Month: February 2022

Security in 5G networks: Extend protection and privacy

Post author By Editorial Eval
Post date 21 de February de 2022

The fifth generation of mobile wireless technology (5G), brings more speed, faster communications, and the ability to connect to many more devices at the same time. However, security in 5G networks is still a challenge.

But what does this mean for data protection and privacy?

The fact that 5G supports many different access networks, including 2G, 3G, 4G, and Wi-Fi, means that the new technology may inherit all the security challenges of the networks before it.

5G is the first mobile architecture designed to support multiple specific use cases, each with its own unique cybersecurity requirements.

This poses a major security risk in 5G networks.

For example, 5G will enable IoT applications on a massive scale, such as traffic sensors and vehicle-to-infrastructure services, and is the basis for smart cities.

It is critical that cybercriminals cannot access data, hijack IoT devices, or perform distributed denial-of-service attacks in smart city scenarios.

In fact, security in 5G networks is nothing new for the mobile industry. There is a long-standing importance on security, creating a strong market differentiation from other wireless technologies, some of which have vulnerable network architectures.

Security in 5G networks and authentication must go hand in hand

Today’s networks face a wide variety of threats from different sources and attack routes. The quantity and quality of these attacks increase every year as more points of vulnerability become available in networks and devices.

With IoT at scale, the threat surface becomes quite broad, especially when it comes to services, applications, platforms, networks, and the IoT devices themselves.

In practice, cybercriminals understand the vulnerability of threats related to mobility, edge, and network cores, firewalls, and other interfaces present many opportunities for attack.

Each vulnerability point potentially presents several different types of threats, such as message blocking, denial of service, man-in-the-middle techniques, and more, that can attack authentication, integrity, network availability, and privacy.

With so many exposure points and vulnerability threats, security can significantly strain the resources of the 5G network operator

Fortunately, wireless carriers don’t have to reinvent the wheel. The protocols and security specifications in 5G networks are based on and compatible with the main frameworks developed in 4G.

In addition, 5G offers new security features that use multi-network slicing, multi-tier services, and multiple connectivity capabilities.

To enable the necessary flexibility, agility, and economies of scale, these technologies will be delivered through virtual and containerized environments.

This is a revolutionary way of working for the industry.

The development of 5G standards has adopted ‘Secure by Design’ principles, considering:

Use of mutual authentication: Confirm that the sender and recipient have an established trust and the end-to-end relationship is guaranteed;
An alleged “open” network: removal of any assumption of safety of the overlapping product(s) or process(es);
An acknowledgement that all links can be accessed: Enforce encryption of inter/intra-network traffic, ensuring that encrypted information is worthless when intercepted.

While this is a common practice in solutions for other services, such as Internet Banking, it is a major paradigm shift for existing mobile telecommunications practices.

As a consequence, 5G networks should offer the consumer more protection than existing 4G/3G/2G networks.

Security in 5G Networks: Protecting Users and Devices

Security in 5G networks improves the confidentiality and integrity of user and device data.

Unlike previous generations of 5G mobile systems:

Protects the confidentiality of messages between the device and the network: as a result, it is no longer possible to trace the user’s equipment using current attack methodologies on the radio interface, protecting against attacks
man in the middle
;
It introduces a protection mechanism called home control: this means that the final authentication of the device to a visited network is completed after the home network checks the authentication status of the device and the connection used. This enhancement will prevent various types of fraud that have historically harmed carriers and address the carrier’s need to properly authenticate devices to services;
Supports unified authentication in other types of access networks: allowing 5G networks to manage previously unmanaged and unsecured connections. This includes the ability to perform re-authentication when the device moves between different access or service networks;
Introduces user plan integrity checking: ensuring that user traffic is not modified during transit;
Enhances privacy protection by using public/private key pairs to hide the subscriber’s identity and derive keys used throughout the service architecture. to hide the subscriber identity and derive keys used throughout the service architecture.

The goal of 5G is to open up the network to a broader set of services and allow mobile operators to support these services. It is an opportunity to protect services and consumers from many of today’s threats.

In practice, 5G comes with many built-in security controls by design, designed to enhance the protection of individual consumers and mobile networks, this is more effective than post-deployment add-ons or extras.

The advancement of technology and the use of new architectures and features, such as network slicing, virtualization, and cloud, will introduce new threats that require new types of controls to be implemented.

Ericsson and Thales partner to offer a solution for secure 5G authentication and user privacy

One of the key components of a reliable 5G network is the integrity of the virtualized infrastructure and the confidentiality of the data flowing within it.

Protecting and authenticating subscriber authentication and privacy presents several challenges, including infrastructure complexity, the distributed nature of 5G networks, the large number of connected IoT devices, the use of multi-vendor networks, and the evolution of 3G and 4G connections.

Ericsson announced its solution

Authentication Security Module

to enhance user privacy security, based on a dedicated physical module for central management of authentication procedures in 5G Core networks.

The solution is powered by the Thales 5G Luna Hardware Security Module (HSM).

The Ericsson Authentication Security Module is a unique solution that supports multi-access (3G/4G/5G) and is pre-integrated with Ericsson’s dual-mode 5G Core for efficiency and reliable deployment flexibility.

The solution is 3GPP compliant, increases network security against cyber attacks, and provides a more secure ecosystem for 5G use cases and business innovation.

To provide the highest level of performance and security for cryptographic keys and algorithms, Ericsson’s solution is powered by the trusted root of the Thales 5G Luna Hardware Security Module (HSM).

The outstanding performance of the FIPS-140-2 Level 3 compliant 5G Luna HSM meets the security, high throughput, and scalability requirements for 5G.

Thales has introduced the 5G Luna Hardware Security Module (HSM) to help Communication Service Providers (CSP) address security challenges.

The 5G Luna HSM delivers up to 1,660 transactions per second (tps) with a single HSM and a PKI hardware-based root of trust, enabling fast and secure scaling from the data center to the edge.

All encryption and encryption key storage, generation and management operations are performed within the secure confines of the 5G Luna HSM, ensuring the protection of subscriber identities, including user equipment, radio area networks (RANs), and your core network infrastructure.

Ericsson and Thales partnership benefits

The Ericsson Authentication Security Module and the Thales 5G Luna HSM offer a wide range of benefits for organizations operating in a jurisdiction of strict privacy requirements. These benefits include:

React quickly to threats by implementing agile encryption, alternative means of encryption;
Prepare your organization for the future by implementing quantum secure algorithms;
Added security for your organization’s users and data today and in the future.

With the growing relevance of 5G networks in the communications infrastructure, regulatory frameworks to protect user security and privacy are likely to become even stricter.

By integrating an HSM (hardware security module) based security into leading 5G subscriber data management solutions and service providers will be able to meet the most stringent requirements.

What makes the Thales Luna HSM solution the best option for your company’s needs?

Thales Hardware Security Modules provide the highest level of security by always storing cryptographic keys in hardware.

In addition, they provide a secure encryption foundation, as the keys never leave the FIPS-validated, intrusion-resistant, tamper-proof device.

Since all cryptographic operations take place inside the HSM, strong access controls prevent unauthorized users from accessing confidential cryptographic material.

In addition, Thales also implements operations that make deploying secure HSMs as easy as possible, and our HSMs are integrated with the Thales Crypto Command Center for fast and easy partitioning, reporting, and monitoring of cryptographic resources.

Thales’ HSMs follow strict design requirements and must pass rigorous product verification tests, followed by real-world application testing to verify the security and integrity of each device.

Thales’ HSMs are cloud agnostic and are the HSM of choice for Microsoft, AWS and IBM, providing a hardware security module service that dedicates a single tenant device located in the cloud for the customer’s cryptographic processing and storage needs.

With Thales hardware security modules, you can:

Addressing compliance requirements with solutions for Blockchain, General Data Protection Law (LGPD) and Open banking, IoT, innovation initiatives such as the Central Bank of Brazil’s Pix, and prominent certifications such as PCI DSS, digital signatures, DNSSEC, hardware key storage, transactional acceleration, certificate signing, code or document signing, mass key generation, and data encryption;
The keys are generated and always stored in an intrusion-resistant, tamper-proof, FIPS-validated device with the strongest levels of access control;
Create partitions with a dedicated Security Office per partition and segregate by administrator key separation;

Therefore, Thales Luna HSMs have been implementing best practices in hardware, software, and operations that make deploying HSMs as easy as possible.

Thales Luna HSMs meet stringent design requirements and must pass rigorous product verification testing, followed by real-world application testing to verify the safety and integrity of each device.

Make the best choice

HSMs are built to protect cryptographic keys. Large banks or corporate offices often operate a variety of HSMs simultaneously.

Key management systems control and update these keys according to internal security policies and external standards.

A centralized key management design has the advantage of streamlining key management and providing the best overview for keys in many different systems.

Learn more about Thales HSM

The encryption keys are literally the key to accessing the organization’s data. They protect an organization’s most sensitive information, so the system that generates and stores it must be protected at all costs.

The Thales Luna HSM not only provides the best physical security, it is usually located at the heart of a company’s secure data center, but also ensures that the stored keys are never tampered with.

Unless you have an environment where a physical data center is not available, adopt an HSM appliance to secure the organization’s encryption keys and leave virtualized services for the rest of your infrastructure, and take comfort in knowing your encrypted connections and data are always secure.

About Eval

EVAL has been developing projects in the financial, health, education, and industry segments for over 18 years. Since 2004, we have offered solutions for Authentication, Electronic and Digital Signature, and Data Protection. Currently, we are present in the main Brazilian banks, health institutions, schools and universities, and different industries.

With value recognized by the market, EVAL’s solutions and services meet the highest regulatory standards of public and private organizations, such as SBIS, ITI, PCI DSS, and LGPD. In practice, we promote information security and compliance, increase companies’ operational efficiency, and reduce costs.

Innovate now, lead always: get to know Eval’s solutions and services and take your company to the next level.

Eval, safety is value.

Tags 5G, 5G Security and Authentication, cybersecurity, data security and privacy

Data Protection

Health 5.0: Global Revolution with Medical Technologies

Post author By Editorial Eval
Post date 8 de February de 2022

With Health 5.0, we are facing a paradigm shift in digital technologies, from traditional health to smart health, which is expected to revolutionize the sector globally.

Smart health incorporates digital technologies to navigate medical information effortlessly, linking individuals, resources and organizations, and then efficiently reacting to the demands of the healthcare environment in an efficient manner.

In practice, smart health connects different stakeholders in the healthcare system, such as patients, professionals, organizations and regulators.

This is achieved with emerging technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT), cloud computing, blockchain, 5G connectivity and internet of medical things (IoMT), among other technological innovations that continue to evolve.

These technologies play an important role in the development of the innovative Health 5.0 concept.

Health 5.0 represents a significant boost in innovation

Similar to the automobile industry, the healthcare system has gone through generations, from health 1.0 to smart health, with the revolution in various support sectors.

For example, from 1970 to 1990, many medical systems used paper-based solutions due to the lack of digital technologies.

Healthcare support industries have embraced industry 4.0 and are now moving to industry 5.0. This revolution continues to redefine how modern, digitally high-tech companies improve business operations and increase efficiency across the value chain.

Just like manufacturing, healthcare service delivery is at the beginning of a paradigm shift to reach the new era of health 5.0.

This is a complex era in many respects, including intelligent disease control and detection, virtual care, intelligent monitoring, decision-making and medical science.

The transition from health 4.0 to health 5.0

The gain generated by the boost in digital and medical technologies has led to the development of advanced medical imaging, tracking and healthcare 4.0 systems.

Countries such as the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom have transformed their healthcare systems into a value-based system to improve patient-centered healthcare services through smart, connected care and personalized medicine.

Health 4.0 incorporates the principles and applications of industry 4.0 in healthcare, enabling real-time personalization of care for patients and professionals.

Thus, Health 4.0 supports resilient performance in health systems, which refers to their adaptive capacity to deal with complexity.

Innovative digital technologies adopted in the area of health 4.0 promote real-time customization of patient care and communication between actors in the value chain and the dissemination of health-related information.

The collection of large volumes of data on processes, patients, equipment and materials, processing and transformation of medical data into information, the digitization and automation of health processes, are examples of the advances generated by Health 4.0.

In this context, the process of health service delivery becomes a complex one. system equipped with technologies such as IoTThis will include the use of radio frequency identification, smart wearable medical devices, smart sensors and medical robots, integrated with cloud computing, big data, business intelligence (BI), AI and technical decision support to achieve smart and interconnected healthcare delivery.

However, the lack of recognition, coupled with the shortage of personalized, intelligent and comprehensive medical applications, requiring greater integration of smart sensors, AI and big data has taken it to the next level, making Health 5.0 have a greater focus on customer experience.

Technologies that are part of health 5.0

Emerging digital technologies used in health 5.0 include nanotechnology, 5G connectivity, drone technology, blockchain, robotics, big data, IoT, AI and cloud computing.

Health 5.0 will benefit from nanotechnology applications

Nanotechnology presents unprecedented opportunities to transform health services. Basically, nanotechnology plays a crucial role in therapeutic medicine, rapid diagnostics, surveillance and monitoring, and the development of new forms of personal protective equipment and vaccines.

Nanotechnology involves the manipulation, fabrication, material, modes and use of nanodevices in various applications.

IoT has been widely used in healthcare to connect medical devices and share data over the internet.

There are several emerging variations of sensor-based IoT in healthcare, each with its own peculiarities.

For example, IoT facilitates the introduction of the internet of health things, internet of wearable things, IoMT, among other variations.

These IoT variations provide networked healthcare, which supports the integration of smart medical devices and comprehensive sharing of health data remotely.

For example, smart devices enable remote monitoring in medical services and change the concept of traditional healthcare to smart healthcare.

Thus, through variations of IoT, patient data, sensed by biosensors and smart wearable devices, is remotely accessed, processed and analyzed by medical professionals to improve the delivery of healthcare services.

The inclusion of automation, along with AI, is expected to revolutionize service delivery in Health 5.0

Embedded AI devices based on highly integrated sensors, such as smart wearable devices, help monitor, collect and diagnose diseases from symptoms extracted from sensory data.

Intelligent systems recognize the environment through sensors and take reasonable actions. AI in health 5.0 includes several concepts such as disease detection and diagnosis, development of smart medicines, effective remote monitoring of patients, effective use of robotic surgical systems and the development of smart sensor-based AI devices.

5G technology provides high data throughput and bandwidth

Digital automation of emerging technologies such as robots, AI, smart devices, nanotechnology and cloud computing requires high and continuous data rates to collect, store, reformat and track health data to provide faster and more consistent access.

In this way, 5G technology has become a prime and essential technology for health 5.0 as it provides a high data rate to the user and huge network signal coverage and can handle 1000 times more traffic on the transmission channel.

The growing amount of health data generated from digital technologies is adding value to scientific findings in Health 5.0.

Digital health technologies such as telemedicine, electronic medical records, and other digital health platforms have significantly improved the efficiency and costs of hospitals, along with reducing medical errors and, most importantly, sharing patient data remotely.

In Health 5.0, the future interconnectivity of smart sensors, smart devices and other digital technologies will eventually increase the amount of health data, which results in big data.

This data will eventually be used for disease prevention, detection and monitoring, as well as to provide personalized care. Thus, big data for health 5.0 positions patients and healthcare professionals on the brink of great prospects and is expected to impact medical systems in unprecedented ways.

CipherTrust Discovery and Classification

Emerging digital technologies continue to evolve, presenting unprecedented opportunities for global health systems.

Health 5.0 is at the beginning of a paradigm shift to reach the new era of intelligent disease control and detection, virtual care, smart health management and monitoring, decision making and precision medicine.

This revolution continues to redefine how high-tech digital companies improve healthcare operations and increase efficiency across multiple medical systems to deliver patient-centric healthcare services through smart, connected care and personalized medicine.

CipherTrust for Security and Data Protection in Healthcare 5.0

According to IDC, more than 175 zetabytes of data will be created by 2025, and today more than half of all corporate data is stored in the cloud.

To handle the complexity of where data is stored, CipherTrust Data Security Platform provides strong capabilities to protect and control access to sensitive data in databases, files, and containers. Specific technologies include:

CipherTrust Transparent Encryption

Encrypts data in on-premises, cloud, database, file, and Big Data environments with comprehensive access controls and detailed data access audit logging that can prevent the most malicious attacks.

CipherTrust Database Protection

It provides transparent column-level encryption of structured and confidential data that resides in databases such as credit card, social security numbers, national identification numbers, passwords, and e-mail addresses.

CipherTrust Application Data Protection

It offers APIs for developers to quickly add encryption and other cryptographic functions to their applications, while SecOps controls the encryption keys.

CipherTrust Tokenization

It offers application-level data tokenization services in two convenient solutions that provide customer flexibility – Token without Vault with dynamic policy-based data masking and Tokenization in Vault.

CipherTrust Batch Data Transformation

Provides static data masking services to remove sensitive information from production databases so that compliance and security issues are alleviated when sharing a database with a third party for analysis, testing, or other processing.

CipherTrust Manager

It centralizes keys, management policies, and data access for all CipherTrust Data Security Platform products and is available in FIPS 140-2 Level 3 compliant physical and virtual formats.

CipherTrust Cloud Key Manager

It offers its own key lifecycle management (BYOK) for many cloud infrastructure, platform, and software-as-a-service providers.

CipherTrust KMIP Server

It centralizes key management for the Key Management Interoperability Protocol (KMIP) commonly used in storage solutions.

CipherTrust TDE Key Manager

Centralizes key management for encryption found in Oracle, SQL and Always Encrypted SQL.

The portfolio of data protection products that make up the CipherTrust Data Security Platform solution enables healthcare organizations to protect data at rest and in motion across the entire IT ecosystem and ensures that the keys to this information are always protected and only under your control.

It simplifies data security, improves operational efficiency, and accelerates compliance time. Regardless of where your data resides.

The CipherTrust platform ensures that your data is secure, with a wide range of proven, industry-leading products and solutions for deployment in data centers, either those managed by cloud service providers (CSPs) or managed service providers (MSPs), or as a cloud-based service managed by Thales, a leading security company.

Tool portfolio that ensures data protection

With data protection products from the CipherTrust Data Security Platform, your healthcare organization can:

Strengthening safety and compliance in Health 5.0

CipherTrust data protection products and solutions address the demands of a range of security and privacy requirements, including electronic identification, authentication, and trust, Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), General Data Protection Law (LGPD) together with the National Data Protection Authority (ANPD), among other compliance requirements.

Optimizes team and resource efficiency

CipherTrust Data Security Platform offers the broadest support for data security use cases in the industry, with products designed to work together, a single line for global support, a proven track record of protecting against evolving threats, and the industry’s largest ecosystem of data security partnerships.

With a focus on ease of use, APIs for automation, and responsive management, the CipherTrust Data Security Platform solution ensures that your teams can quickly deploy, secure, and monitor the protection of your business.

In addition, professional services and partners are available for design, implementation, and training assistance to ensure fast and reliable implementations with minimal staff time.

Reduces total cost of ownership

CipherTrust Data Security Platform’s data protection portfolio offers a broad set of data security products and solutions that can be easily scaled, expanded for new use cases, and have a proven track record of protecting new and traditional technologies.

With CipherTrust Data Security Platform, healthcare institutions can prepare their investments for the future while reducing operational costs and capital expenditures.

About Eval

EVAL has been developing projects in the financial, health, education and industry segments for over 18 years. Since 2004, we have offered Authentication, Electronic and Digital Signature and Data Protection solutions. Currently, we are present in the main Brazilian banks, health institutions, schools and universities, and different industries.

Innovate now, lead always: get to know Eval’s solutions and services and take your company to the next level.

Eval, safety is value.

Tags 5G, automation, Health 5.0, Innovation in health, IoT, lgpd, nanotechnology

Data Protection

Cloud Computing in Healthcare: Benefits and Solutions

Post author By Editorial Eval
Post date 7 de February de 2022

According to Global Markets Insights Inc., healthcare cloud computing will be worth $55 billion by 2025.

Considering scalability and storage as age-old expectations, today’s healthcare organizations are increasingly turning to cloud technology for its impressive features such as collaboration, accessibility, efficiency and security, to name a few.

In fact, the benefits of cloud computing in healthcare have increased, as it is aligned with the segment’s compliance rules, such as the General Data Protection Law (LGPD), in addition to providing personalized and remote patient care.

Basically, Cloud Computing is an on-demand delivery of computing resources, such as data storage, servers, databases, network resources, applications, over the Internet by a service provider.

This means that instead of having to invest in the on-site equipment, train special personnel and then deal with maintenance, organizations leave it to cloud providers to take care of it.

Cloud computing in healthcare seen as driving digital transformation

What makes the cloud especially attractive today is its security. Compared to on-premise infrastructure, the cloud is considered a more secure option.

According to a report by McAfee, 52% of organizations have better security in the cloud than in on-premises IT environments. While Gartner predicts that in the event of a security problem, 95% of them will be the fault of the customer. This also makes it the safest choice.

With all that the cloud has to offer, it’s no surprise that it’s at the forefront of digital transformation. And the global Covid pandemic has further accelerated customer demand for cloud computing services.

By the end of 2019, many tech experts were already betting on the cloud to lead tech trends in the year ahead. But no one could have predicted back then how impactful this would become in 2020.

As in many other market segments, the application of cloud computing in healthcare is driving positive change in a number of ways.

Whether to reduce costs and be able to focus on mission-critical activities by opting for off-site infrastructure or to take advantage of highly flexible and customizable services by leveraging storage and Cloud Computing capabilities.

The application of cloud computing can help optimize hospitals and other healthcare institutions by improving the coordination of patient care. But this is just one of the many benefits of integrating cloud services in the healthcare sector.

1. Cloud collaboration

Sharing facilitates collaboration. With cloud computing, the process of sharing data has become much easier and simpler.

As health information must remain confidential, with the cloud, data can be shared securely between all relevant health stakeholders such as doctors, nurses and caregivers, also in real time.

In addition to sharing, they can also remotely access reports and medical records anytime, anywhere.

Cloud Computing has also facilitated remote care, quick updates on health developments and patients’ conditions, which makes it a perfect companion for healthcare professionals.

2. Security and data protection with cloud computing

Health data needs to remain confidential. The abundant information held by this domain makes it a prime point of attraction for cybercriminals, resulting in security and data breaches.

Cloud infrastructure ensures security as it has specific security tools that can inform you about suspicious attempts.

Also, because the cloud acts as a data repository, cloud service providers are extremely cautious about complying with privacy standards like HIPAA and LGPD.

These service providers resort to different protection mechanisms such as firewall, encryption, etc. which makes it the most secure and reliable option for health data related needs.

3. Cost

The cloud can hold a huge amount of information at minimal cost. Cloud computing works on pay-as-you-go and subscription model, which indicates that you only have to pay for the services you are using.

By shifting IT budgets from Capex to Opex, cloud technology can greatly reduce internal infrastructure and other operational costs. Ultimately, it makes it even possible for smaller hospitals on a tight budget to adopt a cloud-based model.

Why migrate your environment to the cloud

4. Speed

Speed is an important criterion before making decisions on the selection of any technology. Cloud-based tools can update and upgrade your resources at a commendable pace with minimal intervention, and you can also get real-time updates of all relevant information.

The benefits of cloud computing in healthcare include unparalleled speed and faster access to information, which can overcome the obstacles that industry stakeholders and patients are encountering. Cloud technology has also changed the scope of clinical research, making it easier to manage clinical trials and share knowledge.

5. Scalability and Flexibility

Healthcare organizations operate in a dynamic environment. The cloud facilitates technologies used in healthcare, such as electronic medical records, mobile apps, patient portals, IoT-enabled devices, big data analytics. It provides uncomplicated scalability and flexibility, which in turn improves the final decision-making process.

Along with 24/7 availability, healthcare providers need to dramatically scale data storage and network requirements in line with service demands.

Cloud technology can increase or decrease these storage requirements as needed by healthcare professionals.

Cloud computing still has a long way to go in the healthcare sector. Their combination with innovative technologies such as big data analytics, artificial intelligence and the internet of medical things improves efficiency and opens up several avenues to simplify the delivery of healthcare services.

It increases resource availability, interoperability and reduces costs. With so many benefits there is no reason not to go down the Cloud Computing route.

About Eval

Innovate now, lead always: get to know Eval’s solutions and services and take your company to the next level.

Eval, safety is value.

Tags Cloud Computing, Cloud Computing

Data Protection

How to prevent cyber attacks: Key ways to protect yourself

Post author By Editorial Eval
Post date 1 de February de 2022

While cyber attacks and threats are an ongoing struggle and a major challenge for businesses , they can be avoided by knowing the various types of protocols, exploits, tools, and resources used by cybercriminals. In addition, knowing where and how to expect attacks ensures that you create preventive measures to protect your systems.

Basically, cyber attacks are executed with malicious intent, when a cybercriminal tries to exploit a vulnerability in an organization’s system or individuals. These attacks threaten to steal, alter, destroy, disable, gain access to, or make use of an unauthorized asset.

In practice, cyber attacks, threats, and vandalism are a dangerous and growing problem for companies.

Almost every modern organization requires at least one computer network and the assets that make up its connectivity structure, such as switches, access points, and routers, to operate in its IT infrastructure. Besides this, we have as computational structure servers, desktops, laptops, printers, and other mobile devices that complete a technological architecture.

Unfortunately, while these devices and applications offer a great benefit to the enterprise, they can also pose a risk. All it takes is inefficient asset management or an employee clicking on a malicious link, and then cybercriminals gain access to your network and infect your systems.

But this risk can be reduced.

How to prevent cyber attacks?

Preventing a breach of your network and systems requires protection against a variety of cyber attacks. For each attack, the appropriate countermeasure must be deployed/used to prevent it from exploiting a vulnerability or weakness.

The first line of defense for any organization is to assess and implement security controls.

1. Break the pattern of cyberattack

Preventing, detecting or stopping the cyber attack at the earliest opportunity limits the impact on business and the potential for reputational damage.

Even though it is usually the more motivated attackers who have the persistence to carry out multi-stage attacks, they often do this using common, cheaper, and easier-to-use tools and techniques.

Therefore, implement security controls and processes that can mitigate attacks, making your company a difficult target.

Likewise, take a defense-in-depth approach to mitigate risk across the full range of potential cyber attacks, giving your company more resilience to deal with attacks that use more customized tools and techniques.

Como o Ransomware utiliza Protocolos de Acesso Remoto (RDP) Desprotegidos

2. Reduce your exposure by using critical security controls against cyber attack

Fortunately, there are effective and affordable ways to reduce your organization’s exposure to the most common types of cyber attack on Internet-exposed systems.

Boundary firewalls and Internet gateways – establish network perimeter defenses, particularly Web proxying, Web filtering, content scanning, and firewall policies to detect and block executable downloads, block access to known malicious domains, and prevent users’ computers from communicating directly with the Internet;
Malware protection – establish and maintain malware defenses to detect and respond to known cyber attack code;
Patch management – fixes known vulnerabilities with the latest software version to prevent attacks that exploit software bugs;
Allow list and run control – prevents unknown software from being run or installed, including AutoRun on USB and CD drives;
Secure configuration – restrict the functionality of each device, operating system, and application to the minimum necessary for business operation;
Password policy – make sure that an appropriate password policy is in place and followed;
User access control – includes limiting the execution permissions of normal users and enforcing the principle of least privilege.

3. Attenuate the ‘research’ stage

Any information published for open consumption should be systematically filtered before being released to ensure that anything of value to an attacker (such as software and configuration details, names/jobs/titles of individuals, and any hidden data) is removed.

Training, education, and user awareness are important. All your users must understand how published information about your systems and operation can reveal potential vulnerabilities.

They need to be aware of the risks of discussing work-related topics on social media and the potential to be targeted by cyber attack and phishing attacks. They must also understand the risks to the business of releasing confidential information in general conversations, unsolicited phone calls, and e-mail recipients.

4. Reduce the ‘delivery’ stage

The delivery options available to an attacker can be significantly reduced by applying and maintaining a small number of security controls, which are even more effective when applied in combination:

Up-to-date malware protection can block malicious e-mails and prevent malware from being downloaded from websites;
Firewalls and proxy servers can block unsafe or unnecessary services and can also keep a list of known bad sites. Similarly, subscribing to a site reputation service to generate a list of denied sites can also provide additional protection;
A technically enforced password policy will prevent users from selecting easily guessed passwords and lock accounts after a specified number of unsuccessful attempts. Additional authentication measures for access to particularly confidential corporate or personal information should also be in place;
Secure configuration limits system functionality to the minimum necessary for business operation and should be applied systematically to all devices used to conduct business.

5. Minimize the ‘breach’ stage of the cyber attack

As with the delivery stage, the ability to successfully exploit known vulnerabilities can be effectively mitigated with just a few controls, which are best deployed together.

All malware depends on known and predominantly patched software flaws. Effective vulnerability patch management ensures that patches are applied at the earliest opportunity, limiting the time your organization is exposed to known software vulnerabilities;
Malware protection at the Internet gateway can detect known malicious code in an imported item, such as an e-mail. These measures should be complemented by malware protection at key points in the internal network and on users’ computers, where available;
Well implemented and maintained user access controls will restrict the applications, privileges, and data that users can access. The secure setup can remove unnecessary software and default user accounts. It can also ensure that default passwords are changed and that all automatic features that can activate malware immediately (such as AutoRun for media drives) are disabled;
Training, education and user awareness are extremely valuable in reducing the likelihood of successful ‘social engineering’. However, with the pressures of work and the sheer volume of communications, you cannot rely on this as a control to mitigate even a cyber attack;
Finally, the key to detecting a breach is the ability to monitor all network activity and analyze it to identify any malicious or unusual activity.

If all measures for the research, delivery and breach stages are consistently in place, most cyber attacks can be prevented.

However, if the cybercriminal is able to use tailored features, you should assume that they will bypass them and get into your systems. Ideally, companies should have a good understanding of what constitutes ‘normal’ activity on their network, and effective security monitoring should be able to identify any unusual activity.

Once a technically capable and motivated attacker has full access to your systems, it can be much more difficult to detect their actions and eradicate their presence. This is where a complete defense-in-depth strategy can be beneficial.