Researchers Display Rootkit Capability on Smartphones

Rutgers just posted a news release about malware research against smartphones. The Professor and student researchers discussed how their rootkits could “eavesdrop on a meeting, track its owner’s travels, or rapidly drain its battery to render the phone useless.” They were able to send “invisible” text messages to the infected phone, activating the rootkit, and alerting it to make a call and turn on the microphone.

Smartphone malware isn’t a new concept, but as advances in smartphones continue, malware proliferation will follow. A few months ago, there were reports of malware infecting jailbroken iPhones. I’m sure we’ll see similar reports in the future (on non-modified phones), and a greater emphasis on smartphone antivirus to follow.

 

Employees, Questions, and Business Risk…

I was reading an article today by Jay Forte about having a value discussion with your employees. The article was quite interesting, and as I read it, I thought about how his guidance also applied to security. Jay outlined what managers could tell their employees to help them add value to their organizations. Part of the sample note that he provided for employees said, “I need you to think through each of your decisions and know its impact on our customers, on your job and on our company.” That statement resonated with me!

The decisions employees make have immense impact on their companies—oftentimes with lasting consequences. As easy as employees can boost sales and generate revenue, they can also create vulnerabilities, cause data loss, ruin reputation, and cost their company in legal or regulatory penalties.

Here are a few things that you can start discussing with your employees (some items target different groups):

• Read and understand policies. If you have a question, ask.

• Speak up if you’re not happy with service-delivery. Don’t try to circumvent controls!

• Your actions may affect service-level agreements with valued partners!

• Operators: Don’t go for the quick work-around — it may create a weakness. Instead, use the change control process.

• Administrators: Be more proactive! When is the last time you tested your backups?

• Don’t mess with your HVAC system just because you have to work in the server room all day. The room is cold for a reason!

• If you’re using a two-person password system, don’t give your colleague your password just because it’s easier and stops them from bothering you!

• Stop using group, or department, passwords! All accounts should tie to a specific person.

• Don’t patch production systems without first testing the patch.

• Network administrators: Disable IP source routing and IP directed broadcasts!

• Security staff: When is the last time you reviewed running network services and validated their necessity? How are you staying current? Have you looked at your logs lately?

These are just a few general topics and questions for various personnel. Sometimes it takes asking the right questions to provoke thought and light a little fire in employees. After we ask questions or give security advice, we have to do a better job at explaining “why” something should be done.  Without context, employees won’t understand the true value (and impact) of their actions…or lack thereof.

Excerpt of Cyber Within

I’ve had a few requests for an excerpt of my book, Cyber Within, so I’ve decided to post one online. Here’s the link: Cyber Within Excerpt

Enjoy!

Cyber Within is Now Available

It’s been a busy few weeks! Just wanted to let everyone know that my new book, Cyber Within, is now available at Amazon.com

Q. Why did I write Cyber Within?

A. I wrote Cyber Within to provide employees with an interesting guide to help them understand cyber and insider threats. The book is meant to provoke thought and provide examples concerning the current attacks happening in the corporate world today. I used a story format because I know how tough it is getting employees to read technical—and often dry—security guides.

Q. Why should companies buy this book for their employees?

A. It’s often difficult to get security practices to resonate with employees. Traditional computer-based training allows employees to rush to the end without paying much attention to the content. Additionally, the content is often dry, so employees are often uninterested. Companies should buy Cyber Within for their employees because it’s fun, engaging, and has a memorable story with lessons they can apply today.

Latest Press Release:

ATTACKS ON GOOGLE DEMONSTRATE THAT CORPORATE SECRETS ARE GETTING OUT — LEARN HOW YOU CAN PLUG THE LEAK

NORFOLK, VA. – With the continual rise in cyber crime, corporate secrets are harder to contain (as demonstrated by recent attacks against Google, Adobe and other major companies). To gain unauthorized access, attackers persuade employees to open cleverly crafted e-mail and click on links to sites that silently installs data-stealing software.

To combat this threat and protect company secrets and customer data, all employees should know how to:

• Spot social engineers trying to manipulate their way to unauthorized information
• Recognize suspicious e-mail that may contain (or link to) malicious software
• Identify suspicious behaviors, whether from systems or people
• Prevent leaking sensitive data to open sources
• Create a secure password
• Report security incidents

Through suspenseful events, coupled with lessons learned, a new book titled Cyber Within helps organizations tackle this security challenge head-on. Cyber Within, written by Marcos Christodonte II, MBA, CISSP, is an educational tool for corporate workers that uses an engaging story, lessons, and tips to help employees understand and spot security threats. Robert Lentz, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber, Identity and Information Assurance at the U.S. Department of Defense says, “Cyber Within is a stellar portrayal of why user education on Cyber Security threats, tactics and techniques is so critical.”

Kevin Beaver, independent information security consultant with Principle Logic, LLC and author of Hacking For Dummies says, “Lack of awareness is a grand security weakness. This book provides a unique approach to help fill the gaps and would be a great addition to anyone’s information security toolbox.”

Christodonte is well qualified to present security guidance to employees. He is a cyber and information security professional working for a consulting firm. He has developed security strategies for the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy and NATO.

All Versions of IE Vulnerable to Zero-day Attack?

In case you haven’t heard, there’s been a zero-day attack against several big companies such as Google, Adobe, and others. The reports and chatter all started when Google reported that they might be taking another approach in conducting operations in China. I think this statement dropped a few jaws, “In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google.” To be honest, I wasn’t surprised given the advanced threats we face, their intent and evolving capabilities. However, I was glad to see a company as large as Google step up and admit to the breach.

Just after Google’s report, Adobe posted their shorter, less-detailed, account of the attack. These reports came in two days ago. Brian Krebs, former security reporter at the Washington Post, has been following this story quite closely. On his blog, he notes that the attackers appear to have targeted source code and trade secrets, and that MS has posted an advisory about the unpatched vulnerability.

This story is a very interesting and is a prime example of why user education is so important. Using this unpatched zero-day exploit and a clever social engineering attack, trade secrets from countless organizations could get stolen–possibly without notice. That’s why educating users is the aim of my new book, Cyber Within. Through education, users will obtain a better understanding of risks and security challenges and will be able to spot social engineering and other malicious schemes instead of giving up corporate secrets. By the way, Cyber Within will be available in a couple of weeks. I’ll keep you posted, but in the mean time, check out a new article by my colleague Kevin Beaver where he outlines the real deal with internal security threats.

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