What Are the Five Phases of the Secure Software Development Life Cycle?

When developing software, it can be far too easy to forget the basics. Up to 75% of all software projects ultimately fail (Geneca, 2017). This exceptionally high number begs the question: Why are there so many problems in software development? Are these problems related to security failures? A lack of data protections? Poor management? Something else?

This is a multifaceted question and one with many answers. We’d argue that it comes down to this: Far too many developers forget the basics, including how to engage in appropriate risk management. This means that they forget about core security-related aspects of software development.

The secure software development life cycle is critical in any software development project. No matter the field, you’ll need to apply these five steps. However, this is not the be-all and end-all of software development. These phases don’t always flow in a neat order, and you may sometimes move back and forth between different stages of the cycle as needed. However, when it comes to secure software development, this process is the best available and can help ensure that you create the best software product.

Requirement Planning

In software development, you never go straight from an idea to programming. First, you need to plan. While planning may be the most contentious phase of the secure software development life cycle, it’s also often the most important. During this phase, you’ll determine what your project’s security requirements are.

In this stage, you and your team will need to ask some critical questions:

• What are the security requirements of this project?
• What are its potential vulnerabilities?
• What are the current vulnerabilities that similar projects are facing? What future vulnerabilities are likely?
• How can these vulnerabilities be researched and tested?
• What sort of phishing or social engineering challenges might this project face? Are there user awareness issues that may need to be addressed? How can these issues be mitigated?

Planning for security requirements gives you an essential baseline understanding of how you need to design security protections for the software you’re developing. As the old axiom goes, failing to plan means planning to fail.

Design

Once you’ve completed the requirement planning phase of the secure software development lifecycle, you can begin to design the software. The design of the software should be in line with the previously conducted planning and should be done in preparation for deployment in the real world.

In the design phase of the secure software development life cycle, security requirements are implemented and coded in accordance with secure coding standards. This means that the parameters of the program adhere to all current security standards. Furthermore, the program must be created using the latest security architecture, thus ensuring the most up-to-date protections.

Finally, developers should also give extensive thought to designing an appropriate security architecture for their programs. This means that, in creating the software, they should implement all relevant security requirements and control for a variety of factors, including risk management, legal restrictions, and social engineering vulnerabilities.

Development

After the project design stage is completed, the actual development of the software can begin. In this context, development refers to the actual coding and programming of the application. Development works best when basic security principles are kept in mind.

This means the following:

• Development must take place using secure coding standards. Programmers should have up-to-date knowledge of the relevant security standards and how they apply to the current project.
• Development must appropriately implement secure design patterns and frameworks. This refers to the security architecture of the software. The development of a program can only be successful if it utilizes appropriate security relationships.
• Development must take advantage of the latest secure coding practices. This typically means using updated versions of programming languages that best address current security standards.

Testing

Once the project has been designed and developed, you can begin to test it in an alpha or beta phase. This involves putting the project through a series of rigorous security tests. There are many ways to conduct such tests, including working with a Certified Ethical Hacker (C|EH) or penetration tester.

In penetration testing, a security professional will attempt to hack into your system as an outsider would using any number of commonly utilized methods. Penetration testing often involves attempting to breach firewalls, access secure records, or attach simulated ransomware to your databases. In doing so, the penetration tester will record your potential vulnerabilities and subsequently report them to you.

Penetration testing is a fantastic tool that enables you to determine the potential vulnerabilities in your program. A C|EH can conduct this form of testing and inform you about the vulnerabilities in your program. They can also make recommendations to you regarding the types of improvements you can make to better protect your program or train users.

Deployment and Maintenance

A developer’s job does not end with the deployment of a project. It is only after a project begins to operate in a real-world setting that a developer can truly see whether their design is appropriate to the situation.

Developers need to regularly update deployed software. This means creating patches to address potential security vulnerabilities and ensure that the product is consistently updated to account for new threats and issues. Furthermore, initial testing may have missed obvious vulnerabilities that can only be found and addressed through regular maintenance. This means that a software developer must remain engaged in the development of a program even after the program is being used by others. It also means that the secure software development life cycle requires that you create an easy process for applying patches to software.

Are there any guarantees in the software industry? Of course not. However, the above-described cycle is the best tool available to ensure that you create the best software product possible. The five steps of the secure software development lifecycle can help you and your organization create an ideal software product that meets the needs of your customers and enhances your reputation.

Are you looking to get more involved in software or security? Given the massive rise in remote working, cybersecurity skills and resources are in greater demand than ever. Check out EC-Council’s Certified Application Security Engineer (C|ASE) certification program, where’ll you develop vitally needed cybersecurity skills that will enable you to work with businesses to secure their networks and ensure that they are best prepared to deal with today’s cybersecurity environment.

Source: eccouncil.org

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The Top 3 Challenges with Incident Response

If an organization’s primary cybersecurity defenses fail and suffer a cyberattack, team members must react quickly and efficiently, overcoming incident response challenges to eliminate the danger and restore normal operations.  However, there are many different Incident response challenges faced by organizations, including the high volume of cyberattacks, budget constraints, lack of knowledgeable personnel, and lack of the proper tools.

Therefore, organizations should ensure a concrete plan for how they will respond to a cyberattack. Unfortunately, this is often easier said than done. According to F-Secure, only 45 percent of companies have incident response plans (FRSecure, 2022). Additionally, as per a study by IBM, companies take 277 days on average to identify and contain a data breach — allowing the attackers to exploit their systems and steal information for far too long (IBM, 2022). 

What’s behind this shocking lack of preparedness? Part of the reason is the various incident response challenges that businesses may encounter. This article will discuss the top 3 challenges of incident response and how to deal with these issues to improve your cybersecurity posture.

What is Incident Response?

The incident response involves identifying, mitigating, and resolving the effects of a cybersecurity incident or breach. It involves an organized set of policies and procedures that must be followed in the wake of an attack to manage the situation and restore order.

Incident response is a crucial business function regardless of a company’s size or industry. Having an incident response plan reassures customers and shareholders that your organization can act quickly to protect your IT systems and data’s confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

How to Implement an Effective Incident Response Plan

An effective incident response plan involves multiple stages. Businesses must go through careful planning and preparation, formulating clear policies and procedures for responding to a security incident. This entails creating an incident response team, identifying the events likely to occur, and determining the appropriate responses. Training exercises and simulations can evaluate the effectiveness of an incident response plan, helping businesses locate weaknesses or blind spots in the plan and take action before an actual incident.

6 Steps in Incident Response

Cybersecurity experts typically divide incident response into six steps or phases. These stages are based on the NIST Computer Security Incident Handling Guide, which offers guidance on how to react to cybersecurity events (NIST, 2012).

1. Preparation: The preparation stage involves the preliminary actions discussed in the previous section: developing and testing an incident response plan and establishing an incident response team. 
2. Identification: In the immediate aftermath of a security event, the incident response team must be able to determine whether a breach has occurred quickly. This stage also involves answering questions such as the extent of the incident and its effects on business operations.
3. Containment: After an intrusion or attack has been identified, the incident response team must move swiftly to contain the damage, mitigating its reach and limiting the repercussions for employees and customers. This stage may involve taking certain systems offline or isolating them in a sandbox while team members look for quick fixes for the immediate vulnerability.
4. Eradication: Once the incident is under control, the incident response team moves to eliminate the threat by patching vulnerabilities or wiping infected systems. This requires a firm understanding of the event’s root causes.
5. Recovery: With the threat eradicated, the incident response team helps the business reinstate its normal operations by bringing the affected systems back online and restoring data from backups.
6. Lessons learned: Finally, the incident response team reviews the security event to understand why it occurred, what went well during the response, and what could have been improved.

3 Common Challenges in Incident Response and Management

Despite the clear-cut list of steps above, many organizations struggle to implement a successful incident response plan. This section will discuss three of the most significant incident response challenges you might face when constructing a cybersecurity strategy.

1. The sheer volume of attacks

Cyberattacks and data breaches are constantly in the headlines, with no sign of slowing down. According to the risk intelligence firm Flashpoint, more than 4,100 data breach events were reported worldwide in 2022 (Flashpoint, 2022).

From classic approaches such as SQL injection and phishing to sophisticated new attacks, companies are increasingly under assault by malicious actors. It can be challenging for organizations to drown out all this noise and detect when a security event has occurred. Moreover, this figure only represents the number of successful attacks discovered; the number of attempted hacks is far higher.

2. Budget and knowledge constraints

Many companies, especially small and medium-sized businesses, lack the IT budget and know-how to protect themselves against cyberattacks. Even larger enterprises may be affected by cuts or stagnation. According to Spiceworks Ziff Davis, 44 percent of organizations expect their IT funding to stay constant or decrease in 2023 (Spiceworks Ziff Davis, 2022).

Even with a sizable IT budget, organizations may need help finding knowledgeable and skilled incident response personnel. Effective incident response requires in-depth awareness of an organization’s entire IT attack surface: all hardware, software, and sensitive data belonging to employees and customers.

3. Lack of escalation and collaboration tools

When an alert arrives in the incident response team’s inbox, it can be hard to understand the severity without the proper context. This means team members may be unable to accurately diagnose the issue and determine its priority. The incident response team may waste time analyzing relatively trivial occurrences while ignoring other potentially serious events.

Incident response teams require powerful, capable tools for escalating issues and collaborating with team members. Organizations should also have a structured hierarchy for whom to contact about a problem and how best to contact them.

How to Address Incident Response Challenges with E|CIH

Although businesses face several incident response challenges, the good news is that these difficulties are by no means insurmountable. By gaining knowledge and real-world experience, incident response team members can learn effective solutions to these challenges.

Certifications and training programs are an excellent way to learn about incident response and start a career path. EC-Council’s Certified Incident Handler (E|CIH) certification prepares students to handle and respond to cybersecurity incidents, imparting the theoretical knowledge and practical skills needed to work in incident response.

Participants will learn about all stages of incident response, from proactive planning to recovery and post-incident activities. E|CIH students also learn about domains ranging from insider threats and malware to email, cloud, and mobile security. The E|CIH certification includes access to 4 different operating systems, more than 50 labs, and 800 tools, giving you the well-rounded education you need to become a cybersecurity professional. 

Source: eccouncil.org

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Mobile Device Forensics in the Evolving World of Electronics

Here’s what you need to know about mobile device forensics:

• Mobile device forensics is a subfield of digital forensics that extracts and analyzes data from mobile devices in a forensically sound manner.
• The four stages of the mobile device forensics process are seizure, acquisition, analysis, and reporting
• Mobile device forensic analysts must be technically skilled and familiar with the legal issues surrounding digital evidence.

Digital technologies occupy an ever-increasing role in our lives. According to a 2021 Pew Research survey, 85 percent of people in the United States now own a smartphone—up from just 35 percent in 2011 (Pew Research, 2021). With millions of smartphones and other mobile devices in use daily, it’s no surprise that these gadgets contain massive quantities of potentially valuable information. Recovering, processing, and analyzing this information is the job of a mobile device forensic analyst. So, what is mobile device forensics exactly, and what are the benefits and use cases?

What is Mobile Device Forensics?

Mobile device forensics, also known as mobile forensics, is a subfield of digital forensics that involves extracting information from a mobile device (such as smartphones and tablets) in a forensically sound manner. The information obtained via mobile device forensics may include deleted files, application data, GPS data, call logs, text messages, and photographs and videos.

Like other domains of forensics, mobile device forensics is commonly used to recover evidence in connection with a criminal investigation. As such, mobile device forensic investigators must take care to retrieve and analyze data that is legally admissible as evidence.

Mobile device forensics has connections with other branches of digital forensics—such as network forensics, computer forensics, and malware analysis—in terms of the knowledge and skill set required. However, the distinguishing feature of mobile device forensics is that the extracted data is located on a mobile device.

Therefore, mobile device forensic analysts must be intimately familiar with mobile devices and their operating systems and file systems. They should also have experience with various software and hardware tools for extracting data from mobile devices. Finally, mobile device forensic analysts should have strong problem-solving and critical thinking skills and knowledge of the legal issues surrounding collecting data from mobile devices.

The Process of Mobile Device Forensics

There are four general steps to follow during a forensic investigation: identifying the evidence, acquiring the evidence, analyzing the evidence, and producing a forensic report. Below are these four steps as they pertain to the process of mobile device forensics:

1. Device seizure: First, the mobile device is seized from its user. At this stage, investigators should also start documenting the chain of custody. For example, the records of who handled the device and when. A search warrant is usually required if the device is used in a criminal investigation.
2. Device acquisition: Investigators create a sector-level duplicate of the device, a process known as “imaging” or “acquisition.” This duplicate image and the original device are passed through a hashing function, and their outputs are compared to ensure that it is an exact copy. Next, analysts decide on the investigation’s proper approach and goals.
3. Device analysis: Investigators begin work on the device image to confirm a hypothesis or search for hidden data. Specialized tools (such as those described in the next section) are used to help find and recover information. Data may be located within the accessible hard disk space, deleted (unallocated) disk space, or the operating system cache.
4. Reporting: After acquiring the data, investigators store and analyze it to reconstruct a plausible version of events. A report is prepared, which may be technical or non-technical, depending on the audience.

Mobile Device Forensics: Tools and Techniques

Mobile device forensic analysts use various tools and techniques to analyze devices. For example, there are multiple ways to extract information from a mobile device:

• Logical extraction: The device is connected to a forensics workstation via a hardware cable or a protocol such as Bluetooth. This approach is quick and relatively straightforward but also the most limited. Logical extraction tools include Oxygen Forensic Device Extractor and XRY Logical.
• Physical extraction (hex dump): The device’s flash memory is copied bit by bit. This approach is the most extensive but technically complex and dependent on the manufacturer. Physical extraction tools include Cellebrite UFED Physical Pro and XRY Physical.

Once a copy of the device has been made, investigators use other mobile device forensic tools to capture and analyze the data. OpenText EnCase Forensic and ILOOKix are two examples of digital forensics software applications for analyzing hard drives and mobile devices and recovering data and metadata.

What are the Scope and Uses of Mobile Device Forensics?

Mobile device forensics has three primary use cases: law enforcement, civil proceedings, and cybersecurity.

• Law enforcement: Mobile device forensics is a critical tool for law enforcement agencies. In many cases, the data on a mobile device can provide crucial evidence in a criminal investigation.
• Civil investigations: Mobile device forensics can also assist civil proceedings and litigation. Digital forensic investigators have successfully used data in various civil cases, including contract violations, whistleblower allegations, and divorce and custody.
• Cybersecurity: Cybercriminals use many different entry points to gain access to a network, including mobile devices. Forensic investigators can use mobile device forensics to reconstruct an attack and understand how malicious actors exploit security vulnerabilities on the device.

The Benefits and Challenges of Mobile Device Forensics

There are a wide range of benefits of mobile device forensics. Mobile device forensics can often recover information deleted or hidden on a device, providing critical evidence in an investigation. As a branch of forensics, mobile device forensics also ensures that the data extracted by investigators is admissible in court.

Despite the advantages of mobile device forensics, the field also has challenges. Mobile devices, their operating systems, and the tools and techniques used to analyze them constantly evolve. Forensic analysts also need to strictly adhere to the applicable laws, regulations, and protocols to ensure their conclusions can be used in an investigation.

Source: eccouncil.org

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You Got Sec+ Certification, What’s Next? Build Technical Skills With a C|CT

So, you earned CompTIA Security+ certification. Congratulations! The Sec+ certification is widely recognized by employers all around the world. The modules of Sec+ certification — including Threats, Attacks, and Vulnerabilities; IAM (Identity and Access Management); Architecture and Design; and Risk Management — prepare you for a career in information security. Now, you may be wondering what’s next.

You could certainly start applying for cyber security jobs. Sec+ is a well-known and respected certification. It can open doors to entry-level positions such as security specialist, analyst, or administrator. But if you really want to stand out from the crowd, you can take a step ahead and build up your technical skills. The Certified Cybersecurity Technician (C|CT) program is perfect for those who just earned Sec+ certification because it adds to your cyber security technical skills.

Understanding the Significance of Cyber Security Technical Skills

While a Sec+ certification is an excellent step toward the cyber security career of your dreams, it is just one step. According to a report, 83% of IT decision-makers hope to add more security staff next year (Fortinet, 2023). Employers are looking for skills and talent. But for every cyber security position posted, they’ll review hundreds of applicants. In the modern cyber security market, you need to find a way to stand out from the crowd. And one of the best ways to distinguish yourself is to add to your technical skill set.

Put yourself in a hiring manager’s shoes. Imagine you’ve got several candidates with Sec+ certification. How do you choose the right person for the job? You’d probably lean toward applicants with more training and extra skills. Think of the versatile candidate who could be an IT support specialist, network engineer, facility administrator, and qualify as a cyber security technician.

What are the Different Avenues to Build Technical Skills

There are many ways to build new technical skills. Sec+ certification is one way, but there are other avenues. You can find practical, hands-on labs online that simulate real-world security scenarios. This can be an excellent way to work with new tools and learn new

concepts. Labs look at the issues that information security professionals work with daily, learning by trial and error.

Capture the Flag (CTF) events are competitions designed to test participants’ ability to solve cyber security challenges. You might compete to find a web app’s vulnerabilities or try to solve cryptography puzzles. CTFs are usually time-bound, so they can be a great way to see what it’s like to work under pressure when every second counts. Team-based CTFs tell you what working as part of an IT security team is like.

Most people add to their technical skills through specialized training. Much like when you pursued your Sec+ certification, cyber security pros at all levels add to their toolbox with training. That could be earning an additional certificate, attending workshops, or even learning new things from a trusted mentor. Out of all these avenues to build technical skills, gaining a new certification may be best. Completing a new course and adding an industry-recognized cert lets employers know exactly what skills you now have.

Enhance Your Cyber Security Technical Skills With the C|CT Certification

As you consider another course after Sec+ certification, you’ll want to look for one that will bring you a wide range of foundational skills. The Certified Cybersecurity Technician (C|CT) course is a good choice, especially with your Sec+ certification already in hand. The skills you gain while pursuing a C|CT will expand on the concepts you learned in Sec+ while adding many new tools to your IT tool belt.

You’ll learn about information security vulnerabilities, threats, and attacks in a practical manner and gain real-world skills in cyber security assessment techniques. This goes way beyond the introductory concepts covered in the Sec+ course.

EC-Council’s Cyber Range is a live environment that gives you practical experience with real-world scenarios. Instead of strictly studying theoretical concepts, Cyber Range training lets you see them play out in real-world scenarios. The Cyber Range enhances your cyber security technical skills by giving you practice in computer forensics, programming, and other essential IT skills.

Benefits of the C|CT After Sec+ Certification

Although Sec+ certification is a widely recognized entry-level achievement, there are many benefits to furthering your education and earning a C|CT certification. Since the C|CT course features more than 85 in-depth labs, you gain a wider range of skills that help you stand out in the job market. That includes penetration testing, ethical hacking, digital forensics, and other roles beyond entry-level security positions.

By practicing these skills on EC-Council’s Cyber Range, the C|CT certification can provide you with valuable practical experience that may not be available to other entry-level candidates. While both the Sec+ certification and the C|CT offer practical training, the latter provides a more hands-on experience in real-world scenarios.

If you have your sights set on being a systems administrator, network engineer, IT manager, or even chief information security officer someday, the C|CT is a perfect addition to your Sec+ certification. It gives you the foundation to pursue a successful cyber security career.

Source: eccouncil.org

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IDS and IPS: Understanding Similarities and Differences

IDS and IPS are crucial network security technologies often confused or used interchangeably. So, what’s the difference between IDS and IPS, and which one is the best choice for your organizational needs?

What Is IDS (Intrusion Detection System)?

An intrusion detection system (IDS) is a cybersecurity solution that monitors network traffic and events for suspicious behavior. IDS security systems aim to detect intrusions and security breaches so that organizations can swiftly respond to potential threats.

The types of IDS include:

• Network-based: A network-based IDS (NIDS) is deployed at strategic points within a computer network, examining incoming and outgoing traffic. It focuses on monitoring network protocols, traffic patterns, and packet headers.
• Host-based: A host-based IDS (HIDS) is installed on individual machines or servers within an IT environment. It focuses on monitoring system logs and files to detect events such as unauthorized access attempts and abnormal changes to the system.
• Hybrid: A hybrid IDS combines both network-based and host-based approaches. This type of IDS provides a more complete view of events within the IT ecosystem.

IDS tools work by analyzing network packets and comparing them with known attack signatures or behavioral patterns. If the IDS believes that it has identified an intruder, it sends an alert to system administrators or security teams. These alerts contain detailed information about the detected activity, letting employees quickly investigate and react. IDS plays a vital role in maintaining the security and integrity of computer networks and systems.

The benefits of IDS include:

• Early threat detection: IDS tools can proactively defend against cyberattacks by detecting potential threats at an early stage of the intrusion.
• Greater visibility: IDS solutions enhance organizations’ visibility into their IT environment, helping security teams respond to attacks more quickly and effectively.

The limitations of IDS include:

• False positives and false negatives: IDS tools aren’t perfect; they can generate both false positives (labeling benign events as threats) and false negatives (failing to detect real threats).
• Inability to prevent attacks: IDS solutions can detect attacks once they occur, but they are unable to prevent them from occurring in the first place.

What Is IPS (Intrusion Prevention System)?

What is IPS in networking, and how does it differ from IDS? An intrusion prevention system (IPS) is a cybersecurity solution that builds on the capabilities of IDS. IPS cyber security tools cannot only detect potential intrusions but also actively prevent and mitigate them.

As with IDS, the types of IPS include:

• Network-based: A network-based IPS (NIPS) is deployed at strategic points within a computer network, often at network gateways. It can protect the organization’s entire network, including multiple connected hosts and devices.
• Host-based: A host-based IPS (HIPS) is deployed on a specific machine or server, offering protection to a single host. It monitors system activities and can take actions to block or limit access to system resources.
• Hybrid: A hybrid IPS combines both network-based and host-based approaches. For example, a hybrid IPS may be primarily network-based but also include features for protecting individual hosts.

The benefits of IPS include:

• Real-time threat prevention: IPS can block or mitigate identified threats in real time, providing 24/7 automated protection for IT environments.
• Enhanced network defense: Unlike IDS tools, IPS systems are able not only to detect threats but take action to defend against them by blocking malicious and suspicious traffic.

The limitations of IPS include:

• Performance impact: IPS tools must examine all incoming and outgoing traffic, which can introduce latency and slow down network performance.
• Frequent updates: For maximum effectiveness, IPS solutions need to be regularly updated with the latest information about threat signatures, which can require significant time investment and expertise.

Differences Between IDS and IPS

Now that we’ve discussed IDS and IPS definitions, what can we say about IDS vs. IPS?

The main difference between IDS and IPS is that while IDS tools are only capable of detecting intrusions, IPS tools can actively prevent them as well. This basic distinction has several important repercussions for the question of IDS vs. IPS:

• Functionality: IDS tools are restricted to detecting threats, while IPS tools can both detect and prevent them.
• Response: IDS tools send alerts when a threat is detected, while IPS tools can automatically block threats based on predefined security policies or rules.
• Workflow: IDS tools passively monitor data flow, while IPS tools actively inspect network packets and take action to prevent or mitigate threats.

Advances in IDS/IPS Technology

IDS/IPS technology has significantly evolved since it was introduced. Some developments in IDS/IPS solutions include:

• Machine learning and AI: IDS/IPS tools can use machine learning and artificial intelligence to enhance their detection capabilities, learning from historical data about cyber threats.
• Behavioral analysis: IDS/IPS tools can use a technique known as behavioral analysis: comparing network traffic or user behavior to a baseline that helps identify anomalies or deviations.
• Cloud-based deployments: With the increasing adoption of cloud computing, many IDS/IPS tools can now be deployed in cloud-based IT environments to make them more flexible and scalable.

IDS/IPS and Regulatory Compliance

Installing IDS and IPS tools may be necessary for organizations to meet regulatory compliance requirements. The use cases of IDS and IPS for regulatory compliance include:

• Threat detection and incident response: IDS and IPS solutions actively monitor network traffic, system logs, and events to detect and defend against security threats.
• Protecting sensitive data: By blocking unauthorized access to confidential information, IDS and IPS are invaluable tools for complying with data privacy standards.
• Logging and reporting: IDS and IPS solutions generate system logs and provide reporting capabilities that companies can use in the event of an external audit.

Many data privacy and security regulations explicitly or implicitly require organizations to implement IDS and IPS tools. For example, PCI DSS is a security standard for businesses that handle payment card information. According to PCI DSS Requirement 11.4, companies must “use network intrusion detection and/or intrusion prevention techniques to detect and/or prevent intrusions into the network.”

The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is another regulation that may require IDS/IPS solutions. The GDPR is a law in the European Union that safeguards the privacy of citizens’ personal data. According to the GDPR, businesses must take “appropriate technical and organizational measures” to protect this data against breaches and unauthorized access, which could include deploying an IDS/IPS.

Misconceptions About IDS/IPS

Despite the widespread use of IDS and IPS solutions, there are some common misconceptions such as:

• Total prevention: IDS and IPS tools cannot offer 100 percent protection against a cyber attacks. They can only detect suspicious activity based on predefined rules and signatures, which limits them to known attack patterns.
• No other defenses required: IDS and IPS solutions can be highly effective, but they are only one piece of the cybersecurity puzzle, along with tools such as firewalls and antimalware software.
• Only useful for large enterprises: IDS/IPS technology is effective for businesses of all sizes and industries, from tiny startups to huge multinational firms.

Source: eccouncil.org

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A Guide to Understanding LDAP: Exploring the What, How, and Why

Curious about computer networks? You might have searched for information with phrases like “What is LDAP?” or “LDAP meaning.” In short, LDAP (Lightweight Access Directory Protocol) is an open, vendor-neutral networking protocol for accessing, interacting with, and managing distributed directory information services on an IP network.

As the name suggests, LDAP is a lightweight protocol regarding resource consumption and overhead, distinguishing it from traditional directory protocols. This makes it ideal for networks with limited bandwidth and processing power.

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol has many functions and capabilities, including user authentication and authorization, creating address books and white pages, storing system configuration data, and more. This article will discuss everything you need to know about Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, from the critical components of Lightweight Directory Access Protocol to the pros, cons, and security considerations.

How Does LDAP Work?

The origins of Lightweight Directory Access Protocol lie in X.500, a computer networking standard for directory services developed in the late 1980s. Like Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, X.500 provided a hierarchical directory structure to store and retrieve information about users and network components. However, it was complex and required significant computing resources.

Tim Howes and his colleagues at the University of Michigan created Lightweight Directory Access Protocol in 1993. They named it “LDAP” (Lightweight Access Directory Protocol) because it indicated it was a more streamlined and efficient alternative to standards such as X.500. 

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol is a client-server protocol. Clients interact with servers to access and manage directory information. This information is organized in a hierarchical, tree-like structure known as the DIT (Directory Information Tree) that contains various entries.

• LDAP servers: An LDAP server stores and manages directory information in LDAP. The server receives LDAP requests from clients by listening to a specific port.
• LDAP clients: Clients are applications or services that interact with and make requests to an LDAP server. Examples of clients include user authentication services, address books, and system management tools.
• LDAP directory entries: Each entry in the directory represents a different object or entity, such as a user, group, or device. Entries have Distinguished Names (DNs) that uniquely identify them and specify their location in the hierarchy (IBM, 2022). Entries also have attributes that describe specific information, such as a username or email address.

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol allows clients to search for specific directory entries using search operations and filters. For example, a client might use a filter to find all employees in a specific department. Clients can also add, update, and delete Lightweight Directory Access Protocol directory entries. 

What Are the Key Components of LDAP?

As discussed above, the key components of Lightweight Directory Access Protocol include servers, clients, directory entries, and the Directory Information Tree (DIT). Another key Lightweight Directory Access Protocol component is the object class, which defines the set of attributes that may belong to an Lightweight Directory Access Protocol entry. Each entry in the DIT must belong to at least one object class.

Below are some of the most common Lightweight Directory Access Protocol object classes and their significance: 

• top: The “top” object class represents the top of the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol hierarchy. All other entries in the DIT inherit from this class.
• person: The “person” object class represents a generic person in the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol hierarchy. Subclasses of the “person” class include “organizationalPerson” and “inetOrgPerson.”
• groupOfNames: The “groupOfNames” object class represents a group of directory entries. This allows network administrators to create groups of users to manage access control and permissions.
• organizationalUnit: The “organizationalUnit” object class represents organizational units, such as teams or departments within the hierarchy. 

What Are the Benefits of Using LDAP?

The advantages of using Lightweight Directory Access Protocol include:

• Hierarchical organization: The protocol’s hierarchical structure enables quick, efficient storage and retrieval of directory information. This makes it easier to manage and search for specific data.
• Lightweight footprint: LDAP has a lean payload regarding network consumption and overhead. This makes it well-suited for environments and scenarios such as distributed systems and remote access.
• Scalability: The protocol is highly scalable and can handle large databases with millions of entries. This is a good fit for modern enterprises with highly complex IT environments.

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol supports both user authentication and authorization. First, it allows applications and services to check users’ credentials against the directory information, verifying the provided username and password. Next, the protocol allows applications and services to query the directory for user group memberships and other attributes, making it simple to determine which permissions to grant to each user.

How Is LDAP Used in Modern Environments?

The benefits listed above make Lightweight Directory Access Protocol a good match for use cases such as address book services used in email clients. Lightweight Directory Access Protocol tools allow users to search and retrieve other users’ contact information from the centralized directory, ensuring that this data is always up-to-date.

Today, the protocol is widely used as a core component of many IAM (Identity and Access Management) systems (Strom, 2021). These systems use Lightweight Directory Access Protocol as their primary authentication, authorization, and user management database.

In particular, it can be integrated into Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication solutions (Lu, 2021). SSO tools allow users to sign into multiple applications or services using a single login credentials. These SSO solutions can use the protocol on the backend, relying on the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol directory to authenticate usernames and passwords.

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol can also support the implementation of Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), authorizing users once they have been authenticated (Zhang, 2023). Administrators can use Lightweight Directory Access Protocol groups to grant specific roles and access permissions to individual users or user groups across different applications and resources.

What Are the Potential Security Considerations of LDAP?

Despite its many advantages and use cases, Lightweight Directory Access Protocol is not without its security considerations. If administrators don’t follow security guidelines, the IT environment may be vulnerable to multiple Lightweight Directory Access Protocol security issues, which could expose it to attacks or data breaches.

To protect systems using Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, administrators should follow best practices, such as:

• Encryption to secure data both in transit and at rest.
• Authentication methods such as strong passwords and multi-factor authentication (MFA).
• Firewall protection by restricting access to Lightweight Directory Access Protocol servers to specific IP addresses or ranges.
• Logging, monitoring, and auditing to detect and respond to abnormal events.
• Regular software patching and updates to address known security vulnerabilities.
• Privilege separation by using separate accounts with different privileges for different Lightweight Directory Access Protocol tasks to reduce the risk of data exposure.
• User input validation to prevent attacks such as SQL injections that use malicious input to induce unexpected behavior.

Source: eccouncil.org

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Unveiling Grey Hat Hacking: Exploring Ethical Dilemmas, Practices, and Implications

The role of hackers in the field of cyber security stands on a wide and varied spectrum: from white hat hackers with noble goals to malicious and dangerous black hat hackers. “Grey hat hacking” stands somewhere in the middle, blurring the lines between both sides. But what is grey hat hacking, exactly, and what are the ethical issues and implications of this morally ambiguous practice in IT security? Below, we’ll discuss the crucial question of the motivations and actions of grey hat hackers.

What Is Grey Hat Hacking?

What is a grey hat hacker, and what are the different types of hackers? There are three main types of hacking, which are classified according to their intentions and practices:

• White hat hacking (also known as ethical hacking) involves IT security experts who use their skills and techniques with good intentions. They have the full consent of their “targets” and work with organizations that want to strengthen their IT security. By probing systems and networks for vulnerabilities, white hat hacking helps identify and resolve potential issues before they can be exploited by hackers with nefarious intentions.
• Black hat hacking involves malicious hackers who do not have the consent of their targets. They often have self-serving financial or reputational motivations and sometimes also work for a political cause or government. Black hat hacking involves cyber attacks such as breaching IT environments, stealing confidential information, and installing ransomware.
• Grey hat hacking is named because it occupies a morally “grey” area between white hat and black hat hacking. Unlike white hat hacking, grey hat hacking typically doesn’t ask for explicit authorization from the affected parties. However, grey hat hackers also lack the bad intentions of black hat hackers. Instead, grey hat hacking is motivated by passion, curiosity, or the desire to improve cyber security.

What Types of Activities Do Grey Hat Hackers Engage In?

On a spectrum, grey hat hackers range from those with altruistic motivations to those who engage in borderline or highly questionable activities. Some of the common practices in grey hat hacking include:

• Security testing: Grey hat hackers may run penetration testing and other security tests on publicly available IT environments or systems, identifying vulnerabilities and weaknesses. However, unlike white hat hackers, grey hat hackers operate without the consent of their targets. For example, network scanning and probing activities to locate open ports can be seen as intrusive and unwelcome, even if they are done for research purposes.
• Public disclosure: Grey hat hackers may go public with their discoveries rather than contacting their targets directly. While this can help raise awareness of the issue and create pressure to fix it, it also opens the door to exploitation by malicious actors. A famous grey hat hacker example in this context is Khalil Shreateh, a security researcher who discovered a way for Facebook users to post a link on any other user’s page (Warren, 2017). After the company failed to take Shreateh’s report seriously, he used the vulnerability to post on the Facebook page of CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
• Dual intentions: Some grey hat hackers are classified as such because they have a mix of ethical and unethical intentions, depending on the situation. For example, they may report some vulnerabilities they discover promptly while keeping others secret to exploit them for personal gain. One notable figure is Marcus Hutchins, a security researcher who helped stop the devastating WannaCry ransomware attack (Greenberg, 2020). Despite this noble action, Hutchins had also previously worked on developing the Kronos strain of ransomware, which led to his arrest by the FBI.
• Vigilante actions: Grey hat hackers may take the law into their own hands, trying to expose or take revenge on individuals or organizations they perceive as wrongdoers or malicious actors. This can involve actions such as “hacking the hackers” in retaliation, which is illegal and can escalate tensions.

What Are the Ethical Dilemmas of Grey Hat Hacking?

Because it straddles the boundaries of both extremes, grey hat hacking can present a number of ethical dilemmas. These include:

• Lack of permission: Grey hat hackers engage in hacking activities without acquiring permission from their targets beforehand. This raises the question: is it ever acceptable to probe systems for vulnerabilities without authorization, even if the person’s intentions are good?
• Responsible disclosure: Grey hat hackers may not always follow best practices for vulnerability disclosure (HackerOne, 2021). For example, they may release their discoveries to the public before informing the affected organization. As a result, users and systems may be exposed to attacks until the vulnerability is patched.
• Harm to innocent parties: Grey hat hackers may cause harm to innocent people or organizations that get caught in the crossfire. This is especially likely with retaliatory actions, vigilante justice, and public disclosure of security vulnerabilities.
• Accountability and transparency: Many grey hat hackers operate anonymously or pseudonymously, often to avoid legal consequences or criminal charges. However, this makes it more difficult to hold these individuals accountable for their actions and to have transparency about their motivations.

What Are the Implications of Grey Hat Hacking?

Grey hat hacking is a complicated practice with positive and negative implications for cyber security. The positive implications of grey hat hacking include:

• Security improvements: Grey hat hackers may uncover previously unknown security flaws in an IT system or network. When they responsibly disclose these weaknesses, it allows organizations to fix the issue and bolster their security posture.
• Public awareness: Grey hat hackers may raise awareness of cyber security issues by highlighting unpatched vulnerabilities. High-profile disclosures can also motivate organizations to act swiftly in addressing the vulnerability and to take security more seriously.

On the other hand, the negative implications of grey hat hacking include:

• Legal consequences: Even with good intentions, grey hat hackers may face legal consequences for engaging in unauthorized hacking activities. They can create tension with law enforcement agencies and governments, leading to disagreements about the morality of their actions.
• Trust and reputation: The actions of grey hat hackers can erode trust in security researchers. By probing for weaknesses and publicly disclosing vulnerabilities without permission, grey hat hackers can make organizations more reluctant to work with them despite their advanced knowledge.

Source: eccouncil.org

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Guarding Your Business: Ransomware Security and Data Recovery

Protecting your digital assets and information against the growing ransomware threat is crucial in the current digital and security landscape. The ever-evolving sophistication of cyber threats, particularly ransomware attacks, poses a significant risk to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). These businesses, often with limited IT resources, face daunting challenges when protecting their critical data and ensuring a swift and effective recovery in the face of an attack.

As National Computer Security Day approaches, our conversation with Dr. Shekhar Pawar aims to enlighten the audience about the risks associated with ransomware and effective strategies that businesses can implement to strengthen their cybersecurity defenses. Dr. Shekhar Pawar is a distinguished cybersecurity expert, holding a Ph.D. from SSBM Geneva. He is widely recognized as the founder and CEO of SecureClaw Inc. and GrassDew IT Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Dr. Pawar’s passion for advancing cybersecurity extends to his contributions as an author and inventor. He is the visionary behind the BDSLCCI cybersecurity framework. With his extensive knowledge, experience, and achievements, Dr. Shekhar Pawar is a leading figure in cybersecurity, dedicated to protecting digital assets and enhancing the security landscape for individuals and organizations worldwide.

In this interview, he delves into the world of ransomware security and data recovery, equipping you with the knowledge and tools needed to protect your business from these insidious threats and recover swiftly in the event of an attack.

1. What is your take on the current landscape of ransomware attacks and their impact on small and medium businesses (SMBs)?

Ransomware, a cyber attack implemented using malicious software, is the most popular financial gain-motivated cyber attack performed by cyber criminals. It can target personal devices as well as organization-level infrastructure and devices. The aim of any ransomware software is to encrypt files or systems and stop users from accessing them. In this malicious scenario, files, and at times, entire devices, are subjected to encryption and subsequently held captive until the target submits a ransom in return for a decryption key. This key serves as the means by which the user can regain access to their encrypted files or the affected software systems. It was known as a single extortion attack. After that, cyber criminals started a new technique to gain an additional ransom from their targets, which can be called double extortion. In cases of single extortion, many organizations overcome the threat of file encryption with a simple, up-to-date backup system. Cyber criminals aim at stealing sensitive information from organizations and threatening to release or sell it, often on the dark web or other information black market platforms. However, even if the targets pay a ransom for data recovery, they may still be forced to pay another ransom to prevent their stolen data from being made public.

Furthermore, in addition to double extortion attacks, triple extortion attacks in various areas are also possible, where cyber criminals add another layer of threat by disrupting the organization’s services to apply extra pressure. Taking this a step further, quadruple extortion is possible if ransomware attacks impact the third-party associates of the targeted organization.

Ransomware attacks have a long chain of extortion for their targets; hence, it is recommended to implement preventive measures as well as not pay ransom money to threat actors. According to my recent research studies among small and medium companies, a lack of funds to implement available cybersecurity standards in the market, demand for dozens of controls to be deployed, a lack of skilled teammates to implement or maintain cybersecurity controls, and a lack of visibility of Return on Investment (ROI) while investing resources in adopting cybersecurity standards were four key issues faced by those companies.

2. What are some common TTPs and security gaps that cyber criminals use to initiate ransomware attacks for SMBs?

Many recent reports indicated that ransomware attacks originate from various social engineering tricks, remote desktop vulnerabilities, remote server attacks, unpatched software, password guessing, credential theft, third-party security gaps, misplaced USB drives, etc. Once a machine gets infected by the malicious software, the threat actor uses the command-and-control (CC) server to execute further steps. Using an encryption key, cyber criminals can encrypt the machine. Even before encrypting, they can back up data to their CC server or another place. After the encryption of data on the target device, a ransomware note is shown to the user of that device. Generally, it has instructions for targets on how they can communicate with cyber criminals and how they can transfer the ransom to a cryptocurrency account. Also, threatening comments ask not to try decrypting these devices using third-party tools, or the organization could lose the data.

Further, they threaten the target by giving them a timeline of, say, 24 hours or so to decide to pay ransom, with more threats to try to sell it on the darknet and so on. Human beings have been the weakest link in most cyber attacks. A malware attack followed by a ransomware attack is the kind of combination that works for threat actors. Many SMB companies are not able to invest more in advanced cybersecurity controls due to a lack of knowledge and budget. During my research studies, I even found that more than one-third of small and medium companies never had any cybersecurity training for their employees. Another one-third of them have a once-a-year kind of security awareness training, and the rest have different periodic such training. Around one-third of such companies do not have any security policies, procedures, or guidelines in place. Around 25% of companies do not implement physical and technical security controls.

3. What steps can businesses take to proactively protect their data and systems against ransomware attacks?

Today, there are various mature and leading standards of cybersecurity, such as NIST, ISO 27001, the Zero Trust Framework, and so on. The only thing is that many times, SMB companies do not have enough resources or readiness to adopt them. One of the observations is that many standards are generic for all business domains, which results in many cybersecurity controls being implemented. Every SMB should look at two verticals of cybersecurity control implementation. The first is the defense in depth mechanism, also known as the onion or castle model. It has various layers of cybersecurity controls, increasing the difficulty for cyber criminals to perform their tricks or techniques. Even if one layer is compromised, other layers often prevent malicious intent. Also, top management needs to identify mission-critical assets (MCAs) on which their maximum business is able to survive or grow. There should be extra attention provided to such MCAs. As part of my international research studies and publishing, I have invented a business domain-specific least cybersecurity controls implementation (BDSLCCI) framework for securing SMB or SME companies. As its name suggests, depending on the business domain of the SMB or SME company willing to adopt BDSLCCI, the list of cybersecurity controls for its business domain will vary. BDSLCCI also provides information on which control needs to be implemented first and the rest of the control order to be implemented. It helps SMBs protect themselves against cyber threats with a reduced number of controls and, hence, a reduction in the resources required to adopt BDSLCCI.

4. In the unfortunate event of a ransomware attack, what are the best practices for incident response and data recovery?

Yes, it is possible, due to any unaware employee’s mistake, associated supply chain, or any such circumstances, that despite lowering the overall risk of undergoing any successful ransomware attack, there may be a successful attack. The organization must have regular backups in different networks or locations, which should be operational. Also, backups should have been tested regularly to see if they were really going to work during recovery in case of a ransomware attack. After a specific device has been infected, the initial step is to quarantine it from the network to prevent the malware from spreading to other devices. A few cybersecurity experts can help you decrypt files using the few available tools. In many countries, as per law and compliance, it is required to report such cyber attacks to the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) or similar authorities within a few hours. If organizations suspect that their customer data or similar might have been impacted by ransomware, it is always better to inform affected customers. Otherwise, their hacked information can be used by hackers to perform another crime. It is a recommended best practice not to pay ransom in such cyber attacks, as no one should trust the unknown or hidden face of a cyber criminal.

5. How do data recovery and business continuity aspects for SMBs differ from those of MNCs?

For large organizations or multinational companies (MNCs), investing in and implementing data recovery and business continuity aspects is relatively easy as they can recruit or outsource certain IT or security functions. When we look at SMEs or SMBs, they are lagging in their respective skilled resources and funds, and their top management only prioritizes sustaining or growing their business goals.

Top management needs to write a practical business continuity plan prioritizing mission-critical assets to be safe and secure during unforeseen circumstances. SMBs need to identify critical data to be protected and take regular, secure backups of it. There can be incremental data backups or even full backups, as per the top management’s decision. Now that every SMB must have a work-from-home or remote working facility, it is possible to consider a backup site rather than not having anything in place. Only employees need to undergo regular cybersecurity awareness training to make sure they maintain cyber hygiene while working remotely. Only per-need access should be granted to the employees; no admin privileges must be given to every employee for their device. It is also recommended to simulate cyber drills once every six months to check business continuity readiness.

6. Are there any specific tools or technologies that you suggest SMBs to consider when planning their data recovery strategies?

Various data recovery tools are available on the market, and it is important to use trusted sources and read reviews of such tools. There are many websites that even compare the tools available on the market. SMBs need to do research. The top management decides to compare and choose. If the SMB’s business is data-centric, they need to purchase such tools. If the size or value of the data is not high, then they can even have a manual process or develop small tools using technology. Today, many endpoint protection software options have built-in data backup and recovery features. A few SMBs even develop small SQL batch jobs to take regular backups of crucial data or files. It is important to keep encrypted backups at secured locations so that even if backups get hacked, they can’t be used by threat actors. Always keep a backup teammate for crucial data backup and recovery operations. One important thing is that even encrypted backups can be kept on an external hard disk or tape, which should be kept in a secured physical locker. This preparedness helps during an actual incident.

7. How can SMBs balance the cost-effectiveness of data recovery solutions with the need for robust cybersecurity?

It is a myth that only costly tools can provide the best security. It is a combination of the operations team’s efforts and tools that makes a well-secured ecosystem for any organization. Adopting a particular data backup and recovery solution is a very strategic decision. The cloud is a good and cost-effective solution, according to my experience working with SMBs. A few SMBs even take backups at two different locations; this is good practice. Only the SMB needs to encrypt data in all three states: data in rest, data in transit, or data in use. Also, only limited access should be granted to the backups or their operations, as those are very sensitive. It is important to delete unnecessary data or even backup files to reduce the cost of backup and recovery operations. Data layer security policies are very important, especially to avoid insider threats and to have good access control. The smaller the size of the data, the better the performance of backup and recovery operations.

Source: eccouncil.org

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AWS Penetration Testing: A Comprehensive Guide

Today’s business relies on applications and data analytics. The more business processes an organization can shift toward digital systems, the more data they have to work with.Enterprise cloud platforms power these applications, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) is among the most popular.

As of 2023, Amazon claims millions of customers use AWS (AWS, 2023). While AWS offers each organization a powerful, cost-effective platform, it also raises security concerns. The old cybersecurity methods, such as firewalls and VPNs (Virtual Private Networks), do not protect a cloud platform. Securing sensitive corporate data and custom apps on AWS requires a modern approach: AWS penetration testing. Here is a guide to AWS pentesting and the tools to do it effectively.

A Deep Dive into AWS Penetration Testing

AWS penetration testing, much like other forms of pentesting, involves planned and controlled attempts to exploit weaknesses within a platform or system. Many organizations perform penetration testing and ethical hacking exercises on their systems; it’s an effective practice for finding vulnerabilities before hackers do. Pentesting in the cloud, however, is more complex.

Where AWS pentesting differs from traditional pentesting is its interaction with Amazon’s shared responsibility model. AWS penetration testers must evaluate potential security risks to determine whether Amazon or the customer is ultimately responsible. Since penetration testing activities can resemble a malicious attack, many standard pentesting practices aren’t allowed on the AWS platform.

The good news is that Amazon does encourage security testing and allows a fair number of AWS security testing techniques. Therefore, most tests fall under one of two categories:

• Cloud-native attacks: AWS security testing works with the cloud platform’s native features. For instance, you can test exploiting IAM (Identity and Access Management) misconfigurations and AWS Lambda function misses or target serverless applications.
• Misconfigured resources: Amazon S3 Buckets, EC2 Instances, KMS (Key Management Services), and AWS Config are all helpful resources on the AWS platform. However, misconfigurations can create security holes. Configurations should be pen-tested regularly.

Can We Perform Penetration Testing on AWS?

Considering the challenges of the cloud and the limitations Amazon imposes, you may wonder if you can perform penetration testing on AWS. Yes, you can. However, you must look at it differently than traditional pentesting. Allowed AWS pentesting practices include:

• Vulnerability scanning
• Web application scanning
• Port scanning
• Injections
• Exploiting found vulnerabilities
• Forgery
• Fuzzing

However, you cannot use the following pentesting techniques:

• DNS (Domain Name System) zone hijacking
• Denial of service (DoS) or distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks
• Simulated DoS and DDoS attacks
• Port flooding
• Protocol flooding
• API request flooding
• Login/authentication request flooding

AWS penetration testing techniques that rely on brute force (or other methods resembling a DoS or DDoS attack) are generally not allowed. Before attempting any AWS security testing, ensure that it falls under Amazon’s terms of service.

Regardless of any limitations or difficulties associated with AWS security testing, it’s still an essential practice for all organizations that use the platform. Any security breach can have severe consequences, including millions of dollars in loss per incident. AWS pentesting is one of the most critical cybersecurity defenses available, given the risks involved.

AWS pentesting helps uncover the security flaws that go unnoticed — until a malicious actor exploits them. Most businesses today have legal or regulatory requirements to follow, including securing employee and customer data. Penetration testing helps safeguard this sensitive information while providing proof of compliance with laws and regulations.

Conducting Penetration Testing on AWS: Steps and Prerequisites

Before getting started with AWS pentesting, you should complete a few prerequisites.

Understand Amazon’s shared responsibility model: Read and learn the shared

responsibility guidelines. In short, Amazon’s responsibility is to secure the infrastructure that powers AWS services. Customers are responsible for the security of guest operating systems installed in their AWS clouds.

Secure your AWS environment: Apply any outstanding security updates to Linux or Windows virtual machines hosted on AWS, along with the underlying apps. Configure the AWS firewall properly and apply other AWS security functions typical to a live production environment.

Develop a plan: List the AWS instances and applications you plan to pen test. Then, note the services exposed to the public internet and develop a testing plan that adequately tests the service’s or app’s security.

After completing AWS penetration testing prerequisites, the next steps are comparable to

traditional pentesting methods:

• Get authorization: Before conducting penetration tests, acquire appropriate approval from the AWS account owner and, if applicable, the application administrator.
• Define your goals: Identify the target system and AWS service to be tested. Define the results you expect and what anomalies may look like.
• Map the attack surface: Identify the AWS services, instances, network subnets, S3buckets, IAM roles, and other pertinent services to test.
• Perform the vulnerability assessment: Use the AWS pentesting tools and search for vulnerabilities.
• Exploit the vulnerabilities: If you find a vulnerability, try to exploit it. Then, log your results.
• Report your findings: Draft a report on what your AWS penetration testing session found, along with any remediation recommendations.

Traditional Penetration Testing vs. AWS Penetration Testing

While the overall goals and general methodology of AWS pentesting may resemble

traditional methods, there are some differences to consider.

Traditional penetration testing

Traditional penetration testing often targets physical infrastructure, typically on-premises servers and networks. In that regard, traditional pentesting is often easier to plan and execute because an organization’s IT team fully owns the systems and networks to be tested.

Obtaining permission to pen test is easily accomplished, and all system administrators are aware of the penetration testing activities. Since the tester either works for the same IT team or has been granted access, they’re free to perform tests a cloud provider wouldn’t sign off on.

AWS penetration testing

In contrast, AWS pentesting focuses on cloud services, containers, serverless applications,and other cloud technologies. AWS penetration testing also has key advantages, including its suitability for automation and scaling. AWS environments feature many opportunities for automation, and pentesting is no exception. Traditional penetration testing is usually a manual process with little chance for automation. In addition, the scalable nature of the cloud makes pentesting a large platform much easier on AWS than on traditional infrastructure.

What Are the Tools Used in AWS Testing?

The limitations of AWS pentesting mean you won’t be able to use many of the common tools of the trade. However, Amazon provides many apps that function as AWS pentesting tools. These include:

AWS Command Line Interface (CLI)

The AWS CLI is a standard tool for all customers. It allows testers to interact with AWS services programmatically. You can use CLI for various tasks, including resource enumeration, security group analysis, and credential management (AWS, 2023).

AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) Policy Simulator

The IAM Policy Simulator is another built-in AWS tool that helps testers simulate IAM policy changes and evaluate their impact on AWS resources (AWS, 2023). It’s a valuable tool for understanding the potential consequences of policy modifications.

AWS Config

AWS Config provides a detailed inventory of AWS resources and their configurations. It helps testers assess the security posture of AWS resources by identifying deviations from desired configurations.

AWS Security Hub

The AWS Security Hub has a centralized view of security alerts and compliance status across AWS accounts. It aggregates findings from various AWS security services and thirdparty tools, making identifying and prioritizing security issues easier (AWS, 2023).

AWS GuardDuty

GuardDuty is a paid add-on for AWS that provides managed threat detection services (AWS, 2023). It continuously monitors AWS accounts for malicious activity and unauthorized access, generating alerts based on AWS CloudTrail logs and VPC (Virtual Private Cloud) Flow Logs analysis.

Source: eccouncil.org

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What Is the OWASP Top 10 Vulnerabilities? The List and Mitigation Methods

If you are interested in cybersecurity issues, you’ve probably seen a reference to the OWASP Top 10. But what is OWASP? The Open Worldwide Application Security Project (OWASP) is an online community founded in 2001 that has become highly influential in the realm of web application security. A non-profit group called The OWASP Foundation is the official organization behind OWASP, but it is better known for the contributions of its community members. Comprised of cybersecurity professionals, researchers, and enthusiasts, the community helps craft the OWASP Top 10, a list of the most critical web application security risks.

The OWASP Top 10 was first published in 2003 and is updated every three to four years. As the OWASP Top 10 – 2021 was the first update since 2017, you can expect to see the next version in 2024 or 2025. OWASP also publishes other interesting lists to the cybersecurity community, such as the OWASP Mobile Top 10. The OWASP Top 10 API Security Risks – 2023 is the group’s most recent release, highlighting several broken authentication OWASP discoveries. (OWASP, 2023)

Even though the main OWASP Top 10 hasn’t been updated for a couple of years, each item is still relevant today. Below is a look at the vulnerabilities detailed in the most recent OWASP Top 10 Vulnerabilities and some potential mitigation methods.

The OWASP Top 10 and Possible Mitigations

The OWASP Top 10 – 2021 follows the organization’s long-standing tradition of grouping known vulnerabilities under broad category headings. In doing so, OWASP says its list represents a consensus of the most crucial web application security risks. (OWASP, 2021) The individual vulnerabilities are called “Common Weakness Enumerations” (CMEs), and each CME is mapped to a category.

For example, under the category of Broken Access Control OWASP collected 34 CMEs. It’s important to keep the CME-category relationship in mind when discussing possible mitigations. While each mitigation listed below is general guidance for the listed category, specific vulnerabilities might be better suited to a mitigation unique to the CME. With that in mind, here are the most recent OWASP Top 10 Vulnerabilities:

1. Broken access control

Under the category of broken access control OWASP includes any vulnerabilities that fail to restrict user access properly. These weaknesses allow access to resources and actions that users are authorized for. This category rose from fifth place in 2017 to the top spot of the 2021 list of vulnerabilities (OWASP, 2017). This reflects the widespread prevalence of access control issues on the web.

Web developers can fix these vulnerabilities by implementing proper access control based on the user’s role and authorized set of permissions. Additionally, regular access control checks can be added to web code.

2. Cryptographic failures

The cryptographic failures category was known as “sensitive data exposure” on the 2017 OWASP Top 10 Vulnerabilities. Since cryptography is used to protect data resources, the new category name more accurately reflects the range of problems. Among the issues are weak SSL/TLS implementations, insecure password storage, and the use of older and compromised encryption methods.

Mitigation methods include using stronger encryption protocols and performing regular vulnerability assessments. Older encryption methods should be deprecated in favor of newer protocols.

3. Injection

Previously number one on the OWASP Top 10 SQL injection vulnerabilities are now categorized simply as “injection.” That’s because the category now includes cross-site scripting weaknesses, which was number seven on the 2017 OWASP Top 10 Vulnerabilities. LDAP injection, XML injection and similar attack vectors are now included in the category.

Possible mitigations include parameterized queries or prepared statements to prevent SQL injection. Input validation can also help with all forms of injection.

4. Insecure design

A new category for the OWASP Top 10 Vulnerabilities – 2021, insecure design covers any flaws in application architecture that can be exploited. Following application design best practices and implementing threat modeling can minimize design exploits.

5. Security misconfiguration

Like insurance design, security misconfiguration is a broad category. It now includes the XML external entities (XME) category from OWASP Top 10 Vulnerabilities – 2017.

Unpatched vulnerabilities, unprotected directories, the user of default configurations and unapplied patches are some of the most common security misconfigurations. Following cybersecurity best practices will mitigate nearly all misconfiguration vulnerabilities.

6. Vulnerable and outdated components

Web applications depend on third-party frameworks and libraries, as do the web servers they run on. Failure to apply security patches for these components can leave a web app vulnerable to attacks. Similarly, outdated components that their developers have abandoned can pose significant security risks.

Keep server software and components updated to mitigate these vulnerabilities. Make sure you’re aware of vulnerability announcements by setting up alerts or following component developers on social media.

7. Identification and Authentication Failures

Improper identity management and authentication systems allow malicious actors to pose as other users. Hackers who exploit these vulnerabilities gain access to sensitive data, such as financial records or intellectual property.

Multi-factor authentication within applications and proper identity and access management (IAM) practices can help mitigate vulnerabilities in this category.

8. Software and data integrity failures

Another new category for the OWASP Top 10 Vulnerabilities list, this includes weaknesses that may arise from insecure software development practices. Insurance DevOps practices and poor database administration are among the bad practices included under this heading. Following industry best practices is the best mitigation against software and data integrity failures.

9. Security logging and monitoring failures

Failure to monitor logs and respond to related alerts lead to vulnerabilities in this category. Suspicious login attempts and other potentially malicious activity goes unnoticed, leading to hackers chipping away at a web app’s security architecture. To mitigate these issues, admins should use properly configured log monitoring and analysis tools.

10. Server-side request forgery

This vulnerability, commonly known as SSRF, opens the door for bad actors to make unauthorized server requests and access sensitive resources. In the worst cases, a hacker may gain full administrative control over a web server and access all data on a system.

To mitigate SSRF attacks, developers should follow web programming best practices such as input validation and whitelisting authorized users.

Learn to Fight the OWASP Top Ten with a C|PENT Certification

Web applications are a part of our everyday lives. The convenience of accessing apps from anywhere and at any time helps streamline business processes and enables a global workforce. However, web application security is full of potential dangers.

That’s why the OWASP Top 10 Vulnerabilities list is so important. As developers and administrators become more aware of the vulnerabilities, they are more likely to secure their apps. The list provides essential context to the most critical threats and allows cybersecurity professionals to implement a defense. If you’ve wanted to break into the world of cybersecurity to fight vulnerabilities on the OWASP Top Ten, consider the Certified Penetration Testing Professional (C|PENT) program from EC-Council.

This hands-on, practical certification course doesn’t just teach you penetration testing. The C|PENT helps you build a strong career by covering key web application security concepts. You’ll learn how hackers evade defense mechanisms and exploit vulnerabilities and then apply your skills to help defend web servers and apps.

Source: eccouncil.org

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