Security Archives - ICT News

Old Windows Server machines can still fend off hacks. Here’s how

lukasik — Fri, 28 Apr 2017 07:50:38 +0000

Old Windows Server machines can still fend off hacks. Here’s how

Many businesses still use Windows Server 2003, even as Microsoft no longer supports the OS

If you’re running a Windows Server 2003 machine, you have a problem. Your already-vulnerable computer is now at severe risk of being hacked.

That’s due to the internet release earlier this month of a batch of updates that paint a bull’s-eye on computers running Windows Server 2003, according to security researchers.

“I can teach my mom how to use some of these exploits,” said Jake Williams, founder of Rendition Infosec, a security provider. “They are not very complicated at all.”

Experts are urging affected businesses to upgrade to the latest Windows OSes, which offer security patches that can address the threat.

But some, particularly those in manufacturing and healthcare, cannot because they rely on legacy software that won’t run on a modern operating system.

“It’s usually very costly to upgrade,” he said. “And again, the machine is working fine, but control has to be done through Windows Server 2003.”

There may be more than 500,000 Windows Server 2003 machines publicly exposed to the internet, according to Shodan, a search engine for devices. But Williams estimates there are many more vulnerable machines running behind company firewalls.

So, for those that can’t, here are some tips to keep your old Windows Server 2003 machine secure.

The danger

The spying tools include several Windows-based exploits, or hacking programs, that target the Windows Server Message Block (SMB) protocol, which is used for file-sharing purposes. The exploits work by remotely triggering the OS to execute code, which can be used to install other malware.

Network segmentation and monitoring

Companies saddled with older Windows Server machines can still protect themselves. Williams suggests they go beyond putting vulnerable servers behind a firewall, and use a tactic called network segmentation.

This can involve restricting access to your most critical servers, and ensuring only system admins can control them. “So instead of giving 20,000 people in a company access, you can cut that number down to 20,” Williams said.

Thus, if hackers ever do breach the firewall, they’ll have access to a smaller segment of the corporate network.

Network segmentation also doesn’t cost a lot of money. Enterprise internet routers often contain access control features that can limit which computers can talk to what, Williams said.

Businesses should also consider monitoring the vulnerable servers, or at least the ones carrying critical information. Any unusual data traffic moving through them is probably a sign they’ve been hacked, he said.

Weighing the risks

To keep malicious activity out of vulnerable systems, application whitelisting can also be used, said Jason Leitner, president of Below0Day, an IT security provider.

Whitelisting works by allowing only trusted applications to run on a computer. It’s the opposite approach of antivirus products, which essentially blacklists malicious programs based on known indicators.

Businesses can also create backups of any sensitive data stored in these machines. One malicious threat that’s been growing in recent years has been ransomware. It works by infecting a computer, and encrypting all the data inside. To free the machine, victims have to pay a ransom, usually in bitcoin.

However, even with these safeguards, the best solution to protecting a vulnerable Windows Server system is to upgrade, according to security experts.

Although it might be costly in the short term, the investment can help businesses avoid a disastrous data breach. Tiago Henriques, CEO of security firm BinaryEdge, encourages businesses to calculate which is higher: “The cost of buying the upgrade or the damage to their brand and their clients if they get hacked?”

By Michael Kan, source by ComputerWorld

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Oracle fixes Struts and Shadow Brokers exploits in huge patch release

lukasik — Fri, 21 Apr 2017 09:51:59 +0000

Oracle fixes Struts and Shadow Brokers exploits in huge patch release

The quarterly Oracle patch update fixes a record 299 security vulnerabilities

Oracle has released a record 299 security fixes for vulnerabilities in its products, including patches for a widely exploited vulnerability in the Apache Struts framework and a Solaris exploit supposedly used by the U.S. National Security Agency.

The Struts vulnerability allows for remote code execution on Java web servers and was patched on March 6. Attackers have quickly adopted it and have used it in widespread attacks since then.

Oracle uses Apache Struts 2 in several of its products, which is why Tuesday’s critical patch update (CPU) fixed 25 instances of the vulnerability in Oracle Communications, Retail and Financial Services applications, as well as in the MySQL Enterprise Monitor, Oracle WebCenter Sites, Oracle WebLogic Server and the Siebel E-Billing app.

The company also fixed the vulnerability behind the EXTREMEPARR exploit for Solaris 10 that was leaked recently by a group called Shadow Brokers as part of a larger data dump of alleged NSA cyber tools. Another Solaris exploit that was part of the same arsenal and was dubbed EBBISLAND has been patched since 2012 in Solaris 10 Update 11, Oracle said.

Oracle’s quarterly patch bundle contains fixes for 40 vulnerabilities that are rated as critical, 25 of which have the highest severity score of 10 in the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS). Overall, 162 out of the 299 patched vulnerabilities are remotely exploitable.

Oracle’s applications for specific industry sectors—financial services, retail, communications, utilities, hospitality, health sciences and insurance—account for almost 40 percent of all security fixes this quarter, according to an analysis by security vendor ERPScan.

Oracle business-critical applications like Oracle PeopleSoft, E-Business Suite, JD Edwards, Siebel CRM and the Primavera Products Suite received 83 security fixes.

“Nowadays, hackers set their eyes on enterprises more than on individuals, as they understood that this option is more profitable,” said Alexander Polyakov, CTO at ERPScan. “Taking into account that Oracle’s products are installed in the largest enterprises, these applications can be the ultimate target.”

On the database side, Oracle patched 39 vulnerabilities in MySQL and 3 in its Oracle Database Server. Java also received 8 security fixes.

Triaging and deploying the patches that make up this Oracle CPU, the largest ever for the company, will be a lot of work for systems administrators. The size of Oracle’s quarterly updates has steadily increased over the years, raising the question of whether a monthly update cycle instead of a quarterly one wouldn’t be more appropriate.

By Lucian Constantin, source by InfoWorld

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6 steps to securing your email

lukasik — Wed, 22 Mar 2017 09:16:11 +0000

6 steps to securing your email

Is your company’s email providing a tempting route for cyber criminals to attack your business? Hackers continue to target businesses with phishing attacks. Once opened, these malicious email messages can hijack an entire company’s financial information and gain access to funds and personal information. Email is a business essential, but also an easy avenue for hackers to use and abuse. How can you keep your business secure?

The human factor

Businesses of all sizes face vulnerabilities via email. When email accounts are hacked and compromised, cyber criminals can gain access to information including user names, telephone numbers, birthdates, passwords, and unencrypted security questions.

Email is a common entry point for hackers because it’s an easy way to exploit the weak link in cybersecurity policies: humans. Employees rushing through their emails can easily click on a malicious link. No wonder that a recent survey reveals some 90% of cyber attacks initiate with email.¹

Today, hackers are becoming more sophisticated than ever in their approach to email hacking. They’ve expanded from “phishing”—which tricks recipients into opening malicious emails or clicking on bad links—to now “spear phishing.” This new approach relies on emails that appear to be from a trusted sender, such as the company’s CEO, a vendor, or the business’s bank, in order to fool recipients. Companies affected by these attacks lost productivity, money, and intellectual property.

Email do’s and don’ts

Don’t wait for your business to be victimized before you take action. Taking a few simple steps can help shore up any email vulnerabilities your business may have. Here are the do’s and don’ts to follow.

Do educate employees in the basics of email security. For example, remind them to pay attention to where an email came from before clicking on attachments or links. Cyber criminals excel at crafting legitimate-looking emails that appear to come from the IRS, banks, or health insurance providers. One clue to fraud is an email address that’s slightly “off” (for instance, the letter “o” is replaced with the numeral “0” or the letter “l” is replaced with the numeral “1”). Grammatical errors, typos, and low-resolution logos are other warning signs. Explain to your team that financial, government, and law enforcement institutions do not request personal information or passwords via email. And teach them it’s better to be safe than sorry: If an email from a familiar source seems strange, contact the sender to double-check its authenticity.
Don’t make email your default communication method. Think twice about sharing sensitive data over email or attaching documents with sensitive information. Consider using cloud-based file-sharing services instead. (Make sure the service you choose uses appropriate security measures.) Send a link to the file and limit access only to those who need it.
Do require frequent password resets—at least every six months. Instruct employees how to create strong passwords and to keep them safe—not just posted on their computer or keyboard. Remind employees not to share their passwords with others. In case they give in to temptation, create an added layer of security by using PCs equipped with multi-factor authentication. Biometric identification such as fingerprints or facial recognition can provide additional security to reduce the risk of compromised emails.
Don’t access your business email over public networks. While using a coffee shop’s Wi-Fi to check your email is common for today’s mobile workforce, it can put your business’s data at risk. Public networks are vulnerable to hackers who can exploit your laptop or mobile device as an “in” to your business network. Set up a virtual private network (VPN) to use when accessing email outside the office, and enable two-factor authentication of your email accounts for times when a public network is your only option.
Do provide physical protection. Employees working on laptops in public places can expose email passwords to prying eyes. Shield your business from this risk by equipping notebooks with privacy filters. The HP EliteBook 1040 and HP EliteBook 840 feature HP’s Sure View integrated privacy screen, which darkens at the touch of a button.² The HP WorkWise³smartphone app locks and unlocks your PC if you step away from it, and instantly alerts you if your PC is tampered with.
Don’t forget to terminate email access as soon as an employee leaves the company. Even if a worker leaves on good terms, cyber criminals could discover the person’s email password and use it to access your network. Shutting down former employees’ email access protects against potential threats.

Better safe than sorry

Set and enforce strict email usage policies, enlist the right technology to protect your network, and you’ll be able to rest assured you’ve done all you can to keep your business safe from email-based attacks.

^{[1] Cloudmark, Survey Reveals Spear Phishing as a Top Security Concern to Enterprises

[2] HP Sure View integrated privacy screen is an optional feature that must be configured at purchase expected to be available Q2 2017.

[3] HP WorkWise smartphone app is available as a free download on the Apple Store and Google Play.}

Source by HP

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Is Windows 10 the most secure Windows ever?

lukasik — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 09:05:40 +0000

Is Windows 10 the most secure Windows ever?

It’s easy to poke fun at “12345” passwords and phish-y emails, but PC security is tough for the average user to manage. And if you’re a network admin, it’s even tougher to deal with security slipups that infect the whole network.

That’s where the new Windows Defender Security Center will come in handy. Debuting spring 2017 as part of the Creators Update, it’s an efficient suite of security features that’ll help users avoid hacking, malware, and other threats. You can view and control your security protections—the applications running in the background that most users don’t often think about—all in one place.

It’s simple, really: The Defender Security Center is a dashboard where users can get a full security overview of their system. And if a problem is discovered, the security center makes it easy to solve it. The Center is also a place to customize security across what Microsoft has deemed “the five pillars of protection”:

Virus and threat protection allows you to view your anti-malware app, whether you’ve chosen to use the Windows Defender Antivirus app that comes with Windows 10 or a third-party app. If you’ve chosen the Windows Defender Antivirus app for your network, you can scan results directly on the screen. (A third party app will just appear on your screen and you can launch it from there.)

Device performance and health displays your latest Windows updates, battery life, storage capacity, and drivers. This is also where you can access the “Refresh Windows” feature, which helps you do a clean install while saving your files and settings.

Firewall and network protection gives you information on network connections and firewall settings, helping you find network issues and troubleshoot them.

App and browser control lets you adjust your SmartScreen settings and tips you off to possible malicious sites and downloads, as well as unrecognized internet apps and files.

Family options is a consumer feature. According to Microsoft, you can also view the health and safety of your personal devices from this centralized location,¹ which helps make all your PCs running Windows 10 more secure and manageable.

How can Defender Security Center help your business?

It’s a security tool that can be especially handy for remote workers who have to troubleshoot their devices without hands-on support. And by making it easier for the average user to secure their devices on a day-to-day basis, you’re saving your IT staff time and money—not to mention catching small problems before they become big ones.

Excited about checking out the Defender Security Center (and the entire Creators Update)? This spring you can give it a try on the HP EliteBook x360, the world’s thinnest and most secure business convertible², and the HP Elite x3, the world’s first built for business 3-in-1 device.³The HP Elite series—enhanced with HP Sure Start Gen3⁴ and HP WorkWise⁵ protection—also supports other Windows 10 security features, such as Windows Hello and the monthly Windows Update, that work together to make sure your device security is up-to-date.

Learn more ways to stay one step ahead of hackers, thieves, and unauthorized users

^{[1] Windows, Introducing Windows Defender Security Center

[2] Most secure based on HP’s unique and comprehensive security capabilities at no additional cost among vendors with >1M annual sales as of December 1, 2016 on HP Elite PCs with Intel 7th Gen Intel® Core processors, Intel® integrated graphics, and Intel® WLAN. Thinnest Based on competitors with >1m units annually of convertible, non-detachables having a Windows Pro OS and 6th or 7th generation U series Intel® Core vPro processors.

[3] Based on HP’s internal analysis as of May 11, 2016 of mobile devices delivering phablet, laptop, and desktop business productivity, preinstalled with Windows 10 Mobile, MIL-STD 810G and IP67 testing, the ability to run virtualized corporate apps on a big screen using an optional dock, and a biometric solution for security.

[4] Available on HP Elite products equipped with Intel® 7th generation processors.

[5] HP WorkWise smartphone app is available as a free download on the Apple Store and Google Play.}

Source by HP

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Mobile World Congress 2017: HP debuts 2-in-1 device with Windows 10

lukasik — Tue, 28 Feb 2017 10:22:09 +0000

HP’s new Pro x2 with Windows 10 and Elite x3 accessories offer versatility and security for productivity in the mobile workforce

Today at Mobile World Congress 2017, HP Inc. unveiled a new 2-in-1 device powered by Windows 10, along with a range of accessories for the company’s x2 and x3 portfolio. Let’s take a closer look at what they announced.

The HP Pro x2 512 G2 with Windows 10

The new Pro x2 612 G2 is designed to inspire the way mobile professionals across a range of industries work – merging individuality and productivity with industrial design in a sleek and secure device.

The Pro x2 is a versatile 2-in-1 detachable with a touchscreen perfect for drawing with Windows Ink or marking up webpages in Microsoft Edge. It’s built with multiple modes for commercial workflows including presentation mode, inking mode and notebook mode for productivity. The HP Pro x2 Collaboration Keyboard snaps easily into place on the device with magnetic connections, turning the Pro x2 into a notebook with backlit hot keys for conference calls. Tablet Mode in Windows 10 will allow your apps to scale smoothly and onscreen features to adapt for easy navigation. The Pro x2 also has a removable back cover and removable SSD, allowing customers to keep secure data on premises and make basic repairs and upgrades to their device on-site.

Other features include:

The Pro x2 can also be configured with a choice of the latest 7th generation Intel processors, providing reliable performance to meet a variety of mobile end user’s needs.
For drawing and taking notes, the HP Active Wacom Pen with App Launch combined with the extended 165-degree kickstand make it easy to use Windows Ink to draw, annotate, and create presentations or documents.
With both USB-C and USB-A connections, you can quickly charge your device, connect to external monitors or transfer data quickly.
The Pro x2 offers up to 11 hours of battery life and can be charged up to 50 percent in 30 minutes.
Built-in smart card reader and anoptional fingerprint reader that allows you to login quickly and securely with Windows Hello.
Superior in-field serviceability enabling end users to do minor repairs on the SSD, kickstand and A/C adapter, and IT on WLAN/WWAN, storage, system board, battery or the LCD/touch module, the chassis and some other components.

Pricing and Availability: The HP Pro x2 612 G2 is available now at http://www.hp.com/go/prox2, starting at $979.

New accessories for the x2 and Elite x3 portfolio

HP’s x2 and x3 devices are designed with versatility in mind. Today, HP announced a new range of accessories for those devices, built to address a variety of commercial workflows.

HP Pro x2 612 G2 Rugged Case: Ideal for customers in extreme work environments, this case features a 360-degree rotating hand strap, shoulder strap, stylus holder, optional port plugs and is compatible with the Pro x2’s keyboard. Pricing and Availability: The HP Pro x2 612 G2 Rugged Case is available now, starting at $49.

HP Elite USB-C Dock: Turning your device into a virtual desktop, this new dock is enterprise IT ready, and is compatible with devices like the Pro x2 that have a multi-function Type-C USB port or devices with a Thunderbolt port. Pricing and Availability: The HP Elite USB-C Dock is expected to be available in March, starting at $129.

HP USB-C Travel Hub: Ideal for mobile professionals who need access to additional peripheral ports while on-the-go, this solution delivers pass-through connectivity for displays and USB devices and charging for the Pro x2 or Elite x3 while the device is being used – with one USB-C cable. Pricing and Availability:The HP USB-C Travel Hub is available now, starting at $49.

HP Elite x3 Mobile Scanning Solution: Designed to mobilize vertical workflows for retail, healthcare and field workers, the integrated barcode scanner can be used to check prices, access inventory and CRM information on-the-go and then seamlessly transition to the back-office with the ability to dock and connect to a large display, mouse, and keyboard for a full PC experience. Pricing and Availability: The HP Elite x3 Mobile Scanning Solution is available now, starting at $999 (this price includes the HP Elite x3).

It’s great to see partners including HP creating new devices broadening the Windows ecosystem to offer customers more choice and versatility.

By Mollie Ruiz-Hopper, source by Microsoft

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BROCADE INTRODUCES RUCKUS CLOUDPATH ES 5.1 SOFTWARE TO SECURE CONNECTED INTERNET OF THINGS DEVICES

lukasik — Fri, 17 Feb 2017 13:25:21 +0000

Device Fingerprinting Enables Certificate-based IoT Device Security

SAN FRANCISCO—RSA Conference 2017, Booth N4410—Feb. 15, 2017—RUCKUS WIRELESS, a part of Brocade, today announced version 5.1 of its Cloudpath ES security and policy management software. The latest software release enables organizations to automatically and securely connect Internet of Things (IoT) devices using certificates—the gold standard of device security—allowing IT to establish policies governing the behavior of those devices. In conjunction with the Cloudpath software certificate authority (CA) and supported standards-based protocols, the new capabilities allow organizations and IoT device manufacturers to easily and automatically secure a wide range of connected IoT devices without changing existing security infrastructure.

Gartner REPORTS [1] that IoT endpoints will reach an installed base of 20.4 billion units by 2020. In addition, AT&T’s Cybersecurity Insights Report[2], which surveyed more than 5,000 enterprises around the world, FOUND that 85 percent of enterprises are in the process of or intend to deploy IoT devices. Yet, according to the report, a mere 10 percent of those surveyed feel confident that they could secure those devices against hackers.

“The use of IoT-connected devices is now poised to grow exponentially, with IoT technology investments expected to reach $1.29 trillion by the year 2020 across multiple vertical segments and industries,” said Rohit Mehra, vice president, network infrastructure, IDC. “As with other aspects of IT infrastructure and applications, security risks and vulnerabilities associated with IoT are now a key area of focus for enterprise IT and LoB managers on an ongoing basis. These enterprises, along with their technology solution providers, need to find reliable, cost-effective ways to better secure their connected IoT applications and infrastructure, a challenge that Ruckus seeks to address with these new capabilities.”

Cloudpath ES 5.1 software introduces device fingerprinting, a technique that allows IT to automatically identify IoT device types by comparing the device profile to a device fingerprint database. Together with other Cloudpath software features, the new release delivers the following benefits:

IT can automatically secure, using certificates, fingerprint-identified IoT devices. If the device is unable to use a certificate, a Ruckus Dynamic Pre-Shared Key can be used to secure it. Both approaches enable IT to establish IoT device-specific policies. For example, IoT devices may be authorized to connect only to the cloud service with which they’re associated.
IT can continue to use existing RADIUS and CAs to secure non-IoT devices. By using Cloudpath software and its dedicated CA to secure IoT devices, organizations avoid reconfiguring their current AAA and CA security implementation or, worse, creating custom middleware to secure devices using an existing CA.
Manufacturers can improve the security readiness of their IoT devices. They can leverage standards-based certificate retrieval protocols such as SCEP and EST, which are native to the Cloudpath CA.
Managed service providers (MSPs) can add new tenants at will. MSPs can utilize the multitenant capabilities in the Cloudpath virtual deployment implementation, thereby reducing deployment costs and management overhead compared to deploying a separate instance of security and policy management software for each end customer.

“Traditionally, configuring IoT devices has been a huge headache for IT. These devices not only expose organizations to new security threats, but often require manual onboarding, assuming they can be onboarded at all,” said Kevin Koster, chief Cloudpath architect, Ruckus Wireless Business Unit, Brocade. “Cloudpath helps IT departments ensure their IoT devices don’t put their network and their users at risk, while enabling IoT device manufacturers to meet their own customers’ need for IoT device security.”

The latest release of Cloudpath ES software will be generally available in the second quarter of 2017. For more information, please visit the Ruckus Wireless WEBSITE.

About the Ruckus Wireless Business Unit
The RUCKUS WIRELESS Business Unit of Brocade delivers simply better wireless networking—and now wired switching as well—for enterprise, service provider, government, and small business customers worldwide. Ruckus is focused on technology innovation, partner ecosystems, and customer service—yielding the best possible wireless or wired experience for the most challenging indoor and outdoor environments. Its SMART WI-FI platform delivers scalable, high-performance Wi-Fi with simplified control and management for on premise and cloud-based Wi-Fi deployments, along with new services for secure on-boarding, policy management, location services, and analytics that enable new business opportunities. THE BROCADE® RUCKUS ICX® 7000 FAMILY OF SWITCHES provides flexible scalability and simplified management, meeting the needs of businesses and organizations of all types and sizes.

Source by BROCADE

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HP Inc. Protects Businesses from Web-Based Attacks with HP Sure Click

lukasik — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 10:25:53 +0000

Company partners with Bromium Inc. to further strengthen the world’s most secure and manageable PCs

Palo Alto, Calif., Feb. 13, 2017 – At the RSA Conference 2017, HP Inc. today announced the addition of HP Sure Click technology to protect customers from web-based security threats. Building on the security solutions found on the world’s most secure and manageable PCs¹ , HP worked closely with Bromium Inc. to create a solution that helps organizations protect themselves from malware and ransomware accidently downloaded through an employee’s internet browsing activity. HP Sure Click will first be available on the award-winning HP EliteBook x360 1030 G2².

“With 81 percent of IT security managers citing unsecure web browsers as a primary attack vector, organizations are challenged to protect themselves against this ever-evolving threat³,” said Alex Cho, vice president and general manager, Commercial PCs, Personal Systems, HP Inc. “By partnering with Bromium to create HP Sure Click, we provide exclusive hardware-enforced security for web browsers as a standard feature, giving both users and businesses the freedom to browse confidently.”

According to a recent survey of 400 CIOs, 68 percent say that attackers have become more sophisticated, making it difficult for users to differentiate between safe and unsafe sites⁴. HP Sure Click is designed to shift the responsibility from the end user to the PC. With HP Sure Click, many types of web-based attacks originating from unintentional website visits where ransomware or malware may be hidden are automatically prevented.

When a user starts a browsing session in Internet Explorer or Chromium, every site visited triggers HP Sure Click. For example, each time a user visits a website, HP Sure Click creates a hardware-based isolated browsing session, which eliminates the ability of one website from infecting other tabs or the system itself.

“HP’s philosophy and approach to security is a natural fit with our own mission to stop cybercrime and keep the Internet safe for everyone,” explains Ian Pratt, co-founder and president, Bromium Inc. “We are thrilled about our strategic relationship, and we’re excited to have Bromium’s virtualization-based security used as a platform for HP Sure Click to deliver secure browsing built into HP’s world-class devices.”

HP Sure Click will first be introduced as a web download for the HP EliteBook x360 1030 G2 in Spring 2017 and will be available as a standard feature on Elite PC platforms launching in the second half of the year. For more information about HP’s security and manageability features in its Elite PCs and the security, visit www.hp.com/go/clientsecurity.

Based on HP’s unique and comprehensive security capabilities at no additional cost and HP Manageability Integration Kit’s management of every aspect of a PC including hardware, BIOS and software management using Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager among vendors with >1M unit annual sales as of November 2016 on HP Elite PCs with 7th Gen Intel® Core® Processors, Intel® integrated graphics, and Intel® WLAN.
Coming soon as a web-download for the HP EliteBook x360 G2 on www.hp.com/go/clientmanagement and supports Microsoft® Internet Explorer and Chromium.
The Challenge of Preventing Browser-Borne Malware, Ponemon Institute, sponsored by Spikes, February 2015.
Study of 400 CIOs for large enterprises in the United States, United Kingdom and Germany, conducted by Vanson Bourne on behalf of Bromium Inc., January 24, 2017.

Source by HP

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Cisco amps-up Tetration platform with better security, reduced footprint, AWS cloud option

lukasik — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 09:02:27 +0000

Cisco Tetration helps users move toward Zero Trust data center

Cisco has rolled out a second release of its Tetration Analytics package with features such as a smaller footprint and a cloud service that will go a long way toward making the system alluring to more data center customers.

Announced in June of last year, Cisco’s Tetration Analytics is a turnkey analytics package that gathers information from hardware and software sensors and analyzes the information using big data and machine learning.

Tetration software sensors support Linux and Windows server hosts, while hardware sensors are embedded in Cisco network switch ASICS: Nexus 9200, Nexus 9300-EX and Nexus 9500-EX, to collect flow data at line rate from all the ports. Per Cisco once in place, the Tetration platform learns its enterprise environment and any policies IT has in place. From there it can learn which applications are dependent on each other throughout their data center and into the cloud. It can monitor server behavior patterns and group servers more efficiently.

For policy setting, customers can validate new policies by running them through Tetration first to see what their impact would be on the enterprise. Users can also use this information for regulatory compliance applications.

In the first release of the platform it was largely looking and listening to customer networks and applications and now with release 2 it can act on what it has found – automatically enforcing policies, securing the enterprise and continuing to help customers get a better handle on their data centers, said Cisco senior director, product management Yogesh Kaushik.

Security was always a key part of Tetration and the second release builds more options onto the system. Kaushik said customers are moving toward a “zero trust” policy which locks down all access to applications – but with highly distributed applications, like cloud apps, that have many components and are multitiered it can be complex to implement, Kaushik stated.

Cisco says Tetration Analytics policy recommendation and enforcement engine can now take micro-segmentation — a security technique enabling workload separation — a leap further by delivering application segmentation, which drives policies across the application layer, regardless of where the application resides: virtualized, bare metal, physical servers, or in the cloud. Policies can be pushed to any vendor’s firewall, and can be orchestrated at the network layer as well, Cisco said.

Cisco says Tetration can capture a million events per second and make decisions behavior analysis of billions of flows, processes, and workload characteristics allowing for realtime policy enforcement. The idea is that as customers move towards a more devops environment where apps are rapidly brought online and off, Tetration can implement security policies quickly.

“As organizations undergo digital transformation and embrace the DevOps model, they’re investing in new technologies with infrastructure that’s becoming more dynamic and distributed, and as a result security must become more dynamic as well,” said Zeus Kerravala, principal analyst at ZK Research and Network World blogger, said in a statement. “Although 80% of security spending is focused on the perimeter, only 20% of the breaches occur there. With Tetration’s security policy enforcement, organizations could probably pay for the platform by heading off a single breach.”

In addition to the software improvements, Cisco added a smaller footprint version and a cloud option.

The small-scale Cisco Tetration-M is aimed at deployments supporting up to 1,000 workloads. The Tetration-M package includes eight 1RU servers (Six UCS C-220 servers and two Nexus 9300 servers) compared to the larger version which requires 39 1RU servers.

Jim Duffy, a senior analyst with the 451 Research group, noted that Cisco said last summer at Cisco Live they they’d be scaling Tetration down, even to the chip level. “So smaller footprints and more digestible packaging and pricing makes much sense.”

For the cloud, Cisco has also announced an appliance with Tetration software deployed in the public cloud on Amazon Web Services (AWS). Tetration Cloud also supports up to 1,000 workloads. Tetration can monitor workloads in private as well as public clouds, Cisco stated.

Cisco also bolstered the number of third-party vendors that can now utilize Tetration to build its data into their systems – AlgoSec, Citrix, F5, Infoblox, ServiceNow Tufin and the Dell Converged Infrastructure Group (previously known as VCE).

The Tetration upgrade comes on the heels of Cisco’s purchase of AppDynamics and its application performance monitoring technology which could end up being a component for feeding Tetration all manner of application performance information, experts said.

“The information collected from AppDynamics is an ideal fit in Tetration,” said Dennis Drogseth vice president, Enterprise Management Associates.

During a press event for the AppDynamics buy, Cisco’s Senior Vice President and General Manager Rowan Trollope said of a possible AppDynamics integration with Tetration: “We have been looking at our analytics strategy more broadly in the past year and a big part of the value that we bring especially with the Tetration product, is the ability to deeply instrument and report on the infrastructure – what’s happening from UCS all the way to the network and getting that broad view from the security perspective. But taking all of that data and making sense of it …being able to connect the dots on all these parts of the enterprise hasn’t really been possible…you could see us making moves that we would tie these things together.”

By Michael Cooney, source by NetworkWorld

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HPE acquires security startup Niara to boost its ClearPass portfolio

lukasik — Wed, 08 Feb 2017 09:38:46 +0000

Niara’s software helps enterprises detect and protect from threats that have penetrated perimeter defenses

Hewlett Packard Enterprise has acquired Niara, a startup that uses machine learning and big data analytics on enterprise packet streams and log streams to detect and protect customers from advanced cyberattacks that have penetrated perimeter defenses.

The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Operating in the User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) market, Niara’s technology starts by automatically establishing baseline characteristics for all users and devices across the enterprise and then looking for anomalous, inconsistent activities that may indicate a security threat, Keerti Melkote, senior vice president and general manager of HPE Aruba and cofounder of Aruba Networks, wrote in a blog post on Wednesday.

The time taken to investigate individual security incidents has been reduced from up to 25 hours using manual processes to less than a minute by using machine learning, Melkote added.

Hewlett Packard acquired wireless networking company Aruba Networks in May 2015, ahead of its corporate split into HPE, an enterprise-focused business and HP, a business focused on PCs and printers.

The strategy now is to integrate Niara’s behavioral analytics technology with Aruba’s ClearPass Policy Manager, a role and device-based network access control platform, so as to to offer customers advanced threat detection and prevention for network security in wired and wireless environments, and internet of things (IoT) devices, Melkote wrote.

For Niara’s CEO Sriram Ramachandran and Vice President for Engineering Prasad Palkar and several other engineers it is a homecoming. They are part of the team that developed the core technologies in the ArubaOS operating system.

Niara technology addresses the need to monitor a device after it is on the internal network, following authentication by a network access control platform like ClearPass. Niara claims that it detects compromised users, systems or devices by aggregating and putting into context even subtle changes in typical IT access and usage.

Most networks today allow the traffic to flow freely between source and destination once devices are on the network, with internal controls, such as Access Control Lists, used to protect some types of traffic, while others flow freely, Melkote wrote.

“More importantly, none of this traffic is analyzed to detect advanced attacks that have penetrated perimeter security systems and actively seek out weaknesses to exploit on the interior network,” she added.

By John Ribeiro, source by CIO

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Microsoft likely to fix Windows SMB denial-of-service flaw on Patch Tuesday

lukasik — Mon, 06 Feb 2017 09:05:50 +0000

Microsoft will likely wait until February 14 to fix a publicly disclosed vulnerability in the SMB network file sharing protocol that can be exploited to crash Windows computers.

The vulnerability was disclosed Thursday when the security researcher who found it posted a proof-of-concept exploit for it on GitHub. There was concern initially that the flaw might also allow for arbitrary code execution and not just denial-of-service, which would have made it critical.

The CERT Coordination Center (CERT/CC) at Carnegie Mellon University at first mentioned arbitrary code execution as a possibility in an advisory released Thursday. However, the organization has since removed that wording from the document and downgraded the flaw’s severity score from 10 (critical) to 7.8 (high).

Attackers can exploit the vulnerability by tricking Windows systems to connect to malicious SMB servers that send specially crafted responses. Successful exploitation will result in a crash in the mrxsmb20.sys driver, which will trigger a so-called Blue Screen of Death (BSOD).

There are a number of techniques to force computers to open SMB connections and some require little or no user interaction, CERT/CC warned. The organization confirmed the exploit on Windows 10 and Windows 8.1, as well as Windows Server 2016 and Windows Server 2012 R2.

“Windows is the only platform with a customer commitment to investigate reported security issues, and proactively update impacted devices as soon as possible,” a Microsoft representative said via email. “Our standard policy is that on issues of low risk, we remediate that risk via our current Update Tuesday schedule.”

Update or Patch Tuesday is the day when Microsoft typically releases security updates for its products. This occurs on the second Tuesday of every month and the next one is scheduled for February 14.

The company sometimes breaks out of this regular patch cycle to release updates for critical and actively exploited vulnerabilities, but this won’t likely happen in this case, especially now that the flaw’s severity has been decreased and there’s apparently no threat of remote code execution.

By Lucian Constantin, source by ComputerWorld

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