How to Complete a Business IT Vulnerability Assessment 

Cyber Security, Data Security, email security, IT Vulnerability Assessment, Ophtek, procedure, , , , , ,
13
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: 

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. 

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Wiper malware attack on Sony Pictures
Wiper malware attack on Sony Pictures

Wiper Malware is Quickly Becoming a Major Threat

Backup, Cyber Security, email security, Ophtek, segmenting network, Wiper Malware, , , , ,
25
Apr 2023

Wiper malware attack on Sony Pictures

The world of malware evolves rapidly, sometimes from one day to another, but one of the most recent surges in popularity has been found in wiper malware.

You may not be familiar with wiper malware, but it’s a form of attack which has been steadily generating headlines over the last year. And the most recent data from FortiGuard Labs shows there was a 53% in wiper malware activity between Q3 to Q4 in 2022. Any increase in malware activity should be a concern, but anything which is over 50% represents a significant threat. This threat becomes magnified further when you consider the impact of wiper malware. Accordingly, there’s never been a more pressing time to learn about wiper malware.

What is Wiper Malware?

Wiper malware gets its name from its purpose of completely erasing all data from hard drives. Although it may seem similar to ransomware, wiper malware typically demands a fee in exchange for data recovery, but in reality, there is no chance of retrieving the data from the attackers. This type of cyber-attack is highly destructive and can cause harm not only to security but also to IT infrastructures.

Why is Wiper Malware Surging?

The initial surge in wiper malware, first observed in the first half of 2022, was attributed to the war in Ukraine. Most of this activity was the result of advanced persistent threat (APT) hacking groups from Russia supporting their governments campaign in Ukraine. And, as this conflict is still ongoing, the wiper malware threat has remained.

However, Fortinet has observed that the range of threat actors implementing wiper malware has now widened. So, as well as APT groups, wiper malware is also being unleashed by threat actors seeking financial gain and hacktivists looking to push political agendas. The research conducted by Fortinet also indicates that this surge currently shows no signs of slowing down, so it’s a threat which appears here to stay.

How Do You Combat Wiper Malware?

You may not feel as though your organization is a typical target for wiper malware, but this could quickly change due to the increased adoption of wiper malware. Therefore, you need to make sure you’re prepared for this type of attack:

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

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Office Macros Disabled: What the Hackers Did Next

email security, malicious websites, Office Macros, Ophtek, threatneedle, , , ,
09
Aug 2022

One of the best ways to infect a PC has, until now, been through Office macros. But, now that they’re disabled by default, what are the hackers going to do?

The numbers of hacks that have involved Office macros over the last 20 years is mindboggling. And they have involved some major attacks, such as ThreatNeedle, during this period. Accordingly, Microsoft decided that 2022 would be the year the security risk of macros was put to bed once and for all. This, as you would imagine, has put a major thorn in the side of hackers. Nonetheless, hackers are as determined as they are malicious. Therefore, they have had to refine their attack strategies and adopt new methods.

And it’s crucial that you know what they have up their sleeves.

How Have Hackers Adapted their Attacks?

Now the exploits offered by internet macros have been greatly diminished, hackers have evolved their techniques to maintain a sting in their tail.

Most notably, a significant rise in container-based attacks has been observed, but what are container-based attacks? Well, container files are any files which allow multiple data sources to be embedded in one file e.g. a .zip or .rar file can contain numerous files which are all compressed into one ‘container’ file. So, a threat actor could, for example, deliver a .zip file packed full of malware as an email attachment.

HTML smuggling has also been adopted as a popular alternative to Office macros. This form of attack involves a threat actor ‘smuggling’ infected scripts into web pages and/or associated HTML attachments. All it takes for the scripts to be activated on a victim’s PC is for the HTML to be loaded into their browser. Therefore, simply visiting a website is enough to download and activate malware, and the innocent party would have no idea an attack was unfolding in front of them.

Another increase in popularity has been noted in the form of infected .lnk files. These are files which act as shortcuts/links and, while they can be used to direct users to safe URLs, they have the potential to forward victims onto malicious websites and initiate unsafe downloads.

How Can You Keep Pace With These Techniques?

You may be able to breathe slightly easier now that macros have been disabled by default, but you need to remain alert. Make sure you counter the new threats above by practicing the following:

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

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5 Quick Ways to Secure Your PC

Cyber Security, Data Security, email security, modem security, Online Security, Ophtek, PC Security, Security, , , , , , ,
09
Nov 2021

IT security can be a complex series of procedures and this can be intimidating to many people. Luckily, there are some easy ways to secure your PC.

Installing and configuring a firewall isn’t something that your average PC user will feel comfortable with. After all, how do you know exactly which services you should be allowing/denying access to? Security tasks such as this should be left to the professionals. But there are lots of quick and easy tips you can put in to place to protect your PC. All you need to do is know how to get started securing your PC. And today we’re going to share 5 quick ways to secure your PC.

How to Secure Your PC

If you want to secure your PC with the minimum amount of fuss, then make sure you:

  • Verify All Downloads: It’s very easy to fall victim to a malicious email or website. These threats appear to be genuine methods of communication in order to encourage you clicking on their malicious payload. These payloads can take the form of malicious downloads disguised as links or ‘helpful’ apps. A quick way to avoid falling victim in these scenarios is to verify the true destination of links by hovering your mouse cursor over them. You can also perform a Google search to verify the legitimacy of any website.
  • Do Not Write Your Passwords Down: The single biggest mistake that a PC user can make is to write their passwords down. Sure, it’s difficult to remember every single password, but there are options to overcome this such as using Google’s Password Checkup. These password managers are far superior to writing your password credentials on a Post-It note and keeping it on your desk. Revealing your login credentials publicly should be avoided at all costs.
  • Only Use USB Devices That You Own: It’s not worth the risk of damaging your PC, so avoid connecting USB devices you aren’t familiar with. In fact, in a workplace, it’s recommended to disable USB access to individual workstations. If USB access is required then this should only be granted to IT professionals.

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

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The Dangerous Power of the Prometheus Malware

antivirus software, Cyber Security, email security, malware, Ophtek, Prometheus Malware, , , , ,
18
Aug 2021

Malware-as-a-service (MaaS) provides a powerful malware solution for hackers. And Prometheus is the perfect example of such an infrastructure.

There’s money in everything and hacking is no different. But rather than extorting funds through ransomware, hackers can also design MaaS to generate some quick cash. MaaS takes the pain out of designing your own malware by offering a ready-made solution. And all you need to do is a pay a fee to use it. Typically, MaaS will give the user access to software which can distribute malware through malicious campaigns; this is exactly what Prometheus does.

As Prometheus, and all forms of MaaS, is so powerful, it’s important that you understand what it is and how to tackle it.

How Does Prometheus Work?

Prometheus has been available to purchase for a year now, with a subscription costing $250 per month. It uses two main attack strategies:

  • Distributing MS Word and Excel documents which are infected with malware
  • Using malicious links to divert victims to phishing websites

Subscribers to the Prometheus MaaS are given a central control panel from where they can launch their campaigns. From here they are able to configure various parameters to tailor their attacks e.g. targeting specific email addresses with a malicious call-to-action. Prometheus can also be used to assess potential victims. Using infected websites, Prometheus can collect data on visitors – such as IP address and user details – to assess which method of attack is best to launch. It’s a sophisticated form of hacking and one that requires high levels of awareness to combat.

It’s estimated that over 3,000 email addresses have been targeted by Prometheus as of this writing. These targets have included individuals in Europe and a number of government agencies and businesses in the US. While 3,000 potential victims may sound relatively small, it’s clearly best for every one of them to avoid it. And it is possible.

How to Combat Prometheus

Prometheus uses traditional methods to infect PCs with its malicious payloads, so it’s easy to avoid becoming a victim. All you need to do is practice the following:

  • Check All Emails: Malicious emails are very good at hiding the fact that they are malicious. Therefore, it always pays to quickly verify every email. Is the email address correct or is it a strange variation e.g. security@micros0ft.com? Is there an unusual and urgent call-to-action in the email such as a “click here before you lose access to your account” link? Anything suspicious should be queried with your IT team immediately.
  • Verify Links: It’s very easy to insert a malicious link into an email or website, so these need to be verified before clicking. For example, a link could be displayed as www.bankofamerica.com but hovering your cursor over this link will reveal the genuine destination. And this could be redirecting you towards a malicious website, so always verify your links.

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

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