Cybersecurity Training
Brian Pichman
Evolve Project
Cloak of Invisibility
Anonymous Browsing
Cloak of Invisibility
Top reasons why people want to hide their IP address:
1. Hide their geographical location
2. Prevent Web tracking
3. Avoid leaving a digital footprint
4. Bypass any bans or blacklisting of their IP address
5. Perform illegal acts without being detected
Onion Routing, Tor Browsing
• Technique for anonymous communication to take place over a network.
The encryption takes place at three different times:
• Entry Node
• Relay Node
• Exit Node
• Tor is made up of volunteers running relay servers. No single router knows
the entire network (only its to and from).
• Tor can bypass internet content filtering, restricted government networks
(like China) or allow people to be anonymous whistle blowers.
• Tor allows you to gain access to “.onion” websites that are not accessible
via a normal web browser.
• Communication on the Dark Web happens, via Web, Telnet, IRC, and other
means of communication being developed daily.
Cloak of Invisibility
• How to hide yourself?
• Private VPN
• You want a TOTALLY anonymous service.
• Look for one that keeps no log history (Verify via reviews)
• Look at Bandwidth & Available Servers
• Recommendations:
• Private Internet Access (PIA)
• TorGuard VPN
• Pure VPN
• Opera Web Browser
• Avast AntiVirus (SecureLine)
• Worst Case: Free WIFI
Cloak of Invisibility
• How Tor anonymizes – “You”.
• How VPN keeps ”You” protected.
Free WiFi
• Sometimes a good alternative if
you need to do something
anonymously
• Nothing is ever 100% anonymous
• Some public wifi does track
websites you access, what you
do, etc.
• Make sure your computer name
you are using doesn’t include your
actual name
Best Tips and Practices for being Anonymized
Do
• Use a device that you’ve never
signed into anything ”personal
on”.
• Pro Tip: buy a computer from a
Pawn Shop or Garage Sale
Don’t
• While on a VPN or any other
anonymous tool; don’t sign into
personal accounts (banks, social
media, etc).
• If posting, don’t use anything
that could be associated to you
Easy Wins for Privacy
• 10 Minute Email
• https://10minutemail.com/
• Temporarily get an email box that’s anonymous and disappears after 10
minutes
• Dr Cleaner (Mac) or Eraser (Win) can overwrite files on your
computer with “blank” data to make file recovery near impossible.
• Tools like Recuva is free softwares to allow you to restore deleted files.
What People Pay For Your Data
• https://www.fortinet.com/blog/industry-trends/the-true-value-of-
data.html
• Credit Card Numbers: 50 cents to 2.50 per card.
• Bank Account Information (logins/information): $1.00 to $70
• Medical Records: $10-$20
https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/heres-how-
much-your-personal-information-is-selling-for-on-the-dark-
web/
Protecting Yourself
Google Isn’t Always Your Friend
Tools For Use
• Sites to protect yourself all the time (not free)
• IdentityGuard.com
• LifeLock.com
• Sites to monitor when breached data gets related (this is free)
• Haveibeenpwned.com
• Password Management Sites (like lastpass.com)
• Don’t have the same password for all your sites.
• Don’t write your passwords down on a post-it-note and leave it at your desk
Dual Factor Authentication
• After logging in; verify login via Email, SMS, or an app with a code.
Credit Card Tools for Online Shopping
• Check out Privacy.Com
• https://privacy.com/join/473XB
Basic Tips
• Accept only people you know to personal and professional accounts
• Never click on links from people you don’t know.
• Especially if they are using a url shortner: bit.ly, tinyurl.com, etc
• https://www.urlvoid.com/ - test the website to see if its safe
• https://www.site-shot.com/ get a screenshot of what will load on site
• If there are people claiming to be you on social media, it’s best to get
your account “verified” on those social media platforms
• This lets users distinguish that you’re the actual official account
• Dual factor authenticate all of your social media logins
Checking Your Accounts / Name Online
• Use this site to check your usernames: https://namechk.com/
• The next is a tool searches through your email with things you may
have signed up for (I've paid for their premium service as well, not
really worth it, the free does just
fine) https://brandyourself.com/privacy-overview.
• This tool: https://email-lookup.online/index.php searches public
searches to see what links. Its similar
to https://www.spokeo.com/email-search.
Myths
• I’m/my university not worth being attacked.
• Hackers won’t guess my password.
• I/we have anti-virus software.
• I’ll/we know if I/we been compromised.
Understanding Breaches and Hacks
• A hack involves a person or group to gain authorized access to a
protected computer or network
• A breach typically indicates a release of confidential data (including
those done by accident)
• Both of these require different responses if breaches/hacks occur.
The Costs Of Breaches
• This year’s study found the average consolidated total cost of a data breach
is 4.45 Million – Ones that use AI save 1.76 Million
https://www.ibm.com/reports/data-breach
• Data Breached Companies Experience…
• People loose faith in your brand
• Loss in patrons
• Financial Costs
• Government Requirements,
Penalties, Fees, etc.
• Sending of Notifications
• Payment of Identity Protection or
repercussions.
https://betanews.com/2016/02/10/the-economic-cost-of-being-hacked/
You as a Organization - Obligations
• You are obligated to protect the data and privacy of:
• Employees
• Customers
• Business Partners/Vendors/Etc.
• Sometimes, we forget we house a lot of personal and identifying information about our employees and
customers.
• Employees Social/Payroll/HR
• Customer Records/Accounts/History
• What employees/customers are accessing on the web
• A sniffing tool, key logger, or fake DNS redirects can monitor not only the sites people are accessing but what they use
for their username / password
Steps – Communication and Speed!
• Communicate
• People will ask “How long did you know XYZ happened” - know this information before communicating to them
an attack occurred.
• If you discover a breach, hack, or any other compromise that may have the impact of data being stolen or
viewed, you MUST communicate quickly and effectively.
• While every scenario is different and has different factors – groups that move faster with the information they
know (as soon as they know it) they are generally better off long term (ie don’t’ wait months as you “investigate”
the issue. Give people time to protect themselves)
• Don’t over communicate and have one spokesperson
• Be clear and concise. Too many details can be harmful.
Other Points on Communication
• Once you know a breach has occurred, by law you are required to
inform customers if their data has been compromised.
• Some states have deadlines of when the announcement has to be made
• Every impacted person must be told that a data breach has
occurred, when it occurred, and what kind of information was
compromised.
• Answer: what are you doing to provide a remedy and should they do
• (next slide)
what are you doing to provide a remedy and should they do
You as the Organization
• Build a website with information
about the breach
• Offer a Toll Free number people
to call in for questions
• If the possibility of social
information provide contact
information for Equifax, Experian
and Transunion, and the quick
links for fraud protection.
Them as Impacted Parties
• Fraud Protection (if necessary)
• Request them to change their
passwords if their password was
compromised
• Highlight if they use this password
on OTHER sites to change those
passwords too
Step 2 - Investigate
• You will most likely need to hire an outside cyber security
firm – they have the tools and resources to track what might
have been stolen and who stole it.
• Solve which computers and accounts were compromised, which
data was accessed (viewed) or stolen (copied) and whether any
other parties – such as clients, customers, business partners, users,
employees. Was the stolen data encrypted or unencrypted?
• Also involve folks from the people you pay for services
(depending on where the breach occurred) such as ISPs, Web
Hosting Providers, Security Software, Firewall Vendors, etc.
• Contact your local, county or state police computer crimes
unit and the FBI, which can do forensic analyses and provide
valuable guidance
Step 3 – More Communication and Follow Up
• If you notify more than 500 impacted people from a breach, many
states will also require you to file a notice with your state attorney
general’s office.
• HIPPA, FERPA, CIPA, and all those other scary acronyms have requirements
and regulations – make sure none of those rules are violated.
Legal Stuff
• There are a lot of laws that help a
certain level of security standards.
The landscape of these laws is
evolving as the level of threats
increase.
• There is compliance standards that
organizations should reach for
security as well – as a precaution and
preventive measure to mitigate risk.
• The ISO/IEC 27000 family of standards
helps organizations keep information
assets secure.
• https://www.iso.org/isoiec-27001-
information-security.html
Don’t Let This Happen:
https://myaccount.google.com/device-activity
https://account.microsoft.com/devices
What Are Tools Death Eaters use?
Spells:
• Man in the Middle
• Sitting between a conversation and either listening or altering the data as its sent
across.
• DNS Spoofing (https://null-byte.wonderhowto.com/how-to/hack-like-pro-spoof-dns-
lan-redirect-traffic-your-fake-website-0151620/) set up a fake website and let people
login to it.
• D/DoS Attack (Distributed/Denial of Service Attack)
• Directing a large amount of traffic to disrupt service to a particular box or an entire
network.
• Could be done via sending bad traffic or data
• That device can be brought down to an unrecoverable state to disrupt business
operations.
• Sniffing Attacks
• Monitoring of data and traffic to determine what people are doing.
BackTrack can get you ALOT
• BackTrack was a Linux distribution that focused on security based on
the Knoppix Linux distribution aimed at digital forensics and
penetration testing use. In March 2013, the Offensive Security team
rebuilt BackTrack around the Debian distribution and released it
under the name Kali Linux.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BackTrack
“Cool” Hardware
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2016/08/road-warriors-beware-of-video-jacking/
Be careful when plugging your
device in o public USB Outlet…
Either read the data on your device
OR
Record your screen ->
Credit Card Skimmers
Implementing SafeLinks
Hacked WiFi – Cain and Abel
Why have a policy?
Staring Will Ferrell ….
Increases Efficiency
• Having a security policy allows you to be consistent in your approach
to issues and how processes should work.
• It should outline how and what to do, and repeatable across your
organization.
• Everyone is doing XYZ the same way and on the same page.
Accountability, Discipline, and Penalties
• Think of it as a contract – for legal purposes – that you have taken the steps
needed to secure your organization.
Education For Employees
• By reading these policies (and signing them), it helps educate
employees (and users) the sense of ownership for assets and data.
• Everything from advice on choosing the proper passwords, to
providing guidelines for file transfers and data storage, internet access
and rules, will help to increase employees’ overall awareness of
security and how it can be strengthened
Addresses Threats and Risks
• A good policy should address all threats, strategies to decrease the
vulnerabilities of those threats, and how to recover if those threats
became actionable.
• This makes the “what do we do if someone hacks our network” a
defined process already and who to call and what to do to mitigate
further damage.
Access Definitions and Permissions
• A good policy would outline who accesses what and why. This makes
reporting a security violation easier and streamlined.
• Policies are like bouncers at a night club
• It states who has access to the VIP section of the club, why, and any reasons
to allow entry.
• Without these rules, VIP wouldn’t be really VIP.
Types of Policies
Types of Policies
• Organizational (or Master) Policy
• Serves as the foundation or blueprint for the whole organization’s
security policy. It is a strategic plan for how to implement and
maintain security throughout the organization.
• Think of it as a high-level document that includes the vision,
objectives, scope, and expendabilities.
• System-specific Policy
• Is usually concerned with a specific system (such as an ILS) or
computer system. It is meant to outline the approved software,
hardware, and methods to secure that system.
• Issue-specific Policy.
• These are more detailed and focused on a functional aspect of a role,
process, or procedure. This helps detail the required levels of security
as well as instructions for staff (and patrons) to abide by to achieve this
level.
To Include
• Security Standards
• Outline the rules, instructions, and actions required to meat the goals and
objectives.
• These can be tied to laws or regulations
• Baselines
• Identify the minimum level of security required – and everything must comply
to that minimum. Exceptions should be minimal if nonexistent. Evaluations
or audits must be routinely done – ideally by a third party consultant or a
security team.
• Guidelines
• Practical instructions and recommendations to meet the standards and
baselines. Usually written as operational guides.
• Procedures
• Usually documented in an appendix. A security policy at a high level contains
general directives, the procedure is very detailed and illustrates step-by-step
of how to do specific tasks.
Putting It Together
• Your security policy can include “maintain a malware-free computer
system”.
• The standard would be: all computers must have antivirus installed and
updated.
• The baseline states that the computer must be at minimum fully patched,
antivirus installed, updated within the last 7 days.
• Guidelines could be:
• Don’t open untrusted emails and attachments
• Don’t disable or hinder antivirus protection
• Procedure would document how to install the antivirus, how to maintain
updates, etc.
Types of Issue Specific Policies
• Change Management Policy
• What happens when a system is upgraded.
• Physical Security Policy
• Can you take company owned assets off network?
• Can your kids use the equipment?
• Email Policy
• What can be sent out? What can be downloaded?
• Internet Policy
• What can you access and why? What happens if something is blocked?
• Facebook – Allowed for Work? *Facebook can contain malicious links*
Must Have Policies:
• Media Disposal Policy / Data Retention Policy
• What do you do with old computer assets?
• How long do you back-up and retain “old” files
• Acceptable Use Policy (very common)
• The ”Do’s and Don’ts” of equipment/internet/etc.
• Access Control Policy (often part of new hire/term processes)
• Who has access to what, how is access controlled, how is access terminated /
created.
• Disaster and Recovery / Incident Response Plans
Policies on Websites
• Terms and Conditions
• What will be done with accounts, data, access information
• Privacy Policies and Cookies
• If you use Google Analytics you might want to call attention to it.
• IP Address logging?
• Links to third party websites – who is responsible?
Other Policies
• Training Process
• How do you do training on security, how frequently, what scores should there
be?
• Information
• How should information be protected and monitored?
• Vendors
• What kind of access is given to vendors. What is the “approval” process
Patrons!
• It’s important to put a policy in place and best practice for patrons –
to help limit liability on the library.
• At the end of the day, access to the internet and computer systems is
a privilege and not a right.
• Asset Usage and Internet Usage:
• Do’s and Don’ts – They have to agree and violations are met with restriction
of usage or removal of access.
• What happens if they use it for “illegal” purposes?
Policies Help Protect Important Data
(or a book of monsters)
Protecting The Environment
you
threats
Delicious Data
Why do People Attack?
• Financial Gain
• Stocks
• Getting Paid
• Selling of information
• Data Theft
• For a single person
• For a bundle of people
• Just Because
• Malicious
How to navigate and prevent wrong turns
• Who are the people we’re
trying to avoid?
Hacker Groups
• Lizard Squad. ...
• Anonymous. ...
• LulzSec. ...
• Syrian Electronic Army. ...
• Chaos Computer Club (CCC) ...
• Iran's Tarh Andishan. ...
• The Level Seven Crew. ...
• globalHell.
So what Do You Need to Protect?
• Website(s)
• All Stored PII Data
• Employee Computers
• And what they do on them
• User Computers
• And what they do on them
• Network
• And what people do on them
• Stored Data, Files, etc.
• Business Assets
• Personal Assets
• ….anything and everything that is plugged in…
Outside
• Modem Router Firewall
Switches
• Servers
End User
• Phones
• Computers
• Laptops
Outer Defenses (Routers/Firewalls)
• Site to Site Protection
(Router to Router or Firewall to
Firewall)
• Encrypted over a VPN Connection
• Protection With:
• IDS
• IPS
• Web filtering
• Antivirus at Web Level
• Protecting INBOUND and OUTBOUND
Unified Threat Management
• Single Device Security
• All traffic is routed through a unified
threat management device.
Areas of Attack On Outer Defense
External Facing Applications
• Anything with an “External IP”
• NAT, ONE to ONE, etc.
• Website
• Custom Built Web Applications
or Services
Internal Applications
• File Shares
• Active Directory (usernames /
passwords)
• User Records
• DNS Routing
• Outbound Network Traffic
• Who is going where
Inner Defenses (Switches/Server Configs)
• Protecting Internal Traffic,
Outbound Traffic, and Inbound
Traffic
• Internal Traffic = device to device
• Servers
• Printers
• Computers
• Protected By:
• Software Configurations
• Group Policy
• Password Policy
• Hardware Configurations
• Routing Rules
IT Admin Tricks for Security
• Administrative Accounts are easy to figure out if they
are something like “administrator” ”root” or “power
users”. At the same time, no employee should have
their account as a full admin.
• Instead, give them their own username for admin access (like
brian.admin)
• Change the default “login” pages for sites to something
that’s not www.mysitename.com/login. Bots look for
this and attack.
• My Drupal Site login page is www.evolveproject.org/catpower
• User Awareness is key to any secure organization. Teach
users how to identify potential threats and how to
respond quickly.
• Avoid shared accounts. One account should only be
used by one person.
Updates, Patches, Firmware
• Keeping your system updated is important.
• Being on the latest and greatest
[software/update/firmware] isn’t always
good.
• Need to test and vet all updates before
implementation
• If you can – build a dev environment to
test and validate.
Casper Suite / JAMF - https://www.jamf.com/products/jamf-pro/
SCCM tools
Protecting End Devices
• Protecting Assets
• Business Assets
• Thefts
• Hacking
• Personal Devices
• Security Risk
• Usually pose an INBOUND threat
to your network
Dual Factor is the Patronus of Spells
It helps guard your account with one extra layer of protection
against the strongest of dark forces
Passwords
• Let’s talk about
Passwords
• Length of Password
• Complexity of
password
requirements
• DO NOT USE POST IT
NOTES
Advance Cyber Protection Tools
• MDR / NDR Solutions (Managed Detection Response / Network
Detection Response)
• Network detection and response (NDR) products detect abnormal system behaviors
by applying behavioral analytics to network traffic data.
• Security information and event management, SIEM for short, is
a solution that helps organizations detect, analyze, and respond
to security threats before they harm business operations.
Your Security is as Strong As the Weakest Link
Tools To Train
• Knowbe4
Identifying Threats
• “Act of God”
• Tornado, Flood, Fire
• ”Act of Evil”
• Break-ins, Hacking, Physical Damage, Viruses
• “Act of Error”
• Accidental Deletions, Hardware Failure, Software Glitches
• Loss of Services (could be caused by above)
• Internet, Power, Heating/Cooling, Phone, Building Issues
Recoverable Risks
• Risks with Provided Services:
• Internet
• Phone
• Power
• Risks with Created Data
• Corruption
• Loss
• Risk with Owned Systems
• Errors or Corruption
• Failure or Loss
A Good recovery plan includes
• Monitoring
• Systems need to be actively monitored
• Recoverable Backups and Systems
• Systems need to have data backed up
• Redundancy
• Systems need to be redundant to mitigate risk of device or service failure,
having failover devices and services is important to ensure uptime.
• TESTING
• I’m going to say this a few times.
A Disaster Plan Is About
• Ensuring Redundancy and Recovery
• Planning and Preparation:
• Risk Management
• Risk Assessment
• Risk Mitigation
• Business Continuity
• If a Disaster Occurs:
• Response
• Relief
• Recovery
• Restoration
ISPs
Modem Firewall Switches
Servers
Computers
Modem Most latest gen firewalls are able to
handle two internet connections and
“round-robin” and do “failover”
Usually pick two different mediums:
Cable
Telephone
Satellite
…
Having two different internet connections across two
different modems will help mitigate risk of a Service
Provider Failure
Other considerations include hardware failure and
redundancy. Having a spare firewall (or using two firewalls
to load balance) can help mitigate risk.
Data Is Expensive
• Financial Records for 7 years
• SOX ( Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 )
• Cost of a “data record”
• On average, the cost of such a record containing healthcare information is
$363 (and also employee records are known to be this much if including social
information
• At the end of May 2015, the Ponemon Institute released its annual “Cost of
Data Breach Study.” Researchers estimated that the average cost of each lost
or stolen record containing sensitive and confidential information was $154.
• Verizon has the concept from a per-record perspective, claiming an average
cost of just 58 cents for each lost or stolen file.
What can Happen to My Data?
• It can be corrupted!
• Someone makes changes to a file. Accidental deletion, purposeful
manipulation, script goes rouge.
• Can impact system performance
• It can be lost!
• Server goes down, disappears, etc.
• Spreadsheets, employee files, payroll, flyers, data about events
• Website Data, Catalog Data, Hosted Applications…gone!
• Email!
• Hardware failure
Ways to Back Up
Monitoring Is Important
• Monitor your servers to prevent issues before they happen. Things to
monitor for:
• Network Drops (means it can be device failure or network issue)
• Temperature of Devices (prevent overheating)
• Server Processes (if a server is running to high for too long something could
be wrong)
• Storage Space (running out of space can corrupt an entire system)
• Memory Usage
• Database Errors
NIAGOS
PINGDOM
Test Your Plan
• Test Your Back Ups
• Do a recovery on a different server
to ensure accuracy and time how
long it takes to recover
• Test Your Redundancy
• Remove a network, server, and
determine if fail over occurs.
• Time these!
• Test Test Test.
Layout of a “Disaster Plan”
CISA
• https://www.cisa.gov/topics/cyber-threats-and-advisories/cyber-
hygiene-services
AI and Cyber Security
• AI is making Phishing Attacks harder to spot -> since AI can clean up
grammar errors, make better call to actions, etc
• How will the use of Chat GPT, etc. impact Cybersecurity?
• How will AI affect libraries and their resources?
Attacks we commonly see through e-mail
Impersonation
Some people will create emails of
VIPs to trick you into getting a message to them
Spoofing
Is when someone masks themselves as
another user or domain
Sometimes they create a new domain with
slight spelling: example g00gle.com
Pulling Everything Together
• Tools
• Training
• Policies
• Practice
Other Things To
Consider
• Lots of laws govern data and
privacy of data. Make sure your
policies
Secure Email
and File Sharing
• When sending data via email, its
best to encrypt it.
• Never send PII data via email
Free Resources - Tenable
• https://www.tenable.com/products/nessus/nessus-
essentials?action=register
Some Recommended Security Tools
ESET Products
https://www.eset.com/us/home-store/
Sophos Home
https://home.sophos.com/en-us/free-anti-virus-windows.aspx
Proactive Scanning
• Malwarebytes (Free): https://www.malwarebytes.com/
Proactive Cleaning
• CCleaner (https://www.ccleaner.com/ )
• CleanMyMac (https://macpaw.com/cleanmymac )
Backups (Personal or Work)
• Acronis True Image
https://www.acronis.com/en-us/products/true-image/
How About Your Network?
Web Security – No Installs Needed
https://www.opendns.com/
Open DNS
• https://www.opendns.com/home-internet-security/
Setting It Up
• It’s simple, you will just want to update your router’s DNS entry
(or if you wanted, you can do this directly on the device you wish to
protect)
• 208.67.222.123
• 208.67.220.123
Your Wireless Router
• Have your wireless connection protected by a password to join
• Have your wireless password interface ALSO protect with a password
(that isn’t the default password either)
Parental Controls
Email for Kids
• There are service providers that can help manage kid’s emails and
help protect them.
• Google has an option where you can manage a Google Account for
your child:
https://support.google.com/families/answer/7103338?hl=en
Apple iOS Parental Controls
• https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201304
• https://www.apple.com/families/
Microsoft Families
• https://account.microsoft.com/family/about
Google Families
• https://support.google.com/families#topic=7327495
• https://families.google.com/familylink/
App Based Monitoring
General Browsing Rules
What does HTTPS Do?
• HTTPS verifies the identity of a website and encrypts nearly all
information sent between the website and the user.
• Protected information includes cookies, user agent details, URL paths,
form submissions, and query string parameters.
• HTTPS is a combination of HTTP and Transport Layer Security (TLS).
• Browsers and other HTTPS clients are configured to trust a set
of certificate authorities that can issue cryptographically signed
certificates on behalf of web service owners.
What Doesn’t HTTPS Do?
• HTTPS has several important limitations.
• IP addresses and destination domain names are not encrypted.
• Even encrypted traffic can reveal some information indirectly, such as time
spent on site, or the size of requested resources or submitted information.
• HTTPS only guarantees the integrity of the connection between two systems,
not the systems themselves.
• It is not designed to protect a web server from being hacked.
• If a user’s system is compromised by an attacker, that system can be altered
so that its future HTTPS connections are under the attacker’s control.
Why HTTPS?
• Prevents Hackers from watching what you
do over the Internet
• Encrypts Data
• Keeps stuff private
• Keeps you safe
• Prevents people from tracking your
internet activity
• Unencrypted HTTP request reveals
information about a user’s behavior.
The HTTP protocol does not protect data from interception or alteration.
Small Library Wins
• How can a small library take a successful cyber security approach
• Use free open-source tools (OpenDNS for example)
• Free Trainings
• Ensuring things stay updated
• Evolve Project
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/bpichman
• Twitter: @bpichman
• Email: bpichman@evolveproject.org
Brian Pichman
Questions?

Cybersecurity - Defense Against The Dark Arts Harry Potter Style

  • 1.
  • 6.
  • 7.
    Cloak of Invisibility Topreasons why people want to hide their IP address: 1. Hide their geographical location 2. Prevent Web tracking 3. Avoid leaving a digital footprint 4. Bypass any bans or blacklisting of their IP address 5. Perform illegal acts without being detected
  • 8.
    Onion Routing, TorBrowsing • Technique for anonymous communication to take place over a network. The encryption takes place at three different times: • Entry Node • Relay Node • Exit Node • Tor is made up of volunteers running relay servers. No single router knows the entire network (only its to and from). • Tor can bypass internet content filtering, restricted government networks (like China) or allow people to be anonymous whistle blowers. • Tor allows you to gain access to “.onion” websites that are not accessible via a normal web browser. • Communication on the Dark Web happens, via Web, Telnet, IRC, and other means of communication being developed daily.
  • 9.
    Cloak of Invisibility •How to hide yourself? • Private VPN • You want a TOTALLY anonymous service. • Look for one that keeps no log history (Verify via reviews) • Look at Bandwidth & Available Servers • Recommendations: • Private Internet Access (PIA) • TorGuard VPN • Pure VPN • Opera Web Browser • Avast AntiVirus (SecureLine) • Worst Case: Free WIFI
  • 10.
    Cloak of Invisibility •How Tor anonymizes – “You”. • How VPN keeps ”You” protected.
  • 11.
    Free WiFi • Sometimesa good alternative if you need to do something anonymously • Nothing is ever 100% anonymous • Some public wifi does track websites you access, what you do, etc. • Make sure your computer name you are using doesn’t include your actual name
  • 12.
    Best Tips andPractices for being Anonymized Do • Use a device that you’ve never signed into anything ”personal on”. • Pro Tip: buy a computer from a Pawn Shop or Garage Sale Don’t • While on a VPN or any other anonymous tool; don’t sign into personal accounts (banks, social media, etc). • If posting, don’t use anything that could be associated to you
  • 13.
    Easy Wins forPrivacy • 10 Minute Email • https://10minutemail.com/ • Temporarily get an email box that’s anonymous and disappears after 10 minutes • Dr Cleaner (Mac) or Eraser (Win) can overwrite files on your computer with “blank” data to make file recovery near impossible. • Tools like Recuva is free softwares to allow you to restore deleted files.
  • 14.
    What People PayFor Your Data • https://www.fortinet.com/blog/industry-trends/the-true-value-of- data.html • Credit Card Numbers: 50 cents to 2.50 per card. • Bank Account Information (logins/information): $1.00 to $70 • Medical Records: $10-$20
  • 18.
  • 19.
  • 20.
  • 21.
    Tools For Use •Sites to protect yourself all the time (not free) • IdentityGuard.com • LifeLock.com • Sites to monitor when breached data gets related (this is free) • Haveibeenpwned.com • Password Management Sites (like lastpass.com) • Don’t have the same password for all your sites. • Don’t write your passwords down on a post-it-note and leave it at your desk
  • 24.
    Dual Factor Authentication •After logging in; verify login via Email, SMS, or an app with a code.
  • 25.
    Credit Card Toolsfor Online Shopping • Check out Privacy.Com • https://privacy.com/join/473XB
  • 26.
    Basic Tips • Acceptonly people you know to personal and professional accounts • Never click on links from people you don’t know. • Especially if they are using a url shortner: bit.ly, tinyurl.com, etc • https://www.urlvoid.com/ - test the website to see if its safe • https://www.site-shot.com/ get a screenshot of what will load on site • If there are people claiming to be you on social media, it’s best to get your account “verified” on those social media platforms • This lets users distinguish that you’re the actual official account • Dual factor authenticate all of your social media logins
  • 27.
    Checking Your Accounts/ Name Online • Use this site to check your usernames: https://namechk.com/ • The next is a tool searches through your email with things you may have signed up for (I've paid for their premium service as well, not really worth it, the free does just fine) https://brandyourself.com/privacy-overview. • This tool: https://email-lookup.online/index.php searches public searches to see what links. Its similar to https://www.spokeo.com/email-search.
  • 29.
    Myths • I’m/my universitynot worth being attacked. • Hackers won’t guess my password. • I/we have anti-virus software. • I’ll/we know if I/we been compromised.
  • 30.
    Understanding Breaches andHacks • A hack involves a person or group to gain authorized access to a protected computer or network • A breach typically indicates a release of confidential data (including those done by accident) • Both of these require different responses if breaches/hacks occur.
  • 31.
    The Costs OfBreaches • This year’s study found the average consolidated total cost of a data breach is 4.45 Million – Ones that use AI save 1.76 Million https://www.ibm.com/reports/data-breach • Data Breached Companies Experience… • People loose faith in your brand • Loss in patrons • Financial Costs • Government Requirements, Penalties, Fees, etc. • Sending of Notifications • Payment of Identity Protection or repercussions. https://betanews.com/2016/02/10/the-economic-cost-of-being-hacked/
  • 33.
    You as aOrganization - Obligations • You are obligated to protect the data and privacy of: • Employees • Customers • Business Partners/Vendors/Etc. • Sometimes, we forget we house a lot of personal and identifying information about our employees and customers. • Employees Social/Payroll/HR • Customer Records/Accounts/History • What employees/customers are accessing on the web • A sniffing tool, key logger, or fake DNS redirects can monitor not only the sites people are accessing but what they use for their username / password
  • 34.
    Steps – Communicationand Speed! • Communicate • People will ask “How long did you know XYZ happened” - know this information before communicating to them an attack occurred. • If you discover a breach, hack, or any other compromise that may have the impact of data being stolen or viewed, you MUST communicate quickly and effectively. • While every scenario is different and has different factors – groups that move faster with the information they know (as soon as they know it) they are generally better off long term (ie don’t’ wait months as you “investigate” the issue. Give people time to protect themselves) • Don’t over communicate and have one spokesperson • Be clear and concise. Too many details can be harmful.
  • 35.
    Other Points onCommunication • Once you know a breach has occurred, by law you are required to inform customers if their data has been compromised. • Some states have deadlines of when the announcement has to be made • Every impacted person must be told that a data breach has occurred, when it occurred, and what kind of information was compromised. • Answer: what are you doing to provide a remedy and should they do • (next slide)
  • 36.
    what are youdoing to provide a remedy and should they do You as the Organization • Build a website with information about the breach • Offer a Toll Free number people to call in for questions • If the possibility of social information provide contact information for Equifax, Experian and Transunion, and the quick links for fraud protection. Them as Impacted Parties • Fraud Protection (if necessary) • Request them to change their passwords if their password was compromised • Highlight if they use this password on OTHER sites to change those passwords too
  • 39.
    Step 2 -Investigate • You will most likely need to hire an outside cyber security firm – they have the tools and resources to track what might have been stolen and who stole it. • Solve which computers and accounts were compromised, which data was accessed (viewed) or stolen (copied) and whether any other parties – such as clients, customers, business partners, users, employees. Was the stolen data encrypted or unencrypted? • Also involve folks from the people you pay for services (depending on where the breach occurred) such as ISPs, Web Hosting Providers, Security Software, Firewall Vendors, etc. • Contact your local, county or state police computer crimes unit and the FBI, which can do forensic analyses and provide valuable guidance
  • 40.
    Step 3 –More Communication and Follow Up • If you notify more than 500 impacted people from a breach, many states will also require you to file a notice with your state attorney general’s office. • HIPPA, FERPA, CIPA, and all those other scary acronyms have requirements and regulations – make sure none of those rules are violated.
  • 41.
    Legal Stuff • Thereare a lot of laws that help a certain level of security standards. The landscape of these laws is evolving as the level of threats increase. • There is compliance standards that organizations should reach for security as well – as a precaution and preventive measure to mitigate risk. • The ISO/IEC 27000 family of standards helps organizations keep information assets secure. • https://www.iso.org/isoiec-27001- information-security.html
  • 42.
  • 43.
  • 44.
  • 45.
    What Are ToolsDeath Eaters use?
  • 46.
    Spells: • Man inthe Middle • Sitting between a conversation and either listening or altering the data as its sent across. • DNS Spoofing (https://null-byte.wonderhowto.com/how-to/hack-like-pro-spoof-dns- lan-redirect-traffic-your-fake-website-0151620/) set up a fake website and let people login to it. • D/DoS Attack (Distributed/Denial of Service Attack) • Directing a large amount of traffic to disrupt service to a particular box or an entire network. • Could be done via sending bad traffic or data • That device can be brought down to an unrecoverable state to disrupt business operations. • Sniffing Attacks • Monitoring of data and traffic to determine what people are doing.
  • 48.
    BackTrack can getyou ALOT • BackTrack was a Linux distribution that focused on security based on the Knoppix Linux distribution aimed at digital forensics and penetration testing use. In March 2013, the Offensive Security team rebuilt BackTrack around the Debian distribution and released it under the name Kali Linux. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BackTrack
  • 50.
    “Cool” Hardware https://krebsonsecurity.com/2016/08/road-warriors-beware-of-video-jacking/ Be carefulwhen plugging your device in o public USB Outlet… Either read the data on your device OR Record your screen ->
  • 51.
  • 53.
  • 54.
    Hacked WiFi –Cain and Abel
  • 56.
    Why have apolicy? Staring Will Ferrell ….
  • 57.
    Increases Efficiency • Havinga security policy allows you to be consistent in your approach to issues and how processes should work. • It should outline how and what to do, and repeatable across your organization. • Everyone is doing XYZ the same way and on the same page.
  • 58.
    Accountability, Discipline, andPenalties • Think of it as a contract – for legal purposes – that you have taken the steps needed to secure your organization.
  • 59.
    Education For Employees •By reading these policies (and signing them), it helps educate employees (and users) the sense of ownership for assets and data. • Everything from advice on choosing the proper passwords, to providing guidelines for file transfers and data storage, internet access and rules, will help to increase employees’ overall awareness of security and how it can be strengthened
  • 60.
    Addresses Threats andRisks • A good policy should address all threats, strategies to decrease the vulnerabilities of those threats, and how to recover if those threats became actionable. • This makes the “what do we do if someone hacks our network” a defined process already and who to call and what to do to mitigate further damage.
  • 61.
    Access Definitions andPermissions • A good policy would outline who accesses what and why. This makes reporting a security violation easier and streamlined. • Policies are like bouncers at a night club • It states who has access to the VIP section of the club, why, and any reasons to allow entry. • Without these rules, VIP wouldn’t be really VIP.
  • 62.
  • 63.
    Types of Policies •Organizational (or Master) Policy • Serves as the foundation or blueprint for the whole organization’s security policy. It is a strategic plan for how to implement and maintain security throughout the organization. • Think of it as a high-level document that includes the vision, objectives, scope, and expendabilities. • System-specific Policy • Is usually concerned with a specific system (such as an ILS) or computer system. It is meant to outline the approved software, hardware, and methods to secure that system. • Issue-specific Policy. • These are more detailed and focused on a functional aspect of a role, process, or procedure. This helps detail the required levels of security as well as instructions for staff (and patrons) to abide by to achieve this level.
  • 64.
    To Include • SecurityStandards • Outline the rules, instructions, and actions required to meat the goals and objectives. • These can be tied to laws or regulations • Baselines • Identify the minimum level of security required – and everything must comply to that minimum. Exceptions should be minimal if nonexistent. Evaluations or audits must be routinely done – ideally by a third party consultant or a security team. • Guidelines • Practical instructions and recommendations to meet the standards and baselines. Usually written as operational guides. • Procedures • Usually documented in an appendix. A security policy at a high level contains general directives, the procedure is very detailed and illustrates step-by-step of how to do specific tasks.
  • 65.
    Putting It Together •Your security policy can include “maintain a malware-free computer system”. • The standard would be: all computers must have antivirus installed and updated. • The baseline states that the computer must be at minimum fully patched, antivirus installed, updated within the last 7 days. • Guidelines could be: • Don’t open untrusted emails and attachments • Don’t disable or hinder antivirus protection • Procedure would document how to install the antivirus, how to maintain updates, etc.
  • 66.
    Types of IssueSpecific Policies • Change Management Policy • What happens when a system is upgraded. • Physical Security Policy • Can you take company owned assets off network? • Can your kids use the equipment? • Email Policy • What can be sent out? What can be downloaded? • Internet Policy • What can you access and why? What happens if something is blocked? • Facebook – Allowed for Work? *Facebook can contain malicious links*
  • 67.
    Must Have Policies: •Media Disposal Policy / Data Retention Policy • What do you do with old computer assets? • How long do you back-up and retain “old” files • Acceptable Use Policy (very common) • The ”Do’s and Don’ts” of equipment/internet/etc. • Access Control Policy (often part of new hire/term processes) • Who has access to what, how is access controlled, how is access terminated / created. • Disaster and Recovery / Incident Response Plans
  • 68.
    Policies on Websites •Terms and Conditions • What will be done with accounts, data, access information • Privacy Policies and Cookies • If you use Google Analytics you might want to call attention to it. • IP Address logging? • Links to third party websites – who is responsible?
  • 69.
    Other Policies • TrainingProcess • How do you do training on security, how frequently, what scores should there be? • Information • How should information be protected and monitored? • Vendors • What kind of access is given to vendors. What is the “approval” process
  • 70.
    Patrons! • It’s importantto put a policy in place and best practice for patrons – to help limit liability on the library. • At the end of the day, access to the internet and computer systems is a privilege and not a right. • Asset Usage and Internet Usage: • Do’s and Don’ts – They have to agree and violations are met with restriction of usage or removal of access. • What happens if they use it for “illegal” purposes?
  • 71.
    Policies Help ProtectImportant Data (or a book of monsters)
  • 72.
  • 73.
    Why do PeopleAttack? • Financial Gain • Stocks • Getting Paid • Selling of information • Data Theft • For a single person • For a bundle of people • Just Because • Malicious
  • 74.
    How to navigateand prevent wrong turns • Who are the people we’re trying to avoid? Hacker Groups • Lizard Squad. ... • Anonymous. ... • LulzSec. ... • Syrian Electronic Army. ... • Chaos Computer Club (CCC) ... • Iran's Tarh Andishan. ... • The Level Seven Crew. ... • globalHell.
  • 75.
    So what DoYou Need to Protect? • Website(s) • All Stored PII Data • Employee Computers • And what they do on them • User Computers • And what they do on them • Network • And what people do on them • Stored Data, Files, etc. • Business Assets • Personal Assets • ….anything and everything that is plugged in…
  • 76.
    Outside • Modem RouterFirewall Switches • Servers End User • Phones • Computers • Laptops
  • 77.
    Outer Defenses (Routers/Firewalls) •Site to Site Protection (Router to Router or Firewall to Firewall) • Encrypted over a VPN Connection • Protection With: • IDS • IPS • Web filtering • Antivirus at Web Level • Protecting INBOUND and OUTBOUND
  • 78.
    Unified Threat Management •Single Device Security • All traffic is routed through a unified threat management device.
  • 79.
    Areas of AttackOn Outer Defense External Facing Applications • Anything with an “External IP” • NAT, ONE to ONE, etc. • Website • Custom Built Web Applications or Services Internal Applications • File Shares • Active Directory (usernames / passwords) • User Records • DNS Routing • Outbound Network Traffic • Who is going where
  • 80.
    Inner Defenses (Switches/ServerConfigs) • Protecting Internal Traffic, Outbound Traffic, and Inbound Traffic • Internal Traffic = device to device • Servers • Printers • Computers • Protected By: • Software Configurations • Group Policy • Password Policy • Hardware Configurations • Routing Rules
  • 82.
    IT Admin Tricksfor Security • Administrative Accounts are easy to figure out if they are something like “administrator” ”root” or “power users”. At the same time, no employee should have their account as a full admin. • Instead, give them their own username for admin access (like brian.admin) • Change the default “login” pages for sites to something that’s not www.mysitename.com/login. Bots look for this and attack. • My Drupal Site login page is www.evolveproject.org/catpower • User Awareness is key to any secure organization. Teach users how to identify potential threats and how to respond quickly. • Avoid shared accounts. One account should only be used by one person.
  • 84.
    Updates, Patches, Firmware •Keeping your system updated is important. • Being on the latest and greatest [software/update/firmware] isn’t always good. • Need to test and vet all updates before implementation • If you can – build a dev environment to test and validate.
  • 85.
    Casper Suite /JAMF - https://www.jamf.com/products/jamf-pro/
  • 86.
  • 88.
    Protecting End Devices •Protecting Assets • Business Assets • Thefts • Hacking • Personal Devices • Security Risk • Usually pose an INBOUND threat to your network
  • 90.
    Dual Factor isthe Patronus of Spells It helps guard your account with one extra layer of protection against the strongest of dark forces
  • 91.
    Passwords • Let’s talkabout Passwords • Length of Password • Complexity of password requirements • DO NOT USE POST IT NOTES
  • 92.
    Advance Cyber ProtectionTools • MDR / NDR Solutions (Managed Detection Response / Network Detection Response) • Network detection and response (NDR) products detect abnormal system behaviors by applying behavioral analytics to network traffic data. • Security information and event management, SIEM for short, is a solution that helps organizations detect, analyze, and respond to security threats before they harm business operations.
  • 95.
    Your Security isas Strong As the Weakest Link
  • 96.
  • 101.
    Identifying Threats • “Actof God” • Tornado, Flood, Fire • ”Act of Evil” • Break-ins, Hacking, Physical Damage, Viruses • “Act of Error” • Accidental Deletions, Hardware Failure, Software Glitches • Loss of Services (could be caused by above) • Internet, Power, Heating/Cooling, Phone, Building Issues
  • 102.
    Recoverable Risks • Riskswith Provided Services: • Internet • Phone • Power • Risks with Created Data • Corruption • Loss • Risk with Owned Systems • Errors or Corruption • Failure or Loss
  • 107.
    A Good recoveryplan includes • Monitoring • Systems need to be actively monitored • Recoverable Backups and Systems • Systems need to have data backed up • Redundancy • Systems need to be redundant to mitigate risk of device or service failure, having failover devices and services is important to ensure uptime. • TESTING • I’m going to say this a few times.
  • 108.
    A Disaster PlanIs About • Ensuring Redundancy and Recovery • Planning and Preparation: • Risk Management • Risk Assessment • Risk Mitigation • Business Continuity • If a Disaster Occurs: • Response • Relief • Recovery • Restoration
  • 109.
    ISPs Modem Firewall Switches Servers Computers ModemMost latest gen firewalls are able to handle two internet connections and “round-robin” and do “failover” Usually pick two different mediums: Cable Telephone Satellite … Having two different internet connections across two different modems will help mitigate risk of a Service Provider Failure Other considerations include hardware failure and redundancy. Having a spare firewall (or using two firewalls to load balance) can help mitigate risk.
  • 110.
    Data Is Expensive •Financial Records for 7 years • SOX ( Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 ) • Cost of a “data record” • On average, the cost of such a record containing healthcare information is $363 (and also employee records are known to be this much if including social information • At the end of May 2015, the Ponemon Institute released its annual “Cost of Data Breach Study.” Researchers estimated that the average cost of each lost or stolen record containing sensitive and confidential information was $154. • Verizon has the concept from a per-record perspective, claiming an average cost of just 58 cents for each lost or stolen file.
  • 112.
    What can Happento My Data? • It can be corrupted! • Someone makes changes to a file. Accidental deletion, purposeful manipulation, script goes rouge. • Can impact system performance • It can be lost! • Server goes down, disappears, etc. • Spreadsheets, employee files, payroll, flyers, data about events • Website Data, Catalog Data, Hosted Applications…gone! • Email! • Hardware failure
  • 113.
  • 114.
    Monitoring Is Important •Monitor your servers to prevent issues before they happen. Things to monitor for: • Network Drops (means it can be device failure or network issue) • Temperature of Devices (prevent overheating) • Server Processes (if a server is running to high for too long something could be wrong) • Storage Space (running out of space can corrupt an entire system) • Memory Usage • Database Errors
  • 116.
  • 117.
  • 118.
    Test Your Plan •Test Your Back Ups • Do a recovery on a different server to ensure accuracy and time how long it takes to recover • Test Your Redundancy • Remove a network, server, and determine if fail over occurs. • Time these! • Test Test Test.
  • 119.
    Layout of a“Disaster Plan”
  • 120.
  • 121.
    AI and CyberSecurity • AI is making Phishing Attacks harder to spot -> since AI can clean up grammar errors, make better call to actions, etc • How will the use of Chat GPT, etc. impact Cybersecurity? • How will AI affect libraries and their resources?
  • 123.
    Attacks we commonlysee through e-mail
  • 124.
    Impersonation Some people willcreate emails of VIPs to trick you into getting a message to them
  • 125.
    Spoofing Is when someonemasks themselves as another user or domain Sometimes they create a new domain with slight spelling: example g00gle.com
  • 126.
    Pulling Everything Together •Tools • Training • Policies • Practice
  • 127.
    Other Things To Consider •Lots of laws govern data and privacy of data. Make sure your policies
  • 128.
    Secure Email and FileSharing • When sending data via email, its best to encrypt it. • Never send PII data via email
  • 129.
    Free Resources -Tenable • https://www.tenable.com/products/nessus/nessus- essentials?action=register
  • 130.
  • 131.
  • 132.
  • 133.
    Proactive Scanning • Malwarebytes(Free): https://www.malwarebytes.com/
  • 134.
    Proactive Cleaning • CCleaner(https://www.ccleaner.com/ ) • CleanMyMac (https://macpaw.com/cleanmymac )
  • 135.
    Backups (Personal orWork) • Acronis True Image https://www.acronis.com/en-us/products/true-image/
  • 136.
  • 137.
    Web Security –No Installs Needed https://www.opendns.com/
  • 138.
  • 139.
    Setting It Up •It’s simple, you will just want to update your router’s DNS entry (or if you wanted, you can do this directly on the device you wish to protect) • 208.67.222.123 • 208.67.220.123
  • 140.
    Your Wireless Router •Have your wireless connection protected by a password to join • Have your wireless password interface ALSO protect with a password (that isn’t the default password either)
  • 141.
  • 142.
    Email for Kids •There are service providers that can help manage kid’s emails and help protect them. • Google has an option where you can manage a Google Account for your child: https://support.google.com/families/answer/7103338?hl=en
  • 143.
    Apple iOS ParentalControls • https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201304 • https://www.apple.com/families/
  • 144.
  • 145.
  • 146.
  • 148.
  • 149.
    What does HTTPSDo? • HTTPS verifies the identity of a website and encrypts nearly all information sent between the website and the user. • Protected information includes cookies, user agent details, URL paths, form submissions, and query string parameters. • HTTPS is a combination of HTTP and Transport Layer Security (TLS). • Browsers and other HTTPS clients are configured to trust a set of certificate authorities that can issue cryptographically signed certificates on behalf of web service owners.
  • 150.
    What Doesn’t HTTPSDo? • HTTPS has several important limitations. • IP addresses and destination domain names are not encrypted. • Even encrypted traffic can reveal some information indirectly, such as time spent on site, or the size of requested resources or submitted information. • HTTPS only guarantees the integrity of the connection between two systems, not the systems themselves. • It is not designed to protect a web server from being hacked. • If a user’s system is compromised by an attacker, that system can be altered so that its future HTTPS connections are under the attacker’s control.
  • 151.
    Why HTTPS? • PreventsHackers from watching what you do over the Internet • Encrypts Data • Keeps stuff private • Keeps you safe • Prevents people from tracking your internet activity • Unencrypted HTTP request reveals information about a user’s behavior. The HTTP protocol does not protect data from interception or alteration.
  • 152.
    Small Library Wins •How can a small library take a successful cyber security approach • Use free open-source tools (OpenDNS for example) • Free Trainings • Ensuring things stay updated
  • 153.
    • Evolve Project •https://www.linkedin.com/in/bpichman • Twitter: @bpichman • Email: bpichman@evolveproject.org Brian Pichman Questions?

Editor's Notes

  • #10 http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2403388,00.asp
  • #49 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BackTrack
  • #59 Need to define penalties when violations occur. People need to know the consequences are for failure to comply – both from a legal and HR standpoint or even access permissions. Policies and procedures provide what the expectation is and how to achieve that expectation. It should define what the consequence are for failure to adhere.
  • #75 These are also the people that use TorBrowser as well to hide themselves
  • #77 Infrastructure: Network (Switches, Routers, Firewalls, Modem) WiFi Network VPN Connections Servers (File Storage, Active Directory, Application Servers). Phone System, Security System, Website, etc. End Clients End User PCs and other Peripherals Copiers, Scanners, Printers Software
  • #150 HTTPS verifies the identity of a website or web service for a connecting client, and encrypts nearly all information sent between the website or service and the user. Protected information includes cookies, user agent details, URL paths, form submissions, and query string parameters. HTTPS is designed to prevent this information from being read or changed while in transit. HTTPS is a combination of HTTP and Transport Layer Security (TLS). TLS is a network protocol that establishes an encrypted connection to an authenticated peer over an untrusted network. Browsers and other HTTPS clients are configured to trust a set of certificate authorities [2] that can issue cryptographically signed certificates on behalf of web service owners. These certificates communicate to the client that the web service host demonstrated ownership of the domain to the certificate authority at the time of certificate issuance. This prevents unknown or untrusted websites from masquerading as a Federal website or service.
  • #151 What HTTPS Doesn’t Do HTTPS has several important limitations. IP addresses and destination domain names are not encrypted during communication. Even encrypted traffic can reveal some information indirectly, such as time spent on site, or the size of requested resources or submitted information. HTTPS only guarantees the integrity of the connection between two systems, not the systems themselves. It is not designed to protect a web server from being hacked or compromised, or to prevent the web service from exposing user information during its normal operation. Similarly, if a user’s system is compromised by an attacker, that system can be altered so that its future HTTPS connections are under the attacker’s control. The guarantees of HTTPS may also be weakened or eliminated by compromised or malicious certificate authorities.
  • #152 Data sent over HTTP is susceptible to interception, manipulation, and impersonation. This data can include browser identity, website content, search terms, and other user-submitted information.