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    29Jun, 2023
    Top 6 cybersecurity trends to keep an eye on in 2023

    In a world where everything is just a click away, cybersecurity trends are a matter of concern. With data breaches, hacking, and malware attacks becoming more sophisticated, it’s crucial to stay ahead of the curve and remain vigilant in the fight against cybercrime. 

    For the unversed, cybersecurity is the practice of protecting computer systems, networks, and data from theft, damage, or unauthorized access. In today’s digital age, cybersecurity is more important than ever, as businesses and individuals rely heavily on technology to store and exchange sensitive information. 

    Key components of cybersecurity 

    There are several key components to cybersecurity. The first is prevention. This involves implementing security measures such as firewalls, antivirus software, and access controls to prevent unauthorized access to systems and data. It also involves regularly updating software and systems to patch vulnerabilities that could be exploited by cybercriminals. 

    Another key component of cybersecurity is detection. This involves monitoring systems and networks for suspicious activity, such as unauthorized access attempts or unusual network traffic. Early detection of potential threats can help organizations mitigate the damage and prevent data loss. 

    If a breach does occur, it is important to have a response plan in place. This involves having procedures for investigating and containing the breach and notifying affected individuals and authorities as needed. It is also important to have a plan for restoring systems and data after a breach, which may involve restoring backups or rebuilding systems from scratch. 

    Cybersecurity trends to watch out for in 2023 

    Since cybersecurity is a constantly evolving field, new threats emerge every year. As we look ahead to 2023, there are several cybersecurity trends that organizations and individuals need to watch out for. 

    1. Ransomware attacks 

    Ransomware is a type of malware that infects a computer system and encrypts its files, making them inaccessible to the user. The attacker then demands a ransom payment in exchange for the decryption key. 

    One reason for the rise of ransomware attacks is that they are incredibly profitable for cybercriminals. The cost of paying the ransom is often much lower than the cost of restoring the system from backups or dealing with the fallout from a data breach. The consequences of a successful ransomware attack can be severe. In addition to the financial costs of paying the ransom and restoring the system, organizations may suffer reputational damage and loss of business. In some cases, sensitive data may be stolen and used for malicious purposes. 

    To protect against the threat of ransomware attacks, organizations need to take proactive steps to improve their cybersecurity defenses. This includes having strong backup and recovery systems in place, regularly updating software and security patches, and educating employees about cybersecurity best practices.  

    2. Healthcare sector at risk

    The healthcare industry is expected to face more cyber attacks in 2023. This industry has already seen a significant increase in cyber attacks in recent years, with a 44% increase resulting in the compromise of 40 million American patient records in 2021. This affected over 22.6 million patients, which is equal to the population of New York.

    A research survey shows that approximately 60% of all ransomware attacks target patient data, while the remaining attacks focus on disrupting operations or taking over systems.

    Phishing scams were the most common type of cyber attack on healthcare organizations in 2020, affecting 81% of companies. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, phishing incidents increased by 220%.

    3. Artificial intelligence (AI) in cyberattacks  

    With Chat GPT storming the internet, cybercriminals are well versed with current trends and are using Artificial intelligence to launch more sophisticated attacks. AI-powered attacks can quickly adapt to changing environments, making them harder to detect and defend against. 

    AI-powered attacks can take different forms, such as phishing emails, malware, or social engineering scams. For example, AI can be used to create highly convincing phishing emails that appear to be from trusted sources, making it easier for attackers to trick users into clicking on malicious links or downloading malware. 

    To protect against AI-powered cyberattacks, organizations need to stay vigilant and adopt advanced cybersecurity tools and techniques that can detect and respond to these threats in real time. This includes using AI-based cybersecurity solutions that can identify and block attacks before they cause damage. Organizations should also implement security awareness training programs to educate employees on how to recognize and report suspicious activity. 

    4. IoT vulnerabilities

    Next up on the cybersecurity trends list, we have IoT vulnerabilities. The security of IoT devices is a concern, and manufacturers are aware of this issue. However, they may not be fully knowledgeable about all the possible vulnerabilities that exist. If any security breaches are discovered, the consequences could be severe.

    As per information from Oracle, the number of connected IoT devices has already exceeded 7 billion and is projected to increase to 22 billion by 2025. This growth presents a large opportunity for cybercriminals to carry out attacks.

    5. Users as an attack surface

    In 2023, one of the cybersecurity trends is expected to be the increased focus on users as an attack surface. Cyber attackers will continue to target an organization’s user base by using tactics like phishing, social engineering, and other methods to gain unauthorized access.

    This trend is driven by the fact that user error remains one of the biggest cybersecurity risks for organizations, as attackers exploit the human element to gain entry to networks and systems. As a result, organizations will need to prioritize user education and awareness training to mitigate the risks posed by user-targeted attacks.

    6. Quantum cryptography

    As quantum computing becomes more widespread, traditional cryptographic methods used for encryption are becoming increasingly vulnerable. Quantum cryptography provides an alternative approach to encryption that is highly secure and resistant to attacks by quantum computers. Quantum cryptography uses quantum mechanics to generate encryption keys, which are then used to secure communications. This method provides an exceptionally high level of security and privacy.

    Navigating cybersecurity challenges: Lessons learned and outlook 

    Overall, cybersecurity is a critical component of modern business and personal life. It requires ongoing vigilance and attention, as cybercriminals continue to develop new tactics and strategies to exploit vulnerabilities. By staying informed and taking proactive measures to protect systems and data, individuals and organizations can help ensure their safety and security in the digital age. 

    In conclusion, 2023 is expected to bring new and evolving cybersecurity trends and threats. It is important for organizations to stay vigilant, stay up to date with the latest cybersecurity tools and techniques, and ensure that their employees are trained to recognize and respond to potential threats. By taking proactive measures to protect their systems and data, organizations can reduce the risk of cyberattacks and keep their businesses running smoothly. 

    Resource : https://datasciencedojo.com/blog/top-cybersecurity-trends-2023/

    29Jun, 2023
    Quantum computing 101

    Quantum computers operate with a set of rules that are fundamentally different from classical computers. For certain applications, these rules can enable quantum computers to process information faster—potentially solving problems that would take traditional machines millions of years.

    Basic quantum computing rules

    Qubits hort for quantum bits, qubits are typically small particles (atoms, ions, photons or electrons) that hold information and behave according to the laws of quantum physics.

    Superposition classical bit is either1 (on) or 0 (off), but a qubit can be in both states simultaneously. Once you measure the qubit’s value, it resolves to either 0 or 1. Reading a qubit causes the quantum state to collapse.

    Entanglement he phenomenon by which two or more qubits share the same quantum states and are correlated regardless of distance from each otheris called entanglement. A change to oneof the entangled qubits directly impactsthe other’s behavior.

    Superposition and entanglement enable quantum computers to perform computations simultaneously rather than sequentially or in parallel. This ability is akey difference between classical and quantum machines.

    The engineering challenge

    Quantum computers are susceptible to noise and this causes them to decohere. Decoherence is the collapse of the quantum state. It is a loss of information and a corruption of the calculations being performed.

    Since quantum computers work at the atomic or subatomic level, the control and measurement signals within them aretiny. Because of this, minimizing environmental noise becomes critical.

    Qubits in a superconducting quantum computer

    Superconducting quantum computers, one type of quantum computer, use the properties of superconducting materials to create a circuit that acts like an artificial atom. These circuits are built using a process similar to that used for manufacturing semiconductors.

    The state of these qubits is controlled with microwave radiation and entangled using electronic coupling. As you might imagine, the energy levels in these circuits are very small and require isolation from the external environment. For this type of quantum computer, special cooling technology is used to maintain coherence.

    Resource : https://www.dell.com/en-us/perspectives/quantum-computing-101/

    26Jun, 2023
    What is a DoS Attack?

    DoS (denial-of-service) attacks play an unusual role in cyber crime. Unlike most forms of criminal hacking, they aren’t primarily designed to capture or sensitive information, which can be sold for profit.

    Instead, DoS attacks are intended to shut down or severely disrupt an organisation’s systems. There is no direct benefit to the criminal hacker in doing this, but the loss of service can cost the victim up to £100,000.

    There are several ways that a criminal hacker can launch a DoS attacks, and countless reasons they might be motivated to pull off an attack.

    How does a DoS attack work?

    DoS attacks are hard to prevent, because in most cases they don’t exploit a vulnerability that an organisation can fix. Rather, attackers take advantage of the limitations of computer networks, overwhelming them until traffic is unable to be processed.

    You can think of it like a traffic jam: roads are designed to enable a certain amount of traffic to pass through, but once they become overcrowded, cars must slow down or stop altogether.

    That said, there are ways to mitigate the risk of some DoS attacks, as we explain below.

    Types of DoS attack

    There are two primary ways to conduct a DoS attack – flooding and crashing.

    Flooding attacks are most common, and work by saturating the targeted server with packets.

    These are segments of data that you send to the organisation’s network when you interact with its website, which are then reassembled to perform tasks or load information.

    If the network receives too many of these packets in a short period of time, the network struggles to reassemble the data. As a result, service will be disrupted or the website will be forced offline altogether.

    Alternatively, an attacker might crash an organisation’s website by exploiting vulnerabilities in its network.

    For instance, they might leverage misconfigured network device by sending spoofed packets to every device on the target network rather than one specific machine.

    The network is then triggered to amplify the traffic, in what is known as a smurf attack or ping of death.

    Attacker motivation

    The question that surrounds DoS attacks is what motivates a criminal hacker to do this?

    Almost all forms of cyber crime are designed to make money, but this isn’t possible with a DoS attack alone. An attackers’ motivation, therefore, can be much harder to understand.

    One reason for launching an attack is because they hold a grudge against the target. Many DoS attacks are politically or ideologically motivated, with the attacker holding a grievance against their target.

    The attack could cost the organisation money if services are disrupted during the attack. The damage could also damage the organisation’s reputation, particularly if they are responsible for providing critical services of a time-sensitive nature.

    However, cyber criminals might also bring down a service simply to show off their skills to the hacking community.

    A high-profile attack can act as a calling card to other criminals to demonstrate their capabilities or to show off what they’re capable of.

    Meanwhile, there are occasions when a DoS is used as a distraction while the criminal hacker launches a second attack designed to compromise an organisation’s systems.

    The victim might be so focused on restoring its systems from the first attack that it doesn’t notice other security alerts related to unauthorised access to its systems.

    DoS attacks versus DDoS attack

    A related attack is DDoS (distributed denial of service). This works in the same way as a DoS attack, but uses multiple systems to launch a synchronised attack on a single target.

    In other words, the attack isn’t coming from a single computer operated by the attacker but from several computers.

    Cyber criminals do this with the help of a botnet, which is a series of infected Internet-connected devices that harvests their processing power.

    As a result, DDoS attacks are far more powerful and sustained than a standard DoS attack.

    DDoS attacks are also harder for the victim to identify, with malicious network traffic spread across locations and masked within legitimate traffic.

    How do you know you’ve suffered a DoS attack?

    The most obvious sign of a DoS attack is prolonged network problems. However, there are other signs to look out for:

    • A higher volume of spam than normal.
    • Sudden loss of connectivity across devices on the same network.
    • Slow website performance, with pages failing to load.
    • Staff being unable to open files stored on the network or when accessing websites.

    How to prevent a DoS attack

    It’s difficult to prevent DoS attacks, but there are steps you can take to mitigate the threat. Here are three ways to get started:

    1.  Increase your bandwidth

    The simplest thing you can do is to buy more bandwidth. This enables you to handle a larger amount of traffic, reducing the risk of bottlenecks that could disrupt your service.

    This is a particularly attractive solution to growing companies, as it also helps them process an increased amount of legitimate traffic and is something they might have to do eventually anyway.

    The only downside is that increasing your bandwidth won’t protect you from crashing attacks, which exploit system weaknesses instead of flooding your server.

    2.  Build more complex servers

    You should consider spreading your servers across multiple data centres to make it as hard as possible for cyber criminals to target you.

    These servers should ideally be in different locations, either spread across different premises or in different countries altogether.

    For this strategy to work, you’ll need a load balancing system to distribute traffic between servers.

    Separating your servers this way means that criminals face an uphill task to flood your systems. Their attack may compromise one server, but the rest will be unaffected and should be capable of taking on at least some of the extra traffic.

    3.  Reconfigure your network hardware

    You should adjust or strengthen your hardware configurations to reduce the risk of malicious traffic getting through.

    For example, your network and web application firewalls can be modified to check incoming packets against predefined rules (such as allow/deny protocols, ports and IP addresses) and block incoming malicious traffic.

    The best way to check how prepared you are for a DoS attack is with a penetration test. This is essentially a controlled form of hacking in which a professional tester uses the same techniques as a criminal hacker in an attempt to exploit your systems.

    In this case, the tester will try to flood your systems or exploit vulnerabilities that cripple your servers.

    Should they be successful, the tester will provide detailed notes on how the attack was possible and advice on how to mitigate the threat.

    Resource : https://www.itgovernance.co.uk/blog/what-is-a-dos-denial-of-service-attack

    26Jun, 2023
    API Penetration Testing Checklist

    API security is an undervalued but crucial aspect of information security. Cyber attacks often target APIs and web applications. To remain secure, organisations must test their systems to find and eliminate any weaknesses.

    Organisations can achieve this with API penetration tests. An ethical hacker (or ‘penetration tester’) will examine your applications using the same techniques that a cyber criminal would use. This gives you a real-world insight into the way someone might compromise your systems.

    Web application and API tests look specifically at security vulnerabilities introduced during the development or implementation of software or websites. There is no single checklist of how exactly the test should be conducted, but there are general guidelines.

    Benefits of API penetration testing

    The primary purpose of an API penetration test is to protect your organisation from data breaches. This is crucial given the increased risk of cyber attacks in recent years. According to a UK government report, 39% of surveyed organisations said they suffered a security breach in the past year.

    By conducting an API penetration test, you will gain a real-world overview of one of the biggest security threats that organisations face. The tester will use their experience to provide guidance on specific risks and advise you on how to address them.

    But penetration tests aren’t only about closing security vulnerabilities. Mitigating the risk of security incidents has several other benefits.

    For instance, you protect brand loyalty and corporate image by reducing the likelihood of a costly and potentially embarrassing incident.

    Penetration testing also helps you demonstrate to clients and potential partners that you take cyber security seriously. This gives you a competitive advantage and could help you land higher-value contracts.

    Most notably, penetration testing is a requirement for several laws and regulations. Article 32 of the GDPR mandates organisations to regularly conduct tests and evaluations.

    This is to assess the effectiveness of the technical and organisational measures employed to protect personal data.

    Likewise, if your organisation is subject to the PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard), you must conduct external penetration tests at least once per year and after any significant changes are made to your systems.

    API penetration testing checklist

    IT Governance has its own proprietary checklist when conducting API and web application penetration tests.

    The system is modelled on the OSSTMM (Open Source Security Testing Methodology Manual) and the OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project) methodologies.

    A high-level overview of our process is outlined below, with a brief description of what is assessed during each section.

    1. Authentication

    The penetration tester ensures that appropriate mechanisms are in place to confirm a user’s identity. They then review how the authentication process works, using that information to circumvent the authentication mechanism.

    2. Authorisation

    The tester verifies that access to resources is provided only to those permitted to use them.

    Once roles and privileges are understood, the tester tries to bypass the authorization schema. They search for path-traversal vulnerabilities and ways to increase the privileges given to the tester’s user role.

    3. Session management

    The tester ensures that effective session management configurations are implemented. This broadly covers anything from how user authentication is performed to what happens when logging out.

    4. Input validation and sanitisation

    The tester checks that the application appropriately validates and sanitises all input from the user or the environment before using it.

    This includes checking common input validation vulnerabilities such as cross-site scripting and SQL injection, as well as other checks such as file uploads, antivirus detection and file download weaknesses.

    5. Server configuration

    The tester analyses the deployed configuration of the server that hosts the web application. They then verify that the application server has gone through an appropriate hardening process.

    6. Encryption

    The tester assesses encryption security around the transmission of communication. This includes checking for common weaknesses in SSL/TLS configurations and verifying that all sensitive data is being securely transferred.

    7. Information leakage

    The tester reviews the application configuration to ensure that information is not being leaked.

    This is assessed by reviewing configurations and examining how the application communicates to discover any information disclosure that could cause a security risk.

    8. Application workflow

    The tester determines whether the application processes and workflows can be bypassed.

    Tests are conducted to ensure that application workflows cannot be bypassed by either tampering with the parameters or forcefully browsing. This ensures the integrity of the data.

    9. Application logic

    The tester analyses how the application uses, stores, and maintains data. They do this by checking the underlying technology and any mitigating controls that may affect the risk to the application.

    10. Report

    The tester documents their findings. Their reports contain an executive summary, which provides a high-level, non-technical summary of any identified vulnerabilities, alongside a summary of the organisation’s business risks and an overall risk rating.

    It also contains a comprehensive review of testing details, such as the scope of the assessment, descriptions of the vulnerabilities identified and their impact, plus proofs of concept that support the findings.

    Finally, the report provides the tester’s commentary, where they discuss the issues identified and how the vulnerabilities could be linked within an attack chain. This is supplemented with remediation advice and supporting references.

    Penetration testing with IT Governance

    IT Governance is a CREST-accredited penetration testing provider. We offer a range of solutions to help you analyse and improve your security practices. These include web application and API penetration testing.

    Our consultants have experience working with organisations of all sizes and can ensure that you effectively manage cyber security risk.

    Following the methodology outlined in this blog, they will assess your organisation’s systems and provide a report that includes a prioritised action plan with remediation guidance.

    Resource : https://www.itgovernance.co.uk/blog/api-penetration-testing-checklist

    1Jun, 2023
    Security Policies

    Security policies are a formal set of rules which is issued by an organization to ensure that the user who are authorized to access company technology and information assets comply with rules and guidelines related to the security of information. It is a written document in the organization which is responsible for how to protect the organizations from threats and how to handles them when they will occur. A security policy also considered to be a “living document” which means that the document is never finished, but it is continuously updated as requirements of the technology and employee changes.

    Need of Security policies-

    1) It increases efficiency.

    The best thing about having a policy is being able to increase the level of consistency which saves time, money and resources. The policy should inform the employees about their individual duties, and telling them what they can do and what they cannot do with the organization sensitive information.

    2) It upholds discipline and accountability

    When any human mistake will occur, and system security is compromised, then the security policy of the organization will back up any disciplinary action and also supporting a case in a court of law. The organization policies act as a contract which proves that an organization has taken steps to protect its intellectual property, as well as its customers and clients.

    3) It can make or break a business deal

    It is not necessary for companies to provide a copy of their information security policy to other vendors during a business deal that involves the transference of their sensitive information. It is true in a case of bigger businesses which ensures their own security interests are protected when dealing with smaller businesses which have less high-end security systems in place.

    4) It helps to educate employees on security literacy

    A well-written security policy can also be seen as an educational document which informs the readers about their importance of responsibility in protecting the organization sensitive data. It involves on choosing the right passwords, to providing guidelines for file transfers and data storage which increases employee’s overall awareness of security and how it can be strengthened.

    We use security policies to manage our network security. Most types of security policies are automatically created during the installation. We can also customize policies to suit our specific environment. There are some important cybersecurity policies recommendations describe below-

    1. Virus and Spyware Protection policy

    This policy provides the following protection:

    • It helps to detect, removes, and repairs the side effects of viruses and security risks by using signatures.
    • It helps to detect the threats in the files which the users try to download by using reputation data from Download Insight.
    • It helps to detect the applications that exhibit suspicious behaviour by using SONAR heuristics and reputation data.

    2. Firewall Policy

    This policy provides the following protection:

    • It blocks the unauthorized users from accessing the systems and networks that connect to the Internet.
    • It detects the attacks by cybercriminals.
    • It removes the unwanted sources of network traffic.

    3. Intrusion Prevention policy

    This policy automatically detects and blocks the network attacks and browser attacks. It also protects applications from vulnerabilities. It checks the contents of one or more data packages and detects malware which is coming through legal ways.

    4. LiveUpdate policy

    This policy can be categorized into two types one is LiveUpdate Content policy, and another is LiveUpdate Setting Policy. The LiveUpdate policy contains the setting which determines when and how client computers download the content updates from LiveUpdate. We can define the computer that clients contact to check for updates and schedule when and how often clients computer check for updates.

    5. Application and Device Control

    This policy protects a system’s resources from applications and manages the peripheral devices that can attach to a system. The device control policy applies to both Windows and Mac computers whereas application control policy can be applied only to Windows clients.

    6. Exceptions policy

    This policy provides the ability to exclude applications and processes from detection by the virus and spyware scans.

    7. Host Integrity policy

    This policy provides the ability to define, enforce, and restore the security of client computers to keep enterprise networks and data secure. We use this policy to ensure that the client’s computers who access our network are protected and compliant with companies? securities policies. This policy requires that the client system must have installed antivirus.

    Resource : https://www.javatpoint.com/cyber-security-policies

    1Jun, 2023
    Security Technologies

    Introduction to Security Technologies

    The following article, Security Technologies, provides you with an outline of the most common technologies used in security. We all aware of the pace with which the internet is growing. For everything that we had to travel or to stay in long queues for longer, the Internet had made them easy for us, and now almost all of the things are available at our fingertips. In simple words, we can say that it is not easy to imagine a single day without the internet. It is known to everyone that everything had two sides: pros and cons, and the same applies to the Internet as well. With the fast increase in Internet usage, the attacks happening in organizations have also been increased. For contemporary business or organizations, a new challenge has been evolved that protects their body from cyber attacks. Here we will be discussing the technologies that are available to protect the organizations from cyber attacks so that the flow of their operations remains smooth.

    1. Data Loss Prevention

    Data Loss Prevention may be defined as the technology concerned with validating if the data sent out from the organization is sensitive enough to hinder the business. Usually, the data are sent through emails and under this technology, the mails have been monitored to ensure that it is not carrying the confidential data out from the organization. By virtue of this technology, all the emails and their attachments are monitored closely to ensure that all the data sent outside the organization are appropriate and not something confidential.

    2. Intrusion Detection System

    An intrusion Detection System(IDS) can be defined as the technology which monitors all the traffic that enters the organization to ensure that those are not malicious. It can also be considered a tool responsible for checking the traffic and raising the alert if the traffic is found malicious or appears to be originated from the untrusted source. This technology is mainly concerned with giving a close view of the traffic to ensure that it is something that the organization should allow to get in.

    3. Intrusion Prevention System

    Intrusion Prevention System(IPS) may be defined as the technology or tool that takes action against the traffic that is labelled malicious by the IDS. Usually, the IPS drops the packet entering into the system once it is considered untrusted. It is the main protection point that makes sure that malicious traffic should not enter into the organization’s network. It is IPS that makes sure that all the traffic that enters the system should comply with the policies that are defined by the organizations so that it should not affect the working of the systems in any way.

    4. Security Incident and Event Management

    It is also known as SIEM. It is mainly concerned with invoking the alert once anything unusual is found on the organization’s network. Several tools can be integrated into SIEM to make sure that anything that is malicious must generate the alert so that the security team could take action against it and keep the internal environment protected. It also keeps track of the logs that are generated while ensuring the security of the network. It can also be considered as the central system that has other tools attached to it. All the tools work as peers that protect the network in their own way.

    5. Firewall

    The firewall works as the first layer of protection of any system or network. There are various types of Firewalls based on their role. In order to protect the internet, network firewalls are used, while in order to protect the web application, there are web application firewalls. This technology has been developed to ensure that the internal network is protected from unusual traffic, and nothing malicious could make it to the internal network. The technology ensures that the ports should be open only for the appropriate communication, and the untrusted data should not hit the system anyhow. The firewall could either allow the traffic to enter or could configure the port filtration to make sure that all the traffic passes through it must be useful for the service running on any particular port,

    6. Antivirus

    Antivirus is another technology used in cybersecurity. As its name states, it protects the system from the virus. The virus is nothing but the malicious code that makes the host or network to take unexpected actions. It is deployed in the network and can also be used as endpoint protection. All the devices connected to the network can have an antivirus installed in them to protect themselves from virus attacks. In order to detect whether the particular file is a virus, the antivirus used the signatures present in the repository of that antivirus. The latest antivirus has the capability to leverage the anomalies to detect the virus and take action against it.

    Resource : https://www.educba.com/security-technologies/