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Employees are weak link in company cyber attacks

2015/05/01 by admin

Mark Burnette, For The Tennessean 11:11 p.m. CDT April 29, 2015

Today’s companies face a truly daunting task when trying to protect their computer systems and sensitive data from compromise. Attackers are better coordinated and more sophisticated than ever before, and their tools are easier to obtain and use.

While there are many security issues for businesses to be concerned about (some of which are covered in other installments of this series), an all-too-common problem at companies of all sizes is attacks directed at the computer users themselves. The vulnerable users are workers in the company who have user accounts and passwords and use desktops, laptops, tablets and other devices to interact with a company’s data and network. Hackers and other bad guys target these users because they have access to sensitive data and systems, their account passwords are typically easy to guess or crack, and they are often willing to open a malicious file, click on an emailed link or even willingly type their password into a bogus site.

Protecting your company against end-user attacks requires a two-pronged approach: 1) train your users to help them be more aware of how end-user security attacks occur and 2) configure your systems to make it harder for the bad guys to successfully get in if a user slips up. Here’s a list of steps you should take:
•Keep up to date with security patches provided by software vendors for end-user machines. In addition to operating system patches, be sure to patch application software such as Adobe, Java and web browsers, as older versions of those tools have well-known vulnerabilities that are frequent vectors of attack.

•Provide spam filtering for every machine, with sensitivity controls turned up. One of the most common tactics attackers use to make initial entry into a company’s network is enticing end users to click on a spam email link that installs malware. While this won’t stop every phishing attempt, if you can filter out even one, that is one fewer opportunity for an unsuspecting user to click a bad link.

•Remove local administrator rights from end-user machines. Local administrator rights give a user more power to make changes to a computer, and if an attacker gains control of a machine with those rights, damage to the network can be much more significant.

•Make sure there is up-to-date anti-virus/malware protection installed on every machine.

•Require IT personnel to use different passwords when they work on servers. Even IT administrators can fall victim to email phishing attacks when they are working on their own computer. If they click on a bad link while logged in as an administrator, attackers can gain big-time access to your network using their privileged credentials.

•Develop a security awareness program for all personnel to help them understand their responsibilities when using a company computer system and/or handling sensitive data. This training should also teach users how to create good passwords (ones that are easy to remember, but difficult to guess).

•And perhaps most importantly, require “two-factor authentication” for users logging on to the network from a remote location. That means that a password alone is not enough to gain access; another form of authentication is needed. That could take the form of such things as a fingerprint, a token (a physical device that generates a code that is entered on the machine) or a digital certificate. If two-factor authentication is in place, an attacker who successfully captures a user’s access credentials still won’t be able to remotely connect to the network without the second factor (the token).

Taking all these measures will not completely eliminate the possibility of a successful attack, but it will greatly reduce your exposure to this common attack path, which just might make a potential attacker move on to a more vulnerable target.
Mark Burnette is a partner in the Security and Risk Services practice at LBMC, the largest regional accounting and financial services family of companies based in Tennessee, with offices in Brentwood, Chattanooga and Knoxville.

Filed Under: Advanced Persistent Threat, antivirus, byod, Cloud, compliance, CyberThreats, endpoint, Hexis, industry, Kaspersky, Log Management, Malware, NetClarity, Network Access Control, Network Monitoring, PCI, Products, profile, Security News, Snare, Snare Agents, SolarWinds, Sophos, Unified Threat Management

Snare Product Suite Release Notes

2015/03/19 by admin

Please be advised that there have been updates to the Snare Product Suite:

Snare Agent for Windows – Version 4.2.11 – Snare For Windows Release Notes

Snare Epilog for Windows – Version 1.7.10 – Snare for Epilog For Windows Release Notes

Snare for MS SQL – Version 1.3.3 – Snare for MS SQL Release Notes

Snare Server Version 7.0.1  – Snare Server Release Notes

The product updates can be found in your client area, either via www.snare-server.com  or symtrex.sharefile.com

 

Filed Under: Products, Security News, Snare, Snare Agents

Why Enterprise Snare Agents

2014/10/30 by admin

In 2001, the developers of the Snare Product Suite, developed a system to capture the event data as required by Trusted Computer Systems Evaluation Criteria or C2. While the C2 is considered one of the lowest acceptable levels of security, the C2 System must be able to:

  • provide system level audit trail
  • audit the use of identification and authentication mechanisms
  • audit file access (open, close, read, write, create) and program initiation
  •   audit file/object deletion
  • audit administrative actions

The Snare Product Suite started with the Linux agent, specifically for use within the defense industry, and later the suite was expanded to the Windows and Solaris agent. The agents, which were originally provided through the Open Source community became hugely popular for organizations that were attempting to meet C2 Audit Levels.
Of course back in 2001, logging event data was much more simplistic than it has evolved to today, and now there are multiple regulatory reasons to implement an SIEM, SIM, SEM or Event log management solution. The debate seems to rest with should an organization use agents or not to forward the event log data to a collector.

See complete post on our snare.solutions website

Filed Under: Advanced Persistent Threat, compliance, Log Management, Snare, Snare Agents

Cyber Attacks On US Companies in 2014

2014/10/28 by admin

By Riley Walters

The spate of recent data breaches at big-name companies such as JPMorgan Chase, Home Depot, and Target raises questions about the effectiveness of the private sector’s information security. According to FBI Director James Comey, “There are two kinds of big companies in the United States. There are those who’ve been hacked…and those who don’t know they’ve been hacked.”

A recent survey by the Ponemon Institute showed the average cost of cyber crime for U.S. retail stores more than doubled from 2013 to an annual average of $8.6 million per company in 2014. The annual average cost per company of successful cyber attacks increased to $20.8 million in financial services, $14.5 million in the technology sector, and $12.7 million in communications industries.

This paper lists known cyber attacks on private U.S. companies since the beginning of 2014. (A companion paper discussed cyber breaches in the federal government.) By its very nature, a list of this sort is incomplete. The scope of many attacks is not fully known. For example, in July, the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team issued an advisory that more than 1,000 U.S. businesses have been affected by the Backoff malware, which targets point-of-sale (POS) systems used by most retail industries. These attacks targeted administrative and customer data and, in some cases, financial data.

Read Full Article – >

Cyber Attacks Article

Filed Under: Advanced Persistent Threat, antivirus, byod, Cloud, compliance, endpoint, industry, Kaspersky, Log Management, Malware, NetClarity, PCI, Products, profile, Security News, Snare, Snare Agents, Sophos, Uncategorized, Unified Threat Management

APT Attacks

2014/10/02 by admin

According to an article in info-security, most security professionals expect an APT attack in the next six months.  Within the article, it is quoted:

“The three structures of IT Security used to be ‘prevention’, ‘detection’ and ‘remediation’. However, with prevention an almost impossible task due to the very nature of the way IT is used today, it now falls down to ‘detection’ as the best way to protect systems,”.

Prevention is extremely difficult, however, using a defense in depth will assist – implementing a Unified Threat Management system, endpoint protection, as well as utilizing a NAC solution to see who is on your network, as well as stop communication back to command and control,  are great first steps.

Using an Event Log Management system or SIEM will help detect abnormal behaviour, improving detection of not only malware or APTS, but also unusual activity by employees, guests, and other cyber threats.  Most ELMs, or SIEMs have the ability to do file integrity monitoring as well – providing you with detailed information on what files were altered and by whom.

Take a look at some of our whitepapers on APT’s, or contact us.

 

Filed Under: Advanced Persistent Threat, antivirus, byod, Cloud, compliance, endpoint, industry, Kaspersky, Log Management, Malware, NetClarity, PCI, Products, profile, Security News, Snare, Snare Agents, Sophos, Uncategorized, Unified Threat Management

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