WiFi

By cliang1 Comment
Getting connected to the Internet for various activities (getting updates from email, news, social media, weather, checking maps, traffic condition etc.) becomes an expected living habit due to mature technology and well established infrastructure. This need is even more when travelling around. Free or paid Internet access is available anywhere in library, hotel, airport, café, shopping malls and even inflight. Therefore WiFi cybersecurity is a concern. I have heard criticism from a cybersecurity practitioner on a single workstation (specific business function) in getting system updates via corporate guest WiFi is insecure and the connection should be switched to a 4G/5G data plan but there is no reason behind. This appears as an irrational advice. By default, Internet isn't secure whether it's WiFi or data plan. The recommendation should provide reason why it is insecure and mostly importantly practical measure to secure. If we look at this further, the insecurity from WiFi is likely due to: The infrastructure does not impose...
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Onion Approach

By cliangNo Comments
Information protection is usually via layered defence, sometimes refers as the "onion approach". In physical world, protected contents are placed inside secure facility thru multiple control points with access granularity like site level, particular zone(s) in the site, building, equipment room and cabinet before reaching the target. When things are changed accessible from network, reliance on physical access is still required but there are added controls to the cyber portion. Layered protection counterparts are: network firewall, application firewall, middleware gateway, RBAC, multi-factor authentication. Latest concept is zero-trust (ZT): user identity (and the authorized roles), request originated from which device (and platform), via trusted or untrusted network, type of application raising the request, types of contents for access, industry compliance and latest threat intelligence are all the variables in determining the permission for access. The same onion approach applies except more complexity in setting up and maintenance of these dynamic parameters. ...
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Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) Firewall

By cliangNo Comments
No doubt, the technology is secure. But without assessing the situation holistically, this is inconclusive. Rulesets might be wrongly set or firewall is wrongly configured, then the DPI firewall is insecure. If the connecting components are in a restricted and lock down environment, a DPI firewall is overkill and won't contribute to enhance more security. By the same token, media always exaggerate cyber threats. We must judge if such threat scenarios are likely in our environment rather than blindly doing unnecessary lock down on existing systems. An example is the ransomware attack via inactive user account thru VPN without 2-factor authentication, or authenticated users via PrintNightmare exploit. Something must be done but not to complete today. Security enhancement must be assessed, managed rather than in a piecemeal manner. The latter might even create more problems after blindly applying the counter-measures. Remember - action without plan is nightmare; plan without action is day dream. ...
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Privacy

By cliangNo Comments
We have a lot of personal data exposed in the cyber world in our daily life. To name a few, the "intrusive components" are: Electronic pass for toll road: where you are heading to, or even your entire journey if throughout the itinerary, there are traffic cameras and auto toll collection pointsCCTV: inside building, public areas, dashcam in vehicles nearbyCredit card: traces back to your identify, location, amount consumed, commodity purchasedHealth monitoring device: you wear in your body to capture your health data continuously, share in the technology provider's community if you wishOperating System: sharing the diagnostic data with the technology vendor when problem occurs or during online trouble shootingWeb site cookies: IP address to geo-location of your web surfing location, your web preferenceDigital photo: modern cameras are equipped with geo-tagging The most intrusive device is your cell phone. You carry it almost all the time. It exposes your geo-location from which cell towers your phone is connecting to. What should...
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Declassification

By cliangNo Comments
Confidential information is costly to maintain. Imagine all the 3 data states (data-in-motion, data-at-rest, data-in-use) will require technology and the underlying process to manage the authorized access and usage while denying otherwise. Most often except a few, sensitive information will diminish its value or impact overtime. An example of the "few" is the formula of a soft drink that remains as trade secret to standout the products from its competitors. Other than technical controls like encryption or multi-factors authentication access for digital information, there are simply regulations to protect artist work copyrights, alogrithm patent etc. that are published in public domain. Secret government documents also have expiry date to release for public interests. The declassification together with destruction process are therefore an important stage in the information lifecycle management process. Without these, the burden to maintain secrecy will increase over time and become unmanageable. ...
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Enforcement #2

By cliangNo Comments
Durnig pandemic situation, InfraRed body temperature detection technology is great - contactless, accurate, multi-persons processing, seamlessly and transparent to customers. But the illustrated scenario lacks of enforcement - persons with detected abnormal body temperature are still able to go in. A policy statement (notice at entrance) must be established to deny visit of persons with abnormal body temperature. Further, a security guard or so needs to watch the outcome of measured body temperature to enforce such policy. Without enforcement, deploying great technology doesn't make sense. This applies to cybersecurity domain as well. ...
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Concealment

By cliangNo Comments
Two lanes but 3 traffic signs. Is the middle lane hidden? Information concealment is one of the techniques to hide important content. There are many tools that comes with steganographic processing. Usually, media files are chosen as the host file to store the secret data but their native usage (viewing photo, watching video with associated apps) are unaffected even with secret data injected. Media files are the popular host because photo, audio or video are basically having larger size. The objective is let secret message stored there and staying low profile without being caught. Yet, this technique is aimed at hiding small amount of data (like passcode, geo-location) because too much data might increase the host size that is unproportionable to its original form. ...
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Choke Point

By cliangNo Comments
In physical world, it is a geographical critical and strategic passage. Armed force is able to control what is allowed and what is not for passing thru. In cyber world, similar concept is deployed in network perimeter controlling data traffic what is allowed and what is not in reaching the destination node(s). Source ports don't matter. The camera aperture is the good metaphor. Light sources don't matter. What matter is to control the incoming lights from whatever directions to reach the camera senor for composing an ideal photo. I came across a cybersecurity practitioner who is so innovative to request controls of the network source ports in the firewall as well. This involves application logic and configuration changes yet the effectiveness to enhance cybersecurity is really in doubt. ...
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DeMilitarized Zone (DMZ)

By cliangNo Comments
DMZ becomes the de facto standard for network segmentation. It is used to control network traffic across trust and untrusted network zones. Network traffic is used instead of network connection because the latter is not precise. A network cable is connected across components but what does matter is the traffic flowing thru. The network zoning is typically implemented by network firewall. More functions like anti-malware protection, site filtering, application requests screening are adding to the network firewall making it the so-called next generation (NG) firewall. To enhance customer confidence, there are 3rd party accredition for firewall cybersecurity. No matter how secure the component is manufactured and deployed, the important aspects to maintain a secure network perimeter are: Proper design, i.e. placing the firewall(s) at the correct network nodeProper configuration, i.e. device management and least privilege firewall rulesPeriodic assessment, i.e. validate if the configuration is still valid (don't retain the associated firewall rules when system has retired)Proper maintenance, i.e. update firmware...
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Blind Spot

By cliangNo Comments
Can the bird be detected? When designing controls, we must understand what to protect. There might be blind spot that the intended controls are ineffective or even void. For inherent design weakness, retrofit would be costly and sometimes not possible without rebuilt from scratch. As a good practice, a design review to assess the control effectiveness before build will avoid such pitfall. Either a peer review or engaging independent subject matter expert will help to spot weakness with fresh eyes. ...
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