How to communicate Threat Intelligence to Executives?
Threat intelligence communication is very key in ensuring that proper measures have been taken before attacks occur. Discovering threats is one thing and propagating the threat to the relevant executive for proper measures to be taken is totally a different thing. This involves making the threat actionable for the targeted business. The communication under discussion is vertical in most cases, whereby the issue is escalated to higher authorities up to the executives that make the necessary decisions.
The most crucial thing in communicating the threat efficiently and effectively is to do a comprehensive analysis of the business under the risk. Analysis may involve a close scrutiny of the operations and transactions of the business both internally and externally. It evaluates the security measures and mitigations that the business has put in place to compact any potential threat. (Franolich, 2017 )
After an evaluation, any business executive desire a solution rather than a problem. Therefore, for a better communication of any threat, a breakdown of possible solutions must be outlined and suggested to counter attack the identified threat. A demonstration of the vulnerabilities and weak points that attackers can use to gain access to the system is a useful step to win executive trust in the intelligence that one is putting across. Moreover, a demonstration of the solution to combat the problem at hand should be suggested.
By showing the executives the consequences attached to threats as well as explaining the solution towards it can convince them to take action to the identified threat.
The number of social media platforms have increased at a very high speed considering the increase in innovations and inventions all over the world. These platforms host very many people that interconnect on a daily basis through messages, chats and mails. However, these networks many vulnerabilities and weakness that hackers can use to penetrate into and perform malicious operations.
With the number increasing up to 70% increase in six months, recorded Cybercrime events are one click away on the internet. Malicious individuals take advantage of these social media platforms because they are free, easy-to-use, and offer a global reach (Bleau, 2016). They launch fake accounts and website of well-known domain names such as Google, Amazon, Alibaba, etc. to redirect online users to malicious web contents including pornographic sites.
In the recent past, many fake accounts of popular individuals have attracted many unknowledgeable internet users to follow them which lead them to presumably official accounts’ contents. The increase has been majorly influenced by the need of the every device and every person on the whole globe to interconnect and share resources. Fundraising accounts that are created on social media platforms have been intercepted and the credit details altered to redirect the raise funds to anonymous personnel.
The “internet community” are face with the challenge to innovate security mechanisms to identify and expose any Cybercrime attacks. Every online user has a responsibility to be vigilant and observe preventive measures that doesn’t expose them or their data to hackers. Moreover, social media platforms have a role to enforce security procedures to protect their user’s data from being accessed by malicious individuals.
Cyber Body Language or “Digital Body Language” is similar to facial expression or behavior a user makes when interacting in the cyber world. Cyber Body Language is best understood as “Context-Awareness” where a device or software is designed, primarily or partly, to analyze the behavior or pattern of the users and apply information gathered to automatically assert products, services, or other purposes such as security monitoring (ZUHRI, 2017). With the increasing number of internet users who spend a lot of time online, there has been a demand to understand and identify users by the websites they visit, the web applications they use, the posts and comments they make in social media platforms.
The comprehensive ability of cyber body language involves first being aware of the context an online user is in. This involves understanding the provided device or the use application in order to gather and synthesize the context information. Gathering the user’s behavior online is achieved by having context awareness systems which analyze and record the user’s operations in that particular context. A successful context awareness system is achieved by scrutinizing the posts that users send to social media platforms including images and videos. Similarly, a series of comments and emotional ‘emojis’ attaches a particular contextual event to a certain reaction by a certain user.
However, understanding cyber body language by applying context awareness system has been subjected to the breach of user’s privacy. This is considered as collecting personal information without the consent of the users. The collected data on the other hand has been suspected to be sold out to organizations that advertise to users according to the intelligent statistics made by the context awareness systems
Authentication is one of the core pillars of security enforcement. It describes the process of verifying that they are the one who they say they are. There are many implemented mechanisms to authenticate use to systems and applications. These procedures have proven to be inefficient to novices and vulnerable to malicious programs that brute force into the safeguarded application or register key logging activities to get personal information of users.
The most common implemented authentication system is the username and password (UNP) model. This model registers a user to a system which in-turn logs in a user through matching username and password. Unfortunately, this model has forced online users to reuse their credentials which increase their vulnerability to malicious attacks. Two-factor authentication models have proven a more secure solution but has a drawback for its failure to provide a suitable user experience.
The engagement of biometrics of voice recognition systems and fingerprint scans have provided a more secure solution to authentication problem which is less vulnerable to hacks and more convenient to all levels of users. The implementable biometric authentication system is considerably simplified and highly accelerated to access systems with ease. Biometrics are arguably the future to securing any basic products in the future, whereby any personal information and credit card information will be linked to personnel biometrics to grant them access to social amenities.
When these fields are mastered, biometric-powered multifactor authentication will finally unify the age-old opposing forces of convenience and security, and a brilliant and incredibly secure end-user experience will be established (Team2, Digital ID – Biometrics are the key to marrying security and convenience, 2017).
Integrated technologies are a combination of two or more set of security models that rely each other in order to grant access to a certain facility or service. Over years, independent technologies have not been trusted in offering a safer security to access of services. When a single security model is compromised the whole system is compromised. Organizations have opted to secure their resources by implementing integrated technologies whereby a series of access codes is given to different people who have to authorize and authenticate the access to the system.
An integration of cutting edge biometric recognition technology and key management systems is offering the very highest levels of security for organizations managing large number of priority keys (Team2, 2017). In addition to biometric recognition security access codes such as fingerprint scans or voice recognition systems, organizations have added a verification confirmation of personal identification numbers to grant access. It offers a more reliable security system because without correct series of security pass codes, one cannot be able to bypass the lock system. Moreover, more critical systems demand that more than one person is given a portion of the pass codes, which means that all the personnel having the keys have to authorize the access for a consistent, correct and complete access key.
Other integrated technologies have deployed a system that notify the system administrator in case of any authentication attempt to the system. A history of all authenticated users is kept in order for tracking any unusual behavior or intrusion into the system during a particular session. Intrusion Detection Systems and Intrusion Prevention Systems are among these integrated technologies that detect any intrusion and prevent them accordingl
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks have always been a problem over the years to organizations that have their presence on the internet. Many companies have been face with this viral attack, it has proved to be one of the worst pandemic to the cyber world. Many solutions have been presented but DDoS attacks are notoriously still increasing (Team2, 2017). A few ways to protect oneself from these attacks include:
Proxy protection hides real time IP address from any malicious attacks by presenting an extra layer of security which DDoS attacks would crack before launching its attacks. It’s not only a protection mechanism but also a performance enhancement protocol.
It is recommended that once IP Addresses have been spoofed, one blocks them. Spoofed IP Addresses are vulnerable to potential future attacks. Allowing data packets from trust hosts is a sure way to ensure that malicious data does not corrupt the system.
Distributed Denial of Service attacks tend to send a lot of traffic to a targeted route in order to clog the network so as to prevent legitimate transmission of data to allowed channels. The network administrator has to install Traffic Monitoring system to detect any unusual traffic over the network and prevent it accordingly as well as sending alerts.
DDoS attacks have been known to distribute easily from one device to another. A complex system with different interconnected devices is more vulnerable than an independent system. To prevent DDoS attacks from attacking an entire system, a routine monitoring of all interconnected devices is necessary to isolate any susceptible device.
The internet has presented the world with many positive good reasons for its existence but at the same time, it has presented us with a platform that it is frequently associated with financial fraud, file sharing and data breaches, including the sale of details from identity theft (Team2, 2017). It comprises of publicly accessible websites that are anonymously hidden on the internet by the use of encryption technologies.
It is a place where criminals conduct their illegal business of selling drugs, weapons, exchange stolen goods and other unhuman activities. The data that hosts the contents of the dark web are stored in random encrypted computers interconnected all over the world that make it hard to unravel their source of information. File sharing has been at the fore front goal of the Dark web where leaked Government secrets are shared over the internet, credit card details of individuals that have been hacked are sold at fee in order to commit financial fraud. Illegal business agreements such as selling of narcotic drugs is highly conducted in the hoods, pornography and child pornography is promoted and done using the same platform.
Individuals on the internet are encouraged to protect their data by following best security practices whenever they use the internet. Checking social media settings often is a good step to secure personal data as well not sharing critical information publicly is recommendable. Changing passwords regularly is also a good move to bar hackers from accessing unauthorized system.
ATM Black Box attack is whereby criminals identify access points in the physical architecture of the ATM that would grant them access to cables or ports allowing them to attach a laptop to the internal computer of the ATM (Warner, May 20, 2017).
This attack has been witnessed in the recent past to target Automated Vending Machines by manipulating the vulnerabilities and weaknesses in the system architecture of the machines. The new attack has been influenced by the potential transmission of commands when accessing the interconnected wires to the core operating system. After access to the interconnected wires, a laptop is usually attached and which in turn issue commands to the ATM resulting to the payout and manipulative actions to the cash system in the machine.
The technique of causing an ATM machine to dump all of its cash is called “Jackpotting.” This mechanism is majorly done after the hacker’s access to the system through supervisor mode of safe mode. These modes grant the hacker access to issue commands that dump all the cash from the ATM machine physically or send them to other distributive channels. The concern rather has not been to the ATM Computer but the cables that connect to the dispenser. This therefore allows the connected laptop’s malicious program to run commands to the dispenser that execute commands from the ATM machine, thus giving orders to dispense bills or ‘cash out’ the machine.
Mitigation guidelines have been provided by Expert Group on ATM Fraud (EGAF) to combat ATM attacks. These procedures outlines measures to conduct Threats Assessment to all possible ATM attacks.
The rise of mobile smart phones all over the globe has given hackers a new platform to target data and programs through mobile phones. Replacement Touchscreen is one of the upcoming hardware implant that hackers use to launch malicious programs to phones by embedding malware programs in the replaced screens (Schneier, 2017).
This attack has been influenced by the high number of screen breakages that require replacement at one point in time. By manipulating this possible vulnerability, hackers can install malicious apps, record the key logs of keyboard inputs and send them remotely. The programs can record passwords and personal identification numbers of financial applications, take pictures and videos of the surrounding environment through the screen and in turn email them to the attacker.
Unlike most of the attacks, replacement of touchscreen attack is not easily identified by the owner of the phone, which leaves them unaware of any suspicious behavior of the phones operations. The malware can run manipulative programs to the phones operating system to alter the normal functionalities of the installed programs, change passwords and perform unauthorized actions to social media platforms.
It is upon people owning smart phones to be vigilant to any hardware modification of their phones once they are repaired. It is therefore recommended to ensure that any hardware implants to smartphones is conducted by the phones manufacturer with official branded parts, rather than street persons who may put phones to possible vulnerabilities that may cause more harm than rectification.
Say No to Cyberbullying
Cyberbullying is whereby on internet user abuses, bullies, intimidates, despises or look down upon another user through the use of text messages sent via mobile phones online. Cyberbullying has been experienced by children worldwide, which is facilitated by the raise of many different social media networks, children have access to other interconnected users online.
Many victimized children have been affected negatively by this cybercrime attack which leads them to conduct activities against their will or depict unusual behavior to other children. Research has it that 90% of the children experiencing cyberbullying never tell an adult. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Clinical Report, being the victim of school bullying or cyberbullying is associated with substantial distress, resulting in lower school performance and school attachment (Markozashvili, 2017 ).
This attack’s effects are detrimental to children both mental, physical and social lives. Many campaigns have been launched to raise awareness of the cyberbullying consequences to children. Although many countries have laws prohibiting harassment and stalking, they have fallen short of addressing cyber bullying.
Technology and Telecommunication companies should enforce appropriate security measures regarding children using services online. Procedures and guidelines should be documented in Policy Acts to ensure that any online service provider to children adhere to the provided acts.
It is therefore a collective responsibility of the entire society to take arms to combat this attack by prohibiting cyberbullying in all sides. The increasing numbers of this attack online poses a great danger to the coming generation, a generation that will have a ‘domino effect’ to other generations to come. The effects of this attack
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