Category Archives: Encryption
More users want encryption, but the transition can be complicated for messaging apps – Marketplace
End-to-end encryption is a way to keep messages private. Its sometimes used by apps, which basically turn those messages into unintelligible chunks of data as soon as a user hits Send.
The idea is that no one except sender and recipient can access that message. Not hackers, not third parties, not even the app platform itself. And you have to have special keys stored on an individual device to decrypt it.
But many messaging platforms dont have this kind of encryption, and some provide it only as an option.
Kimberly Adams of Marketplace Tech spoke with Matthew Green, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Information Security Institute, about why more apps dont have end-to-end encryption by default. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.
Matthew Green: One of the problems is that that services like Facebook Messenger, theyre designed to work across multiple different devices, right? And getting all of that to work with encryption is hard because it means you have to have encryption keys delivered to all those different phones. Thats challenging. And then law enforcement and platform abuse teams, theyre worried that people will break laws, send abusive pictures and so on. And end-to-end encryption is very nerve-wracking for those interests because they cant see the images.
Kimberly Adams: From a design standpoint, does it matter when you add encryption to a messaging service?
Green: Yes, it makes much more sense to add encryption from the beginning. If you design a new messaging service and it has encryption right from the start, like Signal, for example, then its really easy to deploy that. You can figure out each time you add a new feature, you say, How does this fit into the encryption? How do I do things? In the other direction, when youre basically going backwards to a very popular service that already does not use encryption, adding encryption can be challenging because you have to think about all these features you support, like multiple devices, working on arbitrary web browsers, bots, things like that. Each of those services has to be adapted to use encryption. And thats why Facebook Messenger in particular Facebook is now deploying encryption across all of its existing services its taking them a long time to figure out all those details.
Adams: How does money factor into the encryption debate? Because, I mean, these messaging services could potentially provide a lot of useful user data that could be monetized or used to create targeted ads. And I imagine if you have really good end-to-end encryption, that ability to monetize that content theoretically goes away, right?
Green: My impression is that a lot of these advertising-supported networks like Google and Facebook, they have more user data about you than they know what to do with. So for them, theres actually kind of a balance where, hey, yes, we could have access to all your private conversations and thoughts. But we already have so much data, do we really want to be the people who are mining your private conversations to get that? And thats why I think so many of these providers, particularly Facebook, are moving to encryption, is they just dont need that private conversation data. They already have enough.
Adams: What do you see as the demand moving forward by users, at least, for encrypted messaging apps and services?
Green: Well, one of the things thats been amazing to me is over the last year or so I use this app called Signal, which is a great thing. And I get notifications saying, So-and-so is on Signal. And it used to be that so-and-so was some computer scientist or technical person I work with. And nowadays, so-and-so is my neighbor who I dont even think knows how to use a computer. The impression I get is that people genuinely feel that private messages should be private. And so I think that now they know that the older systems arent very private, theyre happy to switch to these newer technologies that doesnt cause them any controversy or any pain.
Adams: As somebody who studies this all the time, how have you noticed, sort of, the public perception and knowledge around issues of encryption change?
Green: Encryption used to be one of those science fiction things. Youd see it on TV, you know, Star Trek, or youd see it on cop shows occasionally. But it was always a criminal using encryption. I think that whats really changed is that encryption has gone from this thing that was mostly used by mobsters or the bad guys on TV to something that everyone just kind of takes for granted. And we understand why, right? Because were all carrying our entire lives around with us, all our private conversations on this little computer in our pocket. And we really, really are sensitive to the fact, even if not consciously, were sensitive to the fact that all of our private information could go so easily. And I think nowadays, the people who think about this stuff, they think about encryption as basically the only antidote against, you know, losing everything that you care about. And so encryption has gone from being kind of an exotic, dirty word, to just being a technology that is there and protects us.
You may have heard last week that Meta is testing new encryption features in its Messenger app. The company has said it would take years to add more secure encryption to Messenger by default.
Meta made the announcement after it complied with court orders and released chat histories between a Nebraska woman and her teenage daughter. The messages are allegedly about the daughter seeking abortion services more than 20 weeks into her pregnancy, which is illegal in that state.
Meta has said its decision to roll out additional encryption features in Messenger is not related to that court order.
If you want to know how to test that new end-to-end encryption feature on your Messenger app, The Verge has a handy summary.
But if youre in the market to try an app thats already encrypted, PC mag published its take on the best, most secure messaging apps of 2022.
Theyre in no specific order: WhatsApp, Telegram and a favorite here in Washington, D.C. Signal.
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More users want encryption, but the transition can be complicated for messaging apps - Marketplace
Cloud Encryption Market Growth Set to Surge Significantly during the Forecast Period 2022-2028 | Cipher Cloud Inc. (U.S.), Hytrust Inc. (U.S.),…
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The Cloud Encryption Market Research report provides a detailed, qualitative analysis of business growth, cutting-edge growth strategies, current trends, and forecasts for the future. The report also offers in-depth analysis of the Cloud Encryption Markets size, share, and overall strategic business planning, as well as product details, CAGR status, SWOT analysis, and Porters Five Forces analysis. The impact of future factors on the global market is thoroughly examined in every way. Primary studies have been conducted using the ideas generated by surveys, interviews, and expert analyst opinions. As opposed to secondary research, which uses information from trusted paid sources, trade magazines, and databases maintained by industry bodies. With the aid of current market projections, company segment strategic recommendations are also made.
Cloud Encryption Market Scope:
The Global Cloud Encryption Market Report is a detailed and comprehensive research of the market with a focus on the analysis of global market trends. The objective of the study is to provide a complete market segmentation by type, application, and geography along with an overview of the Cloud Encryption industry. The forecast term is expected to see rapid expansion in the global Cloud Encryption Market. The report analyses key trends and opportunities in the industry and also important information on the market position of the major Cloud Encryption Market players.
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Detailed Segmentation:
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: United States, Canada, and Mexico & : Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Others & : Saudi Arabia, UAE, Israel, Turkey, Egypt, South Africa & Rest of MEA. : UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, BeNeLux, Russia, NORDIC Nations and Rest of Europe. -: India, China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Australia and Rest of APAC.
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The reports foundation is certainly created in-depth solutions offered by skilled data analysts. The research approach entails analysts gathering data only to have it properly examined and filtered in an effort to make meaningful forecasts about the market over the review period. The primary research is made relevant and useful by the inclusion of interviews with important market influencers. By analysing the market against a variety of criteria, the research approach clearly indicates the intention to derive a comprehensive view of the industry. The important contributions improve the report and provide it a competitive edge.
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Cloud Encryption Market Growth Set to Surge Significantly during the Forecast Period 2022-2028 | Cipher Cloud Inc. (U.S.), Hytrust Inc. (U.S.),...
Phone numbers of 1,900 users of encrypted messaging service Signal may have been revealed in phishing attack – WION
In a phishing attack on Signal's verification services provider, the phone numbers of 1,900 users could have been revealed, according to the company.
Signal said in a blog post that the attacker could also have accessed the SMS verification code used to register with the company.
It released a statement saying, "An attacker could have attempted to re-register number to another device or learned that their number was registered to Signal."
The attack is being investigated by Signal and Twilio Inc which counts over 256,000 businesses among its customers.
Also read |Elon Musk asks people to use Signal app instead of WhatsApp and Facebook over privacy issues
Following the change in WhatsApp's privacy policy, Signal saw huge upticks in downloads from Apple and Googles app stores.
Signal gained thousands of users after it was touted by Tesla CEO Elon Musk for its end-to-end encryption that prevents any third party from viewing conversation content or listening in on calls.
In a bid to tightly control the flow of information, the Chinese Communist Party blocked the messaging app in the country last year.
Since 2014, Signal has been installed about 58.6 million times globally, according to mobile app analytics firm Sensor Tower.
(With inputs from agencies)
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Phone numbers of 1,900 users of encrypted messaging service Signal may have been revealed in phishing attack - WION
X-Force 2022 Insights: An Expanding OT Threat Landscape – Security Intelligence
This post was written with contributions from Dave McMillen.
So far 2022 has seen international cyber security agencies issuing multiple alerts about malicious Russian cyber operations and potential attacks on critical infrastructure, the discovery of two new OT-specific pieces of malware,Industroyer2andInController/PipeDream, and the disclosure of many operational technology (OT) vulnerabilities. The OT cyber threat landscape is expanding dramatically and OT asset owners and operators, all of whom understand the need to keep critical infrastructures running safely, need to be aware of the shifting landscape and what they should be doing to secure their operations.
IBM Security X-Force analysts looked at X-Force Incident Response (IR) and Managed Security Services (MSS) data to provide OT defenders with the intelligence necessary to protect their assets.
The manufacturing industry was the most-attacked industry in 2021, according to the 2021 X-Force Threat Intelligence Index. So far in 2022, manufacturing remains in the lead across both metrics at 23% of total IR cases and 65% among OT-related industries. This is just ahead of where manufacturing stood throughout 2021, victimized in 61% of incidents in OT-related industries to which X-Force responded. Of the other OT-heavy industries so far in 2022, electric utilities place a distant second at 13% and oil and gas and transportation tied for third at 8%, all three of which are similar to their proportion of attacks through 2021. Heavy and civil engineering accounts for about 3% and mining just shy of 2%.
Figure 1: Proportion of IR cases by OT-related industry, January-June 2022. Source: X-Force incident response data.
Incident Response Data
Looking at identified initial infection vectors, phishing served as the initial infection vector in 78% of incidents X-Force responded to across these industries so far in 2022. This tracks with phishings position as the lead infection vector across all incidents in 2021. This also highlights the importance of layered phishing defenses, including regular user education and training, software solutions to filter malicious email, email sandboxing solutions to analyze any attachments or linked payloads, web proxies to analyze linked domains and attachment downloads, and application allow listing and Attack Surface Reduction rules to limit which extensions and payloads can be executed by end users. Solutions such as EDR and XDR can help detect post-compromise actions on endpoints if Command and Control is established. This should also be combined with strong network and user behavior analytic detections and defenses in the event that a phish is ultimately successful.
Scanning and exploitation of vulnerabilities on external attack surfaces made up 11% of initial infection vectors in incidents. Proactively identifying and managing the external attack surface of IT and OT networks is essential to understanding what ports, services, and applications may be exposed to attackers externally and may require further hardening, patching, or isolation. Once the external attack surface is identified, focused vulnerability management can help address IT vulnerabilities, though such patching is notoriously difficult in OT environments where downtime is difficult to schedule and system refresh timelines can stretch over many years. Because of this, one might expect successful compromise through vulnerability exploitation to be observed more frequently, but typically OT equipment itself is not exposed directly to the internet and is typically targeted via IT network access. Therefore, proper network security isolation is key to reducing attack paths for threat actors seeking to pivot from IT to OT networks. The use of removable media tied for second at 11% of incidents, underscoring the long-standing threat that such media poses to OT networks, often by end users using infected USB media drives between operator workstations and personal laptops while in the field.
Proper segmentation, proactive testing of security controls, knowing your environment, and hardening systems are just a few of the steps available to secure these assets. As for removable media, ideally, USB flash drives should be prohibited when possible. If absolutely necessary, strictly control the number of portable devices approved for use in your environment and disable autorun features for any removable media.
Figure 2: Identified infection vectors for incidents against OT-related industries, January-June 2022. Source: X-Force incident response data.
Network Attack Data
In addition to analyzing data from our incident response engagements, X-Force analysts also reviewed OT-related industries network attack data to determine how attackers are most often attempting to infiltrate those networks. Widespread vulnerability scanning, mostly broad spraying with some more targeted attempts, accounts for most of the observed network attacks on X-Force clients in OT-related industries. Weak encryption implementation and brute force attempts make up the majority of alerts in client environments with OT monitoring devices.
Vulnerability Scanning
In most cases, the scanning attempts revealed in the data are not directly targeting OT or ICS, rather they are looking for any of a large number of vulnerabilities in an unspecified environment whether internally and externally. The fact that many of the OT-specific signatures triggered also appear against clients in industries without OT environments supports our assessment that much of this activity is indiscriminate scanning. When we analyzed network traffic related to ports commonly associated with OT, we found port scanning and Shodan scanner activity made up 47% and 36% of activity, respectively. These types of scanning can ultimately be used to identify vulnerable or accessible IT or OT environments.
Figure 3: Attack activity against ports commonly associated with OT, January-June 2022. Source: IBM Managed Security Services data.
The vulnerabilities X-Force sees being scanned for include ones from 2016, 2018, and 2021. Within network attack alerts from the subset of clients in OT-related industries, a filter bypass vulnerability in Trihedrals VTScada application (CVE-2016-4510) that could allow unauthenticated users to send http requests to access files was most common. Other vulnerabilities scanned include cross-site scripting vulnerabilities in Advantechs R-SeeNet devices platform (CVE-2021-21801, -21802, and -21803) and a vulnerability in CirCarLife SCADA software (CVE-2018-12634) that could lead to information disclosure. The CirCarLife CVE ranks 9.8/10 in CVSS, followed closely by Trihedrals at 9.1, and the others at 6.1.
Figure 4: OT-related vulnerability scanning activity against OT-related industries, January-June 2022. Source: IBM Managed Security Services data.
Refining and maturing your vulnerability management program can help protect your assets from threat actors seeking to identify vulnerabilities in your systems via such scanning. This should include dedicating a well-resourced and supported team to the task and prioritizing the CVEs below for OT networks. Overall, it is important to bear in mind that your specific environment does not need to be directly targeted to be compromisedif your network is vulnerable or misconfigured, it can be compromised.
Weak Encryption and Brute Force
Weak encryption and brute force alerts were the two most significant network attack alerts that clients with OT monitoring devices experienced. Almost 60% of the alerts concerned the continued use of TLS 1.0, an outdated and insecure encryption method deprecated in March 2021. Though the US Governmentrecommendsreconfiguration to use TLS 1.2 or 1.3, NISTguidelinesaddress in more depth the more common reality that older systems may need to continue using weaker versions of encryption to ensure continued functionality.
X-Force strongly recommends that organizations inventory and understand their environments; the types of encryption deployed should certainly be on those lists. We also recommend clients weigh the security risks with the possible benefits of continuing use of older encryption methods based on the sensitivity of the communications being secured.
Figure 5: Network alerts from OT monitoring devices, January-June 2022. Source: IBM Managed Security Services data.
Another 42% of alerts concerned brute force, both attempted and successful events. Among the small percentage of other alerts were a variety of network enumeration alerts including Modbus function code, illegal parameter, and suspect variables scans, and things like weak or default passwords found on devices, a basic but necessary vulnerability to address that makes brute force attacks easier for attackers. Other mitigations to reduce your networks susceptibility to brute force attacks include ensuring multi-factor authentication is deployed and regular re-authentication is required for as many logins as technically feasible, keeping applications and operating systems updated, and implementing lockout policies.
Top Threat: Malspam Delivering Emotet
So far this year, malspam ranks as the top threat across OT-related industries at 44% of incident response engagements. Notably, the majority of malspam incidents involved the delivery of the Emotet Trojan, which is reflective of a cross-industrytrendnot just in the OT space, and aligns with our data indicating phishing as the leading infection vector. Many of those incidents involved Emotet infections, receipt of thousands of infected emails, and infection from unauthorized downloads that sometimes led to system identifying information being stolen. In some of the cases, victims emails were hijacked to send Emotet-infected spam, probably to make the emails look more legitimate and get more clicks. Remote access trojans (RATs) come in second at 19%, ransomware accounts for 13% of incidents responded to, and business email compromise (BEC) and server access attacks account for about 6% each.
These numbers so far reflect a shift from 2021, when ransomware accounted for 36% of all attacks across these industries. Most of those ransomware events affected IT networks directly, with some having an indirect impact on OT networks. This trend is currently being observed across all industries, not just those with OT environments. Although new and existing ransomware groups continue to plague many organizations, X-Force assesses that fewer ransomware IR cases this year compared to last may be the result of defenders improving their own ransomware response plans or security posture to detect malicious behaviors in their environment before attackers have an opportunity to strike.
Figure 6: Identified threats for incidents against OT-related industries, January-June 2022. Source: X-Force incident response data.
Government and private institutions around the world have been turning their focus to mitigating risks to OT in recent years. Cybercriminals are developing new threats on a daily basis that can potentially result in catastrophic utility and manufacturing outages.
The threat to OT permeates across a nations entire economy and infrastructure. Organizations across all verticals must take full responsibility for protecting their own assets and consumers. The best way to keep adversaries out of an ICS is to implement simple safeguards, best practices, and risk management solutions. You can download ICS specific resources from government entities like the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which also offers network protection advice for connected things within industrial realms.
For more information on protecting ICS from rising threats while continuing to enable technological advancements, read X-Forces recent blog, Where Everything Old is New Again: Operational Technology and Ghosts of Malware Past. The report looks at the history of ICS, the susceptibility of these systems to certain attacks, and ways to defend those systems.
Strategic Cyber Threat Analyst, IBM Security X-Force
Mike Worley is a Strategic Cyber Threat Analyst on the IBM X-Force Threat Intelligence Production Team. He joined the team in 2021 with 8 years of experience...
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X-Force 2022 Insights: An Expanding OT Threat Landscape - Security Intelligence
Bail Conditions For Arrested Australian Activists Demand The Impossible: No Using Encrypted Applications – Techdirt
from the encryption-in-the-land-down-under dept
The Australian government doesnt care much for encryption. It has, for years, tried to legislate encryption out of the picture. A law passed in 2018 gives the government the power to compel encryption-breaking efforts from tech companies.
The law survived a cursory review by the Parliamentary Joint Committee. Its 2021 report said the law was completely legal. And, even though it found oversight of the new encryption-breaking powers was inadequate, the law was a good thing for the government. Very little was said about the people affected by the law or the tech companies being forced to make their offerings less secure in Australia.
As Australian law enforcement sees it, the only people who actually need encrypted services and devices are criminals. And thats why suspected criminals (who have only been accused of crimes at this point) are being forced to give up their access to encrypted services, as Ariel Bogle reports for ABC (the Australian one) News.
Since late June, Greg Rolles must produceon demandhis computer and mobile phone for police inspection, and tell themhis passwords.
He is not allowed to use any encrypted messaging apps, like Signal or WhatsApp. He can only have one mobile phone.
And there is a list of 38 people, many of whom are his friends, who hes not allowed to associate with in any way even, another activistfound, liking a post on social media.
Rolles is allegedly a member of activist group Blockade Australia. The group has been known to engage in highly disruptive protests. Those often involve immobilizing vehicles and equipment. And there have allegedly been incidents where police officers (or at least the vehicles theyre in) have been attacked.
Thanks to a new anti-protest law, the government is able to treat even more innocuous protests in a heavy-handed manner. As this post detailing Blockade and its interaction with the new law notes, some members are being hit with 10-year prison sentences. Others have been arrested for vague violations like planning to block traffic.
The bail conditions are equally heavy-handed. As noted above, arrested Blockade members have been forbidden from using encrypted messaging apps or associating with each other. One member found themselves in violation of their bail conditions simply for sending a thumbs up emoji in response to a Facebook post by another member. (Bail violation charges were ultimately dropped for this action, but it still involved the person being accosted by police, detained, and booked.)
The restrictions imposed on Rolle have cut him off from the Afghanistan residents his church was providing assistance to. They communicated via WhatsApp, which is no longer an option for Rolle.
But its not just WhatsApp and Signal. Plenty of apps (and internet services) utilize encryption. And the bail terms are vague enough it could prevent Rolle and others like him from living somewhat normal lives while out on bail.
Large swathes of the internet are encrypted, which simply means that informationis converted into code to protect it from unwanted access. Apps from online banking to streaming servicesare typically encrypted.
Encryption is everywhere because its a fundamental part of keeping modern communications technology secure and functional, a spokesperson forElectronic Frontiers Australia said.
[That includes] essentially any modern device, including laptops, mobile phones, ATMs, TVs, PlayStations, and government websites such as myGov, Medicare, and Centrelink.
The bail conditions forbid arrestees (who are only accused of crimes at this point) from possessing an encrypted application/media application. That covers a lot of ground, especially since so many sites providing services from banking to streaming to news delivery prefer to route users through proprietary apps apps that generally utilize encryption in one form or another.
Even those who feel the courts hearts are in the right place attempting to prevent the planning of future protests that may be disruptive and/or turn violent feel these conditions go too far. The head attorney at the Shopfront Youth Legal Centre (Jane Sanders) stated this imposed a possibly unlawful restriction on the rights of people whove only been accused of criminal activity.
To effectively shut down the right to political communication with these conditions, it seems extreme to me, Ms Sanders said.
Well, as they say, the extremity is the point. The government has already deemed encryption to a tool of criminals and terrorists. The passage of a law increasing punishments for protest-related activity was meant to deter dissent. These new bail conditions drive it home: speak up against the government and/or its favored corporations and you can expect to have your life derailed, your communications severely restricted, and your freedom while bailed eliminated at a moments notice.
Filed Under: australia, bail, bail conditions, blockade australia, encryption, greg rolles, protests
What are the top 5 Amazon S3 storage security best practices? – TechTarget
Storage security is a major concern for IT. Cloud storage -- specifically Amazon S3 -- can be particularly vulnerable if administrators aren't careful.
These five Amazon S3 storage security best practices -- including bucket settings and encryption -- stand out as the most important steps for admins.
The most common S3 storage security mistake organizations make is accidentally granting public access to buckets.
Access to S3 buckets is granted through an access control list (ACL). It is easy to accidentally configure these ACLs to enable public access. Fortunately, Amazon offers four settings to block public access:
Admins can apply these settings to individual buckets, access points, an AWS account or any combination of the three. If admins decide to block all public access to S3 buckets, Amazon recommends enabling all four settings by setting them to True.
Identity and Access Management (IAM) controls S3 storage access. In general, adhere to least privilege access principles. Give users the bare minimum permissions that they need to do their jobs.
Amazon recommends that admins separate read, write and delete access into individual IAM roles. This S3 security process makes it easier to grant write or delete access solely to the users who require it, instead of giving all users full access.
As with any storage system, encrypt any data in S3. Two options are available to encrypt data: client-side and server-side encryption.
Server-side encryption is the simpler of the two options and encrypts data as it is written to AWS storage. Admins can base server-side encryption on an Amazon-managed key, a customer master key or a customer-provided key.
Client-side encryption is more difficult to implement but is the better S3 storage security choice for admins concerned about decrypted data. Client-side encryption encrypts the data before it is sent to AWS. The encryption keys are maintained outside of the Amazon cloud. This approach guarantees that Amazon cannot decrypt user data but also means that admins must be careful not to lose the encryption key.
Require multi-factor authentication (MFA) for anyone who accesses data stored in AWS. MFA prevents anyone from accessing data using stolen account credentials.
An additional form of authentication is necessary beyond just a username and password. Amazon supports three MFA mechanisms -- a virtual MFA device, a Fast ID Online security key or a hardware device that generates a six-digit, time-synchronized code.
Enable server access logging, which tracks S3 access requests. That way, admins can see who accessed S3 buckets and when.
Logging also helps admins to know if unauthorized users attempt to gain access to storage resources.
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What are the top 5 Amazon S3 storage security best practices? - TechTarget
The dangers of the UKs illogical war on encryption – ComputerWeekly.com
In a 21st century war, what happens online impacts events on the ground. Reliable, secure communication channels in Ukraine have delivered crucial information from President Zelenskyy directly to the people, and allowed him to broadcast appeals to the world and recruit international support.
Secure communication has empowered Ukrainians to combat disinformation, organise relief efforts, and protect evacuees. It has undoubtedly saved lives and guided Ukrainians to safety.
As Western countries support the Ukrainians with defensive and humanitarian aid, they must also defend Ukrainian citizens ability to communicate safely.
In the UK parliament, Nadine Dorries, secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport, recently noted: WhatsApp [a secure messaging app] has launched an end-to-end encryption service that the Ukrainian people can access to find out what is happening in their location on a minute-by-minute, real- time basis and where they can get emergency support and help.
When people have no option but to entrust their communication to third-party services, some of which may be actively hostile, end-to-end encryption provides the highest level of security, because only the sender and receiver have the key to the messages. Just imagine their plight if that encrypted service was designed to facilitate third-party access.
Astonishingly, even as the UK government praises end-to-end encryption abroad, it is undermining it at home. The Online Safety Bill, which continues to proceed through parliament after being mentioned in the Queens Speech, will target platforms that use end-to-end encryption by placing a duty of care on service providers within the scope of the draft bill to moderate illegal and harmful content on their platforms, with fines and penalties for those that fail to uphold this duty.
To comply, providers offering end-to-end encrypted services would be forced to weaken, bypass or even remove encryption, putting the security and privacy of their users at risk.
Then, imagine someone still in Ukraine is trying to contact family members who have made it to the UK. Or a UK citizen is working with the aid agencies on the ground. Is their messaging app allowed to have secure communication in Ukraine, but only compromised encryption or none at all in the UK? Its a recipe for chaos.
Encrypted communication needs to be secure, no matter where you are. We cannot let the UK be the weak link in that chain.
The same end-to-end encrypted services are critical for journalists, who depend on them to keep information channels open despite government censorship. When the BBCs Russian website was blocked, the broadcaster used encryption to circumvent some of the restrictions and continue publishing through alternative channels.
Supporters of the Online Safety Bill will doubtless point out that journalistic content is exempt, which is, frankly, irrelevant. Individual citizens should be able to send evidence of war crimes, confidentially and securely. The act of sending it should not put their own safety at risk; nor should platforms and intermediaries be reluctant to convey the evidence on the basis that it might be offensive or disturbing.
Its as if the government either hasnt considered the cross-border implications of its anti-encryption policy or isnt worried about the race to the bottom it would create.
At a time when Ukraine needs us to step up, the UK government is instead on the brink of undermining end-to-end encryption with the Online Safety Bill. We are seeing, under the most tragic circumstances, how dangerous it is when a countrys citizens cannot communicate securely and cannot access reliable information safely.
It may be true that, as the saying goes, the first casualty of war is the truth but thats no reason to help it die.
Robin Wilton is director of internet trust at the Internet Society
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The dangers of the UKs illogical war on encryption - ComputerWeekly.com
Backup Encryption: What It Is and Why Its Important for Data Security – Security Boulevard
What is backup encryption?
TechTarget defines encryption as the method by which information is converted into secret code that hides the informations true meaning. Backup encryption conceals the original meaning of the data, thereby preventing it from being known to or used by unauthorized personnel. Backup encryption helps maintain confidentiality and integrity of data by converting unencrypted data, also known as plaintext, to encrypted data or ciphertext. Backup encryption is a two-way function: first, it converts plain text into ciphertext or a secret code and then uses a key to interpret the secret code into plaintext. Once a backup is encrypted, anyone without the decryption key will not be able to read it.
An encrypted backup is a backup that is protected by encryption algorithms to maintain the authenticity, confidentiality and integrity of information as well as prevent unauthorized access. An unencrypted backup simply means data or information stored is not encoded by any algorithm. Encrypted backups are secured by complex algorithms and are readable to only those users with a key. An unencrypted backup is vulnerable to online breaches and cyberattacks, and since it is in an unsecured form or plaintext, the information can be easily viewed or accessed.
Cybercrimes are growing both in frequency and sophistication. Despite organizations implementing several security controls, threat actors still manage to penetrate defense systems and wreak havoc. According to The Global Risks Report 2022 by the World Economic Forum, cybersecurity infrastructure and/or measures taken by businesses, governments and individuals are being outstripped or rendered obsolete by increasingly sophisticated and frequent cybercrimes.
Backups are quickly becoming a hot target for cybercriminals because they want to get rid of your ability to recover and gain full control of the attack. Therefore, backup encryption is important not only for business continuity and disaster recovery but also to improve your organizations overall security posture. Backup encryption is a security best practice that helps protect your organizations confidential information and prevents unauthorized access. Most organizations today use encryption technology for securing their sensitive data. Encrypting backups adds an additional layer of security by converting sensitive information into an unreadable format. Even if threat actors manage to intercept the data while in transit, they will not be able to access or read it without the decryption key. Due to its high reliability, encryption is used for both commercial and military purposes.
It is important to back up your data for quick recovery from a data loss or cybersecurity incident. However, you must also ensure that your backups are protected by encrypting them. Backup encryption has several benefits, including:
Privacy: Encryption encodes your information, rendering it inaccessible to malicious third parties or untrusted users. It also gives you and your customers peace of mind knowing that sensitive information will not end up in the wrong hands.
Security: Encryption protects against identity theft and blackmail since hackers cannot access the information without a key. Backup encryption also makes data more resistant to tampering and corruption.
Data integrity: Encryption prevents misuse of information even if your laptop, hard drive or smartphone is hacked, lost or stolen. This ensures the content of your backups is reliable, accurate, valid and has not been altered.
Authentication: Encryption ensures only intended parties have access to the data.
Regulations: Encryption helps your business comply with regulatory requirements and standards like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) that require businesses to encrypt customer personal information when it is stored at rest and when transmitted across public networks.
Encryption converts data (messages or files) from plaintext or normal text into ciphertext using complex mathematical algorithms and encryption keys to improve data security. This ensures only intended parties can read or access the data. Once the encoded data is transmitted to the recipient, a decryption key is used to translate the data back to its readable state.
A simple example of transforming readable text into ciphertext is by swapping each letter with the one that is next to the ordinary text in the alphabet. It simply means a is replaced with b, b with c and so on. Here is how the encryption would appear: the word confidential would be converted to dpogjefoujbm. When data is encrypted, intruders can see that information is exchanged or transmitted; however, they cannot unlock the data without the correct key. This ensures data security both while in transit and at rest. Only authorized personnel with the secret key can decode and read the information.
The efficacy of encryption depends on the encryption algorithm used, the length or number of bits in the decryption key (longer keys are often much harder to crack) and the encryption method employed.
There are several factors that need to be considered to effectively encrypt your data, including the state in which your data is in. This will ensure your valuable data is encrypted and protected at all times.
Encryption in transit: This means encrypting data while it is in motion between devices and networks or is being transferred to the cloud. Encryption in transit occurs between the backup source (a machine, server, Salesforce, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, etc.) and the backup destination (Unitrends Cloud, Spanning-managed storage in S3, customer-managed storage, to name a few). It is like putting your data in an armored vehicle before being transported.
At Spanning, we use the respective app model and best practices for each SaaS provider in combination with OAuth2.0. This means all backups are transmitted securely, making it impossible for intruders to steal the data while its being backed up.
Encryption at rest: This means encryption of data once it resides on a storage at rest or the backup destination. In simple terms, encryption at rest is like keeping your valuable information in a vault and securing it with a PIN, password or key. In data encryption, a key is used to encrypt and decrypt data to prevent hackers from gaining access to data even if they have physical access to the device. This can be done with a Spanning-managed key hosted in Amazon Web Services (AWS) or a customer-provided key hosted in AWS. This also means that even if hackers manage to steal data from a backup solution provider, they still will not be able to do anything with it since they do not have the key.
Key management services like AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS), Azure Key Vault, Google Cloud Key Management and others, allow easy management of cryptographic keys. Key management ensures the security of your keys and also provides an easy way to control and access your data.
With AWS KMS, you can easily create cryptographic keys to encrypt your data stored in the cloud and control the use of the keys across a wide range of AWS services. AWS KMS uses hardware security modules (HSM), and the keys are validated under the FIPS 140-2 Cryptographic Module Validation Program, making the service highly secure and resilient. The centralized key management system allows you to import, rotate, delete, manage permissions and define policies on keys.
Azure Key Vault allows you to securely store and access secrets API keys, passwords, certificates, cryptographic keys and so on. The cloud service enhances security and control over your cryptographic keys and other secrets using FIPS 140-2 Level 2 and Level 3-validated HSMs. Azure Key Vault allows you to easily create, import and define access policies to control access to your secrets.
A centralized key management system provides multiple benefits to businesses, including:
The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), also known as Rijndael, is the most widely adopted and trusted symmetric encryption algorithm. In fact, AES encryption is the U.S. Government standard for encryption. AES is a cryptographic algorithm used to protect digital assets. AES was developed to replace the Data Encryption Standard (DES) algorithm after the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recognized that the DES was growing vulnerable with advancements in cryptanalysis.
AES supports three keys with 128-bit, 192-bit and 256-bit key lengths. AES 256-bit encryption is considered to provide the highest level of security. Due to its speed, resistance to attacks and compatibility, the U.S. Government and countless non-governmental organizations worldwide use AES encryption to protect their confidential data.
Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) is an encryption model that allows customers to use their own encryption software and keys to encrypt and decrypt data stored in the cloud. This gives you more control over your data and management of your keys. BYOK adds an additional layer of security to your confidential data. You can use the encryption software to encrypt data before sending it to your cloud service provider and decrypt is using your key upon retrieval.
Did you know that as of 2022, more than 60% of all corporate data is stored in the cloud?
Cloud offers multiple benefits, such as increased agility, scalability, productivity, reduced costs and so on. However, there are some critical security issues that you must be aware of, like data privacy and control, lack of visibility, programmatic errors and unauthorized access, to name a few. Your cloud service provider actually controls your backups stored in the cloud. Its no surprise data loss and leakage (69%) were the top cloud security concerns in 2021, followed by data privacy/confidentiality (64%). To address these issues, businesses like yours can leverage BYOK encryption, which allows you to encrypt data before transmitting it to the cloud, and the best part is, the key to your backups lies with you.
Spanning Backup for Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 and Salesforce offers Customer-Managed Encryption Keys or Bring Your Own Key, which gives you increased control over your companys data. Additionally, it allows you to control cloud service providers level of access to your data and enables you to suspend or shut off access at any time, thereby mitigating risks related to data security. Our encryption key self-management also provides data access transparency into how keys are used, as well as greater control via best practices in limiting key access.
Spanning protects your SaaS data with 256-bit AES object-level encryption, with unique, randomly generated encryption keys for every single object and a rotating master key protecting the unique keys. Additionally, Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption is used to protect all data in transit.
Discover how Spanning provides end-to-end protection for your SaaS data.
Request a Demo Today
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Backup Encryption: What It Is and Why Its Important for Data Security - Security Boulevard
Quantum computing will require massive software updates. Doing that securely will be its own challenge. – Protocol
No matter how long it takes to reach commercialization in the enterprise, quantum computing could have major consequences for the world of cybersecurity well in advance of the technology going mainstream.
To date, most of the security discussion around quantum computing has focused on the possible implications for data encryption. The most common scenario: Someday maybe in five, 10 or 20 years mega-powerful computing systems that harness the very weird properties of quantum mechanics could achieve the unthinkable, and obliterate the current methods of encryption that the internet depends on for security.
On the other hand, maybe this will never happen at all. No one can say for sure.
It's very clear, however, that the tech industry is gearing up for this so-called "post-quantum" scenario. Software will be updated on an epic scale to accommodate new methods of quantum-resistant cryptography that are being advanced by the government and researchers.
That means while nobody can be certain if quantum computing will ever really pose a security risk itself, the preparations surely will: It's inevitable that we'll see a large number of security vulnerabilities unintentionally introduced into software as the process plays out, said Jonathan Katz, a cryptography expert and IEEE member. Any time software is changed on a large scale particularly when its happening quickly vulnerabilities will tend to creep in.
"We know how to design mathematically secure algorithms," said Katz, whos also a professor of computer science at the University of Maryland. "We're not quite as good yet at implementing them in a secure way."
Thats a challenge the tech industry will have to figure out. If the hackers of, say, 2032 get their hands on a quantum computer that could break encryption, it would put much of the world's data at risk. (That includes, by the way, encrypted data that threat actors might be collecting today and storing away for a decrypting opportunity in the quantum future, according to experts.)
We can thank the efforts of cryptography specialists working in tandem with the National Institute of Standards and Technology for helping the industry prepare for this threat. Back in 2016, the agency helped get the ball rolling on post-quantum cryptography by launching a process for soliciting the algorithms needed to do the job.
In July, NIST presented the fruits of that six-year process, announcing four algorithms that the agency aims to use as the basis for the new quantum-resistant method of encryption. The algorithm that will provide secure web access is known as CRYSTALS-Kyber (some experts refer to it as Kyber). The three remaining algorithms will come into play for identity verification during digital exchanges.
While NIST says it expects to finalize the algorithm choices in "about two years," the vendors whose technology underpins the functions of the internet have already begun exploring how to implement them particularly Kyber.
Since there are a number of different ways to implement Kyber, the industry now has to settle on which type of implementation to embed into the TLS protocol, which is what enables HTTPS secure web browsing.
"The industry is now in the mode of, 'OK, we know what the algorithm is going to look like how do we actually deploy it into systems? And what are the troubles and pitfalls of that?'" said Nick Sullivan, head of research at web security and performance vendor Cloudflare.
Software developers, however, have had decades to figure out how to properly deploy existing forms of encryption, such as RSA. "That time has allowed people to learn from their mistakes," Katz said. "And many mistakes were made along the way."
Now, we may have the same situation occur again, with the implementation of largely untested new algorithms that are based on different techniques, he said. Rather than facing an underlying issue with the algorithms, he believes it's more probable we'll see a variety of flaws in the code introduced during the software engineering process.
We know how to design mathematically secure algorithms. We're not quite as good yet at implementing them in a secure way.
Buffer overflow issues a common bug in software code that can enable an attacker to access parts of memory they shouldn't be allowed to are among the types of vulnerabilities that are likely to pop up a lot in a situation such as this, Katz said.
How could this happen? For one thing, there will be a learning curve involved for software engineers.
To some degree, they "will need to understand what's going on under the hood," Katz said. The complexity of the algorithms could present bigger difficulties than understanding existing methods, however.
Meanwhile, as the saying goes, speed is the enemy of security. And there's going to be a lot of new software being written as part of these post-quantum preparations, and written quickly, Katz said.
All in all, the implementation of the new algorithms is sure to become a "significant source of vulnerabilities in the five years after these things are first widely deployed," he said.
For better or worse, the tech industry feels a lot of urgency around implementing the post-quantum algorithms. In part, that's because "nobody knows" when the threat to encryption might emerge, said Nelly Porter, Google Cloud's lead product manager for technology areas including encryption and quantum computing.
"Everybody assumes that it will take many, many years. But I think in the world of cryptography, we are much more paranoid," Porter said.
When is the earliest she thinks it could happen?
"I would say [as soon as] three years for very advanced adversaries to make it usable," Porter said. "We have time to get ready. But we don't have too much time."
Other experts have predicted longer time frames before the performance of quantum computers would be able to break encryption (specifically, whats known as asymmetric encryption, or public-key cryptography).
Chris Monroe, a quantum computing pioneer and Duke University physics professor, believes it will take 10 years or more to get there. In the meantime, early quantum computing applications for instance, optimization of delivery routes or financial models will likely be commercialized in a shorter time frame, said Monroe, who is also co-founder and chief scientist at quantum computing vendor IonQ.
However, it'll take longer for quantum computers to break encryption because the problem sizes are so big, he said. In other words, breaking encryption will probably not be the first thing that happens when it comes to real-world usage of quantum computers.
Once technology vendors have done their part to implement the quantum-resistant algorithms, that's when the work for businesses will begin. And that will probably be the hardest part of all, experts told Protocol.
Hardware, operating systems and software will all need updates to enable the new quantum-proof encryption methods.
"There's a big patching and replacement exercise that's going to go on here which is complicated, time-consuming and important," said Tim Callan, chief compliance officer at Sectigo, a major provider of digital certificates that are used in the encryption process.
We have time to get ready. But we don't have too much time.
The process will require taking an inventory of everything they use that leverages encryption. Thats no small task for any organization, but it will be especially daunting for those with workers, data centers and edge devices scattered around the globe.
"They're going to need to look at every system. And they're going to need to say, 'Is this system post-quantum-ready or not?'" Callan said. "'And if it is not, how do I feel about that?' They're going to have to prioritize."
Businesses that rely heavily on cloud infrastructure will have less to worry about, since a lot of the updates will happen behind the scenes, said Cloudflare's Sullivan. Those who still have a lot of physical machines in their operation will need to figure out if their devices can even be updated, or if they'll need to be replaced, he said.
One of the big questions for businesses will also be whether their existing PC fleets will be able to handle the compute requirements of the new algorithms.
While NIST included a requirement that the new algorithms would not be significantly more compute-intensive, that doesn't mean that every PC will be able to run them, said Stel Valavanis, founder and CEO of managed security provider onShore Security.
In the same way that the shift to work-from-home and videoconferencing forced many businesses to upgrade their PC fleets, the arrival of post-quantum encryption could be the "next ceiling" that businesses run into in terms of device performance, Valavanis said.
While it's still too early to know for sure, there's certainly a chance we could be heading into a "haves and have nots" scenario with quantum-resistant encryption, said Keith McCammon, co-founder and chief security officer at managed detection and response vendor Red Canary.
"We're probably going to run into questions of access: Is this thing equally accessible to everybody?" McCammon said.
On the other hand, there's also a chance that some businesses will not put a priority on quantum-proofing their systems at all.
Due to the uncertain and potentially long time frames and all of the more immediate threats that businesses are dealing with on a daily basis there's "always that risk" that some businesses will just ignore the issue, said Boaz Gelbord, chief security officer at Akamai Technologies.
In the short term, there might seem to be no consequences of inaction, said Joseph Steinberg, an independent information security consultant. But in all likelihood, we're never going to get much of an advanced warning about when encryption will be at risk, he said.
"The Chinese government doesn't announce what they're doing. We don't really know what the current capabilities are" for quantum computing, he said.
Ultimately, "we're talking about something catastrophic," Steinberg said. "And if we're wrong and this hits sooner than expected we have a problem."
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Quantum computing will require massive software updates. Doing that securely will be its own challenge. - Protocol
Community Surgical Supply Inc. Reports Data Breach After Unauthorized Party Encrypts Files Containing Sensitive Consumer Information – JD Supra
On July 29, 2022, Community Surgical Supply Inc. (CSS) reported a data breach after the company discovered that some of its files had been encrypted and were accessible to the unauthorized party that orchestrated the cyberattack. According to the CSS, the breach resulted in the names, addresses, drivers license numbers, government identification numbers, passport numbers, Social Security numbers, and dates of birth of 66,115 individuals being compromised. After confirming the breach and identifying all affected parties, Community Surgical Supply began sending out data breach letters to all affected parties.
If you received a data breach notification, it is essential you understand what is at risk and what you can do about it. To learn more about how to protect yourself from becoming a victim of fraud or identity theft and what your legal options are in the wake of the Community Surgical Supply data breach, please see our recent piece on the topic here.
The information about the Community Surgical Supply Inc. data breach comes from an official notice the company filed with various state government entities. Evidently, on October 5, 2021, Community Surgical Supply first learned of the incident when employees noticed that certain company files were encrypted. In response, CSS took the necessary steps to secure its network and then worked with cybersecurity professionals to investigate the incident. On July 1, 2022, the companys investigation confirmed that an unauthorized party was able to access portions of the Community Surgical Supply network and that the compromised files contained sensitive consumer information.
Upon discovering that sensitive consumer data was accessible to an unauthorized party, Community Surgical Supply began the process of reviewing all affected files to determine what information was compromised and which consumers were impacted by the incident. While the breached information varies depending on the individual, it may include your first and last name, address, drivers license number, government identification number, passport number, Social Security number, and date of birth.
On July 29, 2022, Community Surgical Supply sent out data breach letters to all individuals whose information was compromised as a result of the recent data security incident. Based on the most recent estimates, the CSS data breach affected 66,155 individuals.
More Information About Community Surgical Supply Inc.
Founded in 1962, Community Surgical Supply Inc. is a medical supply manufacturing company and retailer based in Toms River, New Jersey. The company supplies specialized healthcare products to patients, nurses, dieticians and respiratory therapists, including respiratory, enteral nutrition, sleep and infusion therapy products and services. Community Surgical Supply employs more than 775 people and generates approximately $226 million in annual revenue.
In the data breach letter Community Surgical Supply Inc. sent to victims of the recent data security incident, the company mentioned that it first learned it was the victim of a cyberattack when it noticed certain files on its network had been encrypted. Encryption is common in the IT world, and while encryption is frequently used for a wide range of legal purposes, it is also the weapon of choice among hackers.
Encryption is a process that encodes files, making them inaccessible to anyone without an encryption key. Individuals and companies encrypt files every day to protect sensitive data. However, cyberattacks also use encryption when orchestrating a ransomware attack. So, while CSS did not explicitly say that the company was the victim of a ransomware attack, based on its data breach letter, its a good indication that was the case.
A ransomware attack is when a hacker installs a specific kind of malware on a victims computer that encrypts some of all of the files on the device. When the victim logs back on, they will see a message from the hackers demanding the victim pay a ransom if they want to regain access to their computer. If the victim pays the ransom, the hackers decrypt the filesor at least they are supposed to. Generally, hackers honor their commitment to decrypt files after a ransom is paid because, if they didnt, there would be no incentive for any company to pay a ransom.
However, to compel companies that may be on the fence about paying a ransom, some hackers have started to threaten to publish the stolen data if the company does not pay the ransom. However, the FBI advises companies not to pay ransoms following a ransomware attack because doing so keeps these attacks profitable. This is similar to the line of reasoning why the government doesnt negotiate with terrorists. Of course, companies that experience a ransomware attack are in a difficult position because they would undoubtedly prefer to quietly pay a ransom to avoid news of the breach becoming public.
However, companies canand shouldtake preventative steps to avoid becoming the target of a ransomware attack rather than trying to mitigate the damages of an attack after-the-fact. Still, despite the widespread knowledge of the risks of ransomware attacks, many companies fail to devote adequate resources to their data security systems.
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Community Surgical Supply Inc. Reports Data Breach After Unauthorized Party Encrypts Files Containing Sensitive Consumer Information - JD Supra