In cyber security, the “Insider Threat” refers to potential actions taken by people within an organization that can cause harm, as opposed to hackers attacking from the outside. Sometimes an insider takes actions maliciously with intent to steal data or cause damage. In other cases, the insider takes actions accidentally by clicking a link or sharing information because they … [Read more...]
Were the US Navy Ship Collisions the Result of Hacking?
With the recent string of US Navy ship collisions including the USS McCain and Fitzgerald, the mind of a security professional will instantly think of all the possible malicious ways an attacker could target naval systems to cause a vessel to crash. Multiple collisions with similar factors will lead to even more speculation. Although professionals should not claim attribution … [Read more...]
Packet Capture on AWS ~ New Solutions to Old Problems
Security professionals often attach a packet capture security appliance to a span port on hardware network equipment to capture network packets in a data center. On AWS customers do not have access to span ports and physical networking equipment. This led some security professionals to believe it is not possible to implement a packet capture solution on AWS. In fact, packet … [Read more...]
Using Firewall Policies to Auto-Block Rogue Hosts on External Networks
Automatically preventing all traffic from hosts that attempt to connect to blocked ports can help prevent further malicious actions from those IP addresses as explained in Auto-Blocking Suspicious Hosts Found in Traffic Logs. After posting that article, one WatchGuard customer sent me a note about using the auto-block feature to help prevent DDoS attacks. By reducing the … [Read more...]
Carbon Black Data Leaks – A Good Reminder to Protect Keys
A security firm published a blog post today explaining how they compromised an endpoint security system. The vendor, Carbon Black, responded in a blog post explaining that this feature is off by default and customers receive a warning when they turn it on. Setting aside the topic of responsible disclosure for the moment, take a look at this statement in the research firm’s … [Read more...]
