Can you ever be ready for a cyberattack—yes, you can!
Asking if you are ready for a cyberattack is like asking if you are ready for an accident. When an accident occurs, you can have insurance and the coverage you need to take care of the problem—with a cyberattack, if you have a cybersecurity partner on your side, you can do the same.
If you are not already prepared for a cyberattack, it is imperative you understand the serious and imminent dangers of an attack.
With global cybercrime damages predicted to cost up to $10.5 trillion annually by 2025, having a quality cybersecurity service is no longer an option, it’s a requirement. Hackers are coming at your company from all angles, intent on stealing (or holding hostage) your most valuable assets, and you need to be ready.
It’s no longer a matter of, “you should probably do something about that,” it’s a, “you NEED to make the necessary adjustments as soon as possible,” and here’s why.
Cybercrime costs organizations $2.9 million every minute, and major businesses lose $25 per minute as a result of data breaches. It takes 280 days to find and contain the average cyberattack, while the average attack costs $3.86 million. Companies in the United States have the highest average total cost at $8.64 million per breach, and it is estimated that half of all data breaches globally will occur in the United States by 2023. If you haven’t already, take a minute and look at one of the many cyber threat maps to see how many attacks are detected every second—there are hundreds of thousands every day!
That’s why you need to understand what kinds of threats you are up against and how your defenses will fare.
A cybersecurity partner can help ensure the safety of your company’s most critical assets. The reason to rely on a cybersecurity partner is because teams like ours are full of cybersecurity experts who have the extensive education and experience needed to combat various types of cyberattacks. If you have some kind of cybersecurity product installed to your network of devices, you are going to be able to prevent a good number of attacks, but without an expert who constantly reads reports and anticipates the different attacks, you are at risk. Experts don’t need to turn to an incident response manual every time there appears to be a threat. You need a team to be on constant lookout for things such as zero-day attacks and other unseen threats that may appear.
Attacks can come from your cloud, servers, firewalls, SDS systems, personal devices, and more.
With a threat detection solution—such as Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) continuously monitoring your environment—you’ll not only get preventative software, but real-time notifications on serious threats, not false positives. In addition, if an attack is detected, our team of experts will start working with you to find a solution within minutes of an attack.
Analysis finds that 80% of data breaches can be prevented with basic actions, such as vulnerability assessments, patching, and proper configurations.
Although the reality of cybersecurity threats and malicious attacks is challenging, CIT is here to help you realize your cybersecurity capabilities and risks and provide recommendations for improving your overall defense in-depth for the best possible cybersecurity outcomes.
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An old scam that keeps reinventing itself with new victims. Don’t become one!
You’ve probably heard the classic business email compromise (BEC) scam about Nigerian princes who want to deposit money in people’s bank accounts—but first need their prey to send them money to make it all work to plan. It’s an oldie but goodie. Unfortunately, it’s also one that keeps reinventing itself along with another batch of unwitting victims. In fact, it happens so often, BEC scams currently outdo ransomware as the most damaging cyberattack in the world.
In fact, according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), in 2020, losses from BEC exceeded $1.8 billion—that’s a fourfold increase since 2016! The number of BEC incidents also rose by 61% between 2016 and 2020. Using tactics that play off real-time world events, such as COVID-19 or the trust of established interpersonal relationships, criminal elements have managed to stay ahead of the good guys with increased sophistication and swiftness.
Healthcare provides bilked by criminals posing as trusted vendors with access to much-needed personal protection equipment
A large social media firm handed over personal payroll information about employees to an individual they thought was their CEO
A non-profit organization was fooled into transferring a large loan to a business partner right into the hands of the threat actor
To protect yourself and your business from these types of attacks, employee education is essential. For example, if someone in your accounts payable department receives an email from a business partner requesting you alter established wire transfer information, be sure your staff are trained to recognize the request as a red flag and confirm directly with their point of contact details of the change. It seems second nature, but when people are busy and working against deadlines, it’s easy to miss a well-disguised ruse.
From a defense in-depth perspective, it’s also essential to ensure you have a layer of threat detection in place to help identify malicious behavior, alert of the threat, and inform the correct response and remediation measures. This would include:
Monitoring for anomalous behavior, both on-premises and in the cloud
BEC threats rely on looking like normal user activity. With an increase in remote work, companies are relying more on cloud services like Microsoft® Office 365® which puts data into a complex environment that’s often under-protected. Once threat actors can get access to Office 365, getting to the juicy data is just a few clicks away. Traditional perimeter security tools, such as firewalls, aren’t able to monitor suspicious activity in cloud-hosted applications like Office 365, SharePoint, or OneDrive. The same applies to monitoring of your endpoints for suspicious activity. If a threat actor slips past perimeter defense and acquires user credentials, it will be difficult to identify threats that appear as typical activity.
Having enough IT Security staff
When something nefarious goes down, you need to know immediately. Too many businesses lack the ability to dedicate staff to 24/7 monitoring of their environment. If an alert goes off at 1 a.m., the time lost until someone sees it and makes sense of it could be the difference between defense of the business or catastrophic damage. Managed threat detection and response can be a force multiplier if you are unable to monitor your environment 24/7.
While there are many aspects to improving your defense in-depth, the following from the FBI act as good and effective tips to share with employees to help elevate everyone’s awareness of how to avoid business email compromise attacks.
Be skeptical—Last-minute changes in wiring instructions or recipient account information must be verified.
Don’t click it—Verify any changes and information via the contact on file—do not contact the vendor through the number provided in the email.
Double check that URL—Ensure the URL in the email is associated with the business it claims to be from.
Spelling counts—Be alert to misspelled hyperlinks in the actual domain name.
It’s a match—Verify the email address used to send emails, especially when using a mobile or handheld device, by ensuring the sender’s email address appears to match who it’s coming from.
Pay attention—Often there are clues with business email compromise, e.g.:
An employee who does not normally interact with the CEO receives an urgent request from them
Data shows an employee is in one location at 1 p.m. but halfway around the globe 10 minutes later
Active activity from an employee who is supposed to be on leave
If you see something, say something—If something looks awry, report it to your managed service provider or IT Security supervisor. And if you have been a victim of BEC, file a detailed complaint with IC3.
To learn more about business email compromise threats and defense against them, CIT can provide you with guidance, education, and technology to strengthen your security posture. Give us a call and let’s discuss.
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The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) is a program developed by the Department of Defense (DoD) to help measure the cybersecurity maturity level of contractors across the defense industrial base (DIB), which includes over 300,000 companies. The CMMC is the DoD’s response to significant increase in compromises of sensitive data located on contractors’ information systems.
When did it go into effect?
September 2020. Many companies have already been required to meet certain requirements outlined by the DoD to meet CMMC requirements. The expectation is that CMMC will be a requirement of all new DoD requests for proposals beginning in 2026.
What companies are included?
The certification is applicable to contractors who work directly with DoD, and to subcontractors who contract with primary contractors to provide fulfilment and execution of those contracts.
As mentioned above, all contracts with the DoD will include CMMC requirements by 2026. It is worth noting that the DoD has indicated they intend to issue contract opportunities at all levels of the maturity model, meaning that there will be some number of requests issued that will require only a low level of certification.
What are the levels of CMMC?
The levels of CMMC can be directly related to the security maturity of organizations. They are accumulative meaning, as organizations implement stronger controls, they can achieve a higher level. The level of maturity may be a differentiator for retaining or gaining new contracts with the DoD
CMMC level 1: Preformed – Creation requirements. Processes are informal
CMMC level 2: Documented meaning a security program exists, is documented, and understood throughout the organization.
CMMC level 3: Managed. Tools and processes are in place, consistent and followed by all within the organization
CMMC levels 4: Reviewed. Tools and processes are reviewed periodically and updates as opportunities are identified from review.
CMMC level 5: Continuous improvement throughout the organization. Organization has implemented all requirements.
What is included in the review?
The CMMC includes the following cybersecurity domains, all of which need to have at least Basic Cybersecurity milestones to be CMMC compliant:
Not All MFA is Created Equal: Advantages and Disadvantages of Common Forms of MFA
If you’ve spoken to anyone in the cybersecurity industry in the past few years, you’ve probably heard at least once “multi-factor authentication (MFA) is one of the best things you can do to protect yourself and your organization.” But what, you may be asking, does that specifically entail? MFA comes in all different shapes and sizes and like anything else in the cybersecurity and technical worlds, there is a fair amount of nuance in the available technologies. There are many things to consider when attempting to determine what type of MFA is best for you and your organization, including security, ease of implementation, ease of use, cost, etc. Let the below information serve as a high-level overview of those considerations for the four most common forms of MFA: SMS OTP, software TOTP, hardware TOTP, and push OTP.
SMS One-Time Password (OTP)
Description: a random, numerical password, usually six digits, sent via SMS message to a designated mobile device. The password can only be used once.
Advantages: easy to implement and better than no MFA at all. It can also be free or inexpensive to set up (disregarding the cost of the mobile phone).
Disadvantages: requires the user to own a mobile phone that can receive SMS text messages. One of the least secure forms of MFA (see Vulnerabilities).
Vulnerabilities: susceptible to SMS intercept attacks, wherein the text message is “intercepted” by a cyber attacker who receives the text message instead. SMS intercept attacks can be accomplished in a variety of ways, including SIM-swap scams, mobile number port-out scams, and SMS-stealing malware. Several high-profile security breaches have occurred over the past few years that were the result of SMS intercept attacks, including the 2018 data breach at Reddit and the 2019 compromise of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s Twitter account.
Other info: SMS OTP was deprecated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in 2016.
Software Time-based One-Time Password (TOTP)
Description: a random, numerical password, usually six digits, generated via an authenticator app installed on the associated mobile device. The code regenerates at regular intervals, usually every 30 seconds, and each code may only be used once. There are a variety of authenticator apps available, including Google Authenticator, Duo Mobile, Authy, etc.
Advantages: more secure than SMS OTP and fairly easy to deploy, though not as easy as SMS OTP. It is can also be free or inexpensive to set up (disregarding the cost of the smartphone).
Disadvantages: requires the user to own a smartphone and install a mobile app. The security of software TOTP is heavily dependent on the authenticator app being used, as well as the parameters specified by the authenticating server. TOTP relies on a shared secret key that is portable, often shared via a QR code, which makes it susceptible to cloning.
Hardware Time-based One-Time Password (TOTP)
Description: a random, numerical password, usually six digits, generated via a hardware token, like a key fob or smart card, with a digital display. The code regenerates at regular intervals, usually every 30 seconds, and each code may only be used once.
Advantages: very secure, as most hardware tokens are difficult to compromise remotely. The use of hardware tokens does not require users to own a mobile device or smartphone or install an authenticator app.
Disadvantages: can be very expensive (~$15+ per token). Hardware tokens can be difficult to deploy, as they are set up using NFC, which can be temperamental to use. The hardware tokens, which can be quite small, can be easily lost. Additionally, some hardware tokens, such as Yubikeys, require a physical connection to the device attempting the authentication and are thus not compatible with devices that do not have the token’s connection type (i.e., USB-A, USB-C, Lightning, etc.). Hardware tokens with more than one connection type are available, but they tend to be more expensive.
Other info: Push One-Time Password (OTP)
Description: a push notification is sent to the user’s device via an installed mobile app, giving the user the option to approve or deny the authentication request. The push notification usually includes the context of the authentication request, such as the IP address and corresponding location from which the login request originated.
Advantages: very secure, as the authentication communication is out-of-band and encrypted. Unlike TOTP, push OTP links a single device to the user’s identity, so it is not susceptible to cloning. It is easy to deploy and extremely easy to use, requiring only the click of a button to approve the request. It can be free or inexpensive (disregarding the cost of the smartphone).
Disadvantages: possible for users to accidentally approve fraudulent requests. It requires the user to own a smartphone and download a mobile app. Push OTP requires that the smartphone have an internet connection and it is a relatively new technology that is still not widely supported.
Other info: often used as a replacement for passwords. The push notification does not usually carry the OTP, but upon approval by the user, a unique OTP is generated internally on the device and sent back to the authenticating server to verify it.
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Why should an organization consider using a security framework?
Historically, organizations have invested significant amounts of time and budgets into their current security posture. Up until recently, that posture was largely designed to protect the traditional office space. With more people working remotely than ever, that security posture and program may not fit with the new requirements of protecting employees that may be working anywhere at any time.
A security framework is designed to help organizations:
Understand their current cybersecurity posture
Define or update a cybersecurity program
Help communicate requirements and future state with stakeholders
Identify opportunities or needs for new or revised standards
Assists in prioritizing potential projects to help reduce risk to the company
Enables investment decisions to address gaps
What is NIST?
The National Institute of Standards and Technology developed its cybersecurity framework to strengthen the security of United States critical infrastructure. Like most security frameworks, NIST can be applied to any sized organization in any industry. The NIST framework includes five cores.
Those are: Identify, Protect, Detect, Response, and Recover.
Identify
Naturally, most security programs begin with the Identify stage.
Identify can include the review Inventory of assets, data, Users, Systems, and the boundaries of where all those items can be located. After which, most will complete assessments, which may include gap analyses, a self-assessment or questionnaire, a review of the technical infrastructure, as well as potentially reviewing those of their supply chain vendors and partners.
Assessments are performed to help define risks allowing the organization or that of its partners, to develop the appropriate security controls to address those risks.
Identify also includes the traditional governance process of building or revising security policies and procedures, change management processes, vendor management processes, and so on.
Protect
Once the identify process has been completed building a security program begins with defining and applying security controls to help mitigate the risks as well as help build processes to protect the organizations’ assets and people.
The Protect core focuses on building administrative and technical controls to protect data, identifiable information, and all company assets.
Some tools that assist with this function include building out Identity Management, applying a least privileged access model to limit users’ access to only what they need to complete their daily tasks. Applying multifactor authentication (MFA) on external-facing systems, limiting access to management interfaces, continuously reviewing and remediating vulnerabilities.
Building out a cybersecurity training program that should include training of current threats and should include frequent phishing simulations.
An example of administrative controls can include ensuring no one user can approve a wire transfer without a second person’s confirmation.
Physical controls can include physical access management through locked doors, badging as well as the use of security cameras.
Detect
As organizations continue to mature Detection and response capabilities become a priority. The detection core is designed to help build a formal detection process for the various threats organizations face every day.
Advanced Detection tools help gather information from disparate systems across the network, from Cloud environments, 3rd party threat intelligence, and system vulnerabilities. Correlate that information providing event alerts and insights on a variety of threats. Such as external attacks on systems, anomalous user behavior as well as helping with Data Loss Prevention. Common detection tools include SIEM solutions, Endpoint Detection, and Response tools.
Response
As organizations mature their detection capabilities the next step would be to respond to detected threats.
Building out response processes and procedures is also a core capability of NIST. Cybersecurity Incident Response plan is a common 1st step in building out and formalizing response capabilities. Understanding that over 94% of organizations had a security event in 2020, building a plan to respond is crucial to help the organization better understand their capabilities and outline how communications flow.
Once an Incident Response Plan has been developed working through a variety of tabletop exercises will help organizations validate and test their plan and capabilities.
Tools such as Endpoint Detection and Response are absolutely critical tools that need to be budgeted and deployed for every organization regardless of industry or size.
EDR tools have the capability of detecting, shutting down malicious processes, quarantining, ability to remove the malicious file as well as potentially providing valuable logging capabilities for forensic investigation in some cases.
Recover
Developing and implementation of a Disaster Plan is the final pillar of the NIST Framework.
In the event that all of the other tools and processes don’t stop an event from happening, having a well-documented and tested disaster plan is also needed for every organization.
Deployment of backup solutions that validate backups, replicates to the cloud, are configured properly, and tested is a requirement for every organization that has any sort of business-critical data, even if that data is stored in the cloud.
Regardless of whether or not compliance is a requirement for your organization, a security framework such as NIST can help provide a solid foundation, through the general guidance, for maturing your security posture.
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Reflecting on the recent SolarWinds breach and exploitation of the Microsoft Exchange 0-day, the associated threat actors started from the beginning of the Cyber Threat Cycle. They needed to run reconnaissance to identify the right target and instigate the initial attack.
This is key to the first part of Zix Layered Protection. Preventing the initial attack takes the least amount of resources and can save the organization the biggest headache. Further, many fail to realize that the majority of successful attacks are rooted in well-established techniques. Similar to the principles of their security counterparts, threat actors balance sophisticated techniques with ease of use. If there is an easy way to infiltrate a target, they will always go that route. The SolarWinds breach was years in the making, as sophisticated as the technique was to drop malware into the SolarWinds Orion system, the breach was almost certainly started with an email. We can make this assumption given the evidence that has been discovered.
Inside the SolarWinds breach
Reconnaissance and attacking the target
There are numerous ways to collect reconnaissance from a target to determine the right attack, and in the SolarWinds case it would appear that email was a primary research tool and ultimately the attack vector.
Points of evidence:
According to the SEC filing, email was a primary attack vector during the initial SolarWinds attack and APT29 are known to launch phishing attack campaigns as a tactical strategy.
During the Malwarebytes breach, their investigation uncovered that the, “attackers leveraged a dormant email protection product within their own O365 tenant.”
Microsoft reported to Crowdstrike that a reseller account was being used to read emails that were linked to Crowdstrike.
Infiltrating the target and evading detection
With a spear phishing attack the technique most likely to have been used to initially compromise SolarWinds, there was still no guarantee that the threat actors would be able to move within the environment without the right privileges and ensuring that their activities were going undetected.
Yet according to published details:
Hackers gained privileged access to restricted systems
Hackers were communicating via Command and Control infrastructure
Hackers were altering file systems to prevent detection
Considering these key points, an effective advanced email threat prevention and encryption solution must be part of the layered security framework.
Prevent the initial reconnaissance and attack with an effective advanced threat protection and email encryption solution coupled with enforcing multi-factor authentication for user logins.
97% of users are still not able to detect a sophisticated phishing attack. SolarWinds is just another reminder that email continues to be core to the Cyber Threat Cycle. It is the most difficult to secure and the easiest to exploit. While security organizations validly discuss new attack techniques and the potential of these being used, there is a never-ending list of evidence that:
Email is a treasure trove of reconnaissance information
Email attacks are very cheap for the threat actor to execute
Employees are no more effective at detecting a phishing attack intended to steal their credentials or malware intended to compromise their endpoint today than they were years ago.
Detect the presence of a threat actor with a security audit or monitoring solution
Highly effective email defense with a better than 99.9% effectiveness rating against phishing and malware will close 95% of your prevention gap. We are aware that threat actors will figure out other ways to get into your network, so developing approaches to protect other vectors will be necessary. However, you can quickly close this gap while evaluating other tools by leveraging a security auditing service. Particularly a solution that focuses on:
Identifying weaknesses in user login and authentication
Identifying suspicious behavior related to mailbox rules and email communication
As the SolarWinds breach proved, the threat actors needed to gain access to secured development environments. In that context, monitoring for weaknesses in simple policies like regularly changing passwords, or where a user may be logging into a system from a remote location, can be a clear indication that someone not employed by the organization has made it into your network.
Furthermore, we know in every case of a major breach, when the threat actor has infiltrated the business, they must communicate to something on the outside to retrieve further instructions, files, or exfiltrate internal intelligence. Monitoring for email forwarding rules or activity such as immediately deleting sent messages on an automated basis should set off a red alert.
Therefore a security audit or monitoring tool to detect internal suspicious behavior is a must for the layered protection strategy.
Zix Layered Protection
Act on any suspicious behavior through containment and remediation to prevent attacker success.
As you put in place the two main components to prevent and detect malicious behavior, the third motion must be in response to what may have failed. As we’ve indicated, businesses can implement every security solution pitched to them by the hundreds of security vendors available, but Zix Layered Protection is intended to keeping your security as simple as possible while maximizing your time and investment. To complete this goal, the response to the potential breach must be immediate. The goal should be to maintain business productivity even in the face of an attack. Most growing businesses may not have the time or expertise to immediately triage the incident, but they can begin their response and remediation process at no risk. Those tasks at a minimum should be:
Immediately remove any malicious email that may have landed within the targeted employee’s inbox.
Scan the targeted employee’s login activity and require any vulnerable passwords to be changed immediately (enforce MFA if disabled).
Immediately clear their file systems and provide the targeted employee with a clean working copy of their data.
Zix Layered Protection enables organizations to maintain productivity through Zix Backup and Recovery services. Coupled with message retraction and account lock-down, latent threats can be rapidly eliminated.
How does Zix Layered Protection break the Cyber Threat Cycle?
Zix Secure Cloud turns a complex plan into a simple operational model.
Protect
Advanced Email Encryption
The gold standard of encryption secures the email channel so that threat actors cannot hijack the SMTP conversation via a man-in-the-middle attack. With Zix’s Best Method of Delivery regardless of who the organization communicates with, business insights are fully protected from inbox to inbox.
Advanced Email Threat Protection
Today’s top attack technique continues to be advanced phishing and malware-based attacks. Zix Advanced Email Threat Protection is rated one of the most effective solution in 3rd party testing:
With Zix acting as the first layer of defense the initial compromise is mitigated exponentially.
Azure AD Multi-factor Authentication
Relying on users to detect a phishing URL is a recipe for allowing cybercriminal access to their endpoint. By enforcing multi-factor authentication that is built into every M365 bundle, security teams can close this gap and solve the protection need.
Detect
Security Audit (Detect & Alert)
While the protection components exponentially reduce the attack surface, the risk for internal negligence does exist. Continuous monitoring and detection within Zix Security Audit adds a layer of scanning that quickly identifies suspicious activity that bypassed the security gateway. With compromised credentials being the key to establishing a foothold, being able to detect suspicious user activity such as low-end employees having administrative access, or Finance employees suspiciously forwarding work email to a personal email address becomes essential to containing the threat.
Advanced Email Threat Protection Threat Analyst Support
Combined with insights from the Zix Security Audit, customers can work directly with Zix Phenomenal Care and Threat Analyst to immediately develop and implement a mitigation strategy to stop subsequent attacks. This is a unique value-add that is essential to making Zix Layered Protection effective.
Respond
Security Audit (Detect & Alert)
Integrated within the Security Audit are actionable response steps to stop threat actors in their tracks such as locking the user out of the environment.
An additional response step to take once a threat is discovered is to remove any existence of malicious email that may have been launched internally from the compromised account. Message retraction provides the ability to immediately reduce the risk to anyone else that may have been targeted.
Backup & Recovery
Any response goal must keep employee productivity in mind. With Zix Backup and Recovery services, even if the attacker’s goal was to corrupt corporate data or hold the data for ransom, the business has peace of mind knowing that they have a clean copy of their data to keep their business going.
Advanced Email Encryption (DLP)
Insight into what the attacker may have been after can provide an advantage to keeping this data secure. With Data Loss Prevention policies within Zix Advanced Email Encryption, security personnel are notified if key information is attempted to be extracted via email.
Enabled by Zix Secure Cloud
Zix Secure Cloud plus Azure AD Multi-factor Authentication encompasses layered protection. With these foundational pieces in place, growing businesses can focus on their productivity without being exposed to significant gaps. We recognize that the threat landscape is constantly changing and no growing business should stand still, as their business matures so will the threats targeting them. With assistance from our security partners, we can help guide you through your maturity path while keeping the strategy simple and straightforward.
https://www.cit-net.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Break-the-Cyber-Threat-Cycle-Part-II-435x400-1.jpg400435Kelsey Sarffhttps://www.cit-net.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Website-Logo-01-300x138.jpgKelsey Sarff2021-10-13 13:53:102022-06-14 18:43:19Break the Cyber Threat Cycle Part II
Break the Cyber Threat Cycle with Zix Layered Protection Part I
Achieving robust security does not have to be hard work. However, with the multitude of ways organizations are targeted, coupled with the hundreds of security companies pitching different approaches, choosing and implementing the right security solution can be daunting.
Endpoint security vendors will highlight the many risks of bring your own device (BYOD) and the need to install security directly on the endpoint. Security awareness vendors will tell you that your people are the weakest link. Web or email gateway security vendors will recommend that securing the gateway is your best bet. Finally, a threat hunting expert will tell you it is too late because you’ve already been compromised!
What can you do?
If you evaluate your security strategy through the lens of the security vendor, they all make valid points and the need for every single solution makes sense. Unfortunately, most growing organizations neither have the money, expertise, or time to implement and integrate such a complex strategy. Therefore, what is the most straight forward yet robust security strategy? To answer this question, let’s first review the Cyber Threat Cycle.
The Cyber Threat Cycle
The Cyber Threat Kill Chain or Cyber Threat Cycle was first articulated by Lockheed-Martin. Many security organizations have developed their own interpretation of this kill chain but, at its simplest form cyber threat actors commence in 5 major activities:
Activity 1: Identify a target
Threat actors will use a variety of methods for reconnaissance based on their mission goals to identify a target. Tactics can range from company and user profiling via LinkedIn or other social media platforms, through to conducting internet-wide vulnerability scans or snooping communication traffic via man-in-the-middle attacks. Yet, the most widely and easily accessible method has always been email. By sending a seemingly innocent email, threat actors can collect a lot of information, from the type of security gateway in place to whether the user actually exists and willing to engage.
Activity 2: Attack the target
Once a target has been identified, the threat actors will launch their initial attack. The attack can spawn multiple steps but the end goal is the same – gain access to an endpoint or internal server. From analysis of hundreds of thousands of breaches over recent years, email has been the easiest way to gain initial entry in the majority of instances.
Activity 3: Infiltrate the target
Gaining access to a single system does not automatically result in a completed mission. Often the compromised system doesn’t have the right access to move within the organization. Threat actors will attempt to establish a foothold through a number of steps including:
creation of a back door
set-up a connection to a command
and control (C&C) server
download an exploit
launch phishing attacks internally
infiltrate communication channels to establish their reconnaissance.
It’s often increasing or elevating the credentials they already have that helps establish a foothold. often increasing or elevating the credentials they already have that helps establish a foothold.
Activity 4: Evade and move
Once a threat actor has infiltrated their target, they can act methodically to gain more information and evade detection. At this point, it is important to remember that the breaches that make headlines are often years in the making. The threat actor often laid dormant, closely researching their victim, and waiting for the perfect time to execute the mission goal. Compromising a user’s inbox is a common technique to gaining more information about the business processes and personnel within an organization. Yet, threat actors are cunning enough to augment mailbox rules so that their presence is never detected.
Activity 5: Complete mission
The last activity is execution of the mission goal. Is the goal to exfiltrate sensitive data? Is it to force the victim to execute a wire transfer due to ransomware or carefully crafted Business Email Compromise (BEC) attack? Is the goal to wreak havoc by corrupting or making the victim’s data inaccessible? At this point, it is a matter of mitigating or containing the execution before the breach makes headlines.
Alignment with industry-known security frameworks ultimately should be the right approach, but to reach that point takes a heavy investment of money, personnel, and time. Further, the deeper the organization finds itself within the cycle the more business interruption will occur. With that in mind, we can begin to formulate a tactical, simple layered protection strategy that initiates a move towards a security-mature goal.
https://www.cit-net.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Break-the-Cyber-Threat-Cycle-Part-I-435x400-1.jpg400435Kelsey Sarffhttps://www.cit-net.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Website-Logo-01-300x138.jpgKelsey Sarff2021-10-11 15:44:292022-06-14 18:44:00Break the Cyber Threat Cycle Part I
According to the CDC: “while the HIPAA Privacy Rule safeguards protected health information (PHI), the Security Rule protects a subset of information covered by the Privacy Rule. This subset is all individually identifiable health information a covered entity creates, receives, maintains, or transmits in electronic form. This information is called ‘electronic protected health information (e-PHI).”
In order to comply with the HIPAA Security Rule you must:
Ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of all electronic protected health information
Detect and safeguard against anticipated threats to the security of the information
Protect against anticipated impermissible uses or disclosures
But what does this mean for those working in the healthcare industry emailing HIPAA information? Let’s start with why email communications should be secure first:
Understanding how cybersecurity and email are connected begins with a breakdown of the path that an email follows. Email follows the following path:
Created by sender on their workstation
Sent from workstation to sender’s email server
Sender’s email server sends email to recipient’s email server
Recipient’s workstation pulls the message from their server
Every time the email is sent it could be at risk for malicious interference. In addition, a copy of the email is stored on each workstation it travels through. Breaking that down, that means there’s a copy on:
The sender’s workstation
The sender’s email server
The recipient’s email server
The recipient’s workstation 1
This path alone illustrates the risk a single email can pose – both in transit and at rest. So can emails be HIPAA compliant?
Emails can be HIPAA compliant, but requires IT resources and a monitoring process to ensure that authorized users are communicating PHI in adherence with policies for HIPAA compliance for email.2
What IT resources and monitoring processes are available? Beyond our in-house security solution, we also recommend email encryption.
Encrypted Email
Encryption is a way to make data unreadable at rest and during transmission. CIT partners with Zix for email encryption and they partner with more than 1,200 U.S. hospitals to help maintain HIPAA compliance. As cyberattacks continue to grow exponentially, Zix provides you with efficient methods to optimize your IT security effectiveness while better securing PHI in and out of their organization.
So now that we’ve talked about the path of an email, HIPAA compliance, and our recommended solutions we want to make sure all types of emails are secure.
What different kinds of emails need to be secure?
In the healthcare industry, it is important to avoid security risks, meet compliance standards, and secure multiple types of emails. Cybersecurity and compliance solutions should include securing:
https://www.cit-net.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Can-HIPAA-information-be-emailed-435x400-1.jpg400435Kelsey Sarffhttps://www.cit-net.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Website-Logo-01-300x138.jpgKelsey Sarff2021-10-11 10:38:362021-10-11 13:15:23Can HIPAA Information Be Emailed?
Now in its 18th year, Cybersecurity Awareness Month continues to raise awareness about the importance of cybersecurity across our Nation. Held every October, Cybersecurity Awareness Month is a collaborative effort between government and industry to ensure everyone in the Nation has the resources they need to be safer and more secure online.
DO YOUR PART. #BECYBERSMART.
WEEKLY MESSAGES
Every year, led by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), Cybersecurity Awareness Month conveys a clear message of the importance of partnership between government and industry, from the White House to the individual.
The evergreen theme—Do Your Part. #BeCyberSmart.—encourages individuals and organizations to own their role in protecting their part of cyberspace, stressing personal accountability and the importance of taking proactive steps to enhance cybersecurity.
To help you and your organizations create an effective cybersecurity awareness campaign, CISA and NCSA have created four weekly themes to focus on during Cybersecurity Awareness Month:
Week 1: Be Cyber Smart The first week explores cybersecurity fundamentals: how simple actions can help secure your digital lives, improve the security of smart and internet-connected devices, and how other fundamentals can help reduce cyber risks.
Week 2: Fight the Phish! The second week will focus on how individuals can spot potential phishing attempts—which often lead to
Week 3: Explore. Experience. Share. In partnership with the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE), the third week celebrates Cybersecurity Career Awareness Week. This week will illustrate how cybersecurity professionals play a vital role in global society and security and call attention to their contributions and innovations. This week also showcases how building a global cybersecurity workforce enhances each nation’s security and promotes economic prosperity.
Week 4: Cybersecurity First The final week will emphasize that cybersecurity should be a priority and not an afterthought and will examine how what we do today can affect the future of personal, consumer, and business cybersecurity. This week will also highlight how cybersecurity is a year-round effort and should be an individual’s or organization’s first considerations when they create or buy new devices and connected services.
Use the Cybersecurity Awareness Month hashtag #BeCyberSmart, to help promote cybersecurity awareness. Also, be sure to keep checking this website and follow us on social media to learn more about upcoming Cybersecurity Awareness Month efforts in October.
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