Four things you should never carry in your wallet.

Recently a friend posted on Facebook that her car was broken into and her purse was stolen. Now this happens everyday but what made this story worse was they were leaving on a trip in a couple of days.

It's a scenario that unsettles most people; the loss or theft of your wallet or purse. Your ID cards, all your credit and debit cards, receipts, any number of other valuable documents, even pictures with sentimental value might be lost. While there's no way to completely protect oneself from the sting of such a loss, the best way to reduce such difficulty is to ensure that only the things you really need with you all the time are the things you carry, and to leave the rest at home. The difference between a temporary headache and a life-long issue can sometimes boil down to what you did or didn't have in that purse or wallet. Below are four things you should NEVER carry around in a purse or wallet:

Social Security Card (or any piece of paper with the SSN written on it): This is one of the biggest mistakes, and generates many calls to the ITRC. Identity theft springing from a stolen social security card carried in a wallet or purse is among the most common ways people become victims. If you lose your wallet and the Social Security card was in it, unlike a credit or debit card, you cannot simply cancel the card and change the number. This number is what's known as a "unique identifier," meaning that number is unique to you, and only you, and cannot be changed in all but the rarest of cases. With that Social Security number and little else, a criminal can take over your identity, open new accounts in your name, work under your name, create new drivers licenses or state ids in other states, and on and on. Unless you have need of your Social Security card THAT DAY, do not carry your Social Security card around in your purse or wallet. This document, more than any other, changes the loss of a wallet from a temporary hurdle to a life of constant increased vigilance and paranoia.

Birth Certificate: Possibly the only thing more damaging than losing a Social Security card is the loss of a birth certificate. Your certificate of live birth is the first and fundamental document issued by the government and it is the document from which all other documents spring. A birth certificate can get you a replacement Social Security card, a passport, a driver's license, and many other forms of identification, virtually anything. Since this document is considered by government and financial institutions as the bedrock identifying document, once a thief has possession of it, it is virtually impossible to prevent fraud. At that point, your only recourse is to try and clean up the mess after fraud has already occurred. This document is the single most destructive one in existence if it falls into the wrong hands. Obviously, something like this should never be carried around where it could be easily lost or stolen.


Account and Routing Numbers: If you're not going to the bank today, why are you carrying around the account and routing number to your checking account? In the wrong hands these numbers can be used by a thief to clean you out, overdraw you, and leave you stuck with the financial loss. Unlike the loss of a check or credit card, simply canceling the card will not prevent a thief with access to your account numbers from making use of your account. One must actually close the account and open an entirely new one. In the interim, you will have to file a police report and dispute with the bank any fraudulent charges. You may get your money returned after the conclusion of an investigation, but in the mean time you no longer have access to your money. Avoid carrying these numbers around unless really necessary. If you do lose an account number, immediately set up a verbal password with your bank to protect against any unauthorized access to your account.


Password Cheat Sheets: I know, in today's highly integrated electronic society, you might have as many as 10-12 passwords you need to remember for various accounts. More than you can probably remember on your own. To give yourself a little help, you wrote them down in one place you'll know to look in the event you can't remember one of them. Good trick, but DON'T leave it in your wallet. Even if the passwords aren't linked on paper to any particular account, it's a GREAT cheat sheet for any thief looking to do additional damage. Keep your password cheat sheet where it belongs, at home. Passports: A passport is the quintessential document necessary for international travel. This document, because it is government-issued is also useful in acquiring a new Social Security card, driver's license or state ID card, and can be used as an identifying document in acquiring a loan or opening a new credit account. Unless you're leaving the country today, leave that passport at home.


Please check those purses and wallets. Recovering from identity theft is a long arduous ordeal.
Any questions or comments, please let me know.

Essential log sources

13 Essential log collection sources and alerts that can help support the infrastructure security of an automated log management system

 

ANTI-MALWARE SOFTWARE

These logs can indicate malware detection, disinfection attempt results, file quarantines, when file-system scans were last performed, when anti-virus signature files were last updated, and when software upgrades have taken place.

 

AUTHENTICATION SERVERS

Servers typically log each and every authentication attempt and show the originating user ID, destination system or application, date and time, and success/failure details.

 

FIREWALLS

These very detailed and informative logs can show what activity was blocked according to security policies.

 

NETWORK ACCESS CONTROL SERVERS

These logs can provide useful information about both successful/permitted and unsuccessful quarantined network connections.

 

OPERATING SYSTEMS

Beyond typical log entries, operating system logs can contain information from security software and system applications that can help identify suspicious activity involving a particular host.

 

VULNERABILITY MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

Scanning and patch management software log entries such as configuration, missing software updates, identified vulnerabilities, and patch/scan currency downloads.

 

WEB PROXIES

Web proxy logs record user activity and URLs accessed by specified users.

 

APPLICATIONS

Logs can include account changes, user authentication attempts, client and server activity, and configuration changes.

 

INTRUSION DETECTION & PROTECTION

These systems record detailed information about suspicious behavior and detected attacks as well as actions taken to halt malicious activity in progress.

 

NETWORK DEVICES

Logs from network devices like routers and switchers can provide information on network communication activity and what types of traffic were blocked.

 

VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORKS (VPNs)

VPN logs record both successful and failed connection attempts, date and time of connects and disconnects, and the types and amount of data sent and received during a session.

 

WEB APPLICATION FIREWALLS

WAFs generate “deny logs” which identify blocked application requests, useful in identifying attempted attacks that included applications as a possible attack vector.

 

CLOUD-SPECIFIC SOURCES

New sources of log data from specific public cloud environments such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Rackspace Public Cloud must be considered for collection. (Example: CloudTrail logs in AWS)

Adobe and Microsoft Push Out New Updates

Adobe has issued security updates to fix weaknesses in its PDF Reader, while pointing to an update to be released later this week for its ubiquitous Flash Player browser plugin. Microsoft meanwhile today released 16 update bundles to address dozens of security flaws in Windows, Internet Explorer and related software.

Microsoft’s patches includes updates for “zero-day” vulnerabilities (flaws that attackers figure out how to exploit before the software maker does) in Internet Explorer (IE) and in Windows. Half of the 16 patches that Redmond issued today earned its “critical” rating, meaning the vulnerabilities could be exploited remotely through no help from the user, save for perhaps clicking a link, opening a file or visiting a hacked or malicious Web site.

Anytime there’s a .NET Framework update available, I always uncheck those updates to install and then reboot and install the .NET updates; I’ve had too many .NET update failures muddy the process of figuring out which update borked a Windows machine after a batch of patches to do otherwise, but your mileage may vary.

On the Adobe side, the pending Flash update fixes a single vulnerability that apparently is already being exploited in active attacks online. However, Shavlik says there appears to be some confusion about how many bugs are fixed in the Flash update. “If information gleaned from [Microsoft’s account of the Flash Player update] MS16-064 is accurate, this Zero Day will be accompanied by 23 additional CVEs, with the release expected on May 12th,” Shavlik wrote. “With this in mind, the recommendation is to roll this update out immediately.”

Adobe says the vulnerability is included in Adobe Flash Player 21.0.0.226 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and Chrome OS, and that the flaw will be fixed in a version of Flash to be released May 12. As far as Flash is concerned, the smartest option is probably best to hobble or ditch the program once and for all — and significantly increase the security of your system in the process. I’ve got more on that approach (as well as slightly less radical solutions ) in A Month Without Adobe Flash Player. If you use Adobe Reader to display PDF documents, you’ll need to update that, too. Alternatively, consider switching to another reader that is perhaps less targeted. Adobe Reader comes bundled with a number of third-party software products, but many Windows users may not realize there are alternatives, including some good free ones. For a time I used Foxit Reader, but that program seems to have grown more bloated with each release. My current preference is Sumatra PDF; it is lightweight (about 40 times smaller than Adobe Reader) and quite fast.

Finally, if you run a Web site that in any way relies on Adobe’s Cold Fusion technology, please update your software soon. Cold Fusion vulnerabilities have traditionally been targeted by cyber thieves to compromise countless online shops.

Top 10 data breaches since 2008

Data breaches by the numbers


Heartland Payment Systems (2008-2009)              130 million records
Target Stores (2013)                                               110 million records
Sony online entertainment systems (2011)            102 million records
National Archive and Records Admin (2008)        76 million records
Anthem (2015)                                                        69-80 million records
Epsilon (2011)                                                        60-250 million records
Home Depot (2014)                                               56 million records
Living Social (2013)                                              50+ million records
TJX Companies (2006-2007)                                46+ million records
Sony Pictures Entertainment (2014)                     Company inner workings


Cyber crime - average cost - $8 million per company in 2015




To keep up-to-date on the latest breaches please view the following site:
http://www.privacyrights.org/data-breach




US-CERT to Windows Users: Dump Apple Quicktime

 Apple has finally posted a support document online that explains QuickTime 7 for Windows is no longer supported by Apple. See the full advisory here.

Microsoft Windows users who still have Apple Quicktime installed should ditch the program now that Apple has stopped shipping security updates for it, warns the Department of Homeland Security‘s U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT). The advice came just as researchers are reporting two new critical security holes in Quicktime that likely won’t be patched.

Over half a billion personal records were stolen or lost in 2015

Symantec Corporation released a report which stated that in 2015 many companies avoided disclosing the full details of their data breaches after researchers found that over 429 million records were lost or stolen and that data breaches grew by 85 percent compared to data breaches in 2014. In addition, the report stated that 75 percent of popular Web sites had major vulnerabilities; of which, 15 percent were considered as critical flaws.

Source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/over-half-a-billion-personal-records-were-stolen-or-lost-in-2015as-502858.shtml

PCI 3.2 is coming

In our Preparing for PCI DSS 3.2:  Lets take a look at key dates to help organizations plan for PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) 3.2

April 2016

• PCI DSS 3.2 is scheduled for publication at the end of April. Publication will include a summary of changes document and webinar that provides an overview of 3.2 and the timeline and resources for putting it into place.
• PCI DSS 3.2 supporting documents including Self-Assessment Questionnaires (SAQ), Attestation of Compliance (AOC) forms, Report on Compliance (ROC) templates, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) and Glossary will also be available at the end of the month.

October 2016

• PCI DSS 3.1 will retire six months after the release of PCI DSS 3.2, and at this time all assessments will need to use version 3.2.

February 2018

• The new requirements introduced in PCI DSS will be considered best practices until 31 January 2018. Starting 1 February 2018 they are effective as requirements.

Questions, comments, concerns, please let me know by emailing me at: jncsousa@outlook.com

The Rising Cost of CyberSecurity

Since the early 2000's information security has always been mistaken for something you can buy or something you can do to prevent breaches and data compromises. The latest headlines have proven otherwise. The cost of data breaches are expected to reach 2.1 trillion by 2019, with the average cost of each breach exceeding $150 million by 2020.


Costly Attacks We know from past data breaches from Home Depot in 2014 that personal information from up to 60 million consumers was compromised. The Home Depot breach is still being calculated, but costs could reach $3 billion. Unfortunately, this type of attack had been seen before in an earlier Target attack Sony hack and could have been avoided all together.

The fallout from the 2013 Target compromise has cost the company $148 million for the breach, $100 million for better security and $86 million to settle with Visa and MasterCard for a total direct cost of $334 million. Indirect costs include the loss of their CEO, a class-action litigation filed against the board of directors for negligence, loss of an unknown number of customers, and making themselves a prime target for a hacker who wants to claim the trophy for breaking past their new defenses.


Is Human Error to Blame I have been monitoring and investigating various cyber-attacks since 2010 and I have found all compromises are the direct result of human failure at all levels. Not one data breach has ever been attributed to hardware, operating system, or application failures. In 2013 it took an average of 229 days to discover a breach, with only 33 percent of those finding the breach themselves, and 37 percent finding the breach with help from third parties. Here is my 5 second pitch to ensure you have proper logging in place. Ensure these logs are being monitored on a daily basis.


Always a Constant Process What most organizations fail to understand about information security is that defense is a process you must apply diligently with constant improvements over time. The process is a simple three-step focus of prevention, detection, and response. Every organization should continue to attempt to prevent attacks and compromises; just realize that history has proven that no matter what you do or spend to prevent a compromise, it will fail. When you compare the cost of data breaches to the cost to prevent a compromise, it is easy to understand that consumers and organizations both will have to find a way to cover or transfer those risks and costs. To do this, more effort and budget dollars must be put into the detection of attacks and data breaches.


In order to determine the best ways to cover or transfer cost, you must know exactly what happened. In the response phase of the process, knowing exactly what happened is imperative to making an informed decision. Of course, making an informed decision to do nothing can be acceptable. The information gathered during the detection or monitoring phase will be used to handle incidents internally through human resources, self-insure losses, dealings with authorities, or knowing which insurance policy could be used to transfer losses to. Regulatory compliance, potential litigation, and lost revenues all add unknown cost into your response.

Top 10 Network Security Tools

Hacking tools here means the tools or the software used to gather information of network or website. These tools could also be used by most of the hackers. There are a number of tools for different purposes. The tools listed here widely used. Moreover make sure you have the permission to run these tools otherwise it is illegal.

1. Nmap (Network Mapper): To explore the networks Nmap is mostly used tool. Nmap is a free and also an open source tool. Security auditing could be easy with the use of this tool. Rapidly scanning of network is its major task. With the use of IP packets it determines what type of hosts are present in a network along with information on the applications being used by them. Nmap also gives information about the operating systems used by the networks. It is helpful to identify the firewalls in a network and many more other characteristics of any given host.

2. Wireshark: Wireshark is a packet analyzer. It is a free and also an open-source. A network engineer use wireshark for troubleshooting, network analysis, education, software and communication protocol development. It’s original named was Ethereal, but in May 2006 the project was renamed with a new name Wireshark. It happens only due to trademark issue.

3. Nessus: Nessus Remote Security Scanner has become closed source software in the year 2005, but the engine that runs the software is still free of cost. 75000 organizations world-wide are using the Nessus Security Scanner. So Nessus has been become the world’s most popular scanner. Many have befitted from this software and it is being used extensively in auditing critical enterprise devices.

4. Kismet: For 802.11 wireless LANs, Kismet works as network detector, packet sniffer, and intrusion detection system. It is also compatible with all the wireless cards, which supports raw monitoring mode, and can sniff 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11n traffic. This is available for Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, and Mac OS X. Kismet is also available for Microsoft Windows in GUI version. Aside from all external drones, Kismet is only supported wireless hardware available as packet source.

5. LCP: In Windows NT/2000/XP/2003, LCP could be used for user account passwords auditing and recovery, Brute force session distribution, Hashes computing and Passwords recovery. It is very good free alternative to L0phtcrack.

6. Yersinia: In different Layer 2 protocols there are some weaknesses. So this network tool has been designed to take advantage of these weaknesses. It acts like a solid framework for analyzing and testing the deployed networks and systems, but in actual it is not a framework. Currently, the following network protocols are implemented: IEEE 802.1q, Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP), Inter-Switch Link Protocol (ISL), VLAN Trunking Protocol (VTP), Dynamic Trunking Protocol (DTP), Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP).

7. Nikto: It is an Open Source (GPL) web server scanner which performs comprehensive tests against web servers for multiple items, including over 3200 potentially dangerous files/CGIs, versions on over 625 servers, and version specific problems on over 230 servers. The plugins used by it needs to be update at proper timess and it could be updated automatically.

8. SuperScan: SuperScan is a very powerful tool which works as connect-based TCP port scanner, pinger and hostname resolver. This program is extremely fast and versatile due to multithreaded and asynchronous techniques which developers used to make it. For network administrators, this is first and foremost tool. Do not scan those systems which are not under your control. It will be illegal. To use this program against computers on the Internet that you have no right to scan since you are highly likely to be tracked down and attract the attention of your ISP, possibly resulting in your account being terminated.

9. John the Ripper: John the Ripper is a fast password cracker, currently available for many flavours of Unix, DOS, Win32, BeOS, and OpenVMS. The weak passwords of any operating system could be crack by using it. Besides several crypt password hash types most commonly found on various Unix flavours, supported out of the box are Kerberos AFS and Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 LM hashes, plus several more with contributed patches.

10. Cain and Abel: In Microsoft Operating Systems Cain and Abel works as a password recovery tool. With the help of decoding scrambled passwords, recording VoIP conversations, sniffing the network, cracking encrypted passwords using Dictionary, Brute-Force and Cryptanalysis attacks, uncovering cached passwords, recovering wireless network keys, revealing password boxes, and analyzing routing protocols, it allows easy recovery of various type of passwords

Microsoft and Adobe Adobe Push Critical Updates

Microsoft today pushed out 13 security updates to fix at least 39 separate vulnerabilities in its various Windows operating systems and software. Five of the updates fix flaws that allow hackers or malware to break into vulnerable systems without any help from the user, save for perhaps visiting a hacked Web site.

The bulk of the security holes plugged in this month’s Patch Tuesday reside in either Internet Explorer or in Microsoft’s flagship browser — Edge. As security firm Shavlik notes, Microsoft’s claim that Edge is more secure than IE seems to be holding out, albeit not by much. So far this year, Shavlik found, Edge has required 19 fixes versus IE’s 27.

Windows users who get online with a non-Microsoft browser still need to get their patches on: Ten of the updates affect Windows — including three other critical updates from Microsoft. As always, Qualys has a readable post about the rest of the Microsoft patches. If you experience any issues with the Windows patches, please share your experience in the comments below.

As it is known to do on patch Tuesday, Adobe issued security updates for its Reader and Acrobat software. Alas, there appears to be no update for Adobe’s Flash Player plugin as per usual on Patch Tuesday. However, an Adobe spokesperson has advised through various news channels that the company will be issuing a Flash Player update on Thursday morning.

If you would like to see more detailed information on monthly patches, please leave a comment and I will look at adding it to the blog.

Be Safe and for god sake, please patch!

Organizational controls for Cyber Risk

How do I ensure that my organization has controls to protect itself from cyber risk? In other words, what are the key controls that my company must implement to protect itself from cyber risk? There are excellent security frameworks available as public documents that can be used as cybersecurity baseline controls.

Here is my list of essential controls:

Patch management—it is essential to have a structured patch management process. It does not mean that all patches have to be applied, but the enterprise has to make a conscious decision on which to apply and which not to apply. Patch management should be done as a priority for critical applications. While many enterprises apply patches for their IT infrastructure on a priority basis, it is common knowledge that the same rigor is not applied to patch management for software applications.

Administrative privilege control—it is key to remove administrative privileges from all and grant them only to a select few as determined by job need. Some individuals see it as a status symbol to hold admin privileges. Local admin rights must be removed for a significant majority of users.

Dynamic analysis—conducting dynamic analysis, which uses behavior-based detection capabilities instead of the conventional approach of relying on the use of signatures, helps enterprises to detect malware that is yet to be identified. Such dynamic analysis can be undertaken at the enterprise’s main gateway, the end point or the cloud, depending on the specific, relevant scenario. Customized sandboxes will help perform structured dynamic analysis.

Host-based intrusion protection/detection system (IPS/IDS)—Host-based IPS/IDS’s detection strength is based on behavior instead of conventional signatures.

Segmenting—segmenting the network based on business criticality is yet another essential control. Active Directory and other authentication servers should be able to be administered only from a selected number of intermediary servers called “jump hosts.” Jump hosts must be well secured, and jump host access must be limited to a predefined list of users and network devices/equipment. Ideally, jump hosts will have no Internet access.

Multifactor authentication—though a number of users view it as painful, it is essential to implement multifactor authentication in the interest of the enterprise.

Internet access—Direct Internet access from all end points/desktops/laptops must be denied and must instead be processed through a proper proxy.

Passphrase policy—for service accounts and privileged accounts, it is essential to implement a passphrase policy instead of a password policy; this is yet another area of common resistance.

Web site access—Access to web sites must be via their domain names and not by IP addresses.

Removable storage media—Usage of removable storage media must be appropriately controlled—though any restrictions on these are viewed by users as a loss of rights. Any enterprise keen to protect its sensitive information from leakage must restrict access and grant it based on a business need.

User education—it is not necessarily for all business users, but about educating the developers to write secure code and infrastructure experts to manage it in a secure manner. While users from the business appreciate the risk to the business, it is these experts from the IT world who require more convincing.

External email exchange management—when emails are exchanged with entities external to the enterprise, it is essential to adopt and implement protocols such as transport layer security (TLS).

Strong asset management—In terms of having an inventory of authorized devices, equipment and software are essential. Asset management is another area that does not get accorded its due priority.

Web application testing—whether the web applications are developed in-house or by a third-party, it is essential to test them for vulnerabilities. They must also be tested via simulated attack scenarios.

The staging environment—Security testing such as a vulnerability assessment or a penetration test must be done in a replica of the production environment; otherwise, the gap between the environments becomes the weakest link in the chain.

Wireless networks management—Access must be granted on a need basis with adequate restrictions, and sundries must not be allowed to connect in an unrestricted manner. Ideally, network admission controls mechanisms must be in place.

This is a very indicative list and must not be deemed as exhaustive. Please choose a security framework relevant and apt to your enterprise and use it. These days, cyber risk insurers also provide guidance documents that they consider prerequisites for any enterprise to buy cyber risk insurance policies.

In my opinion, it is essential to identify relevant controls and implement them in the most appropriate manner rather than implementing a huge list of controls that are irrelevant and inappropriate. And, of course, the best controls rely on competent professionals to make them work effectively.