process data requests from EU patients much more quickly than with U.S. standards. And providers will also need clear permission to even use EU resident information.

Because of HIPAA, GDPR is nothing new for U.S. healthcare organizations, explained Kristen Johns, partner at Waller, a national healthcare law firm.

“But it will be a real shock for people who aren’t aware of the kind of data they hold and what they share with other vendors,” said Johns. “But for healthcare, it shouldn’t be a shock or learning curve.”

To Johns, there’s a fundamental difference between GDPR and HIPAA, as the EU law is based on personal rights, while HIPAA is focused more on the data itself and who can share it and what can be done with it.

Right to erasure and consent

One of the biggest challenges for U.S. provides will likely be the GDPR “right to be forgotten” or sometimes known as the right to erasure. One of the cornerstones of the law is to strengthen individual rights, meaning organizations must honor all patient requests to erase personal data.

It also places limits on how long data can be stored, covering all data not considered valuable to scientific research under GDPR definition. Organizations must implement technology capable of totally and completely erasing personal data upon request.

For the U.S., where it’s common to store patient data indefinitely, this will be a major change.

Notice of consent is the other area U.S. providers must fully understand, explained Johns. Providers should draft consent forms that outline what’s collected and make sure that they give a clear place for patients to opt in or out of data sharing or collection.

“Securing disclosure: It boils down to consent, something beyond what exists now in most cases,” Johns said. “You have to show that you have that chance to opt in and out easily. And consent has to be in clear, plain language. Currently, not all these healthcare consents are.”

Roughly translated, GDPR mandates the elimination of fine print, often overlooked by patients, which can contain loopholes in privacy policies. The idea is that organizations will need to simplify consent language so that it’s easy for patients to understand.

Tighter security

GDPR also cracks down on security requirements to ensure patient data is protected. This includes implementing pseudonymization and redundancy, along with routine pen testing and intrusion detection measures. Further, much like with HIPAA, organizations will need a continuous process to evaluate its security measures.

But one GDPR mandate that some healthcare organizations still haven’t gotten right is the need for encryption. Providers must lockdown all patient data -- if they haven’t already.

And one final security measure that is vastly different than HIPAA is that organizations will only have 72 hours to inform EU patients of a breach. HIPAA gives providers 60-days from the time of discovery.

“In reality, GDPR article is about data protection by design and by default,” said Johns. “It gives all identities that could be a data processor … a chance to look at their IT infrastructure and see where they can improve to comply with GDPR.”

There are plenty of lists online to determine how entities can be compliant with the data structure of each entity, and how it applies to internal audits, explained Johns. But for healthcare, “the big thing is the internal audit: looking to make sure they have the ability to access information quickly in a compliant way with GDPR and HIPAA.”

Enterprises understand cyber risks

Enterprises understand cyber risks

Hackers and cyber criminals often seek to exploit human errors like misconfigurations, poor security practices and the use of shadow IT.

In order to help businesses assess the risk CyberSecOP is launching an automated advanced persistent threat (APT) simulation platform, LocPar, to continuously expose all attack vectors, above and below the surface.

LocPar uses advanced attack techniques to expose the most critical blind spots. In the process, it provides data-driven remediation that focuses on an organization's most critical assets, reduces its IT risk and enables it to optimize its cyber resources.

"The best way to prevent a cyber attack is to identify in advance the attack vectors hackers will use to compromise an organization's critical assets," says CEO and co-founder of XM Cyber Noam Erez. "Even when an organization has deployed and configured modern security controls, applied patches and refined policies, it should still ask 'Are my crown jewels really secure?' as there is a plethora of ways hackers can still infiltrate the system and compromise critical assets. This is why we founded CyberSecOp: to equip enterprises with a continuous 360° view of which critical assets are at risk, what security issues they should focus on, and how best to harness their resources to resolve them."

Features of LocPar include full mapping of all attack paths at any given time, automatic adaptation to the context of the organization, using misconfigurations, user activity, credentials and security vulnerabilities in the network.

Comprehensive and up-to-date attack scenarios use the latest hackers' techniques and methods, giving the ability to detect and remediate IT-related risks in real-time. Reports are produced based on how critical the attack vector is.

Image Credit: SergeyNivens / depositphotos.com