Computer security, cybersecurity, or information technology security is the protection of computer systems and networks from information disclosure, theft of, or damage to their hardware, software, or electronic data, as well as from the disruption or misdirection of the services they provide.
Cybersecurity is a significant challenge in the cloud environment with the rapidly evolving threat landscape. Furthermore, with more businesses adopting cloud computing and its amalgamation with emerging technologies, the challenges have increased correspondingly. Hence, the focus should be on identifying these next-gen cybersecurity challenges and preparing to overcome them.
Cloud computing has improved IT efficiency, flexibility, and scalability. However, all these features have one common challenge, security. The problem with cloud computing cybersecurity is that organizations must correctly distinguish where the CSP’s (Cloud Service Provider) responsibility ends and theirs begins. This gap increases the organization’s potential attack surface and enables malicious actors to infiltrate information systems. This article discusses next-gen challenges and risks and looks at how organizations can prepare themselves to overcome them to keep critical information assets’ confidentiality, integrity, and availability intact.
Smart cities have become a reality today, with governments, businesses, and residents, making use of advanced technology to increase productivity and efficiency at home and the workplace and make lives better. However, the challenges to ensuring safety, security, and data privacy have risen proportionately, leading to the requirement for a unique cybersecurity model for smart cities.
A city using advanced technology infrastructure and other cutting-edge solutions to improve its operational efficiency, provide better services, and improve the lives of its citizens qualifies as a smart city. The technology ecosystem often consists of ICT (Information and communication technology), IoT (Internet of Things), AI/ML (Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning), Blockchain, Cloud computing, etc. However, using the latest technologies has its challenges of cybersecurity risks, compromising the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of PII (Personally Identifiable Information) of its citizens. Below is a closer look into cybersecurity risks in smart cities, their challenges, the threats they are exposed to, and the potential solutions to overcome such hurdles.
Blockchain technology, or distributed ledger technology (DLT), as it is alternatively often called, is one of the hottest topics in the technology sector as of now. A blockchain is a specific type of distributed ledger that stores data in blocks that are linked together via a cryptographic signature function.
This, in short, works by always using the signature of the last block plus the data of the current block to sign the current block. Given enough computing power behind creating the hash signatures for new blocks, a process that is known as mining (PoW), the resulting public ledger is virtually unmodifiable for malicious actors, commending itself for applications that rely on mutual trust where trust cannot be easily applied.
So in my previous article on quantum computing, we talked about where we are today, and where we are headed in regards to breakthroughs in the technology as well as touching on some basics of “what is quantum computing“. In this article, I explore what quantum cryptography and cryptography is like in a post-quantum world.
So, a refresher: quantum computing is set to transform cryptography due to the revolutionary, non-deterministic way of operating.
How will they affect existing cryptography algorithms and which options do we know today for doing cryptography in a post-quantum world?
For as long as it has been in development inside the science labs of the universities, corporations and government agencies, quantum computing has been considered the next frontier in cybersecurity. Quantum computers are machines that do not work with classical electrical on and off-states but instead rely on quantum states that can be in several states at once, a circumstance known as „superposition(1)“. While they are still in their very infancy, their capabilities have been mystified over and over and it’s probably fair to say that quantum computing is one of the most misunderstood technological advancements of our day and age.
Within the ongoing arms race in the perimeter of information security, artificial intelligence and machine learning are two of the most promising innovations.
While AI in common „personal assistants“, like those developed by Amazon, Alibaba and Google has recently reached levels at which it can convincingly make phone calls on behalf of their users, the capabilities of AI in the hands of defenders, as well as attackers, will likely evolve from buzzword to technology of significant importance over the next years.
On the defensive side, artificial intelligence powered intrusion detection will deliver the ability to pick up on anomalies within an organizations network or perimeters and raise alerts or even countermeasures much quicker than would be possible for any human security team. AI technologies supreme and literally superhumanly quick pattern recognition capabilities enable it to consistently collect intelligence regarding new threats, attempted attacks, acceptable user behaviour and constantly evolve its knowledge. This does allow AI-powered intrusion detection mechanism to find the proverbial needle in the haystack (and react to it) much faster and more concise than classical signature-based intrusion detection systems or a human security analyst.
Azure Security Center is a cybersecurity solution that leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning integrating with the organization’s digital estate.
This does have a flip-side, of course: The same AI capabilities could be used to learn about specific defences and normal user behaviour pattern in an organization and mask the malicious behaviour so it will not be recognized by classical intrusion detection systems or human onlookers.
In today’s interconnected cloud-first, mobile world, securing your online apps and services is vital. However, building secure solutions which deliver value in today’s complex and regulated environment can be a challenge. With information essentially becoming the currency of the digital age, the creation of multiple compliance regulations has forced organizations to implement technical security measures to protect their online systems and customers. Meeting these compliance requirements can be challenging, especially if you are leveraging the benefits of the cloud. Not only do you need to build and configure your apps and services securely, but you also need to ensure your chosen cloud provider meets any necessary compliance requirements.
Compliance in the Cloud Compliance Is a Shared Responsibility
On Azure, Microsoft is responsible for meeting the compliance requirements for its platform while you are responsible for any compliance measures which relate to your cloud service.
With more certifications than any other cloud service provider, Azure meets a broad set of international as well as industry-specific compliance standards. These include the GDPR, ISO 27001, HIPAA, SOC, among others. Microsoft also conducts regular comprehensive audits to ensure it maintains these standards and adheres to the security controls needed.
However, as stated, ensuring your services that are running on Azure meet compliance requirements is your responsibility. Thankfully Microsoft Azure provides a few tools which can help you secure your cloud services and meet the necessary compliance standards.
Now you might ask, why should I use a security baseline? First off – it’s for OS hardening, and it saves you a lot of manual work by having ready made settings setup and gives you the importable GPOs, as well as a multitude of custom ADMX files with them visually laid out for you in a spreadsheet.
This allows you to tweak your settings to what best suits your environment.
It’s an incredibly helpful tool for image building, particularly for those of us in verticals that require constant vigilance.
Now if you are new to OS hardening and security baselines, you really should check out Microsoft’s Security Compliance Toolkit!
You can get the Security baseline for Windows 10 “Creators Update (v1703) from here.
To some it may have passed under the radar, for others it might be of interest.
Microsoft has released a bug bounty program for hackers, white hats, bug hunters and security researchers alike to discover, find and report vulnerabilities to Microsoft to strengthen the Microsoft portfolio.
Microsoft having dominated the market for home users and business computers have long been a favored target for cyber criminals, hobby hackers and other nefarious operatives. Meaning that just a zero-day vulnerability or any breach can cause a crisis like the recent WannaCry ransomware attack.
Microsoft has previously had bug bounty programs, but mostly they have been limited in time, or for specific suites.
Busy days, we had WannaCry remind us about the importance of patch compliance and mitigation (add political pun about encryption and weapons) and we saw IT and business rally to mitigate, patch and get their heads over water.
NotPetya spread over the same attack vector and utilized PsExec with the SMBv1 vulnerability but had a much more complicated payload, which turned out to not be ransomware, but a wiper prompting for a ransom, allowing no way to decrypt essentially rendering the data lost.
So with that in mind I decided to write a post about the upcoming Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, touching on Windows Defender ATP and security in general, and my thoughts surrounding it..
First off, it integrates Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) into Windows 10 essentially unifying the Windows threat protection stack.
To sum it up, it’s built in and not added on.
Security is complicated, it involves layer upon layer, there is exterior security, interior security, network, information, os hardening, user training and so on.
One of the best things with ATP?
It integrates with cloud intelligence and the rest of your security, giving you a single pane of glass for administration.
Windows Defender ATP dashboard view
Now what is the ATP? It covers a range of features such as:
Windows Defender Exploit Guard
Windows Defender Explot Guard (WDEG) uses information from the Microsoft Intelligent Security Graph (ISG) and provides a heavy set of intrusion rules and policies to assist and prrevent advanced threats, as well as zero day exploits.
Machine timeline from Exploit Guard
Windows Defender Application Guard
A real winner here I believe, we’ll see how it turns out when it goes live for everyone, but I like the idea of Windows Defender Application Guard (WDAG) because even if the OS stack, network stack is secure, does not necessarily mean your third-party applications for example your browser is. Example and point: when Tim in accounting accidentally downloads malicious malware or Rambo in security triggers a zero-day worm whilst researching in the wrong container, WDAG will isolate and contain the threat. Keeping your device, apps and data secure. At least in theory.
Windows Defender Device Guard
Also integrated into ATP, Device Guard allows whitelisting of applications on a per-device basis and if anything it gives the Security Operations Center better insight, and automated application control as well as implementation of DDG into ATP gives organizations an easy implementation. Well improved detection, response capabilities and a growing detection dictionary that includes more indicators of attacks (IoA) with a large suite being gathered into one product in the Windows threat protection stack will allow you to remedy, as well as spot weaknesses far faster then before, and reduces the overhead required and the custom implementations required to make all the systems “talk“.
So what is my take from this? I thoroughly believe that the creator of a product (Microsoft) is most likely the best to create a security solution best suited for their product (Windows and surrounding services).
To sum it up ATP integrated with Windows 10, and Cloud Intelligence (Office 365, Microsoft Azure) will be a huge step in the right direction, and be a valuable asset to any Service Operations Center or IT operation team.
As always if you have any suggestions about topics, articles, how-to’s and what not hit me up here or on twitter at @UlvBjornsson
Microsoft releases an advisory that no new vulnerabilities are found in Shadow Brokers release
May 2017
WannaCrypt is released by unknown attacker
Which utilizes [ETERNALBLUE] with [DOUBLE PULSAR] and a ransomware payload that demands 300-600 USD in Bitcoins from its infected hosts.
What does WannaCrypt do?
Infects
It attacks through [ETERNALBLUE] if MS17-010 is not installed.
Installs the Trojan if the attack is successful [DOUBLEPULSAR]
Encrypts
Encrypts 179 file types
Shows a message that demands for payment of 300$-600$ in bitcoins to a listed wallet.
Spreads
It scans the local LAN and wider internet for port 445
Attempts to infect over SMBv1 [ETERNALBLUE] if port is open.
Payments
We find references to three different wallets these are:
Let’s try to reduce the attack vectors, I’ll walk you through the practical remedies and reduction of attack vectors you can do; now.
Turn off SMB 1
Why? Because WannaCry utilizes the exploit, and unless you are on XP or 2003, you have no use for SMB1, and will be using SMB2/SMB3.
To disable SMBv1 on the SMB server, run the following cmdlet:
You can also remove it with “Server Manager” or use this snippet:
Remove-WindowsFeature FS-SMB1
If you want to check whether or not SMB 1.0 is active on your server you can run:
Get-SmbServerConfiguration
As you can see it states that EnableSMB1Protocol is currently True we wantto set this to False.
We can accomplish this by running the following snippet:
Set-SmbServerConfiguration -EnableSMB1Protocol $false -Force’ cmdlet, as shown below.
(Force is added to prevent it from pausing for confirmation, and run through.)
Let’s run this again to see if the configuration changed:
Get-SmbServerConfiguration
It is now set to false.
Patch your clients and servers.
WannaCrypt takes advantage of the MS17-010 vulnerability also known as the SMBv1 vulnerability, thankfully it has been patched with MS17-010. Depending on your patch regime, you should expedite and ensure that this patch goes through.
If your systems have been affected; DOUBLEPULSAR will have also been installed, so this will need to also be removed. A script is available (by COUNTERCEPT) that can remotely detect and remove the DOUBLEPULSAR backdoor.
Well improved detection, response capabilities and a growing detection dictionary that includes more indicators of attacks (IoA) with a large suite being gathered into one product in the Windows threat protection stack will allow you to remedy, as well as spot weaknesses far faster then before, and reduces the overhead required and the custom implementations required to make all the systems “talk“.
Ulv Bjørnsson 