Showing posts with label Defense-In-Depth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Defense-In-Depth. Show all posts

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Defense in depth not good enough - states Bromium

Well, it is sales pitch combined with facts.

Defense in depth not good enough - states Bromium 


I agree on "The security chain is only as strong as its weakest link" statement (I am sure all do)

I disagree on "Adding additional layers to your existing “Layers on Layers” (LOL) of end point protection – just like any Defense in Depth (DID) strategy – is a game of diminishing returns:"

If  you  understand,  what you are trying to protect, your attack surface and choose the right layers of security then DID will be valuable. However I am afraid that the above statement might be true for many organizations.


According to the article:-

In his research, Wojtczuk used the public exploit for the so-called “EPATHOBJ” Windows kernel vulnerability it to bypass application sandboxes, AV, HIPS, rootkit detectors, Microsoft EMET and SMEP – even when all of these solutions are layered one upon the other. Modifications to the exploit allowed us to bypass all of these technologies.

This highlights the fact that “defense in depth” – based on simultaneous deployment of multiple solutions that share the same weakness – does not advance security posture. In this case the entire chain of protective measures shares a common vulnerability – the Windows kernel, which unfortunately is the component with the most rapidly growing set of vulnerabilities – over  80+ CVEs in the last year alone. 

Using hardware isolation – courtesy of the integrated hardware virtualization features on every CPU – to isolate each untrusted task that executes on the end point, solves the problem of the weakest link:  the security posture of the end point is no longer dependent on the Windows Kernel, but on the hardware isolation capabilities of the CPU.


The link below has more information:-

Thursday, April 3, 2014

I like the headline "Lower the ROI of hackers"


Means, make it hard for hackers.

Nothing new, good presentation of ideas (mainly, data security and defence-in-depth)


According to the article:- 

That is the consensus of other experts. “If you make it more difficult and less rewarding for the non-targeted, financially motivated attacker, she or he will likely move on to an easier mark,” said Deena Coffman, CEO of IDT911 Consulting.

Few things that the hackers are after and need to be protected

  • Credit cards remain a valuable asset for enterprises, “and the one that is easiest to sell.”
  • Customer emails, “are the foundation of any business. They are sold and rented on underground forums for a specific amount of money. Often they are sold to multiple cyber-criminals, so the profit, even if small, is constant.”
  • Source code is another asset that prompts mixed opinions. Coffman described its value as, “very high as the attackers now know how to compromise the application in a way that is unlikely to be detected.”
  • Corporate intellectual property (IP), which has, “a very limited set of buyers – the competitors of the company – so when it is targeted it is likely a nation state or a focused effort sponsored by a pre-identified buyer of the data.”
  • Social Security numbers (SSN) can be enormously valuable, “because we are still using them as a means for verifying identity



Few Layers of Protection

Strong encryption
Install patches promptly
focus more on restricting access
(I would also add endpoint protection)



The link below has more information:-