Hacking Humans with Nanotechnology

Hacking humans with nanotechnology may sound like a concept from a futuristic science fiction novel or movie, but the truth is, it's not that far off and it could be the next big cyberthreat. If you thought data breaches involving your social security number or credit card information were scary, imagine the ramifications nanotechnology hacking.

What is Nanotechnology & Hacking Humans with Nanotechnology?

Technically speaking, nanotechnology is any technological endeavor that deals with anything with a dimension of less than 100 nanometers. That is very small. For comparison, there are 25,400,000 nanometers in just one inch. Much of this scientific and technological field focuses on working with atoms. While the concept was first brought to light in the late 1950s, it wasn't until the late 1980s that technology advanced enough to actually allow scientists to work in such a small field.

Nanotechnology has several applications. Food, technology, fuels, batteries, environmental causes, chemical sensors and even sporting goods have already benefited from nanotechnology, and will benefit even more in the future. However, the medical field is one of the most exciting for nanotechnology at the moment, though most developments are still in the experimental phase. With these developments comes the ever-present technological risk of hacking.

How is Nanotechnology Used in Humans?

In the future, nanotechnology will be used for incredible purposes. One possibility still being researched is building new muscle with carbon nanotubes. Scientists at IBM are also working on using nanotechnology to analyze DNA in just minutes (instead of weeks) to treat cancer patients with a customized treatment plan. Other medical technology experts are exploring using nanotechnology to send treatments like chemotherapy or vaccines to target specific types of cells in the body. Experimental nanosponges are being tested to absorb toxins in the body, and there are several different nanotechnology projects in experimental phases that seek to hyper target treatment to cancer cells. It is also being explored as an early diagnostic tool to detect cancers and infectious diseases long before our current technology is able. Some nanotechnology ideas include a tiny device that gets injected into the body as a sensor or medical delivery device. This all sounds positive, but there is a downside too.

Is Medical Technology Secure?

Now that we are entering a new era of medical nanotechnology, scientists need to make sure treatments are not only effective, but secure. Many experimental treatments are, after all, electronic medical devices, just on a smaller scale. These tiny devices are typically controlled by a program on a traditional electronic device like a computer, smartphone or server, meaning they could be very hackable. Some digital security experts posit that a single nanoparticle in the body with it's own processor could be hacked, but they also say that if someone had more than one particle in the body, which many treatments would require, a hacker could theoretically turn them into a network in the body, using the body's own systems to communicate and do their bidding. 

It might sound like nanotechnology hacking will happen far into the future, but some experts believe some experimental nanotechnology medical treatments will be in use in just two years. Additionally, medical technology already in use today has already been proven hackable. Johnson & Johnson advised users of one of its insulin pumps to not use the remote control feature of the device, and to make sure to set a maximum insulin dose in case of hacking. Recently, the FDA recalled 500,000 pacemakers due to the risk of hacking. In 2015, researchers were able to hack into and deactivate a pacemaker set up on a mannequin, proving these are much more than fears: they are an inevitable reality. 

One of the most obvious and dangerous applications for biomedical hacking is ransomware. Nowadays, if your computer gets infected with a ransomware virus, you may have to pay a fee via Bitcoin to get access back to your data. However, when it comes to biomedical hacking, the applications could be much more deadly. If a hacker took over your inner nanotechnology devices, they could demand a ransom with fatal consequences. If you're unable or unwilling to pay, they could easily turn your body against you and at the very least make you suffer or get sick, if not kill you. This type of attack is already having an effect on our medical systems. Recently, the famous Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center was forced to pay around $17,000 in Bitcoin to regain access to all the data and systems in the hospital after a ransomware attack.

It may also be possible for unsavory characters to use nanotechnology itself against their enemies, not only in hacking attacks. One of the most exciting applications of nanotechnology is inhalable particulate powders developed to directly treat the lungs. These particles can work together to form an artificial cell to do a certain job. Some worry this technology could be an easily weaponized delivery method for bioterrorism efforts, beyond the hacking dangers. Getting infected with something could be as simple as breathing the air, taking a shower or getting a regular vaccination from your doctor. 

What Can Be Done to Mitigate Risk in Nanotechnology?

While hacking nanotechnology maliciously may be cause for concerns about security, the technology itself is already being used to fight bioterrorism. Magnetic nanoparticles can be used not only to detect and even remove harmful bacterial infections on food, but the same technology can be used to detect bioterrorist attacks of diseases like anthrax. 

However, the most powerful thing that needs to happen to lessen the risk of hacking with nanotechnology is legislation to regulate the types and strength of security required on nano medical devices, and even the function of devices that will be allowed. Much of the risk at the moment comes from the excitement and rush to get the most advanced technology to the table first, meaning thoughts of security may get left behind. 

Medical device manufacturers who wish to ensure that their devices are not likely to get hacked should do proper penetration testing. This type of testing exposes and evaluates the risk of hacking increase the safety of medical devices and the programs or applications that accompany them. It may be uncomfortable to expose the vulnerabilities in your medical products, but that is the first step towards fixing any vulnerabilities.

What Do We Call This?

There are several terms that you might think have to do with hacking medical and nanotechnology, but the truth is, we don't yet have a term for this specific set of actions and topics. Perhaps one will develop in the future as they become more prevalent in everyday medical use. For now we can use the terms nano-medical technology, nano-medical hacking and others that truly describe what it is until something else comes along.

Biohacking:  The term biohacking sounds like the perfect term to describe hacking medical technology, but it actually refers to "do-it-yourself biology." This is a self-improvement technique that uses diet, exercise and mental techniques to "hack" the body to improve mood, health and overall life satisfaction.

Neobiology: This term does get closer to the matter, but neobiology generally refers to any new advance in biological technology. Nanotechnology and medical device hacking would certainly fall under this umbrella, but the umbrella is very large. Other things like indoor farming, "designer" babies, and other modern biology topics would also apply. It has been used to refer to biological hacking, but mainly refers to anything modern and technological that also has to do with biology.

Internet of Things: Medical devices, including ones using nanotechnology, certainly fall under the internet of things. This means any device, medical or non, that is connected to the internet. It could be your coffee maker that you can set using a remote app or your digital assistant. However, the Internet of Things is also a broad term that, while it encompasses the medical technology we discuss here, doesn't specifically define it.

Wannacry crippled many healthcare providers.

How Real is the Risk?

While technologists have successfully revealed that several different medical devices currently on the market can be hacked, has there been a true case of medical device hacking? The answer at this point is not clear, but there has certainly been crippling hacks of medical centers, like the aforementioned Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center attack. Additionally, 2017's extremely widespread Wannacry ransomware attack severely affected the UK's National Health Service, affecting their ability to provide care, and costing them a lot of money. It also allegedly affected some medical devices as well. However, it also affected networks and devices in all industries, including transportation, telecommunication and manufacturing on 200,000 machines in over 150 countries.

At this point, the risk seems to be mostly theoretical, though it is just a matter of time before black hat hackers pick up on what white hat hackers have been researching and trying to prevent. The other danger is that in one study, doctors implicitly seem to trust medical technology and are not able to recognize when a device has been hacked in a test. Hospitals are also known for not updating their products unless they do not work of have been officially recalled. One cyber security expert was appalled to find his own daughter had been hooked up to a device he knew was not secure, and had been recommended to be put out of use, while he went home to get her some pajamas. Some of these medical devices are even too old to fix with a patch to update any security flaws in the software. 

Some experts believe it is only a matter of time before something fatal happens involving the hacking of a medical device, and that only then will medical providers and legislators take this issue seriously.

How to Get Medical Devices Properly Tested

As mentioned before, penetration testing is one of the best ways to find vulnerabilities in medical devices and ensure that your products are as secure as possible. Alpine security offers a full-range of penetration testing, including in the medical field. Alpine guarantees the results on the test, and the team is highly experienced and certified. With remote and in-person testing options, it's easy to get your products tested to ensure you offer the best in security to clients and users. As nanotechnology becomes more prevalent, penetration testing in the medical field will become even more important due to the aforementioned risks associated with the powerful applications.

Certified CISO Training: What's In It For You?

It happens across industries, from refrigerator repair to software sales. You get good enough at your job, you get promoted to management and then become an executive. The field of information security is no exception.   

Maybe you've found yourself on this track. You've realized an aptitude for cybersecurity, maybe become a penetration tester, and are always advancing your knowledge of systems and their evolution. One day, someone asks you if you'd consider becoming a CISO –  a Chief Information Security Officer.

What Does a Certified CISO Do?

As you might assume from the title, a chief information security officer protects a company's data and that of its customers. Taking on this role means that you assume responsibility for identifying any security threats in your company's system. You develop strategies for mitigating those threats and work with the company's IT team to implement solutions.    

A company that hires you as a CISO will expect you to be proactive about keeping its systems and data secure and understand risk in relation to business. You may need to conduct system audits and you'll definitely need to be up to date with the latest developments in the field.

A CISO role is really understanding how cybersecurity ties into business goals and risk. It is not a technician role. Understanding business and how to communicate with C-Level executives and also with IT and Cybersecurity Managers is critical.

How's the Pay?

A certified information security officer is a well-compensated professional. Payscale estimates the current average salary for the role at $155,737. By the time you reach the later years of your career, the average has risen to $168,360.     

Very high-performing professionals in the field can earn more than double that. In 2016, a survey from cybersecurity staffing firm SilverBull placed the top of the average salary range at $421,000 for professionals in San Francisco. Meanwhile, similarly qualified professionals in New York were earning $406,000 in New York City.   

Information security leadership is also a rewarding career from a non-monetary perspective. According to Payscale, which has gathered a 5 out of 5 job satisfaction rating from CISO respondents, the role makes a professional feel productive, valued, and essential to client success.

The Qualifications

If you're a CISO, you almost certainly have at least a bachelor's degree in computer science, IT, or a similar field. Some companies also require a master's degree, depending on the company, and most demand that you have worked in IT security for at least seven if not 10 years.   

These kinds of requirements are in place because a company needs to know that you have an extensive knowledge of systems and programming. What is also required, and what companies tend to have a harder time verifying, is an in-depth familiarity with the business aspects of the tech world. You'll need to know how information security and risk affects a company on the administrative and financial levels, not just on the technical side.

Leadership Skills Matter

To succeed as a cybersecurity executive, you need to have the same soft skills that drive success for any business leader. You need to be able to: 

1. Develop standard procedures and company-wide policies

2. Understand applicable regulations and ensure compliance 

3. Source and implement appropriate training 

4. Create action plans for breach contingencies 

5. Communicate your strategies to superiors and team members

You know that you have the capacity to do all of these things, but if you've only ever been in technical roles, you may not know how to prove it to an employer. Or you may have accepted a promotion to CISO without formally developing these skills, leaving yourself in a bit over your head.

Enter the EC-Council CCISO credential.

CISO Certification - Do You have What It Takes?

CISO Certification is conferred by the EC Security Council. It indicates that you have successfully completed its chief information security officer exam,  which experts in the field developed to cover all essential skills of the CISO position.

What's On the Test

To create the CCISO test and certification, an advisory board of expert information security potentials considered all of the content knowledge that an information security executive requires. They then created the exam based on the skills that they believed were most necessary to assess for in an up-and-coming cybersecurity executive.   

The exam covers five content areas: 

1. Corporate governance

2. Information security auditing and controls

3. Projects and operations management 

4. Core competencies of information security

5. Finance and strategy development

It's important to notice that this set of domains focuses on business leadership and the application of technical knowledge, not on technical expertise. The test assumes that you have the systems understanding that got you this far. It wants to know if you can apply that understanding to lead an IT security team.

The Prerequisites

To sit the CCISO, you need to be at least 18 years old and have five years of experience in three of the five tested domains. Because so many candidates come to the CCISO exam from information security management, this experience is part and parcel of what they already do.

For those who haven't yet reached this level, CCISO training can lead to an Information Security Manager credential, which serves as a stepping stone to CCISO certification. 

Training For the Test (And the Job)

The CCISO is a demanding test. Even if you have the required five years of experience in three domains, you might not have encountered some of the content that the exam wants you to know. This happens to a lot of CISO hopefuls, whose prior management roles have been more tech-focused than business-focused. 

Alpine Security's Certified CISO training program can help you bridge that gap. 

CCISO Quick Facts (click to enlarge).

Certified CISO Training at Alpine Security - Why Us?

Alpine Security's welcomes both live online and in-person students to its hybrid classrooms, so you can train effectively no matter where you are. All trainers are passionate, dynamic, and engaging certified CCISO trainers. Alpine’s trainers are also CISOs. Alpine Security is a an EC-Council Accredited Training Center, so all prep materials are official materials. 

Over the course of a 40-hour intensive week-long course, you develop the skills that give you an edge over other CISO hopefuls. Building on the advanced technical knowledge that has gotten you to where you are today, you acquire the executive management skills that you need to take the next step.
In addition to all of this, your enrollment in Alpine Security's Certified CISO course gets you a pass guarantee for the 2.5-hour, 150-question multiple choice exam.   

Don't let your career advancement wait any longer. Get in touch with Alpine Security today and learn more.  

Alpine Security Extends Holiday Savings on Cybersecurity Certification Training

Alpine Security is excited to announce the extension of its annual holiday sale, which provides those preparing for cybersecurity exams the opportunity to gain the skills and knowledge they need at a significantly discounted rate. These steep discounts will remain available until December 31st, 2018.

The extended holiday sale provides a 30% discount for all courses included on Alpine Security's public schedule. While this particular discount must be applied by the end of the year, the courses themselves extend until June 2019. As soon as aspiring students decide which courses they wish to take, they can easily apply the holiday discount with the coupon code HOLIDAY30 as they complete the online store's easy-to-navigate checkout process.

Alpine Security's course fees are all-inclusive — exam vouchers and fees are automatically included in the cost of each course. Those who prefer not to pay exam fees upfront can opt-out, and, instead, take courses at a further discounted rate. All cybersecurity courses come with Exam Pass Guarantees — students who do not pass exams on the first try are allowed to resit courses free of charge. Additionally, students who don't feel fully prepared are allowed to resit courses before taking exams.

All of Alpine Security's courses are taught both live online and in-person by industry authorities boasting considerable certificates and real-world experience in penetration testing, incident response, auditing, and forensic analysis. Courses are offered both during the day and in the evening.

Cecilie Kreiner, Alpine Security's Training Manager, hopes this year's significant holiday discount will allow those seeking cybersecurity training to give themselves the gift of a quality education.

"We are excited to offer this holiday sale. We hope current discounts, along with our Exam Pass Guarantee, will convince students to get the training they need. We're thrilled to do our part building a new generation of cybersecurity professionals while making our industry more accessible." - Cecilie Kreiner, Training Manager, Alpine Security

Additional information about Alpine Security's course offerings and Exam Pass Guarantee can be found by visiting the company's website.

ABOUT ALPINE SECURITY

A highly regarded Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), Alpine Security offers a variety of cybersecurity certification courses. The company also provides in-demand cybersecurity services such as penetration testing, risk assessments, incident response, audits, and digital forensics. Based in the St. Louis area and accredited by CompTIA and EC-Council, Alpine Security provides easy accessibility to the cybersecurity skills and services needed both locally and worldwide.

How Secure are Medical Devices?

This blog features an interview of Alpine Security’s CEO, Christian Espinosa, on medical device security by Caroline Cornell, originally posted at classaction.com.

Could you provide an overview of the cybersecurity threats the medical field faces? How big is this problem?  

Medical devices have largely been neglected from a cybersecurity perspective. Many of these devices run legacy operating systems, are full of vulnerabilities, and were not intended to be connected to hospital networks. For ease of management, data access, updates, etc., many medical devices are now connected to hospital networks, which have connections to the Internet.

Hospital networks are inherently unsecure; any threats to a hospital network are transferred to connected medical devices. Threats to implantable devices are primarily due to unsecure wireless communications. Implantables were designed to be easy to monitor and update via wireless technology. It is too risky to perform heart surgery every time a pacemaker or implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) needs to be updated, for example.

The threats to medical devices are a big problem with severe and potentially lethal consequences.

As a white hat hacker, what’s your process for identifying security vulnerabilities? Do you try to hack everything and anything, or do you gravitate towards particular types of devices or networks?

Our process depends on the scope of the engagement. If we are asked to assess a medical device, we typically have several main phases—1) we perform a discovery to learn more about the device; 2) we define a security boundary for the device; 3) we perform a risk assessment of the device; 4) we identify all possible entry points in the system/device; 5) we develop attack trees and assess all entry points into the system using penetration testing and other techniques; 6) based on the results of 1-5, we determine a mitigation strategy; 7) we generate the report.

As for hacking everything and anything, the process I just mentioned applies a risk-based approach to our assessment. We focus on the big-ticket items first with the highest risk to patient safety, emphasizing how the device could be misused and the effect of attacks on data confidentiality, integrity, and availability. We work with manufacturers and providers to fix the most critical items first, then work down a prioritized list, based on the risk. We also run validation tests to ensure remediation steps worked.

How receptive are companies when you do identify a vulnerability? Do they usually address the issue?

Some are more receptive than others. Sometimes we are met with resistance, such as “there’s no way someone would think of doing that.” Most often though, our findings are well-received.

Unfortunately, company bureaucracy, cost, timelines, and other factors present obstacles to fixing devices under development or devices deployed in the field. It is very costly for medical device manufacturers to fix devices that are deployed across the world, or ones that are in the middle of development.

What do you think makes medical devices and hospital networks so appealing to hackers?

“If you can hack into a medical device, you can directly affect a person’s physical state and well-being.”

A couple reasons. One is that PHI (protected health information) is more valuable than other types of information. Patient records sell for more than other types of stolen sensitive data on the black market.

Another reason is the physical effects that can be caused by hacking medical devices. Normally, if you steal credit card data from a web application, you may inconvenience someone—that’s an indirect effect to the person. If you can hack into a medical device though, you can directly affect a person’s physical state and well-being.

What is the one type of security vulnerability that keeps you up at night?

There’s not one that keeps me up at night. I’ve come to terms with the fact that it’s just a matter of time before something catastrophic happens. There’s already been many warning signs, yet there is a head-in-the-sand mindset still. Almost like “if we pretend it’s not there, the threat doesn’t exist.”  

“I’ve come to terms with the fact that it’s just a matter of time before something catastrophic happens.”

If I had to pick one threat that would keep me up at night though, it is the threat of weaponized medical nanotechnology, a form of biomedical hacking. 

Nanotechnology, or “nanotech,” are basically extremely small computers, smaller than a pinhead. Nanobots can be used in the human body for items such as targeting cancer cells to destroy them by delivering chemotherapy to only cancer cells.

These nanobots can also be used to deliver lethal toxins or carry out specific missions in the human body, such as making your arms temporarily unmovable, or similar. The scary thing is they can be introduced to the human body very easily. You could breathe them in and not even know.

Do you think the FDA is doing enough to prevent and respond to cyberattacks?

I think the challenge is identifying who is ultimately responsible for medical device security—the device manufacturer, the user, the hospital, clinic, the Department of Homeland Security, the FDA, the doctor, patient, etc.?

The FDA has basically issued premarket and postmarket guidance for medical devices and passed the responsibility to healthcare delivery organizations (HDOs). According to the FDA, “HDOs are responsible for implementing devices on their networks and may need to patch or change devices and/or supporting infrastructure to reduce security risks.  Recognizing that changes require risk assessment, the FDA recommends working closely with medical device manufacturers to communicate changes that are necessary.” 

We recently spoke with a medical professional who told us that “doctors don’t become doctors to protect data.” What role does the average doctor play in maintaining secure medical devices and networks?

I agree with this statement. Doctors have enough to worry about. They should be given a list of “approved medical devices” that they can use and recommend. These devices should be thoroughly vetted for cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Penetration testing and other methods should be used.

The challenge becomes where does this “approved list of medical devices” come from? Who has the approval authority? This is not a simple problem to solve, because medical devices are complex systems with many vulnerabilities, both known and unknown. What is approved today, could be recalled tomorrow. This should not be the responsibility of the doctor.

A Penetration Testing Career – Do You Have What It Takes?

Penetration testing, also known as ethical hacking, is one of the hottest jobs in tech today. What other career lets you pretend you're in The Matrix, working your way into systems like a top-level hacker, all without breaking any laws. Oh, and you're getting paid for it.

With a real-world penetration testing job, though, you're not just playing at hacking into systems. You actually are hacking into systems, and your employer's very existence may depend on your ability to do it.

What to Expect From a Penetration Testing Career

As a penetration tester, often known as a “pen” tester, your job is to identify security vulnerabilities in a company's internal systems and outward-facing applications. You might test a whole system, but you'll probably test only part of a system at a time. 

Either way, you are responsible for finding any weaknesses that a hacker could use to get in, so you need to run a lot of tests. 

A lot of tests. 

No real job is as glamorous as the movies, and penetration testing really is no exception. Some of the tests you have to run are repetitive. If the system is strong, you'll get a lot of negative findings and just move on to the next test without much fanfare. 

But sometimes, you'll hit the proverbial pay dirt.

You'll figure out how to breach a system before a criminal does. You'll show your client how to patch up the hole in the system and keep sensitive data out of the wrong hands. On those days, you'll earn your client's unending gratitude.

What Kind of Person Does This?

If you're drawn to ethical hacking jobs, you probably have an analytical mind. You love problems because solving them gets your mind working overtime, and you believe that a brick wall is just a test of how badly you want to get to the other side. 

These are the qualities that you need as a penetration tester. It's a challenging job, but some people really thrive in it. These are the people who have:

• a genuine interest in how systems work 

• a tactical mindset 

• a quick mind 

• persistence to a fault

Perhaps most importantly, though, you need to be a good communicator. Contrary to the stereotype of the reclusive and awkward tech geek, you won't get anywhere in pen testing unless you can communicate your highly technical work to someone in a different field. Put simply, you need to make your client understand what you've found and why it matters.

Great Expectations

When a company hires you as a penetration tester, it puts its most sensitive and valuable data in your hands. Your clients will want to know that you can do the job, so they expect you to have certain skills. First of all,  you need to know everything possible about operating systems, networks, and scripting. 

Also, there are plenty of automated programs out there that can scan for weaknesses, and a client will need you to know more than the program does. You'll need to be able to find vulnerabilities that have no codes or references within the system because they haven't been found by hackers yet.   

You'll need to be able to integrate new exploits into your existing skill set. Tech is constantly evolving, and hackers are always coming up with new ways to breach barriers. You need to be able to hear about a new exploit, try it out, and figure out how to screen for it.   

Finally, it helps if you know how to code. Some pen testers get by without it, but you'll save yourself a lot of time if you have some basic skills in the most widely used coding languages. 

Let's Talk Money

If you're a good fit, you'll find penetration testing to be a rewarding career in more ways than one. Financially, you start out as an entry-level professional with an average salary around $70,000 and by mid-career, the salary average has crested $100,000.   

By the time you are considered experienced, the average salary is around $115,000. Meanwhile, you will have built up your knowledge of the field and potentially supervise more junior professionals.

Starting a Penetration Testing Career

Naturally, a job like this isn't one you can just walk into from your latest gig at McDonald's or Old Navy. You're working with high-security systems and you might have thousands of people's personal data in your hands. You need training and certifications, not to mention the kind of personality that can handle an intensely high-stakes position. 

So it's not surprising that most penetration testers get into the field from other areas of tech, such as systems administration or programming. The majority of hiring companies want the pen tester that they hire to have at least a bachelor's degree in a field related to IT or cybersecurity. Most also ask for particular certifications.

Entry Level Credentials

If you're just getting started in pen testing, one of the entry-level certifications will show an employer that you're serious about the field. Here are a few of the ones they like to see.

CEH Snapshot (click to enlarge)

Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) 

The CEH certification is an entry-level credential offered by the EC Security Council.  It requires you to pass a 4-hour, 125-question multiple choice exam that covers the latest tactics hackers use to breach security systems. If you pass this portion, you can take a 6-hour practical exam to demonstrate more advanced knowledge.

Certified Penetration Tester (CPT)   

The CPT is the entry-level certification offered through the Information Assurance Certification Review Board, more commonly known as the IACRB. The associated multiple-choice exam is two hours and includes 50 questions, 70 percent of which you have to answer correctly to pass.

Intermediate and Advanced Certifications

Even when you're already established in pen testing, you need to show that you're up to date with the latest advances in the field. That's where the more advanced certification programs come in.

ECSA snapshot (click to enlarge)

EC Council Certified Security Analyst (ECSA)

The ECSA is the EC Council's intermediate credential. It requires the candidate to pass a four-hour, 150-question test as well as a 12-hour practical exam. The practical exam presents you with a real organization's network and evaluates your ability to use network scanning, vulnerability analysis, and other common pen testing techniques to get into it.

PenTest+

The PenTest+ certification is offered through CompTIA. It is an intermediate-level exam that features written questions as well as a practical questions. Over the course of 2.75 hours, these challenges evaluate our ability to find a system's weaknesses and develop strategies to address them.

Certified Expert Penetration Tester (CEPT)

The CEPT test is the IACRB's follow-up to the CPT exam, and it covers the nine domains of penetration testing knowledge.  These include: 

• Penetration Testing Methodologies 

• Network Attacks and Recon 

• Memory Corruption and Buffer Overflow Vulnerabilities 

• Reverse Engineering 

The nine domains are covered in a 50-question multiple choice test. The candidate has two hours to complete at least 70 percent of the questions correctly to receive a passing score.

Licensed Penetration Tester (LPT)

The LPT is the EC Security Council's most elite certification. Not for the faint of heart, it requires aspiring recipients to endure a three-level, 18-hour exam. Those who succeed are considered to be the industry's top experts. 

Each level of the exam is six hours long and presents you with three challenges. You advance to the next level if and only if you are able to complete at least one of the three challenges.  In all, you need to complete five of the nine challenges to pass the test. 

You can prepare for the LPT by taking EC-Council’s Advanced Penetration Testing course.

Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP)

This exam gives you a real-world security situation and 24 hours to solve it. You present your results in the form of notes and screenshots that show what you have learned about the system and its vulnerabilities. Your score depends on the complexity and depth of the vulnerabilities you find.

Offensive Security Certified Expert (OSCE)

This one's a real marathon. It takes 48 hours to complete, but it shows that you know how to tackle the security issues that less advanced ethical hackers can't handle. It's one of the industry's most difficult tests. If you've passed it, companies know that you can take on the toughest problems out there.

Passing the Tests

These are not tests you want to mess around with. It's one thing to have to re-take an exam in undergrad, but not when you're investing up to 18 hours in taking the test alone.  Also, you're depending on these tests to start or advance your career. 

Alpine Security understands what's on the line. That's why we offer preparation courses for all of the most commonly requested tests in cybersecurity, many of which come with an exam pass guarantee and exam voucher. 

Most importantly, Alpine hires successful working penetration testers as its trainers and routinely performs penetration testing - it is one of their main services. This real-world experience assures that you're getting the latest knowledge in the field. Don't wait to start hacking for a living. Contact Alpine today and start hitting the books.
                  

Leetspeak: The History of Hacker Culture's Native Tongue

You've probably seen leetspeak, also known as 1337 or “l33t,” somewhere on the Internet or in a movie about computer hacking. It's essentially regular English, but with more hacker slang and with certain letters changed to numbers. 

Leetspeak – An Origin Story

Developed in the early 1980s, leetspeak actually predates the World Wide Web by nearly a decade. It started on Bulletin Board Systems when the Internet was first developing and only people with elite status could access certain content.  That content often included information that those elites didn't want anyone outside their circles to find. 

Outsmarting the System

In those days, search functions scanned for specific keywords to identify their targets. Early hacker communities figured out that changing a few of the letters within a word could throw the search engines off the proverbial scent.  By using “h3ll0” for “hello,” for example, they could protect the privacy of their content while keeping it readable among themselves.

The Mark of an "3l33t"

As leetspeak became more well-known, gamers began to use it to present themselves as high status. The phrase “1 4m 3l33t!” (or, “I am elite!”) became a popular way for both gamers and hackers to show that they had reached the top of the pack.

Levels of L33t

Th1s s3nt3nc3 1s wr1tt3n 1n b4sic l33t. ("This sentence is written in basic leet.")

It's pretty understandable, even to someone who isn't well versed in the world of computer hacking. All you do is get rid of vowels and substitute numbers that look similar.

The Next Step

Intermediate-level leet starts to get the consonants involved, and it looks “50meth1n9 l1k3 th15.” It's more challenging to read than basic leet but still decipherable, particularly to eyes and brains that are already familiar with the basic form. A 5 looks enough like an S, for example, that a reader can go from “is” to “1s” to “15” without excessive confusion.

Advanced Leet

Advanced leet brings in yet more replacements, including more replacements per letter.   

If you read a message in basic or intermediate leet, the replacement for the letter E will almost always be the number 3. Once you get into advanced leet, however, you have a lot more options. You can still indicate E using 3, but you can also use &, €, ë, and even |=-. Just the word leet has dozens of possible translations, from the classic l33t to |_&€”|”.   

Your Basic L33t Vocabulary

As with any dialect, there are words that anyone who is “in the know” has to have in their vocabulary. Many of them have to do with status. (Specifically, the speaker being of a higher status than others.)

“Pwn”

“Pwn” is one of the most popular leetspeak words in hacker culture. It's an intentional typo of “own,” a word that the early hackers of the 80's used to mean taking over control of another computer.   

Urban legends offer a number of explanations for how the shift from “own” to “pwn” happened. Some say that it has always been an intentional misspelling, while others say that it was an honest mistake that took off in common usage.   

In either case, it's become a popular way to express your victory or defeat. While you can definitely “pwn” someone, it's also common to admit that you “g0t pwned.” It's usually pronounced “got poned.”

“N00b”

N00b, or “noob” in non-leetspeak, is a shortened form of "newbie." Programmers and hackers started calling people “newbies” around the same time that they started “owning” each others' systems. And like “own,” the word newbie evolved into noob and n00b.   

The new spellings are specifically derogatory. Being a “newb” simply means that you're new at something, which is perfectly fine in and of itself. If someone's calling you a “n00b” or “noob,” however, that usually means that they think you're not only new or unskilled but also disrespectfully content to be ignorant.

Haxor

Like the first leetspeak words, "haxor" expresses the speaker's claim to the hacking community. It literally means “hacker” or even “to hack.” 

The term "haxor" usually refers to a particularly advanced hacker (or haxor) and may even be used in reference to leetspeak itself. For example, “that haxor always types haxor.”

Leetspeak Out in the World

Even now, leetspeak continues to evolve and make its way into new corners of our perpetually connected society. Google even uses it to communicate with members of the general public, but with an insider nod to hacker culture.

Google's Bug Bounty

The Google Vulnerability Reward Program (VRP), known colloquially as its “bug bounty,” offers rewards to users who can identify and draw Google's attention to security vulnerabilities that can compromise user data. 

If a user finds such a vulnerability in a qualifying Google site, the specifics of which are detailed on the VRP website, Google will offer a financial reward. Reward amounts range from $100 to $31,337. Remove the comma and the dollar sign from that maximum amount and you have “31337.” 

Or, in non-leetspeak, "eleet."

Hacker Movies

Hacker culture even has its own filmography. A quick Google search for “hacker movies” will give you lists of what dozens of people believe to be the best. Popular titles include:

• Untraceable (2008) 

• The Italian Job (2003) 

• The Matrix (1999) 

• Hackers (1995)

One recent example is the movie adaptation of the novel Ready Player One, the story of one gamer's search for the industry's biggest “Easter egg.” The book and the movie both include characters with leetspeak names.

These characters are employees of the big bad corporation, IOI. They are known as the “suxorzs,” or the “sux0rz.” The word is a leetspeak translation of “sixers,” a nickname given because of their avatar names are also their six-digit employee numbers. It is also the leetspeak term for “this sucks.”

Leetspeak and You

Some people take to leetspeak like a natural second language. These are the people who might go on to pursue a career in hacking – and yes, it is possible. Even legal.

The first step is training in cybersecurity and penetration testing. Through professionally designed courses, like those offered by Alpine Security, you can learn the techniques that hackers – sorry, haxors – use to access today's systems.    

Go ahead - build a career that will let you pwn the h4x0rs.        
                  

Alpine Security Takes On Medical Device Hacking with Medical Device Penetration Testing Services

Many drug infusion pumps are vulnerable to cyber attacks.

In a move that calls attention to an alarming trend in the world of computer hacking, penetration testing company Alpine Security has announced its intention to focus on cybersecurity for medical devices. These devices are among the latest targets of Alpine's expert cybersecurity team, a group of extensively trained professionals who carry some of the industry's most advanced certifications. These professionals are now working with hospitals, device manufacturing companies, and patient advocacy organizations to keep people safe from hackers that could put their health and lives at risk.

Thanks to Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, doctors can now monitor patients' vital signs and track treatment with unprecedented convenience and accuracy. However, because this technology is so new and still lacks many of the safeguards embedded in older technology, these advances also mean that a patient's private information – and their vital signs themselves – can fall into the hands of hackers.

In 2017, a group of researchers were able to secure equipment that intercepted radio frequency signals from cardiac devices. The researchers showed that they could reprogram those devices to drain the power from the device and even change the patient's own heartbeat remotely. In response, the FDA recalled nearly half a million pacemakers.

The FDA has since cracked down on the security of “smart” medical devices, and providers have taken much of the weight. According to one FDA representative, “Healthcare Delivery Organizations (HDOs) are responsible for implementing devices on their networks and may need to patch or change devices and/or supporting infrastructure to reduce security risks.” This places a major burden on HDOs, which may not have the technological expertise to make the kind of evaluations and adjustments that this responsibility demands.

Alpine has responded to this urgent situation by applying its extensive cybersecurity knowledge and medical device penetration testing capabilities to where it matters most – patient safety. Its skilled team can identify the precise location of network and device weaknesses, getting to them before hackers can.

“Hospitals now have 10-15 networked medical devices per bed. Many devices that monitor vital functions or deliver medication have critical vulnerabilities. It is simply a matter of time before we have a major attack with catastrophic and fatal consequences.” – Christian Espinosa, Alpine Security CEO

In addition to its work with HDOs and device manufacturers, the company has offered its sponsorship to the Archimedes Medical Device Security 101 Conference, to be held in January of 2019 in Orlando, Florida. The conference will be a space where designers and users of networked devices can discuss the most pressing security threats in their industry, and where they can develop actionable solutions.

About Alpine Security

Alpine Security is a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) that evaluates and addresses cybersecurity risks in networks and systems across multiple industries including healthcare. Committed to staying one step ahead of today's most savvy hackers, Alpine uses state-of-the-art methods and offer every type of penetration test. Alpine is particularly experienced in optimizing the cybersecurity of network-enabled medical devices.