2022-09-20 - Version 2 Limited

Introducing SCADAfence’s “Tailored Threat Intelligence”

A SCADAfence New Feature report

“Could we be next?”

One of the biggest challenges for an industrial OT/ICS security professional is figuring out if their organization is vulnerable to the latest announced strain of ransomware. Reports of new OT security breaches and ransomware attacks being released every day it can be hard to know which ones are a concern to your organization, and which ones you can safely ignore. While it’s important to remain prepared, it’s equally important not to create a false sense of urgency. What you need to remember is that although attacks are commonplace, they are often very specific. Not every threat pertains to every OT network setup. Malicious actors carry out attacks by targeting known vulnerabilities on specific devices. If your facility doesn’t use that device, you are less vulnerable to that attack. But with so many attacks happening daily, keeping track of which ones are a threat to your organization is a challenge.

Introducing “Tailored Threat Intelligence”

The SCADAfence platform now allows you to receive a feed of the latest industry news and intelligence customized specifically to your OT network containing only information relevant to your organization. Every time a new attack report is released, it is analyzed and curated by the SCADAfence Research Team. The information, including signatures and attack insights is added to the industry event database along with detailed explanations and recommendations on minimizing each risk. Then a custom news feed is delivered to each client, with only information that is relevant to you and your organization. The context delivered by SCADAfence’s Tailored Threat Intelligence provides valuable knowledge about each event, such as the types of assets being attacked, from which vendors, and the protocols being used. For each alert, SCADAfence Platform can determine the level of relevancy per customer based on the customer’s site details, asset inventory and network traffic. As a result, the SCADAfence Tailored Threat Intelligence provides users with a well-organized list of relevant industry news, each prioritized by a relevancy score, and actionable recommendations on what can be done to reduce the risk from the event.

Your fully customized and prioritized SCADAfence Threat Intelligence Feed.

SCADAfence’s automated threat updates and prioritization are a breakthrough for increasing your efficiency of the response to industrial cyber security events. It improves your ability to know which industry events are relevant, reduce risk and respond effectively without wasting valuable resources.

Summary of Benefits of Tailored Threat Intelligence

Industry-specific security events are analyzed by SCADAfence’s Research Team, and tailored to your needs. Save time by not having to wade through irrelevant information.
You’ll understand the relevancy to your organization of each reported cyber attack
Helps your organization avoid a false sense of urgency from ransomware attacks not relevant to your organization’s deployed devices.
Provides a custom relevancy score for each event
Dramatically reduces the need for manual review of each new reported threat.
Feed is constantly updated through the SCADAfence cloud

About Version 2 Limited
Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.

Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

About SCADAfence
SCADAfence helps companies with large-scale operational technology (OT) networks embrace the benefits of industrial IoT by reducing cyber risks and mitigating operational threats. Our non-intrusive platform provides full coverage of large-scale networks, offering best-in-class detection accuracy, asset discovery and user experience. The platform seamlessly integrates OT security within existing security operations, bridging the IT/OT convergence gap. SCADAfence secures OT networks in manufacturing, building management and critical infrastructure industries. We deliver security and visibility for some of world’s most complex OT networks, including Europe’s largest manufacturing facility. With SCADAfence, companies can operate securely, reliably and efficiently as they go through the digital transformation journey.

SCADAfence 2022

A decade of success for ESET Japan partner Canon Marketing Japan Inc.

BRATISLAVA, September 20, 2022 — ESET, a global leader in cybersecurity, today announces that its Japanese partner – Canon Marketing Japan Inc. – has won the top-ranking award in the Nikkei Computer Customer Satisfaction Survey’s ‘Security Solution’ category for the tenth year in a row.

Nikkei Business Publications is one of the largest content providers in Japan. The prestigious 2022 survey polled IT decision-makers at publicly listed companies, private companies with sales of more than 20 billion yen, and government offices. Vendors were assessed across five criteria: performance & functionality, reliability, operability, cost and support.

Canon Marketing Japan Inc. won first place in the Security Product Category against seven other solutions. In the survey of 998 users, Canon Marketing Japan Inc. achieved an overall satisfaction score of 74.9, seven points above the average among all vendors. The solution received the highest score of any vendor for ‘Performance/Functionality’ and ‘Cost’, whilst scoring higher than average in all evaluation categories.

ESET’s award-winning portfolio of digital security solutions – a central part of Canon Marketing Japan Inc.’s portfolio – combines multilayered detection, machine learning, and cloud technologies that prevent, detect, and respond to malware. It provides cost-effective comprehensive protection for organizations of all sizes, as attested by the solution receiving the highest score of any vendor in the Nikkei Computer Customer Satisfaction Survey for cost.

“For more than 30 years, ESET has been developing industry-leading digital security software and services to help customers feel safe and secure in their digital environments,” commented Noboru Yamamoto, senior general manager of the Security Solution Planning Group at Canon Marketing Japan Inc.. Based on this experience, ESET has recently developed solutions that provide easy-to-deploy security management, helping customers to bring better protection and reducing their operational burden. We look forward to continuing to strengthen our partnership with ESET to deliver beneficial solutions for our customers,”

Between them, ESET and Canon Marketing Japan Inc. have protected millions of users within the region since becoming partners. “We have been a proud partner of Canon Marketing Japan Inc. for many years and are especially excited that it has won the Nikkei Computer Customer Satisfaction Survey once again,” added Hiroya Kuroda, country manager at ESET Japan. “This award represents the unfettered opinions of some of the most highly respected IT decision-makers in Japan. As such, it is a testament to the great work we do together to provide innovative security solutions and services to organizations throughout the region.”

You can learn more about ESET Endpoint Security solutions here.

About Version 2 Limited
Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.

Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

About ESET
For 30 years, ESET® has been developing industry-leading IT security software and services for businesses and consumers worldwide. With solutions ranging from endpoint security to encryption and two-factor authentication, ESET’s high-performing, easy-to-use products give individuals and businesses the peace of mind to enjoy the full potential of their technology. ESET unobtrusively protects and monitors 24/7, updating defenses in real time to keep users safe and businesses running without interruption. Evolving threats require an evolving IT security company. Backed by R&D facilities worldwide, ESET became the first IT security company to earn 100 Virus Bulletin VB100 awards, identifying every single “in-the-wild” malware without interruption since 2003.

ESET 2022

Scanning your external attack surface with runZero

While runZero is mostly used for asset inventory behind the firewall, you can also use its scanner to discover your external attack surface.

External scans are beneficial for a number of use cases, such as:

Getting visibility into external hosts and exposed services
Assessing infrastructure of corporate acquisition targets
Performing vendor security screening
Reconnaissance for penetration testing

Differences between runZero and EASMs

New users sometimes wonder about the differences between runZero and solutions for external attack surface management (EASM), such as Censys and ShodanHQ. Many of these solutions scan the whole world so you can query their host database. However, network owners can ask to exclude their IP ranges for all users (i.e., not all hosts show up in your search). Some vendors will have tools or services that discover all of your externally-facing assets.

By contrast, runZero:

Is primarily an internal asset inventory and network discovery tool, but also has the ability to discover public-facing hosts.
Collects data through a combination of active scanning and integrations.
Takes inputs in the form of ASNs, domains, IPs, and FQDNs (as well as public IPs discovered in internal scans).
Can integrate with Shodan & Censys to identify hosts and augment data.
Augments scans with other sources through integrations (e.g., cloud hosting providers, vulnerability scanners, and EDR platforms).
Offers a much richer data set per asset.

How to scan your public-facing hosts

If you don’t have access to runZero Enterprise Edition, you can sign up for a free 21-day trial to follow this walkthrough. The free Starter Edition doesn’t contain some of the features described in this blog post.

Step 1: Determining domains and ASNs to scan

The easiest way to get started with external scans is through:

Domains – There are several options for finding the domains associated with your organization. Best to check with the person who’s managing your domain registrations and renewals. Doing a reverse WhoIs lookup hasn’t been a good option for a couple of years now, but if you lack alternatives, use Whoxy to find all domains registered to the same company.
ASNs – If you don’t know the ASN for your company, you can use a lookup service, such as ASNLookup to identify the ASNs for your organization.

For this example, let’s scan the external attack surface of a real organization and its properties, but blur any identifying data to ensure that the organization doesn’t become a target as a result of this post.

Step 2: Adding Censys or Shodan integrations

You can also discover your external hosts via Shodan or Censys integration. The integration can pull in additional machines that may not be in your ASN or domain scope. To use the integration, go to Inventory > Assets in your navigation menu and select Censys search or Shodan search from the Connect dropdown menu. You’ll have to set up credentials with an API key to build the query.

In the Censys configuration, we query acme.org in our search. This will also find any hosts that use the string acme.org in the common name of a TLS certificate. You can run this import either once or on a schedule.

Alternatively, you can set the Censys search mode to All external assets, which will not discover new assets, but enrich the assets already captured in runZero with Censys data. However, for this use case, we’ll go with the former setting.

The import will pull any information about the matching hosts, including services and attributes, into your inventory. You should now see some assets with limited data being populated in your runZero inventory. You can view the details for one of the imported hosts and see the following information:

Step 4: Starting an external scan using hosted zones

In runZero, set up a new organization or project, then go to the inventory, click the Scan button and select Standard scan.

From the scan configuration page:

Choose US – New York as the Hosted zone (this is a runZero-hosted Explorer in the cloud).
Increase the scan rate from 1,000 to 5,000 (to accelerate the scan).
In the Discovery scope, enter the following data:
- public:all: This will scan all the public IPs that were pulled in via Shodan or Censys in the previous step. If you are scanning your internal network with runZero, this will also add all public IPs discovered by any other means into the scope.
- asn4:12345: Enter all ASNs in this format to target all IP addresses registered to this ASN. Note the digit 4 after ASN in the notation.
- domain:acme.org: Add all domains that you are targeting. runZero will add all subdomains connected to these domains.

Click Initialize scan. runZero now looks up both the IPs registered under the ASNs as well as all subdomains associated with the domains you are looking to scan and displays a sample for confirmation. Confirm your scan settings.

Once the scan task has completed, go view your populated inventory.

runZero hosted zones are deployed with Digital Ocean. If you prefer to host your own Explorer, we recommend Digital Ocean because AWS, Azure, and GCP all rate-limit or filter outbound scan traffic in a way that impacts the quality of scan results. The runZero hosted zones performed much better than running a scan from an ISP as well, regardless of whether a VPN was used or not.

Step 5: Digging into your inventory

Looking at this data set, there are quite a few hosts with EOL operating systems. You can use the following query to find these:

os_eol:<now

Some operating system vendors will enable you to purchase extended support services. To only view systems that are outside the extended support period, use the following query:

os_eol_extended:<now

Assets can often leak secondary IP addresses, often within the RFC 1918 range. These machines are potential pivot points into private network spaces. To find those quickly, use the query:

has_private:t

Best practices are to have as few services on a single host as possible, especially when they are public-facing, to avoid the risk of one vulnerable service compromising another one. Sorting the column with the number of services per host reveals one host with eight services. After opening the Asset Details page, we can see these in the Services section.

Each one of these services has an extensive list of attributes that provide more information.

Step 6: Finding problematic SSH services

Looking at the SSH service on port 22, we see that it supports the authentication method of both password and public key. Allowing a simple password authentication may indicate elevated risk to your infrastructure.

Clicking on the magnifying glass with the + sign next to the attribute name reveals that there are a total of 24 hosts that allow this kind of authentication.

Clicking on the attribute value or the count will display a list of hosts that match the query.

Back on the Asset Details page, clicking the magnifying glass next to the banner shows an overview of all the different SSH versions deployed in the infrastructure.

This works for all of the banner versions for other protocols as well. For example, you can very quickly and easily get a list of all of the Microsoft SQL Servers deployed in the environment, sorted by version number.

Going back to the Asset Details page, clicking the magnifying glass next to ssh.hostKey.md5 displays the frequency report for this attribute. It shows that several machines share the same SSH private key. This presents a security risk because if one of the hosts is compromised, it would also compromise other hosts sharing the same SSH private key. This typically happens when virtual machines are cloned without regenerating the SSH keys.

Step 7: Identifying databases exposed to the Internet

Generally, databases should be accessible only to the applications that require access. They should never be accessible on a public IP. The same host exposes MariaDB version 10.5.15 on port 3306, which has several associated security vulnerabilities.

Identify databases exposed to the Internet

Is runZero a vuln scanner?

runZero is an asset inventory and network discovery solution, not a vulnerability scanner, but its findings can sometimes point to security vulnerabilities.

Step 8: Looking at exposed services

Let’s move on to the Services Inventory now. A great way to find unusual services exposed on an external IP is to sort the ports by high numbers first.

In this environment, we’re seeing a Prometheus Node Exporter metrics server on port 9100, three IRC services, a mySQL/MariaDB service, NFS on port 2049, and RSYNC on three different machines. These may all provide options to an attacker. For example, insecurely configured Rsync servers are found during network penetration tests about a third of the time.

Step 9: Browsing web service screenshots

The Screenshots Inventory lists all screenshots taken from Web services. runZero uses the Google Chrome browser to render and screenshot any web pages. If you are using the cloud-hosted explorer as described above, you’re all set. If you are hosting your own explorer, please ensure that you have Chrome installed on the same machine to enable this feature.

Browsing through the screenshots is a great, visual way to inspect exposed websites. In our example, we’re seeing Jitsi Meet and GitLab sites, which may be OK to host externally as long as they’re updated and use strong authentication.

Step 10: Looking at software inventory

runZero can also infer installed software if it can be deduced either from a network scan or an integration. runZero’s Software Inventory provides a great way to get insight into software installed on hosts that are reachable over the Internet.

A view that may be even better in understanding your product exposure is the Most seen products report on the dashboard. To access the report, go to the Dashboard and look for the Most seen products card. After you find it, click View more.

The results for least seen products are actually more interesting than the most seen ones because these show the long tail of the software inventory. If a piece of software is only installed once in your environment, it is less likely to be well configured and patched.

Step 11: Create a report for your external assets

Now that you have discovered and analyzed all of your externally-facing assets, you can also generate a report for others to review. Go to Reports, find the External Assets Report, and launch it.

From the External Assets Report configuration screen, you can choose what you’d like to include in the results. Additionally, if you need to view it regularly, you can set up a schedule and email it to yourself (and any other runZero user who wants a copy). Initialize the report when you’ve finished configuring the settings. The generated report will display and show you the results. You can save the report as a PDF to easily share with others.

Step 12: Get alerted on changes to your external asset inventory

If you work in enterprise security, you probably want to know about any changes to your external asset inventory. In this case, you should set up a Censys or Shodan import and run the hosted scan on a schedule. Then, you can set up alerts to trigger post-scan, so you know everything that has changed in your environment.

In this example we’ll use email as the method of communication. To set up an alert, go to Alerts > Channels and click Create channel. Pick a name for your channel, select Email as Channel type and enter the email address you want to notify. Then click Save channel.

Go Alerts > Rules, and click Create rule. Select new-assets-found and click Configure rule.

When the New rule configuration page appears, enter the following:

Name:
- A name for your rule.
Conditions:
- Enter 0 to the right of is greater than. This will trigger the rule if there are any changes to assets.
- In Limit to organization, select an organization if you have several in your account. You may choose a different organization (or site) for your external point of view rather than your internal assets.
Action:
- Choose the notification channel you just created.

You’ll now be notified after each import or scan if the assets have changed.

Use runZero for your internal asset inventory

runZero is primarily made for discovering your internal asset inventory. As you can see, it can also be useful for understanding your externally-facing assets.

As a next step, you should set up another organization and to scan your internal network to get a better understanding of your asset inventory. You can sign up for the free 21-day trial of runZero Enterprise Edition (no credit card required). If you are a private user or work for a company with less than 256 assets, you can use runZero Starter Edition for free.

About Version 2 Limited
Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.

Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

About runZero
runZero, a network discovery and asset inventory solution, was founded in 2018 by HD Moore, the creator of Metasploit. HD envisioned a modern active discovery solution that could find and identify everything on a network–without credentials. As a security researcher and penetration tester, he often employed benign ways to get information leaks and piece them together to build device profiles. Eventually, this work led him to leverage applied research and the discovery techniques developed for security and penetration testing to create runZero.

2022 runZero

CISA Urges Organizations to Prepare For Future Quantum Threats

As the world anticipates quantum computing, many believe it has potential benefits for every industry. Equally excited and awaiting its rollout is the hacker community who could use these powerful quantum computers to compromise the digital systems we use daily including online banking and email software

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has already warned that organizations need to take action to protect network infrastructure for the transition to post-quantum cryptography.

Many governments believe that quantum computers can be used to break public-key encryption methods that countless networks use today. A fully-functioning and stable high-qubit quantum machine could potentially wreak havoc across the internet. It will lead to the vulnerability of secure networks and loss of public confidence in major institutions and businesses

The good news is that these governments are developing post-quantum encryption schemes. For instance, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been running multi-year effort since 2016 calling upon cryptographers around the world to devise quantum-resistant encryption methods. It aims to standardize one or more quantum-resistant cryptographic schemes to foster a transition to seamless security for the general public.

What is Quantum Computing?

Quantum Computing focuses on the development of computer-based technology hinged on the principles of a quantum theory. Experts believe the present experimental quantum computers can render the conventional system obsolete. Its benefits include advanced research, higher-level simulation, and accelerated growth of artificial intelligence models.

Is Quantum Computing a Risk?

Despite these promising benefits, there are concerns about some negative implications which include ethical and security risks for businesses, quantum attacks from hostile nation-states, and exacerbating current issues like data harvesting.

CISA’s Stance on Quantum Threats

CISA asserts that critical infrastructure is more at risk largely due to the public-key cryptography that U.S. networks rely on to secure sensitive data.

CISA provides insight to all critical infrastructure owners to have a successful transition in their Post-Quantum Cryptography Roadmap. The roadmap stipulates the following measures:

Taking actionable steps like inventory assessments of current cryptography technologies.
Developing acquisition policies for post-quantum cryptography.
Training staff about the upcoming transition from conventional to quantum computers is necessary.
Increasing engagement with standards developments relating to necessary algorithms and dependent protocol changes.
Managing inventory assessments and the security of critical datasets for an extended time.
Organizations must identify systems where public key cryptography is used and mark these systems as quantum vulnerable.

Preparing Organizations for the Quantum Threat to Cryptography

Many believe the time to worry about quantum computers threats is in a decade — but it’s sooner than we think. The process of adopting new standards usually takes years so it is crucial to begin planning for quantum-resistant cryptography now.

Organizations need to make arrangements and budget for a transition plan. This should include upgrading IT systems and deploying standardized quantum-resistant cryptography. They also need to be aware of how vendors plan to upgrade software and hardware. The preparation process should include software upgrades, and system patch delivery to systems using cryptography. They should also ensure the security of these upgrades and authenticate the source.

Moreover, organizations need to take advantage of agencies promoting awareness of quantum computers’ impact on cryptography. These agencies also provide steps to prepare for the transition to quantum-resistant cryptography when it comes.

The agencies partner with others to evaluate the next generation of quantum-resistant cryptography. The aim is to replace current cryptographic applications.

The Challenges With the Quantum Resistance Ahead

New technologies come with new opportunities and new risks — and quantum computers are no exception.

Building a large-scale quantum computer already has several challenges – fabrication, verification, and architecture. The technology derives its power from the ability to store a complex state in a single bit. Unfortunately, this also rather complicates the process of building, designing, and verifying. The verification issue is a cause of concern since it affects communication mechanisms, control circuitry for quantum operations, and more. Moreover, there’s no telling if it impacts the security of data within the technology itself.

Code breaking is another area of focus. An easy way to break codes in conventional computers is to try all possible keys. However, it is a much longer and difficult process. Quantum computing uses Grover’s algorithm to speed up this process. Another method called Shor’s algorithm is capable of breaking or weakening cryptographic algorithms within hours.

The potential for harm from quantum threats here becomes huge. Once encryption methods get broken, trust in data transmission becomes low. Cybercriminals will find it easy to create bogus certificates that call for the validity of a digital identity.

The technology’s effect would render communications as insecure as if encoding didn’t even exist. While there are a lot of worries about quantum computing, these fears remain hypothetical. Today’s quantum computing cannot break any commonly used encryption methods. However, concern for the vital security of our global network infrastructure and data drives the immense effort to counter a potential future of quantum threats.

About Version 2 Limited
Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.

Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.

About Portnox
Portnox provides simple-to-deploy, operate and maintain network access control, security and visibility solutions. Portnox software can be deployed on-premises, as a cloud-delivered service, or in hybrid mode. It is agentless and vendor-agnostic, allowing organizations to maximize their existing network and cybersecurity investments. Hundreds of enterprises around the world rely on Portnox for network visibility, cybersecurity policy enforcement and regulatory compliance. The company has been recognized for its innovations by Info Security Products Guide, Cyber Security Excellence Awards, IoT Innovator Awards, Computing Security Awards, Best of Interop ITX and Cyber Defense Magazine. Portnox has offices in the U.S., Europe and Asia. For information visit http://www.portnox.com, and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.。

Network Portnox 2022