Category: Cyber Security

To celebrate the 11th annual National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM), (ISC)² has released its fifth and final set of tips by its Application Security Advisory Council: tips for more secure software.

“Make sure your business functionality maps to a security plan (i.e., security is built-in, not bolted-on).

Design your software with the future in mind, not just of the now (i.e., it is adaptable to talent-, technological- and threat- changes).

Don’t develop your software if your modus operandi is, ‘You start coding, I will go find out what they want.’ This is not agile programming.”
-Mano Paul, CISSP, CSSLP, GWAPT, GSSP-.Net, MCAD, MCSD, CompTIA Network+, ECSA, Founder & CEO, SecuRisk Solutions and Express Certifications; Founder, HackFormers

“Always question what data you should trust. Where does your application really start and end?

Study your configurations to ensure you’re not leaving your software open to being hacked.

Understand the protections that are naturally within your platform, and USE them.”
-Glenn Leifheit, CISSP, CSSLP, Principal Security Architect, Microsoft

“Look into the CSSLP!  Secure software involves more than just writing code.  Test, Test, and Test your code some more!

Think ‘Dysfunctionally’. ‘Dysfunctional Testing’ involves not just testing your software for how it should work, yet also how it should not work. Test abuse cases.

If you don’t test your software for security vulnerabilities, others will on your behalf in the field. Vulnerability test your product before it is released.

Fuzz, fuzz, and fuzz test your protocols some more.

DevOps is an important component of helping to make secure software.

Everyone has a role in helping make software secure. Secure software requires executive support, program management, product management,  marketing, incident response teams, testers, developers, and release teams. We must work together to make secure software.”
-Tony Vargas, CISSP-ISSAP, CSSLP, Security+, Co-Founder, Chairman & President, (ISC)² Sacramento Chapter; Chair, (ISC)² Application Security Advisory Council

“If you’re developing software, the OWASP Cheat Sheets [authored in part by ASAC member Tom Brennan] should be helpful: https://www.owasp.org/index.php/OWASP_Cheat_Sheet_Series”
-Tom Brennan, CISSP, Global Vice Chairman, OWASP Foundation; Founder, proactiveRISK and CyberTOOLBELT

[(ISC)²]

It’s a full-blown crisis when a dozen major financial services firms admit to having their networks probed by the same attackers as those behind the JPMorgan Chase breach.

The one thing the seemingly never-ending string of security breaches highlights is the fact that the current online trust model as we know it is broken. The security compromises at JPMorgan Chase, Home Depot, Dairy Queen, and elsewhere are proof that it is time for industry stakeholders to go back to the drawing board. Clearly, the old model of throwing resources at perimeter defenses, sticking in a few intrusion and anomaly detection tools, patching, and praying is not working.

It’s bad enough when major retailers like Home Depot get compromised. It’s much worse when JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s largest bank, says intruders were able to break into its systems and steal data on a staggering 83 million consumer and commercial accounts. Having served as the Chief Information Security Officer at Fifth Third Bank and Bank One, respectively in Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio, I can speak from personal experience. It’s a full-blown crisis when more than a dozen major financial services companies admit to having their networks being probed for weaknesses by the same attackers as those behind the Chase breach. This reflects the increasing technical sophistication and the audacity of those behind these attacks.

It’s not just banking and the retail industry that are vulnerable. Other sectors, some of them in critical infrastructure industries such as electric sector companies, are also dangerously exposed to similar threats from motivated, highly skilled adversaries. If the recently disclosed breaches are any indication, many of them are likely already compromised and don’t know it.

While it’s easy to blame the victims for their predicament, the problems go much deeper. It is hard to believe that an organization like JPMorgan Chase simply allowed intruders to waltz into its systems and walk away with all those credentials. According to Jamie Dimon, the company’s chief executive officer, JPMorgan Chase spends $250 million annually on computer security. Over the next five years, the bank plans on doubling that amount to minimize the risk of same thing happening again.

(Source: Joe Mabel [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons)

A lucky break for hackers?
That intruders were able to break through even the defenses that this kind of money can buy only proves the old adage: The bad guys only need to get lucky once. As Dimon noted in remarks at a financial service event in Washington recently, defending enterprises is also about internal protection, vendor protection, and about securing against everything that touches the enterprise network. “There will be a lot of battles,” he said. “Unfortunately some will be lost.”

Retailers, for instance, are frequent targets because magnetic stripe credit and debit cards used in the US are so easy to compromise. Migrating the payment system to smartcards based on the Europay MasterCard Visa (EMV) standard will make it much harder for criminals to clone and use stolen card data, thereby making it more difficult for hackers to take advantage of retailers.

Breaches like the one at Dairy Queen spotlight the need for all enterprises to pay attention to third-party service providers and the entire supply chain. Dairy Queen says attackers used login credentials belonging to a third-party vendor to access its networks and steal cardholder data belonging to customers across 400 store locations. DQ is not the first company to be victimized by a lapse at a third-party, and it won’t be the last.

At the end of the day, despite the wealth of technologies in a computer network, someone is still going to find a way to get in if they are determined and patient enough. The focus has to be not only on detection, response, and mitigation, but also on prevention. It needs to about reducing the overall risk profile.

It takes a village
Security vendors, hardware manufacturers, and cloud service providers need to be willing to work together to address the vulnerabilities that allow breaches to happen so often. Threat information sharing is a vital component of this partnership. One of the reasons perpetrators of the JPMorgan attack probed other financial services companies was because they figured their best chance of getting in would be before the banks started alerting each other about unusual activity. Better information sharing among enterprises, vendors, and other stakeholders should help deter such behavior.

Similarly, technologies such as one-time-use credit card numbers that change randomly with each transaction could make it more difficult for criminals to steal from retailers. Even simple measures like giving consumers the ability to specify spending limits over a particular time period could reduce fraudulent use of stolen cards.

There are no silver bullets, but if protection could extend across the entire supply chain, enterprises and the consumers they serve would be better protected. For instance, make it easier for enterprises to discover and secure applications based on employee use and business criticality. Tools such as strong encryption, key management, tokenization, and data loss prevention can help companies protect data in the cloud more efficiently.

Getting security right in this environment of non-stop breaches presents a huge opportunity for cloud and security providers to innovate. Addressing security comprehensively across private sector companies can create an environment that is resilient and transparent, and will allow us to prosper over the long term.

Bob West has more than a decade in security leadership roles with financial and professional services organizations where he oversaw security strategy and audit-and-compliance across global teams. He has held Chief Information Security Officer roles at Fifth Third Bank and Bank One, led Ernst & Young’s security practice, and was a Senior Systems Officer with Citicorp. He most recently served as founder and CEO of Echelon One, a fast-growing risk consulting firm. Bob has served on the advisory boards of Securent (acquired by Cisco) and TriCipher (acquired by VMWare), and as a member of RSA Security’s Customer Advisory Council and the ISS Customer Advisory Council. He was also a member of the IT Sector Coordinating Council and of the International Cybercrime Subcommittee.

[DarkReading]

To celebrate the 11th annual National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM), (ISC)² has released its fourth set of tips by security experts: cybersecurity tips for Chief Executive Officers (CEOs).

“Two-factor authentication (something you have, know, or are) has become very important for system access. Passwords alone just do not cut it anymore. This is extremely important as we see the rapid rise in financial transactions, particularly on mobile devices. Ask your bank if two-factor authentication is available and if not, get another bank that does. Credit card companies and online retailers are close behind.  They are not going to cover your losses through stolen identity and fraud much longer.  It’s your money and reputation, so do your part to protect yourself.

If you are a service provider and do not have two-factor as mandatory or as an option, you should explore how quickly you could provide it. It is becoming a business discriminator.”
-W. Hord Tipton, CISSP-ISSEP, CAP, Executive Director, (ISC)²

“Make sure you have an incident response plan in place for when you get breached.  Document, disseminate, and practice that plan with stakeholders from each and every segment of your business.

Also, know the current level and business impact of risk to your company.  Have a plan to periodically report on/communicate identified risk with the executive leadership and how it will be addressed.”
-Dan Waddell, CISSP, CAP, Director of Government Affairs, (ISC)²

[(ISC)²]

A Message from the Board Communications Committee on Board Elections

This year the (ISC)² Board of Directors election process emerges after a massive year-long facelift. Through the recommendations of last year’s Board of Directors and the tenacity of the (ISC)² Management team, this year marks an unprecedented shift as the organization adjusts election processes based on member feedback.

We really try to be problem-solvers, and with our emphasis on member service, making sure we aligned the election process to meet the changing demands of our membership was paramount this year. You asked, we listened, and we have some exciting changes to share.

This year’s election runs from November 16-30, 2014 and our goal is to have the highest number of members voting in history. Here’s what we’re doing to make that happen.

New official candidate forum.
First, you’ll have the opportunity to interact one-on-one with all the candidates through an open forum online. Members are encouraged to interact, ask questions and really engage with the candidates through this self-moderated platform. The forum is hosted on LinkedIn as a public group. With 260 million users across more than 200 countries, LinkedIn was an obvious choice for a professional discussion forum. You can access the (ISC)² Board of Directors Election Candidates’ Forum through (ISC)² Election Central or directly on LinkedIn. You told us seeing bios and profiles on a website didn’t provide enough background on the candidates, and we agree! This new forum offers the platform to dive in to tough issues and get more background on your Board of Directors candidates. You can subscribe to email digests for the group or specific discussions, and you can post directly on the group 24×7.

Election Central.
Second, you’ll have a central place to access all the relevant information for this year’s election. The team is pleased to present the first Election Central, a portal to access candidates’ bios, candidate social media links, details about the election process, and informative overviews of what it means to be a Board of Directors member at (ISC)². Instead of logging in and clicking through several pages and menus to find pieces of information, we’ve put it neatly in one central place for you. You can useElection Central as your primary resource throughout the election process.

New voting platform.
Third, the team has worked tirelessly to move voting to a hosted balloting system that provides end-to-end auditable voting. This change is no small task for an organization with 100,000 members! Although the integrity of the voting process in years past was extremely high, the Board of Directors and Management took the extra step to migrate to a fully hosted, auditable voting platform. Results will still be validated by a third party as they’ve been in the past. We believe this change adds an extra layer of security and transparency by distancing the organization from the ballots and adding yet another layer of validation. Not only is the platform hosted and secured, but it leverages single sign-on for a streamlined login and seamless experience for members.

You, the members.
Last, but most certainly not least, our secret weapon is you – the member. You have the power to transform the future and be an active participant in choosing your representation on the (ISC)² Board of Directors. We believe this year marks an unprecedented level of participation, care and attention to, from and by the members. It takes an active membership to make elections meaningful, and we hope you’ll find these new changes empower you to be an active participant this year.

Is our new system perfect? I’m sure it’s not. Theodore Roosevelt said, “In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.” And so we are doing something, and we view this year as the first big step toward meeting member demand, increasing member engagement, and bridging the gap between you, the organization, and your Board of Directors. We hope you’ll take advantage of the new resources available to you during this year’s election and of course, we welcome feedback as we continue to learn and grow.

On behalf of the (ISC)² Board Communications Committee and your (ISC)² Board of Directors, we welcome you to the 2015 election and ask for your participation in helping us grow and transform the organization to meet the challenges of a new year!

Jennifer Minella, CISSP
Chair, Board Communications Committee
(ISC)² Board of Directors

[(ISC)² Blog]