Challenge

The Power generating company hadn’t had any automation programs for their cyber security processes. As the number of branches and employees increased, the Company decided to implement modern software to minimize the manual work and save valuable time.

The Defensys ACP attracted the Company’s attention, because of its automation functions and asset management capabilities from the cyber security perspective.

Implementation

On the way to the software installation our engineers faced a challenge: the Company has a lot of branches, that makes inventory process in the organization very complicated. The Defensys multi-tenancy option could not be used unless there is a clear understanding about the crossing IP addresses in the whole IT and OT infrastructure.

To keep records of assets in all branches and not to mix them all up the Developer has found a solution – the Defensys ACP could work with the same asset IP addresses from different branches and remote plants due to the ability to label the network when performing the inventory scan. Besides, the Defensys software was integrated with a SIEM system and antivirus solution in each branch.

Cybersecurity News

• An Android remote access trojan known as VajraSpy has been found in 12 malicious applications. The malicious apps have been removed from Google Play but remain available on third-party app stores, disguised as messaging or news apps.
• Google-owned Mandiant has identified new malware employed by a China-nexus espionage threat actor known as UNC5221. It allows an unauthenticated threat actor to execute arbitrary commands on the Ivanti VPN appliance with elevated privileges.
• GitLab has released fixes to address a critical security flaw in its Community Edition and Enterprise Edition that could be exploited to write arbitrary files while creating a workspace.

In the article we continue to describe vulnerability management and challenges companies can face when setting this process, as well as share tips on how to overcome them.

Stage 4. Remediation

Remediation means taking of appropriate measures to neutralize detected vulnerabilities. It consists of installing patches/updates, stopping or disabling certain services and protocols, performing compensating measures or taking risks for non-remediation. Decisions made on detected vulnerabilities are usually indicated by appropriate statuses (e.g., compensatory measures, risk accepted or false positive). This is necessary to evaluate further actions on vulnerabilities and control their remediation.

If users decide to remediate the vulnerability, a task for IT department should be automatically created in a Service Desk system and the patch management (process of managing and applying patches, updates and software fixes) should be started.

Challenges and recommendations:

As mentioned above, vulnerabilities can be fixed using updates and patches or by modifying configuration files, but its installing process is often a complicated procedure. This may be caused by incompatibility with other programs, testing necessity, or missing access to the system for updates.

Challenge

The Telecommunication Operator, a company with multiple subsidiaries across the country, needed a solution for automation of cyber security processes in the SOCs. The Company demanded a lot of integrations with internal systems, easy access to information regarding all branches and multiple tools for information handling from software vendors.

The Operator chose Defensys products after a PoC project during which Defensys demonstrated the required functionality of software and additional managing options.

Among all Defensys products, the Company has purchased the SOAR, SGRC and TI platforms.

Implementation

Defensys has a great experience in working with companies, that provide different mobile services. That’s why we managed to avoid typical pitfalls and could concentrate on important tasks.

As mentioned above, Defensys software had to be integrated with several systems for data collection and transfer between tenants and the HQ according to certain attributes. Generally, the software was integrated with more than 40 systems with various functionalities.

Defensys has released a new version of the cyberthreat information analysis platform, the Defensys TIP 3.16. New release has a range of important updates. For example, the number of supported SIEM systems and firewalls has been extended. Defensys has also upgraded its own data source (Defensys Threat Feed), now Defensys Feed can independently identify links between entities, countries and industries of threat actors.

One of the Defensys Threat Intelligence Platform functions is reactive and retrospective search for indicators of compromise (IoC’s) within event flow coming from SIEM systems. The Defensys TIP platform can be integrated with famous SIEM and log management solutions, such as:

• IBM QRadar
• Arcsight ESM
• SPLUNK
• Arcsight logger
• Apache KAFKA

Additionally, Defensys expanded the list of supported third-party data security tools for IoC’s export. Detected IoC’s can be automatically exported to firewalls for further processing and protection of the network infrastructure.

Cybersecurity News

• The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has added a new vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.

In the article we describe vulnerability management and challenges companies can face when setting this process, as well as share tips on how to overcome them.

At first, we would like to brief you with the main definitions:

Vulnerability is a flaw in information system or software which a hacker can use to penetrate the infrastructure, disrupt systems or access them. Vulnerabilities have several severity levels. One of the most widespread and serious risks is existence of an exploit for a vulnerability, especially if it`s already actively used by hackers. Exploit is a malware with data or executable code which uses vulnerabilities to conduct attacks.

Vulnerability management (VM) helps to lower the risks caused by infrastructure vulnerabilities. VM is a multi-step cyclical process of identifying, prioritizing and remediating vulnerabilities, followed by further monitoring. VM offers a choice of response way on issues connected to company’s assets: detected software vulnerabilities, configuration vulnerabilities, insecurely configured ports and other vulnerabilities that can be used by attackers. The main purpose of the process is risk minimization and systems protection from potential attacks, exploits and other forms of hacking or security breaches.

Vulnerability Management includes following steps:

Challenge

The bank has implemented the Service Desk solution. However, there was insufficient interaction with other systems, in particular, there was no interaction with TI tools and repositories.

The Bank wanted a comprehensive system overhaul and one of the key decisions in the global cybersecurity overhaul was the Defensys SOAR solution.

Results

Thanks to Defensys’s technologies, a number of key issues were resolved:

Defensys company announced the extension of Defensys Endpoint functionalities. New features are aimed at improving corporate network security from current cyber threats and raising efficiency of IT infrastructure monitoring process.

Defensys continues to upgrade the Endpoint technology by adding new functions for a better security level and monitoring of IT systems. In the new release Defensys has significantly upgraded technical audit section. Now users can view expertise results in a more comprehensive way, that makes vulnerabilities analysis easier and enables faster remedial action. Moreover, it’s now possible to add own policies and modify installed checks by adapting audits to particular requirements and company’s tasks.

Integration with the Defensys TDP has been added to the Defensys Endpoint v. 1.8. Due to this, lures which simulate vulnerabilities in the corporate network making it more attractive for hackers, can be placed in one click. For instance, the Defensys Endpoint helps to place such lures as false accounts, saved sessions, and SSH keys. This approach reduces the cost of deploying and updating simulated infrastructure.

Cybersecurity News

• Four vulnerabilities, one of which is rated critical, have been discovered in the Perforce Helix Core Server, with one of the vulnerabilities allowing the intruders to remotely execute commands from the LocalSystem account.
• VoIP communications company 3CX has warned its customers to disable SQL database integrations due to possible risks associated with what it describes as a potential vulnerability.
• Akamai has warned of a new Mirai-based DDoS botnet, named InfectedSlurs, actively exploiting two zero-day vulnerabilities to infect routers and video recording devices.
• A four-tier classification has been proposed in China to help with the response to data security incidents, highlighting Beijing’s concern with large-scale data leaks and hacking within its borders.
• 2023 has seen the emergence of ten new Android banking malware families, whic