This document discusses protecting Windows networks from malware. It begins with two "immutable laws of security": if a bad actor can persuade you to run their program or alter the operating system, the computer is no longer yours. It then discusses current malware trends like compromising trusted websites and toolkits. Case studies show malware being spread through Facebook and Google. Best practices for defense include using defense-in-depth with policies, firewalls, host security, and continual patching and updates.

1. Protecting Windows networks from Malware MadhurVerma MCSA, MCSE, MCTS, CIW Security Analyst, CEH, MVP (Consumer Security)

2. Agenda Introduction and Background Current Trends Case Studies Defense Arsenal Best Practices

3. Immutable Laws of Security Law#1: If a bad guy can persuade you to run his program on your computer, it's not your computer anymore Law #2: If a bad guy can alter the operating system on your computer, it's not your computer anymore

4. Malware "Malware" is short for malicious software and is typically used as a catch-all term to refer to any software designed to cause damage to a single computer, server, or computer network, whether it's a virus, spyware, et al.

5. Implications Theft of usernames & passwords Theft of corporate secrets Lost network bandwidth Help desk overhead Lost worker productivity Legal Liabilities

6. Rationales Not using security devices Mis-configuration of servers and network devices Installation of unwanted applications and services Poor coding practices Using outdated Antivirus definitions

7. Malicious Software Landscape Harmless Potentially Unwanted Adware, spyware, monitoring software, remote control software Malicious Viruses, worms, Trojans, rootkits, bots

8. Distribution Methods Propagation through E-mail attachments, Pirated software and free shareware programs Mechanism: web pages can use to install software is ActiveX Mechanism of “Drive By download” Deceptive technique of “Pop under exploit” choice of clicking Yes/Ok or No/cancel Faux Security Alert

9. Changing Era Increased propagation vectors Complexity of malicious code, payload and obfuscation Motivation changed from fun, curiosity or fame to money Destruction malware decreasing and information stealing malware increasing Rise in targeted attacks through social engineering Rise in Malware Toolkits Rise in exploitation of Web 2.0

10. Current Trends Compromising trusted and popular websites and embedding malicious code or links to malicious sites Publishing malicious links in search engines, discussion forums etc Development of web-attack toolkits Exploiting client side vulnerabilities

11. Case Study I - Facebook

12. Facebook Widget Installing Spyware

15. Case Study II - Google

16. Google Sponsored Links Spreading Rogue Anti-Virus Software

20. Case Study III - Toolkits

21. Attack Toolkit Intrude & adds IFRAME Snippet iFrame Snippet Malicious Code injected into users’ PC

22. Threat Ecosystem

23. Facts Source: Microsoft Intelligence Report

25. Rise in exploitation of client-side vulnerabilities

28. Increases attacker’s risk of detection

29. Reduces attacker’s chance of successPolicies, Procedures, and Awareness Security Policy, User education Physical Security Guards, locks, tracking devices Firewalls, VPN quarantine Perimeter Internal Network Network segments, IPSec, NIPS OS hardening, authentication, patch management, HIPS Host Application Application hardening, antivirus, antispyware Data ACL, encryption

30. Implementing Application Layer Filtering Web browsing and e-mail can be scanned to ensure that content specific to each does not contain illegitimate data Deep content analyses, including the ability to detect, inspect and validate traffic using any port and protocol

31. Protecting the Network: Best Practices Have a proactive antivirus response team monitoring early warning sites such as antivirus vendor Web sites Have an incident response plan Implement automated monitoring and report policies Implement intrusion- detection or intrusion-prevention capabilities

32. Protecting Servers: Best Practices Consider each server role implemented in your organization to implement specific host protection solutions Stage all updates through a test environment before releasing into production Deploy regular security and antivirus updates as required Implement a self-managed host protection solution to decrease management costs

33. Protecting Client Computers: Best Practices Identify threats within the host, application, and data layers of the defense-in-depth strategy Implement an effective security update management policy Implement an effective antivirus management policy Use Active Directory Group Policy to manage application security requirements Implement software restriction policies to control applications

34. A Comprehensive Security Solution Services Edge Server Applications Network Access Protection (NAP) Content Client and Server OS Identity Management SystemsManagement Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) Guidance Developer Tools

35. Best Practices Always run up-to-date software Uninstall unnecessary services and applications Use antivirus and antispyware that offers real-time protection and continually updated definition files to detect and block exploits Enable Data Execution Prevention (DEP) in compatible versions of Windows, which can help prevent a common class of exploits called buffer overflows

36. Best Practices Enable Structured Exception Handling Overwrite Protection (SEHOP) in Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008, which is designed to block exploits that use the Structured Exception Handler (SEH) overwrite technique Set Internet and local intranet security zone settings in Internet Explorer to High, which will cause Internet Explorer to prompt the user before running scripts and ActiveX controls in these zones

37. Best Practices Avoid browsing to sites you do not trust Follow principle of least privilege Read e-mail messages in plain text format to help protect you from the HTML e-mail attack vector Do not click on the links provided in the e-mail from the sources you do not trust

38. Immutable Laws of Security If you don't keep up with security fixes, your network won't be yours for long It doesn't do much good to install security fixes on a computer that was never secured to begin with Security only works if the secure way also happens to be the easy way Eternal vigilance is the price of security

39. Questions?