Breach and Attack Simulation

Building the case for Security Validation

Building the case for Security Validation Image credit: USA Today Events of the last month have shown that, despite best efforts and assumptions on how well protected corporate networks are, damaging Ransomware attacks and other cyber threats, continue to wreak havoc on companies and organisations in all industry sectors. Just in the last month, we have seen crippling Ransomware attacks on Colonial Pipeline, the Irish Health Service, the University of Portsmouth, and many others.  In most, if not all, of these cases, the IT and information security teams will undoubtedly have told their management teams and oversight Boards, that they had invested in adequate security controls and that they conduct regular penetration testing. So, it begs the question: why are corporate networks still so vulnerable to these attacks?  The answers to this are probably wide ranging, but one consistent theme is an assumption that corporate networks are protected because certain

By |2023-03-30T17:09:33+00:00May 18th, 2021|Blog|Comments Off on Building the case for Security Validation
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Ransomware: Develop and Test Your Response Strategy Using Simulation

Ransomware: Develop and Test your Response Strategy Using Simulation In this blog I want to take a look at Simulating a Ransomware Attack and how you would go about developing and testing a Response Strategy. I’ve already covered the basics of a Ransomware attack in this blog article: https://elasticito.com/ransomware-do-you-have-a-tried-and-tested-strategy-in-place/ The object of this exercise is twofold: Maintain business continuity – or in other words a ransomware attack should have little to no disruption to business; Contain and eliminate the attack quickly with minimal effort; Throughout this blog I am going to focus on behaviour rather than specific IoCs. Please also note that the information provide here is a high-level guide and not an exhaustive task list and is focused on the endpoint only. In a future blog post I will cover network security controls. While User Awareness Training is recommended is hasn’t been included as part of validating security controls.

By |2023-03-30T17:09:53+00:00October 14th, 2020|Blog|Comments Off on Ransomware: Develop and Test Your Response Strategy Using Simulation
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Ransomware: Do you have a tried and tested strategy in place?

Ransomware: Do you have a tried and tested strategy in place? With the recent Garmin outage that is still ongoing, which has allegedly been caused by a Ransomware attack, a large number of Executives are going to be asking tough questions about how Ransomware could impact their own organisations, as there is a good chance that this outage has had a direct effect on their daily lives. TL:DR – Ransomware attacks are preventable, however organisations need to have a tried and tested strategy in place to prevent these attacks. Breach and Attack Simulation provides the visibility needed to develop and test a Ransomware prevention strategy. While my intention with this article is not to speculate on the Garmin outage specifically, the points below are important factors that YOUR business should consider as important attributes of your Cyber Incident Response Protocol. Due to a lack of transparent communication with their clients

By |2023-03-30T17:09:53+00:00July 27th, 2020|Blog|Comments Off on Ransomware: Do you have a tried and tested strategy in place?
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How to Test your Security Controls for Resilience to Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) Advisory 2020-008: Copy-paste Compromises

How to Test your Security Controls for Resilience to Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) Advisory 2020-008: Copy-paste Compromises In conjunction with an announcement by the Australian Prime Minster, Scott Morrison, on National Television, the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) recently published an advisory (Advisory 2020-008: Copy-paste compromises) giving the MITRE Tactics, Techniques and Procedures (TTPs) used against multiple Australian organisations seen in recent campaigns by a sophisticated threat actor.   The title “Copy-paste compromises” is derived from the actor’s heavy use of tools copied almost identically from open source. One of the ACSC recommendation is that:   “It is imperative that Australian organisations are alert to this threat and take steps to enhance the resilience of their networks.”   And while the Advisory also recommends the following:   Prompt patching of internet-facing software, operating systems and devices Use of multi-factor authentication across all remote access services Implementing the remainder of the

By |2023-03-30T17:09:53+00:00July 6th, 2020|Blog|Comments Off on How to Test your Security Controls for Resilience to Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) Advisory 2020-008: Copy-paste Compromises
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Regularly Validating Security Controls with Breach and Attack Simulation

Regularly Validating Security Controls with Breach and Attack Simulation   Validating Security Controls is of vital importance for all organisations and is mandated by Cyber Security Frameworks like National Institute of Standards and Technology (N.I.S.T.) who offer a simple high-level way to do this using 5 steps:   IDENTIFY (CROWN JEWELS) PROTECT DETECT RESPOND RECOVER   To emphasise the importance of validating Security Control on a regular basis think of pilots doing a pre-flight check and inspection of their aircraft. Not performing these checks and inspections could lead to a loss of license for the pilots and the airline as it is mandatory and so should validating your organisation’s Security Controls. Simplistically you start by Identifying a Crown Jewel which could be an Endpoint, A Domain Controller or a Business Application. The next step is to detail and understand the attack vectors, which could be infiltration via email or a

By |2023-03-30T17:09:53+00:00May 18th, 2020|Blog|Comments Off on Regularly Validating Security Controls with Breach and Attack Simulation
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