It is time to update our annual Cyber Security Budgeting advice.  I just lead an exercise at a conference where folks had limited budgets and needed to determine the best places to spend their Cyber Cash.  As I reviewed what we have adapted over the years, much of it is still the same.  We continue to become more dependent on technology composed of applications, operating systems, processors, storage, and connectivity.  IoT, autonomous vehicles, 5G, Huawei, and other new things continue to proliferate, but we still apply the same principles to protect ourselves.  

So, what is new this year?

The proliferation of Ransomware and Business Email Compromise (BEC).  Crimeware as a service is nothing new, but the cases are skyrocketing.  If you don’t know someone who has had one of the events, then you don’t have very many friends.  The crime groups are becoming better at monetizing these events and they are growing at an amazing pace.  The primary attack vectors is still email and the humans that own these accounts.  This threat landscape and other considerations will move a few things around and I will make note of them. 

So, here is some of the same old stuff:  Organizations are now willing to spend $$ now more than ever to avoid becoming the next headline.  When planning, it is easy to focus on available products that vendors are spending millions of dollars to push at us every day.  Products are required, but it is the process around these that keep you secure.  Best practices in security follow a layered approach, and budgeting is no different.  Where should you focus your efforts?

The Basic Layers:  Reduce Known Risks

These are not sexy, but neither is changing your oil and rotating your tires (Diet and exercise?  Pick your poison).  Before you look at some of the newer, enticing security solutions, it is important to make sure the basics are covered.  What we know:  attacks and breaches are increasing every year.  We have seen an 8x increase in incidents in the past twelve months.  So, our basic list has grown from last year.  You may ask:  why don’t you just follow the CIS top 20?  We agree that all of those 20 items are very important, but after working with over450 organizations, we know that approval of budget items, gaps in expertise, and culture typically makes it hard for an organization to follow the CIS in order.  If you can, that is great, but we offer the following list of items to consider in order of importance and ease of execution:

1. Email & Web security – Spam & Antivirus solutions
2. Enable MultiFactor Authentication for all remote access – don’t forget O365 and other cloud services – or don’t allow it
3. Tested Backup and Recovery Capability.  More than restoring that occasional deleted file or email.  This is typically IT Ops and we had not specifically called it out previously – it is the best defense against Ransomware.
4. IDS/IPS; internet monitoring/filtering – hard to believe, but we still find some organizations with outdated firewalls and no IDS capability
5. End User Security Awareness Training – must include email Phishing
6. Basic Incident Response capabilities
7. Security patching for all hardware/software
8. Endpoint protections – Antivirus/Malware solutions
9. Review all accounts, especially privileged accounts and do not allow privileged accounts for regular use
10. Check for consistent password and access controls across all of your platforms
11. Encrypt portable devices
12. Approve Basic Policies to establish guidelines
13. Constant inventory devices on your network
14. Review firewall, remote access/VPN, and wireless solutions regularly
15. Comprehensive network documentation
16. Secure file transfer capability
17. Basic Security Metrics and Reporting – Regular measurements are a must to eliminate a false sense of security
18. Increase visibility with SIEM (Security Information & Event Management) – either in-house or as a service
19. Evaluate your ability to perform these basic functions adequately – do we need managed services?

Add Advanced Layers to Cover Blind Spots

Once you have the basics in place, formal measurement and planning is prudent to prioritize capital expenses.  If you do not have the in-house expertise available, you may need to rely on outside assistance.  Some items to consider:

1. Objective measurement: Risk Assessment, Security Audit, Vulnerability and penetration testing
2. Compliment SIEM with MDR (Managed Detection & Response)
3. Formal Program & Policy development following ISO 27001, NIST, HITRUST, or other appropriate framework
4. Risk Management
5. Vulnerability Management
6. Mobile device management solution
7. NAC – internal Network Access Controls
8. Data Loss Prevention technologies
9. Identity Access Management
10. Forensic capabilities
11. Application whitelisting
12. Incident Response Tabletops, Red Team, Blue Team, Purple Team Exercises
13. Information Governance

Studies have shown that a good security posture will reduce the operational costs and the cost of a security breach.

A Note for your CFO:  You may want to remind your finance committee that breaches can cause serious reputational damage and be very expensive.  Cyber Liability insurance is not enough.  In today’s world, the expectation is that there are measurable efforts (and funds) devoted to keeping information safe.

Note:  SecurIT360 is an independent, vendor-agnostic Cyber Security consulting firm.  We do not sell or broker hardware or software.

If you are interested in a complimentary budgeting and strategy session using some of our time-tested tools, you can schedule a meeting by clicking this link, Appointments.

Why not just follow the CIS top 20?

Since we mentioned it, we will go ahead and put this list out here too.

Basic CIS Controls

1. Inventory and Control of Hardware Assets
2. Inventory and Control of Software Assets
3. Continuous Vulnerability Management
4. Controlled Use of Administrative Privileges
5. Secure Configuration for Hardware and Software on Mobile Devices, Laptops, Workstations and Servers
6. Maintenance, Monitoring and Analysis of Audit Logs

Foundational CIS Controls

1. Email and Web Browser Protections
2. Malware Defenses
3. Limitation and Control of Network Ports, Protocols and Services
4. Data Recovery Capabilities
5. Secure Configuration for Network Devices, such as Firewalls, Routers and Switches
6. Boundary Defense
7. Data Protection
8. Controlled Access Based on the Need to Know
9. Wireless Access Control
10. Account Monitoring and Control

Organizational CIS Controls

1. Implement a Security Awareness and Training Program
2. Application Software Security
3. Incident Response and Management
4. Penetration Tests and Red Team Exercises

The 7 Key Principles guiding the latest version of the CIS Controls:

When designing the latest version of the CIS Controls, our community relied on 7 key principles to guide the development process:

1. Improve the consistency and simplify the wording of each sub-control
2. Implement “one ask” per sub-control
3. Bring more focus on authentication, encryption, and application whitelisting
4. Account for improvements in security technology and emerging security problems
5. Better align with other frameworks (such as the NIST CSF)
6. Support the development of related products (e.g. measurements/metrics,implementation guides)
7. Identify types of CIS controls (basic, foundational, and organizational)

Stop the Password Reset Insanity

How much time does your IT department spend changing a user’s network and or email account passwords because they clicked on a phishing link that they should not have? How many users do you have who do this repeatedly? Have you trained your users to identify, report, and ignore these phishing attempts?

Why make the only procedure to resolve this resetting the password when it just keeps happening again and again? Stop the insanity and look at a new way of solving this problem.

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

How Spearphishing Works

Your company webpage has just been redesigned to provide an enriched marketing experience. It looks great and everyone on your leadership team is excited about the new page. One of the pages, “About Our Team”, lists every member of the executive management team with a short bio. You have just provided the bad guys with a short list of high-value targets within your company.

With this list of users in hand and by utilizing the most standard email address format (everyone uses first initial of the first name + last name), a couple of smart public DNS queries, and a telnet to port 25 of your email server, I can determine your mail server and version, including Microsoft Office 365. Then I can set up a fake webmail account login page and send a well-crafted email asking them to log in to my fake email system so I can steal their password.

Once your user completes this action, I have not just compromised their account, I have compromised an influential person in the company. I now have access to the corporate account of someone who can make decisions and spend money, for example, authorize an invoice to be paid or request a wire transfer. Payday for me, headaches dealing with law enforcement, lawyers, cyber insurance companies, and forensics experts for you.

What Happens Next

Once you discover the intrusion, I’ve been reported to IT, the user’s account password has been changed, the lawyers are doing insurance reviews, and accounting is double checking the books, but I am still out there. While everyone is thinking, crisis averted, I am waiting for the next opportunity.

Now, I sit back and wait a week or two before another attempt. During this time, a business crisis arises, distracting the executives, and I send another email asking you to log in. Nine times out of ten, I get back in. Executives are busy between internal, partner and customer meetings, traveling, reviewing performance numbers, and so on. They are always busy and want things to go smoothly so they can accomplish tasks quickly. Because of this, your executives rarely look twice at the email asking for the password again – just so they can get that PDF report they think they are getting.

So, they are compromised. Again. You change their password. Again. Insanity.

While you are saying to yourself, “This would never happen at my company”, let me share this story with you. I recently worked a case where the President of the company was successfully spearfished three times in two weeks. Each time, the password was reset, and everyone moved on to other things. In another case, a breached IT administrator account was used to spearfish the CFO. As if that is not bad enough, the CFO had already been successfully spearfished two months prior.

How do I end this cycle?

The easy answer is to require multi-factor authentication (MFA). The harder question is, “How do I implement MFA without being chased with pitchforks and firebrands?” Or worse yet, isolated in an office in the basement with your career stalled out.

So, how do you implement MFA while minimizing the impact on your users?

Scenario 1:

IT develops a MFA implementation plan. They then meet with the executives to outline the program’s pros and cons, with the strategy of scaring them into agreeing to implement MFA. They use statistics from Gartner, include quotes from Verizon’s Annual Data Breach Investigation Report, and try to sell the implementation plan. Remember, these are the same executives who are busy moving from one fire drill to another while being spearfished daily. This strategy almost never goes well.

Scenario 2:

IT develops a MFA implementation plan. Instead of only using statistics from Gartner and quotes from Verizon’s Annual Data Breach Investigation report, they use actual internal data to affect change from within. Prior to presenting this data, they have already completed a MFA pilot with their Email administrators and then rolled it out to the entire IT department. Here’s the payoff: report the measured results of the rollout to the IT Steering Committee, CFO, or COO; the point is, get an executive to start thinking about MFA, hearing the results, and digesting the successes. Then, get that individual to try it.

Peer pressure can also be beneficial in this scenario. “One-Upmanship” within a highly political boardroom can be a good thing. Having someone inside the decision-making group proudly boasting how fourteen unauthorized attempts to log in to their account were thwarted by MFA can provide the incentive you need. No one wants to be the weak link or in last place.

The Benefits of MFA

Now that you have implemented MFA, you are able to stop the insanity of repeatedly resetting passwords, re-imaging computers, spending hours on telephone calls with lawyers, insurance companies, and forensics companies. You can expect fewer security headaches, more time to complete your projects, and your executive team to appreciate how secure your network has become with multi-factor authentication.

SecurIT360 is an independent, vendor-agnostic Cybersecurity consulting firm.
If you are interested in a complimentary budgeting and strategy session using some of our time-tested tools, you can schedule a meeting by clicking this link, Appointments.

A widespread ransomware attack has spread across the globe infecting tens of thousands computers in as many countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Spain, Russia, Taiwan, France, and Japan.  The software can run in many languages.  There have been several versions and updates, but the ways to protect remain the same.  Recently, a decryption tool has been discovered – see here.

Technical Details

Initial reports indicate the hacker or hacking group behind the WannaCry campaign is gaining access to enterprise servers either through a Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) compromise or the exploitation of a critical Windows SMB vulnerability.  Microsoft released a security update for the MS17-010 vulnerability on March 14, 2017.  According to open sources, one possible infection vector is via phishing emails.

The WannaCry ransomware received and analyzed by US-CERT is a loader that contains an AES-encrypted DLL.  During runtime, the loader writes a file to disk named “t.wry.”  The malware then uses an embedded 128-bit key to decrypt this file.  This DLL, is then loaded into the parent process, is the actual Wanna Cry Ransomware responsible for encrypting the user’s files.  Using this cryptographic loading method, the WannaCry DLL is never directly exposed on disk and not vulnerable to antivirus software scans.  Subsequent versions are manifested differently.

What to do to protect against Wana Decrypt0r aka WannaCry

1.    Patch all Windows Operating Systems

1. For supported Operating Systems see MS17-010
2. Emergency Patch for Windows XP and Windows 2003 is here

2.    Run a port scan and or Vulnerability Assessment against your firewalls. 

Ensure that Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) and SMB protocols are not open to the internet.  These are typically on ports 3389, 445, and 139 respectively, but can be mapped to different ports on your firewall.  These configurations are security best practice.

Verify Other Protections Are working as expected.

*************************************IMPORTANT******************************************

Do NOT assume you are safe just because you have purchased and installed a product.

**********************************************************************************************

3.    Backups

Review your backups to ensure that they are working as expected.  Test restores of critical data.

4.    SPAM Filter

Enable strong spam filters to prevent phishing e-mails from reaching the end users.  Most enterprise filters should detect WannaCry.

5.    Antivirus & Malware Protections

1. Ensure that real-time scanning enabled to detect file downloads, email attachments, and web links
2. Ensure that scan engines are up to date and that definitions are downloaded and regularly deployed – at least daily. We recommend more frequently
3. Configure anti-virus and anti-malware solutions to conduct routine scans
4. Inventory protected machines to ensure that all have products installed and that they are functional

WannaCry Remediation

• Isolate compromised computer systems.
  1. Unplug from network to prevent spreading
  2. Power down other computers or unplug network access switches during eradication
  3. Wipe and reload infected machines
  4. Paying the ransom does not guarantee you recovery
• Ensure that proper logging is enabled and preserved on key systems.
• Contact law enforcement. Contact a local FBI field office upon discovery to report an intrusion and request assistance.  Maintain and provide relevant logs.
• Implement your security incident response and business continuity plan.
• Ideally, organizations should not store critical data on workstations. Critical data should reside on centralized storage systems.  Storage systems should have complete, verified, and tested backups.  Ofen the most efficient response is to restore data from a known clean backup.

Signatures

 

File name:  @WanaDecryptor@.exe

 

Confirmed indicators – SHA-256 Hashes:

24d004a104d4d54034dbcffc2a4b19a11f39008a575aa614ea04703480b1022c043e0d0d8b8cda56851f5b853f244f677bd1fd50f869075ef7ba1110771f70c25d26835be2cf4f08f2beeff301c06d05035d0a9ec3afacc71dff22813595c0b976a3666ce9119295104bb69ee7af3f2845d23f40ba48ace7987f79b06312bbdfbe22645c61949ad6a077373a7d6cd85e3fae44315632f161adc4c99d5a8e6844f7c7b5e4b051ea5bd0017803f40af13bed224c4b0fd60b890b6784df5bd63494fc626fe1e0f4d77b34851a8c60cdd11172472da3b9325bfe288ac8342f6c710a09a46b3e1be080745a6d8d88d6b5bd351b1c7586ae0dc94d0c238ee36421cafaaee20f9188a5c3954623583c6b0e6623ec90d5cd3fdec4e1001646e27664002cc365ddaa345cfcaff3d629505572a484cff5221933d68e4a52130b8bb7badaf9ed01ebfbc9eb5bbea545af4d01bf5f1071661840480439c6e5babe8e080e41aab9c5d4339809e0ad9a00d4d3dd26fdf44a32819a54abf846bb9b560d81391c25

Yara Signatures

rule Wanna_Cry_Ransomware_Generic {

meta:

description = “Detects WannaCry Ransomware on disk and in virtual page”

author = “US-CERT Code Analysis Team”

reference = “not set”

date = “2017/05/12”

hash0 = “4DA1F312A214C07143ABEEAFB695D904”

strings:

$s0 = {410044004D0049004E0024}

$s1 = “WannaDecryptor”

$s2 = “WANNACRY”

$s3 = “Microsoft Enhanced RSA and AES Cryptographic”

$s4 = “PKS”

$s5 = “StartTask”

$s6 = “wcry@123”

$s7 = {2F6600002F72}

$s8 = “unzip 0.15 Copyrigh”

condition:

$s0 and $s1 and $s2 and $s3 or $s4 or $s5 or $s6 or $s7 or $s8

}

 

/*The following Yara ruleset is under the GNU-GPLv2 license (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html) and open to any user or organization, as long as you use it under this license.

rule MS17_010_WanaCry_worm {

meta:

description = “Worm exploiting MS17-010 and dropping WannaCry Ransomware”

author = “Felipe Molina (@felmoltor)”

reference = “https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/41987/”

date = “2017/05/12″

strings:

$ms17010_str1=”PC NETWORK PROGRAM 1.0″

$ms17010_str2=”LANMAN1.0″

$ms17010_str3=”Windows for Workgroups 3.1a”

$ms17010_str4=”__TREEID__PLACEHOLDER__”

$ms17010_str5=”__USERID__PLACEHOLDER__”

$wannacry_payload_substr1 = “h6agLCqPqVyXi2VSQ8O6Yb9ijBX54j”

$wannacry_payload_substr2 = “h54WfF9cGigWFEx92bzmOd0UOaZlM”

$wannacry_payload_substr3 = “tpGFEoLOU6+5I78Toh/nHs/RAP”

condition:

all of them

}

UPDATED 5/1/2014: Microsoft has released an emergency out-of-band update for Internet Explorer that resolves this issue.  They are including updates to IE in Windows XP as well.  We recommended deploying this update as soon as possible.

Microsoft released an advisory on April 26th:

Microsoft is aware of limited, targeted attacks that attempt to exploit a vulnerability in Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 8, Internet Explorer 9, Internet Explorer 10, and Internet Explorer 11.

The vulnerability is a remote code execution vulnerability. The vulnerability exists in the way that Internet Explorer accesses an object in memory that has been deleted or has not been properly allocated. The vulnerability may corrupt memory in a way that could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code in the context of the current user within Internet Explorer. An attacker could host a specially crafted website that is designed to exploit this vulnerability through Internet Explorer and then convince a user to view the website.

On completion of this investigation, Microsoft will take the appropriate action to protect our customers, which may include providing a solution through our monthly security update release process, or an out-of-cycle security update, depending on customer needs.

Mitigation Steps (Details on TechNet):

• Install EMET . According to Fireeye, “EMET versions 4.1 and 5.0 break (and/or detect) the exploit in our tests.”
• Also according to Fireeye, “Enhanced Protected Mode in IE breaks the exploit in our tests”. Keep in mind that Enhanced Protection Mode in IE can break some plugins.
• Disable Flash . The vulnerability is not a Flash vulnerability, but flash is required to exploit.

WARNING: Windows XP

For organizations and users who have not upgraded from Windows XP, this vulnerability does affect IE6-IE8 which can run on Windows XP.  Windows XP will not be receiving updates as it is now out of support.  It is critical that organizations upgrade from Windows XP.

For Patch Tuesday this month, we are receiving critical updates from both Microsoft and Adobe. Microsoft has five bulletins, bringing the six-month total up to 51 bulletins, about 20% more than we had in 2012.

Read more here.