Cybersecurity
Biden’s Zero Trust order unites Big Tech under national security
Microsoft’s accommodations to President Joe Biden’s executive order to hinder cyberattacks on the U.S. will support public and private sectors in establishing the right infrastructure for a bolstered up Zero Trust network security model.
After a full year of ransomware and supply chain attacks, Microsoft is one of 18 cybersecurity firms selected to work in synchronization with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to establish network security model, Zero Trust Network, or Zero Trust Architecture, under Presidential Executive Order 14028.
“The Federal Government must bring to bear the full scope of its authorities and resources to protect and secure its computer systems, whether they are cloud-based on promises, or hybrid…security must include systems that process data (information technology (IT)) and those that run the vital machinery that ensures our safety (operational technology (OT)),” the order stated.
With the emergence of the remote work wave, the cybersecurity sector is witnessing an influential lack of business investments, leading to a substantial struggle for enterprises to secure their networks while dealing with security challenges.
Last week, Biden conducted a meeting with some of the biggest names in the tech industry over cybersecurity concerns due to the latest attacks led by cybercriminals on the U.S.’ infrastructure, making it delicate and vulnerable to hacks.
The meeting included Big Tech leads, Apple, Google, and Microsoft, on the current cybersecurity raised issues, in hope that the U.S.’ technology leads will present the Biden Administration with some long-term solutions and means to prevent the occurrence of any future cyber breaches on the country’s infrastructure.
The Zero Trust Network is a security concept structured on the hypothesis that firms should not blindly trust any factor – whether it is inside or outside its perimeters – and instead must assert a connection verifying every element trying to connect to the organization’s system before giving full access.
Zero Trust’s reliability lies in how it presumes that the organization is already exposed to breaches, instead of fixating its goals on strengthening the network’s framework. By doing so, the model implements a design acknowledging data requirements to simultaneously secure the data internally and externally through managed and unmanaged devices.
Some of the biggest names in the industry assigned to the Zero Trust Network including Amazon Web Services, Appgate, Cisco, F5, FireEye, IBM, McAfee, MobileIron, Okta, Palo Alto Networks, PC Matic, Radiant Logic, SailPoint Technologies, Symantec, Tenable, and Zscaler.
In May, Biden signed the executive order to grow the federal government’s cyber-infrastructure.
The presidential order will oversee the government’s deviation to zero-trust as the main service provider setting the necessary infrastructure for secure networks with obligatory two factor-authentication (2FA) – an additional layer of security used to ensure individuals’ real identity to gain access.
The order came as a direct result of the Solar Winds supply chain breach involving the SolarWinds Orion system, targeting U.S. lead federal agencies, alongside some of the U.S. tech companies, such as Microsoft.
While the focus was on Solar Winds, Microsoft’s Exchange email server hack and the Colonial Pipeline attack also played a huge role in the order’s execution.
The Zero Trust Network’s scope will be synchronized with the NIST’s National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) to “develop practical, interoperable approaches to designing and building Zero Trust architectures.”
It is worth specifying that the project’s approaches will solemnly rely on the commercially available strategies from U.S. cybersecurity firms.
In the past, Microsoft set the first brick by demonstrating five possible scenarios where zero trust can be adopted to assist agencies in complying with the executive order.
The company’s plan will be built around EO’s 14028, covering five key scenarios cloud-ready authentications apps, web apps with legacy authentication, remote server administration, segment cloud administration, and Network micro-segmentation.
An essential factor in the Big Tech giant’s schemes heavily relies on Microsoft’s Azure Active Directory, while its suggested proposals will also cover commercial and open-source products.
This includes endpoint detection and response that detects and investigates suspicious behavior, security measure multi-factor authentication that requires two or more proofs of identity, and threat intelligence approach continuous security monitoring (CSM) that computerizes the monitoring of information security controls.
Even though the White House immensely encourages the private sector taking the lead in promoting “ambitious measures” to secure their networks, Biden’s order will only apply to U.S. federal agencies.
In parallel, since the executive order acknowledges the vitality of open-source software, the Linux Foundation – alongside open-source communities – rose to the President’s cybersecurity challenge.
The Foundation revealed a new open-source software signing service, “The Sigstore Project.” It aims to enhance software supply chain security by empowering a flexible adoption of cryptographic software, supported by transparency log technologies.
Certificate transparency log auditors are software elements that can validate if a certificate is noticeable in a log. This takes place by periodically validating log proofs.
If the log is not registered or accessible, any connections to sites with such certificates can be declined due to suspicious behavior.
The order’s Zero Trust proposals from various tech vendors align with the NIST SP 800-207. This special publication is a set of cybersecurity measures and guidelines that emphasize the core components of Zero Trust principles.
The NIST SP 800-207, alongside Zero Trust Architecture, was unfolded throughout the meeting with the Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO), serving as a central resource for information on Federal IT, with federal agencies and the tech industry.
To maintain the security of our future, alongside our digital era, the implementation of technology in our day-to-day lives will only grow by the second. If technological elevation lands in the hands of malicious people, the current cyberattacks would just be a teaser as to what could come our way.
With President Joe Biden going the extra mile to actively enhance and boost digital security by seeking help from Big Tech leads, this could bring the U.S. one step closer to securing the country’s digital security while addressing cybersecurity improvements for a secured future.
When it comes to ensuring the highest levels of cybersecurity for any establishment, password management in network security is one of the most paramount factors in guaranteeing security. As one of the essential cybersecurity measures, password management is a critical element for any online activity, whether for software or hardware. Everything is protected with a password.
What is Password Manager and How does it Work?
To those not familiar with the concept, password management’s significance exceeds the creation of a strong password to protect your data or account. It is a cybersecurity system. A system that manages any saved login credentials, all while guaranteeing a safeguarded relocation of data from one device to another. When coming up with a valid password, a few factors must be taken into account, such as the potential of being exposed to high risks and identity theft.
For any establishment, the correct password manager helps to monitor any activity and amounts of logins for servers people work on. As a software application, it is developed for storing and managing online credentials. With the increased available platforms and programs requiring safety credentials, the risk of losing or forgetting a password has never been higher. User password management, such as Google password manager, helps users with a handful of passwords for essential web applications.
By providing the needed digital space to generate and store any, and all passwords in one location, password management in network security keeps any data safe and secure in various ways, including biometrics data.
Why Use Password Manager?
Through the encryption of users’ logins, a reliable password manager protects your credentials and cannot be accessed until the master password is submitted. In this case, no password is stored on the device itself or even on the manager’s servers. While some might think that storing all of your important passwords in one place might be hazardous, the truth is, password managers are the safest bet to safeguard all your passwords, as the chances of a password manager being breached are extremely low and almost very unlikely to happen.
Without getting into all the technical terms as to why password managers are the safest option, these applications can be perceived as the lesser evil. While users will still need to create one master password – preferably to be long and a bit complicated – it will guarantee the protection of any login credential for any account or credit card information.
The ideal password managers to download are backed by two-factor authenticators, where users are asked for a one-time code alongside the password whenever a new login into a new device takes place.
Password Management Best Practices in Network Security
In terms of obtaining the highest level of protection for network security, few practices are applicable to almost anyone to ensure the highest level of user password management.
1. Training
Training the team and raising awareness of potential password threats is one of the most important things to consider. Team members working on network security have to understand the risk of cybersecurity and the importance of implementing the right measure to protect and secure any account credential.
2. Enforcement of Reliable and Strong Passwords
Enforcing the creation of strong passwords and establishing they follow the best practices for network security to protect the network and its data while respecting the integrity, confidentiality, and accessibility of the network’s computer systems.
This includes performing a thorough network audit, deploying network and security devices, disabling file sharing features, updating antivirus and anti-malware software, securing all routers, using a private IP address, and finally establishing a network security maintenance system.
3. Multi-factor Authentication
Endorsing your password management with two-factor authentication is like adding another solid layer of protection to your accounts and their passwords. Multi-factor authentication ensures that only people responsible for the network have access to its sensitive data.
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We are all well aware of the troubles opening a fishy link can lead us to. Luring users to click on a given link has been of one the well-known techniques to get access to the device, install virus and malware or even go as far as creating a full ransomware attack. To protect your computer and private information, there are multiple techniques to check links without opening them. What is important though is never to open the link if it is suspicious.
Visually Inspect the Link
When you are not dealing with a shortened URL, the best way to go thoroughly through the link to see if there is any spelling mistake. Attackers usually tend to change a minimum number of letters so that you are unable to tell the difference. For instance, things like www.goagle.com instead of www.google.com should catch your attention with the second ‘o’ of Google replaced with an ‘a’.
Verify that Links in an Email Come from a Credible Source
Emails are the best sources for phishing attacks. These kinds of attacks are used to steal some sensitive information such as passwords and credit card information. The best way to avoid these kinds of attacks is to authenticate the sender. For that purpose, do not only check the name of the sender, you need to double-check the email the sender is using. In general, attackers use credible sender names with emails which do not correspond to the promoted identity. Next time you get an email from your bank like “XBank”, check that the sender email is person@Xbank.com rather than person@anyothermailclient.com.
Use Link Checker or Link Scanner
Many websites actually provide link checking or link scanning features. This is a very neat technique to simple check the link before clicking on it.
VirusTotal
www.virustotal.com is an excellent website for this task. This online tool practically does the job of an anti-virus. When you go to the website, you have the possibility to analyze files and URL for malware or any other security breach. Once you submit your file or enter the URL, the website will use different tools and software, then provide you with a detailed output from each of these tools. If you are unsure if a given software is credible enough, you can compare it to the output of other platforms on a single website.
Use a Short URL Expander
Sometimes attackers try to shorten URLs to hide any malicious intention. Analyzing shortened URL is not straightforward. To overcome this problem, copy the provided URL without opening it and use specific websites that actually expand the provided URLs. Then, you can analyze the original URL for possible security breaches. Many websites are there to do this task. Just search for “short URL expander” on your search engine and use the top provided websites.
Upgrade your Anti-Virus with Internet Security Features
Anti-virus software is commonly used to protect personal computers from viruses and other malware. While these are available for free, you can easily upgrade them to include internet security features for a small monthly fee. This will bring major improvement to your internet browsing experience including custom-made safe browsing tools.
Use Google Transparency Report
Google provide a nice tool to check for the safety of websites. To do so, visit https://transparencyreport.google.com and enter the URL in question. The Google source will then provide you with a safety report of that website.
Simply Hover Over the Link
The nicest solution is kept to the end. When you hover over a link in your email client or web browser, a small square appears including all the information related to the chosen URL. These details can be used to give a preliminary indication whether to trust the source.
Final Thoughts
Suspicious links are everywhere! To make sure they don’t catch you by surprise, follow the highlighted and you’ll be safe to go.
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Cybersecurity and artificial intelligence (AI) are two very trending topics at the moment. AI has been the pivotal elements modifying business strategies, improving decision-making processes, and triggering automation in every industry in the world. The latest sentience debate is a clear indicator on serious and advanced AI is becoming nowadays. Cybersecurity is the other important element of today’s technological world. With an increasing reliance on data and the move to online services that require an individual’s biometrics, security essential in preventing data thefts and associated cybercrimes. AI has undeniably improved cybersecurity practices by allowing a real-time analysis of internet traffic to discover possible threats at the earliest and take defensive actions. This important learning process hides however several disadvantages of AI in cybersecurity.
What Are the Downsides to AI in Cybersecurity?
The touted advantages of AI in cybersecurity are real and very useful. However, the increasing adoption of AI solutions for security is actually causing problems at different levels.
Hackers Use AI as Well
When it comes to maturity in technology, hackers are the best at it. These individuals sitting behind computer screens logging data and doing advanced analytics to identify any loophole or vulnerability they can use to their benefits. The use of AI as far as cybersecurity is concerned is a double-edged sword. It is actually a race of who can develop a better algorithm that caters better to the data which is circulating online. In this sense, the use of AI is a big threat to security.
Another issue is that while a company is analyzing and learning from data to discover threats, a hacker is concurrently analyzing the company’s cyber-defense mechanisms and policies to find “open doors’ that will take it into the system to complete the intended attack.
Data Confidentiality
AI algorithms are associated with the analysis with large volumes of data, a key requirement for the developed algorithms to produce accurate outputs. The data a company deals with contains normal traffic related to daily transactions and activities, but also sensitive information related to the clients including their biometrics and personal information. What happens to our data when it goes to the AI-agent though is another thing. Protecting the data is key when AI is used for cybersecurity reasons. The secrecy of the clients’ data should not be compromised for any reason.
Increasing Need for Data
The field of cybersecurity is constantly evolving with ingenious attacks and threats emerging every now and then. Browser-in-the-browser attacks and increasingly advanced ransomware attacks have been notable examples in 2022. In order to discover attacks at a later stage, the AI algorithm needs to have data to do the proper training. The increasingly dynamic environment with threats emerging and evolving will lead to a surge in the required volumes of data, which can potentially not be readily available to have a fast response to the attack itself. Whether it is the ability of AI to keep track of the exponential growth in data or the availability of data for the AI-algorithm to produce results is a big disadvantage of this approach for cybersecurity
Will Cybersecurity be Replaced by AI?
With the drive towards more and more automation, it is questionable whether this can be applied as well for cybersecurity practices. AI can certainly assist in processing and learning from data and produce insights. However, the real decision maker in such as sensitive area where no errors can be tolerated is the cybersecurity expert himself. The only way for AI to replace cybersecurity is when it becomes sentient or developed enough to think and act like humans do. There is still a long way for that to concretize.
Explainable or interpretable AI is a key intermediate step in reaching this target. First, we need to understand how AI produces results. Proper cybersecurity practices require a reduction in bias while optimizing the performance of the algorithm.
How Will AI Affect Cybersecurity Jobs?
The adoption of AI will certainly cause major shifts in the cybersecurity job market as in the case in other industries, but probably at a smaller scale. The level of skill and experience needed to thwart cyberattacks will safeguard the need for security experts to provide the final decision regarding suspicious data patterns.
On the other hand, the incorporation of AI will call for new skilled workers that can manage and optimize the performance of the algorithms. Another alternative would be for existing workforce to be upskilled and retrained to handle the new analysis tools.
Summary
As data is becoming the basic unit for decision making, AI has invaded all industries and businesses, including cybersecurity. Companies are starting to incorporate learning algorithms to their offered services in order to have a more intelligent management of the different security threats. However, the role of AI in cybersecurity should be considered with enough judgment. The addition of AI would increase the complexity in the data management process, notably in terms of data privacy and the continuous need for more data.
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Ian Terblanche, Global Strategic Sales & Channel Director at Sigfox
