Patching Unveiled: A Swift Dance of Defense

But here’s the twist – a strategic reprieve. The timeframe for patching non-critical vulnerabilities in workstations, non-internet-facing servers, and devices now extends to a month. Why? Acknowledging the resource constraints faced by many organisations. Prioritise ruthlessly, patch swiftly for critical issues, and strategically plan for the rest. It’s a dance of balance in the cybersecurity tango.

MFA: Your Digital Sentry Redefined

The MFA embrace extends further. Now, organisations must provide phishing-resistant MFA options for customer authentication on online portals storing sensitive data. It’s not just about safeguarding your organisation; it’s about fortifying trust in your online services.

Beyond the Headlines: Tightening the Bolts

Application control whitelisting steps into the limelight, allowing only the approved applications to enter, curbing unauthorised software execution. And administrative privilege lockdown is the crown jewel – stricter controls and policies for managing these powerful permissions.

Essential Eight isn’t static; it’s a living framework, adapting to the ever-changing threat landscape. By staying attuned to these updates, you’re not just following a framework; you’re building a robust defense, safeguarding your organisation and its invaluable data.

The Oreta Edge: Patch, MFA, and Embrace Change

The Essential Eight updates echo a proactive stance against evolving cyber threats:
1.Swift action against critical threats.
2.MFA as a non-negotiable security layer.
3. Enhanced monitoring and control system-wide.

Implementing these changes isn’t just about compliance; it’s about significantly boosting your organisation’s cyber resilience. Stay vigilant, stay informed, and above all, stay secure. Let Oreta be your partner in this ever-evolving cybersecurity journey.

Explore our cybersecurity solutions in Australia, be a step ahead with ASD Essential Eight, and fortify your digital fortress with Oreta – Your Cybersecurity Guardians!

1. What is Cyber Warfare?
2. What is the Motivation Behind Cyber Warfare?
3. Types of Cyber Warfare Attacks?
4. Examples of Cyber Warfare Attacks?
5. How to Mitigate the Likelihood of a Successful Attack?

What is Cyber Warfare?

As defined by Oxford dictionary ‘cyber warfare is the use of computer technology to disrupt the activities of a state or organisation, especially the deliberate attacking of information systems for strategic or military purposes.’ A battle fought with lines of code rather than troops traced to the increasing interconnectedness of the world, with critical infrastructure, financial systems, and communication networks relying on digital technologies.

What is the Motivation Behind Cyber Warfare?

Political and Military Objectives:
Espionage: Gathering intelligence on military, political, or economic activities of other nations.
Sabotage: Disrupting or damaging the critical infrastructure, such as power grids, communication systems, or financial networks, to gain a strategic advantage.

National Security:
Defensive Measures: Building capabilities to defend against cyber threats and attacks from other nations.
Deterrence: Demonstrating the ability and willingness to respond to cyber threats, thereby deterring potential adversaries.

Economic Espionage:
Stealing Intellectual Property: Nations may engage in cyber-espionage to steal trade secrets, proprietary information, and technological advancements to gain economic advantages.

Ideological or Political Motivations:
Hacktivism: Individuals or groups may conduct cyber attacks to advance their political or social agendas, expressing dissent or promoting a particular ideology.

Territorial Disputes:
State-sponsored Attacks: Governments may support cyber operations to assert dominance or advance territorial claims, especially in regions with geopolitical tensions.

Criminal Activities:
Financial Gain: Cybercriminals may conduct attacks to steal financial information, conduct ransomware operations, or engage in other activities for monetary benefits.

Proxy Warfare:
Using Non-State Actors: Some nations may use cyber capabilities indirectly through non-state actors or proxies to achieve their strategic goals without direct attribution.

Asymmetric Warfare:
Leveling the Playing Field: Smaller or less technologically advanced nations may use cyber capabilities to offset military disadvantages against more powerful adversaries.

Military Modernisation:
Investing in Cyber Capabilities: Nations may engage in cyberwarfare as part of their military modernisation efforts to keep pace with evolving technologies.

Global Influence:
Exerting Influence: Cyber operations can be used to shape global perceptions, manipulate information, and influence international events.

Types of Cyber Warfare Attacks?

Sabotage: Perpetrators exploit vulnerabilities to compromise data integrity and disrupt operations, employing techniques such as denial-of-service attacks or manipulation of critical infrastructure control systems.

Denial-of-service (DoS) Attacks: A denial-of-service (DoS) attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal functioning of a computer system, network, or online service by overwhelming it with a flood of traffic, rendering it temporarily or indefinitely unavailable to users.

Electrical Power Grid: All forms of day to day critical operations run on electricity, with the hacking of the power grid the target country can be at a complete halt which can lead to thousands of casualties from inoperable hospitals, lack of telecommunications and etc.

Propaganda Attacks: Cyber warfare extends beyond traditional attacks on infrastructure; it involves the manipulation of information to influence public opinion, sow discord, and destabilise societies. Fake news, social media manipulation, and disinformation campaigns have become potent tools in the arsenal of cyber warfare, blurring the lines between truth and falsehood

Economic Disruption: Majority of the world if not all, rely on computers and internet to run their economic facilities such as stocks and banks which makes it possible for hackers to attack and prevent their target from accessing their funds.

Examples of Cyber Warfare Attacks

Stuxnet (2010): One of the earliest and most notorious cyber warfare attacks, Stuxnet, targeted Iran’s nuclear program. Believed to be a joint effort by the United States and Israel, Stuxnet was designed to infiltrate Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities and sabotage the centrifuges. It marked a significant escalation in the use of cyber weapons for strategic purposes.

NotPetya (2017): Initially disguised as ransomware, NotPetya wreaked havoc on a global scale, affecting businesses and critical infrastructure. Ukraine bore the brunt of the attack, with government systems, banks, and energy infrastructure disrupted. NotPetya, believed to be the work of Russian hackers, highlighted the potential for cyber warfare to cause widespread economic damage.

WannaCry (2017): Attributed to the North Korean Lazarus Group, WannaCry exploited a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows to spread rapidly across the globe. The ransomware attack targeted healthcare organisations, government agencies, and businesses, encrypting files and demanding ransom payments. WannaCry underscored the importance of timely software patching and the interconnected nature of cybersecurity.

SolarWinds Supply Chain Attack (2020): A sophisticated and widespread attack, the SolarWinds incident saw Russian hackers compromise the software supply chain of SolarWinds, a major IT management company. The attackers inserted a backdoor into software updates, allowing them access to thousands of SolarWinds’ customers, including U.S. government agencies. The incident raised concerns about the vulnerability of software supply chains.

Colonial Pipeline Ransomware Attack (2021): Affecting one of the largest fuel pipelines in the United States, the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack demonstrated the potential for cyber warfare to impact critical infrastructure. DarkSide, a ransomware-as-a-service group, was responsible for the attack, causing disruptions in fuel supply and prompting discussions on the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure.

How to Mitigate the Likelihood of a Successful Attack?

To analyse an organisations readiness for a cyber warfare attack, a cyber war game could be implemented. A cyberwar game is structured to simulate the experience of a real attack. Testing different situations and unusual scenarios highlights the areas of improvements that would need to be implemented.

As technology continues to advance, the future of cyber warfare holds both promise and peril. Artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and emerging technologies introduce new dimensions to the cyber landscape. Striking a balance between innovation and security will be crucial in navigating the evolving dynamics of digital conflict. Organisation can implement controls to mitigate the risk for their organisation, some controls listed below.

• Regular Software Updates
• Employee Training
• Strong Password Policies
• Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
• Network Security
• Data Encryption
• Regular Security Audits
• Incident Response Plan
• Access Controls
• Backup and Recovery

Cyber warfare forces us to reevaluate our understanding of conflict in the 21st century. It transcends geographical boundaries, challenges traditional notions of warfare, and underscores the need for a comprehensive and collaborative approach to cybersecurity. As we stand at the intersection of technology and geopolitics, the choices we make today will shape the future landscape of digital conflict.

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The guide suggests that control over digital identity is crucial, especially in cases of identity theft, stalking, or bullying. The overarching message is to be mindful of what is shared online and provides steps to reduce and manage one’s digital footprint for enhanced privacy and control over personal data.

Summary Lead:
1. Check Google and other search engines.
2. See if you have the right to be forgotten.
3. Run your details through the ‘Have I Been Pwned’ service.
4. Run a Google security checkup.
5. Consider using a service to restrict data access to brokers.
6. Lock down your social media or delete accounts entirely.
7. Consider deleting your social media accounts.
8. Remove old accounts and blog posts.
9. Hide yourself.

How to remove yourself from internet search results?

1. Check Google and other search engines.

Not every search engine will reveal the same results. For a more comprehensive look, try out other search engines such as Bing.

Once you know what is online, you can start tackling the problem. Run a quick search for your full name and note any website domains that flag you, social media account links, YouTube videos, and anything else of interest.

Quick tip: To stop your search queries from being tracked, switch to DuckDuckGo. DuckDuckGo is a privacy-focused search engine that does not log your search queries.

2. See if you have the right to be forgotten.

In the E.U., citizens can request the removal of information from Google search results. After filling in this form, requests are reviewed by Google employees on a case-by-case basis. You must provide the specific URLs you want to be delisted, and search queries related to these URLs, and you must explain why the tech giant should agree to your request.

“Broadly, the reviewer will consider whether and how the information may be in the public interest and weigh this against your rights under the applicable data protection law,” Google says. “There are several reasons why information may be in the public interest. As part of the balancing exercise, Google looks to a number of different sources, such as the guidelines developed by European data protection regulators.”

Google may not accept every request to remove links relating to you. Reasons given for refusal include technical reasons, duplicate URLs, information deemed “strongly in the public interest,” and whether the content on a web page relates to professional lives, past convictions, work positions, or self-authored content.

At the time of writing, Google has received a total of just under 1.4 million delisting requests and around 5.4 million URL delisting requests.

If you are a resident of the U.S., or elsewhere, you may be able to request for limited information to be removed from search results, such as phone numbers or home addresses that could be used for identity theft and may have been leaked through doxxing.

3. Run your details through the ‘Have I Been Pwned’ service.

You can’t control your digital footprint without knowing where and what information concerning you is stored.

More importantly, you should know if your information has been leaked online, and when we have data breaches occurring daily, it’s more a question of what, not if.

The ‘Have I Been Pwned’ service is run by cybersecurity expert Troy Hunt and can be a useful tool for discovering if any account information belonging to you has been compromised or included in a data breach.

If you find an email address or telephone number that has been “pwned,” check to see what data breaches you have become embroiled in, and make sure to change any vulnerable passwords as quickly as possible. You won’t be able to do much about the data leak itself, but this also could serve as a reminder of where you have opened online accounts.

Thankfully, many companies have now become aware of the issue and services including credit monitors and password vaults will often run periodic checks online for any compromised passwords. If they have been found, you should change them immediately.

4. Run a Google security checkup.

Make sure to visit the Google Account page, where there are numerous settings that can boost your privacy, reduce data collection, or remove you altogether from the ecosystem.

Privacy checkup:The Google Privacy checkup allows you to tell Google to stop saving search queries and your location history.

You can choose to disallow Google from saving web and app activities, Chrome history, YouTube logs, voice and audio, and other data. Google has also introduced an autodelete function for data that is stored. In this section, you can also choose whether to allow Google to use your information for tailored advertising, and what you want to happen to the data in your account if it goes inactive.

Security checkup: The Google Security checkup can be used to show you which devices have access to your account, including laptops, PCs, and handsets. You can also find a list of any third-party applications that have been granted permission to access your account. Revoke permissions as necessary.

Quick tip: If you have upgraded your phone, tablet, or another device recently and you no longer use your old one, you should make sure you sign out. It might not be likely, but if that device ends up in the wrong hands and is not properly protected, your account may become compromised.

Delete me: Found under Account Preferences, Google’s deletion service can be used to delete select products or remove your account entirely. You can also download a copy of all your data.

5. Consider using a service to restrict data access to brokers.

One example is DeleteMe, a paid subscription service that maintains tabs on data collectors and removes data such as names, current and past addresses, dates of birth, and aliases on your behalf.

This monitoring can keep your private information out of search results and away from platforms such as open people search databases.

6. Lock down your social media or delete accounts entirely.

In the settings tab, you can download all of Facebook’s information on you.

In the privacy tab, you should restrict your posts to “friends only” and limit your past posts, and you can decide to disallow lookups by your provided email address or phone number.

You also have the option to remove your Facebook profile from search engine results outside of the social networking platform. Under the location tab, consider turning off location data collection by Facebook, too.

If you look at apps and websites, you can see what is connected to your Facebook account. If you choose to delete these, Facebook can also automatically remove posts, videos, and events the connected service posted on your behalf.

On Twitter  

Twitter also allows users to request its archive, which is all the information collected from you. This option can be found under the settings and privacy tab.

In the settings area, you can choose to lock down your account and make tweets private by choosing to “protect your tweets.” You can also turn off tweets containing location data, decide whether or not to allow email and phone number searches to connect others to your profile, and choose whether to allow others to tag you in photos.

Under the safety portion of the tab, you can prevent your tweets from appearing in the search results of blocked users. You can also deactivate your account entirely.

On Instagram

Facebook-owned Instagram has a number of privacy settings you can also change to maintain an acceptable level of privacy.

By default, anyone can view your photos and videos on your Instagram account unless you are a minor, in which case your account should be private by default. However, by going to your profile, clicking settings, account privacy, and switching “private account” on, you can make sure your content is only viewed by approved users.

7. Consider deleting your social media accounts.

On Facebook, you can go to settings & privacy, then settings, select your Facebook Information, and click on deactivation & deletion to deactivate it. This gives you the option to return at a later time and does not delete your data. Your settings, photos, and other content are saved, but your Facebook presence will not appear beyond unclickable text.

You can also permanently delete your account. If you have trouble finding this setting, you can type “delete Facebook” in the Help Center tab.

You are given a grace period to change your mind and log back in. It can take up to 90 days before the deletion of content on your Facebook wall and in your account will begin.

To deactivate Twitter, you need to click on settings and privacy from the drop-down menu under your profile icon. From the account tab, you can then click deactivate.

To delete your Instagram account, log in and go to the request deletion page. Once you have submitted an answer as to why you are deleting your account, you will be prompted to re-enter your password, and then a delete account option will appear.

8. Remove old accounts and blog posts.

Time and effort are required to comb through old posts, but the result is worth it, and this may also train you to be more selective about the information you share in the future. Unless the account is one you use frequently, consider deleting it permanently. It is a pain to find, remembering credentials, and recovering passwords associated with old accounts, but this is an important step in locking down your data.

To find your old accounts, visit ‘Have I Been Pwned’, check the lists of connected apps in your Facebook and Google accounts, and, if you have a password manager, check it for the credentials of accounts you have used since signing up.

You may have to manually log in to each account you want to remove and, depending on the service, delete your info from there or contact the service provider with the request.

Justdeleteme is a helpful directory containing guides to removing accounts from countless online services and a rating on how hard each type of account is to remove, ranging from “easy” to “impossible.”

9. Hide yourself.

In cybersecurity, our renowned mantra is ‘better safe than sorry’. While concealing your online identity may demand a certain level of effort, the investment pays dividends in the enduring expanses of our rapidly evolving digital terrain. The Australian Security Directorate found itself addressing over 1,100 cybersecurity incidents originating from local entities, while ReportCyber received a staggering 94,000 reports to law enforcement – an alarming frequency of one report every six minutes. In light of this escalating trend in cyber breaches, the imperative is clear: fortify and curate your online presence to navigate the digital landscape securely. The statistics and recent upward trend of breaches underscore the urgency to prioritise and safeguard your digital footprint and online citizenship.

Summary Lead:
1. Escalating Cyber Threats
2. Increased Costs
3. Delayed Incident Response
4. Compliance and Regulatory Risks
5. Innovation and Competitive Disadvantage
6. Outsourcing Concerns
7. Education and Skill Gap

1. Escalating Cyber Threats

2. Increased Costs

3. Delayed Incident Response

4. Compliance and Regulatory Risks

5. Innovation and Competitive Disadvantage

6. Outsourcing Concerns

7. Education and Skill Gap

Conclusion

Oreta has found that many organisations misconfigure MFA policies in their Microsoft 365 cloud environments. This can allow attackers to bypass MFA and gain unauthorised access to sensitive data.

Here are some of the most common MFA misconfigurations:

• Enabling MFA for only some users. This leaves users who are not required to use MFA vulnerable to attack.
• Allowing users to bypass MFA for certain applications or devices. This can make it easier for attackers to gain access to sensitive data.
• Not enforcing MFA for all sign-in attempts. This can allow attackers to gain access to an account by simply guessing the user’s password.

Organisations should carefully review their MFA policies to ensure that they are properly configured. They should also regularly test their MFA policies to ensure that they are working as intended.

Conditional Access Policies (CAPs) are a powerful tool for controlling access to Microsoft 365 and Azure AD resources. However, CAPs can be complex to configure and manage, and misconfigurations can lead to security vulnerabilities.

We have observed several CAP issues that can be used to bypass MFA. These issues include:

• Using the wrong conditions in a CAP rule. For example, a CAP rule that only applies to users in the United States could be bypassed by an attacker who logs in from another country.
• Excluding certain users or devices from a CAP rule. For example, a CAP rule that requires MFA for all users could be bypassed by an attacker who uses a device that is excluded from the rule.
• Not enforcing MFA for all sign-in attempts. For example, a CAP rule that requires MFA for all sign-in attempts could be bypassed by an attacker who uses a compromised password to log in.

Permitting Mobile Devices

To mitigate this risk, it is important to enforce MFA for all users, regardless of the device they are using. Additionally, organisations can implement additional security measures such as Mobile Device Management (MDM) or Mobile Application Management (MAM) compliance.

Unintentionally Permitting Linux Devices

Exempted Service Accounts

During penetration tests, Oreta consultants have found service accounts that have been in use since 2010 and have passwords like “Password1.” This is a major security risk.

To mitigate this risk, organisations should use Conditional Access Workload Identities (CAWI) to block untrusted external authentication events for service accounts. CAWI allows organisations to define policies that require service accounts to only authenticate from trusted locations.

In addition, organisations should use a privileged access management (PAM) solution to ensure that service accounts are secure. PAM solutions can help to manage service account passwords, enforce least privilege, and audit access to service accounts.

Opt-In Selective Enforcement

To mitigate this risk, MFA enforcement should be set to opt-out by default. This means that all users will be required to use MFA, unless they are explicitly exempted. Any exemptions should be carefully considered and audited.

By setting MFA enforcement to opt-out by default, organisations can help to ensure that all users are protected, regardless of when they joined the organisation.

Exempted Applications

Trusted Locations

Oreta ran a red team/blue team exercise on a client in the finance industry. In a red /blue team exercise, the red team is made up of offensive security experts who try to attack an organisation’s cybersecurity defences. The blue team defends against and responds to the red team attack. On a red team, Oreta obtained username and password credentials via a password spray. On authenticating to Microsoft 365 it was found that MFA was enforced through the browser. Typically, the tool MFASweep (dafthack, 2022) is executed to find low-hanging fruit in CAPs – by mimicking a mobile device – but this did not result in a bypass on this test. What is important to remember is that CAP is evaluated holistically. Many rules may be evaluated during a given authentication event. As a result, Oreta testers were able to brute-force combinations of known devices, applications, and Microsoft login endpoints to find the combination of CAP to obtain access. Upon authenticating with a Linux user agent and a spoofed “Windows Config Designer” source application ID to the Microsoft Graph API endpoint, the CAP were satisfied and provided the consultant access to the organisations cloud without the need for MFA.

Conclusion

• Exclusive by default
• Clear in purpose
• Properly labelled
• Consistently applied with minimal exceptions
• Regularly audited to detect abnormal login flows.

Contact us now to evaluate your MFA policies.

What is Essential 8?

The growing importance of the Essential 8 stems from various factors, primarily driven by the rapidly evolving threat landscape. In recent years, attackers have adopted highly sophisticated methods to infiltrate organisations’ systems and compromise data. The ACSC received over 76,000 cybercrime reports, an increase of nearly 13 per cent from the previous financial year. This equates to one report every 7 minutes, compared to every 8 minutes last financial year. In response to these escalating threats, the Essential 8 offers a comprehensive set of controls that empower businesses to effectively counter and mitigate such risks. Consequently, the following reasons highlight why the Essential 8 has emerged as a crucial component in bolstering cybersecurity:

• Empowers businesses to remain current and proactive in countering emerging threats.
• Encompasses an extensive array of controls, effectively mitigating diverse security risks.
• Endorsed by multiple government and industry organizations, lending it unwavering credibility and legitimacy.
• Effortlessly implementable and maintainable, rendering it an ideal solution for organisations of any scale.

While the Essential 8 does not function as an impenetrable titanium shield and cannot ensure absolute immunity to cyber-attacks for organisations, its implementation can significantly raise the bar for attackers, making their success far more challenging. For those seeking to enhance their organisation’s cyber security posture, the Essential 8 serves as an excellent starting point. By adopting the Essential 8 practices, organisations can substantially bolster their defences against potential attacks.

Implementation of the Essential Eight Maturity Model

The Essential Eight Maturity Model comprises the following eight strategies:

• Application control: ensures only corporate approved software applications can be executed on a computer, protecting against the execution of malicious applications.
• Patch applications: applying vendor patches or other vendor mitigations prevents known vulnerabilities in applications from being exploited.
• Configure Microsoft Office macro settings: limits macro programs embedded in Microsoft Office files from executing, thereby preventing potential malicious activity.
• User application hardening: limits the use of potentially exploitable user application functionality to only what is required and removes particularly vulnerable software altogether.
• Restrict administrative privileges: limits the unnecessary provision of administrative privileges, reducing the potential for these to be exploited by adversaries to gain full access to computers and data.
• Patch operating systems: applying vendor patches or other vendor mitigations prevents known vulnerabilities in operating systems from being exploited.
• Multi-factor authentication: requires users to present multiple authentication credentials to log in, rather than just using a passphrase, thereby preventing adversaries logging in as a user if they know the user’s passphrase.
• Regular backups: making a copy of data, software, and configuration settings, storing it securely and periodically testing the ability to restore it, enables data and computers to be restored after an incident such as ransomware or computer hardware failure.

The Essential Eight Maturity Model recommends that organisations implement the Essential Eight using a risk-based approach. Where the strategies cannot be implemented, these exceptions should be minimised, and compensating controls should be used to manage the resulting risk. If the gap is effectively mitigated, the entity may self-assess their maturity against that strategy.

The Essential 8 is a valuable set of security controls that can help organisations protect themselves against cyber threats. By implementing these controls, organisations can make it much more difficult for attackers to succeed.

If you are interested in learning more about the Essential 8 or would like a no obligation chat contact us now.

Find out more about Oreta’s cybersecurity services here.