Your involvement in espionage
"APT Becomes Security Acronym of the Year – Heard of "APTs" (advanced persistent threats) yet? You will in 2011” according to WatchGuard Technologies of Seattle Washington (Chris McKie, 2010) in their Top 10 Security Predictions for 2011they list it as number 10. As they state in their prediction, “there is no single, standard definition” (Chris McKie, 2010) but they have several things in common. They are a form of virus or malware, but as you might guess they are very advanced. They also are very targeted, well sponsored, well engineered, and are designed not to be found. Their role in life is to take control of a system, hide, steal information, and send it home, but with a twist. They need your help to get started, and once started their logic helps them from being eradicated if found.
So how did you get involved in the act of espionage? They need your help to overcome their first obstacle, getting inside a network. As Monty McDougal poinst out in his Redefining 21st Century Network Defense (McDougal, 2009), historically network security has been based on what could be called medieval castle technologies. Security professionals build a castle with strong walls, a strong door, and a moat to keep the bad guys out. But as in the days of castles, people and things leave the castle without anyone paying much attention. In today’s world it is information leaving. All the bad guys need is a ride into the castle. They then set up camp and take over.
One way the bad guys get your help is by playing on your lack of security awareness. One of the most successful attacks was achieved by the bad guys dropping infected thumb drives in the parking lot of a large corporation. A lot of people found them and thought “what a good deal”. Free is not always a good price. A good deal of the “hitching a ride” work depends on social engineering. Have you ever gotten emails from someone, even people you knew, with imbedded urls? Maybe it might be a good idea to check with the sender before clicking on that link. Ever think of taking you personal P.C. to work to just get a quick copy of something? Maybe not such a good idea. One useful method of protection is to question everything. When you come across those “that’s strange” moments, stop and think about what you are about to do, or what you just did.
References
C. Banerjee, S. K. (2010). Research on Software Security Awareness: Problems and Prospects. ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes Volume 35 Number 5 , 5.
Chris McKie. (2010, 10 23). WatchGuard Unveils Top 10 Security Predictions for 2011. Retrieved 4 5, 2011, from Watch Guard: http://www.watchguard.com/news/press-releases/wg481.asp
McDougal, M. (2009). Castle Warrior: Redefining 21st Century Network Defense. 6th Annual Cyber Security and Information Intelligence Research Workshop (p. 16). New York: ACM.
2 comments:
Good Article. Did you hear about someone walking around the Colorado Springs Space Symposium asking suspicious questions. Kind of scary stuff.
Interesting insight on the “dropped” thumb drives in the parking lot. I bet this scam could have bitten many inquisitive people. Your blog makes me think of the stories about the new passports and how the RF embedded chips in them can be remotely read. Fears of this technology has led to theories of terrorists being able to identify and target Americans traveling abroad.
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