Cyber Essentials – Out of the Box

New machines means it’s easy right?

Ok, another post on cyber essentials! I talk about this quite a lot (mainly driven by procurement requirements rather than orgs expressing a deep desire to “have better security” (which is a shame)) however, I want to show people what the real world is like and that meeting cyber essentials is a good thing, but also to look at real world challenges of meeting the standards. In this post we look at some thought provoking questions, then we look at an out of the box Windows and MAC device to see if they meet the standard!

Defence

Office Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT) Vulnerability “Follina”

This is a fast publish!

Confirmed all Office (ISO Install/PRO and 365) when using the Rich Text Format (RTF) method.

Office 365 has some sort of patch against the .DOCX format.

oh dear….
Windows 11 (not 100% up to date from APRIL)
Office 365 (should be fully patched)

.RTF

MSDT Exploit! pic.twitter.com/M2Xn1TxANX
— MrR3b00t | #StandWithUkraine #DefendAsOne (@UK_Daniel_Card) May 31, 2022

WGET Execution

Guides

Wireguard Client for Linux on KALI

So as always there are a million things in tech and well it’s rare that someone knows EVERYTHING. I must connect to a Wireguard VPN from a KALI VM. Should be simple, well actually it was a bit more complicated as I had two errors along the way!

Leadership

Cyber Leadership

Myth: you must be a “techie” to lead in the CYBERS

Ok so you might be sitting here going… but Dan you send pews and do “techy” stuff… do you not lead? Well, I mean I do all kinds of things, I write business cases, I play with spreadsheets (fun right!), I integrate systems and look at data and sometimes write really bad code! (hey, the pews aren’t going to send themselves!) but… I want to talk about some realities here.

Education

The CYBER GANG Cookbook

Volume 1

Introduction

I am sitting here, and I need another cup of tea, but I thought I’d start to have a think about what common “CYBER GANGS” look like. This isn’t criminal or non-criminal. But you know there’s some commonality between both. I thought this was fun little thinking exercise to show the duality of life, what digital worlds look like but also to give a glimpse into the mysteryious (its not!) world of cyberz (including crime!)

Defence

The Challenges of Cyber Essentials Audit and Compliance Activities

It’s “only” essential but it can be bloody difficult!
mRr3b00t

Cyber Essentials Areas

Cyber Essentials is a minimum baseline standard for ensuring foundational cyber security considerations and controls are in place. It’s a good starting point, but by no means should it be “THE GOAL” and just because it has “Essentials” in its name, don’t think it’s easy to comply with. Whilst the standard isn’t outlandish with its requirements in the main, the reality between technical capabilities and being able to discover, audit and remediate security configurations in organisations is often nowhere near as simple as someone may tell you. The news here is that the standard has been extended to include some wider areas.

Defence

The Director of GCHQ speaks at CyberUK 2022

Sir Jeremy Fleming was speaking at CyberUK, the UK’s flagship cyber security conference this week.

The full presentation is here but I’ve picked out some key highlights.

“Of course, we can count ourselves lucky compared to those caught up in wars, but we are also seeing a heightened cyber risk. Cyber criminals are consistently evolving their tactics; the lines are blurring with hostile state activity and ransomware remains a real threat.”

“Cyber clearly matters to everyone.”

“At the global level, the UK has developed as a cyber power. Alongside the more traditional forms of diplomacy and statecraft, cyber now plays a vital role in our national security and prosperity.”

Leadership

CYBER CYBER CYBER – What cyber means for the…

I’m sitting here drinking a cup of tea and thought I’d jot down some of the things I tend to think about. I figured this might help people consider aspects of “cyber” that they might not have considered before.

Education

Stop rushing for “the solution”!

Before you start solutioning

Everyone these days seems to rush towards “the solution”, well as someone who now has few years under their belt, I’d advise people slow down a little and think about their business requirements, outcomes, current state, and constraints. Significantly as well think about how a service will run over a period, not just how to buy it and “fling it into production”.

Leadership

Security Myths and Bad Advice

It must be good, someone posted about it on LinkedIn!

Ok this isn’t my normal jam, normally I’d just write something that’s hopefully good advice/practise and that would be that. But today let’s try something different!

This was inspired by a twitter convo which evolved into this: https://twitter.com/UK_Daniel_Card/status/1522138771789123584?s=20&t=dL9OkicTY2Orj5hfBtDvVQ

So… what are some cyber security myths that ended up being good practise or “good advice”? Well here’s what I came up with, supported by some awesome cyber community people!