malicious attackers – Cooper Mann Consulting

March 23, 2016May 18, 2017

Securing Business Data When Mobility is the Target

driving1-ANIMATION Today’s workforce is a mobile workforce. Technology has enabled businesses to allow their employees to reach beyond the office walls, doing business and operating effectively from just about any location. SaaS, online access to business data, and smart phone technologies have brought flexibility in working models previously only imagined by the workforce tethered to business locations and office computers. Yet this flexibility comes at a price if the business is to keep up with securing and protecting data assets as readily as it extends access to them. The bad guys are well aware that mobile computing and remote access working models are growing in adoption with businesses, and are finding ways to take ever-greater advantage of the situation.

Teleworking, which is not quite the same thing as telecommuting, is on the rise and it doesn’t look to be a trend that will slow down any time soon. According to GlobalWorkplaceanalytics.com, “telework is defined as the substitution of technology for travel”. Those who work sometimes from an office, but sometimes not, are teleworkers. Working at the office during the day and then taking work home at night makes you a teleworker. The primary tool of the teleworkforce is the smart phone – the mobile computer with built-in connectivity and enough processing power to handle many basic office workloads.

50% of the US workforce holds a job that is compatible with at least partial telework and approximately 20-25% of the workforce teleworks at some frequency
80% to 90% of the US workforce says they would like to telework at least part-time. Two to three days a week seems to be the sweet spot that allows for a balance of concentrative work (at home) and collaborative work (at the office).
Fortune 1000 companies around the globe are entirely revamping their space around the fact that employees are already mobile. Studies repeatedly show they are not at their desk 50-60% of the time. http://globalworkplaceanalytics.com/telecommuting-statistics

The number of teleworking employees is on the rise, and so is the variety of devices used to facilitate mobile working. Smartphones, tablets and phablets and, of course, laptop computers are used by mobile workers – often in addition to the company-supplied desktop in the office. The variety and number of computing devices per user is growing. Knowing this, businesses must take increasingly expansive steps to strengthen and secure remote access systems and business data, yet many organizations are just beginning to fully realize that the mobility they extend to their users is part of the reason for the increasing number of data breaches and attacks against business information systems.

Cybercriminals and their crafty programs are often able to steal important information or access a network by first infecting computers and devices used for telework. Many of the devices available to the attackers are not company-owned, but are introduced to the system by contractors, vendors and employees (BYOD or bring-your-own-device users).

Even if the device isn’t a vehicle delivering a nasty payload into the network, data breaches may still occur when business information is stored on an improperly secured device. Most people who work with computers have some recognition of the potential for virus attacks and malware, but far fewer recognize the threat potential of attacks against mobile devices such as phones and tablets, and even fewer may implement meaningful protections on those devices.

“To prevent breaches when people are teleworking, organizations need to have stronger control over their sensitive data that can be accessed by, or stored on, telework devices,” said Murugiah Souppaya, a NIST computer scientist. [1]

Providing guidance and information to the public on such topics, NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) is revising its publications on telework to cover growing use of BYOD and how contractor and vendor devices are increasingly used to access company information resources. Two new publications – one for organizations and one for users – are now available for review and comment. You can find them here.

“As one of the major research components of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) has the broad mission to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology through research and development in information technology, mathematics, and statistics.” [NIST Information Technology Laboratory Mission]

The rising number of threats, attacks and breaches caused by compromised devices used for teleworking is nothing to take lightly, and protecting against them shouldn’t be approached as a merely perfunctory obligation. Organizations must create and consistently update policies and requirements relating to protecting information accessible by remote workers if they intend to reduce business risk and provide assurances to stakeholders and customers that the information is adequately guarded. But it doesn’t stop with the policy; businesses must also make an effort to properly educate their users (employees, contractors, vendors, etc.) on those policies, ensuring that all parties involved understand the responsibilities and requirements and strictly adhere to them.

jmbunnyfeet Make Sense?

[1] http://www.nist.gov/itl/csd/attackers-honing-in-on-teleworkers-how-organizations-can-secure-their-datata.cfm

September 23, 2014March 26, 2019

Small Business IT Governance: You really need it now

Big changes are going on in the world of information technology and business. Where social computing and mobility are no longer purely consumer concerns, enterprise IT departments face a growing requirement to embrace user devices and access in environments which were once strictly and closely controlled. Enterprise IT may be challenged when presented with user personal devices and demands for remote access to enterprise data, yet the governance of systems is generally well-defined and strictly performed. In small business, however, the people, policy and process issues (collectively incorporated into “governance”) tend to be more organic, and the use of personal devices and open access is more frequently considered to be a normal part of the overall business IT profile.

It is a focus on defining controls and processes, and influencing the activities and attitudes of the people involved, which has become an essential requirement in small business. Where management of information technology resources was not of great concern to the small business owner before, increased device and information mobility (removal of physical boundaries) and erosion of logical boundaries around personal and business computing have become a really big deal for everyone in business. Small businesses just don’t often have departments of people working on the problem.

Technology use in business has always come at a price, and as various influences continue to change how users interact with devices, applications and systems, business owners and IT managers will continue to face difficult choices between balancing security of information resources and providing a productivity-enhancing user experience. Too many security barriers result in avoidance of security protocols, slow or immobile company computers result in users working on their own machines and portables, and restricting access for mobile users results in “shadow IT” implementations of mobile sync and other data access approaches.

Yet “shadow IT” tends to be the norm with many small businesses, where there are often fewer barriers to implementing solutions which address individual user issues or problems. Lacking the resources or understanding to develop a strong plan for managing information systems and technology within the business, small business owners often consider the computer systems and computerized data to be tools to get jobs done rather than strategically valuable assets to be strictly controlled and protected. These business owners are not recognizing the ever-increasing need to not simply secure business information, but to establish processes and rules which will govern how users and devices access and interact with the information and systems.

Enterprise IT departments have often viewed their small business counterparts (customers, suppliers, etc.) as potential points of vulnerability, an attitude which was once considered to be centered not on real assessments of the risk but more in terms of ego, level of sophistication, and hierarchy in the food chain. In today’s world of real risk introduced by myriad technological and human elements in every link in the supply chain, enterprise IT conclusions regarding the risk potential of doing business with anyone – including small businesses – may not be entirely unfounded. Whether it be commentary and information distributed by individuals via social media or malware or corruption introduced inadvertently (or not) via computerized interaction, there is the possibility of risk introduced with every system, person and process involved. Enterprise to enterprise, these issues may be more often recognized and remediated; where the SMB is involved, not always so much.

This is a brave new world of computing, and there is truth in that even the smallest of businesses can “compete with the big guys” when the right mixture of technology and process is applied – for good or bad. Technology enables businesses to be more productive, get more done with fewer resources and perform at higher levels. IT Governance in small business is no longer an optional area of focus, addressed only during infrequent discussions with the local contract IT guy when he comes in to defrag the hard drive on a slow computer. Establishing the proper processes and controls to wrap around IT use in the business has become an imperative; a necessarily specific and considerate approach to how information technology is used within the business, who uses it, and what IT is composed of.

Just about every business, and most individuals, are connected in some manner via some type of network, representing a dramatic and dynamic change to the traditional composition of business IT and the landscape of vulnerabilities which threaten it. The increased connectedness, capability and complexity of systems and networks requires a greater focus on overall IT governance – exercising authority and controls – as the impact (just like the information) can easily and unintentionally reach far beyond the boundaries of the individual business.

Make Sense?

“People are nothing more than another operating system”, says Lance Spitzner, training director for the Securing The Human Program at SANS Institute. “Computers store, process and transfer information, and people store, process and transfer information,” How Hackers Fool Your Employees

February 18, 2014

The Business Cloud: Hype versus Reality

There is no doubt that cloud and mobile computing models are driving technology adoption as well as changing the landscape of how consumers and businesses purchase and use IT. Accompanying any great shift – which in this case is fueled not simply by cloud technologies but by social computing – are the purveyors of propaganda and hype. Cloud computing and social media won’t make you popular, is not always safe or free, and it doesn’t whiten your teeth. What it can do is help businesses increase agility, collect and use information better and reduce the cost of change. There are many benefits to be achieved with cloud computing models, yet many providers continue to play on the hype rather taking the more difficult road of communicating how their solution actually solves real business problems.

Gartner research tracks this type of activity, producing reports offering assessments of the “maturity, business benefit and future direction of over 1,900 technologies”. In the Gartner 2011 Hype Cycle Special Report, entries were grouped into 76 different “Hype Cycles”, revealing the similar patterns of “over-enthusiasm, disillusionment, and eventual realism” that comes with every new technology or innovation. Hoping to provide guidance business IT decision makers, the report intends to inform businesses about when they should consider adopting technologies or IT models in order maximize the value of the approach.

Yet the market is bursting with definitions for “cloud computing”, and services providers offer their wares with varying levels of service and capability. It’s really difficult to compare one private cloud solution to another, as they are all seemingly offering the same value proposition described in the same language – and none of it really describing what the solution is, how the business takes the greatest advantage of it, and what disruption can be expected along the way. Layer on top of that confusion a big heap of expectation, and the belief that cloud computing technologies are somehow different from “real” on-premise systems in that they are not subject to the same potential for breakage, failure, or unexpected cost.

elastic-2

For example, even though Amazon may use the term “elastic”, cloud computing does not automatically create a stretchy and eternally-dynamic resource that can grow without end. There are still limitations and costs associated with growth.

There is also a great deal of hype around applications and their performance in cloud environments. When a piece of software is poorly designed and crashes frequently on a local computer or network, it is just as likely that the application will perform poorly in the cloud. It’s simply a reality of software that even great products that are designed to run exactly the way they are being run don’t have a guarantee that nothing will ever go wrong. With cloud computing models, however, there may be a service provider working in the background to manage the systems and keep things running. You simply might not notice the failures and hiccups as much, but they are still there.

And not all cloud services mean everyone is sharing servers and infrastructure. While the term cloud generally applies to multiple scaled systems, it doesn’t mean that everyone shares everything and benefits from tremendous levels of redundancy and fault tolerance. In most cases, a solution described as a “private” cloud means that the service has been customized for the unique needs of the organization, and that there are resources of certain types allocated exclusively to the use of that customer. On the other hand, a private cloud may mean that the system elements are all contained within the business infrastructure, providing “cloud” type of services but being delivered from company resources. There are a wide variety of ways to describe these configurations and approaches, and quite a bit of inconsistency in use of terminology.

The best thing for a business owner to do now is to just ignore the term “cloud” and simply consider how the business might leverage resources from service providers to gain more IT capability at reduced costs, and how outsourcing certain technology needs allows a greater focus on internal innovation and improvement. Centralized management, improved security, disaster recovery, and increased mobility are all benefits to be realized with the right business cloud implementation. Just because it is to be an outsourced solution does not mean that the business organization should not still architect and understand the solution they will depend on. If this level of participation and understanding is not in place, the solution is unlikely to deliver the resulting benefits expected and hoped for.

Outsourced IT service, remote access and server-based computing aren’t new concepts. It still requires using common sense and reasoning when considering any change in business technology and the innovative application of IT in a business – this cannot be outsourced. When it comes to cloud computing… to put it bluntly, just avoid the hype and stay away from unrealistic marketing and sales messaging. If it sounds too good to be true… it probably is. Technology hasn’t come that far.

Joanie Mann Bunny Feet Make Sense?

February 11, 2014

Migrating Business Data to the Cloud

When businesses elect to have their desktop applications hosted in the cloud with a hosting service provider, they are also electing to have their data hosted with the provider. This point is not always obvious to non-technical users and those unfamiliar with the hosted application concept. Many business owners have adopted an online or hosted application solution and then realized after-the-fact that their data was no longer present on their computer. At least, no current data was present, and it was quite a surprise the day they wanted some information but could not get it because they were not connected to the Internet at the time. An important thing to remember, and the essential factor in measuring risk associated with use of cloud services and hosted solutions, is that adopting online applications in almost any form means that the data associated with (and possibly even data remotely associated with) the application will also migrate to the cloud.

Migrating on-premises servers – and the applications and data residing on them – to the cloud makes sense for many businesses. Particularly as network and internet threats increase in number and as system vulnerabilities are more frequently introduced with remote and mobile access technologies, cloud solutions can significantly assist a business in mitigating the risks of being connected. Yet business owners and IT managers must be diligent in terms of understanding the measures their service providers take to protect and preserve as confidential the customer’s business data. And it becomes more than essential that any and all tools or services implemented be part of a strictly controlled information management and data protection plan.

Where applications are simply interfaces and logic; the value for a business is in the data used by the applications – data containing information about the company, how and with whom it does business, and how it makes money. It is critical that the business consider how and where users need access to applications and data, so that any cloud deployment does not wind up hindering productivity rather than facilitating it to a greater level. It is when the user becomes disenfranchised, unable to perform their work due to lack of access to information or tools, that “shadow IT” deployments appear, and data sharing solutions are introduced outside of the governance of management or IT.

The vast number of offerings for hosting applications and managing business data in the cloud makes finding and implementing the right business solutions a complicated and often frustrating process. Even large providers that specialize in delivering from a menu of business cloud solutions often forget that their target customers may not be particularly tech-savvy, and will fail to recognize the nuances in service delivery or protection that could make big differences to the business down the line – like in the case of a system failure or outage.

Among the keys to a successful cloud solution deployment, particularly when critical and frequently used applications and data are to be migrated off-premises, is a thorough understanding of how users currently work with the tools provided, ensuring that processes and utilization can be fully adapted to the new IT model.

As long as users are able to retain their productivity and efficiency, and when improvements in workflows and information access become additional benefits, the security and protection of the business data is more likely, as users will feel less compelled to find alternative and less secure means for making the business data available from the cloud. You may want to migrate your business data to the cloud, but you don’t want your data to migrate further than you can reach.

Joanie Mann Bunny Feet Make Sense?

January 6, 2014

Security and Users: Change is the Only Constant

Managing user accounts and access to business IT assets is challenging, particularly as cloud and social computing models introduce new wrinkles in security and identity management. Information has become “mobile” along with the users accessing it, yet management of user behavior is even more complicated that trying to manage a digital resource.

If you look at the history of security breaches, you’ll find that many of them started with a user making a mistake – like losing a laptop or clicking on a phishing email, downloading bad software, or forgetting to report an employee termination to the IT dept – something which inadvertently created a vulnerability that could be exploited. It’s tough to stop breaches because there are so many possible ways for them to happen.

If most security breaches start with a user mistake, then IT departments have their hands full because users aren’t static, unchanging objects to monitor and manage. Users change, sometimes a lot. It is this constant change which undermines the ability for some IT departments to meet the demand to adequately secure company information systems and data. Now is the time to take control of user security and identity management, creating automation and controls to protect business assets in a constantly evolving environment.

It is not simply employee turnover that challenges security management. Certainly, IT departments have been dealing with user account creation and termination for a long time. And sure, users have sometimes been promoted and demoted, resulting in the requirement for IT to increase or perhaps decrease access to information and applications. These are normal and expected activities for a business IT department. Unfortunately, IT often doesn’t hear about the user’s change in status. An account isn’t disabled, access isn’t restricted, and the system is left vulnerable.

Just to pile on, think about what happens when a user is more than just a single system user. It may be manageable when where a single identity and set of credentials governs their access to applications and information. But the proliferation of web-based services and SaaS solutions has made it commonplace for users to have multiple applications and services available to them, each with their own approaches to identity management.

For even a small business IT department, the security of all of these access points and applications must be managed and monitored – no small task when the department may not even be aware that the solution is in use. It is not unusual for file sharing, data sync, or other applications to be implemented in businesses without the knowledge or participation of the IT department. Actually, many services attract users due to their simplicity and ease of use, leveraging the fact that they can be deployed without the “assistance” of IT.

Users are becoming increasingly mobile, accessing information and applications from public and private locations while using any number of possible mobile devices. Vulnerabilities which may exist in public networks and the increased potential for device loss or theft are high on the list of concerns of IT departments managing remote and mobile user access. Mobility is driving many changes in how information technology and access to systems is provided to users, and it is changing user demands for what they should be able to easily accomplish while being mobile.

Businesses need to recognize that their continued existence may rely on keeping their information systems and assets safe and secure. Disaster recovery and business continuity applies not only to loss of physical systems, but also to losses of various forms due to data breach. The disaster recovery and continuity plan (you have one, right?) should not only address situations after they happen; planning by definition is proactive. It is not enough to have a plan to recover from loss or failure; the business must actively engage in activities which will prevent loss and reduce vulnerability.

Part of this plan necessarily centers on managing users and user identities, ensuring that the company knows about all access or user accounts involved and employs strict processes and guidelines for making sure they are constantly up to date and have the authority to do what they’re trying to do. In short, the plan must also be a plan for change, providing change management processes to guide the business as the evolution of information technology and the dynamics of user interaction continue to change.

jmbunnyfeet Make Sense?

August 1, 2013

IT Security and Engaging Users to Reduce Vulnerability

There is a lot of discussion going on about security in the cloud. With numerous advancements in technologies of various sorts intended to secure our information and identities on the Web, how is it that security continues to be a growing problem? The answer is in the Big Data the Web collects (read about the Internet of Things – IoT), the large silos of data now handily available in the cloud, and users who continue to provide access for all sorts of bad guys and malicious attackers simply due to not understanding that they – the users – remain as the biggest vulnerability of all. It is educating this user and finding a way to get them to recognize their potential as a critical element in enhancing system security and reducing vulnerability that has become the larger challenge.

People are nothing more than another operating system, says Lance Spitzner, training director for the Securing The Human Program at SANS Institute. “Computers store, process and transfer information, and people store, process and transfer information,” How Hackers Fool Your Employees

Social engineering and finding ways to earn user trust has become a widely recognized means for gaining access to systems and information. Any experienced computer security consultant recognizes that Microsoft Outlook is among the best applications to place in front of users to test system security, as emails with malicious attachments (spearphishing) represent a majority of targeted attacks. And hackers aren’t resting on their laurels while users figure out that opening email from unfamiliar sources isn’t a good idea. Nope, not for a minute. Today’s flavor is “conversational” phishing, where it is made to appear as though a real person is at the other end of the conversation. Hackers are patient, and they are willing to take the time to find a way in. Users, on the other hand, still tend to be somewhat complacent when it comes to security, and often operate under the belief that the IT security products and the IT department have it all under control. And no matter how many times they’re told to not click on strange email attachments, to change passwords frequently, not to reuse passwords, and to make passwords hard to guess… getting users to comply continues to challenge system administrators.

Communicating with users about the importance of adhering to password management and other security standards often falls on deaf ears for two reasons: users believe that system security is the job of the IT department, and users are made to feel stupid by being chastised and punished by the IT department that’s supposed to be helping them. Rather than helping to educate users and find innovative ways to get users to participate in helping to improve system security, IT administrators and security teams generally view users as part of the problem rather than part of the system of solving it.

It’s a heated debate that can upset people on opposing sides. For instance, one RSA conference presenter conducted a class on “how to patch stupidity,” Spitzner says. “He explained why people are stupid, how they’re stupid and how to fix stupid. It was a very emotional talk for me, because how can you sit there and insult the very people who can end up helping us?… How Hackers Fool Your Employees

In order to build strong security which is better-suited to protect businesses from today’s variety of threats, IT security professionals and system administrators should engage in positive internal marketing for better system security, deliver improved education to build awareness with users, and actually engage users in the process of threat identification and detection. These users don’t have to be geeks or IT people; they can be average users who simply keep their eyes open to things that just don’t seem right. “People can become a detection system to improve organizational resilience.”

jmbunnyfeet Make Sense?