Several months ago, MSI was called for an incident response. The business was under a denial of service attack (DoS). They had no internet connectivity. They had no phone service. They were under attack.
State Of Security Podcast Episode 15 is out!
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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.
Vendor Printer Management and Security
Over the past couple years we’ve encountered increasing numbers of customers using various print management vendors. Many that we have encountered are using the same application suite to manage the printers, and by default it has a blank admin password. In most of the instances we’ve observed this parameter has not been changed, or a strong password set. Likewise most of the managed printers also are not configured to use authentication or are using the default credentials.
When we encounter this one of the “benefits” this application affords us, due to the fact that it keeps a fairly detailed inventory with model number, is that it allows us to pinpoint areas of attack and compromise. Printers that we know have issues, or printers with functionality such as saving to network shares, SNMP etc. can be leveraged without doing activities that would be easily detectible on the network.
Insurers Take Note: Ohio Senate Bill 273 is Now in Effect
Have you ever heard of the New York State Department of Financial Services regulation requiring financial services companies to adopt cybersecurity measures that “match relevant risks and keep pace with technological advancements” (23 NYCRR 500)? If you haven’t, you should take a look, even if you don’t do business in the State of New York. This regulation is having a snowball effect that is affecting financial institutions across the nation.
Office 365/G Suite – Bypassing MFA…
Office 365 and G Suite MFA bypass
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) has been shown to be a critical control to prevent business email compromise (BEC) as well as compromise of other critical systems. Recently, some information came to light about attacks on Office 365 and G Suite applications that bypass the protection of MFA.
Compliance
In a previous blog on healthcare information access concerns, I had expressed concerns for internal origins for data breaches. Further research to help mitigate some of these concerns has led to an observation that many data breach incidents could be funneled to a few common origins. The intent for sharing below some of the more unusual or high profile cases is to drive home the point that it really does happen in real life. And passive awareness of regulatory controls are not enough; active exercising and use of in-place policies is necessary.
Be it intentional, malicious or accidental HIPAA information disclosure, information leak occurs. Continue reading
Phishing and O365 – Recovery…
In a previous post, we talked about compromised Office 365 (O365) mailboxes and how to identify IOC’s – indicators of compromise. Despite all of your best attempts, phishing is still the single most efficient way into most if not all organizations.
Micro Podcast – Business E-mail Compromise – “Protect”
In this episode of the MSI podcast, we continue our series on the business email compromise checklist. While BEC is a significant issue and a common form of compromise leading to fraud, there are several things you can do to combat this form of attack. The second step is to “Protect”.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/MSIMedia/MSIMicro_005_BEC_Protect.mp3
If you would like to know more about MicroSolved or its services please send an e-mail to info@microsolved.com or visit microsolved.com.
Compromised O365 mailbox – Common IOC’s
A good day phishing is better than a bad day doing anything else! (Or was that fishing…)
Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks saw a 479% increase between Q4 2017 and Q4 2018 per Proofpoint. The dramatic increase in web-based implementations like Office 365 (O365) contributes to the corresponding increase in attacks. Yeah, yeah, we’re going to talk about phishing again, @TheTokenFemale? Really?
Yes. Because no matter how well trained your people are, no matter how diligent…everyone has a bad day. Your organization may not be the “phish in a barrel” type…but it just takes once. A family member in the hospital, a rush to clean things up before vacation, or any kind of significant distraction can make the most diligent person overlook…and click.
Using Blockchain? Better Have Good Key Management
Algorithms, step-by-step processes designed to tell a computer what to do and how to do it, are used to encipher data. Passwords and crypto keys are strings of characters needed to decrypt enciphered data. If these strings are not properly managed, you can lose the ability to decrypt this data forever. That is why proper key management is so important any time you are using cryptography on your systems. When using Blockchain, it can be especially important.
The most notable use of Blockchain to date is in Cryptocurrency. Last December, the 30-year-old founder of the Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX reportedly died abroad. Unfortunately, he went to his reward without telling anyone the password for his storage wallet, causing the loss of up to 190 million dollars. What a mess! The exchange is now out of business and the court has appointed a monitor (Ernst & Young) and law firms to represent QuadrigaCX customers. An object lesson indeed for employing proper key management.