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HOW TO REPORT A CYBERSECURITY INCIDENT (EX: RANSOMWARE) IN US & CANADA

Featured

Even if you are the greatest cybersecurity expert on the planet, the chances are
that at some point you will be hacked, ransomwared or otherwise compromised. In
those cases the best case of action is to report the incident to the proper
authorities, which usually deal with cybersecurity criminals. Now, some of you
may think “what is the point, they will do nothing because my case is so small”
and that might be close to the truth, but there is always value of providing
data which, even if it doesn’t resolve your immediate case, might prove
consequential for resolving related cases in the future. Both US and Canada have
federal agencies which deal with cybersecurity breaches and which have reporting
mechanisms online. One word of caution, if you have evidence of child
molestation or human trafficking, immediately call your local police
headquarters phone number and report, before even going online.

US authorities offer two ways of reporting cybersecurity incidents online. You
can report the incident directly to the FBI (Federal Bureau of Information) at
https://ransomware.ic3.gov/default or you can report the incident to CISA
(Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency) at https://www.cisa.gov/forms/report .

The FBI reporting site looks like this:

While the CISA reporting site looks like this:

Canada also has an online form for reporting cybersecurity incidents which is
connected to the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) which performs the duties
of local police in counties which cannot afford its own dedicated police
service, but also performs the duties of a Canadian Federal Police, basically
the equivalent of the US FBI. A cybersecurity incident in Canada can be reported
at https://www.cyber.gc.ca/en/incident-management:

One additional complication with reporting a cybersecurity incident in Canada is
that you need to create a Governmant du Canada or GCKey account:

This might dissuade many people from reporting a cybersecurity incident in
Canada, and the Canadian Government would be advised to simplify the process in
accords to the US Government if it wants to have a realistic reporting of the
number of incidents. The GC key and Government of Canada logins require
extensive verification, including entering bank accounts credential from major
financial institutions (while online banking affiliates like Simplii or
Tangerine are not accepted).



In both cases, after you enter the details of the cybersecurity incident, even
if you don’t receive an acknowledgement, you may rest assured that your
information has been entered in the global database and might help with solving
future major breaches and crimes.




cloud9cybersecurity Cyber Security Leave a comment October 24, 2023 2 Minutes


GIGABYTE MOTHERBOARD BACKDOOR FIASCO



If you follow Cyber Security news you’ve definitely seen the articles about
Gigabyte’s Motherboards having a “backdoor” – basically an automated update
process that runs in the background, unknown to the user, which contacts
Gigabytes web site to check for firmware updates and downloads them and installs
them without any prompting, passwords or user authentication.

Very useful, some might think? Customer-friendly, right? Well, this was probably
the argument within Gigabyte when this was implemented. Someone within Gigabyte
decided to take the “Customer Obsession” paradigm to its extreme conclusion and
implement this atrocious functionality which opened up over 400 models of
motherboards to every hacker in the world, no matter how incompetent, since
Gigabyte just did the actual hacking for them. All hackers needed to do is just
replace their own payload within the firmware update and – voila! The wet dream
of every hacker – smuggling an executable program behind OS defenses – has been
given out on a silver platter.

The company that discovered the backdoor, Eclypsium, published an extensive blog
post on what the backdoor does and where it was discovered (from 200 initially
to 400+ models right now) and also have prepared a free PowerShell script (no
admin privileges required) that will check if your motherboard is one of the
compromised ones
(https://eclypsium.com/blog/supply-chain-risk-from-gigabyte-app-center-backdoor/).

The news was picked up by many outlets, but also, as it is common, the
newsworthiness passed in about 3 days for most, and they just moved to the next
hot issue of the day. The article in Wired is very extensive and explains all
the different moving parts
(https://www.wired.com/story/gigabyte-motherboard-firmware-backdoor/). Their
title says “Millions of Motherboards” have been compromised, but with the models
with backdoor rising up to over 400 under additional scrutiny, we probably went
from single digit to double digit millions.

So what is the gist of the problem? Even under cursory analysis, two distinct
factors, ever-present in the tech industry, become obvious. The first is this
fad that has taken the tech world over the last few years of “Customer
Obsession”. It would be as if the doctor was asking the patient what treatment
they should be prescribed for their illness. There is a great article in the
Harvard Business Review from 2010 “Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers”
(https://hbr.org/2010/07/stop-trying-to-delight-your-customers) . The authors
are not against proper Customer Service, but they are definitely against vendors
and vendor managers bending over backwards to satisfy every customers’ whim. The
authors show data that extreme customer satisfaction does not directly correlate
with retention, nor with increased revenue. Quite the opposite – customer are
turned off by vendors who are “Trying too Hard”.



It seems that, in this case, Gigabyte folks did not read the HBR article, and
decided to make the firmware update “invisible and seamless” to the customer
without any interaction required. That might sound positive, however it opens
the Pandora’s Box that by far outweighs any marginal customer satisfaction
increase. Basically these folks did a horrible damage to the customers’ security
posture, by opening a channel within their firmware for any hacker to attach a
malicious payload, without any security checks or even a password required.

The second obvious reason is that many tech companies out there do not take
cyber security risk seriously. We see this over and over in IoT and other fields
(see previous articles) where gaping cyber security holes are left open for
months, and even years, before they get fixed, since the vendor doesn’t consider
them a priority. This attitude, which pushes the cyber responsibility from the
manufacturer to the end-user, is quite common and very dangerous and damaging.
The hackers (especially state-sponsored ones) are rubbing their hands in glee to
such approaches.

Of course, every company wants to maximize their profits and customer retention,
but pandering to every customer whim is actually detrimental to this goal.
Customers are much better off when they are educated and directed to the
approach that is right for their specific situation.


cloud9cybersecurity Cyber News, Cyber Security Leave a comment July 4,
2023February 20, 2024 3 Minutes


HOW TO CONFIGURE MICROSOFT EDGE TO DELETE ALL BROWSING INFORMATION



Microsoft Edge is the replacement for the aging Internet Explorer and is based
on the libraries that are the foundation for Google Chrome. Although the base is
the same, at the top level Edge has plenty of differences with Chrome. One of
these is the Privacy and Security section which looks different and contains a
set of different options that we’re going to cover in this article.

To start with go to the three-dot menu in the top right and open “Settings”. In
the Settings menu on the left choose “Privacy, search and services”.

The first option, “Tracking prevention” is fine with the “Balanced” setting, a
the “Strict” setting will break many sites. We’re going to tighten up the
security in the subsequent options.

In “Clear browsing data” turn no the option to clear every time you close a
browser. It will require a bit more typing on your behalf, but your private data
will not be cached on the hard drive. Also you can periodically go to “Clear
browsing data now” and select to clear everything since the beginning of time.

Under “Privacy” it is always good to send “Do Not Track” even though sites do
not have to obey it. The next option is fine to have on since you should never
have any payment methods saved in your browser anyway.

For diagnostic data and advertising personalization you should always have the
options turned off, since it is another way by which you can be identified
online and exposed to identity theft risks.

Under the “Security” sub-section it is best to have all options turned on since
they each offer a little bit more protection.

It is usually okay to use a DNS from your ISP, however if you find yourself at
the receiving end of DNS spoofing and attacks then it might be prudent to invest
in a secure DNS provider.



The cookies and site permissions are on a separate tab in the Microsoft Edge
Settings. Here you should visit regularly and delete all cookies that came
through in the “Manage and delete cookies and site data” option.

For the rest of the (many) options on the page it is best to have then either on
“Ask” or “Blocked” just to be on the safe side, although the individual
circumstances will determine the specific combination.

Setting the above options should get you well on the way to a more secure online
browsing experience.

cloud9cybersecurity Cyber Security Leave a comment March 17, 2023 2 Minutes


HOW TO CONFIGURE GOOGLE CHROME TO DELETE ALL BROWSING INFORMATION



Google Chrome has similar extensive privacy and security controls like Mozilla
Firefox, though there are a few differences and twists. As with Firefox, first
we select “Settings” from the “three dots” menu.

Here we want to go into “Privacy and Security” sub-menu on the left. There is a
safety check here that you can perform on a regular basis, but we are going to
concentrate on the balance of the options.

In “Clear browsing data” you should select the “Advanced” tab and check all the
boxes. From the “Time range” dropdown, select “All time”.

Then click on “Clear data” and your browser will be rid of all this trackable
data. With the settings we’re going to set next, there will be less data here to
clear.

You can enter the privacy guide next, but that is for your entire Google
account, as Google has tightly integrated it in the Chrome browser. The next
option controls the cookies.



Here you want to block third party cookies. Blocking all cookies will definitely
break many sites, and it is not needed since in the next option we are going to
choose all cookies and site data to be deleted when we close the Chrome browser.
The “Do not track” is always a good option to set, although by now we know that
it is a voluntary action by the web sites. And finally, don’t preload pages. You
will lose a bit of speed, but will avoid having cached data on your hard drive
that can be used to track you.



Next is the “Security” page.

Standard Protection is fine, because the enhanced version requires your data to
be sent to Google, which is a big no no. Never allow your data to be sent to
anyone, unless it is absolutely unavoidable. The next option below is also about
sending data, so no to that too. And the breached passwords is something you
want to know, even more so since it is all encrypted.

In the Advance section you want to always use secure connections (you will get
an option to proceed even if the site is not HTTPS). Use secure DNS, for your
ISP if available, but the public ones offered in the second radio button are
also reliable and safe.

Fore the four options at the bottom – it is best to have nothing in each of
them, if you can avoid it, but use your best judgment otherwise (assumption that
you know what are you doing here).

In the Site Settings menu first you will see the recent sites you visited where
you gave permissions. Then you have the section which manages permissions for
various resources. As always, the best is not to give permission to anything or
anyone (Zero Trust!), however, use your best judgment if you must give out
something.



The Content sections shows your current settings, and it should be fine based on
the restrictions we applied above, but feel free to change stuff around here if
you want to restrict access even further, at a cost of some sites not working.

There you go! Now you have a much more secure and private Google Chrome!

cloud9cybersecurity Uncategorized Leave a comment February 9, 2023 2 Minutes


HOW TO CONFIGURE MOZILLA FIREFOX TO DELETE ALL BROWSING INFORMATION



So far, we’ve seen how to install various plugins and add-ons to make your web
browsing private and secure. However, how about the information that is already
collected by your web browser and sitting in your browser’s cache folders? This
information can be extracted by malicious actors and used against you, hence it
is best if it doesn’t exist. Although, most modern browsers can be configured to
delete such info on exit, it is still best practice to do regular checks and
delete anything left over manually.

Mozilla Firefox is probably the most secure major web browser out there, even
though the corporate giants behind the other major browsers already took most of
its market share. The situation is not unlikely what happened to Netscape in the
late nineties; although a superior browser to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer,
once MS IE started coming as a part of the default Windows installation –
Netscape imploded.

First go to the Settings menu by pressing on the three dots at the top right of
the browser window. Then click on the “Privacy & Security” in the menu on the
left. You can leave the global privacy setting to “Standard” as the “Strict”
option breaks a lot of sites. We’re going to change the settings below, so even
if the cookies are not initially blocked – they are all erased upon closing the
browser session.

Scrolling down the menu select “Always” for “Do Not Track”, although this not
ensure compliance, at least you’ve done your part. For “Cookies and Site Data”
select Delete on Close, but also click on the “Clear Data” and “Manage Data”
buttons to double check if something got through. If it did – delete everything
selecting the timeframe option from the very beginning.

Although it is convenient for the browser to save your logins, passwords, use
master password or have a single sign-on – all of these option can compromise
your data and security in certain circumstances, thus the safest thing is to
turn everything off and delete everything that sneaked through occasionally.



Further, you don’t want any auto-fill for the forms. It might save you time, but
it also makes that information available to any malicious actor. Yes, of course,
the information is hashed/encrypted, but the best case is when the information
doesn’t exist at all. Zero Trust Security.

For history you either want to prevent any from being stored or use a custom
setting where you can control each option separately, including clearing history
when Firefox closes. Of course, you don’t want your address bar to suggest
anything to you since that means it keeps information on you – so un-check all
the check boxes.

For the permissions of your locations and various devices – you want everything
off. Once in a while you need to allow some app permissions (like microphone and
camera for Zoom meetings), but it is best practice to come back here as soon as
your meeting is over and remove all the permissions manually. You can check all
the “Settings” buttons here from time to time to verify if some app has managed
to sneak in permissions, and manually remove them all. Block pop ups and forbid
web sites to install add-ons should be self-explanatory. Remember – Zero Trust!
The Firefox collection of data for testing might look innocuous (and Mozilla
foundation is more trustworthy than the Big Tech conglomerates) , but still, in
keeping with Zero Trust – probably best to turn everything off.

Finally, in the last section, you want to check all options to block, check,
warn and query. Also, HTTPS-only mode is a good way to raise your security
online, and don’t worry, if there is not HTTPS version of the size, Firefox will
ask you whether you want to load the SSL-less version.



There you go! Now you have a much more secure Mozilla Firefox browser!



cloud9cybersecurity Uncategorized Leave a comment February 4, 2023 3 Minutes


THE “I HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE” ARGUMENT IS FALSE IN PRIVACY AND CYBER-SECURITY



Q: Let’s use some secure web browser like TOR for all the web browsing needs?

A: Nah, we have nothing to hide.

Q: Let’s use an end-to-end encryption for all our instant messages?

A: Nah, we have nothing to hide.

How many times have the above scenarios happened? The argument that if one has
nothing to hide then one does not need to protect one’s privacy is as old as
humanity, and has often been used to decrease the overall privacy in a society
and even mark those persons seeking more privacy as somehow subversive. The
argument itself is false in the sense that it doesn’t contribute to continuing
the conversation, but puts an artificial stop. There are at least two aspects to
consider:

 1. Your personal information being accessed is not OK, even if you have nothing
    to hide
 2. Everyone has something to hide, even if they don’t know it (yet)

If we consider the first aspects, all of us have personal information like a
social security number, credit card numbers, phone numbers, bank accounts,
passwords, etc. Although none of these items are something one would necessarily
hide, it would still cause quite a bit of trouble if any and all of these bits
of information were to be compromised and exposed to the public. There are
plenty of web sites that through cookies and other contraptions collect
information about you, rooted around your IP or email address, and prepare a
“product profile” of you, as a consumer and as a set of behaviours, which can
then be sold to third parties for further exploitation. There are entire
companies built around productizing people and monetizing that resulting
information. Secure browsers that obfuscate your real IP address and do not keep
any history or cookies, like TOR, can prevent productization to a large extent,
and so can using a trustworthy VPN provider.

The second aspect has to do with the fact that wherever our physical bodies are
in time and space, we are subject to a myriad of obscure, overlapping,
contradicting jurisdictions, each with its own potential for irreversible
damage. Harvey Silvergate in his book “Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target
the Innocent” (https://isbnsearch.org/isbn/9781594032554) claims exactly what
the title says, that every US citizen averages about 3 federal felonies per day
without even knowing it. This has to do much with obsolete laws that are not
enforced anymore, but having them on the books means they could be enforced
selectively. When punishment can be exercised selectively and arbitrarily, the
result is a society living in a permanent state of fear – not a desirable
outcome in most cases.

Edward Snowden has compared privacy to free speech
(https://news.arizona.edu/story/edward-snowden-compares-privacy-freedom-speech),
stating that “Saying you don’t care about privacy because you have nothing to
hide is like saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to
say.” In an article from 2011, Daniel Solove has written a very colourful
defence
(https://www.chronicle.com/article/why-privacy-matters-even-if-you-have-nothing-to-hide/)
of privacy and private things, even when you don’t really have anything
“relevant” to hide. There is even a web site “Privacy Tools”
(https://www.privacytools.io/), which has been in existence for over a decade
and which has the mission to carry updated privacy tools for surfing the web for
users with multiple different needs.



Hence, even if one has nothing relevant to hide, there are still private things
that nobody should really have access to. Privacy is a Human Right.

cloud9cybersecurity Cyber Security Leave a comment December 28, 2021 2 Minutes


HOW TO DE-FANG RUSSIAN RANSOMWARE :)



http://www.cloud9cybersecurity.com/



So, let’s take a hypothetical situation. You wake up one morning, and turn on
your BigRig custom-built tower (32 cores/64 threads) for rendering in BlackMagic
DaVinci Resolve Studio and you are greeted with the following modal window:

Since you (probably can read Russian you realize that some kind of upload has
failed. You do a search on PasteBin.com and find
(https://www.echosec.net/blog/what-is-pastebin-and-why-do-hackers-love-it) that
it is a Hacker Paradise. You add 2 and 2 and realize that a RansomWare Trojan
tried to upload your data to PasteBin.Com, before it encrypts all your hard
drives and asks for mucho dineros (in bitcoin) for the pleasure of downloading
your data back. The one thing hackers did not account for was that video
rendering rigs usually have enormous amounts of RAID 0 disk space, 30TB+ of RAW
4K footage, which takes a very, very long time to upload to pastebin.com.

Of course, your next step is to install every single Anti-Virus software out
there (since Windows Defender apparently missed the trojan) and feverishly run
all of them at the same time. However, ransomware trojans are notoriously
difficult to remove and disinfect. Of course, you should terminate the internet
connection right away, but there is an easy way to de-fang ransomware that use
pastebin.com (or any other site, for that matter) and it is called Windows HOSTS
file.

The HOSTS file might be a remainder from the good old days when Mr. Gates tried
to copy all the best features of UNIX into DOS/Windows, but it is still
incredibly useful for blocking any web site that you find questionable. The
simple method is called “localhost loop” and can be used for any site out there.
The HOSTS file can be found at:



You need to start Notepad (the single best app Microsoft ever created in Admin
mode, in order to be able to edit this system file. Notepad has its initial
input intake set for *.txt files, so just change it to “All Files”. UNIX files
generally do not use extensions. What you need to add to the file are two lines
that create ‘localhost loop” for pastebin.com and any other site you might find
an online safety-hazard. Save the HOSTS file, close Notepad, and then re-open it
again, to double-check if your modifications have been saved.

After you verified the new data is conserved, you need to restart your PC. When
the OS comes back up, if you type the Pastebin.com URL into any web browser you
might have, the following should come up:





That means no ransomware that uses pastebin.com (and might still be lurking on
your computer) will be able to upload anything, and will probably crash
internally. Ransomware coders are below average, and they probably would never
be able to procure a real Software Engineering job. Now, with your local
ransomware parasite neutered, you are free to take your time removing every last
trace of the accursed vermin

http://www.cloud9cybersecurity.com/



cloud9cybersecurity Cyber Security Leave a comment November 26, 2021November 26,
2021 2 Minutes


PEGASUS SPYWARE AND HOW TO CHECK IF YOU’VE BEEN PWNED



By now (almost) everyone has heard of the Pegasus Spyware by the Israeli company
NSO Group, and its ability to infect iOS and Android devices without user
interaction. Although the Haaretz investigation uncovered that the software has
been sold to multiple Gulf states and other international actors, 99.99% of
people out there do not have to worry about this spyware.

Banner from iMazing web site

For those who would rather verify than trust, a new piece of software has
appeared that works both on Windows and macOS, which claims to be able to
positively verify if your phone has been infected with Pegasus. Cnet explains
the procedure in detail in an August 21 article:
https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/check-if-your-iphone-ipad-is-infected-with-pegasus-spyware-with-this-free-tool/
. No technical knowledge is required to run the software beyond knowing how to
use the command line on windows (or mac).

The makers of the software have an extensive article on their web site
explaining Pegasus detection:
https://imazing.com/blog/detecting-pegasus-spyware-with-imazing . The software
has a free trial (enough to check if you are infected), and can be downloaded
for both Windows and macOS at: https://imazing.com/download . Even if the
chances are low, better to be safe than sorry.

cloud9cybersecurity Cyber News, Cyber Security Leave a comment September 3, 2021
1 Minute


INVISIBLE EMAIL TRACKING SPY PIXELS AND HOW TO DEFEND AGAINST THEM



Invisible spy pixels have been in use ever since the appearance, and subsequent
wide adoption, of HTML email. The spy pixels are usually 1×1 transparent images
which are embedded somewhere in the email message, but cannot be detected by the
user. The pixel can tell the sender whether and when the email has been opened
and read, and allows the sender to see which individual email recipients have
opened the email. The justifications for using the tracking spy pixels are many,
but mostly center around the desire of marketers to collect more granular data
about their target audience, while privacy advocates point out that an email
address usually gives away more about the owner than an IP address, for example.

The use of pixel tracking is not illegal in most countries, even though there
are privacy concerns. Even though the spy pixels are used by hackers and/or
ransomers, they are also used by legitimate companies running their marketing
campaigns. The Scottsman says “Some of the largest brands in the world use email
pixels to monitor a person’s activity”
(https://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/spy-pixels-how-protect-your-privacy-and-see-when-email-tracking-pixels-are-watching-your-inbox-3138925).
Since usually the location, device type and the email client used are reported
back through the spy pixel method, some people have decided to protect their
privacy against such intrusions.

The easiest way to protect one’s email against spy pixels is to use a text
client like PINE or PMail, or some modern variant. It is old school, but it
works, and this was the reason why spy pixels were unknown before the mid 90’s
and advent of HTML email. Another way to protect oneself is to simulate a text
email client by turning the images off by default in Outlook, GMail, Apple Mail,
etc. This way no images will be displayed, which will disable the tracking
pixel. The email client usually displays placeholders for where the images used
to be in the email, thus the user can still preview individual images by
clicking on them and loading them separately.

Finally, if the text-only method is too much for you, there are a bunch of tools
out there, some free, some for money, which install as extensions to browsers
and email clients. These add-ons keep track of multiple tracking campaigns by
different actors and actively identify and block emails with spy pixels. Some of
these add-ons are UglyEmail, Trocker, and MailTracker.



cloud9cybersecurity Cyber Security Leave a comment August 15, 2021August 15,
2021 2 Minutes


TWO MORE ESSENTIAL WEB BROWSER PLUGINS



In a previous post (https://cloud9cybersecurity.wordpress.com/2018/07/), the
three essential web browser plugins were discussed: HTTPS Everywhere, NoScript
and uBlock Origin. These should be the first thing one installs whenever a new
browser (Firefox – the only browser not backed by a multinational conglomerate)
is installed. Although these three plugins remain the gold standard for
security, two more have since made themselves indispensable as well.



Privacy Badger

Another amazing and essential plugin from our friends at the Electronic Frontier
Foundation (EFF also makes the “Always HTTPS” browser). Privacy Badger monitors
sites as you browser the web and blocks sites that track you across multiple
sites, especially ones that ignore the “Do Not Track” setting in the browser.
Privacy Badger works with Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Opera, so there is plenty of
choice and the plugin only blocks third-party tracking. In future updates
Privacy Badger should help block Browser Fingerprinting.



Cookie AutoDelete

This is a catch-all plugin that doesn’t analyze sites’ behavior, but will delete
all cookies in a session and maybe catch what little other plugins have missed.
Cookie AutoDelete will remove all the cookies when a tab is closed, domain has
changed or the browser exited. Of course, whitelists are supported, as well as
“graylists”, and it shows you a cookie counter for each web site you visit. The
extension works with Firefox, Chrome and Edge. Simple and effective.



Bonus: Fakespot, find out which Amazon reviews are fake

This plugin is more specialized (works on Amazon, eBay and a few others), and is
related strictly to online shopping, which is also a part of cyber security.
Fakespot would have probably remained a niche plugin if it wasn’t for Amazon’s
request to Apple to remove it from the App Store (which Apple obliged). After
people were outraged by such a move, suddenly everyone knew about Fakespot and
uses it.

The idea is simple: we all know that many (most?) Amazon reviews are
fake/bought, especially for the highly desirable products, why not make a web
browser plugin that through some analytics (magic!) will identify and remove the
fake ones. This is what FakeSpot does and gives you a new cumulative review
score for the item at hand. Amazon claims that FakeSpot is often incorrect and
misleads customers. Most customer might just not mind another tool to help them
spend their money better.

cloud9cybersecurity Uncategorized Leave a comment July 26, 2021July 26, 2021 2
Minutes


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