Poisoning

By cliangNo Comments
We heard about DNS poisonong, search engine poisoning, ARP poisoning etc. With the rise of AI, data poisonings is evolved. There are 2 types of poisoning: Malicious user to bypass the protection scheme of AI to output what is prohibited for abuse Poison the data model to generate incorrect results to user [The analogy is in the typical web application that malicous user plant bad data and stored in backend database as persistent threat to attack other users due to poor coding.] On top of regulatory and ethical issues, the key to deal with this is to enable secure use of AI by formulating guidance and apply final human judgment. Treat AI output as reference for insights and research only. ...
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Network #2

By cliangNo Comments
Digitalization needs things connected to deliver the business outcome. Without network, not much or even none can be achieved. And there won't be luxury nor feasible for a point to point dedicated end-to-end communication line. Therefore, the network part is always the focus for cyber risk due to no need to access physically the component and connectivity. But remember, other aspects like physical security, application controls, service provider management are equally important to secure the digital function. ...
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Enforcement #5

By cliangNo Comments
What can and what cannot be practically enforced? Setting up a written directive (policy statement) is easy. But the actual value of a policy statement is to achieve certain purpose in arriving at the desirable consequence. If something cannot be practically accomplished, that is a bad policy. Some cybersecurity practitioners establish policies very strictly hoping to secure the organization business operations. The pitfall is a large gap will be resulted with reality or the current setup. Flexibility must be built to avoid so many non-compliance cases. Non-compliance also affects the corporate governance in the entire organization. The proper approach is to make it incremental strengthening, listen and adopt feedbacks from field users who will tell what works and what absolutely not works. Even if that works, other elements to consider are maximize the investment for best protection and the urgency to do so. Never establish policies based on media, sales pitch nor textbook knowledge. ...
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Architecture #2

By cliangNo Comments
Parthenon, 447 BC Some cybersecurity practitioners always mention network diagram to have cybersecurity architecture for review and so-called approval. They know just the term and never grasp the real meaning. Cybersecurity architecture is actually the digital landscape having these core elements: network zoning, electronic perimeter control, cyber protection measures. The last one is an organization-wide issue because protection measures are not solely via technical controls which are the last to consider. Not everything can be technically enforced and if it does, it kills business. Enhancing workforce competency especially cybersecurity practitioners who act as internal subject matter expert to provide reputable and credible opinions rather than just slipping words out of their mouth. Situation awareness is another key player in protection measure. The illustrated architecture is an aged structure with and yet it is still standing there. By the same token we should not solely demand refreshing technology obsolescence because it has entered end of support. It needs a holistic...
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Off Grid

By cliangNo Comments
Our physical world is fully integrated with the cyber world. Some derivatives like privacy, digital asset, cyber protection are of a concern. The extreme approach to get rid of these cyber issues is to stay off grid, i.e. in the wild: no cell phone, no electricity, no tap water supply, no gas, no vehicle, or a complete isolate zone with the outter world. It is easy to just talk about staying off grid but when putting into practice, it's a great challenge to adapt. You need to hunt for food, collect drinkable water, build shelter, source heat to cook or keep warmth and most importantly don't get sick. Even a recycle bin will lead you connected with others in the logistic chain. We can't escape from the cyber world but to manage this to understand and accept the consequence. ...
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Twins

By cliangNo Comments
Ditigal Twin is a digital representation of a physical object, person, or process, contextualized in a digital environment. There are lots of use cases and solutions available in the market for different types of model. How do we ensure the results from the digital environment is truly representing the physical environment? This falls into fundamentals that need subject matter experts design, deploy, sustain and validate the digital model regularly. Otherwise, an incorrect outcome from the digital representation will cause incorrect judgment with at worst catastrophic consequence. ...
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Security Culture

By cliangNo Comments
A trivial observation will reveal a lot of issues about the security culture of an organization. 1. Does the organization: Have information security policies in place Define the differennt information classes Provide examples of each information class Establish approval process with appropriate authoritive level to declassify information for sharing Deploy viable means to share confidential materials Communicate properly all staff with mandatory regular refresher programme Integrate information security undertaking in the employment term Impose discrepancy process for policy violation Enforce role based access profile per job function Review periodically for appropriate access rights 2. Do the staff: Have minimal access to information just per the job roles Forget to reclassify the information after approval has been granted Understand what has gone wrong It seems so many issues have been surfaced but this is the challenge and a matter of fact when all of us living in the digital world, not-to-mention unstructured information is everywhere beyond the organization cyber landscape. The bottom line relies on human rather than technologies to secure information mandated by policies (written directives). ...
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United

By cliangNo Comments
Combat against cyber threats relies on everyone. Together, determined group of individuals will become strong. Then, what about cybersecurity practitioners. Do we still need them? Yes, they are still required in an organization but there should be a small team to prioritize cyber protections aligning with the business objectives. Cybersecurity is now integrated into every job function, executed and sustained properly for effective protection. This requires the entire work force to achieve. This is just like each work force member has to prepare report, spreadsheet, presentation materials all on its own. Clerical support in the old days have gone. This change is inevitable especially all business functions are now undergone digital transformation to stay competitiveness in the market. ...
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Tunnel #3

By cliangNo Comments
See thru tunnel TLS is breakable. Similar post is here. This is normally done at the Internet gateway. Anything flowing thru the tunnel will be visible and web surfers don't even know. The major rationales for Deep Packet Inspection are: Organizations impose DLP (Data Leakage Protection) technology Certain regions control the contents Therefore, don't expect privacy even the padlock is displayed in the web browser bar. Either you exercise further content protection before passing out to cloud folder, use VPN or even going extreme using the Dark Web. ...
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Integrity

By cliangNo Comments
Here, I am not talking about the fundamental of information security, the CIA aspects. Most often, we trust the policy enforcement is honestly executed. Imagine the parking ticket is issued to vehicle with time expired. How do we ensure this is done unbiased, i.e. the actual time is expired in the meter rather than issuing the parking ticket at wish? We are not yet coming to the point of technology failure (incorrect display, incorrect calculation etc.). Personal integrity is important and that's why human is the success factor in cyber security. I have seen incompetent cybersecurity practitioner raising subjective opinions or manipulate the situation based on a buggy policy without looking in the real situation nor listen to feedback. This is the most biggest risk to an organization. The risk is no longer due to hackers, human error, insecure configuration, lack of cyber maintenance and those typical FUD issues. Therefore, evaluating the competency of the...
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