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Researchers this month uncovered a two-year-old Linux-based remote access trojan dubbed AVrecon that enslaves Internet routers into botnet that bilks online advertisers and performs password-spraying attacks. Now new findings reveal that AVrecon is the malware engine behind a 12-year-old service called SocksEscort, which rents hacked residential and small business devices to cybercriminals looking to hide their true location online.
Image: Lumen’s Black Lotus Labs.
In a report released July 12, researchers at Lumen’s Black Lotus Labs called the AVrecon botnet “one of the largest botnets targeting small-office/home-office (SOHO) routers seen in recent history,” and a crime machine that has largely evaded public attention since first being spotted in mid-2021.
“The malware has been used to create residential proxy services to shroud malicious activity such as password spraying, web-traffic proxying and ad fraud,” the Lumen researchers wrote.
Malware-based anonymity networks are a major source of unwanted and malicious web traffic directed at online retailers, Internet service providers (ISPs), social networks, email providers and financial institutions. And a great many of these “proxy” networks are marketed primarily to cybercriminals seeking to anonymize their traffic by routing it through an infected PC, router or mobile device.
Proxy services can be used in a legitimate manner for several business purposes — such as price comparisons or sales intelligence — but they are massively abused for hiding cybercrime activity because they make it difficult to trace malicious traffic to its original source. Proxy services also let users appear to be getting online from nearly anywhere in the world, which is useful if you’re a cybercriminal who is trying to impersonate someone from a specific place.
Spur.us, a startup that tracks proxy services, told KrebsOnSecurity that the Internet addresses Lumen tagged as the AVrecon botnet’s “Command and Control” (C2) servers all tie back to a long-running proxy service called SocksEscort.
SocksEscort[.]com, is what’s known as a “SOCKS Proxy” service. The SOCKS (or SOCKS5) protocol allows Internet users to channel their Web traffic through a proxy server, which then passes the information on to the intended destination. From a website’s perspective, the traffic of the proxy network customer appears to originate from a rented/malware-infected PC tied to a residential ISP customer, not from the proxy service customer.
The SocksEscort home page says its services are perfect for people involved in automated online activity that often results in IP addresses getting blocked or banned, such as Craigslist and dating scams, search engine results manipulation, and online surveys.
Spur tracks SocksEscort as a malware-based proxy offering, which means the machines doing the proxying of traffic for SocksEscort customers have been infected with malicious software that turns them into a traffic relay. Usually, these users have no idea their systems are compromised.
Spur says the SocksEscort proxy service requires customers to install a Windows based application in order to access a pool of more than 10,000 hacked devices worldwide.
“We created a fingerprint to identify the call-back infrastructure for SocksEscort proxies,” Spur co-founder Riley Kilmer said. “Looking at network telemetry, we were able to confirm that we saw victims talking back to it on various ports.”
According to Kilmer, AVrecon is the malware that gives SocksEscort its proxies.
“When Lumen released their report and IOCs [indicators of compromise], we queried our system for which proxy service call-back infrastructure overlapped with their IOCs,” Kilmer continued. “The second stage C2s they identified were the same as the IPs we labeled for SocksEscort.”
Lumen’s research team said the purpose of AVrecon appears to be stealing bandwidth – without impacting end-users – in order to create a residential proxy service to help launder malicious activity and avoid attracting the same level of attention from Tor-hidden services or commercially available VPN services.
“This class of cybercrime activity threat may evade detection because it is less likely than a crypto-miner to be noticed by the owner, and it is unlikely to warrant the volume of abuse complaints that internet-wide brute-forcing and DDoS-based botnets typically draw,” Lumen’s Black Lotus researchers wrote.
Preserving bandwidth for both customers and victims was a primary concern for SocksEscort in July 2022, when 911S5 — at the time the world’s largest known malware proxy network — got hacked and imploded just days after being exposed in a story here. Kilmer said after 911’s demise, SocksEscort closed its registration for several months to prevent an influx of new users from swamping the service.
Danny Adamitis, principal information security researcher at Lumen and co-author of the report on AVrecon, confirmed Kilmer’s findings, saying the C2 data matched up with what Spur was seeing for SocksEscort dating back to September 2022.
Adamitis said that on July 13 — the day after Lumen published research on AVrecon and started blocking any traffic to the malware’s control servers — the people responsible for maintaining the botnet reacted quickly to transition infected systems over to a new command and control infrastructure.
“They were clearly reacting and trying to maintain control over components of the botnet,” Adamitis said. “Probably, they wanted to keep that revenue stream going.”
Frustratingly, Lumen was not able to determine how the SOHO devices were being infected with AVrecon. Some possible avenues of infection include exploiting weak or default administrative credentials on routers, and outdated, insecure firmware that has known, exploitable security vulnerabilities.
KrebsOnSecurity briefly visited SocksEscort last year and promised a follow-up on the history and possible identity of its proprietors. A review of the earliest posts about this service on Russian cybercrime forums suggests the 12-year-old malware proxy network is tied to a Moldovan company that also offers VPN software on the Apple Store and elsewhere.
SocksEscort began in 2009 as “super-socks[.]com,” a Russian-language service that sold access to thousands of compromised PCs that could be used to proxy traffic. Someone who picked the nicknames “SSC” and “super-socks” and email address “michvatt@gmail.com” registered on multiple cybercrime forums and began promoting the proxy service.
According to DomainTools.com, the apparently related email address “michdomain@gmail.com” was used to register SocksEscort[.]com, super-socks[.]com, and a few other proxy-related domains, including ip-score[.]com, segate[.]org seproxysoft[.]com, and vipssc[.]us. Cached versions of both super-socks[.]com and vipssc[.]us show these sites sold the same proxy service, and both displayed the letters “SSC” prominently at the top of their homepages.
Image: Archive.org. Page translation from Russian via Google Translate.
According to cyber intelligence firm Intel 471, the very first “SSC” identity registered on the cybercrime forums happened in 2009 at the Russian language hacker community Antichat, where SSC asked fellow forum members for help in testing the security of a website they claimed was theirs: myiptest[.]com, which promised to tell visitors whether their proxy address was included on any security or anti-spam block lists.
Myiptest[.]com is no longer responding, but a cached copy of it from Archive.org shows that for about four years it included in its HTML source a Google Analytics code of US-2665744, which was also present on more than a dozen other websites.
Most of the sites that once bore that Google tracking code are no longer online, but nearly all of them centered around services that were similar to myiptest[.]com, such as abuseipdb[.]com, bestiptest[.]com, checkdnslbl[.]com, dnsbltools[.]com and dnsblmonitor[.]com.
Each of these services were designed to help visitors quickly determine whether the Internet address they were visiting the site from was listed by any security firms as spammy, malicious or phishous. In other words, these services were designed so that proxy service users could easily tell if their rented Internet address was still safe to use for online fraud.
Another domain with the Google Analytics code US-2665744 was sscompany[.]net. An archived copy of the site says SSC stands for “Server Support Company,” which advertised outsourced solutions for technical support and server administration.
Leaked copies of the hacked Antichat forum indicate the SSC identity registered on the forum using the IP address 71.229.207.214. That same IP was used to register the nickname “Deem3n®,” a prolific poster on Antichat between 2005 and 2009 who served as a moderator on the forum.
There was a Deem3n® user on the webmaster forum Searchengines.guru whose signature in their posts says they run a popular community catering to programmers in Moldova called sysadmin[.]md, and that they were a systems administrator for sscompany[.]net.
That same Google Analytics code is also now present on the homepages of wiremo[.]co and a VPN provider called HideIPVPN[.]com.
Wiremo sells software and services to help website owners better manage their customer reviews. Wiremo’s Contact Us page lists a “Server Management LLC” in Wilmington, DE as the parent company. Server Management LLC is currently listed in Apple’s App Store as the owner of a “free” VPN app called HideIPVPN.
“The best way to secure the transmissions of your mobile device is VPN,” reads HideIPVPN’s description on the Apple Store. “Now, we provide you with an even easier way to connect to our VPN servers. We will hide your IP address, encrypt all your traffic, secure all your sensitive information (passwords, mail credit card details, etc.) form [sic] hackers on public networks.”
When asked about the company’s apparent connection to SocksEscort, Wiremo responded, “We do not control this domain and no one from our team is connected to this domain.” Wiremo did not respond when presented with the findings in this report.
The use of unmanaged and IoT devices in enterprises is growing exponentially, and will account for 55.7 billion connected devices by the end of 2025. A critical concern is deploying IoT devices without requisite security controls.
While these numbers are numbing, their reality is undeniable. 90% of customers believe digitization has accelerated the importance placed upon security. The World Economic Forum now lists cybersecurity failure as a critical threat, and estimates a gap of more than 3 million security experts worldwide, hindering secure deployments at scale. Furthermore, 83% of IoT-based transactions happen over plaintext channels and not SSL, making them especially risky.
Securing an IoT device can be achieved either through securing the IoT device itself, or hardening the network it accesses. Securing devices can be cumbersome, requiring complex manufacturing partnerships and increasing unit prices, thereby reducing adoption. On the other hand, securing the network is always desirable as it helps secure access, encrypt traffic, and ease management.
Being a leader in both security and networking, Cisco continues to bring security closer to networking, providing the network with built-in security, and enabling the network to act both as sensor and as an enforcer. The convergence of security and networking leverages the network’s intelligence and visibility to enable more-informed decisions on policy and threats.
Cisco uniquely integrates security and networking, for instance we recently integrated Cisco Secure Firewall to operate on Cisco Catalyst 9000 Series switches. Additionally, Secure Firewall can be deployed in a containerized form, on-premises and in clouds. Cisco Secure Firewall classifies traffic and protects applications while stopping exploitation of vulnerable systems. Additionally, we offer Identity Services Engine with AI Endpoint Analytics to passively identify IoT devices and apply segmentation policies. Furthermore, Cisco offers management flexibility by integrating with Cisco Defense Orchestrator and DNA Center and with existing customer tools like SIEMs and XDRs.
Let’s look at three use cases where the addition of Secure Firewall capability on Catalyst 9000 Series switches solves real world problems:
Use case 1: Securing the Smart Building: This solution is ideal to secure smart buildings, converging various IoT systems into a single IT-managed network infrastructure. Smart buildings lower the operational and energy costs. Smarter building systems, however, pose serious security risks as these include so many unmanaged devices such as window shades, lighting, tailored HVAC, and more. One of the methods to secure smart buildings is to control access to avoid manipulation of sensors. Such control is attained with a networking switch with enhanced firewall capability. The firewall ensures granular segmentation, directing policies for traffic generated out of IoT devices, providing access to the right users. This integration also brings security closer to endpoints, making policy orchestration simpler.
Use Case 2: Centrally manage isolated IoT network clusters: IoT devices which communicate with each other in the same subnet typically cannot be routed, which is a challenge. By default, most IoT networks are configured in the same subnet, making it difficult to manage them centrally. Administrators are forced to physically connect to the IoT network to manage and collect telemetry. Furthermore, IoT vendors often charge hefty amounts to update IP addresses of devices. Cisco Secure Firewall, hosted on the Catalyst switch, solves this problem and not only inspects traffic from the IoT network but also translates duplicate IoT IP addresses to unique global IP addresses using NAT for centralized management of isolated IoT networks.
Use Case 3: Securely encrypt IoT traffic passing through a shared IT network: At airports, for example, multiple vendors manage unique systems such as baggage, air quality, biometric access control, etc, which share a common network. IoT traffic is usually in plain text, making it susceptible to packet sniffing, eavesdropping, man-in-the-middle attacks, and other such exploits. The IPSec capability on Cisco Secure Firewall encrypts IoT traffic, securing data transfer and reducing risk.
Cisco’s IoT initiatives join the once disconnected worlds of IT and IoT, unifying networking and security. For further details refer to the At-A Glance and see how and an Australian oil company, Ampol, fortified its retail IoT with Cisco Secure!
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Denis Emelyantsev, a 36-year-old Russian man accused of running a massive botnet called RSOCKS that stitched malware into millions of devices worldwide, pleaded guilty to two counts of computer crime violations in a California courtroom this week. The plea comes just months after Emelyantsev was extradited from Bulgaria, where he told investigators, “America is looking for me because I have enormous information and they need it.”
A copy of the passport for Denis Emelyantsev, a.k.a. Denis Kloster, as posted to his Vkontakte page in 2019.
First advertised in the cybercrime underground in 2014, RSOCKS was the web-based storefront for hacked computers that were sold as “proxies” to cybercriminals looking for ways to route their Web traffic through someone else’s device.
Customers could pay to rent access to a pool of proxies for a specified period, with costs ranging from $30 per day for access to 2,000 proxies, to $200 daily for up to 90,000 proxies.
Many of the infected systems were Internet of Things (IoT) devices, including industrial control systems, time clocks, routers, audio/video streaming devices, and smart garage door openers. Later in its existence, the RSOCKS botnet expanded into compromising Android devices and conventional computers.
In June 2022, authorities in the United States, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom announced a joint operation to dismantle the RSOCKS botnet. But that action did not name any defendants.
Inspired by that takedown, KrebsOnSecurity followed clues from the RSOCKS botnet master’s identity on the cybercrime forums to Emelyantsev’s personal blog, where he went by the name Denis Kloster. The blog featured musings on the challenges of running a company that sells “security and anonymity services to customers around the world,” and even included a group photo of RSOCKS employees.
“Thanks to you, we are now developing in the field of information security and anonymity!,” Kloster’s blog enthused. “We make products that are used by thousands of people around the world, and this is very cool! And this is just the beginning!!! We don’t just work together and we’re not just friends, we’re Family.”
But by the time that investigation was published, Emelyantsev had already been captured by Bulgarian authorities responding to an American arrest warrant. At his extradition hearing, Emelyantsev claimed he would prove his innocence in an U.S. courtroom.
“I have hired a lawyer there and I want you to send me as quickly as possible to clear these baseless charges,” Emelyantsev told the Bulgarian court. “I am not a criminal and I will prove it in an American court.”
RSOCKS, circa 2016. At that time, RSOCKS was advertising more than 80,000 proxies. Image: archive.org.
Emelyantsev was far more than just an administrator of a large botnet. Behind the facade of his Internet advertising company based in Omsk, Russia, the RSOCKS botmaster was a major player in the Russian email spam industry for more than a decade.
Some of the top Russian cybercrime forums have been hacked over the years, and leaked private messages from those forums show the RSOCKS administrator claimed ownership of the RUSdot spam forum. RUSdot is the successor forum to Spamdot, a far more secretive and restricted community where most of the world’s top spammers, virus writers and cybercriminals collaborated for years before the forum imploded in 2010.
A Google-translated version of the Rusdot spam forum.
Indeed, the very first mentions of RSOCKS on any Russian-language cybercrime forums refer to the service by its full name as the “RUSdot Socks Server.”
Email spam — and in particular malicious email sent via compromised computers — is still one of the biggest sources of malware infections that lead to data breaches and ransomware attacks. So it stands to reason that as administrator of Russia’s most well-known forum for spammers, Emelyantsev probably knows quite a bit about other top players in the botnet spam and malware community.
It remains unclear whether Emelyantsev made good on his promise to spill that knowledge to American investigators as part of his plea deal. The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California, which has not responded to a request for comment.
Emelyantsev pleaded guilty on Monday to two counts, including damage to protected computers and conspiracy to damage protected computers. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison, and is currently scheduled to be sentenced on April 27, 2023.
Ampol has been Australia’s leading transport fuel company since 1900. What began over 125 years ago is now an organization that powers a country, operating 1,500 retail stores and stations across ANZ, plus 89 depots for refining and importing fuels and lubricants, and 8,200 employees throughout Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and Singapore. And while Ampol’s history goes back a century, they are a modern organization, using internet of things (IoT) technology across operational and retail locations, with sensors on everything from electric vehicle charging units to fuel tank gauges to transportation trucks to refrigeration units inside retail stores.
As a critical energy provider to a country of over 25 million people, Ampol’s security needed to match its evolving infrastructure. As Satish Chowdhary, Network Enterprise Architect, said, “At Ampol, we have implemented sensor technology across our network: from gauges in the fuel tanks to monitor fuel quality and quantity to sensors that monitor the temperature in various refrigerators across our retail sites to ensure goods stay chilled. It’s critical to manage these devices effectively and securely, and that’s where Cisco comes in…With IoT, a major security risk is posed by dodgy legacy devices left unpatched and vulnerable within your network. Cisco’s TrustSec and VLAN segregation automatically isolate vulnerable devices, not exposing the rest of the network to risks from untrusted devices.”
In addition to securing the IoT that let’s Ampol monitor and manage its critical operations, Cisco was able to create a comprehensive security environment that solved for their three strategic goals.
“Three key components of our cyber-resilient strategy were isolation, orchestration, and rapid recovery. Cisco SecureX nailed all three providing us a single interface to see all security events, and malicious files, thus expediting how fast we can isolate events and recover,” Chowdhary explained. “Before using Cisco Secure, security was a hindrance, not an enabler for our IT team, employees, and even customers,” he added.
In fact, Cisco Secure helped Ampol improve their security posture so much that they were able to quickly pivot during the early days of the pandemic.
“When Covid triggered supply challenges during lockdowns, people not being able to access groceries turned to their local service station convenience stores to get what they needed. For Ampol, maintaining that supply continuity was critical, not just for our business, but for the customers who were relying on us to get their supplies. And all of this was done when many employees were now having to work remotely… This was possible only because we could maintain our revamped locations, staff, clients, and business partners safe on our network – while still maintaining speed and efficiency. Cisco Secure was the ticket to Ampol’s resilience in the face of major change,” Chowdhary said.
In addition to enabling flexibility against supply chain fluctuations, Ampol is readily protected against threats, cyberattacks, and other vulnerabilities. Their Cisco security solution included:
“The major force for our Cisco Secure investment was simplification by integrating the entire Security portfolio…If we ever happen to have a cyber-attack, we can quickly find it and contain it,” Chowdhary said, adding, “The greatest outcome of using Cisco Secure is simplicity at its core. We achieved great efficiency integration, better visibility, and context that’s not hidden across five, ten, or fifteen consoles, and ultimately, greater security outcomes.”
To find out how else Cisco Secure is helping protect Ampol against sophisticated threats and other challenges, read the full Ampol case study.
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Last week, I was privileged to participate in an important national summit on IoT Security convened by Anne Neuberger, Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technologies.
Representatives from across the US government, industry, and academia were invited to the White House to discuss a National Consumer IoT Security Labeling program.
In short, we were all there to solve the same problem: how do we raise awareness of the IoT security challenge among all consumers? Cisco appreciates the Biden administration’s efforts to drive better security into the consumer space given how interconnected our world is. We also underscored the importance of intelligent, intuitive networks in securely connecting the “things” being brought online daily—and in managing the billions of smart devices already in our homes and offices.
Consumer devices—from televisions and cameras to drones and baby monitors—have become attack targets as we have embraced connectivity without necessarily following proper security measures. This has been demonstrated by attacks that access cameras within these smart devices. But this issue extends beyond attacks and includes breaches of privacy too. If improperly secured, capabilities intended to enable smart features and accessibility, or improve user experience, can be abused by hackers to steal identities, generate data breaches, facilitate device failure, or even serve as stepping-stones to broader attacks on critical infrastructure.
A prominent example of how security flaws in consumer devices can lead to broader disruption was demonstrated by the Mirai botnet in 2016. What appeared initially as a targeted attack, quickly spread and caused global havoc. Fueled by compromised connected consumer devices—like cameras, DVRs and home routers—a Distributed Denial of Service attack (DDoS) impacted its customers’ sites such as Twitter, Netflix, and CNN to name a few. Mirai highlighted how consumer devices connecting to the network can go beyond the walls of a consumer’s home to breach larger institutions and services—all the while being unknown to the consumer and without impact the devices’ functions.
So how do we raise consumer awareness about these breaches? And how do we protect users and prevent these breaches in the future? The discussion at the White House focused on now best to effectuate the national program for IoT security labeling, which was required by President Biden’s executive order last May. Key stakeholders presented potentially promising new ideas for device certification, labels for secure devices, and ways to incentivize adoption of these standards.
Though the focus was on consumer IoT devices, we also discussed the broader implications of the need to raise awareness among consumers about the devices they use at home and in the office. This is where the importance of visibility and network security becomes a strong protector: once these devices can be identified, the network can provide the right access controls (e.g., segmenting the network so that such devices do not infiltrate the main network).
As the IoT market continues to evolve and mature, we look forward to working with the US government, policymakers, industry forums, and partners to drive open, standardized holistic IoT security and privacy practices. Accomplishing this will help more power a more secure, connected future for all.
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An important alert for anyone who uses smart cameras, Wi-Fi baby monitors, and other connected devices that send audio or video over the internet: a recent security advisory indicates millions of these devices may be at risk of remote monitoring or attack.
The root of the concern is an apparent vulnerability in the Software Development Kit (“SDK”) used with the ThroughTek Kalay network. Millions of smart devices use Kalay and its protocols to communicate over the internet.
As mentioned in the security advisory, an attacker could exploit the apparent vulnerability to intercept audio and video signals sent to and from Kalay-enabled devices. This could lead to follow-on attacks that utilize the Kalay-enabled Internet of Things (IoT) platform—such as the smart cameras and baby monitors.
While there is not a comprehensive list of specific devices or manufacturers that may be affected by this alert, millions of devices use the Kalay network and protocols. Given this, people who own these types of devices should strongly consider taking the following steps to protect themselves while ThroughTek and its partners actively address the issue:
1. Update your devices. Manufacturers using the Kalay protocol have been advised to update to its latest version and enable further security features. Updating your devices regularly increases the chances that you’ll receive security improvements soon after they become available.
2. Do not connect to your smart cameras, baby monitors, and other devices through public Wi-Fi. Accessing these devices via a smartphone app from an unprotected network can compromise the security of your devices. Use a VPN or a secure cellular data connection instead.
3. Use strong, unique passwords. Every device of yours should have one, along with a unique username to go along with it. In some cases, connected devices ship with default usernames and passwords, making them that much easier to hack.
With those immediate steps in place, this security advisory offers you a chance to take a fresh look at your network and device security overall. With these straightforward steps in place, you’ll be more protected against such events in the future—not to mention more secure in general.
Our banks, many of the online shopping sites we use, and numerous other accounts use two-factor authentication to help validate that we’re who we say we are when logging in. In short, a username and password combo is an example of one-factor authentication. The second factor in the mix is something you, and only you, own or control, like your mobile phone. Thus, when you log in and get a prompt to enter a security code that’s sent to your mobile phone, you’re taking advantage of two-factor authentication. If your IoT device supports two-factor authentication as part of the login procedure, put it to use and get that extra layer of security.
Your router acts as the internet’s gateway into your home. From there, it works as a hub that connects all your devices—computers, tablets, and phones, along with your IoT devices as well. That means it’s vital to keep your router secure. A quick word about routers: you typically access them via a browser window and a specific address that’s usually printed somewhere on your router. Whether you’re renting your router through your internet provider or have purchased one, the internet provider’s “how to” guide or router documentation can step you through this process.
The first thing to do is change the default password of your router if you haven’t done so already. Again, use a strong method of password creation. Also, change the name of your router. When you choose a new one, go with name that doesn’t give away your address or identity. Something unique and even fun like “Pizza Lovers” or “The Internet Warehouse” are options that mask your identity and are memorable for you too. While you’re making that change, you can also check that your router is using an encryption method, like WPA2, which helps secure communications to and from your router. If you’re unsure what to do, reach out to your internet provider or router manufacturer.
Just as you can offer your human guests secure access that’s separate from your own devices, creating an additional network on your router allows you to keep your computers and smartphones separate from IoT devices. This way, if an IoT device is compromised, a hacker will still have difficulty accessing your other devices, like computers and smartphones, along with the data and info that you have stored on them. You may also want to consider investing in an advanced internet router that has built-in protection and can secure and monitor any device that connects to your network.
We mentioned this above, yet it’s so important that it calls for a second mention: make sure you have the latest software updates for your IoT devices. That will make sure you’re getting the latest functionality from your device, and updates often contain security upgrades. If there’s a setting that lets you receive automatic updates, enable it so that you always have the latest.
You’ve probably seen that you can control a lot of your connected things with your smartphone. We’re using them to set the temperature, turn our lights on and off, and even see who’s at the front door. With that, it seems like we can add the label “universal remote control” to our smartphones—so protecting our phones has become yet more important. Whether you’re an Android or iOS device user, get security software installed on your phone so you can protect all the things it accesses and controls—in addition to you and the phone as well.
While the apparent vulnerability in the Kalay protocol is at issue here, this security advisory stands as a good reminder to protect all of our connected things—notably our computers and laptops. Using a strong suite of security software like McAfee® Total Protection, can help defend your entire family from the latest threats and malware, make it safer to browse, and look out for your privacy too.
The post McAfee Security Alert: Protect Your Smart Cameras and Wi-Fi Baby Monitors appeared first on McAfee Blog.
[Disclaimer: The McAfee ATR team disclosed this vulnerability to Peloton and promptly started working together to responsibly develop and issue a patch within the disclosure window. The patch was tested and confirmed effective on June 4, 2021.]
Picture this: A hacker enters a gym or fitness center with a Peloton Bike+. They insert a tiny USB key with a boot image file containing malicious code that grants them remote root access. Since the attacker doesn’t need to factory unlock the bike to load the modified image, there is no sign that it was tampered with. With their newfound access, the hacker interferes with the Peloton’s operating system and now has the ability to install and run any programs, modify files, or set up remote backdoor access over the internet. They add malicious apps disguised as Netflix and Spotify to the bike in the hopes that unsuspecting users will enter their login credentials for them to harvest for other cyberattacks. They can enable the bike’s camera and microphone to spy on the device and whoever is using it. To make matters worse, they can also decrypt the bike’s encrypted communications with the various cloud services and databases it accesses, potentially intercepting all kinds of sensitive information. As a result, an unsuspecting gym-goer taking the Peloton Bike+ for a spin could be in danger of having their personal data compromised and their workout unknowingly watched.
That’s a potential risk that you no longer have to worry about thanks to McAfee’s Advanced Threat Research (ATR) team. The ATR team recently disclosed a vulnerability (CVE-2021-3387) in the Peloton Bike+, which would allow a hacker with either physical access to the Bike+ or access during any point in the supply chain (from construction to delivery), to gain remote root access to the Peloton’s tablet. The hacker could install malicious software, intercept traffic and user’s personal data, and even gain control of the Bike’s camera and microphone over the internet. Further conversations with Peloton confirmed that this vulnerability is also present on Peloton Tread exercise equipment; however, the scope of our research was confined to the Bike+.
As a result of COVID-19, many consumers have looked for in-home exercise solutions, sending the demand for Peloton products soaring. The number of Peloton users grew 22% between September and the end of December 2020, with over 4.4 million members on the platform at year’s end. By combining luxury exercise equipment with high-end technology, Peloton presents an appealing solution to those looking to stay in shape with a variety of classes, all from a few taps of a tablet. Even though in-home fitness products such as Peloton promise unprecedented convenience, many consumers do not realize the risks that IoT fitness devices pose to their online security.
IoT fitness devices such as the Peloton Bike+ are just like any other laptop or mobile phone that can connect to the internet. They have embedded systems complete with firmware, software, and operating systems. As a result, they are susceptible to the same kind of vulnerabilities, and their security should be approached with a similar level of scrutiny.
Following the consumer trend in increasing IoT fitness devices, McAfee ATR began poring over the Peloton’s various systems with a critical eye, looking for potential risks consumers might not be thinking about. It was during this exploratory process that the team discovered that the Bike’s system was not verifying that the device’s bootloader was unlocked before attempting to boot a custom image. This means that the bike allowed researchers to load a file that wasn’t meant for the Peloton hardware — a command that should normally be denied on a locked device such as this one. Their first attempt only loaded a blank screen, so the team continued to search for ways to install a valid, but customized boot image, which would start the bike successfully with increased privileges.
After some digging, researchers were able to download an update package directly from Peloton, containing a boot image that they could modify. With the ability to modify a boot image from Peloton, the researchers were granted root access. Root access means that the ATR team had the highest level of permissions on the device, allowing them to perform functions as an end-user that were not intended by Peloton developers. The Verified Boot process on the Bike failed to identify that the researchers tampered with the boot image, allowing the operating system to start up normally with the modified file. To an unsuspecting user, the Peloton Bike+ appeared completely normal, showing no signs of external modifications or clues that the device had been compromised. In reality, ATR had gained complete control of the Bike’s Android operating system.
The McAfee ATR team disclosed this vulnerability to Peloton and promptly started working together to responsibly develop and issue a patch within the disclosure window. The patch was tested and confirmed effective on June 4, 2021. The discovery serves as an important reminder to practice caution when using fitness IoT devices, and it is important that consumers keep these tips in mind to stay secure while staying fit:
Stay on top of software updates from your device manufacturer, especially since they will not always advertise their availability. Visit their website regularly to ensure you do not miss news that may affect you. Additionally, make sure to update mobile apps that pair with your IoT device. Adjust your settings to turn on automatic software updates, so you do not have to update manually and always have the latest security patches.
Do your research before making a significant investment in an IoT device. Ask yourself if these devices are from a reputable vendor. Have they had previous data breaches in the past, or do they have an excellent reputation for providing secure products? Also, take note of the information your IoT device collects, how vendors use this information and what they release to other users or third parties.
Above all, understand what control you have over your privacy and information usage. It is a good sign if an IoT device allows you to opt-out of having your information collected or lets you access and delete the data it does collect.
Protect your data from being compromised by stealthy cybercriminals by using an identity theft solution such as the one included in McAfee Total Protection. This software allows users to take a proactive approach to protecting their identities with personal and financial monitoring, as well as recovery tools.
If you are one of the 4.4 million Peloton members or use other IoT fitness devices, it is important to keep in mind that these gadgets could pose a potential security risk just like any other connected device. To elevate your fitness game while protecting your privacy and data, incorporate cybersecurity best practices into your everyday life so you can confidently enjoy your IoT devices.
As stated, McAfee and Peloton worked together closely to address this issue. Adrian Stone, Peloton’s Head of Global Information Security, shared that “this vulnerability reported by McAfee would require direct, physical access to a Peloton Bike+ or Tread. Like with any connected device in the home, if an attacker is able to gain physical access to it, additional physical controls and safeguards become increasingly important. To keep our Members safe, we acted quickly and in coordination with McAfee. We pushed a mandatory update in early June and every device with the update installed is protected from this issue.”
Peloton is always looking for ways to improve products and features, including making new features available to Members through software updates that are pushed to Peloton devices. For a step-by-step guide on how to check for updated software, Peloton Members can visit the Peloton support site.
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Many have seamlessly transitioned their fitness regimens out of the gym and into the living room since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks in part to the use of IoT devices. IoT (Internet of Things) denotes the web of interconnected physical devices embedded with sensors and software to collect and share information via the internet. The most common IoT devices used for virtual fitness include wearable fitness trackers and stationary machines equipped with digital interfaces. As effective as these devices are for facilitating a great workout, many do not realize the risks they pose for their online security. According to McAfee Labs Threats Report, new IoT malware increased by 7% at the start of the pandemic. There are various steps that users can take to continue using these devices securely without compromising performance. But first, it’s essential to understand why these devices are vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
IoT devices are just like any other laptop or mobile phone that can connect to the internet. They have embedded systems complete with firmware, software, and operating systems. As a result, they are exposed to the same vulnerabilities, namely malware and cyber-attacks.
One reason why IoT devices are so vulnerable is due to their update structure, or lack thereof. IoT devices lack the stringent security updates afforded to laptops or mobile phones. Because they do not frequently receive updates—and in some cases, never—they do not receive the necessary security patches to remain consistently secure.
What’s worse, if the developer goes out of business, there is no way to update the existing technology vulnerabilities. Alternatively, as newer models become available, older devices become less of a priority for developers and will not receive as many updates as their more contemporary counterparts.
Without these updates, cybercriminals can hack into these devices and taking advantage of the hardware components that make them a significant risk to users. For example, they can track someone’s location through a device’s GPS, or eavesdrop on private conversations through a video camera or audio technology.
IoT devices with unpatched vulnerabilities also present an easy entry point through which hackers can penetrate home networks and reach other devices. If these devices do not encrypt their data transmission between different devices and servers, hackers can intercept it to spoof communications. Spoofing is when a hacker impersonates a legitimate source, the back-end server or the IoT device in this case, to transmit false information. For instance, hackers can spoof communications between a wearable fitness tracker and the server to manipulate the tracking data to display excessive physical activity levels. They can then use this data for monetary gain by providing it to insurance companies and 3rd party websites with financial incentive programs.
Hackers can also exploit device vulnerabilities to spread malware to other devices on the same network to create a botnet or a web of interconnected devices programmed to execute automated tasks. They can then leverage this botnet to launch Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) or Man in the Middle attacks.
Whether you own an IoT device to monitor your health or physical performance, it is essential to take the necessary precautions to minimize the risks they present to digital security. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when incorporating your device into your fitness routine.
Default names and passwords are low-hanging fruit for hackers and should be the first thing you address when securing your router. Default router names often include the make or model of the manufacturer. Changing it will reduce a hacker’s chance of infiltrating your home network by making the router model unidentifiable. Further, follow password best practices to ensure your router password is long, complex, and unique.
Next, make sure you enable the highest level of encryption which includes Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2) or higher. Routers with older encryption protocols such as WPA or Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) are more susceptible to brute force attacks, where hackers will attempt to guess a person’s username and password through trial and error. WPA2 and higher encryption methods ensure that only authorized users can use your same network.
Lastly, create a guest network to segment your IoT devices from your more critical devices like laptops and mobile phones. If a hacker infiltrates your IoT devices, the damage is contained to the devices on that specific network.
Updates are critical because they go beyond regular bug fixes and algorithmic tweaks to adjust device software vulnerabilities.
Make it a point to stay on top of updates from your device manufacturer, especially since they will not always advertise their availability. Visit their website regularly to ensure you do not miss pertinent news or information that may impact you. Additionally, make sure to update the app corresponding to your IoT device. Go into your settings and schedule regular updates automatically, so you do not have to update manually.
Do your research before making a significant investment in an IoT device. Ask yourself if these devices are from a reputable vendor. Have they had previous data breaches in the past, or do they have a grade A track record for providing high-security products?
Also, take note of the information your IoT device collects, how vendors use this information and what they release to other users or third parties. Do they have privacy policies in place to protect their users’ data under PIPEDA regulation?
Above all, understand what control you have over your privacy and information usage. It is a good sign if an IoT device allows you to opt-out of having your information collected or lets you access and delete the data it does collect
Next time you go for a run with geolocation activated on your smartwatch, think again about what risks this poses to your virtual security and even your physical safety. Enhance your security by only enabling the features that are necessary to optimize your fitness performance. In doing so, you ensure that hackers cannot utilize them as a foothold to invade your privacy.
IoT devices have made in-home exercise routines possible, given their increase in availability and ease of use. However, despite their capabilities for optimizing the fitness experience, the nature of these devices has made them one of many threats to personal privacy and online safety. For an elevated fitness experience beyond a great workout, start securing your IoT devices to integrate them into your everyday exercise routine safely.
The post Don’t Sweat Your Security: How to Safely Incorporate IoT Into Your Fitness Routine appeared first on McAfee Blogs.
Cybercriminals go to great lengths to hack personal devices to gather sensitive information about online users. To be more effective, they make significant investments in their technology. Also, cybercriminals are relying on a tactic called social engineering, where they capitalize upon fear and urgency to manipulate unsuspecting device users to hand over their passwords, banking information, or other critical credentials.
One evolving mobile device threat that combines malware and social engineering tactics is called BRATA. BRATA has been recently upgraded by its malicious creators and several strains have already been downloaded thousands of times, according to a McAfee Mobile Research Team report.
Here’s how you can outsmart social engineering mind games and protect your devices and personal information from BRATA and other phishing and malware attacks.
BRATA stands for Brazilian Remote Access Tool Android and is a member of an Android malware family. The malware initially targeted users in Brazil via Google Play and is now making its way through Spain and the United States. BRATA masquerades as an app security scanner that urges users to install fake critical updates to other apps. The apps BRATA prompts the user to update depends on the device’s configured language: Chrome for English speakers, WhatsApp for Spanish speakers, and a non-existent PDF reader for Portuguese speakers.
Once BRATA infects a mobile device, it combines full device control capabilities with the ability to capture screen lock credentials (PIN, password, or pattern), capture keystrokes (keylogger functionality), and record the screen of the compromised device to monitor a user’s actions without their consent.
BRATA can take over certain controls on mobile phones, such as:
BRATA is like a nosy eavesdropper that steals keystrokes and an invisible hand that presses buttons at will on affected devices.
BRATA’s latest update added new phishing and banking Trojan capabilities that make the malware even more dangerous. Once the malware is installed on a mobile device, it displays phishing URLs from financial institutions that trick users into divulging their sensitive financial information. What makes BRATA’s banking impersonations especially effective is that the phishing URLs do not open into a web browser, which makes it difficult for a mobile user to pinpoint it as fraudulent. The phishing URLs instead redirect to fake banking log-in pages that look legitimate.
The choice to impersonate banks is a strategic one. Phishers often impersonate authoritative institutions, such as banks and credit card companies, because they instill fear and urgency.
Social engineering methods work because they capitalize on the fact that people want to trust others. In successful phishing attacks, people hand cybercriminals the keys instead of the cybercriminal having to steal the keys themselves.
Awareness is the best defense against social engineering hacks. When you’re on alert and know what to look for, you will be able to identify and avoid most attempts, and antivirus tools can catch the lures that fall through the cracks.
Here are three tell-tale signs of a social engineering attack and what you should do to avoid it.
Just because an app appears on Google Play or the App Store does not mean it is legitimate. Before downloading any app, check out the number of reviews it has and the quality of the reviews. If it only has a few reviews with vague comments, it could either be because the app is new or it is fake. Also, search the app’s developer and make sure they have a clean history.
Never click on links if you are not sure where they redirect or who sent it. Be especially wary if the message surrounding the link is riddled with typos and grammar mistakes. Phishing attempts often convey urgency and use fear to pressure recipients to panic and respond too quickly to properly inspect the sender’s address or request. If you receive an urgent email or text request concerning your financial or personal information, take a deep breath and investigate if the claim is legitimate. This may require calling the customer service phone number of the institution.
Just like computers, mobile devices can be infected with viruses and malware. Protect your mobile device by subscribing to a mobile antivirus product, such as McAfee Mobile Security. McAfee Mobile Security is an app that is compatible with Android devices and iPhones, and it protects you in various ways, including safe surfing, scanning for malicious apps, and locating your device if it is lost or stolen.
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October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, which is led by the U.S. government’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in conjunction with the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA)—a national non-profit focused on cybersecurity education & awareness. McAfee is pleased to announce that we’re a proud participant.
Imagine it’s 20 years ago and someone at a dinner party predicts that one day you could pop down to the appliance store and buy an internet-connected fridge. Your year 2000 self might have shook that off and then then asked, “Why would someone ever do that?”
Yet here we are.
Today, so much is getting connected. Our appliances, security systems, and even our coffeemakers too. So far this month, we’ve talked about protecting these connected things and securing these new digital frontiers as Internet of Things (IoT) devices transform not only our homes, but businesses and communities as well.
To wrap up Cybersecurity Awareness Month, let’s take a look ahead at how the next wave of connected devices could take shape by taking a look at the network that billions of them will find themselves on: 5G networks.
You’ve no doubt seen plenty of commercials from the big mobile carriers as they tout the rollout of their new, more powerful 5G networks. And more powerful they are. For starters, 5G is expected to operate roughly 10 times faster than the 4G LTE networks many of us enjoy now—with the potential to get yet faster than that over time.
While mention of faster speeds continues to be the top selling point in ads and the like, 5G offers another pair of big benefits: greater bandwidth and lower latency. Taken together, that means 5G networks can host more devices than before and with a near-instantaneous response time.
The implication of these advances is that billions and billions of new devices will connect to mobile networks directly, at terrific speeds, rather than to Wi-Fi networks. Of those, many billions will be IoT devices. And that means more than just phones.
What will those devices look like?
One answer is plenty more of what we’re already starting to see today—such as commercial and industrial devices that track fleet vehicles, open locks on tractor trailer deliveries based on location, monitor heating and air conditioning systems, oversee supply chains. We’ll also see more devices that manage traffic, meter utilities, and connect devices used in healthcare, energy, and agriculture. That’s in addition to the ones we’ll own ourselves, like wearables and even IoT tech in our cars.
All together, we’ll add about 15 billion new IoT devices to the 26 billion IoT devices already in play today for a total of an expected 41 billion IoT devices in 2025.
Citing those examples of IoT applications underscores the critical need for safety and security in the new 5G networks. This is a network we will count on in numerous ways. Businesses will trust their operations to the IoT devices that operate on it. Cities will run their infrastructure on 5G IoT devices. And we, as people, will use 5G networks for everything from entertainment to healthcare. Not only will IoT devices themselves need protection, yet the networks will need to be hardened for protection as well. And you can be certain that increased network security, and security in general, is a part of our future forecast.
The GSMA, an industry group representing more than 750 operators in the mobile space, calls out the inherent need for security for 5G networks in their 5G Reference Guide for Operators. In their words, “New threats will be developed as attackers are provided live service environment to develop their techniques. 5G is the first generation that recognizes this threat and has security at its foundation.” When you consider the multitude of devices and the multitude of applications that will find their way onto 5G, a “square one” emphasis on security makes absolute sense. It’s a must.
While standards and architectures are taking shape and in their first stages of implementation, we can expect operators to put even more stringent defenses in place, like improved encryption, ways of authenticating devices to ensure they’re not malicious, creating secure “slices” of the network, and more, which can all improve security.
Another consideration for security beyond the oncoming flood of emerging devices and services that’ll find their way onto 5G networks is the sheer volume of traffic and data they’ll generate. One estimate puts that figure of 5G traffic at 79.4 zettabytes (ZB) of data in 2025. (What’s a zettabyte? Imagine a 10 followed by 21 zeroes.) This will call for an evolution in security that makes further use of machine learning and AI to curb a similarly increased volume of threats—with technologies much like you see in our McAfee security products today.
“Siri/Alexa/Cortana/Google, play Neko Case I Wish I Was the Moon.”
We’ve all gotten increasingly comfy with the idea of connected devices in our homes, like our smart assistants. Just in 2018, Juniper Research estimated that there’d be some 8 billion digital voice assistants globally by 2023, thanks in large part to things like smart TVs and other devices for the home. Expect to see more IoT devices like those available for use in and around your house.
What shape and form might they take? Aside from the voice-activated variety, plenty of IoT devices will help us automate our homes more and more. For example, you might have smart sensors in your garden that can tell when your tomatoes are thirsty and activate your soaker hoses for a drink—or other smart sensors placed near your water heater that will text you when they detect a leak.
Beyond that, we’re already purchasing connected lights and smart thermostats, yet how about connecting these things all together to create presets for your home? Imagine a setting called “Movie Night,” where just a simple voice command draws the shades, lowers the lights, turns on the gas fireplace, and fires up the popcorn maker. All you need to do is get your slippers.
Next, add in a degree of household AI, which can learn your preferences and habits. Aspects of your home may run themselves and predict things for you, like the fact that you like your coffee piping hot at 5:30am on Tuesdays. Your connected coffeemaker will have it ready for you.
These scenarios were once purely of the George Jetson variety (remember him?), yet more and more people will get to indulge in these comforts and conveniences as the technology becomes more pervasive and affordable.
One point of consideration with any emerging technology like the IoT on 5G is access.
This year drove home a hard reality: access to high-speed internet, whether via mobile device or a home network is no longer a luxury. It’s a utility. Like running water. We need it to work. We need it to study. We need it to bank, shop, and simply get things done.
Yet people in underserved and rural communities in the U.S. still have no access to broadband internet in their homes. Nearly 6 in 10 of U.S. parents with lower incomes say their child may face digital obstacles in schoolwork because of reduced access to devices and quality internet service. And I’ve heard anecdotes from educators about kids taking classes online who have to pull into their school’s parking lot to get proper Wi-Fi, simply because they don’t have a quality connection at home.
The point is this: as these IoT innovations continue to knit their way into our lives and the way the world works, we can’t forget that there’s still a digital divide that will take years of effort, investment, and development before that gap gets closed. And I see us closing that gap in partnership, as people and communities, businesses and governments, all stand to benefit when access to technology increases.
So as we look to the future, my hope is that we all come to see high-speed internet connections for what they are—an absolute essential—and take the steps needed to deliver on it. That’s an advance I’d truly embrace.
To stay updated on all things McAfee and for more resources on staying secure from home, follow @McAfee_Home on Twitter, listen to our podcast Hackable?, and ‘Like’ us on Facebook.
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October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, which is led by the U.S. government’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in conjunction with the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA)—a national non-profit focused on cybersecurity education & awareness. McAfee is pleased to announce that we’re a proud participant.
Fitness trackers worn on the wrist, glucose monitors that test blood sugar without a prick, and connected toothbrushes that let you know when you’ve missed a spot—welcome to internet-connected healthcare. It’s new realm of care with breakthroughs big and small. Some you’ll find in your home, some you’ll find inside your doctor’s office, yet all of them are connected. Which means they all need to be protected. After all, they’re not tracking any old data. They’re tracking our health data, one of the most precious things we own.
Internet-connected healthcare, also known as connected medicine, is a broad topic. On the consumer side, it covers everything from smart watches that track health data to wireless blood pressure monitors that you can use at home. On the practitioner side, it accounts for technologies ranging from electronic patient records, network-enabled diagnostic devices, remote patient monitoring in the form of wearable devices, apps for therapy, and even small cameras that can be swallowed in the form of a pill to get a view of a patient’s digestive system.
Additionally, it also includes telemedicine visits, where you can get a medical issue diagnosed and treated remotely via your smartphone or computer by way of a video conference or a healthcare provider’s portal—which you can read about more in one of my blogs from earlier this year. In all, big digital changes are taking place in healthcare—a transformation that’s rapidly taking shape to the tune of a global market expected to top USD 534.3 billion by 2025.
Advances in digital healthcare have come more slowly compared to other aspects of our lives, such as consumer devices like phones and tablets. Security is a top reason why. Not only must a healthcare device go through a rigorous design and approval process to ensure it’s safe, sound, and effective, it also held to similar rigorous degrees of regulation when it comes to medical data privacy. For example, in the U.S., we have the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), which sets privacy and security standards for certain health information.
Taken together, this requires additional development time for any connected medical device or solution, in addition to the time it takes to develop one with the proper efficacy. Healthcare device manufacturers cannot simply move as quickly as, say, a smartphone manufacturer can. And rightfully so.
However, for this blog, we’ll focus on the home and personal side of the equation, with devices like fitness trackers, glucose monitors, smart watches, and wearable devices in general—connected healthcare devices that more and more of us are purchasing on our own. To be clear, while these devices may not always be categorized as healthcare devices in the strictest (and regulatory) sense, they are gathering your health data, which you should absolutely protect. Here are some straightforward steps you can take:
Many medical IoT devices use a smartphone as an interface, and as a means of gathering, storing, and sharing health data. So whether you’re an Android owner or iOS owner, get security software installed on your phone so you can protect all the things it accesses and controls. Additionally, installing it will protect you and your phone in general as well.
Some IoT devices have found themselves open to attack because they come with a default username and password—which are often published on the internet. When you purchase any IoT device, set a fresh password using a strong method of password creation. And keep those passwords safe. Instead of keeping them on a notebook or on sticky notes, consider using a password manager.
You’ve probably come across two-factor authentication while banking, shopping, or logging into any other number of accounts. Using a combination of your username, password, and a security code sent to another device you own (typically a mobile phone) makes it tougher for hackers to crack your device. If your IoT device supports two-factor authentication, use it for extra security.
This is vital. Make sure you have the latest updates so that you get the latest functionality from your device. Equally important is that updates often contain security upgrades. If you can set your device to receive automatic updates, do so.
Your medical IoT device will invariably use your home Wi-Fi network to connect to the internet, just like your other devices. All the data that travels on there is personal and private use already, and that goes double for any health data that passes along it. Make sure you use a strong and unique password. Also change the name of your router so it doesn’t give away your address or identity. One more step is to check that your router is using an encryption method, like WPA2, which will keep your signal secure. You may also want to consider investing in an advanced internet router that has built-in protection, which can secure and monitor any device that connects to your network.
Similar to the above, another way you can further protect the health data you send over the internet is to use a virtual private network, or VPN. A VPN uses an encrypted connection to send and receive data, which shields it from prying eyes. A hacker attempting to eavesdrop on your session will effectively see a mish-mash of garbage data, which helps keep your health data secure.
One recent study found that 25% of U.S. homeowners with broadband internet expect to purchase a new connected consumer health or fitness device within the next year. Just be sure yours is secure. Read up on reviews and comments about the devices you’re interested in, along with news articles about their manufacturers. See what their track record is on security, such as if they’ve exposed data or otherwise left their users open to attack.
Bottom line, when we speak of connected healthcare, we’re ultimately speaking about one of the most personal things you own: your health data. That’s what’s being collected. And that’s what’s being transmitted by your home network. Take these extra measures to protect your devices, data, and yourself as you enjoy the benefits of the connected care you bring into your life and home.
The post Seven Tips for Protecting Your Internet-Connected Healthcare Devices appeared first on McAfee Blog.
Introduction: Knowing the Notions Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) incorporates technologies such as machine learning, machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, sensor data, Big Data, etc. This article will focus predominantly on the consumer Internet of Things (IoT) and how it relates to Operational Technology (OT). Operational Technology (OT) is a term that defines a specific category of […]
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At Black Hat USA 2020, Trend Micro presented two important talks on vulnerabilities in Industrial IoT (IIoT). The first discussed weaknesses in proprietary languages used by industrial robots, and the second talked about vulnerabilities in protocol gateways. Any organization using robots, and any organization running a multi-vendor OT environment, should be aware of these attack surfaces. Here is a summary of the key points from each talk.
Rogue Automation
Presented at Black Hat, Wednesday, August 5. https://www.blackhat.com/us-20/briefings/schedule/index.html#otrazor-static-code-analysis-for-vulnerability-discovery-in-industrial-automation-scripts-19523 and the corresponding research paper is available at https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/news/internet-of-things/unveiling-the-hidden-risks-of-industrial-automation-programming
Industrial robots contain powerful, fully capable computers. Unlike most contemporary computers, though, industrial robots lack basic information security capabilities. First, at the architectural level, they lack any mechanism to isolate certain instructions or memory. That is, any program can alter any piece of storage, or run any instruction. In traditional mainframes, no application could access, change, or run any code in another application or in the operating system. Even smartphone operating systems have privilege separation. An application cannot access a smartphone’s camera, for instance, without being specifically permitted to do so. Industrial robots allow any code to read, access, modify, or run any device connected to the system, including the clock. That eliminates data integrity in industrial robots and invalidates any audit of malfunctions; debugging becomes exceptionally difficult.
Industrial robots do not use conventional programming languages, like C or Python. Instead, each manufacturer provides its own proprietary programming language. That means a specialist using one industrial robot cannot use another vendor’s machine without training. There are no common information security tools for code validation, since vendors do not develop products for fragmented markets. These languages describe programs telling the robot how to move. They also support reading and writing data, analyzing and modifying files, opening and closing input/output devices, getting and sending information over a network, and accessing and changing status indicators on connected sensors. Once a program starts to run on an industrial robot, it can do anything any fully functional computer can do, without any security controls at all. Contemporary industrial robots do not have any countermeasures against this threat.
Most industrial robot owners do not write their own programs. The supply chain for industrial robot programs involves many third-party actors. See Figure 1 below for a simplified diagram. In each community, users of a particular vendor’s languages share code informally, and rely on user’s groups for hints and tips to solve common tasks. These forums rarely discuss security measures. Many organizations hire third-party contractors to implement particular processes, but there are no security certifications relevant to these proprietary languages. Most programmers learned their trade in an air-gapped world, and still rely on a perimeter which separates the safe users and code inside from the untrusted users and code outside. The languages offer no code scanners to identify potential weaknesses, such as not validating inputs, modifying system services, altering device state, or replacing system functions. The machines do not have a software asset management capability, so knowing where the components of a running program originated from is uncertain.
Figure 1: The Supply Chain for Industrial Robot Programming
All is not lost – not quite. In the short term, Trend Micro Research has developed a static code analysis tool called OTRazor, which examines robotic code for unsafe code patterns. This was demonstrated during our session at Black Hat.
Over time, vendors will have to introduce basic security checks, such as authentication, authorization, data integrity, and data confidentiality. The vendors will also have to introduce architectural restrictions – for instance, an application should be able to read the clock but not change it.. Applications should not be able to modify system files, programs, or data, nor should they be able to modify other applications. These changes will take years to arrive in the market, however. Until then, CISOs should audit industrial robot programs for vulnerabilities, and segment networks including industrial robots, and apply baseline security programs, as they do now, for both internally developed and procured software.
Protocol Gateway Vulnerabilities
Presented at Black Hat, Wednesday, August 5, https://www.blackhat.com/us-20/briefings/schedule/index.html#industrial-protocol-gateways-under-analysis-20632, with the corresponding research paper available here: https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/news/internet-of-things/lost-in-translation-when-industrial-protocol-translation-goes-wrong.
Industry 4.0 leverages the power of automation alongside the rich layer of software process control tools, particularly Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and its bigger cousin, Supply Chain Management (SCM). By bringing together dynamic industrial process control with hyper-efficient “just-in-time” resource scheduling, manufacturers can achieve minimum cost, minimum delay, and optimal production. But these integration projects require that IIoT devices speak with other technology, including IIoT from other manufacturers and legacy equipment. Since each equipment or device may have their own communication protocol, Industry 4.0 relies heavily on protocol converters.
Protocol converters are simple, highly efficient, low-cost devices that translate one protocol into another. Protocol converters are ubiquitous, but they lack any basic security capabilities – authentication, authorization, data integrity or data confidentiality – and they sit right in the middle of the OT network. Attackers can subvert protocol converters to hijack the communication or change configuration. An attacker can disable a safety thresholds, generate a denial of service attack, and misdirect an attached piece of equipment.
In the course of this research, we found nine vulnerabilities and are working with vendors to remediate the issues. Through our TXOne subsidiary, we are developing rules and intelligence specifically for IIoT message traffic, which are then embedded in our current network security offerings, providing administrators with better visibility and the ability to enforce security policies in their OT networks.
Protocol converters present a broad attack surface, as they have limited native information security capabilities. They don’t validate senders or receivers, nor do they scan or verify message contents. Due to their crucial position in the middle of the OT network, they are an exceptionally appealing target for malicious actors. Organizations using protocol converters – especially those on the way to Industry 4.0 – must address these weak but critical components of their evolving infrastructure.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments below or @WilliamMalikTM
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“Alexa, turn on the TV.”
”Get it yourself.”
This nightmare scenario could play out millions of times unless people take steps to protect their IoT devices. The situation is even worse in industrial settings. Smart manufacturing, that is, Industry 4.0, relies on tight integration between IT systems and OT systems. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software has evolved into supply chain management (SCM) systems, reaching across organizational and national boundaries to gather all forms of inputs, parting out subcomponent development and production, and delivering finished products, payments, and capabilities across a global canvas.
Each of these synergies fulfills a rational business goal: optimize scarce resources across diverse sources; minimize manufacturing, shipping, and warehousing expense across regions; preserve continuity of operations by diversifying suppliers; maximize sales among multiple delivery channels. The supply chain includes not only raw materials for manufacturing, but also third party suppliers of components, outsourced staff for non-core business functions, open source software to optimize development costs, and subcontractors to fulfill specialized design, assembly, testing, and distribution tasks. Each element of the supply chain is an attack surface.
Software development has long been a team effort. Not since the 1970s have companies sought out the exceptional talented solo developer whose code was exquisite, flawless, ineffable, undocumented, and impossible to maintain. Now designs must be clear across the team, and testing requires close collaboration between architects, designers, developers, and production. Teams identify business requirements, then compose a solution from components sourced from publically shared libraries. These libraries may contain further dependencies on yet other third-party code of unknown provenance. Simplified testing relies on the quality of the shared libraries, but shared library routines may have latent (or intentionally hidden) defects that do not come to life until in a vulnerable production environment. Who tests GitHub? The scope of these vulnerabilities is daunting. Trend Micro just published a report, “Attacks on Smart Manufacturing Systems: A Forward-looking Security Analysis,” that surveys the Industry 4.0 attack surface.
Within the manufacturing operation, the blending of IT and OT exposes additional attack surfaces. Industrial robots provide a clear example. Industrial robots are tireless, precision machines programmed to perform exacting tasks rapidly and flawlessly. What did industry do before robots? Factories either relied on hand-built products or on non-programmable machines that had to be retooled for any change in product specifications. Hand-built technology required highly skilled machinists, who are expensive and require time to deliver. See Figure 1 for an example.
Figure 1: The cost of precision
Non-programmable robots require factory down time for retooling, a process that can take weeks. Before programmable industrial robots, automobile factories would deliver a single body style across multiple years of production. Programmable robots can produce different configurations of materials with no down time. They are used everywhere in manufacturing, warehousing, distribution centers, farming, mining, and soon guiding delivery vehicles. The supply chain is automated.
However, the supply chain is not secure. The protocols industrial robots depend on assumed the environment was isolated. One controller would govern the machines in one location. Since the connection between the controller and the managed robots was hard-wired, there was no need for operator identification or message verification. My controller would never see your robot. My controller would only connect to my robot, so the messages they exchanged needed no authentication. Each device assumed all its connections were externally verified. Even the safety systems assumed the network was untainted and trustworthy. No protocols included any security or privacy controls. Then Industry 4.0 adopted wireless communications.
The move, which saved the cost of laying cable in the factory, opened those networks to eavesdropping and attacks. Every possible attack against industrial robots is happening now. Bad guys are forging commands, altering specifications, changing or suppressing error alerts, modifying output statistics, and rewriting logs. The consequences can be vast yet nearly undetectable. In the current report on Rogue Robots, our Forward-looking Threat Research team, collaborating with the Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI), analyzes the range of specific attacks today’s robots face, and the potential consequences those attacks may have.
Owners and operators of programmable robots should heed the warnings of this research, and consider various suggested remedies. Forewarned is forearmed.
The Rogue Robots research is here: https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/news/internet-of-things/rogue-robots-testing-industrial-robot-security.
The new report, Attacks on Smart Manufacturing Systems: A Forward-looking Security Analysis, is here: https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/threat-intelligence-center/internet-of-things/threats-and-consequences-a-security-analysis-of-smart-manufacturing-systems.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments below, or @WilliamMalikTM.
The post Securing Smart Manufacturing appeared first on .
We continue our four-part series on protecting your home and family. See the links to the previous parts at the end of this blog.
We’re now done with familiarizing ourselves with the features of Trend Micro Home Network Security (HNS) It’s now time for you to get a bit more adept at regular monitoring and maintenance, to ensure you’re getting the best protection HNS can provide your connected home.
Once you’re tracking the various internet-capable devices in your home within HNS, as with any security-related device it’s essential to monitor the activities captured by it. In the same way that we need to periodically review the videos taken by our security cameras, to check for any unusual events in or around the home that need our attention; so too, do you need to keep abreast of the goings on in your home network, particularly those of an unusual or suspect nature, as revealed by HNS. This can easily be done in two ways: via Voice Control and Reports.
Voice Control. When you want just a quick overview of the status of your network, you can use HNS’s Voice Control. Voice Control is available as a skill for both Amazon Alexa and Google Home.
Once the skill has been enabled, you can ask Alexa or Google Assistant to control your Home Network Security (HNS) using the following voice commands:
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Reports. On the other hand, if you have more time to spare, you can peruse the Reports for your devices, user profiles, and network usage.
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Now that you’re more acquainted with your home network through HNS, it’s vital that you know what to do when, for instance, you received a Smart Alert notification indicating an unusually high network activity detected on one of your connected devices.
A Range of Network Events. In brief, you’ll need to review the recent activities and perform the required actions to eliminate risks such as the following:
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For more specific information regarding these types of incidents, you may refer to this Technical Support article.
The Home Network Security Station takes care of your home and your family’s security and safety. In return, you should know how to check if it’s in good working condition.
Physical Status. Check whether the physical components (LED, Reset button, Power, and Ethernet ports) of your Station are intact.
Power. Ensure that the Station is powered on. To check if the Station has power supply, just follow these simple steps:
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Offline Notifications. When the HNS Station is offline the user will receive a notification about it. In addition, the HNS app will indicate the Station is offline. This situation can be attributed to loss of either the internet or LAN connections.
Internet Connection. Make sure you have stable internet connection. Checking your internet connection is easy:
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If you are able to connect to the internet, just reconnect your Home Network Security Station to the router.
LAN Connection. Check the connection between the router and the HNS Station.
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Updates. Make sure that you update the HNS App if you receive a notification that indicates, “Update Needed. Please click the button below to get the latest version.” This will guarantee that your HNS is up-to-date with app improvements.
Getting Help. Always remember, if you encounter any questions, issues or concerns that you’re unable to resolve, Help is just a click away.
Home networks are everywhere these days. However, the user knowledge required to secure and maintain our home networks spans from tech newbies to gurus and often seems to be a rather complicated or even confusing task.
To help you maintain and monitor your home network, Trend Micro offers a simple plug-and-protect home network device to protect your smart home and connected devices from being hacked, while keeping the internet safe for your kids on any device. But plug-and-protect doesn’t mean plug-and-forget. As with any security device, ongoing monitoring and maintenance is needed to provide the best protection your home network and family members need and deserve.
For more information, go to Trend Micro Home Network Security.
To read the rest of our series on HNS, go to
You’re in Safe Hands with Trend Micro Home Network Security – Part 1: Setup and Configuration
Trend Micro Home Network Security Has Got You Covered – Part 2: Parental Controls
In Safe Hands with Trend Micro Home Network Security – Part 3: Testing Its Functions
The post Monitoring and Maintaining Trend Micro Home Network Security – Part 4: Best Practices appeared first on .
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