Tag Archives: prevention strategy

Your Ransomware Strategy 2021: Prevention or Bow to the Inevitable?

1 January 2021

This morning I read the transcript of the Threatpost webinar ” What’s Next for Ransomware”.[1] Becky Bracken hosted the webinar some weeks ago, panelists were Limor Kessem (IBM Security), Allie Mellen (Cyberreason) and Austin Merritt (Digital Shadows). The discussion focused on incident response:

“While IT departments will undoubtedly lead efforts to shore up defenses against attacks, including backups, patching, updating and employee-awareness training, our panel of experts agree that preparing a critical-response plan which includes the entire organization — from the executives on down the org chart — is the best way to minimize cost, damage and downtime.”

Having a well-crafted and trained incident response plan in place is, from my point of view, an indispensable means to recover from all kind of cyber-attacks. But is it “the best way to minimize cost, damage and downtime” in the case of Ransomware?

Response plans come into play when a ransomware attack is detected. But during the time until detection, the ransomware may cause damage to the network and the data. Once detected, incident response kicks in by taking appropriate actions to

  • containing the attack,
  • investigating the network for yet undetected instances of the ransomware,
  • repairing the already done damage, etc.

This is close to Gartner’s[2] approach to defend ransomware, so industry standard. But is this reactive approach the best way to minimize the economic impact of an attack?

The Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) describes in its Ransomware Guide[3] a more preventive approach. Backup, patching, cyber-hygiene, awareness training and cyber incident response plan are the building blocks. In addition, CISA recommends to “Use application directory allowlisting on all assets to ensure that only authorized software can run, and all unauthorized software is blocked from executing”.[3] This is a clear step towards prevention of attacks. Since ransomware comes from external sources e.g., through internet, e-mail, usb-devices, it commonly is not part of the allow-list, thus blocked.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) goes one step further in its 2016 published paper “Seven Strategies to Defende ICS”.[4] The first strategy is “Implement Application Whitelisting” because it “can detect and prevent attempted execution of malware uploaded by adversaries”.

Finally, the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) recommends Application Whitelisting as Number One of Essential Eight[5][6] strategies to prevent malware delivery and execution.

Neither Gartner nor the experts in the Threatpost webinar mentioned preventive controls to deal with ransomware. DHS and ACSC recommend them as central part of a cyber-security strategy.

From my point of view, application whitelisting is a must have to minimize the economic impact of an attack. If execution of malware is prevented, the costs to cleanup and recover from a ransomware attack are minimized.

The baseline security costs are for certain increased because application whitelisting solutions must be managed like any other application. This holds even if the Windows built-in tools AppLocker or Software Restriction Policies are used. But this will be balanced by the fact that application whitelisting will prevent also zero-day malware or PUA from execution.

CISA and ACSC provide useful hints on dealing with ransomware without big invest in new tools. It makes sense to take them into account when revising your security roadmap for 2021.

Happy New Year!

And have a great weekend.

[1] Bracken B. What’s Next for Ransomware in 2021? [Internet]. threatpost. 2020 [zitiert 1. Januar 2021]. Verfügbar unter: https://threatpost.com/ransomware-getting-ahead-inevitable-attack/162655/

[2] Sakpal M, Webber P. 6 Ways to Defend Against a Ransomware Attack [Internet]. Smarter with Gartner. 2020 [zitiert 1. Januar 2021]. Verfügbar unter: https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/6-ways-to-defend-against-a-ransomware-attack/

[3] Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency. Ransomware Guide [Internet]. CISA Publications Library. 2020 [zitiert 8. Oktober 2020]. Verfügbar unter: https://www.cisa.gov/sites/default/files/publications/CISA_MS-ISAC_Ransomware%20Guide_S508C.pdf

[4] U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Seven Strategies to Defend ICSs [Internet]. DoD’s Environmental Research Programs. 2016 [zitiert 13. Oktober 2020]. Verfügbar unter: https://www.serdp-estcp.org/serdp-estcp/Tools-and-Training/Installation-Energy-and-Water/Cybersecurity/Resources-Tools-and-Publications/Resources-and-Tools-Files/DHS-ICS-CERT-FBI-and-NSA-Seven-Steps-to-Effectively-Defend-Industrial-Control-Systems

[5] Australian Cyber Security Center. Strategies to Mitigate Cyber Security Incidents [Internet]. 2017 [zitiert 1. Dezember 2020]. Verfügbar unter: https://www.cyber.gov.au/acsc/view-all-content/publications/strategies-mitigate-cyber-security-incidents

[6] Australian Cyber Security Center. Essential Eight Explained [Internet]. [zitiert 1. Dezember 2020]. Verfügbar unter: https://www.cyber.gov.au/acsc/view-all-content/publications/essential-eight-explained

Triton: Dangerous and Puzzling – Part III

18 March 2018

The reports published on Triton so far give no hint on how the attack was started. With Occam’s razor in mind I concluded in part II of this post series that it is very likely, that the attacker compromised the Engineering Service Providers (ESP) network and the systems used for developing the SIS software. Since the next software update is sure to come, it is only a matter of time until the SIS installation in the production network gets compromised.

In this part I will talk about how to prevent and protect against such attacks.

Part III: Prevention and Protection

To protect against such kind of attacks data integrity must be ensured across the entire supply chain.

Ensure Integrity Across the Supply Chain

Ensure Integrity Across the Supply Chain

Engineering Service Provider’s responsibilities

Build: The ESP must make sure that the project data and software cannot be compromised in his facilities during software design and build.

Transfer: The ESP must secure the data against manipulation during transport.

Plant Operator’s responsibilities

Validate: After handover, the operator must check that the software and project data fulfil only the intended functions, before the SIS or DCS is updated. This must be governed by a Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) with formal approvals.

Install: The operator must follow a SOP for secure update of SIS and DCS software.

In the following section I will give some best practice to achieve data integrity across the supply chain. Anti-malware solutions are not listed because they are industry standard. Nevertheless, it is important to note that in Triton like cases pattern based anti-malware solutions will not prevent or protect against the attack. Pattern based anti-malware solutions protect only against malware “in the wild”. That’s not the case here, thus we have to apply other means to ensure integrity.

Development network

  • Perform all project work in an isolated Development Network (D-NET) with a Development DMZ (D-DMZ).
  • Control remote access to the D-DMZ through a user proxy to allow access for authorized staff only. Two Factor Authentication is mandatory for access to the D-DMZ.
  • For remote user access to the D-NET use a jump station in the D-DMZ.
  • Terminate all connections from the Office Network to the D-NET in the D-DMZ.
  • Terminate all connections from the D-NET in the D-DMZ.
  • If an SIS or DCS is operated in the D-NET, it should be placed in an isolated in a network  zone (D-SIS) in the D-NET. Allow only incoming connections from the engineering station to the SIS or DCS. Terminate all outgoing connections from the D-SIS in the D-NET.

Data exchange

  • For data exchange with the Office network allow only outgoing connections from the D-DMZ to dedicated systems/ports in the Office network.
  • Don’t use the SMB protocol for exchange of data between the office network and the D-DMZ and D-NET.
  • Implement Network Access Control (NAC) in the D-DMZ and D-NET to block connections of untrusted devices.
  • Never connect mobile workstations used in the D-NET or D-DMZ to other networks and vice versa. Once such a workstation was connected to a network outside the D-NET or D-DMZ it is potentially compromised.

System hardening

  • Block all USB disk devices in the D-NET.
  • Block all internet access and e-mail in the D-DMZ and D-NET.
  • Lock down all workstations and servers in the D-NET and D-DMZ.
  • Perform regular integrity checks on all systems in the D-NET and D-DMZ.

Software development best practice

  • Set up software version control for all development work.
  • If contractually possible, handover only sources, makefiles and checksums to the operator.

  • Secure network transfer is the method of choice. Bundle all sources in an encrypted archive. Send the encryption key in a secure e-mail to the operator.
  • If transfer by USB devices is required use only USB devices with AES hardware encryption and key pad. Run a secure before the new software is copied.

  • Extract the software to a trusted development system in an isolated network zone of the operators network.
  • Validate the checksums of the sources and makefiles against the supplied checksum details.
  • Build the software.
  • Install the software on a test system and verify that only the intended functions are implemented.

  • Use a secure transfer method to move the new software and project data to the SIS or DCS  network.
  • Install the software with regards to the corresponding SOP.

Have a great week.

Some thoughts about ‘Mitigation strategies for data-wiping malware’

21 May 2015

In article ‘Mitigation strategies for data-wiping malware’ published on Security Think Tank in January 2015, Peter Wenham talks about mitigation strategies for data-wiping malware.

Peter’s proposals for creating a prevention strategy, training and strict refusal of local administrator access for employees, can be implemented quickly and at a fair price.

To complement this, companies should add a trusted zone concept for administrative tasks. A server administrator should never sign in to a server from a system at a lower trust level, e.g. from the laptop he uses to connect from outside the company network to a server. A trusted admin zone concept will prevent the lateral drift of attackers within the company network once they got access through e.g. a phishing attack and a RAT (Remote Access Trojan).

Have a good day!

A mere detection strategy will fail in the defense of cyber-attacks. Just like a mere prevention strategy.

10 May 2015

Article ‘Falling Off the End of the Cyber Kill Chain’, published by Anup Ghosh, Founder and CEO at Invincea, in the May edition of The Cyber Intelligencer is worth to read and comment.

For years now detection is praised from all cyber defense experts and system vendors as the spearhead in the defense of cyber-attacks. Gartner Security Analyst Neil MacDonald’s puts it succinctly in his tweet: ‘Prevent you may, Detect you must!’

Just set up a SIEM system and record any events from any server, database, firewall, application server, network, etc. With big data methods your data scientist will find every small hint to a cyber-attack from this universe of data, in the best case only some minutes after the attack happened, in the worst case some month later or never. In the meantime the cyber attackers will quietly copy your intellectual property.

A mere detection strategy in the defense of cyber-attacks is doomed to failure, just like a mere prevention strategy.

Just a short example. Let us assume that your Windows 2012 member servers are well protected, with the latest security features configured and the latest patches installed. One of your administrators becomes a victim of a phishing attack. An attacker steals the password for the administrator account of one of your member servers and signs in to the system. He debugs the LSASS process to get access to the password hashes or the plain text password or runs a DLL injection attack against the LSASS process.

Both events are recorded in the event log of the member server. Both events are hints to cyber-attacks and must be directly investigated. But it is very likely that these events are never investigated because no one checks the logs in time.

But if your SIEM system regularly collects the critical events from your member servers the attacks are detected within minutes and proper measures can be taken.

In my opinion a successful defense strategy requires a finely balanced mixture of both detection and prevention. SIEM comes into play when all other protection measures have failed. It should be neither the first nor the sole line of defense.

Take care!