Why do “we” suck so badly at digital security…

Everything is fine until it’s not

I’ve been travelling to different organisations and visiting different networks for a while and whilst each organisation is unique (they really are) their operating models, technology challenges and weak security postures generally aren’t as unique as the organisational itself.

One thing that does spring to mind however is that there is a massively common pattern we find with organisations.

Those that invest well have better postures, better technology experiences and an improved security posture.
Those that don’t historically invest well, well they have quite the opposite:
- They don’t train staff
- They have very weak postures
- They carry an extraordinary volume of business risk

One thing that is common though, is that all of this tends to link to financial investments, so executives and boards usually have some idea if they are spending or not in this space, what they commonly don’t have a good view on is they getting what they “thought they were buying”. Sadly, too often what they assumed was “in the box” with the “IT provision” with regards to quality and cyber security just simply isn’t the case. Everything is fine, until you look… then it’s less than fine! So, what can we do about it?

Defense

CVE-2022-26809 – Critical Windows RPC Vulnerability

Vulnerability Information

Rating	Critical
CVE	cve-2022-26809
MITRE	CVE – CVE-2022-26809 (mitre.org)
CVSS	CVSS:3.1 9.8
Impact	Remote Code Execution (RCE)
Exploit in the wild	Currently not observed
Difficulty to Exploit (if PoC available)	Very Low
Network Position	TCP/IP Routable or Network Adjacent
Authentication Required to Exploit	No
Affected	Windows Client/Server OS
Typical Service Ports	TCP 135,139,445
Vendor Patch Available	Yes
Exploitable in Default OOB (out of the box) configuration	Unknown
Exploitable Client/Server	Believed to be client and server side exploitable

Leadership

Cyber Realities: Impacts of Cyber to Business

Introduction

This post stated out as a technical post about commonalities found in the field that vary based on business operating model, IT capability and vectors used by threat actors. Whilst writing this it led more into business leadership, governance and investment risks. How do these two subjects’ interface? Well to be honest they are the same thing from a different lens.

In this post we are going to look at:

Common Technology Deployment Models and the associated threats/risks/vulnerabilities
Common challenges I find in organisations
And finally, a question… is this the business outcome that you want

Guides

CISO – Getting Started Tool

Ok so this isn’t just for CISO’s but it’s a tool to help organisations think more holistically about cyber security and some of the foundational elements required to align cyber security capabilities with the business.

Defense

Rapid Active Directory Hardening Checklist

Ok this is not a small subject areas and it’s not a HOW TO guide but it should at least give you some ideas for tools to deploy and areas to check that are abused by Ransomware gangs and ATPs etc. Thanks to people who contributed!

This is not everything but it’s some common low hanging weaknesses:

Architecture

The difference between what can be vs what often…

I’ve travelled all over the internet, I’ve worked with logs of organisations from banks through to small ISVs and one thing I would say is fairly universally true. What can be isn’t what is.

There’s a lot of different operating models and technologies in the world. There’s logs of differen’t specifics. This diagram here is not mean’t as a refrence architecture but more as an indicator.

There is also a massive reality people must understand, cyber good most definatley costs more at the point of deployment than cyber bad. Cyber bad’s ROI is truly variable and in mind mind is too hard to measure. For one org with cyber bad can experiance a significant breach (and cost) and another may have lady luck on their side.

Defense

Log4Shell exploitation and hunting on VMware Horizon (CVE-2021-44228)

TLDR

Go and run this on the connection servers:

https://github.com/mr-r3b00t/CVE-2021-44228

It’s crude so also look for the modified timestamps, recent unexpected blast service restarts and if you have process logging go and check for suspicious child processes over the period. Once you have checked, run a backup, then if they aren’t patched, patch the servers! (i know patching isn’t as simple as just patch!)

Defense

I’m the CEO why do I care about phishing…

Introduction

This is part of a series I’m writing which is focusing on some of the core fundamentals of why cyber security is a business issue, why business leadership should care and invest in a good security posture and I’m looking at common security threats and ways you can combat these. Read more “I’m the CEO why do I care about phishing threats?” →

Leadership

The Security Challenges of 2021

The gaps between strategic security improvement and keeping the wolves out, today!

The Cyber Realities in 2021

Most organisations today honestly don’t have great cyber security postures. Cyber security has improved since the 80’s and 90s’s but still common gaps can be found in the same old areas.

So, whilst security possibilities and technical capabilities for defence have greatly improved, this hasn’t really translated into the level of change we would like to see on the ground inside organisations.

I’m writing this post after giving a talk today about the challenges I see in cyber security across different organisations but also after watching a talk by Dave Kennedy which from my perspective emulates my experiences and largely my views. Read more “The Security Challenges of 2021” →

Defense

Phishing your own people – path to eroding trust…

Introduction

“Security education and awareness darling, it’s all the rage! It’s simply to hot right now.” Ok stop, let’s take a minute to get some context. It’s the year 2021, organisations are taking a battering round the globe from cyber criminals who are deploying ransomware, extortion, and fraud via a range of methods but one you can’t not have heard of is phishing.

In this post today, I’m going to look at realities of initial access, phishing and some questions I think people should be asking themselves about the idea of phishing their own userbase. I try and look at this from multiple perspectives because I think it’s a complex subject. Let’s start with initial access methods!

Common Patterns of Access

If we look at the world of technology and cyber security, you will see logs of references to frameworks and language that is enough to send even the committed to sleep! However, let’s abstract from our TTPs, our MITRE ATT&CK frameworks and our “threat actors” and let’s talk in normal English. Read more “Phishing your own people – path to eroding trust or a useful tool?” →