Dec 22 2009

FBI Probes Hacks at Citibank

Category: Security Breach — DISC @ 4:45 pm

NYC - TriBeCa: Smith Barney-Citigroup Building
Image by wallyg via Flickr

The Wall Street Journal

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is probing a computer-security breach targeting Citigroup Inc. that resulted in a theft of tens of millions of dollars by computer hackers who appear linked to a Russian cyber gang, according to government officials.

The attack took aim at Citigroup’s Citibank subsidiary, which includes its North American retail bank and other businesses. It couldn’t be learned whether the thieves gained access to Citibank’s systems directly or through third parties.

The attack underscores the blurring of lines between criminal and national-security threats in cyber space. Hackers also assaulted two other entities, at least one of them a U.S. government agency, said people familiar with the attack on Citibank.

The Citibank attack was detected over the summer, but investigators are looking into the possibility the attack may have occurred months or even a year earlier. The FBI and the National Security Agency, along with the Department of Homeland Security and Citigroup, swapped information to counter the attack, according to a person familiar with the case. Press offices of the federal agencies declined to comment.

Joe Petro, managing director of Citigroup’s Security and Investigative services, said, “We had no breach of the system and there were no losses, no customer losses, no bank losses.” He added later: “Any allegation that the FBI is working a case at Citigroup involving tens of millions of losses is just not true.”

Citigroup is currently 27%-owned by the federal government.

The threat was initially detected by U.S. investigators who saw suspicious traffic coming from Internet addresses that had been used by the Russian Business Network, a Russian gang that has sold hacking tools and software for accessing U.S. government systems. The group went silent two years ago, but security experts say its alumni have re-emerged in smaller attack groups.

Security officials worry that, beyond stealing money, hackers could try to manipulate or destroy data, wreaking havoc on the banking system. When intruders get into one bank, officials say, they may be able to blaze a trail into others.

Continue reading at The Wall Street Journal

Tags: Business, Citibank, Citigroup, FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Federal government of the United States, Government agency, Russian Business Network, United States, United States Department of Homeland Security, Wall Street Journal

Dec 10 2009

What is a risk assessment framework

Category: Information Security,Risk Assessment — DISC @ 5:46 pm

Computer security is an ongoing threat?!?
Image by Adam Melancon via Flickr

The Security Risk Assessment Handbook: A Complete Guide for Performing Security Risk Assessments

Definition – A risk assessment framework (RAF) is a strategy for prioritizing and sharing information about the security risks to an information technology (IT) infrastructure.

A good RAF organizes and presents information in a way that both technical and non-technical personnel can understand. It has three important components: a shared vocabulary, consistent assessment methods and a reporting system.

The common view an RAF provides helps an organization see which of its systems are at low risk for abuse or attack and which are at high risk. The data an RAF provides is useful for addressing potential threats pro-actively, planning budgets and creating a culture in which the value of data is understood and appreciated.

There are several risk assessment frameworks that are accepted as industry standards including:

Risk Management Guide for Information Technology Systems (NIST guide) from the National Institute of Standards.

Operationally Critical Threat, Asset, and Vulnerability Evaluation (OCTAVE) from the Computer Emergency Readiness Team.

Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT) from the Information Systems Audit and Control Association.

To create a risk management framework, an organization can use or modify the NIST guide, OCTAVE or COBIT or create a framework inhouse that fits the organization’s business requirements. However the framework is built, it should:

1. Inventory and categorize all IT assets.
Assets include hardware, software, data, processes and interfaces to external systems.

2. Identify threats.
Natural disasters or power outages should be considered in addition to threats such as malicious access to systems or malware attacks.

3. Identify corresponding vulnerabilities.
Data about vulnerabilities can be obtained from security testing and system scans. Anecdotal information about known software and/or vendor issues should also be considered.

4. Prioritize potential risks.
Prioritization has three sub-phases: evaluating existing security controls, determining the likelihood and impact of a breach based on those controls, and assigning risk levels.

5. Document risks and determine action.
This is an on-going process, with a pre-determined schedule for issuing reports. The report should document the risk level for all IT assests, define what level of risk an organization is willing to tolerate and accept and identify procedures at each risk level for implementing and maintaining security controls.

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Tags: Business, COBIT, Computer security, Data, Fire and Security, Information Technology, iso 27001, iso 27002, National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST, OCTAVE, Risk management, Security, security controls, Technology

Nov 30 2009

Hackers steal credit-card numbers from restaurant customers

Category: pci dss,Security Breach — DISC @ 2:44 am


Here we have another unnecessary credit card data breach in a small organization which resulted in a loss of customers data demonstrating poor baseline security of small organization in this case a restaurant. Small organizations are not ready for PCI Compliance. Checkout why PCI Compliance is essential and why small merchants have to comply. Review my threats page and evaluate your current business and system risks to make sure this does not happen to you.
Contact DISC for any question

By Theodore Decker
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Diners who frequent a popular Downtown restaurant should review their charge-card statements because hackers broke into its computer system to loot debit- and credit-card numbers, police said today.

Between 30 and 50 people have reported fraudulent charges on their accounts, and Columbus detectives said that anyone who used a charge card at Tip Top Kitchen and Cocktails in July or August is at risk.

Detective Wyatt Wilson of the Columbus police fraud/forgery unit said police began linking reports of credit-card fraud in October. Cross-checking the victims’ accounts revealed Tip Top, which is on E. Gay Street, as a common denominator, he said.

The hackers have been traced to an overseas Internet address, and no Tip Top employees are involved, police said. Wilson said the business was as much a victim as its customers were.

The hackers found a weak point in the restaurant’s computer defenses, wormed their way in, and installed “malware” that stripped the numbers, he said.

The restaurant has fixed the problem, but customers who charged anything there in July or August should contact their credit-card companies or banks, cancel their cards and get new ones, even if they haven’t been victimized yet, police said.

New fraud reports have rolled in periodically until a few days ago, Wilson said, indicating that the card numbers are still in criminal circulation.

Elizabeth Lessner, the restaurant’s owner, said she has been told by investigators that the breach might have been the work of high-level hackers in Russia, and she wondered whether it was connected to a global case that surfaced this year.


Most of the small companies have trouble justifying their investments when it comes to security. At the same time PCI DSS for the “brick & mortar” merchants have been a blessing for security firms who sell hardware solutions to small merchants. The problem is these hardware point solution does not address the business issues of a small merchant on daily basis.
This is why small merchants need to build a security program and the in-house expertise with training and help of outside consultant to understand business issues related to information security clearly. You mature this process over time with an ongoing effort and full management support.
Do you think it’s time for small merchants to take information security seriously as a business limiting risk?

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Prevent and Protect from Credit Card Fraud and Scams

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS_jCET-YFA&feature=related

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Tags: Banking Services, Business, Credit card, crime, Financial services, fraud, hacker, Information Security, Malware, Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, Point of sale, Police, Security

Nov 25 2009

ENISA Cloud Computing Risk Assessment

Category: Cloud computing — DISC @ 4:22 pm

Network and Information Security Agency
Image via Wikipedia

Cloud Security and Privacy: An Enterprise Perspective on Risks and Compliance

The ENISA (European Network and Information Security Agency) released the Cloud Computing Risk Assessment document.

The document does well by including a focus on SMEs (Small and Medium sized Enterprises) because, as the report says, “Given the reduced cost and flexibility it brings, a migration to cloud computing is compelling for many SMEs”.

Three initial standout items for me are:

1. The document’s stated Risk Number One is Lock-In. “This makes it extremely difficult for a customer to migrate from one provider to another, or to migrate data and services to or from an in-house IT environment. Furthermore, cloud providers may have an incentive to prevent (directly or indirectly) the portability of their customers services and data.”

Remember that the document identified SMEs as a major market for cloud computing. What can they do about the lock-in? Let’s see what the document says:

The document identifies SaaS lock-in:

Customer data is typically stored in a custom database schema designed by the SaaS provider. Most SaaS providers offer API calls to read (and thereby ‘export’) data records. However, if the provider does not offer a readymade data ‘export’ routine, the customer will need to develop a program to extract their data and write it to file ready for import to another provider. It should be noted that there are few formal agreements on the structure of business records (e.g., a customer record at one SaaS provider may have different fields than at another provider), although there are common underlying file formats for the export and import of data, e.g., XML. The new provider can normally help with this work at a negotiated cost. However, if the data is to be brought back in-house, the customer will need to write import routines that take care of any required data mapping unless the CP offers such a routine. As customers will evaluate this aspect before making important migration decisions, it is in the long-term business interest of CPs to make data portability as easy, complete and cost-effective as possible.

And what about PaaS Lock-In?:

PaaS lock-in occurs at both the API layer (ie, platform specific API calls) and at the component level. For example, the PaaS provider may offer a highly efficient back-end data store. Not only must the customer develop code using the custom APIs offered by the provider, but they must also code data access routines in a way that is compatible with the back-end data store. This code will not necessarily be portable across PaaS providers, even if a seemingly compatible API is offered, as the data access model may be different (e.g., relational v hashing).

In each case, the ENISA document says that the customer must develop code to get around the lock-in, in order to bridge APIs and to bridge data formats. However, SME’s generally do not have developers on staff to write this code. “Writing code” is not usually an option for an SME. I know – I worked for an EDI service provider who serviced SMEs in Europe – we would provide the code development services for the SMEs when they needed data transformation done at the client side.

But there is another answer. This bridging is the job of a Cloud Service Broker. The Cloud Service Broker addresses the cloud lock-in problem head-on by bridging APIs and bridging data formats (which, as the ENISA document mentions, are often XML). It is unreasonable to expect an SME to write custom code to bridge together cloud APIs when an off-the-shelf Cloud Service Broker can do the job for them with no coding involved, while providing value-added services such as monitoring the cloud provider’s availability, encrypting data before it goes up to the cloud provider, and scanning data for privacy leaks. Read the Cloud Service Broker White Paper here.

2. “Customers should not be tempted to use custom implementations of authentication, authorisation and accounting (AAA) as these can become weak if not properly implemented.”

Yes! Totally agree. There is already a tendency to look at Amazon’s HMAC-signature-over-QueryString authentication scheme and implement a similar scheme which is similar but not exactly like it. For example, an organization may decide “Let’s do like Amazon do and make sure all incoming REST requests to our PaaS service are signed by a trusted client using HMAC authentication”, but omit to include any timestamp in the signed data. I can certainly imagine this, because this would happen all the time in the SOA / Web Services world (an organization would decide “Let’s make sure requests are signed using XML Signature by trusted clients”, but leave the system open to a simple capture-replay attack). Cloud PaaS providers should not make these same mistakes.

3. STRIDE and DREAD
Lastly, the document’s approach of examining the system in terms of data-at-rest and data-in-motion, identifying risks at each point (such as information disclosure, eavesdropping, or Denial-of-Service), then applying a probability and impact to the risks, is very reminiscent of the “STRIDE and DREAD” model. However I do not see the STRIDE and DREAD model mentioned anywhere in the document. I know it’s a bit long in the tooth now, and finessed a bit since the initial book, but it’s still a good approach. It would have been worth mentioning here, since it’s clearly an inspiration.

Read the source entry…

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Tags: Application programming interface, Business, Cloud computing, Platform as a service, Service-oriented architecture, Small and medium enterprises, Software as a service, Web service

Mar 17 2009

Congressional data mining and security

Category: Information Security — DISC @ 12:42 am

Data mining
Image by moonhouse via Flickr
“By slipping a simple, three-sentence provision into the gargantuan spending bill passed by the House of Representatives last week, a congressman from Silicon Valley is trying to nudge Congress into the 21st Century. Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) placed a measure in the bill directing Congress and its affiliated organs — including the Library of Congress and the Government Printing Office — to make its data available to the public in raw form. This will enable members of the public and watchdog groups to craft websites and databases showcasing government data that are more user-friendly than the government’s own.”

Would be great if this passes BUT, Government would have to have security provisions so hackers could not manipulate databases in this case raw data. Without proper controls, databases can be easily modified and stolen, so before making the raw data available to public, Congress might need a comprehensive legislation to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the data.

Security principles and controls which should be considered in database legislation?
• Principles of least privilege
• Separation of duties
• Defense in depth at every level
• Strong auditing and monitoring controls
• Security risk assessment to assess risks based on ISO 27002 and NIST 800-53
• Comprehensive risk management program to manage risks

Congressional Data Mining: Coming Soon? (Mother Jones)

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What is Data Mining?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqpMyQMi0to

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Tags: Business, Data mining, database, defense in depth, iso 27002, Mike Honda, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Risk Assessment, Risk management, Security, separation of duities, Silicon Valley

Feb 25 2009

Small business and assessment of IT risks

Category: Security Risk Assessment — DISC @ 5:02 pm

Network and Information Security Agency
According to a study released by European Union ENISA, Small-to-Medium-Sized (SME) enterprises require extra guidance in assessment of IT security risks of their assets.

Agency also established that in the first implementation it is improbable that SME can utilize a risk assessment & risk management approach without external assistance and simplified information security approach was extremely useful for security awareness on the part of business to improve their information security management approach. One of the main drivers that have pushed ENISA towards a simplified Risk Assessment and Management approach was the idea that SMEs need simple, flexible, efficient and cost-effective security solutions.

Regarding the entire process applied for the life-cycle of the simplified approach, ENISA has applied the Plan-Do-Check-Act model:
o PLAN: creation of a simplified Risk Assessment & Risk Management approach for SMEs
o DO: run pilots in different contexts inside EU
o CHECK: get feedback from pilots and aggregate and analyze it
o ACT: review and improve the simplified approach starting from the feedback
It is expected that through repetitions of the above life-cycle a proper maturity of the simplified ENISA method will be achieved.
ra-process
Diagram: Overview of the phases of the ENISA simplified approach
ENISA simplified and standardized approach for risk assessment for SMEs is designed for untrained users and organization with small IT infrastructure. Security of SMEs is crucial for European economy, since they represent 99% of all enterprises in EU and around 65 million jobs, said ENISA said.

ENISA report and findings

As economic slowdown is looming ahead in US economy, it makes sense to adopt a lifecycle approach which is simplified, standardized in managing and securing the SMEs data. SME is the core engine of US economy as well; taking a standard based approach for data protection will not only serve to increase awareness and secure businesses but will also satisfy various compliance needs. Complexity is an enemy of security and SME most of the time don’t have inside expertise to tackle organizations information security needs. The main idea is to build a simple, flexible and cost efficient risk assessment and risk management program for non-expert users and management with relatively less complex IT infrastructure which fits the needs of all SME. This program will serve as an IT risk assessment tool; fulfill the needs of several regulations and serves as a great security awareness tool as well. As business needs change, risk assessment and risk management process can be improved utilizing Deming PDCA model. Start with a base model program and improve the process to tailor your business needs down the road.

Another methodology which is worth mentioning here for simplified risk assessment approach for SME is Facilitated Risk Analysis and Assessment Process (FRAAP) created by Tom Peltier which can be utilized to identify and quantify threats to IT infrastructure. Tom also teaches a class how to complete a risk assessment in 5 days or less utilizing FRAAP and his book on “Information security risk analysis” where he explains his FRAAP methodology.

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Computer Security
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUQzEJ82TrQ

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Tags: Business, Computer security, Consultants, European Network and Information Security Agency, European Union, information security risk analysis, Risk management, Security, Security Risk Assessment, Small and medium enterprises, SME

Feb 18 2009

Economic turmoil and BCP

Category: BCP,Information Security — DISC @ 6:42 pm

information
Due to economic insecurity all the warning signs are pointing that this year is going to top the record for information security and privacy incidents. Organizations may not be in a position to take business limiting risk and bypass security fundamental like Business Continuity Planning (BCP). During this economic uncertainty organizations have to pay more attention to liability, regulatory penalties and negative PR which might cause an irrecoverable damage to business in today’s market.


“BCP is the creation and validation of a practiced logistical plan for how organization will recover and restore partially or completely interrupted critical functions within a predetermine time after a disaster or extended disruption”

The first step in business continuity process is to consider the potential impact of each disaster or disruption. Next step is to determine the likelihood of the disruption or how likely this disruption will occur within a year and how many times. Both impact and likelihood will determine the risk to the organization critical asset in a sense if impact of the disruption is high the risk is high or if likelihood of the incident is high the risk is high. High risk disruption will attract more attention during planning process.

Risk Analysis:
• Understand the function of probabilities and risk reduction
• Identify potential risks to the organization
• Identify outside expertise required
• Identify vulnerabilities / threats / exposures
• Identify risk reduction / mitigation alternatives
• Identify credible information sources
• Interface with management to determine acceptable risk levels
• Document and present findings

BCP Plan:
• Understand clear objectives, available alternatives, their advantages, disadvantages, and cost ranges, including mitigation as a recovery strategy
• Identify viable recovery strategies with business functional areas
• Consolidate strategies
• Identify off-site storage requirements and alternative facilities
• Develop business unit consensus
• Present strategies to management to obtain commitment

Assessing the Effectiveness of a BCP Plan for an Individual Business Unit:
Business unit contingency planning was never more important than now. The success of BCP planning depends upon the feasibility and appropriateness of the plan. However, only comprehensive TESTING of the contingency plans could validate that and everyone hates testing. It is important that the Contingency Plan clearly identify those responsible for declaring a disaster and executing the plan. BS 25999-2:2007 is the specification for implementing, establishing, and improving a business continuity management system (BCMS) within an organization.

The requirements in the standard are generic and are intended to be applicable to all organizations, regardless of type, size and nature of business. The extent of application of these requirements depends on the organization’s operating environment and complexity. BS 25999-2 can be used by internal and external parties, including certification bodies, to assess an organization’s ability to meet its own business continuity needs, as well as any customer, legal or regulatory needs.

Purchase BS25999-2:2007 online today and prove business resilience to customers and partners.

[TABLE=16]

BSI – What is Business Continuity Management?
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkQsmSg1PFU&NR=1

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Tags: Business, Business continuity planning, Business Services, Contingency plan, Emergency Management, Fire and Security, Information Security, Risk management

Nov 26 2008

Cyber threats and overall security assessment

Category: Information Warfare,Risk Assessment — DISC @ 3:13 am

The main screen showing star names (color-code...
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In the past when senior management (execs) needed to understand the financial implication of cyber threats and their exposures, they turned their questionnaires toward IT for relevant answers. In other words IT risk assessment was the answer in the past to understand the financial implications of cyber threats. The IT risk assessment is not the comprehensive or overall assessment of the company to understand the total implications of cyber threats. The overall assessment will not only include IT but also other departments like HR and legal etc… Basically cyber threats are neither IT issue and nor a legal or HR issue any more, it’s simply an enterprise management issue.

In old days the firewall was used as a major defense against potential cyber threats. The new cyber threats are sophisticated enough to demand better defense. New threats (virus, adware, worms, Trojan, spyware, spam, phishing) use modern techniques to bypass defenses. The potential risks of these new threats demand an immediate attention (of CFO or higher) and approval for resource allocation to protect against cyber threats. To make a solid business case for security ROI, senior level execs need to know the overall risk they are reducing, and their highest priority.

[TABLE=12]

ANSI and ISA have jointly released a document to assist senior management to prepare for financial implications for cyber threats. Basic essence of the guide is to provide a tool to execs to understand the financial implications of potential cyber threats to their organizations.

“The 40 page guide was put together by task force of risk management execs from more than two dozen organizations. The new guide offered by ANSI and the ISA recommends that CFO ask their various team’s questions about the biggest threats to data confidentiality, integrity and availability,” to get to know the existing controls in place and any relevant mitigation plan. Risk analysis of this information can help execs to map the cyber threats risks into correct financial terms and make better resource allocation.
The senior execs who want to implement information security as a process in their organization should consider ISO 27001 (ISMS) as a best practice, which provides a reasonable on-going due diligence to protect and safeguard organization data.

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Tags: availability, Business, Chief financial officer, cyber threats, data confidentiality, exposure, Financial services, Human resources, Insurance, integrity, isms, ISO/IEC 27001, Management, overall assessment, risk analysis, Risk Assessment, Risk management, roi, Security

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