Alpine Security Launches Cyber Infinity Training Program

O’Fallon, IL - Alpine Security (“Alpine”), a leading cybersecurity training, penetration testing, and audit firm, announces the launch of their Cyber Infinity Training Program.

The Alpine Security Cyber Infinity Programs consists of 12 months of unlimited certification training for $9,995. Included in the fee for the Cyber Infinity program are all course materials, remote labs, one exam voucher per class, and the Alpine Security exam pass guarantee. The Alpine Security Exam Pass guarantee allows students to retake a class free of charge if they do not feel ready for the exam after going through the training, or if they do not pass the exam in their first attempt. All Alpine Security’s certification training course offerings are included in the program.

“We are excited to introduce this new addition to our training programs,” says Cecilie Kreiner, Alpine Security’s Director of Training. “Whether new to the field or validating current skills via credentials, we encourage our students to map out their career path. The unlimited training in the Cyber Infinity Program allows you to customize your certification track with your personal career goals in mind. Whether you want to specialize in the offensive or defensive tracks, focus on cybersecurity management or cyber forensics, or create a well-rounded package with a variety of cybersecurity certifications, our wide selection of certification training classes can help you reach your goals.“

Alpine Security offers certification training courses from CompTIA, EC-Council, and (ISC)2, as well as hands-on, technical training in a variety of topics such as Wireshark training and malware analysis. Alpine is a CompTIA Authorized partner and EC-Council Accredited Training Center, and was awarded the EC-Council Best Newcomer of the Year in 2017.

Alpine offers the complete CompTIA Cybersecurity Track, starting with the Core Skills Certification Security+.  The CompTIA cybersecurity track provides a clear path for those starting a career in cybersecurity and for seasoned cybersecurity professionals looking to advance their career by proving their knowledge, skills, and abilities through certifications. Alpine’s EC-Council offerings include Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator (CHFI), Certified CISO, as well as the complete EC-Council Penetration Testing Track, from Certified Ethical Hacker (CEHv10) to LPT Master. Alpine Security’s (ISC)2 course offerings include CISSP and CAP.

For more information on the Cyber Infinity Training Program, please visit: https://www.alpinesecurity.com/training/cyber-infinity-program

ABOUT ALPINE SECURITY

Alpine Security, a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business, offers a comprehensive suite of cybersecurity services and cybersecurity training. Alpine Security’s instructors are all practitioners who work as penetration testers, incident response handlers, forensic analysts, auditors, and more. This allows them to bring practical, real-world, and up-to-date experience into the classroom. Alpine Security mandates continuous training and certifications for everyone on their team, and all trainers have had to pass their rigorous Train-the-Trainer course as well as recurring courses on effective training and communication.

Protecting Internet Communications

Introduction

Today we all communicate constantly over the internet. Some people say we spend too much time on our mobile devices, and we do not interact enough with the world, and with the people around us. However, that is a discussion for another time. In this blog post we want to discuss how we keep our internet communications secure from eavesdropping.

E-Mail

Let us start with the granddaddy of internet communications protocols: E-Mail. Almost before there was any other way of communicating over the internet, there was E-Mail. It ran over a protocol called Post Office Protocol, or POP. The final version of the protocol is POP3. There was only one way to access our email, and that was using an E-Mail client such as Microsoft’s Outlook or Netscape Communicator (old school!) or Eudora (double old school!).

Back in the day there were only a couple of ways to keep your email secure, and that was through encryption. There were a couple of different ways to encrypt email using either a digital certificate or a software suite such as Pretty Good Privacy (PGP). There was also an open source version called Gnu Privacy Guard (GPG).

Both methods are still around and are still effective, although PGP has evolved a bit. It is now owned by Symantec and is part of their Endpoint Security suite solution. Even though the methods for protecting our email communications have evolved, they are still there, and still important. We still send a variety of sensitive information via E-Mail, and we need to protect it.

The easiest way to encrypt our email is to use a digital certificate, also known as a Public Key Certificate .  There are a range of options available to obtain an E-Mail digital certificate which is then installed into your E-Mail client and allows you to sign and encrypt email. The drawbacks are that you must be using a dedicated E-Mail client such as Outlook, Apple Mail, or Mozilla Thunderbird , and the people you are communicating with must also have a digital certificate. The same applies if you are using PGP/GPG. Everyone must be using it for it to be effective.

Fortunately, our E-Mail providers are also looking out for us. Companies like Google and Microsoft that provide E-Mail services use end-to-end transport encryption to help make our communications more secure.

Messaging

All the proceeding brings us to the new kid on the block of internet communications: instant messaging. Or just “messaging” as it’s called now.

Messaging started out on our early mobile phones as text messages, which are not and never were secure. However, today we have a variety of ways we can message each other securely from the Messages app in iOS to Whatsapp to Signal to Slack, etc.

“How are these mobile apps secure?”, I can hear you asking. It is a good question. They all use encryption to make sure no one else can eavesdrop on your messages with your friends, family, and business contacts. Apple was one of the first to do this for its customers when it started encrypting the messages between iCloud users. The drawback is, (and you knew one must be coming), the encryption only works between iCloud users. When you send a message, using the Messages app in iOS, to your friend who uses a smart phone that runs a different mobile operating system, such as Android, the message is a plain, unencrypted text message.

Which brings us to the other mobile apps that will help us communicate securely. There are a lot of them out there, but two that we would like to mention are Signal and Whatsapp. Many, many people use these apps daily to communicate securely and if you communicate with people who use a variety of mobile devices you should too. Some of these apps will even let you make encrypted phone calls, which is a big plus. There is also another kind of solution.

VPNs

One of the other ways to secure your communications is to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN). Many of us, like me, are used to being able to take our laptops down to the local coffee shop, or with us when we travel, connect to any ‘ole Wi-Fi, and then keep doing what we always do on the internet. What you may not be aware of however, is that unlike our home Wi-Fi networks which are encrypted, open, public Wi-Fi that we get at coffee shops, libraries, airports, etc., are not encrypted.  Anything done on those wireless networks can be intercepted by nefarious people. A good rule of thumb is, if you don’t have to enter a passphrase to connect to the wireless, it is not secure.

So how do you secure wireless?  I’m glad you asked! It is secured by using a VPN. As with the encryption methods for E-Mail and messaging, there are a variety of VPN providers out there that do not cost a lot of money. An individual or organization should research and decide which one is best for their respective needs.  It is not recommended to use a free VPN provider. Free VPN providers can be iffy because they get much of their funding via pushing ads to their users. One way they do that is by tracking what you do, which kind of defeats the purpose of using a VPN in the first place.

Returning to how a VPN can protect your communications, we could go into a lot of detail about what a VPN does, but we will keep it simple instead. Unlike the secure solutions above, which are very specific, a VPN works by creating a tunnel between you and a remote server. This tunnel is encrypted, which means that everything you send through it is protected from eavesdropping. This can be especially useful if you are working at the aforementioned coffee shop or airport.

Summary

All the information included in this blog is really our way of getting you to think about how, and who, you are communicating with on the internet, and what data you are sending. The bad guys are out there, and they are always watching and trying to get anything they can. If you are planning a birthday party for your best friend or sending your bank information to your CPA at tax time, do it securely. Do not make it easy for the bad guys!

Author Bio

Michael with his foster pit bull, Toby.

Michael Allbritton is a Cybersecurity Analyst and Trainer with Alpine Security. He holds several security-related certifications, including Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Network+, Security+ and CyberSec First Responder (CFR). Michael has many years of experience in software testing, professional services, and project management.  He is equally comfortable working with software engineers on testing and design and with sales to meet and manage customer expectations. Michael’s cybersecurity experience with Alpine includes penetration testing, vulnerability assessments, and social engineering engagements for various clients as well as teaching courses for the above-mentioned certifications.

In his spare time Michael is an enthusiastic amateur photographer, diver, and world traveler. He has photographed wildlife and landscapes in the United States, Africa, Central America, West, and East Europe and has amassed several hundred dives as a PADI Divemaster.

sqlmap: Sucking Your Whole Database Through a Tiny Little Straw

Before getting into cybersecurity, I was a software developer for many years.  Although I had heard about security vulnerabilities introduced to software via poor coding practices, I, like many of my colleagues, did not take security all that seriously.  Hacking seemed like an arcane art, only mastered by those willing to spend years pouring over dusty tomes of x86 assembly language manuals and protocol RFCs.  It did not occur to us that many of the vulnerabilities could be exploited by anyone with basic web development coding skills and the willingness to spend a few hours on research.

One of these mysterious incantations was the dreaded “SQL Injection” attack.  What exactly could one do with a SQL Injection attack, anyway?  No one was quite sure, but since our software was going into a secure military installation, we were pretty sure that the perimeter defenses would prevent anyone from harming it.

SQL Injection is a vulnerability that is introduced when software developers do not check data entered by users for validity and suitability to purpose.  A malicious user can enter unexpected special characters to modify the structure of a SQL query.  This can happen when the developer pastes together pieces of a query with “unsanitized” user input.  The unsanitized input contains special characters that modify the structure of the query before it is passed to the query parser.

For example, consider a query in a PHP snippet that tests whether a user entering credentials at a login page is a valid user in the database:

$username = $_GET[‘username’];

$password = $_GET[‘password’];

$sql = “select USER_ID from USERS where USERNAME=’$username’ and PASSWORD=’$password’;”;

In this example, the variables username and password are retrieved from the HTTP POST that was submitted by the user.  The strings are taken as-is and inserted, via string interpolation, into the query string.  Since no validation is done on the input, the user can enter characters that will modify the structure of the query.  For example, if the user enters ‘ or 1=1; # for the username, and nothing for the password, the variable sql will now equal:

$sql = “select USER_ID from USERS where USERNAME=’’ or 1=1; #’ and PASSWORD=’$password’;”

In the MySQL database engine, the “#” sign is a comment, so everything that comes after it is ignored in the query.  There are no users with a blank username, but the condition “1=1” is always true, so the query will always succeed, returning all user IDs in the database.  The subsequent code will likely only check that at least one record was returned, and it will likely grab just the first ID, which in most cases, will be that of the administrative user.

Doing SQL injection manually requires a fair bit of knowledge of how SQL works.  On top of that, there are many different SQL engines, each with slight variations in syntax, such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, IBM DB2, and others.  SQL Injection “cheat sheets” can help pentesters figure out the required syntax for testing a web application, but SQL Injection is still a very time-consuming attack to carry out.

Enter sqlmap.  sqlmap is a program that automates tests for SQL Injection.  Not only does it work with many different SQL engines, when used against vulnerable applications, it can:

• Determine the schema of the database: database, table, and column names

• Dump data from tables

• Potentially upload or download files to the database server machine

• Perform out-of-band tests

• Dump usernames, password hashes, privileges, and roles

• Pass hashes off to a password cracker for a dictionary attack

• Perform “Blind” and “Boolean-based” SQL injection attacks, when the web application does not return error messages (this is probably sqlmap’s best time-saving feature. Performing these attacks by hand is almost completely untenable)

• Potentially even launch a remote shell on the database server

Let’s perform a demo attack against the Mutillidae intentionally-vulnerable web application as it is hosted on the OWASP Broken Web Application virtual machine.  We will launch an attack against Mutillidae’s login page.

Multillidae Login Page

sqlmap has many command line parameters, but we are going to set up the attack the easy way.  The first thing we must do is to set FireFox’s proxy to run through Burp Community Edition running on localhost on port 8080.  Then, we are going to enter a bogus login and password, such as admin / canary.  We capture the request in Burp before it goes to the server, as shown below.

Capturing the HTTP POST Request for the Mutillidae Login (Bottom Pane)

Copying the POST request from the bottom pane, we save the request to a text file.  In this case, the file is called mutillidae-req.txt, as shown below.

Saving the POST request

We can then run sqlmap using the text file by passing it with the “-r” command line parameter.  We also pass “-p username” to give it the name of the parameter we would like to attack.

sqlmap -r mutillidae-req.txt -p username

The first command will do some enumeration of the database to tell us that the database engine is MySQL 5.0 or above.

sqlmap Running

Database Identified as MySQL

Once we have the database engine, we can run sqlmap again, telling it what the engine is, so it does not have to guess again.  Also, we will ask sqlmap to get a list of databases on the server by using the following command:

sqlmap -r mutillidae-req.txt -p username --dbms mysql --dbs

Enumerating the Databases on the Database Server

Looking at the results, we notice that there is a database called wordpress that we would like to attack.  The WordPress blogging platform can be abused to allow an attacker to install malicious PHP code, as long as the attacker has the administrative credentials.  Running sqlmap again, we ask it to enumerate the tables in the wordpress database using the following command:

sqlmap -r mutillide-req.txt -p username --dbms mysql -D wordpress --tables

Below, we can see the results of the WordPress database’s table enumeration.

WordPress Database Table Enumeration

The most interesting table appears to be the wp_users table.  We will ask sqlmap to dump the contents of the table with the following command:

sqlmap -r mutillidae-req.txt -p username --dbms mysql -D wordpress -T wp_users --dump

sqlmap Dumps the wp_user Table

sqlmap runs, and as a bonus, it asks us if we want to save credentials that we have found, and if we would like to attempt to crack any password hashes with a dictionary attack.  Why YES, please DO!  :D

sqlmap Asks if We’d Like to Crack Passwords

When we take the defaults, sqlmap runs a dictionary attack with its default dictionary of about 1.4 million passwords.  We could also have chosen our own dictionary.  In short order, sqlmap recovers passwords for two WordPress users: admin (daniel1984) and user (zealot777).

sqlmap Cracks the WordPress Passwords

Once we have the admin password, we login to the WordPress admin page using the credentials admin / daniel1984.

Logging in to the WordPress Admin Page

Logged in to the WordPress Admin Page

Once logged in as admin, we can modify the searchform.php page for the default theme, as shown in the screenshots below.

Editing the searchform.php File in the WordPress Default Theme

We replace the searchform.php code with that of the excellent b374k Web Shell.

searchform.php Page Code Replaced by Malicious b374k Web Shell Code

Once we have replaced the searchform.php code with the web shell code, we can simply browse to the searchform.php file directly with the following URL:

http://192.168.115.128/wordpress/wp-content/themes/default/searchform.php

The b374k web shell page is displayed, and we login with the password provided when we created the b374k PHP file.

Logging in to the b374k Web Shell

Once logged in, we are presented with the File Explorer page.  We can browse to any page that the web server has permissions to read, and we can inspect its contents.

b374K Web Shell File Explorer

Here, we view the /etc/passwd file.

Using B374k to View the /etc/passwd File

We can do many other things with b374k, such as create a remote shell from the victim web server back to our attacking computer, as shown in the following screenshot:

Using b374k to Create a Remote Shell

As you can see, sqlmap is an incredibly useful tool to demonstrate to web developers and project managers alike that SQL Injection is indeed a serious vulnerability, one that deserves their full attention.  SQL Injection can lead to complete system compromise.  I am often told after a demo of sqlmap that it is “the scariest thing you have shown us yet”.

Learn more about sqlmap and other hacking tools in one of our Penetration Testing Courses.

Doc Sewell in Dandong, China, across the Yalu River from Shinuiju, North Korea

Author Bio

Daniel "Doc" Sewell is CTO and Trainer for Alpine Security. He currently holds many security-related certifications, including EC-Council Certified Security Analyst (ECSA), Licensed Penetration Tester (Master), Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP), Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional (CSSLP). Doc has many years of experience in software development, working on web interfaces, database applications, thick-client GUIs, battlefield simulation software, automated aircraft scheduling systems, embedded systems, and multi-threaded CPU and GPU applications. Doc's cybersecurity experience includes penetration testing a fighter jet embedded system, penetration testing medical lab devices, creating phishing emails and fake web sites for social engineering engagements, and teaching security courses to world-renowned organizations such as Lockheed Martin and the Hong Kong Police Department. Doc's hobbies and interests include home networking, operating systems, computer gaming, reading, movie watching, and traveling.

CIS Control 1: The Beginning of Basic Cybersecurity

The CIS Critical Controls were developed as a framework to not only ensure the successful realization of basic cybersecurity hygiene, but to lead to the planning and implementation of a robust security protocol. To build any cybersecurity protection schemata, it is necessary to know the extent of what it is you are protecting. This is the stated purpose of Control 1.

CIS Control 1 Overview: Inventory of Authorized and Unauthorized Devices

Critical Control 1 states: “Actively manage (inventory, track, and correct) all hardware devices on the network so that only authorized devices are given access, and unauthorized and unmanaged devices are found and prevented from gaining access” (CISv.7). This control is not so much intended to prevent unauthorized access, although a complete inventory with attendant policy enforcement will do just that. Instead, it is devised so an organization may be certain of what devices are on the network, so they may be effectively defended. Then these devices will not be the unknown gap in the defensive perimeter that allows a devastating attack to execute on an unsuspecting network. Compiling a detailed asset inventory may seem like an intimidating task for an organization of any size, especially if this is a first-time endeavor.  However, Control 1 is segmented into eight subcontrols designed to give form to the mission at hand. 

CIS Control 1 Subcontrols 1.1 - 1.5 (Click to Enlarge)

CIS Control 1 Subcontrols

Subcontrols 1.1 and 1.2 recommend the use of both active and passive automated tools to identify device assets so they may be updated as needed and added to the hardware asset inventory. Anything with an IP address must be counted. This includes printers, copy machines, and even automated vending machines if they connect to the network. This asset inventory is also not limited to what is always attached to the network. Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and mobile devices must also be inventoried, and these types of connections typically come and go on a network. Whether physical or virtual, if it has an IP address and ever connects to the network, it should be included as an asset. There are many such tools at varying price points, so that an organization will typically be able to devise a method that  both works within their current framework and is financially feasible as well. 

Subcontrol 1.3 advises Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) to be used to assign IP addresses.  This automates IP allocation and is no small part of an IP address management system that aids in updating the hardware asset inventory and helps keep it updated.  Subcontrols 1.4 and 1.5 focus on the maintenance of a detailed hardware asset inventory, whether or not the device is connected and whether or not the device is authorized to be connected.  An inventory should at least indicate if an asset is portable, the name of the device, and the IP number.  Including MAC addresses and serial numbers is a good practice to start with and maintain and can also be used to prove ownership for insurance purposes.  Whatever information an organization deems necessary to keep in the asset inventory, it must be noted that this procedure is dynamic and ongoing for the lifecycle of any device.  Records must also be kept of devices as they are deprecated and removed from the network or recommissioned and returned to the network.  This is a priority on par with keeping updated blueprints and maintenance information for an organization’s physical and logical topology.

CIS Control 1 Subcontrols 1.6 - 1.8 (Click to Enlarge)

Subcontrol 1.6 suggests steps to take in dealing with unauthorized devices.  When an organization obtains the actual number of unauthorized devices currently connected to their network, they may also discover the need to update current policies and procedures for IoT (Internet of Things) devices. Such policies and procedures may take the form of employee education of various types, as well as clearly delineated employee agreements as to what is, and is not allowed on the network. ATP (Advanced Persistent Threats) and other hackers wait on the internet for such unauthorized devices to gain an entry point into a network, or to use as a pivot point if the network is already compromised. It is unfortunate but true that attack avenues are always evolving, and one of the most commonly used avenues of malware delivery is via email spear-phishing campaigns aimed at the unwary employee, or through the connection of an unauthorized and unprotected device such as a smart phone or laptop.

Once this inventory is complete, subcontrols 1.7 and 1.8 mention steps to take towards ensuring company control of which devices are authorized to connect to the network. Port-level controls are a necessity, along with proper switch configurations, and both should be tied to the device asset inventory. This should help ensure only authorized devices may connect to the network.   

Certainly this is a task that requires time, attention to detail, and commitment.  It is not as exciting as other defensive processes, but proper implementation will lead to the best execution of the other 19 Controls, as well as add to the overall improvement of an organization’s defense posture by increasing efficiency and response time and reducing the network attack surface.     

Conclusion and Next Steps

The CIS Critical Controls are not rigid, but may be implemented in the ways that best suit an organization’s needs and acceptable risk. Neither are the CIS Critical Controls weighted equally.  Critical Control 1 is as important and essential to the support of any cybersecurity posture as a foundation is to the support of a house. A variety of studies show that CIS Control implementation is proven to prevent around  90% of network attacks.  That renders the return on investment undeniable, and the importance cannot be overstated to management and board members.

Alpine Security remains committed to fostering cybersecurity awareness globally and locally while providing our specialized services to organizations and individuals alike. Pursuant to that commitment, Alpine Security offers a free consultation on our Enterprise Security Audit (ESA) Service. 

The ESA is based on the Top 20 Critical Controls published by the Center for Internet Security. The ESA is intended to provide a comprehensive picture of where an organization currently falls in Critical Control Implementation, while also delineating a roadmap for full implementation. With the increase in variety and methods of attack on organizations of all sizes and types, defensive uncertainty is a luxury no security-conscious entity can afford.

Institutional Safeguards and the Human Element

Phishing emails from a CEO to an Executive Assistant with urgent tasks (scams) are on the rise

Does your organization welcome questions from employees? Would an employee feel comfortable questioning their supervisor about a task? How often do you push a job down the chain and expect it to “just get done?” The urgency of business demands that employees be able to carry out tasks without question. Unfortunately, that same urgency can lead to the exact conditions that cybercriminals exploit daily to the tune of billions of dollars. These exploits and a lack of focus on institutional safeguards to prevent them mostly go unnoticed within organizations until they become the target of a cyber-attack.

When discussing the method of how cybercriminals operate, it is often easy to take the “that could never happen to me” mentality. We’ve all heard the story of someone’s uncle who was catfished out of his life savings by someone from another country whom he never met, but is the love of his life.  While the need for human connection may not be every individual’s weak point, everyone has at least one.  In the business environment, humans are invariably the weak link in the security chain. Cybercriminals are particularly adept at manipulating the human element to extort money, intellectual property, and resources.

Here we will explore a case study involving a recent incident response that Alpine Security performed. In this incident, the company in question was targeted using email spoofing and phishing attacks resulting in losses of over $20k. This particular scam is noteworthy because it highlights a technique that is on the rise in recent months and illustrates how cybercriminals often use human and institutional weaknesses to fulfill their goals.

Initial Phishing Email to Elicit a Response

In the first phase of this attack, the criminal used a Gmail account designed to look like it was coming from the supervisor of the targeted employee, e.g., first.last@gmail.com. Seeing the name in the email address, the employee did not suspect that the email did not originate from their actual boss. The email explained that the supervisor wanted to give away some eBay gift cards to a vendor but was tied up and would like the employee to go and pick them up quickly. The employee responded and followed instructions to purchase $2,000 in eBay gift cards.  She was then instructed to scratch off the back of the cards and send images of the codes to the email account. As luck would have it, she sent the codes via text rather than email, enabling her company to catch the scam before the codes were leaked, but it was a very close call.

2nd Phishing Email. Attacker sent this email after they received a response to the first email.

At first glance, it is easy to assume that we, in the same position, would have noticed one of the several red flags that this story illustrates. However, understanding the physiology of this kind of attack allows us to fully grasp how easy it is to fall victim to this type of scam. In this case, the criminal had two factors to their advantage; the first of which is the appeal to authority. Many employees are not going to question their boss when asked to perform a task as long as the job seems somewhat reasonable. If this is a task the employee has performed before, they may not think twice about doing it at all. If you work in a marketing or sales department picking up some gift cards might not be an out of the ordinary request. The appeal to authority can be just enough to make the employee second guess their suspicion and take an action they otherwise may not have. Furthermore, company cultures often do not promote open communication and freedom to question. Therefore, the employee may not feel empowered to raise concerns if they suspect something is amiss. Couple that with the second advantage the criminal is exploiting - urgency, and you have a recipe for social engineering. The “supervisor” is in a hurry and needs their assistant to perform a task quickly. If the employee has doubts, this may be the nudge they need to forget those doubts, get the job done, and “just be a team player.”

Employers should not underestimate physiological factors that play into these types of scams. It is human nature to want to be helpful and do your job well. It is often an institutional weakness to expect employees to carry out tasks without question or to put too little safeguards in place to prevent the compromise of one employee from costing the company money. It is natural to want to blame the employee for being careless, but the truth is that her actions were precisely what her boss would have expected had he been the one who sent the request.

If the attack had stopped here, it would have been merely a lesson learned for the company to be more careful. Unfortunately, it didn’t.

In phase two of the attack, the criminal sent an executive in the same company an email that appeared to come from another person within the company. The executive clicked a link in the email which prompted them to input their Office 365 username and password. Thinking this was merely a standard password prompt the employee complied and completed their work.

Unbeknownst to them, the login page they had input their credentials to was fake (spoofed), allowing the hacker to capture their credentials. The attacker quietly logged into the account and remotely set up a rule to automatically mark any emails from the finance department as read and send them to a hidden folder. They then sent an email to the finance department asking why an invoice to a company had not been paid. Over the next several days they were able to pose as the company executive and trick the finance department into fraudulently processing over $20K in fake invoices.

Both of these cases have human error as a common element, but stronger institutional safeguards are the only real tool to defeat human error. What would happen if we put a straightforward safeguard in place in either of these cases? What if a phone call and passphrase, or digitally signed email were required to initiate a wire transfer? What if the employees had training on how to detect spoofed emails? 

In a third case, a client of Alpine Security received the same email requesting that they purchase iTunes gift cards. This was particularly interesting because the employee had recently bought gift cards for a similar giveaway. However, in this case, the company had a safeguard in place that a transaction like this needed to be approved verbally by the employee's supervisor. When she contacted them, they quickly detected the email was a hoax and were able to move on with no loss of money and little lost time.

How well would your organization handle an event like this? In the fast-paced world of cybercrime, no company is too small or too big to be a target. Stories like this happen every day. For the unprepared, they can bankrupt an organization or cause severe operational impacts. For a prepared company, they are a blip on the radar and something to talk about after you hit your next team milestone.  

Does your institution have the training and safeguards in place to weather a cyber attack? Alpine Security has the tools to help. We offer a full range of private training for organizations to assist in cybercrime prevention as well as penetration testing, vulnerability assessment, and social engineering campaigns. Want to see how ready your company is for a cyber attack? Do not wait for the bad guys to test you. Let us help!

Author Bio

Isaac (on the left) hiking in Vietnam

Isaac Wright is a Cybersecurity Analyst and Trainer with Alpine Security. A veteran of the US Air Force, Isaac has more than 15 years’ experience in electronics maintenance and security.  He holds degrees in Electronics Systems and Education and Training Management as well as a master instructor certification.  Isaac has a long history of maintaining, hacking, modding, and using electronics systems from networks and computers to radios and consumer electronics.  Isaac has leveraged his expertise to advise CIOs in large multi-site organizations on vulnerability management and risk mitigation. 

When not teaching or analyzing network traffic, Isaac loves to play board games with family, fish, camp, and experience everything the world has to offer.  An avid traveler, Isaac has been to more than 15 countries and especially enjoys Asia.

Comprehensive Guide to IoMT Cybersecurity – Risks, Safeguards, and What We Protect

The Internet of Medical Things, also known as the IoMT, is one of the most revolutionary developments in healthcare today.  It empowers physicians to monitor patients remotely by providing the patient with network-enabled devices. These devices can track a wide variety of processes, from medication compliance to blood glucose level. 

IoMT has become an extremely profitable industry. Let's look at the statistics:  

• 87 percent of healthcare companies are using or preparing to use IoT technologies 

• 63 percent of IoT technologies in use today are used for patient monitoring 

• 71 percent of researchers believe that IoMT technologies are developing faster than the clinical world is ready to use them 

By 2020, as many as 30 billion IoMT devices will be in use worldwide. By 2022, the market for IoMT will hit $158 billion.

The time is come to get very serious about IoMT cybersecurity.

Why IoMT Cybersecurity Is Worth the Trouble 

IoMT devices offer benefits in every value metric of health care - patient outcomes, patient satisfaction, scientific advancement, and financial viability.

Lower Cost of Care

With the percentage of elderly persons rapidly increasing worldwide, experts are anticipating a potentially overwhelming rise in health care costs. The IoMT can make it possible for doctors to monitor patients remotely and send automatic recommendations when data exceeds the normal range. With this resource, doctors can lower costs by scheduling fewer in-person visits.   

Additionally, because IoMT devices report data automatically, they reduce the need for nurses and support staff to verify data. This makes for more efficient use of staffing resources and focuses more attention on patient care.

Better Outcomes

Today, IoMT is most helpful in ensuring patient compliance with doctors' instructions. An enabled device communicates data regarding outcome-related behaviors such as medication adherence or exercise habits. The same devices can track whether a patient's condition improves or declines, thus providing key information that physicians can use to adjust care recommendations.

Customized Treatment

The pharmaceutical and medical device industries are already using IoMT to innovate around patient-centered treatment. Patients with Parkinson's disease, for example, now have access to wearable sensors that monitor and optimize medication use to improve patients' quality of life. 
 
Additionally, there are numerous possibilities to add IoMT technology to pre-existing devices. For example, for patients with diabetes who use insulin pens, the IoMT could gather blood sugar data or record self-treatment schedules. The resulting data could help doctors better refine patients' treatment plans.

Access to Research

IoMT devices allow researchers to gather vast amounts of data conveniently, thus allowing them to more easily recruit and monitor study participants. Optimizing this process benefits not only the researcher, who can spend more time with participants and evaluating results, but also the many patients who can benefit from experimental treatments.

Innovations in IoMT Technology

IoMT is going places - down a patient's esophagus, to the grocery store, and even in a diabetic's eye, all thanks to technology's ability to get smaller, faster, and smarter.

Wearable medical device examples. Image source: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Three-types-of-wearable-sensor-nodes-powered-by-thermoelectric-energy-harvesters-The_fig1_279634036

Wearable Medical Devices

As sensors become more advanced, device manufacturers have found ways to integrate them into wearable fabrics. This has led to advancements such as:

• “smart” wound dressing that automates the delivery of painkillers, antibiotics, and tissue regenerating medicines    

• clothing and bedding that can alert caregivers to the needs of bedridden patients   

• bluetooth-enabled gloves that help stroke patients recover function faster 

• EEG-enhanced earbuds and headbands that improve pain management

All of these advancements help patients to get better care and take control of their health outcomes.

Ingestible Sensors

In order to increase the number of patients who take their medication according to doctor's orders – a number calculated by the World Health Organization at just 50 percent – Proteus Digital Health has developed ingestible sensors that track when a patient has taken his or her prescribed pill. This information travels to a smartphone app so that patients and their doctors can monitor adherence.

Glucose Tracking Contact Lens. Image source: https://www.engadget.com/2014/01/17/google-health-smart-contact-lenses-diabetes/

Glucose Monitoring

The Eversense XL system, distributed by Roche, uses an implanted sensor and rechargeable transmitter to send information about blood glucose levels to patients' smartphones. Patients receive vibration alerts when glucose levels drop or rise to unhealthy levels, as well as phone notifications when levels appear to be approaching those levels. Users can also track their daily habits to understand what affects their blood sugar.

Glucose-Tracking Contact Lenses

Yes, you read that right. Google and Novartis have teamed up to create a network-enabled contact lens that measures the blood sugar in patients' tears. The patient can view his or her data through a smartphone app and adjust insulin delivery based on results.

Ingestible sensor - camera. Image source: https://www.marsdd.com/news-and-insights/ingestibles-smart-pills-revolutionize-healthcare/

Swallowable Cameras

Doctors can now view the interior of a patient's digestive system without uncomfortable endoscopy procedures.  It happens thanks to PillCam™, a swallowable camera that provides internal views of the small bowel. As the camera travels through the patient's system, advanced visualization technologies enable the physician to track speed of movement through the bowel and view images of potential abnormalities.           

IoMT Out in the World

Not all IoMT devices are found in hospitals and laboratories. Many, like the consumer health wearables that have pervaded the consumer market, allow patients and their doctors to track health information on a day-to-day basis.

Fitness Trackers

Fitness trackers, like the well-known FitBit, are convenient wearable devices that track the body systems associated with exercise. They use:

• bioimpedance sensors to track heart rate, respiration rate, and blood flow

• thermometers to track increases in skin temperature 

• skin response sensors to detect sweat 

• optical heart rate monitor to measure cardiac exertion 

• accelerometers to count steps

These devices include software that can this information into health advice that the patient can use, but that's as far as it goes. They don't send data to doctors or recommend medications, but they do collect and store user information.

If not properly encrypted, that information could fall into the hands of hackers who might sell or alter it. There is even the possibility that a hacker could attempt to ransom a patient's own health data back to him or her.

Smartwatch Apps 

Many smartwatches now have health tracking systems that monitor the wearer's health data. The recently-released Apple Watch Series 4, for example, tracks the wearer's cardiac rhythm and notifies him or her if it detects any irregular heartbeats. 

The watch's Health app, meanwhile, tracks your stress levels, physical activity, sleep habits, and nutrition. These trackers can connect to a number of other third-party apps, which increases the number of companies that have access to your data.

Remote Patient Monitoring

Remote patient monitoring, also known as RPM, is one of the highest-profile trends in the health care industry.The current shift toward value-based care is making a distinct space for RPM technologies, which have the potential to reduce health care costs while improving patient outcomes and the overall patient experience.

Steps to Hack a Pacemaker

The Downside – IoMT Cybersecurity Concerns

Medical information is very valuable to hackers – up to 10 times more valuable than a credit card number. But it isn't just data that cybersecurity experts fear may be at risk. 

In 2012, the Showtime television series Homeland aired an episode in which a character hacked into the software that controlled the pacemaker of the US vice president. The hacker then used that access to take control of the pacemaker's programming and caused a fatal heart attack. Shortly thereafter, then-vice president Dick Cheney's medical team disabled the wireless feature on his pacemaker, fearing that the television program would inspire a terrorist to take similar action.   

Pacemakers and cybersecurity soon dropped from the news, but they came back again just four years later.

The Pacemaker Recall

In August of 2017, the Food and Drug Administration publicized a recall of 465,000 radiofrequency-enabled implantable pacemakers after a review identified security vulnerabilities. The FDA found that a hacker could use equipment at distributed on the commercial market to gain access to the device. With this access, a hacker could change the device's programming and harm the patient by depleting the battery or order dangerous pacing.

Fortunately, the FDA recall and development of firmware update occurred before any malicious access could occur.

Hacking Owlet infant heart rate monitors

Infant Health at Risk

In 2016 in the UK, the media reported a security vulnerability in the Owlet infant heart monitor sensor. Cybersecurity researchers found that while data sent between parent smartphones and base servers was secure, the networking between the sensor and the base server had no encryption whatsoever and could be accessed without so much as a login. 

 That means that anyone within range could monitor the infant's data, interfere with alert systems, or otherwise interfere with monitoring. The media deemed the situation to be the year's worst IoT security risk.

Hacking insulin pumps. Image source: https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/92054-black-hat-hacker-details-wireless-attack-on-insulin-pumps

Insulin Delivery Made Vulnerable

All of those IoMT enabled glucose monitors? Those are vulnerable to hackers too. 

In 2011, a security researcher who is also a diabetic conducted an independent investigation. He found that a hacker could intercept the signals from a glucose monitor and change the readout, which would likely cause the wearer to adjust the dosage. If the attacker repeated the process, it could prove fatal. More frighteningly, this could happen from up to half a mile's distance.

Hackable Medication Pumps 

Research has also identified vulnerabilities in a particular brand of infusion pump, a type of technology that delivers medication into patients' bloodstreams. In 2014, an independent professional reported that he had written a program that could instruct pumps to deliver lethal doses of medicine.  The researcher found these vulnerabilities in at least five pump models.

Whole Systems at Risk

IoMT devices also put the hospital at risk of what is known as a backdoor attack. In one well-publicized example, hackers used malware to infect blood gas analyzers, which are important for the monitoring of critical care and surgical patients. The infected devices allowed attackers to infiltrate hospital networks and extract confidential data, which was then sent to an undisclosed European location. 

A simulation of the attack revealed that the blood gas analyzers were routinely sending unencrypted data. That meant that the hackers could make any changes that they wished within the hospital system - to patient data, to treatment and diagnostic requests, and even to key administrative information.

Identifying Key Vulnerabilities

The IoMT would be a vulnerable situation even with adequate safeguards in place, simply because it sends and receives extremely personal information. Unfortunately, most of today's systems are not set up to protect such private data.

Outdated Software

Some working medical devices, such as CT scanners and even pacemakers, are upwards of 20 years old. These devices are capable of connecting to hospital systems but feature software systems that have not been conscientiously updated. Such systems are not set up to defend against today's advanced threats, which can disable an entire hospital network through a single device.   

Departments Working in Isolation

In order for medical devices to be truly secure, all stakeholders must participate in screening for and responding to threats. This can be a difficult task in a complex healthcare organization where the primary focus is typically the immediate health of the patient. 

The clinicians who use these devices often have so many pressing patient care tasks that they can easily overlook cybersecurity updates Meanwhile, facility IT staff and device manufacturers become involved with their own team's tasks.   

This isolated way of working does not stand up to the complex and interlocking demands of medical device cybersecurity. In order to defend systems and devices from intruders, stakeholders must come together to create a unified security strategy. 

Unclear Regulations and Poor Compliance

Manufacturers and healthcare delivery organizations (HDOs) have traditionally lacked clear mandates regarding the security of medical devices. A 2017 survey revealed that just 44 percent of HDOs and 51 percent of device manufacturers followed FDA guidelines to make devices more secure, despite the fact that approximately 33 percent of both groups were aware of potential harm to patients if a security breach did occur.

Improving Security and Protecting Patients

In one of the first major steps toward improved monitoring of cybersecurity, the FDA recognized the UL 2900 standard for medical device cybersecurity in August of 2017. Officially published as UL 2900-1, the standard offers a series of checks designed to identify vulnerabilities.

By recognizing the standard, the FDA enables manufacturers to indicate UL 2900-1 compliance as a response to cybersecurity concerns.

Regulatory Updates

In late 2018, the FDA published draft guidelines that bring medical device cybersecurity requirements up to date with today's risk set. Changes include:

1. A two-tier risk assessment system that prioritizes devices with the ability to connect with other products, a network, or the Web

2. Mandated documentation specific to a device's or system's risk tier         

3. A Cybersecurity Bill of Materials (CBOM) that lists software and hardware with potential vulnerability to hackers 

4. Greater alignment with the National Institute of Standards Technology's globally acknowledged Cybersecurity Framework

The FDA hopes that aligning with the Framework will improve UL 2009-1 compliance.

Recommendations, Not Mandates

The released documentation is geared toward premarket submissions and “contains nonbinding recommendations.” It is yet to be seen whether these recommendations are compelling enough to increase the percentage of manufacturers and HDOs that are actively trying to prevent attacks, a percentage most recently measured at 17 percent and 15 percent respectively.   

Recommendations for HDOs

In 2018, the FDA collaborated with government research contractor MITRE Corp. to develop a cybersecurity guide for medical devices. The guide provides recommendations for healthcare providers and other involved organizations to prevent and respond to cybersecurity incidents involving medical devices. It features such recommendations as:

• Creating a threat detection standard for all of an enterprise's devices and networks 

• Investment in firewalls and other prevention technologies

• Inventorying of an enterprise's full range of medical devices, with attention to those with connectivity capabilities

The latter plays a particularly important role in uncovering security vulnerabilities. Only by identifying areas of potential risk can a provider screen for and correct vulnerabilities.

Next Steps for Attack Prevention

Technology never stays still and neither do hackers. The new developments in protecting patient data and patients themselves will not be the end of healthcare cybersecurity, nor will they guard against every possible way of hacking IoMT devices.   

It is vitally important for all HDO's to develop and implement medical device security and IoMT security strategies. These strategies need to include not only a screening and threat mitigation standard for current devices but also a plan for maintaining security on a continuing basis.

Simplify Clinician Processes

Clinicians, both doctors and nurses, have their hands full with patient care. Any cybersecurity tasks, such as authentication checks, must be minimal on their part and automated as much as possible. Software updating and other processes must not disrupt workflow.

Threat Mitigation Training

The concept of keeping the clinician involved but uninterrupted also applies to threat intervention strategies. All personnel involved with a device or network must know what to do if a data compromise occurs.

Network Segmentation

Many security experts are now advocating for increased segmentation of enterprise systems. By segmenting their networks, organizations can more effectively implement security checks and isolate any threats before they pose a widespread risk. 

Encryption of Patient Information

Because IoMT devices expose more patient information to enterprise networks, it is important for electronic health records (EHRs) to be as secure as possible. Technology such as homomorphic encryption, which secures data even as it is being used, can keep patient information safe from unwanted access. Protection can even be applied to personally identifiable information (PII), which is particularly valuable to cybercriminals. 

Investing in Prevention

 An ounce of prevention is still worth a pound of cure, both in patient care and in IoMT cybersecurity. As much as possible, security analytics and software updating should be automatic. The most critical and complex tasks can be passed on to a third-party provider with expertise in medical device security and the hacking of IoMT devices. 

The FDA has placed the burden of IoMT cybersecurity on the people who develop and use them. This adds a set of high-urgency tasks for companies that are already tasked with the safety and well-being of patients. It is unsurprising that experts urge companies to outsource high-level tasks to a company with the expertise to handle them. 

Alpine Security provides penetration testing services with a focus on IoMT devices. Through extensive experience in ethical hacking and identification of cybersecurity risk, we can relieve HDOs and manufacturers of the necessary burden to review and test all enabled devices, freeing those organizations to focus on patient outcomes.

Alpine Security Demonstrates Commitment to Medical Device Security by Sponsoring the Archimedes Medical Device Security Conference

O’Fallon, IL, January 2, 2019 - Alpine Security is proud to announce its support for the 2019 Archimedes Medical Device Security 101 Conference. As one of the conference's top sponsors, Alpine Security hopes to boost awareness of the cybersecurity vulnerabilities currently present within the medical community — and the many opportunities for improving healthcare cybersecurity.

Hosted by the University of Michigan’s Archimedes Center for Medical Device Security, this year's conference will take place in Orlando on January 21st and 22nd. A variety of key industry players are expected to attend, including product engineering directors, clinical facilities engineers, IT security managers, and more. This year's speakers include Norton Healthcare's AJ Aspinwall, Royal Philips Healthcare's Jonathan Bagnall, and Edward Brennan from the Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center (H-ISAC). Support from Alpine Security and other sponsors has been instrumental in allowing these speakers and a variety of other panelists to share their expertise.

The team at Alpine Security is well aware of the threats that hacked medical devices pose, both in the medical community and in a variety of other industries and settings. Patients, in particular, are at risk — each United States hospital bed currently possesses between 10 and 15 devices, many of which are connected to the facility's network. Just one malfunction can prove deadly, especially for high-risk patients for whom every second is of grave importance.

As Alpine Security CEO, Christian Espinosa, points out, hospitals are uniquely vulnerable because they are open to the public.

"Because of the nature of hospitals and their openness...it's easy for an attacker to walk into a hospital and perform nefarious activities. Nobody is going to question them." - Christian Espinosa, Alpine Security CEO

Espinosa warns that hackers can easily find exposed ethernet connections or even hack into the facility's wireless network while hanging out in the hospital cafeteria.

Unfortunately, medical device security remains shockingly minimal at most healthcare facilities. This is where Alpine Security comes into play.

In addition to supporting the Archimedes Medical Device Security 101 Conference, Alpine Security does its part to improve healthcare security by providing risk assessment and penetration testing services tailored for medical devices and healthcare environments. Using Alpine Security's arsenal of penetration testing services, Healthcare Delivery Organizations (HDOs) and medical device manufacturers can more effectively address the risks brought about by modern medical device connectivity.

About Alpine Security

Alpine Security appreciates that every person and organization face an increasing risk of cyber attacks. They aim to use their resources to do something about it. Alpine Security offers a variety of cybersecurity services, including risk assessments, penetration testing, training, audits, and incident response. The company's team is committed to always remaining a step ahead of today's tech-savvy hackers.

About Archimedes Center for Medical Device Security

The Archimedes Center for Medical Device Security was established to help manufacturers and industry experts navigate the operational hazards of cybersecurity implementation and prepare them for future challenges of FDA requirements. Archimedes is an independent, pioneering center focused on the education and advancement of medical device security where key industry players come together for learning in a safe place.