Municipal IT Director Put on Leave Following Breach

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Hackers Had Access for Months Before Launching Ransomware Attack

Municipal IT Director Put on Leave Following BreachIn another sign that accountability is rising in cyber security, the IT director of the Suffolk County Clerk’s Office in New York has been put on paid administrative leave. An investigation following a September ransomware attack found that hackers had been exploring and exploiting Suffolk County’s systems since December 19, 2021, and accused IT Director Peter Schlussler of acting in “an incredibly nonchalant manner” toward the county’s cyber security.

Schlussler disputed the investigation’s findings in an email to The New York Times, noting that his requests for stronger cyber security at the County Clerk’s office had been rejected by superiors. Suffolk County wound up taking all of its systems offline in September when the hack was finally discovered and, according to the Times, is still using workarounds for some online functions.

Suffolk County Hack Timeline Illustrates Common Tactics and Detection Failures

An examination of the Suffolk County hack reveals opportunities when the intrusion could have been detected, had the IT Director been following security protocols that most cyber security specialists recommend.

December 19, 2021: Criminals gain access to the County Clerk’s systems via a known flaw in a common piece of software. Investigators found that there was no centralized authority for the municipal systems run by Suffolk County. As a result, patches to fix the known vulnerability were not applied across all systems. Suffolk County Executive Steven C. Bellone cited the IT director’s failure to patch the vulnerability as a cause of the cyber attack.

January 2022: Hackers install Bitcoin mining software on the Suffolk County systems. Criminals install software like this for two reasons: To see if it will be detected and removed, and to see if the data it sends will be detected and removed. Organizations that fail to spot rogue software communicating with unknown parties will have their data stolen.

Many IT directors perform regular scans of all systems to look for new software installations, which can be sign of a breach. This can be a challenging task in a large, decentralized environment, which is why cyber security professionals recommend centralized administration for users and software.

March 2022: Hackers install tools to run Suffolk County systems remotely. Criminals who do this have a high level of confidence in their ability to carry out significant attacks. These systems will be tested before the next phase of intrusion begins, offering an opportunity to detect the activity.

Every IT director and security professional should be scanning systems regularly for all known remote clients. Although New York investigators did not specify the kind of remote access tools used, many criminals use the same remote-access software that organizations use to keep their own remote employees connected. By itself, the presence of remote access software may not trigger concern, but the alarm should be raised if it is suddenly used more often, at unusual times of day or in unusual ways. Use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) secured with two-factor authentication (2FA) to enhance the security of remote access.

April 2022: Criminals create the first of several admin-level user accounts in the County Clerk’s systems. This is the boldest step yet, and at this point, the hacker is the IT director. With Admin-level access, criminals can install software, exfiltrate data and manipulate systems to cover their tracks.

There are a number of ways to alert IT staff when new accounts are created, and a number of ways to limit the access that new users have. Beyond these safeguards, user lists and access levels should be audited and verified on a regular basis, with any unrecognized accounts immediately flagged and suspended.

July 2022: Data exfiltration begins, including at least one file with the name, “Passwords.”

August 2022: Keyloggers are installed. Intrusions begin on systems connected to the County Clerk’s system. Hackers encrypt everything they can access as they prepare to launch a ransomware attack.

What should stand out about the Suffolk County attack is the patient, meticulous nature of the hackers. This was not a high-speed raid or a crime of immediate opportunity. Hackers got in, then slowly built up their presence and toolkit over time, starting with nuisance software and moving on to complete control and surveillance. At each step, the hackers stopped and waited to see if their activity would be detected. When it was not, they executed the next step of their takeover plan.

The month-by-month increase in activity correlates with what hackers know about most cyber security solutions: Scans run at least once a month. If 30 days pass and software or activity has not been detected, it is safe to escalate. Think of this like a burglar finding a series of unlocked doors in a home. After opening each door, the burglar looks around to make sure it is safe before opening the next door.

The Myth of “Opportunistic” Cyber Attacks

Far too many business owners and organizational leaders think a cyber attack occurs because someone lets their guard down for a moment. While these attacks do occur, they tend to be low-level financial attacks that scam a few hundred or a few thousand dollars. Real cyber criminals are as patient and methodical as the group that attacked Suffolk County, and the damage they cause can lead to millions of dollars in remedies and restitution. Large, distributed, heavily used networks like those found in municipal government offices are ripe targets for the troves of personal information they hold and the opportunities they offer for criminals to conceal their activities.

We see multiple points where the Suffolk County attack could have been stopped, but we also see the challenges faced by the IT director, which are common to both businesses and the private sector. Too many leaders do not understand the real nature of cyber attacks. Too many government and private-sector organizations see Virtual CISO services or Dark Web Monitoring as a needless expense. The irony here is that they wind up paying for these services after a breach, alongside any fines and costs associated with data loss and system repairs, when they could have prevented the intrusion in the first place.

There is also the question of accountability, and the decision to suspend the Suffolk County Clerk’s IT director. This follows Federal sanctions against the CEO of Drizly following the theft of customer data. In both of these cases, investigators uncovered events that should have been prevented by cyber security best practices and held the people responsible for overseeing cyber security accountable.

Three Federal Agencies Warn of Business Email Compromise (BEC) Scams

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Business Email Compromise (BEC) scams netted $2.4 billion in losses during 2021, with 19,954 complaints reported to the United States government. A joint advisory from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Food and Drug Administration Office of Criminal Investigations (FDA OCI) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) urges businesses in the agricultural and food sectors to beware of scams stealing physical goods, not money.

New BEC scams targeting food producers use phony emails and websites to order or reroute goods, such as powdered milk, sugar or whole milk. In some cases, fake emails were used to reroute existing shipments to criminals, while in others fake orders were placed by criminals pretending to be existing clients.

How Business Email Compromise Scams Work

BEC scams combine elements of social engineering and phishing. Criminals learn the names of senior executives at companies likely to order large quantities of ingredients or other goods. They then send phony emails or place fake online orders using spoofed assets and email addresses. In some cases, they will communicate directly with senior staff and place orders or ask for shipments to be rerouted. Because the emails look legitimate and generate real responses from humans, employees may accept the phony orders or reroute shipments, leading to hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost product.

Among the scams reported by the Federal government–

  • One group of criminals forged the identity of a U.S. company and placed orders for ingredients from June through August of 2022 with multiple suppliers. The scam netted at least $200,000 in stolen goods.
  • Criminals used a fake email to get a line of credit and $100,000 in milk powder by posing as a food company.
  • Four fake companies targeted a single food manufacturer, ordering nearly $600,000 in whole milk powder and non-fat dry milk.

How to Spot BEC Scams

In nearly every case outlined by U,S, government agencies, there was a small change in an email address that revealed the fraud. In some cases, an extra letter was added. In other cases, the number “1” was substituted for a lower-case “L.” Email addresses may also point to incorrect domains, such as a .org or .net instead of a .gov or .com.

Business Email Compromise scams can slip by employees, even those who have had cyber security training, because they appear professional and do not directly ask for money. They appear to be professional enquiries, often include recognizable names and company logos and present business opportunities. It is only after the order has shipped that companies realize they have been scammed.

As with most scams, awareness and verification stop the criminals and the attacks.

  1. Make all employees who handle orders and shipments aware of Business Email Compromise scams.
  2. Put a second set of eyes on any order over a certain amount, regardless of where it appears to come from.
  3. Do not respond directly to emails that appear suspicious. Study return addresses carefully and, if anything appears off, call the alleged client directly.
  4. Verify any large order or order change by calling the client directly and asking for confirmation.
  5. Ask for advance payment before delivering goods to any new client.
  6. Use Dark Web Monitoring to find out what information about your company has been circulating online. Names of staff could be used for social engineering and phishing attacks. Names of executives and company assets can be used by scammers to create phony emails and websites.

In the most insidious versions of a Business Email Compromise scam, criminals gain access to a company’s legitimate email server, then create fake accounts that they use to communicate with their victims. This can be remedied by reviewing all company email accounts regularly and by immediately closing the accounts of former employees.

As the government warning illustrates, cyber threats come in many forms and through many channels. This scam is a prime example of the kind of attack that many existing cyber training programs miss.

Your New Year’s Resolutions for Cyber Security

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The More You Make and Keep, the Stronger Your Cyber Security in 2023

Resolution season is upon us as we take our annual stock of who we would like to be. Fitter, kinder, more charitable, as always, but why not safer?

Your New Year’s Resolutions for Cyber SecurityThese cyber security New Year’s resolutions vary from simple things you can do in a few seconds to things that might require some outside help. They all have one thing in common: Individually, they will make you safer in 2023, so following just one will give you greater protection against cyber criminals. Each resolution that you add will boost security for you and your business.

I will secure my phone. Around 1 in 4 people fail to use a screen lock on their smart phones. That’s an improvement from 2013,when around 1 in 3 people failed to secure their phones. Use of lock screens must be mandatory for all work-related devices. It is also the first step for stronger cyber security in 2023.

I will use two-factor authentication. Apart from securing your phone, this is the most critical thing you can do to boost security. Every email account, every account that processes payments and all online accounts relating to finances must have two-factor authentication, along with every account that allows admin-level access to business systems or customer data. Two-factor authentication takes a few minutes to set up and adds seconds to the login process. The strongest method sends a text message to your phone (already secured with a lock screen) link to click. Without access to your phone, criminals cannot use stolen passwords to log in. Links are better than plain-text codes, which may be visible on Android devices even while the screen is locked.

I will update my passwords every 3 months. The start of each new business quarter should bring new passwords. Google can be configured to require this on a schedule that you set. This is a best practice for email and all business systems. The advantage is obvious: Stolen passwords become useless once you change them. The more often you change them, the greater your cyber security. If keeping track of business and personal passwords is a challenge, consider using a password manager that centralizes all of your credentials. Good password managers require your main login to be updated regularly.

I will not write passwords down. There is no safe place to store passwords on scraps of paper. Someone determined to find them will, whether they’re on a note in a drawer, tucked in your wallet or written backwards on a receipt hidden in a piece of ice in the freezer. If you must write passwords down to remember them, the safe way to store them is in a password-protected Excel spreadsheet. You will need to change that password a few times a year, and avoid writing it down anywhere.

I will limit what I share online. Some companies make it far too simple for social engineers to get the information they need to launch attacks by publishing executive information online. Far too many individuals overshare on personal social media accounts. Social engineers data mine public information for the names, emails and password hints they use to launch intrusions and phishing attacks. There is a delicate balance between what needs to be shared to promote a business and what creates cyber risks. Sharing less is always better. When personal information must be shared, it should be with safeguards in place to help employees spot possible attacks using that information.

I will close all my unused accounts. This is a more time-consuming resolution, but it only needs to be done once a year. Take an inventory of all the logins you have that you no longer use. Do you still have a MySpace account from your college days? Has your business changed software vendors but left the old logins active? Did you once buy something from an online store and then never visit again? Did you try a social media site for a day or two and then stop using it? Take the time to identify, disable and delete these outdated accounts for two reasons. First, criminals may try to access them through old logins, creating a base that can be used to compromise your identity. Second, if you do not actively use those accounts, particularly if you changed emails after you opened them, you may not be receiving security alerts or breach notifications. Anything you have not used in the past 14 months should be deactivated.

I will review financial statements. Criminals probe bank accounts by initiating a very small transaction, such as $1, then reversing it with a credit. Legitimate businesses also do this to verify bank accounts, credit cards and debit cards. Businesses must mandate a specific review of financial statements for these types of transactions; any debit that is subsequently credited should be scrutinized, along with any small transaction. Anything suspicious should be reported to your financial provider immediately. Do the same for your personal accounts. Financial providers are good at challenging large, unusual purchases, but they often fail to notice the tiny debit/credit transactions that precede an attempt at a big-ticket purchase. Some of the most determined cyber criminals siphon off a small amount each month from a company’s finances, knowing the theft is unlikely to be detected. Bookkeepers and accountants should pay close attention to any new vendors who invoice an organization and raise the alarm if those vendors have the same address, email or phone number as employees.

I will train myself and my employees to prevent phishing attacks. Phishing attacks rose by 61% in 2022, with more than 255,000,000 incidents. For cyber criminals, this is a numbers game. The more attacks they launch, the more likely they are to find a victim. It is no longer just big companies with volumes of personal data at risk, it’s every business in every sector and nearly every individual who has a smart phone or an email address. Annual phishing awareness training should be mandatory at all companies. Twice-annual training is better. Programs that include simulated attacks with a summary of how employees responded provide the best results. You will need professional support for this, but there are a number of affordable solutions available. Weigh that cost against the potential expense of a phishing attack: Someone sending a $500 gift card to a cyber criminal may not seem like a big deal, but once any criminal successfully attacks your organization, more criminals with more sophisticated attacks often follow.

I will hire or contract a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). All large businesses and most mid-sized businesses have a CISO on staff or on retainer. This executive-level information-security professional handles all cyber security needs, from evaluating and setting up security measures to documenting compliance to ensuring that employees receive appropriate cyber security training. Small businesses and startups, outside of the tech sector, have a far lower level of CISO protection. A full-time security specialist may be beyond the needs or budget of many small companies. In these cases, a part-time, affordable Virtual CISO can significantly improve cyber security. For companies that fall under the FTC Safeguard Rule in 2023, professional support is almost mandatory.

You must change habits to improve cyber security. These New Year’s resolutions can help you do that, and most of them are very easy to keep, with no additional cost for you or your business beyond a bit of time. If you feel that you are not doing enough to improve your business’ security, or if you are unsure where to begin, contact us online or call us at 1-800-658-8311 to speak to a cyber security professional. We build custom security awareness solutions for our clients, based on their needs and what they can afford.

Good luck with all your New Year’s resolutions.

‘Tis the Season to Be Mindful

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Don’t Wind Up on a Cyber Criminal’s Nice List

Amid the December maelstrom of planning, parties, shopping and activities lie more opportunities for cyber criminals than any other time of the year. The Grinches running scams like the holidays a lot because they know you have an above-average number of emails and online purchases flying around, because your schedule is packed and because there’s a greater level of personal activity around your workplace and your home. These are ripe conditions for your vigilance to slip, giving cyber criminals the opportunity they need to steal your money, your identity or business data.

Celebrate and savor the season, but keep these tips for cyber security in mind while you do.

Thwarting Cyber Criminals at Home

  • Never Click on Email Links.  Bogus links in spoofed emails are a favorite tactic for cyber criminals at the holidays. Chances are you are ordering more things online. You may be expecting statements or shipping details. You get an email in the evening, claiming to be from Amazon or UPS, and click on the link without thinking. At best, you get scammed for a few hundred dollars. At worst, you compromise your identity or allow a cyber criminal to install malware on your device. Always go to a website via a browser, not an email link, to verify order and shipping details. If you get a tracking number via email, copy it, go to the shipper’s website, and paste it into their package tracker. That will identify any attempts to trick you with phony shipping. You should also read up on a new scam targeting Pay Later users.
  • Leave your devices home for the holidays. If you plan to travel, or your holiday involves overnights at a hotel, a motel or a friend or family member’s home, leave every device with sensitive information at your home. You should never connect your devices to a public network at a hotel or someone else’s home. You have no way of knowing who else is connected, or if the connection is encrypted and secured
  • Don’t let guests connect to your home network. This one is tough if you have friends or relatives staying with you, but you simply cannot allow guests in your home to access your Wi-Fi or wired home network. Familiar fraud is one consequence of too much generosity with your home password. You also run the risk of malware from a guest’s device infecting your network, either when they first log in or while they surf the web. If your guests must have access to email or the daily crossword, provide a device for them in a busy part of your home. Make sure that device has a password-protected login, and be sure to turn it off at night and when a majority of people are out.
  • Scan those tech gifts before you connect them. New phones, laptops, tablets and all USB devices should get an offline antivirus scan before they go online with your network. Be very wary of any USB memory stick or card given as a gift or brought by a well-meaning friend or relative, as malware infections on these devices are increasingly common.
  • Turn off Bluetooth and Wi-Fi discovery on your phone. Big holiday crowds at malls, airports and transit hubs attract cyber criminals, who blend quietly into the crowd looking for data to steal. Open Bluetooth connections and devices seeking Wi-Fi can wind up connecting to criminals with significant consequences. Bluetooth should always be off unless you have a specific need for it. Wi-Fi should be off in general unless you are on a trusted network at home or a secured connection at work.

Protect Against Cyber Criminals at Work

  • Never bring devices to the holiday party. Hats and coats aren’t the only things that disappear when the staff gathers to toast the year. Laptops loaded with customer data have disappeared from cabs and cloakrooms, leading to potential data breaches, expensive customer notification and monitoring campaigns and cyber security headaches.
  • Log off devices ahead of office parties. It can be tempting to hop up and run to say hello to a visiting co-worker or client, or to work right up to the start of a conference-room celebration, but that open device is an invitation to criminal activity. Always log out of devices before leaving your work area and power them off if you can. Threats to data and passwords can come from criminals who sneak into buildings, from visiting clients or from fellow employees.
  • Don’t hold the door for strangers. “Tailgating” is a tactic used by criminals to gain entrance to a secure area. These thieves will ask someone to hold the door, or try to slip in behind an employee before a door closes. During the holidays, tailgaters may pose as delivery people to access secure areas. Whenever you encounter someone you do not know at a door, bring them to the reception area.
  • Give your work devices a holiday break. Avoid traveling with work devices. If you must, leave them turned off and packed in a carry-on bag, never with luggage that will be checked. The best practice is to keep work devices at work during a vacation. The chances of device theft, information theft or malware attacks rise when you are away from the secure environment of your office.
  • Avoid shopping on work devices. It can be convenient to shop from and ship to the office, particularly if you’re trying to keep a gift a surprise or if your neighborhood is prone to porch piracy. Remember that cyber criminals use fake invoices, fake shipping notices and fake order updates, along with the usual assortment of fake gift card offers, to try and steal your personal information and login credentials. It can be challenging enough to spot the scams in your personal email account without adding that burden to your work emails. If your company allows it, shipping to your office is a good holiday option, but always order using your personal email.

Wherever the holidays find you, remember that cyber criminals are also hoping to find you. Trust your instincts. If something seems off to you, like a long-lost “friend” who starts sending holiday greetings via social media, or an email stating you missed a package delivery, find ways to verify without directly interacting with those emails, private messages or texts.

Personal security and device security are critical components of cyber security. Protect Now helps businesses and organizations manage cyber threats by making security personal to every individual. Contact us online to learn more about our services, including Virtual CISO, Dark Web Monitoring and cyber awareness training, or call us at 1-800-658-8311.

Why Do I Need Dark Web Monitoring?

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Dark Web monitoring fills an important security gap for individuals and businesses. It has applications in cyber security, reputation management and brand management. By monitoring Dark Web activity, individuals and organizations may be alerted to cyber attacks or data breaches.

Admit it: You search your name on Google to see what’s there. Most businesses pay attention to their online reviews. Some monitor social media to see what customers are saying. Dark Web monitoring completes the picture of your and your organization’s online reputation. It can also tip you off to data breaches or potential cyber attacks.

What Is the Dark Web?

In its broadest definition, the Dark Web is a portion of the Deep Web, which itself is a collection of websites and databases that are not indexed by the major search engines (Google, Microsoft Edge, Yahoo!, DuckDuckGo, etc.). In 2018, CNBC estimated that the Deep Web was 400 to 500 times the size of the Internet that most people use.

The Deep Web itself is benign. It consists of password-protected content, encrypted databases and data, including millions of articles, books, recipes and public records. Some of these can be accessed through specialized search engines, such as a university’s library catalog of digital media or LexisNexis.

Amid those terabytes of data lurks a smaller set of sites that can be accessed with browsers such as TOR, short for The Onion Router, a browser that attempts to conceal the user’s location by routing web traffic randomly across the globe. Promises of anonymity and cover from law enforcement have made the Dark Web a haven for illegal activity. It is where many cyber crimes originate, and where you will find cyber criminals offering their services and software for sale alongside the fruits of their labors: credit cards, login credentials and personal information.

Why Are Businesses Monitoring the Dark Web?

Because a great deal of cyber crime originates on the Dark Web, monitoring is a tool that thwarts and reveals attacks. In some cases, it can be the first warning of a data breach.

Dark Web monitoring begins with a deep dive on selected data points. For businesses, this is most commonly the business name and the names of senior executives and managers. This creates a baseline of information that is known to be compromised, as well as intelligence on any discussions about the business or its leaders among cyber criminals. This information is provided to the business with notes on any areas of concern.

Once the baseline is established, the Dark Web is searched on a regular basis for new information. This may include

  • Mentions of the business or its leaders by cyber criminals, which can signal a pending attack
  • Solicitations to buy or sell information on the business or its leaders
  • Newly posted data, which may include compromised logins for systems, user accounts or personal accounts of the company’s leaders
  • Customer data, such as credit card numbers, exfiltrated from a company’s database

When new information is found, the business receives an immediate alert that can be used to prepare for or stop a cyber attack. In some cases, this is the first evidence of a data breach that compromises customer information.

Dark Web monitoring may also reveal what people are saying about a business and its employees, providing opportunities to repair reputational damage. It can also be used to prevent disgruntled former employees from selling stolen data online after their separation from a company.

How Can I Monitor the Dark Web?

Dark Web monitoring requires specialized software that can access and index the hundreds of thousands of hidden sites that criminals use to communicate. There is currently no free solution, and until recently, monitoring was an expensive service available only to large companies.

Protect Now is pleased to offer affordable small-business Dark Web monitoring that includes a full baseline examination of data about your business and employees, as well as regular updates on any new information that appears online. If someone adds to that information, attempts to buy or sell it or discusses using it, you will be notified immediately so that you can take action.