One of the most adopted security frameworks is the CIS Controls (formerly known as Critical Security Controls). It has been updated in May of 2021 to keep up with the ever changing cybersecurity landscape. CIS Controls are a prioritized set of safeguards to mitigate the most prevalent cyber-attacks against systems and networks. They are recommended set of actions for cyber defense that provide specific and actionable ways to stop today’s most pervasive and dangerous attacks. Compared to the other security frameworks such as the NIST CSF (Cybersecurity Framework), CIS Controls are more prescriptive.

CIS Controls v8 has been enhanced to keep up with modern systems and software. Movement to cloud-based computing, virtualization, mobility, outsourcing, work-from-home, and changing attacker tactics prompted the update and supports an enterprise’s security as they move to both fully cloud and hybrid environments.

Here are the updated 18 CIS Controls:

1. Inventory and Control of Enterprise Assets – Actively manage (inventory, track, and correct) all enterprise assets (end-user devices, including portable and mobile; network devices; non-computing/Internet of Things (IoT) devices; and servers) connected to the infrastructure physically, virtually, remotely, and those within cloud environments, to accurately know the totality of assets that need to be monitored and protected within the enterprise. This will also support identifying unauthorized and unmanaged assets to remove or remediate.
2. Inventory and Control of Software Assets – Actively manage (inventory, track, and correct) all software (operating systems and applications) on the network so that only authorized software is installed and can execute, and that unauthorized and unmanaged software is found and prevented from installation or execution.
3. Data Protection – Develop processes and technical controls to identify, classify, securely handle, retain, and dispose of data.
4. Secure Configuration of Enterprise Assets and Software – Establish and maintain the secure configuration of enterprise assets (end-user devices, including portable and mobile; network devices; non-computing/IoT devices; and servers) and software (operating systems and applications).
5. Account Management – Use processes and tools to assign and manage authorization to credentials for user accounts, including administrator accounts, as well as service accounts, to enterprise assets and software.
6. Access Control Management – Use processes and tools to create, assign, manage, and revoke access credentials and privileges for user, administrator, and service accounts for enterprise assets and software.
7. Continuous Vulnerability Management – Develop a plan to continuously assess and track vulnerabilities on all enterprise assets within the enterprise’s infrastructure, in order to remediate, and minimize, the window of opportunity for attackers. Monitor public and private industry sources for new threat and vulnerability information.
8. Audit Log Management – Collect, alert, review, and retain audit logs of events that could help detect, understand, or recover from an attack.
9. Email and Web Browser Protections – Improve protections and detections of threats from email and web vectors, as these are opportunities for attackers to manipulate human behavior through direct engagement.
10. Malware Defenses – Prevent or control the installation, spread, and execution of malicious applications, code, or scripts on enterprise assets.
11. Data Recovery – Establish and maintain data recovery practices sufficient to restore in-scope enterprise assets to a pre-incident and trusted state.
12. Network Infrastructure Management – Establish, implement, and actively manage (track, report, correct) network devices, in order to prevent attackers from exploiting vulnerable network services and access points.
13. Network Monitoring and Defense – Operate processes and tooling to establish and maintain comprehensive network monitoring and defense against security threats across the enterprise’s network infrastructure and user base.
14. Security Awareness and Skills Training – Establish and maintain a security awareness program to influence behavior among the workforce to be security conscious and properly skilled to reduce cybersecurity risks to the enterprise.
15. Service Provider Management – Develop a process to evaluate service providers who hold sensitive data, or are responsible for an enterprise’s critical IT platforms or processes, to ensure these providers are protecting those platforms and data appropriately.
16. Application Software Security – Manage the security life cycle of in-house developed, hosted, or acquired software to prevent, detect, and remediate security weaknesses before they can impact the enterprise.
17. Incident Response and Management – Establish a program to develop and maintain an incident response capability (e.g., policies, plans, procedures, defined roles, training, and communications) to prepare, detect, and quickly respond to an attack.
18. Penetration Testing – Test the effectiveness and resiliency of enterprise assets through identifying and exploiting weaknesses in controls (people, processes, and technology), and simulating the objectives and actions of an attacker.

Sources:

https://www.sans.org/blog/cis-controls-v8/

https://www.cisecurity.org/controls/v8/

Cyber attacks are all too common these days. They are getting faster, more frequent and more sophisticated. Companies should be prepared when these inevitable attacks occur. One of the critical security controls to mitigate and lower this risk is to have an effective incident response and management program.

The goal of the incident response and management program is to successfully detect, understand, manage, investigate, and recover from the breach in the shortest amount of time possible. Not having an effective program:

• may damage company reputation, lose money, customers, and competitive advantage, or incur hefty fines
• may take several weeks or months to detect the breach
• maybe too late for the company to develop procedures, data collection, legal protocols, and communications strategy when a breach occurs
• may lead to panic mode leading to more damage, infecting more systems and losing more data.

An effective incident management plan should:

• determine and document the scope of the breach (such as systems and data impacted, department impacted, magnitude of impact, and severity)
• collect forensic evidence from log data, security tools, disk images, security video, etc.
• perform root cause analysis (RCA)
• return to secure state by remediation or mitigation
• gather threat intelligence to improve defense, deploy security solutions, and detect malicious behaviors

There are several processes for an effective incident response: Preparation Process -> Detection Process -> Analysis Process -> Notification Process -> Remediation or Mitigation Process

What to do in the preparation process:

1. Understand your environment and the threats to it
2. Define roles and responsibilities and contact information
3. Gather third-party contact information to be used to report a security incident, such as Law Enforcement, relevant government departments, vendors, etc.
4. Plan how to respond and identify key partners, data sources and technologies
5. Practice just like a Disaster Recovery (DR) test
6. Continually review and refine the plan as the environment changes

What to do during detection process:

1. Assess threats by gaining visibility to any active threats
2. Define reporting outlet and encourage end user reporting
3. Use technology to detect attack
4. Contain damages by stopping the attack and recovering the affected endpoints

What to do during analysis process:

1. Determine the impact and scope of the breach
2. Protect and preserve the forensic evidence for investigation and root cause analysis
3. Perform any remediation

What to do during notification process:

1. Communicate diligently to upper management, internal stakeholders, or end users
2. If the breach has to be communicated externally (e.g. to customers, law enforcement, etc.), involve the legal team and use your defined communication strategy.

What to do during remediation or mitigation process:

1. Implement temporary measures
2. Coordinate with stakeholders
3. Document changes
4. Secure defenses

An effective incident response program is a well documented plan (consisting of people, processes, and technologies) that is up to date and highly tailored to the need of the company.

The Internet of Things, or IoT, refers to the billions of physical devices around the world that are now connected to the Internet. These include surveillance cameras, lightbulbs, medical devices, pacemakers, smartphones, home routers, thermostats, printers, control systems and pretty much any device that is connected to the Internet, all collecting and sharing data. They have sensors that detect states or movement of equipment or materials and the data acquired by the sensors are transmitted over the network to a server. Location information can be derived as well.

The explosion of IoT devices has also increased cyberattacks on them. Hackers probe and access them via http, ftp or telnet ports to check what kind of devices they are. They also check for backdoor ports. Then they gain access by logging in via telnet (the common one, although they may also use other vulnerable ports) using default or weak username and password, and sometimes using dictionary attack. Once they gain access, they will install malware. Once malware is installed, the device will be under control of the hacker’s server, and is then used for further cyberattacks.

Hackers usually control hundreds of thousands of IoT devices all around the world that are used for DDoS (Distributed Denial-of-Service) attacks. These DDoS attacks can cause significant impact to companies being targeted.

IoT devices are specially vulnerable because they are usually online 24/7, they don’t have security or anti-virus protection, they have weak/default login password and they have global IP addresses. Security is an afterthought of the manufacturers of these devices.

To mitigate IoT security vulnerabilities, there should be an active monitoring and alerting system that notify users when their IoT devices are vulnerable, so they can take appropriate action. Technology solutions must be established to remotely detoxify IoT malware while the original IoT functions can continue to operate. There should also be a way to remotely disable IoT device.

Companies should have a strict security controls for connecting IoT devices in their network.

Finally, the industry should develop IoT security guidelines for IoT device maker/developer, IoT service provider, and IoT device user, as well as promote international standardization.

As more and more organizations are becoming digital, accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, it is imperative for businesses to build a culture of cybersecurity. This enables them to be more resilient in the face of growing cyber attacks.

Many of these organizations, especially in the manufacturing sectors, have developed a robust safety culture where every employee is trained, knowledgable, and constantly reminded of ways to stay safe and decrease the chance of accidents. But when it comes to cybersecurity, most organizations do not have a similar culture of security.

Just like building a safety culture, building a cybersecurity culture is a big undertaking and usually takes time. It involves transforming processes, changing mindset, getting support from leadership all the way to the top, and changing the way every employee works.

Many companies think that technology alone will solve cybersecurity problems. They rely on the IT department and in some cases on the security office – if one exists – to mitigate security issues. But the goal of every orgainization should be that everyone must feel personally responsible for keeping the company secure.

Building a culture of cybersecurity involves everyone’s attitudes, beliefs and values that will drive behaviors that will lead to better actions such as not clicking a link on a phishing email or not visiting an unknown website. At the heart of a culture of cybersecurity is getting every employee to execute their day-to-day activities in ways that keep the organization as secure as possible.

For more information on this topic and to gain insights on how to build a culture of cybersecurity, visit the MIT CAMS website at https://cams.mit.edu/research/

In the wake of the massive Solarwinds attack affecting major government institutions and public/private companies, the importance of securing your company’s Intellectual Property (IP) has never been more critical.

Companies should be worried that their valuable data, trade secrets, and IP are being stolen by cyber thieves, foreign hackers, and company insiders (current or former employees, partners, trusted customers, distributors, or vendors).  Stolen IP poses a significant threat to a company’s competitive advantage.  A bio-pharmaceutical company, for example, generates a ton of research/clinical data and manufacturing processes that are stored on premise and increasingly on the cloud.

Companies should protect their data.  They should learn the best practices in implementing operational and cyber security measures, instituting policies and processes, and educating end users. They should continually tweak and and re-evaluate their security practices.  They should deploy technologies that are effective in securing their data.

Attacks will only get more sophisticated and their frequency will only increase in the future. It’s better to be prepared than caught off guard.

I recently attended the virtual ISC2 Security Congress 2020. One of the keynote addresses was regarding crisis management by Harvard Kennedy School Professor Juliette Kayyem. She used to be Assistant Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security.

Crisis management is central to cybersecurity. When there is a breach or security incident, crisis management is invoked to minimize damage. A well executed crisis management program leads to a successful resolution in a short period of time.

I’d like to share this chart presented by Ms Kayyem on the five stages on how the COVID-19 was managed in the US, which is similar to the five stages of cybersecurity crisis management: Protection > Prevention > Response > Recovery > Resiliency

The keynote address can be viewed here: https://securitycongress.brighttalk.live/keynote-november-18/