Compliance

Should We Pay The Ransom?

Summary
Has your organization been a target of ransomware? Did you pay the ransom? If so, did you get all your data back? Whenever an organization becomes a victim of a ransomware attack, paying the malicious attackers may seem like the only hope, especially for companies that don’t have proper backup procedures in place. Unfortunately, statistics are showing us that paying the ransom guarantees little in return. Here are some key data points collected from a large sample size of mid-sized organizations spread across the globe.

In 2021, 37% of organizations have experienced some type of ransomware attack.
The average costs of remediating against a ransomware attack grew in 2021 to $1.85 million.
The average cost of paying the ransom grew to $170,000.
32% of the organizations affected by a ransomware attacks decided to pay the malicious actors.
ONLY 8% WERE ABLE TO DECRYPT AND RECOVER ALL THEIR DATA AFTER PAYING THE RANSOM!

The last point truly brings reality into check. Paying the ransom rarely pays off. This can be attributed to many factors, but the overwhelming majority of organizations say that they received the ransom key after payment, but were unable to use it in an effective manner. This can be linked to poorly coded malware and IT teams with limited experience.

What Can You Do?
It is extremely important for organizations to take proper precautions to protect themselves against the increasing threat of ransomware.

Perform monthly or quarterly vulnerability scans against your external perimeter and internal networks to stay up to date with the latest vulnerabilities that could give an attacker their initial foothold.
Perform annual penetration testing to protect against advanced techniques that may allow an attacker to pivot once they have a foothold.
Create effective Incident Response policies and procedures.
Conduct tabletop exercises to validate and identify gaps in your Incident Response Plan.
Perform consistent security awareness training with employees to limit the chance of successful social engineering and phishing attacks.
Have proper onsite and offsite backup policies and procedures in place. If you fall victim to ransomware, you may be able to recover from backup, with limited, if any data loss, and not rely on paying a large sum of money for an 8% chance of getting your data back.

When it comes to protecting your organization’s critical data, it’s time to get serious. nGuard is ready and willing to discuss all these preventative solutions with you and your team.

FBI Is Removing Back Doors From Private Networks

The FBI was given permission last week by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) to remove web shells that were maliciously placed as a result of the Microsoft Exchange Server vulnerabilities discovered in January. For more information on the Exchange Server vulnerabilities, check out our prior Security Advisory discussing them. If you have not applied the patch yet, it is urgent you do so immediately.

The FBI was able to identify hundreds of remote web shells that persist on networks even if the patch was applied. Attackers placed these shells there knowing the vulnerability would be fixed but wanted to maintain access for future attacks. The DOJ stated, “The FBI conducted the removal by issuing a command through the web shell to the server, which was designed to cause the server to delete only the web shell (identified by its unique file path).” The FBI is currently making attempts to contact the owners of the exchange servers they removed web shells from and notify them of the actions taken. Although the removal of these web shells is great news for the organizations where they existed, the FBI has not applied patches needed to remove the vulnerabilities or any malware remaining from attackers.

The impact of the court order issued to the FBI to allow these actions on future requests is still unknown, but this will set an interesting precedent going forward. Even though the intentions and actions of the FBI were for the betterment of the organizations, the government was accessing private networks without the owner’s permission. This could allow more intervention from the government on private networks. Opinions are split on the matter, but most believe this will not be the last time we see the government taking steps to remove threats on networks they do not own.

Cyber Criminals Are Pressuring Your Customers

Summary
Over the past few years, cybercriminals have brought more sophisticated ransomware attacks against organizations leading to potentially catastrophic damages. Generally, an attacker gains access to an internal network, performs network reconnaissance, elevates their privileges, and deploys ransomware across the network, which encrypts the data rendering it unusable. The attacker then demands the organization pay a large sum of money for the keys to decrypt the data. This makes it critical for organizations to increase security awareness, perform regular offsite backups of critical systems, have properly configured network monitoring and endpoint protection, and a mature incident response program.

Criminals are now taking their extortion attempts to the next level. Security researchers have noticed a spike in emails sent to end customers of companies that have fallen victim to network breaches. These emails notify customers that their data has been compromised due to a security breach. It asks the customer to reach out and demand that the company pay the cybercriminal’s ransom request in order to prevent their personal data from being leaked online. Here is an example of the type of emails end customers are receiving:

Most security professionals will tell you, if possible, avoid paying the ransom when your company falls victim to data leaks or ransomware attacks. Increased pressure from customers receiving these emails only makes the decision to not pay more difficult. Additionally, these emails notifying customers of a data breach can lead to reputational damage and lost business.

What can be done?
It is important for companies to put an emphasis on security before they fall victim to these types of attacks. Performing regular external penetration testing can prevent attackers from compromising systems and pivoting into the internal network. Additionally, performing internal penetration testing can stop an attacker in their tracks. If an attacker gains a foothold, it will be difficult for them to elevate privileges and compromise critical internal systems allowing the deployment of ransomware. nGuard provides an abundance of tactical and strategic security assessments that will boost the overall security posture of an organization. This will reduce the chances of a successful attack and further minimize the damages that stem from a breach.

Cybersecurity is National Security

Summary
With the recent breach of the Oldsmar Florida Water Treatment Plant, China warning India they have the ability to turn the lights out, the United States and Russia going back and forth with probes into each other’s power grids, and research showing just how easy it is to gain unauthorized access to Industrial Control Systems, it comes at no better time that the US is releasing three new programs. These programs aim to help protect and secure our energy grid. CESER Acting Assistant, Secretary Patricia Hoffman, said “Securing U.S. critical infrastructure, particularly in the energy sector, is one our most important and complex national security challenges.” The three new programs are:

Secure against vulnerabilities in globally-sourced technologies
Develop solutions to electromagnetic and geomagnetic interference
Cultivate research on cybersecurity solutions and new talent needed to deploy

At critical infrastructure facilities, much attention is put into physical security. Hiring security guards, placing cameras everywhere, gates, fences, and barbed wire is common place. However, much is left to do to properly secure the online, connected systems that are most vulnerable to attack. With limited budget, scarce support, and outdated systems, organizations are left with a daunting task of properly securing this infrastructure from attack while maintaining accessibility and availability.

The Department of Homeland Security has published the Seven Strategies to Defend Industrial Control Systems (ICS).

Implement Application Whitelisting
Ensure Proper Configuration / Patch Management
Reduce Your Attack Surface
Build a Defendable Environment
Manage Authentication
Implement Secure Remote Access
Monitor & Respond

Following these strategies will help secure critical infrastructure to a better place, but that is not where it ends.

What else can you do?
nGuard has a wide array of experience helping energy and all types of critical infrastructure organizations secure their networks and meet security compliance goals via penetration testing, managed security solutions, and Cybersecurity Incident Response (CSIR) and we can help you too.

GDPR Fines On The Rise

Since the introduction of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in May of 2018, they have handed out $330.5 million in fines with $192 million in the past year alone. As the GDPR regulation grows in maturity, regulators are growing tougher with their fines. Breach notifications are on the rise, as they have increased 19 percent over the past 12 months. Germany leads the way with 66,527 breach notifications and Italy has had the least with 3,460. Germany, France, and Italy are the top 3 countries that have imposed fines, with a combined $234 million since GDPR was enacted.

With the impact of COVID-19, organizations have been fortunate to have their fines drop significantly with the promise to improve their security posture. Marriott saw their fine reduced to $25 million from the original $123 million during a breach that lasted over 4 years and resulted in the compromise of 339 million guest’s information. British Airways saw their fine reduced to $27 million from the original $230 million as a result of personal data of over 400 thousand customers being stolen when their website redirected to a fraudulent one which collected personal details of customers. This went undetected for over 2 months. The pandemic has provided temporary relief on some fines, but this isn’t permanent. Organizations need to ensure they are following GDPR regulations or it is going to cost them in large-scale fines.

The 4 potential sources of privacy protection are markets, technology, self or co-regulation, and law. GDPR has taken the traditional approach of law to enforce privacy and data protection. With GDPR fines only increasing and being strictly enforced, it does show that laws do not necessarily mean the result will be increased privacy and security. The best piece of advice for organizations having to follow GDPR guidelines is to err on the side of caution, as fines and cumulative damage claims are only going to rise. As GDPR matures and evolves, there may be new, stricter regulations released in the future.

5 Tips To Obtaining PCI Compliance

Even with the abundance of documentation available to your organization, PCI DSS compliance may seem like a tall mountain to climb. At nGuard, we often see clients of all sizes struggle to obtain compliance for a variety of reasons. Both clients with a mature or immature security posture often struggle deciding which actions to take, policies and procedures to implement, and infrastructure changes to make when attempting to become compliant with PCI. Here are a few tips to consider when PCI compliance is mandatory for your organization.

1. Limit or Reduce Scope

The first tip we always advise customers to do is limit or reduce scope and this can be done in multiple different ways.

Segment your network to separate your infrastructure that handles any processing, transmitting, or storing of payment card data away from general business-related systems. By implementing segmentation and isolating devices that are used to process payment card data, you reduce the overall scope in play for PCI. This in turn limits the time and money your organization will spend when attempting to become compliant.
Outsource any handling of payment card data to PCI compliant third parties. By transferring the responsibility of card holder data to a PCI compliant third party, you can check the box on multiple PCI DSS requirements while making fewer internal changes to IT infrastructure and processes.

2. Use Point-to-Point Encryption

Point-to-point encryption (P2PE) encrypts the cardholder data the moment a card is swiped or inserted, with a point of interaction (POI) device. PCI has many approved P2PE solutions that meet their standards. PCI DSS approved P2PE solutions transfer the data from the POI to the destination where processing occurs without interacting with systems between the source and destination. This is different than end-to-end encryption (E2EE) as that process often interacts with systems in between the source and destination. Using a P2PE solution will completely transfer any and all accountability of PCI compliance onto the P2PE provider. As a merchant, when it comes time to fill out your annual PCI Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ), the P2PE SAQ requires only four sections and 35 questions to be answered. This is significantly less than covering all twelve categories and hundreds of questions when completing other SAQ types.

3. Create a PCI Compliant Password Policy

At nGuard we often deal with clients who are not PCI compliant due to their organization’s password policy. While there are many variations of password best practices between security frameworks, when it comes to PCI compliance be sure your organization has a written policy that, at a minimum, meets PCI DSS requirements. The password requirements to meet PCI compliance are:

Be a minimum of seven characters long
Include numeric and alphabetic characters
Expire within ninety days
Not be identical to the previous four passwords

4. Conduct Regular Security Testing

Of the eight different SAQ types, many require various levels of penetration testing be completed at different intervals throughout the year. Based on your SAQ type you may be required to conduct annual external and internal penetration tests, web application penetration testing, quarterly Approved Scanning Vendor (ASV) vulnerability scans, annual or semi-annual segmentation validation, etc. Conducting these types of tests is not only going to align your organization with PCI compliance, but also limits the amount of vulnerabilities present in your environment after remediation. When it comes to security, you can never test or scan your infrastructure too much.

5. Speak to a PCI DSS Expert

As stated in the beginning, PCI compliance can be a lengthy, complicated, and time-consuming process for your organization’s resources. When in doubt, speak to a PCI Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) and have them answer your questions and walk you through the PCI standards. The PCI QSA can make the process of determining your scope for PCI, the type of SAQ to fill out, and deciding what requirements need to be met a quick and easy process. This all can be done in a matter of days rather than a matter of months.

nGuard is staffed with several PCI Qualified Security Assessors and is ready to work with you and your organization to assist in the uphill battle that is PCI DSS compliance.