Month: August 2018
Aug 31, 2018 | Cybersecurity News, Data Breach News, Email & Web Spam, Malware Alerts
A massive MagnetoCore malware campaign has been uncovered that has seen thousands of Magneto stores compromised and loaded with a payment card scraper. As visitors pay for their purchases on the checkout pages of compromised websites, their payment card information is sent to the attacker’s in real time.
Once access is gained to a website, the source code is modified to include the MagnetoCore malware, which is hidden among legitimate files in the Magnetocore.net domain.
The hacking campaign was detected by Dutch security researcher Willem de Groot. Over the past six months, the hacker behind the campaign has loaded MagnetoCore malware on at least 7,339 Magneto stores. The number of compromised websites is believed to be increasing at a rate of around 50 or 60 new stores per day.
Site owners have been informed of the MagentoCore malware infections, although currently more than 5,170 Magneto stores still have the script on the site.
The campaign was discovered when de Groot started scanning Magneto stores looking for malware infections and malicious scripts. He claims that around 4.2% of Magneto stores have been compromised and contain malware or a malicious script.
While a high number of small websites have been infected, according to de Groot, the script has also been loaded onto the websites of multi-million-dollar publicly traded companies, suggesting the hacker behind the attack has been able to steal tens, or most likely, hundreds of thousands of payment cards.
With a full set of payment card data selling for between $5 and $30 per card on darknet marketplaces, the individual(s) or hacking group behind the campaign has likely made a substantial profit.
Further information on the threat actor(s) responsible for the attacks has come from RiskIQ, which reports that the MagnetoCore malware campaign is part of much larger payment card scraping campaign known as MageCart. RiskIQ reports that MageCart has been in operation since at least 2015 and says the campaign being run by three groups. One of the groups was responsible for the TicketMaster breach reported in June that affected 5% of its customers.
All three groups are using the same tactics as part of a single campaign. It is likely the MagnetoCore malware campaign is being run by the same individuals responsible for MageCart.
Access to the sites is gained through a simple but time-consuming process – Conducting a brute force attack to guess the password for the administrator account on the website. According to de Groot, it can take months before the password is guessed. Other tactics known to be used are the use of malware such as keyloggers to obtain the login credentials and the exploitation of vulnerabilities in unpatched content management systems.
Preventing website compromises requires the use of very strong passwords and prompt patching to ensure all vulnerabilities are addressed. CMS systems should also be updated as soon as a new version is released.
It is also important for site owners to conduct regular scans of website CMSs to search for malicious scripts or code alterations, and to use a security solution that alerts the webmaster when a code change is detected on a website.
Unfortunately, finding out that a site has been compromised and removing the malicious code will not be sufficient. A painstaking check of the codebase is required as multiple backdoors are often added to compromised websites to ensure access can still be gained should the malicious code be discovered and removed.
Aug 29, 2018 | Industry News
What is Email Archiving?
An email archive is a secure repository for emails and attachments which may need to be accessed from time to time but are not needed on a day to day basis. An email archive securely preserves all email conversations in a searchable format that allows companies to satisfy state, federal, and industry requirements and meet their legal obligations for data retention.
Email Archives Save on Storage Space
While messages could be left in personal mailboxes, the number of emails received on a daily basis means the storage space required for each mailbox would be considerable, especially considering the requirement in many industries to retain emails for several years. Even if employees exercised strict control over their inboxes and mailbox folders and diligently deleted spam and non-official emails, storage space will still likely become an issue in a short space of time.
Archives are Searchable Email Stores
One common solution to preserve emails is a mailbox backup. Email backups allow an entire mailbox to be restored in the event of disaster and can be used to recover emails that have been accidentally deleted.
However, as with any store, be it a storeroom at work, or your attic or garage at home, knowing that an item is in storage does not mean it is easy to find. While you may need to invest a little time to find a particular item in your garage, it can be a gargantuan task to find a single email in an email backup containing thousands or even tens of thousands of messages, as backups are not searchable.
An email archive differs from a backup as messages are indexed to allow searches to be performed. Finding a message in a backup file can take hours or even days. Finding a message in an archive takes a matter of seconds or a minute or two at most. When an email needs to be produced for any reason, an email archive allows it to be quickly found.
Typically, IT staff have much more pressing things to attend to than recovering accidentally deleted emails. An email archive solves that problem as employees can be granted access to their own email archives. They can therefore be searched by employees without any IT department involvement. Further, if a cloud-based archive is used, emails can be accessed from any location and emails found even when the mail server is down.
There are naturally situations when more formal searches are required, such as when issues are identified with an employee and HR needs further information on the matter. Legal eDiscovery requests require large quantities of emails to be found and provided to attorneys, and customer disputes require email conversations to be quickly found. An archive significantly reduces the time taken for these tasks to be performed. A company-wide search of emails typically takes 80% less time when an archive is used.
Email Archives are Important for GDPR Compliance
When the General Data Protection Regulation came into effect, email archives became even more important. When a request is received from an individual who wants to exercise their right to be forgotten, all data must be erased, which includes data contained in email accounts. An email archive allows emails containing personal data of E.U. citizens to be quickly and easily found and deleted.
The email archive serves as a black box flight recorder for email, ensuring that come what may, all emails can be located. Emails in the archive are also tamper-evident and court admissible. This makes email archives important for compliance with state, federal, and industry regulations.
An Email Archive Saves Companies Time and Money
Mail server efficiency is improved by using archives, server management costs are reduced, and storage costs are slashed. Typically, companies can save up to 75% on storage space when an archive is used and up to 50% of maintenance time. Further, when emails need to be migrated to new mail servers, it is a much quicker process when the majority of emails have been placed in an archive. The cost savings from using an email archive are considerable.
An email archive can be used to retain a copy of every email sent and received. An audit trail is maintained, emails are saved in their original form and with emails in the archive, data cannot be lost or deleted accidentally. Whenever an email or attachment needs to be recovered, it can be quickly and easily found. An email archive is a low cost solution that saves companies time, money, and helps with compliance with state, federal, and industry regulations.
ArcTitan: A Fast, Efficient, Low Cost Email Archiving Solution for Businesses
If you have not yet started using an email archiving solution, TitanHQ has an ideal solution. ArcTitan is a fast, convenient, scalable, and low-cost archiving solution for SMBs, enterprises, and managed service providers.
ArcTitan is a cloud-based email archiving solution that integrates seamlessly with Outlook and all major mail clients. ArcTitan allows emails to be quickly and easily archived and retrieved on demand via super-fast, user-friendly search screens. Users can search up to 30 million emails a second, and emails are sent to the archive at a rate of 200 messages a second.
All emails are de-duplicated and compressed to reduce storage space and all messages and attachments are stored securely in IL5 certified datacenters on Replicated Persistent Storage on AWS S3 and are encrypted in transit and at rest.Routine maintenance runs 50% quicker and storage space can be reduced by up to 75%, leading to significant returns on investment for an organisation.
If you want an easy to use email archiving solution that can be implemented in minutes, is easy to use, and allows emails to recovered rapidly, contact the TitanHQ team today for further information.
MSPs that are looking to add email archiving to their service stacks would do well to use ArcTitan. ArcTitan has been developed with MSPs firmly in mind, and includes many MSP-friendly features. ArcTitan can be hosted with TitanHQ, in a private cloud, or even in an MSP’s data center and APIs allow the solution to be integrated into MSP’s back office systems. ArcTitan can be provided as a white label ready to take an MSP’s branding, and there are flexible payment options and generous margins. For further information call TitanHQ today and speak to the channel team.
Aug 29, 2018 | Cybersecurity Advice, Internet Security, Mobile Security, Network Security
Security awareness training best practices to help your organization tackle the weakest link in the security chain: Your employees.
The Importance of Security Awareness Training
It doesn’t matter how comprehensive your security defenses are and how much you invested on cybersecurity products, those defenses can all be bypassed with a single phishing email. If one such email is delivered to an end user who does not have a basic understanding of security and they respond to that message, malware can be installed, or the attacker can otherwise gain a foothold in your network.
It is the risk of such an attack that has spurred many organizations to develop a security awareness training program. By teaching all employees cybersecurity best practices – from the CEO to the lowest level workers – security posture can be greatly enhanced and susceptibility to phishing attacks and other cyberattacks will be greatly reduced.
However, simply providing employees with a training session when they join the company is not sufficient. Neither is it enough to give an induction in cybersecurity followed by an annual refresher training session. Employees cannot be expected to retain knowledge for 12 months unless frequent refresher training sessions are provided. Further, cybercriminals are constantly developing new tactics to fool end users. Training programs must keep up with those changing tactics.
To help organizations develop an effective security awareness training program we have compiled a list of security awareness training best practices to follow. Adopt these security awareness training best practices and you will be one step closer to developing a security culture in your organization.
Security Awareness Training Best Practices
Listed below are some security awareness training best practices that will help you develop an effective training program that will ultimately help you to prevent data breaches.
C-Suite Involvement is a Must
It is often said that the weakest link in the security chain are an organization’s employees. While that is undoubtedly true, the C-Suite is also a weak link. If the C-Suite does not take an active interest in cybersecurity and does not realize the importance of the human element in security, it is unlikely that sufficient support will be provided and unlikely that appropriate resources are made available. C-suite involvement can also help with organization-wide collaboration. It will be very difficult to create a security culture in an organization if there is no C-Suite involvement in cybersecurity.
An Organization-Wide Effort is Required
A single department will likely be given the responsibility for developing and implementing a security awareness program, but it will not be easy in isolation. Assistance will be required from other departments. The heads of different departments can help to ensure that the security awareness training program is given the priority it deserves.
To ease the burden on the IT department, members of other departments can be trained and can assist with the provision of support or may even be able to assist with the training efforts. Other departments, such as marketing, can help developing content for newsletters and other training material. The HR department can help by setting policies and procedures.
Creation of Security Awareness Training Content
There is no need to develop training content for employees from scratch as there are many free resources available that can give you a head start. Many firms offer high quality training material for a price, which is likely to be lower than the cost of developing training material in-house. Take advantage of these resources but make sure that you develop a training program that is specific to the threats faced by your organization and the sector in which you operate. Your training program must be comprehensive. If any gaps exist, they are likely to be exploited sooner or later.
Diversity of Training
A one-size-fits-all approach to training will ultimately fail. People respond differently to different training methods. Some may retain more knowledge through classroom-based training, others may need one-to-one training, and many will benefit more from CBT training sessions. Your training program should include a wide range of different methods to help with different learning styles. The more engaging your program is, the more likely knowledge will be retained. Use posters, newsletters, email security alerts, games, and quizzes and you will likely see major improvements in your employees’ security awareness.
Simulation Exercises
You can develop a seriously impressive training program for your employees that looks perfect on paper, but if your employees only manage to retain 20% of the content, your training program will not be very effective. The only way you can determine how effective your training program is through attack simulations. Phishing simulation exercises and simulations of other attack scenarios should be conducted before, during, and after training. You will be able to assess how effective all elements of the training program have been, and it will give you the feedback you need to identify weak links and take action to improve your training program.
Security Awareness Training Needs to be a Constant Process
Security awareness training is not a checkbox item that can be completed and forgotten about for another year. Your program should be running constantly and should consist of an annual training session for all employees, semi-annual training sessions, and other training efforts spread throughout the year. The goal should be to make sure security issues are always fresh in the mind.
Aug 28, 2018 | Cybersecurity Advice, Industry News, Internet Security, Network Security, Web Filtering
Cybersecurity best practices for restaurants that you can adopt to make your network more secure and prevent hackers from gaining access to your POS system and customers’ credit card information.
Cybercriminals are Targeting Restaurants’ POS Systems
If you run a busy restaurant you will most likely be processing thousands of credit and debit card transactions every month. Every time someone pays with a card you have a legal responsibility to ensure that the card details that are read through your point of sale (POS) system remain private and cannot be stolen by your employees or obtained by cybercriminals.
So far this year there have been several major cyberattacks on restaurants that have resulted in the credit and debit card numbers of customers being stolen. In August, Darden Restaurants discovered that hackers gained access to the POS system used in its Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen restaurants and potentially stole over half a million payment card numbers.
Applebee’s, PDQ, Zippy’s, and Chili’s have all experienced cyberattacks in 2018 which have resulted in hackers gaining access to customers’ payment cards. Last year also saw several cyberattacks on restaurants, including attacks on Shoney’s, Arby’s, Chipotle, and the Sonic Drive-In chain. These restaurant cyberattacks are notable due to the amount of card numbers that were stolen. The cyberattack on Cheddar’s is thought to have resulted in the theft of more than half a million payment card numbers, expiry dates and CVV codes, while the Sonic data breach has been estimated to have impacted millions of customers.
Not all cyberattacks on restaurants are conducted on large restaurant chains. Smaller restaurants are also being attacked. These smaller establishments may not process anywhere near as many payment card transactions as a chain the size of Applebee’s, but the attacks can still prove profitable for criminals. Card details sell for upwards of $7, so the theft of 1,000 card numbers from a small restaurant will still generate a decent profit and the effort required to conduct cyberattacks on small restaurants is often far less than an attack on a large chain.
All restaurants are at risk of hacking. Steps must therefore be taken by all restaurants to make it as hard as possible for hackers to gain access to the network, POS systems, and customer data. With this in mind we have listed cybersecurity best practices for restaurants to adopt to avoid a data breach.
Cybersecurity Best Practices for Restaurants
Listed below are some cybersecurity best practices for restaurants to adopt to make it harder for hackers to gain access to your network and data. There is no silver bullet that will stop all cyberattacks, but these cybersecurity best practices for restaurants will help to improve your security posture.
Network Segmentation is a Must
You will most likely have multiple computers in use in your restaurant as well as many other devices that connect to your network via an ethernet connection or WiFi. Every device that connects to your network is a possible entry point that could be exploited by a hacker. It is therefore important to stake steps to ensure that if one device is compromised, access cannot be gained to your entire network. Your POS system needs to be segregated from other parts of the network and users should only be permitted to access parts of the network that are required to complete their assigned duties.
Patch Management and Vulnerability Scanning
All it takes is for one vulnerability to remain unaddressed for you to be vulnerable to attack. It is therefore essential to maintain an inventory of all devices that connect to your network and ensure that patches and software updates are applied on all those devices as soon as they are released. You should also conduct regular vulnerability scans to identify possible weak points and take prompt action to ensure those weak points are addressed.
Secure the Perimeter with a Firewall
One of the most important cybersecurity solutions to implement to prevent hackers from gaining access to your network is a firewall. A firewall monitors and controls incoming and outgoing network traffic and serves as a barrier between a trusted internal network and an untrusted external network. A firewall is also an important element of PCI compliance.
Implement a Spam Filter to Block Malicious Emails
Email is the most common vector used to install malware. Phishing attacks are commonplace and are an easy way for hackers to gain login credentials and get a foothold in the network. Use a spam filter such as SpamTitan to prevent malicious messages from being delivered to end users’ inboxes and block all malware-laced emails.
Protect Your WiFi Network with a Web Filtering Solution
Your WiFi network is a potential weak spot and must be secured. If you provide WiFi access to your customers, ensure they are only provided with access to a guest network and not the network used by your staff. Implement a web filter to control what users can do when connected to your network. A web filter will help to prevent malware from being downloaded and can be configured to block access to risky websites. WebTitan is an ideal web filter for restaurants to improve WiFi security.
Purchase Antivirus Software
Antivirus software is one of the most basic software solutions to protect against malware. Malware is commonly installed on POS systems to record and exfiltrate payment card information. Not only should you ensure that a powerful antivirus solution is installed, you should also ensure regular scans of the network are performed.
Provide Security Awareness Training to Staff
Your employees are a potential weak point in your security defenses. Don’t assume that your employees are security aware. Teach your staff cybersecurity best practices for restaurants, provide anti-phishing training, and explain about risky behaviors that could easily lead to a data breach.
Backup and Backup Again
You should perform regular backups of all your essential data to protect against saboteurs and provide protection against ransomware attacks. If disaster strikes, you will need to record all your data. Adopt the 3-2-1 approach to creating backups. Create three copies, on two separate media, and store one copy securely off site on an air-gapped device that is not connected to the Internet.
Vet your Vendors
Access to your network may be gained through your vendors. The cyberattack on PDQ restaurants occurred via a remote access tool used by one of its technology vendors. If a vendor is able to connect to your network, it is essential that they have appropriate security controls in place. Be sure to check how secure your vendor is and what controls they have in place to prevent hacking before giving them network access.
Adopt these cybersecurity best practices for restaurants and you will make it harder for hackers to gain access to your network and you should be able to avoid a costly data breach.
Aug 27, 2018 | Cybersecurity News, Data Breach News
A recent Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen data breach is believed to have affected more than half a million of the restaurant chain’s customers and resulted in their credit/debit card details being obtained by hackers.
Darden Restaurants acquired Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen in March 2017. The newly acquired restaurant chain was using a legacy point-of-sale (POS) system which was disabled and replaced by April 10, 2018 as part of Darden’s integration process.
However, prior to the system being replaced, hackers gained access to the POS system and customers’ credit/debit card details. There are 163 Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen restaurants spread across 23 states – Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin. All locations were affected by the breach.
The Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen data breach affects all customers who visited those restaurants between November 3, 2017 and January 2, 2018 and paid for their meal using a debit or credit card. Determining how many of its customers have been affected is likely to take some time, although current estimates suggest that as many as 567,000 customers could be affected.
Restaurants are an attractive target for cybercriminals. If access can be gained to the network containing the POS system, malware can be installed to intercept and record credit card numbers as diners pay for their meals.
Once installed, malware can silently steal credit card numbers for months. Typically, it is only when banks and credit card companies detect a pattern of credit card fraud and link it to a particular establishment that an investigation is launched and malware is detected.
While the value of credit card numbers on the black market has dropped due to the constant availability of stolen credentials, full sets of credit card information can still fetch at least $7. At that price, the Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen data breach could have netted the attackers $4 million. With such a massive potential payday it is no surprise that restaurants are such a big target for hackers.
The Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen data breach is one of many attacks on restaurant chains in recent months. In March 2018, RMH Franchise Holdings announced that malware had been discovered on the POS system used in 160 Applebee’s restaurants. The malware had been programmed to record names, credit and debit card numbers, expiry dates, and CVV codes and was present on the system for a month between December 2017 and January 2018.
In May, a cyberattack was detected at Zippy’s Restaurants which affected 25 of the Hawaii restaurant chain’s locations. Malware had been installed on its POS system for 4 months before it was detected. Also in May, Chili’s restaurants announced that malware had been discovered on the POS system used in some of its restaurants. The malware was active between March and April 2018.
In June, the PDQ restaurant chain discovered it had been attacked and customers’ credit and debit card information had been stolen. The attackers had access to the POS system for almost a year between May 2017 and April 2018. In that attack, access was gained through a remote connection tool used by a technology vendor.
Last year also saw numerous cyberattacks on restaurant chains. Shoney’s, Arby’s, Chipotle, and Sonic Drive-In all experienced major cyberattacks, with the latter estimated to have impacted millions of customers.
If you own a restaurant it is essential to implement a range of cybersecurity solutions to keep hackers out of your network and ensure your customers credit and debit card numbers remain secure.
You can find out more about cybersecurity best practices for restaurants here or contact the TitanHQ team to discover how two of the most common entry points into a network – email and WiFi – can be secured.
