Disconnected Computers are still at Risk for Cyberthreats

Are we really aware of the cyberthreats faced with our computers?  Don’t click on the bothersome floating advertisement, never open mail from suspicious senders, don’t trust your friends sending you a message containing just a link.

Being tricked into installing malware on your own computer is just a click away.  You think you need a new version of Flash because your computer tells you so.  So you click, install, then realize something is funny about the download process.

What do you do then?  Frantically turn your computer off, hoping you just stopped what ever invasion your computer is experiencing?  If your computer is infected with a virus or malware, disconnecting it from the Internet is the first step of security you should take.  But is it enough?

German computer scientists have come up with a prototype for building “covert channels” between computers using the machines’ speakers and microphones.  This potentially defeats high-security measures that rely on the “air gap” between computers.

The air gap is a network security measure that ensures a secure computer network is physically isolated from unsecured networks.  Sometimes the air gap is not completely literal, and dedicated cryptographic devices can tunnel packets over questionable networks while avoiding pack rate or size variation.

Dan Goodin from Ars Technica explains:

“The proof-of-concept software — or malicious trojans that adopt the same high-frequency communication methods — could prove especially adept in penetrating highly sensitive environments that routinely place an ‘air gap’ between computers and the outside world. Using nothing more than the built-in microphones and speakers of standard computers, the researchers were able to transmit passwords and other small amounts of data from distances of almost 65 feet. The software can transfer data at much greater distances by employing an acoustical mesh network made up of attacker-controlled devices that repeat the audio signals.”

Research has shown that computers which were unplugged from networks and had their Wi-Fi and Bluetooth cards removed, were infected with malware that used high-frequency transmissions.
Hackers are “jumping the air gap” and worrying even military officials.

“If you take a cybernetic view of what’s happening [in the Navy], right now our approach is unplug it or don’t use a thumb drive,” retired Navy Capt. Mark Hagerott, a cybersecurity professor at the U.S. Naval Academy, said at a recent defense conference. But if hackers “are able to jump the air gap, we are talking about fleets coming to a stop.” – Geoffrey Ingerson of Business Insider

“Acoustical networking as a covert communication technology is a considerable threat to computer security,” the scientists wrote in their paper. However, they said such audio snooping could be prevented using “a software-defined lowpass filter” or a “detection guard” that analyzes audio to identify hidden messages. – Hanspach and Goetz, German scientists

System devices designate security levels as low side (unclassified) and high side (classified).  I’m sure the military has much more interesting information in their computers, but just the thought that nothing can stop computer invasion is scary.

What’s your take on this?  Please leave your comments below!

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References:

Even Disconnected Computers May Face Cyberthreats – NPR
http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/12/03/248576739/even-disconnected-computers-may-face-cyber-threats
December 4, 2013

Is Your TV Watching You?

http://www.hyphenet.com/blog/is-your-tv-watching-you/

Image courtesy of [graur razvan ionut] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

We all know the risks of our computer camera being hacked and someone on the other side could be visually intruding our home.  The paranoia of a cyber criminal watching us on the other side of our computer exists.  But what about your TV?  Today there are very high-end televisions that have “smart” PC-like features. These televisions have internet connectivity, apps, cameras, and microphones.  There has been a security hole discovered in some of the Samsung Smart TVs that show a little more work needs to be done before the consumer can feel safe watching it in the comforts of their own home.

The Flaw

The flaw with the Samsung Smart TV, is that there is a build-in camera and no one can even notice. While your watching TV, a hacker anywhere around the world has the ability to watch you. They aren’t only invading your privacy, but they could be stealing your bank account information and other private personal information by viewing everything you do on your smart TV.
Sansung has already been on the issue, researchers at iSEC Partners have informed the company already about the bugs. Now there has been a software update sent to all the Samsung users with these affected TVs.
Security cameras, lights, and central control systems are features that hackers are able to access remotely. Hackers are very often finding ways to steal our personal information and this is just another tackle from them. Hackers have the control to send us to any website of their choosing when we access these TVs for internet use. We may think we are logging into our bank account but this may be a login to their database signing away all of our personal information away.

Security and Safety

CNNMoney said, Samsung is taking this issue very seriously.

“The camera can be turned into a bezel of the TV so that the lens is covered, or disabled by pushing the camera inside the bezel. The TV owner can also unplug the TV from the home network when the Smart TV features are not in use.”

Samsung is recommending that customers use encrypted wireless access points for better protection. Also they suggest, if users are not using the cameras, then to put tape over it just in case.

References:
Your TV might be watching you – CNN Money
http://money.cnn.com/2013/08/01/technology/security/tv-hack/index.html
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Featured Image courtesy of [Idea go] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

America's Building Serious Cybersecurity Framework

Everyday in this country we rely on infrastructures to get us from point A to B.  The bridge we cross to get to work, the elevator we take to get to the doctors and the school we take our children to for their education and

refinement.  Critical infrastructures are made up of bridges, power supply, medical facilities, telecommunications networks, and more.   More so now, we rely on cyber infrastructures like working on our laptop from home to have a business meeting.  Or Skyping with the grandparents that are across the country so they can see how big their grandchildren are getting.

In this day, the critical infrastructure relies on digital systems of calculation and communication, most widely known as "cyber."  We've all heard of those cyber criminals hacking into our computers.  Gather our personal information, getting into our emails, stealing our identity.  Our cyber infrastructure is under attack and it seems like no one knows what to do about it or how to stop it.  We are helpless and lost, our computers are being invaded with malware and viruses while we watch.  No worries though,  America is taking charge and building a critical infrastructure cybersecurity framework.

 

Land of the Great

In February, President Obama issued an executive order to improve cybersecurity.  He intends to promote better protection of the country's infrastructure from cyber attacks that are growing in our economy and national security.  This week, that executive order is taking place here in San Diego-home of ESET North America at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and the National Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center (NH-ISAC) are hosting the 3rd Cybersecurity Framework Workshop today July 10 until Friday, July 12, 2013.  The intent is to work with stakeholder to organize a voluntary framework for reducing cyber risks.

 

Executive Order 13636, Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity, has directed NIST to work with stakeholders to develop a voluntary framework for reducing cyber risks to critical infrastructures. This cybersecurity framework is being developed in an open manner with input from stakeholders in industry, academia, and government, including a public review and comment process, workshops, and other means of engagement. - National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

 

The San Diego event will have sessions that go into the depths of cybersecurity functions and it's workings.

• Know – Gaining the institutional understanding to identify what systems need to be protected, assess priority in light of organizational mission, and manage processes to achieve cost effective risk management goals


• Prevent – Categories of management, technical, and operational activities that enable the organization to decide on the appropriate outcome-based actions to ensure adequate protection against threats to business systems that support critical infrastructure components.


• Detect –Activities that identify (through ongoing monitoring or other means of observation) the presence of undesirable cyber risk events, and the processes to assess the potential impact of those events.


• Respond – Specific risk management decisions and activities enacted based upon previously implemented planning (from the Prevent function) relative to estimated impact.


• Recover – Categories of management, technical, and operational activities that restore services that have previously been impaired through an undesirable cybersecurity risk event.

The next chapter is to observe the key categories and subcategories for the above functions.  They will examine the standards, guidelines, and practices for each suite and lower groups alike.  The US business and government agencies are hyper focusing on criminal hacking attacks and acts of cyber warfare, which is believed to be the work of state sponsored foreign agencies and home-grown hacktivist groups.   Online registration for the San Diego workshop is closed and already under way.  You may still register today at Madneville Auditorium, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, California.

So know that America is seeing this epidemic of cyber criminals on the rise and we are doing something about it.  We are taking charge and fighting.

 

Image courtesy of [Victor Habbick] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

References:
A cybersecurity framework to protect digital critical infrastructure
http://www.welivesecurity.com/2013/07/08/a-cybersecurity-framework-to-protect-digital-critical-infrastructure/
Published July 8, 2013

3rd Cybersecurity Framework Workshop, July 10-12, 2013, San Diego, CA
http://www.nist.gov/itl/csd/3rd-cybersecurity-framework-workshop-july-10-12-2013-san-diego-ca.cfm

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