Tag Archive for WatchGuard

| May 15, 2014
Comments Off on Is The Perimeter Dead?

Is The Perimeter Dead?

Is The Perimeter Dead?Even while mobile, cloud, and software services are blurring the lines of corporate IT boundaries through deperimeterization, DarkReading recently asked out loud, if the perimeter is dead.

it's very hard to define the perimeter of any organizationThere are those who believe enterprises are wasting their security budget on perimeter protection. In fact, FierceTelecom reports that 57% of enterprises responding to a survey said they plan to spend $500,000 or more in 2014 to upgrade their firewalls to high-speed network interfaces. Security is the chief reason cited.

The perimeter is dead

It is no surprise that the answers varied according to the author. Hardliners have been hammering on the death of the perimeter for a long time now. “Perimeter security is no longer relevant to enterprises. With the mobilization of the workforce, it’s very hard to define the perimeter of any organization because mobile-enabled employees are connecting to the network from all over the world on devices of their choosing,” Thevi Sundaralingam, vice president of product management at Accellion told DarkReading. “Next-gen security needs to focus keeping content safe, not on defining a network perimeter.”

People are giving up on the perimeter

Then there are the cynical abandoners. “In my opinion, perimeter security is not dead — it just has been handled incorrectly for so long people are giving up,” Alex Chaveriat, a consultant at SystemExpert told the blog.

Network perimeterBut others believe perimeter protection still has plenty of relevance for enterprise IT, even if it means rethinking the role of the perimeter and how these defenses are deployed. Corey Nachreiner, director of security strategy for WatchGuard (a firm that sells firewalls) believes the perimeter is different but still relevant.

The perimeter will never die, it will just get more focused … Sure, our workforce is getter (sic) more mobile, which means we need to incorporate new security solutions. But let’s not fool ourselves. The perimeter will never go away.

The perimeter is different

WatchGuard’s Nachreiner believes that the new perimeter needs to focus on server infrastructure and data centers, and not endpoint users. He believes firms will have to work in a hybrid environment that bolsters the perimeter not replacing it. “Just because people are using mobile devices and cloud services doesn’t mean they won’t still have local servers and assets behind a relatively static perimeter.”

Another argument for perimeter defenses, according to the author is network egress monitoring. Michael Patterson, CEO of Plixer International told the author that egress visibility is crucial to pinpoint large-scale breaches.

Ultimately, the bad guys need to pass through the perimeter in order to complete the exfiltration of the data they are trying to steal … Monitoring behaviors is playing a significant role in this area as is the reputation of the site being connected to. 

The perimeter is growing

exfiltration of dataCEO Patterson also explains that perimeter defense doesn’t necessarily have to be placed at the edge. He told DarkReading it may have more relevance inside the network to watch and block threats within the organization. It’s for this reason that Mike Lloyd, CTO of RedSeal Networks, says that rather than dying, the perimeter has actually grown in recent years. In the article he says;

Companies have more and more perimeters that are getting smaller and smaller … Regulation drives it: PCI demands internal “zones” of segregation. BYOD drives it: Once you let zany uncontrolled endpoint devices onto your network, you have to build zones to keep them away from internal assets. Security drives it: We’ve talked about defense in-depth for years, but people are finally doing it.

As a result, RedSeal’s Lloyd says, security practitioners, have more opportunities for controls. This, though, can be a blessing and a curse. The downside is complexity, more controls in more places … The aspirin for that headache is automation. Make sure that all the enclaves you designed are actually set up and maintained properly as change happens.

rb-
The last time I re-designed a network, we put a Checkpoint (CHKP) firewall in front the of server segment. We dropped it in, in transparent mode to collect the who, what, when, and why of people accessing data you should have heard the howls of protest.

Despite naysayers, many security experts believe perimeter defenses have relevance when deployed as a part of defense-in-depth.

Related articles

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , ,
| February 28, 2011
One comment

Riskiest Social Media Apps

Riskiest Social Media ApplicationsDarkReading has a report from Seattle-based network security vendor WatchGuard which says that the fastest growing threat to corporate networks is web-based social media applications. The WatchGuard security researchers claim that social media applications can seriously compromise network security, expose sensitive data, and create productivity drains on employees.

Watchguard logoThere are many reasons why social media applications can pose risk to any size business. WatchGuard noted that productivity and data loss are major risks for organizations of all sizes. Social media sites also serve as malware and attack vectors. Social networks will become the leading malware vector over the next few years for three reasons:

  • Social media sites breed a culture of trust. The whole point of social media is to interact with others. Typically interactions are with people considered to be “friends”, which implies trust. Meanwhile, social media sites do not have any technical means to confirm that the people you are interacting with really are who they say they are. This environment of trust creates an ideal scenario for social engineers to use.
  • Many social media sites suffer from technical vulnerabilities. While Web 2.0 technologies offer many benefits, they also harbor many security vulnerabilities. The complexity of Web 2.0 applications can lead to imperfect code, which introduces some social network sites to Web application vulnerabilities, such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks. Furthermore, the concept of allowing untrusted users to push content onto social media sites conflicts with traditional security paradigms. Simply put, this means social media sites are more likely to suffer from web vulnerabilities than less complex and less interactive websites.
  • Hugely popular. According to online analytics firm, Compete, Facebook is now the 2nd most popular Web destination after Google. Many other social networks, such as Twitter and YouTube, follow closely behind. The popularity of social networks attracts attackers because they know it means that they can get a “return on investment” for their attacks.

For these reasons, WatchGuard researchers deemed the following applications the riskiest:

Facebook logo1. Facebook is the most dangerous social media site, largely based upon its popularity according to WatchGuard. With a 500+ million user following, Facebook offers a fertile attack surface for hackers. Add in the potential technical concerns, such as a questionable, open App API and now you have a recipe for disaster.

Twitter logo2. Twitter, many incorrectly assume that very little damage could be done in 140 characters. Twitter’s short-form posts lead to new vulnerabilities such as URL shorteners. While URL shorteners can help hackers hide malicious links. Twitter also suffers from Web 2.0 and API-related vulnerabilities that allow various attacks and Twitter worms to propagate among its users.

3. YouTube attracts attackers because it is one of the most popular online video sites. Hackers often create malicious web pages that masquerade as YouTube video pages. Additionally, attackers like to spam the comment section of YouTube videos with malicious links.

4. LinkedIn bears more burden than other social media sites; it is business-oriented. Thus, it makes a more attractive target to attackers, as LinkedIn is highly trusted. Because most users leverage LinkedIn to form business relationships or find jobs, they tend to post more valuable and potentially sensitive information to this social network.

4Chan logo5. 4chan is a popular imageboard, a social media site where users post images and comments. 4chan has been involved in many Internet attacks attributed to “anonymous,” which is the only username that all 4chan users can get. Some of 4chans image boards contain the worst depravities found on the Internet. Many hackers spam their malware to the 4chan forums.

Chatroulette logo6. Chatroulette allows webcam owners to connect and chat with random people. The nature of this anonymous webcam system makes it a likely target for Internet predators.

rb-

I have written about social media risks since 2009, yet many organizations still do not have a social media policy.  Why take the chances?

Does your organization have a social media policy?

Does anybody actually allow 4Chan or Chatroulette?

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

Category: Social Networking | Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
| August 28, 2010
Comments Off on New School Year Same Security Threats

New School Year Same Security Threats

New School Year Same Security Threats Another school year is starting up and security firm WatchGuard has a list of the top threat to school IT systems as classes start up again. Eric Aarrestad, Vice President at privately held WatchGuard Technologies says, “With so much at risk and so much to gain by cybercriminals, today’s campus is one of the most dangerous IT environments around.” He continues, “Unlike enterprise organizations that can throw substantial resources towards network and data protection, schools and universities are more constrained, yet they face some of the most demanding security challenges due to the dynamic interaction between students and their school’s IT resources.”

Top threats at school

WatchGuard’s top at school threats include:

watchguard_logoSocial Networks The security firm calls social networks, the number one threat to school and university networks is social networks, such as Facebook and MySpace. Unfortunately, social networks act as an ideal platform to launch a myriad of attacks against students and departments, including spam, viruses, malware, phishing, and more. Adding to this, socially engineered attacks are often extremely successful due to the “trusted” environment that social networks create.

Malware As students and teachers use the web for educational purposes, the Seattle-based firm company says many unwittingly expose themselves to drive-by downloads or corrupted websites, which inject malicious forms of software on their computers. Once infected, they risk becoming victims of identity theft or loss of personal information via spyware and keyloggers.

Viruses Today, email remains one of the primary ways of delivering viruses. According to the release, recent surveys suggest that 27 percent of users fail to keep their antivirus signatures which may, in any case, be unable to up stop the new generation of viruses with polymorphic properties.

Botnets The privately held security firm estimates that 15 to 20 percent of all school and university computers connected to the Internet are part of a botnet. As part of a botnet, school and university systems can be used in a variety of unknown exploits, including spam delivery, denial of service attacks, click-fraud, identity theft, and more.

Phishing scams continue to get more advanced and selective, with students being specifically targeted. WatchGuard claims that phishing attacks via social networks achieve a success rate of over 70 percent.

Hacking In a recent survey of education IT professionals, 23 percent ranked student hackers as one of their greatest threats to network security.

Access Control Usage of mobile devices and wireless access to education IT resources continues to plague network administrators. As the use of mobile devices escalates, schools will face increasing challenges in managing authorized network access according to the security vendor.

WatchGuard Technologies provides a variety of Internet security software and hardware products, including firewalls, virtual private network (VPN) appliances, and anti-virus applications under the XTM, XCS, and e-Series brands.

Related articles
  • The Science of Cyber Security (usnews.com)

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,