RDP Security Tip and other Infographics

 Thanks to Thomas Roccia for this great resource he created. It's at https://medium.com/@tom_rock/security-infographics-9c4d3bd891ef. I think you'll find these graphs to be particularly useful in any presentation you do. 

We've been asked a lot about Remote Desktop security given the WorkFromHome (WFH) situation we're in during the pandemic. It is a serious problem and here's a great infographic from Thomas' site. 

Academic Freedom and IT Security - They Do Work Well Together

 I was a member of a panel on Cyber Hygiene that was sponsored by the SANS Institute today. My good buddies, Tony Sager and Russell Eubanks were also on the panel. 

An attendee asked me about the challenge of balancing IT Security practices vs. the cherished Academic Freedom (AF) issue. I responded that IT has to stop being the Department of NO and go out and listen and learn how researchers do their thing. Only then should they decide on a path that supports rather than hinders their research. It's harder to take the time to meet and learn how end users actually do things  given the multitude of tasks most IT people need to perform in their normal course of duties. Understanding how and why your end users do things allows you to design and build a more efficient IT Security program and architecture. Short term pain eventually leads to long term gain. Taking the time to understand how your end users actually use your IT services will actually lessen the amount of time you have to spend outside of your normal duties in the long term. 

It was a great question and it got me thinking about the issue a little more and hence, this blog entry. I've been working in EDU IT for 45 years now and here are some musings on this balancing challenge.

I went on a motorcycle ride and got to thinking more about the question while I was riding through the mountains. It occurred to me that there should be no conflict between IT security and AF principles.  IT Security practices should enhance and protect AF. One complements the other. 

First, let's try to define "academic freedom" for the purpose of this blog. Here are some definitions that I'll use as my foundation. Academic Freedom is defined as:

1. a scholar's freedom to express ideas without risk of official interference or professional disadvantage. "we cannot protect academic freedom by denying others the right to an opposing view" (Oxford Dictionary)

2. Academic freedom means that both faculty members and students can engage in intellectual debate without fear of censorship or retaliation. (https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2010/12/21/defining-academic-freedom)

3. Teachers are entitled to full freedom in research and in the publication of the results, subject to the adequate performance of their other academic duties. Teachers are entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing their subject, but they should be careful not to introduce into their teaching controversial matter that has no relation to their subject. (https://www.aaup.org/issues/academic-freedom/professors-and-institutions)

After reading these definitions, I tried to see what the conflict was between IT practices and Academic Freedom (AF). Frankly, I saw more opportunities for IT practices to support, secure and protect AF. All 3 of the above definitions emphasize the right of the academic community to discuss freely any topic without the fear of censorship or retaliation. Looking at this from the IT Security point of view, here are some threat scenarios to AF in the online world.  A sample threat would be attacks against the Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability (CIA) aspects of AF.

For example, let's look at censorship. DOS/DDOS attacks,  domain blocking, confiscation of servers or endpoints are examples of availability attacks. Unauthorized modification of topics/data is an example of an integrity attack. Doxing is an example of a confidentiality attack. 

There are existing IT Security practices that can mitigate the effects of these classes of attacks.  Availability threats such as DOS/DDOS attacks can be deflected. Domain blocking can be addressed. Good file permission strategies along with good backups, file integrity tools can mitigate integrity attacks. Hunting down doxxers, online "bullies" can be done using techniques such as OSINT and log analysis to protect  individuals from harassment or retaliation.

Sound IT Security practices can and should be done to further advance academic freedom. I think the supposed conflict between IT Security and AF is not the big issue everyone outside of the EDU world thinks it is. 

To the webinar attendee who asked me the question of balancing IT Security practices with Academic Freedom, let me say IT Security practices should support academic freedom by designing procedures for protecting one's right to academic freedom. It should never interfere with that core business process.

This is my short answer to this question. I'd like to hear your opinions on this matter.

8/8/2020

Encryption, Security and Privacy, Oh My!

We’ve been hearing a lot of discussion about encryption these days. The Federal government proposes installing “backdoors” in encryption algorithms to allow law enforcement and security groups to be able to monitor communication between entities who pose a threat to “our” security.  We’ll talk more about this later but we want to emphasize this is an “age old” argument.

Clay Bennet won a Pulitzer Prize in 2002 for an editorial cartoon that expertly explains the security vs. privacy issue. Imagine a house, two people inside it and a wooden fence around the house. The house has a label that says “PRIVACY”. Workmen are removing planks from the house and using them to build the fence that has a label that says “SECURITY”.  Security vs. Privacy is like a see-saw. The more security you want, the less privacy you have. It is not a “vice versa” situation. More privacy does not necessarily mean less security. Security advocates usually say “if you’re not doing anything wrong, then you shouldn’t be worried”.  There are lots of flaws with this argument. The most common one is “who defines what is the definition of “wrong”? Does wrong mean “illegal” or dissent, for example. A common definition of privacy is the “right to be left alone”.

Encryption provides a way to hide something you send or store from unauthorized entities. It can be as basic as speaking a foreign language to someone or using something based on high order mathematics. For example, the Navajo code talkers used their language as an “encryption” method of communicating without the enemy being able to determine what was being said. As with any process, it can be used for good or evil.  You “break” this encryption technique by using someone fluent in the language being used.

In the 1990s, the Federal government proposed a method (the Clipper chip) allowing law enforcement and security groups to decrypt encrypted information. The resulting uproar was instrumental in shooting this proposal down but it showed how people didn’t understand how encryption works. The “clipper chip” was a “backdoor” way to decrypt a file or transmission. Suppose you put your tax papers in a vault to protect it from unauthorized access. You use a lock and key to gain access. A backdoor would be something like a master key for that lock that allows it to be unlocked. Common sense tells us the master key a) needs to be guarded all the time b) the person who has the master key isn’t evil and c) the person who has the regular key knows a master key exists.

So what’s the problem? Well, in the digital world, copies can be made without the owner’s knowledge. Any good hacker would try to get that “master” key and use it. It’s folly to assume a digital “master key/backdoor” would never be compromised. The 2011 RSA hack and 2013 Carbon Black attack are examples of hackers going after the “master” keys with success. While the whole purpose of encryption is to protect data at rest and in transit, there are ways to try to get the data in its original form.  Consider the following:

A -> K -> M1  ->C1-> EC -----------à DC -> C2 -> M1 -> file/display -> B

Person A uses a keyboard K to create a message M, stores it on computer C1 and encrypts it using tool EC. The encrypted message arrives at the target machine, is decrypted by tool DC running on device C2,  the data M is either stored in a file or shown on the display to person B.  The message is encrypted only from EC on C1 to DC on C2.  Attack points where the data could be copied are at K, C1 C2, M, file/display. Note these attack points do NOT need to know your encryption key. Why? The data is in the clear when it’s entered at K, stored in a file M1. If you write a program to grab the data at these points, you get the data in the clear.

This is nothing new. The first public reporting of this technique was done in 1998 when the FBI used a keystroke recorder against a mafia don’s computer. The recorder allowed them to collect information used to prosecute him. The keystroke recorder copied the data as it was entered before it was encrypted. The 2001 Magic Lantern tool and the 2009 CIPAV (Computer and Internet Protocol Address Verifier) were law enforcement tools developed to get data before it was encrypted.

These were every effective techniques and did not require a “backdoor” to an encryption algorithm.

So, let’s go back to the Privacy part of this essay. Those who advocate the “security” argument maintain there’s a need to be able to determine if criminal intent is planned. If criminals use encryption to hide intent then the government needs to be able to decrypt those messages.  There are ways to get data before it is encrypted so why the need for a backdoor? We need to remember that a message or data in a file starts as cleartext. Data capture techniques have been around for the past 20 years. Since they don’t require a backdoor to the encryption algorithm, one could assume the real target is privacy.  Why? The introduction of backdoors into any encryption algorithm destroys the algorithm as an encryption tool. The backdoor(s) will become publicly known eventually and encryption ceases to exist.

What’s truly ironic about this contention is that individuals are freely giving up lots of personal information to commercial companies.

This is a reprint of article originally posted on https://encryption-and-data-loss-protection-solutions.enterprisesecuritymag.com/cxoinsight/encryption-security-and-privacy-oh-my-nid-1455-cid-5.html

Out with the Old! In with the New! Perimeter Border replaced by Data and Identity Borders - Some Thoughts

These are a few questions that I'll address in upcoming blog posts.

• Are the industry threats your threats? Just because the magic quadrant says Threat A is the critical threat you need to address doesn't mean that it applies to your network. What metrics have you collected to determine the root cause of compromises or breaches in your org? While phishing is one of the major threats touted in cybersecurity mags, is it the root cause at your site? For example, for us, the 2 major root causes that led to breaches (big ones) that affected the entire institution were a) poor password management b) failure to apply OS and application patches in a timely manner. While we did have lots of successful phishing attacks, the consequences of those hits was limited to 1 or 2 people - the person who fell for the phish and/or immediate family. On the other hand, a sister institution found almost the opposite of our results. Phishing was a primary vector in their case. My point is that we need to take the time to evaluate the real causes of successful attacks  against our infrastructure/data/credentials and then use this information to buy/build tools/processes to address those threats. This helps us avoid wasting money on defensive tools that address 1% of successful attacks against us. 
• The New Borders - Your Identity,  Data. I used to say (still do) that the effective security perimeter is the device and not the border. As more and more devices become "personal" and not "organizational", the border becomes your phone, tablet, laptop, server, etc. BYOD is forcing us to adapt to this new paradigm.  Mobility becomes the new data flow process. 
• Work From Home (WFH) has drastically changed the "border".  
• Both ends (endpoint clients, servers)  of the traditional client-server process aren't necessarily inside your traditional "border". How are you approaching the visibility issue?