Cybersecurity
Rising Cybersecurity Tactics from the Russian-Ukrainian Crisis: A Prelude to a Global War?
Contrary to general belief, cyberattacks were much older than the internet itself. The first incident, which can be qualified as a cyberattack, took place nearly two centuries ago when a pair of thieves hacked France’s telegraph wireline communications system and stole some important financial information. Since then, the evolution of telecommunication systems has been accompanied by a similar evolutionary trend, if not faster, in cyber attacks.
The two world wars and the long cold war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union (URSS) led to more diversified attacks to compromise the defense mechanisms of the opponents. The advent of the internet in 1994, and the shift from analog to digital communications, has given cybersecurity the definition we currently use, that is, “the prevention of damage to, unauthorized use of, exploitation of, and—if needed—the restoration of electronic information and communications systems, and the information they contain, in order to strengthen the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of these systems.” as defined by the U.S. national institute of standards and technology (NIST).
It is very evident that any tension between countries or groups or even larger scale military operations is accompanied by numerous cyberattacks. Although not as effective as armed interventions, they normally aim at disrupting the process of governmental organizations, media, telecom, and power distribution systems, among others. The recent war between Russia and Ukraine contributed to the resurfacing of cyberwarfare with all its known goals and mechanisms. Silent, easier to hide, less costly, and potentially more harmful, cyberattacks are the weapon of choice of ordinary tech-savvy citizens who cannot help on the battlefield.
A Long History of Mutual Attacks
Cyberattacks between the neighboring countries are not something new. The post-soviet era has witnessed a long history of mutual attacks that will certainly not end during the current war.
Russian attacks have been prominently more powerful in disrupting the main vital sectors in Ukraine. Among others is the Ukrainian power grid infrastructure attack in 2015 using the Trojan virus BlackEnergy, which resulted in widespread outages. A broader attack was performed in 2017 using the malware NotPetya. Exploiting some vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows-based systems, the ransomware attack would seize control of the infected devices, which is only relinquished if a specific payment is made in cryptocurrency, namely, Bitcoin. The attack affected various entities, including governmental, financial, and commercial institutions. The effect of the malware even crossed the borders to affect major companies such as pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. and global shipping company Maersk, among many others.
During the ongoing war, attacks persisted, but surprisingly, with lower severity and significantly lower magnitude. Most of the attacks belonged to the group of distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) affecting media and governmental institutions. Most recently, more severe wiper attacks, usually aiming at wiping data from the victim’s servers, were observed mainly using the HermeticWiper and Whisper Gate malware.
The low-key cyber-invasion of the Russians has even raised some eyebrows, especially since Russia hosts some of the most dangerous hacking groups, such as the Conti ransomware operators. It is widely believed that this is due to the fact the military invasion necessitates the use of Ukrainian infrastructure such as the telecom network for their logistic operations during their invasion of the neighboring territory.
This said, as the war lasts longer, the sanctions towards Russia are increasing, and the Russian economy is notably crumbling. Cyberattacks can spiral out of control and affect vital and typically sidelined sectors such as healthcare.
On the opposite side, with a significantly weaker military power, Ukrainian cyberattacks towards Russia have been on the rise. The well-known Anonymous group has initiated several attacks, mainly of the DDoS type. They even seized T.V. services for some time to raise awareness of the impact of the war on Ukrainians. The Vice Prime minister has called for the establishment of the I.T. Army to lead the cyberwar against Russia. The newly formed group has targeted Russian government websites, including the Kremlin and the Duma,
A Larger Scale to the War?
The ongoing cyberwarfare is nothing but a continuation of a “Game of Thrones” between the planet’s superpowers. Ukraine has been trying desperately to get out of the Russian foster home and move closer to Western countries over the last years. It has been trying to free itself from the subordination which lasted for years. The ties of the country with other countries have given the local cyberwar a global status. If Russia’s allies, namely China and Iran, happen to enter the equation, the virtual altercation will even have a higher magnitude.
The relatively small-scale Russian attacks form a clear indirect message to the Western countries supporting the Ukrainian cause and are led by the U.S. and the European Union. A warning that any intervention in its controlled territory can potentially have some severe consequences and that its cyber army would be able to disrupt or even control any of its infrastructures.
This insight is further corroborated by a very recent history of allegedly Russian attacks on U.S. companies SolarWind Corp, Microsoft, FireEye Inc., and CrowdStrike Holdings. The main culprit is, again, Microsoft (in particular, some of its associated resellers). The attacks are attributed to the Office 365 emails system and integration issues with its Azure platform. The resulting security breach affected several federal agencies and institutions.
Another reason for the cyber-planetary war comes from backing Ukraine is receiving from Western tech companies to ensure proper and powerful cyber-defense mechanisms. Therefore, the Russian attacks can be seen as a statement of authority and superior power in the digital world in general and cybersecurity in particular.
At the scale of Ukraine, these skirmishes could be a warmup for a more global cyber warfare that hasn’t started properly yet. In conjunction with its progress on the ground, Russia is leading a tactical war in the virtual world. Concurrently, Ukraine is also leading the resistance on the battlefield and, more recently, in cyberspace. The two sides in the crisis are supported by continuous help in the military and technological fields from their respective allies. However, several questions remain widely open: When will the war of attrition extend to cyberspace? And What role would the allies from both sides have on its outcome? Time will undoubtedly tell.
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
