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How to Complete a Business IT Vulnerability Assessment

Cyber Security, Data Security, email security, IT Vulnerability Assessment, Ophtek, procedureCyber Security, Data Security, email security, IT Vulnerability Assessment, Ophtek, procecure, vulnerabilityOphtek, LLC

Jun 2023

No IT infrastructure is 100% secure, but you can maximize your defenses and reduce your risk. All you need to do is complete an IT vulnerability assessment.

It’s important to understand exactly what your cybersecurity procedures can and can’t protect against. After all, assuming that your security measures are perfect is a sure-fire way to become complacent. And if there’s one thing that threatens the safety of your IT systems, it’s complacency. Therefore, it’s essential you understand why you need to complete an IT vulnerability assessment. And, more importantly, that you know how to complete one.

Understanding the Purpose of a Vulnerability Assessment

A vulnerability assessment looks at your IT infrastructure and reviews each and every security procedure, as well as highlighting any potential weaknesses. This pre-emptive approach is critical for reducing risk and protecting your systems. Its main objective is to evaluate your existing procedures and deliver suggestions for future improvements.

Preparing an Assessment

There are several steps when it comes to preparing an IT vulnerability assessment, and these include:

Identifying assets: if you’re evaluating the security procedures which protect your IT equipment, you need to start by identifying the assets which comprise your infrastructure. This means you will have a foundation to start your assessment from. So, for example, if you know that you have 20 laptops within your organization, you will need to evaluate all of these for upgrades, existing infections etc.
Determining the scope: it’s important for your vulnerability assessment to have a focus, so make sure you establish this early on. It may be that you simply want to carry out an assessment on your internal email systems, or it could be a more in-depth look at all your internet safety measures. Either way, with this scope established, you can conduct a targeted assessment with clearer objectives.
Select your tools: completing a vulnerability assessment requires numerous tools such as human labor, software, and new IT equipment. Accordingly, you need to make sure this is all available and can be budgeted for. This will allow you to complete a comprehensive assessment to the required standard and leave no shortfall e.g. IT systems which need to be upgraded will require funds to be available.

Analyzing Your Assessment

Once all your preparation is in place, you can complete your assessment as per your plan and guidelines. You then need to analyze the results of your assessment. As previously stated, no IT system is 100% secure, and your assessment will likely raise several concerns and vulnerabilities. Therefore, you will need to categorize these vulnerabilities both by area and severity e.g. weak firewall defenses (major) and staff writing passwords down (medium). This will allow you to begin planning a mitigation strategy to nullify these threats.

Implementing a Mitigation Strategy

With the information gleaned from your vulnerability assessment, it’s vital that you begin communicating this with the stakeholders within your organization. Ensure that your IT staff, department managers and executives are all aware of the vulnerabilities. Most importantly, also communicate how these will be mitigated, this will keep everyone on the same page and generate discussion on any potential implementation problems.

Finally, you need to put your mitigation strategy into place. These steps will vary, depending on your vulnerabilities, but common examples include additional training sessions for employees, updating software and upgrading legacy equipment. Whatever the plan, speed is of the essence to prevent these vulnerabilities turning into a catastrophe.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

Qbot is Back and Causing Digital Chaos Once Again

malware, Ophtek, Qbot, Ransomware, spear phishingmalware, Ophtek, Qbot, ransomware, spear phishingOphtek, LLC

Jun 2023

It appears that you can’t keep a good piece of malware down as Qbot, first seen over 15 years ago, has reared its ugly head once again.

Qbot was discovered in the late 2000s and, since then, has gone through numerous developments to keep pace with modern IT systems. Also known as Qakbot, this malware has strong capabilities to cause damage, a scenario which can be attributed to its longevity as a threat vector. Qbot has a habit of suddenly emerging after a period of inactivity and its most recent spike in activity was seen at the end of 2022. With a long history of stealing data and being used to deliver further malware, Qbot is a threat which could easily target your IT infrastructure.

What Does Qbot Consist Of?

Historically, and still to this day, Qbot has been used to steal login credentials by logging keystrokes and giving remote access to threat actors. Alongside this, it has also been used to download additional malware – such as ransomware – and hijacking email threads. Now, you may not be familiar with email hijacking, but it’s important you’re aware of what this is.

Qbot is a sneaky piece of malware, and this is most readily demonstrated by its ability to hijack email threads. This is basically when it jumps into your email threads and messes with the messages. It does this to try and trick you into thinking you’re having a genuine conversation. This technique makes you more likely to click on a malicious link. It’s most effective in a work environment where people are used to communicating frequently via email. Qbot has been deploying this attach method regularly since 2020 and has been highly successful.

How Much of a Threat is Qbot?

Given its longevity, it should come as no surprise that Qbot is successful. However, Qbot is, in fact, the most prevalent malware currently active in the digital landscape. Therefore, you’re more likely to be infected by Qbot than any other piece of malware. It’s a serious feather in the cap for the developers behind Qbot’s latest incarnation, but it spells trouble for most PC users. This means it’s crucial that you know how to defend your IT systems.

Staying Safe From Qbot

The threat from Qbot is very real, but you can strengthen your IT defenses by employing the following best practices:

Always install updates: make sure you install all updates as soon as they become available. Qbot thrives upon vulnerabilities in software, such as the Follina exploit, so keeping everything updated is an easy way to secure your network. It may feel time consuming for what is a small step, but allowing automatic updates ensures it makes a big difference in the long run.
Beware of phishing emails: email hijacking is very similar to spear phishing in that it attempts to trick your employees into clicking malicious links. Accordingly, you should you encourage your team to take their time and double-check emails for things like strange links and unusual writing styles. Even a quick 10-second check of an email will reduce your risk of being compromised.
Backup: Qbot is often used to distribute ransomware and, as we know, ransomware can often rob you of your data. Often, it won’t even return your data if you pay the ransom fee. Therefore, protecting your data with regular and multiple backups is essential. With backups readily available, you will be able to navigate away from the threat actors and simply restore your data.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

Linus Tech Tips Falls Victim to Session Hijack

Linus Tech Tips, malware, Ophtek, Public WiFi, Session Hijack, social engineering, System UpdatesLinus Tech Tips, malware, Ophtek, public wifi, session hijack, social engineering, system updatesOphtek, LLC

May 2023

Linus Sebastian, owner of popular YouTube channel Linus Tech Tips, has revealed how he woke at 3am in the morning to find his channel hacked.

Linus Tech Tips is a YouTube channel which delivers technology-based content to over 15 million subscribers. Driven by Sebastian’s passion for technology, the channel has been running for 15 years and proven to be wildly successful. So, not surprisingly, it made a tempting target for hackers. As well as Linus Tech Tips, two other channels associated with Sebastian – TechLinked and Techquickie – were also compromised in this attack.

While your organization may not run a YouTube channel, the method in which Linus Tech Tips was hacked could be applied to any IT system. Therefore, it’s crucial that we learn about session hijacking.

What Happened to Linus Tech Tips

Alarm bells started ringing for Sebastian when he was woken at 3am to reports of his channels being hacked. New videos had been loaded and were being streamed as live events. But, far from being productions sanctioned by Sebastian, they were rogue videos featuring crypto scam videos apparently endorsed by Elon Musk.

Desperately, Sebastian repeatedly tried to change his passwords, but it made no difference; the videos continued to be streamed. Sebastian was equally puzzled as to why the associated 2FA processes hadn’t been activated. Eventually, he discovered the attack was the result of session hijacking.

A member of Sebastian’s team had downloaded what appeared to be a PDF relating to a sponsorship deal, but the file was laced with malware. Not only did the malware start stealing data, but it also retrieved session tokens. You may not be familiar with session tokens but, effectively, these are the authorization files which keep you logged into websites. So, when you return to that website, you don’t have to re-enter your login credentials each time. Unfortunately, for Sebastian, it gave the threat actors full and unauthorized access to his YouTube channels.

How Do You Prevent Session Hijacking?

Once it had been established that compromised session tokens were behind the breach, YouTube was able to swiftly secure Sebastian’s channels. Nonetheless, the ease with which the threat actors managed to bypass login credentials and 2FA is troubling. This means it’s vital you follow these best practices to protect against session hijacking:

Understand what malware is: the attack on Linus Tech Tips was the result of malware and social engineering combining to deliver a sucker punch. Accordingly, educating your staff through comprehensive and regular refresher courses should be a priority. This will allow your staff to identify threats before they are activated and protect your IT systems from being compromised.

Don’t use public WiFi: unsecure networks such as public WiFi found in cafes and airports pose a significant risk to your data, and this includes sessions tokens. Therefore, unless you have access to a VPN, where your data will be encrypted, you should avoid connecting to public WiFi.

Perform system updates: the malware behind session hijacking will often take advantage of vulnerabilities in software. Consequently, this should act as the perfect motivation to keep your software updated. The simplest way to achieve this is by setting up automatic updates, this will ensure your software’s security is maximized as soon as updates are released.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

The Importance of IT Documentation

IT Contacts, IT Documentation, IT Inventory, IT Recovery, IT Responsibilities, Knowledgebase, OphtekIT Contacts, IT Documentation, IT Inventory, IT Recovery, IT Responsibilities, Knowledgebase, OphtekOphtek, LLC

May 2023

IT documentation is seen by many businesses as a labor-intensive task with little value. However, this is a big mistake as IT documentation is essential.

The complexity of even the most basic IT infrastructure is vast. Therefore, it makes sense for all organizations to record details about their systems. This can take in simple details such as ID numbers for individual workstations all the way through to more complex configurations including SSL certificates and firewall settings. With this information at your disposal, you will have a much better understanding of your IT infrastructure. While it’s recommended to maintain digital copies of your IT documentation, it also makes sense to keep printed copies in case of an IT emergency.

Why Do You Need IT Documentation?

As we’ve already stated, IT documentation isn’t taken very seriously by all organizations. They are, after all, often busy focusing on other objectives. But this outlook can come back to haunt you when there’s a major IT failure within your infrastructure. And, once you’ve done the hard work of establishing a documentation system, maintaining it is relatively straightforward.

So, for those of you who still need convincing, here are the main reasons that IT documentation is crucial:

It makes up part of your contingency plan: if your IT systems fail completely, then information will prove to be key in recovering your systems. This means that a comprehensive list of all your IT equipment (including server details and backup storage locations) is highly useful in such a scenario. Accordingly, this will allow your IT team to bring your systems back online much quicker and preserve your productivity.

Creates a central, shared knowledgebase: it’s important for your all your employees to understand how your IT systems work. While it may not be necessary for them to have access to the finer points regarding your IT servers, it’s useful for all this information to be readily available. Therefore, when it comes to training, it will be much easier to share your organization’s IT practices. It also protects your business from losing vital knowledge of your IT systems when members of your team leave.

Acts as a useful inventory: any modern business will be aware of the need for IT equipment, but managing the sheer number of devices is often difficult. In fact, ask most businesses how many PCs and laptops they own, and they’ll struggle to give you a solid answer. Consequently, this can cause overspending when organizations believe new equipment is required, but readily available equipment has simply been lost in the system. But, with all your inventory recorded, you can make better purchasing decisions.

Details contacts and responsibilities: not only does there need to a be a hierarchy for your IT team, but there also needs to be contact details for each individual. So, for example, if an employee is experiencing problems with their laptop, they need to know which number to call to log this problem. Additionally, even your IT team need a list of useful contact numbers such as cloud service providers and manufacturers of your equipment. With all this contact information documented and available, you will find that IT issues can be dealt with quickly.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

What are the Best Ways to Maintain a Server Room?

Ophtek, Server cables, Server Room, Server Room Cleaning, Server room temperature, ServersOphtek, Server, Server cables, Server room, server room cleaning, Server room temperatureOphtek, LLC

May 2023

Your server room should act as the heartbeat for all your day-to-day IT operations. But it will only support your productivity if it’s maintained correctly.

The complexities of a server room are numerous. Not only is there the wide range of technical equipment which needs to be connected, but there are also several health and safety requirements which need to be met. This means that keeping a server room operating is hard work, but it’s a task which is crucial for any modern business.

Why Do You Need to Maintain a Server Room?

A well-maintained server room is essential for preserving the reliability of your computer networks and overall IT infrastructure. By providing a secure, controlled environment, you will ensure your server room is optimized for housing IT equipment such as servers, routers, data storage and back-up power supplies. Failing to maintain a server room will jeopardize the long-term health of all your IT operations. Therefore, maintaining your server room is vital for your business to remain operational and productive.

How Do You Maintain a Server Room?

Optimizing the performance of your server room is essential, but how do you go about maintaining it correctly? Well, the best way to get started is with the basics, so make sure you implement the following into your server room maintenance:

Practice good cable practices: server rooms rely heavily on cables to connect equipment together, but cables can quickly become a tangled mess. This can cause two major problems: identifying specific cables becomes difficult and the risk of overheating increases significantly. Accordingly, you need to group cables together and label them to allow quick identification. The best way to group cables together is by using velcro straps and you can easily label cables by color coding them e.g. yellow for communication cables and blue for data.

Monitor temperature: servers are delicate and complex pieces of equipment and, as such, they need specially controlled environments to remain functional. If servers are forced to operate in high temperatures, you run the risk of them failing or, at the very least, having their lifespans shortened. Therefore, you need to ensure that the temperature of your server room is kept between 65 – 80 degrees Fahrenheit to provide the perfect environment. And don’t forget humidity, this needs to maintained around 50% to prevent damage to your systems.

Cleaning is essential: if a server room isn’t cleaned regularly and correctly, there’s a major risk of your IT systems failing. A buildup of dust may seem insignificant to the naked eye, but it’s a major contributor when it comes to equipment overheating. And, if equipment overheats, there’s not only a risk of it failing, but it can also turn into a fire risk. But a regular cleaning regime, either by your team or an external cleaning company, which includes careful vacuuming and cleaning with microfiber cloths, will keep your server room safe and operational.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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