This document discusses targeted cyber attacks and the threats they pose to organizations. It notes that most organizations wrongly assume they will not be targeted, but that all organizations have some sensitive information that could be stolen in an attack. Examples of targeted attacks include industrial espionage, where documents are stolen to gain a competitive advantage. The document outlines some common attack vectors like email, network attacks, and instant messenger hacking. It stresses that minimizing exposure by reducing the network surface area and ensuring adequate security protections can help minimize the impact of an attack if one does occur. Detecting attacks early and having an incident response plan are also important.
The document discusses targeted cyber attacks and the dangers they pose to organizations. It notes that many organizations wrongly assume they will not be targeted, but that all organizations have confidential information worth stealing. Successful targeted attacks can allow thieves to access and steal sensitive internal data. Examples given include industrial espionage, where documents were stolen by hacking a database server, and spying by hacking an ex-partner's online accounts. The results of cyber attacks can include financial losses and damage to credibility for victims.
Cyber Defense for SMBs offers guidance to help small and medium-sized businesses identify the most cost-effective best practices to help improve their business’s cybersecurity posture. Published by the Florida Center For Cybersecurity and written by cybersecurity experts from academia, private industry, government and the military.
Cybersecurity professionals are in high demand due to the increasing number of cyber attacks. Their key responsibilities include protecting organizations' networks, infrastructure, and computer systems from threats by developing security architecture, managing security systems, conducting audits and maintaining security policies. However, there is a shortage of cybersecurity professionals as formal education is required and schools are not producing enough graduates to keep up with the growing need. Organizations can help address this shortage by expanding their hiring efforts beyond career fairs to include partnerships with universities, providing training and mentorship programs for new hires, and collaborating with other groups to generate interest in the field of cybersecurity.
Eamonn O Raghallaigh Major Security Issues In E CommerceEamonnORagh
The document discusses major security issues in e-commerce. It states that for any secure e-commerce system to function properly, it must ensure privacy, integrity, authentication, and non-repudiation of exchanged information. Technical attacks like denial of service attacks and non-technical attacks like phishing are challenging for e-commerce providers to defend against. Privacy is now an integral part of any e-commerce strategy, as investments in privacy protection have been shown to increase consumer spending, trust, and loyalty.
Prevention of Phishing Attacks Based on Discriminative Key Point Features of ...CSCJournals
Phishing is the combination of social engineering and technical exploits designed to convince a victim to provide personal information, usually for the monetary gain of the attacker (Phisher). Attempts to stop phishing by preventing a user from interacting with a malicious web site have shown to be ineffective. In this paper, present an effective image-based anti-phishing scheme based on discriminative key point features in WebPages. We use an invariant content descriptor, the Contrast Context Histogram (CCH), to compute the similarity degree between suspicious pages and authentic pages. To determine whether two images are similar, a common approach involves extracting a vector of salient features from each image, and computing the distance between the vectors, which is taken as the degree of visual difference between the two images. The results show that the proposed scheme achieves high accuracy and low error rates.
June 2017 - Your Biggest Risk Could Be Youseadeloitte
This document discusses various cybersecurity risks including cyber theft, identity theft, cyberbullying, ransomware, social engineering attacks like phishing and pretexting, oversharing on social media, and the importance of employee training. It provides examples of cyber attacks involving the theft of $81 million from Bangladeshi banks, crypto-ransomware causing $325 million in damages, and a sophisticated phishing campaign targeting Gmail users. The document emphasizes that cyber attacks can have devastating financial and reputational impacts and that individuals and organizations must take steps to strengthen cyber defenses.
Bitly notified users of a breach after discovering compromised account credentials. It disabled Facebook and Twitter accounts and urged users to reset passwords. An investigation found an insider compromised an employee account, highlighting the risk of weak internal security. EBay also disclosed a breach, asking 145 million users to change passwords after hackers accessed a database with personal data by compromising employee login credentials. Multiple US states launched investigations in response. Additionally, the US charged five Chinese military members with cyber espionage and theft of trade secrets from six American companies between 2006-2014 during business disputes with Chinese firms. Wells Fargo reported elevated threat levels from ransomware, potential financial sector attacks, and exploits of OpenSSL and Microsoft vulnerabilities. It emphasized the importance of information security
The document discusses targeted cyber attacks and the dangers they pose to organizations. It notes that many organizations wrongly assume they will not be targeted, but that all organizations have confidential information worth stealing. Successful targeted attacks can allow thieves to access and steal sensitive internal data. Examples given include industrial espionage, where documents were stolen by hacking a database server, and spying by hacking an ex-partner's online accounts. The results of cyber attacks can include financial losses and damage to credibility for victims.
Cyber Defense for SMBs offers guidance to help small and medium-sized businesses identify the most cost-effective best practices to help improve their business’s cybersecurity posture. Published by the Florida Center For Cybersecurity and written by cybersecurity experts from academia, private industry, government and the military.
Cybersecurity professionals are in high demand due to the increasing number of cyber attacks. Their key responsibilities include protecting organizations' networks, infrastructure, and computer systems from threats by developing security architecture, managing security systems, conducting audits and maintaining security policies. However, there is a shortage of cybersecurity professionals as formal education is required and schools are not producing enough graduates to keep up with the growing need. Organizations can help address this shortage by expanding their hiring efforts beyond career fairs to include partnerships with universities, providing training and mentorship programs for new hires, and collaborating with other groups to generate interest in the field of cybersecurity.
Eamonn O Raghallaigh Major Security Issues In E CommerceEamonnORagh
The document discusses major security issues in e-commerce. It states that for any secure e-commerce system to function properly, it must ensure privacy, integrity, authentication, and non-repudiation of exchanged information. Technical attacks like denial of service attacks and non-technical attacks like phishing are challenging for e-commerce providers to defend against. Privacy is now an integral part of any e-commerce strategy, as investments in privacy protection have been shown to increase consumer spending, trust, and loyalty.
Prevention of Phishing Attacks Based on Discriminative Key Point Features of ...CSCJournals
Phishing is the combination of social engineering and technical exploits designed to convince a victim to provide personal information, usually for the monetary gain of the attacker (Phisher). Attempts to stop phishing by preventing a user from interacting with a malicious web site have shown to be ineffective. In this paper, present an effective image-based anti-phishing scheme based on discriminative key point features in WebPages. We use an invariant content descriptor, the Contrast Context Histogram (CCH), to compute the similarity degree between suspicious pages and authentic pages. To determine whether two images are similar, a common approach involves extracting a vector of salient features from each image, and computing the distance between the vectors, which is taken as the degree of visual difference between the two images. The results show that the proposed scheme achieves high accuracy and low error rates.
June 2017 - Your Biggest Risk Could Be Youseadeloitte
This document discusses various cybersecurity risks including cyber theft, identity theft, cyberbullying, ransomware, social engineering attacks like phishing and pretexting, oversharing on social media, and the importance of employee training. It provides examples of cyber attacks involving the theft of $81 million from Bangladeshi banks, crypto-ransomware causing $325 million in damages, and a sophisticated phishing campaign targeting Gmail users. The document emphasizes that cyber attacks can have devastating financial and reputational impacts and that individuals and organizations must take steps to strengthen cyber defenses.
Bitly notified users of a breach after discovering compromised account credentials. It disabled Facebook and Twitter accounts and urged users to reset passwords. An investigation found an insider compromised an employee account, highlighting the risk of weak internal security. EBay also disclosed a breach, asking 145 million users to change passwords after hackers accessed a database with personal data by compromising employee login credentials. Multiple US states launched investigations in response. Additionally, the US charged five Chinese military members with cyber espionage and theft of trade secrets from six American companies between 2006-2014 during business disputes with Chinese firms. Wells Fargo reported elevated threat levels from ransomware, potential financial sector attacks, and exploits of OpenSSL and Microsoft vulnerabilities. It emphasized the importance of information security
What i learned at the infosecurity isaca north america expo and conference 2019Ulf Mattsson
Infosecurity ISACA North America Expo and Conference will debut in New York City’s Javits Convention Center 20-21 November 2019. The event will leverage ISACA’s Cybersecurity Nexus (CSX) community and solutions with Infosecurity Group, Reed Exhibition’s immersive event series staged worldwide for the infosecurity industry.
Download Event Brochure
ISACA will bring experience developed since the 2015 launch of its CSX Conferences, expert workshop series, certification preparation sessions, and latest developments related to the CSX Training Platform, all to the new event programming. Infosecurity, which entered the North American conference arena in 2017, will build on its strengths in industry expositions, media, immersive learning and leadership networks.
The document discusses how to protect personal information online. It notes that while the internet allows many opportunities, personal data like social security numbers, bank accounts, credit cards and health information are worth protecting. The biggest risk is identity theft, where criminals use stolen information to impersonate victims. Simple steps like using strong passwords of at least 11 characters mixing letters, numbers and symbols, being careful what personal details are shared publicly, and only entering account details on secure websites can help reduce risks. Overall the document provides tips for safe internet use while avoiding living in fear online.
This document discusses threats in social media according to a 2019 study. It finds that most adults use social media daily and have privacy/security concerns. Facebook is the most popular platform but 2 in 5 users are very concerned about privacy/security on it, and 1 in 5 have stopped using it due to such concerns. The document outlines key social media threats like data breaches, phishing/malware, catfishing/deception, and cyberbullying. It provides examples of each and advises users to take precautions like using strong passwords and privacy settings.
The document summarizes key points about privacy in e-commerce from a presentation given by Aleksandr Yampolskiy, head of security and compliance at Gilt Groupe. It discusses how much personal information is readily available online, the difference between privacy and security, why people disclose personal information, challenges with privacy in e-commerce, and solutions companies can implement like having a clear privacy policy and controlling access to customer data.
BioConnect is a new system that uses facial recognition and mobile device MAC addresses to authorize Wi-Fi access. It collects facial images and MAC addresses, storing them along with a unique user ID. Only authorized BioConnect security staff have access to the encrypted data store and activity is logged. While data is normally not shared, some environments may share the data store with law enforcement to monitor for terrorists. A privacy impact assessment was conducted due to the collection and matching of individuals' images and device identifiers.
Presented at the 29th Annual FMA Conference
Topics:
> Raise awareness of the emerging trends in cybersecurity, such as the threats and the potential cost that a breach could have on your organization
> Establish an understanding of what your organization and board can do to reduce the likelihood and impact of a breach
> Identify key characteristics and aspects within an incident/breach response plan and how this plan will reduce the impact of the unfortunate event
This document outlines an agenda for a two-day training on web application hacking. Day one covers topics like internet crime and motivation for web security, the OWASP top 10 list of vulnerabilities, HTTP and HTML, and Google hacking. Day two covers fingerprinting web servers, basic and advanced web application hacking techniques, and automated tool sets. The document provides background on why web application security is important given the prevalence of attacks on the application layer and examples of recent hacks. It establishes that web applications need to be secured as they now control valuable data and have become attractive targets for criminals.
This presentation covers the current and future exposures that construction-related firms face related to cyber incidents. In addition, it covers how insurance carriers view underwriting cyber risks in the current market. Finally, the presentation provides an overview on how firms can prevent and repsond to cyber incidents.
The document discusses the evolving cyber security landscape for businesses. It notes that cyber breaches are increasingly difficult to prevent and that companies must focus on managing breaches when they occur. It highlights how the role of the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) is growing in importance to handle cyber security at a strategic level. The article also reports the results of a survey that found many companies have cyber security policies and response plans in place, but room for improvement remains, especially in better coordinating legal, IT, and security teams.
What Are The Pitfalls Of People Analytics And Data-Driven HR? Bernard Marr
As HR departments and people functions are becoming more analytical and data-driven, there are some important pitfalls to watch out for. Here we look at the key ones.
The document discusses e-commerce security and payment systems. It covers various security threats like hacking, malware, and data breaches. It then summarizes different technological solutions for securing e-commerce transactions and communication channels, including encryption, digital signatures, firewalls, and anti-virus software. Finally, it discusses the importance of management policies, business procedures, and public laws in managing security risks.
This document discusses security vulnerabilities in e-commerce systems. It begins by defining e-commerce and outlining the key players - shoppers, merchants, software vendors, and attackers. It then examines common vulnerabilities like SQL injection, cross-site scripting, information disclosure, and path disclosure. The document argues that attacks are appealing to criminals because of the low costs and high potential payoffs compared to traditional crimes. In conclusion, the document analyzes different points in e-commerce systems like the shopper, server, and connections that attackers can potentially target.
The document discusses various cybersecurity threats faced by organizations and provides recommendations to help protect against these threats. It describes examples of companies that suffered damages from cyber attacks like data theft and malware infections. Common cyber attacks mentioned include computer viruses, trojan horses, password grabbing, and phishing scams. The document recommends practices like security awareness training, firewalls, regular software updates, and data backups to help prevent cyber attacks. It warns about risks of using public wireless networks and potential scams targeting businesses.
White Paper - Nuix Cybersecurity - US LocalizedStuart Clarke
This white paper discusses adopting a "good shepherd model" for cybersecurity to minimize potential damage from data breaches. It recommends knowing where important data is stored, understanding its value, and protecting it accordingly. This involves four activities: 1) defensibly deleting low-value data to reduce investigation scope; 2) locating high-value records and moving them to secure repositories; 3) protecting high-risk private data with encryption and access controls; and 4) applying policies and audits to ensure only authorized users can access important data. Through these efforts, organizations can understand their data worth and reduce opportunities for breaches of important information.
IRJET-Content based approach for Detection of Phishing SitesIRJET Journal
Anjali Gupta, Juili Joshi, Khyati Thakker, Chitra bhole "Content based approach for Detection of Phishing Sites", International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET), Volume2,issue-01 April 2015.e-ISSN:2395-0056, p-ISSN:2395-0072. www.irjet.net
Abstract
Phishing is a significant problem involving fraudulent email and web sites that trick unsuspecting users into revealing private information. In this paper, we present the design, implementation, and evaluation of content-based approach to detecting phishing web sites. We also discuss the design and evaluation of several heuristics we developed to reduce false positives. Our experiments show that CANTINA is good at detecting phishing sites, correctly labeling approximately 95% of phishing sites.We are going to implement Revelation of Masquerade Attacks: A Content-Based Approach to Detecting Phishing Web Sites using PHP & MYSQL.Our system will crawl the original site of bank and it will retrieve all URL’s, location of bank’s server and whois information. If user get any email with phishing attack link. Then our system will take that url as input and crawl the link, retrieve all url’s and system will compare these url’s with original banks url database, try to find url’s are similar or not. Then system will find location of Phishing link URL and compare location with original banks location. After that system will find out Whois information of URL.System will analyze the information and show the results to the user.
This document summarizes security breaches of personal health information that were reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2009 and 2010. It provides two tables listing over 50 security breaches in the United States during these years, with the state, approximate number of individuals affected, and date of each breach. The greatest losses from security breaches result from unauthorized access, modification or theft of confidential information, as well as lack of data availability. Protecting the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data is important for database security.
This document proposes a framework called TarGuess for targeted online password guessing. TarGuess characterizes targeted guessing scenarios using seven mathematical models based on different types of information available to attackers, such as leaked passwords and personal information. Experiments on real-world password datasets show that TarGuess outperforms existing approaches for targeted guessing. In particular, TarGuess models I-IV capture the most common scenarios and achieve success rates over 32% for security-savvy users and over 73% for normal users within 100 guesses. This framework addresses targeted online guessing more effectively than prior work by considering factors like password reuse, personal information usage, and context-dependent transformation rules.
A Guide to Internet Security For Businesses- Business.comBusiness.com
Recent revelations by National Security Agency (NSA) renegade contractor Edward Snowden have resulted in many businesses paying more attention to how secure their computer systems are. But even the most “cyber-savvy” businesses can have their computer networks hacked and compromised. Use this whitepaper to understand your threats, protective options, and trends in internet security for businesses.
Large organizations are vulnerable to hackers for several reasons: there are many potential opportunities for hackers due to increased internet usage; hackers have financial and competitive motives; and hacking can be discreet and go undetected for long periods. Additionally, large companies often lack regular monitoring for threats and many individual employees have poor cybersecurity practices like using weak passwords.
What i learned at the infosecurity isaca north america expo and conference 2019Ulf Mattsson
Infosecurity ISACA North America Expo and Conference will debut in New York City’s Javits Convention Center 20-21 November 2019. The event will leverage ISACA’s Cybersecurity Nexus (CSX) community and solutions with Infosecurity Group, Reed Exhibition’s immersive event series staged worldwide for the infosecurity industry.
Download Event Brochure
ISACA will bring experience developed since the 2015 launch of its CSX Conferences, expert workshop series, certification preparation sessions, and latest developments related to the CSX Training Platform, all to the new event programming. Infosecurity, which entered the North American conference arena in 2017, will build on its strengths in industry expositions, media, immersive learning and leadership networks.
The document discusses how to protect personal information online. It notes that while the internet allows many opportunities, personal data like social security numbers, bank accounts, credit cards and health information are worth protecting. The biggest risk is identity theft, where criminals use stolen information to impersonate victims. Simple steps like using strong passwords of at least 11 characters mixing letters, numbers and symbols, being careful what personal details are shared publicly, and only entering account details on secure websites can help reduce risks. Overall the document provides tips for safe internet use while avoiding living in fear online.
This document discusses threats in social media according to a 2019 study. It finds that most adults use social media daily and have privacy/security concerns. Facebook is the most popular platform but 2 in 5 users are very concerned about privacy/security on it, and 1 in 5 have stopped using it due to such concerns. The document outlines key social media threats like data breaches, phishing/malware, catfishing/deception, and cyberbullying. It provides examples of each and advises users to take precautions like using strong passwords and privacy settings.
The document summarizes key points about privacy in e-commerce from a presentation given by Aleksandr Yampolskiy, head of security and compliance at Gilt Groupe. It discusses how much personal information is readily available online, the difference between privacy and security, why people disclose personal information, challenges with privacy in e-commerce, and solutions companies can implement like having a clear privacy policy and controlling access to customer data.
BioConnect is a new system that uses facial recognition and mobile device MAC addresses to authorize Wi-Fi access. It collects facial images and MAC addresses, storing them along with a unique user ID. Only authorized BioConnect security staff have access to the encrypted data store and activity is logged. While data is normally not shared, some environments may share the data store with law enforcement to monitor for terrorists. A privacy impact assessment was conducted due to the collection and matching of individuals' images and device identifiers.
Presented at the 29th Annual FMA Conference
Topics:
> Raise awareness of the emerging trends in cybersecurity, such as the threats and the potential cost that a breach could have on your organization
> Establish an understanding of what your organization and board can do to reduce the likelihood and impact of a breach
> Identify key characteristics and aspects within an incident/breach response plan and how this plan will reduce the impact of the unfortunate event
This document outlines an agenda for a two-day training on web application hacking. Day one covers topics like internet crime and motivation for web security, the OWASP top 10 list of vulnerabilities, HTTP and HTML, and Google hacking. Day two covers fingerprinting web servers, basic and advanced web application hacking techniques, and automated tool sets. The document provides background on why web application security is important given the prevalence of attacks on the application layer and examples of recent hacks. It establishes that web applications need to be secured as they now control valuable data and have become attractive targets for criminals.
This presentation covers the current and future exposures that construction-related firms face related to cyber incidents. In addition, it covers how insurance carriers view underwriting cyber risks in the current market. Finally, the presentation provides an overview on how firms can prevent and repsond to cyber incidents.
The document discusses the evolving cyber security landscape for businesses. It notes that cyber breaches are increasingly difficult to prevent and that companies must focus on managing breaches when they occur. It highlights how the role of the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) is growing in importance to handle cyber security at a strategic level. The article also reports the results of a survey that found many companies have cyber security policies and response plans in place, but room for improvement remains, especially in better coordinating legal, IT, and security teams.
What Are The Pitfalls Of People Analytics And Data-Driven HR? Bernard Marr
As HR departments and people functions are becoming more analytical and data-driven, there are some important pitfalls to watch out for. Here we look at the key ones.
The document discusses e-commerce security and payment systems. It covers various security threats like hacking, malware, and data breaches. It then summarizes different technological solutions for securing e-commerce transactions and communication channels, including encryption, digital signatures, firewalls, and anti-virus software. Finally, it discusses the importance of management policies, business procedures, and public laws in managing security risks.
This document discusses security vulnerabilities in e-commerce systems. It begins by defining e-commerce and outlining the key players - shoppers, merchants, software vendors, and attackers. It then examines common vulnerabilities like SQL injection, cross-site scripting, information disclosure, and path disclosure. The document argues that attacks are appealing to criminals because of the low costs and high potential payoffs compared to traditional crimes. In conclusion, the document analyzes different points in e-commerce systems like the shopper, server, and connections that attackers can potentially target.
The document discusses various cybersecurity threats faced by organizations and provides recommendations to help protect against these threats. It describes examples of companies that suffered damages from cyber attacks like data theft and malware infections. Common cyber attacks mentioned include computer viruses, trojan horses, password grabbing, and phishing scams. The document recommends practices like security awareness training, firewalls, regular software updates, and data backups to help prevent cyber attacks. It warns about risks of using public wireless networks and potential scams targeting businesses.
White Paper - Nuix Cybersecurity - US LocalizedStuart Clarke
This white paper discusses adopting a "good shepherd model" for cybersecurity to minimize potential damage from data breaches. It recommends knowing where important data is stored, understanding its value, and protecting it accordingly. This involves four activities: 1) defensibly deleting low-value data to reduce investigation scope; 2) locating high-value records and moving them to secure repositories; 3) protecting high-risk private data with encryption and access controls; and 4) applying policies and audits to ensure only authorized users can access important data. Through these efforts, organizations can understand their data worth and reduce opportunities for breaches of important information.
IRJET-Content based approach for Detection of Phishing SitesIRJET Journal
Anjali Gupta, Juili Joshi, Khyati Thakker, Chitra bhole "Content based approach for Detection of Phishing Sites", International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET), Volume2,issue-01 April 2015.e-ISSN:2395-0056, p-ISSN:2395-0072. www.irjet.net
Abstract
Phishing is a significant problem involving fraudulent email and web sites that trick unsuspecting users into revealing private information. In this paper, we present the design, implementation, and evaluation of content-based approach to detecting phishing web sites. We also discuss the design and evaluation of several heuristics we developed to reduce false positives. Our experiments show that CANTINA is good at detecting phishing sites, correctly labeling approximately 95% of phishing sites.We are going to implement Revelation of Masquerade Attacks: A Content-Based Approach to Detecting Phishing Web Sites using PHP & MYSQL.Our system will crawl the original site of bank and it will retrieve all URL’s, location of bank’s server and whois information. If user get any email with phishing attack link. Then our system will take that url as input and crawl the link, retrieve all url’s and system will compare these url’s with original banks url database, try to find url’s are similar or not. Then system will find location of Phishing link URL and compare location with original banks location. After that system will find out Whois information of URL.System will analyze the information and show the results to the user.
This document summarizes security breaches of personal health information that were reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2009 and 2010. It provides two tables listing over 50 security breaches in the United States during these years, with the state, approximate number of individuals affected, and date of each breach. The greatest losses from security breaches result from unauthorized access, modification or theft of confidential information, as well as lack of data availability. Protecting the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data is important for database security.
This document proposes a framework called TarGuess for targeted online password guessing. TarGuess characterizes targeted guessing scenarios using seven mathematical models based on different types of information available to attackers, such as leaked passwords and personal information. Experiments on real-world password datasets show that TarGuess outperforms existing approaches for targeted guessing. In particular, TarGuess models I-IV capture the most common scenarios and achieve success rates over 32% for security-savvy users and over 73% for normal users within 100 guesses. This framework addresses targeted online guessing more effectively than prior work by considering factors like password reuse, personal information usage, and context-dependent transformation rules.
A Guide to Internet Security For Businesses- Business.comBusiness.com
Recent revelations by National Security Agency (NSA) renegade contractor Edward Snowden have resulted in many businesses paying more attention to how secure their computer systems are. But even the most “cyber-savvy” businesses can have their computer networks hacked and compromised. Use this whitepaper to understand your threats, protective options, and trends in internet security for businesses.
Large organizations are vulnerable to hackers for several reasons: there are many potential opportunities for hackers due to increased internet usage; hackers have financial and competitive motives; and hacking can be discreet and go undetected for long periods. Additionally, large companies often lack regular monitoring for threats and many individual employees have poor cybersecurity practices like using weak passwords.
Why is cyber security a disruption in the digital economyMark Albala
As we enter the digital economy, companies will quickly realize that the differentiator in the digital economy is information and information being a valuable resource is subject to theft, hacking, phishing and a host of other issues which compromise a company’s ability to participate in the digital economy. Cybersecurity misfires compromise the trust of buyers and partners necessary to participate in the digital economy. It is up to every company to ensure that the information shared with them is protected to the best of their ability and proactively notify persons and organizations who entrust their information necessary to transact business (any personal identity information including but not limited to addresses, credit card information, social security numbers, account information, credit information, medical records, etc.) with any potential compromises which can yield harm to them by that information either being used maliciously or shared with others.
The digital economy is different than other versions of commerce because in the digital economy, information is the lifeblood of digital commerce that passes through the hands of many platforms involved in a digital event. Each of these platforms are an opportunity to wreak havoc on your well-intended but incomplete intents to protect the information contained within the network you control. In the digital economy, it is not only the network you control, but the platforms that touch the personal data entrusted to you as a means of enabling digital commerce, and several techniques have begun to emerge to protect personal information contained within your information domain and the domain of platforms participating in digital commerce.
Because the life blood of the digital economy is information, information hacked in the digital economy is akin to shrinkage in the legacy economy. Both are means to directly attack your bottom line, whether it is redirecting customers elsewhere because they don’t trust your privacy program, ransomware which makes your site or one of your partner platform sites dangerous to use or some other reason which challenges your ability to participate in the digital economy. Shrinking the potential market share because of information safety and security challenges is a disruption, making cyber-security a disruptive activity, particularly if it is not dealt with swiftly.
If your cyber-security program is focused entirely on protecting the information housed in your four walls, you have exposed yourself to problems you will have difficulty in identifying both the source and the entry point of these issues.
1. The document discusses cybercrime, defining it as any illegal act involving computers, the internet, or networks. This includes both crimes against individuals like identity theft and cyberstalking as well as crimes against organizations like hacking and industrial espionage.
2. Several types of cybercrimes are described in detail, such as phishing, spamming, data diddling, and cyberdefamation. Cybercrimes can be committed across jurisdictions without physical presence.
3. Cybercriminals are classified into those seeking recognition, those not seeking recognition, and insiders. Cybercrimes are also classified based on the target - individuals, property, organizations, or society.
Technological Threats to Businesses (Independent Study)Gerard Keenan
The document discusses various technological threats faced by businesses. Cybercrime poses a major risk and can result in financial losses and reputational damage as seen with the Sony hack. The rise of bring your own devices increases risks of data loss and leaks. Social media needs careful management to avoid damaging incidents, but mistakes are easily made as shown by American Apparel. Email threats like malware aim to steal sensitive data and drain bank accounts. Businesses must implement security measures and manage risks on an ongoing basis to protect against evolving technological dangers.
The document discusses insider threats and how to mitigate them. It covers how insider threats can come from employees with malicious intent, but also from inadvertent actions like clicking a phishing link. Insider threats also include third party contractors who are given access to networks. The document provides recommendations for organizations to mitigate insider threats such as conducting background checks, monitoring unusual employee behavior, and escorting outsiders within the company's physical sites. It also discusses the ongoing threat of spam being used to distribute malware and how organizations need to protect their users from inadvertently enabling attacks through emails.
The document discusses insider threats and how to mitigate them. It covers how insider threats can come from employees with malicious intent, but also from inadvertent actions like clicking a phishing link. Insider threats also include third party contractors who are given access to networks. The document provides recommendations for organizations to mitigate insider threats such as conducting background checks, monitoring unusual employee behavior, and escorting outsiders within the company's physical sites. It also discusses the ongoing threat of spam distribution of malware and how organizations need to ensure all users remain vigilant against phishing attempts.
Many security breaches we saw in the past few years and how it affect the number of businesses it include large and small businesses. We will study what is breach and how it will effect on our business and what are the main causes of it. Why social media account is harm for us and how the largest organizations got breached and how would we stop to get breach our data. Our main target Is related to business it could be small or large business. We will discuss that how companies got lost their reputation because of data breach and how much companies got loss of money it include the organization that we all are known about it like Facebook.
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Small businesses are appealing targets for cyberattacks due to having more digital assets than individual consumers but less security than larger enterprises. Common cyberattacks against small businesses include phishing, ransomware, and malware which aim to steal sensitive data. While large breaches make headlines, over 60% of data breach victims are small businesses. It is important for small businesses to implement cybersecurity best practices such as keeping software updated, educating employees, having formal security policies, and purchasing cybersecurity insurance to protect against the costs of a breach.
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Information Security Issues Faced by Organizations In any organization, Information Security threats may be many like Software assaults, theft of intellectual belongings, identity robbery, theft of gadget or statistics, sabotage, and facts extortion. A risk can be something which could take gain of a vulnerability to breach security and negatively adjust, erase, damage object or gadgets of interest. Software attacks imply an attack by Viruses, Worms, Trojan Horses and so forth. Many customers consider that malware, virus, worms, bots are all the same matters. But they're now not identical, the simplest similarity is that they all are malicious software program that behaves differently. Apart from these threats, there are some headache information security threats they are: Cyberattack Threats: - Cyber-attacks are, of course, establishments’ pinnacle problem. There are many methods cybercriminals can target companies. Each will motive distinct types of harm and need to be defended in opposition to in one-of-a-kind methods. Some attacks, consisting of phishing campaigns, are typically designed to thieve private information. Others, such as ransomware and denial-of-carrier assaults, have several feasible pursuits, ranging from extorting cash to disrupting business operations for political reasons. Cyber threats, unfortunately, are getting an increasing number of risks in these days clever international. But what precisely is cyber risk? A cyber threat is an act or viable act which intends to scouse borrow records (non-public or in any other case), damage records or motive a few types of digital damage. Today, the time period is nearly exclusively used to explain records safety topics. Because it’s tough to visualize how digital signals touring throughout a cord can represent an assault, we’ve taken to visualizing the virtual phenomenon as a bodily one. A cyber-attack is an assault this is hooked up in opposition to a corporation (that means our digital gadgets) making use of cyberspace. Cyberspace, a digital space that doesn’t exist, has grown to be the metaphor to assist us to understand virtual weaponry that intends to harm us. What is actual, but, is the purpose of the attacker as well as the potential impact. While many cyberattacks are mere nuisances, a few are quite serious, even potentially threatening human lives. Malware: - Software that plays a malicious project on a goal tool or community, e.g. Corrupting facts or taking on a machine. Ransomware: - An attack that involves encrypting information on the goal system and traumatic a ransom in alternate for letting the consumer has got right of entry to the facts again. These assaults range from low-level nuisances to severe incidents just like the locking do.
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Cyber Research Proposal
Cybersecurity in business
Introduction
Because of today's international economy, securing a company's intellectual property, financial information, and good name is critical for the company's long-term survival and growth. However, with the rise in risks and cyber vulnerability, most businesses find it difficult to keep up with the competition. Since their inception, most companies have reported 16% fraud, 37.7% financial losses, and an average of over 11% share value loss, according to data compiled by the US security. Most corporations and governments are working hard to keep their customers and residents safe from harm. There are both physical and cybersecurity risks involved with these threats. According to a recent study, many company owners aren't aware of the full scope of cybersecurity. People who own their businesses must deal with various issues daily.
Nevertheless, steps are being taken to address these issues. Customers and the company are likely to be protected by the measures adopted. Cybersecurity is one of the most pressing issues facing organizations today. Leaks of a company's intellectual property and other secrets may have devastating effects on its operations, as competitors and rivals will do all in their power to stop them. is an excellent illustration of this. This is perhaps the most talked-about security compromise of the year [footnoteRef:3]. The firm was severely damaged because of this. [1: "Database security attacks and control methods."] [2:q "Comprehending the IoT cyber threat landscape: A data dimensionality reduction technique to infer and characterize Internet-scale IoT probing campaigns."] [3: "The Equifax data breach: What cpas and firms need to know now." ]
Some individuals take advantage of clients by stealing highly important information to profit financially from their actions. For example, if the wrong individuals get their hands on your credit card information, you're in serious trouble since you might lose money. Some families lose all their resources, while others are forced to declare bankruptcy after being financially stable for a long period. Many of the findings of this study will be focused on cybersecurity and the sources of cybersecurity risks. The paper outlines a few of the issues and solutions that organizations may use to keep their operations and consumers safe from exploiting dishonest individuals.
Research question
According to the most recent study, more than 1500 companies have been exposed to some cybersecurity assault[footnoteRef:4]. This research details the specific types of attacks that have occurred. Organizational operations are affected, as is corporate governance, and the internal management of financial status is rendered ineffective due to these assaults. The question that will be investigated during the study is: [4: "Towards blockchain-based identity and access management for internet of things in enterprises."]
How doe ...
1
2
Cyber Research Proposal
Cybersecurity in business
Introduction
Because of today's international economy, securing a company's intellectual property, financial information, and good name is critical for the company's long-term survival and growth. However, with the rise in risks and cyber vulnerability, most businesses find it difficult to keep up with the competition. Since their inception, most companies have reported 16% fraud, 37.7% financial losses, and an average of over 11% share value loss, according to data compiled by the US security. Most corporations and governments are working hard to keep their customers and residents safe from harm. There are both physical and cybersecurity risks involved with these threats. According to a recent study, many company owners aren't aware of the full scope of cybersecurity. People who own their businesses must deal with various issues daily.
Nevertheless, steps are being taken to address these issues. Customers and the company are likely to be protected by the measures adopted. Cybersecurity is one of the most pressing issues facing organizations today. Leaks of a company's intellectual property and other secrets may have devastating effects on its operations, as competitors and rivals will do all in their power to stop them. is an excellent illustration of this. This is perhaps the most talked-about security compromise of the year [footnoteRef:3]. The firm was severely damaged because of this. [1: "Database security attacks and control methods."] [2:q "Comprehending the IoT cyber threat landscape: A data dimensionality reduction technique to infer and characterize Internet-scale IoT probing campaigns."] [3: "The Equifax data breach: What cpas and firms need to know now." ]
Some individuals take advantage of clients by stealing highly important information to profit financially from their actions. For example, if the wrong individuals get their hands on your credit card information, you're in serious trouble since you might lose money. Some families lose all their resources, while others are forced to declare bankruptcy after being financially stable for a long period. Many of the findings of this study will be focused on cybersecurity and the sources of cybersecurity risks. The paper outlines a few of the issues and solutions that organizations may use to keep their operations and consumers safe from exploiting dishonest individuals.
Research question
According to the most recent study, more than 1500 companies have been exposed to some cybersecurity assault[footnoteRef:4]. This research details the specific types of attacks that have occurred. Organizational operations are affected, as is corporate governance, and the internal management of financial status is rendered ineffective due to these assaults. The question that will be investigated during the study is: [4: "Towards blockchain-based identity and access management for internet of things in enterprises."]
How doe ...
The document discusses various topics related to computer ethics. It begins by defining computer ethics as enforcing ethical implementation and use of computing resources through avoiding copyright infringement and unauthorized distribution of digital content. It then lists 10 commandments of computer ethics established by the Computer Ethics Institute in 1992. Some concepts that can lead to unethical computer use discussed include data stealing, cybercrime, hacking, and embezzlement. Cybercrime refers to criminal acts involving computers or networks. Common types of cybercrime are hacking, stealing software/data, and identity theft. Data theft is also common using devices like USB drives to copy large amounts of data. Hacking involves exploiting security weaknesses for unauthorized access, while social engineering and malware attacks are other risks.
August 2017 - Anatomy of a Cyber Attackerseadeloitte
This document discusses different types of cyber attackers:
- White hat hackers work legally with permission to find security vulnerabilities and help organizations. Examples include Steve Wozniak and Linus Torvalds.
- Black hat hackers exploit vulnerabilities illegally for personal gain or malicious reasons, like Vladimir Levin and Lizard Squad.
- Grey hat hackers toe the line of ethics and sometimes commit crimes covertly without notifying administrators. Examples are Robert Morris and Kevin Mitnick.
- Hacktivism involves hacking to convey social/political messages, such as Anonymous website defacements to oppose censorship.
Cybersecurity - you are being targeted -Keyven Lewis, CMIT SOLUTIONSRandall Chase
cybersecurity - You Are Being Targeted
Business executive with high-level management and hands-on analytical skill sets and over 27 years of professional experience in technical solutions and service offering development and implementation, organizational strategies for efficiency, cost controls, and bottom-line profitability, multi-million dollar enterprise-wide client engagements, compliance with schedule, budget, and quality requirements, hiring and leadership of high-performance IT employees.
Keyven Lewis, CMIT SOLUTIONS- Cybersecurity - You Are Being Targeted.
An overview to help SMB owners understand the dynamics (exp. the who, the why, and the how) of cybersecurity as it relates to their business.
Ethical hacking involves evaluating systems for security vulnerabilities to help protect organizations from criminal hackers. Ethical hackers must be completely trustworthy and skilled in various techniques to test security without harming clients' systems or interests. They seek to answer questions like what intruders can access, what they can do with that information, and whether intrusions would be noticed. An evaluation plan outlines the systems to be tested and any limitations to protect both clients and ethical hackers from legal issues that could arise from security testing activities.
2024 Cyber Threats: What's New and What You Should Keep an Eye On!Alec Kassir cozmozone
Individuals, businesses, whether small or big, governments, and groups have adopted the computer system to ease work. These systems have to be protected from various threats on the internet or people with ill intentions to infiltrate the systems.
The document discusses a proposal to allow private companies to conduct cyber retaliation against foreign attackers. It summarizes the key challenges with this approach, including: [1] It is difficult to accurately identify attackers due to use of compromised systems. [2] Most companies lack the expertise and resources to conduct effective counterattacks. [3] Allowing private retaliation could escalate tensions and cause international incidents. While improved cyber defense is needed, alternative approaches may be better than outsourcing retaliation to private companies.
Cyber attacks targeting small businesses are common. This document outlines cybersecurity best practices for small-to-medium sized businesses to protect themselves, including ensuring proper employee training on phishing, maintaining updated software and passwords, using VPNs and HTTPS, avoiding risky networks and software, following incident response plans, and understanding common attack types like phishing, XSS, and botnets. Failure to implement proper security measures could lead to data breaches, network compromise, and the business going out of business within six months.
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The document provides information on financial markets and how they work. It defines financial markets as markets that allow for the exchange of financial assets like shares, bonds, and government securities. Financial markets provide both short-term and long-term funds for investors and borrowers. The key types of financial markets discussed are the money market, which deals in short-term debt instruments, and the capital market, which deals in medium-to-long term instruments like stocks and bonds. Important components of these markets include primary markets for new securities issues, and secondary markets like stock exchanges for trading existing securities.
This document provides a summary of success quotes from various self-help authors including Anthony Robbins, Dr. Stephen Covey, Brian Tracy, and others. It encourages the reader to take massive action towards their goals and dreams. It emphasizes that our beliefs shape our reality and that we must change limiting beliefs. It also stresses the importance of commitment, developing a growth mindset, and becoming the type of person you want to be through self-development.
This document contains 47 logic and reasoning puzzles with solutions. The puzzles cover a wide range of topics and difficulty levels, including sequences, probabilities, time/speed/distance word problems, and more. The goal is to test logical thinking and problem solving skills.
This document provides an overview of human resource management (HRM). It discusses the nature and definition of HRM, as well as the development of the field over time from the Trade Union Movement era to more modern approaches like the Contingency Approach. Key aspects of HRM covered include its importance to organizations and society, definitions from various sources, the significance of human resources as assets, and the relevance of HRM in today's changing business environment with its focus on managing change, developing competence, and achieving competitive advantage through people.
This document is a summary of a global survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers on behalf of the World Federation of Personnel Management Associations regarding human resources challenges faced in the past, present, and future. The survey found that the top challenges currently faced globally are change management, leadership development, and measuring HR effectiveness. Three years ago the key challenges were change management, compensation, and leadership development. Organizational effectiveness is expected to be a major challenge in the next three years.
This document provides definitions for various marketing terms and concepts, with examples of how they relate to or could be applied in library contexts. It includes over 50 terms defined, from "access" to "zoning". The definitions are extracted from marketing references and revised to use library terminology. The document is intended as a glossary for those in the library field seeking to better understand marketing concepts.
The document discusses the mathematics of astrology and house division in astrology. It provides an overview of astrology, including different genres and the geocentric vs heliocentric models. It describes the formalism of astrology including basic terminology related to the celestial sphere. It discusses the planets and their retrograde movements. It explains the zodiac, including the constellations, signs of the zodiac and their astrological meanings. It then focuses on house division in astrology, describing house terminology and different systems of house division, and some mathematical problems with house division related to uneven probability densities and the polar problem.
This document discusses various calendars used for recording dates of birth, including the Gregorian calendar, Indian National calendar, lunar calendars, and solar calendars.
The Gregorian calendar, currently used worldwide, was introduced in 1582 to correct inaccuracies in the Julian calendar. Lunar calendars are based on the moon's phases and can be either purnimanta (ending at full moon) or amanta (ending at new moon). Solar calendars are based on the sun's transit between signs. Dates may differ slightly depending on the calendar and adjustments are sometimes needed to account for differences between calendars.
IT CONTAINS QUESTIONS OF ECONOMICS OF GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENTANNUAL EXAM 2021.IT CONSIST OF 10 QUESTIONS(ANSWER ANY FIVE).iT CONSITS OF 100 MARKS AND PASSING MARK IS 36...
IT CONTAINS QUESTIONS OF ECONOMICS OF SOCIAL SECTOR AND ENVIRONMENT ANNUAL EXAM 2021.IT CONSIST OF 10 QUESTIONS(ANSWER ANY FIVE).iT CONSITS OF 100 MARKS AND PASSING MARK IS 36...
IT CONTAINS QUESTIONS OF MACRO ECONOMICS ANALYSISANNUAL EXAM 2021.IT CONSIST OF 10 QUESTIONS(ANSWER ANY FIVE).iT CONSITS OF 100 MARKS AND PASSING MARK IS 36...
IT CONTAINS QUESTIONS OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS ANNUAL EXAM 2021.IT CONSIST OF 10 QUESTIONS(ANSWER ANY FIVE).iT CONSITS OF 100 MARKS AND PASSING MARK IS 36...
This document discusses the capital structure decision and how to determine the optimal mix of debt and equity financing for a firm. It covers key concepts such as the costs and benefits of debt financing, including tax benefits, added management discipline, bankruptcy costs, agency costs, and loss of flexibility. It also discusses how the weighted average cost of capital is calculated using market values for debt and equity, and how this cost of capital impacts firm valuation. The optimal capital structure balances these various tradeoffs to minimize the WACC and maximize firm value.
This document summarizes a working paper that develops a model to explain differences between foreign direct investment (FDI) and foreign portfolio investment (FPI). The model shows that FDI investors have hands-on management that gives them better information about project productivity than FPI investors. However, FDI investors receive a lower resale price if they must sell due to "lemons problem" information asymmetry. This creates a trade-off between management efficiency and liquidity that helps explain why FDI flows are less volatile than FPI flows, especially in developing countries where information problems are larger.
This document discusses various calendars used for measuring time, including their history and differences. The main calendars discussed are:
1) The Gregorian calendar, which is the most widely used calendar globally. It was introduced in 1582 to correct inaccuracies in the Julian calendar.
2) The Indian National calendar, which is based on the sun's entrance into Aries and has 12 months ranging from 29-31 days each.
3) Lunar calendars, which are based on the moon's phases and motion. They can be either purnimanta (ending on the full moon) or amanta (ending on the new moon). Lunar calendars have additional months periodically to adjust for differences from the solar year
The document discusses expectations from CBSE schools regarding implementing the National Education Policy 2020. It outlines that schools need to prepare students for rapid change and unknown future jobs/technologies. Schools should focus on developing students' understanding of different perspectives, respect for others, and responsibility towards sustainability.
The key points discussed are:
- Schools should focus on planning, access and retention, following frameworks, and providing resources.
- Teachers need training in various pedagogies, subjects, identifying student potential, and engaging parents. All teachers must be qualified.
- Student learning should be assessed not to judge but help students, and track their progress.
The document provides solutions to multiple choice and short answer questions related to consumer equilibrium and the concepts of utility, budget constraints, indifference curves, and marginal rates of substitution.
Some key points summarized:
- Total utility is maximum when marginal utility is zero, representing the point of satiety. Indifference curves are convex to the origin due to diminishing marginal rates of substitution.
- The budget line shows all affordable combinations of goods given prices and income. It is downward sloping as more of one good requires less of the other. Consumer equilibrium occurs where an indifference curve is tangent to the budget line.
- Marginal utility diminishes with increasing consumption of a good according to the law of diminishing
Advanced control scheme of doubly fed induction generator for wind turbine us...IJECEIAES
This paper describes a speed control device for generating electrical energy on an electricity network based on the doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) used for wind power conversion systems. At first, a double-fed induction generator model was constructed. A control law is formulated to govern the flow of energy between the stator of a DFIG and the energy network using three types of controllers: proportional integral (PI), sliding mode controller (SMC) and second order sliding mode controller (SOSMC). Their different results in terms of power reference tracking, reaction to unexpected speed fluctuations, sensitivity to perturbations, and resilience against machine parameter alterations are compared. MATLAB/Simulink was used to conduct the simulations for the preceding study. Multiple simulations have shown very satisfying results, and the investigations demonstrate the efficacy and power-enhancing capabilities of the suggested control system.
Null Bangalore | Pentesters Approach to AWS IAMDivyanshu
#Abstract:
- Learn more about the real-world methods for auditing AWS IAM (Identity and Access Management) as a pentester. So let us proceed with a brief discussion of IAM as well as some typical misconfigurations and their potential exploits in order to reinforce the understanding of IAM security best practices.
- Gain actionable insights into AWS IAM policies and roles, using hands on approach.
#Prerequisites:
- Basic understanding of AWS services and architecture
- Familiarity with cloud security concepts
- Experience using the AWS Management Console or AWS CLI.
- For hands on lab create account on [killercoda.com](https://killercoda.com/cloudsecurity-scenario/)
# Scenario Covered:
- Basics of IAM in AWS
- Implementing IAM Policies with Least Privilege to Manage S3 Bucket
- Objective: Create an S3 bucket with least privilege IAM policy and validate access.
- Steps:
- Create S3 bucket.
- Attach least privilege policy to IAM user.
- Validate access.
- Exploiting IAM PassRole Misconfiguration
-Allows a user to pass a specific IAM role to an AWS service (ec2), typically used for service access delegation. Then exploit PassRole Misconfiguration granting unauthorized access to sensitive resources.
- Objective: Demonstrate how a PassRole misconfiguration can grant unauthorized access.
- Steps:
- Allow user to pass IAM role to EC2.
- Exploit misconfiguration for unauthorized access.
- Access sensitive resources.
- Exploiting IAM AssumeRole Misconfiguration with Overly Permissive Role
- An overly permissive IAM role configuration can lead to privilege escalation by creating a role with administrative privileges and allow a user to assume this role.
- Objective: Show how overly permissive IAM roles can lead to privilege escalation.
- Steps:
- Create role with administrative privileges.
- Allow user to assume the role.
- Perform administrative actions.
- Differentiation between PassRole vs AssumeRole
Try at [killercoda.com](https://killercoda.com/cloudsecurity-scenario/)
Applications of artificial Intelligence in Mechanical Engineering.pdfAtif Razi
Historically, mechanical engineering has relied heavily on human expertise and empirical methods to solve complex problems. With the introduction of computer-aided design (CAD) and finite element analysis (FEA), the field took its first steps towards digitization. These tools allowed engineers to simulate and analyze mechanical systems with greater accuracy and efficiency. However, the sheer volume of data generated by modern engineering systems and the increasing complexity of these systems have necessitated more advanced analytical tools, paving the way for AI.
AI offers the capability to process vast amounts of data, identify patterns, and make predictions with a level of speed and accuracy unattainable by traditional methods. This has profound implications for mechanical engineering, enabling more efficient design processes, predictive maintenance strategies, and optimized manufacturing operations. AI-driven tools can learn from historical data, adapt to new information, and continuously improve their performance, making them invaluable in tackling the multifaceted challenges of modern mechanical engineering.
Use PyCharm for remote debugging of WSL on a Windo cf5c162d672e4e58b4dde5d797...shadow0702a
This document serves as a comprehensive step-by-step guide on how to effectively use PyCharm for remote debugging of the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) on a local Windows machine. It meticulously outlines several critical steps in the process, starting with the crucial task of enabling permissions, followed by the installation and configuration of WSL.
The guide then proceeds to explain how to set up the SSH service within the WSL environment, an integral part of the process. Alongside this, it also provides detailed instructions on how to modify the inbound rules of the Windows firewall to facilitate the process, ensuring that there are no connectivity issues that could potentially hinder the debugging process.
The document further emphasizes on the importance of checking the connection between the Windows and WSL environments, providing instructions on how to ensure that the connection is optimal and ready for remote debugging.
It also offers an in-depth guide on how to configure the WSL interpreter and files within the PyCharm environment. This is essential for ensuring that the debugging process is set up correctly and that the program can be run effectively within the WSL terminal.
Additionally, the document provides guidance on how to set up breakpoints for debugging, a fundamental aspect of the debugging process which allows the developer to stop the execution of their code at certain points and inspect their program at those stages.
Finally, the document concludes by providing a link to a reference blog. This blog offers additional information and guidance on configuring the remote Python interpreter in PyCharm, providing the reader with a well-rounded understanding of the process.
2. Contents Targeted cyber attacks • ii
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Contents
Cyber attacks: A real threat for every organization........................................................................ 1
It will never happen to me........................................................................................................... 1
All organizations have something to hide................................................................................... 1
Industrial espionage.................................................................................................................... 2
Extent of the problem ..................................................................................................................... 3
Effectiveness of a targeted attack .............................................................................................. 3
Common attack vectors.............................................................................................................. 4
Email....................................................................................................................................... 4
Network attack........................................................................................................................ 6
Instant Messenger Attacks ..................................................................................................... 7
Distributed denial of service attacks....................................................................................... 8
Bypassing security mechanisms ............................................................................................ 8
Solutions....................................................................................................................................... 11
Minimizing exposure..................................................................................................................... 11
Reducing the surface area........................................................................................................ 11
Adequate protection ............................................................................................................. 12
Firewall ................................................................................................................................. 12
Content filtering..................................................................................................................... 12
Intrusion prevention systems................................................................................................ 12
Patch management systems ................................................................................................ 12
Penetration testing and security auditing ............................................................................. 13
How can cryptography help?................................................................................................ 14
Minimizing impact ..................................................................................................................... 15
Detecting the Attack.............................................................................................................. 15
Incident response team (IRT)............................................................................................... 16
Containment ......................................................................................................................... 16
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................... 18
About GFI ..................................................................................................................................... 19
References ................................................................................................................................... 20
3. Abstract Targeted cyber attacks • iii
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Abstract
Cyber attack is the name given by (usually sensationalist) articles and documents describing
crimes that occur in a virtual world as opposed to tangible attacks such as war. A targeted
cyber attack is when the attacker specifically targets someone or a company. A successful
attack will typically allow the attacker to gain access to the victim’s assets, allowing stealing of
sensitive internal data and possibly cause disruption and denial of service in some cases. One
example of a targeted cyber attack is an attack in an industrial espionage case where
documents were stolen by penetrating a victim’s database server. Another example can be the
actions of a jealous boyfriend spying on his girlfriend’s online activities by hacking into her
instant messenger or email account. Increasingly, the results of cyber attacks can be felt in a
tangible world – victims of such attacks typically suffer financial losses and might also lose
credibility.
4. Cyber attacks: A real threat for every organization Targeted cyber attacks • 1
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Cyber attacks: A real threat for every organization
Most organizations wrongly assume that cyber attacks will never reach them because an
attacker will not find value in targeting them. In general, most organizations feel that they
cannot become a victim to an Internet (or network-based) attack and might hide under one or
more of the following:
• "That will never happen to me"
• "I have nothing to hide"
• "We're too small to be a target"
• "Why me, when they could hit some bigger company?"
It will never happen to me
It is very easy to distance yourself or your organization from any kind of online threat, because
a good majority of the victims of targeted attacks never reveal any information about when they
were attacked. Unless one looks hard, it is relatively difficult to find people or organizations that
admit that were victim to an online attack. Organizations are especially cautious before they
inform their customers (and effectively the public), that their data got stolen because this
usually triggers a security concern in customers and they might even look for another "more
secure" vendor or service provider. For example, in 1995, when Citibank announced to the
general public that it got hacked by a Russian hacker, millions of dollars were withdrawn by
people who believed that their funds were at risk. After this incident, Citibank learnt one
valuable lesson: “Don’t make it public” (Scheiner).
Luckily, companies under the jurisdiction of the California law (Civil Code 1798.82) now
required any person or business that maintains computerized data such as personal
information that the person or business does not own to notify the customers immediately of
(possible) intrusions which involve data theft.
All organizations have something to hide
As more organizations are incorporating email and Internet into their workflow, it is safe to
assume that most organizations send or receive confidential emails including emails with
attachments of documents which are not intended to be public. Modern-day organizations also
resort to corporate online shopping or other forms of online transactions. Therefore, an email
address that initially doesn’t seem to have any value suddenly becomes the email address
used to buy products from online retailers.
People say, “I have nothing to hide”, but then are aware that the password for an online retailer
might mean that their account will be used for forfeit purchases. They might choose a more
secure password than the one they use for their email account but some online retailers offer to
send your password to your email address if you forget it and the password of the email
address might be much simpler than the one used to purchase from the online retailer. Even
5. Cyber attacks: A real threat for every organization Targeted cyber attacks • 2
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worse, most people use the same password everywhere for different services, so cracking one
password means that the attacker can access the victim’s other accounts. Some online
services might not be as trustworthy as others – they might be vulnerable to attack, or else the
operator himself is corrupt. As the saying goes, security is a problem of the weakest link.
While targeted attacks are generally a corporate problem rather than a personal one, some
attackers do take their actions to a personal level. The reasons behind these actions may be
various: Spying on a partner, revenge on a previous employer or even identity theft.
Industrial espionage
Business is a bit like war, except that there are legal restrictions that govern what can be done
and what cannot be done. Competitors in the same industry aim to conquer similar territories
through different ways and means. Research is valuable asset and some organizations might
resort to foul play and fund industrial espionage to catch up with a competitive firm. Normally,
stealing research only costs a fraction of the millions of dollars that were put into research and
development for a given product or service.
In an ever-changing world, most organizations are exposed to worldwide competition. Laws
and ethics belonging to one country do not apply to another country. Strong concerns have
been raised over Chinese organizations making use of industrial espionage to catch up with the
US and European counterparts (The Guardian). For example, in January 2003, Cisco filed a
lawsuit against Huawei accusing the Chinese rival of copying the IOS source code, Cisco’s
technical documentation, command line interface and patent infringement (Cisco). However,
China is of course not the only country to be involved; France, Russia, Israel, Japan, the United
States and others are known to have stolen technology secrets from other countries. In 2001,
US consumer goods giant Proctor & Gamble agreed to settle out of court with Anglo-Dutch rival
Unilever over allegations of corporate spying (Center for Management Research).
In May 2005, the news broke out about an Israeli industrial espionage ring making use of trojan
horse software to conduct these operations. Haaretz newspaper described how a large number
of businesses, including TV, mobile phone, car import and utility organizations, used a trojan
horse written purposely to target rivals and gain financial and industrial advantage (PCWorld,
2006). This particular case came to light when an Israeli author, Amnon Jacont, complained
that parts of an unpublished book that he was working on appeared on the Internet without his
consent. Further investigations pointed towards the trojan horse used in the industrial
espionage ring and proved that the case was much more complex than originally assumed.
6. Extent of the problem Targeted cyber attacks • 3
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Extent of the problem
Effectiveness of a targeted attack
Most attacks on the Internet consist of opportunistic attacks rather than attacks targeted for
some specific entity. An opportunistic attack is when an attacker targets various different
parties by using one or various generic ways to attack such parties, in hope that some of them
will be vulnerable to attack. In an opportunistic attack, an attacker will have a large number of
targets and will not care that much on who the victim is, but rather on how many victims there
are.
Examples of opportunistic attacks:
• 419 Scams
• Mass Mailing Worms
• Trojans emailed to various people
• Scams involving well-known services such as PayPal or Ebay
• Mass scanning for vulnerable services (SSH, UPnP, IIS servers etc)
An attacker will generally find it much easier to make use of an opportunistic attack then a
targeted one, simply because a broad scope will probably have a better chance of success in
gaining access to sensitive information. There is simply more money (and possibly less risk) in
computers that are vulnerable to common attacks and not well guarded, than attacking a
specific company or person which might be better protected against such attacks. In a test,
which lasted two weeks (TechWeb, 2006), AvanteGarde concluded that on average, it takes
four minutes for a new Windows machine exposed to the Internet to get hacked.
On the other hand, various individual organizations are still potential victims to targeted attacks.
The motivations behind such attacks can be various:
• Industrial espionage
• Publicity attacks
• Malicious insider
• Personal attacks (such as revenge or spying)
A targeted attack is much more effective and damaging for the victim since the actions
performed by the malicious hacker are tailored. This means that it is much more difficult to stop
a targeted attack than an opportunistic one simply because the attacks themselves are not
general.
Email is of course a medium that is used to carry out both opportunistic and targeted attacks.
The fact that there is no specific point and click product that protects against targeted attacks is
what makes them so effective and hard to avoid. Most security solutions handle general attacks
7. Extent of the problem Targeted cyber attacks • 4
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quite well, because the security solutions themselves are for the general public. An email
content filtering solution that catches email worms by identifying them through a signature
aimed towards known worms will most likely let through malicious executable code, which is
targeted for a specific company running. In fact, most content filtering solutions handle
opportunistic attacks quite well since that is what customers will face on a daily basis and
therefore software companies working on such solutions cannot afford to let in a single mass-
mailing worm.
Common attack vectors
Email
People generally expect that someone who is authorized to do so will contact them. On the
other hand, they do not want to choose who is authorized. This assumption creates a loophole
because email allows anyone to contact anyone else (and vice-versa) regardless of who "they"
are. The basic email protocols (RFC) do not provide any authentication of the "From" address.
Additional tools such as Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) and Sender Policy Framework (SPF)
attempt to fix this, but they are not generally accepted by most of the end users. This
essentially means that when a user receives a notice from their service provider to inform them
that their account is about to be terminated, verifying the authenticity of such an email is not so
straightforward. There is no alert that says, "This email is not from the person in the sender
field" or “This email is from the person in the sender field”.
Such an email will probably ask the end user to perform an action, such as visiting a website.
But should one trust such a request, based on which criteria, is it worth the risk and what's the
risk? The level of risk depends on the request. The email might also ask you to:
• Visit the service provider's offices to update your account
• Visit the service provider's website to update your account
• Open an attached file which contains more information
• Reply to the email with your details
If one cannot easily verify the service provider's website against the one provided in the email,
then it is generally very risky to click on the link in the email. Attackers will use various methods
to fool victims into visiting their malicious website while pretending to be a trusted sender.
These are some of the methods used:
• Similar domain names were an attacker will try to mimic the domain name by altering one
letter, for example instead of www.yahoo.com an attacker would register yaho0.com. The
last "o" is actually a zero, which would point to the attacker's website. Similarly, attackers
have previously used Unicode characters in URLs Unicode URL Hack (Schneier, 2006)
• Various well-known methods to obscure URL’s (PCHelp, 2006).
• An email might point towards a URL which exploits Cross Site Scripting vulnerability on the
service provider's website. Citizen Bank and several others have suffered such an attack
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(CNet, 2006).
• Exploit vulnerabilities in web browsers.
Given the growing number of web browser security vulnerabilities (Secunia), some of which do
not have any official remedy from the vendor, it is very easy to be duped into browsing a
malicious website which may execute code remotely on the victim's computer.
In the case of the Cross Site scripting attacks, it is the case that the Service Provider
(unknowingly) becomes an accomplice to the attacker. The website location is authentic in the
sense that it does belong to the legitimate owner, but the content of the website has been
modified by an attacker gain and profit, for example to harvest information such as usernames
and passwords.
The most straightforward and effective way for an attacker to launch his own code on his
victim's computer is to actually attach his executable to an email message. The most common
of this kind of attack is known as "Mass Mailing Worms", like the Nimda worm which made
rounds back in 2001, or the more recent variants of Bagle and Netsky worms which made up a
substantial part of the email traffic during 2005.
While these worm attacks may actually get a lot of press, email is a very useful tool for
targeted cyber attacks. The fact that email:
• Allows an attacker to contact his victim directly
• Can act as a file transfer medium
• Does not provide sender identification.
All of the above are good reasons for this useful tool to also get useful for the aspiring intruder.
June 2005 saw the arrest of a London-based computer specialist Michael Haephrati and his
wife Ruth accused of supplying Trojan horse software to third parties bent on committing crime
(Washington Post). Related to this, in July 2005 the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team
issued an advisory which suggested that attackers were sending out email attachments with
Trojan files which when launched, are able to perform the following functions:
• Collection of usernames and passwords for email accounts
• Collection of critical system information and scanning of network drives
• Use of infected machine to compromise other machines and networks
• Downloading of further programs (e.g., worms, more advanced Trojans)
• Uploading of documents and data to a remote computer
September 2005, Taipei Times reported an “attempted e-mail attack”. According to the article,
an unknown attacker had sent Trojan attachments via email to the National Security Council's
(NSC) secretary computers. The email subjects read "freedom" and "arms procurement”, which
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was a way to try enticing the end user in running the attached Trojans by making the email
content sound relevant.
According to a Message Labs July Report, one or two targeted attack incidents are seen each
week. The report also details how in July 2005, an exploit in Microsoft Word was used by
attackers to target a particular international organization. The emails were destined to just a few
“highly targeted list of recipients” and contained a Microsoft Word attachment, which in turn
would exploit a buffer overflow and typically (though not necessarily) give remote access to
attackers.
Network attack
When an attacker decides to target a specific corporation, they
can either get personal with the employees by making use of email and other similar
technology, or go through the gateway. Finding the location (IP address) of the company
network is usually quite straightforward, since a lot of organizations host the email server on the
company network. Even if it is not the case, email headers of mail sent out by employees,
usually contain enough information to point towards the internal and external IP address of the
network.
From there, the attacker will enumerate the IP address pool belonging to (or hired by) the
victim, and enumerate the services exposed to the Internet, such as SMTP, HTTP or VPN.
Version information (for example, gathered through HTTP headers or SMTP banner) will
usually help the hacker determine if the service is running up to date software with all the
security fixes. Even if the software running on the server is not known to be vulnerable, a
determined attacker will likely audit the software for new unknown security flaws – provided that
the software is available publicly. For example, if the target is known to be running IIS 6 with a
specific commercial or OpenSource Web Application, the attacker is likely to download that
web application and test it out on IIS 6, learn all about its default settings, how the web
application implements security, where sensitive files are stored and so on.
Misconfiguration is often another flaw that a lot of administrators overlook. For example, it is
very easy to set incorrect permissions which allow anyone to view sensitive files. Some
Windows administrators make use of software written or packaged for Unix/Linux operating
systems. When the software is installed on a Unix/Linux OS, it would set the right permissions
so that sensitive files and directories are not accessible by unauthorized personnel. However,
when installed on Windows, these permissions are not set and therefore a service exposing
those directories will allow attackers to read sensitive files that should have otherwise been
inaccessible.
Common examples include:
• PHP scripts packaged in tarballs (.tar files) for Unix/Linux servers and installed on a
Windows Web server. All directories end up “world readable”
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• Web Applications written for Apache (and making use of .htaccess files), but installed on IIS.
By default, IIS does not know about .htaccess files, and will expose these files to anyone
with a web browser (or less).
• Traditional misconfigurations such as default passwords and open proxies are still often
found in large networks.
In an article by SecurityFocus, back in 2002, Kevin Poulsen wrote about Adrian Lamo who
found “no less than seven misconfigured proxy servers” belonging to the New York Times
exposed on the Internet. This particular security hole allowed Lamo to get on the internal
network and further access more important documents such as “a database of 3,000
contributors to the Times op-ed page, the August soap box of the cultural elite and politically
powerful.”
The compromise of one of the servers belonging to CardSystems, which was reported publicly
on June 2005, affected directly VISA, MasterCard, American Express and Discover and
obviously their customers (The New York Times). Although the full intrusion details did not
emerge, a MasterCard International spokesman was quoted (SoftPedia, 2006) saying that the
data security breach at the CardSystems could have happened because of software security
vulnerabilities that were “cleverly exploited by the intruders who had manage to install a rogue
program to capture credit data on its network”. The same article goes on to suggest that old
Microsoft software (such as Windows 2000 and IIS 5) was to blame. John M. Perry, President
and CEO of CardSystems Solutions INC., testified (Financial Services, 2006) in front of the
United States House of Representatives, that the attackers (somehow) dropped a script on a
server belonging to CardSystems, which was exposed on the Internet. The job of the script was
specifically to search for a particular file type, extract information from that file type and send it
to a remote server through the FTP protocol.
Instant Messenger Attacks
Instant messenger attacks are very similar to email. With instant messenger, the attacker is
able to more easily and instantly communicate with her victim. However most instant
messengers have the following security differences from email:
• It initially requires more effort to get the victim to trust because (with MSN and Yahoo
Messenger), one is required to sign up.
• The victim can choose whom to communicate with and therefore (unlike email), can choose
to “not talk to strangers”.
However, when those steps are followed, it becomes easier for the attacker to get his own
custom code on the victim’s computer, or gain access to sensitive information. People are
generally trusting, especially when they think that they know the person already. What makes
instant messaging easier is that unlike email, IM is not constantly targeted by opportunistic
attacks and therefore most people will trust content coming from their instant messenger when
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they wouldn’t give the same content coming from email a second thought.
Targeted attacks via Instant Messenger generally require further information gathering for the
attacker, but is more likely to give ‘return on investment’ than email – especially since a lot of
businesses are moving towards IM from email for quick messages that would take much longer
to arrive through email.
Distributed denial of service attacks
DDoS (Distributed Denial of service) allows attackers to knock off its victim rather than steal
information. Although this attack is less technically challenging when compared to others, its
effectiveness should not be underestimated. Some of the attackers making use of DDoS are
hired by competitors – such as the case of Jay Echouafni, who was CEO of TV retailer Orbit
Communications (SecurityFocus, 2006). Echouafni is accused of financially backing up (and
effectively recruiting) hackers to cripple three competitor online stores. This created long
periods of downtime for the victims with estimated $2 million in losses to the victims and their
service providers.
Distributed denial of service attacks typically consist of flooding the network with packets,
reaching its limits. As a result, legitimate requests are lost or at least the service becomes too
slow to work with. The attackers gather a large botnet, as described earlier, by making use of
opportunistic attacks. Then they use these botnets to direct thousands of systems to attack a
single server or network. Even when a service, such as eBay, has much larger bandwidth than
any of the bots, it is no match against all of them at the same time.
Increasingly, it is becoming popular for attackers to attempt to extort money out of the victims.
This is very similar to the traditional Mafia, when the attacker asks for a ransom and in turn
promises to stop harassing people for a while. One particularly well-known case (Prolexic
Technologies) is when online-casino BetCRIS.com was hit by an attacker who demanded $500
in protection money. When the owner paid up, the attacker hit again and this time she
demanded $40,000. Rather than paying up just like others had done before, this particular
casino decided to fight back. This resulted in the discovery of a ring of students who were later
arrested and charged.
In another similar story, three Dutch attackers were arrested and accused of used botnets as
large as 1.5 million computers to target organizations such as 180Solutions (CNet, 2006) –
which eventually helped gather evidence against the suspects. While some of these stories
might sound impressive, they only come out as a result of action being taken. It is assumed that
the majority of cases are not disclosed with the general public.
Bypassing security mechanisms
Most modern corporate environments nowadays make use of various security solutions such
as:
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• Firewalls
• Content filtering for email and web
• Intrusion Detection/Prevention Systems (IDS/IPS)
• Virtual Private Network (VPN)
• Patch management
• Anti-virus
While these security solutions do help a lot with the majority of attacks, none of them provide a
single solution against the problem of security as a whole. Each of these solutions addresses
specific security issues. The following are examples of well-known ways that clever attackers
use to bypass specific security mechanisms:
• Bypassing the traditional anti-virus
To bypass anti-virus software, the most straightforward attack is to avoid making use of a
known malware will therefore be caught. Instead, an attacker usually creates a custom made
backdoor and delivers that to the victim. The anti-virus software will try to match the
attacker’s program against a list of known signatures belonging to malware in the wild (ITW)
and will probably be bypassed. Anti-virus heuristics try to catch unknown malware by
passing it through various ‘advanced’ technologies such as a sandbox. Therefore a stealthy
adversary would test his piece of software against various commercial or popular anti-virus
software and makes sure that it is not caught. This is not a difficult task.
• Bypassing email content filtering
Email content filtering solutions usually make use of anti-virus solutions, so methods which
anti-virus signatures are likely to bypass the content filtering. Apart from the attacks outlined
in the previous paragraph, attackers are simply making use of a link to a website (URL)
which contains malware. Therefore the email content filtering solution will only see a plain
email with a URL as no actual malware is attached to the email. Instead the victim is
expected to follow (with the help of a little bit of social engineering) the link that leads to a
compromise of her machine.
• Bypassing the firewall
To bypass firewalls, attackers can attack servers that are not fully protected by the firewall
and hop from server to server. Some administrators might bounce from server to server
themselves; so all the attacker has to do in this case is to follow the administrator’s steps.
Since traditional firewalls do not look at the content of the network packets (except for a few
exceptions such as FTP), attackers can piggyback allowed traffic such as instant messaging
and email.
• Bypassing IDS/IPS
Intrusion Detection/Prevention Systems inherit similar problems that affect the anti-virus
vendors. Since there are various ways of representing (possibly malicious) information,
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bypassing patterns is a matter of changing an original attack to achieve the same effect (for
example, exploiting a buffer overflow in Sendmail) in a slightly different way. For example, if
a signature searches for “../” in an HTTP request, the attacker can encode the URL or parts
of it to look like “..%2f”. While the web server will decode the request back to “../”, our
theoretical IDS signature will not match the exploit attempt and therefore be bypassed.
Apart from the fact that security mechanisms can be bypassed one way or another, these same
security solutions can also be vulnerable to various attacks that they’re supposed to be
protecting other software from! For example, Snort has previously had vulnerabilities (Secunia,
2006) that could be exploited by malicious attackers remotely control the security application.
Various anti-virus software packages were vulnerable to similar attacks (re•mØte, 2006).
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Solutions
Minimizing exposure
As the saying goes, “prevention is better than cure”. Preventing network attacks will also
prevent other tasks that might follow. However, it is generally accepted that security is a
process, not a product (Schneier, 2006). This means that security is an ongoing thing, rather
than just something that you fire and forget, so that preventive measures implemented in 2002
does not mean that they’re still going to be relevant for 2007.
Reducing the surface area
Simple security is generally better than complex security (Schneier , 2006). Complex systems
will be costly and therefore might not be easily financed or implemented. Additionally, when
security systems are complex, legitimate users will try to find a way around it. Simple systems,
on the other hand, are easier to understand and better analyzed. A simple system will therefore
have less chance of falling prey to attacks, simply because there is exposure to attack.
Understanding how a security system works means that one can also understand where a
security system fails. For the attacker this means opportunities, but for the security designer
this means that she has to close that flaw. When a security system is simple, it is therefore
easy to close its security flaws. On the other hand, when a security system is complex, the
security designer and the attacker will keep on finding new flaws in the system forever. While
the security designer needs to find all flaws to have a sufficiently protected system, an attacker
only needs to find one flaw to successfully attack the system. Because of this reason, with
complex systems, attackers will always be a step ahead the defender.
For example, when Oracle announced its “Unbreakable” marketing campaign in 2001, the team
seemed to fail to recognize the fact that their database software is too complex to match their
claims. At the time of writing (2006), Oracle is still marketing their database software as
“Unbreakable” (ZDNet, 2006), having just issued a patch, which addresses 47 security issues
(Secunia, 2006) in its software in July 2005.
In a secure environment, designing a new network or picking up new software, sticking to one
that satisfies the requirements while keeping the system transparent and simple should be a
priority for the network/system administrator.
A particular package’s vulnerability history might also be indicative of what’s to come. Qmail
was written as alternative to Sendmail because the author of this software was tired of poor
security history of Sendmail (Bernstein D.J., 2006). He decided to write a better MTA which is
much more resistant to network attacks. In fact, nowadays a lot of security conscious
organizations nowadays make use of this package rather than Sendmail.
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Adequate protection
Most modern networks are equipped with various security solutions to prevent against the
majority of common Internet attacks. These solutions usually cope quite well with the majority
of opportunistic attacks such as worms and so on, but how do they cope with the determined,
financially backed up hacker?
Firewall
As described earlier on in this document, traditional security measures such as firewalls can be
circumvented quite easily. That doesn’t mean that you should ditch the firewall. The firewall is
in fact a very good security solution especially at covering up vulnerable services that should
never be exposed to aggressive networks such as the Internet. It means that the firewall is
limited to protecting against a good number of opportunistic attacks as well as limiting scope for
attack for the determined attacker. Having a well-configured firewall minimizes exposure and
allows the administrator to focus on securing more sensitive or vulnerable parts of the network.
Content filtering
Content filtering can play a major role in protecting organizations and ISP customers against
targeted attacks. A content filtering solution for email, which goes beyond scanning
attachments using an anti-virus, can help administrators detect and possibly block an attack
from a competitor. For example, some content filtering solutions can rate executables
according to their functionality. Instead of just matching executable content against a list of
signatures, such software is able to identify functions that could be attributed to malicious
behavior and block that. This adds an extra layer of protection against one way to bypass anti-
virus. That alone is not enough, and some products also catch known exploits that bypass anti-
virus software, but somehow allow access attackers to get on victim’s computer. As one can
see, such products try to cover whatever conventional products don’t cover – and some of
these attacks are ones that a targeting intruder is going to make use of.
Intrusion prevention systems
Intrusion prevention systems allow administrators to detect and block attacks reactively.
Although these systems do not prevent attacks, they do actually stop attacks from successfully
exploiting vulnerabilities. There are various forms of Intrusion Prevention Systems – Network
based such as Snort Inline as well as host based such as Microsoft’s DEP introduced with
Windows 2003 and XP SP2. One problem with Intrusion Prevention Systems is that they have
a tendency to give false positives and therefore blocking legitimate activity. Similar to other
security measures, they need be fine-tuned for the particular environment needed.
Patch management systems
Distribution of patches is very important in both the corporate environment and home. Most
intrusions that occur due to software bugs (rather than configuration), can be prevented by
installing the appropriate patch issued by the software vendor. While it does seem simple, there
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are a few problems with patch management:
• Not all software has automated patch notification and installation
• With an increasing number of software being installed on various servers, it is difficult to
keep up with the vendor patches
• From time to time, patches are known to cause issues themselves along with fixing security
issues. Therefore administrators like to test a vendor patch before applying it to their
corporate servers.
• Some patches are not so easy to install. They might require manual installation.
Therefore, when choosing software, it is important for the security planner to choose one that
takes patch management into consideration. This becomes a very important option especially
when a major security hole in a particular software (or hardware device) is uncovered. When
such a security hole is made public, a targeting attacker has a much better chance to
successfully attack his victim, and while the security conscious victim is still testing the vendor
patches.
Penetration testing and security auditing
One way to actively test the security of a computer or network system is to do what the attacker
is supposed to do in a legitimate way i.e. perform a penetration test. These tests, performed by
professional or white-hat ‘hackers’ will usually yield the following results:
• Proof that the computer or network system can be hacked. A professional will almost always
be able to successfully attack a client’s system provided that it’s functional and complex
enough. This of course depends on the amount of time given to the professional and also the
amount of experience and knowledge the professional has. SANS (2006) describe how to
identify a good security consultant from a fake one.
• Identify one or maybe a few easy targets in the system, which allow the Penetration Tester
(and also the attacker) to successfully attack a system.
• A report on the tests performed and how to fix the security issues which were identified.
Penetration testing is very good for simulating a targeted attack. Instead of the adversary
financially backing up an attacker, a company is able to do the same with someone on their
side (hopefully before the adversary does). This simulation might be a very good example of
what can happen in real life but of course the penetration testing professional cannot perform
all actions that can be done by the real attacker. While denial of service attacks are usually not
allowed on a functioning system, in real life the attacker does not care weather or not she’s
allowed to perform denial of service attacks. Same goes with a successful attack – a real
attacker might install Trojan software or “rootkits” to keep access to the victim computer – this
activity might be frowned upon in a Penetration test, depending on the system being tested.
Even though a penetration test is usually very useful, especially in proving to the higher
management that the network can be in fact attacked, it does not provide the same results that
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a complete security audit does. Penetration testing allows a professional to look at the system
from an attacker’s perspective – from outside – and exploiting just one vulnerability in a critical
system is usually enough to gain access to sensitive information. This means that from this
perspective, it is very difficult to identify all security weaknesses in a system. On the other
hand, a security audit allows one to identify weaknesses in the system itself – from a designer’s
point of view. Such an approach should give a more throughout analysis of the system and
therefore allow the security auditor to identify theoretical and practical weaknesses that the
penetration testing approach does not necessarily identify. A security audit also analyzes any
security policy that the organization might have. Good security policies are very important not
only when a security incident occurs, but also when preventing an attack in the first place.
A security audit could involve:
• Auditing any source code – especially home-grown applications. This will allow the discovery
of any developer errors that might result in security bugs. It might also uncover intentional or
unintentional backdoors in the software itself.
• Auditing of network structure and design. This will allow the administrator to identify key
systems which need to be better protected. Password policies and access control lists
should be reviewed.
• Backups and secure storage systems should be reviewed. This will allow the administrator to
identify any possible problems related recovery of important data in case of failure.
How can cryptography help?
Cryptography is a very useful tool in the hands of a security designer. Typically, it allows two
people to communicate over an insecure network such as the Internet. Cryptography can add
the ability to verify that the sender of a message is indeed who it claims to be, and also to
encrypt the message itself, so that only the receiver (or number of receivers) can read it.
If Company A needs to contact Company B on the Internet, its sensitive message needs to go
through a number of third party routers before it reaches it’s destination at Company B. Now,
Company A and Company B do not know if a service provider (owner of a third party router) is
intercepting the messages and sending them to competitor Company C. In fact, all it takes is
one corrupt service provider to compromise the messages. To make it easier for Company C,
one of these service providers might also be vulnerable to hacker attacks – so that the service
provider doesn’t have to comply with Company C to hand it the sensitive messages. So
basically Company A and Company B can only trust each one another – they cannot trust the
service providers in between to deliver their messages in a secure manner. This is where
cryptography is handy – it allows the two parties to trust one another and no one else.
PGP is a tool that is very good at this. When used together with email, it allows parties to
communicate safely over a protocol that doesn’t provide verification of the sender, integrity of
the message, or ensure that information is hidden from anyone for whom it is not intended,
even those who can see the encrypted data. A targeted attack aimed towards the email system
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between Company A and Company B can focus on either email servers of both organizations,
of the communication channels in between. Such an attack, even if it’s successful in acquiring
the messages while being transported, will fail to succeed because the technology used by
PGP does not allow the attacker to read the messages.
However PGP does not protect against an attacker who has access to either environments
where the message are being either encrypted or decrypted. This means that if the
environment being used by Company B is compromised, the attacker can watch Company B
decrypt the messages and effectively compromise the system. On the other hand, it is now
much easier for the security designer/administrator to protect his system since the scope for
attack has been sufficiently reduced.
Cryptography is not a solution for all your security issues:
• Just because a Virtual Private Network is using sufficiently secure cryptography, it doesn’t
mean that a determined attacker will not guess the password for a user who doesn’t
following basic practices.
• If for instance John is using PGP to communicate securely with Jane, and John accepts a
new public key that claims to be from Jane without verifying the fingerprint, the PGP is
compromised.
• A web application that makes use of SSL (Secure HTTP/HTTPS) can still have Cross Site
Scripting, SQL injection and other vulnerabilities. These security issues can still be exploited
by attackers on a “secure website” just because secure in this case means that the
connection between the attacker and the web server is encrypted and cannot be
eavesdropped. In fact, an attacker will probably prefer attacking a Web Application over
HTTPS than over HTTP just because his attacks cannot be easily caught using protocol
analyzers or Network Intrusion Detection Systems such as Snort (Snort.org, 2006).
Minimizing impact
Detecting the Attack
A well-configured Intrusion Detection System together with log analysis allows network
administrators to get alerted when someone takes fancy in probing their network. In fact,
monitoring is a very good solution to the targeted attack problem. However, the problem with
monitoring is most of the times the overflow of information. For example, a default installation of
Snort on a busy network will start generating various alerts, most of which are not relevant and
are allowed traffic. Therefore the administrator needs to tune the IDS to her specific needs
rather than just install and forget. A host based Intrusion Detection System (HIDS) which is well
configured, will allow the administrator to detect any servers or workstations, which are
misbehaving.
When Akamai, a distributed computer company was victim to a targeted attack (InfoWorld,
2006), it was able to detect and pinpoint the cause of the problem through the use of monitoring
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systems. Although the monitoring did not prevent them from becoming a victim to a large-scale
network attack on their DNS system, it did give them information needed to react to the attack
and probably make the necessary changes for future similar attacks.
Incident response team (IRT)
Handling a security breach is that part of a security plan that most organizations forget about.
The assumption that an organization cannot be breached is a very bad approach as seen
earlier in this document. It does not allow the development of an approach towards security
incidents and therefore leaves a company wide open once the security measures have been
bypassed. Just detecting an attack is obviously not enough – an organization needs to react to
the attack. If a burglar alarm is set off, and no one is there to react to it, then the burglars might
as well carry on dragging your goods to their van.
The job of the Incident Response Team (Inform IT, 2006) is to react to the situation rationally
and in a timely fashion as well as help fix the security problems exploited in the first place. In
smaller organizations, the IRT would probably consist of selected individuals from different
departments such as network administrators and human resources. The team has to be skilled
and trained to handle various situations – including identifying a targeted attack and reacting to
it. In this case, the team might probably have to work with the legal department depending on
the case.
Sometimes the situation is not so straightforward. For example, following a web server
intrusion, to fully analyze the extent of the problem, the administrator might need to make an
image of the server. This means downtime, which in turn might mean loosing sales – making
the reaction of the administrator not so beneficial for the organization. The IRT has to be highly
skilled in decision-making and reacting to such complex situations and often requires decisions
to be taken in only a few seconds.
Containment
When a network attack occurs on an open network, the attacker will be able to easily leverage
his position to attacker other hosts on the same network. Various attacks can be employed by
an attacker on the internal network:
• ARP spoofing allows the attacker to view traffic between different hosts on the same
physical network segment. Any clear text traffic such as passwords (e.g. HTTP basic
authentication) or traffic (such as transfer of files through Windows network shares), can be
viewed by making use of this attack. There are similar attacks to achieve the same kind of
access – such as DNS spoofing or MAC address flooding.
• Passwords are frequently shared across different servers and services. Guessing one
password means that the attacker gains access to various other accounts by the same user.
• Less secure servers are easily accessible once inside the internal network. These networks
are generally friendlier than the Internet, and therefore the administrators might open up
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more services that would otherwise be closed on a server exposed to the Internet.
A good solution to the problems described, is to physically separate different networks and
apply access control between different sections of the network. For example, if Department A
does not need to access files by Department B, there is probably no need for both departments
to be on the same physical network. Employee’s and third parties sometimes need physical
access to the network, for example need to plug in their laptop, might present a security
problem. Personal laptops do not adhere to the same security policies that the company
computers follow. For example, an employee’s laptop or PDA might have computer viruses or
Spyware software, which can transmit sensitive information or infect other computers on the
same network.
21. Conclusion Targeted cyber attacks • 18
WWW.GFI.COM
Conclusion
It is easy to fall into the extremes of either believing that targeted cyber attacks rarely happen,
or that it happens to you or your company all the time. The truth is that targeted cyber attacks
are used to gain leverage in competitive areas, such as software development, or simply
personal relationships. The more competitive advantage you have, the more frequent such
attacks are going to be. Preventing these attacks is more of a matter of good risk management
rather than simply buying a few products to prevent specific well known attacks. Budgets
certainly have their importance in helping prevent targeted attacks against your company.
However, it is more important to have good planning from the administration’s part to effectively
prevent targeted cyber attacks.
22. About GFI Targeted cyber attacks • 19
WWW.GFI.COM
About GFI
GFI is a leading software developer that provides a single source for network administrators to
address their network security, content security and messaging needs. With award-winning
technology, an aggressive pricing strategy and a strong focus on small-to-medium sized
businesses, GFI is able to satisfy the need for business continuity and productivity encountered
by organizations on a global scale. Founded in 1992, GFI has offices in Malta, London,
Raleigh, Hong Kong, Adelaide, Hamburg and Cyprus which support more than 160,000
installations worldwide. GFI is a channel-focused company with over 10,000 partners
worldwide. GFI is also a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner. More information about GFI can be
found at http://www.gfi.com.
23. References Targeted cyber attacks • 20
WWW.GFI.COM
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25. References Targeted cyber attacks • 22
WWW.GFI.COM
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