Cybersecurity and AI: Balancing the Risks and Opportunities

Cybersecurity and AI: Balancing the Risks and Opportunities
Cybersecurity and AI: Balancing the Risks and Opportunities

Cybersecurity and AI: Balancing the Risks and Opportunities

As AI continues to advance, discussions around its impact on both malicious actors and security defences are becoming increasingly prevalent in both professional networks and the media. While some view AI as a potential threat, others see it as a means of ensuring security. It’s important to understand diverse perspectives and potential outcomes of AI in this field.

The growth of AI has brought about a realization that it can serve as a double-edged sword in the realm of cybersecurity. On one hand, AI’s advanced capabilities could empower cybercriminals to launch automated attacks and remain undetected for longer periods of time. On the other hand, AI could also be leveraged by security experts to enhance their threat detection and response efforts, enabling them to act more swiftly and effectively in the face of emerging threats.

The conflicting opinions about AI’s impact on cybersecurity have sparked thoughts about a potential balance between offence and defence. It’s possible that as AI advances are made by malicious actors, equivalent progress could be made by security professionals to counteract them. However, this equilibrium can only be maintained if both parties stay ahead of the curve and continuously advance their techniques and tools. As cybercriminals become more sophisticated in their use of AI, security experts must ensure they are equipped with the most advanced tools and methods to defend against these increasingly complex attacks.

To gain a better understanding of the potential outcomes, it’s worth examining the ways in which both cybercriminals and security experts can harness AI to advance their goals.

Red Corner: The Cyber Criminals

  • Scanning the internet for vulnerable systems to identify targets using artificial intelligence.
  • AI bots programmed to mimic human behaviour to evade detection by security systems.
  • Using AI to create highly targeted phishing emails that contain reliable information to entice the target and gain their confidence, maybe taught using various data sets found on the Dark Web.
  • Designing AI-powered evolution into malware so that malicious programmes adapt and evolve over time, making them harder to detect and remove, or by utilizing artificial intelligence, malware can be created that evades detection by finding exploitable patterns in security systems.

Blue Corner: The Security Professionals

  • Analysis of enormous volumes of data from many sources to find and follow possible threats Systems for threat intelligence may also draw lessons from earlier mistakes, which enables them to evolve and get better over time.
  • Recognising dangerous behavioural patterns and assisting staff in making better decisions for data protection and system security.
  • Utilizing AI suggestions to Triage Security events according to the risk and to prioritize to concentrate attention on the most important problems.
  • AI to help automate event inquiry, find the incident’s underlying cause and alert the appropriate parties.

The outcome of this hypothetical AI-powered “title bout” between cybercriminals and security professionals remains uncertain. It’s evident that AI has the potential to greatly impact the cybersecurity landscape, but it’s also important to recognize that it should not be viewed as a cure-all solution. Instead, AI should be used as a complementary tool alongside other security measure.

To ensure that AI is performing optimally, it must be continuously monitored, evaluated, and refined. Just like a human security team, AI systems require regular attention and tuning to address any biases or inaccuracies in the data. In addition, there are also numerous ethical considerations to take into account when implementing AI in cybersecurity.

Organizations need to understand that AI is just one piece of the puzzle and should not be relied upon as a standalone solution. It’s essential to have a clear strategy and architecture in place and to continuously monitor and evaluate AI’s performance.

Cybersecurity And Artificial Intelligence: How to Make Them Work Together.

AI & Cybersecurity- cyberintelsys
AI & Cybersecurity- cyberintelsys

Cybersecurity And Artificial Intelligence: How to Make Them Work Together.

It’s no secret how important cybersecurity is. Cyberattacks and data breaches are becoming increasingly common place in today’s environment. And as our reliance on technology increases, cybersecurity becomes more crucial. Organizations, governments, and other stakeholders are becoming more concerned about having reliable cybersecurity systems and regulations in place.

The advancement of technology has also led to more advanced methods of cyber-attacks, making traditional cybersecurity measures insufficient. To tackle this challenge, the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity is becoming increasingly crucial. By combining the strengths of AI and cybersecurity, organizations can ensure better protection for their critical infrastructure and sensitive information.

AI and cybersecurity can work together more effectively in these ways.

Cybersecurity models can be built using AI.

Building safe and straightforward machine learning pipelines for cybersecurity is the first step toward a strong cybersecurity system. This is due to the fact that AI-based models can only be as accurate as the data they are trained on. The security teams require access to a lot of high-quality data in order to create these AI models. This can be difficult since many organisations are reluctant to provide their data owing to privacy and security worries.

However, data may be exchanged safely and utilized to train AI models that can enhance security with the correct tools and policies in place. AI may be used, for instance, to create models that can identify and stop similar attacks in the future using information from previous cyberattacks. The best aspect is that because AI enables developing end-to-end models with meta-cloud utilization and visibility management, creating these models is frequently simple. Additionally, some services let you start learning right away with free plans.

Monitor and respond to threats using artificial intelligence.

Real-time monitoring and response to attacks is another way AI technology may enhance security. AI has the ability to immediately recognize and respond to cyberattacks. Thus, AI can speed up the process of identifying and responding to threats and/or ransomware attacks, thus enhancing your cybersecurity posture.

AI requires access to data from multiple sources, such as user behavior, system records, and network traffic. It can then make use of this information to find trends that might point to an attack. AI can then take action to reduce the danger when it has been identified, for as by blocking malicious communication or quarantining infected systems.

Threat Exposure.

To identify new ways to exploit networks, many hackers always keep one step ahead of cybersecurity developments. For instance, there was an uptick in phishing attacks that preyed on the dread and apprehension surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak. Additionally, as more people work from home, attacks against tools for remote work, such VPNs, have increased (virtual private networks). For many organizations, the security risk grew as a result.

Strong and creative endpoint security has become even more crucial as a result of the rise in business endpoints brought on by the remote working revolution. Many IT professionals are currently concentrating on the security of relatively new IT components like containers (see more on Kubernetes versus Dockers) and gadgets that intermittently connect to the corporate network, such as mobile phones, tablets, etc.

AI can assist in recognizing these tendencies and forecasting upcoming threats. Models that prioritize threat exposure may be built to assist you to identify the most vulnerable parts of your organization. By doing this, you may take precautions to reduce these risks before they materialize as an attack.

You may use AI to uncover dangers that can be hard to spot and get a real-time snapshot of the cybersecurity landscape.

Penetration Testing and Security Audits.

The practice of attempting to break into a system to evaluate its security is known as penetration testing. The procedure is typically carried out manually, although AI may be utilized to automate it. AI may be used to find weaknesses in systems and then produce exploit code that can be used to exploit such weaknesses.

Another area where AI might be beneficial is security audits. Systems may be automatically audited with AI to find any possible security flaws. For instance, smart contract audits can make use of AI to find potentially dangerous flaws in the code. As a result, security auditing is more accurate and efficient overall.

Risk Prediction & Risk Management.

AI is able to foresee the dangers of cyberattacks and pinpoint the elements that increase an organization’s vulnerability. It can analyze prior attacks to find trends that can portend forthcoming attacks. A risk profile for an organization may then be created using this information. This risk assessment can help organizations prioritize security activities and concentrate on the most vulnerable regions.

Strong AI is crucial for breach risk prediction because it can sift through a lot of data to uncover the minute elements that can make a big impact. You can take the required precautions to avoid a cyberattack by using AI algorithms to forecast when, when, and how it will occur.

Conclusion

AI has the potential to significantly enhance your entire cybersecurity posture. A real-time picture of the cybersecurity landscape may be obtained by employing AI technologies to construct models, monitor and respond to threats, automate penetration testing, and perform security audits. This will enable you to take precautions before a danger turns into an attack.

You might be unsure about how to implement AI in your company and how to utilize it to solve cybersecurity issues. Our virtual cyber assistant service will be helpful in this situation. You may access the cybersecurity knowledge of seasoned specialists that can help you adopt AI technology and gradually strengthen your cybersecurity posture thanks to this extremely affordable, distinctive, and flexible solution.

Why Your Small Business Needs to Rethink Its Cybersecurity Strategy.

Cybersecurity- cyberintelsys
Cybersecurity- cyberintelsys

Why Your Small Business Needs to Rethink Its Cybersecurity Strategy.

Small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are increasingly at risk from cybersecurity threats as hackers become more aware of their vulnerabilities and the potential worth of the data they possess.

The evidence is in the numbers: A 2022 research found that 76% of SMBs had experienced at least one cyberattack in 2021, up from 55% who reported the same in 2020. System intrusion, social engineering, and privilege abuse account for 98% of breaches impacting small organisations, according to the 2022 Verizon DBIR. Additionally, 93% of the data exposed in SMB attacks consisted of credentials. According to a CNBC poll of 2,000 small company owners, 61% of SMBs with 50 or more workers are scared they may be the target of a cyberattack within the next year.

To combat the risks of today, SMBs must update and reconsider their security plans. These firms frequently lack the contemporary security technology, expertise, and resources required to protect against sophisticated attacks, as well as a specialised cybersecurity staff. Due to the sensitive and important data that SMBs possess—including employee and customer information, intellectual property, financial transaction data, and access to the business’s finances and wider networks—this is an increasing worry.

Legacy Tech Is No Match for Modern Attackers

Many small companies may have installed only antivirus software and this is not sufficient to thwart human-engineered threats like social attacks, in which a target is persuaded to comply with the attacker’s demands, or identity-based attacks, in which hackers use account and identity information that has been stolen to access systems and resources while posing as authorized users.

According to the Falcon OverWatch Threat Hunting Report for 2022, 71% of breaches were malware-free, highlighting the prevalence of these more subtle attacks and cybercriminals’ growing preference for techniques that evade antivirus protection. With legitimate employee credentials or exploits for unpatched vulnerabilities, attackers can move throughout your organization to compromise additional systems, exfiltrate data, launch a ransomware attack, or take other nefarious actions once they have a foothold in your environment.

Some of the following effective measures can add strength to your Cybersecurity strategy:

  • Enforce Multifactor Authentication (MFA): MFA offers an additional layer of security so you can be certain it’s an employee, not an attacker, accessing systems and resources as identification becomes a crucial component of cyberattacks.
  • Keep up with software patches: When an attacker takes advantage of an unpatched vulnerability, data breaches frequently begin. This attack vector can only be stopped if the software is kept up to date.
  • Perform regular backups of critical data: You’ll be grateful that you either backed up your data on-premises or in the cloud if a breach affects your small business. It’s important to note that if an attacker manages to access your systems, they could encrypt backups, thus building a solid backup strategy is essential.
  • Implement a security awareness training program: In 98% of the reported incidents, data breaches are caused by phishing attempts, sticking with the theme of well-intentioned personnel (Verizon DBIR). Employees must be able to identify phishing emails and know what to do with them since anti-phishing systems can only catch so many phishing attacks. Phishing attacks may be avoided if employees and the organization both received security awareness training that taught them how to spot the tell-tale symptoms of phishing emails.
  • Implement a program for third-party vendor risk management: Many businesses collaborate with outside suppliers and service providers, and in certain circumstances, these suppliers want access to the IT and corporate infrastructure. As in many high-profile breaches, the service provider was the victim of the breach, which led to their partners experiencing the same fate. Implement a third-party risk management strategy that requires all service providers, new and old, to demonstrate that they have internal security policies and controls in place before being given access to a corporate system.
  • Implement and enforce policies to combat insider threat: In order to tackle the human aspect of cybersecurity, policies and procedures are crucial. If there are no policies in place to direct them, employees frequently do not comprehend what they can and cannot do with a company’s papers, hardware, and system access. An insider threat doesn’t always include a malicious individual trying to steal firm information; it can also take the form of a well-intentioned employee sharing a document with a partner in an unsafe manner, leaving the information open to unauthorized access.

In the event of a catastrophe, SMBs can take a critical step by redesigning their security strategy and upgrading their defenses now so they are better prepared to deal with a cyberattack.

A Hidden Threat to Application Security: API Bot Attacks

API BOT ATTACKS- CYBERINTELSYS
API BOT ATTACKS- CYBERINTELSYS

A Hidden Threat to Application Security: API Bot Attacks

In the past couple of years, cyber risks associated with cybercrimes and hackers are on the increase. Hackers are increasingly focusing on websites and application’s main communication channels and the fundamental building blocks are application programming interfaces or APIs these days, almost all applications have them. Over 20,000 public APIs are accessible from various websites and applications, claims a third-party report and we are sure that it is still a conservative number.

It is not an exaggeration to suggest that APIs are essential to the proper operation of the hundreds of billions of dollars in online commerce. With so much at stake, it can be assumed that APIs would be the most vulnerable and have the highest security risk. And rightly so, Gartner had suggested that in 2022, API attacks will become the most common attack vector. 

What is an API?

Web APIs let developers easily connect with applications without having to create specialised code or have a thorough grasp of the applications’ architecture. They expose the functionality of applications to the outside world. Access to some APIs requires developers to register for an API key. Since the company exposing the API does not intend to discourage use, many APIs are completely open. The important thing to remember is that APIs should be open and simple to use to facilitate interaction with and consumption of information and data that an organisation wants the public to have access to.

APIs are frequently used by e-commerce companies for both internal and external reasons. An e-commerce vendor may, for instance, have a single API with price and product data that offers data for the business’ website, mobile application, widgets for affiliate networks, third-party reseller websites, and good bots like search engine spiders for Google Shopping.

An application must be able to actively determine if an API is good, harmful, or unknown in order to securely protect it. Requests can be made in both good and harmful ways. The right handling of each API request must be decided dynamically in real-time rather than according to a set of fixed rules since API assaults change so frequently.

Why It’s so Hard to Spot and Stop API Bot Attacks?

APIs can operate as a direct conduit into certain resources and operations, as opposed to queries that must pass via browsers or native app agents. As a result, they are particularly appealing as a vector for attacks like carding, credential stuffing, ATO, scraping, and others. Because there are many fewer indicators that an API call is malicious than a standard browser request, APIs are also more difficult to protect against using conventional techniques.

More precisely, when using API attacks, bots make the same information requests they would through a browser attack, but they omit information on the device type, cookies, browser agent, or version, as well as other details that might help detect bot attacks.

 Since API attacks are typically fully virtual, it is simple to spin them up, spin them down, and relocate them from one cloud provider to another while using a changing set of IP addresses and proxy networks to conceal their identity. Due to these factors, the resources needed to launch API attacks are also far lower than those needed to launch browser assaults.

Common browser bot assaults employ “headless” browsers, which can run JavaScript and are command-line-executed, to imitate human behaviour. APIs enable attackers to exploit generally accessible, fundamental, and less costly features since headless browsers are often more expensive to use in assaults.

APIs frequently provide attackers with more direct access to the foundational components of a programme. It typically signifies that the attacker is one step away from gaining access to highly important assets when an e-commerce firm employs a uniform API to offer pricing information or log-in credentials across online and mobile applications.

The result? API attacks can be far more difficult to detect and are easier to mount with fewer resources.

How to Stop API Attacks?

Unfortunately, real-time API attack blocking cannot be accomplished using conventional techniques for preventing online assaults. Web Application Firewalls (WAFs) employ static techniques such as rate-limiting API calls, denying requests from unknown protocols and searching for attack signatures. WAFs frequently choose between permitting malicious traffic and blocking legal traffic. Modern WAFs and signature-based detection techniques are readily avoided by newer API bots. You need a novel defensive approach that relies on machine learning, complex behaviour modelling, and a continuous real-time feedback loop to defeat API bots. It is referred to as “Collect, Detect, Mitigate, Learn.”

  • Build the models based on the signals collected.

To detect API bot actions in runtime, the first step is to gather behavioural, network, and other fingerprints from regular users as a baseline. These include cues from the actions of actual users, information got from their Web API activity, cookie analysis (and its absence), and cues from mobile apps like mobile IDs and application tokens.

You must also search for network signals, such as network response times and patterns, network fingerprinting, and proof of obfuscation methods, such as the use of proxy networks, when searching for direct APIs. To determine the possibility that a call is originating from a trustworthy person or trustworthy bot rather than a dangerous bot, these signals should be used in conjunction with internal and external reputation feeds. Finally, you must incorporate feedback loops that are application specific.

Building solid models of the types of API traffic that are good, poor, and unknown can be done using all of this data. These models must be adaptable and able to include data in real-time in order to stop dynamic and ever-evolving API assaults.

  • Analyse API request signals to detect bots

The model continually processes the signals emitted by each API request to identify fraudulent API bots. Advanced machine learning and behavioural analytics designed to react in real time and at web scale will be required. Each API call will receive a risk score from the detection model after it continuously compares behaviours and signals to those of real users. This enables security teams and website and application administrators to detect abnormalities and produce precise confidence intervals for API calls.

  • Mitigate Bad Bots Instantly

Your system should stop a malicious request when it is identified at a high confidence interval before the request reaches the API and extracts any data from it and the choice must be made in milliseconds.

Additionally, you may take actions to access the API for additional data. For instance, “honey pots” can display information that is obscure to average consumers. Only malicious APIs would be able to access them and view them.

  • Learn Continuously, Update Constantly

You must continually update models of what undesirable API behaviour looks like for this process to be effective. The accuracy and identification of bots can only be improved over time in this way. Only dynamic models that include data in real-time and update the model to account for each new result can accomplish this. This is the area of continuous machine learning systems, which, until a few years ago, required too much computer power and were challenging to implement as real-time feedback loops.

Conclusion

Protecting online apps will demand considerably more agility and speed than what conventional security measures can provide as API threats develop and adapt at an accelerated rate. Additionally, a far more dynamic model with continuous learning is needed to accurately detect and prevent API attacks before they occur. Machine learning and a flexible, adaptive technique that can handle real-time detection and mitigation without consumers even noticing are the only ways to accomplish this efficiently.

Runtime security for containers.

Runtime security for containers.
Runtime security for containers.

Runtime security for containers

Kubernetes and other container orchestration solutions offer a more straightforward method for setting up and managing containers at scale. The use of these orchestration technologies has exploded as container acceptance has grown. For example, more than 75 per cent of containerized apps today are orchestrated using Kubernetes. Of course, because of their prominence, these networks are frequently targeted by online criminals. By providing pod security policies and drift control to assist protect containers in development, Kubernetes mitigates this risk. But what happens when containers enter runtime?

Kubernetes and Docker provide a wide range of tools for incorporating security into containers however they do not safeguard the runtime environment. In order to secure containers in production, a sophisticated runtime stack of tools, procedures, and rules have to be developed.

Some of the challenges in securing running containers:

While tactics like adding security into container build and creating smaller container images can assist guarantee a variety of dangers can surface after a container is operating, such as:

  • Newly identified application flaws in outdated images.
  • Drift in configuration, such as altering user rights without permission.
  • Attacks on privileges that provide malicious actors access to data, storage space, or other resources.
  • Access control bugs were used in the deployment of containers.
  • Malicious code written within a container gets activated.

How to find and remediate container runtime risks?

Monitoring important events, including logins, is crucial for keeping running containers safe, but container runtime security extends beyond simple event tracking. It begins with integrating security into architecture utilising technologies for enforcing regulations at the kernel or Kubernetes level. In order to find new vulnerabilities or incorrect setups in production, scanning tools can evaluate audit logs, infrastructure as code (IaC), configuration settings, and application code itself.

Few steps to secure container engine runtime:

In the event of a network breach, attackers’ capacity to expand their reach might be constrained by container engine runtime parameters. Here are a few suggested settings that will increase container security for your company:

  • Run ROOT instead of USERS

Users, not root, should be used to operate containers. To do this, specify the user ID in the Docker file before executing as that user. This allows employing role-based access restrictions to restrict access.

  • Maintain ROOT FILESYSTEM settings as read-only

This prohibits hackers from taking over a computer or infecting the host with harmful programmes.

  • Use in NON-PRIVILEGED MODE

Strong protections against the host system are built into container runtimes. Running in privileged mode is not recommended because it gets around the majority of these tests.

  • DETECT MISCONFIGURATIONS BY SCANNING THE RUNTIME WITH IAC SCANNING

While configuring cloud infrastructure and container orchestrators, there could be a frequent misconfiguration. Use tools which can automatically find Kubernetes and other misconfigurations and return these pieces of information to developers Workflow tools. Some of the commonly used tools are SNYK IaC.

Kubernetes capabilities used to secure containers at runtime:

Although runtime security is not built into Kubernetes, it does feature capabilities that can help ensure the security of your containers once they are in use.

  • Network Policies

By default, Kubernetes permits all ingresses and egresses involving pods. Use network policies to precisely manage network behaviour around containers after setting default behaviour to prohibit all incoming and outgoing traffic.

  • Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

You may configure permissions at the pod or cluster level using the Kubernetes RBAC API. As a result, adjusting permission policies is made simpler without the need to restart the cluster.

  • Policy Admission Control

With the aid of Kubernetes admission controllers, you may impose regulations that cover certain threat vectors. You may analyze calls, enforce policies, or reject requests using OPA Gatekeeper and Kyverno, two policy engines that can serve as admission controllers.

  • Secrets

You may keep a secret from a pod that utilizes it important information like a key or password by using a Secret. RBAC rules may then be set up to control how Secrets are read and written, as well as the processes by which people can add or remove Secrets. Never include credentials in configuration or picture files, for instance. They ought to be kept in a confidential management tool instead.

You can store and manage secrets for Kubernetes and outside apps using Vault, which can operate natively on Kubernetes. Any other Kubernetes tool can use Vault because it has native Kubernetes integrations. Another well-liked secret supplier for Kubernetes is tool like CyberArk.

  • Audit logs

Little runtime security is offered by Kubernetes out of the box. Nevertheless, it does offer tools for audit logs, which may subsequently be examined for dangers with an auditing tool like Falco.

  • Debug using ephemeral containers

To troubleshoot, Kubernetes ephemeral debug containers may be used instead of loading debugging utilities into your images.

A partnership between Sysdig and Snyk for container runtime security:

It’s crucial to incorporate security measures wherever feasible because there is no one-size-fits-all approach or secret switch for securing running containers. Finding vulnerabilities and incorrect setups and correcting the most pressing problems should come first. It’s critical to recognise vulnerabilities as well as the effects of those vulnerabilities since security itself is a kind of risk management. Utilizing Kubernetes’ features and settings is also crucial for improving the container security posture

While the majority of problems may be detected by a completely automated container runtime security solution, security flaws still require the astute eye of developers to be fixed. Although scanning tools can reveal flaws or incorrect setups in the runtime environment, any modifications must still be applied to the associated code by the developer. This is a time and resource-consuming effort and may cause developers to miss a problem. Snyk steps in to help with it. Snyk deals with this by identifying problems in development workflows and suggesting improvements. Docker containers and Kubernetes setups with tools like Snyk Container and Kubernetes Configuration Security and get feedback via CI/CD systems.

Additionally, Snyk and Sysdig have teamed up to implement developer-first security in the runtime environment. Falco, an open-source tool, is used by Sysdig’s runtime security to instantly identify risks, vulnerabilities, and incursions across containers and Kubernetes. These insights may be sent straight back to developer teams through the combination of Snyk and Sysdig so they can prioritize and implement solutions.

Privileged Access Management: Why It Matters more than ever?

Cyberintelsys-PAM.
Cyberintelsys-PAM.

Privileged Access Management: Why It Matters more than ever?

In both our personal and professional lives, networked devices—from printers and sensors to mobile phones and microchips—have proliferated. The need for cybersecurity teams has increased.

What was previously a well-defined unambiguous perimeter has changed into an ill-defined fuzzy barrier as remote work and IoT devices challenge cybersecurity. In these shadows, cybercriminals are prospering, concentrating their efforts on key employees whose access credentials provide easy pickings.

When configured with the appropriate policies, tools, and automation, privileged access management enables you to safeguard these crucial assets.

What is Privileged Access Management?

Organizations are discovering in the modern world how crucial it is to secure accounts and assets inside their network architecture in order to reduce security breaches, avoid the loss of sensitive data, and stop unauthorised access to extremely sensitive accounts and assets. Privileged Access Management, or PAM, is a subset of cybersecurity practises that is the focus of these mitigation efforts. The PAM idea makes use of a few fundamentally important elements that balance mitigation efforts with operational efficacy. By using tested security techniques along with tools like CyberArk and BeyondTrust this balance may be achieved.

The majority of businesses adhere to the least privilege principle, which states that each user should only have the access necessary to perform their job. Only trustworthy accounts are granted administrator-style rights, including access to confidential data, changing app configurations, and adding or removing users. These user categories, who generally play technical, legal, or executive positions and require privileged access to perform their duties, are organised into groups by PAM.

Why does privileged access management matter?

Even now, a criminal who acquires access to a standard company account may be able to do serious harm. Threat actors, however, may quickly compromise your whole organisation by using the credentials of a privileged account, whether it is held by HR, IT, or the C-suite.

Privilege access management can assist organisations in quickly neutralising this emerging danger by placing stricter restrictions on the access and behaviour of individuals with strong credentials.

Crucial Points to consider while implementing Privileged Access Management

Implementing a Privileged Access Management (PAM) system involves the following crucial steps:

  • Select a PAM solution that is appropriate for your organisation.
  • The integration of PAM with existing infrastructure (including cloud services) and security policies such as least privilege (basically a prerequisite) or zero trust is important to consider.
  • Include privileged access and application controls in vulnerability management and risk evaluations. This is done so that PAM policies may be implemented to reduce risks if an application has a high risk of real-world threats, malware, or a lack of security upgrades.
  • When integrating PAM into their security posture, businesses should constantly look beyond workstations and servers in terms of privileged access.
  • Network devices are frequently set up to utilise shared account credentials or default account credentials. Consider keeping the length of password not too lengthy as the length of passwords of Network Devices raises the possibility of network equipment being compromised and abused.
  • Create rules to decrease the risks to these accounts. For example, you might use MFA to lower the chance of successful password assaults or keep a log of all privileged sessions to help you spot risky usage patterns.
  • Unified Management entails keeping an eye on users’ activity and determining the dangers they offer to a company. This type of monitoring is commonly referred to as Privileged Threat Analytics in PAM (PTA). The majority of contemporary PAM systems use machine learning to track common user activities, calculate a risk score, and alert internal security staff when it notices dangerous behaviour that rises over a certain threshold.
  • Having all of an organization’s identity and access management tools, utilities, and services operate in concert with one another was required for identity stack integration. This entails combining privileged access security solutions, IT service management tools, Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), Multi-factor Authentication (MFA), and SIEM to tighten controls and minimise an organization’s attack surface.
  • Before launching, engage important users and stakeholders.

Best practices

  • Security administrators must monitor and regulate every access.

It can be advisable to onboard privileged accounts in waves so you have time to do it correctly and by platform (so you can focus on specific account types). However, you need to be sure there are no exceptions. This requires continual monitoring and inspection of your user list because if a privileged account manages to evade detection, attackers have access to the most sensitive information within your organisation.

Privilege access may actually be better handled as a transient rather than a permanent condition, where it is given for a little time and then revoked.

  • Real-Time Monitoring

As the application develops, collecting user data will help you develop your policies and enable you to identify and remove unauthorised users. Here, continuous, real-time monitoring and logging are essential, and these records need to be constantly examined.

While examining these recordings can be a time-consuming effort, many systems provide visual representations of privileged behaviour. However, some PAM products feature AI algorithms that can automatically recognise and flag odd behaviour.

  • For reliable PAM, use automation and tools

Automation may also be advantageous for other repetitive chores including log management, software maintenance, controlling third-party access, and straightforward configuration changes. Automation may assist maintain consistency and free up security staff to concentrate on high-level activities that require human input when utilised properly.

Identity, Governance, and Administration (IGA) tools, which are essential for the creation, upkeep, and deletion of accounts, are also included in the PAM toolkit. Change control tools may be used to manage temporary PAM access.

Conclusion

Cybercriminals are concentrating their efforts on key employees whose access credentials provide easy pickings. Privileged Access Management, or PAM, is a subset of cybersecurity practises that is the focus of these mitigation efforts. The PAM idea makes use of tested security techniques and tools like CyberArk and BeyondTrust. Privileged access management (PAM) is the process of ensuring that only those who require access to sensitive data and features are responsible for their actions. Some PAM products feature AI algorithms that can automatically recognise and flag odd behaviour.

Automation may assist maintain consistency and free up security staff to concentrate on high-level activities. Consider it as harder armour for your key tasks and consider it almost necessary to the security of your organisation.

Role of Database Activity Monitoring (DAM) in Database Security.

Database Activity Monitoring
Database Activity Monitoring

Role of Database Activity Monitoring (DAM) in Database Security.

What would a security administrator say is the organization’s most valuable resource?

You’ll most likely hear “database” as an answer.

Why? Because it contains sensitive and important information about a company, including financial information and sensitive information about clients, partners, or staff.

Who can access this information? The database administrators (with full access) come first, then selected people (with restricted access).

But what if one or more of these users misuses their access for improper purposes or if their account is compromised?

According to research, the ten greatest data breaches in the first half of 2020 exposed more than 3.2 million records. A large portion of these records was compromised by database Breaches.

What is at stake?

A database houses an organization’s most important and private data. The perimeter security and fundamental security measures included with the database are insufficient against today’s skilled hackers or rogue insiders.

The typical cybercriminal is indolent and will scrape up any accessible data by using internet programs that run automatically while scanning for unprotected databases. More than just putting in a firewall or installing antivirus software is required to manage such a danger. The databases and apps also operate in intricate contexts with a wide range of dependencies. While we want to secure our information, we also need to be sure that doing so won’t obstruct routine company operations and reduce productivity.

DAM (Database Activity Monitoring) is the solution

Database Activity Monitoring is described by Techopedia as the procedure of observing, recognising, and reporting a database’s actions. DAM technologies employ real-time security technology to independently track and examine specified actions without depending on DBMS audits or logs. The program, in a nutshell, keeps track of and audits what users do with their access or how and by whom data is accessed, including the administrator.

Database Activity Monitoring (DAM) is “a package of technologies that supports the capacity to recognize and report on fraudulent, unlawful, or other undesired conduct, with little impact on user operations and productivity,” according to Gartner.

In addition to strong data-centric security measures like data discovery and categorization, user rights management, privileged user monitoring, data protection and loss prevention, etc., these tools have progressed from simple user activity analysis to encompass more advanced user activity analysis.

The Securosis white paper “Understanding and Selecting a Database Activity Monitoring System” states that a database activity monitoring solution must be able to do the following things, at the very least:

  • All database activity, including administrator activity and select query transactions, should be monitored, and audited independently.
  • Store the audit logs safely on a central server that is separate from the database being audited.
  • Track, tally, and compare activities across several heterogeneous Database Management Systems (DBMSs).
  • Make sure a service account can only execute a limited number of approved queries and can only access a database from a specified source IP.
  • By keeping an eye on and documenting database administrator operations, enforce the separation of tasks.
  • Create warnings for policy infractions based on rules or heuristics. You might, for instance, design a rule that sends out an alert any time a user with elevated privileges runs a select query that produces more than five results from a credit card field. The trigger warns you that there’s a chance the application has been attacked, either via SQL injection or another method.

Why DAM?

We have witnessed significant developments in the risks we face online as well as the regulatory compliance environment over the last few years. Our data is currently the target of both the bad guys and the regulators. While several tools can keep an eye on varying levels of database activity, DAM technologies stand out because they can send out warnings when a policy is broken. DAM technologies include real-time monitoring, rule-based alerts, and activity recording in addition to activity logging, all of which have a significant positive impact on security and compliance.

The fact that the data captured about database usage is stored outside the database that is being monitored so that the DBAs who are being watched cannot change the data is one of the important components of the DAM tool. The capability to provide real-time warnings, which aids in handling the policy violation as soon as it is discovered, is another crucial component.

Imperva is one of the leaders in Database Security. Imperva’s solution for databases provides a database monitoring and audit solution that satisfies a broad range of compliance requirements – while also providing real-time data protection – with little or no impact on database performance.

Benefits of DAM:

  • Maintain a database of activities. This is particularly crucial for monitoring DBA activity and accounts used in shared pool settings.
  • Analyse and monitor trends in database performance as well as database consumption. Based on the trends, predictions may be made about database enhancements.
  • Make sure you comply and follow all laws and regulations. Different laws passed by regulatory organizations specify how data should be handled and safeguarded. DAM tools also assist with this.
  • Enforce the division of responsibilities among database administrators and guard against tampering with documented activity or logs.

Conclusion

A successful organisation is centred around its databases. Nevertheless, it will be vulnerable to subpar performance, policy violations, cyberattacks, etc. without a database activity monitoring system. Therefore, using a suitable activity monitoring technology to ensure database security is the way to go.

Everything you need to know about Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS)

BAS - Cyberintelsys
BAS - Cyberintelsys

Everything you need to know about Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS)

The possibility of a cyberattack is no longer remote. According to security researchers Billy Rios and Jonathan Butts, who highlighted at the 2018 Black Hat cybersecurity conference, the security flaws in Medtronic’s pacemakers could potentially be exploited by hackers to cause the implantable device to malfunction. It would be extremely terrifying to even consider that such an attack may turn out to be lethal and have severe repercussions.

In their quest to survive and expand their businesses, businesses are considering the risks of cyberattacks and making efforts to prevent and combat such attacks. However, despite the deployment of numerous security solutions and control measures, we have seen enough instances of businesses—even some major ones—falling victim to cyberattacks and suffering significant losses.

Whether the security solutions provide the necessary degree of security is the fundamental question that endures even after the deployment of security solutions costing millions of dollars.

Today’s businesses do security audits, vulnerability assessments, penetration tests, red team tests, or threat hunting to identify system weaknesses and prevent potential data breaches. However, each of these approaches has significant drawbacks that prevent a business from coming up with a conclusive, all-encompassing solution to its security-related problems.

A novel kind of technology called Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) can help in this situation.

Breach and Attack Simulation

Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) allows for the simulation of actual hacker-style attacks in order to assess a network’s cyber defences. These simulated assaults may be used to assess a company’s security systems and their capacity for mitigation, prevention, and detection.

  • Security Control Validation- Organizations typically have between 30 and 40 security controls, and they update these controls frequently. Only 22% of respondents to a Ponemon study said they were very confident that the security procedures in their firms were operating as intended. Cymulate automates the validation of security controls and enables ongoing security control improvement. Out-of-the-box assessments use a purple teaming strategy to make it simple for users of all skill levels to understand, manage, and maximise the effectiveness of security policies. The assaults may be launched safely in the production environment and are comprehensive and adaptable.
  • External Attack Surface Management- Attack Surface Management strategy focused on risk to automatically find, analyse, and test an organization’s digital footprint.
  • Vulnerability Prioritization- Organizations are given extra insight into their vulnerabilities right away by Cymulate’s security control validation process when it incorporates the Attack-Based Vulnerability Management (ABVM) dashboard.

Is BAS something organizations should adopt as well?

Large corporations use technologies from 30 to 70 security suppliers on average, according to Gartner. These security systems require ongoing upgrades to resist new and sophisticated security threats, and these enhanced systems must be periodically evaluated to see whether they can even fend off possible cybersecurity attacks.

Penetration testing and other cybersecurity testing methods require the assistance of human professionals. Even if human specialists are better capable of coming up with breach attack simulations that are comparable to those used by similarly motivated hackers on the other side, they are limited in their ability to test as frequently as automated BAS tools.

BAS tools could be the most economical option to carry out ongoing testing of the new and enhanced cybersecurity systems.

Data exfiltration, an attack on the company’s web application firewall, a phishing attack on an organization’s email systems, a malware attack on an endpoint, or even lateral movement across networks may all be simulated using BAS technologies. This shows that the BAS tools can carry out a wide variety of breach and attack simulations, showing a company’s security system’s weaknesses and assisting it in better preparing to make its defenses impermeable. It’s also important to note that many of these tools can run 24/7, which allows for immediate notifications whenever a network change may result in a vulnerability that could compromise the company’s network.

The BAS industry is still in its infancy. The number of security warnings handled by the already overburdened security staff may expand as a result of BAS tools and their regular tests, which may include simulations of surprise attacks. The produced alarms may overwhelm IT security specialists, and the response measures brought on by the simulated attacks may cause the production systems to go down or cause a delay in operations. It could be challenging for them to distinguish between alarms that should be taken seriously and those that are issued by BAS testing and can be safely disregarded.

However, for businesses to avoid cybersecurity breaches in such a situation, regular, methodical, and consistent testing and monitoring of security controls and systems is vital, and BAS tools are gradually demonstrating their value in this respect.

Cymulate is one of the leaders in Breach and Attack Simulation Technology.

Conclusion

BAS stands out from other security testing products on the market, even if the market for automated breach simulation tools is still developing. As the threat landscape changes, more businesses will use this technology as a result of its capacity to execute continuous testing with no risk and assist businesses in identifying weaknesses in their cybersecurity infrastructure.

Attack Surface Management: A Critical Pillar of Cybersecurity Asset Management.

Attack surface management-Cyberintelsys
Attack surface management-Cyberintelsys

Attack Surface Management: A Critical Pillar of Cybersecurity Asset Management.

Attack Surface Management, also known as “ASM,” is the first pillar in a larger Exposure Management approach.

According to Gartner, Cyber Asset Attack Surface Management (CAASM) is an emerging technology that enables security teams to solve persistent asset visibility and vulnerability challenges. CAASM solutions aggregate data from existing tools and data feeds to provide a continuous, multidimensional view of an organization’s entire attack surface.

According to Gartner, ASM responds to the following inquiries:

  • From an attacker’s perspective, how does my organization look?
  • What are the first issues attackers will see? How can cybersecurity find them and prioritize them?

A typical organisation is made up of a diverse variety of assets.

Physical: –

Desktop computers

Laptops

Mobile devices

USB ports

IoT devices

Improperly discarded hardware

But, if an organization isn’t even aware of all its assets, what happens?

What Isn’t Seen Can’t Be Protected?

According to research from industry analysis company ESG. 69% of firms have reported being the victim of an assault on an “unknown, unmanaged, or poorly managed internet-facing asset. This frequently involves ones that the company may have forgotten about or isn’t even aware exist (sometimes referred to as “shadow IT”). It seems sense that criminals have a lot of success abusing them.

It is difficult to find every asset managed by IT due to the explosion in both quantity and diversity. However, it is extremely important to highlight these unknown properties. What cannot be seen cannot be protected.

It is obvious that the quantity, variety, and complexity of IT asset management are growing, frequently to a point where cybersecurity teams are unable to properly track, manage, and secure them.

Attack Surface Management

It is understandable why Attack Surface Management has become a popular subject among cybersecurity experts.

However, cybersecurity and risk management vendors are referring to the same thing under a bewildering array of names, according to industry analyst firm Forrester Research. These consist of:

  • Asset discovery
  • Attack surface assessment
  • Attack surface monitoring
  • Digital asset discovery
  • Digital footprint
  • Digital risk monitoring
  • Digital risk protection
  • External attack surface management

Forrester advises businesses to consider their whole estate of IT assets as a whole.

And as per Gartner’s definition of ASM as a component of exposure management, the three parts of cyber asset attack surface management (for internal assets), external attack surface management, and digital risk protection services are the three key ASM capabilities.

Whatever the definition, industry experts concur that every company has to increase asset visibility, risk prioritization, and security management across the board.

Now, a Top Priority Is Attack Surface Management

We’ve determined that ASM may be summed up as the ongoing process of identifying, categorizing, and evaluating the security of all the assets inside an organization. The chance of a successful assault is reduced by accurate mapping of the attack surface and efficient defense of that surface. A thorough ASM program should have an accurate, current inventory of all IT assets, risk assessments, and a list of any security controls or other risk mitigation measures that have been implemented.

But what criteria should you consider while choosing an ASM solution?

We can start by stating that constant discovery, analysis, and protection are essential components of complete ASM.

Fortunately, these three essential ASM operations can be handled by automated methods. Analysts concur that an automated approach to ASM is essentially necessary for a program to be successful. A complete platform strategy that tightly combines vulnerability management, endpoint security, cloud security, web app security, and threat intelligence is even preferable for ASM.

BitSight’s Attack Surface Analytics solution enables you to gain visibility into your attack surface and the risks associated with cyber security threats and vulnerabilities within your digital ecosystem. With BitSight, you can monitor your attack surface to build cyber security and risk management programs that work better.

Conclusion

The post-COVID era is a difficult one right now. A unified approach to cybersecurity is necessary in light of cyberwarfare, an impending economic downturn, and the ongoing IT skills gap. It is obvious that ASM should be prioritized by both large and small businesses. Exposures and unmanaged assets will keep accumulating if the organization’s attack surface is not dynamically and comprehensively viewed in a dynamic IT environment.

The Importance and benefits of Cloud Penetration Testing.

Cloud Penetration Testing
Cloud Penetration Testing

The Importance and benefits of Cloud Penetration Testing.

Many organizations have adopted cloud computing for the delivery of computing services as it offers flexible resources, economies of scale & faster innovation. While the cloud offers many advantages, it also opens the doors to a few challenges.

The major challenge faced when we use cloud infrastructures is that every cloud provider will have their proprietary security policies and controls and the teams have to configure and secure the different cloud environments which often leads to misconfigurations and opens the door for security breaches.

So as to consistently check for the health of cloud infrastructures it is recommended to have periodic penetration testing done. Organizations may strengthen their cloud security overall and prevent breaches by using cloud penetration testing.

Additionally, enterprises will have a more thorough picture of their cloud assets, including how attack-resistant and vulnerable the present cloud security is.Cloud Pentesting is performed under strict guidelines from the cloud service providers in order to find and exploit security flaws. A Cloud Penetration test simulates a controlled cyber-attack on your cloud infrastructure.

Different types of Cloud Penetration Testing:

Cloud Penetration Testing examines issues relating to attack, breach, operability, and recovery within a cloud environment.

Black Box Penetration Testing— The Cloud Penetration testers are unfamiliar with and have no prior access to your cloud systems throughout this assault simulation.

Grey Box Penetration Testing— Cloud Penetration testers may be given restricted administrative rights and have limited user and system expertise.

White Box Penetration Testing— Root-level access to cloud systems is available to Cloud Penetration testers.

Types of common Cloud Penetration testing:

  • AWS Penetration Testing
  • Google Cloud Penetration Testing
  • Microsoft Azure Penetration Testing
  • Docker and Kubernetes Penetration Testing
  • Containers Penetration Testing

Microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/msrc/pentest-rules-of-engagement

Aws Amazon: https://aws.amazon.com/security/penetration-testing/

Google cloud platform: https://support.google.com/cloud/answer/6262505?hl=en

cyberintelsys-Cloud Penetration Testing

Cloud security threats can be prevented with Cloud Penetration Testing:

Insecure APIs:

Cloud Penetration Testing services make full use of the APIs to distribute vital information among several apps. Additionally, improperly using HTTP techniques in APIs, such as PUT, POST, Remove, etc., might allow hackers to upload malicious code or other information to your server and delete, edit, modify, or hijack the database without your consent.

Cloud Server Misconfigurations:

Misconfiguration is now the most widespread cloud vulnerability, particularly when it comes to S3 buckets. Inappropriate allotments, which result in not encrypting the databases and failing to discriminate between private and public information, are the most common cloud server configuration errors.

Weak Credentials:

If you use the most popular or weak passwords for your cloud accounts, you might undoubtedly become subject to cyber-attacks utilising them, such as those used in brute force assaults. The threat actor with malicious intent may skilfully automate a number of tools to make educated guesses of any strings of potential passwords, opening the door for your regular accountant to use those credentials.

These sorts of cyber-attacks frequently occur when users try to reuse passwords or use passwords that are simple to remember. This scenario may be regularly tested during cloud penetration testing.

Outdated Software:

Working with out-of-date software versions can potentially have horrifying outcomes since they are quite susceptible to possible hazards that the corporation has already addressed in the most recent software version.

Most software providers do not plan to employ an effective update system, or users themselves turn off automatic updates, preventing them from being updated and clogging up storage with meaningless data.

For a long-term, safe and sound working approach, one only needs to upgrade their working programme to the most recent version.

Insecure Coding Practices:

Businesses constantly work to reduce the cost of their cloud infrastructure often employ subpar coding to minimise costs and thus invite flaws like SQLi, XSS, CSRF, etc. The OWASP Top 10 list includes the vulnerabilities that are the most prevalent among them. As a result, the primary reason why so many cloud computing services have been compromised is due to these vulnerabilities.

Conclusion:

The purpose of Cloud Penetration Testing is to examine issues relating to attack, breach, operability, and recovery within a cloud environment. Cloud Penetration Testing simulates a controlled cyber-attack on your cloud infrastructure. Cloud Penetration Testing services make full use of the APIs to distribute vital information among several apps. improperly using HTTP techniques in APIs, such as PUT, POST, Remove, etc., might allow hackers to upload malicious code or other information to your server.The OWASP Top 10 list includes the vulnerabilities that are the most prevalent among them. As a result, working with out-of-date software can potentially have horrifying outcomes. For a long-term safe and sound working approach, one only needs to upgrade their working program to the most recent version. These types of cloud security threats can be prevented with Cloud Penetration Testing.