Nothing is more difficult than making predictions. Instead of trowing out wild ideas what might be coming, will be making educated guesses based on what has happened during the last 12 months and several years before that.
The past year has seen a rapid increase in the adoption of up-and-coming technologies. Everyday items are getting
smarter and more connected. Companies are saving millions with new technologies and cities are racing to
implement smart solutions. 5G promises to bring wireless high speed broadband to everywhere. On the other hand those solutions add new kinds of vulnerabilities. Competing in today’s digital marketplace requires that organizations are cyber-savvy. 2020 is when cybersecurity gets even weirder, so get ready.
Here are some trends and predictions for cyber security in 2020:
Cyber Attacks: Cyberattacks grow in volume and complexity.Many countries that are going to emerge as major threats in the 2020s. Nation-state backed cyber groups have been responsible for major incidents over the last decade. And now more countries want the same power. Cyberattacks range from targeting your database to steal information that can be sold on the dark web, to hijacking unused CPU cycles on your devices to mine for cryptocurrencies, or trying to infect vulnerable systems so they can be used later as part of a botnet.
IoT security: IoT security is still getting worse until it starts to get better. IoT security is an extremely hot topic right now and will be hot for many years to come. Industrial IoT risk has been discussed a lot. Physics dictates local application deployment, because the control rate of most industrial systems is 10 milliseconds or below. Smart Building Security Awareness Grows. The risks of the IoT in financial services are great. An explosion in IoT devices significantly raises the threat level. Gartner predicted that the world will see nearly 21 billion IoT devices by next year and it would be nice if all of them would be secure, but many of them unfortunately are not secure. Hackers are continually looking for ways to exploit device vulnerabilities. From smart TV’s, IP cameras, and smart elevators, to hospital infusion pumps and industrial PLC controllers, IoT and OT (Operational Technology) devices are inherently vulnerable and easy to hack. Why? Because IoT security is complicated and security should consider and integrated with IoT deployments. Gartner Says Worldwide IoT Security Spending Will Reach $1.9 Billion in 2019, and will raise to $ 3.1 billion in 2021, making it one of the fastest growing segments in cybersecurity industry. IoT landscape is complex, and so are the security solutions. These tackle the different challenges of IoT- device hardening, encryption, discovery, data protection, malware and anomaly detection, policy enforcement and more. You might have to do a little work with your internet of things devices to stay secure. A failure by many IoT device manufacturers to follow cryptographic best practices is leaving a high proportion of the devices vulnerable to attack. One in every 172 active RSA certificates are vulnerable to attack. It is a good idea to build a separate network segments for IoT devices so that they are isolated from the normal office network. FBI recommends that you keep your IoT devices on a separate network.
IoT privacy: Silicon Valley Is Listening to Your Most Intimate Moments. The world’s biggest companies got millions of people to let temps analyze some very sensitive recordings made by your “smart” speakers and smart phones. A quarter of Americans have bought “smart speaker” devices such as the Echo, Google Home, and Apple HomePod. Consulting firm Juniper Research Ltd. estimates that by 2023 the global annual market for smart speakers will reach $11 billion, and there will be about 7.4 billion voice-controlled devices in the wild. That’s about one for every person on Earth. The question is, then what? Having microphones that listen all the time is concerning. Also some attackers are terrifying homeowners and making them feel violated in their own homes.
Medical systems security: Cyberattacks on Medical Devices Are on the Rise—and Manufacturers Must Respond. Attacks on networked medical devices, and the data they collect and transmit, can be costly. Patient safety is a critical concern, especially with devices such as defibrillators and insulin pumps that could cause patient harm or death if they malfunction. It’s shocking that a few years after WannaCry and NotPetya, the healthcare industry is still not prepared to deal with ransomware attacks. Many hospitals and healthcare networks that have been hit by ransomware over the past few months.
Surveillance cameras: Surveillance cameras are capturing what we do on the streets, at airports, in stores, and in much of our public space. China’s Orwellian video surveillance gets a bad rap but the US isn’t far behind as US has nearly the same ratio of security cameras to citizens as China.And the numbers are growing all over the world. One billion surveillance cameras will be deployed globally by 2021, according to data compiled by IHS Markit. Russia is building one of the world’s largest facial recognition networks and it may even be bigger than China’s 200 million camera system. China’s installed base is expected to rise to over 560 million cameras by 2021, representing the largest share of surveillance devices installed globally, with the US rising to around 85 million cameras. Now US, like China, has about one surveillance camera for every four people (in 2018 China had 350 million cameras and USA 70 million). Surveillance cameras are getting better, smaller and cheaper and can be installed almost anywhere. It would be very easy to sneak another device onto a hotel’s Wi-Fi network, stream that video over the internet to the computer.
Facial recognition: Private companies and governments worldwide are already experimenting with facial recognition technology. Facial recognition software is touted as making us safer. But mass surveillance has downsides of major proportions. Massive errors found in facial recognition tech. Facial recognition systems can produce wildly inaccurate results, especially for non-whites. Russia is building one of the world’s largest facial recognition networks. Individuals, lawmakers, developers – and everyone in between – should be aware of the rise of facial recognition, and the risks it poses to rights to privacy, freedom, democracy and non-discrimination.
Shut off Internet: Worrying worldwide trend employed by various governments: preventing people from communicating on the web and accessing information. Amid widespread demonstrations over different issues many countries have started cutting Internet connections from people. Some countries, namely China, architected their internet infrastructure from the start with government control in mind. Russia is aiming to this direction. Iran, India, Russia. For better or worse, an internet blackout limits the government’s ability to conduct digital surveillance on citizens.
Security First: Implementing Cyber Best Practices Requires a Security-First Approach. Competing in today’s digital marketplace requires that organizations be cyber-savvy. The best defense is to start with a security-driven development and networking strategy that builds a hardened digital presence from the ground up. This not only ensures that your online services and web applications are protected from compromise, but also enables security to automatically evolve and adapt right alongside the development of your digital presence, rather than it having to be constantly rigged and retrofitted to adapt to digital innovation.
Zero Trust Network Access: Many of the most damaging breaches have been the result of users gaining access to unauthorized levels of network resources and devices. Zero Trust is an enforceable, identity-driven access policy that includes seamless and secure two-factor/OTP authentication across the organization. Zero Trust Network Access ensures that all users and devices are identified, profiled, and provided appropriate network access. It also ensures that new devices are automatically assigned to appropriate network segments based on things like device profiles and owners. When combined with Network Access Control (NAC), organizations can also discover, identify, grant appropriate access, and monitor devices, thereby enhancing your access and segmentation strategy.
Anti-virus software: Only Half of Malware Caught by Signature AV. The percentage of malware that successfully bypassed signature-based antivirus scanners at companies’ network gateways has increased significantly, either by scrambling
code known as “packing” using basic encryption techniques or by the automatic creation of code variants. It seems that new approaches like machine learning and behavioral detection are necessary to catch threats. Meanwhile, network attacks have risen, especially against older vulnerabilities.
Ransomware attacks: Ransomware will remain a major threat in the coming year, as the criminal business model continues to flourish. That’s a move that security professionals have long condemned, warning that paying the ransom in a ransomware attack could end up causing more turmoil for victims – as well as inspire other cybercriminals to launch ransomware attacks. Microsoft never encourage a ransomware victim to pay. What to do with this is question. How much does a large-scale ransomware attack cost, as opposed to just hiring an adequate number of skilled IT personnel, and having disaster recovery plans in place? There is no complete security solution that could stop all attacks, but you should have decent protection. It would seem prudent to have adequate staff and offline BACKUPS to deal with this kind of situation, so decent recovery would be possible. Having no backup system is the gamble many companies and public entities seem to be playing. Good backups helps to recover from ransom attacks. There are new tactics coming to use in ransomware. A new Snatch ransomware strain that will reboot computers it infects into Safe Mode to disable any resident security solutions. Another new tactic by ransomware developers is to release a victim’s data if they do not pay the ransom – they will publish data that they steal to a competitor if the ransom is not paid.
Public sector: Public Sector Security Is Lagging. The state of cybersecurity and resilience in the public sector needs an
urgent boost in many countries. U.S. citizens rely on state governments and local municipalities to provide a host of services everything from access to public records, law enforcement protection, education and welfare to voting and election services. Cybercriminals have been targeting state and local governments with ransomware tools, which infect an organization’s computer networks and lock up critical files.
Consumer confidence: Winning consumer confidence is crucial to the development of new digital services. In a PwC study, consumers are prepared to share personal information if it is of sufficient value to them. On the other hand, consumer confidence also needs to be earned that you keep the information safe.
API security: APIs now account for 40% of the attack surface for all web-enabled apps. It’s a good time to pay attention to API security, since some recent high-profile breaches have involved API vulnerabilities. OWASP, the Open Web Application Security Project known for its top 10 list of web application vulnerabilities, published the release candidate version of its API Security Top 10 list at the end of September 2019. Also it’s almost 2020 and some sysadmins are still leaving Docker admin ports exposed on the internet.
Skills gap: Security teams are already grappling with serious challenges due to the growing cybersecurity skills gap, are being tasked to secure an ever-expanding network footprint. Security teams are often left to secure virtual and cloud environments, the implementation of SaaS services, DevOps projects, the growing adoption of IoT, mobile workers, and an expanding array of personal connected devices after they have already been implemented. They often do not have enough people and enough knowledge on those new technologies to do their work well. The cybersecurity unemployment rate is zero, with over 1 million jobs currently unfilled, a number that is expected to climb to 3.5 million by 2021. 145% Growth is Needed to Meet Global Demand.
Think Like Your Adversary: Cybersecurity leaders need to access the potential vulnerabilities (from the mindset of the adversary) and devise effective defensive countermeasures unique to their company’s needs. Programmers Should Think like Hackers. Security must be taken into account in all programming steps.
Third party security: Most Companies Don’t Properly Manage Third-Party Cyber Risk. It’s been established that good cybersecurity requires not just an internal assessment of an organization’s own security practices, but also a close look at the security of the partners that businesses rely upon in today’s modern, interconnected world. Developing a Third-Party Cyber Risk Management (TPCRM) strategy is becoming more common with every news headline regarding a major breach that stemmed from a company’s relationship with a third-party.
Privacy and surveillance: Fears Grow on Digital Surveillance. Americans are increasingly fearful of monitoring of their online and offline activities, both by governments and private companies. More than 60 percent of US adults believe it is impossible to go about daily life without having personal information collected by companies or the government. Google and Facebook help connect the world and provide crucial services to billions. But their system can also be used for surveillance. Amnesty International says Facebook and Google’s omnipresent surveillance is inherently incompatible with the right to privacy and is a danger to human rights. The claim is that the companies’ surveillance-based business model is inherently incompatible with the right to privacy and poses a threat to a range of other rights including freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of thought, and the right to equality and non-discrimination. Amnesty International has called for a radical transformation of the tech giants’ core business model and said that Google and Facebook should be forced to abandon what it calls their surveillance-based business model because it is “predicated on human rights abuse.”
5G: Forecasting that 2020 will be “the year of 5G” no longer qualifies as a bold prediction. Billions of dollars’ worth of 5G rollouts are scheduled for the coming year, which will bring the emergent technology to countries around the world. The arrival of 5G will fuel an explosion of never-before-seen IoT machines, introducing uncharted vulnerabilities and opening the door for cyber-criminals to compromise our increasingly intertwined cities. Claims that 5G offers “better security” for IoT may not ring true.
5G security: The new 5G mobile networks will be the backbone of future digitalized operations. Therefore, it is also important to ensure the security and immunity of 5G networks.The Council of the European Union has warned member states that the introduction of 5G networks poses increased security risks while also bringing economic and infrastructure benefits. ENISA, the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity has published a ThreatLandscape for 5G Networks, assessing the threats related to the fifth generation of mobile telecommunications networks (5G). Organised cybercrime, rogue insiders and nation-state-backed hackers are among the groups that could soon be targeting 5G networks. Claims that 5G offers “better security” for IoT may not ring true – with the technology remaining vulnerable to SIM-jacking attacks within private Industry 4.0-style deployments. 5G SIM-swap attacks could be even worse for industrial IoT than now. Criminals can convince telcos to port a victim’s number to a new SIM card controlled by the criminal. Trust your hardware or operator? Pah, you oughta trust nobody. Do not put all your security and identification to this SIM card.
DNS Over HTTPS (DoH): DoH encrypted DNS queries are already set to arrive in Chrome and Firefox web browsers. Microsoft Will Bring DNS Over HTTPS (DoH) to Windows 10 in an attempt to keep user traffic as private as possible. DoH support in Windows means encrypted DNS queries. Microsoft says that DoH doesn’t require DNS centralization if adoption is broad among operating systems and Internet service providers alike.
Firewall configuration: Now, more than ever, it is important to automate firewall processes to prevent misconfigurations and data breaches. Gartner has warned that “50% of enterprises will unknowingly and mistakenly have exposed some IaaS storage services, network segments, applications or APIs directly to the public internet, up from 25% at YE18.”. This is a human problem, not a firewall problem.
Bot attacks: Bots are being used to take over user accounts, perform DDoS attacks, abuse APIs, scrape unique content and pricing information and more. Organizations are Failing to Deal With Rising Bot Attacks.
Network security: Networks are continually growing in complexity and the cyberattack surface is constantly expanding. The network perimeter of today is elastic, expanding and contracting with the demands of both users and the business. In a rush to adopt digital business practices, many of these new network expansion projects are often being implemented ad hoc by individual lines of business. Routers sit at the edge of the network and see everything and they can be utilized to Making the Network the First Line of Defense. A critical step in building a stronger security posture and more robust data protection strategy is a 24×7 facility whose mission is to monitor, detect, investigate and resolve active threats. Cybercriminals only need to be successful once in finding a way to access the network – but the security team needs to monitor everything on the network and be right all the time to ensure security. Today’s core network is continually adapting to the introduction of new devices, applications, and workflows, along with shifting network configurations to support business requirements, requiring the use of advanced, intent-based segmentation.
Security-Driven Networking: Security-Driven Networking is a new, strategic approach to security that enables the seamless expansion of network environments and services without ever compromising on security. Essentially, it begins by crafting a comprehensive security policy that covers the entire organization. It outlines the protocols, enforcement and inspection technologies, policies, and protections required to be in place before any new network environment or solution is even placed on the drawing board. It requires the selection and full integration of security tools that not only work together to share and correlate intelligence and coordinate a unified response to threats, but that also work seamlessly across the widest variety of environments possible.
Critical infrastructure: Determined threat actors have, for some time, been extending their toolsets beyond Windows, and even beyond PC systems. In recent years, we have seen a number of high-profile attacks on critical infrastructure facilities and these have typically been aligned to wider geo-political objectives. Expect targeted attacks on critical infrastructure facilities to increase. APT33 has shifted targeting to industrial control systems software. We need to be worried about Cyber-Physical Security of the Power Grid. To protect this infrastructure you need to prioritize strategic risks that affect critical infrastructure: Concern yourself with the most important hacks, Understand the critical pieces of your infrastructure and Know your inter-dependencies.
Payment security: Payment security backslides for second straight year in 2019. Verizon’s 2019 Payment Security Report found that full compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) fell to36.7% globally, down from 52.5% in 2018. At the same time EU’s PSD2 (Payments Services Directive) lays down regulatory requirements for companies that provide payment services, including the use of personal data by new fintech companies that are not part of the established banking community. Security of online, including mobile, payments is a key aspect of the legislation. Nevertheless, as banks will be required to open their infrastructure and data to third parties. Although SSLv3 has been considered obsolete and insecure for a long time, a large number of web servers still support its use.
Election security: Nowadays, no elections can be held any longer without debate on influencing voters through online services. There are on-going accusations of Russian interference in US elections and fears about a possible reboot of this in the run-up to the 2020 elections. U.S. military cyber experts are plotting strategy in a fight against potential Russian and other cyberattacks ahead of the 2020 American and Montenegrin elections. As the 2020 Presidential election looms closer in the United
States, a key focus will be on securing election infrastructure to prevent tampering. Most of the largest US voting districts are still vulnerable to email spoofing. Also disinformation campaigns for political purposes are deeply rooted in cybercriminal endeavors. It’s quite possible that we will see changes to legislation and policy, as governments look to define more clearly what is and what isn’t allowed. Hacking is considered to be the biggest tech threats to 2020 elections in USA. Legislators are working on new laws, but it is not going to be enough in an era when technology is turning out entirely new attack surfaces.
False Flags: The use of false flags has become an important element in the playbook of several APT groups. This can be used to try to deflect attention away from those responsible for the attack or what is really happening.
Common attack tools: Cyber actors continually use commodity malware, scripts, publicly available security tools or administrator software during their attacks and for lateral movement, making attribution increasingly difficult.
Vulnerability disclosure: Most “white hat” cyber engineers seem to be driven by a sense of social responsibility best expressed as, “If you find something, say something.” Across the industry, the ethos is to share information quickly, whether the problem is a newly discovered exploit or an evolving cyber threat. The goal is to impel the affected vendor—hardware or software—to take quick action and produce a fix. There are good and bad ways to make vulnerabilities known. A premature “full disclosure” of a previously unknown issue can unleash the forces of evil, and the “black hats” often move faster than vendors or enterprise IT teams. The preferred path is a “responsible” or “coordinated” disclosure that happens behind the scenes. Public announcements occur after a specified period of time—typically 90 or 120 days. But things don’t work this way always.
Ransomware: Cybercriminals have become more targeted in their use of ransomware. It is inevitable that the cybercriminals will also attempt to diversify their attacks to include other types of devices besides PCs or servers. There is a Ransomware ‘Crisis’ in US Schools and in many cities in USA.
Supply chain: Use of supply chains will continue to be one of the most difficult delivery methods to address. It is likely that attackers will continue to expand this method through manipulated software containers, for example, and abuse of packages and libraries. Medium-sized companies are being targeted even more heavily by cyber criminals. They are often the weakest link in supply chains that include large corporations. There is the growth of counterfeit electronics.
Mobile: The main storage for our digital lives has moved from the PC to mobiles over last 10 years. Several countries have started demanding their own software (maybe in some cases also malware) to be installed to all smart phones. Putin signs law making Russian apps mandatory on smartphones, computers.
Android: Today 80% of Android apps are encrypting traffic by default. To ensure apps are safe, apps targeting Android 9 (API level 28) or higher automatically have a policy set by default that prevents unencrypted traffic for every domain. The heterogeneity of the Android versions will continue to be a problem in the coming year.
DDoS attacks: DNS amplification attacks continue to dominate distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, while mobile devices make up a larger share of traffic. The number of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks rose 86% in the third quarter compared to a year ago. DNS amplification attacks accounted for 45% of the attacks, while HTTP
floods and TCP SYN attacks accounted for 14%. Mobile Devices Account for 41% of DDoS Attack Traffic.
Business security: Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) increasingly recognize that a reactive security posture is no longer sufficient for protecting their networks. Breaches will happen. Companies should treat cyberattacks “as a matter of when” and not “whether.” Inside threads are still a big issue as Employees are one of your biggest assets, but human beings are the weakest link in the security chain. Data leaks help attackers to craft more convincing social engineering attacks. Plan proper incident management because Quick, reliable, multichannel communication is a vital part of any incident management solution. Cybercriminals often choose very small companies as their targets because small businesses rarely spend significant money on security systems. Medium-sized companies are being targeted even more heavily by cyber criminals. They are often the weakest link in supply chains that include large corporations.
Cyber insurance: Cyber Has Emerged as a Risk That is Not Specifically Covered by Other Insurance Policies. Since business is now urged to take a risk management approach to cyber security, it is natural and inevitable that cyber insurance should be considered as part of the mix. Cyber insurance is set to grow.
New encryption: The problem with encrypted data is that you must decrypt it in order to work with it. There is a powerful solution to this scenario: homomorphic encryption. Homomorphic encryption makes it possible to analyze or manipulate encrypted data without revealing the data to anyone. Just like many other populr forms of encryption, homomorphic encryption uses a public key to encrypt the data. There are three main types of homomorphic encryption: partially homomorphic encryption (keeps sensitive data secure by only allowing select mathematical functions to be performed on encrypted data); somewhat homomorphic encryption (supports limited operations that can be performed only a set number of times); fully homomorphic encryption (this is the gold standard of homomorphic encryption that keeps information secure and accessible). Cryptographers have known of the concept of homomorphic encryption since 1978 but Gentry established the first homomorphic encryption scheme in 2009.The biggest barrier to widescale adoption of homomorphic encryption is that it is still very slow. Duality, a security startup co-founded by the creator of homomorphic encryption, raises $16M.
Artificial Intelligence (AI): The buzzword for 2019 that we have all heard a thousand times was Artificial Intelligence, AI. The term AI is often interchanged with machine learning. There is a lot of research to examine AI applications on cyber security. As cyberattacks grow in volume and complexity, hopefully artificial intelligence (AI) is helping under-resourced security operations analysts stay ahead of threats. Cybersecurity tools currently use this data aggregation and pattern analysis in the field of heuristic modeling: THE TRUE FUNCTION OF AI WILL BE TO DETERMINE WITH A LONG ARC OF TIME AND DATA, WHAT “NORMAL” LOOKS LIKE FOR A USER. AI can act as an advisor to analysts, helping them quickly identify and connect the dots between threats. Finnish cyber security company F-Secure is making research on AI agents and on that Mikko Hyppönen says that AI should not used to try to imitate humans and that artificial intelligence-based attacks are expected in the near future. Another Finnish cyber security company Nixu says that Artificial intelligence is going to revolutionize cyber security. According to Orlando Scott-Cowley from Amazon Web Services machine learning is the new normal in cyber security. Advanced Machine Learning layers are to be integrated into the latest Windows cybersecurity products. Leaders in artificial intelligence warn that progress is slowing, big challenges remain, and simply throwing more computers at a problem isn’t sustainable.
2020 problems: Has your business prepared for the ‘2020 problem’? Software updates for Windows 7 will end on January 14, 2020. As of Jan. 14, 2020, Windows 7 and Server 2008 technical support and software updates will no longer be available from Windows Update. There will no longer be updates for Office 2010. Some business users can buy extended security update support with extra money for some time. Python will stop supporting Python version 2 on January 1, 2020. Beginning on January 1, 2020, un-patched Splunk platform instances will be unable to recognize timestamps from events where the date contains a two-digit year. December 2019 Patch Tuesday was the last time Microsoft ever offered security updates for devices running Windows 10 Mobile.
Crypto wars continue: A decades-old debate: Government officials have long argued that encryption makes criminal investigations too hard. Governments all over the world say that Encrypted communication is a huge issue for law enforcement and the balance between the privacy of citizens and effective policing of criminal activity is top of mind for governments, technology companies, citizens and privacy organisations all over the world. The international police organization Interpol plans to condemn the spread of strong encryption. Top law enforcement officials in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia, the larger group will cite difficulties in catching child sexual predators as grounds for companies opening up user communications to authorities wielding court warrants. Congress warns tech companies: Take action on encryption, or we will. US lawmakers are poised to “impose our will” if tech companies don’t weaken encryption so police can access data.
Do not weaken encryption: Companies, they say, should build in special access that law enforcement could use with a court’s permission. Technologists say creating these back doors would weaken digital security for everyone. Unfortunately, every privacy protection mechanism is subject to abuse by the morally challenged. That’s just a truth that must be accepted and overcome. Invading the privacy of the masses in order to catch criminals is unacceptable. Remember three things: One, that strong encryption is necessary for personal and national security. Two, that weakening encryption does more harm than good. And three, law enforcement has other avenues for criminal investigation than eavesdropping on communications and stored devices. If back-doors are added to encryption, they will be abused. If You Think Encryption Back Doors Won’t Be Abused, You May Be a Member of Congress. Bad encryption can have business consequences. Apple and Facebook told the committee that back doors would introduce massive privacy and security threats and would drive users to devices from overseas. In Australia 40% of firms say they have lost sales say they have lost sales or other commercial opportunities as a result of the encryption law being in place.
2FA: The second authentication factor might be a minor inconvenience, but it provides a major security boost. With past years riddled with security breaches, it is high time we evaluated the way we secure our online presence. Two factors are much better than one, but can still be hacked. Attacks that phish 2FA to access email accounts cost $100-$400; such attacks can be prevented with physical security keys. Also some physical security keys can be hacked as they turn to be less secure that what they were told to be in the advertisements.
Myth of sophisticated hacker in news: It’s the latest lexical stretch for an adjective that’s widely used in reports of cybersecurity incidents — and widely loathed by researchers as a result. If everything is sophisticated, nothing is sophisticated.
New security models: Google moved from perimeter-based to cloud-native security. Google’s architecture is the inspiration and template for what’s widely known as “cloud-native” today—using microservices and containers to enable workloads to be split into smaller, more manageable units for maintenance and discovery. Google’s cloud-native architecture was developed prioritizing security as part of every evolution.
Hacktivists: Hacktivists seek to obtain private information about large companies in order to embarrass or expose the company’s controversial business practices. Many companies are a treasure trove for personal information, whether they realize it or not. Experian is predicting that the emerging cannabis industry will experience an increase in data breaches and cybersecurity threats in 2020.
RCS messaging: RCS, expanded as Rich Communications Services, is a protocol that aims to replace SMS.RCS messaging has rolled out to Android users in the US. The update brings a lot of new features like chat, send hi-res videos and photos and create group chat. One criticism of RCS is that it doesn’t provide end-to-end encryption. RCS could be also better in many other security aspects. Researchers have discovered that the RCS protocol exposes most users to several cyber attacks. These risks are said to be mitigated by implementing the protocol with the security perspective in mind. The standard itself allows for poor security implementation, but GSMA advises its members to deploy rcs with the most secure settings possible.
Data breaches: Billions of Sensitive Files Exposed Online all the time. During the first six months of 2019, more than 4 billion records were exposed by data breaches. That’s a shocking statistic that’s made even more so when you realize that passwords were included in droves. On December 4, a security researcher discovered a treasure trove of more than a billion plain-text passwords in an unsecured online database. Many businesses wrongly assume they are too small to be on the radar of the threat actors. The truth is that it is all about the data, and small businesses often have less well-guarded data stores. All organizations are exposed to security breaches: from large multinationals to SMEs and public administrations. A common thread is unsecured cloud-based databases that left the sensitive information wide open for anyone to access online.
Phishing: Phishing remains 1 of the most pervasive online threats. Phishing emails are still managing to catch everyone out. Phishing e-mails which are used to steal credentials usually depend on user clicking a link which leads to a phishing website that looks like login page for some valid service. Google Chrome now offers better protection against it as safe Browsing displays warning messages to users ahead of visiting dangerous websites and before downloading harmful applications. New advanced ways to phish are taken to use.With dynamite phishing, the cyber criminals read the email communication from a system already infected with an information stealer. The infected user’s correspondents then receive malicious emails that quote the last “real” email between the two parties and look like a legitimate response from the infected user. Attacks that phish 2FA to access email accounts cost $100-$400; such attacks can be prevented with physical security keys.
Windows: Microsoft Doesn’t Back Up the Windows Registry Anymore. It’s still possible to perform Windows Registry backups, but the option is disabled by default. It’s time to disconnect RDP from the internet as brute-force attacks and BlueKeep exploits usurp convenience of direct RDP connection. Microsoft is ready to push a full-screen warning to Windows 7 users
who are still running the OS after January 14.
Linux: Support for 32 bit i386 architecture will be dropped by many Linux distributions. It turns out that there are essentially no upstream development resources dedicated to x86_32 Linux. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was badly broken.
Drones: Turkey is getting military drones armed with machine guns. Drone hacking happens. There is now Dronesploit – Metasploit for drones. Metasploit-style CLI framework tailored for tinkering with everybody’s favourite unmanned flying objects.
World market war: China tells government offices to remove all foreign computer equipment. China has ordered the replacement of all foreign PC hardware and operating systems in state offices over the next three years. This will mean that China to ditch all Windows PCs by 2022.China has already some of their own Linux distros like Kylin and Deepin. Many western countries are more or less banning Huawei teleocm equipment.
Cloud security: Traditional security tools and methodologies are ill-suited to protect cloud native’s developer-driven and infrastructure-agnostic multicloud patterns. The vision as laid out by these renown analysts is straightforward. The legacy “data center as the center of the universe” network and network security architecture are obsolete and has become an inhibitor to the needs of digital business. They describe the underpinning shift to cloud infrastructure, a digital transformation that has been underway for ten years. They also point out that the corporate network cannot protect end users who consume cloud applications from any location and any device without the contorting, expensive, backhaul of traffic through the corporate data center. Gartner coins a new term for the future of security and networks, SASE (pronounced sassy), Secure Access Service Edge, which is not anything really new. SASE promises to create a ubiquitous, resilient, and agile secure network service—globally. Most of the stolen data incidents in the cloud are related to simple human errors rather than concerted attacks. Expect that through 2020, 95% of cloud security failures will be the customer’s fault. A common thread is unsecured cloud-based databases that left the sensitive information wide open for anyone to access online. Also it’s almost 2020 and some sysadmins are still leaving Docker admin ports exposed on the internet.
Autocracy as a service: Now Any Government Can Buy China’s Tools for Censoring the Internet. “Autocracy as a service” lets countries buy or rent the technology and expertise they need, as they need it. China offers a full-stack of options up and down the layers of the internet, including policies and laws, communications service providers with full internet.
Geopolitics: US-China Tech Divide Could Cause Havoc. It is possible that world’s next major conflict can start in cyberspace. USA has ordered to ban certain hardware from China (Huawei and ZTE). China orders ban on US computers and software. Chinese government to replace foreign hardware and software within three years. Who needs who more?
International cyber politics: Lack of international standards for proper behavior in cyberspace prevents the United States and allies from policing adversaries as they wish to. US can’t ‘enforce standards that don’t exist’. We have international norms in the maritime; we don’t have those in cyber. It makes it difficult to enforce standard that don’t exist, and to therefore hold nations accountable for nefarious behavior. NATO did confirm in 2017 that it could invoke Article 5 of its charter should one or more member nations find themselves under a serious cyberattack that threatens critical military and civilian infrastructure.
Sources:
https://pentestmag.com/iot-security-its-complicated/
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https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/12/09/dronesploit_framework/
https://www.securityweek.com/blunt-effect-two-edged-sword-vulnerability-disclosures
https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.0.0/ReleaseNotes/FixDatetimexml2020
https://threatpost.com/email-voted-a-weak-link-for-election-security-with-dmarc-lagging/150909/
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/12/04/council_of_eu_5g_risks/
https://techcrunch.com/2019/12/05/major-voting-districts-vulnerable-email-security/
https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2019/12/241053-hack-for-hire/fulltext
http://read.uberflip.com/i/1180978-siliconexpert-growth-of-counterfeit-electronics-3/0?acctid=6759
https://www.zdnet.com/article/2020-is-when-cybersecurity-gets-even-weirder-so-get-ready/
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/12/09/china_orders_ban_on_us_computers_and_software/
https://www.securityweek.com/case-cyber-insurance
https://www.eetimes.eu/ai-will-empower-industry-4-0-when-it-arrives/
https://www.pandasecurity.com/mediacenter/security/2019-the-ransomware-tsunami/
https://blog.paloaltonetworks.com/2019/12/cloud-native-security-platform-age/
https://github.com/dhondta/dronesploit/
https://www.zdnet.com/article/1-in-every-172-active-rsa-certificates-are-vulnerable-to-exploit/
https://nationalcybersecurity.com/hacking-the-biggest-tech-threats-to-2020-elections/
https://www.welivesecurity.com/2019/12/17/bluekeep-time-disconnect-rdp-internet/
https://www.eff.org/wp/behind-the-one-way-mirror
https://www.gdatasoftware.com/blog/2019/12/35671-early-detection-and-repulsion-of-dangerous-attacks
https://www.is.fi/digitoday/tietoturva/art-2000006342803.html
https://techcrunch.com/2019/10/30/duality-cybersecurity-16-million/
https://www.wired.com/story/sobering-message-future-ai-party/
https://security.googleblog.com/2019/12/an-update-on-android-tls-adoption.html?m=1
https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-all-android-users-in-the-us-just-got-rcs-next-gen-sms/
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2019/12/scaring_people_.html
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2019-June/001261.html
https://lwn.net/ml/oss-security/CALCETrW1z0gCLFJz-1Jwj_wcT3+axXkP_wOCxY8JkbSLzV80GA@mail.gmail.com/
https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-australia-46463029
https://cyware.com/news/rcs-technology-most-users-are-vulnerable-to-hacking-b53f9a6f
https://hub.packtpub.com/core-python-team-confirms-sunsetting-python-2-on-january-1-2020/
https://www.cnet.com/news/congress-warns-tech-companies-take-action-on-encryption-or-we-will/
https://cyware.com/news/rcs-technology-most-users-are-vulnerable-to-hacking-b53f9a6f
https://edri.org/facial-recognition-and-fundamental-rights-101/
https://techcrunch.com/2019/12/10/insider-threats-startups-protect/
https://uk.pcmag.com/windows-10/121518/microsoft-doesnt-back-up-the-windows-registry-anymore
https://threatpost.com/ransomware-attack-new-jersey-largest-hospital-system/151148/
https://chiefexecutive.net/bridge-cybersecurity-skills-gap/
https://systemagic.co.uk/has-your-business-prepared-for-the-2020-problem/
https://news.yahoo.com/massive-errors-found-facial-recognition-tech-us-study-215334634.html
https://www.securityweek.com/most-companies-dont-properly-manage-third-party-cyber-risk
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2019/11/21/hyoty-panee-jakamaan-tietonsa-luottamus-ratkaisee/
https://pentestmag.com/advice-for-a-cybersecurity-leader-think-like-your-adversary/
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/11/google-facebook-surveillance-privacy/
https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/pol30/1404/2019/en/
https://www.securityweek.com/compromised-connection-5g-will-unite-cities-and-also-put-them-risk
https://www.securityweek.com/amnesty-international-calls-facebook-google-rights-abusers
https://www.securityweek.com/microsoft-will-bring-dns-over-https-doh-windows
https://www.securityweek.com/cybersecurity-workforce-gap-145-growth-needed-meet-global-demand
https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2019/11/19/successful-soc/
https://www.securityweek.com/making-network-first-line-defense
https://techbeacon.com/security/how-prioritize-strategic-risks-affect-critical-infrastructure
https://www.securityweek.com/transitioning-security-driven-networking-strategy
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/11/16/5g_iot_report/
https://www.securityweek.com/us-montenegro-plot-cyber-warfare-ahead-2020-elections
https://www.securityweek.com/fears-grow-digital-surveillance-us-survey
https://www.kaspersky.com/blog/attack-on-online-retail/31786/
https://www.securityweek.com/implementing-cyber-best-practices-requires-security-first-approach
https://securelist.com/advanced-threat-predictions-for-2020/95055/
https://www.darkreading.com/cloud/smart-building-security-awareness-grows/d/d-id/1336597
https://www.cisomag.com/the-future-of-ai-in-cybersecurity/
https://www.ibm.com/security/artificial-intelligence
https://www.welivesecurity.com/2019/12/13/2fa-double-down-your-security/
https://cannatechtoday.com/experian-predicts-an-increase-in-global-cannabis-industry-data-breaches/
https://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2019/11/21/f-secure-tutkimaan-tekoalyagentteja/
https://www.securityweek.com/ongoing-research-project-examines-application-ai-cybersecurity
http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/10151-mikko-hypponen-tekoalyn-ei-pida-matkia-ihmista
http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/10124-nixu-selvitti-tekoaly-mullistaa-kyberturvan
http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/10120-kyberturvassa-koneoppiminen-on-uusi-normaali
https://www.is.fi/digitoday/tietoturva/art-2000006316233.html
https://www.cyberscoop.com/apt33-microsoft-iran-ics/
https://blog.malwarebytes.com/exploits-and-vulnerabilities/2019/11/exploit-kits-fall-2019-review/
https://www.enisa.europa.eu/news/enisa-news/enisa-draws-threat-landscape-of-5g-networks/
https://systemagic.co.uk/has-your-business-prepared-for-the-2020-problem/
https://smartgrid.ieee.org/newsletters/november-2019/the-cyber-physical-security-of-the-power-grid
https://www.wired.com/story/un-secretary-general-antonio-guterres-internet-risks/
https://codastory.com/authoritarian-tech/russia-facial-recognition-networks/
https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/9/21002515/surveillance-cameras-globally-us-china-amount-citizens
https://www.wired.com/story/iran-internet-shutoff/
https://www.zdnet.com/article/fbi-recommends-that-you-keep-your-iot-devices-on-a-separate-network/
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-interpol-encryption-exclusive-idUSKBN1XR0S7
https://www.kcrw.com/news/shows/to-the-point/does-facial-recognition-software-threaten-our-freedom
1,468 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Fractured Future of Browser Privacy
Better anti-tracking measures have become the norm for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and other modern browsers. But they still disagree on how exactly they should work.
https://www.wired.com/story/chrome-firefox-edge-browser-privacy/?mbid=social_facebook&utm_brand=wired&utm_medium=social&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=facebook
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kevin Collier / NBC News:
West Virginia governor to sign a bill that would allow voters with physical disabilities to vote via smartphone in 2020, becoming the first US state to do so — Cybersecurity experts have long railed against voting apps, saying that any kind of online voting unnecessarily increases security risks.
West Virginia plans to make smartphone voting available to disabled people for 2020 election
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/west-virginia-plans-make-smartphone-voting-available-disabled-people-2020-n1127931
Cybersecurity experts have long railed against voting apps, saying that any kind of online voting unnecessarily increases security risks.
Tomi Engdahl says:
VICE:
Ajit Pai says FCC has concluded “that one or more wireless carriers apparently violated federal law” by selling user location data and will consider fines — More than a year after a Motherboard investigation revealed that wireless carriers were collecting and selling user location data …
FCC Confirms ‘One or More’ Carriers Broke the Law Selling Location Data
One year later, FCC boss Ajit Pai suggests one or more major carriers could be fined.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/m7qb8n/fcc-confirms-one-or-more-carriers-broke-the-law-selling-location-data
Tomi Engdahl says:
Iowa Caucus results delayed, link to mobile app problems is unclear (updated)
https://www.engadget.com/2020/02/03/iowa-caucus-mobile-app-problems/
Technology is already creating hiccups for the 2020 election mere hours into the caucuses. Democratic county chairs in Iowa told Bloomberg that precinct chairs were having problems downloading or signing into the mobile app used to tabulate and share results from the roughly 1,700 sites. They could still provide results through a phone line, but the problems threatened to delay reporting on results for hours.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Elevate Your Intelligence Game
https://www.securityweek.com/elevate-your-intelligence-game
Over the past five years, Cyber threat intelligence (CTI) has become one of the fastest growing elements in the cybersecurity space. Gartner expects as much as $2.3 billion to spent on it by 2023.
Across the globe, private industry has moved from a nearly complete lack of understanding of the differences between data, information and intelligence to an understanding of the benefits of becoming proactive through intelligence-driven cybersecurity. We still have a long way to go. Some industries are outpacing others, but the trend toward increased understanding and maturity in CTI is undeniable.
I’ve previously talked about moving from the concept of CTI to “intelligence” as a function, giving it a larger mandate and better value proposition. With this in mind, let’s consider the next great leap forward in this space, where we place intelligence teams and who that the teams serve.
Most organizations’ CTI teams are housed in the Security Operations Center (SOC). CTI is usually buried beneath the defensive side, or “blue team,” of a SOC and primarily driven to support the needs of defensive cyber operations. While this may be a logical place to put CTI, it is not where an intelligence team belongs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cover for ‘cyber’ attacks is risky, complex and people don’t trust us,
moan insurers
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/02/03/cyber_insurance_fic2020/
Tried not suing your customers when they make claims?. FIC 2020 EU
companies aren’t taking out insurance against attacks on online assets
because the companies selling coverage aren’t organised enough while
Brits are more likely to pay off ransomware crooks than others.
Insurance that pays out if your company gets hit by an online attack
is a tricky subject. While it is an obvious business area for the
insurance industry to move into, a panel discussion at France’s Forum
international de la cybersécurité last week heard there’s not enough
public information on the risks to insurers of offering cyberattack
policies.
Tomi Engdahl says:
DoppelPaymer Ransomware Sells Victims’ Data on Darknet if Not Paid
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/doppelpaymer-ransomware-sells-victims-data-on-darknet-if-not-paid/
The DoppelPaymer Ransomware is the latest family threatening to sell
or publish a victim’s stolen files if they do not pay a ransom demand.
A new tactic being used by ransomware operators that perform
network-wide encryption is to steal a victim’s files before encrypting
any devices. They then threaten to publish or sell this data if the
victim does not pay the ransom. This new tactic started in November
2019 when Maze Ransomware publicly released stolen files belonging to
Allied Universal for not paying a ransom. Since then, Sodinokibi/REvil
released stolen data and the Nemty Ransomware announced in their RaaS
affiliate panel that they would start doing it as well.
Tomi Engdahl says:
DoD to Require Cybersecurity Certification From Defense Contractors
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/dod-to-require-cybersecurity-certification-from-defense-contractors/
The United States Department of Defense (DoD) announced that defense
contractors will have to meet a basic level of cybersecurity standards
when replying to a government acquisition program’s request for
proposals by 2026. The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification
(CMMC) framework version 1.0 was released on January 31 and it is “a
unified cybersecurity standard for future DoD acquisitions.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Rogue IoT devices are putting your network at risk from hackers
https://www.zdnet.com/article/rogue-iot-devices-are-putting-your-network-at-risk-from-hackers/#ftag=RSSbaffb68
‘Shadow IoT’ devices are creating security holes within organisations
which cyber criminals are looking to exploit. Employees are bringing
their own Internet of Things connected devices to the workplace and
could be putting organisations at risk from cyber attacks because
enterprise security teams aren’t always aware that these devices are
connected to the network.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Would you get hooked by a phishing scam? Test yourself
https://www.welivesecurity.com/2020/02/03/would-you-get-hooked-phishing-scam-test-yourself/
As the tide of phishing attacks rises, improving your scam-spotting
skills is never a bad idea. Many people are confident in their ability
to recognize online fraud a mile away, but a recent survey may help
explain why phishing continues to pay dividends for scammers. Only 5%
of the respondents had a 100-percent success rate in spotting
simulated attacks aimed at stealing their sensitive information.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Man creates fake traffic jam on Google Maps by carting around 99 cellphones
https://boingboing.net/2020/02/03/man-creates-fake-traffic-jam-o.html
Simon Weckert loaded a hand-cart with cellphones and pulled them slowly through Berlin. This fooled Google Maps into registering severe congestion, marking the streets bright red in the service, and rerouting traffic to avoid the area.
http://simonweckert.com/googlemapshacks.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
93% of mobile transactions blocked as fraudulent in 2019
https://www.mwee.com/news/93-mobile-transactions-blocked-fraudulent-2019?news_id=125117
A recently released report from mobile technology company, Upstream on the state of malware and mobile ad fraud finds that 93 percent of total mobile transactions in 20 countries were blocked as fraudulent in 2019.
The “Invisible Digital Threat” data is based on deployments of Upstream’s Secure-D full-stack anti-fraud platform that detects and blocks fraudulent mobile transactions mostly originated from ad fraud malware. The platform at the end of 2019 covered 31 mobile operators in 20 countries.
The number of malicious apps discovered by Secure-D in 2019 rose to 98,000, up from 63K in 2018. These 98,000 malicious apps had infected 43 million Android devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Changing the Disclosure Shame Culture
https://www.securityweek.com/changing-disclosure-shame-culture
For Cyberdefense to Progress, We Must Break Through the Cultural Barrier of Breach Disclosure Shame
Although we repeatedly hear that cyber adversaries have an upper hand due to the sharing and rapid dissemination of tools, techniques, and intelligence among like-minded attackers, the hard-earned lessons gained by defenders are tightly closeted — most often under a shroud of shame and reluctantly disclosed, if ever. For cyberdefense to progress, we must break through the cultural barrier of disclosure shame.
Despite most enterprises adopting an “assumed breach” approach to securing their business, the successes and investments that lead to uncovering breaches are too often thoroughly undermined by the perception of having failed to preemptively protect the environment.
Multiple longstanding movements aid the sharing of selective artifacts of an attack – most often those that were successfully thwarted or captured using generic blocking technologies. These artifacts (e.g. malware and phishing samples) and their associated telemetry (e.g. detonation logs) are useful from a threat intelligence perspective and are increasingly consumed with greater agility by both investigative and blocking protection systems, but they can’t communicate the important dimensions needed to help prevent the next novel threat or attack vector. Missing is the technical biopsy of the entire chain of events that resulted in a system compromise – in particular, what defensive or detection apparatus worked and what didn’t.
Security teams gain snippets of insight from defensive failures through public breach disclosures or the investigative reporting that follows large-scale and brand-name hacks. The stigma of past public disclosures causes most companies to go dark when a breach is detected and to resurface months later only after satisfying themselves that similar weaknesses have been internally dealt with – through technology or leadership change.
In closed-door, invite-only forums, there is more willingness to share additional information about security failures – in more detail and in a timelier manner – but they are infrequent and highly localized.
Upon “going dark” after a breach detection, the security products vendors used within the compromised environment are similarly shut out – at precisely the time they can potentially add the most value to both the victim and the wider defensive ecosystem. It is in vendors’ best interest to leverage both their engineering and security research teams to promptly dissect and understand failures in their detection apparatus or missed capabilities in defending any chained or sequenced attack
With today’s complex and rapidly changing ecosystem of layered defenses, suite integrations, data connectors, automated response orchestration, policy configurations, and hybrid environments, breach response to a new threat or attack technique is rarely distilled down to adding a new detection signature or firewall rule.
It should not be a blame game (unless product inadequacies really are to blame!) – rather, the collective team should identify optimal routes to earlier detection and prevention, both short term and long term.
Tomi Engdahl says:
welcome to the surveillance state
With the state’s history of data leaks and lack of security, how will officials protect this data? This could cost the taxpayers of Washington millions of dollars in settlements after a breach. With recent developments in privacy statutes in Washington, storage and the ultimate removal of this data is also complicated and expensive.
Washington State DOT wants to use cameras to watch where you go
https://www.washingtonpolicy.org/publications/detail/washington-state-dot-wants-to-use-cameras-to-watch-where-you-go
Traveling in your car in Washington State today, you can be assured that the government isn’t tracking your every move. While we have some toll and red-light cameras, along with a couple of speed cameras in Seattle, the majority of the time you travel you are un-observed.
This could soon change.
House Bill 2566, scheduled for a hearing next week, will give the state new surveillance powers to track your license plate as you pass cameras on the side of the road.
With the state’s history of data leaks and lack of security, how will officials protect this data? This could cost the taxpayers of Washington millions of dollars in settlements after a breach. With recent developments in privacy statutes in Washington, storage and the ultimate removal of this data is also complicated and expensive.
If the goal is to monitor traffic flows and counts, there are already many ways to do this anonymously without creating a new government program. In fact, WSDOT already has loop counters in the roads that measure traffic volumes and locations.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The app tasked with reporting the results of the Iowa caucus has crashed, delaying the results
https://tcrn.ch/2Uiy9yW
A smartphone app tasked with reporting the results of the Iowa caucus has crashed, delaying the result of the first major count in nominating a Democratic candidate to run for the U.S. presidency.
“We found inconsistencies in the reporting of three sets of results,” said Mandy McClure, a spokesperson for the Iowa Democratic Party, in a statement posted on Twitter.
A report by NPR in January said the smartphone app was designed to save time in reporting the results, but bucked the trend in the use of smartphones in the voting process during a time where there are concerns that voting machines and other election infrastructure are feared vulnerable to hackers. Security concerns were raised about the app, whose developer has not yet been named nor its security practices, fearing that doing so would help hackers break into the system.
https://www.npr.org/2020/01/14/795906732/despite-election-security-fears-iowa-caucuses-will-use-new-smartphone-app
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Reality of Cybersecurity Awareness Programs and Their Shortcomings
https://pentestmag.com/the-reality-of-cybersecurity-awareness-programs-and-their-shortcomings/
Companies have to focus on the culture and governance to make any real progress for cyber security behavior, but unfortunately a lot of the cyber security awareness programs only focus on superficial methods.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://gbhackers.com/how-to-build-and-run-a-security-operations-center/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Binwalk is an open-source tool for analyzing, reverse engineering and extracting firmware images.
https://github.com/ReFirmLabs/binwalk
Reverse engineering my router’s firmware with binwalk
https://embeddedbits.org/reverse-engineering-router-firmware-with-binwalk/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Top 10 Cyber Security Fundamentals for Small to Medium Businesses
https://pentestmag.com/top-10-cyber-security-fundamentals-for-small-to-medium-businesses/
Tomi Engdahl says:
U.S. Cyber Command, NSA Poised to Support U.S. Election Security
https://www.nsa.gov/News-Features/News-Stories/Article-View/Article/2069163/us-cyber-command-nsa-poised-to-support-us-election-security/
With the Iowa Caucuses just days away, the U.S. Government is committed to protecting and defending the integrity of the Nation’s democratic processes and elections.
That was the message from U.S. Cyber Command’s Brig. Gen. William Hartman and NSA’s David Imbordino, the co-leads of Command and Agency’s joint Election Security Group, during a panel Tuesday.
“We have a responsibility to do our part to ensure we understand how to secure our own democratic processes based on best info [intelligence] we can possibly produce,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Getting Started with Bettercap 2 on Ubuntu and Other Derived Distros – Bettercap is a powerful, easily extensible and portable framework written in Go which aims to offer to security researchers, red teamers and reverse engineers an easy to use, all-in-one solution with all the features they might need for performing reconnaissance and attacking WiFi networks, Bluetooth Low Energy devices, Wireless HID devices and Ethernet networks.
https://neoslab.com/2020/01/27/getting-started-with-bettercap-2-on-ubuntu-and-other-derived-distros-N1UxUndxRjIrUUoybEVIUzhIOE5TZz09
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook Said It Wasn’t Listening to Your Conversations. It Was.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wjw889/facebook-said-it-wasnt-listening-to-your-conversations-it-was?utm_source=vicefbuk
Facebook’s excuse? All the other tech companies were doing it, too.
Facebook isn’t randomly turning on your microphone to sell you more targeted ads, as some conspiracy theories have asserted — but on Tuesday, the social media giant admitted that it has, in fact, been listening in on some users’ conversations.
Following an investigation by Bloomberg, the company admitted that it had been employing third-party contractors to transcribe the audio messages that users exchanged on its Messenger app.
Facebook Paid Contractors to Transcribe Users’ Audio Chats
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-13/facebook-paid-hundreds-of-contractors-to-transcribe-users-audio?utm_source=twitter&cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business&utm_content=business&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR3mL_CkEgYxRjRsV4MKhzvUiybCZSEvVAtR5I76pJB0mx4sSWNjH3i2XgA&fbclid=IwAR2fS-CDI_Fi6vtvg1cKFauGAUAF-jWYITQtF_poIZj2HC9Yi_Mmk–0AdI&fbclid=IwAR3ghD9NCAVO9_EG4C6E2nyTB6gKOk2bWIxHhmHHGZpjIm7WdUo-xMblgQQ
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tips for a Smarter Approach to Password Policy
https://www.securityweek.com/tips-smarter-approach-password-policy
In many cases, passwords are the primary line of defense protecting user accounts from being hijacked in an account takeover (ATO) attack. With the right policies and parameters in place to ensure strong, unique passwords, this defense can be quite effective. That being said, as we all know, passwords are highly susceptible to human fallibility.
According to a 2019 survey by Google, a staggering 65% of participants report using the same password across multiple accounts. And all too often, there is an overlap between personal and work-related account passwords.
Tomi Engdahl says:
App Used by Netanyahu’s Likud Leaks Israel’s Entire Voter Registry
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/.premium-app-used-by-netanyahu-s-likud-leaks-israel-s-entire-voter-registry-1.8509696
The Likud has uploaded the full register of Israeli voters to an
application, causing the leak of personal data on 6,453,254 citizens.
The information includes the full names, identity card numbers,
addresses and gender of every single eligible voter in Israel, as well
as the phone numbers and other personal details of some of them..
Also:
https://www.zdnet.com/article/netanyahus-party-exposes-data-on-over-6-4-million-israelis/
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘The intelligence coup of the century’
For decades, the CIA read the encrypted communications of allies and adversaries.
By Greg Miller Feb. 11, 2020
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/national-security/cia-crypto-encryption-machines-espionage/
For more than half a century, governments all over the world trusted a single company to keep the communications of their spies, soldiers and diplomats secret.
The company, Crypto AG, got its first break with a contract to build code-making machines for U.S. troops during World War II. Flush with cash, it became a dominant maker of encryption devices for decades, navigating waves of technology from mechanical gears to electronic circuits and, finally, silicon chips and software.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Research: Macs Saw Almost Twice as Much Malware as Windows PCs in 2019
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/mac-malware-research-cybersecurity-windows-malwarebytes
If you’re using a Mac because ‘Macs don’t get viruses’, think again.
Tomi Engdahl says:
BREAKING: an MIT team just identified security vulnerabilities in the voting app Voatz that could allow hackers to change or eliminate votes.
Voatz has already been used in multiple elections in Colorado, Oregon, Utah and West Virginia.
MIT story: bit.ly/MITVoatz
NYT story: https://nyti.ms/2UPJkzg
Paper: bit.ly/VoatzPaper
Tomi Engdahl says:
The US says Huawei has been spying through ‘backdoors’ designed for law enforcement — which is what the US has been pressuring tech companies to do for years
https://www.businessinsider.com/us-accuses-huawei-of-spying-through-law-enforcement-backdoors-2020-2?r=US&IR=T
The US has repeatedly accused Huawei of spying for the Chinese government, but this is the first detail it’s ever given about how it thinks Huawei does it. Huawei denies the allegation.
The US government has been pressuring tech companies like Apple and Facebook to build vulnerabilities for law enforcement to access encrypted devices and messages for years.
Tech companies have argued against building backdoors, as they argue malicious actors would be able to exploit them.
Tomi Engdahl says:
CIA Secretly Owned Global Encryption Provider, Built Backdoors, Spied On 100+ Foreign Governments: Report
https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2020/02/12/cia-secretly-bought-global-encryption-provider-built-backdoors-spied-on-100-foreign-governments/#25fed1c7580a
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.facebook.com/126000117413375/posts/3246873548659334/
Sysadmin/IT and infosec will understand this one. Why do we even hire you? Via https://twitter.com/nixcraft/status/1228255188747608064
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.csoonline.com/article/2975193/9-steps-completely-anonymous-online.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
A new senate bill would create a US data protection agency
https://techcrunch.com/2020/02/13/gilliband-law-data-agency/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Reader question, answered: If I have https, do I need a VPN?
A reader posits that all you need is https in your web browser to be “perfectly safe.” As if anything can be “perfectly safe.”
https://www.zdnet.com/article/reader-question-answered-if-i-have-https-do-i-need-a-vpn/
Is not the encryption provided by my browser on the data I exchange with an https: site sufficient to protect the data? My understanding has been that it is. If so, a VPN is not needed for this purpose. Furthermore if so, it’s perfectly safe for me to exchange private data (say, account info with my bank or stock broker) over any public, open network.
Of course, VPN’s provide several other valuable functions, but as I understand it they do NOT provide any additional security to the actual data exchanged.
Let’s get this out of the way: It is never, ever, in any way, ever “perfectly safe” to exchange data over the internet, whether via a public, open network (shudder) or even from your home or office.
If reading ZDNet regularly tells you anything, it’s that there are security breaches and security flaws throughout our networks that occur with constant, never-ending, and pretty much overwhelming regularity.
Suffice to say, our data is never “perfectly safe,” and so we must always take action to protect ourselves, our data, and by extension, our financial and physical security.
Just because you’re not paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.
Because of this reality, we often practice a belt-and-suspenders approach to all of our security practices. That means, even though we may have one level of security, it’s never enough. That method of security may be cracked or buggy, or there may be some other reason it’s leaky. It’s always best to have multiple approaches to keeping safe.
So, yes, https does help. But it’s only one security accessory in a belts-and-suspenders-security ensemble.
You have no way of telling if the Wi-Fi router has been spoofed, and you’re really sending all your data through a pineapple or some other data spoofing device.
VPNs absolutely do provide data security services. Packets are encrypted from the local browser to the VPN service provider. All packets.
Now, it’s important to understand where this encryption helps and where it doesn’t. If you’re on your web browser in a coffee shop and you’re talking to your bank’s web interface, your traffic is encrypted in your browser, goes from your device to a local router, to the local ISP, across a whole bunch of hops, and then to your bank, where it’s decrypted.
Https will encrypt that entire pipe, but only if everything is set up correctly.
Now, if you’re using a VPN (with https or not), your data is encrypted on your computer. If you’re using https, the https-encrypted data is encrypted again by the VPN.
The benefit of VPN encryption is from your device to the VPN provider on the internet. This protects nearly all coffee shops, airports, and hotel lurkers who might try to snag your data in motion.
THINKING ABOUT SECURITY
When it comes to thinking about mobile security, it’s important to keep in mind the endpoints and what’s being encrypted. Let’s look at the last three we discussed:
https: Encrypts web traffic between the web browser and the webserver.
Wi-Fi: Encrypts all network traffic between the mobile device and the Wi-Fi router in your local coffee shop, hotel, airport, etc.
VPN: Encrypts all network traffic between your mobile device and the VPN service provider on the internet.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Virtual Peephole © GPL3+
Spy on cameras around the world.
https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/carolinebuttet/virtual-peephole-355c1c
There are an estimated 770 million surveillance cameras around the world. Some of them still have their default password, making them easily accessible, by anyone who has an internet connection.
This virtual peephole is a device to watch some of those unsecured cameras. Each time the peephole is opened, a different camera is shown.
Tomi Engdahl says:
From trust to population dynamics: the broader trends affecting the security sector in 2020
https://www.axis.com/blog/secure-insights/macro-trends-security-sector-2020/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Increasing Your Security Posture
https://pentestmag.com/increasing-your-security-posture/
Tomi Engdahl says:
These 20 ‘Hackers’ Helped Shape The Cybersecurity Landscape Forever
https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2020/02/10/ranked-the-worlds-20-greatest-hackers/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sloppy’ Mobile Voting App Used in Four States Has ‘Elementary’ Security Flaws
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/akw7mp/sloppy-mobile-voting-app-used-in-four-states-has-elementary-security-flaws
MIT researchers say an attacker could intercept and alter votes, while making voters think their votes have been cast correctly, or trick the votes server into accepting connections from an attacker.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intro to Malware Detection using YARA
Everything you need to get started detecting malware with YARA
https://medium.com/bugbountywriteup/intro-to-malware-detection-using-yara-eacab8373cf4
Have you ever wondered how malware is detected? How do malware scanners work? How does Gmail know that the suspicious attachment you got was “dangerous”?
After all, malware comes in all shapes and sizes, and there is no one characteristic that tells you whether a file can cause harm or not.
How is Malware Detected?
Malware detection is often done through the identification of certain features of known malicious files.
What is YARA?
YARA is a tool that identifies malware by creating descriptions that look for certain characteristics. Each description can be either a text or a binary pattern. These descriptions are called “rules”. And by using rules that specify regex patterns, YARA enables the detection of specific patterns in files that might indicate that the file is malicious.
By using hex patterns, plain text patterns, wild-cards, case-insensitive strings, and special operators, YARA rules can be incredibly diverse and effective at detecting a wide range of malware signatures.
YARA is multiplatform and supports both Windows and Unix based systems. You can use it both as a command-line tool as well as a Python extension to use in your Python scripts.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Our personal health history is too valuable to be harvested by the tech giants
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/16/our-personal-health-history-is-too-valuable-to-be-harvested-by-tech-giants
Action to prevent deeper access to our private lives and data is more essential than ever
Even if you remove your name, date of birth and NHS number to “anonymise” yourself, a full health history will reveal your age, gender, the places where you have lived, your family relationships and aspects of your lifestyle.
Used in combination with other available information, this may be enough to verify that this medical history relates to you personally and to target you online. Consequently, whenever the NHS shares health data, even if it is anonymised, we need to have confidence in who it goes to and what they can do with it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Facebook asks for a moat of regulations it already meets
Just like GDPR helped the tech giants
https://techcrunch.com/2020/02/17/regulate-facebook/
Facebook already fulfills most of the regulatory requirements it’s asking governments to lay on the rest of the tech industry. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is in Brussels lobbying the European Union’s regulators as they form new laws to govern artificial intelligence, content moderation and more. But if they follow Facebook’s suggestions, they might reinforce the social network’s power rather than keep it in check by hamstringing
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dell Technologies sells RSA to Symphony Technology Group consortium for $2.075 billion
The move simplifies Dell’s portfolio of companies and allows RSA to focus on its core security mission.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/dell-technologies-sells-rsa-to-symphony-technology-group-consortium-for-2-075-billion/
RSA provides security technologies for threat detection and response, identity and access management as well as fraud prevention. RSA has more than 12,500 customers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Layered security approach (is only as good as ….)
https://www.plixer.com/blog/layered-security-approach/
A layered security approach for detecting malware cyber-attacks is the current “go-to” way to defend both network perimeters and individual endpoints. But layered security doesn’t accomplish much unless it triggers an appropriate and effective response.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Understanding Onion Architecture
https://www.codeguru.com/csharp/csharp/cs_misc/designtechniques/understanding-onion-architecture.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
EMOTIONS WILL SHAPE HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE DIGITAL SPACE
https://blog.netprofile.fi/emotions-will-shape-human-rights-in-the-digital-space
It is only realism to admit that we are entering a completely new era of human rights. Communications technology and artificial intelligence have already brought new challenges and continue to create serious threats to human rights, democracy, and rule of law.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The US Fears Huawei Because It Knows How Tempting Backdoors Are
https://www.wired.com/story/huawei-backdoors-us-crypto-ag/amp
US officials allege that Huawei has backdoors in its technology. The US knows firsthand how powerful those can be.
Tomi Engdahl says:
I freaked out when I saw what sites were telling Facebook about me
https://www.fastcompany.com/90457097/i-freaked-out-when-i-saw-what-sites-were-telling-facebook-about-me?partner=rss&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=rss+fastcompany&utm_content=rss
I’ve only spent an hour on Facebook in recent months, under a fake name. But a new feature proves that it knows a lot about what I’ve been doing online.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How To Measure And Improve The Success Of Your Security Operations
https://www.forbes.com/sites/extrahop/2020/01/24/how-to-measure-and-improve-the-success-of-your-security-operations/
As we head into 2020 and beyond, cybersecurity will continue to take a larger and larger chunk of enterprise budgets—which means your security programs will come under more scrutiny than ever. The pressure to make smart, informed decisions about your security posture will only increase.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Every metric creates an incentive for the security team to act a certain way, and it’s important to understand the incentives created by your selected metrics and KPIs. It is also important to select metrics the security team can actually influence through good security practices.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/extrahop/2020/01/24/how-to-measure-and-improve-the-success-of-your-security-operations/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://pentestmag.com/red-teaming-10000-feet/