content
stringlengths 194
506k
|
|---|
What is Trojan:Win32/Ymacco.AB73 infection?
In this article you will certainly locate regarding the interpretation of Trojan:Win32/Ymacco.AB73 and its adverse impact on your computer system. Such ransomware are a type of malware that is clarified by on the internet fraudulences to require paying the ransom money by a victim.
It is better to prevent, than repair and repent!
Subscribe to our Telegram channel to be the first to know about news and our exclusive materials on information security.
Most of the situations, Trojan:Win32/Ymacco.AB73 ransomware will certainly instruct its targets to launch funds move for the function of counteracting the amendments that the Trojan infection has actually introduced to the sufferer’s gadget.
These alterations can be as complies with:
- Anomalous binary characteristics. This is a way of hiding virus’ code from antiviruses and virus’ analysts.
- Ciphering the documents located on the sufferer’s hard disk drive — so the victim can no longer make use of the information;
- Preventing routine accessibility to the sufferer’s workstation. This is the typical behavior of a virus called locker. It blocks access to the computer until the victim pays the ransom.
The most normal networks whereby Trojan:Win32/Ymacco.AB73 are infused are:
- By means of phishing e-mails;
- As a repercussion of customer ending up on a source that organizes a destructive software;
As quickly as the Trojan is efficiently injected, it will certainly either cipher the data on the sufferer’s computer or stop the gadget from working in a correct manner – while likewise putting a ransom money note that discusses the demand for the victims to impact the payment for the purpose of decrypting the documents or bring back the file system back to the initial problem. In many circumstances, the ransom note will turn up when the client restarts the COMPUTER after the system has already been harmed.
Trojan:Win32/Ymacco.AB73 circulation channels.
In different corners of the world, Trojan:Win32/Ymacco.AB73 expands by jumps as well as bounds. Nevertheless, the ransom notes and tricks of extorting the ransom money quantity may vary depending upon certain local (local) settings. The ransom money notes and also techniques of obtaining the ransom money amount might vary depending on specific neighborhood (regional) setups.
Faulty alerts regarding unlicensed software application.
In particular areas, the Trojans typically wrongfully report having actually discovered some unlicensed applications made it possible for on the sufferer’s gadget. The sharp then requires the user to pay the ransom.
Faulty declarations regarding prohibited content.
In countries where software application piracy is much less preferred, this technique is not as effective for the cyber scams. Conversely, the Trojan:Win32/Ymacco.AB73 popup alert might incorrectly declare to be stemming from a police establishment as well as will report having located youngster porn or various other illegal data on the tool.
Trojan:Win32/Ymacco.AB73 popup alert may falsely assert to be deriving from a legislation enforcement establishment and will certainly report having situated kid porn or other unlawful information on the tool. The alert will similarly contain a requirement for the user to pay the ransom.
File Info:crc32: 5BB9168Amd5: ff830608f4debf16eb3784435edd2770name: FF830608F4DEBF16EB3784435EDD2770.mlwsha1: 62cb020614160b6ea27e101764a558034a22953fsha256: 73f6a346c631c71ac1cf3b92df8c8ace1ded905fb3fed5b0e840a56ffd3a1019sha512: b68a015886f9730c47ca4daec51bc8084e14c3caf0538217be944d8dec9c3d66f2a5f8a10a19fa7f7018e5b074e4265d8e396181a311572d4b4047205a76e948ssdeep: 3072:JigirXpEJT+Ffcrn0F4Bg15l/6jacfhZ5yEI1X03Qxg/:drJT+xccOgTl/wJ/5T3Qtype: PE32 executable (GUI) Intel 80386, for MS Windows
Version Info:0: [No Data]
Trojan:Win32/Ymacco.AB73 also known as:
|K7AntiVirus||Riskware ( 0040eff71 )|
|Elastic||malicious (high confidence)|
|Cynet||Malicious (score: 100)|
|K7GW||Riskware ( 0040eff71 )|
|ESET-NOD32||a variant of Win32/PSW.Delf.OSF|
|Sophos||ML/PE-A + Troj/Azorult-B|
|SentinelOne||Static AI – Malicious PE|
|MAX||malware (ai score=81)|
How to remove Trojan:Win32/Ymacco.AB73 ransomware?
Unwanted application has ofter come with other viruses and spyware. This threats can steal account credentials, or crypt your documents for ransom.
Reasons why I would recommend GridinSoft1
There is no better way to recognize, remove and prevent PC threats than to use an anti-malware software from GridinSoft2.
Download GridinSoft Anti-Malware.
You can download GridinSoft Anti-Malware by clicking the button below:
Run the setup file.
When setup file has finished downloading, double-click on the setup-antimalware-fix.exe file to install GridinSoft Anti-Malware on your system.
An User Account Control asking you about to allow GridinSoft Anti-Malware to make changes to your device. So, you should click “Yes” to continue with the installation.
Press “Install” button.
Once installed, Anti-Malware will automatically run.
Wait for the Anti-Malware scan to complete.
GridinSoft Anti-Malware will automatically start scanning your system for Trojan:Win32/Ymacco.AB73 files and other malicious programs. This process can take a 20-30 minutes, so I suggest you periodically check on the status of the scan process.
Click on “Clean Now”.
When the scan has finished, you will see the list of infections that GridinSoft Anti-Malware has detected. To remove them click on the “Clean Now” button in right corner.
Are Your Protected?
GridinSoft Anti-Malware will scan and clean your PC for free in the trial period. The free version offer real-time protection for first 2 days. If you want to be fully protected at all times – I can recommended you to purchase a full version:
If the guide doesn’t help you to remove Trojan:Win32/Ymacco.AB73 you can always ask me in the comments for getting help.
User Review( votes)
|
I’ve had the chance to work with many great security teams during my career and in 2012, I had the opportunity to join Verizon’s SOC in Germany. That was a very challenging experience considering its massive scale SecOps.
It was also by that time when I realized Splunk could be used as a sort of BI/Reporting platform given its ability to quickly generate eye-catching reports or dashboards from case or incident management systems data.
Today, when designing and building detection mechanisms, it’s easier to notice the link between threat detection engineering practice and overall SOC services quality, regardless of target customer (internal/external).
The security alert dichotomy: TP x FP
Without going too deep on that, I guess the true-positive (TP) versus false-positive (FP) classification became widespread in Infosec after the introduction of pattern based Network Intrusion Detection Systems (NIDS). In a nutshell, here’s how the assessment is done:
“Does the input (network flow) match a pattern?” If yes, it must be either a TP, when indeed the attack or threat is verified; or a FP, when despite the positive test, the attack or threat expected is not present.
On the other hand, if the answer is no, then someone may later find it to be a false-negative case, when the threat or attack is present but the detection did not trigger an alert. A true-negative case is when “everyone is fine“.
It turns out modern detection systems and strategies require more fine-grained TP/FP labels (specification) for tracking important metrics.
In a threat detection context, higher granularity outcomes will make it easier to determine, for instance, how good or bad a rule is performing. Ultimately, better supporting decisions to modify or even shutdown a detection mechanism. More on this later on “metrics” section.
Driving QA from alert states
Since part of my work involves developing and testing premium detection content for customers, it makes perfect sense to define a methodology to track security alerts quality over time.
Security Alert Handling Workflow
The following diagram is meant to help those teams willing to leverage Quality Assurance (QA) as part of their development/engineering process.
As expected, the process varies widely so you may need to modify it based on your requirements or limitations. It’s by no means a standard for handling security alerts but something to inspire other teams to better track metrics.
For simplification, assume a security alert life-cycle. No need to enter the event, alert, case, incident, investigation debate at this point. This enforces a consistent alert handling process while enabling reliable metrics extraction.
The idea is that by tracking alert state transitions, especially the final ones, a team is able to link a detection to its output — where the value lies in the end.
The “Rule-Alert match?” question is perhaps the main point here. It means “Is the detection logic behaving accordingly? Is it performing as expected?”. Or simply put: is there a bug in the detection code?
This reinforces a clear distinction between a plain FP and a TP, enabling the team to consistently handle alerts and extract insights from metrics.
An optional status can be added for auto-closed alerts: TP-Intederminate. But decided to keep it out for simplification here (as it applies to others).
The (TP) Harmless state
Even if you have a really good detection engineering team, the detection may fulfill its goal (positive test) while not spotting an intrusion. Depending on your interpretation, this may not clearly fit into a FP or a TP as most know it.
Sounds confusing? Unfortunately, that’s the way many teams are still handling security alerts today — which is reflected on unreliable metrics.
Let me try to clarify why such distinction is important:
- Is a FP a false alarm due to the lack of a real intrusion or is it because the detection does not fulfill its goal (spot a scenario)? Remember: detecting suspicious behaviors or anomalies is not always linked to an intrusion.
- Is the goal to solely alert on intrusions? If so, any alert not linked to an intrusion falls into the FP bucket. If that’s the case, do yourself a favor and specify a sub FP classification to track positive rule hits.
For instance, you are detecting high-rate authentication activity from the same source (host) but it turns out an alert fired due to a newly deployed (authorized) vulnerability scanner solution or yet another IAM platform test.
The important thing to notice from above example is that the rule or detection performed as expected, despite no real threat. So however you classify it in the end (TP/FP), you should track this success.
That’s equivalent to a TP with no impact but without requiring the alert to go through the entire escalation process (customer interaction) or when SOC knows upfront the scenario is innocuous despite the successful detection.
Therefore, it’s good to have an optimal, well defined path for handling this harmless yet very relevant metric. This tends to drop as you fine-tune the detection but chances are it will continue as the most frequent outcome.
As you may have guessed by now, a FP is when the detection fails m̵i̵s̵e̵r̵a̵b̵l̵y̵.
Not because it did not spot an intrusion but, in my view, it’s even worse: that’s because there’s an issue (bug) in the detection mechanism (code) since it does not behave as expected (spotting a suspicious scenario).
The workflow addresses such outcome (FP) with the following scenarios:
- Not “worth investigating” alerts, at Triage stage (no customer interaction)
- Escalated alerts, after customer interaction (Detection Review)
This process needs to be carefully reviewed and understood by operations (threat analysts, hunters, engineers) as well as leadership teams since it will reflect on reports and any other process relying on metrics gathering.
I’ve been to many customers, every single one has small deviations or adjustments that apply (more on that on “Expand it further” below).
Which metrics to track?
Relevant, actionable, quantitative (preferably) and consistent.
Here I list just a few (sometimes in a question format), which will enable the team to better support decisions or draw insights, correlations (careful here) and potential conclusions around operations and engineering work.
Of course, some of those are easier to interpret with dataviz (charts).
- Median time (days) to auto-close an escalated case (customer engagement, alert fatigue)
- Median time to triage an alert (training, alert complexity)
- Median time before escalation (staffing, automation demand)
- Which detection provides the best TP/total alerts ratio? Can you spot any deviations when breaking it down by TP sub classifications?
- Which alerts have the highestFP/total alerts ratio?
Consider “per capita”. Ex: how many TPs for every 100 alerts (or 10)?
- What’s the median time to close or assign a final status to an alert broke down by detection?
- What’s the median time to detect (log time compared to alert triggering time) for TP alerts?
- What’s the time (days) since last alert per detection? This comes in handy especially if you leverage “red events” generators like this.
Expand it further
Other scenarios that may deserve their own, distinct states or a better specification may include:
- Alerts linked to red team exercises (flags) or “red events” (benign, automated events generated to systematically evaluate detection)
- Alerts linked to authorized (external/3rd party) pentests
- Alerts linked to internal “vulnerability scanners” and other sec appliances
- Suppressed alerts (over filtering risk)
For MSSPs, some of those metrics may perfectly fit customer reports as well or even deserve their very own SLA defined.
Which other metrics have you found important? What’s your take on that (Threat Detection QA)? Please comment and share your ideas! Also feel free to reach out (DMs open).
Originally posted at Medium on Jun 12, 2019.
|
Reliable SMS interception leaves 2FA accounts open to attack
Text messages via SMS are often used as part of two-factor authentication strategies to protect login accounts.
But a new and worrying study from Positive Technologies shows that real-world attempts to intercept SMS messages are 100 percent successful.
The underlying technology behind mobile networks -- Signaling System No 7 (SS7) -- has had known flaws for some time. This latest report looks at major mobile operators in Europe and the Middle East and reveals that virtually every network examined allows eavesdropping on conversations and reading of incoming text messages.
Fraud was found to be possible on 78 percent of networks, and all networks contain dangerous vulnerabilities with which an attacker could disrupt subscriber access to services. Clearly if an attacker is able to intercept messages containing 2FA codes it leaves a whole range of services, including bank accounts open to attack.
"Operators are waking up to the risks and starting to act: all the networks we tested in 2017 had a SMS Home Routing system. One third of networks had a system for filtering and blocking signaling traffic," says Dmitry Kurbatov, head of telecom security at Positive Technologies. "This remains only a stopgap measure at best, however. Every network today is vulnerable, whether due to equipment misconfiguration or architectural shortcomings of SS7 signaling networks, which cannot be fixed with the options currently available."
The report concludes that only a comprehensive security approach can minimize these hazards. Such an approach would involve regular network audits, proper network configuration, non-stop monitoring of signaling traffic, and timely detection of illegitimate activity.
You can find out more about the problem in the full report, available from the Positive Technologies website.
|
- Should I enable ICMP?
- How do I stop ICMP?
- What is an ICMP attack?
- What is ICMP request?
- What are 5 types of errors handled by ICMP messages?
- What is the purpose of ICMP?
- What port does ICMP use?
- What does ICMP type 3 code 13 mean?
- What services use ICMP?
- How do I disable ICMP redirects in Linux?
- Why would you block ICMP on a network?
- What are the different types of ICMP messages?
Should I enable ICMP?
Many network administrators feel that ICMP is a security risk, and should therefore always be blocked at the firewall.
It is true that ICMP does have some security issues associated with it, and that a lot of ICMP should be blocked.
But this is no reason to block all ICMP traffic!.
How do I stop ICMP?
Expand Security Settings > Firewall and select Global Rules. Double click on the rule that says “Block ICMPv4 In From MAC Any To MAC Any Where ICMP Message Is ECHO REQUEST” and change the action from Block to Allow.
What is an ICMP attack?
An Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) flood DDoS attack, also known as a Ping flood attack, is a common Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack in which an attacker attempts to overwhelm a targeted device with ICMP echo-requests (pings).
What is ICMP request?
Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) is one of the protocols of the TCP/IP suite. The ICMP echo request and the ICMP echo reply messages are commonly known as ping messages. … The ping command sends an ICMP echo request to a device on the network, and the device immediately responds with an ICMP echo reply.
What are 5 types of errors handled by ICMP messages?
ICMP uses the source IP address to send the error message to the source (originator) of the datagram. Five types of errors are handled: destination unreachable, source quench, time exceeded, parameter problems, and redirection (see figure1).
What is the purpose of ICMP?
ICMP is a transport level protocol within TCP/IP which communicates information about network connectivity issues back to the source of the compromised transmission. It sends control messages such as destination network unreachable, source route failed, and source quench.
What port does ICMP use?
Firewall rules for ICMP (TCP/UDP port 7)
What does ICMP type 3 code 13 mean?
destination unreachable administratively prohibitedExplanation: Type 3 code 13 is destination unreachable administratively prohibited. This type of message is typically returned from a device blocking a port. … An ICMP type 3, code 13 response means that the machine is down.
What services use ICMP?
Any IP network device has the capability to send, receive or process ICMP messages. … While ICMP is not used regularly in end-user applications, it is used by network administrators to troubleshoot Internet connections in diagnostic utilities including ping and traceroute.
How do I disable ICMP redirects in Linux?
Configure the host system to ignore IPv4 ICMP redirect messages.Open the /etc/sysctl. conf file.If the values are not set to 0 , add the following entries to the file or update the existing entries accordingly. Set the value to 0 . net.ipv4.conf.all.accept_redirects=0 net.ipv4.conf.default.accept_redirects=0.Save the changes and close the file.
Why would you block ICMP on a network?
Because ICMP can also be used by a potential adversary to perform reconnaissance against a target network, and due to historical denial-of-service bugs in broken implementations of ICMP, some network administrators block all ICMP traffic as a network hardening measure.
What are the different types of ICMP messages?
Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) ParametersType 0 — Echo Reply.Type 1 — Unassigned.Type 2 — Unassigned.Type 3 — Destination Unreachable.Type 4 — Source Quench (Deprecated)Type 5 — Redirect.Type 6 — Alternate Host Address (Deprecated)Type 7 — Unassigned.More items…•
|
Visualizing a String of Paerls
Researchers from the Cisco Talos Security Intelligence and Research Team recently discovered an elaborate attack dubbed the String of Paerls. The attack, a combined spearphishing and exploit attempt, was able to bypass most antivirus engines and used a targeted phishing email that included a malicious Word document attachment. Upon opening the Word attachment, a macro downloaded and launched an executable on the victim’s machine, which then called out to command and control servers.
In the graphic below you can see an illustration of each of the major steps of the attack. A common thread is that Cisco security provides protection against attacks like this one using the approach of integrated threat defense. Specifically, Advanced Malware Protection tools were used throughout the discovery and analysis process to expose the exploit.
|
Orbs is an open, decentralized and public blockchain infrastructure executed by a secure network of permissionless validators using Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus.
Orbs is set up as a separate decentralized execution layer operating between existing L1/L2 solutions and the application layer, as part of a tiered blockchain stack, without moving liquidity onto a new chain.
Orbs acts as a “decentralized backend”, enhancing the capabilities of existing EVM and non-EVM smart contracts and opening up a whole new spectrum of possibilities for Web 3.0, DeFi, NFTs and GameFi.
DeFi, Web 3.0 protocols and dApps are becoming more and more complex, while smart contracts are still inherently limited by design. This means that many DeFi and Web 3.0 projects still rely on centralized backend infrastructure, which is not ideal from security, liability and community perspectives.
The Orbs Network solves this pain by operating as a decentralized serverless cloud, allowing developers to extend smart contracts with L3 decentralized backend services. These are deployed to be executed by Orbs PoS validators (known as Guardians) and relieve projects of the need to rely on centralized backend solutions.
The first infrastructure layer, L1 (like Ethereum), is in charge of security. The second infrastructure layer, L2 (like Polygon), is in charge of scalability.
The third infrastructure layer, L3, is in charge of executing complex logic and scripts that cannot be implemented on smart contracts alone. This layer provides services to existing DeFi applications for further decentralization and enhanced capabilities.
|
Apr 21, 2022
Is your organisation wrangling your Application Whitelisting tool? A recent survey concluded that over 84% of Australian organisations were unsatisfied with their existing tooling. This survey involved over 500 enterprise organisations across Australia, who said their incumbent solution was 'working' to a degree but reported several issues.
Critical issues reported include:
Application control is a security approach designed to protect against malicious code (also known as malware). It ensures only approved applications (e.g. executables, software libraries, scripts, installers, compiled HTML, HTML applications, control panel applets and drivers) can be executed when implemented robustly. While application control is primarily designed to prevent the execution and spread of malicious code, it can also prevent the installation or use of unapproved applications.
Implementing application control involves the following high-level steps:
When determining how to enforce application control, the following methods are considered suitable if implemented
Conversely, the use of file names, package names or any other quickly changed application attribute is not considered suitable as a method of application control.
In addition to preventing the execution of unapproved applications, application control can contribute to the identification of attempts by an adversary to execute malicious code. This can be achieved by configuring application control to generate event logs for allowed and blocked executions. Such event logs should ideally include information such as the name of the file, the date/time stamp, and the user's username attempting to execute the file.
Finally, application control mustn't replace antivirus and other security software on systems. Using multiple security solutions together can contribute to a practical defence-in-depth approach to
preventing the compromise of systems.
Ivanti's Application Control suite integrated by Service Quality is an easy to consume solution combining dynamic allowed lists and privilege management to prevent unauthorised code execution without manually managing extensive lists.
Many Government Departments, Financial Institutions, and Educational and Commercial organisations across Australia trust Ivanti's Application Control suite to achieve Security Compliance for Whitelisting, including standards such as the ACSC Essential 8, SANS/CIS top 20, and NIST.
Ivanti's Application Control solution has several benefits, including the obvious, which is the whitelisting of trusted applications. However, this involves a lot less administration than competitive solutions meaning organisations don't have to invest in additional headcount. Perhaps the most significant benefit of Ivanti Application Control is the granular privilege management. Organisations can limit application admin privileges for their employees without impacting productivity and, most importantly, the user experience.
This privilege management functionality revolves around specific user profiles. As a result, employees get access to precisely what they need without the overexposure of admin rights. This user experience is crucial as the vast majority of organisations have already significantly impacted their users by adapting to the security requirements of 'everywhere workplace' COVID presented by using traditional privilege management/administration access methods.
The bonus is that organisations who invest in Ivanti's Application Control solution can implement three of the eight Essential 8 strategies within a single application (Application Control, User Application Standard, Restrict Administration Privileges). This is a big win for organisations, especially those in a race to get to a certain maturity for regulatory or compliance reasons.
About Service Quality:
Founded in 2007, Service Quality survives on a simple but powerful idea: empower you to do more with your Service Management and Security solutions. With cutting-edge support and award-winning security and service management practices, you can be sure that Service Quality will help maximise your Service Management investment. Today, hundreds of thousands of users rely daily on Service Management and Security solutions designed and implemented by Service Quality to make their work flow.
Written By: Angus Kenny - Director of Enterprise Solutions
|
In cloud computing, it is often assumed that cloud vendors are trusted; the guest Operating System (OS) and the Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM, also called Hypervisor) are secure. However, these assumptions are not always true in practice and existing approaches cannot protect the data privacy of applications when none of these parties are trusted. We investigate how to cope with a strong threat model which is that the cloud vendors, the guest OS, or the VMM, or both of them are malicious or untrusted, and can launch attacks against privacy of trusted user applications. This model is relevant because applications may be small enough to be formally verified, while the guest OS and VMM are too complex to be formally verified. Specifically, we present the design and analysis of an architectural solution which integrates a set of components on-chip to protect the memory of trusted applications from potential software and hardware based attacks from untrusted cloud providers, compromised guest OS, or malicious VMM. Full-system performance evaluation results show that the design only incurs 9 percent overhead on average, which is a small performance price that is paid for the substantial security gain.
- architectural support
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Information Systems
- Hardware and Architecture
- Computer Science Applications
- Computer Networks and Communications
|
As far as cyberattacks go, spearphishing has over the years been elevated to an art. Cybercriminals have become extremely adept at crafting e-mail messages that can trick even the most savvy of end users into downloading malware capable of delivering a variety of payloads, including ransomware attacks such as WannaCry and Petya.
Barracuda Networks today announced it plans to employ science to combat those attacks via a Barracuda Sentinel cloud service based on an artificial intelligence (AI) engine that can identify and intercept various forms of spearphishing attacks before they reach an end user.
Asaf Cidon, vice president of content security services at Barracuda Networks, says Barracuda Sentinel makes use of machine learning algorithms to identify email messages based on a fraudulent domain or an anomalous communication that are attempting to spoof a legitimate sender. Once identified, Barracuda Sentinel then moves the message into a quarantine folder for further inspection. At the same time, Barracuda Sentinel then stores the attributes of that message to classify that spearphishing attack in a way that makes identifying attacks using that same method easier in the future.
Despite the volume of spearphishing attacks, Cidon says it turns out most of these attacks emanate from a few sources.
“There’s not a huge number of actors executing these attacks,” says Cidon.
Barracuda Sentinel applies an analytics application to trace spearphishing attacks back to their source. Barracuda Sentinel can’t do much to prevent such attacks from being launched. But it can make them much less cost-effective by reducing the number of messages loaded with malware from ever being delivered to their intended victim.
Organizations can also make use of Barracuda Sentinel to take advantage of Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting & Conformance (DMARC) guidelines to monitor emails sent from their domain to prevent unauthorized messages from being sent from their company domains. Barracuda Sentinel also provides DMARC reports to identify instances where cybercriminals are hijacking domains and brands to launch cyberattacks by pretending to be, for example, a bank, hospital or school.
In addition, Cidon says, IT organizations can use Barracuda Sentinel as a tool for creating spearphishing attacks that could be used to train end users to better recognize these attacks. To facilitate that training, Cidon says, Barracuda Sentinel can also identify the individuals within the organization that are of the highest spearphishing risk based on their role or the number spearphishing attacks being targeted against them.
The cost of launching a spearphishing campaign has dropped to virtually zero so this style of attack is not going away any time soon. But the less effective those campaigns become over time, the more likely it becomes that cybercriminals will move on to other methods of attack that don’t involve exploiting the emotions of human beings that today are clearly the weakest link in any IT security defense strategy.
|
What is Koti file extension
.Koti file extension is a file extension that is used by the 226th version of the STOP ransomware to mark files that have been encrypted. Koti ransomware is a malware that is created to encrypt the victim’s files, and then demand a ransom for decrypting them. Fortunately, there is a free Koti File Decrypt Tool called STOP Djvu Decryptor that can decrypt encrypted files in some cases. In addition to this decryptor, there are several more methods that can help restore the contents of encrypted files. Read more about Koti File Decrypt Tool, as well as how to remove Koti ransomware, how to recover .Koti files and how to protect the computer from such ransomware below.
What is Koti ransomware
Koti ransomware is new version of STOP (Djvu) ransomware. According to security researchers, this version is not much different from previous versions of the STOP ransomware, such as Mzlq and Sqpc, which were discovered earlier. The Koti ransomware is spread by websites offering to download freeware, key generators, activators, cracked games, torrents and so on.
Upon execution, Koti creates a folder in the Windows system directory where it places a copy of itself and changes some Windows settings so that it starts up every time the computer is restarted or turned on. The virus collects information about the victim’s computer and then tries to establish a connection with its command server (C&C). If the connection has been established, then it sends information about the infected computer to the server, and in response receives the encryption key (the so-called ‘online key’) and additional commands and malware that must be executed on the victim’s computer. If the virus could not establish a connection with its command server, then it uses a fixed key (the so-called ‘offline key’).
The Koti ransomware encrypts files using a strong encryption algorithm and a key (‘offline key’ or ‘online key’, as described above). The virus tries to encrypt as many files as possible, for this it only encrypts the first 154kb of the contents of each file and thus significantly speeds up the encryption process. Koti has the ability to encrypt files on all drives connected to the computer: internal hard drives, flash USB disks, network storage, and so on. It skips without encryption: files located in the Windows system directories, files with the extension .ini, .bat, .dll, .lnk, .sys and files with the name ‘_readme.txt’. The remaining files located on the victim’s computer can be encrypted. For example, the following file types may be the target of ransomware attack:
.xlsm, .cas, .dba, .wps, .xlsx, .ppt, .iwi, .wbc, .xxx, .mef, .wm, .dazip, .kdb, .y, .hplg, .wbm, .wp6, .jpe, .wp5, .forge, .qic, .sidd, .mov, .wdb, .zabw, .txt, .xdb, .zif, .itdb, .wmd, .vcf, .p7c, .m3u, .wpg, .pef, wallet, .qdf, .3fr, .zip, .xyw, .eps, .hkdb, .zip, .srf, .m2, .jpg, .cr2, .zi, .xar, .mdf, .wpd, .xf, .wp, .orf, .wgz, .map, .itl, .dng, .wb2, .sav, .0, .sql, .rgss3a, .xwp, .cer, .wbk, .vpk, .3ds, .mpqge, .xls, .wma, .t12, .xbplate, .sb, .wbz, .pptm, .csv, .cdr, .sr2, .mcmeta, .wpb, .blob, .esm, .fsh, .xx, .xlsm, .hkx, .x, .lrf, .avi, .gho, .mlx, .dcr, .wri, .mdb, .jpeg, .docm, .odc, .7z, .slm, .indd, .psd, .xlsx, .odp, .odt, .yal, .x3f, .zdb, .lbf, .webp, .dxg, .ff, .ods, .vdf, .epk, .xmind, .ltx, .rtf, .wma, .wire, .wsh, .pptx, .accdb, .dbf, .docx, .lvl, .ibank, .wot, .x3d, .p7b, .flv, .bik, .crw, .sis, .z3d, .hvpl, .xbdoc, .pfx, .syncdb, .wotreplay, .gdb, .wmf, .yml, .cfr, .pkpass, .raf, .mrwref, .wcf, .psk, .bay, .itm, .pdf, .icxs, .w3x, .bsa, .ptx, .rb, .rar, .pst, .sie, .ai, .mdbackup, .wp4, .wp7, .svg, .kdc, .d3dbsp, .nrw, .ncf, .db0, .arch00, .xlsb, .rwl, .menu, .ws, .wsc, .dwg, .srw, .wmv, .zw, .zdc, .vtf, .rw2, .wmo, .xml, .upk, .css, .wpd, .wpl, .xy3, .erf, .ysp, .xld, .pak, .wpw, .xpm, .3dm, .litemod, .py, .wbd, .desc
Koti encrypts file-by-file. Each file that has been encrypted will be renamed, the .koti extension will be added at the end of its name. Thus, it marks all encrypted files. In every directory where there is at least one encrypted file, the virus places a file named ‘_readme.txt’. The file contains a message from the Koti authors. An example of the contents of this file is given below.
This message says that all files on the computer are encrypted and the only way to decrypt them is to buy a key and a decryptor from the authors of the Koti ransomware. That is, criminals demand a ransom for unlocking the victim’s files. The size of the ransom is $980, but if the victim is ready to pay the ransom within 72 hours, then its size is halved to $490. Attackers offer victims to verify that encrypted files can be decrypted. To do this, the victim must send them a small file to one of the email addresses specified in the ‘_readme.txt’ file. Of course, it is obvious that a single decrypted file cannot guarantee that after paying the ransom, the criminals will provide the victim with a working key and decryptor.
The full text of the Koti ransom note is
Don’t worry, you can return all your files!
All your files like photos, databases, documents and other important are encrypted with strongest encryption and unique key.
The only method of recovering files is to purchase decrypt tool and unique key for you.
This software will decrypt all your encrypted files.
What guarantees you have?
You can send one of your encrypted file from your PC and we decrypt it for free.
But we can decrypt only 1 file for free. File must not contain valuable information.
You can get and look video overview decrypt tool:
Price of private key and decrypt software is $980.
Discount 50% available if you contact us first 72 hours, that’s price for you is $490.
Please note that you’ll never restore your data without payment.
Check your e-mail “Spam” or “Junk” folder if you don’t get answer more than 6 hours.
To get this software you need write on our e-mail:
Reserve e-mail address to contact us:
Your personal ID:
|Type||Crypto malware, Ransomware, File locker, Crypto virus, Filecoder|
|Encrypted files extension||.koti|
|Ransom amount||$980,$490 in Bitcoins|
|Detection Names||RiskWare:Win32/ArchSMS.3d25f715, Trojan/Win32.MalPe.R336786, Trojan.GenericKDZ.67221, Win32:CoinminerX-gen [Trj], Gen:NN.ZexaF.34110.YqW@aOJ5audG, Win32/Kryptik.HDKV, Trojan.TR/AD.InstaBot.jhl, Hoax.Win32.ArchSMS.cqrgr, BehavesLike.Win32.PUPXEU.cc, Generic/Trojan.BO.b64, Malware-Cryptor.Limpopo, Win32.Trojan-psw.Archsms.Wrhc|
|Symptoms||Cannot open files stored on the computer. Windows Explorer displays a blank icon for the file type. Files called such as ‘_readme.txt’, ‘#_README_#’, ‘_DECRYPT_’ or ‘recover’ in each folder with at least one encrypted file.. Ransom note in a pop-up window with cybercriminal’s ransom demand and instructions.|
|Distribution methods||Malicious links in emails. Drive-by downloading (when a user unknowingly visits an infected web-page and then malicious software is installed without the user’s knowledge). Social media posts (they can be used to force users to download malicious software with a built-in ransomware downloader or click a suspicious link). Cybercriminals use suspicious advertisements to distribute malware with no user interaction required.|
|Removal||Koti ransomware removal guide|
|Decryption||Koti File Decrypt Tool|
|Recovery||Koti File Recovery Guide|
How to remove Koti ransomware, Recover, Decrypt .koti files
Security researchers confirm the words of the authors of the Koti ransomware. All files with the extension ‘.Koti’ are encrypted and thus cannot be read and used. The only way to decrypt them is to use the key and the decryptor. Fortunately, there is some good news. As we already reported above, the Koti virus belongs to the STOP ransomware family, which means that you can use a Koti File Decrypt Tool called “STOP Djvu decryptor” that is created by Emsisoft to decrypt the encrypted files for free. Even if the decryptor does not help, there are some alternative ways that can help restore the contents of the encrypted files. To learn more about decrypting files, simply scroll down to section ‘How to decrypt .koti files’. Read the entire manual carefully. To make it easier for you to follow the instructions, we recommend that you print it or open it on your smartphone.
- How to remove Koti ransomware
- How to decrypt .koti files
- How to restore .koti files
- How to protect your personal computer from Koti ransomware
How to remove Koti ransomware
Finding and removing ransomware components manually is very difficult, so we recommend using free malware removal tools. Moreover, it is desirable to use not one, but several utilities. Even if it seems to you that there is no ransomware on the computer, it does not mean anything. The virus may start encrypting the files again the next time you turn on or restart the computer. You must be completely sure that Koti has been removed, and also that there is no other malware on the computer. Below we provide a list of recommended tools with brief instructions.
Remove Koti ransomware virus with Zemana Free
Zemana Anti-Malware (ZAM) is a program which is used for ransomware, spyware, trojans, malware, adware, worms and other security threats removal. This malwar removal tool is one of the most efficient anti-malware utilities. It helps in crypto virus removal and and defends all other types of malicious software. One of the biggest advantages of using Zemana Anti Malware is that is easy to use and is free. Also, it constantly keeps updating its virus/malware signatures DB. Let’s see how to install and scan your machine with Zemana Anti Malware in order to remove Koti ransomware virus from your computer.
Installing the Zemana is simple. First you’ll need to download Zemana by clicking on the link below.
Author: Zemana Ltd
Category: Security tools
Update: July 16, 2019
Once downloading is done, close all software and windows on your PC. Double-click the setup file called Zemana.AntiMalware.Setup. If the “User Account Control” prompt pops up as on the image below, click the “Yes” button.
It will open the “Setup wizard” that will help you install Zemana on your machine. Follow the prompts and do not make any changes to default settings.
Once install is complete successfully, Zemana Free will automatically start and you can see its main screen as shown below.
Now click the “Scan” button to begin checking your PC for the Koti ransomware related folders,files and registry keys. A scan can take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, depending on the number of files on your PC system and the speed of your machine. While the Zemana Anti Malware (ZAM) utility is checking, you can see number of objects it has identified as being affected by malware.
When Zemana AntiMalware (ZAM) has completed scanning, you can check all threats detected on your computer. You may remove items (move to Quarantine) by simply click “Next” button. The Zemana Anti-Malware will delete Koti ransomware, other malware, worms and trojans. Once the process is finished, you may be prompted to restart the computer.
Remove Koti ransomware with MalwareBytes
You can remove Koti automatically through the use of MalwareBytes Anti Malware (MBAM). We recommend this free malware removal utility because it may easily delete ransomware, adware software, malicious software and other unwanted software with all their components such as files, folders and registry entries.
Download MalwareBytes Free by clicking on the following link. Save it to your Desktop.
Category: Security tools
Update: April 15, 2020
Once downloading is done, run it and follow the prompts. Once installed, the MalwareBytes will try to update itself and when this procedure is done, click the “Scan” button to begin checking your computer for the Koti ransomware virus, other kinds of potential threats such as malware and trojans. This process can take some time, so please be patient. While the MalwareBytes Free program is scanning, you can see how many objects it has identified as threat. Next, you need to click “Quarantine” button.
The MalwareBytes Anti-Malware is a free program that you can use to uninstall all detected folders, files, services, registry entries and so on. To learn more about this malicious software removal utility, we suggest you to read and follow the guidance or the video guide below.
If the problem with Koti virus is still remained
If you have already used some malware removal tools, they found and removed malicious software, then in order to be 100% sure that the computer no longer has Koti crypto virus, we recommend using the Kaspersky virus removal tool (KVRT). This utility, as its name suggests, is created by the Kaspersky lab and uses the core of the Kaspersky Antivirus. Unlike the Kaspersky Antivirus, KVRT has a smaller size and, most importantly, it can work together with an already installed antivirus software. This utility has great capabilities and therefore we recommend using KVRT in the last turn to be sure that the Koti crypto virus has been removed.
Download Kaspersky virus removal tool (KVRT) on your Windows Desktop from the link below.
Author: Kaspersky® lab
Category: Security tools
Update: March 5, 2018
After the download is done, double-click on the KVRT icon. Once initialization procedure is complete, you will see the KVRT screen as shown in the following example.
Click Change Parameters and set a check near all your drives. Click OK to close the Parameters window. Next click Start scan button . KVRT tool will start scanning the whole personal computer to find out Koti ransomware and other known infections. This process can take some time, so please be patient.
Once Kaspersky virus removal tool has completed scanning your computer, Kaspersky virus removal tool will open a screen which contains a list of malware that has been found like below.
In order to remove all threats, simply press on Continue to start a cleaning task.
How to decrypt .koti files
As we already reported above, files with .koti extension are files that have been encrypted by the Koti ransomware. Their contents will remain locked until decrypted using the decryptor and the key. Fortunately, there is a free Koti File Decrypt Tool that can decrypt .koti files. Below we provide instructions on where to download and how to use this decryptor.
To decrypt .koti files, use Koti File Decrypt Tool
- Download Koti File Decrypt Tool from the following link.
STOP Djvu decryptor
- Scroll down to ‘New Djvu ransomware’ section.
- Click the download link and save the decrypt_STOPDjvu.exe file to your desktop.
- Run decrypt_STOPDjvu.exe, read the license terms and instructions.
- On the ‘Decryptor’ tab, using the ‘Add a folder’ button, add the directory or disk where the encrypted files are located.
- Click the ‘Decrypt’ button.
Koti File Decypt Tool is a free software that can decrypt files that were encrypted with an offline key, as Emsisoft found a way to determine this key. Unfortunately, files encrypted with an online key cannot yet be decrypted. The online key is unique to each infected computer, and at the moment there is no way to obtain this key. Of course, criminals have this key, but we do not think that paying a ransom is a way to decrypt .koti files. In the case when the files are encrypted with an online key, there is a chance to restore the encrypted files using alternative methods, which are described below.
How to find out which key was used to encrypt files
Below we will demonstrate how to find out the type of key with which files were encrypted. This is very important, since knowing the type of key you can understand if you can decrypt .koti files for free using the Koti File Decypt Tool. We recommend using the second method, as it is more accurate.
How to find out the type of a key using ‘_readme.txt’ file
- Open the ransom demand message (‘_readme.txt’ file).
- Scroll down to the end of the file.
- There you will see a line with the text ‘Your personal ID’.
- Below is a line of characters that starts with ‘0226’ – this is your personal id.
How to find out the type of a key using ‘PersonalID.txt’ file
- Open disk C.
- Open directory ‘SystemID’.
- Open file named ‘PersonalID.txt’. This file lists ‘Personal ID’s that match the keys that the virus used to encrypt files.
This video step-by-step guide will demonstrate How to find out the type of a key.
The ‘Personal ID’ is not a key, it is an identifier related to a key that was used to encrypt files. If the ID ends with ‘t1’, then the files are encrypted with an offline key. If the ID does not end with ‘t1’, Koti virus used an online key. If you could not figure out how to determine which key was used to encrypt files, then we can help. Just write a request here or in the comments below.
Koti File Decypt Tool : No key for New Variant online ID
If, when you try to decrypt .koti files, the Koti File Decypt Tool reports No key for New Variant online ID, then this means that your files are encrypted with an ‘online key’ and their decryption is impossible, since only the Koti authors have the key necessary for decryption. In this case, you need to use alternative methods listed below to restore the contents of encrypted files.
Koti File Decypt Tool : No key for New Variant offline ID
If during decryption of .koti files the Koti File Decypt Tool reports No key for New Variant offline ID, then this means the following: your files are encrypted with an ‘offline key’, but the key itself has not yet been found by security researchers, in this case, you need to be patient and wait a while, in addition, you can also use alternative ways for recovering encrypted data. It is impossible to say exactly when the ‘offline key’ will be determined. Sometimes it takes several days, sometimes more. We recommend that you try to decrypt .koti files from time to time. You can also use alternative ways listed below for recovering encrypted data.
How to restore .koti files
As we mentioned above, in addition to using the free decryptor, there are several more methods for recovering encrypted files. These methods do not require the use of a decryptor and a key, and therefore are suitable for all cases when the virus used an online key, and for the case when the virus used an offline key. It is very important to check your computer for malware before you try to recover encrypted files. You must be 100% sure that Koti virus is completely removed. To scan your computer for ransomware, use free malware removal tools.
Run ShadowExplorer to recover .koti files
The Microsoft Windows has a feature called ‘Shadow Volume Copies’ that can help you to recover .koti files encrypted by the ransomware. A small tool called ShadowExplorer will allow you to easily access the Shadow copies and restore the encrypted files to their original state. Unfortunately, the ransomware can delete these Shadow copies before it starts encrypting files. Therefore, if ShadowExplorer did not help you, then try another method, which is given below.
Please go to the following link to download the latest version of ShadowExplorer for Microsoft Windows. Save it directly to your Windows Desktop.
Category: Security tools
Update: September 15, 2019
Once the download is done, open a directory in which you saved it. Right click to ShadowExplorer-0.9-portable and select Extract all. Follow the prompts. Next please open the ShadowExplorerPortable folder as on the image below.
Double click ShadowExplorerPortable to run it. You will see the a window as displayed in the figure below.
In top left corner, select a Drive where encrypted personal files are stored and a latest restore point as displayed in the figure below (1 – drive, 2 – restore point).
On right panel look for a file that you want to recover, right click to it and select Export as displayed in the following example.
This video step-by-step guide will demonstrate How to recover encrypted files using Shadow Explorer.
Run PhotoRec to restore .koti files
The last chance to restore encrypted files to their original state is using data recovery tools. We recommend a program called PhotoRec. It has all the necessary functions to restore the contents of encrypted files. It helped many victims recover data when it seemed like there was no more hope.
Download PhotoRec on your Microsoft Windows Desktop from the following link.
Category: Security tools
Update: March 1, 2018
Once the download is done, open a directory in which you saved it. Right click to testdisk-7.0.win and select Extract all. Follow the prompts. Next please open the testdisk-7.0 folder as displayed in the figure below.
Double click on qphotorec_win to run PhotoRec for MS Windows. It’ll show a screen as displayed below.
Choose a drive to recover as displayed in the following example.
You will see a list of available partitions. Select a partition that holds encrypted files as displayed on the screen below.
Click File Formats button and specify file types to restore. You can to enable or disable the restore of certain file types. When this is finished, press OK button.
Next, click Browse button to select where recovered documents, photos and music should be written, then press Search.
Count of restored files is updated in real time. All recovered files are written in a folder that you have selected on the previous step. You can to access the files even if the recovery process is not finished.
When the restore is done, click on Quit button. Next, open the directory where recovered personal files are stored. You will see a contents as shown in the following example.
All restored files are written in recup_dir.1, recup_dir.2 … sub-directories. If you’re looking for a specific file, then you can to sort your recovered files by extension and/or date/time.
This video step-by-step guide will demonstrate How to recover encrypted files using PhotoRec.
How to protect your personal computer from Koti ransomware
Most antivirus software already have built-in protection system against the crypto malware. Therefore, if your computer does not have an antivirus application, make sure you install it. As an extra protection, run the HitmanPro.Alert. HitmanPro.Alert is a small security tool. It can check the system integrity and alerts you when critical system functions are affected by malware. HitmanPro.Alert can detect, remove, and reverse ransomware effects.
Download HitmanPro Alert by clicking on the link below. Save it to your Desktop.
Category: Security tools
Update: March 6, 2019
When the download is finished, open the directory in which you saved it. You will see an icon like below.
Double click the HitmanPro Alert desktop icon. When the utility is started, you’ll be shown a window where you can select a level of protection, as displayed on the image below.
Now click the Install button to activate the protection.
To sum up
This guide was created to help all victims of Koti ransomware virus. We tried to give answers to the following questions: how to remove ransomware; how to decrypt .koti files; how to recover files, if Koti File Decrypt Tool does not help; what is an online key and what is an offline key. We hope that the information presented in this manual has helped you.
If you have questions, then write to us, leaving a comment below. If you need more help with Koti related issues, go to here.
|
Every application needs to be configured, and the easiest way to do so is by storing configurations in the source code. This approach has the side effect of configuration and code living and dying together, as described by the Immutable Server concept. However, we still need the flexibility to adapt configuration without recreating the application image. In fact, this recreation would be time-consuming and an antipattern for a continuous delivery approach, where the application is created once and then moves unaltered through the various stages of the deployment pipeline until it reaches production.
In such a scenario, how would we adapt an application to the different setups of development, integration, and production environments? The answer is to use external configuration data, which is different for each environment. The patterns in the following chapters are all about customizing and adapting applications with external configurations for various environments:
Chapter 18, EnvVar Configuration, uses environment variables to store configuration data.
Chapter 19, Configuration Resource, uses Kubernetes resources like ConfigMaps or Secrets to store configuration information.
Chapter 20, Immutable Configuration, brings immutability to large configuration sets by putting it into containers linked to the application at runtime.
Chapter 21, Configuration Template, is useful when large configuration files need to be managed for various environments ...
|
Download now Free registration required
The execution of a reactive system amounts to the repetitions of executions of control flow cycles in the component processes of the system. The way in which cycle executions are combined is not arbitrary since cycles may depend on or exclude one another. The authors believe that the information of such dependencies is important to the design, understanding, and verification of reactive systems. In this paper, they formally define the concept of a cycle dependency, and propose several static analysis methods to discover such dependencies. They have implemented several strategies for computing cycle dependencies and compared their performance with realistic models of considerable size.
- Format: PDF
- Size: 518.54 KB
|
The XcellHost MITRE ATT&CK framework is a comprehensive matrix of tactics and techniques used by threat hunters, Red Teamers and Defenders to better classify attacks and assess the risk of an organization.
The objective of the framework is to improve the post-compromise detection of adversaries in enterprises by illustrating the actions that the attacker may have taken. How did the intruder get in there? How are they going around? The Knowledge Base is designed to help answer those questions which, at the same time, contribute to understanding of the safety role of the organization on the perimeter and beyond. Organizations may use the system to define and priorities defence holes based on risk.
|
An automated network analysis toolkit that is commonly used for network analysis can be used to analyze and compare networks across multiple systems.
With this tool, you can examine network performance by comparing the performance of two or more networks to determine which are the best, most reliable, and cost effective to implement and maintain.
The tools that are currently in use to analyze network performance include: jasp,javaspar,metasploit,netspan,mock,dynamic network analysis The following examples demonstrate how to use network analysis to analyze networks.
Introduction To analyze network traffic, you first need to understand the purpose of your network.
You need to know the IP address and port that the system you want to analyze has.
You then need to identify the systems on the network, what they are doing, and how they are connected to each other.
The following diagram shows a network of nodes that have their own IP address (or hostname) and a port (or port number).
Each node has a corresponding IP address, port, and name (or mask) associated with it. 2.
Creating an Analysis Table 1 shows the following table with the network analysis tools that have been available for several years.
Network Analysis Table 2 shows the networks that have had the most network traffic in the last 10 days.
The first line in the table shows which of the networks are used most by the attacker, and the second line shows which networks are the most vulnerable.
For each of the two groups, the attacker controls the first node, which controls the second, and so on.
The second group has no nodes that are vulnerable.
Each group has an analysis table.
Creating a Network Analysis Analysis table The following example creates an analysis database table that lists the most recently detected and reported network attacks.
Adding Networks to an Analysis Database Table 3 shows an example of a network analysis table that shows the attack characteristics of the first group and of the second group.
Adding a New Network to an Analytical Database Table 4 shows an attack of the network used by the first and second groups, as well as an attack that the network of the third group is not vulnerable to.
The attack in this example is used by an attacker that can cause a network outage in order to infect a third node.
Table 5 shows the attacker’s network.
The attacker uses a port 5389 on a third system, which is not normally accessible.
Using a Network Attack Table 6 shows a list of the nodes that were used in the network attack that is causing the network to be unavailable.
Finding the Attack Type of the Attack 7 shows an analysis of the attack that caused the network outage.
The information is grouped into attack types that include, but are not limited to, denial of service, denial-of-service-time (DDoS), network disruption, and network denial-based denial of access (NAD).
Finding a Common Attack Type for a Network Table 6 indicates a common attack type that is used in all the attacks that cause the network failure.
Checking for Network Attack Types 11 shows a table of attack types for the networks.
Table 7 lists the attack types used in each of these attacks.
Understanding Network Attack Patterns 13 shows a visualization of a list that includes attack patterns that are present in all of the attacks.
Table 8 shows a visual diagram that shows an overview of a common network attack.
The diagram shows the attacks in this diagram.
The attacks that use DDoS are shown in green, while attacks that are used in network disruption are shown with black circles.
DDoS Attack Types 14 shows the DDoS attacks that were observed in the past week.
The data in Table 9 shows the network disruption attacks that the attacker used in previous attacks.
The attackers DDoS attack types are shown using the same colors as the attacks they used in their previous attacks, and it is shown that the attacks are different.
The DDoS attackers attack patterns can be broken down into four main categories: DDoS (DoS attack) attacks that send a large number of requests to a particular server, usually a website, for a short time.
Downtime (Downtime attack) Attacks that use network disruption to disrupt the target network for a limited amount of time.
Network disruption (NDP attack) DDoS and network disruption attack attacks that can only be launched by a specific machine or network.
Network Disruption (NDD attack) NDD attacks that only use network disruptions to disrupt a specific network.
Finding Common Attacks in Network Attack Tables 6 and 7 Table 6 is an example analysis of a DDoS network attack used by a Downtymed server in Table 4.
The server in the attack is running a webserver that sends traffic to an external server, which has an IP address of 172.16.11.0.
|
[note to my self] AWS Route53 Health Check Monitoring
Configuring AWS Route53 Health Check Monitoring with CloudWatch and SNS.
What AWS resources are we using?
What is the problem we are trying to solve?
We want to be notified when a Route53 Health Check fails. If an endpoint is not available or is not responding, we want to know about it. We can use CloudWatch to monitor the health check and send an SNS notification when the health check fails.
How do we solve the problem?
We will use Terraform to create the resources we need. We will create a Route53 Health Check, a CloudWatch Alarm, an SNS Topic, and an SNS Subscription. We will use the Route53 Health Check to monitor the health of the endpoint. We will use the CloudWatch Alarm to monitor the Route53 Health Check. We will use the SNS Topic to send the notification. We will use the SNS Subscription to subscribe to the SNS Topic.
Things to note
- The CloudWatch Alarm will send a notification to the SNS Topic when the Route53 Health Check fails.
- The SNS Subscription will subscribe to the SNS Topic and send the notification to the email address specified in the SNS Subscription.
- The SNS Subscription will only send the notification if the SNS Topic sends a notification with the subject “ALARM: “.
- The SNS subscription will only send notifications if the email recepient is subscribed to the SNS Topic.
What is the Terraform code?
Cloudwatch alarm for the health check
Route53 health check
This was made possible as I was listening to the following playlist
|
ZERO TRUST ACCESS
Outdated security models built on a trust but verify approach are easily exploited and unnecessarily complex. Zero Trust is a paradigm shift toward a never trust, extensively verify mindset — whether a user is privileged or not.
Complimentary Forrester Wave
Zero Trust eXtended Ecosystem ProvidersClaim Your Copy
Zero Trust Access for All Attack Vectors
The network perimeter of organizations is no longer static. It is constantly adjusting with changes in your workforce, infrastructure and devices. With a Zero Trust approach, your network can be dynamic and fluid without compromising security.
Zero Trust Access for Networks:
- Evaluate identity rather than just IP address
- Dynamically adjust entitlements and privileges in near real-time
- Isolate your critical systems with fine-grained micro-segmentation
- Deploy a secure Café-style network
Employees, vendors and contractors all connect to your predominately flat network from everywhere, at all times. Zero Trust access improves authentication and authorization while simplifying policy management across all user populations.
Zero Trust Access for People:
- Verify identity based on user context, device security posture and risk exposure
- Only permit access to approved resources and reduce your attack surface
- Streamline onboarding and improve user experience
- Simplify policy management and reduce complexity for admins
The proliferation of devices connected to your network at any-time introduces risk if un-checked. Zero Trust access ensures risky devices are unable to connect to your network and isolated from critical systems.
Zero Trust Access for Devices:
- Use device security posture as criteria for access
- Keep un-manned and hard to patch devices isolated
- Enhance secure access with endpoint protection data
- Dynamically adjust entitlements based on risk level
Organizations must protect distributed and interconnected legacy, multi-cloud and containerized applications or micro-services. Organizations must also protect workloads consistently and remain agile across all environments. Zero Trust unifies network access to heterogeneous environments and protects them from exploitation and compromise.
Zero Trust Access for Workloads:
- Prevent lateral movement with the principle of least privilege
- Automate security to scale with elastic workloads
- Deploy multi-factor authentication to legacy apps without refactoring
- Use available metadata to dynamically grant entitlements/auto-provision or de-provision access
Securing and managing data at rest and in transit is essential. Organizations must limit lateral movement and prevent data exfiltration across the infrastructure. Zero Trust solutions must address data security in any IT environment and across all devices.
Zero Trust Access for Data:
- Mitigate data loss via policy enforcement and device ring-fencing
- Local, bi-directional firewalls segmenting critical data across any IT environment
- Granular policies to control access and ingress and egress traffic
- Segment data via micro-perimeters limiting attack surface
Zero Trust Analyst Resources
Gartner's ZTNA Market Guide
Get Market Guide
Gartner’s annual market guide offers insights, key findings and recommendations from security and risk management leaders looking to adopt Zero Trust Network Access.
Zero Trust Video Series, ft. Forrester
In this podcast series, listen to Appgate and special guest Dr. Chase Cunningham, VP and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, discuss practical ways to achieve immediate and long-term gains toward Zero Trust.
ZTNA Video Series, ft. Gartner
A video series featuring Gartner’s Neil MacDonald offering insight into why Zero Trust Network Access is being adopted for security, but also unleashing enterprise agility.
Zero Trust Network Access Demo
Forrester's Dr. Chase Cunningham uses Appgate SDP to demonstrate Zero Trust for remote access.
Research Report on SASE, ZTNA and XDR
451 Research, part of S&P Global Market Intelligence, looks at the long-term and short-term impacts of 2020 as it relates to new network security architectures built around SASE, ZTNA and XDR frameworks.
Ready to Go Deeper?
TALK TO A ZERO TRUST EXPERT
The Appgate team is available to answer questions, demo solutions and discuss pricing. How can we help your business with its Zero Trust journey?
|
Demystifying Smart Contract Audits: A Comprehensive Guide fo...
Smart contracts are a foundational building block of decentralized applications (DApps) and E2E Encryption (End-to-End Encryption): A system of communic... technology. They allow for the IoT (Internet of Things): The network of physical devices em... of Smart Contract: A self-executing contract with the terms of ... and agreements, removing the need for intermediaries and ensuring transparency and security. However, in order to guarantee the integrity and reliability of these smart contracts, it is crucial to conduct thorough audits.
Digital Wallet (or e-Wallet): A virtual wallet where individ... audits involve a comprehensive review of the codebase, architecture, and functionality of a smart contract. The aim is to identify any vulnerabilities, bugs, or design flaws that could compromise the security and integrity of the contract and potentially result in financial loss or malicious manipulation.
Here is a step-by-step guide for developers to demystify smart contract audits:
1. Understand the Importance of Audits:
Smart contract audits are critical to ensure the security, reliability, and efficiency of the contract. They help to identify potential attack vectors, vulnerabilities, or unintended behaviors that hackers could Remote Access Trojan (RAT): A type of malware that provides .... Audits not only protect the project and its users but also enhance the reputation and credibility of the developer or organization behind the contract.
2. Choose the Right Auditor:
Selecting the right auditor is crucial for a successful audit. Look for auditors who have experience in auditing smart contracts and have a proven track record in the field. Consider their expertise, reputation, and the tools they employ for conducting audits.
3. Clearly Define the Scope and Objectives:
Before beginning the audit, define the scope and objectives of the audit. Establish clear expectations, objectives, and deliverables with the auditor. This will allow for a focused and efficient audit process.
4. Ah, Zero-Day Vulnerabilities! A buzzword in the cybersecurit...:
The auditor will conduct a thorough code review of the smart contract, analyzing the codebase, identifying vulnerabilities, bugs, and code defects. They will assess the compliance of the code with best practices and standards, and suggest improvements to enhance security and efficiency.
5. A firewall is a network security system that monitors and co...:
The auditor will perform a security assessment encompassing various factors such as external dependencies, GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation): A regulation intr... mechanisms, CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Com..., and Incognito Mode: A privacy setting in web browsers that preve... protocols. They will analyze potential attack vectors and assess the contract’s resilience against Dark Web: Parts of the internet that are not indexed by trad... attempts or malicious manipulation.
6. Functional Analysis:
The auditor will evaluate the contract’s functionality and ensure that it behaves as intended. They will assess the contract’s logic, variables, data structures, and the overall flow of the contract’s execution. This will help to identify logic errors or inconsistencies that could potentially affect the contract’s performance or security.
7. Test and Validate:
After identifying vulnerabilities and suggesting improvements, the auditor will work closely with the developer to test and validate the changes. This involves running various simulations and tests to ensure that the proposed fixes are effective and do not introduce new issues.
8. Reporting and Documentation:
The auditor will provide a comprehensive report that includes the findings, vulnerabilities, and suggested improvements. The report should clearly outline the risks associated with each Worm: A type of malware that replicates itself to spread to ... and provide recommendations for mitigation. It is crucial to document the entire audit process, including identified issues, fixes, and testing procedures.
9. Remediation and Post-Audit Biometric Authentication: A security process that relies on ...:
Once the report is received, the developer should promptly address the identified vulnerabilities and implement the suggested improvements. Following the remediation process, it is important to conduct a post-audit verification to ensure that the fixes have been successfully implemented and the contract is now secure and reliable.
Smart contract audits are an essential part of the development process and should not be overlooked. By following this comprehensive guide, developers can ensure the integrity, security, and resilience of their smart contracts, ultimately fostering trust among users and stakeholders within the blockchain FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google): An acronym....
|
Cisco’s Talos security business has detected what it’s described as “a new Android-based campaign targeting Australian financial institutions.”
The firm’s explanation of the attack detected an advertisement on an exploit-hawking website that offers malware called “Gustuff” that claims it can attack Westpac, NAB, St George Bank, ING Direct, BankWest, Bank SA and other Australian financial institutions. Talos said it found a 189 sets of logos for Australian banks and cryptocurrency exchanges in the malware.
Those logos come in handy once the malware gets into a user’s Android phone, which is possible if soon-to-be-victims click on a link in an SMS message. Doing so installs malware that exfiltrates a user’s address book so that botnet can harvest mobile numbers it contains and send more SMSes bearing dodgy links.
Once the malware is installed, it creates overlay applications that ask users to log into an online banking service. This is where the 189 logos come into play, as those overlays do a decent job of replicating banking sites’ look and feel.
If users fall for the logon screens, the malware’s operators harvest their login credentials. And things presumably go south pretty fast after that.
The good news is that the malware appears to require intervention to operate, which Talos suggest could be one reason it’s only seeing about three requests per hour to the botnet. But the firm added that “that the malicious operator is aggressively spreading the malware, but that doesn't seem to result in the same number of new infections.”
The bad news is that once it runs, the malware can harvest SMS messages and therefore defeat two-factor authentication if it uses SMS. Talos therefore recommends client-side two-factor authentication as an alternative to SMS.
Talos also suggests that while Gustuff is currently targeting Australian financial institutions, that’s an indication of criminal intent rather than evidence of a local threat. The firm reached that conclusion by noting that the malware has a country selection dialog that malware authors could use to target other nations.
This will be a tricky attack to defeat, as the malware goes to great lengths to stop anti-virus software running on Android devices and also tries to avoid being placed into sandboxes that would make it harder to touch other apps and Android processes.
|
Today I implemented updating/saving content in the server, and bridged the feature to the client.
In the inspector there is now a
save changes button that (attempts to) save the content on
the server’s filesystem [
Originally I wanted to create a
sandbox fileder that was to be edited by any one online [
I restricted editing to only fileders underneath
/sandbox, but then upon publishing quickly realized
that this left open a major security vulnerability, since content can be evaluated on server or client:
if a client were to create a facet
exploit: text/lua -> text/plain with the following content in the root:
pass = io.open('/etc/passwd', 'r')
…and then request that facet as converted to
GET /exploit: text/plain),
then that Lua code would be executed on the server, and return the confidential
passwd file on the server.
This basically meant handing anyone online full unconditionaly access to my server
(or at least the VM running the website, and potentially options to escalate from there).
As a result I had to choose to either disable public editing, or disable server-side code execution.
Because server-side execution is a major feature of mmmfs, I settled for the following compromise [
- when developing and running locally, editing and code execution are both enabled in ‘unsafe mode’
- on https://ba.s-ol.nu, editing is disabled but code execution is possible
- on https://sandbox.s-ol.nu, editing is enabled but code server-side code execution is disabled
The Sandbox can now be found at the following address, at least until the thesis project is concluded:
Currently it is only possible to edit existing facets, but creation and deletion of facets and fileders should be implemented soon.
|
Establishing a SaaS Security Approach
Software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications have provided tremendous value to end users due to their easy setup and collaboration capabilities. However, because SaaS environments are often hidden to network administrators, enterprise security tools designed to protect internal data centers, servers and workstations can’t effectively protect SaaS apps or prevent data leakage. Securing SaaS apps largely includes classifying different groupings of applications in order to understand what they are doing and how to control them, as well as setting zones of trust to control access. The goal for a SaaS security implementation should be to end up with a set of well-defined and enforced application and usage policies for sanctioned, tolerated and unsanctioned SaaS applications to better protect the data they house.
The grouping of applications is based on how much trust an organization has in any given application and how each is treated based on the different levels of trust:
- Sanctioned apps give IT teams the confidence to allow majority access based on the security measures the vendors take. They are likely SOC 2-compliant and commonly use encryption and/or single sign-on.
- Tolerated apps aren’t necessarily as strongly trusted as sanctioned apps, but the organization still allows employees to use them, possibly because a partner or vendor uses them, or because the organization is migrating toward sanctioned alternatives.
- Unsanctioned apps are potentially dangerous, known to expose organizations to data theft and malware risks. Organizations neither want nor trust individuals to use them, and there is often no legitimate business purpose for doing so.
Some of the challenges in securing SaaS applications include handling end users who sign up for cloud applications without IT approval or governance; monitoring and blocking the use of unsanctioned applications; and dealing with a lack of visibility into data in the cloud.
When establishing a SaaS security approach to protect data and employees from data exposure or threats, organizations should ensure it includes the following:
- Complete visibility across all users and data, providing detailed analysis that helps you transition from a position of speculation to one of certainty at any given time.
- Identification of apps in use to create policies that can specify the application, regardless of port and encryption.
- Retroactive analysis of data exposure that not only looks at data in-line, but also from the creation of the SaaS account itself, no matter how long ago that was.
- Deep analytics into day-to-day usage, allowing quick determination of any data risks or compliance-related policy violations.
- Granular, context-aware policy control that enables the organization to drive enforcement as well as quarantine users and data as soon as a violation occurs.
- Advanced threat prevention that can block known malware as well as identify and block unknown malware.
- Realtime threat intelligence on known and unknown threats to prevent new SaaS-based insertion points for malware “in the wild.”
- Deployment of solutions and functionality without affecting the user experience or degrading performance.
By following these criteria, you will be able to choose a platform that provides the most comprehensive and robust protection for your organization. Securing your SaaS applications – and ultimately your organization’s data – requires a complete end-to-end platform that includes industry-leading next-generation firewalls for your network, a cloud security service to protect your SaaS apps, and advanced threat intelligence to protect against known and unknown threats.
Learn more about vetting SaaS vendors in this blog post: Your SaaS Security Checklist.
|
Cisco researchers release PyLocky ransomware decryption tool
If you are unfortunate enough to infect PYLOCKY encryption ransomware, you can only say it is regrettable, because there is no tool to decrypt the ransomware until now. Even the PYLOCKY free decryption tool mentioned in this article may not help you at this time because the tool is very demanding. Only the user can successfully capture the initial network traffic .PCAP file of the ransomware and its remote server before using the tool to extract the key contained in it.
Cisco researchers found that after PYLOCKY encrypts the victim’s file, it sends a variety of information, including the key, to its remote control server. It is also true that if the user can capture the initial traffic of PYLOCKY then the key can be extracted, but almost no one will keep capturing traffic. Cisco researchers say that if the user does not have PYLOCKY initial traffic, then the tool cannot be used to obtain the key or decrypt the file.
Cisco said that although this PYLOCKY decryption tool is not very helpful to users, it is very common for most ransomware to decrypt.
The researcher explains, “if the initial C2 traffic has not been captured, our decryption tool will not be able to recover files on an infected machine. This is because the initial callout is used by the malware to send the C2 servers information that it uses in the encryption process.” You can download the PyLocky ransomware decryption tool from GitHub.
It is the most important thing for users to back up their important files regularly, otherwise, the ransomware of PYLOCKY will be very troublesome. In fact, many users only want to back up after encountering ransomware, but at this time, it is too late to restore files that have been encrypted. Especially for enterprise users, ransomware itself is a huge disaster.
|
In order to assist victims of the infection in retrieving their files without paying the thieves, security software provider Avast has made a free decryptor for the BianLian ransomware strain available. The release of a decryptor comes just over a year after BianLian ransomware activity spiked throughout the latter part of 2022 when the threat group penetrated numerous well-known companies.
Only those who have been infected by a known strain of the BianLian ransomware can benefit from Avast’s decryption tool. The tool is useless if the hackers utilize a new malware variant that experts have yet to discover. However, according to Avast, the BianLian decryptor is still under development, and more strains will soon be able to be unlocked.
BianLian Ransomware New Variant
A Go language ransomware variant called BianLian that targets Windows systems is not to be confused with the Android banking virus of the same name. On all drives that are accessible, it encrypts over 1013 file extensions using the symmetric AES-256 algorithm and CBC cipher mode.
In an effort to hasten attacks at the expense of data-locking strength, the malware conducts spotty encryption on the victim’s files. The “.bianlian” suffix is used for encrypted files, and the created ransom letter informs victims that if they don’t comply with the demands within ten days, their personal information will be made public on the hacking gang’s data leak website.
The BianLian ransomware decryptor is a standalone software that may be run without needing to be installed. Users can choose where they want to decrypt from and provide the software with two original/encrypted files.
Users with a working decryption password have the choice to use it, but if the victim doesn’t have one, the software can still try to decipher it by repeatedly iterating through all BianLian passwords. In case something goes wrong during the decryption process, the decryptor also provides the option to back up encrypted files. This prevents the loss of data from being irreversible.
The ransomware binary, which may contain information that can be utilized to decrypt the locked files, must be found on the hard drive by those who have been infected by newer versions of the BianLian ransomware.
According to Avast, some typical locations and filenames for BianLian are:
- C:\Users\%username%\Pictures\windows.exe \sanabolic.exe
However, it is unlikely that victims will discover those programs on their systems because the malware deletes itself after the file-encrypting stage. In order to aid Avast in improving its decrypter, those who are able to locate BinaLian binaries are asked to submit them to “[email protected]”
BianLian Preys On Numerous Businesses.
They will continue their efforts to abuse the systems and networks they obtain access to because they most likely have financial motivations. Their Golang-based ransomware uses goroutines to ransom an infected system quickly and encrypts files in chunks. The threat actor targets a number of industries in a number of nations. Their method of deployment is manual system infiltration, and they use living-off-the-land (LotL) binaries to scout out the networks and systems. They release their ransomware after they have all the data they require.
Who Does BianLian Ransomware Target?
The professional services, manufacturing, healthcare, energy, media, banks, and education sectors have all been hit by this ransomware organization so far. Their current targets are located in the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States. There is no proof to suggest that they are confined to these regions or sectors.
- Use the file carving method to inspect files transferred over the network (D3-FC).
- File Access Pattern Analysis (D3-FAPA): This tool analyzes how an application accesses files; it may be used to detect ransomware’s use of multiple read/write operations on files.
- Detect unauthored remote sessions using network traffic using the Remote Terminal Session Detection (D3-RTSD) tool.
- Ransomware writes ransom notes; this behavior can be identified using File Creation Analysis (D3-FCA).
- Bianlian Ransomware YARA Rule
A free program for decrypting data that has been encrypted by the BianLian ransomware has been made available by Avast’s Threat Research team. Although the file is free, there is a small catch to how it operates for the decoder to compare it with the encrypted version; you must have one of the encrypted files in its original form. The decoder should be able to crack the password after you have that and follow a few additional easy steps, such as pointing it at the location of the file you wish to decrypt. After that, you can decrypt everything else using that password.
|
In the Internet of things (IoT) cloud platform, the data is collected and used by the nodes of IoT, and the processing and storage of data is based on the cloud platform. The platform has increased the data processing and sharing abilities of IoT, meanwhile, it also has enriched the resource in cloud and improved integration of the Internet and human world. All of this offers advantage as well as new problems of information security. As the characteristic and limitation of the nodes of IoT, they are particularly vulnerable, thus it is a crucial and urgent issue that how to realize the trusted update of authorization for the hijacked nodes . In order to solve this problem, we propose a PRE based trusted update scheme of authorization for nodes on IoT cloud platform (PRE-TUAN). At first, we define the system model including the trusted IoT data server and permission management server, and the semi-trusted proxy re-encryption server in cloud. Secondly, describe the system processing and algorithms. Finally, analyze and prove the security of PRE-TUAN. PRE-TUAN is based on the proxy re-encryption (PRE), which will reach the full potential of cloud computing, and ensure the security and reliability of the data in IoT cloud.
|
Skip to Main Content
A differentiation/enhancement edge detector for noisy situations is proposed. The definition of the gradient has been initiated from the algorithm for finding a border in a binary picture. The advantages of this operator have been compared with those of other widely used operators. A measurement of error in extracting edges by thresholding the gradient has also been suggested, and for the detection of acceptable edges, the optimum threshold is chosen corresponding to the minima in the error function.
|
The Bidvest Protea Coin group has provided more information about the advanced facial recognition technology it uses to track and catch criminals in South Africa, a system known as Scarface.
Scarface is a platform that uses advanced artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to help security teams identify who it calls “persons of interest.”
The group said the technology was originally developed as an early warning system that could identify potential threats and prevent assets or criminal attacks before they happened.
“Because we know that crime often involves intelligence that takes place over a period, Scarface stops this process early, before it matures, with detailed and often classified information, allowing early detection and/or apprehension of perpetrators. . Overall, the system provides increased risk mitigation through a proactive approach to identifying suspects.”
The technology is completely autonomous and does not require user intervention to work as a recognition platform.
The high-resolution cameras are linked to a robust database that is used to improve the accuracy of identifying suspects on the spot, with the team noting that it uses the highest level of recognition possible to ensure accurate detection of persons of interest.
He added that face identification is fast and the system is incredibly efficient at checking the person of interest.
One practical use of this technology is to identify illegal miners, known colloquially as “zama-zamas”, who have taken over abandoned mines.
It is estimated that around 14,000 zama zama are involved in illegal mining in the country at about 6,000 abandoned mining sites across the country.
Using Scarface technology, the Bidvest Protea coin is able to identify persons of interest who may have intentions to engage in criminal activities in the mines.
The system tracks activities by linking the person of interest to previous incidents and updating their unique profile. If necessary, Scarface can also provide visual evidence in criminal cases.
|
Workplaces are undergoing a digital transformation. Enterprises need to ensure that newly adopted tools and technologies have secure and protected access for users. Various security techniques can be used to protect systems, devices, applications, and even machines. Access control is a security technique regulating who can access resources in a computing environment.
Two types of access control minimize risk for business operations:
- Physical access control that limits access to physical IT assets, buildings, campuses, and rooms
- Logical access control that limits connections to system files, computer networks, and data
Electronic access control systems restrict users’ access to business locations and proprietary areas. For example, these systems use user credentials, auditing, reports, and access card readers to track employee access, generating alerts and alarms upon detecting unauthorized access or operations.
Importance of access control
Enterprises’ infrastructure for streamlined functioning of their operations may include various systems, machines, devices, and centers. This infrastructure is connected through multiple IT systems for smooth and seamless collaboration, communication, and connection within and across departments. All the data shared over these systems requires limiting access to reduce the risk of unwanted events like data leakage, system hacking, etc.
Access control systems play a critical role in minimizing the security risks presented by unauthorized access to both physical and cloud systems. They are one of the fundamental components of security compliance programs. Access control ensures that security technology and access control policies protect sensitive and confidential information about employees, businesses, customers, partners, and clients.
Types of access control
Below we describe some of the most common types of access control.
Mandatory Access Control (MAC)
A central authority regulates access rights based on multiple levels of security. It is used in military and government environments with classifications assigned to operating systems, security kernels, and system resources.
Discretionary Access Control (DAC)
Administrators and owners use DAC to protect resources, data, and systems. It helps them to limit the propagation of access rights.
Role-based access control (RBAC)
Role-based access control is one of the most widely used access control mechanisms. It restricts access to computer resources based on business functions rather than the identities of individual users. It depends on role assignments, permissions, and authorizations.
Rule-based access control
A system administrator determines resource access control rules based on certain conditions.
Attribute-based access control (ABAC)
Enterprises use attribute-based access control to manage access rights through rules, policies, and relationships using the attributes of systems, users, and environmental conditions.
Access control requirements
For both physical and logical access control, systems have the following components:
- Authentication involves validating personal identity documents, checking login credentials, and verifying the authenticity of a website to prove an assertion.
- Authorization includes the specification of privileges or access rights to resources.
- Access to resources is provided for authenticated and authorized people and devices.
- Management of access control systems includes adding and removing the authorization and authentication of systems or users as needed.
- Auditing is a part of access control, enforcing the principle of least privilege.
Access control requirements for unwalled workplaces
Unwalled workplaces include open-space work such as construction sites, warehouses, factories, etc. These spaces are more prone to unwanted visits from outsiders and therefore require access control and identity authentication systems. The premises are secured with electronic fail-safe or fail-secure locks. These locks are unlocked only when the input provided complies with the workplace codes and regulations.
Another access control system for unwalled workplaces includes an access control panel that is not visible to visitors. It is installed in control rooms like an IT, electrical, or telecommunication closet. The wired locks of the access control panel are unlocked only when valid credentials are provided at the entry point. Some other solutions include access control servers, low-voltage cables, and physical security. Access control requirements include the following:
- User-facing components, such as ID badges and cards
- Admin-facing components, such as a management portal and dashboards
- Infrastructure, such as a controller, cables, and the server infrastructure
Access control requirements for enclosed premises
Enclosed workplaces include offices, academic buildings, and research laboratories. These premises can be secured with various access control systems, which have the following required components:
- Biometric Access Control: The user’s biometric data, such as facial recognition, fingerprints or retina scans, is recorded in the system at the entry point. The user can enter the infrastructure only when the input matches the directory data.
- Automated Vulnerability Checks and Audits: Unauthorized system or device access in the premise needs to be checked and audited regularly to mitigate vulnerabilities.
Access control requirements: Unwalled workplaces vs enclosed premises
Providing access control is easier for enclosed premises than for unwalled workplaces. In either case, people do not gain entry into the workplace until the input credentials match the directory.
With effective access control, enclosed premises are secure even when unauthorized people try to enter. However, access control requirements for unwalled workplaces must include video surveillance and monitoring systems like CCTV to ensure that unauthorized and unauthenticated people do not access the workplace.
Access control management is essential for both unwalled and enclosed workplaces. Various components, such as authentication, authorization, auditing, management, and access, are required for both types of workplaces.
|
As active network defence systems, honeypots are commonly used as a decoy to inspect attackers and their attack tactics in order to improve the cybersecurity infrastructure of an organisation. A honeypot may be successful provided that it disguises its identity. However, cyberattackers continuously endeavour to discover honeypots for evading any deception and bolstering their attacks. Active fingerprinting attack is one such technique that may be used to discover honeypots by sending specially designed traffic. Preventing a fingerprinting attack is possible but doing that may hinder the process of dealing with the attackers, counteracting the purpose of a honeypot. Instead, detecting an attempted fingerprinting attack in real-time can enhance a honeypot’s capability, uninterruptedly managing any immediate consequences and preventing the honeypot being identified. Nevertheless, it is difficult to detect and predict an attempted fingerprinting attack due to the challenge of isolating it from other similar attacks, particularly when imprecise observations are involved in the monitoring of the traffic. Dynamic fuzzy rule interpolation (D-FRI) enables an adaptive approach for effective reasoning with such situations by exploiting the best of both inference and interpolation. The dynamic rules produced by D-FRI facilitate approximate reasoning with perpetual changes that often occur in this type of application, where dynamic rules are required to cover new network conditions. This paper proposes a D-FRI-Honeypot, an enhanced honeypot running D-FRI framework in conjunction with Principal Component Analysis, to detect and predict an attempted fingerprinting attack on honeypots. This D-FRI-Honeypot works with a sparse rule base but is able to detect active fingerprinting attacks when it does not find any matching rules. Also, it learns from current network conditions and offers a dynamically enriched rule base to support more precise detection. This D-FRI-Honeypot is tested against five popular fingerprinting tools (namely, Nmap, Xprobe2, NetScanTools Pro, SinFP3 and Nessus), to demonstrate its successful applications.
|Journal||IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computational Intelligence|
|Early online date||5 Oct 2020|
|Publication status||E-pub ahead of print - 5 Oct 2020|
|
- Blocked website categories: Select the categories you wish to block.
- URL category list size: Select "Top sites only" for higher performance or "Full list" for better coverage. When "Top sites only" is selected, the list of top sites in each of the blocked categories will be cached locally on the appliance. In this mode, client requests for URLs that are not in the top sites list will always be permitted (as long as they are not in the blocklist). If "Full list" is selected, a request for a URL that is not in the list of top sites will cause the appliance to look the URL up in a cloud-hosted database. This may have a noticeable impact on browsing speed when visiting a site for the first time. But the result will be cached locally. Over time, the "Full list" performance should approach the speed of "Top sites" option.
- Web search filtering: Enable this setting to enforce Safesearch for Google, Yahoo!, and Bing for all users in your network. This will not affect SSL/HTTPS searches.
- Restricted YouTube content: Enables restricted YouTube content functionality which leverages DNS-based enforcement. Once enabled, the YouTube restriction level option appears which provides a drop-down where either Moderate or Strict can be chosen. More details about restriction levels can be found here.
- Blocked URL patterns: Enter specific URL patterns you wish to block, one per line. See below for details on pattern matching.
- Allow listed URL patterns: Enter specific URL patterns you wish to explicitly allow, one per line. See below for details on pattern matching.
Traffic Analysis must be enabled under Network-wide > Configure > General > Traffic analysis for Content Filtering to function.
If communication to the cloud hosted lookup server is blocked or disrupted upstream while utilizing the "Full list" option the security appliance will default to block the URL that was submitted. Inversely if communication to the cloud hosted lookup server is blocked or disrupted upstream while utilizing the 'Top lists' option the security appliance will allow the URL that was to be categorized.
IP addresses are a supported option in Block/Allow listed URL pattern fields. The MX will process IP address as such.
Using the Catch-All Wildcard (*) in URLs
The asterisk symbol has two primary uses in URLs for content filtering.
- Standalone Catch-All Wildcard
- The " * " (asterisk) symbol when used on its own line is an all-inclusive wildcard which represents all possible entries
- When used on its own line in allow listed URL patterns, ALL URL patterns are allow listed
- When used on its own line in blocked URL patterns, ALL URL patterns are blocked, except those that are explicitly allow listed
- In-URL Asterisk Character
- The " * " (asterisk) symbol when used as part of a URL or in line with a URL is simply a regular asterisk symbol and is interpreted as part of the URL, NOT as a wildcard
- Note that this is very rarely useful, except in URLs that actually require asterisk symbols, such as https://web.archive.org/web/*/meraki.com
Patterns for Blocking or Allow Listing Specific URLs
Whenever a device on the network accesses a web page, the requested URL is checked against the configured lists to determine if the request will be allowed or blocked.
1. The full URL is evaluated
"http://www.foo.bar.com/qux/baz/lol?abc=123&true=false" is compared in its entirety and blocked or allowed if it matches an entry in either of those lists.
2. The URL is reduced down to its domain and subsequent parameters, then evaluated
"http://www." (protocol and leading 'www') is removed from the front of the URL
3. The URL will be reduced to only the domain along with its directory structure
The "foo.bar.com/qux/baz/lol?abc=123&true=false" will be reduced to "foo.bar.com/qux/baz/lol" by removing "?abc=123&true=false".
4. A multi-step evaluation that removes pieces of the directory structure, a level at a time, starting from the last directory.
Directory structure removed and evaluated: "foo.bar.com/qux/baz" is reduced to "foo.bar.com/qux" which is then reduced to "foo.bar.com"
5. Subdomains are removed in another multi-step process.
Subdomains are removed from the left to right, eventually being reduced to the top-level domain ( .COM). In this instance, "foo.bar.com" is reduced to "bar.com" and eventually to ".com"
6. Finally, the matching mechanism will check for the single asterisk character, used as a catch-all wildcard, in both the "Allow" and "Block" lists.
Step 6 is used to match the lone asterisk character to the "allow" and "block" lists.
If any of the above steps produces a match, then the request will be blocked or allow listed as appropriate. The allow list always takes precedence over the blocklist, so a request that matches both lists will be allowed. If there is no match, the request is subject to the category filtering settings above.
|URL Parsing Steps
|Current version of URL at this Step
|URL reduced down to its domain and subsequent parameters
Domain along with its directory structure
|Wildcard (asterisk - '*') catch-all
|* (lone wildcard asterisk)
In the example above, the specific (longer) URL is allowed because it is the longest match, whereas any other access to foo.bar.com domain will be blocked.
Blocking all Websites Using Content Filtering
An MX Security Appliance can be used to block all web content then configured for specific websites only. This can be specifically important when needing to be in a very controlled environment such as a school.
1. Navigate to Security & SD-WAN > Configure > Content filtering
2. Place an asterisk (*) in the Blocked URL patterns section
HTTPS requests can also be blocked, but because the URL in an HTTPS request is encrypted, only the domain URL checks will be performed in the following order:
- * (the special character for catch-all URL)
Once your Active Directory server settings are entered into Dashboard, you can click Refresh LDAP Groups to populate a list of user groups in your domain. You can then select individual groups and apply configured Group policies to them. For information about configuring Group policies, see the Group policies page.
Content Filtering Rule Priority
There are a number of different ways on the MX to use content filtering to block or allow access to websites. In circumstances where different filtering options contradict one another, the following priority applies (from highest to lowest priority):
Blocked and allow listed URL patterns.
Content filtering rules applied via Group Policy (using Active Directory or otherwise).
Global content filtering rules.
Practically speaking, with these rules in mind, consider the following best practices for content filtering design:
- Global content filtering rules should be designed as the "default" network experience.
- Group Policies should be used to create a "custom" network experience for users, which can be made either more or less restrictive than the default.
- URL patterns should be used to append or allow list a specific URL from the configured blocked categories.
|
This guide is a supplement to SANS FOR572: Advanced Network Forensics and Analysis. It covers the basics of JSON and some of the fundamentals of the jq utility. The jq utility filters, parses, formats, and restructures JSON—think of it as sed, awk, and grep, but for JSON. Given the trend toward logs being generated in JSON, easily accessing and molding that data is increasingly important for the forensicator. This document is not intended to replace jq’s extensive documentation. It is only a quick reference resource.
|
Google bolsters Gmail data loss prevention
A few months ago, Google provided a data loss prevention (DLP) solution for Gmail to Google Apps Unlimited Customers. The solution allows administrators to set up scanning of outbound emails (and attachments in them) and to quarantine, reject or modify them if sensitive data is being sent out.
On Monday, Google VP for security and privacy engineering Gerhard Eschelbeck announced that they have added new features to the solution.
“Because sensitive information can reside not just in text documents, but also in scanned copies and images, DLP for Gmail now uses Optical Character Recognition,” he noted.
OCR should improve attachment scanning. The new feature can analyze common image types (JPG, PNG, GIF and TIFF), scanned documents and photos, and extract text from them by using automated computer algorithms.
“We’ve also introduced additional detection parameters for fine-grained policy control and offer broader coverage of HIPAA data and personally identifiable information (PII) globally,” he added. Initially the feature detected only credit card numbers.
Admins can now also set up different DLP policies based on whether a message contains individual or bulk PII, and change detection criteria for the various detectors.
|
BlackLight is a multi-platform forensic analysis tool that allows examiners to quickly and intuitively analyze digital forensic media. BlackLight is capable of analyzing data from Mac OS X computers, iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch) and Windows computers. It is compatible with all leading logical and physical forensic image formats.
Examiners may use BlackLight as a time-saving data triage tool, or as an advanced forensic examination tool depending on the circumstance. To learn more, please view the quick feature videos to the right, or use the drop down menus below which detail the many BlackLight features.
|
network traffic analysis (threats) (NTA)
There are a variety of ter techniques to combat cyberattacks. Among the detection and prevention techniques is Network Trafiifc Analysis(NTA).
Network traffic analysis, or NTA, works by using machine learning techniques and detecting suspicious activity in traffic. Network traffic analysis programs continuously analyze traffic for aberrant transmission patterns. From these analyses, algorithms are created that reflect normal network behavior. Using these models, anomalies in transmission patterns are detected directly and can be eliminated immediately.
|
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)(Learn how and when to remove this template message)
OSSEC is a free, open-source host-based intrusion detection system (HIDS). It performs log analysis, integrity checking, Windows registry monitoring, rootkit detection, time-based alerting, and active response. It provides intrusion detection for most operating systems, including Linux, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, OS X, Solaris and Windows. OSSEC has a centralized, cross-platform architecture allowing multiple systems to be easily monitored and managed.
|Developer(s)||Daniel B. Cid|
2.9.1 / June 19, 2017
|Type||Security / HIDS|
|License||GNU GPL v2|
In June 2008, the OSSEC project and all the copyrights owned by Cid, the project leader, were acquired by Third Brigade, Inc. They promised to continue to contribute to the open source community and to extend commercial support and training to the OSSEC open source community.
In May 2009, Trend Micro acquired Third Brigade and the OSSEC project, with promises to keep it open source and free.
It is compliant with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) requirements.
OSSEC consists of a main application, a Windows agent, and a web interface ( however the web interface is no longer maintained and is shown as deprecated on it's github page https://github.com/ossec/ossec-wui ):
- Main application, OSSEC, which is required for distributed network or stand-alone installations. It is supported by Linux, Solaris, BSD, and Mac environments.
- Windows agent, which is provided for Microsoft Windows environments. The main application needs to be installed and configured for server mode to support the Windows Agent.
- Web interface (deprecated), which as a separate application provides a graphical user interface. Like the main application, it is supported by Linux, Solaris, BSD, and Mac environments. It is now suggested to use Kibana,Splunk Graylog or something similar for monitoring alerts.
OSSEC has a log analysis engine that is able to correlate and analyze logs from multiple devices and formats. The following are currently[when?] supported:
- Unix-only: Unix PAM, sshd (OpenSSH), Solaris telnetd, Samba, Su, and Sudo
- FTP servers: ProFTPd, Pure-FTPd, vsftpd, Microsoft FTP Server, and Solaris ftpd
- Mail servers: Imapd and pop3d, Postfix, Sendmail, vpopmail, and Microsoft Exchange Server
- Databases: PostgreSQL and MySQL
- Web servers: Apache HTTP Server (access log and error log), IIS web server (NSCA and W3C extended), and Zeus Web Server errors log
- Web applications: Horde IMP, SquirrelMail, and Modsecurity
- Firewalls: iptables firewall, Solaris IPFilter firewall, AIX ipsec/firewall, Netscreen firewall, Windows Firewall, Cisco PIX, Cisco FWSM, and Cisco ASA
- NIDS: Cisco IOS IDS/IPS module, and Snort IDS (full, fast, and syslog)
- Security tools: Symantec AntiVirus, Nmap, Arpwatch, and Cisco VPN Concentrator
- Others: Named (BIND), Squid proxy, Zeus eXtensible Traffic Manager (now Riverbed Stingray Traffic Manager)
- Windows event logs (logins, logouts, audit information, etc.)
- Windows Routing and Remote Access logs
- Generic Unix authentication (adduser, logins, etc.)
- "SteelApp for Application Delivery Control & Scalability". riverbed.com.
|
Many of our customers have mature security programs that address mobile devices with a wide range of controls. However, many small businesses don’t have fully developed security policies and are trying to determine what first steps are the most practical that they can take to secure their mobile devices.
The two most basic and most repeated steps to secure data on mobile devices are still the most important first steps to take:
1. Require the use of a PIN or passphrase to access any application or data on each mobile device
2. Configure mobile devices so that they can be remotely wiped
Employees really should be taught to assume that sooner or later the device they are using will be lost or stolen. A PIN won’t defeat someone with the device in hand from gaining access to the data on the device, if they are determined to do so. However, a PIN should delay someone from accessing the data on the device long enough for employees to perform a remote deletion of the data, if reporting of the loss or theft is done in a timely manner.
Over time, mobile devices tend to be used on a number of wireless networks and cellular networks that may be insecure. It is important to protect communications from eavesdroppers.
3. Use a VPN to ensure all communications are encrypted, protecting the traffic from eavesdroppers or tampering
Requiring the use of a corporate VPN for all mobile device traffic will also enable a company to perform traffic analysis and enforce Data Loss/Leak Prevention (DLP) controls, and block access to forbidden sites, if the company has such controls in place.
Most enterprises will prohibit employees from using consumer grade cloud storage services such as iCloud, Skydrive, Dropbox, or Google Cloud Storage. If the use of these or similar services is allowed:
4. Use a password that will withstand brute force attacks for any cloud storage services and do not reuse the password for any other services or accounts
Companies that do prohibit employees from using consumer grade cloud storage services should educate employees about the risks and what applications are prohibited. There are many applications that utilize cloud storage without necessarily explaining to the users how features leveraging cloud storage is utilized.
5. Do install anti-malware defenses where appropriate
6. Do not allow jailbreaking of devices
The large number of mobile devices in use are attracting malware authors. If the mobile device platform has an applicable anti-virus or anti-malware package available it should be installed. Apple believes their walled-garden approach to software installation negates the need for anti-virus software and they do not permit any such packages to be sold via the App Store. Of course, that approach only works as long as all software available to consumers will be examined, vetted, and approved by the vendor.
Companies desiring to address a wider range of risks will likely need to impose many more controls. Mobile Device Management (MDM) platforms provide a variety of additional controls and finer granularity of the controls listed above. The Blackberry platform still provides the greatest variety of controls, offering enterprise administrators over 450 policy settings. Microsoft’s ActiveSync mailbox policies defines 41 settings, although not all of the settings can be applied to all device platforms. Other MDM products typically provide fewer settings than those available from a Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) but more options than available via ActiveSync mailbox policies.
MDM tools are limited by the features available on the device platform, and at times by the capabilities enabled by the carrier. Companies that desire to support multiple device platforms may need to operate multiple MDM systems.
|
Secure Code Review is a measure to help you reveal flaws in your applications before they go live. Secure source code review assesses the security of an application by examining source code. It evaluates the people, the processes, and the technologies in each application. After completing this course from Koenig, students will be able to: identify the root cause of flaws, and build cost-effective recommendations for remediation.Source code analysis (SCA) not only identifies which statement on which line of code is vulnerable, but is also able to identify the tainted variable that introduces the vulnerability. In this way it illustrates the propagation from root cause, to end result.
Testing for security vulnerabilities is complicated by the fact that they often exist in hard-to-reach states or crop up in unusual circumstances. Static analysis tools can peer into more of a program's dark corners with less fuss than dynamic analysis, which requires actually running the code.
Static analysis also has the potential to be applied before a program reaches a level of completion at which testing can be meaningfully performed. The earlier security risks are identified and managed in the software lifecycle, the better. This course covers the static analysis methods, techniques, and tools for white-box secure code review.
By the end of the course, you should be able to meet the following objectives:
- Recognize the need for a static analysis tool
- Know how to integrate white box testing into your SDLC
- Be able to perform secure code review with a static analysis tool
- Identify the type of vulnerabilities you can scan for with a static analysis tool
- Choose a static analysis tool for analysis capabilities, vulnerability taxonomy and your specific needs
- Analyse and prioritize critical vulnerability findings in your software
|
The information you are about to copy is INTERNAL!
DO NOT share it with anyone outside Check Point.
"Connection terminated before detection" in log reason for Unified Rulebase
Quantum Security Gateways
R80.10, R80.20, R80.30, R80.40, R81, R81.10
Platform / Model
The connection is terminated before detection of required filter criteria. The log shows the following reasons:
"Connection terminated before detection: No TCP payload."
"Connection terminated before detection: No UDP payload."
"Connection terminated before detection: No SSL applicative data."
"Connection terminated before detection: Insufficient data."
Or starting at R81.10 it shows the following:
"Connection terminated before the Security Gateway was able to make a decision: ..."
This is an expected behavior.
Important notes: - The Security Gateway did not drop the connection. - There will be no drop print in the debugs. - The log is not necessarily due to unwanted behavior of the edge client or the server.
A Unified Policy may contain filter criteria that cannot be resolved on the connection's first packet, such as Application or Data. Therefore, on some connections, the final rule match decision will occur on the following data packets. Until the final decision is reached, the incoming data packets are accepted by rule base, if there is a rule that allows it (meaning if one of the possibly matched rules is not with Drop/Reject action).
In scenarios in which the connection ends without application data content at all (no data packets), or the amount of data is not enough for the required engine detection, the rule base will issue an Accept log with the first rule that allows the traffic. This rule may not have complete adequacy with all the applicative criteria because some of them have not been detected yet.
The corresponding log will contain one of the following Reason strings:
Connection terminated before detection: No TCP payload.
The TCP connection was established but after the 3-way handshake, packets containing data have not arrived from one of the sides (client or server).
Connection terminated before detection: No UDP payload.
UDP packets containing data have not arrived from the client or from the server.
Connection terminated before detection: No SSL applicative data.
The SSL handshake has started or finished, but packets containing encrypted applicative data have not arrived at the Gateway.
Connection terminated before detection: Insufficient data. <X> bytes passed
Data packets have arrived, but the amount of data was not enough for the engine detection. The string will also state the number of data bytes (TCP/UDP payload) that may pass the Gateway.
The following video explains on what is possible match and on the mentioned logs -
Post R81.10 + jumbo takes (to be updated):
We wanted to make this flow more clear and understandable, therefore we decided to change the code logic and the log card information.
1. In order to make the 'Reason' message more clear, the text was changed to: "Connection terminated before the Security Gateway was able to make a decision: ... To learn more see sk113479." Example -
2. In case the the Access Rulebase did not reach final match on accept, we will give a log with a new unique rule specific for this case 'CPNotEnoughDataForRuleMatch' and accept action. - Why new unique rule? Since the connection did not reach final match, we can't tell for sure which rule this connection should have match in case it would not terminate before detection. Thus, so we won't give a confusing rule in the log, we decided to give new unique rule which will indicate that this traffic reached "Connection terminated before..." flow. - Why accept? The Security Gateway did not drop the connection, the connection got terminated before a final match. The Security Gateway did accept the connection first packet (The rulebase was in possible match state). Therefore we give the log as accept, so it will reflect that the traffic of the first packet was accepted due to possible match. * In case the first layer in the Access Rulebase did not reach final match on accept rule, the new unique rule will appear in the main log card section also (and not only in the 'matched rules' section). Example -
3. In the 'Matched Rules' section in the log, for each layer that did not reach final match on accept rule, we will use our new unique rule name (rule number will not show). Example -
1. Pre R81.10 : The kernel parameter that controls if these messages (Connection terminated before detection: XXXXX) are seen within the logs is: up_log_reason_for_incomplete_match
it needs to be set to "1" for these messages to be seen: fw ctl set int up_log_reason_for_incomplete_match 1
2. Post R81.10 : up_log_reason_for_incomplete_match does not exist anymore. We will give the 'Reason' section in the log for each connection that did not reach final match on accept.
> Extended Reason: For extended reason in the log, use kernel parameter up_log_extended_reason_for_incomplete_match
it needs to be set to "1" for these extended reason to be seen: fw ctl set int up_log_extended_reason_for_incomplete_match 1
Other than the 'regular' reason message, the extended reason also includes - A. List of the missing required classifier objects (clobs) for this connection. B. The first layer in the Rulebase that did not reach final match on accept rule and it's first possible rule.
In the example we can see that pre_Network is the first layer in the Access Rulebase that did not reach final match on accept rule. Also it's first possible rule is rule number 2. We can also see a list of the missing clobs - Application, XFF Source Access Role, Protocol, File, Content, Direction.
This extended information helps us to better understand why this traffic reached the "Finalize rulebase" flow on the first place. Moreover, in case of tasks we (or TAC/support/CFG) could detect faster whether it's legit log or not.
Notes: 1) It's possible that in the extended reason there will be no missing clobs. How? Before we give this log, we ask certain observers (e.g. APPI IDA Protocol) whether they have new clobs to notify. In case that we have new clobs, we will try one final Rulebase run. After this final run, we can for example reach a final match on Drop, so we still will give the "Connection terminated before.." log, but there will be no missing clobs. Example -
2) It's possible that the "First possible rule" is a drop rule and that's ok.
3)Clobs table: The following clobs might appear in the extended reason for the "Connection terminated before..." logs:
Source IP from the 'X-Forwarded-For' header in the HTTP request headers.
Content + File type.
Type of content.
Whether it's in or out going traffic.
(Note - it can happen due to more type of clobs but it's more rare so we decided to skip those)
> Light debugs: New 'light' debugs which gives concise and important information for the 'Connection terminated before...' flow. How to activate: Add the following debug flags - 'fw ctl debug -m UP + probtrc info'. Example of debug prints -
From the debugs we can learn - - The connection entered the 'Finalize rulebase' flow and it didn't reach a final match on accept. - We can see the list of the required and active clobs, for example APPLICATION PROTOCOL and more. - We can see a list of the layers that did not reach full match on accept. - For each layer we can see a list of it's possible rules.
Give us Feedback
Thanks for your feedback!
Are you sure you want to rate this stars?
|
Logging-driven development – logs are not just logs
Fact 1: ` logger.debug(“”squeak””) ;`
Who’s never written something like that?
No one, or at least you’re in some truly interesting company 🙂
Logs are part of *EVERY* app development process. Very often, however, it’s done by instinct, which is normal, as very few teams codify this approach.
After all, why not spend a few minutes structuring your logging function as you would with any other feature? However, here we are, making it an element of our architecture.
* Our apps already have plenty of things to tell us, and lots is already recorded in the logs.
* Logs are everywhere, from browsers to data stores, relentlessly tracking errors, queries, response times, and user actions…
* Creating links between every module and stack micro-services
* With a more structured approach, logs will change your product vision.
And, above all, it’s super-simple 🙂
A bit of feedback on patterns and anti-patterns that work.
|
The control of congestion in connectionless packet-switched wide-area networks is a major problem, especially in such networks as the Internet, which is experiencing an exponential growth in users and network traffic. This thesis outlines a rate-based framework for congestion control in these networks, examines the requirements of the framework, and describes a number of control mechanisms which meet the framework's requirements.
The effectiveness of the framework in combatting congestion is demonstrated by a series of simulation experiments, which also compare the framework against traditional end-to-end congestion control mechanisms. Experimental results indicate that rate-based congestion control provides excellent congestion control. Moreover, a rate-based framework achieves much better congestion control in these networks than traditional control mechanisms.
|
Few can be unaware of the ‘NotPetya’ cyberattack that struck at the end of June 2017, the repercussions of which should have caused organisations to review every existing assessment of their exposure to cyber risk.
Perhaps the greatest challenge with cyber risk is that it is a new and ever-changing paradigm, for which existing or historic models may be inadequate. Cyber risk is vast, complex, diverse and largely hidden, but has the ability to impact organisations in the most fundamental ways.
The uncomfortable realities are twofold: firstly, the interconnected infrastructure on which global businesses rely is inherently insecure and, secondly, human nature and ingenuity is at once the greatest strength and the greatest weakness. If any doubted the intensity of the struggle of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ in this arena, the launch of Operation #LeakTheAnalyst at the end of July should be a claxon wake-up call.
For the most part, it may be assumed that organisations will be unwitting victims, although corporate espionage cannot be totally discounted. The recent events affected a broad range of industries, including food companies, law firms, shipping, banking, utilities and health. The simple conclusion is that criminals are exploiting weaknesses across the board, and both extorting money and causing significant disruption.
Supply chain vulnerability
It’s surprising that the intermodal supply chain hasn’t been more exposed and disrupted by cybercrime. In part, this may be due to the low level of transparency and reporting; it is understandable that organisations tend to be coy about the incidence and manner of cybercrime to which they fall victim.
In reality, the intermodal supply chain is particularly exposed, since it is increasingly reliant on IT linking offices between different countries in each individual organisation, depending on interactions with multiple third-party stakeholders and often operating on custom-built/proprietary applications, where security protocols may not be alert to recent vulnerabilities. Added to these, many entities will, in the ongoing economic and competitive environment, create overall risk appetites that focus on risks other than just cyber.
The impact of a cyberattack can vary vastly, ranging from simple theft or fraud, through to system or equipment control and manipulation, and extending to the release of data or intellectual property.
Many companies have reviewed email security arrangements in an effort to reduce the volume of potentially fraudulent emails their employees receive. Measures can be put in place to strengthen email sender identification prior to release into an internal email system, including ‘sender policy framework’ (SPF) validation, which confirms a message is from a legitimate domain associated with the sender company.
The human factor
However, risk mitigation techniques are not enough on their own and need to be combined with policies that address the elephant in the room: human behaviour. The structure and culture of each organisation will fundamentally impact the way in which its employees and counterparties react to cyber threats and vulnerabilities. The implementation of clear policies – including in relation to topics such as whistle-blowing – and effective, regular awareness and good practice training are necessary to combat the threat posed by careless insiders.
There also needs to be clear recognition that people have lives outside the workplace. Organisations need to consider the interfaces with devices such as smartphones, let alone the potential vulnerabilities presented through social media usage. At both personal and corporate level, a balance is required between the strength of perimeter security and its ease of use. This needs to encompass not just matters such as password/PIN complexity, but also clarity concerning connection and use of peripheral devices and USB flash drives.
Together with the reality that IT is thoroughly inescapable in achieving personal and corporate objectives, assessment of cyber risks needs to lead to mitigation that recognises that perimeter defences are insufficient on their own, concluding that focus should be given to the human factors alongside additional detection and remediation techniques. Experience to date may yet be minor skirmishes.
Europe’s introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) next May will have implications for businesses around the world and US corporates should start getting ready if they haven’t already done so.
For companies to survive the intense competition, the only way is to make better use of information gathered from the business process.
Accidental data breaches are causing almost as much concern as the steady rise in ransomware attacks, reports insurer Beazley.
The statement issued by the bank also suggests that fiat currencies are superior, due to their price stability.
|
One of the forms of attack on a blockchain is directed against the consensus. The two best known are the Sybil attack, for Proof of Stake (PoS) and the 51% attack, for Proof of Work (PoW).
These types of attacks are what I will explain in this article, regarding the two most used consensuses to forge a blockchain, PoW and PoS.
Sybil and 51% attacks are not the only ways to attack a network, although they are the most important. It is also possible to exploit code vulnerabilities in the protocol, or perform a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack.
The attack on the PoS protocol is theoretically more likely than on the PoW protocol, since the algorithm is much more complex, because in addition to programming the issuance of coins and coding the structure for block validation, the protocol must manage the distribution of rewards between operators and delegators. Complexity is prone to vulnerabilities.
The DDoS attack consists of affecting the availability of the system, generating large volumes of packages or requests, to overload the system, from multiple sources of aggression.
Both algorithms admit variations in their protocol for the different blockchains, but they keep their essence, and therefore, the same corresponding attack vectors.
You should know that there are many other consensus protocols such as: Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS), Leased Proof of Stake (LPoS), Proof of Elapsed Time (PoET), Proof of Importance (PoI), Proof of History (PoH), Proof of of Activity (PoA) a mix between PoW and PoS, Proof of Capacity (PoC) which counts the capacity of your hard drive, Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT), Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance (dBFT), etc.
I show you a graphic summary below:
Blockchain consensus attacks target those who forge the network and the economic incentives for their work. Block after block, recording transactions, whether they are miners in the Proof of Work (PoW) consensus, or validators in the Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus, the revenue is made up of coin issuance (inflation) for many of the networks , plus validation fees, for all, whatever the consensus.
The PoW protocol is vulnerable to the 51% attack, which occurs when a group of miners controls the consensus with more than half of the mining hashrate (computational power) of a network, being able to alter the normal mining process, preventing other miners from completing blocks, denying or modifying transactions at will.
If we take Bitcoin data from the last 12 months, we have a PoW network of about $700 billion cap, where miners have been charged $16.8 billion to secure it.
Those earnings are made up of 328,500 BTC (6.25 BTC x 144 daily blocks x 365 days) at an average value of USD 45,000 last year, adding USD 14.8 billion per BTC mining, plus validation fees. Source: Blockchain.com
Therefore, a 51% attack on such a network would cost (by bribing miners) at least USD 9 billion a year.
A Sybil attack is a type of blockchain attack, in which an attacker subverts the consensus system by creating a large number of pseudo-anonymous identities and uses them to gain a very large influence on the consensus. This attack is possible in Proof of Stake (PoS).
Following the same analysis I did for the 51% attack, a USD 700 billion PoS network, assuming a delegation of 50% of circulating coins, would require at least USD 357 billion to attack the network, buying half of the tokens that are delegated. The greater the delegation, the more difficult the attack. Cardano has maintained a delegation of no less than 69% of its currency, for more than a year, therefore it is even more expensive for its attackers.
Comparison of PoW and PoS Attacks
A Proof of Work (PoW) blockchain does not suffer from a Sybil attack, because there is a large hardware and energy cost in testing each node to solve arbitrary cryptographic puzzles.
With the proposed exercise, it can be seen that a PoS network, if it keeps half of its circulating coins in delegation, is 40 times more expensive to attack compared to a PoW of similar capitalization value.
The higher the delegation in PoS, the more expensive the attack.
The higher the price of your cryptocurrency, the more expensive the attack is for either of the two consensuses.
In this exercise, the costs of the validators to run their nodes have not been considered, which would reduce the attack barrier, because the net profits are lower after subtracting the expenses to sign blocks.
PoW has higher costs by requiring specialized hardware to be able to mine, (ASIC is the processor with the largest market) and a lot of electricity to protect the network, all to solve arbitrary mathematical equations, which implies that the net profit is much lower, and therefore this reduces the attack barrier compared to PoS.
On this site you can read about the energy input of Bitcoin: Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index.
The interest of the miners is to continue with the business, and that incentive (Game Theory) means that they are not easily bribed (perhaps the attacker should offer them several years of rent in advance).
In this table you can see the requirements for the main PoS blockchains.
The higher the hashrate (computing power) in PoW, the less likely a 51% attack is, and the probability is further reduced when that hashrate is distributed among multiple miners.
In the same sense, for the PoS protocol, the Sybil attack is less likely, when a large number of cryptocurrencies are in delegation and distributed among several holders, since the value of the token itself is used to secure the network.
PoS consensus is a much more efficient protocol, from the economic point of view, to obtain a high security of blockchain, without the enormous cost of hardware and energy of PoW, and thus, its economic ecosystem can have fees and inflation (issuance ) much lower, due to its design.
The conclusion is clear, for both protocols, decentralization in block production is key, for a healthy blockchain in the long term.
|
All known malicious domains are actively blocked as most of the phishing and ransomware domains have a low lifetime. If a user browses to a domain that has been blocked, they will be presented with a default blocking page. If the domain is whitelisted or if it is not known as “bad” the user will be able to access the domain.
By blocking through DNS, we are not only blocking the web traffic that should go though your web proxies, but also the traffic that is bypassing the proxy. Secutec Secure DNS Service works with any IT, network or security setup within your corporation.
|
REPUTATION BASED ZONE TRUST DETECTION AND SWATT REVOCATION METHOD USING SPRT IN SENSOR NETWORKS
|Rakshith Upparige K R 1, Sateesh Kumar H C 2
PG Scholar, Department of Telecommunication Engineering, Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering,Bangalore, Karnataka, India 1
Associate Professor, Department of Telecommunication Engineering, Dayananda Sagar College Of Engineering, Bangalore, Karnataka, India 2
|Related article at Pubmed, Scholar Google|
Wireless sensor networks can be used in several real world applications, including various critical applications such as military surveillance, infrastructure security monitoring and fault detection. Typically sensors are deployed in large number in environments that may not be safe or easily accessible to humans. An adversary or attacker can modify the sensor nodes that operate in the harsh environment and thus can insert faulty data to mislead the whole network. Hence in order to reduce the damage occurred to the compromised sensor nodes, it is extremely important to detect and revoke them as early as possible. The main idea is to propose zone based node compromise detection and revocation scheme for sensor networks. This is achieved using reputation based trust management scheme and software based attestation technique. Software attestation technique has been proposed to verify the integrity of the code without physical access. Whereas Reputation-based Framework for Sensor Networks maintain reputation for other nodes. This reputation is used to evaluate the trustworthiness of other nodes, which in turn establishes a web of trust in the network, which is then used as an inherent aspect in predicting the future behaviour of nodes in the network. Thus the proposed scheme provides effective and robust compromised sensor node detection and revocation capability with little overhead.
|
To stop those bad errors, adhere to the following steps:, you don't need to hesitate, just try it.
1. First of all click the Start button to view the Start Menu.Then choose the Control Panel option.
2.Then click System and Security and chose Windows Firewall.
3.You can see a new window, On the right pane, there are two firewall settings: Home or Work (Private) networks and Public networks, the Firewall state is ON for both the networks.
4.Please click Change notification settings on the left pane above, then you can see this window. To turn on the Windows Firewall click on the Turn on Windows Firewall option button. To turn off the Windows Firewall click on the Turn off Windows Firewall option button At last, click OK.
1. Open Device Manager.
2. Follow the instructions in the preceding procedure to uninstall the device.
3. If you are prompted to restart the computer, follow these steps:
Plug in the device and then restart the computer. The device will be detected and reinstalled after Windows restarts.
Follow any instructions on-screen to complete installation.
4. If you are not prompted to restart the computer, follow these steps:
In Device Manager, in the Action menu, click Scan for hardware changes.
Follow the instructions on the screen.
|
DJVU Ransomware is, in fact, a subtype of notorious STOP Ransomware, that has been active since December, 2017. Virus uses AES-256 (CFB-mode) encryption algorithm. This new version adds .kiratos, .hofos, .roldat or .todarius extensions to encrypted files. STOP Ransomware belongs to family of crypto-viruses, that demand money in exchange for decryption. The good news are, that most of previous versions of STOP Ransomware could be decrypted using special tool called STOPDecrypter (download link below in the article). Kiratos Ransomware and Todarius Ransomware use exactly the same e-mails, ransom note patterns and other parameters: [email protected] and [email protected]. Victims can also contact extortionists using Telegram messenger account: @datarestore.
Search Encrypt or Searchencrypt.com is internet search engine, that, according to its developers, prioritises users’s privacy while web search. Company, that developed this site is based in Limassol, Cyprus. Search Encrypt uses AES-256 encryption to encode search terms, and creates short-living key to encrypt user’s queries. Searchencrypt.com can be used independently, or along with Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox add-ons called Search Encrypt and Privacy Toolkit. Although, website seems to be legitimate, many users complain, that extensions are installed without their consent. Search Encrypt gets its revenue from ads, and advertising policy, as well as encryption technology are not transparent. These facts give a birth to concerns about its safety and privacy. In this tutorial we show how to completely remove Search Encrypt and restore preferred homepage and search engine settings.
New generation of STOP Ransomware (DJVU Ransomware) started to add .norvas, .hrosas, .moresa or .verasto extensions to encrypted files since April, 17th. We remind you, that STOP Ransomware belongs to family of crypto-viruses, that extort money in exchange for data decryption. Last examples of STOP Ransomware are sometimes categorised as DJVU Ransomware, as they use identical template of ransom notes since the beginning of 2019, when .djvu extensions were appended. Norvas Ransomware uses new email addresses, that were never used before: [email protected] and [email protected]. In this version, victims can also contact extortionists via Telegram account: @datarestore. The decryption of files encrypted by STOP Ransomware still costs $980 (or $490 if ransom is paid within 72 hours). Our team does not recommend you paying the ransom. There are frequent cases when, hackers don’t reply after receiving the payment. Most of recent versions of STOP (DJVU) Ransomware were successfully decrypted by security specialists and enthusiasts. Below in the article, you can find download button for STOPDecrypter, decryption utility, that is constantly updated by developers. It is able to decrypt .norvas, .hrosas, .moresa or .verasto files for free or will be able to recover them in a few days or weeks.
MacSecurityPlus is advertising virus, that hits Mac systems. It aims Safari, Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox browsers and wants to control these apps to display ads, pop-ups and get access to private user’s data. MacSecurityPlus does not have any interface, but its activity can be spotted in Activity Monitor. It also generates fake system alerts and causes legal system messages to force users to grant access to browsers for MacSecurityPlus. As a result of virus activity, users may experience unstable browsers operation, modification of browser settings, such as default search engine and homepage, and annoying, unusual advertising. In addition to that, MacSecurityPlus access to browsing data (history, cookies, caches, bookmarks), opens gate to affected computer for advertisers of all kinds.
Search.yourmapsnow.com or Your Maps Now is misleading browser hijacker, that replaces default search engine and homepage in Safari, Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox on Windows or Mac. Often, it is accompanied with browser extension or application called “Your Maps Now”. This add-on sneaks in browsers and takes control over main browser settings. Of course, it installs without user permission using the deceptive tactic. After installation, user search queries are redirected to query.yourmapsnow.com and then to search.yahoo.com. This allows the hijacker to collect private browser data and share it with advertising companies. The homepage also changes to Search.yourmapsnow.com and, besides search, provides quick links to main map resources such as Google Maps and Bing Maps. Page looks similar to normal search engine page, and some users don’t even see the difference until they start searching for something.
|
Cybersecurity can be confusing. Over the years, countless terms have emerged regarding cybersecurity. While some of these terms are self-explanatory, others are not. For a better understanding of cybersecurity, you should familiarize yourself with the following terms and their respective definitions.
A vulnerability is a weakness in an information technology (IT) infrastructure, such as a network, that makes it susceptible to cyber attacks. Most cyber attacks begin with a vulnerability. Hackers use vulnerabilities to conduct cyber attacks by exploiting them.
There are also threats in cybersecurity. A threat is a specific type of cyber attack. It’s essentially a malicious act that’s designed to cause harm, in some way, to a victim or his or her computer. Malware, for instance, is a cyber threat. It’s arguably the most common type of cyber threat facing consumers and businesses alike.
Malware is intrinsically connected to cybersecurity. Malware consists of software that’s used for malicious purposes. Research shows that over 30,000 new types of malware are detected each day.
A virus is specific type of malware that’s defined by its ability to self-replicate. Other types of malware must be manually copied. Viruses are different in the sense that they can replicate on their own. After being deployed on a computer, a virus may spread to other parts of the same computer, or it may spread to other computers connected to the same network.
Phishing is a type of cyber threat that uses social engineering to trick victims into divulging sensitive information. Phishing requires the use of a vector, such as email, to acquire information from a victim. There are phishing emails that look legitimate, but if you respond to them, you could be providing a hacker with sensitive information that allows him or her to access your data.
In cybersecurity, a backdoor is a type of vulnerability that allows an unauthorized individual to access an otherwise protected part of an IT infrastructure. Hackers use backdoors to bypass traditional cybersecurity measures. If there’s a backdoor present, a hacker may use to infiltrate your business’s network and steal your data.
A firewall is an essential tool used to defend against cyber threats. Available as either hardware or software, firewalls are designed to filter network traffic based on a set of rules. A firewall will scan your network’s traffic while checking to see if it meets the criteria of your specified rules. If it doesn’t, the firewall will reject the traffic packet.
#backdoor #cybersecurity #firewall #malware
|
The Evolving Debate Over EIP-999: Can (or Should) Trapped Ether Be Freed?
In November 2017, a pseudonymous actor exploited a vulnerability in Parity’s multi-signature Ethereum wallet library that rendered half a million ether inaccessible to their owners. Ironically, the culprit, Devops199, was trying to patch another vulnerability that allowed hackers to steal $32 million from Parity’s multi-signature wallet accounts back in July of 2017. While tinkering with the popular service’s smart contracts, Devops199 blundered his way into complete ownership of the library that houses the entirety of Parity’s multi-signature wallet accounts.
Alerted to this mistake, he made another by killing the code he deployed. The fallout of this decision resulted in the library locking up roughly $150 million worth of ether, leaving the funds completely untouchable. Fast forward five months: The 514,000 inaccessible coins are worth over $320 million, and the community now has a few feasible options at its disposal to restore them to their rightful owners.
|
Setting up and using ACLs
Note: We have deprecated the usage of
blacklist in favor of
deny. This change may require Admin API requests to be updated.
Associate consumers with an ACL
You can have more than one group associated to a consumer.
When a consumer has been validated, the plugin appends a
header to the request before proxying it to the Upstream service, so that you can
identify the groups associated with the consumer. The value of the header is a
comma-separated list of groups that belong to the consumer, like
This header will not be injected in the request to the upstream service if
hide_groups_header config flag is set to
|
Send syslog messages between domains.
Transport syslog messages
Diode Syslog supports the transport of Syslog messages between domains separated with data diodes. Both TCP and UDP protocols are supported and can be configured to run multiple parallel Syslog streams simultaneously.
HOW IT WORKS
The most basic setup is to have a single Syslog stream as shown below.
Another common scenario is shown below where logs are forwarded from three separate domains to a single Security Operations Center for centralized analysis and monitoring.
This architecture prevents information leakage between the security domains under supervision. It also ensures that personnel in each security domain can not manipulate the logs once stored in the Security Operations Center and that the personnel at the Security Operation Center have no direct access to the security domain they supervise.
Diode Syslog is able to forward Syslog messages from multiple computers to multiple Syslog servers in a different network separated by a data diode.
|
VirusTotal (简称 VT), 是谷歌旗下一家免费提供可疑文件扫描服务的网站. VT 上有超过50家反病毒引擎提供实时扫描服务. 我们每天收集用户上传到 VT 的 APK ...
At Trustlook, we monitor live feed from VirusTotal (VT). On a daily basis, we collect APK samples from VT along with detection results from Anti-Virus (AV) vendors hosted on VT. Using a conservative labeling policy, we are able to select thousands of benign and malicious APK samples from millions of live feed samples. Then we look at detection results from AV vendors and rate them by how many malware they have detected and how many benign samples they have misclassified.
We generate a CSV file recording the detection results everyday. In the CSV file, from left to right, the columns are MD5 hash of the APK, label where 1 means positive (malicious) and 0 means negative (benign), and one column for each vendor showing its detection results where 1 means positive and 0 means negative.
On a weekly basis, we publish the detection results and zip the CSV files to AWS S3. For this week, you can download the detection data from:
The weekly results are summarized in the table below and here is a simple explanation of the columns in the table:
- Vendor: AV engine vendor
- TPR: True Positive Rate, percentage of positive (malware) samples being correctly classified as positive
- FPR: False Positive Rate, percentage of negative (goodware) samples being misclassified as positive
- TP: True Positive, number of positive (malware) samples being correctly classified as positive
- FP: False Positive, number of negative (goodware) samples being misclassified as positive
- TN: True Negative, number of negative (goodware) samples being correctly classified as negative
- FN: False Negative, number of positive (malware) samples being misclassified as negative
Please send an email to [email protected] if you have any comments. Thanks.
|
Application Error code 0xc0000005 is also known as Access Violation error. This is a common problem experienced by Windows users, regardless of operating system version. Application Error 0xc0000005 is broad and can be caused by a number of different problems.
The error usually appears when trying to run an a program or application (as implied in the error name). It prevents users from starting various applications and programs and states that the application was unable to start correctly. At this point, all you can do is close the pop-up error window by clicking “OK” – Windows then terminates (closes) the application. This obviously prevents you from running that particular application in Windows. Additionally, the error can occur, not only when trying to launch an app or a program, but also when trying to use certain built-in Windows tools. So, the error can occur when trying to perform a number of different tasks.
There are various causes of this problem, such as third-party antivirus programs triggering Application Error 0xc0000005. Additionally, it is possible that the Windows system registry is corrupted, thus making the system and associated programs behave abnormally. There might also be problems with installed drivers – they could be corrupted, incorrect, or faulty. Some programs might have been updated or installed incorrectly, or the operating system infected by malware or a virus. Clearly, there is no single reason for Application Error 0xc0000005, and there are a number of different ways to fix it. In this guide, we describe possible ways to fix the issue.
It is recommended to run a free scan with Malwarebytes – a tool to detect malware and fix computer errors. You will need to purchase the full version to remove infections and eliminate computer errors. Free trial available.
Scan Your System For Malware
First, simply scan the system for malware and viruses. Malware often prevents the system from accessing various programs, applications, and tools. It is a good idea to scan your system from time-to-time. You can use Windows Defender (built-in antivirus program), which protects your computer against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software. Or you can run another third-party antivirus suite if you have one installed. To run a full system scan using Windows Defender, type “virus” in Search and click on the “Virus & threat protection” result.
In the Virus & threat protection window, click “Advanced scan”.
Select “Full scan” and click “Scan now”. This will start scanning your system for malware. If there are any viruses found, delete them.
You can choose a virus and malware scanner from our Top anti-malware list. The list consists of well known top spyware removers and will help you choose the right software for your computer’s protection.
Temporarily Disable Your Antivirus
On the other hand, antivirus programs can affect various files and programs and also cause the Application Error 0xc0000005. To ensure that installed third-party antivirus software is not the cause of this error, temporarily disable it and check if the error persists. If disabling (or uninstalling) the antivirus software helps, we recommend that you switch to another antivirus program.
Application Error 0xc0000005 might be caused by a corrupted operating system registry. These corruptions usually happen when certain programs are installed or uninstalled incorrectly. One example of an incorrect installation is attempted installation of a program over the same previously-installed program, without deleting the old one first. To fix this kind of registry problem, you must remove (or fix) redundant and duplicate registry entries. We recommend that you attempt to fix registry entries using third-party software called CCleaner.
CCleaner is a small, effective utility for computers running Microsoft Windows. It cleans junk and issues that accumulate over time: temporary files, broken shortcuts, and other problems. It protects privacy, cleans browsing history and temporary Internet files, allowing you to be a more confident Internet user and less susceptible to identity theft. CCleaner can clean redundant files from various programs, thus saving hard disk space, remove unneeded entries in Windows Registry, help uninstall software, and select which programs start with Windows. Download cc cleaner.
When downloaded, install CCleaner and open it. Select “Registry” on the left pane and click “Scan for Issues”. It will find various registry issues on your computer. To clean or fix them, click “Fix selected Issues…”. Close CCleaner when it has finished fixing the registry and see if you still receive the Application Error 0xc0000005.
It is possible that Application Error 0xc0000005 is caused by bad RAM memory, or one of the RAM sticks is damaged. If you know how to attach and detach RAM, then we recommend that you check these components. First, ensure that the computer is turned off and unplugged from the power source. If one of the sticks is causing the problem, find out which one by attempting to start Windows without one of the sticks present and see if the error persists. Do this with different RAM sticks removed in a process of elimination. If during the process the error is eliminated, you will know which stick is causing the error and needs to be replaced.
Run System File Checker
System File Checker is a Windows utility that allows users to scan for corruptions in system files and restore them. This guide describes how to run the System File Checker tool (SFC.exe) to scan system files and repair any missing or corrupted ones. If a Windows Resource Protection (WRP) file is missing or corrupted, Windows may not behave as expected. For example, some Windows functions might fail or Windows will crash. The “sfc scannow” option is one of several specific switches available for the sfc command, the Command Prompt command used to run System File Checker. To run Command Prompt, type “command prompt” in Search, right-click on “Command Prompt“, and select “Run as administrator” from the drop-down menu to run it with administrator privileges. You must run an elevated Command Prompt to perform a SFC scan.
In the Command Prompt window, type the “sfc /scannow” command and press Enter to execute it. System File Checker will start and should take some time to complete the scan (about 15 minutes). Wait for the scanning process to complete and restart the computer. See if the Application Error 0xc0000005 persists.
Update Faulty Drivers
It is possible that some of the installed drivers are faulty or corrupt. Commonly, printer and video drivers cause Application Error 0xc0000005. A device driver is software that informs the operating system and other software how to interact with particular hardware. It is rather like a translator between software and hardware, since they often are created by different manufacturers, companies, or people. The driver facilitates smooth communication between hardware and software. In most cases, computers are unable to send and receive data correctly without drivers. If the appropriate driver is not installed, the device might not function properly. If this is the case, you need to get updated/new drivers for the hardware. To update drivers, open Device Manager by right-clicking the Start button and selecting the “Device Manager” result from the contextual menu or type “device manager” in Search and click the “Device Manager” result.
In Device Manager, you will see a list of devices connected to your computer. If you know which drivers are causing the problem, you can update those drivers only. Expand the device category and right-click the device, and then select “Update driver” from the drop-down menu.
You will be asked if you want to search for updated driver software automatically or to browse your computer for driver software. If you select the first option, Windows will search your computer and the Internet for the latest driver software for your device. If you select the second option, you must locate and install the drivers manually. Using this option requires having previously downloaded drivers on your computer or USB flash drive – it is a longer process, since you will have to download all of the latest drivers for all devices manually by visiting the device manufacturers’ official websites. We recommend that you to select the first option and follow the instructions.
If you do not wish to spend time updating all drivers (and you are not sure which one is causing the error), you can update and install new drivers using third-party software such as Snappy Driver Installer. Snappy Driver Installer (SDI) is a powerful free driver updater tool for Windows that can store its entire collection of drivers offline. Having offline drivers gives Snappy Driver Installer the ability to have access to fast driver updates, even if there is no active Internet connection on your computer. Snappy Driver works with both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and also works with Windows XP. Drivers are downloaded through Snappy Driver Installer in ‘driverpacks’, which are simply collections (packs) of drivers for various hardware such as sound devices, video cards, network adapters, etc. It can also show duplicate drivers and invalid drivers. It separates the updates that require you to restart your computer so that they are easier to distinguish. Alternatively, look for other automated driver update software online to update all drivers together.
Restore Your System
Finally, we recommend System Restore to return to the state prior to Application Error 0xc0000005. System Restore reverts everything to a saved restore point, but first, you must have one recorded. If a restore point does not exist on your computer, System Restore has nothing to revert to. To use this tool, you must have created restore points. With a created restore point, this feature will bring your system back to the previous working state, without affecting your files and data. If you have any system restore points that were created before you started experiencing problems with Application Error 0xc0000005, you might be able to fix the problem by performing a System Restore. To restore your system, launch Run. To start it, press the Windows Key + R and type “rstrui.exe”. In the Run dialog box, press Enter or click “OK”.
In the System Restore window, click “Next”.
If there are restore points created, you will see a list of them. Mark the “Show more restore points” checkbox, which should display more restore points. Select the restore point that suits you best (depending on the time created etc.) and click “Next”.
Confirm the restore point. Your computer will be restored to the state prior to the event detailed in the “Description” field. If you are happy with your choice, click “Finish” and the system restore process will begin.
We hope one of the above methods solved the Application Error 0xc0000005 problem. If you know of other solutions to this problem, not mentioned in our guide, please share them with us by leaving a comment in the section below.
Drop your comment below.
|
Implementing a DMZ for Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines
In this post I’ll show you how you can create a DMZ for hosting an n-tier application based on Azure virtual machines, using a combination of Azure features: a multiple subnet virtual network, a firewall appliance from the Azure Marketplace, network security groups, and user-defined routing.
In this article I’ll be using a design that was discussed in “Designing a DMZ for Azure Virtual Machines.” The specific design in question uses:
- Virtual network: The network is split into three subnets, one for security, one for web servers, and the third for backend servers.
- Virtual firewall appliance: This is a third-party firewall that runs in a special Azure virtual machine that can be deployed from the Azure Marketplace — check with the original vendor on how they license or bill for the appliance in addition to the virtual machine charges. The firewall appliance provides application-layer security between the Internet and the service, and between the networks and machines within the service.
- Network security groups (NSGs): NSGs are used to create protocol and port rules to enforce routing via the firewall appliance so that firewall rules and inspection are always used.
- User defined routing (UDR): We need to override default routing between the virtual network subnets and route via the virtual firewall appliance.
Normally, I like to wrap up all components of a service in a single resource group and then create a resource group for the online service. I’ve created one called PetriDMZ.
A single virtual network is created in the resource group. There are three subnets:
- Security: This subnet is the public face of the service and is where the firewall virtual appliance will be located.
- FrontEnd: The web servers of the service run in this subnet.
- BackEnd: Application and database servers run in this completely isolated subnet.
User Defined Routing
Our goal is that all traffic must route via the firewall in the security subnet. This requires one routing table for the back-end subnet and another for the front-end subnet with at least two rules:
- Override internal routing: We must override the default routes between the front end (10.0.1.0/14) and the back end (10.0.2.0/24) subnets with a rule for the virtual network 10.
- Override global routing: All traffic to all other destinations (0.0.0.0/0) must be routed via the firewall, too.
Note that the firewall will be deployed with a reserved private IP address of 10.0.0.4.
With the above configuration, no machine can talk directly to a machine in a different subnet. Even machines in the same subnet will communicate via the firewall, which is probably desirable, but you can override this behavior with an additional rule to allow intra-subnet traffic to route directly within the subnet.
Here are the rules for the front-end subnet, including the optional third rule called FrontEnd:
|Route Name||Address Prefix||Next Hop Type||Next Hop Address|
And here are the rules for the back-end subnet, including the optional third rule called BackEnd:
|Route Name||Address Prefix||Next Hop Type||Next Hop Address|
Associate the front-end routing table with the front-end subnet and the back-end routing table with the back-end subnet.
Network Security Groups
Next, we will create simple network security groups (NSGs), each with a single rule, whose purpose is to protect against manual error. Security is actually being provided by the firewall. The NSG rule puts in a simple filter to prevent any traffic from the Internet-reaching machines in either the front-end or back-end subnets; everything must route vie the security subnet.
Create two NSGs, one called FrontEnd and one called BackEnd. Each will be configured with an identical single inbound security rule, as shown below.
Associate the front-end NSG with the front-end subnet and the back-end NSG with the back-end subnet.
There is a chance that you’ll decide to extend the rules in the NSGs to provide an extra level of protection between the front-end and back-end subnets, beyond what the firewall appliance offers. If so, you can:
- Override the default rule to block all VNet-internal traffic, which is allowed by default.
- Create additional rules that allow each acceptable application protocol.
The exact instructions for deploying and configuring your virtual firewall is provided by the vendor of the virtual appliance.
There are three considerations in this design:
- The virtual appliance is deployed into the security subnet.
- You will reserve the IP address of 10.0.0.4 for the virtual appliance.
- You must enable IP forwarding for the virtual NIC of this virtual appliance to allow it to route and redirect traffic.
In my example, I’ve used Azure V2 or Azure Resource Manager (ARM). The following piece of PowerShell will be used to enable IP forwarding for a virtual machine called PetriDMZFW in the PetriDMZ resource group:
$RgName = “PetriDMZ” $VMName = “PetriDMZFW” $NicName = ((Get-AzureRmVM -ResourceGroupName $RgName -Name $VmName).NetworkInterfaceIDs).Split("/")[-1] | Out-GridView -Title "Select a NIC to configure forwarding ..." –PassThru
Next, you’ll get the configuration of that NIC using the following line:
$NicConfig = Get-AzureRmNetworkInterface -ResourceGroupName $RgName -Name $NicName
And finally, enable IP forwarding:
$NicConfig.EnableIPForwarding = $true $NicConfig | Set-AzureRmNetworkInterface
There are two remaining steps:
- Create and edit the NSG of the security subnet to allow your desired inbound traffic from the Internet.
- Use the administration tool of the virtual firewall appliance to create all of the external and internal firewall rules that your n-tier application requires.
More in Microsoft Azure
Microsoft's Azure AD Conditional Access Service Can Now Require Reauthentication
May 13, 2022 | Rabia Noureen
Microsoft Addresses Cross-Tenant Database Vulnerability in Azure PostgreSQL
Apr 29, 2022 | Rabia Noureen
Microsoft Simplifies IT Monitoring with New Azure Managed Grafana Service
Apr 19, 2022 | Rabia Noureen
Microsoft Adds Ampere ARM CPU Support to Azure Virtual Machines
Apr 5, 2022 | Rabia Noureen
System Center 2022 is Now Available with New Datacenter Management Capabilities
Apr 4, 2022 | Rabia Noureen
Cloud NAS Shootout: Amazon EFS/FSx versus Azure Files
Apr 4, 2022 | Arian Modiramani
Most popular on petri
|
GOTO 2021 • Risks in Systems Design: Chaos Engineering in Apps & Cloud Security • Crystal Hirschorn29:46 725 views 100% Published 2 weeks ago
This presentation was recorded at GOTOpia February 2021. #GOTOcon #GOTOpia
Crystal Hirschorn - Director Engineering - Infrastructure, SRE & Cloud Security at Snyk
ORIGINAL TALK TITLE
Discovering Risks in Systems Design: Chaos Engineering in Application & Cloud Security
Chaos engineering has significantly increased in popularity over the past 5 years. And yet, chaos engineering as applied to application, information, and cloud security still remains limited.
As we embrace cloud native technologies and application ecosystems that rely heavily on OSS dependencies to build ever increasing complex systems, we become severely challenged in our ability to secure our dev and ops lifecycle.
In this talk, Crystal will look at emerging patterns, concepts, and tools in the industry. Crystal will also highlight some discoveries from running [...]
00:40 Why does bringing security into the mix matter?
11:26 Getting started with security chaos engineering
18:39 Game day exercises
25:42 Realizing a strong DevSecOps culture
Download slides and read the full abstract here:
#ChaosEngineering #SecurityChaosEngineering #Programming #SRE #SystemsDesign #CloudSecurity #Security #GameDay #OWASP #k8s #Kubernetes #DevSecOps #DevOps
Looking for a unique learning experience?
Attend the next GOTO conference near you! Get your ticket at https://gotopia.tech
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR CHANNEL - new videos posted almost daily.
|
Understand where sensitive data is, who is accessing it and how they are using it, and spot anomalies. Visualize risks and take action to help prevent data loss, manipulation, and deletion.
Automated data compliance capabilities help protect against financial exposure, while data encryption, masking, blocking, quarantining, and real-time alerting help protect data at rest and in motion.
Reduce costs with a platform that can easily support traditional and new platforms (i.e. Hadoop, noSQL and Cloud), use cases from compliance to end-to-end data protection, new data volumes and users.
|
Soft Computing Techniques in Cyber Defense
Artificial intelligence is a technology to make the machines human compatible. Various techniques like-heuristic search (Generate and test, Hill climbing, BFS, DFS, Problem reduction, constraint satisfaction, means-ends analysis etc.), game playing, understanding, planning, NLP, Learning, commonsense, predictions and actions, and expert systems are there to make the system intelligent. This paper primarily focuses on the problem of malicious objects in the cyber space and discusses the usage of different AI techniques to overcome the mentioned problem. Every day the information stored in the computer and the information in transit faces threats due to malicious objects which further leads to a big loss. This paper discusses the possibilities to incorporate the AI techniques to analyze the data and finding and restricting the malicious objects.
|
Some Windows computers are infecting Android devices with malware
Since Android is based on Linux, many users consider it rather safe and secure. However, this is not at all true -- most malware that targets mobile devices, targets Android. For the most part though, it is easy to stay safe by only installing reputable apps from the Play Store.
What if, however, your desktop operating system was infecting your Android device without you knowing? Sadly, this can happen, as some Windows users are finding out. Symantec announces it has found such a case, and it is really nasty.
"We've seen Android malware that attempts to infect Windows systems before [...] Interestingly, we recently came across something that works the other way round: a Windows threat that attempts to infect Android devices", says Flora Liu of Symantec.
Liu further explains, "The infection starts with a Trojan named Trojan.Droidpak. It drops a malicious DLL (also detected as Trojan.Droidpak) and registers it as a system service".
What makes this particularly devious and nasty, is that Droidpak downloads a configuration file, which causes the mayhem. This file triggers a download of a malicious Android .apk file and adb for Windows. If an Android device with USB debugging enabled is connected to the infected Windows PC, the malicious .apk file is pushed to the device.
Once the .apk file is pushed to the device, the user is presented with a fake "Google App Store". The fake app store will then intercept the user's text messages as well as replace Korean banking apps with malicious versions.
Symantec suggests the following, in order to stay safe:
- Turn off USB debugging on your Android device when you are not using it
- Exercise caution when connecting your mobile device to untrustworthy computers
- Install reputable security software, such as Norton Mobile Security
- Visit the Symantec Mobile Security website for general safety tips
While, this all sounds horrible, in reality, the majority of Android users should not have debugging enabled and thus, are safe. However, it is not uncommon for power users to have this feature turned on for tinkering purposes.
Have you encountered Trojan.Droidpak? Tell me about it in the comments.
|
Hackers recently used corporate emails to transmit an MSP remote administration tool (RAT) in a phishing operation. A RAT is a piece of software that gives a person full control of a device from a remote location. And according to experts, the infamous hacking outfit MuddyWater, a group connected with the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) for Iran, utilised compromised enterprise email accounts to deliver these malicious phishing messages to its victims.
The threat group from Iran adopted this new tactic for its campaign, which may have started as far back as September 2022. However, it was not detected in the wild until around October 2022, when it combined the use of an authentic remote administration tool.
Swapping up MSP tools
This is not the first time that the MuddyWater hacking gang has used a legitimate remote administration tool for malicious activities. Cybersecurity researchers and threat analysts discovered campaigns from the group back in 2020 and again in 2021 that depended on solutions like ScreenConnect and RemoteUtilitie.
Another campaign that the gang undertook in July 2022 saw the hackers continue employing this tactic. But as underlined by security researcher Simon Kenin of Deep Instinct, they switched to using Atera instead.
Researchers at Deep Instinct discovered a new MuddyWater campaign in October 2022 that utilised Syncro, another remote administration tool that is expressly designed for use with managed service providers.
In a recent report issued by Kenin, the researcher notes that the campaign’s initial infection vector is via phishing messages sent from a genuine corporate email account that has been compromised by hackers.
The researcher added that although the official company signature was missing from the phishing messages, targets still trusted the email as it originated from an authentic address belonging to a known company.
Among those targeted in the campaign are two different hosting companies based in Egypt. One of the firms was breached to transmit phishing emails, while the other was the chosen recipient of the malicious phishing message.
Commenting on the approach, Kenin explained:
“This is a known technique to build trust. The receiving end knows the company who sent the mail. The attachment is not an archive or an executable which doesn’t raise the end-user suspicion because HTML is mostly overlooked in phishing awareness trainings and simulations.”
To lower any chance of being detected by security software solutions, the threat operator attaches an HTML file that contains the link to download a Syncro MSI installer.
The tool is hosted on Microsoft OneDrive file storage. A message previously sent from the compromised account of the hosting company in Egypt hosting stored the Syncro installer using file sharing solution Dropbox.
However, the security researcher has commented that most Syncro installers employed by MuddyWater are hosted using OneHub’s cloud storage. This is a service that the threat operator has used many times in the past for its criminal campaigns.
Syncro has also been used by many other threat actors, including LunaMoth and BatLoader. The tool is available as a trial version that is valid for 21 days and ships with a complete web interface while delivering full control of any computer which has the Syncro agent fully installed.
|
Application security consulting
We’ll help you enhance your app security and apply the secure-by-design principle
Web app must be secure.
There is no other way.
Security is one of the greatest concerns in modern, web-visible apps. It’s not just risk
management and quality assurance specialists who are demanding it. Increasingly, clients
and investors are too. Agile development methods put an app under constant pressure to
change, which creates another challenge.
Testing can ensure an app is secure. The way to achieve the best result, though, is to
incorporate security in early development phases.
Identify threats in your environment
Protect your critical systems
Conform to information security requirements
Adopt the OWASP ASVS standard
Security does not happen by chance. It must be designed.
Secure-by-design is a design principle in which security forms an app’s support structure. It considers the threats in the app’s operating environment early on. It ensures that key security components, such as identification, authorization and software mechanisms, work together seamlessly.
Direct modelling identifies the security threats posed at a system, organization, process or other protected target. It plans mechanisms and methods to prevent threats from arising. By recognizing those mechanisms and methods, you can also assign security requirements to a target.
Contents and further information
Threat modelling can be used to:
- Assign security goals and confidential data processing requirements to a target.
- Identify actors who may try to access the target’s confidential data or restricted access properties, or who may try to misuse or hinder the functions of the target in other ways.
- Identify the methods a criminal attacker may use to try to access the target’s confidential data or restricted access properties. Identify other ways an attacker may try to misuse or hinder the functions of the target.
- Identify the mechanisms and procedures you need to prevent these malignant methods.
We always agree on the precise content and goals of threat modelling with you, the client. When we have modelled the threats, we produce a report for you containing a clear review of our work and its outcomes, along with a precise breakdown of the results of the threat modelling.
OWASP ASVS auditing support
You can use the OWASP Application Security Verification Standard (ASVS):
- as a set of app security measurements when developing software
- as a guide for developing app security compliant controls in client-supplier software procurement contracts.
A certified and professional partner
We have over 10 years’ experience of providing cyber security services. We constantly develop ourselves and certify our skills. What’s more, we’re pleasant to work with!
More than 400 companies from a range of industries trust us
We help make your apps more secure
We help you when you need an expert partner to assess your current security level, review software security, find weaknesses and areas for improvement, and achieve better information security.
|
A tag is a keyword or label that categorizes your question with other, similar questions. Using the right tags makes it easier for others to find and answer your question.
Microsoft's application programming interfaces available in the Windows operating system.
store text messages lying statically in the program or to receive dynamically messages from the user.
An OllyDbg 1.1 derivative made by Immunity Inc., that internally supports python scripting and shipped with many scripts to ease vulnerability and exploitation research.
a method of code injection in a Microsoft Windows environment.
A system of rules designed to allow the communication between two or more participants. The two main types of protocols are either stateless protocols (UDP) or stateful protocols (TCP).
An Unix-based operating system originally forked from NextSTEP and developed by Apple Inc. MacOS X runs a Darwin kernel together with Apple Inc. utilities.
directly executed by the CPU or the interpreter. Opposed to the human-readable format which can be understood by the reverse without any intermediate translati…
a software that performs CPU emulation through dynamic binary translation. It allows the execution of applications compiled for a certain specific architecture to run on other architectures.
A computer program that transforms source code into the target language, often having a binary form known as object code.
Software development kit of the IDAPro software suite, allow to develop processor modules, loaders and various extensions.
Refer to any programs specifically designed to be a plugin of IDA Pro.
communicate between the OS and peripherals.
Process of copying the content of a block of a program's memory to file. It can be not trivial if the target program hooked memory-related APIs.
Assembler-like language destined to be executed in an interpreter, in a virtual machine or by just in time compilation. Java, Python and many other high-level languages are using bytecode languages.
an industry standard defining the connectors, cables, and protocols used for communication and power supply between multiple devices.
when asking *about* registers, their properties, existence, usage or limitations. Avoid using this tag just because registers are mentioned in the question.
the practice and study of techniques for secure communication and sending of data, and the construction and analysis of protocols that accomplish this.
Refer to a section of executable, library or object files that link memory addresses in the program and a string (the symbol). Symbols are used to store debug information, function names (for dynamic …
A chain of software made to build self-extractable archived software (with a focus on compression and/or on obfuscation). Packer prevent most of the static analysis techniques and force the reverser t…
A well known disassembler from the GNU `binutils` package. Only based on the linear sweep techniques and a few more heuristics when symbols can help.
Mostly used for explaining core components of an operating system.
Any kind of communication between computers using a protocol and the infra-structure that allow this communication.
A specific C language data-type construct which allow to declare a list of primitive types variables bound together in a single logical memory unit.
GNU Compiler Collection, it includes front ends for C, C++, Objective-C, Fortran, Java, Ada, and Go, as well as libraries for these languages (libstdc++, libgcj,...).
the process of injecting probe functions into a code (executable, source code, ...) for measurement purposes. It is extensively used for *profiling* or *dynamic-analysis* by tools l…
Digital forensics (sometimes known as digital forensic science) is a branch of forensic science encompassing the recovery and investigation of material found in digital devices, often in relation to c…
an interactive disassembler similar to IDA, available for macOS, Windows and Linux
An instance of a computer program being executed in memory. It contains the program code and its current activity inside the same memory context.
Extra information added to help for debugging purpose. It gathers information about each variable, type, procedure, etc, and link the assembly code to source code. Usual debugging-symbols formats incl…
Software-based simulation or emulation of a hardware platform (CPU and hardware devices). Famous examples of virtual-machines are VMware, QEMU, VirtualBox, Microsoft Hyper-V, ...
|
Global allowlisting ensures that all further filtering is skipped for the web objects that are allowlisted, so access to them cannot be blocked.
The global allowlisting process includes several elements, which contribute to it in different ways.
- Filtering rules control the process.
- Allowlists are used by rules to let some web objects skip further filtering.
A default process for global allowlisting is implemented on Web Gateway after the initial setup. You can modify this process to adapt it to the requirements of your web security policy.
The rules that control global allowisting are usually contained in one rule set.
Allowlisting rules are placed and processed in this rule set. If any of them applies, the following rule sets are skipped and no further filtering is performed for the allowlisted objects.
You can review these rules, modify or delete them, and also create your own rules.
When the default rule set system is implemented, a rule set for global allowlisting is included. Its name is Global Allowlist.
Allowlists are used by allowlisting rules to let particular web objects skip further filtering. There can be allowlists for URLs, media types, and other types of objects.
You can add entries to these lists or remove entries. You can also create your own lists and let them be used by the allowlisting rules.
|
2. Active Attack: Active attacks are those attacks where the attacker takes malicious action in addition to passively listening to ongoing traffic e.g. attacker might choose to modify packets, inject packets or even disrupt network service. The misbehaving node has to bear some energy costs in order to perform some harmful operation like changing the data. Active attacks cause damage and are malicious which often threaten integrity, availability of the network.
These type of attacks can be internal or external .
Generic Attacks against Routing: Routing is very important function in MANETs. It can also be easily misused, leading to several types of attack. Routing protocols in general are prone to attacks from malicious nodes. These protocols…show more content… Location disclosure Attack: This type of attack is a part of the information disclosure attack. The malicious node(s) leaks information regarding the location or the structure of the network. It itself may also use the location information for further attack. It gathers the node location information such as a route map and knows nodes situated on the target route. Figure 1.3 show Location disclosure
Figure 1.3: Location disclosure Attack
As shown in figure 1.3 node M1 collect all topology information & either discloses it to other malicious node M2 or itself uses for attack on any other node for example M1 would send fake Message to S.
Introduction to MANET
P a g e | 20
Flooding: In this type of attack, attacker (malicious) node(s) broadcast false packets or ghost packets which have wrong routing information & drain valuable resources like battery, processing power, and bandwidth. It leads to increased traffic in network, keeping nodes busy and reduced network performance.
Denial of Service (DoS) attack: This type of attack has similarity with Flooding type of attacks. This type of attack is any event that diminishes or eliminates a network’s capacity to perform its expected function. These attacks are launched against server resources
|
“Teams use CheckMarx to make their code more secure.” CheckMarx is a tool that analyzes code, looking for vulnerabilities. It produces a report of likely problems, with specific locations in the source code.
“We will mandate that our teams use CheckMarx.” Will this make the code more secure?
That depends how the team reacts to the report. Do they understand the vulnerabilities? Do they know how to remediate them? Do they have time to remediate them?
It’s not the tool that counts, it’s your reaction to the tool.— Jerry Weinberg
If the team responds to the report by remediating vulnerabilities, the code will be more secure. If they respond by increasing their understanding, all the code they write in the future will be more secure. That’s the big payoff.
If the response to vulnerability reports is pressure to change the report, without understanding each item’s meaning, then the code might be more secure. Or it might be messier, messy enough to confuse the tool and lower the known vulnerability count.
A tool by itself is clutter. It’s your reaction to it that matters.
|
Microsoft Office Tutorials and References
In Depth Information
Set the Macro Security Level
Chapter 10: Maximizing Excel Security and Privacy
The Trust Center dialog
If you have the Developer
tab displayed, a quicker
way to open the Trust
Center is to click the
Developer tab and then
click the Macro Security
icon ( ).
5 Click Macro Settings.
6 Click to select the security
level you want to use.
7 Click OK.
8 Click OK.
Excel puts the new macro
security level into effect.
If you are not sure which macro setting to use,
consider the Disable All Macros Except Digitally
Signed Macros option. With this setting, Excel only
enables macros if the VBA project has been
digitally signed using a trusted code-signing
certificate. Macros from any other source are
automatically disabled. This gives you almost total
macro safety. However, you need to self-sign your
own macros, as described in the section, “Digitally
Sign Your Excel Macros.”
If you do not have a virus
scanner installed, use the Enable
All Macros level if you only run
your own macros and you never
open documents created by a
third party. If you do have a virus
scanner, this level is probably
safe if you only open third-party
documents from people or
sources you know.
|
In my last blog post, I discussed virtualized network protocols NVGRE and VXLAN – two essential components in data centers that are transforming into virtualized environments.
Another important component is balancing the traffic on each virtual server to optimize response time and overall resource loading. Many data centers have installed expensive load balancing appliances in the network. They are very surprised to find out that many of these same features are built into our Intel® Ethernet Switch FM6000 Series products. Here’s a little bit more about how it works.
Load balancing in the FM6000 Series architecture is done using advanced symmetric hashing mechanisms along with network address translation (NAT) to convert the IP address of the load balancer to the IP address of the virtual machine (VM) after determining the optimal virtual machine (or virtual service) to process the request. After the transaction is processed by the VM, the load balancer modifies the source IP address to its own address so that the client sees it as a single, monolithic server.
The FM6000 also provides fine-grain bandwidth allocation and fail-over mechanisms to each egress port using a flexible hash-based load distribution architecture. This avoids round-robin service distribution schemes, which may be less than optimal, and provides the ability to monitor the health of VMs and virtual services, so that failed ones can be quickly removed from the resource pool. These switches also come with connection persistence intelligence to know when not to load balance, as in the case of FTP requests that must stay connected to the same virtual service.
Some other load balancing functionality built into the switches includes:
Network Security: The frame filtering and forwarding unit (FFU) inside FM6000 Series can be used for network security, in addition to frame forwarding. It can be configured using bit masks to read any part of the L2/L3/L4 header. If there is a match, the switch can route, deny, modify, count, log, change VLAN or change priority of the packet to protect the network. The switch can also use access control lists to prevent denial of service attacks and other security violations.
Performance: The FM6000 series switches are the lowest latency switches on the market, which means they can connect to the network, to servers and to storage arrays with real-time performance. In addition, it’s extremely low L3 latency means that the load balancing and NAT functions act as a “bump on the wire”, minimizing the impact on network performance compared to coupling a ToR switch with a discrete load balancer.
Fail Over: FM6000 series chips use a link mask table to determine how to distribute the load across multiple egress ports. They also contain several mechanisms to detect link failure such as loss-of-signal (LOS) or CRC errors. As the packet header is processed, the forwarding unit resolves to the address of a pointer, which points to an entry in the mask table. If a link or connected device fails, this pointer can be quickly changed by software so that the failing link is no longer part of the load distribution group. Since distribution is flow based, only flows to the failed device will be affected.
As you can see, the FM6000 Series switches have full-featured, low latency load balancing capabilities, another feature that makes them the ideal solution for top-of-rack switch systems.
|
Do you know what CypherPy Ransomware is?
Cybersecurity experts at Spyware-techie.com have recently acquired a sample of ransomware called CypherPy Ransomware. This highly malicious program was designed to encrypt your files. However, it was released in an unfinished state, so you cannot pay a ransom and get a decryption key to decrypt your files. Therefore, if you have been unfortunate to have your computer infected with this ransomware, is to remove it using an antimalware program or the guide we have included below this decryption. In this article, we will discuss how this ransomware is distributed, how it functions and how you can get rid of it safely.
It is important to know how this ransomware may be distributed in order to prevent it from infecting your PC in the first place. The fact of the matter is, however, that we have no concrete information on how it is distributed. Our cyber security experts believe that CypherPy Ransomware might be distributed using email spam as so many ransomware-type infections are distributed these days. The ransomware file has the ".py" file extension so certain email service providers should allow the cyber criminals to send it attached to the file because some email service providers no longer allow “.exe,” “.zip,” and other file formats known to be used for infecting computers with malware to be sent.
Our cyber security experts have concluded that CypherPy Ransomware was written in the Python scripting language that was used in SnakeLocker Ransomware and Pickles Ransomware. This ransomware is compatible with Windows and Linux. If you use Windows, then this ransomware will connect to a server on localhost to receive instructions. Our researchers say that it uses the RSA-2048 encryption algorithm. This ransomware uses SMTP for sending private key to a server at smtp.gmail.com through port 587. The destination email is [email protected] Ransomware screenshot
Scroll down for full removal instructions
This ransomware can encrypt many files, and it targets file types that include pictures, videos, documents, executables, and so on. The list of encryptable file formats includes, without limitation, ".rar", ".jpg", ".jpeg", ".png", ".tiff", ".zip", ".7z", ".exe", ".tar", ".mp3", ".sh", and so on. All of the encrypted files receive a custom ".crypt" extension next to the original extension.
Once the encryption process has been completed, CypherPy Ransomware will drop a ransom note on your desktop. The bad news is, however, that the note contains no information on how to get your files back but states the following:
Hello, unfortunately all your personal files have been encrypted with millitary grade encryption and will be impossible to retrieve without aquiring the encryption key and decrypting binary. As of yet these are not available to you since the Cypher ransomware is still under construction. We thank you for your patience.
Hence, you just cannot buy a decryption tool from its developers and decrypt your files, and it is likely that you files will remain encrypted indefinitely unless the cybersecurity industry comes up with a free decryption tool.
Therefore, the obvious solution in the event your PC becomes infected with CypherPy Ransomware is to remove it as soon as possible. Also, an antimalware program can fend this infection if you do not have it already. In any case, you can delete this ransomware using our instructions presented below or an antimalware program such as SpyHunter that will make light work of this particular ransomware.
How to delete this ransomware manually
- Hold down Win+E keys on your keybord.
- In the File Explorer’s address box, type the following file paths.
- Press Enter.
- Find a randomly named file with a ".py" file extension.
- Right-click it and click Delete.
- Right-click the Recycle Bin and click Empty the Recycle Bin.
In non-techie terms:
CypherPy Ransomware is a highly malicious computer infection that can infect your PC by stealth and encrypt your valuable files and make them unusable. Unfortunately, there is no free decryption tool available, so all you can do is remove it and you can do that using the guide above.
|
K. Scott, J. Davidson and K. Skadron.
Tech Report CS-2001-18, Univ. of Virginia Dept. of Computer Science, July, 2001.
Software dynamic translation (SDT) is a technology that allows programs to be modified as they are running. The overhead of monitoring and modifying a running program s instructions is often substantial in SDT. As a result SDT can be impractically slow, especially in SDT systems that do not or can not employ dynamic optimization to offset overhead. This is unfortunate since SDT has obvious advantages in modern computing environments and interesting applications of SDT con-tinue to emerge. In this paper we introduce two novel overhead reduction techniques that can improve SDT performance by a factor of three even when no dynamic optimization is performed. To demonstrate the effectiveness of our overhead reduction techniques, and to show the type of useful tasks to which low-overhead, non-optimizing SDT systems might be put, we implemented two dynamic safety checkers with SDT. These dynamic safety checkers perform useful tasks pre-venting buffer-overrun exploits and restricting system call usage in untrusted binaries. Further their performance is similar to, and in some cases better than, state-of-the-art tools that perform the same functions without SDT.
|
This still breaks deliverability.
A user writes an email and sends it to another user. The other user does
not receive the email. This means that deliverability is broken. The
DNSBL is an agent in preventing that delivery. To my mind, this deserves
some explicit discussion in the Security Considerations section. On one
hand, a misused DNSBL can wreak havoc, and on the other hand a
compromised DNSBL could block more email than an administrator wishes.
The draft presented by the ASRG was very weak in its discussion of
security considerations given the fact that a DNSBL is explicitly
designed to break email deliverability.
There is a diagram under Rights of a Sender vs Rights of a Receiver
which shows that the DNSBL modifies the behavior of the
server. This is what I mean by "sitting in the middle of an
(sender to recipient) email transaction.
At the desire of the receiving mail site's administrator.
That is irrelevant. The fact is that it does sit in the middle and the
implications of this should be clearly documented.
And is not unique to DNSBLs. Any sort of spam filtering
modifies the behavior of the receiving mail server.
But that would be a topic for another RFC which should also have
a substantial Security Considerations section.
There are a number of reasons to document something in a standards
document. One is to help people build compatible implementations of
a protocol. Another is to help operators of the protocol interoperate.
But it is also to provide a clear description of the protocol so
that others can improve on it in the future, or replace it entirely
with a superior architecture.
Ietf mailing list
|
It is well known that the Web is populated by mean and unscrupulous people who want to mess up your site. Many conservative citizens think that a firewall is the way to stop them. The purpose of a firewall is to prevent the Internet from connecting to arbitrary machines or services on your own LAN/WAN. Another purpose, depending on your environment, may be to stop users on your LAN from roaming freely around the Internet.
The term firewall does not mean anything standard. There are lots of ways to achieve the objectives just stated. Two extremes are presented in this section, and there are lots of possibilities in between. This is a big subject: here we are only trying to alert the webmaster to the problems that exist and to sketch some of the ways to solve them. For more information on this subject, see Building Internet Firewalls, by D. Brent Chapman and Elizabeth D. Zwicky (O'Reilly & Associates).
13.4.1. Packet Filtering
This technique is the simplest firewall. In essence, you restrict packets that come in from the Internet to safe ports. Packet-filter firewalls are usually implemented using the filtering built into your Internet router. This means that no access is given to ports below 1024 except for certain specified ones connecting to safe services, such as SMTP, NNTP, DNS, FTP, and HTTP. The benefit is that access is denied to potentially dangerous services, such as the following:
The possibilities are horrendous!
The advantages of packet filtering are that it's quick and easy. But there are at least two disadvantages:
13.4.2. Separate Networks
A more extreme firewall implementation involves using separate networks. In essence, you have two packet filters and three separate, physical, networks: Inside, Inbetween, and Outside (see Figure 13-1). There is a packet-filter firewall between Inside and Inbetween, and between Outside and the Internet. A nonrouting host, known as a bastion host, is situated on Inbetween and Outside. This host mediates all interaction between Inside and the Internet. Inside can only talk to Inbetween, and the Internet can only talk to Outside.
Figure 13-1. Bastion host configuration
Administrators of the bastion host have more or less complete control, not only over network traffic but also over how it is handled. They can decide which packets are permitted (with the packet filter) and also, for those that are permitted, what software on the bastion host can receive them. Also, since many administrators of corporate sites do not trust their users further than they can throw them, they treat Inside as if it were just as dangerous as Outside.
Separate networks take a lot of work to configure and administer, although an increasing number of firewall products are available that may ease the labor. The problem is to bridge the various pieces of software to cause it to work somehow via an intermediate machine, in this case the bastion host. It is difficult to be more specific without going into unwieldy detail, but HTTP, for instance, can be bridged by running an HTTP proxy and configuring the browser appropriately, as we saw in Chapter 9, "Proxy Server". These days, most software can be made to work by appropriate configuration in conjunction with a proxy running on the bastion host, or else it works transparently. For example, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is already designed to hop from host to host, so it is able to traverse firewalls without modification. Very occasionally, you may find some Internet software impossible to bridge if it uses a proprietary protocol and you do not have access to the client's source code.
SMTP works by looking for Mail Exchange (MX) records in the DNS corresponding to the destination. So, for example, if you send mail to our son and brother Adam at [email protected], an address that is protected by a firewall, the DNS entry looks like this:
# dig MX aldigital.algroup.co.uk ; <<>> DiG 2.0 <<>> MX aldigital.algroup.co.uk ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY , status: NOERROR, id: 6 ;; flags: qr aa rd ra ; Ques: 1, Ans: 2, Auth: 0, Addit: 2 ;; QUESTIONS: ;; aldigital.algroup.co.uk, type = MX, class = IN ;; ANSWERS: aldigital.algroup.co.uk. 86400 MX 5 knievel.algroup.co.uk. aldigital.algroup.co.uk. 86400 MX 7 arachnet.algroup.co.uk. ;; ADDITIONAL RECORDS: knievel.algroup.co.uk. 86400 A 192.168.254.3 arachnet.algroup.co.uk. 86400 A 126.96.36.199 ;; Sent 1 pkts, answer found in time: 0 msec ;; FROM: arachnet.algroup.co.uk to SERVER: default -- 0.0.0.0 ;; WHEN: Wed Sep 18 18:21:34 1996 ;; MSG SIZE sent: 41 rcvd: 135
What does all this mean? The MX records have destinations (knievel and arachnet) and priorities (5 and 7). This means "try knievel first; if that fails, try arachnet." For anyone outside the firewall, knievel always fails, because it is behind the firewall (on Inside and Inbetween), so mail is sent to arachnet, which does the same thing (in fact, because knievel is one of the hosts mentioned, it tries it first, then gives up). But it is able to send to knievel, because knievel is on Inbetween. Thus, Adam's mail gets delivered. This mechanism was designed to deal with hosts that are temporarily down or multiple mail delivery routes, but it adapts easily to firewall traversal.
This affects the Apache user in three ways:
Copyright © 2001 O'Reilly & Associates. All rights reserved.
|
After hours, when OpenSea announced an upgrade to delist inactive Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) on its platform, few users were the target explicitly. Users were actually targeted through a phishing attack masked as a legitimate email concerning the planned upgrade.
Also, as per the original OpenSea update, the platform advised its customers to move their Ethereum-based NFTs. Users move the NFTS to a new smart contract address. A move that will cost no cent per gas fee. Users who do not complete the migration as instructed stand the chance of losing their old and inactive tokens. Further, Drawing on this detail, PeckShield, blockchain security and data analytics company is saying that the platform’s “Users authorize the “migration”. Though, the authorization, unfortunately, allows the hacker to steal the valuable NFTs.”
Moreover, In a Twitter update shared by OpenSea’s Co-Founder and CEO, Devin Finzer, the attacker’s address has remained inactive for the time being. As per OpenSea, some of the stolen NFTs have are in the ownership of their owners.
However, they are not aware of any recent phishing emails that have been sent to users. However, at this time, we do not know which website was tricking users into maliciously signing messages.”
OpenSea is the world’s largest marketplace for trading NFTs. Also, the platform has been the target of many malicious workers in recent times.
|
The File Security Profile (FSP) defines a policy object that matches file data in a user’s session for further action such as Allow, Block or Scan. The File Security Profile is a key Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and Security feature, controlling the transport of session file data by allowing approved data, blocking risky data or directing suspicious data to be scanned further. A FSP consists of a list of Data Matcher objects along with the action each matched data object should be subject to.
In order to create a File Security Policy:
Updated 2 months ago
|
Today organizations large and small are exploring the adoption of cloud-native software technologies. “Cloud-native” refers to an approach that packages software within standardized units called containers, arranges those units into microservices that interface with each other to form applications, and ensures that running applications are fully automated for greater speed, agility, and scalability.
Because this approach fundamentally changes how software is built, deployed, and run, it also fundamentally changes how software needs to be protected. Cloud-native applications and infrastructure create several new challenges for security professionals, who will need to establish new security programs that support their organization’s use of cloud-native technologies.
Let’s take a look at those challenges, and then we’ll discuss a number of best practices security teams should adopt to address them. First the challenges:
- Traditional security infrastructure lacks container visibility. Most existing host-based and network security tools do not have the ability to monitor or capture container activity. These tools were built to secure single operating systems or the traffic between host machines rather than the applications running above, resulting in a loss of visibility into container events, system interactions, and inter-container traffic.
- Attack surfaces can change rapidly. Cloud-native applications are made up of many smaller components called microservices that are highly distributed, each of which must be individually audited and secured. Because these applications are designed to be provisioned and scaled by orchestration systems, their attack surfaces change constantly – and far faster than traditional monolithic applications.
- Distributed data flows require continuous monitoring. Containers and microservices are designed to be lightweight and to interconnect programmatically with each other or external cloud services. This generates large volumes of fast-moving data across the environment to be continuously monitored for indicators of attack and compromise as well as unauthorized data access or exfiltration.
- Detection, prevention, and response must be automated. The speed and volume of events generated by containers overwhelms current security operations workflows. The ephemeral life spans of containers also make it difficult to capture, analyze, and determine the root cause of incidents. Effective threat protection means automating data collection, filtering, correlation, and analysis to be able to react fast enough to new incidents.
Faced with these new challenges, security professionals will need to establish new security programs that support their organization’s use of cloud-native technologies. Naturally, your security program should address the entire lifecycle of cloud-native applications, which can be split into two distinct phases: the build and deploy phase, and the runtime phase. Each of these phases has a different set of security considerations that must be addressed to form a comprehensive security program.
Securing container builds and deployment
Security for the build and deploy phase focuses on applying controls to developer workflows and continuous integration and deployment pipelines to mitigate the risk of security issues that may arise after containers have been launched. These controls can incorporate the following guidelines and best practices:
- Keep images as small as possible. A container image is a lightweight executable that packages application code and its dependencies. Restricting each image to only what is essential for software to run minimizes the attack surface for every container launched from the image. Starting with minimal operating system base images such as Alpine Linux can reduce image sizes and make images easier to manage.
- Scan images for known issues. As images get built, they should be checked for known vulnerabilities and exposures. Each file system layer that makes up an image can be scanned and the results compared to a Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) database that is regularly updated. Development and security teams can then address discovered vulnerabilities before the images are used to launch containers.
- Digitally sign images. Once images have been built, their integrity should be verified prior to deployment. Some image formats utilize unique identifiers called digests that can be used to detect when image contents have changed. Signing images with private keys provides cryptographic assurances that each image used to launch containers was created by a trusted party.
- Harden and restrict access to the host OS. Since containers running on a host share the same OS, it is important to ensure that they start with an appropriately restricted set of capabilities. This can be achieved using kernel security features and modules such as Seccomp, AppArmor, and SELinux.
- Specify application-level segmentation policies. Network traffic between microservices can be segmented to limit how they connect to each other. However, this needs to be configured based on application-level attributes such as labels and selectors, abstracting away the complexity of dealing with traditional network details such as IP addresses. The challenge with segmentation is having to define policies upfront that restrict communications without impacting the ability of containers to communicate within and across environments as part of their normal activity.
- Protect secrets to be used by containers. Microservices interfacing with each other frequently exchange sensitive data such as passwords, tokens, and keys, referred to as secrets. These secrets can be accidentally exposed if they are stored in images or environment variables. As a result, several orchestration platforms such as Docker and Kubernetes have integrated secrets management, ensuring that secrets are only distributed to the containers that use them, when they need them.
Several leading container platforms and tools from companies such as Docker, Red Hat, and CoreOS provide some or all of these capabilities. Getting started with one of these options is the easiest way to ensure robust security during the build and deploy phase.
However, build and deployment phase controls are still insufficient to ensuring a comprehensive security program. Preempting all security incidents before containers start running is not possible for the following reasons. First, vulnerabilities will never be fully eliminated and new ones are exploited all the time. Second, declarative container metadata and network segmentation policies cannot fully anticipate all legitimate application activity in a highly distributed environment. And third, runtime controls are complex to use and often misconfigured, leaving applications susceptible to threats.
Securing containers at runtime
Runtime phase security encompasses all the functions – visibility, detection, response, and prevention – required to discover and stop attacks and policy violations that occur once containers are running. Security teams need to triage, investigate, and identify the root causes of security incidents in order to fully remediate them. Here are the key aspects of successful runtime phase security:
- Instrument the entire environment for continuous visibility. Being able to detect attacks and policy violations starts with being able to capture all activity from running containers in real time to provide an actionable “source of truth.” Various instrumentation frameworks exist to capture different types of container-relevant data. Selecting one that can handle the volume and speed of containers is critical.
- Correlate distributed threat indicators. Containers are designed to be distributed across compute infrastructure based on resource availability. Given that an application may be comprised of hundreds or thousands of containers, indicators of compromise may be spread out across large numbers of hosts, making it harder to pinpoint those that are related as part of an active threat. Large-scale, fast correlation is needed to determine which indicators form the basis for particular attacks.
- Analyze container and microservices behavior. Microservices and containers enable applications to be broken down into minimal components that perform specific functions and are designed to be immutable. This makes it easier to understand normal patterns of expected behavior than in traditional application environments. Deviations from these behavioral baselines may reflect malicious activity and can be used to detect threats with greater accuracy.
- Augment threat detection with machine learning. The volume and speed of data generated in container environments overwhelms conventional detection techniques. Automation and machine learning can enable far more effective behavioral modeling, pattern recognition, and classification to detect threats with increased fidelity and fewer false positives. Beware solutions that use machine learning simply to generate static whitelists used to alert on anomalies, which can result in substantial alert noise and fatigue.
- Intercept and block unauthorized container engine commands. Commands issued to the container engine, e.g., Docker, are used to create, launch, and kill containers as well as run commands inside of running containers. These commands can reflect attempts to compromise containers, meaning it is essential to disallow any unauthorized ones.
- Automate actions for response and forensics. The ephemeral life spans of containers mean that they often leave very little information available for incident response and forensics. Further, cloud-native architectures typically treat infrastructure as immutable, automatically replacing impacted systems with new ones, meaning containers may be gone by the time of investigation. Automation can ensure information is captured, analyzed, and escalated quickly enough to mitigate the impact of attacks and violations.
Cloud-native software built on container technologies and microservices architectures is rapidly modernizing applications and infrastructure. This paradigm shift forces security professionals to rethink the programs required to effectively protect their organizations. A comprehensive security program for cloud-native software addresses the entire application lifecycle as containers are built, deployed, and run. By implementing a program using the guidelines above, organizations can build a secure foundation for container infrastructures and the applications and services that run on them.
Wei Lien Dang is VP of product at StackRox, a security company that provides adaptive threat protection for containers. Previously, he was head of product at CoreOS and held senior product management roles for security and cloud infrastructure at Amazon Web Services, Splunk, and Bracket Computing.
|
Set options in the PK Protect Options dialogs of PK Protect to configure how PK Protect Attachments compresses, encrypts, and digitally signs files.
To access the PK Protect Options dialog from Outlook:
Do one of the following:
In Outlook, choose PK Protect Options on the toolbar of a new message.
Right-click the tool tray icon and select Options from the context menu.
See the help for PK Protect Options to learn about the controls and settings.
Note: When you access PK Protect Options from Outlook, the PK Protect Options dialog offers only the Compression, Security, and Mail categories because these are the only categories that contain options for zipping attachments. To see the full set of categories (including, for example, Extraction), open PK Protect Options from the PK Protect program directly.
|
Behaviors and Patterns of Rogue Hosting Providers 2018 [Video 39 Min] October 13, 2019, 09:28:05 am Behaviors and Patterns of Rogue Hosting Providershttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co2cvi_5FIcHosting providers, while a critical enabler of online businesses globally, are used to carry out ransomware, phishing, and other attacks by cybercriminals. For all the legitimate hosting providers in the world, providing IT services to ordinary businesses, abuse of hosting providers is widespread. The problem of legitimate-but-abused and bulletproof hosters is a problem that exists in any country that is a nexus of internet hosting. Therefore, this talk is of particular relevance and interest to The Netherlands, which hosts the Amsterdam Internet Exchange and is home to major hosting infrastructures.Hosters are leveraged for a variety of criminal operations. We see C2 servers Credit card dump shops Sites like AV check for criminals to test new programsThese activities may be set up on shared servers – hosting content alongside other businesses as well or through dedicated machines that the criminals administer. And the abuse is significant, despite efforts from registrars, LE, and researchers to combat the problem. The challenge is similar to ideas like: criminals abuse encryption, but we cannot get rid of encryption. How do we manage it?Focusing threat intelligence efforts on these services and the actors that provide them is an important step to identifying and removing illegal and malicious content on the Internet. We bring together threat intelligence from the network and field to shed light on criminal hosting providers’ methods.Our work leverages the standard cyber threat intelligence cycle, involving: Identifying organizational stakeholders (and their roles/responsibilities) Collection Processing and exploitation Analysis and production DisseminationGiven that the Netherlands is a major country in terms of IT infrastructure and internet transit, we wanted to focus on the Dutch hosting space, collect hosting providers’ domains and IP ranges using large-scale threat intelligence collection techniques. The Dutch fast and stable Internet connections and good services attract not only bona fide parties, but also less bona fide parties. Dutch ICT facilities have been used for distributing malware, hosting child pornography, sending phishing and spam messages as well as housing of illegal hacker forums and temporarily storing stolen data in drop zones in Dutch rogue hosting companies.The challenge of addressing abused hosting providers requires a multi-layered approach, working from the tactical to the strategic level. We investigate solutions for a variety of stakeholders across these levels (government policy makers at the strategic level, law enforcement at the operational level, and technical teams that secure and defend networks at the tactical level.From a technical perspective we use proven threat intelligence collection, analysis and correlation techniques to shed light on behaviors and patterns of bulletproof and anonymous offshore hosting.=== Dr. Dhia Mahjoub is the Head of Security Research at Cisco Umbrella (OpenDNS). He leads the core research team focused on large scale threat detection and threat intelligence and advises on R&D Strategy. Dhia has a background in networks and security, has co-authored patents with OpenDNS and holds a PhD in graph algorithms applied on Wireless Sensor Networks’ problems. He regularly works with prospects and customers and speaks at conferences worldwide including Black Hat, Defcon, Virus Bulletin, FloCon, Kaspersky SAS, Infosecurity Europe, RSA, Usenix Enigma, NCSC One Conference, O’Reilly Security, and FIRST/OASIS Borderless Cyber and Technical Symposium.--- Sarah Brown has conducted research into bulletproof hosting providers as an independent side project. She currently works as a Senior Scientist at the NATO Communications and Information (NCI) Agency in The Hague, NL, on cyber security capability development for NATO. She has a particular interest in cyber threat intelligence. Prior to NATO, Sarah worked at Fox-IT, delivering threat information to banks globally and leading the transformation of content into the standardized formats such as STIX. Sarah worked for nine years at MITRE. She has spoken at RSA, FIRST, WISCS, CyCON, ACSC, and the NCSC One Conference. She holds a MA in Math from the University of Maryland, College Park.
|
But that's about to change. CME-540 was the tag attached to the worm by the Common Malware Enumeration initiative, which is just emerging from its test phase. Next month, the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team plans to officially take the wraps off the effort, meant to reduce the confusion caused by the different names security companies give worms, viruses and other pests.
The project assigns a unique identifier to a particular piece of malicious software. When included in security software, in alerts and in virus encyclopedia entries, this identifier should help people determine which pest is hitting their systems and whether they are protected, the initiative's backers said.
"There is a lot of confusion over the way that malware is referred to," Desiree Beck, the technical lead for the CME initiative, said in an interview. "We're trying to alleviate that by giving malware a common identifier, so everybody is talking about the same thing when some malware event happens."
The antivirus industry has tried, and failed, before to agree on common naming for worms and viruses. This time, US-CERT, the part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that coordinates response to cyberattacks, is running the show. With that in mind, and because the plan allows companies to keep their own naming by assigning an ID rather than a common name, security software makers are hopeful that the effort will be a success, and they're eager to participate.
"Everybody recognizes it as a pain point, and the industry has tried multiple times to come together," said Vincent Weafer, the senior director of security response at Symantec. "CME is a step in the right direction."
Jimmy Kuo, a senior fellow at software maker McAfee, agreed. However, he noted that the success of CME depends on industry participation, which is voluntary. "We have this problem because there is no authority that can force any type of coordination," he said. Kuo hopes people will push antivirus vendors to adopt the ID convention.
Symantec and McAfee both plan to support CME in their products and in their online reference libraries of threats, Weafer and Kuo said. Trend Micro and Kaspersky Lab will do the same, company representatives said. Other major antivirus providers--F-Secure, Sophos, Computer Associates, Microsoft and MessageLabs--are also involved in the effort. ICSA Labs, a research and testing outfit, also participates.
Recognizing the threat
Because of the lack of coordination in naming threats, an outbreak can be tagged with a variety of names or variant designations, depending on the security company that's referring to it. This can result in confusion, with people wondering if there are multiple virus or worm attacks, or just one, and whether the product they own offers protection.
Victor Go, vice president of technology at retailer PureBeauty, sees value in the initiative. "It might help us speed up looking for virus information," he said. Still, there has not been a lot of confusion around viruses or worms at his midsize, Encino, Calif.-based business, he said. "Every once in a while (there is), but eventually we come around in figuring it out."
The confusion could be even greater in larger organizations that use multiple security products from different vendors. "This is a real problem," Symantec's Weafer said. A desktop antivirus product may display a different name for a fast-spreading worm than the scanner at the e-mail gateway or the intrusion detection system, he said. This can send people scrambling to find out if each product has a defense against a particular pest.
CME identifiers should relieve some of the stress, said Beck, an employee of Mitre, which runs the initiative on behalf of US-CERT. Initially, only major threats will be given an ID number, but the ultimate goal is to cover all attacks affecting users, she said.
"It is a little bit subjective right now," Beck said, referring to the pests currently chosen to receive a CME ID tag. "We'd like to expand to anything that is out there that we could lend some clarity to."
The goal of CME is to offer a neutral, shared identification method that cuts through the naming clutter. It will assign one randomly chosen number to a worm or virus, regardless of what names it is known by at antivirus companies. Even if those companies disagree about the risk assessment or the background of the malicious software, CME will ignore this and focus on the characteristics of the attack to tag it. The IRCbot.worm), Symantec labeled it an offshoot of Zotob (Zotob.E) and Trend Micro saw it as another threat (Rbot.CBQ). Some times antivirus companies will rename a worm for the sake of conformity, but that typically doesn't happen quickly., for example, was seen differently by several software makers: McAfee identified it as a new worm (
A CME identifier should get assigned within hours of a new worm or virus starting to spread, Beck said. Security vendors then should include the number in their products and link from their advisories to the information on the CME Web site, which is set to debut in early October. The proposal is for security companies to add the CME tag to the threat names, Beck said. An alert popping up on a user's screen could look like this: "Zotob.E!CME-540 detected."
The effort is completely reliant on industry participation. A number is assigned only after an industry researcher submits a sample of a threat with a write-up to CME. A group associated with the CME initiative then further researches the threat, collates information from antivirus companies, allocates an ID and publishes a threat profile.
Industry participation has been good, Beck said. "They have been really responsive, and I think they have confidence that it is something good for the long run," she said.
Participation on the organization's editorial board, which includes Microsoft, Symantec, McAfee and the other industry majors previously mentioned, is by invitation-only, and companies have been lining up to get in, Beck said. The editorial board guides the process by which industry and researchers submit information on threats and by which the common IDs are assigned.
The first version of the CME Web site will have descriptions of a couple dozen threats, Beck said. Some have been written up in the months since the CME initiative started its trial run in the first quarter of this year. To begin with, the site will provide characteristics of threats and all the aliases used by different security companies, Beck said. By the end of the year, a more comprehensive Web site should be available, she said.
A worm or a virus is typically tagged by the first security company to discover it. Aside from some ground rules--for example, the name can't be that of a real person or be offensive--antivirus providers are essentially free to call the new pest whatever they like. "There are no grown-ups; there is nobody there to dictate standards to anyone, so you name the virus whatever you want to," said David Perry, director of global education at security provider Trend Micro.
In the case of a fast-spreading worm, a lot of security companies typically see it at the same time and, Symantec's Weafer said. "Speed and response time are so critical--that overwhelms any ability to get together with others and agree on a name for it," he said.
A convention that comes up with names ahead of time, like that used for, doesn't work with worms or viruses, Weafer said. One reason is that there are many variants of worms and viruses, and antivirus companies don't always agree on whether a newly spotted threat is an offshoot or a brand new pest.
A few antivirus companies, including McAfee and Symantec, have already included CME identifiers in some of their advisories. As more threats get assigned an ID number, more companies will probably support the effort in their products, Beck expects.
"It is a chicken-and-egg problem. If there was stuff that they could point to, I think they would be very quick to link to it," she said.
While Go at PureBeauty does see some value in the naming initiative, he'd rather have his security software made more effective. "We get hit before virus definitions are out--that has happened several times. I doubt this initiative will help against that," he said.
|
Over the past few months, organisations across the world have been targeted by a new form of cyberterrorism—ransomware. In a ransomware attack, the victim’s computer or network is locked and its data encrypted by hackers, who then demand money to release these back to their owners. While such assaults began as early as 2013, the last four months have seen repeated incidents all over the world.
In May, an attack using a new ransomware ‘cryptoworm’ called Wannacry brought many businesses in Europe to a standstill. This affected more than 230,000 computers in over 150 countries, badly hitting the Spanish telecom service provider Telefonica, the German state railways and the NHS, among others. Similarly. a new variant of the ransomware Petya, which caused a great deal of distress in Europe last year, surfaced in June. This time, the impact was closer to home as some systems in India were hit by the attack; this included the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, whose terminals came to a halt. Later, in September, systems across the globe were assaulted by Locky. This was similar to WannaCry and posed such a serious threat to Indian systems that the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) issued a warning against it.
|
Security vendor sounds alarm over emergence of new password-stealing Trojan.
Security software vendor Malwarebytes has issued an alert over the emergence of a new ‘certified Trojan’.
The malware is a Brazilian banking and password stealer that has been signed with a valid digital certificate issued by DigiCert.
Clearly, if digital certificates can be abused so easily, we have a big problem on our hands
“The purpose of a digital signature is to guarantee the authenticity of a file from a particular vendor and is provided by one of a few certificate authorities,” said senior security researcher Jerome Segura in a blog post.
“[However], this certificate is issued to a company called ‘Buster Paper Comercial Ltda’, a Brazilian company that actually does not exist and was registered with bogus data,” Segura added.
The malware is disguised as a PDF and when opened appears to show a genuine invoice. However, in the background, it downloads a banking Trojan.
As Segura points out, the theft or mis-signing of digital certificates is not new and this particular banking Trojan has used this method of infection before.
“What we have here is a total abuse of hosting services, digital certificates and repeated offenses from the same people.
“Clearly, if digital certificates can be abused so easily, we have a big problem on our hands,” said Segura.
Malwarebytes said, even in the face of more sophisticated and underhand threats such as this, “the same old tips still hold very true”.
The company advises users not to open an attachment, even from someone they know, without first doing a thorough check on it.
It added, even if a file is digitally signed, it does not guarantee it is safe to use.
“A lot of potentially unwanted applications can use a digital certificate and, of course, malware can too,” said Segura.
“Always check the file extension... [and] never trust file icons. Just because it looks like a Word document or PDF file does not mean it is. With that in mind, stay safe,” Segura concluded.
|
Mobile Security“Bring war material with you from home but forage on the enemy” - Sun Tzu Xavier Mertens Beltug SIG Security - Jan 2013
Disclaimer“The opinions expressed in this presentationare those of the speaker and do not necessarilyreflect those of past, present employers,partners or customers.”
Agenda• Introduction: Top-10 mobile risks• Company owned devices• Employee owned device (BYOD)• Risks inherent in mobile devices• Mobile applications development
Top-10 Mobile Risks• Insecure data storage• Weak server side controls• Insufficient transport layer protection• Client side injection• Poor authentication & authorization• Improper session handling• Secure decision via untrusted input• Side channel data leakage• Broken cryptography• Sensitive information disclosure (Source: OWASP)
Top-10 Mobile Risks• Insecure data storage• Weak server side controls• Insufficient transport layer protection Mobile devices• Client side injection are• Poor authentication & authorization Computers!• Improper session handling• Secure decision via untrusted input• Side channel data leakage• Broken cryptography• Sensitive information disclosure (Source: OWASP)
Easy? Really?• Limited set of manufacturers/OS• Full control of hell?• People try to evade from jail (like laptops)• Need procedures (backups, helpdesk)
Corporate Policy• Must be communicated & approved before the device provisioning• Communication channels: addendum to a contract, Intranet, a “check box”?• Restrictions (SD cards, Bluetooth, camera)• What about private data? (pictures, MP3, downloaded (paid!) apps?
Examples• Document already available on beltug.be (Members section)• Simple policy: http://www.security-marathon.be/?p=1466 (Jean-Sébastien Opdebeeck)
Data Classification• Another approach is implementing data classification• Implementation of the “least privileges” principle• Access to data is based on profiles• Work with any device! (benefit broader than the scope of mobile devices)
Data Classification Data Company Owned Personal Devices Classification Devices Top-Secret No NoHighly Confidential No No Proprietary Yes NoInternal Use Only Yes Yes Public Yes Yes
Why do people BTOD? • Devices became cheaper and powerful • The “Generation Y” • Always online everywhere!
First Question?• Are you ready to accept personal devices on your network?• It’s a question of ... risk!• Examples: • Data loss • Network intrusion • Data ex-filtration
“MDM”?• Do you need a MDM solution? (Mobile Device Management)• Can you trust $VENDORS?• Microsoft Exchange include ActiveSync for free• Most security $VENDORS propose (basic) tools to handle mobile devices
Personal Hotspots• Tethering allows mobile devices to be used as hotspots• Corporate devices (laptops) could bypass Internet access controls• Risks of rogue routers (if IP-forwarding is enabled
Rogue App Stores• Mobile devices without apps is less useful• Owners tend to install any apps• Some apps may require much more rights than required• People trust Apps stores and developers• Developers must write good code
OWASP Mobile Security Project• Mobile testing guide• Secure mobile development guide• Top-10 mobile controls and design principles https://www.owasp.org/index.php/OWASP_Mobile_Security_Project
Lack of/Bad Encryption• Developers re-invent the wheel: do not write a new encryption algorithm• Encrypt everything (data at rest, data in move)
Local VS. Remote Storage Pros Cons No network costs Risk of loss Local Speed Outdated Always updated Data network ($)Central No risk of loss Speed
Geolocalization• Again! But this time for good purposes• Do not allow some actions or apps (ex: opening a wallet) if GPS data shows the phone outside Europe• Combine with passwords for stronger authentication/authorization
Enterprise Appstores• Goal: Distribute, secure and manage mobile apps through your own company branded appstore.• Application available in the appstore have been approved by a strong validation process.
|
IP Access List is used with IP addresses to specify what should be permitted and denied. This is another layer of security that you can set up in addition to that username and password.
In our IP Access Whitelist tutorial, we will cover:
- How important security is today
- How to enable your account IP Access whitelist
- Best Practice of adding your WAN IP first
- How to identify your WAN IP
- How to disable the IP Access List in Global Settings
For additional information on managing your account IP Access whitelist, click here!
|
This script can be used to start/stop/restart xotcl daemons
and maintains the process IDs, log files and means for easy
It receives as first parameter the name of the xotcl script
to be executed followed by the desired action and optional
parameters. The specified action can be
The optional parameters are:
- start: the specified script is started in
the background, an entry to restart is generated in
the run-directory as well as the process id of the started
script. In addition a logfile is created in the log directory.
If the start of the script fails, the error messages are
- startall: all scripts that were started before
via this script, are started
- stop terminates te specified script.
- stopall terminates all scripts started via this
- restart tries to restart the specified script.
- -logir specifies the directory for logging.
The default is ~/.xotcl/log.
- -rundir specifies the directory where
the information about the running processes is kept.
The default is ~/.xotcl/run.
|
Blocking Specific MAC Addresses by Group
There may be instances where a device needs to be blocked from utilizing your Wi-Fi. Maybe there is an abuse of data use or something else. In those cases, you can block the device from connecting by blacklisting the MAC address
You may follow the instructions below when:
- You use Group Settings and need to block specific device(s) from accessing your Wi-Fi.
- Log in to InControl 2
- Navigate to and hover over the tab. Click on .
- Click on the you are blocking a device(s)from accessing.
- Navigate to and choose .
- In the box, you need to block. This will block each of the MAC addresses entered from accessing the specific SSID on all routers using that SSID in your account. Last, click on then click on .
Note: Blocked device will not receive any notification as to why they are unable to connect. Beware of possible complaints by end user.
|
Palo Alto Networks Features
Visibility into Applications, Users, and Content.
Port numbers, protocols, and IP addresses are useful for network devices, but they tell you nothing about what is on your network. Detailed information about the applications, users, and content traversing your network empowers you to quickly determine any risks they pose and quickly respond. Leveraging the rich context provided by Palo Alto Networks firewalls, our visualisation, analysis, and reporting tools let you quickly learn more about activity on your network and analyse incidents from a current or comparative perspective. Watch this video to see how much could be visible on your network.
Visibility into your applications, web traffic, threats, and data patterns.
Our Application Command Center (ACC) is an interactive, graphical summary of the applications, users, URLs, threats, and content traversing your network. It allows you to keep your finger on the pulse of what is going on. ACC provides a 10,000 foot view of what’s happening on your network, and with just a few clicks you can get a highly detailed view to learn more, including links to the specific policy that allowed a certain behaviour so you can tune it as needed.
Knowledge is power. Learning more about new or unfamiliar applications or threats that are displayed in ACC takes just a single click, which shows you:
- A description of the application or threat.
- An application’s key features and behavioral characteristics.
- Details on the users using an application.
- Details on those affected by a threat.
Additional data on traffic source and destination, security rules and zones provides a wider view of the application’s usage patterns, which helps you make a more informed decision on how to treat that traffic.
Visibility based on users and groups – not IP addresses.
Integration with a wide range of directory services allows our system to display detailed user information (along with their IP address), complementing the application and threat information you receive. You can add additional filters to learn more about application usage for individual users, along with the threats detected within your application traffic. In only minutes, ACC arms you with the data you need to make more informed security policy decisions and take action to reduce risk in your enterprise.
Comparative view into traffic and threat patterns.
App-Scope is a dynamic, customisable window into your network’s activity, presenting you with comparative statistics based upon different timeframes, applications, application categories, threat profiles and more. A standard feature in both our device web-interface and Panorama (centralized management), App-Scope reduces the amount of time you have to spend investigating unusual behaviour.
Detailed analysis of all your traffic and device activities.
Our log viewer provides a fine-grain view into your network activity. It summarises all traffic traversing the network – including apps, user information, and threats. The log viewer supports context and expression-based filtering, allowing you to quickly and easily monitor, analyse, and investigate security incidents The log viewer leverages our firewalls’ integration with user repositories, complementing application and threat views with user and group visibility. Logs can be sent automatically to your syslog server, while individual filter results are exportable to a CSV file for offline archival or further analysis.
Customised reporting for all traffic and device activities.
Using either your firewall’s individual device management interface or Panorama, you will appreciate fingertip access to powerful reporting and logging features that will help you quickly investigate and analyse security incidents, application usage and user behaviour. More than 50 predefined, customisable reports – incorporating elements you choose from other reports – are available. You can automate reports to run on a scheduled basis and have the results emailed or exported to a PDF or Excel spreadsheet.
Users: an integral component for secure application enablement policies.
Traditionally, security policies were applied based on IP addresses, but the increasingly dynamic nature of users and applications mean that IP addresses alone have become ineffective as a policy control element for safe application enablement. Our next-generation firewalls integrate with a wide range of enterprise directories and terminal services offerings, allowing you to:
- See who is using the applications on your network
- Set policy based on users
- Perform forensic analysis and generate reports on user activities
Visibility into user’s application activity.
Visibility into the application activity at a user level, not just at an IP address level, allows you to determine patterns of usage along with the associated business and security risks. With just a few clicks, you will gain visibility into the application bandwidth and session consumption, the associated threats, as well as the source and destination of the application traffic. With this knowledge, you can more proactively align application usage with your business unit requirements through safe application enablement policies.
User-based policy control.
Visibility into application usage means that you can quickly analyse the role and risk of applications, and who is using them, then translate that information into user-based safe application enablement policies. User-based policy controls can be assembled based on the application, which category and subcategory it belongs in, its underlying technology, or the application characteristics. Examples of user-based policies might include:
- Enable only the IT department to use tools such as SSH, telnet, and FTP on the standard port
- Allow the Help Desk Services group to use Yahoo Messenger
- Block the use of Facebook-apps for all users, allow Facebook for all users, but allow only marketing to use Facebook-posting
User-based Analysis, Reporting and Forensics.
User information is pervasive throughout our firewall feature set – and that includes fine-grained forensic analysis and reporting. You can easily create log filters by clicking on a cell value, which can then be expanded with additional criteria using the expression builder. Informative reports on user activities can be generated using any one of the many pre-defined reports, or by creating a custom report from scratch, or by modifying a pre-defined report. Any of the reports – pre-defined or custom – can be exported to either CSV, PDF XML, or emailed on a scheduled basis.
Integration with any user repository.
Our firewalls can integrate with an extensive list of user repositories and terminal services offerings that are complemented by an XML API and an explicit challenge response mechanism. Integration points include:
- Directory services: Microsoft Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange, OpenLDAP, and eDirectory
- Terminal services: Citrix XenAPP and Microsoft Terminal Services
- XML API: Using the API, you can extract user data from nearly any non-standard repository including proxies, wireless controllers and network access control (NAC) appliances.
Wildfire:Protection from targeted and unknown threats.
Modern attackers are increasingly using targeted and new unknown variants of malware to sneak past traditional security solutions. To address this, Palo Alto Networks developed WildFire, which identifies new malware in minutes. By executing suspect files in a virtual environment and observing their behaviour, Palo Alto Networks identifies malware quickly and accurately, even if the malware sample has never been seen before.
Once a file is deemed malicious, WildFire automatically generates protections that are delivered to all WildFire subscribers within an hour of detection. A WildFire license provides your IT team with a wealth of forensics to see exactly who was targeted, the application used in the delivery, and any URLs that were part of the attack.
Sandbox analysis of unknown threats.
A growing number of network attacks are driven by sophisticated malware designed to avoid traditional antivirus controls. WildFire extends the capabilities of our next-generation firewalls to identify and block targeted and unknown malware by actively analysing it in a safe, cloud-based virtual environment. We directly observe the behaviour of the malicious malware, then WildFire automatically generates and distributes protections globally for the newly discovered malware.
DNS-based botnet signatures.
Malware networks are always in flux as bot-masters use new URLs to obscure the true destination of their command-and-control infrastructure. To counter this challenge, Palo Alto Networks passively analyses DNS queries to identify and block command-and-control messages from botnet-infected hosts on your network.
Behavioural botnet report.
Our behavioral botnet report correlates traffic anomalies and end-user behaviours to identify devices on your network that are likely to be infected by a botnet. The logic supporting the report tracks unknown or anomalous TCP and UDP, as well as a variety of potentially suspicious behaviours such as repeated download patterns, and the use of dynamic DNS and browsing anomalies. These factors are correlated to create a report that provides you with a list of users that are likely infected, and the behaviours that led to the diagnosis.
Enterprise- class IPS
Today’s attacks on your network use a combination of application vectors and exploits. Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewalls arm you with a two-pronged approach to stopping these attacks. Unwanted applications are blocked through App-ID, and the applications you choose to allow through are scanned for vulnerability exploits by our NSS-approved IPS engine.
Enable full IPS protection while maintaining performance.
We deliver predictable IPS performance to you through hardware acceleration, a uniform signature format and a single pass software architecture. Dedicated processing and memory for content inspection, as well as networking, security and management, provides the hardware acceleration necessary for predictable IPS performance.
- Dedicated processing means that key functions do not compete for processing cycles with your other security functions, which happens in a single CPU or ASIC/CPU hardware architecture.
- A uniform signature format eliminates redundant processes common to multiple scanning engine solutions (TCP reassembly, policy lookup, inspection, etc.).
- Single pass software means that your traffic is touched only once, no matter how many policy elements are in use.
Blocks a wide range of known and unknown vulnerability exploits.
Our rich set of intrusion prevention features blocks known and unknown network and application-layer vulnerability exploits from compromising and damaging your enterprise information resources. Vulnerability exploits, buffer overflows, and port scans are detected using proven threat detection and prevention (IPS) mechanisms, including:
- Protocol decoder-based analysis statefully decodes the protocol and then intelligently applies signatures to detect vulnerability exploits.
- Protocol anomaly-based protection detects non-RFC compliant protocol usage such as the use of overlong URI or overlong FTP login.
- Stateful pattern matching detects attacks across more than one packet, taking into account elements such as the arrival order and sequence.
- Statistical anomaly detection prevents rate-based DoS flooding attacks.
- Heuristic-based analysis detects anomalous packet and traffic patterns such as port scans and host sweeps.
- Other attack protection capabilities, such as blocking invalid or malformed packets, IP defragmentation and TCP reassembly, protect you against evasion and obfuscation methods used by attackers.
- Custom vulnerability or spyware phone home signatures that can be used in either anti-spyware or vulnerability protection profiles.
DoS/DDoS attack protection.
Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewalls protect you from denial of service (DoS) attacks using a policy-based approach that ensures accurate detection. You can deploy DoS protection policies based on a combination of elements including type of attack, or by volume (both aggregate and classified), with response options including allow, alert, activate, maximum threshold and drop. Specific types of DoS attacks covered include:
- Flood protection—Protects you against SYN, ICMP, UDP, and other IP-based flooding attacks.
- Reconnaissance detection—Allows you to detect and block commonly used port scans and IP address sweeps that attackers run to find potential targets.
- Packet-based attack protection—Protects you from large ICMP packets and ICMP fragment attacks.
Market leading threat discovery and research.
Our intrusion prevention engine is supported by a team of seasoned signature developers. Our team is highly active in the threat prevention community, performing ongoing research and working closely with software vendors – both informally and formally – through programs such as the Microsoft Active Protections Program (MAPP). As a member of MAPP, we have priority access to Microsoft’s monthly and out-of-band security update releases.
By receiving vulnerability information early, Palo Alto Networks can develop and deliver signatures to you in a synchronised manner to ensure that you are fully protected. Signature updates are delivered on a weekly schedule or emergency basis. To date, our team has been credited with the discovery of numerous critical and high severity vulnerabilities in both Microsoft and Adobe applications.
Data filtering & file blocking
The application function level control, file blocking by type, and data filtering features of our next-generation firewalls allow you to implement a range of policies that help balance permitting the use of personal or non-work related applications, with the business and security risks of unauthorised file and data transfer.
Enabling applications while blocking unapproved or dangerous files by type.
Our next-generation firewalls give you the ability to control the flow of a wide range of file types by looking deep within the payload to identify the file type (as opposed to looking only at the file extension), to determine if a file transfer is allowed by your policy. You can implement file blocking by type on a per application basis. This enables you to do things like approve a specific webmail application like Gmail, and allow attachments, but block the transfer of specific file types.
Enabling or denying the use of file transfer functions.
Function level control over file transfer represents another policy option that helps you balance application use with policy control. You can establish policies to allow IM or webmail application usage, but deny a related file transfer function.
Prevent data loss with pattern-based content identification.
Rounding out our filtering features is the ability to identify and control the transfer of sensitive data patterns such as credit card numbers, social security numbers or custom data patterns in application content or attachments.
Mobile devices are a part of nearly every modern network. As a result, security teams need to deliver protection and policy enforcement to a myriad of new devices and applications. The Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewall extends comprehensive application visibility and control and vulnerability protection to mobile devices.
GlobalProtect enables organisations to deliver consistent security everywhere by extending the protection of the next-generation firewall to users wherever they go. It automatically establishes a VPN connection to the network, providing both convenience and security to laptop, smartphone and tablet users.
Mobile Application Policy Enforcement.
App-ID includes coverage of a broad range of mobile applications, allowing your firewall administrators to set granular policies on the types of applications permitted for use in mobile environments.
With GlobalProtect, you can create policies based on device type with the next-generation firewall. For example, provide laptops with access to a corporate application, while limiting access from a tablet.
Mobile Platform Threat Prevention.
The threat prevention capabilities of the next-generation firewall provide you with comprehensive protection against dangers to mobile platforms. By providing protection at the firewall, you can make mobile devices safe to use by removing threats before they reach the device. Vulnerability protection guards against a number of risks to iOS and Android devices, such as mobile malware, blocking access to unauthorised app stores, and blocking operating system and application exploits.
Control Web Activity with URL Filtering.
The perfect complement to the policy-based application control provided by App-ID is our on-box URL filtering database, which gives you total control over related web activity. By addressing your lack of visibility and control from both an application and web perspective, App-ID and URL Filtering together protect you from a full spectrum of legal, regulatory, productivity, and resource utilisation risks.
On-box URL database maximises performance and flexibility.
URL filtering is enabled through local lookups, as well as querying our master database in the cloud. Local lookups ensure maximum inline performance and minimal latency for the most frequently accessed URLs, while cloud lookups provide coverage for the latest sites. Our combination of application control and URL filtering allow you to implement flexible policies to control employee and network activity.
- Control web browsing based on category or through customised white or blacklists.
- Specify your group-based web browsing policies with user repository integration provided by User-ID.
- Enable SSL decryption policies by allowing encrypted access to specific web sites about topics your employees enjoy – like health, finance, and shopping – while decrypting traffic to all other sites such as blogs, forums, and entertainment sites.
- Enable bandwidth control for designated categories by creating QoS policies for specified URL categories.
Customisable URL database and categories.
To account for your unique traffic patterns, on-device caches store the most recently accessed URLs. Devices can also automatically query a master database in the cloud for URL category information when a URL is not found on-device. Lookup results are automatically inserted into the cache for future activity. You can also create custom URL categories.
Customisable end-user notifications.
There are multiple ways to inform your end users that they are trying to visit a web page that does not adhere to your corporate policy:
- Customisable block page: A page informing a user that they are violating policy can include your corporate logo, references to the username, IP address, the URL attempting to be accessed, and the category of the URL.
- URL filtering block and continue: Users accessing a page that potentially violates your URL filtering policy see a block page with a “Warning and Continue” button.
- URL filtering override: Requires a user to correctly enter a password in order to bypass the block page and continue surfing.
Flexible, policy-based control over web usage.
To complement the application visibility and control enabled by our App-ID, you can use URL categories as a match criteria for your policies. Instead of creating policies limited to either ‘allow all or block’ all behaviour, URL as a match criteria permits exception-based behaviour. This increases your flexibility and gives you more granular policy enforcement capabilities. Examples of how URL categories can be used in your policy include:
- Identify and allow exceptions to your general security policies for users who may belong to multiple groups within Active Directory (e.g., deny access to malware and hacking sites for all users, yet allow access to users that belong to the security group).
- Allow access to streaming media category, but apply QoS to control your bandwidth consumption.
- Prevent file download/upload for URL categories that represent higher risk (e.g., allow access to unknown sites, but prevent upload/download of executable files from unknown sites to limit malware propagation).
- Apply SSL decryption policies that allow encrypted access to finance and shopping categories, but decrypts and inspects traffic to all other categories.
Network-based Malware Protection.
The broadening use of social media, messaging and other non-work related applications introduce a variety of vectors for viruses, spyware, worms and other types of malware. Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewalls allow you to block unwanted applications with App-ID, and then scan allowed applications for malware.
Broad-based protection against a range of malware.
Our antivirus engine detects and blocks viruses, spyware phone home, spyware download, botnet, worms and trojans. Additional features, above and beyond protecting your network from a wide range of threats, include:
- Inline, stream-based protection against malware embedded within compressed files and web content
- DNS-based botnet analysis to reveal rapidly evolving malware networks and malicious websites
- Leverages SSL decryption within App-ID to block viruses embedded in SSL traffic
Stream-based scanning dramatically reduces latency.
The Palo Alto Networks antivirus engine uses stream-based scanning to inspect your traffic as soon as the first packets of a file are received. This eliminates the performance and latency issues associated with a traditional proxy- or file-based approach. As with IPS, a uniform signature format is used for virus scanning, which eliminates redundant processes common to multiple scanning engine solutions (TCP reassembly, policy lookup, inspection, etc.), while the single pass software means that your traffic is touched only once, no matter how many policy elements are in use.
Continual malware research and updates.
Signatures for all types of malware are generated directly from millions of live virus samples delivered to Palo Alto Networks by leading third-party research organizations around the world. Our threat team analyses the samples and quickly eliminates duplicates and redundancies. New signatures for new malware variants are then generated (using our uniform signature format) and delivered to you through daily scheduled or emergency updates.
Protect your network from threats propagated by drive-by downloads.
Unsuspecting users can inadvertently download malware merely by visiting their favourite web page and clicking on an image. This increasingly popular malware delivery mechanism is known as ‘drive-by downloads.’ Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewalls control this threat to you by identifying malware downloads and sending a warning to your user to ensure that the download is desired.
Our flexible networking architecture includes dynamic routing, switching, and VPN connectivity, which enables you to easily deploy Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewalls into nearly any networking environment.
Integrate into any architecture with our flexible networking architecture.
L2/L3 networking: Our firewalls use a L2/L3 architecture that leverages zone-based security enforcement, which enables deployments in switched and routed environments.
- Dynamic routing: Support for OSPF, RIP and BGP combined with full 802.1Q VLAN support is provided for both layer 2 and layer 3 deployments, so all of your services can be enabled while seamlessly integrating with your existing routing or VLAN architecture.
- Virtual Wire: Virtual Wire gives you a true transparent mode by logically binding two ports together, and passing all your traffic to the other port, without any switching or routing. Full inspection and control for all traffic is enabled with zero impact on your surrounding devices, and no networking protocol configuration is required. Multiple Virtual Wire pairs can be configured to support multiple network segments.
Multicast traffic routing participation.
Multicast support includes identification and control of multicast traffic, as well as the ability to participate in multicast routing and group management through PIM-SM, PIM-SSM and IGMP support.
To optimise computing resources, enterprises are moving towards supporting virtualised applications with different risk levels on a single server. In these environments, virtualized firewalls are critical to deliver security for your communications within the virtualised server.
The Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is a virtualised next-generation firewall featuring our PAN-OSTM operating system. The VM-Series identifies, controls and safely enables intra-host traffic and comes with the following unique virtualisation security features.
Dynamic Address Objects to Track Virtual Machines.
Our dynamic address objects feature gives you the ability to tie security policies to virtual machine instantiation and movement. As you instantiate or move virtual machines, your safe application enablement policies can still be enforced without any manual policy changes. Virtual applications are protected from unapproved access, known and unknown threats, and possible data loss. This ensures that your applications are delivered quickly to meet your business demands without impacting regulatory compliance mandates.
Orchestration Software Integration to Automate Security WorkFlows.
Our powerful XML management API enables external cloud orchestration software to connect over an encrypted link to manage and configure our firewalls. This complete, fully-documented REST-based API allows your configuration parameters to be seen, set and modified programmatically to make security part of your data center workload flow.
Threat Protection and Hypervisor Security.
Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewalls protect you from the new threat landscape with a complete, integrated threat protection solution. Content-ID includes IPS, anti-malware, URL filtering and content blocking to control known threats. WildFire provides automated sandbox analysis of suspicious files to reveal unknown and targeted malware, and our Behavioral Botnet Report identifies unique patterns of botnet infections in your network. In addition, the ability to address remotely exploitable hypervisor vulnerabilities is part of our vulnerability protection framework.
Identify & Control Encrypted Traffic.
Take control of your SSL and SSH encrypted traffic and ensure it is not being used to conceal unwanted activity or dangerous content. Using policy-based decryption and inspection, you can confirm that SSL and SSH are being used for business purposes only, instead of to spread threats or unauthorised data transfer.
Identify, control and inspect inbound SSL traffic.
Identify, control and inspect outbound SSL traffic.
Identify and control SSH traffic.
Safely enabling applications, users and content in IPv6 environments.
Our next-generation firewalls allow you to deploy consistent, safe application enablement policies across IPv6, IPv4 and mixed environments.
Consistent user-based policies across IPv6 and IPv4 environments.
If you are implementing an IPv6 infrastructure, you can deploy the same user-based enablement policies that you have in your IPv4 environments. Your IPv6-based applications and content can be classified, monitored, enabled, inspected and logged, just like they are in your IPv4 environments. IPv6 user information is captured from all of the User-ID supported repositories and terminal services, as well from captive portal and our XML API. In addition, our SSL encrypted User-ID-to-firewall communications protocol supports IPv6.
Flexible deployment options simplify network integration.
Support for virtual wire, layer 2, or layer 3 deployment modes – for both IPv6 and IPv4 environments – gives you flexible network integration options. Additional networking features include:
- Stateless Address Auto-configuration (SLAAC) informs hosts of the IPv6 prefixes needed for address configuration
- NAT64 translates source and destination IP headers between IPv6 and IPv4
- IPv6 over IPsec between IPv4 endpoints
- High availability control, data link and path monitoring
Management and administrative consistency between IPv6 and IPv4.
- Management services we support include: RADIUS, Syslog, DNS, User-ID agents, LDAP, SNMP, SCP, FTP, SSH, URL filtering service, Panorama (device-to-Panorama connectivity), and service route configuration
- Administrative services we support include: admin authentication sources, NTP, Panorama, logging and alerting (syslog, SNMP, email), and PBF next-hop monitoring of IPv6
Standards-based VPN Connectivity.
Secure site-to-site and remote user connectivity is a critical infrastructure component. Every Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewall platform allows you to easily and securely communicate between sites using standards-based IPSec VPN connections. Remote user communications are protected through a rich set of VPN features.
Secure site-to-site connectivity through IPSec VPN.
Consistent Security Everywhere.
- Mac OS X
Secure Application Enablement.
The increased visibility into applications, users and content delivered by Palo Alto Networks simplifies figuring out which applications are traversing your network, who is using them, and the potential security risks. Armed with this data, you can apply secure enablement policies with a range of responses that are more finely tuned than the traditional ‘allow or deny’ approach.
Balancing protection and enablement with fine-grained policy enforcement.
- Allow or deny
- Allow based on schedule, users, or groups
- Apply traffic shaping through QoS
- Allow certain application functions such as file transfer within instant messaging
- Allow, but scan for viruses and other threats
- Decrypt and inspect
- Apply policy-based forwarding
- Any combination of the above
Mixing next-generation policy criteria like applications, application functions, users, groups and regions, with traditional policy criteria such as source, destination and IP address, allows you to deploy the appropriate policy.
Selectively filter applications to quickly create policy control lists.
- Underlying technology
- Behavioural characteristic (file transfer capabilities, known vulnerabilities, ability to evade detection, propensity to consume bandwidth, and malware transmission/propagation)
Additional application details you will receive include a description of the application, the commonly used ports, and a summary of the individual application characteristics. Using the application browser allows you to quickly research an application and immediately translate the results into a security policy.
Stop threats and unauthorised file/data transfer.
The same levels of fine-grained control that you can apply to a specific set of applications can also be extended to threat prevention. Using a very targeted approach, you can apply:
- Antivirus and antispyware policies to allowed webmail applications
- IPS policies can be applied to Oracle database traffic
- Data filtering profiles can be enabled for file transfer within instant messaging
Traffic shaping ensures business applications are not bandwidth starved.
Secure application enablement may entail allowing bandwidth intensive applications such as streaming media. You can strike an appropriate balance by using QoS policies that ensure your business-critical applications are not starved of bandwidth by non-work related applications.
- Guaranteed, maximum and priority bandwidth can be applied across eight traffic queues
- Your policies can be applied to physical interface, IPSec VPN tunnels, applications, users, source, destination and more
- Diffserv marking is supported, enabling application traffic to be controlled by a downstream or upstream networking device
Flexible, policy-based control over web usage.
To complement the application visibility and control enabled by our App-ID, you can use URL categories as a match criteria for your policies. Instead of creating policies limited to either ‘allow all or block’ all behaviour, the ability to use URL category as a match criteria permits exception-based behaviour. This increases your flexibility and gives you more granular policy enforcement capabilities. Examples of how URL categories can be used in your policy include:
- Identify and allow exceptions to your general security policies for users who may belong to multiple groups within Active Directory (e.g., deny access to malware and hacking sites for all users, yet allow access to users that belong to the security group)
- Allow access to streaming media category, but apply QoS to control your bandwidth consumption
- Prevent file download/upload for URL categories that represent higher risk (e.g., allow access to unknown sites, but prevent upload/download of executable files from unknown sites to limit malware propagation)
- Apply SSL decryption policies that allow encrypted access to finance and shopping categories, but decrypts and inspects traffic to all other categories
Systematically identify and control unknown traffic.
Use the application control features built into Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewalls to systematically identify, investigate and manage unknown traffic on your network in a systematic way. You will notice a dramatic reduction in the risks posed to you by unknown traffic.
Redundancy & Resiliency
Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewalls support a series of redundancy and resiliency features that ensure your firewall will continue to provide the secure application enablement you need to keep your business running.
Stateful Active/Active or Active/Passive high availability.
- Active/passive:The active device continuously synchronises its configuration and session information with the identically configured passive device. A heartbeat connection between the two identically configured devices ensures seamless failover if the active device goes down.
- Active/active:Firewalls in an active/active configuration continuously synchronise their configuration and session information. If either device fails, a heartbeat connection signals the other device to take over all of your operations. This ensures session continuity if a device or network fails. To better support asymmetrically routed environments, you can deploy two devices in an HA configuration with either virtual wire interfaces or layer 3 interfaces. App-ID and Content-ID are fully supported in asymmetric environments. Active/active also incorporates flexible layer 3 deployment options supporting load-sharing and interface IP failover.
Built-in resiliency and component redundancy.
The PA-5000 Series supports several levels of hardware component redundancy with dual power supplies and dual, solid-state hard disk drives that are hot swappable. The single fan tray is also hot swappable. The PA-4000 Series also supports hot-swappable dual power supplies.
Device Management Flexibility
Our firewall management philosophy is to make administrative tasks such as report generation, log queries, policy creation, and ACC browsing easy to execute and consistent, no matter which mechanism – web interface, Panorama, CLI or API – you use.
Intuitive and efficient policy management workflow.
The familiar look and feel of our policy editor, combined with drag-and-drop objects and rule tagging, will allow you to establish a policy management workflow that suits your administrative processes.
- The policy-browser allows you to quickly create policies that include application, user, and traffic specific threat prevention (IPS, Antivirus, Anti-spyware, etc.), thereby eliminating the duplicate data entry common in other offerings.
- Object drag-and-drop reduces administrative effort by allowing you to reuse the policy objects (users, applications, services or IP addresses) that you have already created.
- Rule tagging allows you to “tag” rules with common names (e.g., DMZ, perimeter, datacenter) so that you can easily search and manage those rules as needed.
Granular control over administrative access.
If you have delegated specific sets of tasks to individual staff members, our role-based administration will allow you to designate any of the firewall’s features and corresponding capabilities to be fully enabled, read-only or disabled (hidden from view) for specific administrators. For example:
- Your operations staff can be given access to the firewall and networking configuration.
- Your security administrators can be granted control over security policy definition, the log viewer and reporting.
- You can allow key individuals full CLI access, while for others the CLI may be disabled.
All administrative activities are logged so you can see the time of occurrence, the administrator, the management interface used (web interface, CLI, Panorama and the API), and the command or action taken along with the result.
Centralised management of your Palo Alto Networks firewalls.
Panorama provides centralised management for multiple Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewalls, enabling you to:
- Browse ACC, view logs, and generate reports across all your firewalls from a central location.
- Use device group and templates to centrally manage your firewall configurations, regardless of location.
- Manage device licenses and updates for software, content, and clients (SSL VPN, GlobalProtect).
By using the same user interface as our individual firewalls, Panorama eliminates the learning curve associated with switching from one mechanism to another. Regardless of the task at hand, the steps you may need to take will be the same.
Industry standard management tools and APIs.
A rich set of industry standard management interfaces, combined with a helpful set of APIs, allows you to integrate with existing third-party solutions for superior policy/configuration management, log analysis, reporting and more.
- APIs: A REST management API and a User-ID XML API give you a powerful set of tools to streamline operations and integrate with existing, internally developed applications and repositories.
- Syslog and SNMP v2/3: All logs can be sent to your syslog server for archival and analysis purposes, while SNMP v2/3 support enables integration with a wide range of third-party tools.
- Netflow: Export your IP traffic flow information to a Netflow connector. Separate template records are defined for IPv4, IPv4 with NAT, and IPv6 traffic, while PAN-OS specific fields for App-ID and User-ID can be optionally exported. Netflow integration is not supported on the PA-4000 Series.
In addition to our management interfaces and APIs, the Palo Alto Networks Technology Partner Program makes information available to you on many leading management, reporting and analysis vendors.
Scalable Firewall Services With Virtual Systems.
Virtual systems are unique and distinct next-generation firewall instances within a single Palo Alto Networks firewall. Instead of deploying many individual firewalls, security service providers and enterprises can deploy a single pair of firewalls (high availability) and enable a series of virtual firewall instances (virtual systems). Each virtual system is an independent (virtual) firewall within your firewall that is managed separately and cannot be accessed or viewed by other users.
Managed services for customers, business groups, or departments.
The flexibility and efficiencies of virtual systems offer security service providers and enterprises very attractive ways to enhance business efficiencies. These include:
- Improved scalability due to fewer devices
- Adding customers
- Lower capital and operational expenditures
Two ways service providers or enterprises use virtual systems is for multi-tenant managed services delivery, or as separate firewall instances within an enterprise network
- Multi-tenant managed services: Within a managed services environment, it’s very cost-effective to have a single device support distinct firewall instances. This allows you to deliver security services to multiple customers with just a single device. The breadth of functionality and configuration flexibility we provide lets each customer select from a menu of service offerings, each of which can be enabled and disabled quickly and effectively. Role-based administration allows you to enable your customer to have access to certain functions (such as logging and reporting), while hiding or providing ‘read only’ (policy editor) access to other functions.
- Departmental services: If you’re a large organisation, certain technical or compliance requirements may dictate that departmental traffic be protected by a unique firewall instance. On an internal network, a single firewall instance with virtual systems support is extremely cost-effective. Each department can be assigned security services from the ‘menu,’ and then billed back for those services to demonstrate a return on investment. Just like in a managed services environment, you can allow department staff to have either ‘read only’ or full access to certain firewall functions while the device is centrally managed by IT.
Protecting network resources through segmentation.
Network segmentation is considered to be a network security best practice because it enables your IT department to isolate and more effectively protect critical data. By creating a virtual firewall for a segment of your network, you can protect key content from unapproved access as well as threats and possible data loss. Virtual systems are just one way that you can easily segment your network with Palo Alto Networks.
Granular, role-based administrative control.
Each virtual system is a self-contained, fully operational Palo Alto Networks firewall, complete with separate management interfaces. This ensures that other customers or departments can only see or modify their own policies. Within each virtual system, role-based administrative access control allows you to delegate feature-level administrative access (enabled, read-only, or disabled and hidden from view) to different staff. Using role-based administration, service providers can build a menu of services to selectively enable, while enterprises can delegate access to key individuals as needed.
The centralised management features in Panorama will minimise the administrative efforts and operational costs associated with your deployment of our next-generation firewalls in multiple locations – either internally or globally. Panorama allows your team to centrally manage all device aspects including configuration and policy deployment, visibility into applications, users and content as well as logging and reporting.
Global device management.
Using a combination of Device Groups and Templates, your team can quickly configure one of our firewalls remotely and then deploy new or updated global policies that co-exist with local policies. The combination of global and local policies allows you to ensure compliance with internal or regulatory requirements, while local device rules maintain both security and flexibility. Granular role-based administration complements shared-policies by allowing you to assign specific tasks to different members of your team, thereby ensuring appropriate separation of roles and responsibilities.
Centralised visibility, logging and reporting.
With the same look and feel as the web interface, Panorama gives you visibility into the applications, users and content traversing your devices along with granular logging and reporting – all at both a global or individual device level.
- Visibility: With the same look and feel as the web interface, Application Command and Control (ACC) in Panorama gives you a global or individual device view into the applications, users and content traversing your network. The end result is that you will know more about the traffic and activity on your network and can make more informed security policy decisions.
- Logging: For either an individual device, or all devices, Panorama administrators can quickly view log activities using dynamic log filtering by clicking on a cell value and/or using the expression builder to define the filter criteria. Results can be saved for future queries or exported for further analysis.
- Reporting: Predefined reports can be used as-is, customised, or grouped together as one report to suit specific requirements. In addition to ad hoc reporting, custom and predefined reports can be scheduled and exported in a variety of formats.
Software, Content and Licensing Management.
Panorama allows you to take the systematic approach of first qualifying a change to the firewall in a controlled environment, then delivering it to the production firewalls. From a centralised location, you can manage software updates, content (application updates, antivirus signatures, threat signatures, URL filtering database, etc.) and firewall licenses.
Logging & Reporting
Traffic Monitoring: Logging, Reporting, and Forensic Analysis.
Security best practices dictate that you strike a balance between being proactive, continually learning and adapting to protect your corporate assets, and being reactive and investigating, analysing and reporting on security incidents. ACC and the policy editor allow you to proactively deploy application enablement policies, while a rich set of monitoring and reporting tools enable you to analyse and report on the applications, users and content traversing your network.
Real-time traffic analysis and forensics.
Our firewall maintains logs for WildFire, configurations, system, alarms, traffic flows, threats, URL filtering, data filtering, and Host Information Profile (HIP) matches. You can quickly analyse network activity by clicking on a cell value and adding multiple criteria using the expression builder – the results can be stored for future use or exported to CSV for additional analysis. In addition, all logs can be sent to a syslog server for analysis by a wide range of third party solutions.
Fully customisable reporting.
Available as a standard feature, our reporting features allow you to generate informative reports using 40+ predefined reports, or by using report builder, which lets you assemble a fully customised report that can be saved, exported to PDF/CSV or XML and scheduled to run, and then be emailed. A few of the standard reports include:
- Behavioral botnet report: Data regarding unknown applications, IRC traffic, malware sites, dynamic DNS, and newly created domains is analysed with the results displaying a list of potentially infected hosts that can be investigated as members of a botnet.
- PDF Summary report: A fully customisable one-page summary report that includes data for the top five in each category as well as trend charts that are not available in other reports.
- User-activity report: Allows you to generate a time-based report that shows application and web browsing activity for specific users.
- App-Scope: Complementing the real-time view of applications and content provided by ACC, App-scope provides a dynamic, user-customisable view of application, traffic and threat activity over time.
Integration with Security Event and Incident Management (SIEM) tools.
Our firewall allows you to send all the logs to a syslog server for archival and analysis purposes. In addition, we have a wide range of proven technology partnerships with nearly all of the SEIM vendors.
|
But only if the developer themselves want it.
Denuvo anti-piracy developers are working on Unreal Engine Protection and Integrity Verification technologies designed for Unreal Engine. These technologies will make game modification difficult.
AI security does not guarantee a destruction of games. It is also going to stop several debugging tools from being activated in the game, such as the developer console.
Integrity verification technology allows developers to understand the correct interpretations and errors of their game code, thus protecting them from static and dynamic interference. The Denuvos anti-piracy system works as a similar way.
According to developers, first of all new technologies are designed to protect games against intruders: for example cheaters. However, Integrity Verification and Unreal Engine Protection can also interfere with normal modders.
The first technology will stop modders from using games such as models or textures and changing them. Second is to allow the interfering to the code for example, to change some mechanics.
New technologies can be used separately, in conjunction with Denuvo antipiracy protection. The developers should decide for themselves if they want to protect their games against intruders and modders.
|
With access to corporate e-mail, cybercriminals can perform business e-mail compromise–type attacks. That’s why we see so many phishing letters directing corporate users to sign in to websites fashioned like the MS Office login page. And that means it’s very important to know what to pay attention to if a link redirects to a page like that.
Cybercriminals stealing credentials for Microsoft Office accounts is nothing new. However, the methods attackers use keep getting more advanced. Today, we’re using a real-world case — a letter we actually received — to demonstrate best practices and to outline some of the new tricks.
|
Real-Time Intrusion Detection and Suppression in ATM Networks
Distributed mission critical systems require support for ultra-secure communication, in which intrusions must be detected and suppressed in real time, possibly before the affected messages reach the receiver. When the distributed application has real-time requirements, the effects of intrusion are particularly severe. In addition to covered channels and potentially tampered data at the receiver, such systems may experience violations of timing requirements and timing instabilities in components not directly related to the intrusion. Systems with real-time requirements have admission and access control mechanisms in place to ensure that timing requirements can be met during normal operation. Such admission control mechanisms require load profiles of traffic (for example in form of leaky bucket descriptors) so that resources can be appropriately allocated to meet application requirements during system operation. In this paper, we report on our project aiming at real-time detection of intrusions in ATM networks. We take advantage of the specification of the traffic profile during connection setup, and use a traffic modeling technique to determine the profile of the traffic on the connection in an arbitrary point in the network, thus providing a base line for detection of load deviations. We designed and analyzed a security device that uses the profile information, detects violations. The traffic is modeled in an accurate but efficient manner. As a result, our device is able to detect an intrusion within 25 s, yet is simple enough to be economically realized in existing VLSI technology.
|
One of the key functions of a security team is to protect a company's data as it is difficult to put a cost value on lost data. Let us look at three types of data—when it is at rest, in use, and in transit:
- Data-at-rest: Data-at-rest is when data is not being used and is stored either on a hard drive or external storage; let us look at the different devices:
- Desktops and laptops: We could use, for example, Bitlocker, which is known in the Security + exam as Full Disk Encryption. However, the desktop or laptop would need a TPM chip built into the motherboard. We could also use Data Loss Prevention (DLP) to prevent someone stealing the data with a USB drive.
- Tablets/phones: Tablets and phones will need Full Device Encryption ...
|
We hear a lot about the high amount of Android malware running rampant. An interesting tidbit is a vast majority of malware doesn’t need any special ‘magic’ to behave maliciously. They use existing functionality to attack users, functionality available to all developers.
We’ll take a look at a couple of these methods in which malware is able utilize, once their permission request is granted and the app is installed.
This first method is monitoring incoming SMS. Malware can use SMS to send premium messages, sign you up for paid services, send spam, and a lot more.
Let’s look at the RECEIVE_SMS permission, used heavily by bank Trojans to capture authentication codes and other information related to an account. With this permission granted the malware will create a ‘Receiver’ to monitor incoming SMS.
Once an SMS message is captured, it can do a variety of things like abort the message notification, delete, and collect the contents of the message.
The example here shows how a Korean bank Trojan collects an incoming SMS message, sends to a remote server, and then aborts the notification. The data sent includes the compromised device’s phone number, incoming number, and message contents.
Many apps request to send or receive SMS so the permission request can often be overlooked when installing. The challenge is we can’t see what goes on behind the scenes so SMS could be sent, received, deleted, and contents sniffed without our knowledge. We just have to hope Google is keeping us secure.
Another feature exploited is the security setting “Device Administrators.” Introduced in Android 2.2 it was put in place to help IT department’s better secure corporate Android devices. When an app is defined here, system administrators can enforce policies for devices such as password strength, locking device, and remote wipe.
When an app is listed as an administrator it needs additional steps to uninstall, the app must first be deactivated from Device Administrators.
Malware authors typically use this functionality to prevent an app from being uninstalled.
In this example, Device Administrator is used to prevent uninstalling as usual, but by monitoring events such as the Action DEVICE_ADMIN_DISABLE_REQUESTED, this ransomware is able to block the deactivation attempt. Even in Safe Mode, where only system apps should be started it is able to block deactivation, making this guy even more difficult to remove.
Ransomware, like Koler, SimpLocker, and FBILocker, are becoming more of a nuisance incorporating methods like this, making them even more difficult to remove. Early variants would not block a users access to the device, so if you didn’t fall for the scam you could easily uninstall.
You can review which apps you have installed that are Device Administrators through your Android settings. Settings -> Security -> Device Administrators.
These are just a couple of examples of how malware uses existing Android’s features in malicious ways. We suggest you review permissions before installing apps and backing up your data.
Give a second thought to apps requesting to be Device Administrators.
|
Video management systems (VMS) are the foundational application upon which security systems are ultimately built.
However, yesterday’s video management solutions are not ideally suited to meet the evolving risks that companies face. In addition to emerging security issues, such as active shooters and employee theft, cybersecurity is also critical for security teams to consider. The days of using a legacy video system to address modern day issues are quickly coming to an end.
As businesses transition to online environments and integrate information technology (IT) infrastructure into daily operations, they expand their cyberattack surface. When it comes to video surveillance, enterprise organizations may turn to containerization to secure video management systems.
Containerization is the packaging of software code with the operating system and dependencies required to run the code to create a single lightweight executable — dubbed a container — that runs on any infrastructure.
With traditional application development methods, code is developed in a specific computing environment, which, when installed, often results in bugs and errors. Containerization addresses this issue by bundling the application code with the configuration files, libraries and dependencies required. This single “container” stands alone and can run on any platform or cloud.
Containerized VMS solutions have all the prerequisites pre-configured and installed for functionality and do not require additional frameworks or database software. Because these systems do not have separate server requirements, deployments necessitate less retrofitting and communication across enterprise servers.
Overall, there are added layers of security inherent to using containers. The isolation of application containers prevents malicious attacks from affecting other containers or the host operating system. Additionally, security permissions can block unwanted components from entering containers or limit communications with unnecessary or unsecure resources.
|
Brazilian malware peddlers have turned to encrypting banking Trojans with block ciphers, effectively bypassing most AV software.
Kaspersky Lab’s Dmitry Bestuzhev says that he noticed it when he stumbled upon a couple of similarly structured files with a .jpeg extension.
He initially thought that steganography was used, but further analysis revealed that the files were actually bitmap image files and that they contain malware and some other data encrypted within.
“As far as I know, this is the first time [block cipher encryption] has been used by malware writers anywhere in Latin America,” he commented.
Given the effectiveness of this technique, it’s a wonder they haven’t thought about using it sooner. Not only does it sometimes cause AVs to turn up inaccurate results, but files such as these are also difficult to spot for site administrators, increasing the likelihood of them being hosted on a compromised site for a long time.
Bestuzhev expects the encryption algorithm to change following this discovery and his post, as the malware authors behind this particular attack change mirror sites hosting the malware and the actual malicious payload every 2-3 days.
|
In the realm of security, defense, and military operations, the acronym TTP often comes up in discussions. Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures, commonly referred to as TTPs, play a crucial role in ensuring the success and efficiency of various operations. In this article, we’ll delve into what TTPs are, why they matter, and how they are applied across different domains.
Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) represent the key building blocks of a comprehensive operational strategy across various domains, from military operations to cybersecurity. Let’s break down these components with examples to grasp their significance, latter on we will dwell more on TTP from the Cybersecurity and Red Team perspective (Cybersecurity borrows a lot from the military):
1. Tactics – The High-Level Strategy:
Tactics are akin to the grand plan of a chess game, where the player decides to execute a series of moves to checkmate the opponent’s king. In a military context, tactics might involve “flanking the enemy” or “establishing a defensive perimeter.” For a cybersecurity team, tactics could be “preventing unauthorized access” or “detecting and mitigating cyber threats.”
2. Techniques – The Execution Methods:
Techniques are the actionable methods employed to carry out the chosen tactics effectively. Imagine you’re using the “flanking” tactic in a military operation. The techniques would include “stealthy movement through cover,” “coordination among troops,” and “surprise attack from the side or rear.” In cybersecurity, if the tactic is “detecting and mitigating cyber threats,” the techniques could encompass “network traffic analysis,” “behavioral anomaly detection,” and “vulnerability scanning.”
3. Procedures – The Detailed Execution Steps:
Procedures are the nitty-gritty, step-by-step instructions that provide a structured approach to implementing techniques. If your technique involves “stealthy movement through cover” in a military operation, procedures would specify “crawl silently for 20 meters, maintain radio silence, and use night-vision goggles.” In cybersecurity, procedures for “network traffic analysis” might outline “collecting logs from network devices, parsing data, and identifying suspicious patterns.”
In the realm of cybersecurity and red teaming, success hinges on the mastery of Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs), These three interwoven elements form the backbone of strategic planning, execution, and assessment in the ever-evolving battle against cyber threats. In this article, we will delve into TTPs in the context of cybersecurity and red teaming, showcasing their significance and practical applications.
1. Tactics – The Strategic Blueprint:
In cybersecurity, tactics are the high-level strategic plans devised to safeguard an organization’s digital assets. They outline the overarching approach to be taken to achieve specific security goals. Imagine the tactic as the overarching battle plan in a war, such as “defending against external cyber threats” or “protecting sensitive data assets.” Tactics are adaptable strategies that can be tailored to different situations and adversaries. This requires a solid foundation and brings to light the importance of sound strategic planning.
2. Techniques – The Execution Arsenal:
Techniques represent the practical methods and tools employed to execute the chosen tactics effectively. Think of them as the arsenal of weapons and maneuvers used to implement the strategy. For example, if the tactic is “protecting sensitive data assets,” techniques would encompass methods like “encryption,” “access control,” “network segmentation,” and “intrusion detection.”
3. Procedures – The Precise Execution Steps:
Procedures are the meticulously detailed, step-by-step instructions that guide the execution of techniques. They offer a structured framework for performing specific cybersecurity tasks. Procedures leave no room for interpretation, ensuring consistent and precise execution. For instance, if the technique is “encryption,” the procedure might specify “use AES-256 encryption algorithm, generate unique encryption keys, and apply encryption to all sensitive data at rest.”
To better illustrate the concept, let’s consider an example in the cybersecurity domain:
Tactic: Prevent Unauthorized Access
Procedures for Access Control:
In this example, the tactic is preventing unauthorized access. Techniques like access control, firewalls, MFA, and IDS are employed to execute the tactic. The procedures for access control provide detailed steps for implementing the technique effectively.
TTPs are essential for achieving operational success, whether in military operations, cybersecurity, or any other field where structured planning and execution are critical. They ensure that high-level strategies translate into actionable and effective practices.
Red teaming, a cybersecurity practice focused on emulating real-world cyber threats, heavily relies on TTPs:
1. Tactics – Simulating Adversarial Scenarios:
Red teaming tactics revolve around simulating adversarial scenarios to assess an organization’s vulnerabilities and defenses. Tactics guide red teamers in crafting realistic threat scenarios, such as “mimicking a nation-state cyber espionage group” or “emulating a phishing campaign by a sophisticated attacker.”
2. Techniques – Executing Threat Scenarios:
Red teaming techniques encompass the methods and tools used to execute the selected tactics accurately. For example, if the tactic involves emulating a phishing campaign, the techniques would involve crafting convincing phishing emails, setting up malicious infrastructure, and launching simulated attacks.
3. Procedures – Detailed Emulation Steps:
Red teaming procedures offer the precise steps to execute techniques while emulating threat scenarios. They guide red teamers through the process, ensuring that the emulation closely mirrors real-world threats. Procedures might include crafting phishing emails, conducting social engineering, and assessing the organization’s response to the simulated attack.
In cybersecurity and red teaming, TTPs find applications in various critical areas:
Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs) serve as the bedrock of cybersecurity and red teaming efforts. They translate high-level strategies into actionable plans, ensuring that organizations can defend against cyber threats and assess their vulnerabilities effectively. Whether safeguarding against data breaches or conducting red teaming exercises, TTPs are the guiding principles that lead to success in the dynamic world of cybersecurity.
TTPs are critical in various fields, including military operations, law enforcement, cybersecurity, and emergency response. Here’s why they matter:
TTPs find applications across various domains:
Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures are fundamental to the success and efficiency of operations across various domains. They provide a structured framework for planning, executing, and adapting to different scenarios. Whether in the military, law enforcement, cybersecurity, or everyday business operations, TTPs are the cornerstone of effective and consistent performance. Understanding and implementing TTPs is essential for organizations and individuals committed to achieving their objectives and mitigating risks.
Web Developer | Cybersecurity Advocate | Offensive Security Enthusiast
Passionate about Personal Transformation and Offensive Security, I’m Emmanuel Okaiwele—a dedicated Web Developer and Cybersecurity Advocate. My mission is clear: elevating the “Cybersecurity Consciousness” of fellow Africans. Through my journey, I aim to empower individuals, fostering a safer digital landscape for our community. Join me in this transformative endeavor.
|
Detecting new malware using machine learning has been increasingly used lately, yet recent research has proven that deep neural networks report unexpected behavior when confronted with adversarial examples. Implementing Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) has proved to be a powerful technique in the image processing domain and it can be similarly extended to further domains such as malware evasion. While the concept is fairly straight forward for image processing, manipulating portable executable (PE) files can be challenging given its binary nature and the fact that perturbations can render the file corrupt. Hence, most of research proposed in the literature work with limited malware representations and dismissed the actual files. Our hypothesis is that generating valid PE files can be more effective for adversarial learning and the use of machine learning for malware classification. Therefore, we designed an approach using GAN to generate malware adversarial examples by injecting byte-level perturbations, which are able to bypass state-of-the-art classifiers.
Recommended citation: R. Labaca-Castro, C. Schmitt, G. Dreo Rodosek: Training GANs to Generate Adversarial Examples Against Malware Classification. 40th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (S&P), San Francisco, CA, USA, May 20, 2019.
|
Today The Public Interest Registry (“PIR”), the company which runs the .Org registry, announced a Domain “Anti-Abuse Policy”, effective 5 February 2009.
In announcing this policy PIR is taking a strong stand against what is defines as Domain Abuse and it gives itself the right to cancel, any .org, domain registration which is considered to be abusive.
From the announcement:
“”””Abusive use(s) of .ORG domain names should not be tolerated. The nature of such abuses creates security and stability issues for the registry, registrars and registrants, as well as for users of the Internet in general.
The PIR defines abusive use of a domain as the wrong or excessive use of power, position or ability, and includes, without limitation, the following:
· Illegal or fraudulent actions;
· Spam: The use of electronic messaging systems to send unsolicited bulk messages. The term applies to e-mail spam and similar abuses such as instant messaging spam, mobile messaging spam, and the spamming of Web sites and Internet forums. An example, for purposes of illustration, would be the use of email in denial-of-service attacks;
· Phishing: The use of counterfeit Web pages that are designed to trick recipients into divulging sensitive data such as usernames, passwords, or financial data;
· Pharming: The redirecting of unknowing users to fraudulent sites or services, typically through DNS hijacking or poisoning;
· Willful distribution of malware: The dissemination of software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owner’s informed consent.
Examples include, without limitation, computer viruses, worms, keyloggers, and trojan horses;
· Fast flux hosting: Use of fast-flux techniques to disguise the location of Web sites or other Internet services, or to avoid detection and mitigation efforts, or to host illegal activities. Fast-flux techniques use DNS to frequently change the location on the Internet to which the domain name of an Internet host or name server resolves. Fast flux hosting may be used only with prior permission of PIR;
· Botnet command and control: Services run on a domain name that are used to control a collection of compromised computers or “zombies,” or to direct denial-of-service attacks (DDoS attacks);
· Distribution of child pornography; and
· Illegal Access to Other Computers or Networks: Illegally accessing computers, accounts, or networks belonging to another party, or attempting to penetrate security measures of another individual’s system (often known as “hacking”). Also, any activity that might be used as a precursor to an attempted system penetration (e.g., port scan, stealth scan, or other information gathering activity).
PIR reserves the right to deny, cancel or transfer any registration or transaction, or place any domain name(s) on registry lock, hold or similar status, that it deems necessary, in its discretion; (1) to protect the integrity and stability of the registry; (2) to comply with any applicable laws, government rules or requirements, requests of law enforcement, or any dispute resolution process; (3) to avoid any liability, civil or criminal, on the part of PIR, as well as its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers, directors, and employees; (4) per the terms of the registration agreement or (5) to correct mistakes made by PIR or any Registrar in connection with a domain name registration.
PIR also reserves the right to place upon registry lock, hold or similar status a domain name during resolution of a dispute.”””
Let’s Hope this policy curbs abuses, but that the registry does not use this to cancel any “innocent” domains.
It always worries us, at least a little, when someone sets themselves up to be the complainant, judge and jury.
We are all against Spam, Phishing, Child Porn and the rest, yet one entity having the power to find a domain, determine it violates its policy and take the domain down, without any intervention or right to appeal, is a scary proposition.
We have not gone a day, in the last couple of years, without having one of our domains, or one of our e-mail addresses, used by spammers as a fake header, return e-mail address, removal link address or like purpose.
We are certainly not the only ones who are victimized by this practice.
|
|By PR Newswire||
|April 24, 2014 06:17 AM EDT||
ABINGDON, England, April 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --
They said that cybercriminals would target...
- your privacy, leading to greater popularity for VPN services and Tor-anonymisers. The number of people turning to the Darknet in an attempt to safeguard their personal data is indeed increasing. But as well as benevolent users, Tor continues to attract dark forces - anonymous networks can conceal malware activity, trading on illegal sites and money laundering. For example, in February, Kaspersky experts detected the first Android Trojan that uses a domain in the .onion pseudo zone as a C&C.
- your money. The experts expected cybercriminals to continue developing tools to steal cash. This was confirmed by the detection of Trojan-SMS.AndroidOS.Waller.a in March. It is capable of stealing money from QIWI electronic wallets belonging to the owners of infected smartphones. The Trojan currently only targets Russian users, but it is capable of spreading anywhere where e-wallets are managed using text messages. Cybercriminals also made use of some standard approaches such as spreading Trojans for mobiles that steal money with the help of malicious spam. With these the global reach is much greater - the Faketoken mobile banking Trojan, for example, has affected users in 55 countries, including users in Germany, Sweden, France, Italy, the UK and the US.
* in Q1 the number of mobile banking Trojans almost doubled from 1321 to 2503
- your Bitcoins. The experts expected considerable growth in the number of attacks targeting Bitcoin users' wallets, Bitcoin pools and stock exchanges. In the first three months of the year there were lots of incidents that proved this prediction was correct. Among the more newsworthy were the hack of MtGox, one of the biggest bitcoin exchanges, the hacking of the personal blog and Reddit account of MtGox CEO, Mark Karpeles, and using them to post the MtGox2014Leak.zip, which actually turned out to be malware capable of searching for and stealing Bitcoin wallet files from victims.
In a bid to boost their illicit earnings, cybercriminals infect computers and use their resources to generate more digital currency. Trojan.Win32.Agent.aduro, the twelfth most frequently detected malicious object on the Internet in Q1, is an example of a Trojan used in this type of process.
The Living Dead: the resurrection of cyber-espionage operations
The first quarter also saw a major cyber-espionage incident: in February, Kaspersky Lab published a report on one of the most advanced threats at the current time named 'The Mask'. The main target was confidential information belonging to state agencies, embassies, energy companies, research institutes and private investment companies, as well as activists from 31 countries. According to the researchers, the complexity of the toolset used by the attackers and several other factors suggest this could be a state-sponsored campaign.
"As well as new incidents, we saw the continuation of campaigns that had seemingly already ended. For instance, after cybercriminals had shut down all the known command servers involved in the Icefog operation, we detected a Java version of the threat. The previous attack had primarily targeted organisations in South Korea and Japan, but the new version, judging by the IP addresses tracked, was only interested in US organisations," commented Alexander Gostev, Chief Security Expert, Global Research and Analysis Team.
Q1 in figures
- 33.2 per cent of user computers worldwide were subjected to at least one web-based attack during the past three months - a decrease of 5.9 percentage points compared to the same period last year.
- 39 per cent of neutralised web attacks were carried out using malicious web resources located in the US and Russia; the combined figure for the same two countries was 5 percentage points higher in Q1 2013. They were followed by the Netherlands (10.8 per cent), Germany (10.5 per cent) and the UK (6.3 per cent).
- The proportion of threats targeting Android exceeded 99 per cent of all mobile malware. Mobile malware increased by one per cent over the quarter.
- At the end of 2013, Kaspersky Lab's collection of mobile malware stood at 189,626, but in Q1 of 2014 alone 110,324 new malicious programs were added. By the end of the quarter, there were 299,950 samples in the collection.
The full report is available at securelist.com
About Kaspersky Lab
Kaspersky Lab is the world's largest privately held vendor of endpoint protection solutions. The company is ranked among the world's top four vendors of security solutions for endpoint users*. Throughout its more than 16-year history Kaspersky Lab has remained an innovator in IT security and provides effective digital security solutions for large enterprises, SMBs and consumers. Kaspersky Lab, with its holding company registered in the United Kingdom, currently operates in almost 200 countries and territories across the globe, providing protection for over 300 million users worldwide. Learn more at http://www.kaspersky.com.
* The company was rated fourth in the IDC rating Worldwide Endpoint Security Revenue by Vendor, 2012. The rating was published in the IDC report "Worldwide Endpoint Security 2013-2017 Forecast and 2012 Vendor Shares (IDC #242618, August 2013). The report ranked software vendors according to earnings from sales of endpoint security solutions in 2012
SOURCE Kaspersky Lab
SYS-CON Events announced today that Dyn, the worldwide leader in Internet Performance, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 17th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on November 3-5, 2015, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Dyn is a cloud-based Internet Performance company. Dyn helps companies monitor, control, and optimize online infrastructure for an exceptional end-user experience. Through a world-class network and unrivaled, objective intelligence into Internet conditions, Dyn ensures traffic gets delivered faster, safer, and more reliably than ever.
Oct. 9, 2015 11:00 PM EDT Reads: 615
Today air travel is a minefield of delays, hassles and customer disappointment. Airlines struggle to revitalize the experience. GE and M2Mi will demonstrate practical examples of how IoT solutions are helping airlines bring back personalization, reduce trip time and improve reliability. In their session at @ThingsExpo, Shyam Varan Nath, Principal Architect with GE, and Dr. Sarah Cooper, M2Mi's VP Business Development and Engineering, will explore the IoT cloud-based platform technologies driving this change including privacy controls, data transparency and integration of real time context w...
Oct. 9, 2015 10:15 PM EDT Reads: 135
Who are you? How do you introduce yourself? Do you use a name, or do you greet a friend by the last four digits of his social security number? Assuming you don’t, why are we content to associate our identity with 10 random digits assigned by our phone company? Identity is an issue that affects everyone, but as individuals we don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Ben Klang, Founder & President of Mojo Lingo, will discuss the impact of technology on identity. Should we federate, or not? How should identity be secured? Who owns the identity? How is identity ...
Oct. 9, 2015 10:00 PM EDT Reads: 452
The IoT market is on track to hit $7.1 trillion in 2020. The reality is that only a handful of companies are ready for this massive demand. There are a lot of barriers, paint points, traps, and hidden roadblocks. How can we deal with these issues and challenges? The paradigm has changed. Old-style ad-hoc trial-and-error ways will certainly lead you to the dead end. What is mandatory is an overarching and adaptive approach to effectively handle the rapid changes and exponential growth.
Oct. 9, 2015 10:00 PM EDT Reads: 241
The buzz continues for cloud, data analytics and the Internet of Things (IoT) and their collective impact across all industries. But a new conversation is emerging - how do companies use industry disruption and technology enablers to lead in markets undergoing change, uncertainty and ambiguity? Organizations of all sizes need to evolve and transform, often under massive pressure, as industry lines blur and merge and traditional business models are assaulted and turned upside down. In this new data-driven world, marketplaces reign supreme while interoperability, APIs and applications deliver un...
Oct. 9, 2015 08:00 PM EDT Reads: 316
Too often with compelling new technologies market participants become overly enamored with that attractiveness of the technology and neglect underlying business drivers. This tendency, what some call the “newest shiny object syndrome,” is understandable given that virtually all of us are heavily engaged in technology. But it is also mistaken. Without concrete business cases driving its deployment, IoT, like many other technologies before it, will fade into obscurity.
Oct. 9, 2015 07:45 PM EDT Reads: 171
Electric power utilities face relentless pressure on their financial performance, and reducing distribution grid losses is one of the last untapped opportunities to meet their business goals. Combining IoT-enabled sensors and cloud-based data analytics, utilities now are able to find, quantify and reduce losses faster – and with a smaller IT footprint. Solutions exist using Internet-enabled sensors deployed temporarily at strategic locations within the distribution grid to measure actual line loads.
Oct. 9, 2015 06:30 PM EDT Reads: 140
The Internet of Everything is re-shaping technology trends–moving away from “request/response” architecture to an “always-on” Streaming Web where data is in constant motion and secure, reliable communication is an absolute necessity. As more and more THINGS go online, the challenges that developers will need to address will only increase exponentially. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Todd Greene, Founder & CEO of PubNub, will explore the current state of IoT connectivity and review key trends and technology requirements that will drive the Internet of Things from hype to reality.
Oct. 9, 2015 05:30 PM EDT Reads: 115
The Internet of Things (IoT) is growing rapidly by extending current technologies, products and networks. By 2020, Cisco estimates there will be 50 billion connected devices. Gartner has forecast revenues of over $300 billion, just to IoT suppliers. Now is the time to figure out how you’ll make money – not just create innovative products. With hundreds of new products and companies jumping into the IoT fray every month, there’s no shortage of innovation. Despite this, McKinsey/VisionMobile data shows "less than 10 percent of IoT developers are making enough to support a reasonably sized team....
Oct. 9, 2015 04:00 PM EDT Reads: 247
You have your devices and your data, but what about the rest of your Internet of Things story? Two popular classes of technologies that nicely handle the Big Data analytics for Internet of Things are Apache Hadoop and NoSQL. Hadoop is designed for parallelizing analytical work across many servers and is ideal for the massive data volumes you create with IoT devices. NoSQL databases such as Apache HBase are ideal for storing and retrieving IoT data as “time series data.”
Oct. 9, 2015 03:45 PM EDT Reads: 510
Today’s connected world is moving from devices towards things, what this means is that by using increasingly low cost sensors embedded in devices we can create many new use cases. These span across use cases in cities, vehicles, home, offices, factories, retail environments, worksites, health, logistics, and health. These use cases rely on ubiquitous connectivity and generate massive amounts of data at scale. These technologies enable new business opportunities, ways to optimize and automate, along with new ways to engage with users.
Oct. 9, 2015 02:00 PM EDT Reads: 191
The IoT is upon us, but today’s databases, built on 30-year-old math, require multiple platforms to create a single solution. Data demands of the IoT require Big Data systems that can handle ingest, transactions and analytics concurrently adapting to varied situations as they occur, with speed at scale. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Chad Jones, chief strategy officer at Deep Information Sciences, will look differently at IoT data so enterprises can fully leverage their IoT potential. He’ll share tips on how to speed up business initiatives, harness Big Data and remain one step ahead by apply...
Oct. 9, 2015 01:45 PM EDT Reads: 565
There will be 20 billion IoT devices connected to the Internet soon. What if we could control these devices with our voice, mind, or gestures? What if we could teach these devices how to talk to each other? What if these devices could learn how to interact with us (and each other) to make our lives better? What if Jarvis was real? How can I gain these super powers? In his session at 17th Cloud Expo, Chris Matthieu, co-founder and CTO of Octoblu, will show you!
Oct. 9, 2015 01:15 PM EDT
SYS-CON Events announced today that ProfitBricks, the provider of painless cloud infrastructure, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 17th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on November 3–5, 2015, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. ProfitBricks is the IaaS provider that offers a painless cloud experience for all IT users, with no learning curve. ProfitBricks boasts flexible cloud servers and networking, an integrated Data Center Designer tool for visual control over the cloud and the best price/performance value available. ProfitBricks was named one of the coolest Clo...
Oct. 9, 2015 01:00 PM EDT Reads: 804
As a company adopts a DevOps approach to software development, what are key things that both the Dev and Ops side of the business must keep in mind to ensure effective continuous delivery? In his session at DevOps Summit, Mark Hydar, Head of DevOps, Ericsson TV Platforms, will share best practices and provide helpful tips for Ops teams to adopt an open line of communication with the development side of the house to ensure success between the two sides.
Oct. 9, 2015 01:00 PM EDT Reads: 618
SYS-CON Events announced today that IBM Cloud Data Services has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 17th Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 3–5, 2015, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. IBM Cloud Data Services offers a portfolio of integrated, best-of-breed cloud data services for developers focused on mobile computing and analytics use cases.
Oct. 9, 2015 12:00 PM EDT Reads: 743
SYS-CON Events announced today that Sandy Carter, IBM General Manager Cloud Ecosystem and Developers, and a Social Business Evangelist, will keynote at the 17th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on November 3–5, 2015, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Oct. 9, 2015 11:15 AM EDT
Developing software for the Internet of Things (IoT) comes with its own set of challenges. Security, privacy, and unified standards are a few key issues. In addition, each IoT product is comprised of at least three separate application components: the software embedded in the device, the backend big-data service, and the mobile application for the end user's controls. Each component is developed by a different team, using different technologies and practices, and deployed to a different stack/target - this makes the integration of these separate pipelines and the coordination of software upd...
Oct. 9, 2015 09:00 AM EDT Reads: 299
Mobile messaging has been a popular communication channel for more than 20 years. Finnish engineer Matti Makkonen invented the idea for SMS (Short Message Service) in 1984, making his vision a reality on December 3, 1992 by sending the first message ("Happy Christmas") from a PC to a cell phone. Since then, the technology has evolved immensely, from both a technology standpoint, and in our everyday uses for it. Originally used for person-to-person (P2P) communication, i.e., Sally sends a text message to Betty – mobile messaging now offers tremendous value to businesses for customer and empl...
Oct. 9, 2015 08:30 AM EDT Reads: 315
"Matrix is an ambitious open standard and implementation that's set up to break down the fragmentation problems that exist in IP messaging and VoIP communication," explained John Woolf, Technical Evangelist at Matrix, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at @ThingsExpo, held Nov 4–6, 2014, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Oct. 9, 2015 07:00 AM EDT Reads: 5,892
|
Developers are under constant pressure to release features and updates as quickly as possible. However, in their haste to meet deadlines, many developers neglect to follow basic security behaviors that can leave their websites vulnerable to attack. In this blog post, we will discuss 7 developer security behaviors that you should always follow for safe and secure websites.
If you are a developer, it is important to always keep security in mind. Here are 7 developer security behaviors that you should follow:
## Write secure code
Always write code with security in mind. This includes properly validating user input, using encryption when necessary, and avoiding common security vulnerabilities such as SQL injection attacks.
Additionally, you should keep your code up to date by regularly applying security patches and updates. Outdated software is one of the most common causes of website vulnerabilities.
By writing secure code and keeping it up to date, you can help to prevent common security issues from occurring on your website.
## Apply secure design principles
In addition to writing secure code, you should also apply secure design principles to your website. This includes using the principle of least privilege, which states that users should only have access to the information and resources that they need in order to perform their job.
For example, if you have a website with user accounts, you should consider implementing role-based access control. This would give each user the appropriate level of access based on their role within the organization.
Applying secure design principles can help to further reduce the risk of security vulnerabilities on your website.
## Identify coding errors and fix
Coding errors can often lead to security vulnerabilities. Therefore, it is important to identify and fix coding errors as soon as possible.
One way to do this is to use a static code analysis tool, which can help you to automatically find and fix common coding errors. Additionally, you should also perform regular manual code reviews to look for potential security issues.
By identifying and fixing coding errors, you can help to prevent potential security vulnerabilities from occurring on your website.
## Identify common types of weaknesses and vulnerabilities
As a developer, it is important to be aware of the most common types of weaknesses and vulnerabilities. This way, you can take steps to prevent them from occurring on your website.
Some of the most common types of weaknesses include:
- Injection flaws
- Cross-site scripting (XSS)
- Broken authentication and session management
- Insufficient logging and monitoring
By taking the time to identify and learn about common types of weaknesses and vulnerabilities, you can help to prevent them from occurring on your website.
## Identify security problems in other's code
When you are reviewing other people's code, it is important to look for potential security problems. If you find any, you should report them so that they can be fixed as soon as possible.
Additionally, you should also be sure to keep up with security advisories and bulletins.
## Use source code auditing tools to discover problems
There are a number of source code auditing tools available that can help you to discover potential security problems. These tools can scan your code for common vulnerabilities and weaknesses.
Some of the most popular source code auditing tools include:
- IBM AppScan
- Whitehat Security static analysis
## Perform threat modeling.
Threat modeling is a process of identifying, assessing, and mitigating potential security threats. It can help you to identify potential security risks and take steps to mitigate them.
There are a number of different threat modeling methodologies that you can use.
The Microsoft Threat Modeling Tool is one popular option. It includes a step-by-step guide that can help you to identify, assess, and mitigate potential security threats.
By taking the time to perform threat modeling, you can help to reduce the risk of potential security threats on your website.
These are just a few of the developer security behaviors that you should follow in order to create a safe and secure website.
By following these best practices, you can help to reduce the risk of security vulnerabilities on your website.
Do you have any other developer security behaviors that you would add to this list? Share in the comments below!
Additionally here are some more bonus tips to add to your Security Checklist:
- Keep your software up to date
- Use strong passwords and two-factor authentication
- encrypt sensitive data
- limit access to sensitive data
- use a web application firewall (WAF)
- monitor your website for suspicious activity
- log all access to sensitive data
- investigate any incidents immediately
- never store passwords in plain text
- train your employees on security best practices.
By following these security behaviors, you can help keep your website safe and secure. Keep in mind that you are under attack right now and the more you arm yourself with the knowledge that you implement the better position you will be in.
|
Evaluation of Users' Perspective on VoIP's Security Vulnerabilities
Source: University of South Australia
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) represents a major newish trend in telecommunications and an alternative to traditional phone systems. VoIP uses IP networks and therefore inherits their vulnerabilities. Adding voice traffic to IP networks complicates security issues and introduces a range of vulnerabilities. A VoIP system may face either an exclusive attack or an attack to the underlying IP network. The significance of security and privacy in VoIP communications are well-known, and many studies mostly from the technical perspective have been published. However to date, no known research has been conducted to evaluate users' perspectives on these issues.
|
#include <sys/socket.h> #include <netinet/in.h> #include <netinet/ip_icmp.h> s = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_RAW, proto); t = t_open("/dev/icmp", O_RDWR);
ICMP is the error and control message protocol used by the Internet protocol family. It is used by the kernel to handle and report errors in protocol processing. It may also be accessed by programs using the socket interface or the Transport Level Interface (TLI) for network monitoring and diagnostic functions. When used with the socket interface, a “raw socket” type is used. The protocol number for ICMP, used in the proto parameter to the socket call, can be obtained from getprotobyname(3SOCKET). ICMP file descriptors and sockets are connectionless, and are normally used with the t_sndudata / t_rcvudata and the sendto() / recvfrom() calls.
Outgoing packets automatically have an Internet Protocol (IP) header prepended to them. Incoming packets are provided to the user with the IP header and options intact.
ICMP is an datagram protocol layered above IP. It is used internally by the protcol code for various purposes including routing, fault isolation, and congestion control. Receipt of an ICMP “redirect” message will add a new entry in the routing table, or modify an existing one. ICMP messages are routinely sent by the protocol code. Received ICMP messages may be reflected back to users of higher-level protocols such as TCP or UDP as error returns from system calls. A copy of all ICMP message received by the system is provided to every holder of an open ICMP socket or TLI descriptor.
Postel, Jon, Internet Control Message Protocol — DARPA Internet Program Protocol Specification, RFC 792, Network Information Center, SRI International, Menlo Park, Calif., September 1981.
A socket operation may fail with one of the following errors returned:
An attempt was made to establish a connection on a socket which already has one, or when trying to send a datagram with the destination address specified and the socket is already connected.
An attempt was made to send a datagram, but no destination address is specified, and the socket has not been connected.
The system ran out of memory for an internal data structure.
An attempt was made to create a socket with a network address for which no network interface exists.
Replies to ICMP “echo” messages which are source routed are not sent back using inverted source routes, but rather go back through the normal routing mechanisms.
|
AI & ML in Cyber Security - Welcome Back to 1999 - Security Hasn't Changed
We are writing the year 2017. Cyber security has been a discipline for many years and thousands of security companies are offering solutions to deter and block malicious actors in order to keep our businesses operating and our data confidential. But fundamentally, cyber security has not changed during the last two decades. We are still running Snort and Bro. Firewalls are fundamentally still the same. People get hacked for their poor passwords and we collect logs that we don't know what to do with. In this talk I will paint a slightly provocative and dark picture of security. Fundamentally, nothing has really changed. We'll have a look at machine learning and artificial intelligence and see how those techniques are used today. Do they have the potential to change anything? How will the future look with those technologies? I will show some practical examples of machine learning and motivate that simpler approaches generally win. Maybe we find some hope in visualization? Or maybe Augmented reality? We still have a ways to go.
• IBM Research
• Big Data
My Provocative Premise
• Cyber Defense / Monitoring / Analytics is still at the level of 1999
• We can’t predict the weather and we have done it since 1 August 1861
o “The weather predicted by the BBC for four days time was just 30-40% accurate”
• Predicting election results anyone?
o “80% chance Clinton will win.”
• Nothing Has Changed in Security (Defense)
• Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence
• Now What?
Summary of Technologies
• Firewalls – policy management, auditing a challenge
• IDS/IPS – false positives
• Threat Intelligence – really the same as IDS signatures
• DLP – just an IDS engine
• Vulnerability Scanners – what’s up with those old user interfaces?
• SIEM – still the same issues: parsing, context, prioritization
• Security Analytics – can actually mostly be done with your SIEM
Is this the answer to all of our
security problems? Is ML and AI
what we have been waiting for?
Machine Learning / Data Mining
• Anomaly detection (outlier detection)
o What’s “normal”?
• Association rule learning (e.g., items purchased together)
• Regression (model the data)
Data Mining in Security
The graph shows an abstract
space with colors being machine
Machine Learning in Security
•Needs a corpus of data to learn from
•Network traffic analysis
still not working
oNo labeled data
o Not sure what the right
features should be
•Works okay for SPAM
Artificial Intelligence in Security
•Just calling something AI doesn’t make it AI.
”A program that doesn't simply classify or compute model
parameters, but comes up with novel knowledge that a
security analyst finds insightful.”
Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI)
• Computer programs we have today that perform a specific, narrow task: Deep Blue, Amazon recommendations
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)
• A program that could learn to complete any task
• What many of us imagine when we think of AI, but no one has managed to accomplish it yet
Artificial Superintelligence (ASI)
• Any computer program that is all-around smarter than a human (also see the singularity by Ray Kurzweil)
The Law of Accelerating Returns – Ray Kurzweil
• We have tried many thing:
o Social Network Analysis
o Seasonality detection
o Entropy over time
o Frequent pattern mining
• All kinds of challenges
o Characterize normal
o Extract what has been learned
o Statistical vs. domain anomalies
• Simple works!
Areas To Explore
• Environment specific rather than environment agnostic approaches
o Same IDS signatures for everyone? Same SIEM signatures?
o Real-time threat intel sharing
o Users don’t think in IP addresses, they think about users
o Topology mapping anyone?
o User-based policies, not machine based
o Adaptive security
• Capture expert knowledge
o Collaborative efforts
• Forget about 3D visualization 😊
Promising Approaches That Will “Change” Security
• Continuous authentication
• Dynamic policy decisions – automation – really closing the loop
o But what products do this well? Open APIs, low f/p, etc.
• Micro segmentation (including SDN?)
• Real-time threat intelligence sharing
• Human assisted machine learning systems
• Crowd sourcing
• End-user involved / assisted decision making
• Eradicate phishing, please!
How Will ML / AI Help?
• Machine learning consists of algorithms that need data
o Garbage in - garbage out
o Data formats and semantics
• Deep learning is just another ML algorithm
o Malware classification (it isn’t necessarily better than other ML algorithms)
o Basically eliminates the feature engineering step
• Many inherent challenges (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEAMF0TaUUU)
o Distance functions
o Context – need input from HR systems and others
o Choice of algorithm
• Where to use ML
o Classification problems (traffic, binaries, activities, etc.)
o There is good work being done on automating the level 1 analyst
o Look for systems that leverage humans in the loop (see topic of knowledge capture)
Security Visualization Community
• List: secviz.org/mailinglist
• Twitter: @secviz
Share, discuss, challenge, and learn about security visualization.
Visual Analytics -
Delivering Actionable Security
July 22-25 2017, Las Vegas
big data | analytics | visualization
Sophos – Security Made Simple
• Products usable by non experts
delightful for the security analyst
• Consolidating security capabilities
• Data science to SOLVE problems
not to highlight issues
|
1. Complete this rule which would be deployed to detect incoming TCP traffic on port 31337:
alert _____ $EXTERNAL_NET _____ -> $HOME_NET _____ (msg:”__________________”; flow:to_client,established; classtype:Suspicious-Traffic; sid:2011010; rev:1;)
2. If you made a change to this rule what would you do the “rev” field? Why would this be important?
3. Complete the rule below to check for the text string “malware” in the payload section of a TCP packet which starts after 32 bytes:
alert tcp $EXTERNAL_NET any -> $HOME_NET any (msg:”Malware String Detected”; content:”malware”; _____:32; nocase; flow:to_client,established; classtype:Suspicious-Traffic; sid:2011010; rev:1;)
4. In question #3, why would using this option or similar options be beneficial to creating a good rule?
5. What would be some of the options you as the signature writer could add to your rule to give other users some insight as to why a rule was created?
6. What is the name of the file that contains the configuration of Snort? Where is it usually located in the Linux build?
7. Can two rules share the same SID? Why or Why not?
8. Pick one of the Snort preprocessors and explain what its function is. Why are they important to rule writing?
9. Why was this Emerging Threats rule written? (hint: look at the reference option)
alert ip 220.127.116.11 any -> $HOME_NET any (msg:”ET RBN Known Malvertiser IP (11)”; flowbits:set,ET.RBN.Malvertiser; flowbits:set,ET.Evil; reference:url,doc.emergingthreats.net/bin/view/Main/RussianBusinessNetwork; threshold: type limit, track by_src, seconds 60, count 1; sid:2408020; rev:297;)
10. Explain the difference between the DROP, LOG, and ALERT options.
Military Intelligence Organizations They do it by playing out an examination and appraisal of the accessible information which they accumulates from extensive variety of sources, managing and guiding the authorities to settle on choices or react to centered inquiries as a major aspect of their operational battle. The gathered data is first distinguished and after that joined into the procedure of knowledge accumulation, investigation and spread. Military Intelligence Organizations have assumed their part in settling clashes in any country. Talks about here is the Gulf of Tonkin Incident and the part of U.S. Military Intelligence Organizations to determine it. The occurrence occurred on August 2 and 4 1964 (Kim, 1999). This was the episode that helped the America's inclusion in Vietnam War. Bay of Tonkin Incident Overview Because of a few early fizzled assaults, it was exchanged to the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observations Group in 1964, and its focal point was moved towards oceanic activities. At the appointed time of time, U.S. Naval force was likewise taught to direct Desoto watches off the North Vietnam. The Desoto Patrols comprised of American warships cruising in worldwide waters with a specific end goal to lead electronic observation activities (Shane, 2001). Because of 34A and the Desoto Patrols, the boats seaward were made ready to gather essential data about the North Vietnamese Military abilities. The First Attack In the wake of requesting the airstrikes, soon Johnson went ahead to address the country on TV in regards to the occurrence. He in his address asked for the entry of a determination, communicating the solidarity and assurance of the United States in help of flexibility and in the would like to secure peace in the Southeast Asia (Cohen and Solomon, 1994). He additionally contended that he didn't need a more extensive war, and said that United States would keep on protecting its national advantages. As endorsed on August 6, 1964, the Southeast Asia (Gulf of Tonkin) Resolution, enabled Johnson to utilize military knowledge and power in the district without requiring an announcement of war. Later on finished the following couple of years, Johnson utilized this determination to quickly heighten the U.S. association in the Vietnam War. Knowledge has satisfied the more extensive extending and critical elements of in security, strategy and statecraft (Augustin, 2009). However as of late, the part of military insight in determination of contentions has extended and expanded its range and now it frames the center component of peace making approaches and strategies. Antiquated Greece is the main vote based system on the planet. It has set up a few establishments that filled in as knowledge administrations. Proxenia were the privileged natives of Greece who filled in as best class operators. They used to gather data and even executed the deaths if required. The Heralds gathered people in general and private data. Both the Proxenia and the Heralds were ensured by the Law of Greece and just the Heralds used to get the prizes of taking uplifting news back to the country. Greece noteworthy political and military accomplishments truly did not have the genuine insight framework like today. In spite of the fact that they didn't have the best possible knowledge framework like today yet they had the insight cycle existed in their military undertakings. The two noteworthy necessities of insight administrations are fair control and the viability of the activities and exercises (Augustin, 2009). African nations dependably experienced issues in overseeing and making the strong insight frameworks. The domain of the Sahara Dessert is constantly hazardous so the military insight identified with that territory is confined. In 1997, the African nations made a security division change endeavoring to limit the difficulties and limitations of building up an appropriate military insight framework in the zone. The real difficulties that African nations are confronting nowadays incorporate the inheritance of the African communism and imperialism, dictatorial military and security administrations and the obscure and casual exercises of the military knowledge administrations. Gambia set up the National Intelligence Agency with a specific end goal to secure the administration. The unsuccessful endeavors of Eisenhower and Kennedy to expel Castro from the power are considered as the fizzled military insight activities (Augustin, 2009). As per them the greatest danger to majority rule government is the socialism. In Cuba, the America upheld the Batista driving against socialist government. After Castro being chosen to control, he began rapidly wiping out his foes. Also, began to nationalize the economy and made bunches with the USSR. His activities made it clear by 1960 that he was following the socialism way for the Cuba. Eisenhower attempted to expel the Castro from control via preparing Anti-Castro powers and sneaking them into Cuba. They started to focus on the Cuban sugar fields and the CIA built up a death program to take out Castro. Albeit such endeavors were bombed over and over, Kennedy attempted to attack the Cuba by the Bay of Pigs task however that was again a disappointment. This was all because of the solid military knowledge of Castro which spared him from all the American assaults. The Shah of Iran has a powerless authenticity and had parcel of foes (Augustin, 2009), so in 1957, he shaped the SAVAK, the national knowledge and security association. The SAVAK served an apparatus to torment and dispensed with any individual who could demonstrate as a risk to the Shah and his line. No open restriction was permitted against the foundation in Iran amid Shah Regime, yet with the progression of time the protection of individuals turned out to be most exceedingly awful. Khomeini got ousted to Iraq and afterward to France in light of his expanding ubiquity and risk to his life. In 1977, oversight law was acquainted in Iran all together with hold the Shah's energy yet because of his separation from people in general, the general population rejected him and Khomeini came to control after the over toss of the Shah of Iran. In 1980 under the lead of Reagan (Augustin, 2009), The U.S. Insight Community understood a requirement for more serious mediation in Central America keeping in mind the end goal to stop the socialist development. El Salvador's military government was considered as the main potential boundary against the socialism in the Central America. The DIA attempted to assist the legislature of El Salvador with fighting against the liberal gathering called as FMLN. The DIA worked and worked with the immediate military insight data sharing and between 1987 to 1989 a guerilla assault was made by the FMLN which shocked the El Salvador and the American armed forces. This additionally demonstrated how little the U.S bolster made a difference. Over all the barrier of the El Salvador is considered as the disappointment ever. military knowledge.>GET ANSWER
|
It’s no secret that unscrupulous bitcoiners have conjured up some inventive techniques in order to fraudulently garner large sums of digital currency. From infecting DVRs and security cameras with bitcoin mining malware to tapping into computers to use their power, cybercriminals are trying every conceivable way.
One of the latest stories consists of a hacker stealing a large amount of raw Internet traffic from about a dozen Internet service providers and then using it to generate as many bitcoins as possible. This happened recently as the hacker generated approximately $84,000 worth of bitcoins by diverting the computer power of private bitcoin mines.
The incident was first uncovered by a team of researchers at Dell SecureWorks, a private cyber intelligence firm, after they discovered that scores of their own mining power had been stolen. Soon after, the researchers found the initial source coming from an anonymous Canadian ISP.
The culprit(s) had gained administrative access to an ISP router and attacked the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) that had been created to connect different networks on the Internet. By affecting the BGP functions at the ISP, the individual(s) had been able to send traffic from a legitimate mining pool to his or her own. In fact, the hackers launched two spurious pools; the first was designed to send users to the second.
“By convincing the miners to connect to this second malicious pool rather than the original malicious pool, the hijacker filters out traffic that has already been hijacked so it is not hijacked again,” stated in a paper, which noted that the incidents can be traced back to as early as February.
Furthermore, the accused also stole mining power to release other digital currencies, including dogecoin, hobonickels and worldcoin.
It is still unknown as to how the cyberattackers infiltrated the network and reroute the ISPs in the first place. One possible theory being put forward is that a former or current employee of the ISP was the instigator or an external hacker had committed a breach of the company, according to the London Guardian.
The only security apparatus to incorporate in the future is to combine servers to use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption protocol. If this were performed in the first place then this whole matter would have been avoided entirely. Another recommendation is to establish a monitoring service through a service akin to BGPmon.
In the end, according to Joe Stewart, a Dell researcher, “We’re going to see other events like this. It’s ripe for exploitation,” reports Wired magazine.
Latest posts by Coinbuzz (see all)
- Will bitcoin be a good investment in 2016? - June 30, 2016
- BitPay Partners With New York Stem Cell Foundation - October 1, 2015
- Imperial College London Inaugurates Cryptocurrency Centre - September 29, 2015
|
The research and development work within the D-MILS project is focused on extending MILS for use with distributed systems. The MILS architectural approach has emerged as a new strategy for the costeffective construction of systems requiring dependability with high assurance. MILS is popularly characterized as the use of a separation kernel to run applications belonging to diverse security domains (or safety criticalities) on the same processor. Key concepts of the MILS architectural approach include separation, component integration, policy architecture and physical resource sharing. The MILS idea has evolved beyond this first simple characterization.
The MILS approach has two aspects, or phases: 1) the development of a policy architecture that accomplishes a desired goal, and, 2) the implementation of that policy architecture upon a platform that manages shared resources in a way that the fundamental assumptions of any policy architecture are satisfied.
Figure 1: Policy Architecture Diagram
The architectural aspect of the MILS approach starts with a vigorous decomposition of a desired function into an abstract policy architecture. A “good” policy architecture decomposition is one that results in components that exhibit simplicity and singleness of purpose, and that embodies the principle of least privilege, permitting only the necessary interactions among components within the architecture. Figure 1 illustrates a simple policy architecture consisting of five components and their permitted interaction paths. One of the components, F1, is a trusted subject.
The implementation aspect of the MILS approach depends on the use of a separation kernel and a set of standardized MILS foundational components that compose with the separation kernel to form the MILS platform. This platform forms a “substrate,” analogous to an FPGA, that can be configured to realize the policy architecture, and that subsequently enforces the policy architecture. It accomplishes the latter by enforcing two primitive properties: isolation and information flow control. The system implementation activity refines architectural components and connectors down to a configuration that determines the resources exported by the MILS platform and the permitted interactions among them. The initialized configuration of the MILS platform establishes and preserves the correspondence of the abstract policy architecture to the concrete implementation. Figure 2 depicts the policy architecture of Figure 1 (a) and its straightforward realization (b) as a configuration of a separation kernel.
Figure 2: Policy architecture realized using a separation kernel
A policy architecture is made up of operational components joined by interactions. The absence of an interaction is as important to the architecture as the presence of one. Some operational components have strict behavioral or property requirements specified by the architect because they are required in order for the architecture to fulfill its purpose. We call these requirements local policies, and say that the implementations of those components are “trusted” to enforce the specified local policies. Local policies may relate to any kind of local action of an operational component that the architect deems important. Some trusted components may be recognizable as conventional security enforcement mechanisms, but all enforce some policy, and are treated in MILS as policy-enforcing components.
The policy architecture establishes the maximal information flow (or causality) to be permitted in the system. Important properties of the resulting system may thus be supported by the architecture itself. The trusted operational components act to restrict the actual information flow (or causality) of the system. The joint action of these trusted components together with the (policy) architecture combine to create the (emergent) security property (or properties) of the system. Security or safety is typically an emergent property, not a property that the system has as a result of being composed of components that each have that property.
A “system security policy” is not identical to the policy architecture of a system. The security policy of a system arises from the combination of the local policies of the operational components, the structure of their composition (policy architecture), and the enforcement of that structure. Only in the very simplest of (degenerate) cases (when there are no “trusted” operational components) does the security policy of the system reduce to the MILS policy architecture.
The separation kernel exports subjects and other resources that are constructed from physical system memory and raw devices. The foundational components, when composed with a separation kernel, export instances of additional resource types constructed from the physical resources provided by devices, such as files and directories from mass storage device resources, network connections from network interface devices, and windows and user input events from user interface devices. As each foundational component is added, the vocabulary of resource types available in the MILS platform to express a policy architecture is increased. In Figure 3 the composition of MILS foundational components with the separation kernel in the foundational plane produces the MILS platform to support the operational and monitoring planes. The policy architecture from our previous example is implemented in the operational plane. The configuration plane represents languages, representations, tools and procedures for preparing and initializing the other MILS planes with the configuration data.
The following presentation provides a brief introduction to MILS and the approach the project will utilise to extend MILS to support distributed critical systems.
|
On a recent case, an employee left for a rival manufacturing company and was suspected of IP theft. Specifically, the employee was suspected of taking photos of the manufacturing plant floor. While investigators and digital forensics specialists have a wide range of tools and approaches available to them to help crack open cases, one emerging approach that is changing the digital investigation landscape is the use of smart phone location services. These can confirm the specific location of a person of interest at a specific time. In the IP theft case for example, investigators were able to extract GPS coordinates out of the photos taken on the mobile device and plot out the points on Google Earth. This allowed the investigators to pinpoint photos that were taken in the manufacturing plant of interest.
Tracking the evidence
|
In wireless sensor networks (WSN) energy consumption is a key issue. Security of communications, with its demand of computational resources, as well as performances are other fundamental issues. Finding a trade-off between performance and energy consumption, yet providing an adequate level of security is very challenging. Traditional solutions for the aforementioned problem assume that the operative environment is well-known and static, thus limiting the flexibility of the system. In this paper, instead, we propose a self-adaptation mechanism for gradual adaption of security and system workload in WSNs. The adaptation process can be tuned by using specific policies both for controlling the running tasks and for customizing the behavior of the self-adaptation mechanism. The ultimate goal is to perform adaptations by maximizing system performances while satisfying power constraints. A case study, implemented on Sun SPOTs, is also presented to show how the self-adaptation mechanism works in a real sensor node.
Proceedings of the IEEE Wireless Telecommunication Symposium (WTS)
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.