Online Crime Bytes

Don’t Blame the User (And Don’t Count on Them Either)

By Deb Radcliff

Security naiveté among employees was a top reason for the growth in ransomware in 2020, according to 43% of more than 1200 IT decisions makers to take the Mimecast State of Email Security.

The negative term, ‘naïve’ used to describe the users bothers me. Blaming the users has been a peeve of mine since the mid-90’s, which is the main reason I became a cybercrime reporter back in 1996.

These ‘average Joe’ users were getting royally fleeced back then, and I regularly raised the issue to IT pros and white hats. They told me over and over that, ‘If the average user can’t stand the heat, he shouldn’t be on net.’ (Mind you, these are the same pros who can’t say for sure whether their business networks they’re charged with protecting are bullet proof...)

Sheep to the Slaughter

Users can’t be expected to detect threats on their computers that are increasingly disguised as work-related communications, just as they can’t be expected to work from home and provide their own security to protect their employers. It’s important to note also that 60% of respondents acknowledge that the attacks aimed at their employees are increasing in sophistication.

Once I read the report, I pinged Mimecast with my strong opinions and asked a few questions, starting with blaming the user.

“While IT security professionals know that employees shouldn’t be held responsible for the full scope of security, they do expect that employees practice habits such as strong passwords or an awareness of how impersonation of a CEO can happen,” says Jeremy Ventura, Senior Security Engineer at Mimecast.

And that’s another peeve: passwords suck.

Even with password managers and vaults, managing complex, system-issued passwords is nearly impossible across our many computers, pads, phones, Siri’s, security systems, tv’s and entertainment devices, etc. Until security is as ubiquitous as seatbelts as easy as checking the oil indicator gauge in a car dash, average users will be incapable of protecting the front line in email-based attacks.

Trust No One

This speaks not only to zero trust security models (trust nobody, not even authorized users), but also to precious user data that organizations are wasting—data that would help them protect the business environment from their own users. According to the Mimecast report:

• 55% of employers are not using employee data and reports to tune their security to user behaviors
• 45% don’t take feedback from employees
• 33% aren’t using metrics

Since they aren’t taking employee feedback or using their behavior data, it’s hard to believe that the majority of respondents utilizes metrics in a useful way.

Most Common Payload: Ransomware

With a 64% increase in email-based threats detected in the Mimecast threat center, the report also reveals that employees who work from home are being directly targeted, Ventura continues. And the payloads are most often in the form of ransomware, which has, in recent months, become more diabolical.

In the Mimecast survey, 34% of companies were unable to recover their data after paying ransoms. Does that mean the decrypt keys didn’t come through or that, with ransomware now also exfiltrating data, that the data wasn’t returned? Ventura says it’s a combination both “failing to recover their data, and also because their data was already exfiltrated to the dark web.”

“Once the hacker sees that the organization is willing to pay, instead of releasing the decryption key, the hacker will come back requesting a larger amount in hopes that the organization will pay again,” he continues. “In addition, double extortion has spiked in the last several months where hackers will charge one ransom for the decryption key and then another ransom not to sell the encrypted data.”

There we have it. Workers at home exposed to increasingly sophisticated attack methods are not equipped to hold the front line against ransomware gangs and other cyber attackers. And still, the consensus is that the end users just need more training.

“Reinforcing best practices and awareness will hopefully drive the 43% [of naïve users selected as the top security risk] to a lower number in 2021,” Ventura continues. However, he adds, “Security must lead by example and then end users should follow.” 

Warning: Blockchain Phishing Scam

This phish almost got me. I had just opened new iPhone account and for a second, thought, hmmm, was there a blockchain in my new phone I needed to activate? I searched the email's return link and it looked legit. Then I hovered my mouse over the activation link and it is totally shady, resolving to a blockchain like name with dashes and numbers in it (a fake address):

 

"nft-blockchain-2365 ..." which is a web app that already has my name set in its URL.

 

Needless, I am warning everyone. If it looks legit, hover your cursor over sender's email address, and the links that they want you to click for a second and it will show you where it really resolves to. (Do not click the links, though.) Although in this case, the email return address does appear go to

"[email protected]," and that has me puzzled on how they could spoof that. (I'd check the DNS registrar if I had time but I don't.)

 

If an email still looks real and you think you need to respond, just go to the site the way you normally would by typing it into your browser window manually.

 

Here is the phish email that I received:

 

Your Blockchain wallet will be suspended!

Dear Blockchain customer,

 

Our system has shown that your Blockchain Wallet has not yet been KYC verified. This verification can be done easily online with the below displayed connection

Due to the recently update of NFT's, all unverified accounts will be suspended on: Friday, April 16, 2022. We're sorry for any inconvenience we might cause with this.

 

Visit our website to start the security procedure: (I removed lin but it said it went to block chain wallet identification it was really the bad link)

 

 

Please keep in mind that our intention is to keep our customers safe, secured and happy.

 

Thank you for your understanding.

The Blockchain Team

 

 

Cyberwar is Real and Happening Now

There's a lot going in in cyber right now as it relates to books 2 and 3 of my cyber thriller series. Supply chain attacks on the software infrastructure, misinformation campaigns over social media, ransomware gangs halting critical infrastructure operations, and other state-sanctioned subterfuge coning from China, Russia, Iran and other countries and criminal gangs that want to cause disruption and gain world dominance.

Think, for a moment, how interconnected we are with countries that want to harm us. Chinese tech is ubiquitous and even if it's a US based product, their components are made or assembled in China. For example, Cisco routers sends parts development to China. I know: I've been in the fraud department at Cisco and have seen the red pins all over their maps of China. That was fifteen years ago and things are much worse today. The new laptop I just opened up said "assembled in China," and so on. 

We are also letting strangers on social media dictate what we think and division has never been worse in our country. The Russian trolls are doing their jobs expertly, posting fake news that people believe is patriotic enough to fight over, and even influencing our election cycles. 

Can we rip out our infrastructure and start over? No way, says everyone in the tech industry who laughs me out of the room (as usual, when I ask tough questions, they just laugh at me). But these questions need to be raised and addressed before it's too late to change anything.

It's probably already too late because the cost of replacing all forms of tech developed in countries that want to do us harm, is unfathomable. Where will be in 40 years? That's what I address in my cyber thriller series, Breaking Backbones.

The first book, Breaking Backbones: Information is Power, is available on Amazon and all book outlets. You can buy it here: https://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Backbones-Information-Hacker-Trilogy/dp/1665701080/

 

Innovate or Suffocate: Securing New Business Models in a Post Pandemic World

COVID-19 first crept into my scene back in February when I decided not to attend RSA for the first time in 20 years in order to avoid catching a horrific-sounding new virus emerging out of China. Even back then, it felt like this virus was going to dig in and that life would not go back to normal anytime soon—if at all.

Now, seven months later, the virus is still dominating the way people live, socialize, dine, worship, shop, work, learn, play, litigate, marry, entertain, tend to their health, do business, and interact with their governments. (That’s the short list.) And almost all of these changes involve technology.

What does this mean to us as cybersecurity professionals?

1. First, it means many security pros are getting laid off as businesses are negatively-affected by the economic downturn. Why? Because business models that worked in 2019 no longer work in today’s ‘new normal.’
2. So, if we haven’t already, we need to ask ourselves why our businesses are failing during this change and what we can do about it.
3. Then, we must get ahead of the curve through security innovation (and that means a lot more than just securing remote workers).

Turning to Tech

Consider that almost all these COVID-related changes are driving people, even our grandparents, to use new applications and platforms that they never used before, primarily to mimic some form of social gathering that can’t yet be replaced with the virtual experience.

The obvious example is video conferencing, which is now being used for instructing students, conversing with family and friends, talking to our doctors, holding remote meetings and conferences, and providing entertainment (such as SNL and American Idol did recently).

We are also ordering more groceries and takeout online, which is prompting innovation and growth in the area food delivery service, an area that is still lacking but trying to catch up. And more people also filing taxes and their unemployment claims, voting by mail, and using other government services online.

World in Turmoil

Innovation is messy, according to Dave Cole, CEO of cloud-native discovery company, Open Raven, during a recent podcast with Ashwin Krishnan. In it, he explained how he tried holding company meetings in virtual reality, for example, which he said didn’t turn out so well because communication was difficult in the VR room. However, the opportunity is there, and maybe someday the tech will improve to meet the demand.

Innovation is also messy because the world we are innovating in seems to have gone crazy, creating risk scenarios we hadn’t planned for. For example, Zoom, the top video conference platform in use, comes from China—which is known for stealing IP to advance its economic advantage. China is also on the FBI’s list of the top three countries trying to influence the November elections.

These same adversaries are stoking political tensions, Black Lives Matter riots and deadly COVID nonsense over social media platforms that people around the world are turning to for information around on these issues. There are also criminal adversaries bent on inhibiting rsponse to the COVID crisis by getting ransomware into health care providers and ventilator manufacturers.

Butts in Gear

In a call to action, the World Economic Forum in May advised security professionals, particularly leaders, to think more strategically and take leadership during the crisis. Yet, it is easy to get caught up in just fixing the problems as they arise.

To innovate, we need to think five years ahead and anticipate problems arising as the result of political, social and economic trends, according to Ann Cleaveland, the Executive Director at UC Berkeley’s Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity (CLTC) during a webcast with Microsoft CTO Diana Kelley.

For example, she asked, as we move more of our lives online due to social distancing, will people eventually be involved in a social movement to protect themselves online?

Note, too, that the Industry is hurting for security workers even though it is also still laying off, with Cybersecurity Ventures predicting a shortage of 3.5 million cybersecurity professionals in 2021.

In particular, I believe hirers will be looking toward expertise that can understand the new threats that accompany technical innovation in this post-pandemic world, and can innovate security around these trends.

Let’s keep this discussion going and maybe formalize a forum around this topic! Please reach out here or on messenger if you’d like to share and talk.

"Your Account Has Been Hacked" is a SCAM!

Today, I received an alarming email to myself from myself that came with the subject line: Your Account Was Hacked!

This was a pretty good social engineering attempt and actually got me to open and read the email instead of just deleting it.

The “international group of hackers” who sent the email seemed to have collected an old password that is no longer active on my account. It said they hacked my email because I practiced bad security and went to porn and adult sites; and that they had all kinds of dirt on my web browsing, and the collected video captures from my camera that they’d share with my friends if I don't pay up.

So now the clock is ticking. I have 48 hours from the moment I first read the email to respond or they will send all my boring and mostly spam emails to all my friends and associates.  

Sorry “international hacking group,” but I’m not falling for it and I'm not sending you that $700 you’re demanding.

First of all, I don’t go to porn sites because that’s just stupid.

Secondly, my office where my computer lives is boring. Maybe I don’t have makeup on in some of the pix but that would be the worst worry I’d have about them.

The truth is, anybody can fake your email address and make it look like it’s coming from you. So if you get a note like the one below, DON’T click any link and DON’T reply to them. They are trying to scare and coerce us. Don’t fall for it.

And read the fine print for variations that seem untrue about your online habits.  Here’s the note they sent me verbatim (except I crossed out the old password they had):

Hello!
I'm a member of an international hacker group.

As you could probably have guessed, your account [email protected] was hacked, I sent message you from it.

Now I have access to you accounts! You still do not believe it? So, this is your password: ####, right? 

Within a period from July 5, 2018 to September 21, 2018, you were infected by the virus we've created, through an adult website you've visited.
So far, we have access to your messages, social media accounts, and messengers.
Moreover, we've gotten full damps of these data.

We are aware of your little and big secrets...yeah, you do have them. We saw and recorded your doings on porn websites. Your tastes are so weird, you know..

But the key thing is that sometimes we recorded you with your webcam, syncing the recordings with what you watched!
I think you are not interested show this video to your friends, relatives, and your intimate one...

Transfer $700 to our Bitcoin wallet: 1DzM9y4fRgWqpZZCsvf5Rx4HupbE5Q5r4y
I guarantee that after that, we'll erase all your "data" :D

A timer will start once you read this message. You have 48 hours to pay the above-mentioned amount.

Your data will be erased once the money are transferred.
If they are not, all your messages and videos recorded will be automatically sent to all your contacts found on your devices at the moment of infection.

You should always think about your security. We hope this case will teach you to keep secrets.
Take care of yourself.

My social media account has never been connected to my email address. I don’t go to porn or adult sites and I don’t have ‘weird’ tastes in those things (that I know of). I don’t use Messenger. And they had the wrong (albeit an old) password.

If I had the time and energy, I’d chase down that bitcoin wallet they want me to transfer the money to! (Maybe one of you brave readers will feel the urge to follow through, please do!)

The puzzle to me now is how they got that old password and from where??? So I’m going to change my passwords across all my accounts now just to be safe.

If you get an email like this that includes an old or even current password, do change your passwords like I am. Also don’t re-use old passwords. And do not share the same passwords with all of your accounts – because once the "international group of hackers" gets one password, they have access to all your accounts using that shared password. 

Back to the Basics: Black Hat 2018

LAS VEGAS, August 7-9 2018 – As nearly 19,000 of us from the hacker and research community descended upon Vegas for Black Hat, the outside temp hit 111 degrees, a record last set in 1994.

Fortunately, the power grid held, and we were kept comfortable (sometimes too cold) for the duration of the two-day security training event at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino. However, some slot machines, elevators, and other embedded systems didn’t fare so well under hacker tinkering over the weekend at Black Hat sister conference, Def Con, as covered by Jack Morse, fellow member of the press.

These hotel hacks reported by Morse were simple demonstrations of software and hardware hacking into critical infrastructure systems (hey, elevators are critical). Demonstrations of grid hacking, car hacking and voting machine hacking were also urgently covered during sessions at both Black Hat and Def Con.

Everything Cyber is Hackable   

Risks from IoT, cloud-based computing, mobility, and lack of resources were topics well-covered by Parisa Tabriz, Google’s Director of Engineering and Project Zero Manager, during her conference kick off keynote, “Optimistic Dissatisfaction with the Status Quo: Steps we Must Take to Improve Security in Complex Landscapes.”

In it, she argued convincingly about going back to the basics – secure design, fast and accurate patching of vulnerabilities - and she told her personal story of challenging the status quo.

Improvement Takes Time

Tabriz used examples of long-term infrastructure improvements, like Chrome’s enforcement of encrypted browsing (HTTPS). Internet providers that use HTTP rather than HTTPS are labeled as insecure starting this past July.

Some businesses object to this ‘Migrate or face embarrassment’ move on Google’s part. Google countered by posting comprehensive help documents for businesses to make the migration.

She also described the time (nearly 7 years) and team commitment put into this upgrade that she called a “feat of engineering.” Myriad browser program interdependencies – from plug ins to the O/S – had to be considered (and no, none of them made it easier with a common language).

 “The message that it took years to make this change is incredibly important,” said Adam Shostack (author of Threat Modelling: Designing for Security) during an impromptu hallway interview shortly after the keynote. “Changes that really matter take time.”

Tabriz also used the keynote to showcase another long-term program developed by her team at Google, Project Zero, which, she says so far has identified 1,400 critical vulnerabilities across O/S, software, cloud-based and hardware systems while speeding up vendor patch times to 90 days or less.

In Support of DevOps

While these Google projects were long in the works, they specifically support today’s demand for faster development by providing more secure foundations and libraries for developers and vulnerability managers, Tabriz explained.

Investments, industry collaboration, and buy-in to infrastructure improvements like this, Tabriz said, take us one step closer to getting ahead of criminals rather than “playing whack-a-mole with our attackers.”

Autos are Computer Networks-DEF CON 2016

LAS VEGAS – The electronics in cars have become complex computing networks unto themselves, according to researchers at Black Hat Briefings and DEF CON security conferences in Las Vegas this past week (Aug. 3-7).

Monitoring systems, mapping and directions programs, roadside assistance apps, sensors and cameras are but a few of the independent apps and networks controlling today’s automobiles.

Consider that each of these apps uses its own signaling technology and protocols (WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, cellular, dedicated networks, etc.) to communicate internally, or with other vehicles on the road, and to phone home for updates, and you begin to understand all the access points bad guys can take to control a moving vehicle to cause damage and loss of life.

“Today’s vehicles have more than 100 million lines of code,” says Craig Hurst, who as director of Intel’s transportation division, was at DEF CON tirelessly pitching the new Automotive Security Review Board - see (see https://asrb.org),  which he is also executive director of.  “Think of today’s vehicles as systems of systems that get much more complex as vehicles get smarter.”

Since 2013, multiple reports have cited that there are more than 100 million lines of code in automotive systems, including in a 2015 NY Times article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/27/business/complex-car-software-becomes-the-weak-spot-under-the-hood.html?_r=0 .

But with autonomous driving vehicles being developed for tomorrow (think 2020 or a little beyond), the time is now for organizations like the ASRB to promote common standards and best practices across all chip makers, application makers and parts manufacturers that go into the ecosystem of autonomous driving cars.

But that’s a little tricky when the auto makers’ immediate interests conflict with the hackers’ discoveries, something Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek, who work in security at Uber ATC, lamented during their Black Hat press meeting on Thursday, August 4. Their published exploits against their own 2013 Geep Cherokee showed, among other things, the ability to remotely drive the car into a ditch.

During the press con at Black Hat, the researchers laughingly joked that they “paid for the tow truck” to get their car out of that ditch themselves, and added that their exploits have been expensive and time consuming but worth the effort. Then they grew serious and even obtuse when asked about their relationship with the automakers and their ability to affect change. The manufacturers, they said, normally don’t get back to them so they don’t know if they’re affecting change or not.

Despite the friction between manufacturers and hacker researchers, such efforts are indeed driving change, especially when you consider that Miller and Valesek’s hacks on the 2013 Jeep Cherokee led to the recall of more than 1.4 million vehicles. See my 2015 Black Hat/DEF CON blog post here: http://derad.typepad.com/onlinecrimebytes/2015/08/internet-of-interconnected-technologies-or-iit-black-hat-and-def-con-2015.html, about how they brought the same Jeep into Bally’s and demonstrated some of their ‘safer’ remote hacks (locking unlocking doors, etc.

Recalls and updates bring about another serious risk with software-laden passenger vehicles: Along with requiring layers of security within these ‘moving’ vehicle networks, security controls must also consider how to safely update and patch these auto applications when new vulnerabilities are discovered.

Manual recalls are unbearably expensive and traditionally difficult on both makers and buyers. However, updating the software in a moving vehicle could be catastrophic if it requires a system reboot or shut down, like most hardware updates call for today in our phones and hand held devices.

That’s why the National Highway Safety and Traffic Administration (http://www.nhtsa.gov/Research/Crash+Avoidance/Automotive+Cybersecurity), the Automotive ISAC (http://www.autoalliance.org/auto-issues/cybersecurity) and other new groups like the ASRB are working now to protect cars of the future, because those cars are being developed today.

Let’s hope they get it right sooner rather than later: These new vehicles will have more code and variety of apps (almost all chip-based) than some enterprise networks. The last thing we want holding up progress is conflicting standards and protocols that have led to the ages-old interoperability vs best of breed problems that have plagued enterprise security operations to this day.

Are All Endpoints Hostile? Black Hat 2016

LAS VEGAS – One consensus at the Black Hat security conference this week is that endpoints, even corporate owned and managed devices, should be considered hostile. This is in keeping with numerous SANS surveys that I’ve overseen as editor-in-chief of the SANS Analyst Program.

In the case of user endpoints (corporate and employee-owned) the real issue is users clicking phishing links and drive by downloads, based on a new survey (sponsored by Check Point) SANS is releasing August 11 during a live webcast (link here: https://www.sans.org/webcasts/2016-threat-landscape-survey-report-1021820). In it, 46% of respondents reported impactful attacks entering through email phishing links clicked by users, and 41% were able to track impactful attacks back to drive by downloads.

These trends implicate the browser as one of the top means attackers enter into networks.

Numerous browser exploits, particularly against Safari and Chrome, were demonstrated to go from breach to kernel access in a matter of minutes at the $hell on Earth’s Pwn2Own contest. On Wednesday $hell on Earth judges announced the eight most innovative browser to kernel exploits out of 21 seriously considered entries. (See: https://www.blackhat.com/us-16/briefings.html#$hell-on-earth-from-browser-to-system-compromise.)

 The Safari exploits were able to gain kernel control through graphics interfaces using Java controls and heap overflows, as well as other means such as through attestation exploits and spoofing diagnostics binaries.

 But the 360 Vulcan team exploit demonstrated against Chrome, which relies on out of bounds vulnerabilities in Flash to spoof system tokens and execute kernel level code on the machine, was identified as the “most dramatic” by the $hell on Earth judges.

With so much of this happening in memory, memory forensics techniques and technologies are becoming more important.  Multiple other technologies were presented at Black Hat as part of the solution: Numerous networking, antimalware and intelligence vendors were positioning themselves as next gen endpoint protection companies. Some are simply monitoring packets, while others are attempting to redefine endpoint security starting with Antivirus.

“Just like firewalls and IDS moved to next generation a few years ago, we need to redefine what next generation antivirus looks like on the endpoint,” says Brian Gladstein, product marketing manager at Carbon Black, an endpoint security company that just acquired Confer, a next gen AV company.

My guess? There’s going to be a lot of confusion over security of the endpoints – particularly as new types of devices (aka the Internet of Things) demand access to company networks and resources.

So before going on any buying spree for “next gen endpoint and AV,” first assess your risk, along with the efficacy of existing tools and practices. When you do start shopping, ask to see what’s under the hood of these “next gen” technologies, and in particular how they would integrate with your current environment and expand or flex to meet future needs.

Internet of Interconnected Technologies or IIT: Black Hat and DEF CON 2015

BLACK HAT and DEF CON, LAS VEGAS, August 7 2015—Things, end points and the Internet are converging into what should be given a new term to embrace them all. I suggest calling this convergence the Internet of Interconnected Technologies or IIT.

According to the SIEM, analytics and intelligence-type vendors, the end point is no longer just a laptop or mobile device with direct user interface. Now they consider severs, routers and switches, firewalls and VPNs, and anything else with a communication port hanging off of it, along with their applications, an end point.

So that means that mobile phones are now end points. Researchers at Black Hat released new methods for advancing what were only formerly lame attacks against apple iOs; while other researchers showed new methods to break into Androids.

It also means that servers are end points, such as DNS servers and their keys and certificates, which are ill managed and a gold mine for hackers to find and manipulate as demonstrated by researchers and vendors at Black Hat.

This also turns smart cars into end points. At Black Hat, researchers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek repeated their remote control hack that led to the recall of 14 million Jeep Cherokees. Then at DEF CON (directly following Black Hat this weekend at Paris and Bally’s), the Jeep and a Tesla were both on the show floor exhibited as new end points to hack. These end points are now hosting numerous IP addresses to support multiple smart apps that can be targeted.

Then, toss in systems spinning up in the public cloud as virtual end points with rich applications that are of interest to attackers and it’s easy to get overwhelmed. How do you manage all the risk presented in this IIT ecosystem where all end points are targets and all targets are end points?

This interconnectivity between hardware, software and silicon implanted everywhere raises questions like how to holistically (connectively) monitor and apply security rules, intelligence and vulnerability management across such a global, interconnected ecosystem?

It also reinvigorates the question of who is responsible for securing these end points—the manufacturers, the users or both? And who builds that security and who pays for it?

With so many point solutions around (such as DNS key locator services, SIEM, threat or vulnerability intelligence, and so on), it’s going to be a long haul before any ‘big picture’ solutions reveal themselves.

It seems impossibly complex, but one can hope, after mingling with 16,000 brilliant hacker minds, that these and new emerging complexities will be worked out.