security Archives - Page 32 of 49

Do Your Ex-Employees Still Have Access to Your Data?

disable employee access, disgruntled employees, OneLogin, Security, SIEMnetwork, office, office IT, security, vulnerabilityOphtek, LLC

Sep 2017

Your employees can often pose a huge risk to your data security, but what about ex-employees? Well, it turns out they may present an even bigger threat.

When employees leave an organization, it’s prudent that their network and application privileges are immediately terminated. After all, there’s no need for them to have access to your data and this is particularly important if they’ve left to join a competitor. Not only that, it presents them with an easy route for sabotaging your network. So, it’s clear to see why it’s so important to revoke privileges, but it would appear this isn’t always the case.

Research by OneLogin has demonstrated that 50% of accounts previously held by ex-employees with the power to make IT-decisions are still active 24 hours after they have left the organization. And many employees have revealed that around 25% of their employees’ accounts will still be active for up to a week. And, as you well know, it can take mere seconds to completely compromise a PC, so the delay reported by OneLogin has the potential to cause real damage.

Why Do IT Accounts Need to be Terminated Immediately?

The majority of employees who leave your organization are highly unlikely to even consider wanting to log back on to your network, but there are some who may try as soon as they’ve left the building. In particular, disgruntled ex-employees who have had their contracts terminated are likely to be looking for revenge and, of course, those who have left the business to join a local rival may be tempted to log on and steal sensitive information to give them an advantage. While these individuals are in the minority, it still represents a huge threat to your data.

Despite being a basic threat, and one that’s easy to remedy, the statistics provided by OneLogin would indicate that it’s a simple procedure which is being ignored by many organizations. And the end result of this lackadaisical approach is, as OneLogin’s poll has found, that 10% of all data breaches are believed to have been committed by ex-employees. Eliminating this security risk, therefore, can make a real difference to your overall security.

How to Prevent Ex-Employees Accessing Your Networks

OneLogin have found that ex-employees can spell trouble for your security, but what can you do to minimize the risk? Let’s take a look:

Create an exit procedure for IT privileges – Thankfully, most employees will give a certain amount of notice before leaving and this gives organizations plenty of opportunity to plan for their exit. Therefore, there’s no excuse for login details to be disabled as soon as that employee leaves. Sometimes, of course, employees will leave suddenly and, in these instances, IT departments need to be informed immediately to close these accounts.
Reduce remote access – Some organizations may have networks which can only be accessed internally, so an ex-employee may struggle to even log in once they’ve left the business. However, many organizations provide remote access to their networks and, if an ex-employee can obtain the web address to access this, they could easily connect. To avoid this, make sure that only certain login names are allowed to log on in this manner.
Incorporate an SIEM system – Using a security information and event management (SIEM) system can indicate employees’ activity within individual applications, so this can quickly indicate if any unauthorized access is being made. OneLogin discovered that 41% of organizations do not use this type of system, but it would appear to be crucial in protecting your data.

These approaches are simple, quick and easy, so there’s no excuse for being negligent in this area of security.

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

Mamba Highlights a Change in Ransomware

Mamba, Ransomware, SecurityMamba, ransomware, securityOphtek, LLC

Sep 2017

We’re all aware that ransomware can hit you financially, but ransomware is now changing its modus operandi for causing chaos and becoming more dangerous.

The Mamba ransomware first appeared in September 2016 and, rather than just scrambling certain file extensions, it scrambles every single disk sector on your hard drive. And in layman’s terms this means that your whole PC will be next to useless. However, whilst ransomware usually offers you a way out of this mess through a ransom payment, this is where Mamba differs.

In recent attacks on organizations in Brazil and Saudi Arabia, the Mamba ransomware doesn’t specifically demand a ransom. Instead, it merely provides two email addresses and an ID number for you to use in correspondence. The ransom note also asks those infected to enter a key which, we can only assume, could be provided once contact has been made with the aforementioned email addresses.

Of course, much like the NotPetya attack, this could be a form of ransomware which simply sabotages a hard drive by making all its data inaccessible. Regardless of this, it’s not a situation that you want to find yourself in, so let’s take a look at what Mamba consists of.

The Mamba Attack

There’s a lot of concern that Mamba may be another piece of ‘wiper’ malware which simply dumps data once encrypting it rather than offering a decryption service. It’s also difficult to determine who has been authoring this new Mamba variant – sure, a Russian email address is used, but it would be foolhardy to assume that the attack comes from Russia simply because of an email address.

The attack itself seems to execute the Mamba ransomware by exploiting the PSEXEC application – a piece of software which allows communication between remote systems and crucial for organizations networks to operate effectively. The malware works in two stages with the first line of attack seeing DiskCryptor – a free encryptor – installed on the infected system before rebooting the system. Upon bootup, DiskCryptor begins encrypting disk partitions and, once the hard drive is fully encrypted, the system is rebooted once more.

It’s at this point that the ‘ransom’ note is delivered to the user. It’s too early to say exactly what correspondence with the emails provided will result in, but it’s fair to assume that the hackers aren’t just going to hand over the key. Now, each infected computer has a specific password generated for it, so this hints that, perhaps Mamba isn’t a piece of wiper malware and that payment will result in your hard drive being decrypted. However, it could also just be a diversionary tactic and your files could be lost forever.

Combatting Mamba

The level of encryption carried out by Mamba through DiskCryptor is exceptionally strong, so there’s currently no way of retrieving your files without somehow receiving help from the hackers. Whether this help will be forthcoming is debatable, so it in no way represents a way out from this particularly difficult hack.

Good security practices, as ever, are essential to prevent your organization falling foul of ransomware, particularly when it’s one which appears to be very enigmatic and provides little light at the end of the tunnel. Such attacks are likely to increase, so make sure you practice the following:

Always backup your files and data to ensure they’re not compromised on an infected system. It’s also recommended that these are backed up to a system not connected to your network to prevent falling foul of malware which can spread throughout a network.
Use multi-layered security in the form of firewalls, web filtering and antivirus software in order to stop malware from either activating or even reaching your network.
Restrict user privileges and access on your network as, again, this can stop ransomware spreading through your network once it has started to gain a foothold in your network.

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

Petya Cyber Attack Goes Global with Ransomware

Cyber Attack, Petya, Ransomware, Securitybitcoin, malware, ransomware, security, WindowsOphtek, LLC

Sep 2017

A major cyber attack has swept across the globe and, once again, it’s taken the form of ransomware to shut down computers and demand Bitcoin ransoms.

Known as Petya – the Russian word for stone – has managed to halt operations at a chocolate factory in Australia and even one of Russia’s biggest oil companies, so the scale and sophistication of its attack is clear to see. Following the recent WannaCry ransomware attack, Petya has made headlines in a security landscape where safety appears to be far from guaranteed.

As this is such a widespread attack – and the fact that new ransomware attacks are appearing weekly – it seems like the perfect time to look at Petya and reinforce what you can do to protect yourself.

The Story behind Petya

Although it’s difficult to confirm, it’s believed that the Petya attack originated in the Ukraine. Reports suggest that the ransomware was spread through the update server for MeDoc which is a popular brand of Ukrainian accounting software. Consumers believed they were simply downloading a new update for their software, but it was actually a powerful slice of malware which then spread like wildfire.

This latest variant of Petya, however, is even more powerful than its original incarnation. It’s believed that Petya now comes loaded with a tool named LSADump which harvests data and passwords from all the PCs located on that network. Petya also appears to be encrypting every single file on the infected PCs through the master boot record – this helps your PC boot up Windows at startup.

Most disturbingly, though, it’s being reported that Petya may not even be ransomware and may, instead, simply wipe everything from a PC with no chance of recovery. While the thought of having to pay a small ransom to retrieve data is troubling enough, the idea that your data may never be retrieved brings a whole new level of concern to Petya.

Defending Against Petya

Regardless of whether Petya encrypts or destroys files, it remains a highly sophisticated strain of malware that no PC user wants to find on their system. Kaspersky and Symantec have assured consumers that their anti-virus software will actively identify and protect against Petya, but for many users this may be too late.

Unfortunately, despite the spate of attacks taking advantage of Windows vulnerabilities, many PC users are still incredibly lax when it comes to installing security updates and patches. The main reason for this procrastination is an issue of time, but what’s five to ten minutes of installing updates and rebooting compared to having all the files on your entire network encrypted or even deleted?

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

Windows 10S is NOT Immune from Ransomware

Securitysecurity, WindowsOphtek, LLC

Aug 2017

Microsoft has claimed that their latest upgrade to Windows 10 (10S) is immune to all known ransomware. However, it appears that this isn’t quite true.

Windows 10S is a streamlined upgrade of Microsoft’s current operating system (OS) and it promises increased speed, stability and security. Naturally, this claim of invulnerability is certainly impressive, but, effectively, it’s also issued a challenge to the online community to test the strength of this security.

It’s a brave move, perhaps one which was necessary after the various security issues with Windows 10 shortly after its launch, but it’s now looking rather embarrassing for Microsoft as Windows 10S has already been breached.

Hacking Windows 10S

Launched at the start of May, Windows 10S survived several weeks without having its defenses breached, but this security has now come tumbling down. Security expert Matthew Hickey of Hacker House managed to make his way through the security capabilities of Windows 10S in just three hours.

How did he do this though? Microsoft, after all, should know a thing or two about security, right? Well, Hickey actually employed an old fashioned technique of hacking called DLL injection. A particularly sneaky form of hacking, DLL injection runs malware within a running process that is deemed not capable of carrying a threat by the operating system in question.

This hack was carried out by one of the most common malware attacks seen in contemporary hacking, a Microsoft Word document packed full of malicious macros (automated commands). Although Microsoft Word now has an anti-malware system, this does not detect issues with files that have been shared on the network – which is exactly where Hickey had downloaded the infected document to.

Hickey was then able to activate the malicious payload in the Word document and found he was able to take control of the PC by giving himself full administration privileges. Using Metasploit – software designed to look for loopholes in cyber defenses – Hickey eventually managed to secure himself full system privileges. And this meant, in theory, that he could begin disabling firewalls and anti-malware software.

With the system’s defenses completely disabled, Hickey could easily have installed ransomware on the PC, but he refrained from doing this in order to protect other PCs on the network.

An Unhackable OS?

At no point did Microsoft claim that Windows 10S was 100% protected from any form of hacking, but by claiming that it was safe from ransomware they were setting themselves up for a mighty fall. And now that Matthew Hickey has revealed just how easy the hack was – and a three hour hack is relatively quick in terms of a previously unhacked operating system – it’s likely that even more exploits will be revealed.

And, although Hickey’s attack was a ‘friendly’ hack, it underlines just how fragile cyber security can be. Despite all the bold claims by Microsoft, Windows 10S doesn’t appear to be any more secure than previous versions and this is very troubling for consumers.

Once again, user knowledge and awareness is highly important as the root cause of this attack was an infected Word document. Your employees must understand the important of identifying malware and not rely on software as, even when Microsoft are involved, it’s impossible to claim something is secure enough to give you full protection.

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

The Biggest IT Security Threats in 2017

SecuritysecurityOphtek, LLC

Jun 2017

With the ever increasing rise in cyber security attacks, PC users are becoming more vigilant. However, do they know what they should be wary of in 2017?

The IT security landscape is constantly changing, so what may be considered a contemporary threat one year, may soon fall into obscurity as defenses improve. However, certain security threats seem to be becoming more and more prevalent. Therefore, it’s make sense to acquaint yourself with the most likely attacks you’re going to experience in the near future.

And, as luck would have it, I’ve decided to take a quick look at the biggest IT security threats coming in 2017.

Rise in Ransomware

Ransomware made big headlines in 2016, but far from being swiftly dealt with, it’s expected that ransomware attacks are going to rise in 2017. With the source code for ransomware software becoming readily available online, it’s encouraged hackers to become competitive and improve on each other’s brand of ransomware. When this is coupled with the relative ease that ransomware can generate revenue for the hacker, it’s no surprise that more and more attacks are on their way.

Big Data Causes More Risk

Big Data is causing huge ripples throughout the business community as it’s an approach which is focusing IT efforts on analyzing large sets of data to improve operations. However, as big data is so new, the business community doesn’t yet know how to marshal it efficiently.

With such huge data sets being openly shared between departments and businesses, the security of this data is being severely compromised. This presents a severe problem if security is breached due to the large amount of data at risk. Big Data needs to be correctly controlled and access restricted otherwise it will be in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Business Email Compromise (BEC) Scams

BEC scams hit businesses all over the world last year and some high profile names fell victim to this straightforward scam. By sending emails purporting to be from company CEOs, hackers have been able to con employees in to sending out either sensitive information or, in extreme cases, transfer bank funds. And, with pay outs from BEC scams reaching as high as $140,000, hackers are going to maximize their efforts on this simple and easy attack this year.

Internal Threats to Increase

Hackers are well aware that IT security teams are gradually getting better at blocking their attempts to infiltrate their defenses, so that’s why the hackers are turning to those on the inside. Sometimes this literally means teaming up with an employee on the inside to facilitate the theft of data. However, this inside threat can sometimes be the result of blackmail following the hacking of an employee’s social media account and the threat of revealing personal information. This is a difficult form of hacking to combat, but reinforces the need of good employee education on IT security in and out of the workplace.

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

« Previous 1 … 30 31 32 33 34 … 49 Next »

Tag Archives: security

Why Do IT Accounts Need to be Terminated Immediately?

How to Prevent Ex-Employees Accessing Your Networks

The Mamba Attack

Combatting Mamba