1603287720
Is Your Organization Handling Secrets Securely?
I remember the early days of my application security journey where we used to identify hardcoded secrets in the backend code, in almost every source code review engagement and at that time I used to struggle a lot to come up with the best remediation considering the cost and overall architecture.
Based on a little experience of learning and unlearning things around this very common issue of hardcoded secrets I thought of writing something on this. In this story, I would be discussing the issue related to hardcoded secrets and the ways in which we can effectively resolve the issue.
At last, we would also quickly compare the solution provided by cloud market leader AWS and HashiCorp’s Vault to effectively and securely manage secrets.
The Problems of Hardcoded Secrets
If you have done code reviews in the past, I’m sure you would have definitely encountered the hardcoded secret issues. If not, look at the following code snippet which shows that the database credentials are hardcoded in the application source code:
public final Connection getConnection() throws SQLException{
return DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:mysql://localhost/dbName","username", "password");
}
Sensitive data such as secret keys, private keys, SSH keys, access/secret keys_, _third-party secret and API keys, etc. should never be hardcoded in the application source code or your Infrastructure As Code(IaC) i.e. Chef, Ansible, Puppet, Terraform scripts. The following are the problems associated with hardcoded secrets:
Insider Threats
Hardcoding the secrets in the source code violates the fundamental security principle of least privileges since anyone having access to the code/VCS(Github, Gitlab, etc.) would also be having access to the underlying services/operations through secrets. Imagine all the application developers/QA engineers having access to this sensitive information which is supposed to be a secret and thus making it vulnerable to disclosure through insider attacks.
#cloud-security #infosec #devops #aws #cybersecurity
What is GEEK
Buddha Community
1602964260
50+ Useful Kubernetes Tools for 2020 - Part 2
Introduction
Last year, we provided a list of Kubernetes tools that proved so popular we have decided to curate another list of some useful additions for working with the platform—among which are many tools that we personally use here at Caylent. Check out the original tools list here in case you missed it.
According to a recent survey done by Stackrox, the dominance Kubernetes enjoys in the market continues to be reinforced, with 86% of respondents using it for container orchestration.
And as you can see below, more and more companies are jumping into containerization for their apps. If you’re among them, here are some tools to aid you going forward as Kubernetes continues its rapid growth.
#blog #tools #amazon elastic kubernetes service #application security #aws kms #botkube #caylent #cli #container monitoring #container orchestration tools #container security #containers #continuous delivery #continuous deployment #continuous integration #contour #developers #development #developments #draft #eksctl #firewall #gcp #github #harbor #helm #helm charts #helm-2to3 #helm-aws-secret-plugin #helm-docs #helm-operator-get-started #helm-secrets #iam #json #k-rail #k3s #k3sup #k8s #keel.sh #keycloak #kiali #kiam #klum #knative #krew #ksniff #kube #kube-prod-runtime #kube-ps1 #kube-scan #kube-state-metrics #kube2iam #kubeapps #kubebuilder #kubeconfig #kubectl #kubectl-aws-secrets #kubefwd #kubernetes #kubernetes command line tool #kubernetes configuration #kubernetes deployment #kubernetes in development #kubernetes in production #kubernetes ingress #kubernetes interfaces #kubernetes monitoring #kubernetes networking #kubernetes observability #kubernetes plugins #kubernetes secrets #kubernetes security #kubernetes security best practices #kubernetes security vendors #kubernetes service discovery #kubernetic #kubesec #kubeterminal #kubeval #kudo #kuma #microsoft azure key vault #mozilla sops #octant #octarine #open source #palo alto kubernetes security #permission-manager #pgp #rafay #rakess #rancher #rook #secrets operations #serverless function #service mesh #shell-operator #snyk #snyk container #sonobuoy #strongdm #tcpdump #tenkai #testing #tigera #tilt #vert.x #wireshark #yaml
1596789120
Best Custom Web & Mobile App Development Company
Everything around us has become smart, like smart infrastructures, smart cities, autonomous vehicles, to name a few. The innovation of smart devices makes it possible to achieve these heights in science and technology. But, data is vulnerable, there is a risk of attack by cybercriminals. To get started, let’s know about IoT devices.
What are IoT devices?
The Internet Of Things(IoT) is a system that interrelates computer devices like sensors, software, and actuators, digital machines, etc. They are linked together with particular objects that work through the internet and transfer data over devices without humans interference.
Famous examples are Amazon Alexa, Apple SIRI, Interconnected baby monitors, video doorbells, and smart thermostats.
How could your IoT devices be vulnerable?
When technologies grow and evolve, risks are also on the high stakes. Ransomware attacks are on the continuous increase; securing data has become the top priority.
When you think your smart home won’t fudge a thing against cybercriminals, you should also know that they are vulnerable. When cybercriminals access our smart voice speakers like Amazon Alexa or Apple Siri, it becomes easy for them to steal your data.
Cybersecurity report 2020 says popular hacking forums expose 770 million email addresses and 21 million unique passwords, 620 million accounts have been compromised from 16 hacked websites.
The attacks are likely to increase every year. To help you secure your data of IoT devices, here are some best tips you can implement.
Tips to secure your IoT devices
1. Change Default Router Name
Your router has the default name of make and model. When we stick with the manufacturer name, attackers can quickly identify our make and model. So give the router name different from your addresses, without giving away personal information.
2. Know your connected network and connected devices
If your devices are connected to the internet, these connections are vulnerable to cyber attacks when your devices don’t have the proper security. Almost every web interface is equipped with multiple devices, so it’s hard to track the device. But, it’s crucial to stay aware of them.
3. Change default usernames and passwords
When we use the default usernames and passwords, it is attackable. Because the cybercriminals possibly know the default passwords come with IoT devices. So use strong passwords to access our IoT devices.
4. Manage strong, Unique passwords for your IoT devices and accounts
Use strong or unique passwords that are easily assumed, such as ‘123456’ or ‘password1234’ to protect your accounts. Give strong and complex passwords formed by combinations of alphabets, numeric, and not easily bypassed symbols.
Also, change passwords for multiple accounts and change them regularly to avoid attacks. We can also set several attempts to wrong passwords to set locking the account to safeguard from the hackers.
5. Do not use Public WI-FI Networks
Are you try to keep an eye on your IoT devices through your mobile devices in different locations. I recommend you not to use the public WI-FI network to access them. Because they are easily accessible through for everyone, you are still in a hurry to access, use VPN that gives them protection against cyber-attacks, giving them privacy and security features, for example, using Express VPN.
6. Establish firewalls to discover the vulnerabilities
There are software and firewalls like intrusion detection system/intrusion prevention system in the market. This will be useful to screen and analyze the wire traffic of a network. You can identify the security weakness by the firewall scanners within the network structure. Use these firewalls to get rid of unwanted security issues and vulnerabilities.
7. Reconfigure your device settings
Every smart device comes with the insecure default settings, and sometimes we are not able to change these default settings configurations. These conditions need to be assessed and need to reconfigure the default settings.
8. Authenticate the IoT applications
Nowadays, every smart app offers authentication to secure the accounts. There are many types of authentication methods like single-factor authentication, two-step authentication, and multi-factor authentication. Use any one of these to send a one time password (OTP) to verify the user who logs in the smart device to keep our accounts from falling into the wrong hands.
9. Update the device software up to date
Every smart device manufacturer releases updates to fix bugs in their software. These security patches help us to improve our protection of the device. Also, update the software on the smartphone, which we are used to monitoring the IoT devices to avoid vulnerabilities.
10. Track the smartphones and keep them safe
When we connect the smart home to the smartphone and control them via smartphone, you need to keep them safe. If you miss the phone almost, every personal information is at risk to the cybercriminals. But sometimes it happens by accident, makes sure that you can clear all the data remotely.
However, securing smart devices is essential in the world of data. There are still cybercriminals bypassing the securities. So make sure to do the safety measures to avoid our accounts falling out into the wrong hands. I hope these steps will help you all to secure your IoT devices.
If you have any, feel free to share them in the comments! I’d love to know them.
Are you looking for more? Subscribe to weekly newsletters that can help your stay updated IoT application developments.
#iot #enterprise iot security #how iot can be used to enhance security #how to improve iot security #how to protect iot devices from hackers #how to secure iot devices #iot security #iot security devices #iot security offerings #iot security technologies iot security plus #iot vulnerable devices #risk based iot security program
1606927174
10 Cyber Security Tools to Watch Out for in 2021 - DZone Security
With an immense number of companies and entities climbing onto the digital bandwagon, cybersecurity considerations have come up as limelight. Besides, new technologies such as Big Data, IoT, and Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning are gradually more making inroads into our everyday lives, the threats related to cybercrime are mounting as well. Additionally, the usage of mobile and web apps in transacting financial information has put the complete digital stuff exposed to cybersecurity breaches. The inherent risks and vulnerabilities found in such apps can be exploited by attackers or cybercriminals to draw off crucial information data counting money. Internationally, cyber-security breaches have caused a yearly loss of USD 20.38 million in 2019 (Source: Statista). Plus, cybercrime has led to a 0.80 percent loss of the entire world’s Gross domestic product, which sums up to approx. USD 2.1 trillion in the year 2019 alone (Source: Cybriant.com).
In this article, take a look at ten cyber security tools to watch out for in 2021, including NMap, Wireshark, Metasploit, and more!
#security #cyber security #security testing #security testing tools #cyber security tools
1602963300
Cloud Security: Is it Worth it?
Storing and managing corporate data by applying the cloud is becoming more and more popular. Companies grow, and it gets too expensive, and resources consuming to store their data on traditional servers. To prove it, look at the research conducted by Google in 2019 that includes insights for the cloud computing market for the next 10 years.
Around 80% of US respondents (about 1,100 businesses participated) revealed that they are thinking about cloud adoption by 2029. In 2019, only about 40% made a switch. 72% of businesses state that they’d like to automate security solutions by 2029, while now only 33% actually do it.
What do these numbers tell us? That companies seem to be suspicious about cloud security and prefer traditional on-premises data storage to the cloud environment. Why are they afraid to entrust cloud providers with their data? What to do to get rid of this fear? How to prove that the future of security is after the cloud?
In our article, we aim to answer these questions and more, but first, you need to be able to identify the reasons why companies have cloud-related trust issues. The first step in eliminating a problem is identifying it, let’s do it together!
#cloud-security #security-of-data #cybersecurity #cloud-computing #aws-security #azure-security #data-breaches #cyber-security
1600639200
SecOps Teams Wrestle with Manual Processes, HR Gaps
Only about half of enterprises are satisfied with their ability to detect cybersecurity threats, according to a survey from Forrester Consulting – with respondents painting a picture of major resource and technology gaps hamstringing their efforts to block cyberattacks.
According to the just-released 2020 State of Security Operations survey of 314 enterprise security professionals, enterprise security teams around the world feel that they struggle with the growing pace, volume and sophistication of cyberattacks. A whopping 79 percent of enterprises covered in the survey have experienced a cyber-breach in the past year, and nearly 50 percent have been breached in the past six months.
#cloud security #hacks #malware #most recent threatlists #uncategorized #web security #2020 #automated triage #enterprise security #forrester consulting #manual processes #secops #security alerts #security defense #state of security operations #survey #workforce skills gap