I’ve been coding ever since I got my hands on a TRS-80 with its impressive 16K of RAM and 8-bit microprocessor in the mid ‘80s. Anyone up for a game of Cuthbert Goes Walkabout?

A lot has changed since then, but the things I love most about coding are still the same: solving tricky problems and getting to see your ideas come to life. One of my personal challenges is reining in my enthusiasm to see the end result, taking a deep breath, and making sure to do all the things along the way that make the difference between writing good code and writing awesome code.

That is especially important to do when thinking about cybersecurity. Granted, some of those things can be time consuming, and the truth is that they do add time and cost to development projects. But what is the cost of cutting corners? Sure, you may save a few dollars by skipping some steps, but with minimum ransomware demands being in the tens of thousands now, that’s hardly a bargain.

On a positive note, development teams are becoming aware of the need to weave cybersecurity into the development life-cycle, but it isn’t always clear what that entails, so here is a list of things for your organization to consider. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and if it seems like a lot to take on, remember that it doesn’t have to be all or nothing, starting with the basics and having a continuous improvement plan is a great way to begin.

People

• Training: People are often the weak link when it comes to cybersecurity. Annual cyber awareness training has proven to be quite effective at reducing cybersecurity incidents, along with role-specific training to make sure your development team is up to date with the latest threats and best practices.
• Leadership: Your cybersecurity program can only succeed if there is commitment across the organization and this starts at the top. Leaders need to be clear on their expectations and organizational objectives when it comes to cybersecurity.
• Accountability: Objectives and expectations are meaningless without accountability. People must be aware of expectations and be held accountable for their actions (or inaction).
• Response team: A security response team & process should be established that can quickly respond to threats or incidents when they do arise.

Process

• Security requirements: When defining product requirements it is important to take the time to identify security requirements to make sure the solution and the information it processes are adequately protected.
• Threat modelling: Applying a methodical process to identify potential threats and vulnerabilities is a necessary first step in ensuring there are adequate safeguards built into the solution.
• Security design reviews: Designs need to be assessed from a security perspective to verify that the threats and risks have been appropriately factored in at the architecture & design level.
• Secure coding: A secure coding policy or guidelines should be established and enforced to ensure that developers apply best practices during the implementation phase.
• Code inspections: This practice has been around for a long time and is proven to reduce the number and severity of software defects. Developers should be trained on security best practices and ensure those are followed throughout the inspection process.
• Security Testing: Test plans should have a category explicitly dedicated to security testing to ensure the application meets the defined security requirements and is free (to the extent possible) of defects that introduce security vulnerabilities.
• External Dependencies: It should not be assumed that external components integrated into the application are secure. Third party software should be explicitly tracked on every release including knowing what version is in use and what known vulnerabilities are present by checking vulnerability databases.
• Penetration testing: The last chance to identify vulnerabilities before releasing an application or software update is to engage a seasoned penetration tester to identify weaknesses that hackers will try to exploit.
• Change management: There should be an established and enforced change management process to control what code is checked in, by whom and for what reason.
• Patching: Despite best efforts, defects will happen and vulnerabilities will be discovered. There needs to be an established security patching and upgrade process to make sure vulnerabilities can be addressed in an efficient and timely manner.
• Gates: The development process should include specific gates that are checked before the software is allowed to proceed from one stage to the next. For example, before and application or update can be released, development leaders should verify that there was a security design review, code inspections took place, security testing was performed and so on.
• Automation: In order to minimize human error in the development process, a secure, repeatable & automated build/test/deployment process and infrastructure should be established and utilized.
• Budget: When establishing a budget for the development organization or a particular project, there should be time and money allocated specifically for security in order to give the development team the necessary tools and resources.
• Measurements: The performance of the secure development process needs to be measurable. This is done by establishing and tracking secure development process Key Performance Indicators such as compliance status per release, percentage of security test cases, number of major and critical vulnerabilities found during testing per release, number of security defects found during testing, number of security defects found in production to name a few. The information should be periodically analyzed and used to improve the process.
• Audits: The security program and processed should be periodically audited to make sure expectations are understood, established policies and procedures are being properly applied and objectives are being met. This is not intended to be punitive, but rather to identify weaknesses in the secure development process and plan improvements.
• Policies: Secure development policies need to be detailed and specific covering everything from the procedural elements of the secure development process all the way down to specific technical details such as approved tools, required compiler flags, acceptable crypto suites, etc.

Technology

• Access control: Access to the software repository must be restricted to authenticated and authorized users only following the principle of least privilege to reduce the risk of accidental or malicious introduction of vulnerabilities into the source tree.
• Repo scanning: The source code repository should be automatically scanned on a regular basis to identify vulnerabilities that may be present in third-party or in-house components.
• Static code analysis: Static code analysis tools should be used to automatically check the code for issues such as buffer overflows, the use of insecure functions and libraries, etc.
• Vulnerability scanning: Automated vulnerability scanning tools should be periodically used to identify any vulnerabilities that may have been discovered since the last scan. This can help quickly identify and mitigate vulnerabilities that are discovered over time.
• Integrity protection: Mechanisms such as code signing should be used to verify the integrity of software releases, patches, upgrades or any component integrated with the application.
• Compiler: Secure compiler settings should be identified, documented and enforced to prevent insecure code from introducing vulnerabilities.
• Hardening: Endpoint hardening should be applied to all endpoints including developer systems, servers and infrastructure in both the development and production environments.
• Monitoring: Security specific monitoring and alerting should be built into the application that can help identify anomalies that indicate an attack or breach once the system has been deployed.

If all of this seems daunting don’t be discouraged. It doesn’t all have to be done overnight and there are lots of free resources that can help. One of my favourites is the OWASP Cheat Sheet Series which provides an extensive list of well written cheat sheets covering many application security topics. Pick a few of the items from the list above that you think you will be able to implement in the next few months, and check out the cheat sheet series for resources that might help.

By Dom Chorafakis, P.Eng, CISSP – May 27, 2020

Reopening your business successfully requires more than a return to normal. The sudden widespread closures found many businesses scrambling to adapt and sadly some of them have not survived.

Organizations with Business Continuity Plans found themselves a step ahead of those who had little to no planning, and now as Canadians grapple with managing life during the covid19 pandemic, some things are coming to light about what we can do as individuals and as business to resume working and living within the new restrictions.

Resources like those from the Ontario Government  provide details around workplace and worker safety, and although many practices are consistent among all provinces, business should explore their specific provincial website for what is required in each province.

So how do you begin? 

1. Put People First: Returning employees will have some fears and questions about their safety in the workplace. Ensure that your organization has clearly defined workplace safety procedures and protocol and communicate those procedures clearly and often with your staff. Creating a safe work environment for staff and clients is key to a successful re-opening.
2.  Check Health & Safety Equipment: Perform maintenance on health and safety equipment (e.g. smoke detectors, fire alarms, security and PA systems) that may have been missed during the shutdown and confirm they are working as expected.
3. Complete Software Updates: Computers that have been powered off for some time have not been receiving Windows updates. You should:
   • Make sure you back up important data before applying updates as they sometimes may cause problems
   • Manually go through the update process to ensure the PC is fully up- to-date before using it to access email or the Internet
4. Perform Laptop Checks: Computers that were being used at home in a less controlled environment may be infected and spread malware on the corporate network.
   • Make sure all systems in the office are up-to-date with software and anti-virus updates
   • Perform a full scan of any systems that were used outside of the office during the shutdown 
5. Inspect Battery Backups: UPS and backup batteries may not have been checked or maintained during office closures. Inspect battery backups to verify that charge levels and expected duration in the event of a power outage are in accordance with battery capacity and load.
6. Re-Train Staff: Your employees are your best resource for identifying and resolving issues. Some things may have fallen through the cracks so be sure that staff are refreshed on critical business protocol, which should include cyber safety. 60% of all security breaches come from internal staff, so reminding your staff about cyber safe practices like password management and email threats is critical to the safe re-opening of your company.

Re-opening your business will take special care and planning, especially as it relates to cyber security requirements so we’ve created a list of free resources to help you build your plan. To receive the list and to learn more click here.

By Dominic Chorafakis, P.Eng, CISSP – January 31, 2020

A look back at 2019 tells us all we need to know about what we can expect in the world of cyber threats for 2020. The past year saw the return of the Ryuk virus hit the Canadian market targeting three Ontario hospitals and a Toronto dental clinic in which the attacker encrypted the clinic’s files and demanded $165,000 in ransom in order to restore access to the files.

The recent LifeLabs data breach is the largest yet in Canada in terms of personal record count, and the company may end up paying dearly for its security lapse. A civil lawsuit that was just introduced in Toronto is seeking a total of $1.14 billion dollars in damages.

We know that incidents of cybercrime are on the rise, and a StatsCan report found that one-fifth of Canadian businesses reported that they were impacted by a cyber security incident.

Cyber threats have become main stream and now regularly make the news. Statistics show us that companies large and small are not exempt from the threats of cyber criminals looking to access their company info and steal their data. In fact security sources predict that nearly half of the cyber-attacks for 2020 will be on small businesses.

So How Can We Use The Events From Last Year To Prepare For The Year Ahead?

The first step is to accept that cyber threats are here to stay. In today’s world all businesses small and large are connected to the web and a network of external sources and potential openings for threats to pass through. Many of these threats simply didn’t exist in past years but they are here now and they aren’t going anywhere. Business that choose to adopt an “it won’t happen to me” approach are at the greatest risk, and with the average cost of a hack for small and medium Canadian business being in the range of  $46,000 to $100,00 dollars it’s a risk many business will find too hard to recover from.  But it’s not too late. Here are three simple suggestions to get you started.

• Have a plan – Work with your IT support staff to create a plan that details the steps you should take to prevent an attack along with the steps to take in the event of an attack. This will not only reduce your risk, it will also reduce the impact of an attack so your business can be up and running in no time.
• Train your staff – Statistics show that 60% of all security breaches come from internal staff, so creating cyber awareness internally is a key safeguard for your company.
• Apply a multi-layer approach to security – make sure that you install anti-virus, anti-spyware and intrusion prevention tools and that you routinely update the software and operating programs that you use to run your business. Adopting a security monitoring solution is the final layer in a comprehensive package.

Staying ahead of the threats is an everyday challenge and not one that most business owners can, or should manage alone. The good news is that tools to fight cyber threats have also been growing and now more than ever business have the resources available to help them protect their data.

By Dominic Chorafakis, P.Eng, CISSP – November 12, 2019

Businesses spend a lot of money building and maintaining their reputation. Recent information from the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) indicates that Canadian small business marketing costs average just over $30,000 a year, while those with 20 to 49 employees spend twice that amount. Companies with 50 or more employees tend to have marketing budgets in excess of $100,000. Unfortunately, many businesses fail to protect this investment and make the costly mistake of damaging their reputation by not protecting their business and client data.

Clients view their information as extremely valuable and expect companies that have it to protect it. They not only expect it, but also have legal rights that allow them to push back on organizations that don’t follow the rules. As of November 1 2018, the government of Canada has made changes to its Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) requiring all organizations that hold personal information to report any significant data breaches.

The value of your reputation

The immediate business costs and disruptions caused by a data breach can be painful, but what is often more impactful and long lasting is the loss of customer trust and erosion of the company reputation. According to the IBM Ponemon Institute, 36% of the cost of a data breach comes from the loss of business stemming from loss of customer trust after a cyber incident. The message is clear, if you don’t value a customer’s information enough to protect it then you don’t value their business. A recent Verizon survey on Customer Experience found that 29% of customers would never do business with a company again if they were personally affected by a data breach.

Think about the impact that data breaches have had on a larger corporation like Marriott Hotel which lowered the company’s revenue by three million dollars following its 2018 data breach announcement. While large corporations have extensive resources and deep pockets that allow them to ride out the storm and slowly build back their reputation, small-to-mid sized businesses (SMBs) are not often not equipped with the knowledge, resources, or budget to build back customer trust which can result in an unrecoverable loss to their reputation and revenue.

Reduce your company risk

To stop your company from experiencing these damages, it is essential that you have rigorous control over the personal and client data that you handle. Avoid the all too common mistake that SMBs make of thinking that they are too small for hackers to care about. At a recent Cybersecurity For Business Leaders event in Toronto, Robert Gordon, executive director of the Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange (CCTX) stated that “Attackers will often go after a small business as an entry point to a larger target.”

Educate yourself and your staff about the risks, prepare your business with the tools needed to protect your data and finally adopt a managed cyber security service that can help identify vulnerabilities and improve security to catch threats before they become an issue.  Protecting your company and clients data from cyber threats is a business imperative, your company’s reputation and viability depends on it.

By Dominic Chorafakis, P.Eng, CISSP – October 22, 2019

The Ryuk ransomware virus is back and it’s targeting Canadian businesses and industries. The virus first appeared in the summer of 2018 and then again in January of this year, its victims largely in the UK and USA. Recently however hackers have set their sights on the Canadian markets hitting three Ontario hospitals and the most recent victim a Toronto dental clinic in which the attacker encrypted the clinic’s files and demanded $165,000 in ransom in order to restore access to the files.

Ryuk is not limited to targeting a specific industry and there is an increase in the number of Canadian businesses that are affected by such cyber attacks.

How Does It Work?

The initial Ryuk infection is most frequently caused by a spam email that contains a malicious attachment. Once the malware manages to install itself on a computer, it is able to bypass anti-virus detection and often remains hidden for months.

During that time, it collects information about the organization and uses Windows vulnerabilities and other tricks to spread to other computers. Once enough systems have been infected, a remote command is given which causes all files to be encrypted and a ransom note is posted. Ryuk then locks files, demanding the network owner pay a sum of money to make them accessible again.

What you need to know

Unlike other modern ransomware like Wannacry, Ryuk itself possesses functionality that goes beyond the ability to identify and encrypt network drives and includes the ability to delete shadow copies on the endpoint. By doing this, the attackers could disable the Windows System Restore option for users, and therefore make it impossible to recover from the attack without external backups.

For individual users or small businesses unaccustomed to backing up their data this time of information loss could be devastating.

Many unsuspecting victims assume that paying the ransom fee will resolve the situation unaware that there is no guarantee of getting back all, or any of the stolen data, often compounding the severity of the situation by adding a financial victimization to the data loss.

So how do you protect your data?

• Develop cyber smarts – Computer users should be aware of how to spot phishing email and receive cyber awareness training.
• Get the right tools – Although Ryuk can bypass anti-virus, it is possible to detect its activity on the network by monitored intrusion prevention systems like My Security Console. The right software combined with monitoring by cyber experts can prevent infection or cut it off before it spreads.
• Have a backup plan – You just learned how paying ransom doesn’t mean that you’re out of the woods, in many cases infected files are damaged and not recoverable. Safe backups are the only reliable way of recovering your data should you become infected – so be sure to routinely backup your data!

Want to learn more about how to stay cyber safe?

Discover how you and your team can develop the skills needed to avoid becoming victims of ransomware attacks like Ryuk – take our free phishing training here.