About Brent Huston

I am the CEO of MicroSolved, Inc. and a security evangelist. I have spent the last 20+ years working to make the Internet safer for everyone on a global scale. I believe the Internet has the capability to contribute to the next great leap for mankind, and I want to help make that happen!

ClawBack Insights :: A Conversation with MicroSolved, CEO, Brent Huston

I recently got interviewed over email by one of my mentees. I thought their questions were pretty interesting and worth sharing with the community. This session focused on ClawBack™ and was done for a college media class assignment. I hope you enjoy the interview as much as I did giving it. 

Q: What is ClawBack?

ClawBack is a platform for helping organizations detect data leaks. It’s a cloud-based engine focused on three specific kinds of leaked data – source code, device and application configurations and credentials. It systematizes many of the manual efforts which mature organizations had been doing either partially, or in an ad hoc fashion, and makes them ongoing, dependable and available to organizations of any size and technical capability.

The engine lets the customer pick monitoring terms, and yes, we have a very nice guide available in the online help to guide them. Once the terms are chosen, the engine goes to work and begins to scour the sites most commonly associated with these types of leaks. At first, it does historical searches to catch the client up to the moment, and then, periodically, it provides ongoing searching for signs of leaked data.

Once a leaked dataset is found, the user is alerted and can view the findings in the web portal. They can take immediate action from the takedown advice we provide in online help, or they can choose to archive the alert or mark it as a false positive to be ignored in the future. Email alerts, team accounts and alert exports for SEIM/SOAR integration are also available to customers at the advanced levels.

Basically, ClawBack is a tool to help developers find code that accidentally slipped to the Internet, network admins and security teams find configurations and credentials that have escaped into the wild. We wanted to make this easy, and raise the maturity level of data leak detection for all organizations. We think we hit the mark with ClawBack, and we hope you do too.

Q: Why did your team create ClawBack and why now?

This is a great question! For many years now, we have been working a variety of security incidents that all tie back to attackers exploiting leaked data. They routinely comb the Internet looking in these common repositories and posting locations for code, configs and credentials. Once they find them, they are pretty quick to take advantage.

Take for example, a leaked device configuration from a router. The global paste bins, code repositories and forums are full of these kinds of leaks. In many cases, these leaked files contain not just the insights the attacker can gain from the configuration, but often, logins and passwords that they can use to compromise the device. Many also give up cryptographic secrets, network management credentials and other significantly dangerous information. The attackers just harvest it, use it and then spread into other parts of the network – stealing as they go.

At MSI, we just got tired of seeing organizations compromised the same way, over and over again. Time after time, the clients would say they had no idea the data had been exposed. Some had ad hoc processes they ran to search for them, and others had tools that just weren’t getting the job done. We knew we had to make something that could help everyone solve this problem and it had to be easy to use, flexible and affordable. Nothing like that was on the market, so we built it instead.

Q: How does ClawBack address the issues of leaked critical data?

As you read above, we wanted to focus on the things that hurt the most – leaked code, configs and credentials. These three types of leaks are at the core of more than 90% of the leak-related incidents we’ve worked over the last several years. We didn’t try to solve every problem with this new tool – or make it a swiss army knife. We focused only on those 3 kinds of leaks.

Today, ClawBack monitors the most common sites where these leaks often occur. It monitors many of the global pastebins associated with leaks, forums and support sites where folks often accidentally expose data while getting or giving help and work repositories where many of these items often end up from inadvertent user errors or via misconfigured tools.

ClawBack provides the dependable process and ongoing vigilance that the most mature firms have access to – and it brings that capability to everyone for less than a fancy cup of coffee a day.

Q: How is it different than DLP solutions?

For starters, there’s no hardware, software or agents to deploy and manage. The cloud-based platform is so simple to use that most customers are up and monitoring in less than 5 minutes. You simply register, select your subscription, input monitoring terms and ClawBack is off and running. It’s literally that easy!

Now, DLP is a great tool. When it’s properly configured and managed, it’s very capable. Most of our ClawBack clients have DLP solutions of some sort in place. The problem is, most of these data leaks occur in ways that render the DLP unable to assist. In most cases, the data leaks in the incidents we have worked have occurred outside of the corporate network that the DLP is monitoring. When we traced back the root of the incident, most of them came from workers who were not using the corporate network when they made their grave mistake.

Additionally, of those that did use the corporate network, often the DLP was either misconfigured, the alert was missed or the transaction was protected by cryptography that circumvented the DLP solution. A few of the incidents came from users who routinely handle code and configuration files, so the anomaly-based DLP tools assumed the leak was normal, usual traffic.

Sadly, the last group of incidents that had DLP in place went undetected, simply because the DLP solution was configured to meet some regulatory baseline like HIPAA, PCI or the like and was only searching for leaked PII that matched those specific kinds of patterns. In those cases, source code, configurations and even dumped credentials were far outside of the protection provided by the DLP.

ClawBack takes a different approach. It lets users know when this type of data turns up and lets them respond. It’s easy, plain language monitoring term management makes it trivial to define proper terms to tackle the 3 critical types of leaks. We provide a very detailed set of suggested terms for customers in our online help, which most folks master in moments.

Q: If an organization doesn’t have any in-house development or code, what can ClawBack do for them? Same question for organizations that outsource their device management – how can they get help from ClawBack?

Organizations that don’t do any development or have any source code are few and far between, but they still gain immense capability from ClawBack. Nearly every organization has device and application configurations and credentials that they need to monitor for exposure. Even if you outsource network management, you should still use ClawBack as a sanity check to watch for data leaks. We’ve seen significant numbers of leak-related security breaches from networks managed by third parties.

Requesting the key device configurations from your vendor and inputting identifying data into ClawBack is easy and makes sure that those configurations don’t end up somewhere they shouldn’t – causing you pain. Identifying unique account names and such, and using those as ClawBack monitoring terms can give you early warning when attackers dump credentials, hashes or other secrets that could cause you harm. Being able to change those passwords, kill accounts, increase monitoring and claw back those files through takedown efforts can mean the difference between a simple security incident and a complete data breach with full legal, regulatory and reputational impacts.

Q: Several people have said you are leaving money on the table with your pricing model – why is the pricing so affordable?

The main reason that the product costs under $200 per month at the highest level, currently, is that I wanted not-for-profit firms to be able to afford to protect themselves. Credit unions, charities, co-op utilities and the like have been huge supporters of MicroSolved for the last 30 years, and I wanted to build a solution that didn’t leave them out – simply because they have limited funds. Sure, we could charge larger fees and only target the Fortune 500 or the like, and make a lot of money doing it. The problem is, the security incidents we built this to help eliminate happen to small, mid-size and less than Fortune 500 companies too and there are a LOT MORE of those firms than 500. They need help, and they need to be able to afford the help they require.

Secondly, we were able to get to such an affordable price point by really focusing on the specific problem. We didn’t build a bunch of unneeded features or spend years coding capabilities to address other security problems. ClawBack detects leaks of critical data. That’s it. It provides basic alerting and reporting. We based the monitoring technology off our existing machine learning platform and re-used much of the know how we have developing past products and services like TigerTrax™ and SilentTiger™. What saves us money and resources, saves our clients money and resources.

Lastly, at MSI, we believe in making more value than we harvest. We want to provide significant levels of value to our clients that way over scales what they pay for it. We can do that using technology, our expertise and by building solutions that focus on significant problems that many feel are untenable. We’ve been doing it for almost 30 years now, so we must be getting something right…

Q: What’s next for ClawBack? Is there a road map?

We are talking about adding some forms of risk determination to the findings. We are currently in discussion with clients and experts about how best to do that and communicate it. We are discussing using some additional machine learning techniques that we developed for our social media monitoring and threat intelligence platforms. That’s the next step for us, that we can see.

We’re also looking at user feedback and curating what folks are asking about and thinking about when using the product. That feedback is being ranked and added to the road map as we create it. We’ve got some ideas of where we want to go with ClawBack, but honestly, the tool addresses the problem we built it to help with. That’s the core mission, and anything outside of that is likely to fall out of the mix.

Q: You have a history of designing interesting products – what is on the horizon or what are you playing with in the lab these days?

I wish I could tell you about the things we are playing with, because it is fascinating. We are exploring a lot of new capabilities in TigerTrax with different machine learning models and predictive techniques. We’re working on updates to HoneyPoint™ and SilentTiger that will bring some very cool new features to those capabilities.

We’re also continuing to gather, analyze and deliver specific types of threat intelligence and data analytics of hostile data sets. We’re studying adversarial use of machine learning techniques, attacks against different AI, IoT and cloud platforms and we’re diving deep into cyber-economics and other factors related to breaches. I’m also working on a pretty interesting project with some of my mentees, where we are studying the evolution, use and capability growth of various phishing kits in use today. The mentees are learning a lot and I’m getting to apply significant amounts of machine learning techniques to new data and in new ways that I haven’t explored before. All in all, pretty cool stuff!

I’ll let you know what we come up with. Thanks for interviewing me, and thanks to the readers for checking this out. Give me a shout out on Twitter – @lbhuston and let me know if you have questions or feedback on ClawBack. I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Introducing ClawBack :: Data Leak Detection Powered By MicroSolved

Cb 10We’ve worked with our clients and partners to put together a world-class data leak detection platform that is so easy to use that most security teams have it up and running in less than five minutes. No hardware appliance or software agent to deploy, no console to manage and, best of all, affordable for organizations of any size.

In short, ClawBack is data leak detection done right.

There’s a lot more to the story, and that’s why we put together this short (3 minute) video to describe ClawBack, its capabilities and why we created it. Once you check it out, we think you’ll see just how ClawBack fits the mission of MSI to make the online world safer for all of us.

View the video here.

You can also learn a lot more about ClawBack, its use cases and some of the ways we hope it can help you here. On that page, you can also find pricing for three different levels of service, more videos walking you through how to sign up and a video demo of the platform.

Lastly, if you’d like to just get started, you can visit the ClawBack Portal, and select Register to sign up and put ClawBack to work immediately on providing detection for your leaked data.

In the coming weeks, we’ll be talking more about what drove us to develop ClawBack, the success stories we’ve had just while building and testing the platform, and provide some more specifics about how to make the most of ClawBack’s capabilities. In the meantime, thanks for reading, check it out and if you have any questions, drop us a line.

State of Security Podcast Episode 17 is Out!

In this episode (~45 minutes), I answer questions from the audience around blockchain and smart contract security considerations. I cover some of the reasons why I think these technologies are important, what their potential impacts are likely to be and how information security teams should prepare. Some of the questions drift into changes around store of value, investment insights and other closely related topics.

This episode is sponsored by MachineTruth™ – a new passive, analytics-based solution for network inventory, traffic analysis and security baselining. Learn more at  http://www.machinetruth.net.

 

State of Security Podcast Episode 16 is Out!

This episode is a tidbit episode, weighing in just under 20 minutes. I sat down last week with Megan Mayer (@Megan__Bytes) in the lobby bar of the Hyatt during the Central Ohio Security Summit. Pardon the background noise, but we riffed on what Megan believes are the top 3 things that every security manager or infosec team should do this week. She had some great insights and I think her points are fantastic.

Give it a listen, and as always, if you have feedback or have someone in mind that you’d like to have interviewed on the podcast or a topic that you’d like to see covered, drop me a line (@lbhuston). 

As always, thanks for listening and stay safe out there!

 

Network Segmentation with MachineTruth

network segmentation with MachineTruth

About MachineTruthTM

We’ve just released a white paper on the topic of leveraging MachineTruth™, our proprietary network and device analytics platform, to segment or separate network environments.

Why Network Segmentation?

The paper covers the reasons to consider network segmentation, including the various drivers across clients and industries that we’ve worked with to date. It also includes a sample work flow to guide you through the process of performing segmentation with an analytics and modeling-focused solution, as opposed to the traditional plug and pray method, many organizations are using today.

Lastly, the paper covers how MachineTruthTM is different than traditional approaches and what you can expect from such a work plan.

To find out more:

If you’re considering network segmentation, analysis, inventory or mapping, then MachineTruthTM is likely a good fit for your organization. Download the white paper today and learn more about how to make segmentation easier, safer, faster and more affordable than ever before!

Interested? Download the paper here:

https://signup.microsolved.com/machinetruth-segmentation-wp/

As always, thanks for reading and we look forward to working with you. If you have any questions, please drop us a line (info@microsolved.com) or give us a call (614-351-1237) to learn more.

State Of Security Podcast Episode 15 is out!

In this episode, the tables get turned on me and I become the one being interviewed. The focus is on honeypots, intrusion deception and bounces from technology to industry and to overall trends.

This is a great conversation with an amazing young man, Vale Tolpegin, a student from Georgia Tech with an amazing style and a fantastic set of insights. He really asks some great questions and clarifying follow ups. This young man has a bright future ahead!

Tune in and check it out! Let me know on Twitter (@lbhuston) what you liked, hated or what stuck with you.

Why Our Firm Loves The Columbus Cyber Security Community

Yesterday, I was doing an interview with one of my mentees. The questions she asked brought up some interesting points about MSI, our history and Columbus. I thought I would share 3 of the questions with the SoS readers:

How Did The Firm End Up In The Columbus Cyber Security Community?

Brent Huston:

“You have to remember that when I founded MicroSolved, back in 1992, there wasn’t a strong commercial Internet yet. Most of the electronic commerce efforts and digital business was done via dial-up or dedicated networks. I came to Columbus in 1988 to go to school and eventually ended up at DeVry. I was working at Sterling Software and doing a lot of experimentation with technology. Somehow, I got completely interested in security, hacking, phreaking and online crime. I took that passion and began to explore building it into a business. There were a few of us starting consulting companies back then, and Columbus was certainly an interesting place to be in the early 90s. Eventually, Steve Romig, from The Ohio State University started putting groups together – meeting at different parks and restaurants. That was the first place I really identified as the beginning of a security community in the city.”

Continue reading

What to Do When You Gotta Have FTP

FTP has been around for a long time. While it has grown long in the tooth, it continues to be an essential protocol for many business processes – especially in the financial industry. Clearly, it is a functional and useful tool, but it certainly also comes with significant security risk.

First of all, in its bare form, it is a plain-text protocol and open to capture and observation by anyone in the communications path. Firewall rules pertaining to its different modes of operation are also often confusing for novice network techs and admins, sometimes leading to inadvertent security issues in its deployment. Worse yet, it is a commonly scanned, brute forced and exploited attack surface as well.

But, if you are any of the industry firms where FTP is still a mainstay (banking, wealth management, title management, loan processing, imaging, etc.) how can you do your work and still try and keep security as tight as possible?

Let’s start with identification. You need to know if you have FTP exposed to the Internet, partner networks or on any segments where trust is low. For each instance, you need to understand the data that is being moved, the sources and destinations of that data, the authentication mechanism and model in play (you’re using strong passwords and MFA, right?) and you need to carefully consider the trusts that exist within the system and network environment where the server lives.

Then, you can address prevention. Do you have an alternative to replace it with SFTP or another encrypted protocol? Does it have to be exposed to the world, or can you use access controls or restrict the source IPs allowed to connect to it with either host configurations or firewall rules? How is the server component kept updated to ensure that patching is taking place?

Let’s talk detection. Are logs being generated, stored and reviewed? How would you know if a brute force attack had exposed your data or credentials? How would you identify malicious behavior against the FTP service? Many companies we talk to (especially smaller ones), don’t have good plans for monitoring these systems, even though they may be mission critical.

If something bad happened, you should also have a response process in place for managing FTP data. What would you do if the data were compromised? What would you need to do if the FTP server were not available or the network was down for an extended period? Running table top exercises is usually a good way to develop and refine the policies and processes needed around FTP data exchanges.

Lastly, your organization should have a plan for recovering from problems with the FTP server. Is the data backed up within an appropriate window and how would/could that data be restored? What would be the business and financial challenges to recovery? How would you handle notification of partners or customers that were impacted?

These are pretty basic questions for infosec teams, but for many organizations with more ad-hoc IT staff or for smaller organizations with only contractors they can be daunting. 

Hopefully our advice above gets you thinking about FTP. As always, if you have questions or need assistance executing any of the above – MSI is here to help. But, if your team takes this list and executes against it – you should be much better off than before the project began.

As always, thanks for reading, and until next time, stay safe out there! 

We’re Growing Again!

From social media:

Got #infosec skills? We’re looking for a new team member to join MicroSolved. Pen-testing, threat intel & innovation are core reqs. Ethics, rapid learning, positivity are must haves. #Columbus preferred. Get in touch!  

Here is a bit more information: 

This engineer will engage with clients to review technical systems/applications, perform vulnerability assessments/pen-testing, application assessments, cyber threat intelligence assessments, network segmentation analysis, validate technical findings and support customers with security issues across the attack event horizon. 

Projects will cover the scope of networks, applications, security devices, servers/systems and likely embedded systems/components. Deep enterprise network knowledge in one or more areas of networking and/or security is a requirement. Familiarity with NIST standards/cyber security frameworks is preferred. 

To apply, send a resume and cover letter to (jobs <at> microsolved <dot> com). Please, no recruiters and no phone calls. If you have questions, please reach out on Twitter to @lbhuston. 

Thanks! 

Are You Seeing This? Join a Threat Sharing Group!

Just a quick note today about threat sharing groups. 

I am talking to more and more companies and organizations that are putting together local, regional or vertical market threat sharing groups. These are often adhoc and usually driven by security practitioners, who are helping each other with cooperative defenses and sharing of new tactics and threat patterns (think TTPs (tactics, techniques & procedures)) or indicators of compromise (IOCs). Many times, these are informal email lists or RSS feeds that the technicians subscribe to and share what they are seeing in the trenches. 

A few folks have tried to commercialize them, but in most cases, these days, the sharing is simply free and open. 

If you get a chance to participate in one or more of these open source networks, you might want to check it out. Many of our clients are saying great things about the data they get via the networks and often they have helped contain incidents and breaches in a rapid fashion.

If you want to discuss your network, or if you have one that you’d like me to help promote, hit me up on Twitter (@lbhuston). If you are looking for one to join, check Twitter and I’ll share as folks allow, or I’ll make private connections as possible. 

As always, thanks for reading, and until next time, stay safe out there!